Everyone’s been pretty busy lately with family stuff and Rose City Raid prep. Isaac unfortunately had family obligations during RCR, and he and I were the only ones at game night. Both of us have been helping others prep for RCR, so we were looking forward to playing a different scenario. Isaac suggested that we try Highly Classified, because we haven’t played that in what seems like forever, so I eagerly agreed. With the pending Tunguska drop and my Nomad allegiance during the upcoming Kurage Crisis, I figured this would be a good time to break out a vanilla Nomads list to get back into the groove of things.

Overview

Mission : Highly Classified Data Scan Extreme Prejudice HVT: Espionage Sabotage

: Highly Classified Forces : Nomads versus Neoterra Capitaline Army

: versus Deploy First : Nomads

: First Turn: Nomads

Highly Classified GROUP 1 | 9 1 INTERVENTOR Hacker Lieutenant (Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)

KRIZA BORAC HMG / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 54)

PROWLER Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, CCW. (2 | 36)

MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

BANDIT Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 25)

ZERO Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)

MODERATOR Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 10)

ZOE & PI-WELL . (0 | 47)

ZOE (Hacking Device. UPGRADE: Stop!) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28)

PI-WELL Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 19)

ZONDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) GROUP 2 | 1 3 3 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 6)

MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 6)

MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 6)

TOMCAT Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower + 1 Zondcat / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 26)

ZONDCAT Electric Pulse. (4) 6 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Neoterran Capitaline Army GROUP 1 | 10 ORC HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 44)

ORC MULTI Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 41)

ORC (Fireteam: Haris) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 36) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

LOCUST (Marksmanship L1) Marksman Rifle / Pistol, Shock CCW, Knife. (0 | 33)

PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)

MACHINIST Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)

BULLETEER Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 23) GROUP 2 | 5 FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)

FUSILIER Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)

FUSILIER Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)

FUSILIER HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 18)

FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Deployment

This board had two very long diagonal firelanes, so I deployed Morlocks near them to be able to get smoke down. I telegraphed which lane I wanted to attack by putting my Kriza in front of it, and then put Zoe right behind him, primarily because the rightmost firelane was the most expedient way of getting her up the field to achieve the Sabotage classified. Zero Cool the Interventor hung out nearby, and I stuck a Moderator Pitcher on top of the largest building in my deployment zone, near the center, to be able to get a repeater wherever I needed it. My left flank was controlled by a Prowler Spitfire and Pi-Well, with Zoe’s Zondbot as backup. I put my Moran and his Koalas as close to the center of the board as I could–from here he could cover both approaches with his repeater. My Transductor hung out in cover in my DZ, but poking out to cover yet another diagonal firelane. Isaac left all his Fugazi out to ARO, backing up the right one (his perspective) with a Fusilier HMG and the rest of the core link. Isaac was careful to keep everything out of the central firelane that the Kriza could easily get to, putting a Bulleteer just around the corner from the firelane. His ORC Haris protected the left of his DZ, with the MULTI Rifle and HMG out to ARO, along with a Fugazi. The Machinist and Pathfinder hung out in the back to protect them from my alpha strike. Isaac’s HVT was near a building that I could easily put my Zero AHD on, right above my KHD Bandit, so I did exactly that. Isaac responded by putting a locust near my Zero and Bandit (this was all on my right flank). Now that we all deployed. Isaac placed his Haris and Core leader tokens then wished me a good game!

Turn 1

Top of Turn 1 – Nomads

I used the Morlock on the left to throw smoke for the central Morlock, who just advanced into the smoke to be protected from the Fugazi and Fusilier HMG that were over there. The Morlock on the right entered the right diagonal firelane, uncontested, and used the extra movement from not having to throw smoke to get closer to the Locust. An irregular order and a passed ARM save against the Locust’s Marksman Rifle later, I had an unconscious Locust on my hands, ripe for the Extreme Prejudice plucking at my convenience. I buffed Pi Well with my Lieutenant order, then did two coordinated orders to push my AHD Zero, Pi-Well, Kriza, and Moderator Pitcher into better positions. Pi Well failed to deal with the Fugazi on my left, so after two tries, I just failed guts and put him back into cover. The Prowler didnt’ have a great shot, so I just left him there. The MULTI RIfle ORC was visible, so I climbed the Kriza up onto a roof to see him, but failed to wound him thanks to cover and heavy infantry armor. Isaac wisely failed guts to retreat the ORC into cover. As part of another coordinated order, I popped the Moderator up to attempt a Pitcher near the Bulleteer, provoking a flash pulse from the central Fugazi, which I used to go prone after failing my pitcher roll. My Kriza also took part, climbing back down so he didn’t get shot off the table on Isaac’s turn. After resetting my leftmost Morlock’s positions, as they didn’t have orders to get into full cover in the center–I knew I’d lose them to the Fusilier HMG. I dumped the rest of my orders into completing Data Scan and HVT: Espionage with my Zero AHD, then passed the turn. So far, so good!

Bottom of Turn 1 – NCA

After gunning down both Koalas with the Fusilier HMG, which required some shuffling, Isaac moved his link team to support the Fusilier HMG in overwatch on the roof. This was a pretty big move, having to walk her all the way around the building and onto the roof, so it took him the entire order pool to get her up there. The Bulleteer skirted forward to cover the main firelane, just out of range of both my AHD Zero and my Moran’s repeater. Isaac then burned a few coordinated orders on advancing Fugazi and his Machinist. I managed to isolate the rightmost one (my perspective) and immobilize the central one, but the left one was unscathed. They all dropped Sniffers, and then the Pathfinder revealed my Prowler with a quick Sensor roll. The Machinist kept advancing, pulling some smoke out of my Morlock on the right, but took a pistol crit on his way to grab the Sabotage objective. The Bulleteer went into suppression, and the ORC Haris pushed in to the central firelane, keeping clear of my repeater/hacking net. The central firelane was now covered by a Fugazi, a lnked HMG Fusilier, a linked ORC HMG, and a Bulleteer in suppression. Scary!

Turn 2

Top of Turn 2 – Nomads



I activated the rightmost Morlock and very carefully placed some smoke to block the HMG and Fugazi from being able to ARO against my Kriza but letting me see both teh Bulleteer and HMG Orc. The only troop that could see this was the immobilized Fugazi (immobilized on my turn thanks to Stop! on Isaac’s turn), so while the ‘bot reset out of IMM1 I got my smoke out unopposed.

The other two Morlocks repeated their trick from the first turn, one throwing smoke for the other. This time, the leftmost Morlock got flash pulsed by the newly un-immobilized Fugazi, but this was fine because I took the smoke on a normal roll, letting my central Morlock get into position. Now that two critical AROs were removed from the central firelane, I got my Kriza out to engage the HMG Orc and the Bulleteer. Isaac eleccted to keep the Bulleteer in suppression just in case we were within 24″, and the two heavy infantry traded fire. We were outside of 32″ and the enemy Orc was out of cover so the Kriza handily knocked it out. Now that we knew the range, Isaac elected to drop suppression on my next order, but the Bulleteer couldn’t get through 5 dice of HMG fire and went unconscious. To keep my Kriza safe, I tucked him back into cover as part of that final order of shooting. With all of that done, I moved my rightmost Morlock away from the central firelane so he wouldn’t get himself killed on my next turn. I attempted to get Pi-Well advanced on the left–still didn’t have a great shot for the Prowler, and there was a Sniffer there preventing me from re-camoing, so I just popped Pi-Well out to fight the Fugazi on the left. After failing an order or two of shooting, I just gave up and ran Pi Well up the field to get the remaining Orcs in repeater range. Unfortunately I misjudged the Fugazi’s ZoC and ate a Gotcha from the Fusilier hacker, freezing Pi Well. The MULTI RIfle Orc was in repeater range though, so Zero Cool flipped his lieutenant order and Isolated the Orc, even with the Deflector L1. With most things tucked away into cover, I passed the turn.

Bottom of Turn 2 – NCA

The first thing Isaac did was to lean out and gun down Pi Well with his Fusilier HMG. Well, there goes that. The isolated Orc pushed forward a little bit, and the fireteam shuffled around in the back to move the hacker forward, along with multiple (failed) attempts at hitting my Moran with Blackout from his Fusilier hacker through a Fugazi’s repeater. Since I had already isolated or killed much of Isaac’s primary order group, most of the the turn was spent carefully repositioning his forces to contest his near zone, although he did pick up a forward observe classified by climbing his Pathfinder up a building to FO Pi-Well’s unconscious body.

Turn 3

Top of Turn 3 – Nomads

My two Morlocks on the left and center sacrificed themselves to the mess of AROs in the center firelane to land smoke for a Sabotage run with Zoe. I only landed one smoke, leaving a small gap she’d have to go through, so I cleared the way with the Kriza, gunning down the HMG Fusilier and nearby Fugazi through that gap. Without thinking, I pushed the Kriza back into cover as part of his move, which I regretted later as he wasn’t out ot ARO. I dumped all the rest of my regular orders into getting Zoe up the field to achieve Sabotage, picking up my Transductor with her bot on the way. The Bandit coup de graced the Locust for Extreme Prejudice, and I spend my last command token on my Tomcat that walked in within a move of seeing Isaac’s Fusilier Lt. Sadly, I couldn’t beat his rolls and I lost the Tomcat. I had been waiting to see if there was a suitable Experimental Drug target (which was my secret classified) to bring in my Tomcat, but the opportunity never presented itself. Rather than waste the trooper I went for the Lt snipe. After running my own Lieutenant out into the open and chucking a Fast Panda towards my HVT just in case, I passed the turn.

Bottom of Turn 3 – NCA

Isaac started by trying to take out Zoe with the boarding shotgun Orc, but he whiffed both shots on 20’s and I landed Stop! on a 10. The MULTI-Rifle Orc was next, but I crit on my Stop roll. Zoe continued rolling like a beast, taking out one of the Fusiliers sent to kill her next. Isaac’s Fusilier hacker got Data Scan on Pi-Well, after two tries, losing him to the Inteventor’s long-range combi shot in the process. After performing the obligatory kill your own troop order that all PanO Paramedics/Doctors have to do once a game (this time on the Orc HMG), the Fusilier Paramedic killed Zoe and coup de graced Pi-Well to get Extreme Prejudice. And with that, Isaac was effectively out of orders, making it a

10-4 Nomad Victory!

Thanks to Isaac for a great game!

Notes

Notes for Me

Really happy with my use of the Kriza this game. Lots of remembering to peek out and back and saving orders to get him back into cover when necessary.

That said, definitely should’ve left everything out to ARO on the last turn.

The Prowler did nothing this game, except for eat some orders since Isaac thought he was another Zero hacker. I won’t say he made his points back, but he was definitely a useful piece in a good position to exploit any holes that Isaac left that the Kriza couldn’t.

I am a little disappointed in Pi-Well’s performance this game, but perhaps I asked too much of him.

Zoe, on the other hand, was an all-star. Jeez. Obviously I rolled extremely well and that’s coloring my impression, but I think using her more aggressively is a viable option if there are no KHD on the table.

Moran did exactly what he was supposed to do, which is eat orders.

AHD Zero is also amazing for Highly Classified.

I’m not sure how I could’ve leveraged my Prowler better. There’s probably some more mileage I could’ve gotten out of him, but I had other more important things to do.

I’m happy with my decision to not over-focus on dealing with the link, and just let them hang out in the backfield.

Not sure throwing Pi Well to the wolves was necessary, especially since it gave Isaac 2 points, but it worked out. I’ll have to think about that more carefully in the future. Perhaps I should leave him out to Triangulated Fire stuff in the future? I dunno.

It seems like the way to deal with NCA is to litter the field with out of LoF AROs and deny them any targets to shoot at. I’ll take that.

Notes for Isaac