Durgama Takeover

*NOTE 1: Because both of us were practicing for a tournament featuring The Armoury, we opted to forego the special campaign rules, opting instead to use the regular ITS13 version of the mission.
*NOTE 2: The armoury building we used for the mission was slightly smaller than regulation. Furthermore, all buildings with playable interiors (exclusively the Armoury building in this game) were played under the assumption that models could draw line of fire into, out of, but not through. Template weapons functioned normally, but could not select a target unless they abided by these line of fire rules. Mines and other deployables were not affected, and could affect targets through.

White Banner forces take the initiative, deploying first and acting first. The White Banner holds in reserve its Guijia and engineer, positioning both on the southern flank. while the O-12 forces reserve their Cyberghost, positioning them beside their Epsilon to also reinforce their southern side. O-12 mostly null-deployed. Cho is disguised as a Beta (spitfire).

(Shona, Hippolyta, Casanova, and Valkyrie all represent Varangians, and So Ra Kwon is represented by a regular Jujak in this game and the associated photographs)

(White Banner to the East, O-12 to the West)

Turn 1:
White Banner Active: While the ghost was put along the southern flank to discourage the Guijia’s advance, the O-12 army was not ready for a more conservative play in favour of the Beasthunter. It would take the almost the entire regular order pool of the Guijia’s combat group, but the Beasthunter made its way into position to attack the entrenched Cyberghost and Epsilon. However, a final obstacle in the way of a clean attack run, O-12 reveals a Lynx (Assault Pistol/Plasma Carbine) to successfully discover the hunter just before it reaches position to prepare its assault. Revealed, the Beasthunter is forced to attack from its present position instead from advancing further to a more secure location, utilizing superjump to get over the ledge and expose both the Epsilon and Cyberghost, as well as their attending Varangian guard, to its heavy flamethrower. The Varangian makes its dodge roll, but both the Epsilon and Cyberghost are killed during the attack. In exchange, the O-12 Lynx enacts its own form of justice, blasting the zealous, airborne Beasthunter into a fine mist with her plasma carbine.
With the Beasthunter’s sacrificial attack run a success, the Guijia uses the remaining regular order, as well as its tactical aware and Lt order, to get into position watching the armoury room in suppressive fire. Enemies entering the room from anywhere but the Eastern entrance will have it to contend it.

The Shang Ji/So Ra/Adil team advances forward and accesses the armoury room. So Ra places mines in the North, West, and Southern entrances to the room, and then her and the Shang Ji activate the panoplies, with So Ra refilling her stock of mines and the Shang Ji gaining a light flamethrower. The fireteam then entrenches their position, with Adil hiding in the corner out of line of sight nearest the enemy forces, So Ra peaking slightly out, and the Shang Ji covering the West and Southern exits with his shotgun.

O-12 Active: Varangians lead the force, the first pushing forward and cleverly activating the Western and Southern E/M mines placed by So Ra Kwon to begin clearing a path for troopers that might otherwise be even more adversely affected by them. A third Varangian pushes down the southern side and engages the Guijia in combat, breaking its suppressive fire. The Guijia lands first blood, wounding but not outright killing the dogged Varangian, who in a berserk final strike hits the Guijia critically, inflicting two wounds on the TAG at the cost of her own life.
The Omega unit fires off a volley at the partially exposed So Ra, who, judging the gunfight against such a well-equipped adversary an exercise in futility, places another E/M mine in the Western corridor to replace the one just removed. So Ra takes a wound. Desperate to reopen the Western path, the Crusher makes a break for it, triggering the new western E/M mine, but then using it as the target of its LRL to hit the entire Shang Ji/So Ra/Adil team inside with the blast. Unfortunately, the Crusher is not only isolated by the E/M mine, but the attack also fails, and So Ra uses this opportunity to reposition herself clear of the doorway.
Put under pressure to gain some momentum, the Razor hacker reveals and moves into hacking range of both the Guijia and the Shang Ji team. Despite the tinbot protection on the Shang Ji team, the Razor opts to leave the Guijia, who’s positioned near to an engineer, in order to go after the Shang Ji (the fire team is then dissolved, opting not to use Adil’s No2). The Guijia dodges out of hacking range while the Shang Ji is ultimately left isolated and immobilized, completely crippled. The Razor then ends the turn by returning to camo state.
With the orders running tight, and the path to the Armoury room still dangerous, the Omega ends the turn in suppressive state.

End of Round 1, White Banner claims the room.

Turn 2:
White Banner Active: The engineer moves into range of the Guijia and repairs one of its lost structure points, putting it back in fighting shape. So Ra shoots through the southern doorway to kill the southern isolated Varangian (the goal was to simultaneously goad the Razor into revealing, but they did not take the bait).
In order to remove the razor, Liang Kai’s Shaolin haris pushes forward outside the southern door of the armoury, with one monk entering the room and tossing smoke to occlude the western entrance. Adil then moves into range of the Razor and uses the sensor skill to reveal it. One of the Shaolin then dodges into combat with the now revealed Razor, and then kills it while themselves being shot to death by the O-12 forces.
The Guijia tries to get into position to fire at the Crusher, Lynx, or West-side varangian, but is unable to do so within an acceptable degree of risk. Instead, it recovers its original position from last turn and assumes the suppressive fire state again.

O-12 Active: The west-side Varangian moves impetuously to approach the armoury room, shooting the crippled Shang Ji and taking it down. After Liang Kai and the Shaolin dodge to reposition, he then presses on into the armoury room and into combat with the Shaolin. Using shock ammunition banned by the Concillium convention, he then fires into Adil and the already wounded So Ra, killing Adil and rending So Ra unconscious. The Shaolin strikes back and inflicts a wound, pushing it into dogged state.
Using this newly formed opportunity to push an offensive, the Lynx moves forward and begins attacking Liang Kai, who deftly avoids several volleys and dives into the armoury room, ultimately landing himself prone behind the Shang Ji’s unconscious body to keep himself safe from assailants for the moment. Before giving up the chase, the Lynx moves south of the armoury room while also coordinating with the Kytta bots to stand them up and watch over the Guijia’s path, triggering So Ra’s last E/M mine, but the Lynx successfully dodges away.
With the tables now turned, the Omega then moves to approach the Armoury room, skipping the West side to try for the less defended northern edge, where the Guijia is unable to draw line of fire. Liang Kai dodges into combat with the dogged Varangian, to join the Shaolin holding it hostage in close combat.
Without the orders left to secure a safer advance, The Omega enters the room and fires into the combat, but fails to harm the monks. Liang Kai moves to the north-western corner, and the Shaolin moves into combat with the Omega. The dogged Varangian dies.

End of Round 2, O-12 claims the room.

Turn 3:
White Banner Active: At this point, with only a few low-priced troopers remaining capable of entering to claim the room, the White Banner forces must eliminate as many threats capable of entering as possible. The Shaolin kills the Omega in close combat. The Guijia then pokes its head around the corner, killing one Kytta remote at a time, and then moves into combat with the Lynx, cleaving the puny infantry in two. Without enough orders to pursue further, the Guijia re-enters suppressive fire.

O-12 Active: With the isolated Crusher unable to reach the Armoury room with its singular isolated irregular order, and Cho (disguised as the Beta) unable to secure the orders to push into the objective room and with the Guijia’s suppressive Multi-HMG staring the path down, the O-12 forces are unable to reclaim the room.

End of Round 3, White Banner claims the room.

End of Game, White Banner victory, 7/2

Closing thoughts: While taking a TAG, especially one as costly as the Guijia, is an unconventional decision for a mission like The Armoury, I like the extra dimension of aggression it brings to the outer-section of the map. The Armoury is a hard mission, and the Guijia’s spectacular mobility (do not sleep on that superjump!) allows it to get good lines of fire in a mission that is more restrictive on long-ranged weaponry than most. While it didn’t do a huge amount of damage, its presence was central to the entire game and oppressive to the entire enemy gameplan, even without having to spend many orders on it.
I’ve been dismissive of So Ra in the past, but she really brings a lot to a mission like this, where her kit offers some fantastic area control.
Despite the very strong start on my part, this game was an extremely violent back-and-forth. If it weren’t for the two orders that the Beasthunter was able to trim from the Epsilon and Cyberghost, I’m certain the Omega would have been able to take the room in a less risky fashion and kill both monks without much issue. I need to be more careful with my Shang Ji link, I can’t afford to have it go down so easily when I have limited redundancies to claim the room. Perhaps consider the team’s composition.