If A Kiel Saan
falls in the forest… been busy writing missions for Operation Edgelord, so I had to test them. Thanks to James for being my testing partner. You can check out the mission here:
Overview
- Mission: BAMS v0.1 Dead or Alive
- HVT: Designation
- HVT: Identity Check
- HVT: Inoculation
- HVT: Kidnapping
- Forces: Caledonian Highlander Army versus Yu Jing (300)
- Deploy First: Yu Jing
- First Turn: Yu Jing
The basic idea of the mission is based on the mission The Thing from the Humboldt Irregular, which in turn is based on Unmasking. In short, there are three Persons of Interest (PoI)… one of them is a Kiel Saan. Base to base them to find out which one!
The other two are just normal HVTs, and there’s a shared tableau of 4 HVT-only classifieds to get off of them. I decided to take Caledonia, because it’s hilarious. Jeff over at Shiv hasn’t bee able to sell me a 4th Cateran (boo) so I’m stuck with only 3. Le sigh.
A Good Time
GROUP 1 
1
5
2
GROUP 2
WALLACE (Lieutenant) T2 Rifle(+1 Dam), Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 35)
CAMERONIAN Chain Rifle(+1B), Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
CATERAN T2 Sniper Rifle / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (1 | 23)
S.A.S. (Forward Observer) Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse, D-Charges / Pistol, AP + Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 21)
HIGHLANDER GREY Heavy Machine Gun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 28)
CALEDONIAN MORMAER (NCO, X Visor) T2 Rifle, Chain-colt ( ) / Heavy Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 36)
ISOBEL McGREGOR T2 Rifle, D-Charges, E/M Mines, Flash Pulse / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 24)
VOLUNTEER (Paramedic) Rifle ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
I really wanted to try just vanilla FO SAS and the Mormaer, so I decided to just make a bunch of concessions for that. James is replaying the list he took last time…
James (RomanLegion)
GROUP 1GROUP 2
DĀOYĪNG (Lieutenant [+1 Order], Hacker, Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun ( ) / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 30)
CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / CC Weapon, Pistol. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
HÚLÁNG (Forward Deployment [+8″]) Combi Rifle, Light Flamethrower, E/M Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon. (0 | 41)
BEASTHUNTERS (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage, Forward Deployment [+8″]) Heavy Flamethrower, Panzerfaust, AP Mines / EXP CC Weapon(+1B), Pistol. (0 | 17)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8)
MAJOR LUNAH VIRAL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 29)
KRAKOT RENEGADE Chain Rifle(+1B), Grenades / DA CC Weapon, Heavy Pistol. (0 | 14)
TIGER SOLDIER (Paramedic) Combi Rifle, Light Flamethrower ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 31)
YĀN HUǑ (Neurocinetics [+1B]) Missile Launcher / CC Weapon, Heavy Pistol. (1.5 | 45)
BÌXIÉ MULTI Rifle, Zapper, Flash Pulse / Pistol, E/M CC Weapon. (0 | 41)
SHAOLIN Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
4.5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
… with one major change. The Bao is now Lunah.
Deployment
I won the rolloff and took deployment, forcing James to deploy first. We’re on the airplane table. James is probably the person with the second most experience on the table, since he’s most often my sparring partner on it. It’s such a great travel table because it sets up and breaks down so quickly. James set himself up for a pincer, using the Libertos on the right to cover the PoI with a mine and the Beasthunter and Krakot on the left. The Hulang went in the middle, with the Shaolin backing it up. The Yan Huo just sat in overwatch on the whole table, with Bixie on the right.
I set up the SAS to contest the center and left PoI from my perspective, and then covered a ton of long distance firelanes with the Caterans. The two on the left covered the left and the center one, respectively (along with the center Cateran covering the Yan Huo). The rightmost Cateran covered Bixie’s approach, and I set up Isobel and the Grey to cover the approach on the right, but as we’ll see it wasn’t enough. I was going to have to rely on the SAS to handle the center and the left, with the Grey link in the middle to deal with problems and the Volunteers protecting Wallace.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Yu Jing
James starts off by sending in the Shaolin to try and make things happen. He just wants to get the central PoI revealed, hoping that it’s the Kiel Saan. I have a shot with the Cateran, but I decide to let this go. I want him to commit and invest. He obliges and lands a smoke to block LoF, then reveals the central PoI as a normal HVT. This is quite disappointing to him, but it is what it is.
Bixie starts her run on the leftmost PoI (my perspective). There’s a sliver that the smoke doesn’t cover, so I reveal the Cateran on the right and land a hit, but James passes ARM.
James then does the crazy thing and bases the PoI, revealing it as the Kiel Saan, who immediately CCs Bixie. This forces James to either dodge or CC, and he chooses CC. This is of course in full view of the leftmost Cateran, who reveals and takes the shot, dropping Bixie. For what it’s worth, Bixie did hit with CC, but hte Kiel Saan passed both saves.
With Bixie down, James dumps all of his orders into the Beasthunter. I try to discover with the Cameronian, but it doesn’t work.
I try to dodge to block the Beasthunter,…
but it has Super Jump and just leaps over the Cateran.
James doesn’t want to deal with the Cameronian, and since it’s out of position, Lunah hops onto the plane wing and challenges the Cateran on the left and the Cameronian, splitting burst to maximize efficiency in the saturation zones. It does drop the Cameronian, but Lunah is deleted by the Cateran and the ARO fire from the Kiel Saan.
With the Cameronian out of the way, James rolls the Beasthunter into base with Wallace, and has a moment where he waffles between CCing Wallace or dropping a flamethrower template on the Cateran, a Volunteer, and Wallace. Wallace manages to stay up in NWI, but both the Cateran and the Volunteer fail their dodges. The Cateran passes his ARM save, but the Volunteer goes unconscious. Wallace applies claymore to face, and and Beasthunter is exploded.
James has three orders, so he spends one repositioning the Hulong and a second throwing it into suppression. He gives up on the last order and that’s that.
Bottom of 1 – CHA
With the Beasthunter down, Wallace is safe. That was probably the turning point of the game, to have Wallace survive and only the Volunteer go down. The remaining Cameronian pushes up to set up smoke in the middle. Then I get cocky and try to drop the Yan Huo and the Shaolin by splitting burst with the Cateran in the center. Everyone whiffs, including the Shaolin’s smoke.
I try again with the Cateran and lose it to a missile. This time, the Shaolin lands smoke.
With the Cateran down, I have to set up smoke. My hope is I can get the SAS in there to retrieve the HVT that James revealed, and to do that I have to intuitive attack the Shaolin. The Cameronian makes it happen, then I set up for an intuitive attack by using Wallace’s order to move the Cameronian into the smoke.
Before I do this, I decide to try and be as efficient as possible and bring back the Volunteer with my Paramedic. It fails, killing the Volunteer…
then the same happens to the downed Cameronian. Of course, we had forgotten about how Shock from Viral applies here, so this just ends up being an order tax. Oh well.
In any case, the O-12 command token gets me another order to intuitive attack the Shaolin, and I fail the WIP roll. This does let me measure the range, though…
so I get the SAS to just outside of boarding shotgun range (James is crazy and took the BSG Shaolin) and intuitive attack. This time, with the surprise attack, it gets the job done. Phew!
I don’t have the orders to get the HVT safely due to the Kiel Saan being on overwatch, so I settle for re-camoing the SAS and setting up for turn 2.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – Yu Jing
The Cameronian is just sort of chilling in the middle of the table, and James decides that can’t stand, so he starts shooting at it with the Hulong. I dodge forward, intending to just be a huge jerk and drain as many orders as possible.
James focuses on something else and drops in a Tiger behind the Cateran on my left. I fail the dodge…
twice, and lose the Cateran.
The Hulong tries its luck again and I keep dodging forward.
Finally I decide I’m close enough to start chain rifling, and we trade wounds.
The Hulang tries again. I debate if I should Chain Rifle again, but I second guess myself and decide to dodge again, successfully dodging the combi rifle fire.
James doesn’t want to trade the Hulong, so he brings up a Celestial Guard to take a shot at the Cameronian. I dodge successfully again.
Finally, the Hulong and the Cameronian trade, both dropping.
James moves the Krakot up and passes turn.
Bottom of 2 – CHA
Well, I can’t get the middle HVT, so I’ll just get the right one. I need to set up smoke, and the Grey had shifted behind smoke previously, leaving the Mormaer in view of the Yan Huo. I can’t move now, so I break the link and send in the Grey, trying to take out the Tiger as I move.
I get smoke down, and then the SAS extracts the HVT, snagging HVT: Designation while we’re walking.
With Wallace in the main group, I use his coordinated to shift a bunch of stuff to cover the Krakot’s approach, and pass turn.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – Yu Jing
As expected, the Krakot pushes forward and chain rifles the SAS and the Cateran, who both dodge successfully. Between the Grey and the Mormaer, the Krakot drops.
James decides he wants to make a play for picking Bixie up, so he moves the Tiger in to do it, the Tiger having dodged out of LoF of the Grey earlier. The Tiger whiffs the MediKit, and the nearby SAS chain rifles it unconscious.
With that, James decides he can’t get the Kiel Saan, so he goes for killing it. He starts by trying to shotgun it with the Libertos, but the Kiel Saan survives. The Libertos, on the other hand, eats a T2 round from the Cateran and is deleted.
James dumps all the rest of his orders into the Celestial Guard to take down the Kiel Saan, denying me the ability to get those points.
Bottom of 3 – CHA
The SAS makes it into the trees where the Volunteers are. I get HVT: Inoculation…
then Wallace nabs HVT: Kidnapping and Secure the HVT.
This makes it a
4-0, 208-108 Caledonian Highlander Army Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Well, I think the scenario works, but man it’s hard to deal with the Kiel Saan. I think you need to stock E/M or ADHL weaponry for the mission. I like that there’s an escape valve with all the HVT objectives in case something bad happens with the Kiel Saan. There are a few rules interactions that need to be cleaned up still, but I think the core of the mission is fine.
As far as the game goes, I think James was too aggressive. He pushed too hard on the persons of interest and took unnecessary risks. He did take one calculated risk on trying to take out Wallace (but got a bit greedy trying to flamethrower him). Had that gone his way he probably would’ve had the game. Hard to deal with a Beasthunter in CHA, have to hunt it down or just hope you can discover it on the way in with enough distance left to land a template on it. That’s what I was trying to do–get the Cameronian into base with it when it finally revealed. Of course, Cameronians are awful at dodging–sure they’re high PH, but they only dodge 2″!
In any case, this comes down to a simple case of overextension, a critical gambit failing, and then just me following through on my game plan of ignoring the Kiel Saan and playing to the HVT objectives. I think James also over-invested trying to kill the Cameronian at the top of 2. He had other options available, but I think his order pools really made a bad situation worse. Thanks for reading!
