Hidden Flame
I was supposed to play Adam in B-Pong, but Marko (markob) was patiently waiting for a game when I arrived a bit before Adam so I rescued Marko and played a game versus his USARF. Adam got a game in too against another late arrival, so everyone wins!
Overview
- Mission: ITS15 B-Pong
- Forces: Yu Jing versus USAriadna Ranger Force (300)
- Deploy First: Yu Jing
- First Turn: USARF
I’ve been talking with Pete (YueFei23) about running a Hsien lieutenant with MULTI Rifle, so I figured I’d take this list:
Hsien Party
GROUP 1
6
4
GROUP 2
HSIEN (Lieutenant [+1 Order], Specialist Operative]) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (+1 | 54)
CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / CC Weapon, Pistol. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
1
DÀOFĚI Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 55)
GŬILÁNG (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
PHEASANT IMPERIAL AGENT (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, E/Mitter, Madtraps / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 27)
MAJOR LUNAH VIRAL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 29)
HÙNDÙN (X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 27)
WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
7 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
It’s a bit silly, but I just had to after assembling these guys:
Marko’s playing this USARF list with the UKR leading a bunch of Grunts and an Ohio leading a pair of Marauders. He’s got some infiltrating Grunts as well and an Blackjack AP HMG.
Marko (MarkoB)
GROUP 1
GRUNT (Lieutenant) Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
UNKNOWN RANGER AP Spitfire, Chain-colt / Heavy Pistol, T2 CC Weapon. (1 | 47)
ROSIE Light Rocket Launcher, Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 22)
GROUP 2
FOXTROT (Forward Observer) Rifle, Flash Pulse, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 18)
BLACKJACK AP Heavy Machine Gun, Chest Mines, Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 38)
MINUTEMAN (NCO) AP Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 35)
MARAUDER (Paramedic) Rifle, Heavy Flamethrower ( | MediKit) / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 24)
6 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
Marko took deployment so I took second turn. My read of B-Pong suggested to me that second turn has a big advantage, so I leaned into that. I figured the Hundun would help me. If I’m fighting USARF, I have to assume Van Zant. Cue the Kuang Shi facing backwards and Lunah watching my back table edge! I put the Weibing on the left to support the Guilang–sensor camo tokens and then shoot them with the Guilang, and the Daofei was within a long-skill jump of the big central hexagon building roof.
I built a little hiding spot for the Hsien if I needed it, and put my Warcor on the back table edge. The two Hundun were hiding on the grey building on my deployment zone and on the ground, just outside of blast radius of the Kuang Shi Controller. I decided to cover the same central firing lane to really gum up the works. I had no idea what was coming, but I knew I wnated some options. This positioning would also help me fight Van Zant if I really needed it.
Marko put his Grunt link in the middle along with his Marauders, then a Foxtrot on either side to handle the consoles. Thankfully he failed both Grunt infiltrator rolls on my side of the table.
I was holding the Hsien in reserve to hide it from a Devil Dog or something, so when there wasn’t one (yet) I put it down on the right to balance out my specialist density. Marko’s reserve was the Blackjack on Lunah’s side.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – USARF
I decided to take two orders from Marko’s second pool to limit the effectiveness of the Marauder link. Marko starts off by moving the AP HMG Blackjack. I decide to reveal Lunah while it’s out of cover. I know this is not an optimal play, but I figured I’d play the odds and see what happened:
| 33.2 | 24.0 | 42.8 |
It doesn’t go my way. Oh well. The way clear, the Foxtrot on that side shuffles the beacon forward.
Marko then starts moving the UKR’s link. I wait for all the Grunts to be bunched up and reveal the Hundun and tag all four of them, burning two down, leaving only a grunt, Rosie, and the UKR.
Marko thinks he’s safe to engage with the UKR because the other link members out of line of fire of the Hundun, but I’ve got two! I reveal the second, tagging the last Grunt and Rosie. Marko elects to just fight it out with the UKR and the Hundun, and I beat him by one on the die and burn him and the last grunt down, leaving only Rosie.
She’s tough as nails though, and takes out the Hundun on the roof…
before forcing the other one into cover.
The other Foxtrot moves the Beacon some more and then recamos.
Bottom of 1 – Yu Jing
My objective is to reset the Beacon this turn and get it onto Marko’s side of the table. I decide to do that with the Weibing by going after the Foxtrot on the left and sensoring it out of camo. I have to fight my way past Rosie first, and manage to put her dogged. I don’t really want to keep fighting her, so I sort of stop and think about it for a bit.
The other Foxtrot is out of camo, so the Daofei surprise shots it down.
I then use the Hsien’s giant order pool to move the Beacon back to the center of the table by tagging the console on the right. I then cautious move past the Blackjack (who is in suppression), and take Rosie out, taking a wound in the process. Scary!
I punt the Beacon 4″ over the centerline and decide to retreat instead of pushing my luck.
Turn 2
Pretty low score so far. 1-0 me for having the Beacon over the centerline.
Top of 2 – USARF
After consolidating his combat groups, Marko goes to work, sending in the Ohio. Unfortunately for him, it gets flash pulsed by my heroic Weibing.
I manage to dodge away from the Foxtrot’s attack as well.
The Foxtrot places a mine and retreats before pushing the button, failing the WIP roll. I just dodge the Weibing and clear the mine for free.
With that, it’s back to me after the Blackjack shifts a bit.
Bottom of 2 – Yu Jing
I let some of the Kuang Shi impetuous forward, intending to use them this turn. The Daofei drops the Ohio easily as I can catch it out of cover from my position.
I sneak the Guilang up onto a roof…
and remove the Foxtrot on my left.
The Weibing moves the Beacon even further to make things difficult, and then the Hsien coup de graces the Foxtrot for half of Predator.
I get a Kuang Shi onto the console on the right, and retreat the Hsien again.
Turn 3
It’s 3-0 me now, still a pretty low-scoring game.
Top of 3 – USARF
I trade a Kuang Shi for a Marauder, and Marko shuffles some things around and throws them all into suppression.
Bottom of 3 – Yu Jing
Rather than make a big fuss about it, I land smoke on the approach to the Beacon, KO something for Predator, and secure the Beacon.
That’s game.
7-0, 239-92 Yu Jing Victory!
Post Game Analysis
FINALLY! New missions! Hooray! B-Pong is pretty similar to my Critical Mass mission, which I prefer (but of course I’m biased). That 6″ reset is brutal. You really need to push it pretty far, but if you do that, it’s easier for the enemy to control. In some sense, a very shallow angle and tucked behind some boxes just over the centerline but towards the table edge might be one way to do it.
Also, the way the Beacon moves is really confusing. Just give it a silhouette and make it move like a model. Done. Sure, it can climb stairs and stuff then, but that’s kinda fun. This is a great mission because it’s different and that’s exciting. I’m not even sure I like it, it’s just new and refreshing! I’m eager to try out the other new (to me at least) missions, and I’ll probably do that before returning to B-Pong.
As far as the list goes, I like it. It needs a little more long range teeth, but I felt I kinda had the tools I needed. Had I come up against a stronger ARO presence I think I would have been in trouble though. I definitely wasted Lunah, and I think Marko could have capitalized on that a little more, but he also had no idea that I had the Hundun there. The Hsien’s extra SWC makes counting SWC a little hard for those not intimately familiar with Yu Jing (and plus who takes Hsien MULTI Rifles?), so there’s that as well.
I do think I need to slot a Tiger or Liu Xing or something. Maybe one Hundun is enough, but two just felt so good this game. I was saying to Marko after that it might’ve looked really big-brained to have done what I did with the Hundun, but I really just decided to fight the same firelane to delay whatever nonsense was coming my way. I got fabulously lucky too winning the face to face against the UKR as well–that shouldn’t have happened:
| 4.7 | 25 | 70.6 |
Honestly, Marko’s first turn was fine, it was just the double Hundun surprise that did him in. Without being able to do any significant damage I just had too many orders and tools left, and he was in somewhat awkward positions. Also, me being able to basically undo most of his second turn by dodge-clearing the mine in ARO was really bad too–basically he lost a turn.
So yeah, this is definitely a case of hidden deployment having a really big impact and then the bad luck snowballing after that. Thanks for reading!
I also like your mission more, but tjis one has its own tweaks with the consoles. I took first turn because I used a vanilla Marut list and went out with 5 to 4 or 3 win, but it definitly favoures 2nd turn.