Game 1 - Rodok team versus JSA in rescue
JSA - Rescue
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GROUP 1
ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 26)
ARAGOTO Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 30)
KEISOTSU Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
YOJIMBO Contender, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 21)
KEMPEI (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW, Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
DOMARU Lieutenant Chain Rifle, E/M Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 25)
HARAMAKI Blitzen, Light Shotgun / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 24)
HARAMAKI Missile Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (1.5 | 33)
HARAMAKI Missile Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (1.5 | 33)
HARAMAKI Blitzen, Contender / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22)
GROUP 2
RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20)
KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
KEISOTSU Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points
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Games 1-3 were played on this table, but set up differently. Note how dense the terrain is.
I was piloting the JSA in this game. In all subsequent battle reports I am piloting the Onyx Contact Force.
Onyx had first turn and deployed first. In hindsight, I should have chosen to go first. I figured that rescue is not good for going first and he could just bloke me with snipers, but JSA really wants to go first to control the retreat condition.
The Rodoks set up in the middle with the Q-drone and noctifer nearby. Some Ikadrons, unidrons and the Maakrep set up in some rocks on a flank, with the remaining models on the other flank. My mate did not bother preparing much of a sniper trap here, using the noctifer, q-drone and rodoks to get forward on turn 1. This was necessary because both Haramaki missile launchers were set up to ping a Rodok shotgun if the link team moved. Those MLs had to be dropped before my mate could do much,
After the two MLs went down there were enough orders left for some Rodoks to super jump straight up and catch a Keisotsu or two peeking out from behind a rock. Classic Ro-dick move.
JSA started with few orders. One of the bikes couldn't move because it was pinned down by the Q-drone and the other couldn't move because it was pinned down by the Rodoks. This is where I think maybe JSA and I just don't gel. perhaps you just charge, but all my instincts say not to do that. The ftf against the Q-drone is 50-50: 4 dice on 12s against 4 dice on 11s. The ftf against the Rodoks was bad because I only had a combi and it was >16". So both cancelled their impetuous orders. Perhaps I need double spitfire, but then I wouldn't have SWC for the Rui Shi.
Yojimbo moved forward and shot smoke for the Rui Shi, but failed on his first attempt (75% chance). He used his irregular order and succeeded. The Rui Shi then put two hits on the Q-drone, but he tanked both saves despite being out of cover. This was frustrating because I needed an order on the Rui Shi to knock off a unidron blocking my other bike. I spent the last order in the group to kill the q-drone and put the Rui Shi into cover but not in suppression. The bike shot forward and killed an Ikadron trying to use a flash pulse. His unidron failed to hit as I hoped/planned (-3 for range, -3 for mimetism mean only a 25% chance to hit, and then I've still got an armour save). He then burned more orders to kill the unidrons, another unidron and an imetron before snuggling up to a civilian. I was out of gas.
Next turn was bad. A Ro-dick jumped and killed the bike, then his team spent 9 orders advancing into my space killing everything. I was about 3 points off retreat, which would have ended the game in a draw. But instead my mate got a third turn and secured a civilian while scoring a classified. Not a big win, but pretty good considering Rodoks only move 2-2 in terrain. It was after this game that we decided to build the Sphinx list specifically for Rescue.
Game 2 - Sphinx against Merovingian rapid response force in Rescue
His list was something like this:
Rescue
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GROUP 1
MOBLOT Paramedic (MediKit) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
MOBLOT Engineer Rifle, Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
MOBLOT Boarding Shotgun, Panzerfaust / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
MOBLOT Lieutenant Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
MOBLOT HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
ANACONDA Spitfire + Light Flamethrower, Panzerfaust / CCW. (2 | 62)
OPERATOR Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (- | 0)
EQUIPE MIRAGE-5 . (2 | 69)
MARGOT AP Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (37)
DUROC 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CC Weapon. (32)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
CHASSEUR (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
6 SWC | 292 Points
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Onyx deployed second into a drop zone peppered with infiltrating chasseurs - a gutsy but worthwhile gambit against my list because of my reliance on camouflage and snipers. The Q-drone set up guarding a central tunnel, the noctifer was off on a flank overlooking his moblot link and the Anaconda such that if they attempted to hit my Q-drone they would get a surprise missile in the face at >36" range, meaning that they would have to take at least 1 more missile before being able to get any sort of decent face-to-face against the assassin. The Unidrons and Ikadrons deployed on the flanks ready for any parachuting dickheads. My Sphinx deployed into the channel with the Q-drone but hidden. My expectation was that things there would be clear by turn 2, and I could make a dash for the central civilians.
I had somewhat bad luck in this game beginning from turn 1. His Anaconda managed to put my Q-drone all the way to dead in one volley, preventing my slave drone from fixing it. My noctifer also missed. It continued to miss throughout the game, killing only about 2 things despite taking maybe 6 or 7 shots. He did, however, take the Anaconda out. Meanwhile, Duroc found a place to come on where I couldn't see him. He died as soon as he got into the fray, but took 3 of my guys with him. The Chasseur and Margot then killed a couple more before dying or running out of orders. My remaining unidron managed to drop Margot with plasma, but the Chasseur proved resilient. I eventually killed him with the Sphinx, but not before he tanked two shots, allowing him to then get a flamer hit off on my Sphinx, dropping his TO. This necessitated healing him with my slave drone, who failed before running out of orders. No command token re-rolls for me. perhaps I got greedy and should have just camo-moved towards the moblots. The Sphinx then died on my opponent's next turn to Moblot fire, but at least he and the noctifer prevented any civilians from being synched. Doc worm managed to make a five order dash to secure the HVT and get into btb with a civilian on my last turn. With two orders to effect a synch and WIP 14 he stilled failed, which meant the game ended in a draw with each of us having scored 1 classified.
Despite the draw result I was still impressed by the list. The noctifer trap was easy to set up and worked quite well despite my poor rolling. Despite not having the third ARO piece, I had enough defense to hold his link team and TAG back for most of the game. Unless you have an MSV2 HMG, the noctifer is really hard to uproot and makes you burn a lot of orders going the long way round. The Sphinx was very scary even though ultimately ineffectual, and I don't imagine he will be facing superior infiltrating flamethrowers very often. He only needs 3 orders to get across to a civilian. and with 5 he can run rampant while getting there, which makes him very threatening at all times
Merovingians aren't the best practice game to judge the effectiveness of a list because they are a bit odd in their insane aggression, but I didn't get any bad feels from this game. I really want to practice against some HI teams because I think they will be common in rescue lists and I don't have many of the usual tools for taking out links teams, like assault hackers, infiltrating boarding shotguns, chain rifle warbands or grenades (though TO camo missiles are pretty good at it).
Game 3 - Rodok team versus Merovingians in Biotechvore
My opponent played a list that he described as 'really stupid, but funny', which was almost entirely infiltrators. As the virus requires -3 rolls to deploy outside of your DZ, superior infiltrating is relatively sensible in comparison, but he failed a lot of rolls and ending up with 3 guys on each edge of his DZ. Some of these guys couldn't get out of the virus in time. I deployed similarly to last time, with the Rodok team on one flank, missile overlooking the 3 metros on his flank, the noctifer in the back corner of the right hand size of my DZ, and the unidron link team over on the other flank, this time positioned so that dickhead Durok couldn't land without taking a beating.
He survived that beating thanks to total immunity (flame and plasma only hit once), and then proceeded to kill two of my dudes. A chasseur that had managed to infiltrate then burnt my Q-drone for 2 before dying to overwatch. An infiltrating moblot then came along the flank from midfield and starting killing unidrons with his rifle. They went dogged to stop Margot from arriving. She came on anyway and didn't quite get out of range of a unidron, who managed to put her down with the BTS half of his plasma shot. Meanwhile, the three failed infiltrators on the right flank tried to snipe out a Rodok and ate 2 missiles instead, disintegrating as a result.
On my turn my Maakrep scored coup-de-grace on the chasseur, then won the ftf battle against the Moblot. He then moved out of the virus, discovering Brouant along the way in midfield, but then running out of orders to do anything else. Meanwhile, my slave drone failed to revive both my Q-drone and a unidron, which both died as a consequence.
The Rodoks burned through orders moving up the flank and killing a couple of things along the way, getting them out of the virus and putting him close to retreat. We didn't play turn 2.
Game 4 - Rodok team versus Steel Phalanx in Nimbus Zone
His list for both games:
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AGÊMA Marksman Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 27)
ATALANTA MULTI Sniper Rifle + TinBot E (Spotter) / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 39)
THRASYMEDES (Fireteam: Enomotarchos) Submachine gun, Light Rocket Launcher, Nanopulser, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0.5 | 30)
THORAKITES (Forward Observer, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
THORAKITES Paramedic (Medikit, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
THORAKITES (360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
HECTOR Lieutenant Plasma Rifle, Nanopulser, Stun Grenades + 1 TinBot A / Heavy Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 71)
MACHAON Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 38)
PHOENIX Heavy Rocket Launcher, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 40)
MYRMIDON Chain Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 16)
6 SWC | 300 Points
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This was a pretty classic game against Steel Phalanx where you just can't get a decent face-to-face to save your life, and by the time your first turn comes along you've lost all your major attack pieces because Pheonix burned 11 orders to get into your DZ and make a mess. I misjudged my Q-drone deployment by a few millimetres so that when it came time for Pheonix to fire at the Q, my Rodok couldn't quite see him. This meant that I couldn't pile on AROs and was ultimately very costly. My noctifer took a shot at Hector and Machaon but missed, then promptly died to Atalanta smoke shooting. Lesson learned: smoke shooting is very hard for this list to handle without sublime deployment. I got super lucky with an Ikadron who managed to burn Hector all the way to dead using an ARO shot, but by my first turn I had just a Rodok HMG left to attack with and he promptly lost a face-to-face against Atalanta that he was about 70-30 in and died. Good game.
Game 5 - Rodok team versus Steel Phalanx in Frontline
This game would have gone better if my dice hadn't been ice cold. The Noctifer managed to get a free shot off against a Thorakite and clip Thrasymides. He dodged on a 4 and I hit with a 3, killing the Thorakite but not Thrasymides. My Noctifer was in a position where he couldn't be seen by Atalanta smoke shooting, but he spent a few orders to move the Myrmidon team for smoke and then her to make it happen. My Rodok shot two missiles at Pheonix needing 9s. One missed. I rolled an 8 on the other. He dodged with an 11. Atalanta put the Noctifer down and I let him go unconscious, because Dr. Worm could fix him without provoking AROs. With the noctifer down, he spent the rest of his turn moving the Thorakites link team down a flank to take a single volley at my Nexus lt, who tried to dodge on a 14 against 3 dice on a 12. I rolled an 11, he got a critical. I burned to death. So I started my first turn in loss of Lieutenant. But not all hope was lost because my Rodok's are always regular, so I had some orders to burn. My Q-drone rounded the corner and took some shots at an Agema with ML from <24. I needed 11s on 4 dice. He needed 7 on 1 dice. I rolled 20, 19, 18, 18, he rolled a 4. I died. Then my Rodok ML popped up and did a face-to-face against Atalanta. I missed with both missiles, he hit me and I died. Ewww. My HMG went over to shoot Thrasymides in the face. I needed 9s on 5 dice. He needed 9s on 2 dice. Guess who died? At this point I didn't have any attack pieces left and I had killed 1 thorakites, so we called it. I didn't learn much from that game because I had actually deployed quite well (In his first turn he killed 2 of my units), I just got really unlucky.
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