DRUZE vs YJ Safearea Tournament

This is the first report in a series meant to cover a local tournament we had in Minnesota. I was bringing Druze (obviously) and decided to just run some standard lists I had been building. The mission set was: Safe Area

Fire FIght

Frontline. So a lot of shootguns, and sit tights. My first list was:

Safe Area/Acquisition

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GROUP 1 9 / 1

DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)

DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)

CLIPPER DRONBOT Smart Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 18)

DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)

BRAWLER Doctor (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)

BRAWLER Engineer Rifle + Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)

VALERYA GROMOZ Hacker (Hacking Device UPGRADE: Expel) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)

HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)

BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)

BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)

GROUP 22

HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)

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

KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)

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

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

WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)

6 SWC | 300 Points

[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=JwBgTAPgzCIQygQwGYFMAEBBATqxB6TARwFcBLAZzIBcyB7AOwgEYBSYAdhFagFZgwrAIRtO3PgA5gw5t04SeANmZQZ7LkoAsmmTuASOSvrvYGjOkb1OCoy6UMXqdtkIZF6ztqG3enDXwwABR05nRVcZUQ5pW2YLFVM2WLcFTkdYn2YomOV46X0FW15BQMCgA===]Open in Infinity Army

Uh, super standard Druze list for me at least. Good ARO base, and a solid link team with some extras to add in or drop out. The clipper and MSV sniper rotated out a few times through the tournament, but the link was a solid choice for every mission. I wanted enough specialists to be able to capture every station, and to have some redundancy. I kind of set things into a “Max movement range” So EVO/Baggage were obviously the first two quadrants, and the link/Hunz were the further ones. This helped me in deployment when I was hard pressed to find space to hide. Prioritizing my units based on survival/how far they had to move.

This was my first time using flash pulse bots, and they’re really good. Pulsing multiple key targets every game, and generally just drawing impetuous away and wasting orders for my opponent. Hunz were a throw in because I’m still playing Ariadna mentally and nothing is good unless it has camouflage specialists. Lets be real here.

GAME 1:

I went up against one of the best local guys i’ve played, JSA LUKE. But he was playing vanilla Yujing this time. We've played a few times before at tournaments, me winning the first, him the second, so I think we have some kind of weird streak going on. Approximate list:

Yu Jing

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GROUP 1 8 / 2 / 8

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)

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

HARAMAKI Missile Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (1.5 | 33)

HARAMAKI Missile Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (1.5 | 33)

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

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

YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

ZÚYǑNG Lieutenant Combi Rifle / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0 | 27)

GROUP 25

ASUKA KISARAGI Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)

ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 26)

ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 26)

TOKUSETSU EISEI Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)

TOKUSETSU EISEI Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)

KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14)

KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14)

5.5 SWC | 274 Points

[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=EwBgjAPgzCIRwoFIwBYBsSCsokEJEUNtcDk1McR9CKTqDgitswB2fGFLZLLBrmB7Z++MOSiZUATgbiUkpDIEAOFOjDZ0TPKhTAOqKCwACqFmHRqsbNQUxppJJ/aJOcL492tY7XoT52WJpsNkjA6NLIeMFIoRwRUUgmJkA===]Open in Infinity Army

It looks weird, and it was. But it was really intimidating and was a nice list to see first round. Luke was clearly trying, but wanting to have fun. And this being my second Game with Druze I was hoping for something fun early on.

Game: I won roll off and chose to go second. Not knowing the list was tough, as this was something I did not want to play reactively against, but alas I had no foresight.

This was the board.

Left most building had 2 fugazi covering it and the bridge section.

The center building had the mSR sniper on the red crates on the right side.

My link spread out behind the building.

My evo went behind the left most crates.

Hunz went out next to closest consoles.

Baggage bots and pathfinder went right near the red crate and bridge buildings.

I spread my fugazi out wide to provide AROs. Tried to hide my Kameels so they could advance later, but unfortunately one had it’s fat butt stuck out in the open. Luckily Luke didn’t see the missile opportunity it presented, with Valerya and an auxbot nearby. My center was a cluster F with my link team and constituents piled in there, hoping the legion of random AROs would stop the chain rifle swarm.

My Hunzkaut were deployed as to be able to claim objectives, and also speed bump the swarm coming at me. Hoping to ARO a good chunk of disposables coming at me, then the Druze would mop up.

I reduced two orders from his main pool (it had the kuangshi in it) and the game was off.

TURN 1: YUJING OFF TO THE RACES. His bikes blow forward, kuang shi and krakot as well. I flash pulsed a krakot who tried to spot my Left most hunzkaut, and also flash pulsed the Aragato Character. I lost my mule bot on the far right, my left most fugazi, and my Hunz on the left got killed by a monk. This resulted in the monk dying, and most of his stuff getting flash pulsed. He shuffled his non impetuous units up in an attempt to claim his rear most zones. I really avoided a ton of damage in the first turn somehow. Mostly due to the Hunzkaut dodging and some good ARO lanes. Everything that died was because it was exposed and unable to hide from the huge rush. So commenced turn one of the clean up/puzzle solving.

TURN 1: DRUZE

First order: Team pro goes live.

Command token to Link MSR/KHD/HMG/CLIPPER/LT Brawler.

Multi sniper stands up and kills the haramaki

A monk flails around and dies to the MSR sniper, haramaki eats another round to go dead.

My right most hunzkaut peeks out and guns down the krakot.

My pathfinder tries to engage a suppressive aragato right outside of my DZ, and dies.

I now walk my HMG druze out and uh, go to work.

Initial burst kills monk nearby threatening my whole link.

Second burst kills a Kuangshi

Third burst kills Aragato Special Character

Fourth kills Krakot

Fifth kills Aragato spitfire on left side

Sixth kills kuangshi

I end with my link team rotated to the left side of my inner deployment zone, with good aros for the next round of impetuous. My right flank is pretty exposed except for a suppressive fire valeryia.

That link team is ridiculous, I love it. I didn’t have to move a lot, which made it really easy to clean everything up. Impetuous leaving opponents in bad spots and without cover really helped as well. 5 dice on 18’s is uh, satisfying. The MSV sniper was there for backup in case a smoke crit went off as well. My end movement was a last ditch attempt at a solid defense, but it’d be one chain rifle in my DZ and game over still. Or if the aragato went around the rear and shot my super obvious LT.

NARRATIVE

My own face was the only thing I could see. The black frames reflecting my distorted visage right back at me, her mouth framed into a hint of a smirk.

“Keep staring, you’re not going to get any pay, or anything else for that matter.”

I snorted, dust coming out of my beard. Civilian contracts were the worst, but she was making this fun, and not just because of her body. The vehicle jerked as it impacted a crater, it’s suspension creaking. I shot a glance at Fatima, her almond shaped eyes never left the window. My gloves popped as the leather flexed against the grip of my rifle. The bumps grew more frequent, clink, clink, clink. The larger Druze to my left, Mansur’s, ammunition belt beat an intimidating pattern against the machine guns casing. His helmet fully opened for lookout, fingers clenching and unclenching against the grip, his auxiliary servo arm quivering slightly keeping the weapon perfectly level. Arabic broke through the internal compartment speakers, speaking quickly, and with no breaths in between. Immediately the two Druze in the compartment tightened their grips and leaned forwards in their seats. “What’s wrong!? What are they saying?” The Civilian burst out.

“Shhh” Whispered Fatima.

“You’re working for me, I need a si-” My eyes glanced to hers, but something was wrong. Her face was twisted sideways, her Botox lips twisted strangely to the right. And her glasses were cracked across the center. Her clipboard flying from her lap. Her shirt coming unbuttoned. Our world turned upside down.

YUJING TURN 2:

His impetuous goes off again. A kuang shi rounds the corner, chain rifles my clipper, and then promptly explodes killing a few unconscious models around it.

Clipper goes damaged lvl 1 from chain rifle. Teampro saves my butt.

His remaining aragato then proceeds to have the most ridiculous gun fight with my druze EM LGL. Spending like 7 orders, I make 2 armor saves and knock his aragato unconscious, he gets revived. Then proceeds to shoot out again, and he eventually just dies. Leaving my EM LGL clueless as to what happened. Some more shuffling goes on with him trying to get into the front zones. My right hunzkaut goes down to another monk.

This could have gone way worse, but once again impetuous left him in the cold. His aragato should have just ragged my Druze, but Got Mit uns. This left him totally open.

DRUZE TURN 2:

I move an engineer up and fix the bot, adding it back to the link team. And we’re off again.

Druze Link starts advancing, HMG gunning the unconscious aragato into a bloody mess. I drop an engineer next to the left closest console, and then walk the HMG over left. I peek out and gun down the other missile harmaki. Druze pause for a bit and EM LGL spec fire the Zhanying LT and immobilize and isolate him. I then just get into a defensive position for the next turn. Popping the MSR sniper up to pop another monk that had come up close on my right side.

This went well, I eliminated the two biggest threats, and without realizing it nuked his LT (on a 5 holy crap haha).

I just had to sit tight, kill anything that tried to advance, and then take the zones.

(this is the left side of my DZ picture)

NARRATIVE With a crack the window came out of its frame. Dust and smoke billowing in, I reached down and unlocked my buckle, falling to the roof of the vehicle. My shoulder barely responded, pain shooting down my side. My eyes followed the interior of the vehicle, dirt and debris. The woman's eyes met mine, she was laying on the roof as well. Perfect hair now ruined and charred, her lips filled with shrapnel. The ringing in my ears began to be replaced by pulsing gunfire and shouting. Ignoring the rushing pain in my side I low crawled to her, crouching against the inside of the window and peering outside. My hands automatically moving across my weapon, bolt release slamming home.

Smoke was everywhere, the street barely registering in front of me. A civilian lay a few meters away moaning softly. Mansurs machine gun was firing somewhere nearby, it’s rounds howling out as they tracked their targets. I reached out and grabbed the woman by her hand, bringing her to a sitting position next to me.

“I can’t, we, we, I need to...”. Her broken lips bleeding profusely, she began to whimper and cry. I heard sandals slapping cobblestone and shouted Arabic. Turning to face, a young man rounded the corner in a soccer jersey holding a rifle seemingly held together by rust. His eyes met mine in surprise, my hands moved with an automatic motion. “Two rounds center mass” My eyes never leaving his as my fragmentation rounds exploded mere inches from his chest. His body continued running, eyes locked on mine as his nervous system convulsed at the massive openings now present in his chest.

YUJING TURN 3:

He is in LoL. He runs a kuangshi at the link, but a 50cal round from my sniper takes him down. His doctor tries to kill my HMG and fails. He revives a karakot across the field. Not much he could do.

DRUZE TURN 3: I walk over and viral pistol the doctor, HMG the krakot across the field. Then just run everything to touch consoles/zones. Getting all 4 zones and all 4 consoles.

Not much to say about the round, more in the recap.

NARRATIVE:

The woman weighed heavily on my shoulder. Despite the two morphine pins in her perfect white thighs, she had succumbed to the pain. I moved swiftly keeping my head down as rounds poured over head. My magazine had clicked empty minutes ago, the barrel still giving off heat that rivaled the sun beating down on us. We were nearing the Evac point, the sounds of our dropships turbines were growing louder by the footstep.

“-mountain, and I chop it down with the edge of my hand.” The sound of guitar music was now blaring close by. We were almost there.

A figure emerged, running next to me. I looked, a man close to my age met my gaze, a rocket propelled grenade launcher in his hands. I swerved, and stumbled in surprise. With the woman's weight on my back he quickly outpaced me. I frantically reached up and keyed the microphone wrapped around my throat.

“Click…”

“Click…”

“Click, Click…”

He reached a small opening in the doorway in front of me, Arabic designs spiraling up from the base. He stopped and braced himself against the wall, I reached for my microphone again. The turbines were kicking dust everywhere. Guitar music echoing across the town. My fingers touched the mic on my throat as he flipped the safety off.

My ribs screamed out in pain as I slammed into him, the backblast from his rocket launcher popping my ears and throwing clothing from a nearby stall everywhere. I stumbled, unable to keep my balance, the woman sliding from my back. I fell forward onto my hands and wrists. I quickly looked up.

His gnarled foot connected between my nose and my forehead, unkempt toenails cutting into my forehead just under my helmet. I rolled sideways scrambling my hands outwards, clawing at his ragged jeans. Ears ringing from the backblast I could hear him screaming in Arabic.

The sun turned the large knife in his hands into a blazing weapon worthy of a God. His toothless mouth wide open spittle flying from it. The knife descended towards me.

The mans face contorted, grimacing, his right eye socket turning into an indiscernible mess. The back of his head quickly evacuated across the market square. The shot of a pistol ringing out, I turned to see the Woman, blood now pouring from her mouth and face overly sized handgun trembling in her hand.

“Now you can buy me a drink” she said, passing out once more.

GAME RECAP:

It went a lot better than I thought it would. I was able to weather the storm coming at me, dodging and flash pulsing my way into an offensive turn 2. Once he was caught in the wind I kind of rolled things up, cheap troops vs elite fire teams. Story unfolds.

I think he could have pulled it off much better, mostly by taking the aragato around the other way. He could have easily rolled my flank starting with my LT. His Haramaki were also in the open (ARO pieces?) and easily put down. I think they just got caught moving towards the front zones. His list was a bit weird, but a nice change of pace. It seems like it would either roll people or stall out and die in the ashes. A little disappointed he didn’t have a huge ARO base with missiles to pick apart. I feel like that will be my biggest issues with Druze. As you will see in my other games.

Key units: HMG (lmao) MSR Brawler, for the smoke options he had it was a perfect solution

EM LGL, it’s such a good backup option, and can make some funny situations.

HUNZKAUT GUN MAKE YOU SWEAT, GUN MAKE YOU MOVE. I loved these little Jihadist rascals. Dodging, shotgunning and being a nuisance. Sucked up like 15 orders.

Didn’t get to use any real hacking elements all game, but am surprised at how well the mechanical things worked to my advantage.