Tournament Report: Turkey Tussle - Game 2

In Game 2 of the Turkey Tussle, my Jurisdictional Command of Bakunin went up against Senthium's Military Orders in Supremacy. You can read about Game 1 in my last post.

Lists

I used my list from Game 1 again. My abundance of Camo Tokens should help me dominate far quadrants. Forward Deployment L1 on the Haris team means they can start in one of my near quadrants. The Taskmaster Lt will be my Xenotech handler, who can use his Lt Order to mitigate the Multiscanner tax. My Classified Objective is Experimental Drug.

My opponent's list featured a Fireteam: Core of (beautifully painted) Magister Knights and De Fersen:

Deployment

I win the Lt roll and choose to have my opponent deploy first on the side with more exposed consoles. He picks first turn. My only picture of the full table is from the middle of Round 1, so try to ignore the spoilers:

Senthium deploys his Fireteam behind the building with the far right Console on its roof, with Missile Launchers covering both lanes of approach.

One Black Friar is prone on the ramp up to the landing pad, and the other (which is the Xenotech handler) is prone on a walkway near the center of the table. A lone Fusilier is prone on one of the buildings attached to this walkway. A Montesa Knight with its shiny new motorcycle is deployed on the back board edge, just left of center. His HVT is deployed under the landing pad, near the red building on the left board edge. Senthium keeps one model in reserve and passes deployment to me.

One of my Zero Minelayers is hiding under the landing pad on the left, with its Mine up on the landing pad itself. The other minelayer is behind a building in the center left of the board, with its Mine covering the Black Friar on the walkway. The Zero AHD is prone on the scout tower on the right. The Taskmaster and Stempler Zond are deployed in the square building intersecting my deployment zone, while the Xenotech is outside of the building. The Reaktion Zond is next to the blue building in the center, covering the central lane. The Haris team is deployed behind the Ariadna shipping container on my left side. My HVT is in front of the green building in the center of the board.

Senthium's reserve model has Hidden Deployment and so remains a mystery for now. My reserve is Bran, who is placed Prone on the roof of the center green building, with easy access to any quadrant.

Round 1

Military Orders: I thought I had my Reaktion Zond set up to fire at the Montesa Knight during his Impetuous Order, but the nearest model is the Stempler Zond which sends him safely down a different route. The Black Friar in the middle sends the Xenotech forward and Discovers the Mine on the top of the center building. With another Order he shoots the Mine of the Table and pushes the Xenotech up a little more. A third order places his Multiscanner. The Montesa Knight charges down my left flank, grabbing the far left Console along the way. It nears my Zero Minelayers who refrain from AROing, and he moves to engage the Reaktion Zond. Along the way it tanks a CrazyKoala and a Hacking attempt from the Custoider, and easily takes the Reaktion Zond out. With this last order,  he repositions his link for better AROs.

Bakunin: I run my Haris toward the near right Console with the Custodier hacking the Montesa along the way. This time he fails his BTS save and enters the Isolated state. Another order has the Haris on the Console and the Custodier easily secures it with two WIP 17 rolls.

The Taskmaster uses his Lt Order to run into the far corner of his building (which is in the near left quadrant) while the Xenotech runs forward outside the building. The Taskmaster activates again, putting the Xenotech in position and she easily places her Multiscanner with the +3 WIP from my Hackers.

I have a strong suspicion the lone Fusilier is his Lt, so I decide to go after it with Bran. With a Coordinated Order, the Minelayers both move into the far left quadrant (where his Xenotech is), and crawl Bran to the edge of the building he's on. The Minelayer on the left is discovered, but he ends up safely in total cover. Bran then jumps 8 inches onto a bridge near the Fusilier. Pretty much every model in his army can see the Camo Token along the way, so he's easily discovered. Fortunately, only one Magister Knight can see him when he lands, so the next order I drop prone and while doing so I fire my Boarding shotgun at the Montesa. He fires back with his pistol, looking for 12's vs my 17's. In hindsight, this is a pretty risky move, but I manage to win the F2F with a crit and take one wound off the Magister.

With my next order, Bran crawls along the bridge to peep the Fusilier, who tries to Dodge. Bran wins the F2F putting one hit through with his Boarding Shotgun, which is enough to KO the Fusilier. I spend another order crawling Bran closer to the Black Friar (and hopefully into the far left quadrant). My last order is used as a Coordinated Order, recamouflaging the left most Zero and Bran.

We check the quadrants: my Taskmaster dominates the near left quadrant, my Haris team dominates the near right quadrant, and the Zero Minelayers along with Bran outpoint the two Black Friars to dominate the far left quadrant. This nets me one point (and denies my opponent his Xenotech point), and I get another from having my Xenotech in the near left quadrant.

Round 2

Military Orders: Senthium is in Loss of Lieutenant. The Montesa Knight heads toward my Haris team (which is closer than my Stempler only because he doesn't have to open any doors to get to them). I throw a Gotcha at it, hoping to slow it down. He resets and wins the F2F, but I'm just grateful he hasn't moved with the second half of the order. He uses his own irregular order (from being isolated) to move closer, but can't get LoF to the Haris, which ends a potentially devastating rampage. His Black Friar near Bran crawls forward and lands a drop bear behind Bran, which in retrospect wouldn't be valid with him in Camouflage state. It ends up not mattering because with two more orders (from Command Tokens) he's discovered Bran and put him down with his Multirifle. The other Black Friar stands up and discovers my central Zero Minelayer, then spends another order (with a Command Token) to charge him and shoot. The Zero fires back, but loses the F2F and is killed. The Black Friar then uses the last Command Token to moves further up and land a Drop Bear near my Xenotech.

Bakunin: Despite being isolated, the Montesa Knight with his Impetuous and Irregular Orders is still a big threat to my Haris team. So I move Kusanagi around to and put him down with a single round of shooting. I spend my Lt Order to move the Taskmaster to a door leading out of the building, while his last CrazyKoala is used to clear the Drop Bear. Shockingly, the koala makes its armor save and stays on the table. The Taskmaster takes out the Black Friar on my left flank, and heads out the building hoping to capitalize on the poor facing of the other Black Friar (who was turned toward his DZ to take out Bran). He's stopped by a TO Order Sergeant who comes out of Hidden Deployment to fire his Combi Rifle. The Taskmaster fires back but it's a push. I spend another order to run him back into the building, killing the Order Sergeant.

I spend my last Order repositioning my Haris and firing a pair of Repeaters near one of the Magister Knights.

We're both dominating our near quadrants with Xenotechs in them, netting us each one point.

Round 3

Military Orders: He moves his Fireteam away from the Repeaters, which prompts my Custodier and Zero AHD to try and Hack him. I go for Carbonite on Zero and Oblivion on the Custodier. The former gets through his BTS save, but he just spends another order to Reset out of it. He spends a few orders running his Fireteam up the central lane. They eventually enter the Stempler's repeater range, and one of the team members is Isolated. They engage my Taskmaster, but he survives and fails Guts back into Total Cover. With his last Order, the remaining Black Friar tries to lob a drop bear near the door of the building, but he fails the throw.

Bakunin: My Zero AHD has a clear path to the far right Console, which he runs to activates. The Stempler Zond makes a break for the near left console, taking fire from the Fireteam along the way. The REM successfully pushes the button, and the Fireteam only manages to put one wound on it. Kusanagi climbs on top of a silo to take out the Black Friar, which empties his forces out of the far left quadrant. Another order and a pair of crits finishes off a Magister Knight.

Final Score

With the Black Friar gone, my remaining Zero Minelayer is dominating the far left quadrant. My Zero AHD is dominating the far right quadrant, and the Taskmaster has the near left. This gives me another two points. With my three consoles and the Multiscanner this brings me up to 9 points. My opponent has 3 points with one console, his Multiscanner, and dominating his Xenotech's quadrant once.

Result: 9-3 Bakunin Major Victory

Notes

• Bran was risky move, but of course it paid off. Another option would have been to go after the central Black Friar, but his MSV2 has me worried about that matchup.
• With Deployment control, I should have foreseen the Montesa Knight's path. As it was, I left the Reaktion Zond unnecessarily exposed.
• I forgot about the Hidden Deployment model and was caught too off guard by the TO Order Sergeant. I was very lucky it wasn't an MSR, which may well have taken the Taskmaster down.
• The Taskmaster continued to be a boss this game.

Check out Game 3