One of the missions in the tournament was Biotechvore, so this list was pretty much tailored for that mission. Though it could also work for other killing-type missions. In basic, in this mission the goal is to have more Points alive than your enemy. Its made harder but the fact that 16" of each side of the table is "virus" zone that hits any units with Damage 14 hit against their BTS. So you end up with 16" strip in middle of the board where everyone wants to pile up their army. It can be a brutal mission and it can be very hard on Order Management. My plan was to have a tough, hard hitting Link Team, some units that have a chance to Infiltrate, some fast moving units and then few standard units to provide Orders and do Classified.
Achieving the mission
As you can see, more than half my army points were in 5 models, Wulvers with Wallace in a Link. Since they are fast and Wulvers have Climbing Plus, in theory I would be able to move them outside of the virus zone in 2 Orders, saving me 3 Orders for other units. Cameronian with the Highlanders would have it easiest, since they generate two Orders each they can use on themselves. Up to three of my other units, Uxia, SAS and Volunteer had a chance to Infiltrate (you have to pass a -3 PH roll first in this mission to do it), which would leave only two more units (Dozer and 112) needing to move.
I think the theory was sound, but as it often happens, it didn't live up to the expectations. In my game only SAS was able to Infiltrate and my opponent made me burn lots of Orders on the Link as I didn't have easy direct routes, he had lots of AROs in my available paths. That said, with Smoke and shooting some enemies with the Link, they did get where they needed to go; albeit sacrificing some other troops in the process as I run out of Orders to move everyone.
Having an expensive Link Team also worked in my favour in this mission. With 2 Wounds each and ARM 3, they were hard to take down for my opponent.
Units purpose and performance
William Wallace with Wulver Link Team - This Link Team is my new favourite thing in Caledonia. They are very tough, hard to kill and able to deal lots of damage. They have only three weapon options, Mk12, T2 Rifle and Heavy Shotgun but all of those are very useful in a Link. Best of all, all of them are 0 SWC! I think they also have lots of tricks on how to overcome enemies, since they have Grenades, Climbing Plus, Berserk and Natural Born Warrior. As expensive as they are, 32pts cheapest, they are well worth the points. I am certain they were key to my victory in the mission, since only three of them surviving was over 100pts.
I'd say the whole mission almost favours Link team like these. Everyone has to get within 16" of each another to avoid the virus zone, this limits powerful weapons like sniper rifles and HMGs, but gives advantage to mid range weapons. Spitfires are expensive so often you'll face combi-rifles or multi-rifles, but if you have this Link in cover, they are able to shrug off D13 weapons with their ARM6 (with the cover bonus).
As far as Wallce, I think if I didn't have to take him to make it a full Link Team, I probably wouldn't have. I would prefer to have 5 Wulvers, but their AVA is only 4. That said, especially for this mission Inspiring Leadership is quite invaluable for Order management. Plus he can prove Smoke for the Link Team, so he is helpful. Just have to be careful about where you leave him because he will have big target on his face from the start of the game.
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| Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war. (image from Corvus Belli store) |
Uxia and S.A.S. - In this missions, its a 50/50 for them to be able to Infiltrate (better for Uxia), so they can either be very helpful or not so much. In my game SAS was able to do it, while Uxia had to deploy normal. She did die trying to pull off a desperate action, but I was in a desperate position at that time. The SAS did nothing the whole game but hide, which in this mission was good enough.
In retrospect I could have taken two SAS FOs or just two Chain Rifle SAS (or one FO and one chain rifle). This would have save me few points, and either help to double my chance of getting any FO related Classified Objective or provide good attack options with the Chain Rifles since the enemy troops would go towards them. Between Chain Rifle with Grenades or Shotgun, I'd go for Grenades in this mission so you could do Speculative Fire from roofs and such.
Dozer and 112 Emergency Service - These guys were mainly taken to cover Specialists slots but I think I would been better off with one better unit or fewer cheaper units; for example Volunteer HMG and Chain Rifle. Though the glue gun on the Dozer could have been useful to keep the enemy in the virus zone, so maybe just drop the Doctor. Looking back I think the best option would have been to drop them down for another SAS and Warcor. This would still give me two Regular Orders thanks to Wallace but have potential for better tactical options.
Volunteer - I didn't want to have too many models, so I had the Points and even with Inferior Infiltration he still has a chance to deploy forward and in this mission, if he fails he can deploy normally, so to me it was worth it. However, looking back I feel about him the same way I do about the Dozer and 112, might have been better to have a more useful unit. The D-Charges are nice but have little use if he can't pull of the Infiltration.
Cameronian and Highlanders - I think these are great options for this mission. Any troops that can generate extra Orders greatly helps to move out of the virus zone. I specifically took four and placed them in the same Combat Group so I could do Coordinated Orders with all of them. Maybe two Cameronians could have been more useful because they can move faster and are tougher, but I like using the Highlanders.
Plus with some changes to the Combat Groups, you could have Wallace to Link with these guys, move them out, then re-Link with Wulvers. Making it even easier to manage your Order pool.
What worked
The Wulver-Wallace Link Team was definitely the main thing that worked for me. They were able to move fast, had their own Smoke cover, took lots of punishment and dealt it themselves. I was glad I had them with mid-range weapons over other hard hitting units with weapons like HMG or Missile Launcher. The Highlanders and Cameronian did good too, I was able to Chain Rifle a group of enemies more than once (although I was unlucky and mostly they all survived). Plus as I mentioned before, extra Orders were a good help.
I think if you break down the mission to the bare bones, I think Caledonia has great potential because they can move fast with lots of Smoke cover.
What didn't work
The cheap units were more or less useless, like my Dozer died straight away, but this was mainly because I used too many Orders on everything else. So in a way they did their job by proving Orders to others. I already said it few times, but I would have prefer to have more tactically versatile units like the SAS, or if I kept the cheaper ones, have more long range AROs to use.
You might have notice by now that my longest range weapon (good range that is) was only 24". This was for two reasons. Firstly I didn't want to leave anyone behind and snipers are always better being as far back as possible. Secondly, I challenged myself to use an army that had 0 SWC spent. Which, if I am honest, was a stupid unnecessary gamble. Cateran would have been very helpful in this mission, and with their Climbing Plus, they can be deployed in high places and still be able to move fast out of the virus zone.
Verdict
Overall I think this list has some good foundations but it does need some tweaking to improve. Its weak point are the cheap units that can't do much if your Link Team can't leave the virus zone quickly. The next time I'll have to play Biotechvore I think I would try to go with the Wulver-Wallace Link, Dozer, SAS FO, SAS Chain Rifle+Grenades, Cateran, Warcor and two Cameronians.
List on Army 5
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