With the conclusion of the Block 2, we are halfway through our Infinity Escalation League. This block was 200 points, no link teams, no smoke, no TAGs. Remotes were and have been available and it was a day for Rui Shi, party master remote extraordinaire.
Game 1 was against PanOceania as we played the Frontline mission. My opponent was rocking Mendoza, a couple of Peacemaker bots, a Total Reaction bot, a REM Driver to enhance said Total Reaction bot, a new Curator (engineer for Military Orders), a hidden Hexas Sniper, and a Fusilier.
I had two new models for Dahshat painted up so they needed to see some table time. I had a Hunzakut and a Fanous (flash bot). Not the craziest units to bring in but I was just looking to beef up orders with the cheap flash bot and put some additional pressure on the midfield with my Hunzakut. To apply even more pressure, I added the Zencha and put my ace hacker, Gromoz, in play as well. I decided to be brave and put in the Zuyong HMG regenerating lieutenant to see how that goes.
I snapped a pic of the board state late so some things are missing and moved around. I lost the roll and PanOceania decided to go for a league objective and go second letting me force him to also deploy first. We also played classified and so our HVTs are out there as well. Mine is right next to my Zencha while PanO’s was right opposite the terrain piece of the Hunzakut.
I knew the TR bot was going to be the critical piece here so I decided to see where I could go with Rui Shi in the building. We were playing that you can shoot into and out of buildings but not straight through them. I went in and barely caught sight of the right flank Peacemaker. It shotgunned me since I was just out of template range. I through 4 dice at it with the Spitfire and it fell. After the shots, we realized that the TR Bot could also have shot but since we’d already played it out and PanO didn’t call it, we left it as a missed opportunity. The pilot probably was in the bathroom or getting more nachOs.
Since I clearly couldn’t go further with the Rui Shi until the TR Bot was dealt with, I pushed the Liberto forward to take it out. It got a face full of HMG and shotgun but put both blasts into the bot and it died. There was nothing left of the Liberto when the dust settled but he did a critical job. The client will be happy.
With Rui Shi free to roam about the cabin, he decided to just make a huge mess of things. He ran through the corridor and fired out to the Peacemaker that took down the Liberto and got him in one. Next he ran straight out of the building and murdered the REM Driver. He took a shot at the Curator as well but she was able to tank a hit and dive into full cover. Rui Shi still saw little blips of life on his monitor so he ran over and murdered the Fusilier cowering in the back corner.
On the way, the Hexas decided she couldn’t hide and even though she was ill equipped to fight close up, she tried to harass Rui Shi as much as she could. Neither could win the repeated engagements as Rui Shi lit up her friends. Out of orders and out of time, Rui Shi parked in the backfield of the PanO deployment zone daring whoever was left to come out and play.
PanO was in Loss of Lieutenant but had some religious troops to soften that blow. The Hexas eventually took down Rui Shi while the Curator tried to get to a bot in need and revive him. The gizmo kit shot failed and she climbed on the roof to try to escape.
I couldn’t have the Engineer reviving bots so I sent the Zuyong up the roof and took her down. At this point, the game was basically done. I could kite around the rest of the PanO forces like Mendoza and the Hexas didn’t have enough orders to really get anywhere to contribute in the two remaining turns. I decided, I’d keep the battle going and engage to try to put PanO into retreat instead of guaranteeing a victory. There were several classified objectives I could easily try since the board was so open but rolling dice and shooting stuff is more fun.
Mendoza came out to play and I shot at him repeatedly. That guy is a beast. Eventually I got a damage in but he berserked into Fiddler before that. Fiddler D-charged him in the face but all three AP hit were swatted aside as she melted on his sword. My HMG was the one to get a hit in but even then, it was just blocked hit after blocked hit.
I had Lu Duan and the Zencha come out to see if their auto flame and AP SMG could do it but nope. Guy was unstoppable. Eventually Mendoza killed my Zencha and there was nothing left for him to do as he had so few orders to work with. I ended up with one of my classified objectives and 3 objective points. PanO got 2 of their classifieds to end out the game.
Dahshat Wins! 4-2
Next up I played against my Escalation League Nomad enemy. We were playing pretty light since the day was growing long and so he decided to try to out Jock my Jocks team. I kept the same list and told him it was ok to break the “no TAGs” rule. So he did so with gusto. He threw down two Geckos, the new Gator, and ended with two alguaciles.
We rolled and it came up with the Frontline mission again. I blew the roll off and Nomads chose to go first. I had him deploy and then set up my team in the denser side of the board.
A couple of coordinated orders and the three TAGs were out in force. The Gecko with his gun up was proxying for the Gator since the model hasn’t released yet. I popped out a Liberto as he rounded the corner. A shotgun blast did a damage on the Gator and then the Gator put one back in him. The Liberto has dogged so until he takes another damage, he won’t drop until the end of the turn.
Nomads spent several more activations just trying to take him down and eventually, Liberto fell, doing what he does best. Sufficiently stalled, the Geckos have to activate individually to get around the board and start flanking my units.
The Gecko came around and took down the Lu Duan after it got a hit in with a surprise shot. Fiddler dodged several times and finally got into cc range and D-charged the Gecko off the table. The action came at a price as she was wounded.
Before the Gator ended the round, he ran up and snuck a mine dispenser shot up on the roof where Gromoz was waiting. The mine just sat there staring at Gromoz, daring her to try to hack something. This pretty much ate up anything I was going to do with her as she has a pretty basic dodge and sitting there not doing anything was better than losing her order contribution. I was doing ok with the TAGs so far so we could always play desperate if we needed to.
The Hunzakut’s whole job was to drop a repeater so Gromoz could take control of one and run around killing things. But with Gromoz tied up, she didn’t have much else to do. She decides to pop up and surprise shot the Gator. She templates instead of shooting and takes a hit but deals another hit with her shotgun blast. Rui Shi comes out to try to take down the Gator but whiffs the spitfire rolls and takes a hit to the face, dropping him. S’ok little guy, you did good work last game and double-headers are hard.
Fiddler tries to play fast and loose on my turn and decides not to risk the bot rescue (and get shot by the Gator and Gecko). Instead she draws down on them both with her contender and splits fire. Be bold! Gator drops but so does Fiddler to the Gecko reaction shot. At this point, I’ve got a lot of people down and I only four active units going (one of which is babysitting a land mine in her lap).
I pop up my Zuyong HMG and start firing at the Gecko. It does nothing and I end my turn. It is down to one Gecko and two alguacile (on of which keeps climbing up to the top of a building and pretending he’s a sniper. His shot fails every time).
The Gecko and Zuyong engage in an endless stream of fire. Four straight activations come at the Zuyong and he tanks hit after hit. I end up down a wound by the end of Nomad’s second turn but the Gecko also took a wound. My turn to rain fire!
I get the Panzerfaust in play and the Gecko takes a full shot but only takes one wound (one more to go!). The Zuyong and Gecko keep going at it but we get nowhere. Nomad turn three comes up and Gecko tries to make for cover to escape the two elevated shooters. Panzerfaust misses and Zencha take two hits to drop but the HMG strikes home and takes the Gecko down. The “sniper” Alguacile fires at the Zuyong HMG and actually drops him. Maybe they’ll make a sniper out of him yet!
It is down to the Flashbot and Gromoz and to win, I just need to get someone out of my deployment zone. But wait! Zuyong HMG has regeneration and rolls at the end of Nomad’s turn three and succeeds! He’s up and on the move. He can easily get out of his little tower, taking down the “sniper” Alguacile in the process. A hero to his people! Zuyong HMG carries victory for the Dahshat Company. Another satisfied client and some nice hard cash in Zuyong’s wallet.
Dahshat Wins! 2-0
Block Two is now complete. I didn’t get the max games in this time due to being out of town but I was still happy to rep Dahshat as much as I could. Block Three is 250 points and will run for four weeks to give us time to paint and play up to three games. I hope to get more of my Dahshat stuff painted up soon and need to start also planning for my 300 point finale.