Shakush Survival
It was time for another Mindtaker Miniatures tournament. Mindtaker is more than just your friendly local game store–they also buy and sell miniatures and gaming stuff on consignment, which has been really helpful in liquidating some of my bad life choices! If you want to buy some used minis or sell stuff to them, check ’em out here:
I’m playing Jeff (SgtRock) on the airplane table, thanks to Pete (Exile)’s devious machinations as the TO.
Overview
- Mission: ITS14 Battleground
- Forces: Tartary Army Korps versus Ramah Task Force (300)
- Deploy First: Ramah
- First Turn: Ramah
This tournament is a little different for me in that I’ve got some list building restrictions. Tony (zhukov2) is of the opinion that Cameronians are a better value for their points than Dog Warriors in the context of vanilla Ariadna, so he suggested I take some Dog Warriors to the next tournament to prove him wrong. I asked if it was okay to play TAK, since I’ve been meaning to play them for awhile, and he agreed, so long as I didn’t take any Burst 4 guns that cost SWC, including a Burst 3 + 1 for link situation. So that’s why I’m playing this weird list:
I Like Big Bases
GROUP 1
4
4
4
COLONEL VORONIN (Lieutenant [+1 Command Token], Strategos L1) Rifle / Assault Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 25)
LINE KAZAK (Paramedic) Rifle ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 11)
FRONTOVIK (Multispectral Visor L1) AP Sniper Rifle ( ) / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
GROUP 2
PAVEL McMANNUS Ohotnik, Chain-colt, Shock Mines, D-Charges / Pistol, T2 CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
DOG-WARRIOR Chain Rifle(+1B), Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CC Weapon. (0 | 24)
IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 8)
TM KURYER (Total Reaction) Uragan MRL, Shock Mines / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 19)
TRAKTOR MUL (BS Attack [Guided], Total Reaction) Uragan MRL / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 16)
DYNAMO (Forward Observer) Rifle, Flash Pulse / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 19)
SPETSNAZ (Mimetism [-3], Parachutist]) AP Rifle, Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 30)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
If I can’t spend SWC on burst 4 guns (not that I feel it’s necessary in TAK anyway), I’ll just spend SWC on TR/baggage bots. I also take some Dynamos, because they’re so speedy and have such a great toolbox. That group also secretly powers a Spetsnaz rifle, which is hilarious and exciting. The first group has probably too much irregular orders, but they’re some good irregular orders. I have plenty of ARO stuff in the second group, so the AP Sniper Frontovik is primarily an active turn piece.
Jeff’s running Ramah, which means he’s got a Zhayedan missile launcher in a full Ghulam link. He’s also got a Shakush to use all those orders and a Rafiq to give it even more orders! Just in case, he brought a Monstrucker too.
Jeff (SgtRock)
GROUP 1
GHULAM (Lieutenant) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 11)
ZHAYEDAN Missile Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 28)
SHAKUSH AP Spitfire, Heavy Flamethrower / AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 58)
RAFIQ REMOTE FTO Red Fury, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 20)
GROUP 2
MONSTRUCKER Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Drop Bears / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
NASMAT PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
YARA HADDAD AP Marksman Rifle / Heavy Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 25)
ROUHANI Submachine Gun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 21)
LEILA SHARIF (Hacker) Shock Marksman Rifle, E/M Mines, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
CARMEN Chain Rifle(+1B), Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol(+1B), DA CC Weapon. (0 | 18)
BÂTARD Trench-Hammer, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
6 SWC | 298 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Group two is a bunch of toolkits, all of which want orders, but it does give a lot of flexibility. Yara spearheads a Haris, Lelia and a Rafiq form a Duo, and Carmen is Carmen.
Deployment
I take deployment so I can have the same side of the table as my other game of JSA versus Steel, so Jeff takes first turn. He spreads the Ghulam link pretty wide, with the Zhayedan in the center of the link as the leader. If the Zhayedan dies it’s bad news, but the deployment zone sort of forces this shape. Yara’s link is on the left to push that side, Leila and the Rafiq are in the center, and Carmen and Batard on the right.
There’s a Rafiq all the way on the right, and the Shakush is in reserve. I set up Lazy Voronin first, tucked into some trees, smoking his cigar.
The Line Kazak has to be nearby, and I hold the Frontovik and one of the Dog Warriors in reserve. I spread the Traktor Muls evenly across my deployment zone with some mines watching either AD spots or some expected avenues of approach. The Dynamos are split evenly, and I put Pavel as far forward as he can go in some trees. The Irmandinhos and Dog Warriors chill as best they can in the trees, then it’s time for reserves.
Jeff plops the Shakush down, so I put a Dog Warrior down on the left and a Frontovik to contest the approach.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Ramah
I take two orders from the second group to limit the amount of damage Carmen can do. The AP Sniper Frontovik is watching where she’d end up, so Jeff cancels her impetuous order and instead activates Yara. Yara goes to discover Pavel but fails her roll, which is about as good as it gets.
The Shakush challenges the Frontovik next, but with all the vis mods, things are looking pretty reasonable for me to just drain a bunch of orders.
| 17.7 | 47.0 | 35.3 |
I plink a round off the Shakush’s armor, and it fails guts into total cover while the Rafiq pushes forward and engages with Marksmanship. It ends up being the same target number, but a less scary ARM save:
| 23.2 | 49.0 | 27.8 |
The intended effect of just draining orders with that almost 50% chance of nothing happening on each order comes to pass with the Shakush trying again.
Jeff passes turn without much additional fanfare and with my forces mostly intact.
Bottom of 1 – TAK
I really don’t want to give Jeff another turn with the Shakush. Everything else is troublesome but probably survivable, so that’s the plan for this turn. With the Zhayedin watching the table, I cancel most of the impetuous orders. Instead, I start by bringing on the Spetsnaz and shoot the Rafiq in the back, doing no damage.
The Rafiq is now looking at the Spetznaz, so I move Pavel into a position to split burst between Leila and the Rafiq, forcing Leila prone and knocking out the Rafiq, now that I can see its back.
The Spetsnaz takes shots on the Shakush now, doing a damage.
It’s now looking at the Spetsnaz with its flamethrower, so I use the Frontovik to put another wound on the Shakush.
I want to get Pavel out of harm’s way so I just put a single shot in the Shakush’s back with the Ohotnik and take it out, finally.
The Spetsnaz has an order left so I try to spec-fire a grenade onto Carmen, but it fails.
I settle for throwing the Spetsnaz into suppression and pass turn.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – Ramah
Now it’s time to fight Carmen. She cancels her impetuous order and throws smoke to counter my suppression, so I just dodge into the smoke, committing to the fight.
Batard and Carmen race in, but the Spetsnaz are tough as nails and I crit D-Charge Carmen in the face. Carmen herself is on Jeff’s paint table, hence the riderless bike.
Sadly, Carmen passes enough saves to go dogged and finishes off the Spetsnaz. Jeff then pushes the Monstrucker’s Nasmat forward to pick up both the Rafiq and the Shakush. The Rafiq is closer so Jeff starts there. The Rafiq gets picked up but Pavel clips the Nasmat and drops it, preventing the Shakush from getting picked up.
Unfortunately, this reminds Jeff of Pavel’s existence, a problem he quickly rectifies with the remaining Rafiq.
Yara takes out one of the Kuryer and lets a nearby Irmandinho take a free shot with his pistol… and that’s something you generally don’t want to do because I connect and Yara drops.
Rouhani gets a little lazy and just phones it in with a Medikit, killing Yara outright. Jeff was worried about not being able to be in base to base with Yara so close to the trees, which is actually a bit of an issue for him for sure.
Jeff then takes out the Irmandinho with the Rafiq in revenge.
The repaired Rafiq makes a play on the Frontovik, but with the odds favoring order drain nothing happens, then it’s back to me.
Bottom of 2 – TAK
Time to keep the pressure on. One of the Dog Warriors throws smoke in front of the Frontovik, and I make good use of it to drop the Rafiq.
I manage to take a smoke grenade launcher shot through a keyhole to set up a spot for the other Dog Warrior to advance to without getting shot by the Zhayedin. I get shot at by Rouhani, the Ghulam, and the Rafiq, but it’s on terrible odds and I just push forward into the smoke.
The Dynamo literally backstops the Dog Warrior with a dispensed mine, and then it’s back to Jeff.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – Ramah
Jeff needs to secure zones now, so the Monstrucker picks the Shakush back up, which is supremely irritating.
It tries to fight one of my Dog Warriors, but I get smoke down to prevent further shenanigans.
Same story for the Ghulam taking on the other Dog Warrior.
Leila tries to escape the mine’s trigger area and dodges away successfully, but this lets me dodge the Dog Warrior closer, over the collection of crates.
Jeff then activates the Rafiq, which is duo’ed with Leila. This lets me bounce a chain rifle off of Leila and drop the Zhaeydan. I take a wound from the Red Fury, but this just makes the Dog Warrior angrier.
Leila survives, and the Rafiq tries again. This time I drop a Chain Rifle on the Rafiq, knocking it out.
The other Rafiq splits burst between the Dog Warrior and Frontovik, killing neither and getting knocked out.
Bottom of 3 – TAK
Now I need to just take and hold zones. The Zhayedan being down is really helpful, but the Shakush needs to go away. I send in the Dog Warrior and take a wound, getting angrier.
I then drop both chain rifles onto the Shakush and the Monstrucker, taking both out.
I get some smoke down with an Irmandinho, and then push a Traktor Mul forward along with a Dynamo.
I lose the Dynamo while trying to take out Leila, but I manage to secure all three zones, using the Dog Warriors to secure the far zone and the Traktor Mul and an Irmandinho to take the middle. I had plenty of orders to secure my near zone, so we just call it.
10-0, 211-142 Tartary Army Korps Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Well, I’d say I got lucky with the Frontovik there, just hard-stopping the Shakush and Rafiq for several turns, but the statistical projections show that the odds were in my favor about 70-30 each order. 30% to lose the Frontovik, 70% Jeff has to try again. Admittedly the multiplicative effects of multiple tries do involve some luck, but the table’s Low-Vis and Saturation Zone plus the Frontovik’s additional skewing of that imbalance really helped here.
The rest of the game is about sustained pressure and positioning. I was able to hold Jeff on his table side with Pavel and the Spetsnaz, with help from the Frontovik of course. After that, I fed the Dog Warriors into the meat grinder and used their three effective wounds to keep Jeff busy. I didn’t have a enough orders to really prosecute an attack, so I was forced to play a more passive game and just use the orders I did have to create a positional advantage and force Jeff to respond with his orders. A shockingly passive game for TAK, all things considered. Most of the kills aside from me expending effectively two entire turns killing the Shakush twice were in ARO.
I think a few things could have improved things for me–deploying the Frontovik in the far back of my deployment zone, where the Dynamo is in the last photo would have helped. Yes, it would have exposed it to the Zhayedan, but now we’re looking at potentially outside of 40″, so the Zhayedan is one on 6 and I’m one on 12. If I’m in 40″, that’s still both of us on 12s, seems bad. I’m definitely out of 24″ at that point too for the Shakush and the Rafiq, which further pushes the delta there. In any case, a hard fought game by Jeff. Very tough for me to advance into the midfield with that Zhayedin there. Thanks for reading.
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