Campaign Paradiso - Ariadna Impressions 3

Ariadna Impressions 103

I threw down with Endalyon the other day to play Campaign: Paradiso's Missions 103 and 201. Endalyon usually plays JSA, but he's chosen to run his chiefly-vedic Aleph army for our current campaign. As you might have gathered from my posts so far, I actually fear playing Aleph, so I went into these two games with a bit of trepidation.

In the end, I managed to squeak out a 1-0 win for 103. We got stuck with opposite corner deployment, and while Endalyon struggled to put together a 250 Aleph list, I found it difficult to split my orders in such a way that the destruction of one group wouldn't outright screw me.

On top of that, I put together a list that breaks one of my fundamental rules of campaign play: I didn't take more than one actual multi-wound ARO weapon. Normally I find this to be really useful, but it seems like a necessity against Aleph (with their fast “2 wound” specialists), but for some reason I decided to take a different approach this game. Endalyon, on the other hand, played things intelligently and took a TO sniper to pick off my impetuous engineers and generally make life hell for my non-visor army. It didn't help that my single flamethrower was on the other side of the board, either.

On to some highlights!

Task Force Blue

Valerya Gromoz

My original plan was to fire off a few Marker shots and open one of the access doors on my first turn, but all three of Valerya's Repeaters went (very) wild. In fact, they went so wild that two of them ended up covering half of one of Endalyon's deployment zones. Unfortunately, there was nothing in it to hack.

Valerya then hunkered down for the majority of the mission, and only made a break for the door when there was no other real option. She was gunned down in ARO, and I promptly failed her MEDEVAC and CUBEVAC rolls. Because of our campaign rules, this means that I can no longer field her – and that I no longer have access to a semi-decent hacker. Sure, I can take the Druze, but that means I won't be taking any Caledonians. Bah.

Rank: F. I could have taken anything else for 26 points, and it would have been more useful.

Chasseur Forward Observer

I pushed this guy towards what I thought was Endalyon's weaker deployment zone (Asura with Hacking Plus, Deva with Devabot, Camo Marker, Warcor – which later turned out to be a Chandra). My ultimate goal was to mark something for my Uragan, and maybe use my flamethrower to get rid of the Camo piece.

This didn't happen (in fact, the Chasseur died to a very angry Devabot in the late game), but his position meant that the Asura had to be looking in his general direction. This, in turn, set my Zouave up for his own Forward Observation attempts.

Rank: B-. While he did little more than stand there and maybe ward off a Devabot blitz on my deployment zone, the potential of a Forward Observer on this particular flank meant that Endalyon couldn't have his Asura looking in both directions. MSV3 is great, but it doesn't let you see behind you!

Irmandinho (Chain Rifle)
Endalyon knew how to deal with my Irmandinhos, and it didn't take him long to hunt them down. This particular pirate died in rather short order, despite his +1 ARM increase from Booty. Sadly, his death wasn't even worth it, as Endalyon really didn't have to overextend to get at him.

Rank: F. Cheap and handy to have, but he died way too quickly in this game and didn't even draw out enemy troops while doing so.

Briscard Forward Observer

One of the many Forward Observers in my list. I think I went way too far when it came to this particular piece of equipment, but I did manage to get a lot of use out of Flash Pulses: over the course of the game, Endalyon and I both froze at least 2 units each.

This model put some pressure on Endalyon's far flank, and his Assault Pistol made sure that the Sophotect wouldn't be able to handle any objectives. Shortly after, Endalyon snuck up on the Briscard with a Naga and put down a mine, but he didn't have enough orders to finish the job. After some negotiating with other models (read: Kyle the Volunteer actually took out a mine), the Briscard tried to attack the Mk1 Prox Engineer, but to no avail. One wound wasn't enough, and the Proxy lived to fight another day. A lone Dakini picked up where the Naga left off, and finally ended the Briscard.

Rank: A. He had some great opportunities, and ultimately did some pretty good damage (dead Sophotect and wounded Proxy). Endalyon also burned through a fair number of orders getting rid of him. It could have been better, but the dice had other ideas. Not his fault!

Volunteer (Chain Rifle)

This jerk is notorious for just sitting there and covering short angles with his Chain Rifle. This game, Kyle actually managed to earn his wages as he discovered and subsequently destroyed a mine with his Chain Rifle. Ariadna players, I find, have to be very sensitive of the range differences between weapons, and this helps us navigate the differences between templates as well.

In the end, Kyle stood in an open field, threatening the door to the objective with his shotgun. Nothing really came of it, but at least it made Endalyon think about his final blitz to the objective.

Rank: A. He got rid of the Mine pinning me down and threatened the objective the best way he could. Barring a lucky crit, I really couldn't ask for more from this guy.

Dozer (Control Device)

This Dozer hid for most of the game, just twiddling his thumbs behind a corner with his precious Traktor Muls. As usual, though, he was called upon to save the day in the last turn, and it was his bold dash to the access door that scored me my only victory point. By this point, I didn't have enough orders to press for more points, but the Dozer managed to pass a Dodge roll and hunker down inside the room, making Endalyon's already-wounded Proxy spend precious orders on gunning him down before trying to claim her own points from laying a beacon.

Rank: A+. He scored my only point, and made Endalyon spend just enough orders that he only had one attempt at victory.

Traktor Mul (Uragan)

Oh my, yes. This remote only got one volley off during the entire game, but it was against a marked Asura that failed all three of her saves. That, and its Baggage ability probably made me feel more comfortable about my Retreat threshold. If machines could get promotions, this Traktor Mul definitely earned one.

Rank: A+. This remote did exactly what I brought it to do, in every possible way.

Traktor Mul(Minesweeper)

The relative lack of Mines and the agonizingly slow speed of the Traktor Muls meant that I didn't use this model's Minesweeper ability, but that's ok. Practically speaking, I only took it for the 5 point Regular order. It fulfilled this function just fine.

Rank: B+. Good job hiding and giving me an extra order all game long, Traktor Mul.

Task Force Red

Irmadinho (Chain Rifle)

This particular pirate provoked a wayward ARO from a distant Dakini, but Smoke helped him to survive while he tried to close with the objective. I had spent most of my orders on my Zouave, though, so I didn't have enough to get this Irmandinho into total cover. This ultimately cost me his life, as Endalyon's Mk2 Proxy sniped his brains out. Next time, I really need to pair my Irmandinhos with Galwegian bodyguards for that extra Smoke.

Rank: D. He was one good Dodge roll away from total cover and an eventual path to the objectives, but I couldn't roll to save his life. Otherwise, his status as quick Engineer just made him a bullet-magnet.

Line Kazaks (x3)

One of these intrepid Kazaks was my Lieutenant, but it wasn't the one that Endalyon took a shot at with his sniper (said shot missed because he split his burst against something else on that flank). Otherwise, they did very little other than provide me a few extra Regular orders. My Lieutenant took a pot-shot at the Proxy Mk2 on my last turn, hoping to clear some room for my Autocannon to go on a (small) rampage, but she missed wildly and ducked back into cover. Another of the Kazaks ran up and took a shot at Endalyon's Deva Lieutenant, but she passed her arm rolls and failed Guts to end up out of LoF.

I'm actually feeling bad about running 3 Kazaks in each of my lists, but I feel like I'm almost forced to take them to up my order count. Two Combat Groups is a tricky proposition, as you really need to have the orders to make both groups work – especially against a skilled opponent.

Rank: B. Satisfactory. I would have been very pleased if my Lieutenant had scored a kill on that last turn, but I sure wasn't expecting it.

Tankhunter (Autocannon)

The Tankhunter's first real action of the game almost resulted in its death. He took a shot at a distant (but definitely within reach) Dakini to soften Endalyon's flank, and was promptly fired upon by a Proxy mk2 in Hidden Deployment. After some rapid flipping through books, forum threads, and the FAQ, we concluded that the Proxy couldn't have fired because it was not actually an active proxy.

This set the confused tone for the entire game, as these two models stared each other down, ducking in and out of total cover in an attempt to get rid of their opponent. In the end, neither won this battle, but the LoF they drew across the battlefield prevented both me and Endalyon from having a free trip towards the centre objective. We had, in a way, forced each other to adopt better positions overlooking the objective than we maybe intended to take at the beginning.

Rank: A-. Definitely an annoyance for Endalyon. He failed an ARO against the Proxy mk1 as it ran towards the objective, though, which knocks it down a little bit in ranking.

Zouave Forward Observer

One dead Asura, courtesy of this guy here. I wasn't about to let a BS14 3-wound monster run amok on the objective, so I pushed this Zouave hard so that he'd get LoF on what I basically considered my priority target. He managed to catch her with her back turned, and successfully called down an Uragan bombardment, removing her from the board.

After this all-star achievement, he continued to nettle Endalyon's weaker deployment zone, killing his Chandra but ultimately falling to a very angry Deva's Combi Rifle.

Rank: A+. He almost single-handedly softened Endalyon's second deployment zone to the point of scenario impotence. Even though the orders I spent on this guy meant that I couldn't quite dislodge Endalyon's Proxy mk2 with my Tankhunter, I consider them well worth it for what they accomplished on the far side of the table.

Foxtrot (Rifle, Mines)
To be honest, I just squeezed this guy into my list because I was 17 points short of 250. He pushed forward to cover the door opposite the Asura, but he was unneeded on that flank in the end. A few turns later, I ran him over to deal with Endalyon's exposed Naga and to drop a mine near his Proxy mk2, but he was summarily slain by (if I remember correctly) the Proxy mk1.

After some after-game discussion with Endalyon, I realized that I probably should have sent him after the Proxy mk1 instead. I probably didn't because I try to avoid outright targeting my opponents' specialists (unless they're right on the objectives), but I think this was more of a subconscious decision than any deliberate idea to steer clear.

Rank: A. The faulty deployment was my fault, but I didn't know that my Zouave would do so well. He got rid of the Naga blocking my path to the objective, but I somehow feel he could have done more.

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In the end, the game boiled down to my Dozer grabbing a point for opening the doors. Endalyon pressed his wounded Proxy mk1 forward, but because of various points of ARO interference and a depleted order pool, he only had one attempt to plant a beacon. This attempt failed, so I “won” 1-0 – but neither of us felt like the scenario had a clear winner, or even a clearly stronger player.

After a lot of mutual griping about how hard it was to get to the middle in three turns, we went out to dinner to take a break before getting to 201. Little did we know that that particular mission was going to be worse. Much, much worse.