Daofei Disappoint
Highly Classified is always a difficult mission, but I do enjoy it. James (RomanLegion) agreed to be my sparring partner, so we had a Yu Jing mirror match on the airplane table, this time with all the low-vis and saturation rules in effect.
Overview
- Mission: ITS14 Highly Classified
- Data Scan
- Nanoespionage
- Rescue
- Test Run
- Forces: Yu Jing versus Yu Jing (OpFor) (300)
- Yu Jing – Predator
- Yu Jing (OpFor) – HVT: Designation
- Deploy First: Yu Jing
- First Turn: Yu Jing
I decided to try out the Daofei Spitfire as my Lieutenant, mostly for slot compression–i.e. it’s both a gun and a lieutenant, so I don’t have to spend two of the fifteen list slots on a model with a gun and a different model with the lieutenant skill. Lunah is in every vanilla Yu Jing list I write–there will have to be an incredibly compelling reason to not take her.
The Guilang Hacker exists for classifieds, and the Ninja KHD exists to park on my HVT and Trinity enemy hackers coming by for HVT: Designation and the like. Since I’m running an aggressive lieutenant, I took a Pheasant for Chain of Command and a MadTrap to defend my deployment zone. I’m also running a Beasthunter because that’s the whole reason I’m playing Yu Jing right now.
Highly Classified v3
GROUP 1
7
1
GROUP 2
DÀOFĚI (Lieutenant) Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 55)
GŬILÁNG (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
MAJOR LUNAH VIRAL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 29)
NINJA (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow ( ) / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 29)
WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
PHEASANT IMPERIAL AGENT (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, E/Mitter, Madtraps / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 27)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8)
3
CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / CC Weapon, Pistol. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
ZHANSHI (Infinity Spec-Ops) [i](Holomask, Minelayer(Shock Mines), Doctor, Engineer)[/i] Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
LÉI GŌNG Shock Marksman Rifle, Nanopulser, Blitzen / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 34)
BEASTHUNTERS (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage, Forward Deployment [+8″]) Heavy Flamethrower, Panzerfaust, AP Mines / EXP CC Weapon(+1B), Pistol. (0 | 17)
5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Group two is Kuang Shi, but only 3. The Zhanshi will Holomask as the 4th Kuang Shi and hide my Doctor/Engineer SpecOps. I’ve also put minelayer on there for some added defense and a Lunah fake out. Libertos because Libertos, and I threw in Lei Gong to counter James’s Lunah because of Albedo.
James has a similar list in that it has Kuang Shi, a Beasthunter, and Lunah. He’s replaced the weirder parts of my list with a Daofei hacker and the Krit/Su Jian duo powered by a Daoying.
GROUP 1
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)
GROUP 2
DĀOYĪNG (Lieutenant [+1 Order], Hacker, Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun ( ) / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 30)
SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
2.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
James took table side which meant I was taking first turn. I decided to put the Daofei, Libertos, and Guilang pretty far forward, not because I had a strong desire to but because the best hiding spots were pretty far forward. The Beasthunter was all the way on the right to be able to push on the right side of the table and maybe delay an attack on the Pheasant on that side.
I tucked all my Kuang Shi into the trees and put the SpecOps smack dab in the center of the table to give me the most movement options. I set up the SpecOps’ mine like it was Lunah, and then put the real Lunah on the left. My Ninja was hidden right next to my HVT, and I held Lei Gong in reserve.
James stuck his Beasthunter all the way in the back right and then left the Su Jian out to ARO everything in the center of his dpeloyment zone with Krit nearby. His Daoying was all the way on the left, and the two Weibing were skewed to the left to avoid the big open area on the right.
James tried to fake me out with the Daoying as the Beasthunter, and then it was time for me to put Lei Gong down. I figured I could use him to back my my Lunah, as I thought the Beasthunter was Lunah… but then James put down Lunah on the left in the trees and I wasn’t so sure anymore.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Yu Jing
James took two orders from the pool with Lei Gong. I decided to try and go after the “Beasthunter” on the plane wing. Of course, it’s not a Beasthunter, it’s a Daofei! It successfully Oblivions the Weibing, which is very annoying.
This does allow me to get the Ninja KHD right underneath the plane wing and surprise attack Trinity–me on 16s, James on 10s:
| 71.9 | 21.0 | 7.1 |
Of course, he crits.
Undaunted, I move on with my turn. With my Daofei so far advanced and James’s Daofei’s back turned, I figure I can make something happen. I have to get through a Weibing so I do that first.
Then I drop the second Weibing, but in doing so that lets the Kuang Shi dodge to standing…
I try to take it out with my Weibing’s tac aware order, and I land two hits! I’m pretty excited about this until James passes both saves.
I want to rescue the Daofei, so I send in the Beasthunter. The Su Jian discovers, so I gleefully fire a panzerfaust at it, ending my move out of LoF, but due to the low-vis zone I miss. Very sad.
I get a little overzealous and try to do too much. I really am just trying to get rid of the Kuang Shi, but I decide to maybe try taking out James’s SpecOps. I land a Panzerfaust hit, but the Bioimmunity and cover saves the SpecOps.
I push a little harder and split burst on pistols to take on the Kuang Shi and the SpecOps, but everyone whiffs. The Beasthunter is very good but has a lot of trouble harassing stuff with dice at range. I’m out of orders on the Beasthunter now, so I figure I can at least go after the Daofei now. I parkour up the plane fuselage to get a back arc shot and tank a chain rifle from the Kuang Shi. I hit twice, but James’s Daofei passes ARM twice.
I sink basically the rest of my orders into this, failing to even do a single wound to the Daofei and eventually losing mine to the Kuang Shi. I eventually split burst to put the Kuang Shi dogged, but it was too little too late.
I haven’t really accomplished anything and I’ve lost a ton of material, this is very bad.
It’s clear that I should have just blasted the Kuang Shi with the Daofei first–I was just so focused on efficiency and the back arc shot that I didn’t do it. I was irrationally concerned about just spending 2-3 orders trying to punch through dogged while getting chain rifled. I wasn’t dialed in properly on prioritization and threw material forward, losing it all. A much better plan would have been to just move-move and CC the SpecOps with the Beasthunter, then retreat the Daofei and recamo.
Bottom of 1 – Yu Jing (OpFor)
James brings the Daofei in to fight my Ninja, choosing to not do his secondary classified! I make use of the Tacbow, which was probably a mistake, as the low-vis brings me down to BS 8 effective. Dodging in an attempt to close combat might have been better. The Weibing flash pulses, and the Daofei splits burst, one on each. The Ninja interaction is terrible odds:
| 21.6 | 60.1 | 18.3 |
The Weibing interaction is worse since the Weibing doesn’t have Mimetism -6.
| 22.7 | 43.4 | 33.9 |
The Weibing survives and the Ninja does a wound to the Daofei. I’ll take it! This does mean that James finally reveals Lunah to take the shot, and I can’t really survive this.
The Daofei challenges the Weibing with burst two and easily walks right through it.
James is pretty hell bent on going after Lei Gong, but first he has to go through Lunah. I’m not convinced that she’ll survive, but I decide to drain orders. James fails the discover, so she’s safe!
Lei Gong and the Daofei have a bit of a close quarters slap fight with Lei Gong whipping out his pistol to try and fend the Daofei off. I take a wound and scoot away…
and in a nice bit of narrative bookending, my Kuang Shi chain rifles James’s Daofei unconscious as Lei Gong manages to make his ARM save.
James picks up one of the Weibing, giving him Test Run, and then uses the Weibing to drop the Beasthunter.
Turn 2
James has Test Run and I have nothing. Very annoying, so now I need to get some points on the board.
Top of 2 – Yu Jing
I need to get rid of Lunah so I have some freedom of movement. I send in the Libertos, dodging past the Weibing’s ARO to park next to Lunah, mostly to just pin her if everything goes poorly.
To really get the work done, I send in the Guilang, grabbing Data Scan off the unconscious Weibing and then I drop a mine next to Lunah. I poke around the corner to see the Weibing that got picked up and put it down again. Lunah fails to dodge the mine, so she goes down as well. I’ll take it!
I move my “Kuang Shi” all the way over to James’s unconscious Daofei and snag Nanoespionage.
I then coup de grace the Daofei to start on Predator, and pass turn.
Bottom of 2 – Yu Jing (OpFor)
James has held the Su Jian in reserve till now and he sends it in to start killing stuff. The Su Jian can see both the Libertos and the Guilang and so templates them both. I successfully Oblivion the Su Jian and dodge the Libertos into close combat. Unfortunately, the Guilang passes 2/3 saves and stays on the board, giving James an easy Nanoespionage target.
Krit walks up and fixes the Su Jian, then the two of them drop the Libertos in close combat.
The Su Jian advances up while Krit snags Nanoespionage off the Guilang, and this grants my Weibing a free shot, which of course does nothing.
Krit then picks up the Weibing in the center and it moves towards my Daofei. The Beasthunter move-moves and gets discovered, and then James tries to get Data Scan, revealing the Daoying, but fails the WIP roll and is out of orders.
Turn 3
We both have Nanoespionage, James has Test Run, and I have Data Scan.
Top of 3 – Yu Jing
I need to somehow put a stop to James’s nonsense, because I can’t handle a push from the Su Jian. Since the Daoying is out of camo, I can kill it, as there’s a shot with Lunah. I push everything into one group and start the run. Lunah takes out the Beasthunter and the Shaolin on the way forward.
I can see Krit, who dodges, but I move move past him and then take a shot on the Daoying and a Kuang Shi that Lunah can see, dropping both.
I move my SpecOps up and resurrect the Weibing, giving me Test Run, and park both of them on James’s HVT then pass turn.
Bottom of 3 – Yu Jing (OpFor)
At this point, I’ve won the game if I can prevent James from getting another classified. He needs Rescue, and that will win it for him. What I should do is just nothing, but I can’t stop myself from AROing… He moves a Kuang Shi and I take it out with the SpecOps.
Krit takes a wound from Lunah, but stays up.
James goes in with the Weibing, and I drop it with Lunah, which is when I realize my huge mistake.
He picks up the Weibing with the Su Jian, and that’s that. He’s got Rescue.
7-6, 130-118 Yu Jing (OpFor) Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Well, that a very silly mistake on my part, and I deserved to lose this game. I was feeling pretty big brained for getting the shot off on the Daoying–it was absolutely a hail mary play after my atrocious first turn, but I was going to pay off if I could stay focused. Anyway, a couple of things for me:
- Better focus and restraint on the first turn. I didn’t have a very consistent gameplan for my first turn, and I just threw a bunch of stuff at the wall and recovered.
- Spent the order I spent on the SpecOps to coup de grace the Daofei on fixing the Guilang’s positioning or recamoing it or something. I didn’t have a reasonable path forward to achieve Predator, and I have enough material there to guarantee coup de grace later if I really needed it. Then I have a Guilang alive and potentially deny Nanoespionage.
- Obviously not do anything at the bottom of 3. I had the game, but I didn’t realize it. All I had to do was keep either the Weibing or the SpecOps alive, and then I would have been fine.
I think James spent too many orders picking up both Weibing twice, basically–he could have just come in and murdered stuff with the Su Jian, probably. His failing to discover Lunah was also pretty huge. I think the other thing that hurt me was my mishandling of Lei Gong. I deployed him too conservatively, should have left him up to ARO, and just didn’t have a good plan for him other than to annoy James’s Lunah.
I misread the identity of the Beasthunter/Lunah camo tokens, so I put Lei Gong on the wrong side anyway. I basically don’t have to worry about getting hit with Lunah on the first turn anyway, because of Albedo, so I don’t know what I was thinking there. This is exactly why we play these practice games though–to learn these sorts of lessons.
I really liked my SpecOps hidden as Kuang Shi–I think that really helped me feel safe with it, and that’s actually pretty important as far as helping me prioritize things and not having to deploy a certain way or move units to defend the SpecOps. Deploying a Kuang Shi very conservatively is also a very reasonable and not-suspicious thing to do.
This game was very close but I could have made it much harder for James if I had played my first turn better. He played very well of course, so definite kudos to him! Thanks for reading.
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