Durgama Takeover

We ran the Zebu Supremacy mission at the LGS. Upon getting to the board, me and my opponent realized that neither of our factions were fighting for Zebu but we had lists and a board set up for supremacy. As such, we agreed to do the mission and place it on Darpan.

This was a 300 point standard game, Qapu Khalqi v Vanilla PanO.

The shuttle shook as it de-orbited, the air outside burning a furious, murderous red as the atmosphere objected to modern aeronautics. The hold was full of Sekban and naval troopers, some still dressing wounds suffered from the destruction of their transport ship in high orbit. In one corner, a hulking Azra'il stowed box after box of terrifying, pyrophoric ammunition in a specially designed crash-case, while everyone else in the hold prayed that he'd finish before the inevitable SAM hit the transport.

For Masoud, this was a secondary concern. His primary concern was trying to find a goddamn landing zone.

"I don't care about your orders, I have a shuttle full of troops who need resupply, medevac, and new bunks! And I've got a full contingent of hungry pirates ready to drop after us. Find me a berth, find me a clearing, find me a particularly shallow lake, find me someone else's airstrip! I don't care if we need to clear the LZ ourselves, we don't have any fucking engines so we are landing whether or not you give the fucking O-K!"

There was a burst of chatter, a data-transfer, and a map popped up with a landing zone highlighted. It was bright red. There was a 'Probable Hostile Armor' sigil in the bottom right.

"It'll do! In the name of god, what's PanO doing there?"

Another burst of chatter.

"Fair enough. Patch me through to them and give them one chance to-"

Three words, this time.

"...Noted."

Masoud stood tall, a hafza's signature armor rippling as the holomask took root. He stamped his boot once, quelling all discussion in the hold, and started pointing out troopers. "I need nine volunteers, two bots, all the Pyrophore ammo we can carry, and a line to the pirates. We're winning ourselves an LZ."

I won the LT roll-off and picked deployment. Scope chose to go first. My classified was Experimental Drug, Scope had an HVT classified that never got completed.

During symbiocuirass rolls, my many Hafza and some of Scopes units are all revealed, though the Cutter is in Hidden and so doesn't appear quite yet. All of my Yuan-Yuan started off-board and I mostly pick a refused deployment, with the Mission Turret, a Shihab, and my Djanbazan (In Haris) poking out to slow him down. I'm hoping the Djanbazan picks up some extra armor for ARO duty, but mostly it just juices my Hafza while the rest of my troops aggressively stab friendly symbiocuirasses in
a blind panic. Scope has a bit better luck with the BTS saves and gets armor for a solid chunk of his boys.

Scope coordinates some folks up, puts marksmanship on an HMG, and starts trying to clear his way forwards. A few orders force the Djanbazan prone and out of line-of-fire, and another two rip open the turret, but this ate most of his offensive momentum. A killer hacker cybermasks, some units position defensively, and his turn ends there.

On my turn, Assisted Jump goes up, and is immediately countered by his EVO hacker. The first Yuan Yuan flubs a jump, but it's not important. They walk in on-edge and give the djanbazan some smoke cover, the Djan wrecks the first TR bot, allowing me to drop another Yuan-Yuan, who chain rifles the biker, stabs the other TR bot to death, and goes unconscious. My links move up, the Djan link breaking to pick up the Azra'il and get in-zone while my Sekban push forward aggressively, push the first button, and try to pick up three zones of control.

I don't quite have the movement to do it, so the first turn ends with us tied on controlled zones.

Second turn, he tries to specfire a Spotlit Hafza with the Regular Hacker, doesn't land it, and brings out the Cutter. Transferred into the primary pool, it climbs a building and unleashes bursts of HMG fire that force the Hafza into cover, saved by their Symbiocuirass', but a last attack drops my Sekban HRL and lets the Cutter recamo in safety. Tragically, his order pool has been badly ravaged and he doesn't get much else done.

The Spotlit Hafza steps out and shotguns the Regular to death, while the rest of the core link maneuver to capture three zones properly. My last yuan-yuan botches a jump and secures my backline zone for safety's sake, while my Sekban Doctor pops out and heals the unconscious yuan-yuan for the Classified point. Leila darts over and activates a second console, while that first dropped Yuan-Yuan runs towards Joan and trades with the Helot.

This opens the Azra'il link to sprint towards a flanking sniper tower and get eyes on Joan. An initial Dodge succeeds, but unable to escape line-of-sight, Joan eats another burst of Feuerbach Fire and the Continuous Damage does her in. The Azzie then gets on top of the tower, bringing the Hafza along to keep him in-link.

Down a lieutenant and low on orders, Scope drops another Yuan-Yuan with his holomasked Knight, rushes the Cutter forward, and manages to maim Azzie and drop two Hafza unconscious, including my Lieutenant. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to turn the tide.

In loss of lieutenant, I reposition to grab three zones and convert an irregular order to fire a final burst of linked Feuerbach fire into the Cutter. It survives, though it takes a wound, and the game ends with me victorious.

"Masoud! You're alive!"

The hospital bay at AlFutna was sterile but loud. Every bed was filled with someone, minor injuries from desultory skirmishes to poor, maimed souls unrecognizable for full-body casts and life support equipment. Masoud, by comparison, was lucky: A bandage covered his lower abdomen and a tube by his bed carried about seven feet of quickly-cloned lower intestine and a full set of new abdominal muscles. In a few days, he'd be out of here. In a few more, he might even be on the field.

He attempted to roll towards his visitor, found it impossible with most of his abdominals missing, and settled for turning his head in the right direction.

Jameela Khan, sniper par excellence, met his gaze. She was slim, with short hair and a love of long green hijabs when she wasn't on duty, but more striking by far was the carapaced alien parasite still attached to her upper torso, as well as the large bruise on her left cheek.

"You doubted me?" Masoud asked weekly.

"You took a TAG shell to the gut and the symbiocuirass kept trying to eat Nidal's tools during Medevac," she said, tone light but eyes far more worried, "He ended up shooting it so he could root around in your guts."

"Ya Rabb, save us from well-intentioned Tohaa-Life," joked Masoud. He chuckled at his own joke, then grimaced as his entire body shuddered in sudden, searing pain.

"Docs said you can rip your gut in half if you laugh," noted Jameela, too late to help and utterly unwilling to feel bad about it.

"I noticed," wheezed Masoud. A moment passes as he recovers, gathers enough wind to ask the next question, "What's the damage? To the unit?"

Jameela gave him a wry smile, then pulled up a chair and sat down. "Good news? Our shuttle got down OK and we managed a full cubevac. Bad news? Our CO's didn't. We've got a transfer. Tomorrow on, we're under Omar Mukhtar 'for the duration of the crisis'."

"Ah." said Masoud. "Fuck."

"Yeah."

I was a bit careless with positioning at the end of my turn one and it could've been pretty bad for my Core Sekban link if I was a little less lucky. Additionally, I definitely should've brought a camo hacker despite the symbiocuirass rule, the utility's too useful in this mission and there were solid terrain options to keep it safe. I also missed a safe way to advance into the building I wanted to control for my plan because I just...never looked at the building from a certain angle until turn two.

That said, I don't want to be too hard on myself. The plan worked, in cases better than I could have expected, and yuan yuans solve a lot of problems! It was a solid game and I think I played it pretty well.