GROUP 2
AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
HEXA MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 32)
BOLT Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun, Drop Bears / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
6 SWC | 299 Points
Lots of orders, lots of specialists and lots of redundancy. Ouch.
TERRAIN
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| Battlefield terrain. |
I got a bit sick of the city terrain and decided to spice things up a bit. Out came the Citadel battle map of yesteryear and some woods and hills courtesy of Battlefront.
Key terrain:
1. Administration block
2. White tower- infinite height
3. The Tank
4. Hill 34
5. Apartment block- two level structure
6. Workshop
7. Supply building- purple crates.
MISSION
I rolled a D20 and waited for the dice gods to decide what mission I would get. Quite frankly- I hoping for annihilation because that's all I'm able to do.
Thankfully- the dice gods were kind... sort of.
Frontline consists of models controlling the no man's land between deployment zones. Controlling the zone farthest from your deployment zone garners 3 points. The middle zone 2 points. The zone closest to your deployment zone earns a measly 1 point.
Each army gets one classified mission. I got Experimental Drug (yes!!!!) where as the Capitalists got Spotlight (having to Forward Observe the enemy HVT).
LIEUTENANT ROLL OFF
I started the dice rolling with a dreary start- failing dismally.
PanO picked the deployment side and opted for me to deploy first.
In response- I opted to choose to go first. (A bad choice in Frontline but sometimes you just have to play the cards you're given).
DEPLOYMENT
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| MAF on the left, PanO on the right. |
PanO picked the side with the most high ground and most cover- leaving me to hide behind the white tower.
MAF Deployment
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| Morat deployment zone. |
There weren't a lot of places to hide from the pesky humans. Still... I could always try and throw a spanner in the works.
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| Infiltrate! |
This Zerat would be a pain in the PanO backside... until she failed her infiltration roll.
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| One of those days... |
One infiltration roll does not a game make- so it was time to sort out the rest of the army.
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| Time to hide |
I centred most of my deployment around the White Tower. The Raicho, two Daturazi and an Ikadron skulked in the shadows.
Dr. Worm hid behind the main management module with a Vanguard.
The failed Zerat sat on the baseline.
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| Hoping for a not humiliating showing. |
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| Dr. Worm camps out behind the White Tower management module. |
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| Morat right flank. |
Taking advantage of the only over cover on the battlefield, the last Daturazi, an Ikadron and one of Dr. Worm's slaves hid behind the administration module.
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| No one will see us now! |
NCA Deployment
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| NCA deployment zone |
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| Bunkered in. |
The Fusilier link team camped out behind the apartment block and supply building.
The TR remote stood with good fields of view on top of the apartment building where as a Auxilia and auxbot hid out on the ground floor out of view.
The CSU guarded the other corner of the Apartment.
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| Missile launcher watching the corner of the White Tower. |
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| TR Remote with PalBot. |
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| Auxilia watching the approach. |
With that end of the battlefield shut in tight, the rest of the PanO battle line evolved.
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| Bolt deployed! |
A Bolt with drop bears covered the workshop.
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| PanO Left flank. |
A second Auxilia, the Trauma Doc and the HMG Aquila Guard protected the PanO left flank.
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| Trauma doc ready! |
Reserve Placement
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| Good views from up here! |
I put my Yaogat Sniper up on his perch on the Administration block.
He hasn't performed great in the past... but with the new model coming out soon...
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| Ready for action! |
PanO declared a hidden deployment and with that done we were ready for the game.
HVTS
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| MAF HVT |
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| Ariadna Spec-Ops model proxy |
I dropped my HVT out in the open next to the tank thinking to keep him well in view of my forces.
PanO had similar thoughts and placed their HVT (Joan) on the other side of the tank.
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| PanO HVT (Joan) on the other side of the tank. |
THE BATTLE BEGINS....
MAF Turn 1
PanO started by expending one command token to deprive me of 2 orders from my main combat group. Not unexpected but making me regret taking the Raicho... was this the time to rue that decision?
Time will tell.
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| Impetuous orders go first! |
Impetuous orders are expended first and the Daturazi by the Administration loped forward and tossed out a smoke grenade.
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| Smoke!... Great Success! |
Smoke and MSV2 shenanigans begin!
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| Charge! |
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| 400m split time record. |
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| Out of sight, out of mind... hopefully. |
With the other Daturazi safely tucked away inside the White Tower, it was time to use the one crutch the Morats are famous for!
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| Shooting through smoke! |
Spying the TR remote on the distant Apartment building, the trusty Yaogat MSV2 Sniper fired off two shots.
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| Oh come on.... |
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| Crit. |
The TR remote fired back and critted with one of its shots- sending the Yaogat sprawling across the roof top.
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| I agree. |
Chastened by that dramatic failure, I decided to get my classified.
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| Time to help Dr. Worm! |
Dr. Worm slithered forward and one of his slaves made it's way (painstakingly) up to the unconscious Yaogat sniper.
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| Closer... |
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| Closer... |
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| Success! |
Shaking himself off, the Yaogat stood up and fired on the TR remote.
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| Second level unconscious. |
With that annoying TR remote out of the way, the Yaogat looked for another target....
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| ... CSU! |
The sniper easily won the face to face roll with one of his dice but quite annoyingly the CSU passed both armour rolls. She wisely failed her guts check....
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| ... and ducked back out of view. |
Argh!
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| Orders sink! |
With nothing else to shoot at, the Yagoat sniper put his remaining shots into the annoying TR remote, reducing it to unusable scrap.
With almost no orders left- I burned a command token to co-ordinate move.
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| MOV-MOV. |
The Vanguard hacker made his way into the White Tower.
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| But falls prey to a distant ARO from the Aquila Guard. |
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| Zerat moves away from the base line. |
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| MAF Turn 1 summary... |
Not impressed. I killed a TR remote and lost a figure in the process.
My Raicho had done nothing- (ordered starved beasty that it is)- but penned in completely by the 5 man link missile launcher I wasn't game to try to my luck.
NCA Turn 1
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| And now comes the inevitable link team rampage... |
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| Fantastic paint jobs! |
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| Burst 5 HMG vs. 1 burst sniper rifle.... |
Surely it was my turn for a crit!
But it was not to be and the Yaogat disintegrated under the hail of fire.
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| What is this?! |
Breaking from the link team, a lone Fusilier raced towards the White Tower.
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| What is happening? |
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| Getting closer. |
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| Repeater! |
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| But not without cost. |
The two Daturazi's sprayed chain rifle fire in the Fusilier's direction, bringing him down- but the damage was done.
A very annoying repeater was left next to Doctor Worm and close enough to the Raicho for me to have to worry about it.
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| Moving forward for a better shot. |
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| Getting into cover. |
The Aquila Guard advanced unhindered and took up a covered position watching the centre of the battlefield.
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| Auxilia comes out to play. |
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| But Doctor Worm spies the aux bot. |
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| And takes it out in a shot. |
As Doctor Worm twisted himself in knots patting his own back, the Auxilia successfully forward observed the MAF HVT.
... Wait a moment, this is a Classified isn't it?
Despite fumbling the laser pointer twice, the Auxilia eventually successfully FO'd the HVT a second time.
Drat!
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| CSU takes up position behind the Police Car. |
With the Classified taken care of, the rest of the turn was spent moving into position.
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| Machinist moves to the Apartment roof corner... |
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| And fires on Doctor Worm! |
The alien bio-machine quit trying to pat itself in a panic and fired back with a poor shot. Luckily, the Machinist's rifle rounds bounced off and Dr. Worm quickly hid itself in a corner with a touch more cover.
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| Touch cover, damn you! |
I was getting mighty tired of this hammering and thankfully PanO had finally finished their order pool.
The repeater was a real spanner in the works and I had to think hard about how I was going to deal with it!
MAF TURN 2
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| Impetuous charge! |
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| Impetuous smoke!... Impetuous Fail! |
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| ...... |
Blardy Morats!
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| Impetuous smoke! |
The other Daturazi survived their orders though- darting and dodging out of the way. Promising!
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| Time for the main event!!! |
I was licking my lips on using the Rasyat boarding shotgun on those Fusiliers...
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| Oh come on!!! AGAIN?! |
The Rasyat promptly failed his PH roll and dropped off the side of the table.
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| Pretty much... yeah. |
Sometimes I think I need to stop being such a profligate gambler.
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| Time to deal with the repeater. |
With not many options left, it was time to trot out the Raicho.... Once I've dealt with the repeater.
Should be fine... it doesn't even shoot back!
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| Time to take aim! |
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| Priority is the repeater! |
The Machinist looking on from the Apartment roof missed with his ARO and the Vanguard took his chance and pulled the trigger. The Vanguard sprayed the Repeater only to hit it once- and then have the round bounce off!
To add insult to injury, the distant Auxilia flash pulsed the Vanguard blind.
That's ok...
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| CC! |
Enraged, the Vanguard leapt on the Repeater and clobbered it with his rifle butt.
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| Desperate close combat ensues! |
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| Ahah! |
The repeater crumpled under the stamping boot of the enraged space monkey but the distant Auxilia had the last laugh. A long ranged shot put the Morat out of his misery.
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| It's time!!! |
Having blown half my order pool already on a deployable item (!) it was time to bring the Raicho into action.
The TAG sprayed the Auxilia and rooftop Machinist with its HMG. The Machinist failed his face to face roll but clapped in delight as the HMG round bounced off his flimsy armour.
The Auxilia was also lucky- passing his armour rolls and ducking back out of view.
The Raicho turned it's full attention to the rooftop Machinist this time only to miss with almost all his shots and the Machinist again making his armour check!
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| FFS! |
This was getting ridiculous.
At least the Machinist decided to drop prone this time- freeing the Raicho to hunt for other targets...
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| Look! An Aquila. |
Spraying and praying.... there was a lot of praying... the Raicho hammered away at the Aquila Guard.
The PanO heavy infantryman had the good grace to miss and suffered a crit to the face.
Two more Raicho HMG bursts landed home and the Aquila Guard found himself unconscious.
Hooray!
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| That awkward moment when the camera only catches a fragment of the whole picture... |
With not much left to do, one of my remaining Daturazis made a dash for the Apartment building.
NCA Turn 2
By pure blind luck- the Neoterrans were in Loss of Lieutenant!
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| Lady Luck- you tease! |
The Aquila Guard who lay dozing in the doorway was their Lieutenant and it seemed that the MAF had caught a lucky break.
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| Surprise!!! |
After a few burned command tokens- and the Bolt- the humans still had a few Regular orders to use....
... and left in the open with a slew of dead and unconscious bodies around him, my remaining Daturazi shifted nervously in their boots.
And rightly so as a Hexa Sniper materialised atop the Supply Building and fired on the Daturazi around the tank.
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| Smoke! Smoke! |
Fortuitously, my Daturazi won the face to face roll and blocked the line of fire to the sniper.
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| More smoke!! |
The Machinist on the roof top- that constant irritation- fired down on the same Daturazi who opted to throw smoke and actually won the face to face roll.
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| CSU advances onto the wall. |
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| DTW'd! |
The CSU- having crept up to the wall- intuitive attacked the Daturazi with her nanopulser. The alien dodged in ARO and won!
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| Dodge 2" closer to the end zone! |
It seemed the Daturazi had a stay of execution....
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| Ah.... |
Moving the attention to the other side of the battlefield, Bipandra made her way up to the fallen Aquila Guard.
Her silhouette blocked by the intervening tank and the wall coming off the Apartment building- the Raicho had no way of putting fire down on the medic.
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| So much for low PanO WIP. |
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| The Raicho pilot shows his disgust. |
Then came a series of moves to deny my monkeys from getting the end zone.
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| The Auxilia goes into Suppressive fire. |
With the Auxilia securing one side of the Apartment block, the remaining Fusiliers took charge of securing the other side.
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| Moving into cover. |
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| Missile man takes the corner. |
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| FO backs him up. |
With that done, a final sneaky move to get around my flank was made.
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| An Auxilia sneaks towards my end zone. |
MAF Turn 3
Well- I was in LOL now. Yes- the violent (blind) angry ape that had jumped all over the Repeater- had been my Lieutenant. My bots had turned irregular- but the rest of the army carried on.
... Or what was left of it.... Still Impetuous orders make up for it somewhat.
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| What a rubbish start. |
One of my remaining Daturazi made a dash for the CSU nearby... before promptly failing his dodge roll and taking a round to the chest.
Ridiculous.
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| Succesful dodge! |
The remaining Daturazi dodged his way into the shadow of the Apartment- avoiding the Hexa and the Machinist's AROs.
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| Raicho time! |
Enough of these shenanigans from puny humans!
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| Splat! |
Despite that encouraging result, I was loathe to move the Raicho any further for fear of that ODD sniper.
Luckily I had a direct template weapon nearby...
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| Daturazi chain rifle! |
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| Rubbish!!! |
Suprisingly, the Hexa didn't opt to dodge the chain rifle and instead fired.
And not only did the sniper shrug off the chain rifle hit- her ARO put the Daturazi down much to my disgust!
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| Water pistols at 5 paces! |
Time to risk a little....
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| Raicho stomps forward. |
To hell with the Hexa!
I marched the Raicho forward, vainly spraying the camouflaged sniper's position. Unsurprisingly, nothing was hit.
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| More bullets! |
Still, it didn't stop the Raicho from shooting....
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| And eventually a lucky round stuck! |
Raicho rampage!
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| The Raicho claims another victim- the missile launcher Fusilier. |
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| But misses the Aquila Guard enitrely! |
Cursing his luck- all four HMG burst missed the Aquila Guard- the Raicho could only stamp his feet in frustration as he watched the Aquila Guard dodge deeper into the building and safely out of view.
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| Moar weenies! |
Deprived of the Aquila Guard, the Raicho fired on Bipandra and the Fusilier Hacker....
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| Targetting... |
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| Firing.... |
... only to lose both face to face rolls!!!
With that frustrating outcome, I decided to try and throw a petulant spanner in the works and flipped the Raicho into suppression fire.
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| Wounded?! |
Only to have the Fusilier hacker ARO with a shot which wounded (needing a 2 or less ARM roll....).
NCA TURN 3
With a big fat bad tempered Raicho spraying the battlefield (ineffectually admittedly)- the humans went on the attack!
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| CSU activates! |
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| Shotgun time! |
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| Say hello to my little friend! |
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| Cover? I think so! |
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| Splat! |
As the Raicho pilot congratulated himself for actually killing something, the crafty Aquila Guard snuck out of his hiding hole...
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| Wot?! |
The Raicho pilot could only gnash his teeth in frustration as the Aquila Guard made it past his HMG spray with a Cautious Move.
Following that a co-ordinated move was declared- sending the Fusiliers (including the Hacker), the Aquila Guard and the Auxilia forward into the fray!
With only one target to choose- the Raicho killed the Fusilier Hacker in a violent eruption of gore....
.
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| Fusilier hacker dies! |
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| ...But the Aquila Guard escapes! |
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| Into the End Zone! |
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| Safely out of view of the Raicho.... and winning the game. |
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| .....Pretty much.... |
NEOTERRAN VICTORY!
DISCUSSION
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| My experience... |
Out played, out listed, out diced.
I find it hard to play variations of Morats outside of the one tournament list I managed to put together. But still, I put it down to being inexperienced with the list and using figures I don't normally utilize.
In hindsight I should have climbed the Raicho behind the White Tower and gone rampaging.
Instead I relied on active turn snipers- bad idea- and hid my TAG which did effectively nothing for 2 turns.
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| Soon! |
All is not lost however- with the new Human Sphere... we'll be back!
MORAT Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
YAOGAT MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 34)
RAICHO MULTI HMG, Heavy Flamethrower / . (2 | 91)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)
RASYAT Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 28)
AQUILA Lieutenant MULTI Rifle / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 58)
FUSILIER Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15)
MACHINIST Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
BIPANDRA Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
Great report thanks! It was a fun read! commiserations on the defeat.
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