Tournament Report: Clarksville ITS - Game 3

In Game 3 of the Clarksville ITS at Frontline Games, my Combined Army fought it out against ClaytonH's Tohaa in Highly Classified. Read about Game 2 in my previous post.


The Main Classified Objectives we drew were:

My Secondary Classified Objective was HVT: Espionage.

Lists

I used a dramatically different list for this mission:

The Skiavoros, Speculo, Shrouded Minelayer, and two Daturazi are holdovers from my other list, but the button pushers are new additions. The Q-Drone is a poor replacement for the Charontid HMG, but hopefully adds enough firepower to an otherwise soft list.

ClaytonH's list featured two Fireteam: Triads:

Aelis Keesan, a Makaul, and Neema formed one Triad, and the Ectros, Gao-Rael, and one of the Kaeltar formed the other.

Deployment

I won the Lt roll, picked first turn, and was forced to deploy first. The Umbra and a Daturazi went in the left side of my Deployment Zone. The Malignos was deployed hidden on the left side as well, against total cover near the edge of my table half.

Sadly, this is the only picture I remembered to take all game.

Dr. Worm and the M-Drone hid out in the left and right sides of my backfield, respectively, and the Slave Drone was next to the M-Drone. The other Daturazi was near the M-Drone to provide smoke cover for a potential advance. The Skiavoros was prone on a roof just outside my DZ, using Forward Deployment L1. My HVT was on the right board edge, behind some tall cover, and the Shrouded deployed nearby, with his Mine covering a narrow passage leading to the enemy half of the table. I held the Q-Drone and my Speculo in reserve.

His Taqeul is deployed on the left, covering the entire lane on the left flank. Neema's Triad is in total cover behind the Taqeul. One Kaeltar is deployed Prone on a tall walkway. His other Triad is deployed near the stairs leading up to this walkway, with the Ectros partially up the stairs. The Taqeul, Neema, the Ectros, and the Gao-Rael each equip a Symbiomate. His HVT goes on the right, on the far side of the building that mine is deployed by.

I drop my Speculo prone near the Triad on the right, directly in front of Gao-Rael. The Q-Drone goes on the left, near my Umbra. The Kerail and his pair of Surdas are deployed at the edge of his DZ in the center.

Round 1

Combined: Both Daturazi advance safely with their Impetuous Order. I've faced off against Taqeuls and Kerails enough to be afraid of them, so I make them number one priority. The Umbra buffs the Q-Drone with Marksmanship L2, and then takes cover on some stairs. The Q-Drone moves toward the flank covered by the Taqeul, and along the way gets LoF to the Kerail. One Order deactives his Symbiote armor, and he's forced to remain out in the open since a failed Guts Roll won't improve his cover. Consequently, another Order easily removes it from the table. The Q-Drone continues moving toward the left flank, reaching cover before engaging the Tacqeul. Unfortunately, we're in the 8-16" range band. The first round of shooting goes my way, but he just shrugs it off with the Symbiomate. The next round, I'm not so fortunate the the Q-Drone is rendered Unconscious. Playing to the mission, I have Dr. Worm slog up to the fallen Q-Drone and revive it, accomplishing Test Run. I decide to leave the Q-Drone be for the moment and activate the Speculo. She moves into Close Combat with the Gao-Rael, and Suprise Attack easily wins her the ensuing F2F. The Gao-Rael shrugs the attack off with his Symbiomate, but another swing finishes him off. The Speculo activates again, backpedaling into cover while taking fire from the Kaelatar. She fires back with her Boarding Shotgun, and the F2F is a push. With my final order, I have the Umbra re-activate Marksmanship L2 on the Q-Drone.

Tohaa: The Taqeul pushes up the left flank and KOs the Q-Drone. Another pair of Orders brings her into LoF of Dr. Worm, who crumples under the Taquel's Spitfire. ClaytonH is as afraid of my Umbra as I am afraid of his Taqeul, so he's set on removing him from the board. Some careful maneuvering gets her into cover against the tactical response vehicle near the Umbra, but in the process her Symbiobug is taken out by a Grenade from the Daturazi. Peaking out of cover, she's able to split Burst against the Umbra and the Daturazi. The former fires his Boarding Shot while the latter lobs another Grenade. Unfortunately, it's not enough and both the Umbra and Daturazi go down. With his final order, he repositions the Taqeul to give her LoF to any reprisal from my forces.

Round 2

Combined: The remaining Daturazi runs toward the Taquel, taking fire, but lands a Smoke Grenade. The Malignos comes out of hiding and moves until it can shoot the Taqeul in the back, but he's only able to deactivate its Symbiont armor. To make things worse, by getting into the Taqeul's back arc the Malignos has stranded himself out in the open. So rather than activate him again, I move the M-Drone out of his bunker. In Partial Cover, but with with LoF to the Taqeul, the M-Drone fires, but the Taqeul makes her armor saves. Fortunately, another salvo finally takes her out. Using a Coordinated Order, I reposition the Malignos and M-Drone, and the former deploys a Mine on the left flank. Then, the Speculo fires her Boarding Shotgun at the Kaeltar on the right side, KOing it. Finally, the Speculo reimpersonates.

Tohaa: Neema's Triad moves out of the backfield, killing the remaining Daturazi on the way. Pushing further up, Neema easily drops the M-Drone with her Spitfire. They finish their advance in the center of the boarding, covering multiple angles of approach. Next, the Gao-Tarsos drops onto a raised platform in my Deployment Zone, out of LoF from my forces. It moves to the edge of the platform to gain LoF to my Skiavoros, who respounds with its Sepsitor Plus. The Shrouded Minelayer also reveals to take a shot with its Combi Rifle. The Gao Tarsos fires both rounds into the Skiavoros. At the end of the firefight, all parties are unscathed.

Round 3

Combined: The Skiavoros blasts the Gao-Tarsos with its Sepsitorize Plus, claiming him for the Combined Army. A Coordinated Order moves the Malignos, the Shrouded, the Speculo, and Skiavoros. The Speculo moves into Base to Base with the Ectros, who survives the CC Attack but remains Engaged. The Skiavoros spends two orders attacking and killing Neema with its Plasma Rifle, all the while moving to the top of the building in order to gain broader LoF.

Tohaa:  With Neema's Triad broken, the Makaul Impetuously runs toward the Skiavoros and survives the Plasma Rifle shots. The remaining Kaeltar (now the Lt) stands up and shoots into the Close Combat between the Speculo and Ectros. It misses because of the -6 MOD, and so the Ectros is forced to make two saves, which she passes. Another Order puts two rounds into the Speculo, killing her. Aelis moves over toward the Malignos, taking fire along the way from my new recruit (the Gao-Tarsos), but the Range is too poor and the shots miss. Meanwhile, Aelis fires at the Malignos, who successfully Dodges into Total Cover. With the last Order, the Ectros makes a break for my HVT's Zone of Control.

Final Score

The Ectros is just shy my HVT's ZoC, but my Shrouded is in his HVT's ZoC. This earns me 2 Objective Points. Also, I'm the only one to accomplish a Main Classified Objective (Test Run), and so that nets me another 5 Objective Points.

Result: 7-0 Combined Army Major Victory

Tournament Result

Three major victories put me in first place. Big thanks to Reece for a very well run tournament, and to my opponents for the excellent games. Frontline Games is a great shop, with a spacious tournament room, and food on site. I'm very much looking forward to the next tournament there.

This is my second tournament win of ITS Season X, and I have to admit that I was excited to see the effect on my ITS Ranking. The pair of victories boosted my Elo rating enough to (briefly) secure a World Ranking of 67th, a US Ranking of 21st, and got me on the list of "Last month Top 5 (Elo Winners)."

Notes

• I need to get better at estimating 16", not to mention even just remembering that the HMG's good Range Band ends there. That ended up costing me the Q-Drone (twice) this game and almost lost me the Charontid in Game 1. There was another angle I could have attacked the Taqeul from that might have been outside of 32", but at least this would have also hindered the return fire. Additionally, it would have offered great resistance on that flank, potentially saving Dr. Worm, the Umbra, and a Daturazi.
• Engaging the Ectros with the Speculo in the end was a mistake. Instead, I have should have tried to accomplish Capture with her using the downed Kaeltar. Even if he was able to shoot her down in his last turn, it would have eaten up just as many Orders (if not more) than freeing up the Ectros.
• It feels like going heavy on specialists does not play to the Combined Army's strengths at all. Next time I run them in a button-pushy mission, I'll try out the Charontid HD+ in place of the Umbra.