Infinity Spring Escalation League is in full swing as the last of block 1 games play out. I got two more quick 150 point games in this past week including playing against the Japanese Sectorial, which is the first time I’ve seen these units.
First up was some more Jock vs Nerd action as I squared off against some more Nomads. My list has a slight change as I dropped my hacker (since she went completely unused) and added in the formidable Lu Duan remote.
I also switched around the Lieutenant and made him my HMG Zuyong this time. From what I can recall, the Nomads dropped the Uberfallkommandos and went with a bunch of Morlocks.
The grouping was definitely different but I’m pretty confident in the actual units listed. The Nomads really leaned heavy on the nerd side with two powerful hackers and a lot of ability to get midfield or deep penetrating repeaters on the board. The Missile bot would help take out hard targets after the hackers spotlight my most dangerous pieces.
We played on the appropriately small board this time for the 150 points. I chose deployment this time and Nomads chose to go first. Nomads set up everything but the Heckler on the left side. I held back my Liberto again and the Heckler was placed and I put my Liberto up on the right side with a mine just to his left to decoy.
First thing up is the Hecklers get into action and throw out some fast panda repeaters close enough to tag several of my units. Nomads hate Rui Shi so they start targeting him with spotlight. When that works, the missile bot starts raining down hell. Rui Shi is able to survive miraculously a couple of shots but is finally taken off the board. Nomads turn their attention to my other bot, the Lu Duan and waste some orders on my echoes. Out of orders, the Nomads turtle up. All the Morlocks stay put and hold back their initial impetuous orders.
I know that the missile bot has to go down or this game will be over next round. Nomads can just hide back in their zone and guided missile me to death. Liberto steps up to the plate and rushes forward around the right flank. He moves straight in and gets discovered by a Morlock on the way but his position is set. The next order, he comes out in view of another Morlock and the missile bot catching both in light shotgun range. Nomads get confused and shoot both a missile and chain rifle at the Liberto.
The Liberto dies but does take down the missile bot. The Morlock tanks both hits but the damage is done. The missile bot should have tried to dodge to give it a 50% chance of not taking any saves but chose to kill instead. Maybe it was for the best as it was the missile that took the Liberto down but eating up orders is always a good move.
I start up with Fiddler and she starts moving into position. The movement gets her targeted as she goes through the repeaters. With the missile bot gone, I’m less concerned. I gunfight a Heckler and take him down and work on a Morlock, removing him as well.
With all the AROs gone, I decide to run the Warcor out to see if he can get to a panolpy. We modded the Fire Fight mission rules to say anyone can get into the panolpy and I’m really curious to see what he can get. Moving in the Nomad network also gets him targeted but he does get a mimetism -6 equipment piece. I was hoping for a big gun as it would be hilarious to see this little reporter toting some template weapon and joining in on the fight.
Nomads are stymied and hesitant so Morlocks again stay put. They aren’t contributing to his order pool in any meaningful way so there isn’t a good reason to hold them back (except by burning command tokens and converting their irregular orders to regular but there are only a few command tokens left to do that at this point…).
Nomads try to hack the Lu Duan some more and fail due to hitting the echoes. The Heckler on the building can’t decide whether to get in the fight or not so does some positioning and ultimately goes back into hiding. The back row hackers are not sure if they want to get into a real fight either so they reposition and call it good.
Fiddler gets back into the action and takes down a Morlock but then tries to take on Jazz but takes a wound. The Moderator is also out there but the gunfight is a draw and that ends my turn 2.
With only one round left, Morlocks start to come out but one gets flashed by the Warcor. The other one is able to sneak in and get to the Panolpy. He gets nothing special but ties us up for Panolpy equipment. Moderator and Jazz try to take down Fiddler but Moderator fails and goes down. The Jazz vs Fiddler fight is another draw and that ends Nomads turn 3. Fiddler ends up taking Jazz down at the end of my turn 3 and that seals my victory.
Dahshat Wins!
Game 2 was against the Japanese Sectorial (JSA). I had the same list and this is what I remember the JSA list being:
This list feels like a real escalation 150 point list. Looks like something you would see in a starter where you get three of the same chaff units (Keisotsu), a big weapon (the Ryuken), and some heavy weights (the Domaru). Oniwaban and Musashi are kind of the extra “flex” options that highlight the capabilities of the faction. They are both cc specialists with Musashi being a runner that will murder things in cc and the Oniwaban will sit and wait for the right time to strike.
We made a new small board and had a very one-sided board with all the building stairs going against one side and building completely cutting off my side of the board, funneling me into the center like a kill zone. With another new player, I decided to go second and deploy first. I deployed in a general defensive position, holding back the Liberto again.
JSA hid his Keisotsu cheerleaders in the back and the Ryuken was guarding a fire lane. Oniwaban infiltrated into my side of the board and the Domaru was on the left flank.
The Domaru come in and I pop the Liberto out of hiding to shotgun both. I get a lucky shot and both Domaru take a wound (reducing them down to one each). One of them shoots back and gets a wound in on the Liberto. Unfortunately, Liberto is Dogged and will stay alive until the end of the round or until he takes another wound. That means the one Domaru left behind is a little stuck unless he wants to eat a template weapon again.
The Domaru that got through throws an E/M grenade (speculative) over the wall to the Lu Duan echo. This time it is actually the Lu Duan and reveals as it blocks the attack. With the Lu Duan revealed, the Ryuken reveals and launches a rocket at the Warcor. The Warcor is hit but doesn’t take a wound. Unfortunately, the Lu Duan is caught in the blast and catches fire. Being a remote, it can take 2 wounds and still be on the board (though in a null state). Luckily, I still have Fiddler as an engineer and can fix him up later. To end the round, Musashi tries to move out but the warcor flashes him to a standstill.
The LIberto dies of his wounds and I start out by using my HMG to kill the Ryuken. I then spend the rest of the round getting Fiddler to the Lu Duan and healing him back up. Finally, the Warcor jumps out to the midfield to try to stall out any other advances.
JSA goes full court press and starts throwing everyone my way. Musashi decides to take the “over the top” approach like trench fighters charging up and over the zone. It works about as well as it did for those hapless World War I soldiers and Musashi is targeted by just about everyone and dies. The Domaru don’t learn the lesson and try as well. The first one dies and the second one gets through.
On my turn, the Lu Duan comes out and starts trying to shoot the Domaru down. It doesn’t work so he starts flaming him instead and Domaru goes down. The Oniwaban pops out as my Rui Shi starts to go into the middle and kills the bot easily. More Lu Duan flames burn the Oniwaban and the JSA march out their Keisotsu and get mowed down by my HMG.
Dahshat Wins!
The last of the block one games are down and now I need to move on to 200 point builds. I’ll need to assemble and paint up some more figures to get a more “Dahshat-like” feel to my army. Still won’t be able to capitalize on smoke or Fire Team rules but we’re getting there!