Crushing Defeat part II

So, if you haven't read part I of my crushing defeat at the hands of the Heroes' Beacon regulars, you might want to jump over here first.

I thought I'd start out by sharing the army list I used for my first two games. It's a decent JSA team, but there are some definite holes that could be filled.


 

I personally found the point limit of 250 a bit odd. At 200 points, you expect a smaller game and you build accordingly. You know you're limited. At 300 points you can flesh out your team, cover some weaknesses, get a decent amount of orders on the table, etc., but 250 points is a bit of a tease. It promises more flexibility than 200 points but in the end really doesn't satisfy like a full well rounded 300 point team…. This is all subjective, of course, and is probably because I'm used to playing at 300 points now.

I brought the standard two army lists. One was supposed to be tailored to objective missions and the second more for combat. Where the first two scenarios were more objective based and the third was territory control, I used the following list for the first two games:

 JAPANESE SECTORIAL ARMY

──────────────────────────────────────────────────

 GROUP 1 (Regular: 10/Irregular: 0):

 ARAGOTO Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 37)
 ARAGOTO Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)
 DOMARU Chain Rifle, E/M Grenades / Pistol, EXP CCW. (29)
 GUĬ FĒNG (WIP15, CH: Mimetism, Hacking Device, Super-Jump) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (13 | 12XP)
 YURIKO ODA Combi Rifle, Panzerfaust, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, CCW. (24)
 KEISOTSU HMG / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (9)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (9)
 KEISOTSU Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (12)
 SHINOBU Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW. (0.5 | 50)

 GROUP 2 (Regular: 1/Irregular: 0):

 KEMPEI (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW, Electric Pulse. (24)

 2 SWC | 250 Points
ARMY CODE: eNpNyzEOwDAIA8DPBM/YJGpe1imPL6AMFdLZHlCYabnJhAmdSJmudEGpHgSI6oKPOraOTtzOwRh+tPuLV/7cZQ975wevOhh4

The idea here was to have a very mobile force that could get in and out and get the objectives quickly.

The first mission needed Engineers and/or hackers specifically, so having the very fast Aragoto Bike Hacker, a super jumping Gui Feng Hacker, and Yuriko (engineer) in a link team of five made sense. The other Aragoto became my Leutenant because they too could take objectives (using the Paradiso and older ITS format, not the current) and it doesn't cost anything in points or SWC to upgrade the regular biker. I would have strongly considered taking the named Aragoto, Kisaragi, but I don't currently have the model. The Domaru would provide close support, the HMG Keisotsu would be my long range firepower, and Kitsune, with her hidden deployment and thermal optical camo would be my 'surprise'. The Kempei with Chain of Command was there only to provide a safety net of sorts in the likely event of losing my lieutenant.

In both missions the bikes performed admirably. Kitsune did her part, covering the primary objective, and the mobility of the Gui Feng was incredible.

In the first game I essentially lost to my opponent's sniper having a full range of view from high cover, and to my own inability to remember my figures' special abilities. There were a few differences with the second game, but essentially the same issue. In this case, my opponent had access to a sniper tower that had a line of sight nearly all the way across the board. However, that line of fire covered one side of the board and not the center where one of three objectives was placed.On the side opposite the sniper tower was a large piece of blocking terrain that completely dominated that side, making line of fire and movement both very difficult. As a result, I deployed in the middle and the clearer side. I had no trouble getting my Aragoto Hacker to the objective closest to my deployment zone and my opponent did the same, though it took him a few more orders. I was able to get my Gui Feng to the central objective as well, but a lucky shot left him unconscious next to the beacon. 

His sniper combined with my lack of long range support (only really had the HMG for range) meant he could pretty much pick me off as I tried to move from my deployment. The one thing that could have saved me? Remembering that Kitsune has smoke! That just about kills me just thinking of this huge glaring error on my part.

There was one other issue. He took out a number of my link team as well as one of my bikes using parabolic fire. It wasn't until we were driving out of the city, talking to D-Man about how he got tabled the same way by the same person in his third game, that I realized we were both 'gamed'. That is, unintentionally, our opponent misused a rule and used that situation to beat us. In this case he used missiles as parabolic fire. In fact, the rules only allow parabolic (indirect fire) to be performed with grenades or grenade launchers. The only way a missile can fire over obstacle is if a Forward Observer has tagged the model previously, and the missile has the 'guided' trait. So…. Things may have turned out differently had we realized the rules error.

The third game was just a comedy of errors from the start. I tried to take a TAG on, grouped my figures too closely together, assumed I had cover where I didn't, and was basically in 'retreat' after the first turn…. Very sad.

Here's the 'Frontline' team I used:

 JAPANESE SECTORIAL ARMY
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

 GROUP 1 (Regular: 10/Irregular: 0):

 OYAMA Lieutenant Chain Rifle, E/M Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, EXP CCW. (34)
 ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
 KARAKURI (Forward Observer) Mk12, Chain Rifle, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (43)
 GUĬ FĒNG (BS11, CH: Mimetism) Combi Rifle, Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (9 | 12XP)
 KEISOTSU HMG / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (9)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (9)
 YURIKO ODA Combi Rifle, Panzerfaust, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, CCW. (24)
 NINJA MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Shock CCW. (1.5 | 50)
 KEMPEI (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW, Electric Pulse. (24)

 3.5 SWC | 249 Points
ARMY CODE: eNpNy1EKwDAIA9DL1HwOkzrWXWxfPfyqozACT1Sibqa4rR+nURA4exmlLnAFjvX0xuY7+CR/Y7JK2dhq1GkgckntiRc75Bd9


I was generally happy with the individual elements of this team. The Ninja killed his target, the HMG did as well, even after having his 5 man link blown up beside him, and Neko survived long enough to be irritating. I didn't get a chance to use the Karakuri, the Aragoto bike ran impetuously out of cover toward a TAG, and the Gui Feng got blown up with the rest of the link. All in all not my one of my proudest moments.

Once again, every loss is a chance to learn, and boy was I schooled. Either way our main objective was accomplished..... we had a blast and met a bunch of other great players!