Durgama Takeover

Our forces are tired. Our enemies are many. Still, we will FIGHT!
WinterForce once again deploys to intercept a Nomad strike force intent on destroying an AC2 at Cameliard.

Corregidor wins the Lt roll. They opt to go first and I choose a deployment that I think I can defend from AD troops.

Corregidor Deployment:
A Corregidor fireteam sets up on the left flank. Jazz, and the Wildcat Lt hole up in a building while the Wildcat HRL and Evader wait outside for an opportunity to strike.
On the right flank, a Haris consisting of a Diablo and two Jaguars positions themselves near the AC2. In the back right corner, a Raveneye sets up with an E/M Mine defending a Vertigo missile bot. A Digger deploys nearby and rolls up a Light Flamethrower.
In the midfield, we’ve got a Bandit BSG that rolls up a Multi Rifle on the left flank, and a Moran with Koala set up to defend the Panoply on the right.

WinterFor Deployment:
Since I’m not going first, I need to deploy in a way that will minimize losses. As tempting as it is to put both Karhu Feuerbachs on ARO, I need to preserve some of my offensive power for my turn.
Since the Wildcats set up on the left, I’ve opted to put my WinterFor Alpha fireteam on the left flank. I’m hoping that the barricades and trees will give Shona enough cover to move up with the Vargar in case my opponent makes the mistake of only putting the Wildcat HRL on ARO duty. I want to utilize my Albedo if possible.
In a central position, I’ve placed my Fusilier Core with the Karhu Feuerbach on ARO duty. This Karhu will have Sixth Sense, so I’m more comfortable putting him on ARO since he doesn’t get “smoke-tricked” via White Noise.
My Beasthunter deploys nearby the AC2, placing a mine next to it.
On the right side of my DZ, I place my WinterFor Beta fireteam in a position that is hidden and also covering my deployment zone edge. You never know when Carlotta could show up. I purposefully put Hawkins a bit further towards the Moran, because I’m hoping my opponent will take the bait and go after him on turn one, potentially allowing me to take out the Moran in ARO. I also have my Karhu Engineer right there in case he gets isolated or something.
Both Fugazis deploy in defensive positions, as does my Warcor.

Corregidor Reserve:
Corregidor deploys McMurrough on the right flank, which is surprising because that’s already where all of his other template and CC threats are.

WinterFor Reserve:
Liang Kai is once again my reserve piece. I thought about deploying him on the right flank to meet McMurrough, but decided instead to deploy on the left. I can keep a distance from McMurrough, and thanks to Liang Kai’s higher-than-average WIP, we may be able to stop some of his smokes with his flash pulse (even though it won’t stun him of course).

Corregidor:
Using his impetuous order, McMurrough runs forward, attempting to toss smoke to block Liang Kai’s LoF. The smoke crits. Now, the Digger is free to move up.
The Moran opts to move up to the rightmost Panoply and attempt to activate it. He fails.
McMurrough also moves up to activate the Panoply, and gains a Panzerfaust.

Now for some actual fighting, the Bandit moves into LoS of one of my Fugazis. The Fugazi attempts to flash, but fails the F2F thanks to the burst and added range of the Multi Rifle the Bandit picked up. Thankfully, the Fugazi passes its armor save. Another shootout erupts, but the Bandit still fails to take out the Fugazi!

Moving on to a different issue, the Wildcat HRL maneuvers to get shots on my Core-linked Karhu Feuerbach. I was really hoping the Karhu could stall for a bit longer, but he rolled abysmally low and was killed instantly by the blast of the Rocket Launcher. Ouch.

Finally, the Bandit decided to activate again. It moved forward, forgoing cover, but getting into better range with its Shotgun. This time, the heroic Fugazi failed its roll and fell unconscious. Sweet dreams, buddy.
With the final order of group 2, the Bandit opted to go into suppressive fire.
With the final orders of pool 1, Jazz moved out of the building she was hiding in and fired two pitchers in range of Liang Kai. One of them succeeded. She attempted to spotlight Liang Kai 3 times, but failed each attempt.
My opponent does put the Evader on ARO duty, which prevents me from effectively using my Albedo.

WinterFor:
Thanks to that Fugazi, we didn’t take too many casualties. It hurts to lose the Karhu in pool 2, but we have another one in our pocket.
I should’ve realized that my opponent had accidentally broken his fireteam due to Coherency, but didn’t notice until the turn was up. Anyway, I had a few immediate threats that I knew needed to be dealt with. There’s the Bandit in suppressive, who is pinning my left flank, a repeater in front of Liang Kai, McMurder and the Digger on the right flank as well as the Moran.
My WinterFor Beta fireteam sprung into action, the Karhu effortlessly scaling the wall of a nearby building.
On his attack run, this Karhu Feuerbach got LoS to the Suppressing Bandit from across the table, forcing it to dodge. The Bandit exploded as the Karhu’s shots tore through it. The Repeater was a little more slippery, somehow eluding our shots.
Next, the Karhu crested the rooftop to get LoS on the Digger, killing it easily.
The Karhu maneuvered over the building to get LoS of McMurrough and the Moran. Even better, we managed to get them both in their back arcs thanks to the extreme angle!

The Moran was easily dispatched, but McMurrough survived with a wound. The next volley from my Karhu removes him completely, along with the Koala that was left behind. During these interactions, there was also a long range flash pulse from the Raveneye, who was killed as well. The Karhu ends up in a relatively hidden position. Again, it would be tempting to put him on ARO, but his offensive power is too good to risk.
Since Group 2 has nothing much to do, the Fusiliers move up slightly. The paramedic successfully removes the enemy repeater and goes prone.

I don’t have enough orders to go on an attack run with my Vargar anymore, but I do reposition them slightly so that the Combi+HFT can see a short firelane down the left flank, just in case someone else comes through the Bandit’s same attack vector.
For my final activation, I move my remaining Fugazi up to watch the entire table edge on the right flank, and more importantly watch the doorway where I expect the Diablo and Jaguars to come through.

Corregidor:
Corregidor still has their full core and their Haris, but we’ve managed to completely wipe out their midfield presence. Jazz no longer has any pitchers either.
Since Jazz isn’t expecting to Spotlight anyone this turn, the Vertigo missile bot maneuvers to take a risky shot against my Flash bot, hoping to clear the way for the Diablo to move up. The Fugazi wins the F2F, stunning the Vertigo!

Next, the Diablo fireteam attempts to move up, coming into LoS of the Fugazi. He attempts a dodge, but the flash pulse gets him too.

Without many other options, my opponent spent a long time trying to decide whether or not to drop a Hellcat, but there were basically no locations where it wouldn’t be seen while landing.
Finally, my opponent just decided to move up with the core. The HRL took some shots at my Warcor at long range, successfully killing her on the second attempt. Once they were in the midfield, the HRL moved to get LoS on my Varg that was watching the left flank. After a couple rounds, the Varg finally got a hit through that killed the Wildcat.
The last movements were to move the Evader prone (hiding from the Karhu Feuerbach) and sending him into suppressive.

Once again, we’re presented with a difficult situation. I’m confident that I can kill nearly everything in my way. The Core is no longer active and they’re all in poor positions. The problem is that if I kill all of those enemies, I risk putting my opponent into retreat, causing me to lose the game. If I plan to kill to clear the way, I need to get to that AC2 this turn.
The Karhu Feuerbach does his part from afar. He takes an ARO from the Vertigo. Jazz dodges. The Karhu blows them both to smithereens.
Next, we have to deal with the Suppressing Evader. Since the Fusiliers don’t have much to do, I send them after the Evader. They win the first shootout, but the Evader tanks it. The second shootout knocks my Fusilier unconscious.
Kicking myself, I realize I’ve got a WildParrot on my Varg. I totally should’ve done this before engaging with the Fusilier, but better late than never. Once the WildParrot is out, we activate the Haris. I decide to dangle the Combi LFT, because I need the movement and also want to guarantee that this Evader dies. The Evader opts to dodge, and my Varg K1 Marksman fires. The Evader manages to dodge the WildParrot, but fails an armor save against the Marksman. We move up a second time, this time with everyone out in the open, including Shona. The Varg Combi scores some hits on the Evader, finally killing it.
I look at my orders, and we have NO time. I decide to throw caution to the wind and coordinate our way across the table.

On the way, Shona takes a wound from an enemy Paramedic, but the Paramedic dies from all other shots. As we charge across the battlefield, the enemy Lt attempts to dodge from his hiding spot, hoping to get LoS to stop us, but he fails time after time.
With only a couple orders remaining, Shona and Liang Kai reach the enemy AC2. Shona handily eviscerates it with a crit.

In this moment, the Diablo succeeded in its dodge and maneuvered into LoS of Shona. Her mission complete, Shona leapt up onto the walkway, firing upon the Diablo with her SMG, dealing a wound.

Corregidor:
The enemy Lieutenant attempted to shoot Shona in revenge, but Shona successfully dodged prone. Then the Diablo decided to throw caution to the wind and Berserk Shona Carano. In a final act of defiance, Shona TANKED the saves from the Diablo’s Trench Hammer, and sliced the Diablo clean in half with her sword.

Finally, my opponent landed his Hellcat Spitfire next to my HVT, gaining him another point.
Thoroughly defeated, my opponent conceded and we called the game there.

Man, the Fugazis really held the line here. They wasted far more orders than my Karhu Feuerbach did. That said, the second Karhu Feuerbach racked up an insane amount of kills this game, as usual. Looting and Sabotaging is such a crazy mission. I feel like I’m always on the verge of losing because of Retreat. I guess that’s why Smoke is so nice for other factions haha. Unlike PanO, they don’t have to KILL everything in the way before making a move on the AC2!