The new online campaign started yesterday and to kicks things off I played against my mate James. He decided to side with Yu Jing and I went with Ariadna. The articles here will be mostly copies of my reports on the Wotan website, but I would like to have collection of them here so future reference.
First game we played was the Ariadna mission and then the Yu Jing mission. In the first game I used my ITS Caledonia lists (designed to kill TAGs) because I didn't have time to write a new list beforehand, so the game went very much in my favour as James had less competitive list. Feeling bad (and wanting a more fun balanced game), I wrote a new list for the second mission. I used French in the second game and for the first time tried the Anaconda TAG. I admit that I was very disappointed with the TAG though, to me it just felt like an oversized and expensive Heavy Infantry. Now I completely understand why people don't play it much.
Game 1: Defence of the Armoury
"When the Caledonian detachment received intel about the great General of the Yu Jing Sun Tze planning to raid the O-12 armory, William Wallace gathered his freedom fighters and in true Caledonian spirit decided that offence was the best defence..."
My deployment option were tricky due tot he infinitely high objective room and only one elevated building in my deployment zone. I went with Wallace and his Highlanders on left flank and McMurrough on the right flank, with Urugan and snipers covering the middle lines. As I couldn't have any reserve I have infiltrated Uxia into one of the buildings where Sun Tze would most likely hide, basically trying to force him to deploy where Uxia wasn't. It worked and he deployed on my right flank where McMurrough could get to him.
The first turn turned out to be very brutal. I went super aggressive and first moved up McMurrough, trying to hit Sun Tze with speculative Grenades. It worked but then I found out how tough Sun Tze is, so instead I jumped closer to get line of sight and hit him again but on better odds, which didn't work again. Deciding it wasn't work the Orders, I went to kill some line troops with Chain Rifles but my opponent managed to pass all Dodges and McMurrough sadly took two Wounds from all the AROs. With last few Orders that group I have gave Urugan supportware Marksmanship Level 2 and moved it up closer to the middle for better range bands.
The biggest threats for me were Su Jian and Rui Shi, I couldn't get to the Rui Shi remote but I had good path to the Su Jian. It took few Orders to get Wallace and Highlanders into position, mostly because of a lone Kuang Shi blocking the path and I was trying to keep all Highlanders alive for Fireteam bonuses. I did manage to kill him with one Highlander in Dogged state, which allowed me to hit the Su Jian with a Boarding Shotgun on BS 19 and Burst 3. With the AP mode available the Su Jian did not live for long.
The first turn turned out to be very brutal. I went super aggressive and first moved up McMurrough, trying to hit Sun Tze with speculative Grenades. It worked but then I found out how tough Sun Tze is, so instead I jumped closer to get line of sight and hit him again but on better odds, which didn't work again. Deciding it wasn't work the Orders, I went to kill some line troops with Chain Rifles but my opponent managed to pass all Dodges and McMurrough sadly took two Wounds from all the AROs. With last few Orders that group I have gave Urugan supportware Marksmanship Level 2 and moved it up closer to the middle for better range bands.
The biggest threats for me were Su Jian and Rui Shi, I couldn't get to the Rui Shi remote but I had good path to the Su Jian. It took few Orders to get Wallace and Highlanders into position, mostly because of a lone Kuang Shi blocking the path and I was trying to keep all Highlanders alive for Fireteam bonuses. I did manage to kill him with one Highlander in Dogged state, which allowed me to hit the Su Jian with a Boarding Shotgun on BS 19 and Burst 3. With the AP mode available the Su Jian did not live for long.
My opponent's first turn was a bit stressful for me because Wallace and remaining four Highlanders were pretty much in his deployment zone and there were around half a dozen more Kuang Shi nearby, so for a long time they just kept running at Wallace, shooting with Pistols or Chain Rifles. Thankfully I was careful with positioning so many Kuang Shi died before Wallace was exposed, so did all my Highlanders though. In the end one Kuang Shi remained facing lone Wallace who was on No Wound Incap by the end of that attack.
I made bit of a mistake of leaving all my Snipers standing when I ended my turn, so my opponent dropped Smoke Grenade near his Rui Shi (I just did not realize he had Smoke available), which was in his second combat group and was planning to kill the snipers one by one. He killed on Cateran fairly easy and then took on the Urugan. Thanks for the Marksmanship Lv2 I was at -9 instead of -12, so I needed 1 to hit but it also meant 1 would be a crit. We rolled the dice and I managed to get 1! My opponent then ended his turn just redeploying some line troops which were in a Fireteam for the next turn.
I made bit of a mistake of leaving all my Snipers standing when I ended my turn, so my opponent dropped Smoke Grenade near his Rui Shi (I just did not realize he had Smoke available), which was in his second combat group and was planning to kill the snipers one by one. He killed on Cateran fairly easy and then took on the Urugan. Thanks for the Marksmanship Lv2 I was at -9 instead of -12, so I needed 1 to hit but it also meant 1 would be a crit. We rolled the dice and I managed to get 1! My opponent then ended his turn just redeploying some line troops which were in a Fireteam for the next turn.
I started my turn with a second Cateran making his way across buildings, thanks for Climbing Plus, to save Wallace from the Kuang Shi that was waiting for Wallace to activate. This pretty much ended the game as my opponent had nothing else he could do to win, his remaining units were WarCor, Sun Tze and few line troops. Neither of us secured the Armoury in the first round and we both used my Classified to add Points, so I capped out on 8 Objective Points while my opponent got 0.
Game 2: Rapid attack of the CIC
"With Sun Tze defeated, the straight outta Caledonia operative (code name Lilith) saw an opportunity for a surprise attack on the Yu Jing Light Frigate. The Merovingian task force, however, was the one surprised as the Yu Jing defenders were waiting for them..."
My opponent had the first turn in this mission. My deployment was made difficult because his plan was to use a hacker to Spotlight my units through the consoles (which count as Repeaters) and then blast them with Guided Missiles. My biggest mistake was that I read the mission wrong and thought the Repeater range was 4 inches, same as the Zone you have to be in to score. Turns out that the Repeater range was 8 inches, like normal, so many of my units were outside of the scoring zone but still in danger. Luckily I had my own Hacker in Repeater range, so if my opponent activated his only hacker I'd have a chance to kill him.
He didn't want to take that rick because we both had line troop Hackers with the same WIP, so it would just be purely who can roll higher. Instead his plan was to kill my units the classic way. The first attack came from a Aragoto on a bike with Spitfire. He drove at my Fireteam of Loup-Garou and got shot dead by my Sniper Rifle (I rolled a crit). Next up was a TO Camo Marker, which turned out to be a Hac Tao with HMG. He attacked a Loup-Garou with Viral Rifle and I was still lucky and managed to score a Wound on the Hac Tao. The next round of shooting I got Crit but so did the Hac Tao. Third round of shooting was bad for me and the Loup-Garou died. Then two more Loup-Garous, Briscard, Chasseur Minelayer and a Volunteer also got killed. To make matters worse the Hac Tao ended his turn scoring one of my Objectives, so my opponent had three and I had one. I wasn't feeling swell.
He didn't want to take that rick because we both had line troop Hackers with the same WIP, so it would just be purely who can roll higher. Instead his plan was to kill my units the classic way. The first attack came from a Aragoto on a bike with Spitfire. He drove at my Fireteam of Loup-Garou and got shot dead by my Sniper Rifle (I rolled a crit). Next up was a TO Camo Marker, which turned out to be a Hac Tao with HMG. He attacked a Loup-Garou with Viral Rifle and I was still lucky and managed to score a Wound on the Hac Tao. The next round of shooting I got Crit but so did the Hac Tao. Third round of shooting was bad for me and the Loup-Garou died. Then two more Loup-Garous, Briscard, Chasseur Minelayer and a Volunteer also got killed. To make matters worse the Hac Tao ended his turn scoring one of my Objectives, so my opponent had three and I had one. I wasn't feeling swell.
Since the Hac Tao was left standing in the end, I started my turn with moving my Anaconda TAG to get Line of Fire and shot with the Spitfire. I was on -9 thanks to bad range and TO, but I managed to roll 1, 2 and 3 and it was enough to finish off the Hac Tao. This allowed me to bring down my Para-Commando with HMG and get some revenge. It wasn't as epic but I did kill a unit with Holoechos and some medic. I also tried to kill a unit off an objective but that didn't work. Thankfully my Para was close enough to the enemy objective to dominate it because the enemy unit next to it was cheap. This gave me first round victory.
In his second turn my opponent killed the Para and also my Loup-Garou Sniper with Xi Zhuang. Before the end he also brought on his Tiger Soldier AD unit and moved him to where the Hac Toa was bleeding on the floor. This meant I had to spend my second turn killing the Tiger Soldier so I could take the objective (my opponent still had two). Thankfully I still had one last Loup-Garou alive with a Shotgun. With him I was able to take out the Tiger Solider and dominate the objective again. Before I ended my turn I also had just enough Orders to use the Anaconda to kill the Xi Zhuang. In the end we drew on the Objectives.
In his second turn my opponent killed the Para and also my Loup-Garou Sniper with Xi Zhuang. Before the end he also brought on his Tiger Soldier AD unit and moved him to where the Hac Toa was bleeding on the floor. This meant I had to spend my second turn killing the Tiger Soldier so I could take the objective (my opponent still had two). Thankfully I still had one last Loup-Garou alive with a Shotgun. With him I was able to take out the Tiger Solider and dominate the objective again. Before I ended my turn I also had just enough Orders to use the Anaconda to kill the Xi Zhuang. In the end we drew on the Objectives.
Considering that most things were dead at this point, my opponent started his turn by activating his Hacker and we both did a Brain Blast. Sadly I failed both the face to face and then the BTS save. My opponent then spent 7 to 8 Orders trying to Spot Light the last Loup-Garou but either he failed his WIP or I kept winning, until the almost last Order. Loup-Garou for targeted and then blasted with a Guided Missile. Very fast last turn for my opponent.
Mine was about as fast though. I still had a WarCor near the objective where Hac Tao, Tiger Soldier and Loup-Garou got killed, so I was dominating it. I also had my second Chasseur dominating my second objective, so we were gonna have a draw on those again. However, my opponent completely forgot to do his Classified Objectives so all I had to do was run the Anaconda to the enemy HVT and Secure it to win the game. Which is exactly what I did.
It was a hard won and bloody Minor Win for the French!
Mine was about as fast though. I still had a WarCor near the objective where Hac Tao, Tiger Soldier and Loup-Garou got killed, so I was dominating it. I also had my second Chasseur dominating my second objective, so we were gonna have a draw on those again. However, my opponent completely forgot to do his Classified Objectives so all I had to do was run the Anaconda to the enemy HVT and Secure it to win the game. Which is exactly what I did.
It was a hard won and bloody Minor Win for the French!
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