Counting to Three
Erik (Zelaponeepus) and I met up at Gongaii Games with the intent of crunching through as many 150 point games of Highly Classified as possible in preparation for Rose City Raid 5. I brought the space station table, and we played on a 4×4 table top (ish) with access to all four sides. The table’s also quite tall, which is nice for my back.
Overview
- Mission: ITS14 Highly Classified
- Extreme Prejudice
- HVT: Designation
- HVT: Kidnapping
- HVT: Retroengineering
- Forces: Tohaa versus Combined Army (300)
- Tohaa: Sabotage
- Combined Army: Telemetry
- Deploy First: Combined Army
- First Turn: Combined Army
So we’ve got a raft of unpleasant classifieds for sure. At least my secondary is reasonable. At 150 points, the constraints are pretty real. We’re also on a full 4×4 table, so I need some real guns and deployment skills.
The Sukeul FO is almost a requirement, because it’s a Veteran and can do all the FO and D-Charge classifieds. I took a Kamael hacker because you might need one, and a Kamael sniper to shoot at stuff at a distance.
Ugh.
SUKEUL (Lieutenant, Forward Observer) K1 Combi Rifle, D-Charges, Flash Pulse ( | Deployable Repeater) / Pistol, Breaker Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
KAMAEL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 16)
KRIIGEL Breaker Combi Rifle, Grenade Launcher, Pheroware Tactics: Eraser, Pheroware Tactics: Mirrorball / Viral Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 22)
JAAN STAAR Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Viral Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (1 | 31)
KUMOTAIL Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 21)
CHAKSA SERVANT PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
LIBERTO Submachine Gun, Chain-colt / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 8)
6
1 | 2.5 SWC | 150 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
A Kumotail is an obvious include for Highly Classified, and I put a Kriigel in there to have access to Mirrorball and Eraser in case I needed to hold ground in the middle. Jaan Staar was there to snipe out specialists and get Net Undermine, that sort of thing, and then a Libertos because… Libertos.
I managed to sell Erik on the Suryat HMG lieutenant, because that gives him a gun to use “for free” which can help get him up the table or out of a jam. The Dartok, Speculo, and Dr. Worm are all there for objectives, and then the rest is just useful Combined Army things.
RCR 150 – HC
SURYAT (Lieutenant [+1 Order]) Heavy Machine Gun ( | TinBot: Firewall [-3]) / MULTI Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 45)
DARTOK (Hacker) Submachine Gun, Pitcher / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 21)
MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges ( | GizmoKit, MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 22)
ÍMETRON . (0 | 6)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) Light Flamethrower(+1B), Flash Pulse / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 9)
SPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon. (1 | 32)
TAIGHA Chain-colt / AP + Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 6)
1 | 3 SWC | 150 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
I won the rolloff and chose side, so Erik went first. Deploying a 150 point list on a 4×4 table is wild. Basically he just bundled everything up in the middle and guarded the flanks with Ikadrons. There’s not much you can do to have a big brained deployment, you just need to put stuff down and hope for the best. There just isn’t enough material to have mutual protection between units, you end up having stuff that’s just isolated.
I sort of saw this, so I just stacked everything up on my right to protect it. I left the Kamael sniper up to fight things, and held Jan Staar in reserve. I was worried about the Kumotail, but I didn’t want to bunch literally everything up in a boarding-shotgun-able ball… so I left it out a little too far, probably.
Erik put the Speculo in a spot to attack me, and I returned the favor with Jan Staar.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Combined Army
I took two orders from Erik, which is pretty brutal at this points level. He decides to just send in the Speculo to assassinate the Kumotail, which will lock me out of HVT: Retroengineering. I try to discover with the Chaksa peripheral but fail.
The Speculo tries to land smoke on the Kumotail, but fails the roll, allowing the Kumotail to dodge away.
This isn’t good enough, because a shotgun within 8″ will still kill the Kumotail very dead, which is exactly what happens.
Erik then grabs Extreme Prejudice off of the Kumotail. Thankfully the ARO fire just obliterates the Speculo, but I’m still locked out of HVT: Retroengineering. Ruh roh.
Erik throws the Suryat into suppression and passes turn.
Bottom of 1 – Tohaa
Well, it’s time to return the favor. I’d like to take out both the Dartok and Dr Worm, but I don’t think I can make that happen with my order pool. I settle for trying for a Lieutenant snipe, which should be really devastating at this point level. I get discovered on the way but manage to get behind the Suryat and CC it with viral pistols. Dr. Worm does a wound to Jan Staar in ARO while the Dartok misses, and I do a single wound to the Suryat.
I go prone, breaking LoF to the Dartok. Jan Staar swings again and KO the Suryat, but now I’ve got a choice–I either coup de grace the Suryat for Extreme Prejudice or dump all my viral pistol shots into Dr Worm and then Extreme Prejudice.
| 38.5 | 48.7 | 12.7 |
I have pretty decent odds, but of course Dr. Worm beats me and KOs Jan Staar. Very annoying. I use the remainder of my orders to shuffle the Libertos around to get closer to my HVT and pass turn.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – Combined Army
Well, at least I’ve got Erik in loss. He starts off by moving the Taigha and then he discovers the Libertos with the nearby Ikadron.
The Taigha comes in and chain colts the Libertos, and I drop a mine.
The Dartok advances into a building just outside of Erik’s deployment zone and goes into suppression, then Dr. Worm rushes into the open to pick up the Suryat.
Bottom of 2 – Tohaa
First off I take out the Taigha with the Kamael sniper setting off the Liberto’s mine.
Dr. Worm is in the open, so the Kamael sniper deletes it.
I show the Suryat the Kamael and the Sukeul and ask for AROs with the Sukeul as the fireteam leader. Erik decides to fight the Sukeul, and the K1 combi takes it down.
I have an opportunity to take out the Dartok, but I decide instead to snag Sabotage with the Sukeul and then pass turn.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – Combined Army
We are bad at math and decide that Erik is in retreat, which means he wins with just the Extreme Prejudice classified.
3-4, 87-45 Combined Army Victory
Post Game Analysis
Well mathing wrong is bad and cost me this game. Erik was basically out of command tokens from his earlier Loss of Lieutenant turn, so there wasn’t much he could do anyway, and then I’d have plenty of options for getting the rest of my classifieds done for a pretty high-scoring win.
I think this game came down to the one decision to be greedy and take on Dr. Worm with Jan Staar instead of getting Extreme Prejudice. That was really frustrating, because the moment that happened I knew I had made a mistake. As we’ll see with the following three games of 150 point Highly Classified, you cannot make mistakes, you cannot take your eye off the ball, and you always have to be working to get classifieds.
Really there’s not much to learn in terms of tactics at this point level and table size. You don’t have time to do big brained nonsense like I thought I would do with the Kriigel. I’m just not going to get it into the midfield and Eraser something–it doesn’t do anything for the mission, and it’s going to get cut in the next iteration.
Highly Classified at 150 points on a 4×4 is just all about laser focus on execution and murder if you can. It’s a really weird format–it’s almost as if it’s a training tool for that turn 3 hail mary. It’s weirdly stressful and rewarding but boring at the same time? There’s not much choice, it’s just “are your fundamentals and prioritization good?” It’s like a gear check or a skill check in a video game.
I don’t know if I enjoy the format, but I will say it is very much a useful training tool. I don’t think it’s a good tournament format (specifically the 150 point on 4×4), so we’ll definitely change it for Rose City Raid 5 (and we already have).
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