A Shattergrounds Battle Report: Operation Sauceseeker

So one of our agents led us on a wild goose chase, called it a rare resource acquisition that we'd be foolish to not attempt to secure. Downside is that this resource is in the wonderful city of Huaqiao, and his contact may have been captured while leaving the last meeting they had had.

A team of infiltration specialists had been selected from the various specialist branches of the Ariadnan Armed forces, specifically from Kosmoflot, Caledonia, Merovingia, and Tartary; qualified USARF operatives were busy elsewhere in the theater. We had some local agents set up to assist with the exfil.

Our ingress was fast and loose. Using the infiltration and limited stealth tech available, we were able to quickly locate the area where our informant may be located; however, it seemed as though we weren't as covert as we had hoped, either that or local Yu Jing operatives were coincidentally in the same AO. Mission lead advised us to engage if necessary, only taking what engagements we could to not jeopardize the mission.

In our task force fashion, oh lordy did that get hot quick!

The Yu Jing forces got the jump on us, causing our Libertos to reveal and so what he could against a Sù-Jiàn, the damn thing triggered every mine we had set and then ran up a wall! Thankfully one of the scots guard up there was able to pump enough shots into it that it stopped moving.

The strelok made a very clear miscalculation and got himself and one the chasseurs killed. Lóng Yá are clearly a common asset present in the area, and this strelok didn't reach the mission briefing about it! Coping with that loss, and the discovery of our informant, we had to do a very quick shift of assets to the right flank to secure out target. An interloping Hac Tao and Tiger Soldier, along with Kokram and the illustrious Major Lunah, held that flank quite hard, but through the combine actions of our Scotsguard, SAS assets, a rapscallion of a beasthunter who found a panzerfaust, and the merovingian that trained the Brigadier Bruant, we were able to at least gather our informant, while apparently stumbling upon a curious Yu Jing agent nearby. The beasthunter, however, hunted his last beast.

After we gathered our asset and successfully exfil’d using the assistance of a local monstrucker, we were able to get the information we needed out rhe information about this resource: the recipe for Szechuan Sauce… dipping sauce. This WAS ALL FOR DIPPING SAUCE! Uxia was the first to dive across the truck hold at the mission lead, the tankhunter though stood his ground, and was able to at least nullify her chokehold on him. It took a few of us to get her off him, and we considered just letting her go at em. After all we lost the strelok, a chasseur, and a local beasthunter to TRY and find the recipe for some damn sauce.

The tank hunter has been sacked.

--Pregame--

Vanilla Yu Jing versus Vanilla Ariadna. Ariadna courtesy list was a big ol goose egg except the monstrucker. My first time playing an all-camo list. I DEFINITELY asked to borrow some camo markers. I also definitely lost track of where I had place who, but my mines were able to keep me on track about those. Deployment is on the right from my perspective.

I lost the LT roll off, Yu Jing wanted inactive and went first, I declared them deploying first as well. A Command Token was spent by Yu Jing to withhold 2 reserve units. These were a Kokram and the Sù Jiàn. I've played this opponent before, so seeing the Long Ya and Kuang Shi were no surprise. Hadn't faced anything else though. I spent a Command Token to take 2 orders from Group 1. The mission was Cryogenics with the following changes: DEPOT There is a warehouse of technical supplies in the zone of operations. In this scenario, any trooper possessing the Engineer Special Skill (or any of its variants) apply a +3 WIP MOD Attribute value when declaring this Special Skill. In the same way, in this scenario, the GizmoKits apply an extra +3 PH MOD to their target. This MOD is cumulative with any other MODs. ARMORED REINFORCEMENTS In this scenario, all TAGs have a SWC value of 0.5, regardless of the value shown in their Unit Profile.

KEEP ON TRUCKIN’ Both players can add a Monstrucker without applying Cost or SWC. This Trooper does not count towards the Combat Group’s

Turn 1

Yu Jing advanced forward and setup a reaction for my forces mostly. The furthest advance was on my left flank, where Su Jian moved QUICKLY into my DZ and perched itself on the same rooftop when I have Bruant and a NCO Scot Guard camping. The push ate every mine I had out there on the left flank, and overall only revealed a Libertos sitting in the corner with his shotgun. Hac Tao revealed to say a brief hello.

Ariadna turn 1 saw a misstep on my part and had the strelok get flammenspeared by the Long Ya (I forgot dodging breaks my camo, oopsies), this resulted in my nearby chasseur dying and the antipode going brain-dead. Neat. I had the Beasthunter and Uxia to some shenanigans in the midfield. Killed a Kuang Shi, and that's about it. OH YEAH, remember that scots guard I mentioned the Su Jian landed by? Yea, that dude mag-dumped his smg into the Su Jian until it stopped twitching at him. The friend-shaped critter was, indeed, not a friend. See right.

Overall, we both tagged a tech coffin, finding nothing but Fry and some anchovies inside them.

Turn 2

Yu Jing forces really tried to do something this time, kuang shi moving around, tiger soldier dropped down, failed its phys check, and still managed to move up and activate both tech coffins on that flank, leaving me at least 3 points in the red. A kuang shi died from a mine I hid nearby the tech coffin closest to me on the right flank.

Ariadna returned some fire with repositioning of forces, just to be a headache while trying to shift my attention to the right flank. Bruant woke up and ran across the entire map. The AP Spitfire scots guard moved up and just sorta stood there waiting for a fight.

Overall, yu Jing took a solid lead this turn, but I could still work some magic to turn. It around.

Turn 3

Yu Jing did a lot of maneuvering. Kokram and Mjr Lunah moved across to the right flank, hac Tao went camo and stood there (menacingly), and the tiger solider achieved the classified on my poor HVT, and then went into suppressive fire.

Ariadna saw the bloodiest turn of the game on turn 3, and it wasn't even my own blood! Through the fastest series of interactions, the beasthunter killed the Kokram with a panzerfaust, and then get got got by Mjr Lunah. Lunah then traded shots with the scotsguard and lost only due to crits. Bruant ran up and point blank shot the tiger solider with his spitfire and also only won due to crits. The SAS in the corner moved up to threaten his HVT, and my scotsguard held the zone for my HVT. If I had one more order, I could've crawled bruant on his hands and knees into the zone about .5 inches away from him to put score the singular Hac Tao with him, uxia, and a SAS. But such is life.

End of Game saw Yu Jing up 7 to 5. Should I have been able to get Bruant into the other zone, it would've been 7 to 4 Ariadna, but again, such is life.

Until next time