Slippery Dolphin
Tim (Chainsaw) and I were doing the silly thing of playing two games at once… versus each other… so it was just madness. Here’s the other game:
The Mount Doom table is a lot more dialed in than the motor pool table, so I had that going for me.
- Mission: ITS15 Battleground
- Forces: Nomads versus Ramah Task Force (300)
- Deploy First: Ramah
- First Turn: Ramah
I’m playing my Nomads list which is just hacker town and hope. See here for more details:
Shitshow
GROUP 1
10
1
1
GROUP 2
KUSANAGI (Lieutenant) MULTI Rifle, E/M Grenade Launcher, Zapper / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (+1 | 39)
DOLPHIN MULTI Heavy Machine Gun, Heavy Flamethrower / CC Weapon. (1.5 | 72)
DOLPHIN PILOT Submachine Gun, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 0)
REVEREND CUSTODIER (Hacker, Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle, Pitcher ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 31)
ALGUACIL Combi Rifle, Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 14)
REM RACER (Hacker, RemDriver [+1 BS], Hacking Device) Submachine Gun ( ) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 21)
ZOE FTO (Hacker) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 25)
PUPPET MASTERS (Hacker, Hacking Device) Submachine Gun ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 17)
MORAN (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage [1 Use]) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse, Crazykoala / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 18)
AÏDA SWANSON FTO (Minelayer) Submachine Gun, Viral Mines / Viral Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
ZONDNAUT (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 23)
ZONDMATE Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 5)
MODERATOR MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (1.5 | 16)
WARCOR (Sixth Sense) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
7 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
I’m reskinning the Lizard TAG as a Dolphin, because this is my proxy:
Tim’s Ramah list is filthy. Double Namurr, a Nahab, and plenty of backup guns. Gross.
Shitshow Ramah
GROUP 1
KHAWARIJ (Lieutenant, BS Attack [Shock]) Spitfire / Pistol, AP + Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 34)
GHULAM Heavy Machine Gun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 20)
NAFFATÛN Rifle, Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
NAMURR Spitfire, E/Marat, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, E/M CC Weapon. (1 | 43)
JANISSARY Heavy Machine Gun / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 41)
GROUP 2
KAMEEL (Hacker, EVO Hacking Device) ( ) / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 15)
RAFIQ REMOTE FTO Red Fury, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 20)
NAHAB (Parachutist, Specialist Operative) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Viral CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
BEASTHUNTER FTO (Minelayer) Heavy Flamethrower, Panzerfaust, AP Mines / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
6 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
Tim was going first so he set up his longest range guns on the mountain approach, i.e. the Janissary. The other link went on the left, that’s basically the deployment.
I couldn’t cede control of the mountain, so I put Aida and her mine up there along with the Moran and his Koala. The Warcor was up there for good measure, with the Puppeteer nearby to hack some stuff.
Zoe, the Alguacil, and Custodier were in the middle of my deployment zone to try and keep my options only, and i put the Moderator out to ARO the world on the tail fin of the VTOL. I put Kusanagi in a spot where she could land an E/M grenade long bomb on the Janissary, and dismounted the Zondnaut to try and protect it, with the Dolphin (aka Lizard) nearby and ready to fail guts into cover if necessary. Tim’s Key Ops was one of the Namurr, and mine was the dismounted Zondnaut. Funnily enough, the Zondmate got +1 BS from the Rem Racer who was on the right trying to protect my DZ from Nahabs.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Ramah
We start things off with the Janissaries getting away from Kusanagi safely–everyone whiffs at this extreme range.
The Ghulam HMG peeks the Warcor and takes her out, also at extreme range.
Then the Spitfire Namurr one-shots Kusanagi. Mimetism isn’t all that helpful if you’re out of cover from a bad angle.
The Beasthunter tries to remove the Moderator MSR, but even after falling on the ground and losing his head (womp womp) the Moderator is able to take out hte Beasthunter.
The Namurr wants to make a play on the Dolphin, so she forces the Moderator prone with a hail of Spitfire shots.
I can’t do anything against the Namurr as it approaches.
It makes it into the walled off region with the Dolphin and I open up with all the AROs I can to try and contest its dodge. It rolls extremely well and I miss all my shots.
The Namurr then walks into base with the Dolphin, and I declare CC because it’s the funniest option. We both crit on our CC attacks, so nothing happens, and Zoe and the Alguacil whiff their shots.
Tim ends the turn in base with the Dolphin, happily declaring it’s my problem to solve now. He’s not wrong!
Bottom of 1 – Nomads
I’m in loss of lieutenant, but fortunately I’m very used to being in this position with Nomads. I start by moving the Alguacil into a position where it can see the Namurr in base with the Dolphin. Tim makes his first mistake (by his reasoning) and decides to dodge around the Dolphin. This is a pretty good idea on the surface, because I’ll have to move more to see the Namurr if he does this, meaning I’ll be draining even more command token resources this turn. His thought post game was that he should have just broken CC and forced me to fight his dodge, which is quite good, to deal with him.
As it stands, the only trouble is that Zoe now has a direct shot on the Namurr. Even though the Namurr is in close combat, Zoe is within 16″ and lands all three shots. Unlike my last game against Cole’s Namurr, this time Tim fails his saves and the Namurr goes down.
I try to remove one of the Janissaries with the Dolphin’s tac aware, now that it’s out of CC with the Namurr but fail to crack the Janissary’s armor.
The Ghulam HMG is visible to Aida, who rolled a +1 burst ADHL, so I decide to take the long range shot, hoping that range, cover, and mimetism will help me out. It doesn’t save me against crits though, and Aida goes down. I probably wouldn’t have tried this were it not for being in loss and trying to be efficient, but hey, it is what it is.
I do, however, manage to land a pitcher near the Janissary’s approach on the mountain, so this at least addresses some of my board control issues.
I don’t have much in the way of orders to fix things, so I just settle everyone into better positions if they have orders and stand the Moderator MSR back up to fight the world.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – Ramah
Tim smells blood in the water and continues the aggression. He wants to get his other Namurr into the fight and uses the Janissary’s HMG to clear the way. Unfortunately for me I was unable to hide the Alguacil, so she just dies.
The Namurr keeps advancing as the Janissary challenges the Dolphin next, but the Dolphin does what TAGs are supposed to do and just sits there and takes it.
As the Namurr gets one last move on the link and sets up the Janissary AP rifle to crest the mountain, I drop a Koala with the Moran (probably not a great idea, but I was feeling a lot of pressure). The Namurr challenges the Dolphin next and takes a wound before retreating.
The Janissary AP Rifle throws itself under the bus to clear both Koalas. It passes both ARM saves and kills the Moran against the Moran’s flash pulse. Ugh.
Fortunately, the Moderator MSR comes through and downs the Jannisary HMG on the next order.
The Ghulam HMG takes revenge on the Moderator, finally silencing him.
Tim doesn’t want to leave his Namurr out in front of everything, so he climbs up a building, getting one last face to face with the Dolphin and dying to an HMG round to the face.
Bottom of 2 – Nomads
I just need to do as much damage as possible and set up defensively. I start by deleting the Ghulam HMG on the catwalk with the Dolphin.
I then hail mary the Custodier (no pun intended) up onto the mountain and challenge the AP rifle Janissary. I only have two orders to do this, and the Janissary passes all its ARM savess. That’s all my orders at this point, so I just gotta hope the Custodier can stop the Janissary.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – Ramah
Tim’s still got a Namurr, and he wants the head of my Zondnaut Key Ops as well as that of the Dolphin. The Nahab walks on and ignores the SMG shot from the Rem Racer.
This lets the Nahab get into a position where it can dodge into base with the Dolphin, who passes its dodge to get away. This was HUGE, because now I’d get one more round of shooting.
Tim tries to reduce the number of AROs coming back by using this Khawarij spitfire on the Rem Racer, who passes ARM and goes prone. Shockingly, the Zondmate having +1 BS is relevant, and I land a smoke in front of the Khawarij to make things difficult.
Tim goes for it and moves into base with the Dolphin. I declare chain rifle from the Zondmate and flamethrower from the Dolphin, figuring if the Nahab somehow fails its dodge, I’ll be in a much better place. Tim could also CC here, but that seems dangerous. I get everything I want and Tim fails his dodge and the Nahab is deleted.
The Khawarij tries to fight the Dolphin, dancing around the smoke with its super jump.
It can’t break the Dolphin’s armor and eventually the Dolphin drops it.
Bottom of 3 – Nomads
I start things off by one-shotting the Janissary with the Custodier. Phew.
At this point, I have run of the table and enough orders to get where I need to go, so we call it there.
10-0, 189-48 Nomad Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Not much to say here. Basically there were two key moments in the game–one where the first Namurr Spitfire died, and one where the Nahab failed its dodge. The rest was just me desperately fighting a delaying action and being ultra-efficient with my order expenditure. I was pretty happy with my big investment on the Custodier to get her up the mountain to delay the Janissary. That was my big risk this game, and it paid off (barely). The Dolphin and Moderator also performed excellently, taking out a Namurr and the Janissary HMG, respectively. That’s not a crazy outcome, but it’s certainly very helpful for me.
There were a number of very difficult ARO choices with the Namurr Spitfire and the Nahab being so close to all my stuff, but I don’t think there was a particularly compelling or clearly superior choice. Tim set up a number of difficult forks and I just went with my gut. It all worked out but I don’t think there’s a clear learning there other than trusting your decision making and not going into analysis paralysis there.
One big mistake I made was putting Kusanagi out to ARO like that. I didn’t think there was an angle on her, but I forget just how mobile Namurrs are. Having a E/M grenade on the Janissaries might have stymied a weaker player, but it’s not going to stop Tim from just making the play. I really enjoy my games against Tim (the few that I’ve had), because he really cuts through the nonsense and arrives at the “this will win” decision and just executes on it. I don’t mean it in the sense of “this is a highly likely to succeed face to face.” Instead I mean he finds the high-reward play and takes action on it, taking a calculated risk on the resources he’s committing. He’s of course a wonderful human too, so it’s nice to just be around him.
I was feeling quite down due to my absolute shitting the bed on the neighboring table with JSA, but I’m happy with this game in retrospect. I wasn’t in control of it for most of the game, but I did a much better job of setting up a defensive net to take advantage of the strengths of my list. One thing that’s worth noting is that the Moderator really did a lot of work this tournament, and I should consider an ABH sniper solo on occasion. The Moderator isn’t really worthwhile in a vanilla list because of the 1.5 SWC cost, but I could see spending a few extra points and 0.5 SWC for the ABH sniper if I can’t afford Le Muet for whatever reason.
Ramah is such a pain to deal with, especially when piloted by someone as competent as Tim. Great game, even though it was an absolute brawl. Thanks to Tim and thanks to you for reading!
