Frozen Eagle Claw
I had the fun experience of Jeff of Shiv Games fame asking “who is FoolishAshigaru?” and sheepishly raising my hand. I wasn’t able to play simultaneous games this tournament till the last round because we had an odd number with my second ITS name and then we had a drop last round. I’m playing Dan (dfocke) in the first round with my ISS on the ice table. How appropriate for Frostbyte.
Overview
- Mission: ITS14 Frostbyte
- Forces: Imperial Service versus White Company (300)
- Deploy First: White Company
- First Turn: White Company
I’m really liking the way this list plays. It has just enough orders in the right places. This list was also designed to cover Biotechvore, so I’ve got a bunch of links in it. The Dakini and Husong are there to die if necessary in ARO, and the Hsien and Crane do all the work, otherwise. Taowu is there for the fun of it.
Qualified Immunity v2
GROUP 1
8
3
CRANE AGENT (Lieutenant, Sensor, Triangulated Fire, X Visor) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) ( ) / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (+1.5 | 46)
CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
GROUP 2
HSIEN Heavy Machine Gun, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 55)
ZHÀNYING (Hacker, Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges ( ) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0.5 | 25)
CSU (Specialist Operative) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 11)
HÙSÒNG Yaókòng Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 24)
DAKINI MULTI Sniper Rifle / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 20)
TÁOWÙ (Counterintelligence) Nanopulser(+2B), Flash Pulse(+1B) / Viral Pistol(+1B), Monofilament CC Weapon. (0 | 25)
7.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Dan’s got a fun mixed link powering a Haidao MSR and then a collection of tools in the first group, and group 2 is a linked Karhu Feuerbach and a spare Beasthunter.
Dan (dfocke)
GROUP 11
ORC (Lieutenant) MULTI Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 31)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
HǍIDÀO (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle ( ) / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 33)
VALERYA GROMOZ (Hacker) Combi Rifle, Zapper, Pitcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 21)
GROUP 2
BULLETEER Spitfire / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 26)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
GŬILÁNG (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 26)
VARANGIAN Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
KARHU Feuerbach(+1B), AP Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 35)
BEASTHUNTER FTO (Minelayer) Heavy Flamethrower, Panzerfaust, AP Mines / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
I took deployment so Dan took first turn. He set up his Haidao link on the right, with the Haidao prone, intending to use it as an attack piece for his turn. I think he put it prone in case I had an albedo guy like I did last time I faced him:
He scattered his camo infiltrators behind some midfield terrain just outside the exclusion zone, and then the Karhu went on the left with a Varangian per side to support.
The Warcor was out to fight the world, and the Bulleteer was tucked in the back to defend against AD and to be a later turn attack piece. I set up the Crane and the Kuang Shi on the right to basically secure the area against Tiger Soldiers and then put the Hsien in the middle on an elevated position to engage targets of opportunity on my turn. The Dakini covered a corner-to-corner firelane, and the three Husong covered the two outer consoles.
I think the Karhu was Dan’s reserve, mine was the Dakini.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – White Company
I took two orders from Dan’s second group to neuter that group. He decided to make a play for the objectives and set up smoke for the Pathfinder on my left. This blocked LoF to the Husong there, so the Pathfinder was able to approach that console.
Unfortunately for Dan, it took something like five orders to pass a WIP roll on that console. Finally it got the console flipped and had just enough orders to back up 6″.
He then sent in one of the Guilang on my right in view of a TR bot and my Dakini. I discovered with the Dakini, figuring that the boarding shotgun wouldn’t be able to hit the Dakini at this range and the TR bot would easily take it out. I got the discover off…
so the Guilang just hung out in cover after its second move. Dan then set up smoke for his Karhu to challenge the Husong on my right and the Dakini. While the Husong drops, the Dakini pastes the Karhu even through smoke.
With that it’s to me.
Bottom of 1 – ISS
My objective for the turn is to get a heater on and do as much damage as possible while keeping Dan boxed into his deployment zone. I start by taking down the Guilang minelayer that I discovered last turn with the Dakini.
I keep slicing the pie and drop the Warcor next.
More slicing and the Pathfinder drops.
I’ve got a full first pool still, so I decide to go and flip the center console. The Hsien easily downs the Varangian on my left and that link climbs onto the center platform.
The Zhanying flips my deployment zone heater on…
then I throw the CSU into suppression watching Dan’s table half.
I’ve got a few more orders left so I tidy up the Kuang Shi’s positioning a bit (some couldn’t be in cover due to the 12″ deployment zone)…
and back the Hsien up with a pair of Husong watching various angles.
I’m feeling pretty okay about my positioning and I’m out of orders so I pass turn.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – White Company
Dan sends in his camo beasthunter and super jumps into view of the Hsien and CSU. I dodge them both. The CSU fails but the Hsien succeeds, and the CSU dies to the flamethrower, but the Beasthunter is also in view of both the Dakini and a Husong and is riddled with bullets.
Dan’s remaining Varangian sets up smoke on my right, which lets his Haidao KHD push on the last console.
It does manage to turn on the last heater, but doesn’t survive two TR bots and a linked Dakini MSR firing at it.
Valerya then tries to deal with the Hsien by firing pitchers at it. The Haidao stands up at this time as well.
The Hsien beats Valerya’s Oblivion attempt but the Zhanying lands hers, ending the threat.
With that, it’s back to me.
Bottom of 2 – ISS
Well, I need to remove the heavy weapons from the table and then I can sort out the details on Turn 3. I start with the Haidao and easily remove it with the Hsien.
I then use the Crane to get rid of the Bulleteer by dodging into view and throwing a Triangulated Fire at the Bulleteer.
There’s a Varangian nearby, so I throw some fire in that direction too, but it makes a good smoke throw and that’s it.
With the Varangian so close, I swap the Crane with a Kuang Shi to block up the approach and then work on getting the rest of the board developed.
I push one of the Husong forward to guard my HVT and split burst on the repeaters to get rid of them.
I’m pretty close to the remnants of the Haidao’s link, so I put the Husong into suppression.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – White Company
With two heaters on, Dan’s gonna score some points for that, so he sets up the rest of his list to hold down the approaches to the heaters.
Bottom of 3 – ISS
I need to get the Zhanying into base contact with the heaters, but first I need to clear the AROs. I’d rather not use her order pool to do it, but sometimes you just gotta get it done with what you’ve got. The Orc has high BS so that’s the real concern. I force it prone with the Hsien.
The Dakini pastes Valerya…
then the Orc…
and then I paste the Fusilier with the Hsien.
I’d like to shoot the Guilang in the back, but I can’t get the Crane there through the Varangian in suppression, and take a wound. I go prone to as to still secure the HVT.
I’m forced to use the Husong to take out the Guilang instead…
which lets me set up smoke on the objective.
I have just enough orders to get the Zhanying into base contact and CC attack with a D-charge to take down the heater.
The Crane secures the HVT, and that’s game.
I’ve killed more, have the exclusion zone, and have the same number of heating units making it a
8-2, 265-22 Imperial Service Victory!
Post Game Analysis
I think Dan had a bit of a pacing issue here. Obviously his dice sucked on that WIP roll on the first turn, but if you fail a “free” WIP roll on the first turn just move on and do something else with you turn. I had tons of ARO presence, but only the Hsien can see through smoke and it was prone. I think there was enough to get in there and start isolating things like the Hsien, perhaps, which would have made things really quite irritating.
The Haidao was also left prone for my first turn–admittedly I think he made a good call to deploy prone, in case I pin it with something with Albedo, but it’s really the only thing that’s providing any sort of board presence. The bad dice sort of made Dan over-commit to the WIP roll plan when he could have picked apart some of my pieces with smoke and hacking, and then I’d have to stabilize when he has midfield board control and a bunch of Guilang and Beasthunters, which is a more difficult prospect.
The other that I think was an issue was feeding kills to the Dakini and the TR bot. I think the Karhu definitely was the wrong tool in the wrong rangeband to challenge the Dakini. He’s on 7s due to smoke and cover, and I’m on 8s, due to smoke and range. That’s way too close of odds for comfort, especially since that’s one of your key attack pieces. Getting a Varangian up to chain rifle some stuff would have been great, or just get smoke further up the field.
A lot of the kills happened because something pushed outside of smoke–spend the extra order to attempt a spec-fire smoke if you have to, that way you’ll have an order next turn on something that survived. So yeah, I think maybe a slight over-commitment to the objective plan happened, which caused pacing and attrition issues. Admittedly it did force me to go for the D-Charge on the heater–something I rarely if ever have done, but it was just far too costly. It’s only one additional point–killing more army points and securing the exclusion zone are basically 5 points that you can get for just murder (the objectives are mutually beneficial).
It just feels more efficient to attack stuff in this scenario first. Going second is obviously very strong in an area control mission also. Thanks for reading!
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