Campaign Paradiso - An ISS Ghost!
Because
we have a few people that are coming into (and leaving) our local
Campaign Paradiso, I had the pleasure of playing an extra match this
week. Endalyon and I squared off again, only this time I
brought my ISS force to the field.
Su Jian
Speak of the devil and he (it?) shall appear. The Su Jian was my "heavy hitter" for this game, and its speed allowed me to bypass a lot of obstacles and draw a bead on Endalyon's Asura and one of his two Myrmidon Officers. I was a bit confused at first, because both Officers were the only legal Lieutenant choice in Endalyon's army, but I soon realized that one of them had to be his stupid Chandra. As a quick aside, we have absolutely no Combined players in the current campaign, so our two Aleph players can basically run their Spec Ops without fear of death (as an Ariadna player, this really pisses me off!).
Anyway, back to the rampage. Endalyon took this opportunity to de-holoproject his Chandra and opened fire on my Su Jian with both Chandra and Asura, but we were well out of optimal range for Combi Rifles so I poured all my Spitfire bullets into the Chandra. Turns out that this Asura was a crack-shot, because she managed to put a wound on my transforming robot. Still, I dropped the Chandra and continued to press the attack, ultimately putting a wound on the Asura and making her retreat behind total cover.
For the rest of the game, my Su Jian survived a whole barrage of small-arms fire (utterly wasting both Panzerfausts in the process), and ended up holding my left flank until Endalyon retreated off the board. This is definitely one of the units I miss when I play my Ariadna.
The Bao Hitsquad
My Bao unit consisted of one of each type of Bao (Combi/Light Shotgun, Boarding Shotgun/Contender, Multi-Sniper) and a Pheasant, all of which held the middle of my line (or died trying). The Pheasant had Chain of Command and a Combi Rifle/EMitter, which helped to make me feel comfortable with my selection of Specialists in this mission.
The Bao Sniper (and link leader) spent a few orders getting up within line of sight of the Naga Sniper, only to be promptly shot down with a crit on the ARO. I have to admit, though...it was nice rolling to Discover from halfway across the board on a 17 or less. Go Bao. After that catastrophic failure, though (and the brutal death of my Contender Bao at the hands of an active-turn Asura...), I moved up the Combi Bao and got my vengeance on the Naga Sniper and the Asura (causing the second of three wounds on this model) before the Bao was shot in the back by a flanking Sophotect that raced towards my zone to take an objective point.
The last piece of my Bao hitsquad - the Pheasant - was fantastic. He did very little at first, but his presence dissuaded Endalyon from guessing which of my Celestial Guard models was my Lt, because it didn't really matter anyway. This, in turn, kept his Sophotect back in total cover, which gave my Pheasant an easy opportunity to gun her down in cold blood on his way to my own objectives.
I had earlier managed to chase the real Myrmidon Officer Lieutenant behind a few buildings on that flank, and Endalyon had carefully moved her to take advantage of a nearby dropship scatter. Since I hadn't managed to activate the required panels to bring down my own dropships, I had to find a way to stop Endalyon from running off with the landed dropship's engineer. The Myrmidon's ODD was going to be a big obstacle (and I didn't have any Bao left), so my Pheasant stepped smartly around the corner with his Monofilament drawn. After a moment's hesitation, Endalyon committed to a counter-swing, and our first CC in a long time had begun.
The models were very closely matched, but in the end I was looking to tie up Endalyon's last objective-taker while pushing towards the objective myself. If the CC had lasted well into his turn, I would have been a hundred percent ok with that. Fortunately for me, this particular Pheasant decided to bring out his inner angel of vengeance, cutting down the Myrmidon Officer with a well-placed slash of his Mono CCW. Awesome. Endalyon's forces ran off the board shortly after, giving him a 2-0 victory against my ghost-self, but dealing that killing blow with the oft-maligned Pheasant was totally worth it.
Celestial Guard Cheer Squad
I
was initially planning on playing regular ol' Yu Jing, but all the
negative comments about the Bao really
made me want to try them out for myself. While they didn't
really impress me, a lot of their performance woes came from the way
the dice fell. I'm more than willing to give them another
chance, because cheap and mobile and plentiful MSV2 models seem
really awesome to me.
This
week, Endalyon and I played Mission 204, and he brought his
much-feared Aleph to the table. Once again, I had to face off
against the Asura
and Sophotect objective-taking team, and this time Endalyon added
a Myrmidon Officer Lt. to the mix. I really had my work cut out
for me. This time, at least, I had a few visors to deal with
that pesky ODD...
As
I might have mentioned in previous posts, we're playing this campaign
through with only 250 points so that our newer players have a chance
to work their way up to 300 for the next one. Here is what I
brought to the field last week:
Sophotect
Sophie stayed back for much of the game, mostly because Endalyon's Asura occupied the mid-field (with some support from a Naga Sniper). She popped her head out to finish the job that one of my Bao started, though, and put the very last wound on the Asura. I was originally going to rush her forward to claim objectives, but the presence of three durable Aleph specialists on Endalyon's side of the table made me want to take a much more aggressive approach with my Su Jian.
Su Jian
Speak of the devil and he (it?) shall appear. The Su Jian was my "heavy hitter" for this game, and its speed allowed me to bypass a lot of obstacles and draw a bead on Endalyon's Asura and one of his two Myrmidon Officers. I was a bit confused at first, because both Officers were the only legal Lieutenant choice in Endalyon's army, but I soon realized that one of them had to be his stupid Chandra. As a quick aside, we have absolutely no Combined players in the current campaign, so our two Aleph players can basically run their Spec Ops without fear of death (as an Ariadna player, this really pisses me off!).
Anyway, back to the rampage. Endalyon took this opportunity to de-holoproject his Chandra and opened fire on my Su Jian with both Chandra and Asura, but we were well out of optimal range for Combi Rifles so I poured all my Spitfire bullets into the Chandra. Turns out that this Asura was a crack-shot, because she managed to put a wound on my transforming robot. Still, I dropped the Chandra and continued to press the attack, ultimately putting a wound on the Asura and making her retreat behind total cover.
For the rest of the game, my Su Jian survived a whole barrage of small-arms fire (utterly wasting both Panzerfausts in the process), and ended up holding my left flank until Endalyon retreated off the board. This is definitely one of the units I miss when I play my Ariadna.
The Bao Hitsquad
My Bao unit consisted of one of each type of Bao (Combi/Light Shotgun, Boarding Shotgun/Contender, Multi-Sniper) and a Pheasant, all of which held the middle of my line (or died trying). The Pheasant had Chain of Command and a Combi Rifle/EMitter, which helped to make me feel comfortable with my selection of Specialists in this mission.
The Bao Sniper (and link leader) spent a few orders getting up within line of sight of the Naga Sniper, only to be promptly shot down with a crit on the ARO. I have to admit, though...it was nice rolling to Discover from halfway across the board on a 17 or less. Go Bao. After that catastrophic failure, though (and the brutal death of my Contender Bao at the hands of an active-turn Asura...), I moved up the Combi Bao and got my vengeance on the Naga Sniper and the Asura (causing the second of three wounds on this model) before the Bao was shot in the back by a flanking Sophotect that raced towards my zone to take an objective point.
The last piece of my Bao hitsquad - the Pheasant - was fantastic. He did very little at first, but his presence dissuaded Endalyon from guessing which of my Celestial Guard models was my Lt, because it didn't really matter anyway. This, in turn, kept his Sophotect back in total cover, which gave my Pheasant an easy opportunity to gun her down in cold blood on his way to my own objectives.
I had earlier managed to chase the real Myrmidon Officer Lieutenant behind a few buildings on that flank, and Endalyon had carefully moved her to take advantage of a nearby dropship scatter. Since I hadn't managed to activate the required panels to bring down my own dropships, I had to find a way to stop Endalyon from running off with the landed dropship's engineer. The Myrmidon's ODD was going to be a big obstacle (and I didn't have any Bao left), so my Pheasant stepped smartly around the corner with his Monofilament drawn. After a moment's hesitation, Endalyon committed to a counter-swing, and our first CC in a long time had begun.
The models were very closely matched, but in the end I was looking to tie up Endalyon's last objective-taker while pushing towards the objective myself. If the CC had lasted well into his turn, I would have been a hundred percent ok with that. Fortunately for me, this particular Pheasant decided to bring out his inner angel of vengeance, cutting down the Myrmidon Officer with a well-placed slash of his Mono CCW. Awesome. Endalyon's forces ran off the board shortly after, giving him a 2-0 victory against my ghost-self, but dealing that killing blow with the oft-maligned Pheasant was totally worth it.
Celestial Guard Cheer Squad
These two jerks didn't really do anything impressive. One was my Lieutenant, and one was a possible Lieutenant baffle. I really haven't played ISS that often, so I'm still trying to come to grips with how to put together various lists. I wanted to avoid using Kuang Shi this time just to see if I could, and it seemed to work out ok.
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Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this brief interlude! Next time, more Ariadna mayhem as I square off against one of the few OIA players I haven't yet faced!
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Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this brief interlude! Next time, more Ariadna mayhem as I square off against one of the few OIA players I haven't yet faced!
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