Asteroid Blues

“Listen, kid, you’ve got talent, but you’ve gotta learn the rules of the road for each mission or else you’ll end up losing like last time. Boot up the sim, and we can try this again: this time against me.”
– Lieutenant Sn0flux, Intruder Assault Commando

It’s right after my game with Dorian (https://asteroidblues.warconsole.com/battles/skyknight-vs-dorian-1569193256), and Sn0flux is willing to give me another shot on the same map and mission, but versus a fellow Nomad player. We’ll call this a “training exercise”: give a new kid a chance to learn the rules without jeopardizing our position.

Right off the bat, I win the roll and choose to go first. I’ve changed my list to include more Anti-Material in the form of the jaguars, and replace Wild Bill with a Warcor, Heckler E/Marat, and make a Zero a KHD instead of FO. These last two decisions prove crucial.

He deploys well enough, but he’s left two huge targets: Mary Problems is the data tracker, and a Securitate is the only visible lieutenant option. These two are my primary targets.

Using an Intruder to clear AROs, a super-jumping Morlock to threaten Mary, and Puppetbots to do gunfighting, I push. Sn0flux has a Jammer Heckler defending Mary from the Puppets, but I think Sn0flux’s ARO with the Heckler is a mistake: he elects to drop a fastpanda and is blown away no contest. Mary Problems can hack the Puppets, but I’ve got a Zero KHD that’s nearly in repeater range. One order and a surprise redrum later, and Mary is unconscious.

That done, I send the Puppets straight at his Securitate and blow it away. I invite some free shots in the process, but it’s worth it if I can get his Lieutenant. The real lieutenant turns out to be a camouflaged intruder, but I still think it was a good idea.

His turn 1, he pushes back to clean up the Puppets, but I get lucky on armor saves and AROs and there’s not much impact. His big play is a Hellcat in my backline, which is carefully positioned out of LoF of my troops and beyond Anti-Personnel mine range of my camo tokens. Sadly, that camo token was an E/Marat Heckler, and the Hellcat is isolated.

It’s now my Turn 2, and there’s destruction to be done. A morlock destroys one antenna, and the Riot GRRL destroys another. The intruder HMG then hustles up the board and kills the HVT. Since the intruder HMG was my datatracker (I deployed him without camo), that’s 4 point. I also lock his Hollowman in melee, with no easy means of retrieval.

At this point, Sn0flux has no relevant specialists, hasn’t designated any antennas, and is short on orders. A few orders are spent shooting at my stuff, but the game is basically over.

Since the store is closing and we need to clean up, and given the one-sided game state, we end after Turn 2.