Ragnarok is coming up soon, and I just finished a run of 6 games with various flavors of Nomad. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to bring to Ragnarok, but I knew that I wanted a change of pace. The mission list for Ragnarok is:

Vanilla Yu Jing can do all of those just fine, with the exception of Biotechvore… it’s really difficult to get out of your deployment zone if your opponent limits you to a single command token… but that wasn’t about to prevent me from trying to run a vanilla Yu Jing list for fun against Adam’s Steel Phalanx!

Adam hasn’t played much in the way of Steel Phalanx or Hunting Party, so we decided to do that. Lately, the timing at game night has worked out so we’re either both late or early and end up playing one another. I suppose it works out for tournament practice reasons.

Overview

Mission : Hunting Party

: Hunting Party Forces : Yu Jing versus Steel Phalanx (300)

: versus (300) Deploy Firs t : Yu Jing

: First Turn: Yu Jing

Hmm GROUP 1 | 8 2 4 DĀOYĪNG Lieutenant L2 Hacker (Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)

MÓWÁNG (NCO) Red Fury, Akrylat-Kanone / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (1 | 52)

GŬILÁNG (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)

CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13)

KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

MONSTRUCKER Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Drop Bears / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)

YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

WARCOR (Sixth Sense L1) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)

GROUP 2 | 5 5 4 XI ZHUANG Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, MadTraps / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)

RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20)

WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)

HÙSÒNG Yaókòng HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)

HÙSÒNG Yaókòng HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)

SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5)

SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5)

SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5)

SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5)

LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10)

6 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Well.. 30 orders in two combat groups can’t be wrong. Right? I cobbled together this list from one of the recent White Noise episodes where they were talking about taking vanilla Yu Jing to Cancon, I think it was. It is not an easy list to deploy or pilot… If any of the big hitters go down, you’re in for a problem.

It was also an excuse to put some primed and zenithal highlighted minis on the table! Bostria stood in for my Monstrucker in his cool coat.

Steel Phalanx GROUP 1 | 10 MACHAON Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 38)

YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

MYRMIDON OFFICER (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 35)

PHOENIX Heavy Rocket Launcher, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 40)

MYRMIDON Chain Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 16)

MYRMIDON Chain Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 16)

SCYLLA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device UPGRADE: Maestro) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser + 1 Devabot Charybdis / Pistol, E/M CC Weapon. (0.5 | 27)

DEVABOT CHARYBDIS Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (7)

ATALANTA MULTI Sniper Rifle + TinBot E (Spotter) / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 39)

LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

NETROD Electric Pulse. (0 | 4)

NETROD Electric Pulse. (0 | 4)

GROUP 2 | 4 LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

THRASYMEDES (Fireteam: Enomotarchos) Submachine gun, Light Rocket Launcher, Nanopulser, Stun Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0.5 | 30)

THORAKITES Marksman Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)

THORAKITES (Forward Observer, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)

6 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Adam brought Phoenix and Thrasymedes to ruin my day. Machaon his Lt choice, which is pretty rude. It’s surprising that he didn’t take an engineer to Hunting Party, but if you take a ton of ODD instead, that’s probably fine? I thought I had enough MSV in my list, but we’ll see how things went…

Deployment

The table, aside from being really riotous in terms of color, was not a particularly friendly deployment situation. I had 23 things to deploy and not a lot of LoF blocking terrain in the midfield. I decided that I would need to go first because I wouldn’t be able to set up a very good defense in depth, instead opting for a very conservative deployment to protect all of my impetuous troops.

I set up a castle on the left to protect my Daoying lieutenant, using warbands, MadTraps, and layered TR bots watching various approaches. My Guilang set up to snag the objective on the right. I decided to place my Mowang on the right and held my Rui Shi in reserve.

Adam opted for a mostly null deployment, leaving only Phoenix and Atalanta out on the rooftops of the corridors. He mentioned this was mostly to keep me off the roof with my Mowang and not really to do much else. He castled up Machaon on his right, protected by his Myrmidon link, and then set up to make a run on the objective on his left with his 3-man Thorakites link.

Scylla made an appearance as well, primarily to unlock the Lamedh Rebots and be a pain in the butt with her Devabots. I then made the mistake of putting the Rui Shi on the same side of the table as my Mowang, diluting my attack power on the left side. Adam’s reserve was Atalanta.

Turn 1

Top of 1 – Yu Jing

I showed Adam my ridiculous order pool. He looked a little flabbergasted, so I told him the Mowang was in group 1 and the Rui Shi was in group 2, so he docked orders from the Rui Shi. Smart. After all my impetuous troopers shuffled around without getting shot or having to make a face to face roll (it’s important to carefully eyeball 4″ moves!) it was time to start my actual turn, only 8 orders in.

I made some pretty dumb mistakes in deploying the TR bots as well as the Rui Shi–the TR bots because they were vulnerable to getting shot by an ODD HRL from outside of 32″ and the Rui Shi because it was on the same side as my Mowang. I didn’t know what to do so I just committed to something, which was to run a Shaolin all the way up the board to chain rifle Atalanta and Phoenix. Phoenix SSL2 delayed then shot, while Atalanta dodged:

24.75 20.25 55.00

I was pretty convinced at the time as I was doing it that it was a mistake, but I fell prey to the sunk cost fallacy. Of course, now that I’ve seen the numbers of chain rifle versus Atalanta’s dodge, I’m absolutely convinced. There’s a 70.25% chance that absolutely nothing happens to Atalanta.

What I should’ve done was shot her with the Shaolin’s pistol:

38.45 36.48 25.07

Ah well. I know this, I thought about this when I was doing it, I just didn’t. I couldn’t really tell you why other than to say I made a bad call. In any case, at this point I’m out of regular orders in that pool. A smarter thing to do would’ve been to drive Xi Xuang up there to get the MadTraps in position to glue the Myrmidon (if possible). In any case, I’ve got a huge order pool for my Mowang and go at it. I start by taking out the FO Thorakites that Adam had left out to ARO.

I then decide I can pick off Scylla, and start that run. I spend a command token to get some Kuang Shi into place while I move the Mowang around. It takes a bit to get into position, but I manage to take a Lamedh off the table.

It takes me two orders to take out Scylla…

which means I’m out of orders to get the Mowang to safety. I spend my last two command tokens moving the Rui Shi into a place to go into suppression to fight any Myrmidons going after my Lieutenant.

It wasn’t until halfway through Adam’s turn that I realized I still had two irregular orders left in my first pool that I could’ve used to retreat the Mowang to complete safety, and I should’ve done the same with the Rui Shi. Just a comedy of errors this first turn. Daoying Disappoint.

Bottom of 1 – Steel Phalanx

Adam starts things off by one-shotting the Daoying with Phoenix. I attempted to Akrylat-Kanone Phoenix… but it just didn’t go my way.

19.33 47.04 33.63

An 8.9% chance to one-shot the Mowang is uncomfortably high. I should’ve dodged, which would’ve dropped the one-shot chance to 6.9% and significantly improved my odds. I honestly thought I had enough staying power to fail an ARM save or even two and then get into cover.

45.36 27.88 26.75

My Warcor who was covered by the blast isn’t even worth mentioning, really, she just got roasted off the table. Phoenix keeps on shooting, taking out the Rui Shi and both TR bots next. The TR bots are on 2’s against ODD and range so… boo. Sadly, the Rui Shi is burned off the table and the TR bots stay on. The Myrmidon officer even grabs the antenna on that side.

Thrasymedes takes out my Shaolin on the right. I elect to not throw smoke or dodge forward, because the LRL template will catch the Guilang if I survive and impetuous forward. I fail my dodge and get burned off the table.

The hemorrhage of orders and units finally stops and the turn comes back to me after Adam repositions Atalanta to cover my Kuang Shi on the left and the remaining Lamedh to protect the center of the board.

Turn 2

Top of 2 – Yu Jing

I attempt to chain rifle a netrod off the table with one of the Kuang Shi but it passes ARM. My Kuang Shi goes dogged to Atalanta’s sniper fire. I judged myself to be out of explode range so went dogged instead of exploding. The second Kuang Shi manages to put a wound on Phoenix before dying to the Heavy Pistol.

The other impetuous troopers advance without incident, and I start my run with my Guilang. It takes out the remaining Thorakites without trouble, and then I’m left with a dilemma. I could go for my Mapping classified or I could spend orders in my first pool killing Thrasymedes.

I decide to use my Libertos to take out Thrasymedes and the Lamedh, sneaking up and putting two loads of buckshot into the pair of them.

Sadly, the bot makes its save, while Thrasymedes goes unconscious. With just a Lamedh over there, I decide to make my play for the classified. After snagging the antenna on that side, I get into view and keep moving and shooting within 8″.

72.22 19.10 8.67

Three orders later, and the Lamedh is still alive.

I decide to spend the order to take out the Netrod, finally punching through the Netrod’s armor.

I split burst on the Lamedh and the other Netrod and finally take out the Lamedh while failing to hit the Netrod.

My last two Shaolin shuffle around on the left to cover the Daoying with some chain rifles, and I pick up the TR bot on the right.

Bottom of 2 – Steel Phalanx

Adam decides to go after my Guilang. He has to go through the Libertos first and the TR bot. The TR bot dies to Phoenix again, and the Libertos drops a mine once a Myrmidon appears. I figure I can go dogged against whatever the Myrmidon does, but I fail both BTS saves against the Myrmidon’s Nanopulsar.

The Myrmidon clears the mine easily by dodging…

and then he tries to ADHL my Guilang. MSV1 helps out against the Myrmidon’s ODD and I knock it out.

The Myrmidon officer keeps moving and stun pistols my Guilang before hitting it with an ADHL. After settling the remaining Myrmidons and Phoenix into defensive positions, Adam passes turn.

Turn 3

Top of 3 – Yu Jing

I get a Shaolin into position, forcing a dodge out of Phoenix. I take advantage of this and keep moving.

I activate the Shaolin again and throw smoke against the Myrmidon officer’s ADHL shot. Adam breaks Phoenix out of the link to dodge, and I throw smoke to cover the approach to the Guilang.

I rocket a Yaozao up, picking up the remaining TR bot in the middle with my Monstrucker. I get into the smoke, and then have enough movement to touch the Guilang with my Yaozao and get into base to base with the Myrmidon officer. Sadly, the Myrmidon officer can see this, and Adam shotguns the Yaozao, covering the Guilang with the template.

I waffle a bit. I can electric pulse or I can try to extricate the Guilang from glue. I decide to try to make the engineering roll and fail, while Adam rolls a 1 for his boarding shotgun shot! NOOOO!!!

The Guilang still counts as glued, so I’ve lost the game at this point. I’ve got one order left so I shove a Kuang Shi forward, protected by smoke.

Bottom of 3 – Steel Phalanx

Atalanta takes out the Shaolin with a crit, but fails to take out the Shaolin.

The Myrmidon officer decides to have a go at it, blasting away with a boarding shotgun against my stun pistol. She does a single wound, which means I detonate the Kuang Shi, shocking the Myrmidon officer off the table!

Adam’s got more specialists hunted down, and we’ve both got an antenna each. He hops Atalanta off her perch and secures my HVT to make it a

4-1 Steel Phalanx Victory!

Post Game Analysis

I definitely did not have my head screwed on straight this game. Feeding two TR bots, a Rui Shi, and a Mowang to Phoenix was just stupid, especially since I had enough command tokens and irregular orders to get them both to complete safety. That’s what I get for running so many orders and losing track of my order tokens under a dice bag. BAH!

Adam played very well, and I woke up after my derpy first turn to get some actual work done. I think this was my first fielding of a Guilang, and I’m very impressed. I will have to abuse them some more. They’re on the pricey side though. I’m also discovering that the Mowang isn’t all that great against ODD or similar gunfighters.

I didn’t do a great job deploying either, as I already discussed. I think I should’ve attempted to go second. I probably was a little too overcautious and could’ve done some more careful deployment to deny Phoenix targets, forcing the Myrmidons to start trading against my chain rifles.

I wish I had spend my first turn running the Libertos around, sowing mines everywhere and shotgunning everything. I deployed that poorly and talked myself out of using it. I really spent a lot of time second guessing myself, knowing that I was making bad decisions and committing. Life has conspired to me getting up extra early the morning of game nights, so I think that’s taking its toll. Basically the takeaway is that like anything else, being well rested helps you make better decisions. In any case, this was a much needed palette cleanser between playing Nomads and the Ragnarok tournament. Thanks for reading.