I did not end up taking Military Orders to the most recent Northern Open. I came to the conclusion that it did not speak well of my love for Caledonia if I was going to take a different army because I think I could more likely win with them. Given how my games went I'd say my fault was not practicing Limited Insertion more. In a way I think I tried to play my army the same way as when I have 20 Orders and that just didn't work, I really felt the lack of Orders.
Though I also have to blame my dice for the first two games. Vast majority of rolls I made either failed (like ARM saves) or I was out rolled in face to face rolls. The worst were those where I was out-rolled like by 1 or 2! The number of crits against me did not help either, but such is Infinity life. At least in the last game I was doing the crits. I threatened to throw away my dice so I guess they were not ready to be retired just yet.
Overall it was a good day though. I did have a laugh during all games and met few new people. I was glad to try Limited Insertion with Caledonia but it is not a format I'd want to play often. Will see if I'll feel differently when I play more Direct Action missions in September. I think in those missions I can do better with Caledonia.
My Army Lists
List A was meant for Transmission Matrix and List B was for Antenna Field and Supplies (though I ended up using it only for Supplies). Again I'd like to point out that I did not practice at all (bad idea, I know) so my plan for these lists was just theoretical.
With List A I wanted to have two Fireteams for some easier Order management. I settled on Isobel, Wallace and HMG Grey Rifle as Fireteam Core and Wulvers as Fireteam Harris. Isobel I thought would be good to defend against enemy Hackers and Burst 5 HMG is always boss. The Wulvers I wanted because they are tough and can get to objectives fast, and in theory can hold them. SAS and Uxia were there to give me some Infiltration. Cateran is just a great Sniper I'd take in every list. The Scots Guard was bit of a wild card but I do like Burst 4 in Camo, downside is that he is slow but I thought he'd be good at holding objectives (Suppressive Fire and Camo is good hurdle for the opponent).
I would say the List A worked as intended, one thing I'd maybe change would be to take second Cateran instead of the Scots Guard and this would free up
some points to take a different SAS; like a Forward Observer. The main
reason it didn't work in my games were just bad dice rolls. I did not feel during my games like I didn't have a plan or an answer to threats, so that was a plus.
List B was going to be around Infiltrating the SAS and Uxia and then rushing the Wulvers to support them as they hold objectives. The Cateran and Scots Guard would in theory take care of any long range threats. I don't know how it would work in practice for the Antenna Field as I didn't use it, but my thinking was that I'd have one SAS in the back holding an objective and Uxia with another SAS in the middle and on one flank, which would be covered by the Cateran and Scots Guard. The Wulvers would be likely contesting the middle and deterring my opponent from getting close since the can shred anything in Close Combat.
Similarly to the List A, my game with List B (used it for Supplies) was very lucky for me so whist it worked just as I wanted it to my opponent was also unlucky on dice. Even if he wasn't though, I think the list would have hold up. The Wulvers in full Fireteam are usually good at holding ground and overwhelming enemy units. The Scots Guard Missile Launcher could be changed for something with higher Burst weapons but in all my years of playing Caledonia this Scots Guard has often been good to me and more often than not he proved himself to be worthwhile.
Game 1: Transmission Matrix - Caledonia vs Yu Jing
Draw 4 to 4 (1 TP)
My first opponent was Matt (a new Matt, not one of our Leeds regulars). We played on a table that I generally perceive as more open than our other tables but it wasn't too bad. Matt won the Lt roll and I can't remember if he decided to go first or chose sides. It ended up with me going second. During my deployment I placed Wulvers Haris Fireteam with Cateran on my left, Wallace, Isobel and Grey Rifle HMG as Core Fireteam on my right and Scots Guard with Molotok in the middle. Uxia infiltrated nar the enemy lines and SAS was close to the middle of the board. Everything was hidden beside a Wulver with Mk12, which I thought had good chance of doing some damage or at least tanking damage.
Matt has proved that idea wrong in his first turn. Using his Invincible with the Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon (HRMC) he went to occupy the middle of the board and attack my exposed Wulver. Normally the Wulvers can take few hits due to 2 Wounds and ARM 6 in cover but I rolled poorly and Matt rolled well, I think he even had a crit and my Wulver died straight away. Which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the game. Since that was all Matt could see of my units, he revealed a Ninja Killer Hacker and spent the rest of his turn trying to hack Isobel. She did really well and survived couple of attacks but with the last Order Matt managed to kill her.
Not a good start for me. The only upside was that Matt spent most of his turn killing things rather than occupying the objectives. He held the two near his deployment zone with one model each and the Invincible was too far from the central one, so only the Ninja held it. This gave me a good chance to win the first round on objectives. First my Grey Rifle HMG had a shoot out with one of Matt's units with HMG and I managed to win, but didn't kill the unit completely. Next I tried to deal with the Invincible. It was in Suppressive Fire but I sent Scots Guard anyway as I had a good chance I thought, with Camo, Surprise, Cover and good range for me.
Problem was that my dice just didn't work and even when I won any roll Matt just passed ARM saves. When the Scots Guard couldn't do it, I tried Cateran who at least forced the Invincible to break Suppressive Fire but died in the process. After that my Scots Guard had even better chance of winning but Matt managed to get a crit on his one dice. Failing to kill the Invincible, I focused on moving units to objectives to make sure I had them. At the end of the round I held the objective in top left corner (from my side of the table) because Uxia was more points than the unit Matt had there.
The second turn went similar to the first one. Matt was focused on killing my units that he could see. He sent his Ninja to attack my SAS. Not liking my chances in CC where Matt would have Surprise Attack, I chose to use a Chain Rifle. My SAS died to CC damage but the Ninja passed the ARM save. Then Matt used a Heavy Infantry unit near the building where Uxia was to climb up and attack her, I was fortunate that at least she managed to survive long enough for Matt to waste most of his Orders. During his turn he also managed to heal the unit gunned down by my HMG but didn't have enough Orders to stand up with it.
I knew I couldn't realistically win anymore at this point. I couldn't do my Classified as Isobel was dead and securing HVT was out of question too (one of my two Classified I couldn't do at all). Even getting Draw was resting on a Hail Mary move. I had almost nothing left but I still held the two objectives near my Deployment Zone and if I could take the middle I'd win this round too so I'd have a chance to Draw if Matt didn't do both his Classified. To do that Wallace had to make two jumps. First from a roof of a building on my right side onto a crate and then from there to onto the roof of the central building. Matt was getting free AROs both times with a Remote. He did manage to hit once and of course I failed the ARM save but Wallace did manage to get onto the rooftop. With my last Order I moved Wallale closer to the central objective and the Ninja managed to engage. But Wallace was more Points so I held the central objective.
In his last turn Matt was just finishing off my army. First the Ninja activated in CC and since I was not going to hold the central objective anymore (the Invincible had to move once to hold it) I chose to go Berserk with Wallace to ensure we both killed each another. Matt then moved his Remote down my right flank where I left my Grey Rifle exposed. I lost the face to face rolls and the Grey Rifle died (bad rolls all around). I had one Wulver left but it was hidden so Matt went onto occupying four of the objectives. During the game Matt also accomplished one of his Classified. All he had to do was secure my HVT (he couldn't do his second Classified either) but the mistake he made, which led to the Draw, was that he forgot about my HVT and didn't change his Classified.
I admit I did notice it and I did tell him after the game but considering all the bad luck I had I wanted to at least have the draw.
Game 2: Antenna Field - Caledonia vs Tohaa
Lost 10 to 0 (0 TPs)
As fate would have it my next opponent was Dr Greg with his Tohaa. There were several first round games that ended in a Draw. Knowing what I was going to face did not make it much easier for me, I wasn't confident with either of my lists being able to deal with immortal Tohaa. I ended up using List A again (same list I used in Game 1) because I wanted to have that AP HMG at Burst 5. This list had less Specialists than List B but my plan was to kill all of Greg's Specialists and decide the game on Classified. Admittedly not the best plan but I wasn't very hopeful either way. Greg won the Lt roll and decided on Deployment so I went first.
I used similar deployment as before. Wulvers, Scots Guard and Cateran on my left, Wallace and Core Fireteam on right, SAS was up to the middle line on my right and Uxia managed to Infiltrate close to Greg's lines.
My first turn couldn't go any worse. Greg had a Tohaa with Missile Launcher standing up on a building which I knew would just cause trouble. I tried to first shoot it with Cateran but I got out rolled and he died. So I went after it with Grey Rifle and his HMG, which despite Burst 5 and BS13 went almost just as bad. I only caused one wound and then the Tohaa unit went Prone and I couldn't see it anymore. At least it allowed my Infiltrators to attack. The SAS took out one Specialist but died in the process. Uxia tied to do the same but Greg passed his ARM saves and she died for nothing. Then the Grey Rifle went on to attack some other exposed units but I couldn't hit anything, eventually he got killed by a crit.
Greg reminded me that Tohaa have Heavy Flamers on cheap units the hard way in his first turn. I did bunker down Uxia and Wallace but since Tohaa have Zero-V Smoke Grenades, he was able to get close and do the same thing I do to people when I have a full army (hit their good units in Supressive Fire with cheap units that have template weapons). But despite the number of shots I had I couldn't even kill this cheap Tohaa unit in return and it killed both Wallace and Isobel, not a single ARM save passed for me.
After that I really had no chance of winning. I still had my Wulvers but not enough Orders to get them anywhere and even when I won face to face rolls the Tohaa just used their broken Symbiotes to negate it. Normally I'd at least have enough Orders to keep shooting but not in Limited Insertion. We played the game to the end of three rounds but it was pretty much just Greg moving closer each turn to take out the Wulvers.
I thought about it afterwards if I should have gone with my original plan to use List B and attack the Tohaa with full Fireteam of Wulvers. The only advantage really would have been the +3 BS but I am not sure it would have been enough as neither Mk12 or T2 Rifle do much to get through Armour. I think I could have forced Greg's units to go Prone or maybe kill enough of those on overwatch to get close to his Deployment Zone where I could cause some havoc but I also think I'd struggle to do it with only 10 Orders. Limited Insertion is not really where I feel I can use Caledonia aggressive play to full advantage.
All in all, despite some really bad rolls I also have to point out that Greg practiced Limited Insertion a lot and found an optimal army list for himself which definitely made a big difference; he ended up on 2nd place at the end of the event. It does show how important practice is and I can only fault myself for not doing the same.
Game 3: Supplies - Caledonia vs ALEPH
Won 9 to 0 (3 TPs)
The last game was against Al who did not fare well in the first two rounds either; despite also being a past Northern Open winner. We had some fun games before so I was looking forward to it; after two lost rounds (even if one was a draw) at least you know in the last round you can play more for fun than trying to win. The game turned out to be the very opposite of the previous game I had. I managed to win the Lt roll and decided to go first, as I always prefer to do on Supplies with Ariadna. I used List B and my plan was to take two objectives straight away and hold onto those, if I could prevent Al from getting the third objective then all the better. Normally I'd try take all three but I didn't have enough Orders for that in Limited Insertion.
My deployment was very one sided. On my left flank I placed Scots Guard Missile Launcher in Camo and Cateran onto a building, Wulvers with Wallace on the ground in front of the building and on the same flank near the middle line was Uxia and one SAS. The last SAS was near the middle objective. Al deployed sort of hidden too, the only thing I could really see was his ALEPH TAG. So I started my turn by standing up the Scots Guard and taking a Missile Launcher shot across the board. Considering the range and everything else (like Surprise and Camo) I was expecting to win the roll but I did not expect Al to fail all three ARM saves straight away. This took out his TAG and Lt and pretty much crippled Al's army.
The rest of my turn was advancing Wulvers forward and put them into some better positions. Uxia and the two SAS grabbed two of the objectives. One SAS went to hide with Wulvers and the other hid on top of a building near middle of the board.
Al started his turn by revealing an infiltrated TO Sniper, which was in a very good spot. On my right flank there was a tall building and part of it was just outside of my Deployment Zone, so Al had pretty good view of my army from behind. He tried to attack my Cateran but I managed to roll a Crit in ARO and take out the TO Sniper. The game was more or less over now but we continued for the fun of it. Al run up some unit with a shotgun onto a building in front of my Wulvers, trying to take out Wallace with the shotgun blast by targeting a Wulver in front of Wallace. This unit did not kill Wallace, just the Wulver it was targeting and it also managed to survive all of my AROs! Al tried the same thing for a second time but this time his unit died to my AROs without doing any damage to me.
In my second turn I just used a Wulver with Heavy Shotgun to run into Al's Deployment Zone and kill everything on the way. He did die at some point while I was running in the open at some ALEPH unit. Whatever Al had left before Retreat he used to run at my units, but everything got killed. I can't remember what firefight it was but at some point I needed to hit something at BS 3 and managed to roll two or three Crits on 3; it was a funny moment. Before the game ended I didn't bother getting the third objective, which is why I only had 9 Objective Points in the end. It was a pretty amusing game for the last round.
