Durgama Takeover

Intercepting another transmission, the Hexahedron warned us of an imminent Nomad attack. Thanks to their skill in encryption, we weren’t able to determine the exact location of their advance, so we were forced to deploy blindly, but ready to move.

Nomads win the Lt roll, and choose deployment. I choose to go first.

NCA Deployment:
Forced to deploy first, and without any intel on the enemy units, I instructed my units to take up similar positions to their earlier skirmish against Aleph. My Bolts set up on ARO to watch the right side of the table. My Fusilier Haris led by a Black Friar HRL set up on the left flank. Spreading out my MSV seemed like a good idea. The CSU rolled up NWI this time, which will come in handy later. In the center, poised to make a move on The Armory, were Uma and Aida. Aida rolled up +1 Armor. I expected to have enough time to move up and open the room with Uma, so she deployed in Camo, but out of cover. Risky. My Auxilia Lt deployed safely on a rooftop, with her Auxbot blocking the stairwell. Fearing AD troops, I deployed a Fugazi on the back of my deployment zone to dissuade such attacks.

Nomads Deployment:
My opponent set up Morans and their Koalas on each side of the table, effectively stopping my Garuda from trying to parachute in later in the game. Jazz and Billie deployed on the left side of the deployment zone. An Interventor Lt deployed behind some cover in the middle of the DZ, thoroughly surrounded by defenses. A Morlock Chain Rifle rolled up +3 PH. Behind him was an Evader Engineer AP Spitfire. In the center of the DZ, two AP Marksman Puppetbots deployed along with their Puppetmaster. Both puppets were on ARO, one on the roof and the other behind the building. On the right side of the DZ, Jelena Kovac deployed hidden behind cover. Behind her, a Digger rolled up a light flamethrower. A Daktari hid in the back, and a Beasthunter Minelayer set up on a diagonal ARO. To my horror, the most dangerous part of this list deployed safely on the back line of the table. A Guided Missile bot with a helper bot next to it. This could be really rough.

NCA Reserve:
Once again, I held back my Locust SMG with Wildparrot. If I got the opportunity, I could cause some serious havoc with those Parrots. Thankfully, I passed the roll this time! He deployed prone, in cover, in front of a camouflage marker that I was positive I could take out from afar.
Nomads Reserve:
My opponent counter-deployed Perseus in a position that could just barely see my Locust, foiling my plans. He also put him in Suppressive fire using a Command Token

NCA -
Starting the game, my Locust is in an extremely advantageous position, but is unfortunately pinned by Perseus. Thankfully, I have a Black Friar HRL that is in the perfect location to engage Perseus from afar, outside of his suppressive range. If I can remove that threat this early into the game, it’s going to be a serious step towards victory! In order to get eyes on Perseus, I first have to engage a Puppetbot that is far out of range. I can also maneuver to get eyes on my opponent’s Evader in its bad range, which is another great target. I’ve got 4 orders to play with, so things need to go nearly perfectly, but will put me really far ahead using only my Group 2 Orders. Since this is such an important engagement, I take it slow. I’m going to take on each of the three units one at a time in order. First, the puppet, then the Evader, then Perseus.

DISASTER strikes! Despite being out of range, the Puppetbot crits my Black Friar on a 5 in the first volley. The Black Friar dies instantly. OUCH.

Reeling a bit from that engagement, suddenly the plan is gone. I have two options. I can either abandon my Locust and let him be torn apart by a Morlock and a Digger, or I can make a risky play to move my Bolts up the right flank to get eyes on Perseus. I’ll have to extend them pretty far, which gets them dangerously close to the Moran and their Koalas. This is by far the greatest threat to my Core fireteam, thanks to that Missile bot in the back.
I decided to go risky and enacted a plan to save the Locust. First, my Bolt Sniper attempted a Discover + Shoot against the enemy Camo standing over my Locust. To my excitement, the enemy Heckler decided to dodge. I need 19s and the Heckler is dodging on an 11.

The Heckler Crits his dodge.

Both of my first engagements have resulted in crits. The hill towards victory gets ever steeper.

After the Heckler slipped away by going prone, my Bolt team moved forward, very careful to avoid the enemy Repeater and Koala. On our way, we encountered the other Puppetbot. Nervously, we engaged in a shootout. This one took a couple orders, but thankfully we weren’t Crit this time. Puppetbot down.
At last, I’ve got Perseus in my sights. Far across the table, he’s far out of his suppression range, and I’ve got full fireteam bonuses and MSV1. The road has been rocky to this point, but at least we’ll be able to take out Perseus. We hit him twice… and he tanks his armor saves. Frustrating. But the silver lining is that Perseus has no intention of staying on ARO against a Bolt Sniper. Finally, my Locust is in the clear.

My Locust rounds the cover to take a look at the Heckler that escaped my Bolt. The Heckler attempts to Jam our comms, but thankfully the Locust takes him out.

Jelena Kovacs hears the commotion and stands up to threaten my Locust with her chain colt. Seizing this opportunity, my Bolts retreated to a more defensible position, tossing Drop Bears to flood the field. On the way, Jelena tried to take a pot shot at my Machinist who wasn’t the fireteam leader, allowing my Bolt with Drop Bears to rip her to shreds with her Combi Rifle for her hubris.
My Locust is finally free again… again. To my disappointment, I wasn’t close enough to the Interventor to place a Wild Parrot in a way that could isolate them. I also couldn’t quite get close enough to set a trap for the Missile Bot. Instead, I deployed one in front of the Digger. With the trap set, my Locust engaged the Digger, who successfully dodged the Parrot, but took a wound to the SMG. At this point, I’m basically out of orders. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to kill the Digger, which means the Locust is certainly in trouble.

I use the last couple orders in my second group to move the CSU up a little bit and go into suppressive fire. I needed to stop my opponent from running forward with Perseus or a Moran to cause havoc in my DZ.

Notably, I had to leave Uma out of cover. I was kind of reeling from some of the crits this round, and I figured using the Locust’s tools as much as possible before his death was more important than opening the objective room this turn.

Nomads -
In the impetuous phase, a Morlock rounds the corner to take on my Locust. Thankfully, my Bolt Sniper has his back. My Locust successfully dodges the Chain Rifle. The Bolt successfully blows the head off the Morlock. The Locust used this dodge to slowly move back towards my side of the table. We’re foregoing cover, but getting further away from the Digger. The Digger opted not to use their Impetuous order, fearing a similar fate from the Bolt Sniper.
Next, the remaining Puppetbot moved to engage my Bolt Sniper. There was a lengthy shootout. I won most of the F2F rolls, but the Puppet just would not die.
Next, the leftmost Moran shifted and deployed a Koala in a position that would blow up on the Locust. After setting the trap, the rightmost Moran engaged the Locust out of cover. The Locust successfully dodged AGAIN, avoiding the Koala and the shots from the Moran. Now, my Locust has made it into cover.

Finally, the Digger had enough and ran out to lay two Chain Rifles on my Locust. Winded from all the dodging, he finally failed a dodge. Thankfully for me, he passed one of the two armor saves. The Bolt made short work of the Digger as revenge.
With only a few orders remaining, my opponent engaged my Sniper once again. This time, the Puppet crit again, killing my Bolt Sniper.
Jazz moved up and shot some pitchers near The Armory.
The Interventor Lt went into Cybermask.

NCA -
The Locust bought us some time with his efforts. Losing the Bolt Sniper is a big blow, but we need to use this turn to do some more damage. The Armory itself is still a no-go. Anyone we send into that room is going to be Targeted by hackers and blown to bits by guided missiles.
I use a couple of orders in Group 2 to move up the CSU to take out one of the pitched Repeaters. We’re now watching a corridor that Perseus could come through later as well.

The Bolts moved a bit closer to The Armory, scattering some Drop Bears on the way. Importantly, one of these Drop Bears was thrown in front of the rightmost Armory door. We also shot and destroyed the second pitched repeater. The Bolt Paramedic fired a couple medikits at the Locust and successfully revived him. He caused so much trouble before, it was worth using him as another roadblock. Currently, he was pinned by a Moran and a Beasthunter, but at least he would waste orders.

Since my opponent did not open the room, I considered what to do with my last two orders in group 1. Opening the room is a risk, because I still don’t have the ability to take it safely yet. But we’re running out of time. With a sigh, I send Uma up to the door to open The Armory, which she does. Uma enters briefly to set up an E/M mine inside, but does not stay inside. I probably should have just risked it, but Uma isn’t particularly talented at dodging Guided Missiles.

I should have done this next part first, but honestly I didn’t expect it to work. Likely my most ballsy play this match, I decided to drop my Garuda with only one order to spend. I wasn’t able to kill as much as I hoped, and I desperately needed that Missile Bot dealt with. I’ve found the perfect spot to land. Out of range of enemy repeaters, Koalas, and mines, AND in the back arc of the Missile Bot. The Garuda dropped from the sky and landed perfectly on a 6.
Only one order left. The Garuda fires its Combi at the Missile bot. Unfortunately only one shot hits, but thankfully the bot fails an armor save! At last.

Nomads -
The Daktari heard shots ring out above her and ascended a ladder to engage the Garuda threat. The Garuda fired in defense and killed the Daktari.

Next, a Moran attempted to take on the Garuda threat. The Garuda successfully defended, but the Moran survived. The Beasthunter ran over to flame the Garuda. The Garuda successfully dodged as my Locust killed the Beasthunter in ARO.

Perseus leapt into action. As he jumped from his rooftop hiding spot down to the ground, my CSU got a lucky hit on him, but he passed the armor save. A flash bot failed its roll.
Perseus moved forward and engaged the CSU again. The CSU failed an armor save but survived on NWI, stalling for just a bit longer. In the next volley, the CSU perished.

Perseus was nearly out of orders and ran into The Armory in hopes to claim it. Uma fired upon him, along with the E/M mine and Drop Bear going off. To my surprise, Perseus opted to shoot at Uma, knocking her unconscious. Unfortunately for Perseus, he died in the Drop Bear’s explosion.

For the second turn in a row, nobody takes the room. It’s crunch time now.

NCA -
This is our moment. We have to deal a decisive blow to make sure that the Nomads won’t be able to take the room from us.
Using Group 2’s orders, the Garuda kills the Puppetmaster, a Moran, and a palbot near the Missile Bot.
There is still one major threat on the table, the Evader.
My Bolts swarm the room. On the way, my Bolt Paramedic attempts to revive Uma, but she’s too far gone. The Bolt Spitfire takes on the Evader and successfully kills him. On the way, we also get eyes on Jazz and take her out.

Since the points are going to be so important this round, I can’t risk any WIP 12 rolls on Panoplies. Aida runs into the room and rifles through the Panoply, pulling out an HMG.
Finally, the Bolt Spitfire, Bolt with Drop Bears, NCA Machinist, and Aida go into suppression.
We’ve done all we can. Now we just have to hold the line.

Nomads -
Only a few orders remaining, with nobody near the objective, their only hope is to score their classified. The Interventor moves forward, deploys a Fast Panda, and successfully Spotlights my Bolt, scoring Telemetry.

- This game felt like an uphill battle for sure! I got crit multiple times in the first round, during very important engagements. But ultimately the reason I was able to win was because my opponent lacked momentum. Rather than sticking to one engagement, he went back and forth a bunch between a couple of options, ensuring that he didn’t really push forward when he had the advantage. I was able to kill a bit here and there in the first two rounds, which helped a lot. The extremely lucky Garuda hail-mary was exactly what I needed to make a huge difference in the course of the game.