Asteroid Blues

“Screw this. Command sends us in here with bad orders, the wrong gear, and, to top it all off, it’s black as shit. Something could be right behind me and I’d never know it.”
– Angelspit, PFC of Riot GRRLs. Killed by Monofilament during engagement with Shasvastii

The mission begins ominously as I realize I’ve got a bunch of things wrong. I thought you could only destroy antennae in the enemy’s half of the map and, worse, I didn’t realize you needed Anti-Material to destroy antennae. My opponent lets me last-minute list tinker (I swap a moran & warcors for Wild Bill), but things are looking bad to start.

I lose the lieutenant roll and end up going second. My deployment is okay, but I’m too worried about the Speculo Killers getting my Puppetmaster and I have some models facing silly directions. My opponent makes the impersonation roll on his withheld Speculo and plops it right next to Angelspit, my Riot GRRL missile launcher, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

Shasvastii turn 1 collapses my entire left flank: the alguacils, Riot GRRL, and a zondbot are dead, plus his malignos drops dazers all up the midfield. Worse, I’ve got a malignos and speculo hemming me in and threatening to murder Bill & Puppetmaster next turn.

I could really use some luck right now. Unfortunately, I don’t get have it. My intruder HMG/grenades fails to kill Malignos three times in a row, and my Morlocks succeed mostly in smoking up a storm but kill neither Malignos nor Dazer.

I do the only reasonable thing, dropping Assisted Fire on the Puppetbots and dashing. After losing a gunfight with Doctor Worm, I go for a Hail Mary and hustle my BSG Puppets out of cover and next to his fireteam. It works: I score a crit and a 16, killing the Tensho, Nox Combi and Nox MSR, plus an earlier kill of Doctor Worm.

It costs me, though. The Speculo that killed my Riot GRRL is still around, mopping up a morlock, Wild Bill, Puppetmaster, and the Intruder. Ouch! I get one bit of luck: his Ikadron trades templates with my morlock, but he fails his ARM and I pass mine. That roll is crucial, since that Morlock’s DA CCW will be the only Anti-Material weapon left on the board.

So, even though my army is in tatters, I’m still in the game. He’s got two specialists left and no designated antennae, while I’ve got two zeros and a very angry Morlock. I’m basically guaranteed to destroy more antennae, which means that if I kill those two specialists I win.

It comes very close to working out, since I blow up the antenna and kill the Nox FO. Alas, my first zero gets a bad roll and, not realizing Multiterrain ignores it, dies to the hostile zone. My second zero kills his Nox FO but dies in the process. Had the first zero not died, this might have gone very differently!

Third turn is a wrap-up: he kills a bunch of stuff, tags 3 antennas, kills my HVT with his datatracker, and puts me into retreat. With no way to kill his datatracker or claim 2 more antennas, we end.

Game End Status: I designate and destroy one antenna, he designates 3 antennae and kills my HVT with his datatracker.