Northern Open 9 - King of the North!

If you have been following my blog for the last few months, you might know that I went to the current ITS season with the intention of playing more for fun. Which did show on my results. My fun armies did not end up ranking well and I have been loosing a lot. My mates kept making fun of me for it, so I had to show them I still got it. The Norther Open 9 was also a qualifier for the UK Masters, so it was a good opportunity to actually try play well again. So I did and I finally won a Northern Open tournament! Which is all the sweeter considering I got a wooden spoon on the Northern Open 1 (which I still have at home).

It was really close though, the Totally CRIT crew came up from South and secured 2nd and 3rd place. I was fully expecting them to win after I won one of their tournaments down South last year. It was great to see them and the guys from Midlands who I also haven't seen this year yet.

Also special shout out to my mate Matt (s0tek in ITS) who was using my MRRF army that I lost every game with on the previous tournament. He managed to rank 5th with two major victories and one minor loss where the difference was only 1 Objective Point. I think that really show how a good player can do well with (almost) any army.

I was deciding between taking USARF and Caledonia. After some play testing and discussions, chose to take Caledonia as I was more confident with how to play them and army building. Whilst I have lots of USA models, I do feel like I am lacking few more heavy weapons. I do have lot more options with Caledonia. One of the lists was a variation of an older list I used in the past and the second one was new, specific for the Deadly Dance mission. 

Overall, I would say this might have been my best performance yet. I ended up with three major victories and I don't feel like I have misplayed in any game.  

My Army Lists

List A

List B 

The List A was a variation of a list that I like to use for the Supplies mission. Normally I would have three Infiltrators (Uxia and two SAS) but from playing my USARF on Northern Open 8, I learned to not rely on my Fireteam as an ARO unit only and instead put it on the ground and take objectives with it since there are Specialists in it. With this in mind, I was able to drop one of the SAS and change it for three Volunteers with Chain Rifles and a Highlander with a Chain Rifle, giving me three extra Orders. I really wanted to play two Caterans because one never feels as enough and having two gives me more chances to kill whatever I need killed, in case first attack goes badly.

I was also planning to use the List A for Firefight. Mainly because I feel the Scots Guard Fireteam is better at engaging other Fireteams than the units I had in the List B. The List A has more Specialists than B but in that mission killing more Specialists is only 1 Objective Point so I wasn't too bothered. 

The List B was designed for the Deadly Dance mission. I was considering to use an Anaconda TAG but I never played with it before and I wasn't confident taking it over other units (60 points is a lot in Caledonia). As such I decided to make a TAG killing list instead, I knew I wouldn't be able to get full 10 on the mission without a TAG but I would make sure my opponent couldn't either. To that effect, I took two Caterans with T2 Sniper Rifles and Camouflaged Scot Guard with a Missile Launcher for long range, Urugan and a Hacker to give it Marksmanship Lv2 for mid range. On top of that I took Wallace with Highlanders to engage TAGs in Close Combat, and McMurrough who can also shred TAGs in CC. Should all that fail, Uxia was last resort to plant D-Charges on TAGs. 

I was tempted to take a list with a Wulver Fireteam but I was thinking that if my opponent had some hard to kill TAG, like Cutter with TO Camo, I'd need more units able to engage it from various distances and angles.

Game 1:  Deadly Dance - Caledonia vs Haqqislam

Won 7 to 0 (3 TPs)

My first opponent was someone I met on the previous tournament in Harlequins, Joe or John I think (I am just terrible with names!), but we didn't face each another then. The table we played on was also new to me, it was brought by the Totally CRIT crew. I lost the Lt roll and my opponent decided to go first, after quick look over the deployment zones I took the one with the high ground to give my snipers the advantage. I did have slight difficulty deploying all of my 20 models on the table but that was my entirely my fault for having so many models, not a fault of the table. But even so, there was still enough places to deploy.

My biggest challenge during deployment was that I fully expected my opponent to put down a Fiday because he had 2 reserves (which meant his Lt was going to be Saladin). I did not see any good spot to hide Wallace who was my Lt so I resulted with deploying in such a way to have bunch of AROs before he could get to Wallace. But instead my opponent put down Maghariba Guard TAG, in addition to Scarface who was already on the board. So I was going to face two TAGs. Which didn't worry me too much as I designed this list to kill TAGs, but I was still bit concerned as I did not expect it.

The zones we rolled for the missions went in my favour, I rolled quadrant in front of my deployment zone to the left and my opponent rolled the one to my right, so I didn't have to move far to get in but he had to get across the board.

The first round was bit of a roller-coaster. It didn't start well for me but by the end of it I couldn't really complain. The first kill of a game was one of my Caterans sniping a biker that moved just too far with the second part of an impetuous move. Though then my opponent dropped Smoke with a different unit and moved a Djanbazan into it. Which allowed him to kill the revealed Cateran with relative ease. I think he then also tried to take on a second Cateran, but couldn't do it from Smoke which got him killed (the Djanbazan did die somehow in during the turn). My opponent then used Scarface to take on the second Cateran and got a really good roll with Panzerfaust which was not something the Cateran could survive.

But I still had a third camo marker in my deployment zone. Which turned out to be a Scot Guard with a Missile Launcher who got a crit on the Scarface and killed him with one shot (he failed the other two ARM saves too). My opponent still had a second TAG though, the Maghariba Guard went on a little rampage and killed one of my Volunteers and also my Urugan Remote (which was kinda sad for me, didn't even have a chance to use my Hacker on it for Marksmanship Lv2). The TAG then ended the turn by sitting on top of a terrain in Suppressive Fire.

Although I did have my assigned quadrant close, problem I had was that there was an expensive TAG sitting in it so I had to kill it. As my army was spread out so much, it would have been hard to get so many points in (especially because my baggage Urugan was dead and the second one was on completely opposite side). McMurrough and Wallace's Highlander Fireteam were an option but it would take lots of Orders so I decided to try with the Missile Launcher despite him being fairy close to the TAG. I went back to Camouflage and then shot it around the corner. Thankfully we were just over 16 inches away so he was in bad range for Suppressive Fire and ended up shooting on 2 (as he got -12 modifier) and I was only on -3 overall because of the Suppressive Fire, so the odds were decent. I won the roll but didn't kill the TAG, so I went back to camo and tried again. This time putting the TAG unconscious.

I finished the TAG with a Volunteer's Light Shotgun as I wanted to move him up into the quadrant. I don't think I killed anything else in my turn, I was mostly just focusing on getting units into my quadrant. The one mistake I made was not leaving units in ARO positions, at least not long ones, everything was mostly hidden and AROs were all short range. This gave my opponent bit of a free reign in his turn but without the TAGs he didn't really have anything scary left. One of his units did turn out to be a Hafza with a Rocket Launcher, it tried to take out my second baggage Remove (5pts Minesweeper) as it moved into his assigned quadrant. My opponent also ended up with a Specialist, Cordelia, next to one of the consoles.

At some point my opponent did try to get to Wallace with a Mutt (I can't recall if it was his second or third turn) but the Mutt couldn't get close enough. The Mutt did manage to kill two Highlanders but in return took 2 Boarding Shotgun shots and 6 Chain Rifle hits... yeah, he didn't survive.

I spent most of my second turn hunting down Saladin. It took lots of the first group Orders because the Scots Guard move only 4-2 but I did manage to get across the board and hit Saladin. He only took one Wound. But I was dedicated so I spent the rest of the Orders to finish him off. Saladin did not survive a second missile. Thanks to Cordelia I had to move one my own Specialist, Dozer, to a console as I didn't want my quadrant to move. When we did the scoring at the end, I dominated my opponent's quadrant by accident as I had Uxia hiding on top of crates the whole game but his one model, the Hafza, was less points than she.

We then both failed the WIP check on the consoles so neither quadrant moved. As my opponent was in Loss of Lt, he spent his last turn just running as many units as he could into his quadrant for some objective points. I remember thinking I didn't need to do much to win because I was already ahead but then realized you get more points for dominating more quadrants at the end of the game so I had to either kill all of my opponent's units or move in more points. I decided to try the killing. McMurrough went in first but he was already wounded and then took another hit. I still had a Volunteer close so I tried with him and his Chain Rifle. He managed to hit three units, a little remote, a Mutt and a Hafza. The Nasmat died, Hafza survived and the Mutt went Dogged. My Volunteer also survived and for his second attempt used a Light Shotgun. This time everyone died, including him.

Thanks to his sacrifice I managed to secure more Objective Points and got my Second Classified by using the Scots Guard to secure HVT (earlier in the game my Hacker scanned an enemy). I did cap out on 7 Objective Points for this mission as I didn't take a TAG but I was glad to see my TAG killing list had a chance to actually fight TAGs and performed well doing it.

Game 2:  Firefight - Caledonia vs Tohaa

Won 9 to 1 (3 TPs)

The second game was against Matt Spears, a winner of the Norther Open 8, so I wasn't super confident going into the game. He can play his Tohaa really well. I can't recall if I won or lost the Lt roll but ended up deploying first and taking the first turn. I was torn between deploying my Fireteam om high ground or staying on the ground. I went with deploying on the ground to give me more flexibility of where to engage with them (sticking with my original plan). I was expecting Matt to play the Tohaa Beasts which are deadly against Fireteams so I deployed the rest of the army sort of covering the Fireteam. Which I was glad I did as Matt did deploy the Beast unit (only one Beast though). Since I don't bother hunting for Tohaa Lt (they always have Chain of Command somewhere), I deployed my reserve, Uxia, to take on the Beast and its controller.

My first turn went really well and was glad that I did remember not dropping Smoke with Highlanders in such a way to block my own snipers. After the Impetuous phase I used my Caterans to take on Matt's snipers, one of which had MSV Lv2 and the other was a Sapper. I was able to attack them one at a time and despite the frustrating Symbiote Mates I was able to kill them both. Tohaa really do not like T2 ammo! With the snipers dead I was then able to take out a unit with HMG, which I managed to crit so the Symbiote Mates did not help him. Frustrating was that I run out of Orders in that group so I couldn't kill the HMG unit, it was just unconscious and I was worried Matt would have some kind of Airborne Deployment Doctor. He had no medics on the board.

Uxia, who was in a different group, first tried to use her shotgun to take out the Beast and the controller. They were lined up so I was able to hit both by shooting the Beast, sadly for me nothing happened as nobody died. So instead I moved her out and used the twin Assault Pistols to attack the controller. I managed to cause one wound but Uxia died. I did then try to use my Fireteam to kill the beast but it survived a Missile Launcher too and Dodged away (bloody thing just wouldn't die). It was out of LoF so I couldn't attack it again so instead I shot a Tohaa Diplomatic Delegate with the Missile Launcher (and killed it) and then I positioned my Fireteam in a way to get as many AROs as I could before the Beast could reach them.

It turned out my fears were warranted as Matt did have an AD Paramedic and managed to revive the HMG unit which then took its revenge on the Cateran. The Beast and its controller first dropped Smoke before advancing but I still had Cameronian around a corner. Matt decided to go into Close Combat with the Beast and after two rounds I managed to win. It was interesting because neither of us had any CC Special Skills to it was just who can roll higher, I had +1 to my roll and Matt had +2. Matt also managed to kill two of my Scots Guard in his turn. The Missile Launcher and one of the Forward Observers died to a triad with a Viral Rifle.

My turn started with the Cameronian jumping into CC with the Beast controller. I think I won the CC roll but neither of us died either way. Instead of continuing that CC I used my Highlanders to attack the triad that was killing my Scots Guard. One Highlander was able to Chain Rifle two of them but didn't kill anyone, dying in process himself. Though another Highlander managed to kill the Viral Rifle unit by going into CC and activating Berserk. My other orders were spent on remaining Scots Guard and Wallace to go to the middle of the board, allowing a Guard with Molotok to first kill some unit with Flamers and Pistol, and then also kill the revived HGM unit, killing it off the board this time (Burst 5 AP rounds for the win).

In his second turn Matt tried to kill Wallace two times, maybe even three times. First he tried to hit him with a Flamer, which did kill the Scot Guard with Molotok but Wallace Dodged it. My other Scots Guard and a Cateran killed the attacker. Then he tried with something else that had a Combi Rifle but Wallace managed to out-shoot it with his own Combi Rifle. Somewhere during the turn Matt also took something out of the Objectives, +1 ARM for some unit. Which reminded me I should use the objectives myself.

I started my last turn killing the Beast controller with Cameronian and then activating an objective with him. The Cameronian found himself a Light Grenade Launcher and whilst jumping to another objective, he managed to kill someone with it. I didn't have enough Orders for him to try find another thing. Instead I used remaining Command Tokens to do Coordinated Orders and run with Volunteers to the objectives. One found a Nanopulser and the other an Auto-Medkit. I don't think I done anything else that turn, I was just trying to maximize my objective points.

I don't think Matt was in Retreat but he didn't have much left when he started his last turn. He did reveal a TO unit on a roof where I also had an SAS, who did nothing thus far. The TO unit did manage to kill the Cameronian by shooting it from behind, my SAS had a free sot but failed to hit with his pistol. Matt then moved close enough that I was able to engage with the SAS. He did ponder activating the CC but decided not to because his unit wasn't good in CC, while the SAS was.

During my turns I was able to do both of my Classified Objectives, one of them was Forward Observe a HVT and I am not sure what the second one was, I think Coup de Grace someone. The only Objective Point I didn't get in the end was killing more Specialists. I lost Uxia and one FO Scots Guard, but killed only one of Matt's. Though I did kill one Lt of his (which I didn't realize until he told me at the end), had more things from objectives and also killed more army points. 

Game 3:  Supplies - Caledonia vs Qapu Khalqi

Won 7 to 1 (3 TPs)

I was going into this game bit nervous. It happened many times before that I lost after two victories and this was the closest I got to winning the Northern Open. From talking to people I think I was the only one on two major victories (I wasn't sure though) but there was at least one other person with the same amount of Objective Points, so not only I had to win this game, I had to win with lots of objective points and preferably get a major victory. So no pressure!

I never played my opponent before (odin6 in ITS) and don't think I met him on other tournaments either, so had no idea what to expect. I lost the Lt roll on this one and my opponent chose the deployment zone. They were both fairly equal in terms of high ground and density of terrain, though the side he chose had better access to the objectives as they were hidden from sight from my deployment zone. I chose to take the first turn, which is what I prefer on this mission. During deployment I was again tempted to put my Fireteam on the high ground but I kept in mind that I want the flexibility of being on the ground. Plus my plan for this mission was for them to take one of the objectives as I didn't have three Infiltrators to do it.

My opponent deployed his Djanbazan Fireteam in a peculiar way, they were all bunched up behind a car. I thought he'd have some kind of a way of protecting them as I did deploy a Missile Launcher in a Fireteam. I also tried to get Uxia infiltrate close to them and soften them up with a shotgun but she failed her infiltration roll. After deployment I had one SAS near an objective and my Fireteam heading for another but I was fairly certain I had no easy way of getting the third one in my first turn. Instead I planned to focus on killing enemy threats to make it easier for second turn objective grabbing. 

The first death of the game was an Al Hawwa, it infiltrated near an objective and revealed itself to shoot a Highlander as he run by the camo marker. He didn't die and then engaged in CC, going Berserk and killing it. He did die in the process from Djanbazan AROs. Next I used my Caterans to take out long range threats. Thanks to the high ground being near the end of the board I was able to shoot at a Total Reaction Remote from over 32 inches, giving it a -12 to shoot. I did manage to put it unconscious with my free shots and then killed it to make sure its off the board as there was an Engineer close to it. My second Cateran was able to take out a Janissary with a Missile Launcher. This allowed my Fireteam to advance without AROs across the battlefield to engage the Djanbazans.

This is where it got very unfortunate for my opponent. He didn't know about the effect of template weapons affecting every unit in its zone as long as it hits, even if he wins the face to face roll. Only one Djanbazan had Line of Fire, so he declared to shoot back (which meant the others as part of a Fireteam didn't Dodge). I hit with both of my rolls and my opponent rolled better against one of them. As such, the Djanbazan I was shooting at had to take 3 ARM saves and the others had to take 6. Needles to say, most of them died and only one was standing. The last one I was able to finish with a Molotok. 

I didn't realize until then my opponent would start his turn in Retreat. The Djanbazans were around half of his army points (probably bit over) and with everything else that died, he didn't have much left. Thankfully I still had some Orders left for my SAS to grab an objective and then my Cameronian used four Orders to jump around 36 inches so I could Coup de Grace an unconscious Djanbazan, accomplishing a Classified Objective. I could have also try for secure HVT but realized too late. Thanks to being too aggressive and not thinking about Retreat, there was no second turn and I couldn't get more than 7 objective points. 

While I did get the major victory I needed, I was still worried because I didn't realize the person closest to me in rankings didn't have two major victories. I kept thinking if he wins with 8 or more objectives points I could still end up only 2nd or 3rd. Thankfully this mission is not that easy to get a big major victory. In the end he did end with 7 Objective points major victory, so we would have been tied on those but even if he also had 9 tournaments points I was 98 points ahead in Victory Points (army points left at the end of each game).