Strikezone: Wotan - The Last Phase 1 Victory

The end of the Phase 1 is almost upon us (bit over an hour away when I am writing this) but I was able to log in one more victory for Ariadna on the La Forja Control Deck. In this game we played a different mission and used Limited Insertion rules as we wanted to practice for upcoming ITS events.

Game 6: Fight over antennas  

"With Ariadna's attention mainly on fighting the Nomads over the control of the La Forja Control Deck, the Yu Jing saw an opportunity to sabotage one of the shipyard's antenna fields and hack communications. Fortunately Isobel McGregor was able to obtain intel of the incoming Yu Jing task force, but with limited window of insertion William Wallace was able to assemble only small group of soldiers..."

We played Antenna Field in this game as we wanted to practice Limited Insertion armies and missions for an upcoming tournament. I felt bit handicapped from the start due to only two Specialists but thought I could work around it by playing safe and make sure my opponent can't get to the objectives easy. I was deploying second so that made bit easier for me. My opponent had MVS Lv2 Remote with Engineer on my left, Harakuri in the middle and a camo marker (I guessed it was a sniper) and then Doctor and line trooper on my right (most likely a cheap Lt).

Problem for me was that it was clear Yu Jing units on the table were not adding up to 300pts, so I was expecting several TO units. I deployed my Fireteam Core in the middle (Wallace, Grey Rifle HMG, Isobel and two Volunteer HMGs) as it gave me line of fire to three objectives (one on my right, the middle and the one in front of my opponent's deployment zone) and I could hold the one on my deployment zone. On my left I deployed Fireteam Haris (Grey Rifle T2 Rifle, Mormaer T2 Rifle and Mormaer HMG) and on the right I had McMurrough. I also infiltrated Uxia in front of the enemy deployment zone on my right flank.
 

With Uxia's successful Infiltration I was deciding between doing my Classified (Sabotage) for which I would have to move back towards my side as the terrain piece was behind her, or I also had a good path to attack enemy Doctor. I decided to go with killing the Doctor, with two Orders I was more or less back where I started with Uxia but one less enemy Specialist to worry about (two left on the board). I also wanted to do the Classified but first used McMurrough to block a doorway with Smoke as I didn't want Uxia to give AROs. After Uxia was free to move I moved her to an Objective and on the way accomplished the Classified Objective.

I wasn't able to see anything but a camo marker from long range so I tried to Discover & Shoot with Grey Rifle and then Volunteer but both failed. I even offered free AROs to my opponent but he didn't take the bait to reveal it. I used my remaining Orders to move units into better position, get Isobel base to base with an objective and also placed McMurrough in front of Uxia to block attacks against her.
 

My opponent started his turn by revealing a TO marker on my left flank where he could see my Grey Rifle T2. I was considering to drop Smoke as I'd have B2 thanks to Haris and +3 to PH but then remembered there was Msv Lv2 on that flank also, so I Dodged instead. The TO Marker was just a Ninja with Combi and was shooting over 16 inches and I was behind Cover, so I Dodged away.

Next "reveal" was a Tiger Soldier coming onto the board on my right flank. My opponent's first plan of attack was to take on Isobel but he realized he'd face too many AROs and decided to go after Uxia instead. Unfortunately I had her facing the wrong way and the Tiger Solider shot her from behind. I tried to Change Facing as she was shot in her ZoC but it didn't work and Uxia died. At least it allowed McMurrough to turn around and get better line of sight.

Then came another TO Marker. It was inside the building that Uxia had to cross in my previous turn. I was able to reveal it on its second MOV, I had some really long AROs that could see it only on second part of the Order and my opponent felt confident I wouldn't pass the WIP check. But I did and it turned out to be Hac Tao. With only few Orders left the Hac Tao tried to kill McMurrough but I was able to put down Smoke between us.

My opponent was feeling bit desperate and went back with the Tiger Soldier to try and kill Isobel. He didn't care about the three AROs; Volunteer HMG, Isobel and Mormaer HMG (all of which were Burst 2). Most of the Tiger Soldier's Burst went into Isobel but I rolled better and Isobel's T2 Rifle took the AD Trooper off the board.
 

My next turn started by McMurrough jumping at the Hac Tao. First leap didn't get him into CC and I didn't get Smoke down either as we both rolled the same on the face to face roll. Then when I jumped into CC McMurrough took 1 Wound from Nanopulser but also caused 1 Wound on the Hac Tao. In the second round of CC I managed to get a Crit to finish off the Hac Tao. Feeling good about McMurrough I used few more Orders on him to get him into CC with Harakuri, I managed to score a Wound but got hit with Chain Rifle on the way and McMurrough unfortunately went unconscious. I was hoping to get 2 Wounds on the the Harakuri to kill it but didn't think to ask if it had Total Immunity, so it was safe from DA.

With the last few Orders I tried to Discover & Shoot again but the Grey Rifle failed. Then I tried with a Volunteer and my opponent was still feeling confident but the Volunteer succeeded to Discover! He then needed really low number to hit because it was so far away but with the high Burst I managed to get a Crit.

My opponent lost most of his big guns while all of mine were still alive (I only lost Uxia and McMurrough so far) but as I had Isobel as my last Specialist there was a chance for him to turn the game around because he had three on the board (Hacker Ninja, Harakuri Forward Observer and Engineer) and still had Spitfire Remote too. The turn started with Harakuri Coup de Gracing McMurrough and giving my opponent accomplished Classified. The Harakuri then went for an objective with hopes that it would survive and then would not activate again so I wouldn't be able to shoot it. Unfortunately for my opponent, I still had three HMGs watching that objective and the Harakuri got shredded.

As last resort to try to turn the game around, the Hacker Ninja went back to camouflage state and then moved across the battle field towards Isobel. I thought he was going to try get into CC with Isobel but I had to keep holding ARO and letting him get close because if I tried to Discover he'd just shoot her for free. Turned out that he was planning to shoot Isobel instead. The Ninja was standing on one of the picnic tables when it decided to shoot and faced five AROs; all of the Fireteam (except Wallace) and Mormaer HMG.

The Ninja went full Burst into Isobel. I lost the face to face rolls and she was hit three times. But then she rolled 20, 19 and 15 for ARM saves! After all my other AROs there was nothing left of the Ninja but body parts and blood stains all over the idyllic picnic area.
 

 

I had won the Objectives on the first turn and the second turn and we both had one Specialist left, but I still had four HMGs, full Fireteam Core and full Fireteam Haris so there was nothing my opponent could do after that to even Draw. We called the game done with another victory for the Scots!