Irritating Igao
Big thanks to Neon for agreeing to play the last game of the league a week late after I returned from my trip. This was already after RCR was over!
Overview
- Mission: Blockade Runner
- Forces: Tohaa versus O-12 (300)
- Deploy First: O-12
- First Turn: O-12
We’re playing the mission that I wrote for Hungry Walrus, Blockade Runner.
Basically you have to control a center console while two Mk12 turrets shoot at you, and you want to get your HVT to the other side of the table by CivEvacing it. My brilliant plan for this Tohaa list was to lock the table down with a ‘mated Sukeul ML and then push on the center console with a Sukeul/Taqeul/Makaul triad.
Blockade Runner
GROUP 1
7
1
SUKEUL (Lieutenant, Forward Observer) K1 Combi Rifle, D-Charges, Flash Pulse ( | Deployable Repeater) / Pistol, Breaker Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
TAQEUL (Chain of Command) Spitfire, Nanopulser, Pheroware Tactics: Endgame, Pheroware Tactics: Mirrorball / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 42)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Contender, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
IGAO Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Pheroware Tactics: Mirrorball / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0.5 | 28)
GROUP 2
KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse, SymbioBomb ( | SymbioMate) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 21)
1
CLIPSOS (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 25)
KRIIGEL Breaker Combi Rifle, Grenade Launcher, Pheroware Tactics: Eraser, Pheroware Tactics: Mirrorball / Viral Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 22)
REEX (BS Attack [Shock]) K1 Marksman Rifle / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 18)
JAAN STAAR Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Viral Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (1 | 31)
DIPLOMATIC (CC Attack [-3], Specialist Operative]) Nanopulser, Flash Pulse, Pheroware Tactics: Eraser / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
I took a Kriigel/Reex triad as well to have some throwaway fire support, and my big brained move was to just park a Clipsos on my HVT and make a turn 3 run of it. Jaan Staar, an Igao, and a Diplomat round out the list. Jan Staar to be annoying and the Igao to smoke out the Mk12s if I need it.
Neon’s running a Zeta-based O-12 list. Not a lot of surprising stuff in here, it’s all just solid O-12 choices.
Neon
GROUP 1GROUP 2
ALPHA (Lieutenant [+1 Command Token], Strategos L1]) Light Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 24)
ZETA Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon, Heavy Riotstopper / AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 77)
ZETBOT Flash Pulse / CC Weapon. (0 | 0)
PEELER Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 25)
CYBERGHOSTS (Hacker, Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle, Pitcher ( ) / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 21)
PARVATI Submachine Gun(+1B), Flash Pulse ( | GizmoKit, MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 38)
PSI-COp (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) ( ) / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 22)
VARANGIAN Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
BETATROOPER Spitfire, Nanopulser(+1B) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 40)
WARCOR (360ยบ Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
4.5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
I took deployment, so Neon took first turn. The Zeta was very aggressively placed in the open on her left with Parvati nearby on a roof, just in case. A Varangian was on either side, and the two PSiCops were split as well. The Warcor was out to ARO the world, and the rest of her S2 models clustered up in some cover to help the Zeta push on that side.
I put the Sukuel down watching the Zeta and put the two Kaeltar at maximum distance away on rooftops to keep them safe. The Taquel/Sukuel/Makaul triad held the right with the Reex/Kriigel on the left. My HVT was all the way on the left, pushed pretty far up so I put the Clipsos right next to it just on my side of the centerline. The Diplomat was defending one of the approaches to my DZ in case a Varangian got spicy, and then it was Neon’s turn to deploy her two reserves.
She put down a Peeler guarding the approach on her right and the Alpha behind the Zeta. I put Jan Staar down on a roof just outside of her DZ. I didn’t really expect to get much done with him, but I figured he would keep Neon busy or at least distracted for a few orders. Neon chooses the Beta as her Master Breacher and I choose my Makaul.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – O-12
I took a single order from Neon because of the Alpha’s counterintelligence. Worth it? Not really sure, but I wasn’t really thinking I would need a ton of command tokens this game. Anyway, with the Sukuel just staring right at the Zeta in the open, Neon decided to start blocking LoF with some smoke. The Varangian did that thing, and then she pushed her Cyberghost up to try and Total Control the nearby Mk12.
It took a little bit, but the Cyberghost finally got it done.
With smoke down, the Zeta was free to move about and take out the second Turret, which meant my Clipsos wouldn’t have any problems on that side now. Great!
Jan Staar did a great job at being a distraction Carnifex with the Zeta climbing up and discovering him.
Not much I can do here other than dodge or shoot, and I decide to dodge to avoid being glued. Five dice is a lot, and Jan Staar dies.
Neon pushes the Beta into contact with the central console and throws it into suppression before passing turn. 1 point for Neon.
Bottom of 1 – Tohaa
We talked about this after the game, but Neon is a huge XCom player, so she’s been trained to leave stuff on overwatch. That can work in Infinity, but if you leave a TAG in front of a linked ML I will spend all my orders on killing it. It did take quite awhile to do it, but I managed to do it. We talked briefly about failing guts off the roof with Climbing+, but then you close cover for the purposes of the face to face roll, so Neon decided to just fight it out, especially since it was taking so many orders.
I had just enough orders to get the Igao into base to base with the Beta, smoking up the Mk12 turret with my Makaul first. I take the Beta down easily, and then, forgetting about Frenzy (I don’t play my Tohaa often enough), I recamo the Igao.
I’ve got some orders in the second pool so I advance the Kriigel into a position where I can take a speculative shot on the Peeler, but I can’t roll low enough to make it stick.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – O-12
Neon uses her Varangian (proxied by a Lynx) to discover the Igao. Me forgetting about Frenzy sucks, but at least it wasn’t a crazy game breaking event, it was revealed again pretty quickly.
Neon then sends in Parvati to threaten the Igao. I dodge, trying to get closer to Parvati because I’ve got Predator as a classified. Instead of shooting, Parvati just Gizmokits the Beta back up. Uh oh.
Neon then tires to get rid of Parvati by templating with the Varangian, but I dodge successfully with the Igao. Neon mentions how annoyed she is with the Igao, which means it’s working!
The Beta tries next, but I dodge again.
Finally Parvati has a go, and this time I decide to Mirrorball and stick the landing.
The Beta is still touching the console, so 2 points for Neon now.
Bottom of 2 – Tohaa
Well, I’ve got to get Neon off the center console (again) and clear out the threats there in preparation for my Turn 3 HVT run. She’s also prepping to do something about her HVT with the Cyberghost, so I need to work on that as well. I start things off by downing the Varangian with the Taquel’s spitfire.
I spend most of my second pool orders taking out the Warcor and working on the remaining Mk12 turret with the Reex K1 and developing that link on the left. I forgot to take pictures because I was fighting a Cutter in another game, but I manage to do one wound to the Turret. The Sukuel finishes off the Turret with some additional K1 fire, which opens the right side of the table to movement for me.
The Makaul sets up smoke on the Beta and then Makaul things happen to the Beta.
The Sukuel scraps the Beta to get In Extremis Recovery and parks on the console…
then I drop Parvati with the Taquel’s Spitfire.
I’ve got one more order left so I move the Igao into a position to be able to dodge off the Cyberghost’s movements.
The Sukuel is touching the console, so 1 point for me.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – O-12
I’m a little worried about the Peeler, because I’ll need to sneak a Clipsos through there, but we’ll figure that out next turn. The Cyberghost moves forward to try and get CivEvac, and I dodge the Igao into view. Basically everything can see the Cyberghost if it advances, and the Igao can now see it without moving at all.
Neon throws caution to the wind and throws a spotlight at the Igao while I nanopulsar in response. This does net her Telemetry, and the Cyberghost survives the hit.
Neon then solves my Peeler problem by moving it out of position to take out the Igao.
She then pushes hard on the Sukuel and the Makaul. I decide to shoot with the Sukeul and flamethrower with the Makaul to try and guarantee the kill. Neon splits burst, KOing the Makaul but losing the Peeler. I’ll take it!
She then pushes the Cyberghost forward and survives the shots from my Sukuel. The Cyberghost is now over the centerline, so I need to take it out to deny points.
Sukuel’s still touching the console, so 2 points for me total, 2 points for Neon. We’re tied.
Bottom of 3 – Tohaa
I’m very low on orders, so I can’t mess around. I need to take out the Cyberghost and get the Clipsos to CivEvac the civilian and escape. I use my Lieutenant order on the Sukeul to drop the Cyberghost.
The Clipsos grabs the HVT and starts its run, but there’s a Psi Cop that can see where I want her to go. Rather than push for it and lose the game here, I try to Endgame the Psi Cop with the Taquel. I get two tries but fail both. Sigh.
The Clipsos is over the centerline, but I don’t want to throw the game by getting shot in ARO by a Psi Cop, so I just spend the rest of my orders running the Reex triad to secure Neon’s HVT.
That makes it a
6-3, 228-86 Tohaa Victory!
Post Game Analysis
This game hinged on losing the Zeta so early. Neon’s a bit of a newer player, but she was doing pretty well in the league and has a good sense for the game. The Zeta is very good, but it’s not designed to just park somewhere and ARO the world when the world includes a linked and ‘mated Sukuel missile launcher. My little gambit of trying to distract Neon with Jan Staar paid off in a big way.
After that, it was just a matter of pushing into the midfield with just the Beta, unsupported. That let me push on it with a throwaway unit like the Igao. The Igao then drained Neon’s entire second turn, and then she had a bunch of units out of cover in the midfield that were only weakly supporting one another. I was able to then push my forces in, and this is one of the few times I’ll say something nice about links–in a mutually supporting fashion because they were in a link. That’s not to say that you can’t do that in a vanilla list, but it does require some more attention and list crafting to easily and efficiently enable that.
To some extent, Neon’s unfamiliarity with Tohaa aided me, but I think the primary issue was pacing and the feeding of material into the midfield. I’ll return to Tohaa again in ITS15, which I think is going to be the year of vanilla for me. Thanks for reading!
