Totally Crit Open VI - Invasion by Yorkshire

I believe I mentioned it in some other article about the Qualifier Tournaments for UK Masters event, but my idea was if I don't rank good enough on the first Qualifier I attended in Birmingham I am going to travel down South of UK to attend an event before I go the Qualifier in Leeds. Basically so I have three chances to qualify with some good ranking. I ended up 9th in Birmingham so down South I went!

Totally Crit Open VI was the only one before Leeds, which I thought was cool because it gave the chance to meet the guys who do the Totally Crit podcast, and meet some of the players from the South.

I traveled to Royal Tunbridge Wells by train which was I enjoyed, though in London I had to use the tube and that I could do without. Those underground trains feel too confined and I would not want to experience it during rush hour. Since I don't know map of London at all I didn't realize the train would be going pass the Big Ben but on the way back I remembered to snap a photo.

The event was held in a nice social club venue and we had lots of space for the tables. They also had a bar so I went into my final game refreshed with a pint of Dark Fruit Strongbow cider. In total they had nine tables set up and all of them had good amount of terrain.

All three of my games were fun and the last two were quite tough. My last two opponents had something in their armies that I did not expect. I won all three games but only expected to come out 2nd at best because I was 3rd after the second round.

Table X.

Though as they were announcing the rankings I realized that the only player who had 6 Tournament Points after the second round (the rest of us with two wins had only 5), lost his last game. At that point I couldn't remember if his opponent had a major victory or not but there was a chance I was the only person with 8 TPs in the end. Which turned out to be true! So finally I had my win of the 2016 season. 

Me and James, the TO.

For the first place I got the ITS Winner Pack, £30 voucher, Desperados logo patch, some new tokens and a set of golden camo markers. I have no idea what company makes those but they are funky.

Army Lists

Totally CRIT List A
Totally CRIT List B

Before I get to the games, just briefly about my army lists. I had my Wulvers Link list for missions that require zone control. I do enjoy using them to dominate zones and thus far the Wulvers have not failed me. Their decent ARM 3, high PH 14 and 2 Wounds makes them very survivable against most weapons and in a full Link team they can take on many things and come out on top.

My second list was bit of a risk, for the first time I used a Scots Guard Link Team instead of running Wallace with Highlanders and three snipers. But a Missile Launcher in a Link, backed by two snipers proved to work well and I am definitely going to play the Guard more often. The list was designed for Supplies mission. Three Infiltrating Specialists to grab the objectives, take them back to my deployment zone and then everyone else just stop my opponent getting into my DZ and taking the objectives off me.

(A small side note, these lists were made before Human Sphere N3 book.)

Game 1: Supplies - Caledonia vs ALEPH
Won 9 to 2 (3 TPs)

In my first game of the day I played Lee and his ALEPH. I was bit wary because last event I went to I had mixed experience with ALEPH (won one game, lost the other) and their ODD on everything can be hard to deal with without Multi Spectral Visors and flamers. Lee won the Lt roll off and decided to go second, which was a relieve for me because for this mission especially I designed my army to go first. I chose the side with the highest vantage point and let my opponent set up first. Lee set up just about everything in hidden positions, which meant I could move my troops around without dealing with long range threats first but I also knew it meant I couldn't take off many Orders either and those troops would come for me later.

ALEPH deployment.

I started my turn just as I planned with this mission, three Infiltrators behind each objective grabbed the Supply Box and run back to my deployment zone. I was slowed down a bit by one SAS who took about four Orders before he passed his WIP check to get the box. Because of that I had to use one of my Highlanders from second order group to take the box and run further back. I did the same with a Cameronian. This allowed me to leave two SAS in the middle and put them back into camo for some defense. With the last orders I re-positioned my Link Team for some defensive AROs. Lee used his first turn to advance with Achilles down my right flank. He took out one of my Caterans, WarCor and a Highlander. Some other ALEPH units followed Achilles but there were no other casualties.

In my second turn I knew I couldn't take Achilles head on, or if I could, it would take lots of Orders so instead I decided to strengthen my defenses and hide the Supply Boxes. Cameronian jumped onto roof of the highest building (behind my surviving Cateran), one Scots Guard took it from Uxia and also climbed onto a roof with everyone else in the Link. Last one was harder to hide due to lack of Orders in the second group so the Highlander just run further behind a building. I had T2 Sniper, Molotok, AP Marksman Rifle, Missile Launcher and SAS in Supressive Fire waiting for Achillies to show himself. I think I killed one or two units that turn. Lee didn't push with Achilles but focused on getting his Classified Objectives (I had none of mine done yet) and moving up his troops.

I knew I could still lose the game in the last turn so my goal was to protect the troops with the objectives best I could and try take off some Orders from Lee's pool, and get my Classified (so lots to do!). I run the Highlander onto a roof as well so all three objectives were off the ground, the idea was to make Lee spend extra orders climbing or running around to the stairs. I couldn't do one of my Classified (Doctor a trooper) because everything that died was shocked to death, but my other was to Forward Observe enemy HVT. So I run camouflaged SAS to it but only too late realized Lee had a trooper next to it (it was behind a building so I forgot). So I moved the SAS pass the trooper and risked FOing the HVT. Lee decided to Engage, which he managed to get and I only passed one roll to FO. It meant I couldn't FO again without winning the combat first. I decided to take my chance and shoot a missile launcher into the melee. First shot killed the SAS but a second shot killed the ALEPH trooper.

I still needed the objective so I used my second SAS to run to the building from the other side and FO the HVT, which worked. I also kept him close so at the end I could change my second Classified to Secure HVT. The SAS ended facing towards my deployment zone for some potential AROs. I ended my turn with moving Uxia to a corner of a building to face direction of Achilles.

This turned out to be a bad decision when Lee started his turn by dropping down an AD trooper behind all my troops that I did not expect. He passed his PH roll and I had nothing facing that way anymore. To make things worse, the AD trooped had a heavy flamer thrower and super jump! So he of course jumped up and flamed my Link Team. Fortunately he couldn't hit the Guard with the objective but it could have killed off my AROs against Achilles. I managed to pass all of the Dodge rolls and had two AROs against the trooper. Uxia failed her roll on 17s, but the SAS who was all the way over the middle line landed a hit and killed the AD trooper. Lee didn't want to risk all the AROs so he first dropped a smoke grenade so Achilles could cross without being shot. He had only few Orders left and by climbing up the building to where the Highlander was he had only one Order left to attack. Which meant at worse I'd drop the objective but he couldn't grab it. I tried to hide in Smoke and rolled 15 but I was out-rolled and the Highlander died.

I would say the mission was more in my favour as Lee did not expect me to grab all the objectives so fast. If I do manage to get all three of them into my deployment zone it is hard for anyone to take them all from me. Granted as long as I can protect my DZ with long range weapons. Lee did have rocket launcher that he did not use during the game, which might have helped him to do some damage but he would have faced at least three AROs (two from Link and one Sniper) which would have make those shots hard.

Game 2: Safe Area - Caledonia vs Japanese Sectorial Army
Won 4 to 3 (2 TPs)

After chatting to people during the dinner break I knew I wasn't on top, I only had 9 Objective Points and few people had 10. I was expecting to play someone who I knew also had 9 but I was paired against someone else, Stuart and his JSA. Turned out from all the other 9s I was highest by only two army (victory) points. This mission was bit of a gamble on my part because I had only three specialists, but I believed I'd be able to take all the TO troops I was expecting from the Japanese army. Turned out Stuart's main hitters were Haramaki in a full five man Link Team. I won the Lt roll and decided to take the side with the best sniper spots, so I knew were Stuart deployed his Link and it might have been a smarter choice to deploy my Link on the other side of the board but at the same time if I smashed his Link I'd dominate the board, and I was confident in the Wulvers.

Stuart started his turn with the only TO trooper he had, Shinobu Kitsune. She appeared like right in front of my Link but everyone around her had Berserk and good CC, so Stuart had hard time getting the best use out of her. In the end she spent few orders moving between my troops as a TO Marker and revealed herself to attack one Wulver. I think she managed to score a Wound and it allowed some of my troops to change facing with Warining!. She then decided to throw a Smoke grenade. All of the Wulvers who saw her failed to hit and I couldn't Chain Rifle with a Highlander because I'd hit my troops so I did Engage as his roll was unopposed. It passed and when she decided to attack the Highlander in CC, I activated Berserk and killed her. I thought to myself, biggest threat avoided but I was so wrong. The punishment was just about to come. Stuart run out with his Link team and killed both of my Caterans with a Missile Launcher. One time I had a choice to either shoot face to face with the Link Leader or hit someone for free, I decided to have face to face because the Missile Launcher was the biggest threat but in retrospect I should have hit someone for free as I could have put them unconscious with T2 ammo and Stuart would then have to spend Orders healing them or have only four man Link.

After Snipers were gone, the Haramaki moved to face my Link Team and since then the whole game revolved around one corner of the table. Fortunately for me, because of the Smoke from Kitsune my Wulvers were all hidden. Unfortunately for me Stuart ended his turn in such a way that if I activated the Link, three AROs were coming my way, one of which was the missile launcher. I could have broke Wallace from the Link and use him to throw Smoke to help me advance but I was perhaps bit too overconfident in the Wulvers and wanted to face the enemy Link. I had Uxia near by so the plan was to take out one Haramaki to take away the +3 BS from them and then use the Wulvers. It did not go that easy but eventually I was able to take off some Wounds off the Haramaki with Uxia and her shotgun, and make the Missile Launcher hide. It was time to attack, but I also made one stupid mistake. One Wulver was able to see one Haramaki, another Wulver was able to see two. So I made the first Wulver Link Leader and activated, completely blanking out the fact Stuart would get a free ARO against the other Wulver. Outcome of the firefight was one dead Haramaki and two of my Wulvers Isolated. Which really sucked for me as I had no Engineers in the list. I ended my turn by putting one Wulver into Supressive Fire and hoping they would survive the upcoming onslaught.

This was were Wulver with Mk12 proved man of the match for me. Stuart tried to kill him with the Missile Launcher but because we were just within 24" he was rolling on a lower number, so the Wulver kept winning the face to face. However the Haramaki tanked like three or four saves and when I did kill him, he was healed back up by a nearby Doctor. Though during the fight, one Wulver died to a missile blast because I moved him too close to the Mk12. Stuart also tried to deal with the Mk12 by running up his Remote with Spitfire and MSV Lv2, but I managed to score a critical hit with the Mk12 and kill it.

In my turn things got little complicated. When the second turn started, the Tournament Organizer came around and said we had 30 minutes left, neither of us realized we took that long with the first turn but we also didn't feel like we were playing slow. I knew at best Stuart would get a part of his third turn but I wouldn't. So like at any other time in this situation I talked to my opponent about it to try agree on ending the game when we both had same number of turns, so there is no unfair advantage to anyone. We talked to the TO about it too and from it all I believed we agreed to end the game at the end of my turn, so that is how I played it. Instead of being careful with my troops, I run them out into open (but not through AROs) just to get them into the quadrants in front of my deployment zone. I also moved my SAS and Paramedic Volunteers base to base with one objective so if Stuart used his card to make one of them non-specialists, I'd still have one touching it.

When my turn ended there was only like five to ten minutes left and Stuart wanted his turn because he didn't move any Specialists to the objectives. He had the Orders to do it in his second turn but he thought we'd play all three, so there was some unfortunate miscommunication. My troops were standing out of cover so even in five minutes he might have killed them, so we had the TO to make a decision and he decided to end the game without the third turn as we were on the time limit and had two turns each. I felt bad so I offered Stuart we can score it as a Draw because we both had only two quadrants and he would have been able to get one objective. We both had our Classified Cards to use, and I think I might have been able to still win by denying him a Specialist because if I remember right, Stuart didn't know the cards had that use in this mission. In the end Stuart didn't take the Draw and let the results be as they were, with me winning by holding that one objective. He was good about it afterwards too, which was cool as I didn't want to leave anyone with a bad experience from playing against me.

(After I had a look at the final scoring in the end, I still would have won the tournament if we did a Draw. I'd lose 1 TP and 1 OP, so I'd draw with the second place on TPs but I was 3 OPs ahead. I think instead of being 3rd after the second round I'd be 4th and still face the same player in final game.)

Game 3: Frontline - Caledonia vs Military Orders
Won 9 to 0 (3 TPs)

In the last round I got to play Adam from Birmingham (who I thought I'd play in the second round), he organises the Warzone events but I don't think we ever played each another before this. The TO showed us the rankings after the second game so I knew I was 3rd, ahead of Adam just by victory points. I was expecting our game to be fight for the 2nd or 3rd place. I think I won the Lt roll off and chose the side with the best sniper places. Adam decided to take the first turn, and deployed two Seraph TAGs, which I knew would be hard to deal with. One TAG I can take out, two is tricky as my army was very focused on one Link.

The terrain we were playing on showed how terrifying Super Jump on a TAG can be. The buildings were not that tall and the Seraphs were able to jump around and move really fast. I was able to get a hit on one of them with T2 Sniper and take off two STR points, so he went back to hide. The second Seraph, however, took out both of my snipers and tanked free shots I had against it at one point. Thankfully Adam had only 8 Orders in total after I took off two with a Command token so he couldn't do more damage but ended his turn with one Seraph on top of a building which mean he could see a lot.

My Wulvers were on others side of the board and one Smoke grenade allowed them to move where I needed them to. The wounded Seraph was behind a big garage building and while I couldn't move all the way around it (it was too close to the board edge), I was able to move just enough to be in cover but see it in the open. I did manage to kill it on a second attempt, though I can't remember if it was Mk12 or Heavy Shotgun that went second. With the TAG dead, and more importantly, its Auxbot deactivated, I was able to move inside the garage. This allowed me to attack more troops inside Adam's deployment zone. In front of the building was a wall with three or four troops lined up so the Heavy Shotgun could have done lots of damage. The only problem was the second TAG, it could see me if I run out. I probably should have just throw Smoke Grenade and ignore it, but I had a Highlander inside the building on which it was standing, so using his Order pool I run him into CC so the TAG couldn't see anything. I won the face to face CC roll but done no damage. I also managed to heal one Cateran with a Paramedic. I ended my turn killing one trooper I could see and the unconscious TAG because I didn't want to risk an engineer getting back up.

(In retrospect I think I should have really just ignore both of the TAGs after I made the first one unconscious. The alive one was very far away and with Spitfire it would been hitting on negative modifiers to BS. If I was smarter I would either just run out with the Shotgun and take the one hit, or use Smoke. Getting my Wulver around that wall would have likely crippled Adam's next turn a lot more because it was very likely I'd kill all those troops.)

Adam used his turn to kill the healed Cateran and took on the Wulvers with some cheap Remote, but it didn't do any damage. Some of his other troops also moved up the board. The Seraph in CC won it this time and Explosive weapon killed my Highlander. The TAG then proceeded to jump off the building and move across the board to jump on top of the garage. His Auxbot tried to flame my Link team but they all managed to Dodge. Which was great but he left it right in front of them, so if they activated another template was coming my way. This forced me to use Uxia (again coming to the rescue of Wulvers) to take out the Auxbot. I think she did get hit by the flamer or it might have tried to Dodge but she survived either way but the Auxbot didn't. One threat was dealt with but I still couldn't just move the Wulvers out. After unsuccessful attempts to kill Order Sergeant with TO and Sniper Rifle, I was confined to the garage building. At the time I couldn't think of a way to get out and either kill the TAG or the troops that were still behind that wall. As I am writing this I think if I used Smoke to block the sniper I could have try use the Heavy Shotgun against the TAG or put the TAG into Smoke and then use SAS I had on the same roof to CC it, or even just have Wulvers use their Climbing Plus to go CC it.

Speculations aside, I ended my turn bunkered down inside the garage. Adam moved lots of his troops forward though only one made it far enough to maybe be in the zone in front of my DZ, one made it to the middle and then he had three in the zone front of his DZ. The surviving Seraph jumped down from the roof and either killed a Wulver, or I might have had only three left by that point. Hard to remember now, but the turn ended with me having only Wallace and two Wulvers left in the area, Uxia and SAS that were also around got killed in Adam's turn. My third turn was the final turn so I was trying to take all three zones, or at least the zone in front of Adam's DZ which would give me the most points. My only other troops were a Highlander, Volunteer with Chain Rifle and a WarCor.

First I tried to move the Wallace, the idea was to throw Smoke at the TAG and then use Coordinated Order to run him and two Wulvers into CC, which would have given me Burst 3 attack at Damage 16 with Explosive weapon that would crit at 12 or more. I was able to smash TAGs like this before. It would likely mean dead Wallace or one Wulver, but it was a trade off I was willing to take. However, none of that happened because I didn't know Seraphs had Nanopulser. So he shot the template and it of course hit everyone, Wallace dodged and the Wulvers also survived but I did not dare to activate them again. I had my card worth of 40pts to add to a zone and Adam decided to use it as Classified instead so I knew he couldn't add points, so I hoped Wallace and Wulvers plus 40pts were more than the TAG and three troopers.

After the failed attempt to kill the TAG I moved my WarCor out of my DZ and the Volunteer moved even further out so he was in the middle zone and close to Adam's HVT so he couldn't get Secure HVT (at this point he didn't do his Classified yet so I thought he might try to change it). The last Highlander did not move anywhere, I cancelled his Impetuous Order because he was already outside of my DZ and he was in LoF of a Fusilier and I didn't want to risk Adam rolling a crit, he rolled too many of those already before.

Everything I could do was done, so I ended my turn. We started with measuring where Adam's DZ ended and it turned out his TAG jumped back too far and was over 50% inside the DZ! Which meant he wasn't scoring and Wallace with two Wulvers were easily more points than his three cheaper troops. In the middle zone I had only 6 points Volunteer and he had over 20 points with two units. In the last zone, I held it with Highlander and WarCor, 9pts in total, and Adam had no troops in it. So I added my 40pts into the middle zone and was able to take all three.

Overall it was a very crazy game, I did not expect to face two TAGs. and while I think I didn't play bad, I could have made some smarter choices.