DRUZE vs Aleph Firefight Tournament

This will be the second battle report in my tournament report. The mission set was:

Safe Area Fire Fight Frontline

This will be for the Firefight mission.

My list was: Druze HMG DRUZE EM DRUZE KHD DRUZE PF BRAWLER DOCTOR BRAWLER MSR BRAWLER LT BRAWLER RIFLE PEACKEEPER SCARFACE CORDELIA BAGGAGE BAGGAGE BASHIBAZOOK SMG

Army isn’t working for me on any platform right now, but I’ll update it when it decides to.

List thoughts:

This was designed with firefight in mind. Tough data tracker, Good aro links with a lot of versatility. A few “Go get em boy” units (Peacekeeper, Scarface, Bashi), and a relatively low points cost across the board. I hate firefight for it’s punishment of taking specialists. To me it really limits list building, and forces a “Camping” style of play, which is what happened in this game.

Opponents list:

Marut LT Dakini paramedic

Dakini

2x chain myrms

FO Proxy

TO AHD PRoxy

TR bot

Flash pulse bot

Scylla

Engineer (Proxy?)

I like playing against Aleph as they can have a wide range of units, and puzzles to solve. Especially so with TR bots, I had been wanting to pick one of these apart with Druze before. The Marut was going to be a huge problem for me, I had the guns for it, but the explosive ARO is dangerous for me with my limited attack pieces. I would have to use my link team to dismantle a few pieces early on, then suicide rush in for the Marut kill.

I won the roll of despite going up against WIP15 Strategos (wooo brawlers). And chose to go first.

Here is what the board looked like, you can see my fireteam laid out on a building, and scarface advancing up on the right. The farthest side of the board, second building from the left is where the Marut was hiding.

I deployed on the bottom of the image.

Scarface went down on the left in total cover, and my link team went up on the right. This would allow me to lock down quadrants of the (quite open) board. And have my two main elements support each other. The peacekeeper went far left to just suicide rush his DZ.

He puts down in a similar defensive platform with some kind of To out in the midfield, the TR bot in the middle, and smoke chuckers on either side for smoke Multispectral visor tricks. His FO proxy goes up on a far right roof for further AROS. His backline is kept pretty clean covering every angle possible.

NARRATIVE Her deep blue eyes caught the ceiling fans reflection, the light revealing itself momentarily behind the blades as they passed by.

The white smoke escaped her lips and floated between us.

“You’re too handsome to be this sad.”

DRUZE TURN 1:

I had quite the defense to pick apart here. With the TR upfront, flash pulses on the side, and a Marut waiting in the wings. I weighed up a few tricky options, even fired a nimbus grenade to no effect. Then finally settled on a plan.

I activate the link team, and HMG the TR bot. He crits me, then we realize I actually moved too far into the open for cover, and instead I hit him three times and the TR bot dies. I think about getting tricky again, and instead just Multi Sniper the FO proxy.

The peace keeper spins up, advances and he reveals a TO AHD proxy. The bot resets and walks out of the AHD range. It walks around the corner, while it’s aux bot climbs a ladder behind the chain rifle myrmidon. He dodges the flamethrower, but the Dakini doesn’t dodge the heavy shotgun. I also wound the Marut with a spray from the shotgun. The peacekeeper gets isolated through a repeater, but is in a good aro spot.

I shuffle stuff around and don’t do much else, time to camp! Yay.

Aleph Turn 1:

The AHD PRoxy loots a box for a panzerfaust!

A heroic dakini rushes the peacekeeper and dies from 22inches away (lmao)

The proxy (AHD) then has a shootout with the peacekeeper for 3 orders and does nothing.

Finally the marut spins up and engages the peacekeeper, taking a wound for it.

Then the peacekeeper finally dies to the Marut ;(

The marut is healed a wound, and a dakini is revived.

Suppression fire is dropped on a few dakinis

And he castles back up

Wewlad, what a turn. I love firefight :)

My peacekeeper did his job and more, medal of honor recipient.

I almost wish he would rush the Marut so I could actually touch it. But I’m content with taking down Dakinis.

His position is really good, and is going to be tough to crack. But with his ARo pieces down, I can move now. As soon as I can deal with the AHD proxy.

NARRATIVE I looked across the doorway, eyes meeting Blackies.

He nodded.

The armored Drone between us took a half step back, braced itself, and fired it’s enormous underslung shotgun at the door.

Before the thousands of pieces of door had even landed Blackie was through it, my knuckles white as I entered behind him. We stepped over what was left of a man in his late 50’s, clothing and ceramic body armor were stuck to the walls of the entrance way. Blackie turned left into a staircase as I cut right. A woman's screaming reached my ears as I trained my weapon on a man rising from his afternoon prayer. Head raising up, his eyes widened. I tightened my grip on my weapon flicking my helmet camera on with the twitch of an eye. His right hand reaching towards his back. My weapon kicked in my hand sending a round through his collarbone. it was too close range and went straight through, airbursting and throwing him forward into a mockery of his prayer pose. I let out a breath, and the second ended.

Turning, my eyes refocused on the woman in the room. She was screaming and pulling her burkha close. I heard gunfire upstairs and shouting in Arabic. I crossed the room in 2 steps and had the woman by the hair. She was clawing at my gloves and kicking wildly as I dragged her towards the door. She slid through what remained of the man at the door and into the harsh twin suns outside. The Dronebot and it’s handler shifted slightly out of the way as I pushed her against the wall and aimed my weapon at her. She had resorted to a slow sobbing. Moments later with the sound of combat boots on crude wood flooring, Blackie emerged from the house, machete drawn. Blood dripping from the end of his nose as the functioning side of his face twisted into a grin.

“Priest, this is hound, block cleared, we have a hostage.” Blackie turned his smile to the praying woman.

“Roger, standby hound.”

Druze turn 2:

I drop a bashi bazook in, run him over to a suppressing fire dakini, and try to shoot him. He shoots the bashi instead. (serious brain fart here)

I run cordelia up and Retroengineer the HVT (I DON’T WANT TO BUY YOUR DUMB REPLACEMENT CARDS CB!)

I shuffle some stuff around and try to EM the proxy like 5 times. Put some stuff into suppressing fire and sit tight.

I could have done more this turn, but was honestly rushing to just get Firefight over with/bait his marut out. I wanted to leave my MSV sniper and Panzer faust guy out for ARos, but wanted the orders for a last turn rush.

Aleph Turn 2:

He runs a dakini up to a box and loots it. Then goes into suppressing fire.

Whew, no Marut rampage.

NARRATIVE The woman finally fell as Fatimas rifle cracked into her again. Turning, Fatima motioned to Blackie with her weapon. Blackie stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her to lead her into the rear of our vehicle.

“Ssstop”. Fatima hissed, her accent stopping Blackie in his steps.

He looked back at her leaning her head towards the wall. With a glance at me he pushed the woman against it. She started to slide down again, but with a stern hand pushed her up against it.

The womans head jerked back, a streak of red shooting a meter up the wall. Fatimas rifle cracked.

“Ay wha-!” Blackie stumbled back, even more blood on his undersuit and plates.

The woman crumpled into a heap as Fatima turned on her heel and started slow jogging away, the other Druze falling into place.

Blackie stared at me mouth open, shifting his weapon in his hands, I simply shook my head.

Our Wardriver, emotionless behind her helmet let out a low chuckle.

“Good Arab, dead Arab”. “You people are fu-” Blackie was silenced by the Wardriver raising her hand and cocking her head.

“Security force, armed response asset.”

“Target” She swiped her hand and an image appeared on our HUD’s showing a member of the team with a large sensor array and multiple imaging devices. A Data Vulture.

“High up musta sent tha bastard.” Shouted blackie as we set off at a run.

“See tha fucking fire we started here, those Jews are pissed man.”

I didn’t know what to think, it had been years since I’d seen a gear. Let alone fought against one. The tight streets would play hell with it, and the population would be an issue for any large weaponry for anyone that cared about civilian casualties. My eyes settled on the Druze team ahead of us as we caught up to them.

A large crack echoed across the town as our sniper team began engaging targets. A crowd close to us began screaming and the sound of stampeding feet grew louder.

Druze Turn 3:

I am winning points wise like 6-1, but am not having any fun. And that’s the point of our silly toy soldiers game.

With Ten orders I activate scar face. He moves

He moves, shoots TO AHD blowing her away (she never recamoflauged)

He moves and double shoot outs with the two myrm chain rifles. Kills one, the other smokes. I move search a box for a MSR

I move shoot the dakini paramedic.

I move, step on his neck for classified.

I move move

I move shoot the Marut now, doing a wound.

I move shoot again doing a wound knocking it unconcious

I then move shoot and kill it.

With like one order left I just run Scarface as far away as possible.

Aleph Turn 3:

He is in LoL.

He runs scylla towards Scarface for a classified and she is shot and killed.

I win 9-1

NARRATIVE

Fruit, clothing, cheap toys, bootleg pornos and computer parts were hanging in the air. I watched in awe as the 12 foot armored gear stepped over half a fireteam of it’s dead security forces. Machine gun spitting high calibre rounds at a row of market stalls. A woman near one of the stands exploded, her upper torso turning into a red mist, next to her a mans arm and shoulder were torn off as a round simply passed by him. Screams filled my ears as soot and smoke filled my nose. Small arms fire was everywhere but nothing could be heard over the absolute destruction. Brass was spilling out in armfulls as the death machine walked across the courtyard. Our wardriver dove aside as our drone bot fired a shotgun blast in retaliation, catching the god of death in the hip. Reeling slightly it responded with a slight twitch of it’s hands. The drone bot exploded into scrap and was sent slamming into the wall. It’s graffitied hull blackened and burning.

I hugged the corner tighter and shot a wide eyed look at Blackie. His wide white eyes contrasting his Sub Saharan skin.

He mouthed the words I was thinking.

“Oh shit”.

We had caught a fire team in the open and disabled their pickup truck. Quicky cutting them to pieces. But one of them must have sent a distress signal because their QRF had shown up quite quickly. Micro drones had filled the air and had been following us for scant minutes, feeding all the information back to our target, the Data Vulture.

Round after round of sniper fire hammered into the courtyard, but either missed or did nothing to the giant. The HPC 50. Calibre rounds simply shattered or skipped off.

Fatima and the other Druze were in a nearby police station fighting their way to the roof. A few officers lay slain in the entrance way trying in an attempt to run from the IDF armored gear. They hadn’t stood a chance against the brutal Druze warriors.

I watched as their hulking figures, armor plates and animal skins hanging off of them fired and hacked their way through the fleeing officers and office staff with gun and machete. If they didn’t get up there in time we were dead. We needed to cross fire this thing if we had any chance of taking it out. The larger Druze’ Heavy Machine gun would be enough, but he needed time to hit it’s weak points.

“Priest, this is Blackie, er, Hound, we are engaging gear, what da fuck man where is da support man!?” Breaking comms etiquette Blackie was screaming into the mic, his thick African accent creeping in.

“Hound this is Priest stay tight, support is clearing secondary QRF, respond shortly”.

“Nah man fu-” A round impacted just above Blackies head on the stone wall, shattering it and spinning away before it’s micro explosive detonated showering us with shrapnel. Ten more followed in a split second.

Blackie screamed as his side was showered with hot shrapnel. I dove away, low crawling under a nearby tractor. I checked my magazines and grenades, nothing able to take this thing on. Looking over, Blackie had managed to slide his way along the wall using his good hand. Leaving a trail of blood behind him.

Arabic was spilling over our comms net between Fatima, gunfire echoing through her microphone, and our Wardriver hacker. Our support HUDs had gone out, meaning the Wardriver was trying to crack the IDF network in the area, but without our satellite support was having a hell of a time.

I heard the whining of enormous feet through the screaming of the crowd. I turned to see the antennae of the gear stalking through the alleway towards us.

WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, BOOOM!

High calibre rounds smashed into, and around the gear sending it staggering. An unguided rocket went into a nearby shop, exploding and sending burning scraps and junk flying out across the courtyard. The gear turned and engaged, firing it’s heavy machine gun over the rooftops. A ping popped up on the HUD as our asset entered clearance range. “Bahamut, engage OPFOR gear support request” Crackled over our comms net.

I saw a figure falling from the police station roof, only to be replaced by our Druze SAW gunner. In a moment dust seemed to emanate from him as his smart rounds laid into the enemy gear. The machine staggered under the heavy fire and swung its shoulders and front armor around to face him. Just as it’s machine gun stopped firing, our asset ping moved forward. The world around me began to shake as the 12 foot Bahamut stomped past my hiding spot, her Ramhorns servo motors whined as her KPVT spit 15mm AP rounds into the gears rear. One catching it once more in the hip sending it to a knee, the other impacting just below the armpit, ripping the pilot's guide arm, and actual arm off with it. The machine swung in slow motion, machine gun slipping to the side spraying the nearby wall.

Bahamut closed the distance in one step and kicked the gear square in the chest pinning it to the ground.

Shooting the machine gun out of its hand at point blank she leaned down and tore the cockpit off the dying machine and motioned for us. I did a visual on Blackie, quickly shooting ephedrine into his thigh before jogging over. Bahamut lifted off the machine and pushed into the courtyard to link with the Druze.

As I approached I heard the pilot whimpering, his right arm ended just below the elbow and he had a wound in his shoulder. He was pale as a ghost and his implant points were raw from the forcible removal. I immediately administered a tourniquet and pulled him out of the wreckage of his machine. He was swearing in Hebrew and coughing bits of blood and teeth out.

“Oi, this’ll be a fun one” Blackie wheezed. I looked over, he held one hand on his ribs, and in the other dangled a large machete.

The IDF member looked up at him with a look of horror and immediately fell unconscious.

Game Recap:

I feel like I as a player caused this to myself. I play way too safely, expecting all manner of AD/To/Rampage units, when I should be doing that myself. My experiences with firefight, going all the way back to an N1 equivalent mission have been the same. Kill some stuff then run away, or go whole hog if you have the opportunity to kill their Lieutenant. It’s a very one dimensional mission, that inhibits list building. I would have taken 0 specialists if I didn’t lack so many models that I required Rems in my list. (like physical ownership of models).

The game itself was very uninteresting and I feel like I let my opponent down in the fun department. While we were laughing at the table and having a good joke of it. It just wasn’t a fun mission, and getting Tag socked is never fun. (fun, fun, funfunfun)

Overall I was really surprised that I was able to kill the Marut in 3 orders with Scarface, but the new Tag fatality was REALLY NICE. I wish I had used the Bashi Bazouk better, I forgot how holo echo rules worked, forgot you can simply hold as a response! Let's talk about dismantling firebases with Druze. (I’ll talk about Firebases in a whole blog post by themselves later.) You have a couple of options with the provided list.

MSR Sniper through Nimbus

To me this one stood out as the most risky choice. I’d take this only if the opponent doesn’t have MMSLV2 and is the only ARO. You have to deploy accordingly to this, or navigate well enough. It’s also expensive on orders.

HMG

If you can master slicing the pie this is the most reliable. Putting out 5 dice, dam 16. At BS15 minimum. I would use this vs multiple lower risk AROs, or one tough one. Examples would be, 2 flash bots, non shock weaponry, outside of effective range rifles, and smoke chuckers. Or TR Bots without MMSLV2, HRL’s, TAG’.

Scarface

Very similar to the MSR sniper, but you have to be careful to put him in a good end position as Frenzy will trigger. Just added note of watching out for multiple ARM roll causing weapons.

PEACEKEEPER/Hunz

My favorite option since playing Ariadna. Getting a peacekeeper into repeater range of TR bot, or a hunz to place a mine near a strip of ARO pieces then Surprise shooting them. These methods are also the hardest and can be the most order intensive, yet serve a dual purpose of getting your guys up the board/closer to objectives. Plus for the purpose of forward observing you can navigate into a good position, and hunker down.

EM Grenade launcher

The most order intensive in my opinion, but also the safest. Only usable against suitable opponents, but can be a huge asset nonetheless. It serves to also get your link team up the board. Disabling bots, neutering HI ARO’s, and draining order pools. Non TR firebases are of limited effect obviously.

This game I chose the brute force route of the HMG as it was the fastest timewise, and had the best odds. With my MSR being locked down by a flash pulse Proxy.

In the end it was an okay game without a lot of learning opportunities. Great opponent, sorry the game wasn’t super fun for him. The table was also pretty bland and had a lot of open space, but you can’t win them all.

Thanks