Always Chasing After Bakunin
My other game of the last round of the tournament was against Will, playing Starmada. Here’s the TAK game I was playing on the adjacent table:
I’m playing on Erik’s table again, on the same side.
Overview
- Mission: ITS14 Superiority
- Forces: Jurisdictional Command of Bakunin versus Starmada (300)
- Deploy First: Starmada
- First Turn: Starmada
I’m playing my two-TAG test list for Bakunin. I’m not really feeling this list–Moderator cores are just too flimsy to exist in the midfield effectively without importing some (expensive) support.
Big Girls
10
2
MODERATOR (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 9)
ZOE FTO-2 & Π-WELL FTO undefined / undefined. (0.5 | 44)
Π-WELL FTO Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse(+1B), Pitcher / PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 19)
VOSTOK (Mimetism [-6]) Mk12(+1 Dam) / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 44)
STIGMATON (Hacker) Heavy Flamethrower(+1B), Heavy Rocket Launcher(+1B) / E/M CC Weapon. (1.5 | 58)
TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
SIN-EATER (Marksmanship) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 35)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Will’s running a Zeta + 2 Roadbot list supported by a linked Kappa MSR.
Will (WIllhelmIV)
GROUP 1
RAVENEYE (Lieutenant) Submachine Gun, E/Marat, Flash Pulse, E/M Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
KAPPA (Hacker, Hacking Device) Submachine Gun ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 12)
GROUP 2
ZETA Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon, Heavy Riotstopper / AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 77)
ZETBOT Flash Pulse / CC Weapon. (0 | 0)
FUZZBOT (Deactivator, Repeater) ( ) / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 8)
ŜARKO (Forward Observer) Submachine Gun, Flash Pulse, D-Charges, WildParrot / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
ROADBOT (Paramedic) Submachine Gun, Panzerfaust, Heavy Riotstopper ( | MediKit) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 23)
1
OKO Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 16)
MILLICENT Missile Launcher / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 16)
VARANGIAN Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
LAMBDA (Engineer, Deactivator) Combi Rifle, D-Charges ( | GizmoKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 16)
CYBERGHOSTS (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Pitcher ( ) / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 18)
5.5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
I took deployment to let me stay on the same side of the table as my other game. Will set up the Kappa link on the left with the MSR watching the left table edge and the diagonal firelane. The two Roadbots were in the middle, and there was only a little bit of presence on the right. Of note is the Sarko on the left.
I copied my deployment (mostly) from the JSA game and put the Sin Eaters in the exact same spots as the Ryuken-9, hoping for a similar result. I hid one Stigmata on the right. My own link went int he middle and that was that.
Will plopped the Zeta down out of reserve and I put down the second Stigmata on the left.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Starmada
Will spends a ton of orders wounding his own Zeta with my Sin Eater.
Eventually the Zeta drops, prompting Will to pick it back up and heal it an additional structure with the nearby Lambda.
He finally takes out the Sin Eater…
and then one-shots the other Sin Eater with his last order before retreating.
Really not a bad first turn for me.
Bottom of 1 – Bakunin
I decide my best course of action will be to remove the Roadbots if I can. The Stigmata has a go of it but fails to crack the Roadbot’s armor…
I get onto the bridge and try again and fail. The bridge also lets me see the Kappa MSR, but I can’t get through the high BS and am forced to retreat.
I want to get rid of the Sarko, so I threaten a flamethrower intuitive attack on the next order.
Will obliges and throws out a wild parrot, so I roast the Sarko while backpedaling.
I’d really like to get the Stigmata out of trouble, so I decide to shift my link to the right to rescue it by throwing something under the bus to clear the Wild Parrot. First I have to get past the Kappa MSR, and the Vostok takes a wound across multiple attempts.
I don’t have much in the way of orders now so I try to correct some positioning, snag the leftmost console with my CSU, and pass turn.
Turn 2
I’ve got more quadrants because Will was stuck in his DZ the whole first turn, so I’m up 2-0.
Top of 2 – Starmada
Most irritatingly, nothing has actually died, so Will now has a full order pool of Zeta. I lose the Stigmata on the left…
Then am forced to dodge the Stigmata on the right versus the Kappa MSR. I fail the dodge but tank all the saves somehow.
Will tries again and I win the face to face, burning the Kappa down.
I can’t survive the Zeta though, and it manages to drop the Stigmata without too much effort.
Bottom of 2 – Bakunin
Oh boy… I’m glad I brought that Vostok… here’s hoping I can push through. The Vostok engages and brings down the Oko first.
I then take down the Zeta, finally.
The CSU tries to drop the roadbot on the mesa on the left and gets knocked out instead.
I don’t want the Lambda to pick the Zeta back up so I finish it off with the Vostok. Sadly, I lose the Vostok to a lucky shot from across the table. Sigh.
Pi Well is out ARO the world with the Moderator and Zoe on the ground floor (lying prone because I ran out of prone markers thanks to events on the other table).
Turn 3
At this point, we’re tied on quadrants so I’m still up 2-0.
Top of 3 – Starmada
Will pushes one of the Roadbots forward and I manage to flash pulse it as it flips a console near my downed CSU.
It keeps pushing trying to take down Pi Well and finish me off…
but I eventually land a flash pulse and put an end to that.
He marches one of the Kappa forward to grab a third console, and that’s it for his turn.
Bottom of 3 – Bakunin
I’m playing the other game on the other table, so we miss the fact that I’m in retreat. I start off by removing the Roadbot on overwatch with a triangulated fire from Pi Well.
I then do a coordinated order to move everyone forward and get Pi Well off the roof (there’s a ladder, it kept falling so we removed it), prompting a dodge from the other Roadbot.
Another coordinated order gets rid of the Roadbot (although Zoe and one of the Moderators are glued). Pi Well gets to the console and flips it…
then I’ve got one more order to spend on Pi Well, and I flub the WIP roll to flip the 3rd console.
I couldn’t get enough points into the quadrant to out-point the Varangian, so it’s with Will’s 3 consoles to my 2, it’s a
4-5, 70-132 Starmada Victory!
Post Game Analysis
My first turn went pretty poorly. Not really much I could do there aside from more carefully retreating the Stigmata on the left–that was definitely a big problem for me. The other issue I faced was that Wild Parrot. I think I should have just walked the full movement around the corner and hoped to tank the hit. That puts the TAG in a much easier place for Zoe to reach on either that turn or a subsequent turn.
I’m really not impressed with the Stigmata’s damage output though–they’re so inconsistent. My last game with them they did alright, but I had to pump multiple orders into them. With the order pool I had, that just wasn’t going to be reliable enough. Furthermore, once the Sin Eaters are down, I don’t have much in the way of a backup plan for AROs. The Vostok is really powerful, but not powerful enough on its own to take on targets outside of 24″. I can’t be spending orders where both parties are just missing, that’s not helpful or efficient.
There were a few things I could have done better, mostly in how I protected the TAGs at the bottom of 1, but I’m just not finding the toolkit to my liking. I think I need to swap the Vostok out for a Tsyklon–whatever I hit needs to go down. I think I would have had a better time dealing with the Roadbots as they drove in, so hiding the Stigmata was probably the right call for that. In any case, I’m glad that I kept it so close to a tie, but I’m disappointed in the list and the small, snowballing mistakes I made in the first turn. Probably some deployment improvements that I could have made as well, like putting Zoe closer to the TAG on the right if I think I’m going to push on it.
The Sin Eaters did a great job though, so I’m quite pleased about that. Anyway, thanks for reading!
