It’s Morpho Time

By Jo Tucker (TheMightyJob)

Overview

• Mission: Decapitation
• Forces: Jo’s Shasvastii versus David’s Kosmoflot (300pts)
• Deploy First: Shasvastii
• First Turn: Shasvastii

Deployment

I set up first and held my Speculo in reserve. The 4 man nox link was in a building in the corner. Sheshkin was upstairs with Aida and her viral weapons/mines. The nox hacker was downstairs to spotlight and cover the downstairs doors.  The T-Drone had a nice view down the long road firing lane. I felt I had to stand it up and risk losing its active turn guided to get value out of it but had a slave drone round the corner to resurrect it if needed. 

The Plasma Q-drone sat with its +3 range band covering both upstairs entrances.

I tried to cover the rest of my deployment zone with the ikadrons, REMS and Taigha. The MDrone was set forward to allow moving up to sensor and repeater net some of the expected midfield camo threat. 

The Caliban infiltrated without a roll to threaten the enemy HVT and defend the friendly HVT near the forest saturation/low vis zone.

Aida was my master breacher. 

David set up Kosmoflot with Wallace in the big building. One entrance covered by a prone controller with a shotgun and the other by a camo token and a Varangian with a chain rifle. His Zenit7 and Kosmosoldat were on the right flank with an infiltrating Rokot with a rifle left out camo. The left flank had an infiltrated SAS and Rockot controlling the left flank and midfield. 

I rolled to infiltrate my speculo and put him in the room with Wallace forcing a bad choice with his mine layer.

He held his bear in reserve and deployed him on his strong right flank. 

His master breacher was his Kosmosoldat T2 rifle.

Turn 1

Top of 1 – Shasvasti

David used a command token to strip 2 orders from group1. The Taigha creature charged the infiltrated Rockot killing him in close combat. The Kosmosoldat was a tempting target within reach of a berserk but the ravening taigha stuck to the plan dodging to the right and evading shots from the Kosmosoldat and a revealing Zenit 7 marksman rifle. The Taigha then Berserks the HVT dying to the Bear’s chain rifle.

The Speculo minelayer surprise shoots Varangian linked Wallace with his combi and loses the face to face going unconscious. Wallace tanks the mine and goes into NWI.

The Caliban aborts the plan to hunt HVTs and comes back to fight a camo token threatening his HVT. He is a bit disappointed when he moves into base to base with an infiltrating Rockot but eats him anyway before re-entering camo. 

The EDrone puts enhanced reaction on the linked Tdrone giving a burst 3 missile overwatch of the road approach. The Mdrone goes into suppressive fire. 

Bottom of 1 – Kosmoflot 

Wallace uses his LT order to coup de grace the speculo to prevent any regeneration shenanigans.

The Kosmosoldat T2 rifleman attacked the HVT on David’s right flank. It took a couple of turns to put down.

Duroc arrives from the side near Sheshkin’s position and takes a wound from the revealing Caliban’s Pulzar.

The Caliban dodges into CC as Duroc moves towards the HVT. Duroc meets him head on, taking both his wounds with a critical hit before executing the HVT in close combat. Duroc tucks in next to the building, ready to breach and hunt Sheshkin next turn.

David does some defensive house keeping with his last couple of orders. Wallace and the kosmosoldat enter suppressive fire and the Zenit7 Recamos.

David realised he had forgotten to deploy an SAS so we agreed it could walk on the back edge for turn 2 like it had failed an infiltration. He put it in a place where it didn’t really change the immediate game state. 

Turn 2

Top of 2 – Shasvasti

First some order group management: Shift an ikadron to group2 to allow both Cadmus drop groups to enter group 1.

I decided to use my group 2 orders first as I only had 3 and had a pretty clear plan.

The Edrone activated controlled jump

The Mdrone cautious moved across the Kosmosoldats line of fire and moved into repeater range with him out of LOF. The hope being to threaten to hack him in ARO when he activated on his turn. 

The two Cadmus drop troops both passed their rolls and landed 2 decoy seed embryo outside either door of Wallace’s position. David was a great sport at helping decide the most advantageous spot to drop here and I think was generous with some sight lines. 

The killer hacker Boarding shotgun revealed to kill the controller. This was a pretty even match with the cadmus’ burst and surprise attack giving him a slight advantage. He got lucky and the controller went unconscious. Unseen it Morpho scanned wallace upgrading to a formidable CC24 BS13 PH14 WIP15.

The emboldened Cadmus kicked the door in and boarding shotgunned Wallace to death. 

Two orders were used to target Duroc 

and rendered him unconscious with a guided missile. 

Finally Aida deployed an extra Viral mine in the room with Sheshkin.

Bottom of 2 – Kosmoflot

David walked Margot on in a corner near the Sheshkin building out of the ikadron’s line of sight. Margot managed to shoot the ikadron without getting flamed. She then tried to clear the Nox hacker from the building shooting him to death but getting zappered for her trouble going straight to non-lethal death.

The Kosmosoldat now could move up unmolested to engage the mdrone then edrone one at a time. Both were left unconscious. The Kosmosoldat then comes around the wall and splits his burst between the Tdrone and ikadron. 

He wins two face to face rolls against the T drone scoring 2 hits each time but the tanking flamers by ikadron putting him into NWI. The missile launcher passes all it’s saves only due to cover bonuses. The ikadron was blasted unconscious 2 with some T2 ammunition.

Post Game Analysis

We finished shaz 5 Kosmoflot 7 end of turn 2.

Shaz 6 orders 165pt surviving , Kosmoflot 166pts surviving 7 orders +2 impetuous turn 3 

My list was called Decap 11 which lets you know how many different times I revised it. I always wanted a Nox core defending Sheshkin with a hacking presence and a T drone. Knowing I was fighting Kosmoflot made Aida an Auto include with her viral mines and pistol for Bears and Duroc. I forgot to roll booty! 

I tried to use a speculo after failing to use it properly last game and was more happy with forcing the bad mine choice this time.

I initially considered 2 speculos, then an aggressive hacker net to guide missiles with an infiltrating malignos hacker. Eventually I realised that it was going to be hard to kill Wallace with any one attack vector reliably. 

I realised with a high likelihood of a Wallace Lieutenant and maybe an unknown ranger I really wanted some Cadmus to get those sweet stats. I leaned into this with the edrone to buff my bots and help with the drop rolls. With a speculo and two drop troops I felt I’d get at least one successful roll. I was very lucky to pass all three.

I think they were great with the decoy really helping to bring them on, the surprise attack was also invaluable. I was very lucky and I really should have cyber masked before going into shotgun Wallace. 

I think having a lot of points off the board and setting up in one corner led David to suspect a Sphinx which I think really influenced his play in turn 1. 

My turn one plan was to try to get the HVTs with the Taigha and the caliban. Build defence with the buffed bots and push up the repeater net for ARO spotlights. Maybe leave the speculo as a distraction if it survived it’s assassination run.

The Mdrone: planned to sensor any threatening midfield camo and maybe spotlight in ARO for later guided and be part of my repeater net defence. I’ve never really got this to work for me.   The Mdrone did… not much directly. However I think it’s suppressive fire kept the Kosmosoldat at bay briefly and it’s repeater ZOC maybe forced Margot to hunt the nox hacker and get zappered instead of spec firing everything into oblivion. 

David said his plan was to get both HVT early and then hopefully push ahead to the Lieutenant. In the case of neither LT dying or better attrition for him this would be enough for the win. I think he was on course for the win and his HVT plan seemed really well thought out. 

I think things David could’ve done turn 2 that I was dreading. spec fire my TR and missile bot, strip orders and set up a bear (ideally master breacher) to berserk Sheshkin turn 3. 

I think it’s probably still anybody’s game if there was a turn 3. I would really need to hunt points and the remaining HVT to get a win which would be very difficult.