Transformers everywhere…
By Luke Weston
Overview
- Mission: Capture and Protect
- Forces: Tunguska versus Imperial service
- Deploy First: ISS
- First Turn: ISS
List Building
AVA heck
GROUP 1
9
3
GROUP 2
ZONDNAUT Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 24)
ZONDMATE Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 5)
KRIZA BORAC (Lieutenant) Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 54)
PERSEUS FTO (Fireteam: Haris) Breaker Combi Rifle(+1 Dam), Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol(+1B), DA CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
STEMPLER ZOND FTO (Super-Jump) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 17)
TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
PUPPET MASTERS Submachine Gun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
1
HECKLER Combi Rifle, Jammer ( | FastPanda) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 23)
INTERVENTOR (Hacker, Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle ( | FastPanda) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 26)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
2.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army
So with the AVA mission in mind I choose to max out on hecklers and Zondnaughts. These being the only two ‘special’ units with differing AVA to vanilla (Besides two szalamanders).
Hecklers option for fast panda as jammers are great area control / hacker control pieces. And for this mission I wanted fast units to grab the box as soon as there was a gap for them to get it hence my zondnaught choice.
DEVA (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
DEVABOT Heavy Flamethrower / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 4)
GARUDA Tacbot Spitfire / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 25)
NINJA (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow ( ) / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 29)
CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 13)
2 SWC | 94 Points | Open in Infinity Army
Deployment
My opponent had played on this table before and decided to go first so I chose deployment and made him deploy first. I chose my side mainly at his recommendation.(Anthonys a nice guy so I trust him). We both forgot about the decompression zones until after we had deployed so we both placed them in such a way to try and ruin each other. It was a gentle man’s agreement.
ISS deployment
My opponent immediately plonked his EVO on the roof of the building and then started out from there. He put his smoke by his ru-sh, spread his quangshi out to make the most of any gaps / opportunities. He deployed his pheasant rank fairly forward whilst hiding the bao and gui-feng behind a building. I assume to try and make the most of the red furys good ranges bands earlier.
He questioned where to put the su-juan down (his reserve) and eventually decided the hidden / fairly central location watching his obvious LT. with that units maneuverability and speed it was a fine place.
He also placed a Hesien HMG which I fairly quickly guessed was tawu knowing his new preference to play him and doing some fast maths taking into account the obvious AD trooper in his list I didn’t think he could afford it all.
Tunguska deployment
I usually go for a null defence or very short range hoping my opponent will spend at least 2 orders positioning before shooting. I started with the flash pulse bots on either flank. Both covered from long range threats by large buildings but both looking at my flag and avenues into my DZ. I then hid the interventor and my lone puppet bot (order monkey and counterintelligence carrier.) on top of the building with my hacker covering the flag.
I then spread my 3 hecklers out covering one of each corridor into my DZ. The leftmost camo marker is the killer hacker (planning to run down the left and kill the EVO) Whilst the other two are prone on buildings.
I then deployed my kriza harris. The sensor bot on a building acting as a flash pulse, perseus behind the orange truck waiting to template people and my kriza looking down the length of the board to keep the quangshi there honest and be a deterrent for the sujuan. This was slightly risky as the kriza was mt LT but ISS don’t have a huge amount of armour busting ranged weapons and i thought he would be safe in cover with his mods and high arm.
My last 3 units including my reserve are my zone bot transformer bikers. I elect to deploy them all dismounted for auxbot style defences. I have the hacker on a building prone preparing to hack any HI units (cat boi cough cough…) preparing to run down my flank. I leave one on top of the flag and another watching my leftmost heckler.
I also have an unmarked warcor also watching the box from the building my interventor and puppetmaster are on.
Top of 1 – Anthony
I decide to dock an order from the group with the sujuan and Anthony plans how to dismantle my carefully laid defences.
Deciding not to bruise me with his sujuan He spends an order putting up controlled jump with his EVO. What could this possibly mean I wondered…
His Garuda spitfire drops in right on my back line and I start to get a bit worried. Luckily for me his order groups are a little strange and I should mostly lose flash pulses and zondbots before his orders are spent.
He spends a few orders shooting at my flash pulse bot on the left building either we all miss or I pass armour but it takes at least 3 orders to kill. Thankfully this blunts the most of his offense and he only kills one of my 3 zond naughts. My centre zondnaught gets a few free repositioning dodges whilst my interventor is oblivious and the puppet master chills.
After exhausting the garudas group taking 2 units from me he shifts his attention to his smaller group with his harris in and plans to move up to kill a pesky journalist and get his classified objective which is net undermine. He runs up the middle and gets his classified but doesn’t have the orders to get a line on my warcor so he retreats into the corner and throws out a mad trap and passes turn.
Bottom of 1 – Luke
My rough plan for the game was to have a motorbike run up and grab the objective and then run away. Easy. I planned to at least have the bag in my 2nd turn as I didnt think I would have the orders to get past the harris safely and deal with the mad trap covering the objective. I didn’t draw a classified I was able to achieve and this mission has no HVT so securing that was well out of the equation.
I considered myself lucky that the garuda hadn’t massacred me in that first push and that Anthony didn’t have the orders to put him in suppressive so I planned how I was going to remove him and not give him a 2nd opportunity. I considered hacking it but thought it was safest to kill it with my remaining boarding shotgun zondnaught. My impetuous bikes where they needed to safely (one down the stairs into the game and one towards the garuda as it was within ZOC).
My plan was to get him in an ARO fork with the bikes chain rifle and the rider boarding shotgun. It worked flawlessly and the robit died in a blast of hot lead.
My next plan was to move the bikes up together and deal with the madtrap Anthony had left out. I did a combined order moving my bikes and my 2 jammer hecklers into better positions.
I then had my top heckler get an angle on the madtrap which was blocking my bikes from moving up safely. He kills it whilst also placing a fast panda to cover his jammer area with some hacking area.
I then moved my boarding shotgun bike up to hide behind a crate and cover the corners whilst waiting for her next opportunity to dashto the target box.
One the far side of the table I had the kriza harris move up and start searching and destroying.
The team moved up the right flank either avoiding (stempler), getting trapped (Perseus) by or plain old ignoring (Kriza) the zero G zone on their way. This allowed the Kriza to get shots on and dismantle Anthonys over extended harris team.
I was able to split the burst 6 HMG into the Gui feng and pheasant rank separately meaning burst 2 each through the saturation zone
After feeling very accomplished with my first turn I passed it over to Anthony who was now starting a few orders down.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – Anthony
After moving the remaining units into a single group Anthony decides to try and slow down my harris links aggressive advance and make the most of a mistake I made with perseus. After a bit of a discussion about the best way he should engage him he decides to get smoke out with the celestial guard and then move into position with the ruishi.
This is when the 10000 strong crowd of blood sport onlookers start chanting “Perseus! Perseus! Perseus! Perseus!” This is all done to the tune of the maximus scene in Gladiator.
Perseus sensing something is amiss starts throwing himself to the ground to narrowly avoid the hail of fire emerging from the smoke. He makes a dodge to the corner of the building and after another round takes a would and fails guts into total cover living to die another day.
After a disappointing ruishi engagement Anthony decides to reposition his remaining forces to protect his order pool and push his sujuan up the board into a better position for the inevitable box grab run.
Bottom of 2 – Luke
After another turn thanking the dice deighities for my good fortune and promising some more sacrifices I plan my 2nd turn. I have 3 obstacles in the way of my leather bound motorbike sex machine rider grabbing the objective. These are a madtrap covering the objective, the smoke launcher celestial guard (who remains standing hoping to see a smear where Perseus used to be) and a weird looking obvious not obvious Taowu holoed as a HMG Hesien.
I start with my motorbikes impetuous phase and I am startled as my hacker biker runs into issues…
A very sneaky and unexpected ninja killer hacker is in her path and blasts her brains out of her ears. This worries me a little for Anthony’s 3rd turn as that hacker was there to hopefully keep his suijuan honest…
A good play by Anthony which I totally didn’t see so kudos.
I shake this off and start with the 3 problems in my way. First it’s time for the kriza team to move up and smoke the smoke launcher celestial guard. Burst 6 HMG in good range versus a dodge goes almost comically the Krizas way, one down.
Next I move my remaining bike up towards the box and dismount preparing to throw the bikebot under the madtraps glue.
This goes well enough with a successful dodge so I didn’t even lose the bike however Taowu shakes off his cloak of invisibility and dodges into line of sight of my biker… worrying.
I have to now deal with this model without using any orders from my main group so I can run the box away safely.
First I try with my interventor, then I try flashing him with my warcor… I eventually have to use my heckler to put this guy down.
After finally killing TaOwU and clearing my way….
I am able to have my deliveroo driver Zondnaught pick up the box and run away.
She runs to the Kriza side of the map and sets herself up behind him and the 3 man team so she’s much harder to kill.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – Anthony
Anthony seeing the writing is on the wall spends a few orders trying to move his quanshi up on the left hand side of the board to make a mad dash for the box alongside the sujuan but he dies and gets flashed in the process. The rui shi takes a small aside from the actual mission to settle a score…
And this time turns Perseus into swiss cheese whilst he sits outside cover daydreaming.
Bottom of 3 – PlayerB
I take this turn to move the zondnaught into my deployment zone and score the bestest points I can without a classified. This makes it a
7-1 Tunguska Victory
Post Game Analysis
So I think I came into this mission with a fairly simple plan of using my fast units to run up and grab the box. I also think I made pretty spot on deployment choices besides not covering the small section the garuda was able to drop in on. This Didn’t sting me too much as I was lucky and having 3 fast grabber bikes I had a bit of redundancy to lose a few of them over the course of the game.
I think Anthony certainly had a fairly un-optimised list with slightly odd groups which hindered him a little. I certainly think he should have been more aggressive with the sujuan and could have done with a kanren to take up the midfield slack.
Now to talk about the Bromad mission and the three features of the list for this mission.
In Tunguska there are only 4 units that have more AVA in the sectoral compared to vanilla nomads.
The Kriza at AVA 2 over 1
The spektre at AVA 3 over 2
The Heckler at AVA 3 over 2
The Zondnaught at AVA3 over 2
I thought the zondnaught were most interesting, with them being fast specialist units that can corner guard, use smoke and ARO bait. I used max hecklers for those sweet fast pandas and I wanted a killer hacker unit that was different to the interventor KHD and threatened a jammer under the camo token.
The zondnaughts are super flexible and with a bit of practice with their mounting and dismounting I think they will make a lot more of my lists. They have also inspired me to use more bikes in JSA. I think the spitfire profile will probably be my least used profile in future games as the shotgun is a bit more flexible.
For the 3 man link I have been having a few experiments taking the kriza in a haris with Perseus to great success. I can’t decide if the kriza is just fantastic or if that burst 6 is what makes it. I think perhaps the link is just great for dragging specialists, covering a lot of range bands and bringing an core teams power in a manageable 3 man package.