Jhokalups – Field Operation Action Report – 45
Jurisdictional Command of Bakunin vs Steel Phalanx
400/ITS 11 – Capture and Protect – Tactical Window

This game took place the day after Christmas, the store was a bit quiet, but we were still practicing for our January event. I’ll be honest, at the time of this writing I don’t have a strong memory of how this game went.

Wip Roll
Jurisdictional Command of Bakunin – 16
Steel Phalanx – 12

Decision: Sprocketgx
Deployment: Jhokalups
Initiative:Sprocketgx
1st Turn: Sprocketgx
1st Deploy: Sprocketgx

Steel Phalanx List:

 Achilles
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GROUP 1  8

[Pre-Deployment Statement]

Deployment:

Sprocket had a defensive Thorakites enomotarchos around the beacon. There was a myrmidon enomatarchos led by Machaon just to the right of the beacon. On the container above that team, a Lamedh was on overwatch. The right side had a Phoenix enomotarchos with two myrmidons. The left side was covered by Teucer and Scylla.

My left side was covered by a Reverend healer on the ground then a DA Morlock. Ahead of them I had my Minelayer Zero prone on a catwalk. Centrally my taskmaster covered the beacon with his Koalas. On my right I had Zoe on top of the roof of a square building, behind my missile launcher Grrl. The rest of the Grrls were on the ground behind that building, with a Blitzen Grrl to the right of that building out to ARO. Pi-Well and the E/M morlock secured my back right flank. My KHD Zero was forward on top of a building on my right.

Top of 1: Sprocket Steel

Sprocket spends this turn trying to get out of his deployment zone. The ML Grrl covered a huge area of the board, making it difficult to move several units without taking an explosive ARO. After taking out the Blitzen Grrl and forcing the Missile launcher down. He is able to bring Achilles forward to put some pressure on my front.

Bottom of 1: Jhokalups Bakunin

I start bringing models forward, take out Tuecer and knock Thrasymedes unconscious. After a bit of reshuffling I end my turn.

Top of 2: Sprocket Steel

Achilles is pinned down, and while he tries to get out, Achilles goes down in ARO. The Thorakite paramedic is able to bring Thrasymedes back up. Scylla moves up the field but gets caught in the zone of my KHD Zero and eats an unopposed Red Rum. Out of options Sprocket ends his turn.

Bottom of 2: Jhokalups Bakunin

I start trying to bring my guys up to snag the beacon. Unfortunately the Thorakites defensive net is still too tight and I cannot break through. Out of orders I end my turn.

Top of 3: Sprocket Steel

Sprocket spends his turn tightening the defensive net around his beacon before ending the turn.

Bottom of 3: Jhokalups Bakunin

I spend my last turn trying to get to the beacon, but cannot break the net. With no classifieds, and neither of us capturing the beacon, the game ends in a:

Final Score: 3 – 3 Tie

Lessons Learned:

This game is a lesson in how a lack of focus on the objective can cost victory. I had a 235 victory point advantage at the end of the game. But being that ahead on troops and orders didn’t give me the victory in the end. I didn’t ever take the time to set up a good run on the beacon. I had good tools to do it, but I was too focused on killing. On the plus side, I didn’t lose, but I didn’t win either.

For future games of capture and protect, I will need to devote more effort to being able to capture the beacon. I have gotten fairly good at protecting my own beacon. But protecting it has only ever gotten me ties. Maybe some more models that are better able to get close to the beacon? Or maybe some better allocation of smoke resources to get up? Something to think on.

Until next time.

Jhokalups – Field Operation Action Report – 8
Bakunin vs Steel Phalanx
150 Recon+ – Sieze the Antennas

This week was a quiet one at the local shop. For speed of play my opponent and I elected to do a Recon+. Since I hadn’t prepared anything for the Recon format I decided to let fate decide what I played. So, we had a quick skirmish between a rapid response Bakunin force and a Steel Phalanx strike force, both attempting to secure the communication antennas.

Wip Roll:

Bakunin – 5
Steel Phalanx – 19 (fail)
Decision: Bakunin
Deployment: Bakunin
Initiative: Steel Phalanx
1st Turn: Steel Phalanx
1st Deploy: Steel Phalanx

Steel Phalanx List:

 Recon+List 1004
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Open in Infinity Army

Bakunin List:

 Random List
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Open in Infinity Army

For this game we used some WIP buildings that I have been making for a city block table. This week we put on the roofs and added some elevators. Added in some construction barriers, dumpsters and antennas, and we were good to go.

For this week we played true line of site, if a model could draw a line through the building, it could see through it.

Deployment:

I set my prowler spitfire up on the roof corner looking over two antenna. I had my Zeros set up in secluded spots to be able to lay down mines in ARO. The moderator was set down between a building and a dumpster, looking over the back field. Lt. Custodier was on the dumpster, prone and in cover. Riot Grrl choose to be in the building with a straight shot to the closest antenna. I held the Warcor in reserve, it went on the roof with the prowler.

The two FO Thorakites hid behind one building, and Alke behind the other. The Agema marksman set up on the roof. The Myrmidon was behind the far antenna. Two netrods successfully dropped in out of sight. And a Dactyl engineer was held in reserve then placed inside a building.

Top of 1: Steel Phalanx

First the Myrmidon used it’s impetious order to advance up. Another order had it advance up more and threw smoke triggering a Zero ARO, who dropped an e/Mauler. With one further order the Myrmidon attempted to Chain Rifle down the Zero, who dodged away. While the Myrmidon took an e/Mauler to the face, and failed BTS, isolating it. I also revealed my prowler to shoot at the Myrmidon, who passed that armor roll. The Zero dodged around the corner for the Myrmidon. Next Alke advanced up and shot the Zero off the table. Covered by smoke the Agema marksman advanced up his roof with impunity. It then took a shot at my Custodier. (Since it was just me and my opponent in the shop, and neither of us know the rules super well, we couldn’t find the reference that would have let the Custodier Dodge in face to face.) Hitting twice my Custodier took 4 armor rolls (multisniper double action) and was removed from the table. With that damage done, the Steel Phalanx used an FO Thorakites to secure the farthest antenna, then passed turn.

Bottom of 1: Bakunin

Well, that could have gone better, down two models and in loss of lieutenant. Not wanting to give up I had two goals, capturing my antenna and removing the Agema from the table. The Riot Grrl used her irregular to double move into base with the antenna. Unfortunately I misjudged angles and she got shot by Alke, fortunately she toughed it out. Converting the Warcor order to be regular, I had the Riot Grrl attempt to dodge and capture. She succeeded in dodging, but failed to secure the antenna. I had my prowler to shoot at the Agema, who dodged prone. I advanced up the Zero to try and cover the middle antenna and passed turn.

Top of 2: Steel Phalanx

Having killed a Zero, Alke became impetious thanks to Fury, she advanced up and took shots at my Riot Grrl, I chose to shoot back with her Combi Rifle, because I am some kind of genius (the Blitzen has the same bands as the Spitfire, shooting with the same results as Alke or dodging on 16’s would have been a better choice…), and my Riot Grrl goes down in a hail of bullets. At this point I inform my opponent that I have no specialists left (thank you random list generator) and with no way to take antennas from him he has won the game. We call it there so that he can head out to pack for the Thanksgiving trip he has the next day.

Final Score: 1 – 0 Steel Phalanx Victory

Lessons Learned:

• As confident as I am in my abilities, I have only played 7 (now 8) games, I should only use the random list utility for ideas, not actual lists, yet.
• A model being shot out of or from through a Zero Visibility Zone can dodge with no modifier in Face-to-Face. This is under the Zero Visibility Zone rules. (maybe if I write it enough times I won’t forget again…)
• Leaving the Custodier visible was a mistake, probably a game losing one. Most of her kit could be used in zone of control anyways.
• The Riot Grrl Specialist has a Blitzen, and all Riot Grrls have Hyper Dynamics. Dodging on 16s and shooting on 16s are much better than shooting a Combi on 10’s.
• The Prowler has a cool kit. I will be using it again I’m the future.
• I could have swapped the Repeater e/Mauler Zeros with the FO Zero profile at no change in list points. But gaining two specialists and anti personnel mines, which would be more useful in Recon+. In a full game the repeater profile has some appeal, especially with the Custodier Lt. I think I got distracted by having a huge hacking coverage zone, and didn’t actually think about what would be useful.

Jhokalups Field Operation Action Report 3:

Bakunin v Steel Phalanx

150 pts Recon+ : Seize the Antennas

This week the Bakunin operational force once again clashed with Aleph’s Steel Phalanx. This time trying to secure control of communication antennas.

Steel Phalanx
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9 1

EKDROMOS Chain Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 20)
THORAKITES (Forward Observer, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
THORAKITES (Forward Observer, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
ALKÊ Lieutenant Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 25)
WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
MYRMIDON Chain Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 16)
DACTYL Engineer Combi Rifle, Adhesive-Launcher, D-Charges / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0 | 23)
NETROD Electric Pulse. (0 | 4)
NETROD Electric Pulse. (0 | 4)
AGÊMA Marksman (X Visor) Mk12 / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)

2 SWC | 150 Points
Open in Infinity Army

 

Riot GRRL Recon+
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8

RIOT GRRL (Specialist Operative) Combi Rifle, Blitzen, Stun Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30)
RIOT GRRL Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 34)
MODERATOR Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
MODERATOR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
ZERO (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19)
ZERO Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
STEMPLER ZOND Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17)

2.5 SWC | 150 Points
Open in Infinity Army

Pre-Game:

WIP Roll Winner: Steel Phalanx

Order: Jhokalups

Side: Steel Phalanx

First Turn: Jhokalups

First Deploy: Jhokalups

Deployment:

One thing I didn’t realize was that the back of the playfield was six inches up from the edge of the table. I accidentally deployed too far back.

The Steel Phalanx attempted to drop the netrods behind a nice wall and out of site from my Bakunin force.

Reserve Troops:

Zero – Assault Hacking Device

Myrmidon

With deployment set we started our first turn.

Top of Turn 1 – Bakunin

The first thing I noticed about the table was a Netrod that was unprotected and a very tempting target. The second thing that I saw was there were not any models with lethal weapons available to ARO until I had models walk past the middle antenna. Three orders later and the Grrls were behind cover overlooking the antenna, the Netrod was destroyed and the Warcor was down for the count. After that I had the FO zero advance up behind the big building and cover two approaches with mines before returning to a Camo marker state. The last order had the AHD Zero crawl forward into total cover.

Bottom of Turn 1 – Steel Phalanx
“How the Myrmidon did not meaningfully contribute”

Starting this turn two models down, with two heavy infantry covering the mid-field and mines preventing easy access to the middle antenna the Steel Phalanx commander felt there was one good option, throwing out a smoke cloud and using the Agema Marksman’s MSV 2 to shoot through it. The Myrmidon’s impetuous order brought it to just behind the closest antenna. The Myrmidon then proceeded to spend three orders trying and failing to throw smoke in front of the Agema marksman.

The commander then had the Ekdromos drop in by my HVT, unfortunately it landed in the zone of control of one Riot GRRLs, who successfully got an ARO dodge/change face. A second order brings the Ekdromos to be right around the corner from the Riot Grrls. With one of the Grrls facing right towards the corner that the Ekdromos, the Steel Phalanx commander elected not to attempt to take out either Grrl. The Dactyl was moved up to get a view of the middle of the operational field. Then a final coordinated order put Alke, the Agema Marksman, Dactyl and a Thorakites into suppressive fire.

Top of Turn 2 – Bakunin
“Jhokalups Discovers the True Power of Riot Grrls”

My biggest concern was an Ekdromos coming around my back field and messing up all the squishier troopers. This was the point at which I discovered that I had deployed all my regular troopers 6 inches further back than the actual deployment line. Mistakes happen, it didn’t change much, I just wasn’t able to shoot the Ekdromos with as much distance as I would have prefered. Using a coordinated order with my Stempler Zond as the Spearhead, I had the Transductor, Stempler and two Moderators take shots at the Ekdromos, after losing the face to face the Ekdromos went down. Next up I had my Zero FO take a surprise shot at the Dactyl in suppressive fire. With the cumulative effects of surprise shot, cover, and range bands the Zero won the face to face, taking down the Dactyl.

Next up the Riot Grrls used a few orders to slowly advance up the field, and square off against a Thorakite, Alke, and the Myrmidon. Then they advance up and take the middle antenna. The Stempler Zond takes my close antenna. A coordinated order puts the Riot Grrls, Stempler Zond and Zero FO into suppressive fire.

Bottom of Turn 2 – Steel Phalanx
“What can a Netrod do with an irregular order?”

Steel Phalanx is in loss of lieutenant, with a Thorakites FO, a Netrod and an Agema Marksman left. The Commander uses a command token to convert the Netrods irregular order to a regular one. The Thorakites FO attempts to take out a Riot Grrl to clear a path to the closest Coms antenna, unfortunately losing the face to face. The Agema marksman crawls forward, then pops up to shoot at the Riot Grrls, also losing the face to face.

At this point we called the game, with only a Netrod left there was nothing that could be done to stop me from taking the last antenna and securing the HVT.

Final Score: 9 – 0 Bakunin Total Victory

Lessons Learned:

• Riot Grrls are terrifying in Recon+, it felt like there wasn’t a whole lot that the Steel Phalanx had anything in this force to counter them.
• The game would have been very different if the Myrmidon could have landed smoke once, it failed three times in the active turn and once in a face to face with the Riot Grrl Spitfire.
• The spitfire is an incredibly powerful tool in this format, combined with a Combi Rifle for support it covers the majority of the field in the +3 band.
• When my opponent moves a model that I cannot see from where I am standing, I need to circle the table. I missed an ARO opportunity with my Zero FO on the Dactyl when it first moved up.
• I need to get some more repetition in, my opponent was very gracious with the amount of time I took for thinking.
• I also need to measure my deployment more carefully, I essentially deployed all my remotes and infantry and the back of my deployment zone. Being able to put the Zonds into a position to threaten from the beginning would have been nice.
• The AD Combat jump surprised me. Had the Ekdromos been placed differently I would have had no response to it coming forward and providing a very bad time for the unaware Riot Grrls.
• I should pay more attention to what my opponent puts out, maybe see if there are potentially any nasty surprises waiting to Airborne Deploy or Hidden Deploy and provide a bad time.

Jhokalups Field Operation Action Report 2:

Bakunin v Steel Phalanx

150 pts Recon+ : Sweep and Clear

This week I played against Jan and his Steel Phalanx force

Steel Phalanx
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8

DACTYL Engineer Combi Rifle, Adhesive-Launcher, D-Charges / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0 | 23)
NETROD Electric Pulse. (0 | 4)
AGÊMA Marksman (X Visor) Mk12 / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)
THRASYMEDES (Fireteam: Enomotarchos) Submachine gun, Light Rocket Launcher, Nanopulser, Stun Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0.5 | 30)
THORAKITES (Forward Observer, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
THORAKITES (Forward Observer, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
THORAKITES (Forward Observer, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
ALKÊ Lieutenant Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 25)

2.5 SWC | 150 Points
Open in Infinity Army

TryMe Link Recon+
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6 1 1

MODERATOR Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
REVEREND HEALER Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, EXP CCW. (0 | 32)
REVEREND MOIRA MULTI Rifle / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 30)
ZERO Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
SIN-EATER Mk12 / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 30)
MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

1 SWC | 150 Points
Open in Infinity Army

WIP Roll Winner: Jan

Order: Jan
Side: Jhokalups
First Turn: Jan
First Deploy: Jan

Deployment:

Jan deployed first, placing the Agema in a nice snipers nest to go with the X-Visor. Alke and the two Thorakites near her were in a triad. He had an engineer set up to hit the button.

When I deployed, my main concerns were making sure that my Morlock did not take out every one of his friends during the impetuous phase and getting my Sin Eater into . The Reverends were in a Duo Link with the Healer as the link leader. I put my LT out of sight and out of mind. My Zeros used infiltration to set up behind some high walls and had an extra mine out for fun.

Turn 1 – “Agema has X-Visor and MSV2?!”

1st Active Turn – Jan

The camo marker near the console on my side of the table gave Jan some concerns. He put a lot of thought energy into it, before having the Agema try and discover it. When he succeeded, he saw that it was in fact, a mine. He then proceeded to advance his Thorakite and Thrasymedes up and into cover and out of line of site. His engineer captures his console and is setup to swing around the corner towards the console on my side.

 

2nd Active Turn – Jhokalups

I want to thank Jan for the patience he had with me this game. I spent, probably five minutes in the thought tank on how I was going to get my Sin Eater into an overwatch spot on the building next to my assault hacker. First the Morlock did his Impetuous phase up around the building he was behind, this time well out of Line of Sight (LOS) of the Agema. I wanted to use his irregular order to go up and throw smoke in front of Jan’s sniper. But, the Agema has MSV2 and does not care about the Morlocks smoke grenade, throwing smoke would only hurt, so the Morlock hid around back from my HVT. After reviewing options, I was ready to do a cautious move with the Sin Eater across the gap.Then we both noticed that I had deployed the Sin Eater in LOS of the Agema. With that off the table I spent another few more minutes deciding what to do. Then I was reminded that coordinated orders are a thing, a very good thing to do.

With my Zero Minelayer as my spearhead, I declared a coordinated order with the other Zero, Reverend Moira, and the Sin Eater. Moving all together they triggered one ARO, Jan elected to take it against the Moria. Agema won the ensuing face-to-face roll, but the Moira toughed out the hit. The Zero Minelayer, Zero Hacker, and Sin Eater all took shots at the Agema, and he went down in a hail of Bullets.

I was now free to advance the Sin eater up the ladder, forgetting that the Dactyl was peaking around the corner, shots were fired and the Dactyl was knocked unconscious.

This is where I went a little coordinated order happy. I had both zeros advance up further to layout some more mines. The hacker then used an order to capture the console, and another coordinated order to put the Zeros back into camouflage. With my last order the Reverends regrouped on the cover just outside of the deployment zone.

Fig. 3 Zero Minelayer Bravely leading a coordinated order against the terrible Agema sniper (MK12)

Score: 0-0 (Both of us failed to use the console to try and steal away a zone)

Turn 2 – “The Sin Eater is a great Speed Bump”

1st Active – Jan

Jan needed the Sin Eater gone if he wanted to get to my side of the table. He decided that Thrasymedes would be an excellent choice. After four orders of the sin eater getting hit and being a champ on armor rolls, or Thrasymedes getting to be a champ on armor rolls, The Sin Eater rolled a Crit and Thrasymedes went down. Alke did finish the job, taking out both the Sin Eater, my minelayer Zero, and the Reverend Healer, (apparently dodging prone is a thing that I should have done). The spitfire is a monstrous weapon.

2nd Active – Jhokalups

The morlock did the impetuous thing and swung up next to my HVT. I got the Moira up and next to the console. Then the Zero Assault Hacker crossed the mid-line, dropped a mine to discourage the Thorakites from coming too far around, and took the console away from Jan. Using both consoles I was able to dominate more zones than Jan and got points this round.

Score: 0-2 (Bakunin Favor)

Turn 3 – “The End is Here”

1st Active – Jan

Jan had a few orders left and needed to get across the middle if he wanted to win. His non-linked Thorakites leapt up from his nap and with two orders put an end to my last Zero. Then, having no LOS to anything else, he exposed the rest of the Thorakites and Alke to try and cover me from doing anything clever.

2nd Active – Jhokalups

I had even fewer orders to do anything, but then saw that the Morlock would not get visible on his impetuous path towards a Thorakites. Using his impetuous order the Morlock advanced up the field, and threw smoke in front of Alke and her Thorakites. I then used his irregular order to walk up into the smoke. And one of my two remaining regular orders to Intuitive attack a chain rifle onto the Thorakites. Two decided to chain file back, and Alke decided to dodge. Alke failed her dodge, so all three had to make Armor saves. A single Thorakites passed. With one order left I had to do a lot of thinking about what to do to ensure that either I scored or no one scored this round. WIth that in mind, I used my last command token to Move-Move my Moira around to the other side of the Console, where I had no points since the Morlock had moved out. And moved my moderator out of the deployment zone. Then I spent way too long trying to think through all the permutations of the extra points from the consoles. In the end Jan and I each chose to take one zone away from each other. Leading to a tie in domination and no points scored.

Neither of us was able to complete neither the drawn classified objectives, nor the Secure the HVT option.

Final Score: 0-2 (Bakunin Victory)

Lessons Learned:

• Dodging Prone is a thing, I know how many more orders there were, and should have thought that he would just shoot them again.
• Mines are a great area denial tool.
• Mines can be discovered and shot, it might be worth the use of an order to clear the way forward.
• Coordinated Orders are very good (the best), I need to remember them and how they work.
• The Sin Eater can get work done, but isn’t very strong in the active turn. I wish I could have found a way to get him forward into cover.