The Japanese Secessionist Armies UPRISING! tour continues at yet another War of the Worlds tournament at IBuyWargames in Woking. To tell you how popular this venue has been, the 20 places at the tournament were sold out a month before the event with a waiting list. The list of players was impressive, with lots of high ranked, tough, grizzled veterans who looked like they has seen one too many wars.
This time Keith Shutler (our evil mastermind of a TO) had decided to spice things up and go for a 200/300/400 point Escalation Tournament. Each round would be a different mission, and each round you could have one (not two) army lists (which could be completely different but still within the one faction). If that wasn’t mind-blowing enough, he threw in Soldiers of Fortune. This allows anyone for 1 SCW to take up to 75 army points of Mercs.
The mission choices were also not for the faint of heart!
200 Point – Transmission Matrix. Hack or DIE!
300 Point – Looting and Sabotaging. Hack the flag!
400 Point – Biotechvore. Who doesn’t love running from a cloud of tech and flesh eating nanites?
I also decided to take advantages of the Easter Break and managed to get the car for once, allowing me to bring my NeoTokyo table down – and film a short little Strato-Cast about table design (Thanks to all those who took part)!
Due to the nature of the tournament I’ll break down my list design with each of the three games.
Game 1 was going to be a totally UPRISING! grudge match. The sadistical ISS had been sent in by their Yu Jing masters to quash the JSA decent! Blood would be spilt in this battle!
My design for this mission was to go with a Fire Team Core who would be able to hold the line defensively around one of the Antenna while giving some long range ARO’s to cover the middle of the table. I would then use Yo Jimbo to leverage some direct action on my opponent. Saito Togan would wait it out in the centre of the table near the central antenna ready to take out any opposition there and secure that one. One issue with this list was that I only had my Tokusetsu doctor to hold the other antenna, but I had to hope my Fire Team would be able to cover her.
In Transmission Matrix you can take two different types of list – either Hacking superiority, or no-hacking or hackable units. I decided for the second – although my Domaru was hackable I would have to keep him clear of the repeaters (or use his Stealth to avoid ARO’s).
I lost the Initiative roll, and James elected to choose turn order and go first! This was great for me as I had intended to go second if I had one the roll. As the mission scores every turn, going second allows you to be more reactive to send assets to where they need to bet – but you do have to survive the opponents alpha strike.
James deployed first, putting down a Core Fire Team of Celestial Guards (with a Spitfire and Hacker) on an open building in the centre, plus another Celestial Guard Hacker (next to the North West Antenna) and a Pangguling EVO Hacker Remote. Lastly, he placed a Kanren, trio of Hole-echo’s around the centre objective.
I set up my Keisotsu Team with LoF to the central Antenna and Yuriko and a Keisotsu FO near the South Eastern Antenna, and my Tokusetsu Doctor on the South Western Antenna with Yo Jimbo held back far enough to not ride out into fire with his Extremely Impetuous Order. Saito deploying hidden right near the central Antenna. Lastly a WarCor took a prominent roof top position ready to film the action.
James’s hold back was a Son-Bae Guided Missile Launcher! Stupidly I had not seen that coming! I put down my Ryuken-9 ODD/SMG (The Major) prone on a raised catwalk. James’s Data Tracker was one of his Celestial Guards. Mine was the Major as she could move along the walkways to get James Designated Target in sight.
I spend my Command Token to limit James to one Co-ordinated Order.
James started out with a Co-Ordinated Hack to Spotlight Yuriko Oda with two Celestial Guard Hackers and succeeded! Next a Guided Missile slammed into her, she didn’t make it…. He then went of the Major (who has 7.5” away from the Antenna… as she has used Forward Deployment 2). The Major wasn’t having any of it though and made it through 4 attempts to Spotlight her before being nailed by the 5th! A Guided Missile launched and took her down!
The Son-Bae had to go! So Yo-Jimbo revved up his bike and tore across the table! He dropped off his Koalas next to the doctor for protection. Then wove through the dense buildings on the Western table side, firing off a smoke grenade to block the LoF of the Celestial Guard Hacker. He then moved up, tanking an ARO from the Kanren on the way past, and fired another smoke grenade which covered the whole of the Celestial Guard Fire Team. Free to move he did a drive by on the CG Hacker and decapitated him in close combat. Then, using Stealth (yes his bike has an electric mode!), drove through the cloud of smoke and engaged both the Son-Bae and Pangguling in close combat. Splitting a MA4 burst 2, one on each, he took both of them down! This had cost me all of my orders! I had taken out the Son-Bae but my Keisotsu FO was just outside the 4” control zone so I only scored the South Eastern Antenna with my Tokusetsu Doctor. James only scored the central antenna with his Kanren.
Down to 6 Orders, James first went to work to take on Yu Jimbo. It did take 2 bursts from his Celestial Guard B5 Spitfire to take out Yo Jimbo! From where he was the only other target he could see was the WarCor (I’d missed his prior ARO’s) and the Spitfire took him down as well. With his last orders he tried to re-organised the Fire Team to get down from the building – which was an issue as it had no ladders. So instead he revealed a TO Camo marker on the midway line and moved it all the way back to within 4” of the North Eastern Antenna, going prone behind it.
I led off with the Keisotsu Fire team. The Kempeitei MMSR MSV2 got a LoF onto the Kanren in cover near the central antenna and smoked him! Using the superior range of the Keisotsu Missile Launcher I went for two of the Celestial Guards I could see on the rooftops, splitting fire and taking out both the Spitfire and a Combi, both in -6 range. I then moved up a bit and made sure my FO was within 4” of the South Eastern Antenna. Last up, the Kempeitei MMSR took out a CG on the ground level.
With control over enough antenna, I could move my Fire Team up to the centre, taking out his last Celestial Guard on the way. The Domaru then split off and went to chop the head off the Designated Target. He then tried to discover/shoot the Ninja but failed. Last up Saito decided to come out of Hidden Deployment… although he wasn’t needed.
It’s been a couple of years since I last faced off vs Dan in a tournament (way back in Hastings at the 1066 Wargames Club ITS), but I’ve seen him at plenty of tournaments…sailing past me in the rankings… this was going to be tough!
The idea of this list was simple, go first, and destroy the AC2 in turn 1. For this I had chosen to go for a 10-order list so that I could feed all ten orders into my weapon of destruction – Saito Togan. With MA4, CC24 and an EXP CCW I could get 6 hits on the AC2 per order (plus the odd crit), with it saving on a 6+ (ARM 8). To destroy it, you need to do 3 STR to “Damage” it, plus a final one to go to the “Destroyed’ state.
To back up Saito, I had a band new Fire Team of a Domaru, Neko, and three Tankos (Missile Launcher, Flammenspear/Contender and Blitzen/Shotgun). The idea was to put the Tankos up high and get a good ARO coverage to defend my AC2. If Saito didn’t get the job done I had two choices. Send in my Shikami with DA CCW, or roll up the table with the link and deliver Neko Oyama to the Target.
Rounding off the team was a Rui Shi or MSV2 fire support, and a Tokusetsu Engineer with two Yaozoi G: Servants to support the Heavy Infantry and the Rui Shi. The final choice was an odd ball – an Aragoto Assault Hacker.
I got my wish and won initiative! I chose to go first. The table side I was left with was problematic. The elevated highway system was enough to cover a S1/S2/S3/S4 trooper but the crash barrier was along the DZ so the AC2 was on the other side of the barrier, making it difficult to protect. The table was tough. There were two large buildings in Dan’s DZ and one in mine, but none in the centre creating a perfect Sniper kill zone.
I put 2 of my Tanko’s up high, on the roof and one on a high balcony with a good view on the other sniper nests in Dan’s DZ. Dan place a Gao-Rael MSV2 Sniper and Sukeul Missile Launcher prone on one roof, and a Gao-Raol Sniper and Sakiel Light Rocket Launcher prone on the other roof. The good this is my Tank Missile Launcher was higher than them so could hit them without cover.
I declared Saito as my Data Tracker, and Dan chose a Makaul.
After much pondering I had picked out a route for Saito. He had to start as a model and not a marker due to him being the data tracker which limited his options. Dan’s AC2 was inside a building, surrounded by a Makaul, a Delegate and a Kaeltar.
So off Saito went, hugging a wall of a building and then threw smoke out and missed…. And tried again… and missed… and got it on the third attempt. He then used a cautious move to cross the line of fire of the Gao-Rael MSV2 to get into the smoke but also out of LoF of the sniper (as the sniper was on a ledge with a slight lip which created a LoF shadow). He then crawled up to the door. Next order he threw smoke and opened the door, but missed the smoke, leaving him in the position of standing in the door way with three ARO’d pointing at him! So next round he moved and dodged out of the door way (getting a Nano-Pulsar and Shotgun in ARO) and CRIT his dodge. He then threw smoke into the room and made the roll. He then barrelled into the room and took out the AC2 in two orders. With one order left he moved through the smoke to hack down the Kaeltar Specialist. 5 OP to me!
Dan lead off by removing the Saito issue using the Impetuous order of the Makaul in the room, who went for him with his DA CCW and despite having the better odds, Saito went down!
Next came the defining fight of the game, between the sniper nests. Dan first tried with his Gao-Rael who go back 3 ARO’s (2 Missiles, 2 Flamenspears and 2 Spitfire shots). The Gao-Rael targeted the Tanko ML with all three shots and beat him getting one shot through (despite my 16’s vs his 13’s) causing the Tanko ML a wound. The Spit fire missed, but one Flamenspear landed, so he threw his symbiomate at it! He went for it again, but this time the Gao-Rael got vapourised in the hail of ARO’s.
Determined to remove the Tanko’s Dan reformed his triad using the Sukeil Commando, and a Makaul and Delegate in the room below. The Sukeil was further back so only the Tanko ML could see it, so they exchanged missiles (my B2 16’s vs his B2 13’s). First exchange I won, and he tossed his symbiomate at it! Second exchange I rolled 18 and 19 and missed with both and the Tanko got vapourised! Oh dear, so much for plan A.
The Sukeil moved further up the roof, keeping prone and got a LoF onto the unloaded Flamenspear/Contender Tanko. Out of good range I decided to dodge, and we drew on the first exchange. On the second exchange he landed both missiles and vapourised that Tanko as well!
With the ARO threat gone, he let lose his Krakot renegade from the second combat group. He covered the middle group with no opposition and got into close range LoF of my Rui Shi, who missed with his spitfire and then took a double chain rifle and went down. The Krakot rounded the corner a laid two chain rifle templates across my Shikami, Rui Shi and Yaozio. My Shikami tried and failed to Engage, and then failed both ARM saves. The Aragoto (who was just out of the chain rifle range) took a shot and hit, but the Krakot tanked it. Amazingly the Rui Shi still stayed up and the Yaozoi dodged. So, he went again, this time wiping everything out and bar the Aragoto who missed. Luckily, he was now out of orders in that pool.
With the last few orders in the other pool, he formed a train of 2 Makeuls and a Kaeltar and moved up the table towards the AC2 just stopping being the crash barriers of the high way.
Things were looking grim. I was down to 5 orders. I chose not to spend the Aragoto’s Impetuous Order as that would have moved me into the Chain Rifle range of the Krakot, so I put three combi rounds into him, but he CRIT dodge and moved 3” towards me – now well within Chain Rifle range. Playing safe was no longer an option so the Aragoto drove straight at him, putting 2 shots into him, and he tanked both again! The Aragoto also made the ARM for the chain rifle. Next movement took the Aragoto behind the Krakot and this time all three-round hit and he was dead, and again the Aragoto made the Chain Rifle ARM save!
Emboldened, the Aragoto drove out and took down the Kaeltar Specialist. With his last order he drove out wide to get into a safer position avoiding the flame thrower templates and split burst between the two Makeuls. Both managed to get down their smoke!
The Makeul now un-opposed moved in their link up to the AC2, threw some eclipse smoke over it (as the Tokusetsu Engineer was covering it prone behind a car) and after 3 orders managed to hack it down (getting the bonus burst for multiple fire team members in close combat).
With his second combat group he moved another triad up onto the freeway and got to the Panoply and WP’ed it twice for some goodies.
4 Orders. Now the last chance saloon. The issue was Dan had multiple ARO’s all pointing at the centre and covering the triad at the panoply. Do I took the long was round and got into the ARO shadow of the building, using stealth to avoid any Change Face ARO’s but this took 3 orders. The Tanko with Light Shotgun popped up the access ladder and shot each one of the Tohaa (2 in the back) and killed all three! With only my Lt order left, Neko vaulted onto the freeway (breaking the link) and took up an ARO position on the Makeuls, and I then reformed the Fire team.
Dan had won at this point. It was all now about denying him any more OP. His Makeuls set off towards my HVT and Neko capped one of them in the head with his Breaker Pistol and CRIT on a 6! On the next movement though, the other Maekul was out of range 24” and made his dash to Secure HVT, and that was the game!
Stuart – Loss. 0 TO. 5 OP (3 STR points on AC2, Destroyed AC2, With Data Tracker). 107 VP.
The only other time I had faced Ryan was at the UK masters in 2016 with my JSA vs his Combined Army, in a terribly brutal game of Fire Fight, which I just managed to win! This game would turn out to be even more bloody!
Move or die! It’s that simple in Biotechvore. If you go first, you have to move everyone out of the Biotechvore cloud. Now that means moving over 8”, so for most troopers that’s 2 orders of 4-4 movement! If you go second, then you need a strong ARO presence, to shoot up the enemy on their way out of the cloud.
With my list I tried to mix both. I had a Core Fire Team of Keisotsu’s and 5 Aragoto in one combat group. In the other group I had a Tanko/Mushashi Haris and a Kempeitei (Coc) plus two Keisotsu who could link. Last up I had Yo Jimbo, a WarCor and a Forward Deployment 2 Ryuken (The Major).
If I went first, I could easily move out everything in only a few orders as Fire Teams, plus lots of Impetuous orders. If I went second, I had a Keisotsu ML, a Tanko ML, and Yuriko’s PanzerFust as serious ARO pieces, plus a Tanko Flamenspear and a WarCor.
Luckily, I won the Initiative and chose to go first. I failed the Confused Deployment roll for the Major and ended up back in my DZ. I decided not to Haris Mushashi with the Tanko’s yet, to maximise their Impetuous Orders.
Ryan set up second and set up very well. He placed a Fire Team of Loup-Garou with a Sniper pointed straight down a very narrow fire lane onto my Aragoto pack! He then failed three Confused Deployment Rolls on three Metros with DEPs and so they went back into his DZ.
I placed Yo Jimbo as my holdback, ready to place smoke. Ryan placed behind his three DEP metro’s, an Anacoda TAG which had a direct LoF over some walls onto my Tanko’s.
In total I had 19 troopers but Ryan had 26, including his own Yo Jimbo using Soldiers of Fortune!
The race out of the cloud began. The Anaconda was a big problem, literally. I couldn’t move my Tanko’s or Yo Jimbo without taking a HMG ARO. Go big or go home. The Tanko ML used his Impetuous order, firing a Missile on blast mode which caught the Anaconda and all three DEP Metros. Dice rolled, HMG on 16’s vs Missile on 16’s and we both missed! The Tanko Flamenspear used his Impetuous order, and missed, taking a HMG hit and losing a wound. Yo Jimbo rolled out, throwing down smoke and took a hit going to NWI.
On the other fire lane, I took a risk and used the Impetuous Order on the Spitfire Aragoto. He revved 8” up the table, taking an ARO from a Garou Sniper Rifle (prone) and a Viral Rifle. I split my burst but lost all the rolls and was cut to pieces. So, I had no choice but to cancel all the other 4 Aragoto’s Impetuous Orders.
The Anaconda had to go! I moved up Mushashi, staying in cover and then formed the Tanko’s and Mushashi into a Haris. Now with burst two the Tanko ML took on the Anaconda, who ARO’d with a PanzerFaust. He missed, and both my missiles hit, and just like that the Anaconda and three DEP Metros were vapourised!
Now clear to move Yo Jimbo headed down the centre lane, and failed two Smoke Grenade Launcher rolls. He was now almost across the table and drove up to just of the Garou’s fire lane and put a thrown Smoke Grenade down to block LoF.
The Keisotisu Fire team headed out of the zone, clearing it in two orders. I then switched the Core Fire Team to the other groups Kempeitei and 2 Keisotso, who spend 2 orders and followed them. The with another command token I reformed the original Core Fire Team.
Now still with 8 Orders in the 1st combat group, the Aragoto pack co-ordinated and order and surged 14” up the table (with appropriate vrooooooommmm noises!). Now it was time to get risky! I sent off one of the Aragoto with Boarding Shotgun up the table. After one order he was in the smoke cloud. The second order took him through right to the feet of the Garou link team, but also in sight of more! He split his burst placing one blast along three Garou. The second blast went along and hit 5 metros, a dozer and a Tractor Mule! Needing 18’s to hit, I rolled 4 vs the Garou and 1 vs the others. Went the smoke cleared all the Garou had beaten the F2F rolls and shredded the Aragoto, but two of the metro’s and a Tractor Mule had gone down.
Thinking it worked well the first time I sent the second Aragoto BSG up. This time he took a detour and before facing the Sniper he, slipped out sideways and got a shot on the 4th and 5th link members, putting down one of them, but was beaten in the F2F by the other one (who was the link leader) but he tanked the ARM save. He then used his last order to run straight at the Sniper, but again rolled rubbish and was shredded.
Back on the other side, the Keisotsu Core Team had one order left so the Kempeitei MMSR MSV2 got set up on a corner overlooking lots of prone Metro’s but could only see one and managed to kill it.
With my LT order I moved the Kuroshi rider into a bit of cover from the sniper’s position.
Lastly I moved the WarCor our along the rooftops and moved up the Tanko team.
The Biotechvore cloud descended and only the Major was left, and she made her BTS roll.
Ryan had lost 8 units/26 on the table, but he had more tricks up his sleave. Yaun Yauns! The first one walked on just fiting behind a crate (he wasn’t a Fat Yaun Yaun) and in a blind spot behind the Keisotsu’s! The second walked in on the Eastern side but got capped by Yo Jimbos Contendor. The third tried the same but failed the Confused Deployment Roll so Ryan placed him by the Garou’s.
The Evil Yo Jimbo clone, headed towards the real Jimbo, not quite into CC and took a shot at the last Aragoto and Jimbo, but Kimbo dodged and the he missed the Aragoto (who also missed, which was a real shame as his Light Shotgun would have templated over Evil Jimbo and the 3 Garou behind him!).
With all the Impetuous orders gone he set to work! The Yaun Yaun moved in on the Keisotsu and got my Keisotsu ML, 2 regular Keisotsu and my Kempeitai CoC under a chain rifle! The ML got a hit with a pistol but the YY tanked the roll. After the smoke cleared the Kempeitai and ML were down. One Keisotsu had changed face and the other had made the ARM save and gone prone.
The YY goes again and the Keisotsu who changed facing misses with his ARO but makes his ARM roll, everything else fails!
Running low on orders Ryan goes to the other YY irregular order and tried to fire of a PanzerFaust (which he rolled on Booty) but got taken down by the Aragoto’s Shotgun. The link team of Garou break and perform a co-ordinated order so they can all fire on the Aragoto at once (because otherwise his Shotgun template would hit them all). One of them goes down but the other two take out the Aragoto.
On the other side of the table, the Metro’s form a Core Fire Team and go after the MMSR Kempeitei with a HMG, but she managed to take him down (dead with shock) and break the link, and now Ryan is out of Command Tokens. Step forward the hero of the hour, a 112. He charges the Kempeitei with his Shotgun and blasts her! He then moves up her unconscious body and blasts her head off with EXTREME PREJUDICE! Classified Objective complete!
Now clear to move the rest of the Metro’s run for it around the other side of the building. With his last few orders he moves his dozer and Tractor Mule which both get flash pulsed by the WarCor.
With is Irregular Order Evil Jimbo goes into close combat with Yo Jimbo and they both CRIT! Poetic!
Then the cloud hits! It takes out many unconscious troopers but also a load of others including a couple of Garou, the Dozer and Mule, and a couple of Metros from the middle.
Both sides are pretty devastated. I start off with the battle of the Jimbo’s and this time my Yo Jimbo CRITS and Evil Jimbo just hits, and the Evil Yo Jimbo is no more.
Next, Kuroshi used her Impetuous order and bit off more than she could chew taking on a Garou and Metro. She failed both F2F rolls and one of them shot her with a Shotgun and hit Yo Jimbo behind her, and took both out…. There goes my Lieutenant (and my CoC when down to the Yaun Yaun!).
The next issue was the Yuan Yuan. I tried to be smart and used my Domaru, who first used his Spitfire to cut down the hero 112. He then climbed over the crate (but after some discussion we came to the conclusion the Entire Order Climb skill was not eligible for Stealth… so the Yaun Yaun changed face! It didn’t help as the Domaru put four spitfire rounds into him and killed him. The Domaru then managed to move up and take a shot at another metro and put him down (which was his Lt), but got hit by a long range ADH launcher from the other side of the table and stuck!
In the other pool, my Tanko ML moved up and caught 3 metros under a template and killed 2 of them. He then took a long range shot at the last surviving Garou and got hit by a Viral Rifle and went down dead.
With my last order in the first pool a Keisotsu FO charge the last Metro and gunned him down.
Ryan was in Loss of Lieutenant and down to only a hand full of troopers. They moved up as much as they could.
In Loss of Lieutenant. The last Tankos used his Impetuous order to move, and then a regular order and killed the last Garou with his Famenspear, finishing in ZoC of his HVT. Mushashi moved up to cover him with a flash pulse. The plucky Keisotsu FO then Forward Observed the unconscious Metro for TARGETTED!
With two orders and a new LT order, the last two troopers (a 8 Pt Metro with Rifle and 21pt Loup-Garou with Viral Rifle) moved in on Mushashi, who managed to hold them off with his Flash Pulse.
I can honestly say – I don’t remember a game being more bloody!!! In total, 42 troopers (15 and 27) went down and only 7 (5 and 2) walked away from the BIOTECHVORE!
After a 200/300/400 point escalation tournament ending in Biotechvore everyone was dead! Literally! It was a real tough day, and some epic games that came down to the slimmest margins.
Thanks to Keith Shutler for organising and TO’ing the day and all the Ian Simpkins at IBuyWargames for the great prize support.
I got a £5 voucher for 4th place and then found out I’d won the best table award (by popular vote on FB) for another £5. I then promptly spent it all on the pre-order of the JSA Army Box and Uprising book and IBW were offering 15% off for the tournament players!