Steel Phalanx shows the Foreign Company what Celebrity Really Means

By yoink101/KyleB

Overview

• Mission: Biotechvore
• Forces: Steel Phalanx versus Foreign Company(300)
• Deploy First: ASS
• First Turn: ASS

Deployment 

My approach to limited insertion with Steel Phalanx was pretty straight forward: everything has ODD/mimetism -6, everything is linkable, and every Enomotarchos team could gunfight, throw eclipse, and bring a specialist.

So, I set up Thrasymedes, Hippolyta, and a Myrmidon officer (BSG) on the left flank, Machaon, Myrmidon officer (combi), and Myrmidon (chain rifle) towards the center, and Eudoros with two Myrmidons (chain rifles) on the right flank. My plan was to put Phoenix in the team at the center, but I left the possibility of seeing another avenue depending on where my opponent placed his Bolt MSR/core fireteam. My goal was to be able to move the teams up the table, maybe score a few kills, and get them all out of the Biotech zone on turn one. Myrmidon teams are hard to dig out from behind buildings in the middle of the table, so I thought I’d have a good chance of keeping most models alive.

I placed my HVT at 16 inches to give me a benchmark.

My opponent deployed all of his A-team linkable models (characters, ORC, and Bolts) on his left with the sniper in a prominent position. His other models were scattered to the right. Most notably, his peacemaker was front and center behind the building. I’m not sure what happened to his Crocman. I think it was out of position, as he didn’t try to infiltrate, and then he might have forgotten about it at the end, or maybe just had nothing he could actually accomplish with it.

I think my opponent was planning to use the Bolt sniper to slow me down, then move the rest of the team up with the ORC hmg to push forward. Then, I thought he’s swap to a securitate and CSU fireteam, but they were in separate combat groups. I know he wanted to litter the middle of the table with repeaters to give Laxmee avenues to have plenty of spotlight AROs.

Turn 1

Top of 1 – PlayerA

I spent orders pushing up the left flank with Thrasymedes. He got a diagonal shot against the peacemaker and took it off the table. Hippolyta and the officer hunkered down (although I left the prone markers behind at the time of the photo).

Then I spent four orders pushing Phoenix up with his fireteam to the central table, and was able to cut an angle where I hit Hannibal and splashed the template onto the ORC. The ORC made his dodge and Hannibal vanished in an inferno. The rest of his team hid in the large building, with Thrasymedes watching approaches to the team.

Then I spent the last three orders moving Eudoros up under cover of eclipse. I got one shot on the Bolt, who survived the armor saves. Eudoros only made it up to the plant in the picture (I took it later, because I forgot…) and was just inside the biotech zone. He took a wound, but everyone else was clear.

Bottom of 1 – PlayerB

My opponent’s fireteam was a little too spread out with Hannibal dead, so he relied on coordinated orders to move the remainder of his A-team up the left hand side of the table. He covered the advance of his CSUs and Securitate from Phoenix with a well placed eclipse grenade.

He managed to get a flanking shot with the hmg on Eudoros, but I threw eclipse and won the roll. Then he hunkered down, with Massacre holding the tight space in between my Myrmidons and his A-team. He lost a couple of CSUs and a securitate to the biotech zone.

Turn 2

Top of 2 – PlayerA

Phoenix managed to kill the Bolt sniper, then the team advanced across the table. My officer got spotlit by Laxmee as she shot a repeater loaded Securitate to pieces. Then I managed to shoot Massacre off the table with Machaon as I cut across.

I ended with my fireteam behind his A-team, with one Myrmidon engaged with Laxmee.

Bottom of 2 – PlayerB

My opponent first tried to do some damage with the Bolt, getting LoF to Phoenix, who managed to beat the Bolt’s shots and engage. Then he ran the ORC back in a desperate move to kill the Myrmidon with burst advantage. He beat my CC roll the first time, but I made the armor save, then I managed to land one wound on the ORC with his final order.

He lost the rest of his CSUs and Securitates to the biotechvore.

Turn 3

Top of 3 – PlayerA

I broke my enomotarchos, and spent three orders to have Machaon and then Phoenix move through my opponent’s models to obliterate them two on one in close combat. It was super effective!

Finally, I had seven orders remaining to run Machaon back to the HVT, heal Eudoros along the way (for a classified), then inoculate and secure the HVT for the other two classifieds.

Bottom of 3 – PlayerB

It was a huge, 10-0 victory for Steel Phalanx. This was the third round of an event I played using the same list (the only one I remembered to take pictures of though). I went undefeated for the day. Round one was 6-2 on unmasking against Invincible Army. Round three was a bloody 3-2 victory against Hector’s Starmada. 

Post Game Analysis

My plan of massed ODD and super efficient Enomotarchos teams worked very well for the day. Having shock immunity on most of the characters was huge. Carrying a few competent and a couple stellar gunfighters along with eclipse and specialists in each fireteam meant I always had options and efficiency on my side.

I wouldn’t say that I love playing limited insertion, because I definitely had moments throughout the day that deteriorated quickly because my orders were so limited. The efficiency, utility, and survivability of Steel Phalanx definitely lends itself to well to the format though.