Operation Golden Ratio: episode 04

Intro

Laying on an intensive care bed Boris Legasov was debriefing with Tunguska's high command while nano-surgeons were at work to patch the effects of the biotechvore on his battered body. Actuating costly and highly compromising show of force he had failed twice to secure high value targets. It was now time to go back to more conventional tactics. 

Varuna's intervention made things more complicated and simpler at the same time, Aleph was now inclined to a quicker although sub-optimal solution, it was time to negotiate and set up an exchange. Boris had no illusions, Alisaa Murdock was going to try to trick him, but he knew the game well and was confident to be able to turn the tide in Tunguska's favor.

Mission and lists

This 300 point mission was Capture and Protect, from ITS season 12 supplement. 

The Armory and Panic Room, tackled with 5 men "death star" Core Link Teams built with different mixes of Krizas, hollowmen, characters and REMs went really bad for Tunguska (there might be a dedicated post to the topic but before that I want to play the mission/list combo some more times) so now we are back with a more standard and trusted selection of troopers. Aleph instead sits the Marut on the bench and brings back the Asura with a Yadu-heavy brigade.

Deployment

Aleph wins the initiative roll and decides to have Tunguska deploy first which in turn elects to go first. 

Tunguska places the defensive core team castled on the center-right, Puppettattica, Lunokhod, Heckler and Warcor guarding the beacon perimeter, Clockmaker on the far right and Transductor Zond on the far left. A command token is spent to keep 2 troopers to deploy later: Mary Problems and the Zondnautica.

Aleph anchors the left flank with Asura's 3 men team and the right flank with Deva's. The beacon guarded by an hidden deployed Dasyus.

Seeing a weaker side with an exposed hacker Mary Problems goes there while the Zondnautica takes the center.

Turn 1

Zondnautica Zips forward and parks in total cover waiting for the threat level to be reduced before further advancing toward the beacon. Mary goes on an adventure, pushing the flank and placing some repeaters so that the Interventor can activate white noise to cover her advance from the MSV Deva. Once in ZoC she starts pounding the Yadu hacker with Trinity, it takes a couple of orders to remove it from play. Then Raoul Spector’s lands into the white noise zone, so close to the Deva she can feel the heat of the retrorockets. Combined efforts of Mary’s submachine gun and Raoul’s DA CC weapon eliminate the Deva and the Yadu HMG.

Aleph begins with 3 orders less and some issues to deal with in its own deployment zone. The surviving 3 men team advances in the middle laying down a drop bear nearby the beacon. The MSR Grenzer performs well stopping the advance and neutralizing the HRL Yadu. All responsibilities fall over Asura's shoulders, she wears a cybermask and advances frying the Zondnautica hacker in the process ending the turn in a protected position at the edge of Nomad's territory and also achieving the classified objective!

Turn 2

The Heckler shoots its Fast Panda into the Asura's ZoC and Mary Problems engages OSSSS Lieutenant with killer hacking programs. The Asura is a tough nut to crack and after a couple orders a single wound is lost by the HI.

Raoul runs now for the beacon. He eats the drop bear (risky as NWI does not grant shock immunity!) and survives the surprising appearance of the Dasyu with his boarding shotgun. He manages to disengage and makes it close to the middle of the table, inside friendly repeaters' ZoC. With the last order Mary Problem attempts one more Trinity against the Asura, this time killing her.

Aleph's turn 2 begins in LoL and Retreat! With 2 orders left the only chance is turning one regular and dash the Dasyu to land one last boarding shotgun hit in Raul's back. If he can make it will be an OSSSS victory (thanks to the classified objective). The Grenzer MSR and the Securitate with Feuerbach are guarding Raul's back and despite the inconvenience of the saturation zone the Dasyu is exploded.

Game ends with a 3-1 victory  for Tunguska.

Debriefing  

Nomads - Tunguska

Back to the comfort zone of a more solid and tested list. Grenzer MSR in big link is just awesome both in active and reactive turn. Mary and Raoul did the job and nobody missed Perseus. The speed bumps placed to protect the beacon did not come into play but would have worked ok I assume. The Zondnautica also did not have the chance to shine, everybody loves it and I want to bring it again.

Aleph - OSSSS

Weird list built around the Dasyu, a unit I wanted to test since long time. Lesson learnt: no more than 2 Yadus.

Still the list itself, was not so underpowered: the main error was to spread out my troops in a linee too thin although I knew I had less orders and I was going to go second. It would have probably been better to entirely deny the flank with the big link and castle around the beacon in a stronger position to increase turn 1 survivability and then retaliate with my hard hitters.  

Outro

Tessa had just finished working on Alisaa when the door opened and Gina, the ship's Danavas attaché, entered the room.

The young aspect, empowered by her role, questioned her senior Sophotect with no preambles:

-Is she operative?

Tessa looked at Alisaa's face: nanobots from her mother forge kept going in and out her empty eye sockets.

-Almost... Her voice came out faintly, as she had been out of breath, but in a whiff she re-established her normal tone.

-...but you were there. So tell me: what happened?

The Danavs assumed a stiffed position, as if she had been reporting to Maya herself:

-She went careless. They had numerical advantage and she didn't seize the initiative when she had the opportunity.

The Sophotect turned to the nearest porthole: the relict of Space Station Donacimiento was now entering the upper atmosphere of Rodne. A broken station crashing over a desert planet: an appropriate allegory of what she thought about the whole operation.

-Where's the tech coffin, is he safe?

-He...? The Danavas look puzzled and Tessa realized she didn't know the full story of project Laocoon. A typical behavior of ALEPH: sending ahead her aspects without proper information. She should have known better, after all these years.

The mother forge announced the end of the repairs, quenching the silence between them, and Alissa woke up.

-The tech-coffin - she said, rising up sitting on the bed - is in a safe place. You don't have to worry about it. Now the Nomads have a bio sample, a copy. However, even if the asset we had to secure is safe, we're still missing the one we had to find...

Both Gina and Tessa hold their breath.

...and I think it had been on Rodne all along