UK Masters 2019 – Day 2
七転び八起き
“Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”
On 8 TP and 21 OP, with two majors and a minor I went into Day 2 excited and with high expectations! The previous evening, I had done a little bit of homework, browsing through Army to see what units I could expect to face from Adam “East of Irene”’s Ikari Company. I had played a few games with Ikari, but not often against them.
After a caffeine loaded Costa breakfast I headed up to the venue, buzzing high on latte and too much mono-sodium glutamate from last night’s Chinese!
Game 4
- Opponent: Adam “East of Irene”
- Faction: Ikari Company
- Mission: Capture and Protect
- List: B
I actually played Adam last in Round 1 of the UK Masters 2016 when he was playing ISS! It was good to see Ikari doing so well at a tournament, but on the other hand I knew I was in for a real slug fest, punch in the face game… because that’s what Ikari do!
The table we were playing on was really interesting. I’d seen it before at a couple of tournaments but not played on it. One whole side was made up of layered levels which were all Mountain (difficult terrain). The whole table was littered with fauna which was Jungle (Extremely Difficult Terrain, Low Visibility, Saturation Zone).
The buildings at ground level were dense but there was enough room to maneuver the S4 Bikes, although limited in places.
I won the initiative roll, and I chose turn order and to go first. I wanted a chance to get set up before the Ikari punch. Adam chose deployment.
I set up defensively with my Keisotsu/Kempeitai Fireteam: Core around the beacon. The bikes were down the side of a building, giving them the chance to spend their impetuous order. I place one of my Keisotsu FO’s to cover the south eastern corner, and the other up high in the mountains, prone, to cover the south western corner, as I was concerned that some AD1 Parachutists Bashi Bazouks would turn up.
Adam set up quite defensively, with a Sierra DroneBot TR HMG on a roof offering AROs. He also put his FlashPulse REM high up in the north eastern corner in the mountains with a view of everything, along with a Tanko Flammenspear.
My holdback was Yo Jimbo.
Adam held back his Rui Shi.
I chose Yo Jimbo as my DataTracker and he chose a Tanko SMG/Blitzen.
Turn 1 JSA
The Aragoto led off with their impetuous orders, taking ARO’s from the Flashpulse REM at long range on 4’s and yet it still hit and Stunned my Aragoto Spitfire, which was my main assault piece.
I decided that the TR HMG needed to go, but first I needed to clear the Tanko Flammenspear off the mountain side. The Keisotsu HMG stepped up and but all 5 shots (-1 for saturation) into the Tanko and took off a wound, and he went prone. The Flash Pulse REM ARO’d as well and hit. STUNNED! This was not a good start.
I switched the Fireteam leader to the Keisotsu Missile Launcher and engaged the TR HMG, and landed 1 out of 2 missiles, taking it to unconscious level 2.
With the TR HMG down, I could now maneuver Yo Jimbo out and laid down smoke to cover a fire lane. This gave cover to my Ninja killer hacker, who revealed from Hidden Deployment and moved into hacking range of a Druze KHD. I used a Suprose Attack with Red Rum and he countered with Skull Buster, but both of us missed. I went again and got punked! SHOCK, DEAD. That was not how this was supposed to go down…
I decided I needed to thin out the Ikari numbers, so I coordinated an order and moved Kuroshi up, along with the Stunned Spitfire and the Aragoto BSG. With the Aragoto BSG in strike range now, I went for the suicide charge. Through the smoke, and tanking a mine on the way, the Aragoto BSG came out into view of a well-hidden Rui Shi and the Total Reaction Pangguling (You don’t see many of those about!). He laid down two BSG templates, one over the Rui Shi and one over the Pangguling AND catching a Krakot Renegade. Dice rolled, and despite hitting on 18’s he got beaten in both rolls and went down hard. The Krakot caught in the blast ARM saved as well… damn… that could have gone better.
Kuroshi used her LT order and moved up to gun down a Desperado (I didn’t want any smoke anywhere near that Rui Shi!). I then realised that going the way I was, she couldn’t get over a pile of crates as it was over S4… So I moved up the Ryuken SMG and coordinated my two Ryukens and Kuroshi into Suppression Fire.
Turn 1 Ikari
Down came the Yuan Yuans. The first dropped neatly behind a building ready to smoke up the Rui Shi. The other three all failed (on 14’s)… and then scatter right in front of the Keisotsu Missile Launcher, who promptly vapourised them!
The Krakot used its Impetuous order and ran at the Kuroshi Rider and Ryuken, laying down a double chain rifle template. The Krakot got shredded, but the Ryuken went down, and the Kuroshi went Dogged!
Next up the Rui Shi went into action. The Panggulang EVO Hacker put up Assisted Fire and the Yuan Yuan threw smoke down into the fire lane, in a text book Rui Shi move. It moved out to see the Keisotsu ML. B4 on 15’s vs B2 on 13’s, the Keisotsu went down SHOCK, DEAD! Low on orders, he retreated it back to safety.
Adam’s Pangguling Combi TR REM moved up to take on Kuroshi and she went down, and he then took out the Aragoto Spitfire!
With the ARO threat from the Keisotsu ML gone, Adam could move his YaoZao to repair his Sierra DroneBot.
Finally, he moved a camo marker, and revealed to be a Libertos, and laid a mine from out of LoF to cover my surviving Ryuken in the centre. Good move.
Turn 2 JSA
Yo Jimbo cancelled his impetuous order rather than ride to death in from of the Rui Shi. He threw smoke down to cover the fire lane of the Sierra Dronebot.
I was out of command tokens so couldn’t reform the Fireteam, so the Kempeitai SMMR went for it on her own. She moved out and got a shot and the Pangguling Combi TR REM and put it down. Then spent a couple of orders to get into position and got a long range shot off at the Rui Shi. We were both through smoke but both has MSV2 and we both missed, and I was out of orders in that pool.
Deciding I needed a hero, the Ryuken SMG did a mad dash around the corner. He took an ARO from the TR HMG, Yuan Yuan, Libertos and a Pathfinder Sensor REM. He ignored the TR HMG (who was on 5’s), and put one shot into each of the others, killing the Yuan Yuan (no more smoke!), but the Libertos and pathfinder both ARM saved. He tanked the mine, but one of the TR HMG shots got through though and took him down!
With my last couple of orders, I took some pot shots with my Keisotsu FO on the mountain at the Tanko, but missed (long range through saturation and low viz…)
Turn 2 Adam
Adam was running low on orders as well. He let the Tankos go with their Impetuous orders. The one on the mountain moved then dodged the Keisotsu’s ARO. The Data Tracker, Blitzen/SMG move in on Jimmy.
He then spent and order on that Tanko to move round and take on Jimmy, who managed to throw smoke at his feet. The Tank tried to take on the WarCor but got FlashPulsed! Wanting to keep his data tracker safe, he then ran back around the building towards his Libertos.
The Pangguling launched Assisted Fire again, and the Rui Shi went for the Kempeitai SMMR, she ARO’d CRIT. Down went the Rui Shi. She was covering the YaoZao, so there was no chance it could get to the Rui Shi.
Adam used his last orders on his Druze KHD who moved up and completed his Classified Net Undermine… that was an issue. We had gone from a draw to Adam being 1 up.
Turn 3 JSA
Every order counted now, so Jimmy sent for it. He rode out, full speed into the path of the Sierra DroneBot TR HMG, throwing smoke and sluffed it, down he went!
My classified was Captured. His Druze KHD had moved up enough to make her vulnerable, but if I attacked her with my Kempeitai SMMR, the shock would kill her. So, I sent in my CoC new LT the Kempeitai BSG. Using his LT order to move up, he got a shot on her, and was put down!
So that was all I had… the last orders were used by the Keisotsu FO to move into an ARO position on the mountain side overlooking the beacon.
Turn 3 Ikari
At the moment the game would end on 4-3, a partial win to Adam, but the Ikari wanted more! The DroneBot HMG carved up my Keisotsu FO on the slope.
The Druze KHD moved up and MURDERED…. My Kempeitai SMMR and WarCor with her Rifle…
With the way clear, the Tanko SMG/Blitzen made a run for it. Starting in cover, and even climbing over a building to avoid ARO’s, he got just around the corner from the box, which was covered by my HMG Keisotsu. He had 2 orders left, so he just went for it. The Keisotsu hit him on the way in, doing a wound, but he was a 2 wound HI and he just kept going into base contact and picked up the beacon.
4-3 turned into 9-0.
Final Score
Stuart – Loss. 0 TP. 0 OP. 37 VP (Tabled)
Adam – Complete Vistory. 3 TP. 10 OP (Holding beacon, with data tracker, his beacon was safe, 1 classified). 160 VP
A very bloody game, with not much left at the end!
The Survivors
海千山千
“Ocean thousand mountain thousand.”
Game 5
- Mission: PowerPack
- Opponent: Mike “Caelcifer”
- Faction: Hassassin Barham
- List: B
It wouldn’t be a tournament without having to face off against one of the clan Thomas! Matt though was the only one of the Thomas Bros. that I hadn’t played recently! I won initiative and decided to go first (no way I wanted Hassassins getting turn 1!).
We ended up playing on my table, but with PowerPack the Deployment zones were of course complete screwed up, especially with 4 bikes. I deployed using the Happy Panda Noodles (Franchise) gardens fencing to cover my bikes, and set the Keisotsu Fireteam up on the other side of the table to cover the main fire lanes.
Matt set up his Ghulam FireTeam: Core directly opposite my fire team, with 2 missiles launchers and a sniper! This was going to get interesting real quick. He placed an Impersonation marker right behind my Keisotsu fireteam. He tried to Inferior Infiltrate two Dalami’s and failed both!
I deployed Yo Jimbo as my holdback.
As his holdback Mike put down another impersonation marker right on the corner of the gardens with a straight LoF across all 4 of my bikes… oh dear.
Turn 1 JSA
With an IMP marker right in front of me I had to cancel the impetuous orders or the Aragoto and pay to cancel Yo Jimbo’s order.
I had to deal with these guy, without opening myself to a shotgun template (which in the active turn you can only dodge with the active unit). I came up with a plan! I coordinated 4 orders, 2 Aragoto (at the back), a Keisotsu and the far away Ryuken and moved quickly to spread out. Mike didn’t ARO, so I did a x4 discover and failed them all! Damn!
I did the same again, coordinating 4 orders, but bringing in a new unit again to spread out, and failed again! Now Yo Jimbo was clear to move without anyone placing a template across the other bikes. He discovered, Matt did no ARO and my discover passed and puts him down to IMP-2! Jimmy goes again, Matt holds his nerve and doesn’t ARO and hi passes again, putting 2 pistol shots into the Fiday and putting him down.
Spending another coordinated order I do the same with other Fiday, and this time with a x4 discover I get it and put him down to IMP-2. With my LT order, the Kuroshi rider heads towards him, and this time he does ARO and pops a smoke, beating the Kuroshi’s face to face Combi shot. So the Kuroshi decides to get up close and personal and rides right through the smoke, having to get off the bike to fit between the smoke template and the Fiday, and put three Combi shots into him!
After all of that I had 1 order left for Yo Jimbo to move up and put his Koalas in ZoC of the Happy Panda Noodles.
Turn 1 Hassassins
Off go the Mutts, not exposing themselves to any ARO’s.
Then it all kicks off in the Happy Panda Noodles! A Hassassin Camo marker idles. My Ryuken delays, and my Ninja KHD drops out of Camo and Delays (you can’t delay and stay in Hidden Deployment). Suddenly faced with another Camo marker, Matt decided to be vindictive and a Farzan puts down a mine. My Ryuken takes the free shot and misses. My Ninja tried to do an engage, but failed and ate a mine that the Farzan had placed before. (I thought this wasn’t a mine as it appeared to be in range of my Ryuken, so would have been illegally places, but it turns out the console blocked the LoF to my Ryuken so it was OK). The Farzan activates again and puts a shotgun on my Ryuken, who SMG’s back. She wins, and puts him down SHOCK, DEAD! But eats the mine – and tanks the ARM save!
With the action over in the Happy Panda Noodles, Matt turns his attention to the Fireteam stand-off. Knowing that any activation will lead to a mass of ARO;s he moves up one of his Mutts and throws smoke to cut off one of his ML from LoF of my Keisotsu ML, HMG and WarCor. He then goes for it and fires two missiles, splitting burst – taking advantage of the fact that the Saturation zone reduces burst by 1 after they have been split! That gives him the advantage, as my ARO’s both get cut to 1 dice. Amazingly every-one misses! So, he goes again, and this is a disaster for me. The two missiles take out my Keisostu ML, the HMG and my Kempeitai SMMR who was too close to the HMG. But he takes a flash pulse to the face from the WarCor, power to the Press! One good thing is my Keisotsu ML didn’t shoot at his ML but ARO’d vs his Sniper and killed her. Unfortunately, he just moves over the other Ghulam ML and takes out the WarCor and my Kempeitai CoC in the blast, leaving only a Keisotsu FO left in CG2 with Jimmy!
With his last few orders his Mutt moves up with his Xenotech and plants the scanner and then does a run on my Ryuken, exchanging SMG with chain rifle and both go down!
Turn 2 JSA
That was painful! Down to 9 orders and 2. Yo Jimbo uses his Impetuous orders and moves up, throwing smoke to cover his advance towards a Daylami. The Aragoto Boarding shotgun goes for it, and takes on a Daylami with PanzerFaust, but misses. The Aragoto Spitfire moves up the table takes on the Daylami and kills him. Kuroshi has to cancel her order so she can get back on her bike.
The Aragoto Spitfire then moves on around the western flank slicing the pie to get the Fireteam in sight. He manages to take out both the Ghulam missiles launchers and a combi rifle, and then goes on Suppression Fire.
On the other side Yo Jimbo runs straight into the Daylami and chops him down.
Turn 2 Hassassin
The Mutts move out, but this time Yo Jimbo manages to take one down with his Contender but takes a chain rifle and goes to NWI.
Matt then brings up his TR HMG and goes face to face with the Aragoto Spitfire on suppression and manages to kill him.
Turn 3 JSA
Time to get stuff done. Yo Jimbo moves out to take on a surviving Mutt but eats a chain rifle and goes down.
The Kuroshi Rider moves out. Still with 9 orders and a Lt order, she manages to get up to the Happy Panda Noodles, get off her bike, walk in, get the special chow mein, and flip a console. She then gets back on her bike and gets to the middle console and flips that one. Then goes into Suppression Fire.
Turn 3 Hassassin
Down to only a handful of orders (4 I think), there isn’t much Matt can do other than move up his Shihab TR HMG and take out the Kuroshi rider, who managed to take only 1 wound and go V: Dogged.
Final Score
Stuart – Partial Victory. 2 TP. 4 OP (More Antenna 4 OP, Prevent enemy controlling console 1 OP, -1 No multiscanner.). 97 VP
Matt – Loss. 0 TP. 3 OP (Place Multiscanner 2 OP. Prevent enemy controlling console 1OP). 87 VP.
A really bloody match! That is the way to use Fiday’s! Scary stuff!
The Survivors
猿も木から落ちる。
“Even monkeys fall from trees.”
Game 6
- Mission: FireFight
- Opponent: Adam “DeathBird”
- Faction: OSS
- List: A
Now on 10 TP, I wasn’t far from the top, so there was still everything to play for! I hadn’t played Adam since the Masters in 2016 when my JSA cut down his Tohaa. This time he had bought OSS.
He won initiative and chose to take 1stturn, and so for the first time in 6 games I took deployment. At this point I was informed that Strategos Level 3 was in play – so that meant a Marut and probably 3 proxies in holdback!
Adam dropped a net rod which scattered onto a roof right next to my DZ. He then deployed Dakini/CSU/Deva Hacker Core Fireteam around the back of and inside a central objective room style building. His Shukra (obviously CoC for the Marut) hid in a building. He also had a Daleth Sensor Rebot which concerned me because it might reveal Saito’s Hidden Deployment.
I decided to deploy in a very tight formation with heavy ARO’s. I noticed I could set up to catch straight away one of his Dakini fireteam. I placed Saito Togan in HD on the right flank, away from the Daleth Sensor Rebot.
Adam then deploys an Engineer Proxy, FDL1/FO Proxy Mk 5, a hidden proxy, and the Marut on the east flank (damn… too far from Saito).
Turn 1 OSSS
Adam leads off with his Proxy MK5 FO and goes for the Panoply, but takes two orders to flip it, and gets some extra armour. He goes to activate the Core Fireteam, but then realizes that my Tanko ML will get an ARO so takes that back (which is absolutely fine as LoF is open information).
The Proxy Mk 5 moves up and spec fires an EM Grenade at my Karakuri/Domaru Haris, this could have been disaster, but he missed, and my units all dodged and scattered, the Domaru using his Kinematic managed to get LoF onto him, making him think twice about activating again.
Next, he activated a hidden deployment Proxy Mk2 Multi Sniper and shot at my Tanko SMG Blitzen. I really wanted to save the Blitzen for the Marut, but I had to use it as it was the only good range band (+3 16”-32”) weapon I had. I won the F2F, hit and isolated the Proxy.
[RULES INTERLUDE: We scratched our heads for a while and dug into the rules to work out what happened next with one isolated Proxy. Turns out that the Proxy order remains in play, but the owner can’t activate the isolated Proxy – so the Proxy Mk2 was out of the fight, other than to take defensive actions].
Then came the Marut. My Karakuri Mk 12, in dodging the EM Grenade had moved out of cover. The Marut took him on but lost the first face to face and got hit by a Flash Pulse but made the BTS save (BTS 9!). A second burst did 4 wounds, stopping even V: Dogged!
The Marut then moved to take on the Tanko Fireteam. He got a LoF onto my Tanko Flammenspear, but was also in LoF of my Domaru Spitfire. He split his burst 2/2, but was out in the open in good range for my Fireteam. The Flammenspear scored a hit and Crit (on 19’s), and although it didn’t take burn damage from either hit, the Marut did take 2 structure. The Spitfire Domaru also won both (on 18’s), and scored another structure and the Marut went down!
The Proxy Mk 1 Engineer then managed to fix the Marut (taking 2 command tokens for rerolls) and the Marut under fire managed to retreat into full cover.
Turn 1 JSA
Saito Togan appeared from hidden deployment right next to the Proxy MK5, but had to move away out of LoF, to then throw smoke down over him as the Dakini Fireteam had the Mk5 Covered. He then moved up and butchered the Mk5. Going back into a marker state he then moved up using a co-ordinated order to move the Domaru and Karakuri. The Karakuri HSG moved onto a roof while in smoke and got a shot onto the Fireteam (the CSU, a Dakini and a Dava Hacker) but couldn’t win the F2F roll.
Low on order Saito moved up into full cover from the Dakini Fireteam ready to make a run on them in the next turn.
Turn 2 OSSS
With the Karakuri locking down the Fireteam, Adam went again for the Marut. He moved up and took on the Karakuri who ARO’d with a Flash Pulse but was beaten and went dogged. The Marut went again and this time took the Karakuri out. The Marut then swung out and got a LoF on Saito. He then declared a discover shoot. Not wanting to take the risk of being discovered with no defense, I declared a dodge and rolled a 15 on Ph14. FAIL! 4 hits from the Marut cut Saito down.
With his last order he decided to take on my Domaru/Tanko Fireteam: Core head on. He activated the Dakini HMG and my Tanko ML ARO’d and shot 2 missiles, one missed and one which caught the Dakini HMG and another Dakini Combi under the blast template The Combi Dakini went down, but the HMG got two hits on the Tanko ML and he went down.
Turn 2 JSA
I was not getting low on orders, down to 6. I decided to heal up the Tanko ML with my Tokusetsu Doctor and passed. I then decided to do something a little crazy. My Domaru from the Haris, ran up the table keeping out of LoF of the Dakini HMG and got into a position to move in an CC attack, Isolating and IMM-2 the Dakini with his EM CCW. He then made a ran at the Marut, throwing an EM grenade, beating the Maruts EXP HMG ARO, but the Marut made the ARM save, but beating the nearby hackers F2F ARO and frying his HD.
With one order left, the Domaru went for it and Assaulted to Marut (unfortunately you can’t Assault and Berserk). He won the F2F vs the Marut but it again made both ARM/BTS saves! The Dava Hacker and Engineer Mk1 Proxy both had an ARO and both hit, and the Domaru failed both saves and went down….
Turn 3 OSSSS
With very limited targets available, Adam took the opportunity to fortify. His Mark 1 Proxy Engineer moved up to the Fire team and tried to fix one Dakini, but it exploded after a failed roll. He then moved and fixed the HMG. The Marut then ran away! The issue with FireFight is that you need to kill more Lieutenants, but if the LT is put in a null state and then healed/repaired back to a non-null state you don’t get the points… Adam had killed 2 specialists (the two FO Karakuri, Saito was the non-specialist version). I had killed one (the FO Proxy MK5).
Turn 3 JSA
This was the all or nothing moment! Only 5 orders. My Tanko SMG ran up with his Impetuous order. He then moved up to the room and opened up at close range with the SMG at the Dakini HMG, but he ARM saved! 2 orders left, time for heroics. The Tanko ran, past the Dakini’s LoF, right into the centre of the room, and took an ARO from the CSU BSG, Proxy MK1 and the Dakini HMG. He put one SMG shot into each. Both the Tanko and the HMG missed each other! The Tanko hit the CSU and kills her SHOCK, DEAD. He won the F2F vs the Proxy MK1 Engineer and it makes its ARM save, damn!
Last order. The Tanko ran out of the room and gets a long 14” LoF onto the Marut, taking ARO’s from the Dava Hacker, the Mk1 Proxy and the Marut’s EXP HMG. He put three shots onto the Marut, with 1 structure left. Dice roll. The Tanko scored one hit in the face to face roll vs the Marut. Both the Engineer and Hacker hit in the ARO. The Marut rolls is ARM save – needing a 9+ due to the AP SMG shot… for the game… 14 HE PASSES! DAMN IT! The Tanko failed his ARM saves and went down.
Final Score
Quite literally, that last 2 orders determined the result of the game. If the Marut had failed I would have scored more LT’s killed, and if the Tanko had stayed up as well, it would have been more Army Points killed to me. All on the last order! So close! We ended up tied on specialists killed (2 each – damn that Proxy Mk1 making her ARM save!) and neither of us had a LT in a null state “At the end of the game” – damn Marut… The Marut was worth 120 Points so if he had gone down it would have put the AP killed on 162 to 195. If the Tanko had survived it would have been 162 – 163…. So very close. The fact that Saito ended up on the wrong side, and couldn’t make a run on the Marut really changed the game. In hind sight I should have placed Saito in the middle of the table but I didn’t because I was concerned that Adam had a Daleth Rebot with Sensor.
Stuart – Loss. 0 TP. 0 OP (AP Killed – 42). 105
Adam – Complete Victory. 6 OP (More Army Points killed – 195 3 OP, More Panoplies 1 OP, 2 Classifieds). VP 258.
The Survivors
虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず。
“If you do not enter the tiger’s cave, you will not catch its cub.”
Final Standings
6 great games and 6 great opponents! I finished the tournament on 2 Majors, 2 Minors and 2 losses for a total of 10 TP, 25 OP and 797 VP. If I had managed to win that last games vs Adam “Deathbird”, I would have been somewhere between 2ndand 5th!
Looking back over the 6 games there were some lucky moments, and some mistakes. I think JSA aren’t always considered as a top teir competitive faction so I’m glad I was able to place that high! I was also glad to show that Aragoto lists could really be competitive!
Adam did a great job in organising the tournament and keeping all the admin running smoothy!
There was a best painted competition which was won by James “Murkage”.
The top 3 final standings were:
- Redak “RedakKadar” Yu Jing
- “KitMcCat”
- Mike “Rayzah”
Well done to Redeak but despite getting 5 full wins and 14 TP, the Yu Jing’s one defeat came at the hands of the JSA. FREEDOM!!!!!!!!
門前の小僧習わぬ経を読む。
“An apprentice near a temple will recite the scriptures untaught.”
