Harlequins - Winning Streak Over

As I came back from Tumbridge Wells, the very next morning we drove to Preston. Which gave me only few hours of sleep and no time to change my armies. So I went with the same lists.The journey was good and I was surprised by the venue. It was a gaming store with a large are to play. On the same day they had trading cards event going on so we couldn't spread out over the whole floor but they did fit all eight tables in comfortably.

I had some fun games on the day, even though I lost my second one. I don't believe I played any of my opponents before so it was great to play against someone new to me.

They had a really nice large cut out of some dark Angel from Magic The Gathering, and I thought if I was going to win I'd try trade it for the £40 voucher but unfortunately I came on 5th place, so I couldn't try to haggle!

James and Jasper, who were the top two in the final round, somehow managed to Draw their last game. Though they still ended up on 2nd (Jasper) and 3rd place (James). This, however, broke our winning streak from Leeds. Until now, every event we went to this year either James, Matt or me have won.

Army Lists

Totally CRIT List A
Totally CRIT List B

As mentioned, it is the same lists I played in Totally CRIT VI. Though I have only used one of them on this event.

Game 1: Supplies - Caledonia vs Qapu Khalqi
Won 9 to 0 (3 TPs)

I can't remember the name of my first opponent unfortunately. I think my opponent won the Lr roll and decided to go second, though I am not certain who won the roll. At any case, I had the first turn so I set up my army according to the plan for supplies. My opponent deployed two TAGs, Scarface and Iguana. I was less worried than the last time I faced two TAGs because this time I had a Missile Launcher in a Link Team.

The first turn did not go as well as I planned. I was able to take only two of the objectives because my opponent had a Total Reaction Rifle and HVS Lv2 HMG trooper protecting the middle objectives. Because of the terrain I could get only one Sniper face the HMG trooper, which I thought would be enough but decided to spend Orders on getting the two objectives I had as hidden as possible. In my turn I believe I only killed an enemy sniper and a Line Trooper from a Link Team. My opponent started his turn with Yuan Yuan who made a smoke path for Iguana to advance down my right flank. Fortunately for me, the smoke path also meant the TAG couldn't see my troops. I still had a camo marker and two Snipers (one still in camo) overlooking the middle objective so instead of going for it, my opponent advanced Scarface down the left flank. However because it was very open and long range, I was able to take the TAG out with Caterans.

In my second turn I used Cameronian to Coup de Grade Scarface to make sure it can't come back. Then I spent Orders on my Scots Guard Link Team to take out Iguana. First round of Molotok didn't kill it, so I spent another Order for another salvo and moved up a Guard with DEP to finish the job if needed. The second volley killed it but only to unconscious state so the pilot ejected. Though he failed his PH roll and went off the board. I moved most of the Link back to where they were and before I ended the turn, one of my snipers killed the HMG trooper. My opponent didn't have much left in his second turn, to attack with anyway. But he still had Specialists and bunch of troops. He advanced forward towards the middle objective. The TAG Pilot came on the board edge and tried to take on the Link Team but nothing happened.

In my last round I had to get the last objective and my Classified Objectives, which wasn't easy because my 112 was dead by this point and both of my cards were about Doctor skills. I planned to change it for Secure HVT so using my second Order pool I sent Cameronian to Chain Rifle the enemy Remote and Cordelia behind it. I think he killed one of them. Then he jumped back to be close to enemy HVT. My remaining SAS (the one in the middle also died previously) was on the very right edge of the board but I had plenty of Orders so he went to the Link Team and they took the objective. Then he went all the way to the middle of the board and took the objective. With last Orders he climbed up onto a building to hide with it. My opponent started his turn in Retreat, so there wasn't anything he could do to take the objectives from my troops.

Game 2: Safe Area - Caledonia vs Ariadna
Lost 0 to 9 (0 TPs)

I never played Lawrence before and when he said he is playing Ariadna, I decided to keep using the list with Scots Guard. Usually I would play my Wulvers on this mission but I wanted those extra long range AROs as I was expecting lots of troops and camo markers against me. I don't remember who won the Lt Roll but I chose sides and Lawrence went second. After he deployed there were two non-specialists Line Kazaks on the board, I was guessing one of them was the Lt so I decided to try Alpha Strike. I managed to Infiltrate SAS in front of the Kazak in the middle, and Uxia close to Kazak on my left side.

I started my turn by trying to take out some of the long range threats. I was able to kill a sniper and Spetsnaz but Veteran Kazak with T2 Rifle was giving me lots of trouble. The SAS then sacrificed himself to kill the Kazak in CC and Uxia killed the other one, though she then also died by taking down an Irmandinho that shot her with Chain Rifle. Mission was accomplished however and Lawrence started his first turn in Loss of Lt. Turned out the Kazak Uxia killed was the Lt, not the one in the middle. I do not believe there were any casualties on my part in my opponents first turn.

I did have the upper hand beginning of my second turn and I think it made me bit too confident and blind to the bigger picture. I started my turn with Highlanders chasing after camo markers, there were at least three enemy Infiltrators at the middle of the board. I managed to reveal two Chasseurs and kill one of them. I made two mistakes this turn, first was holding back with my Cameronian. Instead of running forward and making use of the chain rifles, I kept him back the whole game. The worse part though, I advanced with my Link Team and focused too much on trying to kill Veteran Kazak in Supressive Fire. I seen it as too much of a threat when in reality I should have focused on killing enemy Cameronian that was nearby. Lawrance smartly took advantage of this and used his Cameronian to Chain Rifle my Link Team, twice. This cost me two Scots Guard and Wallace.

Survivors, except Uxia.

Which effectively crippled my entire last turn. Instead of being able to run my Specialists to the objectives, all I had was few Orders to move everyone how was left out of my deployment zone, all but my 112 who was too far. I was basically hoping that Lawrence would also have only his quadrants and I could deny him specialist with my card. I managed to kill off his FO Foxtrot and 112, so he had only second Irmandinho left. I was going for a draw at this point. Unfortunately for me, Lawrence kept playing smart and didn't move anything to give me AROs. He was able to take his quadrants just with one model in each and while I had both of my own too, one of them was very close, only few points difference. I added 20pts into it with my card, but Lawrence had 30pts extra, winning him the game on both quadrants and objectives.

Nevertheless it was a very fun game and it taught me the lesson of assessing my priorities of threats better.

Game 3: Transmission Matrix - Caledonia vs PanO
Won 10 to 4 (3 TPs)

After scoring no Objective Points I knew I couldn't get into the top three and I did not practice this mission so I didn't know what to expect going into this game. My opponent Simon, I met him on tournaments before but we never played. I believe I won the Lt roll and decided to take the side with the tallest buildings on it, letting Simon deploy first and he decided to take the second turn. After he deployed I was able to guess who his Lt was because from all the possibilities there was only one non-Specialist Fusilier. At the time I didn't know Aquila Guard can be Lt as well but I would not really expect anyone to have a heavy hitter as their Lt without Chain of Command on the board. With that, I decided to try Alpha Strike again because it worked well in the previous game,

I did fail both SAS rolls, and Simon kept his Aquila Guard as reserve. He thought I had no more Infiltrators so he deployed the Aquila where it couldn't protect the Fusilier but my reserve, Uxia, passed her Superior Infiltration. I started my first turn by running Cameronian down the right flank to support Uxia. He threw down a smoke grenade to blind a Fusilier that could see Uxia before she reached her target. There was a total reaction Remote protecting the Lt so I was looking for a way to kill it but there was Nisses I would have to deal with first so I decided to risk Uxia. She did kill the Lt Fusilier and died herself but I knew Simon couldn't retaliate in his turn because of Loss of Lt. Now it was time to take out the long range threats. My Caterans, deployed on the tallest roof, crawled to the edge and took on the Nisses. One of them died but the second able was able to do it. I don't remember what took out the HMG Remote but it was either Linked Missile Launcher on another roof or the surviving sniper. I ended my turn with moving troops to Objectives and using Cameronian to kill the Fusilier in smoke and then Chain Rifle a Knight, Engineer and Auxilier with Auxbot. Only the last two died. I took out five troops in my first turn and the Lt, so Simon did not have an easy first turn.

His main problem was the Cameronian. He was too close to one of his objectives so he had to deal with him. He used his Hospital Knight to kill him but in order to see the Cameronian, he had to move backward and at the time did not realize it would take him more than 4" away from the objective. Which gave me two over his one, and 2 Objective points. In retrospect I think Simon could have just more the Hospitaler closer to the objective and ignore the Cameronian, the Knight was more expensive. Though it would have meant I could do even more damage in my second turn, so I get why he wanted to kill him. Before end of the turn Simon's Aquilla also killed my Missile Launcher, but not before I scored 1 Wound on it. It broke my Link Team though and I could not re-Link as I burned all my tokens.

In my second turn I focused on taking out more Orders from Simon. Cateran killed a second Auxilier and then I run up with my Molotok Scots Guard to middle of the board and had a shoot out with the Aquila. I was able to get him out of cover, good range bands for me and had AP rounds so I did kill the Aquila. I moved up some of the other troops and I tried to kill a Bulleteer with my Cateran but didn't cause any damage. I ended the turn holding three objectives and Simon had only five or so Orders. Which wasn't enough to attack my troops holding objectives, but he did do his Classified. I had none done so with 2 Points per Classified, we were on 4 Objective Points each by end of the turn.

My last turn I went for my Classified. I spent few Orders on SMG Scots Guard to move him close to Simon's HVT and used a Highlander to Coup de Grace a Fusilier who was killed by Cameronian in the first turn. I was able to take out the Bullteer remote with the Sniper, a Magister Knight with Molotok and in the end, Auxilier with Chain Rifle (he was healed by the Knight previously). Which put Simon into retreat for his last turn. The Knight healed the Auxilier again but the last surviving Fusilier tried to run away, only to get shot and killed by Cateran.

For me the game was a good lesson about pushing the advantage an Alpha Strike can create. Simon was good about the game too, so I believe we both had fun.