Durgama Takeover

After our encounter with Varuna forces in the region, our commanders determined it was best to train for possible future encounters. Coopting our Nomad allies from the Jurisdictional Command of Bakunin, we set out for a training exercise in a similar environment to our last encounter with the Panoceania forces. We would assume the same mission parameters: Decapitation – cripple the enemy command structure and eliminate their forces. Of course, as this was a training exercise, no actual casualties were inflicted.

Having Saladin as our field commander gave us the imitative to strike first - Haqqislam’s left flank deployment.

Not knowing what our opponents were fielding, our right flank was heavily fortified against enemy attacks, ensuring Saladin could survive the skirmish. Saladin, our Mukhtar, and our Fiday were the last troopers to deploy.

Bakunin’s left flank consisted of a Riot Girl core, an Uberfall Commando (Chimera), and several other layered defensive pieces – excellently defending their Moderator lieutenant. We suspect they were aware of the Fiday we had infiltrated into their ranks ahead of the practice.

Bakunin’s right flank was more sparsely defended. However, they did field a Taskmaster with a Heavy Rocket Launcher. The troopers we would expect to deal with such a unit were deployed too far away to be effective. This would make an excellent overwatch piece, limiting our ability to strike.

Fortunately, our Barid’s were up to the challenge. Landing a pitcher in the heart of the enemy deployment.

Using the pitcher, they immediately targeted the Nomad lieutenant for a missile strike, also knocking out the only doctor in the Nomad ranks.

Simultaneously, our Mukhtar eliminated the remaining overwatch pieces on Nomad’s left flank.

This allowed the Kum rider in our second squad to advance unabated. Eliminating the single largest threat to our own lieutenant – the Bakunin Chimera. Unfortunately, the Kum was eliminated in the process.

With a repeater in the heart of their core link, a Nomad Zero unsuccessfully attempted to shoot it down. Our Fiday took the opportunity to eliminate the distracted Zero.

Fiddler then broke out of the core link to destroy the repeater herself. Our Barid targeted her, forcing her to spend additional time resetting out of the state.

Meanwhile, on Nomads right flank: with our Fiday exposed, the Taskmaster gunned him down.

The Taskmaster, and his accompanying Morlocks moved up and removed one of our designated targets, securing two points in this training exercise.

At the same time, the Riot Girl core advanced to remove some of our standing defense pieces. We were able to rebuff their advance using our established hacking network.

This was sufficient to repel the Bakunin link into their own defensive position.

Unfortunately for our Nomad partners, we brought an Asawira to today’s exercise. The Asawira was able to advance, eliminating a Zero, a Riot Girl, and wounding Fiddler and two other Riot Girls.

A Riot Girl used her boarding shotgun to counter the Asawira’s advance.

At the same time, the Nomad Taskmaster continued its advance up our left flank, eliminating Zuleyka.

A nearby Hunzakut deployed a reaper. Allowing our Barid’s to target the Taskmaster for a missile strike.

Meanwhile, our Mukhtar continued it's overwatch, destroying Bakunin’s Dropbears. This allowed our Liberto to advance unhindered.

Once up field, the Liberto eliminated Fiddler and secured a position in the Nomad’s defensive line. Not feeling safe to move, this locked down the Riot Girls for the remainder of the exercise.

However, a Morlock was able to advance under the cover of smoke. Finally going down to our ARO network, just after it eliminated our last Designated Target.

Concluding our training exercise, Haqqislam beat Nomads 6-4. We thank our allies in the Jurisdictional Command of Bakunin for their continued partnership and support in this ongoing conflict.

Decapitation heavily favors going first. If I had to go second, the entire game would be different. Also, my opponent's dice were just the worst. I would roll a 2 and he would roll a 1. I would roll a 6 and he would roll a 5. Just the entire game. Its really really hard to do anything in infinity when the dice are lining up for you.

Over two orders, I have a 50/50 chance of landing the pitcher in my first turn. If it didn’t land, the Fiday still could have made a run, but the game would have been different.

I should not have exposed my Fiday to take out the enemy Zero. Leaving the fiday in Impersonation is at least a two-order tax for my opponent and I may be able to drop the template anyways. Exposing the Fiday didn’t slow down my opponent at all and gave them a 35% chance to survive anyways. Additionally, if the fiday survives until my turn, it could be absolutely devastating.

Biggest mistake for me was thinking Riot Girls had structure and not wounds. I felt compelled to kill Fiddler on two occasions because I thought she would just pick them all up, swinging the army points killed back. The first with my Asawira run, I stepped out of cover with my final order to shoot at her and did one wound. It would have been a better play to just drop into total cover. With my opponent's order count, it would have been unlikely for the asawira to die. And an Asawira that close to your opponent is bad news for your opponent. The second time I over emphasized Fiddler was with my liberto run. I could have instead shot at the designated target or at the riot girls who were worth more points. Or I could have not made the run at all.

Lastly, I could have gotten more OP in the final turn if I used the Mukhtar to kill the designated targets. I didn’t see it until after the game, but the Mukhtar was able to see the back of both targets from on top of the roof. I probably should have done this instead of the liberto run.

My opponent played really well, but had a few misplays as well. All really minor, but here they are:

My opponent dodged with their moderator LT as soon as I missile dropped them. At that time I still had 5 orders to spend missiling. His odds of successfully dodging my attacks for 5 orders is .05% - super unlikely. I think it would have been better to attempt a reset. His odds of not dying on a given order if he does not contest the attack is ~12% and his odds of resetting in that order is 50%. Still pretty likely to die over the turn, but its still better odds. The same thing happened on my last turn against his Taskmaster. I had 5 orders to spend, so resetting would have been the better call as the taskmaster is only 50% chance to go unconscienced on any given order when his resetting (still 40% to go unconscienced when he dodges, so not that much better)

With the Zero/fiday play, I think my opponent should have declared a discover against the fiday and a shot against the repeater. Its basically just an additional free discover against the fiday.

My opponent could have engineered fiddler out of the targeted state instead of resetting. She failed one order, which would have been a pass if she engineered instead of reset.

This was round 5 of the IGL tournament and my opponent had already beaten some of the best players in the tournament. So these are pretty nitpicky comments. They're just what I thought of. Overall, my opponent played very well.