Quarrelsome Klatch
Still recovering from Best of the Pacific Northwest 2020, I decided to give myself a break and run a Tigerlands about increasing play speed for our locals. We’ve had some games go overtime with just deployment taking an hour for our newer players, so Adam (TheDiceAbide) and I decided to put deployment on a timer. You can check out the details here:
Of course, Adam still wanted a game, and I had packed my Qapu Khalqi just in case we had an odd number of players so we threw down on a relatively open table, my QK versus his newly minted Military Orders.
Overview
- Mission: Supremacy
- Forces: Qapu Khalqi versus Military Orders (300)
- Deploy First: Military Orders
- First Turn: Military Orders
Supreme Hipster
GROUP 1 |8
1
HAFZA Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
SEKBAN Heavy Rocket Launcher, Chain-colt / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 23)
LEILA SHARIF Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Shock Marksman Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
GROUP 2 |
HAWWA’ Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
WARCOR (360ยบ Visor) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
3
KAPLAN MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 30)
AZRA’IL Feuerbach / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 39)
ROUHANI Submachine Gun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army
I’m still attempting to not use burst 4 weapons. I’ve been meaning to circle back to my Haqq and I finally did it with this very strange QK list. I’m not sure I like it, but it’s got a bunch of super hipster stuff I wanted to try like the Al’Hawwa Sniper, for example.
Military Orders
GROUP 1 |
FATHER-KNIGHT Lieutenant Spitfire / Breaker Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 50)
KNIGHT OF SANTIAGO Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 38)
BLACK FRIAR (Albedo, Biometric Visor L1) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser, Drop Bears / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
ORDER SERGEANT Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15)
GROUP 2 |
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
DART Submachine Gun, Viral Tactical Bow, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 34)
TRAUMA-DOC (Father-Doctor) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
MACHINIST (Father-Engineer) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
TECH-BEE (Remote Assistant Level 1, Specialist Operative) Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army
Adam, on the other hand, was taking goodstuff MO. That Father Knight is grooooosssss.
Deployment
I took deployment because going second is so powerful in Supremacy. Adam had a tough time deploying on his side of the table. Basically the link went on his right and the rest of the stuff went on the left, with the Mech Engineer between both Sierras.
I basically vacated the premises on the left side. I had no interest in tangling with that link and instead clustered everything on my right with the Sekban and Kaplan watching the left side. I put the Al’Hawwa AHD on the left to grab objectives and the Al’Hawwa sniper on the right to harass the link if necessary.
I think I gave up the left side a bit too much, in retrospect, and my reserve, the Azra’il, was in a terrible spot. Above the Sekban, prone, would have been a better spot. Adam was also convinced that I gave up the left side a bit too much, but I’m pretty sure I would have lost it to drop bears and an aggressive push by the Father Knight.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Military Orders
I lose the Druze SMR and the Warcor to a Sierra that rocketed up the tunnels on my right. I wish I had put the Al’Hawwa AHD over there to stop it! Oh well.
The Kaplan MSR is next to go.
Adam throws out a mine with the Spec Sergeant FO to cover the far right objective…
then starts sorting out the other AROs I have left out. The Sekban HRL is watching the link, so he shuffles them out from under the template, throwing Drop Bears as he does so…
and then rockets the Sekban off the table with two hits.
The way clear, the Santiago KHD grabs the nearby objective, and Adam pushes the Black Friar forward to contest my near left quadrant.
Bottom of 1 – QK
I attempt to land three Yuan Yuan behind the link. Two of them deviate off the table or into Adam’s deployment zone, so I put them on either side of my deployment zone. The third deviates in front of Adam’s link, clearing a mine and getting blown to pieces by the link.
I really need to get rid of the Sierra that’s just outside my deployment zone, so I try using the nearby Druze KHD.
| 54.00 | 27.03 | 18.97 |
I spend two orders and get crit.
Rahman picks up the Kaplan and gets his bot in place to pick up the Druze KHD.
Another two orders with the Druze KHD drops the Sierra. At this point it’s made 3-4 ARM rolls. Sigh.
I decide to go after the second Sierra with my Kaplan, which I think was probably a mistake because I forgot about the nearby engineer and also I should’ve played to the objective!
At least I pick up the other Druze, use the KHD to hack the near right console, and plant a D-Charge instead of doing something smarter like throwing him into suppression or literally anything better.
Turn 2
I misjudged the positioning of the Black Friar, so Adam has 3 quadrants to my one.
Top of 2 – Military Orders
It takes all of his orders in that pool, but Adam picks up both Sierras. Gross.
The Father Knight Spitfire starts gunning down everything else I have left out. First one of my Fanous bots goes down…
then the Kaplan gets shot off the table…
and then my Azra’il gets hit.
On the next order, thankfully, the Azra’il crits the Father Knight and DAs him into unconsciousness.
Adam tries to get rid of my last Fanous with his Order Sgt HRL and fails…
but crits my Azra’il and burns it off the table.
Bottom of 2 – QK
I send in the Yuan Yuan on the right to take care of the Sierra… again. One might wonder why I didn’t do this earlier–it was because I wanted to save my orders in the second pool to Doctor things.
I probably had the orders to do it anyway, oh well. Adam thinks I should have thrown smoke on turn 1 and then intuitive attacked. Not an unreasonable thing to try.
I then try to take out an Order Sergeant with the Al’Hawwa sniper, but both rounds just bounce off. I push my Druze KHD forward to try and control another quadrant after blowing entirely too many orders trying to get In Extremis Recovery off of the Sierra.
Turn 3
Adam still has more quadrants than I do, so he’s up to 4 points from that.
Top of 3 – Military Orders
Adam’s in loss of lieutenant, thanks to the Father Knight being down, but he drops a mine with Dart, moves the Fugazi into repeater range of my KHD, and then Redrums the Druze through the Fugazi. Not a bad way to spend three orders to kill the Druze, crows Adam!
He then spends the rest of his orders just pushing stuff forward into quadrants, even attempting a MediKit on the Father Knight, whiffing.
The Black Friar shoots the close left objective, damaging it so I can’t hack it.
Bottom of 3 – QK
We both have one console hacked, and Adam is up 4 points, so right now it’s a 5-1 win for Adam. My remaining Yuan Yuan tries to take out an Order Sergeant, but the chain rifle bounces off and I lose the Yuan Yuan to a mine.
I surprise shot the Doctor with a shotgun, and though I hit it and the Sierra behind it, they both pass ARM. Twice.
I need to get some stuff moved up on the right and put enough points in the near left quadrant to tie things up to keep things to a minor. Rahman flash pulses the TO Sergeant…
and his bot clears the Sergeant’s mine.
I fail to gun down the Machinist with my Druze SMR, and then fail to get In Extremis Recovery again.
I do, hoewver, manage to get my Fanous into my near left quadrant and tie things up in dominated quadrants, keeping it to a
5-1 Military Orders Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Well that was a pretty one sided game. I think I made some serious mistakes in deployment. I could have recovered from these mistakes if the dice luck wasn’t so miserable–I think this was a case of having very little room for error and the dice just making it impossible to recover.
I don’t want to leave you with the impression that I’m blaming this game on dice. Mismanagement of my resources was the real culprit. For example, I didn’t play to the objective very well, instead being very passive and reactionary to Adam’s moves. I also let him dictate my positioning with his projected threat. I basically conceded the entire left side, for example.
So, this is a great example of how you can easily fail to pay attention to positioning and objective play when you’re under a lot of pressure from a strong active turn army. Also, having a sketch of a plan is pretty good as well! In any case, a pretty bad return to Haqq, but Adam’s having a good time with Military Orders, that’s for sure. That Santiago KHD is pretty toolboxy!
