The Lists
My primary list that I used in 3/4 games consisted of a solid core of specialists, some great support options that covered the range bands, and a couple of support options.
Combat Group 1
Interventor - Combi Rifle, Lieutenant
Reverand Custodier - Combi Rifle, Marker
Alguacile - Forward Observer, Repeater
Stempler Zond - Forward Observer, Combi Rifle, Sensor, Sniffer
Alguacile - Paramedic, Combi Rifle, Medkit
Clockmaker - Engineer Combi Rifle, Deactivator
Intruder - HMG, Camo, MSV2
Reverand Moira - E/M Light Grenade Launcher, MULTI Rifle
Tsyklon Sputnik - Feuerbach
Hellcat - Boarding Shotgun
Combat Group 2
Grenzer - Multi Sniper Rifle, MSV1
Jaguar - Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades
Jaguar - Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades
My secondary list was more defensive in nature but kept a pretty reliable core of specialists but traded some smoke coverage for board control. This was always intended to be my go-to list for Biotechvore.
Combat Group 1
Interventor - Combi Rifle, Lieutenant
Reverend Custodier - Combi Rifle, Marker
Stempler Zond - Forward Observer, Combi Rifle, Sensor, Sniffer
Clockmaker - Engineer Combi Rifle, Deactivator
Zero - Minelayer
Zero - Minelayer
Intruder - HMG, Camo, MSV2
Reverand Moira - MULTI Rifle
Tsyklon Sputnik - Feuerbach
Hellcat - Boarding Shotgun
Combat Group 2
Grenzer - Multi Sniper Rifle, MSV1
Jaguar - Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades
Game - 1 - Seize the Antennae
Vanilla Nomads versus Vanilla Pan Oceania
My opponent, Jeremy, and I drew the infamous table 11 for this game. This table had been created for a special event the night before that was inspired by Akira and had gangs of bikers fighting in a roller derby fashion for points. The table itself consisted of three super tall skyscrapers (one in each deployment zone and 1 on the middle edge of the board) and a depressed section in the middle with tunnels that lead into it from the deployment zone. We agreed that no models could be placed higher than the top of the smaller skyscrapers and that the depressed section counted as a low visibility zone and a saturation zone.With terrain issues resolved we rolled off and I chose to go first. My opponent and I deployed respectively with him largely hunkered behind cover and me in slightly more offensive positions. With my first order I moved my Tsyklon out of cover and shot at the ORC trooper and PanO actually took my remote out with the first shot of the game! Ouch! So now my retaliation. My Grenzer had clear LOS to the Dragao TAG in cover and he exchanged fire with this huge beast. On the first order I stripped off a structure point and then with the second order - double crit! TAG down! The rest of my first turn involved me tagging the nearest antenna, grabbing my classified, and moving my people below closer to the central objective. I did try to drop my hellcat into his backfield to do some lieutenant hunting but I failed the roll like a champ and so the hellcat started back in my deployment zone.
My opponent's turn was largely hampered by the Grenzer. Everytime he moved out of cover where the Grenzer could see him, he faced shots and while I picked off only a single fusilier during AROs, I know the constant barrage affected the morale. He did drop a crusader brethren in my backfield as well which gunned down a jaguar and the moira before he ran out of orders.
On my next turn The Grenzer took aim at more fusiliers as well as some targets in the depressed section to decent affect. My Interventor covered herself with cybermask and ran into total cover in case I couldn't deal with the crusader brethren, while my troops below marched ever closer to the central objective. My remaining jaguar ran closer to the brethren while the paramedic brought the moira back up who then died to the crusader brethren while trying to take him down.
My opponent made a push for the central objective this time revealing a bulleteer bot and a forward observer in the pit below. The Grenzer took out the FO as he tried to tag the box (unsuccessfully). A hexa hacker revealed himself and ultimately took the central objective. The bulleteer took out the custodier and the crusader brethren and the jaguar faced off and ultimately downed each other.
On my last turn I used my grenzer to reveal a mine near the central objective, the HMG intruder took down the bulleteer bot, and the engineer deactivated the mine and moved in to grab the central objective.
My opponent's last turn saw me take down the hexa hacker as he tried to grab the central objective. The ORC tried to sneak out and cut down the Grenzer with his HMG but took a wound and retreated back to cover.
At the end of the game I held the antenna closest to me, the antenna in the center of the board and achieved my classified while my opponent hadn't achieved his and held only the antenna closest to him. Final score tally was 7-3 with me grabbing roughly 220 victory points.
Game 2 - Cold Sleep
Vanilla Nomads versus Vanilla Nomads
As soon as they called out the table I was at and who my opponent was I knew this was going to be a tough fight. Cold Sleep is a scenario that I'm still struggling to wrap my head around and fighting on table 2 against Kyle from Warsenal I knew this fight was going to be a learning experience. Again, we rolled off and I won and selected to go second hoping to grab the objectives on my last turn (if anyone was left).My opponents first turn saw him drop a meteor zond down and, despite some insane armor rolls on my part that caused him to spend an excessive number of orders, he downed both my paramedic and my interventor lieutenant.
The first thing I noted in my turn was how poorly I deployed myself. I had all my heavy hitters up top of a single level building but because of the walkways and other buildings they couldn't see ANYTHING. After that, I was in Loss of Lieutenant so I was limited to what I could do. I knew I needed to down the meteor zond and so my alguacile FO traded shots with it and ultimately downed it. I moved the clockmaker up and tried to tag a tech coffin but failed. That's it.
Kyle's second turn saw him moving all over. He grabbed two tech coffins and used his intruder plus smoke to gun down several of my models. He tried to move his Moran around to tag a console and I did manage to shoot him down but otherwise Kyle owned his active turn.
My turn saw me move up to try and cover the tech coffins and consoles but my big guns were still out of position. This round hurt as my custodier and my clockmaker were gunned down leaving me with only a single specialist. I even tried to drop my hellcat to go lieutenant hunting again and his lieutenant shot me in the face.
Kyle's last turn saw him grab both tech consoles, down my moira, and secure his classified.
My last turn all I could really do was secure my classified which took me three orders. After that, rather than risk more casualties, I called it. At the end of the game my opponent had both consoles, two tech coffins, and had accomplished his classified while I had only accomplished my classified. Final score ended at 10-1.
Game 3 - Transmission Matrix
Vanilla Nomads versus Vanilla Nomads
Yup, yo saw it here. I had two games, back to back, versus vanilla Nomads. My opponent this time around was Nick and, before I get started, I have to say that Nick is a super nice guy and this game was a blast to play. So in this one we rolled off and I won again. This time I picked deployment and chose my board edge and made my opponent deploy first. My opponent gave me the first turn. Terrain saw a Kum garage and scattered buildings on my opponents side and some decent buildings on my side with a single skyscraper towards the middle of the game. A street with cars ran from board edge to board edge near the center of the table creating a rather impressive fire lane covering the central transmission antenna.Because of deployement I couldn't do much on my first turn. The Grenzer took out the Moran Massai in the center of the board and the clockmaker deactivated a bunch of koalas. My interventer tried to isolate/immobilize the smart missile remote wasting several orders before cybermasking herself.
My opponent tried to move his lunokhod towards the central objective and it was gunned down by the grenzer. He spent more time moving his morlocks up the board, and dropped Carlotta near a piece of scenery that he then blew up for his classified.
In my turn I cleared both morlocks and deactivated more crazy koalas. I tried hacking the remote more but to no avail. I dropped my hellcat back by his custodier who then turned around and shot him in the face (notice a trend?).
In Nick's turn he tried moving his Mobile Brigada closer to the central objective only to have the Grenzer knock him out too. Carlotta got a little too close to the jaguar and was chain rifled.
In my last turn I manage to kill the Sin-eater near a transmission beacon but not before he killed off my tsyklon who had climbed to the top of a building.
My opponent revealed a zero FO to grab his other classified and while he achieved that, the Grenzer blew his head off. Because this left a transmission matrix with no one nearby, Nick was forced to move his Custodier into the transmission matrix on his last order and I ARO'd with two brain blasts from my hackers. So the last dice roll consisted of my two hacking attacks and his reset. If I won, I'd have more beacons than him and would get the 3 points. Otherwise I'd just get a single point. Nick won. He rolled a crit reset on the last roll of the game. Truly epic!
The game ended with each of us in control of two beacons at the end of each game round. Nick had completed both classified objectives and I had achieved none. Final result stood at a 5-3 loss for me but I swept up another 210 victory points. This game was so much fun with the central corridor blood bath, the hacking war, and that epic final die roll. Kudos to Nick for taking this one home. As a note, if I had won the roll the game would have ended with a 5-4 win in my direction.
Game 4 - Biotechvore
Vanilla Nomads versus Merovingian Rapid Response Force
Ugh. I was so dreading this mission. The idea that all my crap dies at the end of the game if it couldn't make it out of the 16" biotechvore zone made me really nervous as Nomads excel at medium infantry which are relatively slow at 4-2 movement. With he 8" deployment that means it would take the MI I have a minimum of two orders to get out of the zone. So my opponent, Andy, and I rolled off. I won and chose deployment. I made him set up first and I picked my board edge. He chose to take the first turn.
My opponents first turn saw him try and snipe my Grenzer with an HMG only to have the Grenzer shoot him back and break his link. He reformed the link and then moved the models out of the BTZ. The rest of his turn he spent moving models out of the biotechvore zone, laying mines, and covering fire alleys.
My first turn I coordinated two orders to get my lieutenant and others to get out of the zone. I moved my Stempler out of the zone and close to the HVT and ran up a few other models as well under the cover of smoke. The Intruder HMG took out several models locking down a road on my flank (including the mimitism sapper) while my Hellcat dropped in the backfield and tore into his forces. End of this I had killed a good 7 or 8 models. Sadly, I lost a Jaguar and the Intruder HMG to the Biotechvore plague.
My opponents next turn was damage control. He tried killing the hellcat but was instead killed himself. He tried ousting the Grenzer but was sent fleeing back into cover. He ran a chasseur up the road on my flank and took out my custodier who was herself taken out by the custodier. He tried using a Moblot to take out my Moira but was shot and killed by the Grenzer (I did lose my paramedic though).
In my turn 2 I ran the stempler up and grabbed my classified by observing the HVT. I then ran him some more and used sensor to reveal a bunch of mines and models hiding in camo near my right flank. THe Grenzer proceeded to shoot them up while my Tsyklon reach a tall perch in the middle of the board and sniped at a couple models with the feuerbach. The hellcat ran rampant in the backfield and downed a couple more models. Again, sadly, I lost my clockmaker, the hellcat, and Grenzer to the Biotechvore.
My opponents turn 3 consisted largely of running a doctor through the backfield and bringing unconscious guys back up. He also grabbed both his classified objectives.
My turn started with me grabbing my data scan classified and then I tried to score more points with the Tsyklon by killing troops but that never happened. In fact the Tsyklon was put down by a lucky combi rifle shot. At that point, I called the game. I wasn't going to spend my last order or two.
After all the points were counted up I had the lowest grouping of survivable troops so I netted 2 points there. I killed more points than my opponent so I pulled off 3 points there. I also grabbed both of my classified objectives and that netted me 2 additional points. Final count saw me with a win at 7-4. In the end, the scenario I dreaded playing was one of my favorite scenarios of the day. I love that it makes you think without restricting importance to a finite set of specialists. Deployment is key, certain lists will carry the day more often than not, but this scenario truly tests players. Move or die!
My first turn I coordinated two orders to get my lieutenant and others to get out of the zone. I moved my Stempler out of the zone and close to the HVT and ran up a few other models as well under the cover of smoke. The Intruder HMG took out several models locking down a road on my flank (including the mimitism sapper) while my Hellcat dropped in the backfield and tore into his forces. End of this I had killed a good 7 or 8 models. Sadly, I lost a Jaguar and the Intruder HMG to the Biotechvore plague.
My opponents next turn was damage control. He tried killing the hellcat but was instead killed himself. He tried ousting the Grenzer but was sent fleeing back into cover. He ran a chasseur up the road on my flank and took out my custodier who was herself taken out by the custodier. He tried using a Moblot to take out my Moira but was shot and killed by the Grenzer (I did lose my paramedic though).
In my turn 2 I ran the stempler up and grabbed my classified by observing the HVT. I then ran him some more and used sensor to reveal a bunch of mines and models hiding in camo near my right flank. THe Grenzer proceeded to shoot them up while my Tsyklon reach a tall perch in the middle of the board and sniped at a couple models with the feuerbach. The hellcat ran rampant in the backfield and downed a couple more models. Again, sadly, I lost my clockmaker, the hellcat, and Grenzer to the Biotechvore.
My opponents turn 3 consisted largely of running a doctor through the backfield and bringing unconscious guys back up. He also grabbed both his classified objectives.
My turn started with me grabbing my data scan classified and then I tried to score more points with the Tsyklon by killing troops but that never happened. In fact the Tsyklon was put down by a lucky combi rifle shot. At that point, I called the game. I wasn't going to spend my last order or two.
After all the points were counted up I had the lowest grouping of survivable troops so I netted 2 points there. I killed more points than my opponent so I pulled off 3 points there. I also grabbed both of my classified objectives and that netted me 2 additional points. Final count saw me with a win at 7-4. In the end, the scenario I dreaded playing was one of my favorite scenarios of the day. I love that it makes you think without restricting importance to a finite set of specialists. Deployment is key, certain lists will carry the day more often than not, but this scenario truly tests players. Move or die!