Durgama Takeover

"We've taken one AC2, the Morats hold the second in the opposite compound, Colonel. I'm advancing part of my force to take it!" Daofei Chiu Linmei heard Lieutenant Feng report. He was advancing more than just part - he was sending forward most of his forces in a single, concentrated push. In addition, rather than staying back to direct, LT Feng seemed to be looking for a medal as he advanced with the troops.

Linmei could have understood the move if LT Feng was using armor which gave him Camouflage or Mimetism. But no, the LT had set up on the road, watching the entirety of it with his MULTI Sniper Rifle. She hoped his brilliant plan didn't get them all killed.

((I apologize in advance about the pictures - I have tried rotating them but they keep being uploaded sideways. I do not know why.))

I won the LT roll and opted to go first, hoping to Alpha Strike or get some points right away. My intention was to use the Kuang Shi defensively while having as many heavies and camo units push the AC2 and panoply. It sort of worked. Wrangler seemed to concerned by the fact that I was letting him know where my BW & Monstrucker were. He also seemed a bit concerned by the 2 camo markers I deployed as my reserve. He correctly guessed one was a Guilang Minelayer but he picked the wrong one.

My first move was to advance the Blue Wolf forwards and past the first panoply. He opened it and got an EXP CC Weapon. The Monstrucker and Shaolin Monk followed, the latter headed for a door to open it.

The Monstrucker (represented by an Asura) makes it to the Panoply using a full order. Seeing as there is nothing on the roofs, my Beast Hunter jumps down to move in parallel with the BW. My monk (represented by Joan) makes it to the door and opens it.

After much movement and one point gained for the panoply, my turn ends. Wrangler makes his move. He starts by moving a bot with Baggage out of cover and going back into cover in an attempt to Discover the Long Ya. Discover fails and Sun Tzu knocks it unconscious.

Next, he starts moving a Something with two nasty dog-like creatures (worth 4 pts and Explode) towards the Blue Wolf. They open the door between them and the Blue Wolf, triggering my Long Ya and WarCor on the tower as well as the Blue Wolf. Nothing happens. They all miss or are canceled by a higher roll. In CC, the Blue Wolf tanks every hit. In the second attempt, the BW knocks down the Team leader and breaks the link between the two dog-things.

Next, his Raicho starts shooting at the tower and promptly kills the Long Ya and the WarCor. Then, he starts shooting at my Yaokong and Kuang Shi on roof tops. Yaokong goes down. Kuang Shi dodges.

Next, in comes a DZ Parachutist of some flavor. It takes him 3 orders to kill Sun Tze who no longer has anyone watching his back. It then proceeds to move towards my AC2 from the rear. All that stand between it and the AC2 are the CG Monitor and two Kuang Shi. Luckily, that's about it for orders.

Now, I'm suffering from Loss of Lieutenant. First time since I started playing a month ago. My fault for being too aggressive with the LT. Still, I have 4 Command tokens left. My monk uses her Impetuous to move to the inner door. One of the Kuang Shi uses her Impetuous to move out and in a general direction towards my AC2.

Things start getting spicy here. The monk opens the door with her Move short order and then tosses a smoke grenade into the corridor being watched by a Total Reaction bot with some sort of gun. I'm not sure about the weapon name but it requires both ARM and BTS saves. Monk dies and smoke fails.

The Blue Wolf uses its TacAware and fails its CC attack against one of the dog-things. Then, I pause for a moment to take stock and decide to focus on other troops first. The Monstrucker moves past the Panoply and is near the BW. She uses the 2nd short order to open the panoply and retrieve rocket boots of some sort. I use the Daofei's Irregular Order to move up as close as possible to Wrangler's HVT. I spent a Command Token and turn a Kuang Shi's Irregular to Regular. From there, the Daofei moves into base-to-base and succeeds her WIP roll to get the CivEvac state on the HVT. This earns me my second potential Objective Point as my Classified is to get the HVT into CivEvac by end of game.

Next, my Beast Hunter moves towards the melee and surprise attacks into it. The Dog-thing dies without Exploding. As a result of that, the bot with the strange gun hoses the entire melee. Everything dies except for the Blue Wolf, who is unharmed. Using its Irregular order, the Blue Wolf Berserks the bot, tanks the ARO shots, and kills it in CC.

Next, I spend a Command Token (2 left now) to Berserk the AC2 and avoid the Datarazi (I think it's called?). The Blue Wolf takes down 2 STR and the Datarazi throws smoke down. Using another Command Token, the Blue Wolf takes off another STR point. Here is where mistakes start occurring. We read S5 as STR5, so AC2 is actually dead but we don't think it is. So, using the last Command Token and Irregular order in my pool, the Blue Wolf misses its CCW and dies to the Datarazi.

On Wrangler's turn, he uses his Raicho to kill the Kuang Shi on the rooftop with ease. Next, the drop trooper uses his Spitfire on the CG Monitor (represented by an Odalisque with Spitefire) but misses. She, in turn, misses like a good sport. Next order, however, she dies and doesn't hit. Then, the drop trooper moves up to the AC2 but with a lone Kuang Shi still threatening him, they exchange fire. The Morat trooper misses but the Chain Rifle knocks him unconscious.

At this point, we believe I am in Retreat and Wrangler has forgotten that the Raicho pilot has D-charges. We believed the only option to pull a comeback would be to blitz the Datarazi all the way across and hope it can kill the AC2. It is also here that we realize that the AC2 is S5 and STR3, so I have actually killed the AC2.

So - game is called here due to mistaken maths. I, honestly, thought I was going to lose when all of my models died in succession. But, it seems that casualties are secondary if the objectives are achieved. The Daofei, Guilang, Monstrucker and 3 Kuang Shi are still living to fight another day.

Linmei shoved the Combined Army prisoner aboard the waiting VTOL and into the loving arms of ISS and Military Intelligence. The battlefield seemed to be theirs as the Combined Army pulled back. She wandered the battlefield, looking for any wounded from the unit. Nearby, two of the surviving Kuang Shi were carrying the pieces of the embedded WarCor to a body bag. The last Kuang Shi was still guarding the AC2 and Linmei patted her on the shoulder.

"I will make sure your actions are known and rewarded. Good work today." The Kuang Shi continued its silent vigil without any acknowledgement.

"Lieutenant Feng, come in. This is Brigade HQ, the Colonel wants a word."

As the ranking soldier, Linmei guessed it was her job to inform them of the Lieutenant's death. "This is Daofei Chiu. Lieutenant Feng is dead. I am acting CO, 17th Special Raiding Team, 3rd Battalion. Go ahead, HQ."

"Um... Wait one," the operator on the other end said. Then another voice spoke.

"Chiu, I've been told that your unit suffered heavy casualties. We've gotten the data we wanted and stopped their upload. Transport will be there to bring you all home. Cameliard seems to be ours. Their sacrifices were not in vain. Commendations and recognition will be plentiful if victory is truly ours. In any case, make sure your troops know that they are heroes who have brought honor and glory to themselves, 3rd Battalion, and the People. When you get back, report to me. Colonel Wei out."

Yes sir, Colonel. I can do that, Linmei thought as she looked at the bloodied corpse of Lieutenant Feng. She hadn't survived her previous battles and campaigns to be a hero. Only idiots want to be heroes. Doing her duty was enough.