Saddest Susan
With the Salem Shitshow over, it was time to move on from Nomads to some other faction. I’ve been really keen on playing with the Yu Jing Beasthunter, so that’s what happened. I ended up playing a practice game for an upcoming SpecOps tournament with my regular sparring partner, Erik (Zelaponeepus). We ended up playing a game on TTS because we were both feeling supremely lazy and didn’t want to drive anywhere.
Overview
- Mission: ITS 14 Capture and Protect
- Forces: Yu Jing versus Shasvastii Expeditionary Force (300)
- Deploy First: Shas
- First Turn: Shas
If I’m going to play vanilla YJ, let’s just go all in. Kuang Shi, Krit + Su Jian, and then tech.
C&P Supplies v2
GROUP 1
8
4
GROUP 2
CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / CC Weapon, Pistol. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
KOKRAM FTO MULTI Rifle(+1 Dam), Chain-colt, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 36)
SÙ-JIÀN Heavy Shotgun(+1B), Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 50)
TIGER SOLDIER Spitfire / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 34)
1
DĀOYĪNG (Lieutenant [+1 Order], Minelayer) MULTI Sniper Rifle, Shock Mines / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 34)
MAJOR LUNAH VIRAL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 29)
BEASTHUNTERS (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage, Forward Deployment [+8″]) Heavy Flamethrower, Panzerfaust, AP Mines / EXP CC Weapon(+1B), Pistol. (0 | 17)
LÓNG YÁ (Minelayer) Panzerfaust(+1B), Flammenspeer(+1B), Submachine Gun, AP Mines / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 17)
WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
AÏDA SWANSON FTO (Minelayer) Submachine Gun, Viral Mines / Viral Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
I really like Aida from all my time with her in Druze recently, and it’s hard to argue with the Long Ya, Lunah, and Weibing. The CG SpecOps is one notch under the unsporting BTS12 + Bioimmunity version, and it has enough points left over to get Holomask and Minelayer. I decided to get some additional fakeout potential or area defense with the Daoying MSR lieutenant, and also to have a backup gun for only 1 SWC.
Erik is exploring Shasvastii and had a really mean Mimetism -3 K1 sniper Spec Ops stacked up with his own Aida. He’s also powering a Gwailo with double M-Drones, which is a monster of a toolbox. The rest of his list is just board control… and double speculos. Ugh.
Erik (Zelaponeepus)
GROUP 1
NOX (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle, Zapper / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 14)
GWAILO (Multispectral Visor L2) Heavy Rocket Launcher ( ) / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 43)
M-DRONE FTO (Nanoscreen) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse ( ) / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 22)
GROUP 2
SEED-SOLDIER (Paramedic) Combi Rifle, Panzerfaust ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 18)
SPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon. (1 | 32)
Q-DRONE Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 25)
TAIGHA Chain-colt / DA CC Weapon. (0 | 7)
6 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
Erik won the rolloff and elected to go first. He deployed seed solders in the midfield to delay me, and then stacked Aida, her mine, and a Q-Drone plasma on top of the beacon. Rude. Aida’s two friends, the Nox Lt and the Nox Spec Ops are on the roof of a tall building covering most of the right side of the table.
The Q-Drone HMG is on the left, and the Gwailo and two M-Drones are in the middle ready to head up either main avenue of advance. There’s a Speculo right outside my deployment zone on the left with a mine on my beacon to restrict movement.
My deployment is pretty weighted to the left to get it away from the Speculo I can see. I’m not concerned about being in loss of lieutenant for a turn, because if Erik goes for the Lieutenant he’s not grabbing the beacon. It’s not ideal, but I’ll manage, especially if it’s the first turn. I set up the Daoying and its mine to pretend to be a Daoying Hacker and “Lunah” covering the approach on the right. The left side of the map is just full of mines and camo tokens.
I put Lunah watching the left table edge, and then protect her with the Long Ya’s mine on the ground. Aida’s mine covers the Beacon, and the Beasthunter is as far forward as it can go while staying safe. The Kuang Shi are everywhere, and Krit and the Su Jian end up on the left.
Erik then puts the second Speculo down, and I put down the Celestial Guard Holomasked as Le Muet (Minelayer) and put the mine next to Lunah to further protect her from the Speculo. I use it to block the ladder up to her position to really make it a thing.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – SEF
I take two orders from Erik’s second pool to really hamstring the Taigha, and then the game begins. I’m prepared to lose one thing to each Speculo. My goal is to lose the thing that I choose, not what Erik chooses. We’ll see how I do.
Erik tries to bait Lunah to reveal with a Taigha, but I decline.
The Speculo on my left advances and surprise-shots Krit with a boarding shotgun. I’m prepared to lose Krit, as I can still use the Lieutenant orders to shoot at stuff. I chain colt the Speculo, figuring that I can at least stop the advance. Lunah delayed against Speculo so she gets a totally free shot on the Speculo with her pistol and of course whiffs.
Unfortunately Krit takes a wound and the Speculo makes its Arm save. The Speculo ended out of LoF of Krit, so she’s now safe to template Lunah. I dodge, fail the dodge, and Lunah goes down.
Instead of continuing to prosecute Krit, Erik decides to attack my order pool and tries to reveal the camo token around the corner… which happily obliges by blowing up in the Speculo’s face. This was a big mistake by Erik, he could have ended the first turn with both Krit and Lunah down and possibly even a live Speculo for me to deal with.
Erik decides to spend the rest of his orders trying to remove Aida’s mine. He successfully reveals it with the K1 Sniper Nox SpecOps, but can’t get me to fail an ARM save over the course of two orders. I cannot complain!
Next he decides to advance the Gwailo and M-Drones. They start pushing forward, being very careful to not expose all of them to a template–Erik is concerned that the token on the roof is a Hundun HRL. The Gwailo attempts a discover and fails, surprisingly.
One of the M-Drones tries next–I keep forcing him to spend the orders as he’s always move-discovering instead of discover-shooting.
The last M-Drone tries, and I let him go for it. This time it succeeds, annoying the hell out of Erik when I reveal a mine!
Frustrated, Erik decides to take it out on “Le Muet.” He’s astonished to discover that it’s a Celestial Guard! I survive the HRL hits because of the silly bioimmunity and BTS9, and fail guts out of line of fire.
As the Gwailo moves forward to fight the Long Ya, I take a shot on the M-Drones behind the Gwailo. Erik takes a big risk and shoots with the Gwailo, letting me template both M-Drones with a Flammenspeer. I unfortunately whiff the roll–that Nanoscreen is no joke, and the Long Ya goes down.
The Gwailo and M-Drone retreat to a more defensible position and Erik passes turn.
Bottom of 1 – Yu Jing
That was pretty uncomfortable, but I only lost 2 orders thanks to the Daoying’s mine sucking up all of Erik’s orders.
It’s time to get some work done. Erik’s defensive net is too tight for me to push through this turn–I’m going to need to carefully pick it apart over a few turns and then rush in with the Su Jian. The M-Drones are vulnerable, so I’m going to go take them out. My plan is to drop a Tiger Soldier behind them and gun them all down, but first the Q-Drone HMG needs to go.
I think I can push on the Gwailo as well, so I unleash one of the Kuang Shi and let it go forward with its impetuous. Then it’s time to deal with the Q-Drone HMG. I surprise shot it with the Daoying, hit it, but fail to do a wound.
I throw another Lieutenant order at the problem and finally drop the Q-Drone. Excellent.
In comes the Tiger Soldier. First I have to deal with a Taigha, so I spend the order to take it out.
I continue the pie-slicing and drop the first M-Drone…
and the second.
I have a shot on the Nox SpecOps from behind with the Tiger, so I take it. It’s outside of 24″, so I’m on 4s, which is really unfortunate. I actually manage to hit, but this just allows the Nox to turn around and see the Tiger, and I’m still standing and visible. Uh oh.
I don’t want to activate the Tiger again and fight the Nox, so I turn my attention to the unleashed Kuang Shi. I get it into view of the Gwailo and bank a chain rifle shot off the Gwailo to template the Seed Soldier behind it. The Gwailo hits the Kuang Shi with a Breaker shot, taking a wound in the process. Unfortunately the Seed Soldier passes ARM. With the Kuang Shi dogged, I try again and now both of them dodge successfully. Sigh.
I set up for the following turn by clearing the Speculo’s mine with the Daoying and recamoing.
The Weibing moves into a spot to fight the remaining Taigha, I set up a Kuang Shi to protect the Daoying against the remaining Speculo while dodging the Tiger prone, and that’s that. I haven’t really moved much of anything out of position other than landing the Tiger and trying to missile a Kuang Shi. The Tiger is going to force Erik to divert resources into dealing with it instead of pushing forward, which is absolutely okay with me.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – SEF
I’ve taken out effectively 4 orders for the Gwailo, which is great!
That darn Nox sniper is still a problem though, and it starts by trying to take out my SpecOps. I survive the fire because of BTS 9 and Bioimmunity and fail guts behind a tree.
This lets the Nox finally take out the mine covering the Beacon though. That mine has absorbed 3 orders, and the other mine has absorbed 3 as well–I’m really getting my points worth!
The Celestial Guard is visible to the Gwailo again though, and I finally roll low on an ARM save against the Gwailo’s HRL, losing the SpecOps.
The Gwailo keeps advancing and sees Aida, taking her out. It’s set up for a run on the Beacon next turn, which means I have to deal with it.
Erik shifts the Q-Drone Plasma back and to his left to pin the Tiger down, and then he passes turn.
Bottom of 2 – Yu Jing
I’d really like to get rid of the Nox now. I think I can make the run this turn if I can do it efficiently. I move everything except the Weibing into Group 1.
The Weibing dodges into view of the Nox and then I long skill Triangulated Fire against the Nox to no effect, losing the Weibing in the process.
Alright, Turn 3 run on the Beacon it is. I send in the Beasthunter. I super-jump into view of the Gwailo and the Nox, both delay, with the Taigha dodging closer.
I ignore everything and just keep pushing. That Panzerfaust threat is no joke, and it makes Erik delay instead of discover.
I get into view and drop a flamethrower template on the two Nox on the roof. The Lieutenant goes up like a candle, but the Nox SpecOps survives.
Thankfully, the Yu Jing Beasthunter is made of absolute nonsense and I crit and hit the Nox SpecOps in close combat, forcing a whopping seven saves.
This isn’t Adam’s Marauder so the Nox evaporates.
I’d like to deal with the Gwailo, so I send in a Kuang Shi. Since the Gwailo is on one wound, Erik can’t afford to tank the Chain Rifle hit, letting me pistol the Gwailo on the way into close combat while the Gwailo dodges.
Unfortunately, the Gwailo passes ARM, but at least it’s tied in close combat now. I move the Su Jian into view of the Speculo using the Daoying’s lieutenant order, but Erik wisely doesn’t take the bait.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – SEF
Erik’s in loss of lieutenant, which is great for me!
Erik makes a move on the Beacon with the Taigha. I don’t have time for this nonsense and fire a panzerfaust at it, but whiff.
The Gwailo tries to get out of close combat, but fails. I had hoped that the Kuang Shi would explode on it, but alas, they’re stuck there.
Erik has enough command tokens to get the Taigha into base to the beacon and get it out of line of fire of the Su Jian even as it goes unconscious.
Erik moves the Seed Soldier into base to base with the Taigha and relay-races the Beacon farther away.
Aida drops another mine, and that’s all Erik’s got, as he’s out of orders.
Bottom of 3 – Yu Jing
The Kuang Shi fails to kill the Gwailo in close combat, winning the face to face but not doing a wound. All I need to do now is get the Su Jian to the beacon.
I have to fight my way through the Speculo first, and it actually crits Krit in the face to face, taking him out. No matter, I don’t have NCO orders left anymore, so his job is done.
The Su Jian easily takes out the Seed Soldier, forcing it to drop the beacon. This does grant the Gwailo a dodge out of CC, which it succeeds at.
This means I have to deal with the Gwailo, so I just triple-template it off the table and pass the breaker pistol BTS save.
I throw the Beasthunter under the bus, detonating both of Aida’s mines and flamethrower both Aida and the Q-Drone. The Q-Drone makes its dodge, but Aida burns to a crisp.
The Tiger attempts to drop the Q-Drone but fails to do a wound.
I make the push on the Q-Drone with the Su Jian, figuring that I’m on 14s versus the Q-Drone’s 11s.
| 48.4 | 29.8 | 21.8 |
There’s a < 2.6% chance that the Su Jian is taken off the table… so of course that’s what happens. Saddest Su Jian.
Well, neither of us have the Beacon, but I do have In Extremis Recovery on the Tiger, which I snag from the Q-Drone HMG.
With that one classified, that pushes it to a
2-1, 96-75 Yu Jing Victory!
Post Game Analysis
A truly well fought game by Erik. I don’t think there was a realistic chance of him holding onto the beacon at the bottom of 3, but at least he kept me off of it as well. That Q-Drone parked on top of the beacon was so difficult to dislodge. Well deserved kudos for that deployment choice. The Nox SpecOps was also a royal pain to deal with.
I think this game is a good example of how Capture and Protect plays out on a very dense table with intricate defensive nets. It takes a lot of concerted effort to break into your opponent’s deployment zone, and it often just doesn’t work out. I think Erik would have been in a much better position if I hadn’t been able to Beasthunter his Lieutenant. I’m not sure what I would have done differently there if I were him–maybe forcing the issue by throwing a discover with the Gwailo? Then the Nox SpecOps can delay…that’s probably the play, honestly.
Erik also made a few big mistakes on the first turn–spending too many orders on the mine and losing the Speculo to the mine for free were pretty big. Also granting me a free shot on the M-Drones with the Long Ya was very risky–he could have lost both for very little cost to me, bringing the first turn into about parity before I even did anything.
I do really like having a backup sniper with the Daoying. The mine goes a long way in terms of giving me fake out options and having a BS12 camo sniper is just good. It’s risky to use for sure as my Lieutenant, but sometimes you just gotta take risks. Erik did wonder about me leaving the Lieutenant so close to his Speculo. I think that if he did that, he wouldn’t have gotten the beacon. I think that’s always the choice–attack your opponent or get the beacon. It’s hard to do both effectively.
In terms of things I could have done better, I think I should have gone after the Q-Drone a little earlier with the Tiger–I could have pushed it to outside of 16″ probably and then been on 10s versus 2s, which is much safer. I think that would have been a better use of my orders on the first turn, I was just just a little too chicken I think. I think Erik was right to just back the Q-Drone up to deny me the outside of 16″ shot, and that was all he needed to do. Very well done there.
I must say that after a long hiatus from Tabletop Simulator I find I don’t miss it. I do miss playing people that don’t live nearby, but I don’t particularly enjoy the experience. The tables tend to be markedly different than physical, in-person tables as well, which typically translates to overly dense. It’s not a good or a bad thing, but it does make the feedback from the game less applicable to in-person play. I do think it opens up a lot of fun table designs that would be otherwise impossible play on because they’d be too fiddly.
This table also negated a lot of my choices for ranged weapons. Also, I was only really able to affect very limited regions of the table with each model in contrast to a more open physical table. Anyway. Just a different style of game. Thanks for reading.
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