Harlequins 4 - Deus Vult

I have to say that Harlequins is proving to be one of my favourite tournaments to go to. I'd even say the venue is the best one we go to; it has plenty of room, easy parking, snacks & drinks sold on premises and shops nearby. Also, in the last three years of going to ITS events the Harlequins 4 was the first tournaments after Norther Open to have all tables fully painted; I haven't seen any bare MDF terrain. That was really cool to see.

From our usual Leeds group it was only me this time, but Ed who organizes Northern Open also came to play. In the last round I was on 3rd or 4th place (the second top table) and played against Greg. It was a tough game to play Supplies with only 10 Orders. Greg won the game, taking 2nd place on the event.

The first place went to someone who came all the way from France, which was really cool. He was also playing Military Orders, as did I think two other people (so there were four of us I believe). Which was interesting to see but not as surprising since Limited Insertion is where  Military Orders can work really well. 

Overall I was happy with how I played, though I believe I should have approached the last mission differently. I am not decided yet if I will take Military  Orders again to Northern Open 10 next month, will try to get some more practice games to see if I can make Caledonia or Ariadna lists I'd be happy with.

My Army Lists

List A

List B

Both of my lists were similar in nature and how I was intending to play them. The main difference were the knights that would form a Fireteam with Joan. The List A was going to be used for two missions (2nd and 3rd round) as it was more offensive, at least on paper, but I ended up using it only in the last round. The List B was intended for the Transmission Matrix mission, with De Fersen and Switch to kill enemy Hackers if someone tried to play this mission with Smart Missile Launchers.

In hindsight Switch never got value during my games, either as Specialist or just as Killer Hacker. I also felt the same way about Konstantinos. He does look really good in theory but a Spec. Sergeant with TO did the same role better.

Otherwise the lists did work as I wanted them to. Joan and two knights hid at the back of the board, baiting my opponents to go after them so that my Spec. Sergeants were safe in the mid field to take Objectives. It worked perfectly in the first two rounds but not as well in the Supplies mission.

Game 1:  Transmission Matrix - Military Orders vs Steel Phalanx
Won 8 to 2 (3 TPs)

The first game was against new opponent for me, Chris. I believe I saw him on tournaments before but we never played as far as I can remember. His Steel Phalanx had Hector with three other models to follow him, then another Fireteam of four and two models on their own. I can't remember any of the names but there was no Achilles or Phoenix or other characters I often see. Chris won the Lt roll and decided to go first. I chose a side believing I had TO Sniper (I didn't) but even without using the high ground at least I denied it to Chris.

Chris' first round went as well as I could have hoped. Because I deployed only five models he was unsure where my TO might show up and kept expecting a Sniper. As such he used several Zero-V Smoke Grenades to get across the board which he didn't need to use at all. He took Hector with his Fireteam down my right flank and took defensive position around an objective (next to the plane on the photo above).  Chris also had troops within Zone of Control (ZoC) of the two objectives in front of his Deployment Zone (DZ). Nothing of mine died that turn but Chris did have control of three objectives.

In my first time I tried to kill some enemies with Joan as they were close but the dice weren't with me and Chris managed to put down Smoke around his units. This, however, allowed me to reveal a TO Marker without it being seen by enemies. It was a Spec. Sergeant who then placed a mine next to the objectives, threatening several enemy troops. With nothing else I could shoot at I started to reveal other TO Markers. I had one next to each objective near by DZ and then three around the middle. I had to send two of those to take control over objective near Chris' DZ, on my right side. 

At the end of the round I had control over lower left objective, middle objective and top right. The trooper that Chris had on the top right objective was few points cheaper than my Spec. Sergeant. Chris had the other two objectives.

The second turn was much deadlier. Chris had to waste an Order or two to get rid of the mine. Hector tried to tank it but took a Wound. The Fireteam then focused on killing the Spec. Sergeant near them, he died in CC. Chris then moved Hector with his men into my DZ to attack Joan with Hospitaller Knight and De Fersen. It was brutal, Hector's Plasma Rifle made me take lots of saves but I also passed a lot. It took Chris more Orders than he expected, he had 2-3 left and my troops took only one 1 Wound each. Hector did try to finish them and in his last round of shooting killed De Fersen (he took 4 ARM saves and 4 BTS saves), but Joan got my first and only Crit of the game and killed Hector! He did take some damage earlier from the shooting. 

My second turn wasn't as exciting. I knew I still held the three objectives and would score two points again, so I mainly just put my guys into defensive positions and might have killed one or two enemies with Joan. 

In his last turn Chris went all out to capture objectives. He broke his Fireteams and with help of Smoke he managed to move his troops around with relative ease. I am fairly certain that by the end of his round he had control over all objectives. More importantly for me, Chris did not appear to complete any of his Classified Objectives but I knew he had opportunity to secure my HVT.

With that in mind and the fact I was 4 objective points ahead, in my last turn I focused on doing my Classified Objectives. This would give me 4 more objective points so even if Chis held more objectives and did all his Classified, I'd still win. I did one Classified by Forward Observing an enemy. This I accomplished near the top right objective. My Spec. Sergeant revealed himself to FO one of the troops and once it was targeted I was able to kill them easily (not that I needed to but I had Orders spare).

For my second Classified I had to go for Secure HVT as my Hackers were dead so I couldn't do the card. I had to use Joan to kill enemy trooper near my own HVT and then I was able to secure enemy HVT by abandoning the middle objective and moving closer to the enemy HVT. In the end I won a major victory as Chris wasn't able to complete any of his Classified Objectives. 

Game 2:  Antenna Field - Military Orders vs Haqqislam
Won 7 to 2 (3 TPs)

The second game was against Joe, someone I played in Norther Open 9. I was intending to use my List A but I expected Joe to have at least one TAG as last time we played he used two TAGs and so I thought De Fersen might be a good unit to have against TAGs. The game played out similarly to the first game. I won the Lt roll this time and chose to go second as mission involved the same scoring at the end of each round. My deployment was similar also, TO hidden on each flank and three in the middle. I also deployed WarCor in a hidden place but in ZoC of my HVT. Joe did indeed place down two TAGs, Maghariba Guard and Scarface. 

Joe was was more aggressive in his first turn than my previous opponent. I suspect because the TAGs were not afraid of any potential snipers. Both TAGs climbed over buildings down my right flank, straight for Joan and her Fireteam. On their way they also killed my WarCor, he didn't hide very well. Scarface held back just in front of my DZ on top of a building, but the Maghariba Guard went all the way to the edge of the table to attack my Fireteam. Annoyingly it moved just outside of De Fersen's ZoC so I couldn't hack it. Before Joe run out of Orders, the TAG was able to use its Heavy Flamer twice. Hospitaller Knight and De Fersen both died to the flames, I had some bad rolls on them but Joan survived the turn and took only 1 Wound. Joe also had Specialists touching the objective in his DZ and in the middle.

My first turn was very straight forward. Joan loaded up AP ammo into her multi-rifle and went against the TAGs. The Maghariba Guard already took a Wound before and she was able to kill it without much trouble, her BS 15 (and +3 for good range) is insane. Scarface shared the same fate. He tried to Panzerfaust her but Joan was able to outroll him and killed him in two Orders. Shooting both TAGs at BS 18 with AP rounds proved to be quite deadly. I have revealed some TO Spec. Sergeants to kill two of Joe's troopers. Before end of the turn Joan also Coup de Graced the Maghariba Guard, completing my Classified Objective.

Joe had no TAGs but still enough Orders and units to threaten my revealed Spec. Sergeants. There was a really funny combat between Spec. Sergeant, Mutt and Nasmat Remote. The Mutt had +1 Burst thanks to the Remote but I managed to get a Crit with the Spec. Sergeant, however, as the Mutt had Dogged he then killed the Spec. Sergeant (realizing only now that my Spec. Sergeant has only Knife which should have Shocked the Mutt to death, oh well!). Joe did also try to get Cordelia to the unconscious Scarface but I had a TO Marker along the way that took an ARO and killed her. 

In my turn I was less focused on Joe's troops and went for objectives instead. I might have shot some troops but mainly I was moving remaining Spec. Sergeants into position to take objectives. I had three of them alive and Joan. By the end of the turn I had objective in my DZ and one on my right side (which was on a roof). I don't think I had the middle and nobody held the objective on my left, as Joe had only the one in his DZ I scored full points this round.

In the last turn Joe went all out, using his last two Specialists to hold the objective in his DZ and take the middle. He also had a trooper near the building with objective on its roof. So he climbed up and tried to shoot my Spec. Sergeant holding the objective. But I won the roll and killed Joe's trooper. Which turned out to have AutoMedkit and I failed the free shot. So the turn ended with the enemy trooper denying me that objective as it was base to base. 

I still could have lost if I didn't take the middle objective so that was the focus of my last turn. One Spec. Sergeant and Joan moved together in sort of a pincer move so I had two attacks against the enemy Specialists. Joan was enough to kill it though, giving my Spec. Sergeant free move to take the objective. I didn't want to risk him first as I was worried Joe would get a crit or something. I might have killed the guy on the roof again but not sure I did as I already controlled more objectives.I learned the value of preserving models in the past.

Game 3:  Supplies - Military Orders vs Tohaa
Lost 2 to 7 (0 TPs)

My last opponent of the day was Greg from The Plastic Crack Blog. We played several times before and he was worried I'd beat him but I know Greg can play with his Tohaa well. I won the Lt roll and wasn't quite sure if I should go first or second. Going second worked for me thus far and I wasn't confident about this mission going first with only 10 Orders. My deployment was almost the same as other games, Joan with Fireteam at the back and TO troops hidden at the objectives. The only difference was having a Sniper that infiltrated on high ground.

As I mentioned earlier, I should have switched my strategy for this mission because there was no need for Greg to take the bait and instead, just as he should have, he focused on objectives. He was able to take one on my left side back to his Deployment Zone and he also took the middle one but without enough Orders to fall back, he just held in the middle with troops on Suppressive Fire. 

I was able to take out two or three units with my HMG Knights, with BS 14 and Burst 5 they were deadly.  Unfortunately because Tohaa have extra Wounds and SymbioMate it took me too long to kill them, so my turn was over quickly. My mistake here was not taking any of the objectives and not even advancing with Joan and the Fireteam.

Greg was going to medic his two fallen troopers in his second turn and then run off with the second objective he had but one my Spec. Sergeants made it difficult for him by revealing and dropping a mine. The mine would have hit at least two troops regardless who'd active. To avoid dropping the objective Greg first activated a trooper that was too far from the objective carrier but my Spec. Sergeant responded by dropping another one. This killed one of the two troopers and the second mine killed the other one. The Spec. Sergeant also died but it tied up many of Greg's Orders and in the end Greg was back where he started. 

As Greg was moving away with the objective I made another mistake by revealing Spec. Sergeant on my right flank. I thought the shot was going to be worth it but the Tohaa unit survived and Greg then used last Orders to kill the revealed Spec. Sergeant. Which hurt me in the second turn as that Spec. Sergeant should have just focused on taking the last unopened Objective, which would have made my game easier.

Just like in my first turn, my HMGs were killing everything that they could see and at least this time moved up to the middle of the board. But again, thanks to silly Tohaa rules it took too many Orders to kill anything and I still had no objectives. Very bad place for me at the end of the second turn.

In his last turn Greg had only three units left but it was enough Orders to get even further away from me and hide the troops with Objectives. He also managed to bring back to life the AutoMedkit unit again. I revealed my last Spec. Sergeant to ARO it but failed the free shot. 

Even though Greg had two objectives and I had none, I still had a chance to win the game. All I had to do was to kill one Tohaa unit with a Missile Launcher. If it died I would have been able to kill one of Greg's troops with an objective, take it and then either kill the second trooper with an objective and/or do my Classified Objectives. Problem was the limited number of Orders and the fact that the unit I needed to kill still had a SymbioMate. My rolls did not help either and when I did hit, Greg just used the SymbioMate and then when I hit again he passed all ARM saves too. When it got to the point of not having enough Orders to kill the trooper with Objective and take it, I just did my two Classified Objectives for some Objective points.