Our Pacific Northwest Painting League has been encouraging our locals to play quite a bit of Recon+, so when I finally got a chance to head back to Thursday game night at Glimpses of Wonder and Warfare I had the opportunity to play two games of Recon+. The first was against Isaac, who brought some beautifully painted Onyx Contact Force to put on the table. Isaac is a true gentlemen–the Onyx is actually his brother in law’s, and he’s assembled and painted it all. He’s even working on his brother’s Ariadna and giving it the full paint and assembly treatment as well. He’s done a great job with his Onyx and should be rightfully proud of how awesome they look. I’ll let him sum up his thoughts on the game for you:

All I remember is that beauty was struck down by the Nomad Nation… Like Icarus, they flew too close to the sun… 😢 I love you, Rodoks! — Isaac

I brought JSA and Bakunin to the game night, figuring I would play some of both. We ended up choosing the Exfiltrate mission from the Recon+ packet. For those of you that don’t know, Exfiltrate is basically Rescue, but with the added complication of Unmasking-like mechanics. Two of the three HVTs are agents, and one is a civilian, randomly chosen at the beginning by shuffling some face-down tokens to be placed next to the HVTs. When you Synchronize with a HVT, its token is flipped over. The civilian HVT isn’t worth any points and is therefore a waste of orders. Furthermore, all the agents are considered hostile troopers and can be shot once revealed! Definitely a tough mission to be playing in the Recon+ format, especially given that there’s an exclusion zone.

Overview

Mission : Exfiltrate

: Exfiltrate Forces : Jurisdictional Command of Bakunin versus Onyx Contact Force (Recon+)

: versus (Recon+) Deploy First : Bakunin

: First Turn: Bakunin

Recon B MODERATOR Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9) MODERATOR Spitfire / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 15)

MODERATOR Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 13)

MODERATOR Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 11) ZERO Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)

ZERO Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)

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

TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

BAKUNIN ÜBERFALLKOMMANDO . (0 | 23)

CHIMERA Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Viral CCW. (0 | 20)

x3 PUPNIK DA CCW. (0 | 3)

MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Assault Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8) 8 2 2 | 1.5 SWC | 149 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Onyx Contact Force RODOK Lieutenant Combi Rifle, 2 Light Shotguns / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 26) RODOK Hacker (EI Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)

RODOK Paramedic (MediKit) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)

RODOK Paramedic (MediKit) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21) UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)

UNIDRON K1 Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 17)

Q-DRONE Plasma Rifle / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25) 7 | 3 SWC | 150 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Deployment

I won the rolloff and decided to go first. I brought 12 orders worth of Bakunin so I had quite a bit to pack into my deployment zone. My Moderator link went on the right with the Uberfall on the left. To add a little more oomph to the left, I supported the Uberfall with a Transductor and both of my Zero hackers, just at the edge of the deployment zone. I covered my Moderators with a Morlock for smoke, and then failed a roll to get a Zero BSG over the centerline as my reserve (after Isaac’s deployment of course), so he went on the right to balance out my Zero coverage. You can see my three Keisotsu civilians in the midfield, along with Isaac’s three Fusilier civilians–we all know NCA is 60% speculos at this point. Anyway, Isaac brought 7 orders of Onyx. He strung his Rodoks across his backfield and stuck a Unidron FO out to ARO things on a rooftop, with the other covering his right board edge against AD. His reserve was the Q-Drone, placed to cover one of my Keisotsu and most of the right side of the midfield (Isaac’s perspective). I was really sad about failing my Zero BSG’s infiltration roll, because of this seriously amazing BSG shot that could’ve happened… You can see my camo token on the right there before Isaac put down his Q-Drone. The saddest! Ah well. Sometimes you fail rolls, you gotta move on.

Turn 1

Top of 1 – Bakunin

The Uberfall and Morlock got into the midfield and attempted to throw smoke. The Uberfall failed, but the Morlock covered the Unidron FO’s LoF against my civilians. I rushed my Moderator core up into the midfield and attempted a spec-fired grenade against the Q-Drone, a Rodok Paramedic, and the Unidron K1, but whiffed. My Paramedic tried to grab the rightmost civilian, but failed the roll and the command token reroll, sending the Keisotsu civilian away 2″. I was forced to try with my Moderator spitfire since the link was broken and out of coherency. This time I succeeded and sunk most of the rest of my orders into retreating the Moderator spitfire and the Keisotsu agent into cover. I used a coordinated order to reposition my two forward Moderators, a Transductor, and to get the Zero BSG into cover. This also let me drop a single grenade onto the Q-Drone and its neighboring Rodok. I didn’t expect to get the Q-Drone, but perhaps I could hit the Rodok and take it out. Luck was with me this time, and I took out both the Q-Drone and the Rodok! My end of turn position wasn’t too great–the Uberfall are very vulnerable to a template, and I was hoping that my other forces could keep things away from them. I really need to think more about carefully positioning them–they suffer from all the things I hate about moving links, but worse.

Bottom of 1 – Onyx

Isaac’s first turn was spent firing plasma at my Moderator Paramedic and my Chimera, but he missed the Chimera. Sadly, though I got smoke down from the Chimera, the Moderator went down for the count.

Isaac cleared out the other Moderator in the midfield using his Rodok lieutenant. I failed my dodge and went unconscious. Isaac tries to pick up the grenaded Rodok with a quick MediKit shot from his remaining Paramedic, but he fails the PH roll and the Rodok dies. I wasn’t particularly careful with my chimera’s eclipse smoke template, so that left a tiny sliver of LoF to my Chimera and her Pupniks. Of course, Isaac rolls a crit on his boarding shotgun Rodok as it super jumps around. I crit on one my Pupnik dodges, pass both ARM saves for the remaining pupniks, and my Chimera doesn’t get a save thanks to the crit. UGH! I always lose the Uberfall to something stupid. I really need to think about how to protect them in reactive better. At least I cover the Rodoks in smoke from my Morlock’s ARO? Isaac throws his Lieutenant into suppression with its Lieutenant order and passes the turn.

Turn 2

Top of 2 – Bakunin

My Morlock runs straight at the Rodoks, threatening a chain rifle. They both dodge and the Unidron FO shoots. I choose to throw smoke on top of the Rodoks instead of chain rifling, beating the Unidron’s shot. I then rush the Morlock straight into combat with the Rodok hacker and drop it easily. I scoot out of the smoke to try to assault pistol down the Unidron over two orders, figuring I’ll have to pop out, shoot it, then pop back in and shoot it again to chew through all the dogged wounds. Of course, I roll 4 misses and get shot off the table. Stupid plasma. Well, I’ve still got a pile of orders, so I use the Morlock’s smoke and rush Acid Burn (Zero AHD) up the table to try and grab the right Keisotsu HVT. Of course, this one is the civilian, which means I don’t have enough orders to get to the other one safely, who is being covered by a Rodok in suppression. I settle instead for dropping two mines and getting into position for the next turn.

Bottom of 2 – Onyx

Isaac clears Acid Burn’s mines the Rodok way, just super-jumping the Rodok in between them. Both mines go off, but Acid Burn drops her last mine in response. This Rodok is lucky and manages to dodge both mines by pirouetting in mid-air. Isaac cleverly removes the remaining mine by dropping a long-range shotgun on Acid Burn, which clears the remaining mine as well as knocking her out. It looks like the template is covering the Rodok, but it’s just the angle. It’s not. He managed to cut the angle such that the template didn’t touch any HVTs or friendly models. The way clear, the Rodok Paramedic is free to interrogate the nearest Fusilier, who turns out to be the civilian. Tough luck! That’s Isaac’s last order, so he retreat the Rodok into total cover (and also is securing my HVT).

Turn 3

Top of 3 – Bakunin

I maneuver the Spitfire moderator into position and gun down the Rodok lieutenant before retreating back into safety. With the Rodok Lt down, Isaac’s down to three orders, only one of which is regular, so I just set up to keep him away from his HVTs. I move my Moderator Lt up, drop a mine with my Zero BSG, and then cover the central area with the KHD Zero as well. I end things by putting the Moderator and the Zero KHD into suppression while the Zero BSG prepares to shotgun any pesky Morats.

Bottom of 3 – Onyx

It’s not over till the Rodok sings, so Isaac has a go of it. He tries to take out my Zero BSG, hoping to tank the mine, but fails to do either. He flew too high. After dodging two mines, the third was just too much! Melted his wings with antipersonnel shrapnel. The Unidron K1 moves up to take a shot at my Zero BSG. I get rid of it with my Zero KHD’s suppression…. But the dastardly robot crits my Zero BSG, who was attempting to dodge back into cover. I’ve managed to nab only one of my agents, but I did manage to Secure and Exfiltrate it, making it a

3-0 Jurisdictional Command of Bakunin Victory!

Notes

Notes for Me

This mission is HARD. You really want a Doctor or Paramedic for the +3 WIP bonus and the command token re-roll. Doesn’t help if you’re a Moderator and roll a 16 and a 20 though.

I was initially bummed about having to use the Moderator Spitfire to grab the HVT, but it ended up working out. That freed me up to be in the backfield and make use of the Spitfire’s range bands to outrange stuff. Not a bad plan for the future.

LGLs are quite strong in Recon+, due to the smaller board size and the need to bunch up units.

I was not terribly happy with my Uberfall usage. I keep saying this, but I need more practice with them. Perhaps if I bump them up in the painting queue they’ll see more table time…

Isaac thought I needed to get my Zeros into the action earlier, but there were so many shotguns templates around that I didn’t think camo would keep them safe.

Getting a link into the middle is pretty strong in this scenario. I think I like this the most of all the Recon+ scenarios I’ve played so far.

Notes for Isaac