Avatar Cleaned off the Decks of Wotan Commercial Legation
So the setup for this game was a little strange. We’ve got a new Combined Army player in our meta, but my opponent for this game was a veteran playing the Combined player’s list as a learning exercise. As we played this game, the new guy was asking lots of questions and my opponent was walking him through the decisions that were made on both sides.
Do note that it was my opponent who assembled and painted all of the Combined models you see in this AAR for the new guy! What a gentleman! Plus, that Avatar paint job is a thing of beauty. Reaaaally creepy. I love it!
Zero Cool and Acid Burn were plugged into the Wotan Commercial Legation’s comms array, hacking frantically. The Combined Army assault carrier Raxora had launched yet another boarding torpedo, and it was on a course to impact the Sygtir-2 Weapons Platform. PanO sucking or not, ALEPH sheeple or not, if that weapons platform went down, the whole Human Sphere would be in for a world of hurt. “I GOT IT!” crowed Acid Burn, sitting back from her terminal. Zero Cool looked at the tactical display, and sure enough, the projected trajectory of the boarding torpedo was changing. “Well done, ‘Burn,” he congratulated.
“Don’t celebrate yet, ‘Cool,” she said, wiping some sweat from her forehead. “Why’s that?” he asked. “In order to redirect it, I had to activate it’s homing functionality… and I only had control over our comms array here on the WCL.” Zero Cool sighed loudly and punched a few commands into his console without looking. The boarding alarms went off across the Wotan Commercial Legation. Again.
Overview
- Mission: ITS Safe Area
- Theatre: Wotan Commercial Legation
- Forces: Nomads versus Combined Army (300)
- Deploy First: Combined Army
- First Turn: Combined Army
- Strikezone Wotan Report: WiseKensai versus Xammy
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/logo_501.png[/img][b] KR Red Fury, Moira HMG[/b]
GROUP 1[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/sep.gif[/img] [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/sep.gif[/img] [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_regular.png[/img]8 [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_irregular.png[/img]1
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_16.png[/img] [b]INTERVENTOR Hacker Lieutenant (Hacking Device Plus)[/b] Combi Rifle, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]27[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_40.png[/img] [b]RIOT GRRL (Specialist Operative)[/b] Combi Rifle, Blitzen, Stun Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]30[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_42.png[/img] [b]LUPE BALBOA[/b] Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Panzerfaust, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (0 | [b]23[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_13.png[/img] [b]JAGUAR[/b] Adhesive Launcher, Panzerfaust / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | [b]13[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_5.png[/img] [b]REVEREND MOIRA[/b] HMG / Pistol, Shock CCW. (1.5 | [b]34[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_30.png[/img] [b]MORAN (Forward Observer)[/b] Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]22[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_10.png[/img] [b]ZERO[/b] Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]17[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_9.png[/img] [b]BANDIT Hacker (Killer Hacking Device)[/b] Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | [b]25[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_24.png[/img] [b]TOMCAT Engineer[/b] Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]22[/b])GROUP 2[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/sep.gif[/img] [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/sep.gif[/img] [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_regular.png[/img]4 [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_impetuosa.png[/img]1
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_10.png[/img] [b]ZERO Hacker (Assault Hacking Device)[/b] Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]24[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_13.png[/img] [b]JAGUAR[/b] Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | [b]10[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_2.png[/img] [b]GRENZER[/b] Missile Launcher / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | [b]29[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_48.png[/img] [b]KRAKOT RENEGADE[/b] Red Fury, Chest Mine / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1 | [b]24[/b])
[b] 6 SWC | 300 Points |[/b] Open in Infinity Army
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/logo_601.png[/img][b] Combined Army[/b]
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/601/logo_9.png[/img] [b]AVATAR Lieutenant (Strategos L3)[/b] MULTI HMG, Sepsitor Plus / DA CCW. (3.5 | [b]137[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/sep.gif[/img] [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/601/logo_9.png[/img] [b]STALDRON[/b] Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | [b]0[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/601/logo_6.png[/img] [b]RODOK Paramedic (MediKit)[/b] Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]21[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/601/logo_26.png[/img] [b]KURGAT (Operative Group)[/b] Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]17[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/601/logo_5.png[/img] [b]MAAKREP TRACKER Hacker (EI Hacking Device)[/b] Boarding Shotgun, Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]34[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/601/logo_17.png[/img] [b]M-DRONE[/b] Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | [b]17[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/601/logo_18.png[/img] [b]Q-DRONE[/b] HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | [b]26[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/601/logo_2.png[/img] [b]UNIDRON (Forward Observer)[/b] Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | [b]15[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/601/logo_2.png[/img] [b]UNIDRON (Forward Observer)[/b] Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | [b]15[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/601/logo_2.png[/img] [b]UNIDRON[/b] Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | [b]14[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/601/logo_36.png[/img] [b]ÍMETRON[/b] . (0 | [b]4[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_regular.png[/img]10 [b]| 5 SWC | 300 Points |[/b] Open in Infinity Army
Deployment
My opponent won the roll-off and chose to go first to capitalize on his Avatar-y goodness. He has Strategos Level Stupidly High so I have to deploy all of my dudes and he gets to hold two in reserve. He puts an M-Drone in an overwatch position and tucks his beefy cheerleaders into total cover, holding the Q-Drone and the Avatar in reserve. Basically there’s a bunch of Morats, a Maakrep, and an Ímetron on my right and a few Unidrons on my left.
I basically leave everything out to ARO in as many firelanes as possible, with as many scary ARO options as possible. Lupe, my Grenzer Missile Launcher, and my trusty Jaguar Panzerfaust all watch the firelane the Morats would approach on from different vantage points.
My Moira HMG watches the firelane the Unidrons would travel down on the left, backed up by my Krakot Red Fury, who rolls 6-4 MOV and Climbing+ on his MetaChemistry roll. The Riot Grrl watches the remaining firelane to threaten the Avatar or anything else with a Blitzen to the face.
Acid Burn, sporting an AHD along with her Zero bag of tricks, backs up Lupe, the Jaguar, and the Grenzer on the right in case he decides to walk the Avatar up on my right, and I plug the hacking coverage hole on the left with a Moran. Zero Cool the Interventor hides on a building, prone. I stick the Bandit between the rightmost objectives, since he’s got two Panzerfausts and a Missile Launcher watching his back. Finally, I throw the Zero BSG prone on a building over the centerline to threaten his Morats, and stick the landing with a roll of a 6.
“Everyone fan out, cover as many approaches as you can!” Zero Cool shouted out of reflex as the boarding torpedo impacted. His throat mike would pick up his words in spite of the noise, but the cutting charges were deafening. His vidfeed filled with live streams of telemetry and targeting data from the forces under his command.
The Q-Drone comes out of reserve near the Maakrep hacker, and the Avatar chills in the center of his deployment zone, just barely covered by a building.
Turn 1
Top of Turn 1 – Combined Army
I totally space cadet and forget to dock him two orders with a command token. In my defense, I had just played a limited insertion tournament the weekend before! Anyway, he buffs the Q-Drone and proceeds to slice the pie and plaster my Jaguar Panzerfaust and the Grenzer Missile Launcher in sequence. Sadface.
“Q-Drone!” alerts the Grenzer over the low strobing thud of an active HMG. “Jaguar’s down, it’s coming into view! Missile away!” Zero Cool watches the missile’s smoke trail dissolve into a static-filled feed as the Grenzer gets cut down by the Q-Drone’s HMG.
He pushes a Unidron up on my left to clear out some Crazy Koalas, and just tanks the hit with a high ARM roll. I attempt to hack it through my Moran’s repeater, but fail the WIP roll.
He activates the M-Drone and tries to Flash Pulse Zero Cool to prevent him from hacking anymore this turn. I shoot back, trusting in my BTS 12 in cover (Interventors ROCK) to protect me. I pass my BTS roll and stupidly choose to stay put. He Triangulated Fires me, scoring a single hit, which I pass the ARM roll for and then scoot back into total cover. Phew! Zero Cool is safe. The Avatar faces off against my Riot Grrl and lands four hits, but I only fail one ARM roll.
Zero Cool was busy stitching together a coherent picture of the battle from all the WCR’s security systems and his troopers’ vidfeeds when a high-powered targeting laser splashed across his vision. “SHIT,” he cursed, rolling behind a cooling vent as a burst of rifle rounds stippled a pattern into the deck where he had been lying moments before.
He’s running low on orders and uses the last few to murder Lupe with the Avatar (that ODD is dumb) and then throws the Avatar and the M-Drone into suppression before passing the turn.
“TAG! Wait, that’s an AVATAR!” says Lupe, a rare note of actual alarm creeping into her voice. She flicks her wrist and sends her dragon familiar Panzerfaust flying at the Avatar as she feathers the trigger on her combi-rifle, tracking rounds across the Avatar’s armor plating. It responds by raising its arm and its forearm mounted HMG chews a hole through the bulkhead corner and through Lupe’s armor.
Bottom of Turn 1 – Nomads
I elect to cancel the Krakot’s impetuous order, as I don’t want him walking around the corner to get shot by the M-Drone and the Unidron that are there. Instead, I walk the Moira HMG into the open and sneak a single die through the suppression fire, which he fails the ARM roll for. Many sparks and sad beep boops are emitted from the unconscious M-Drone (it was requested that I explicitly document this fact).
The Moira HMG breaks cover and slides into a kneeling shooting position. The M-Drone immediately begins landing rounds near her, but the Moira trusts her ODD. Controlling her breathing, she sends a single round downrange from her HMG, landing it directly in the middle of the M-Drone’s optical array. The Moria is rewarded by a series of dejected beep-boops as the M-Drone flails wildly, sending crackling sparks out in a fan of misfiring circuits.
I push the Krakot into the open to take out the Unidron on the left, making sure to back him up to get good rangebands on the Red Fury. I manage to put two wounds on him, but V:Dogged kicks in on top of G:Autotool, and I have to spend another order plastering the Unidron. Stupid things are so durable. I reveal my Zero BSG and try to take out a cluster of units: a Unidron, the Rodok Paramedic, and the Ímetron. Sadly, I only land one hit, and everyone but the Unidron passes their ARM saves. The Unidron goes dogged and the Avatar guns down my Zero BSG with suppression fire. It was the right move, but the dice didn’t go my way.
The way opened by the Moira, a Krakot bounds around the corner, not bothering to lift his finger off the trigger of his Red Fury, scrapping the Unidron that was advancing to flank the Moran above him. The Morat grunts in satisfaction and slams a new magazine into the hungry receiver of his weapon.
I get ballsy, i.e. stupid, and try to ADHL the Avatar with Cereal Killer the Bandit KHD, forgetting that the Avatar has a Sepsitor! Fortunately, so does my opponent. He elects to suppression fire me in response, getting only one success to my failure. Stupid ODD! I make my ARM roll and hightail it out of there. I figure the Q-Drone is easy pickings in comparison, recamo Cereal Killer the Bandit and run her into CC with the Q-Drone.
Unfortunately for me, Cereal Killer is in hacking range of the Maakrep Hacker! Bandits are broken and have BTS 3 so while Cereal Killer is slicing the Q-Drone to ribbons she’s passing her BTS save against Sucker Punch. I’ve got a single order left, so I back Cereal Killer into cover and try to Redrum the Maakrep, but it passes BTS too.
Cereal Killer spins a new drum of ADHL rounds into her weapon and pokes around the corner, pumping glue rounds at the Avatar. Zero Cool is treated to the sight of an expanding cloud of adhesive sliced in half by the Avatar’s HMG as the Bandit realizes her mistake and hits the deck, rolling back behind cover. “Take out the damn Q-Drone, Cereal!” Zero Cool commands.
Turn 2
Top of Turn 2 – Combined Army
The dogged Unidron dies, so he’s down quite a few orders now. The Kurgot engineer takes the long way around a building to avoid getting shot by Cereal Killer and drops a mine from out of LoF. On his next order, he runs into the open and tries to shotgun Cereal Killer! My beautiful Bandit dodges, and manages to out dice him and dodge the mine as well. My opponent tries his luck again with the Maakrep hacker, but I finally land a Redrum wound and it’s good night Maakrep.
Cereal Killer tears around the corner, her heavy-bladed machete leading the way. The Q-Drone spins to engage her, but the machine is too slow. The Bandit slides under the Q-Drone’s spindly legs, slicing its undercarriage open like it’s some sort of giant mechanical spider. A nearby antipersonnel mine placed by a Kurgot goes off, shredding the rest of the Q-Drone’s workings. The angry Morat engineer raises its boarding shotgun, but Cereal Killer finishes her slide, coming out from under the Q-Drone with her light shotgun already pointed at the Morat. Before she has a chance to fully enjoy the fountain of gore coming out of the stump where the Morat’s head used to be, a stream of data superimposes itself over her vision. Dropping her machete, Cereal Killer thumbs the activation stud on her Killer Hacking Device and murdeRs the Maakrep lurking nearby. She springs gracefully to her feet and finds the nearest bulkhead to take cover behind. “Three down,” she updates Zero Cool, who only whistles low in appreciation, having seen the whole thing live.
The Avatar shuffles a little back to get some cover and it’s back to me.
Bottom of Turn 2 – Nomads
I activate the Krakot and climbing plus into view of the last Unidron and turn it into scrap. So many Unidrons! I climbing Cereal Killer up onto the roof where the Zero BSG was and try to glue the Rodok Paramedic, out of LoF of the Avatar. I hit, but the Rodok Morat Hulks his way out of the glue and doesn’t care. With my last few orders, I run my Moira HMG up to cover the Avatar’s approach and throw her into suppression.
Turn 3
Top of Turn 3 – Combined Army
At the top of 3, my opponent announces that he’s going to call upon “MORAT POWER!” and relies on the inherent awesomeness of red monkey man as he rushes the Rodok Paramedic up the board, trading shots with Cereal Killer the Bandit. I land a ADHL hit, but the Rodok powers through it with Morat-y goodness. The second time he tries this, he’s in shotgun range, and Cereal Killer apparently is incapable of missing this game. With that, it’s down to the Avatar and an Ímetron.
“Getting some height advantage,” says Cereal Killer, climbing the bulkhead she’s been hiding behind. “He’s gone,” she says of the Zero BSG lying there, cut in half by the Avatar’s deadly MULTI HMG. Before she can collect the Zero’s cube, a Rodok darts by, pumping some shotgun rounds in her general direction. Cereal Killer responds by treating the Rodok to the remainder of the glue rounds in the drum she had earmarked for the Avatar earlier. The Rodok roars something in its native tounge which sounds suspiciously like “MORAT POWER” and just rips the foaming glue cloud apart with its bare hands before the adhesive can set. “Damn Morats!” spits the Bandit as she empties the mag tube of her shotgun, painting the white adhesive red with Morat blood. “And stay down!” she admonishes.
The Avatar plasters my Riot Grrl and my Moira HMG, tanking a hacking ARO from Acid Burn the AHD Zero and ends the turn being large and imposing in the middle of the table.
Bottom of Turn 3 – Nomads
Zero Cool watched as the Avatar shrugged off HMG and Blitzen fire like it was just rain on a tin roof. The ladies from Bakunin had done their best but they too were cut down by the alien’s HMG. Still, they had pulled the Avatar into the right place. “Now!” Zero Cool shouted. Now that the Avatar had advanced near her position, Acid Burn vaulted over the small wall she had been crouched behind and hurled an E/Mauler at the juggernaut. The E/M mine clamped itself to the back of the Avatar and detonated with a high pitched whine. The manyfold eyes of the Avatar went glassy and dark as the war machine ground to a halt.
I throw smoke with a Jaguar to cover the Moran’s run to get into base to base contact with an objective, and spend the rest of the turn getting Cereal Killer into base to base contact with another objective. I bring on my Tomcat, but don’t have enough orders to get him into base to base with another objective. Game ends with me dominating 3 of the 4 quadrants and in contact with a two objectives.
A pair of Geckos comes stomping through the blast doors behind Zero Cool, accompanied by a squad of Alguaciles. “Sitrep!” demands the lead Gecko. “Boarders repelled,” replies Zero Cool, wearily.
7-0 Nomad Victory
Notes
- Wow, I am dumb as a rock for trying to challenge the Avatar, even with a Bandit. I just got super lucky.
- Other than that, I did the exact right thing when facing the Avatar, which is attack the order pool as hard as I can and set up roadblocks.
- The Bandit KHD is incredibly flexible and capable of handling pretty much any threat. However, it is hackable, so you have to be aware of enemy hacking zones when attacking non-hackers.
- I definitely got a huge amount of mileage out of my Bandit this game. Really great profile.
- Ditto for the Krakot Renegade with Red Fury. 4 dice on Spitfire rangebands is pretty great for hunting light and maybe medium infantry.
- I got really lucky and didn’t lose Zero Cool to the M-Drone… need to be more careful with my deployment, actually take the time to check LoF from the enemy’s side of the table. There was a little sliver of visibility to his base that I missed.
