A Life Less Interesting

192329: DibbleNGrub vs Monkey Magic

Just picked up a friendly 20FP challenge posted on the board, and it's come up as Beach Strike. I've been wanting to do this one, as I turned down a league challenge on it a while ago, and was wondering just how difficult it'd be.

If you don't know the map, here it is

I'm in the boats (blue), which has to be the harder option - MonkeyMagic is high up in Veteran, so with the map imbalance, this could be a tough game

Since I've obviously got to assault (no sensible hard cover anywhere on my side) then that rather determines my loadout. No tanks - they'd surely get chewed up on the approach, and there are too many small gaps. Same goes for a spawn queen. Equally, there aren't many good places for a base - exactly one, right in the middle, in the broken boat

He, on the other hand, has several nice buildings with good cover, but there's one interesting feature - there's almost no horizontal movement between the buildings, due to some nice pipework

So the temptation for him has to be to sit back and use snipers. Thus, I'll go with marines, in an assault loadout.

Here's the plan: I'll concentrate entirely on one side - the left. There are 3 assault teams in the 3 left-most boats. 2 will be sniper/2 x grunt/'nader/medic teams, and the other will be a commo/grunt/medic team. With a "hidden" base, that's my lot

And I'll just have to hope he's not Greys, as that's how I'd defend this map (or use Spawn, hiding them until turn 4...)

Turn 1: 10-20 secs

He's marines. I can see 2 snipers, a medic and a 'nader immediately. This tells me 2 things:
1) He's not that experienced, as he's leaving a 'nader in sight from the initial deployment
2) If he has a balanced deployment (10 FP on each side of the map) then he's very susceptable to my plan

Forward we go - everyone's jinking to reduce the chance of being hit by sniper fire. One sniper will take cover on the right, next to my base, and try to take out anthing on the left. And I'll blast the gas canisters before I get close - nasty land-mines...

Turn 2: 20-30 secs

Hmm. Lost a medic on the charge, but more worryingly he appears to have deployed almost entirely on the left as well. Saw another nader, 2 commos, another sniper and 2 more medics - giving:
2 commo (6)
3 snipers (6)
2 naders (4)
3 medics (3)
and presumably a base somewhere for 20FP

The one nice thing is that both his 'naders are in the same place, behind some cover in the middle. Thus, the nades will be going to the left and right channels - and not in the middle

Also, the 2 commos are basically together, so he'll be covering that entrance nicely - and standing still.

Plus, no grunts! Makes him very vulnerable to a close-quarters assault.

So, the plan is as follows:
Team A, on the left - The nader will launch twice at the place where the commos are. The grunt will strafe and try to cut a hole through the wire for the 'nade, then draw fire away from the 'nader. The sniper will take one shot and run right. The medic will bunny left and right to draw fire, and spoil op-fires, as some of the wire counts as not visible at certain angles.

Team B, in the middle: The commo will cut a hole in the wall ahead, and charge for it. The grunt will take out some wire, so the sniper at my base can get a clear shot at one of his commos. Want to be careful here to not cross the line of fire of my sniper until he's had his shot

Team C, on the right: They'll need to dodge a badly bounced 'nade from last turn, and will funnel into the middle to avoid his 'nades I expect to come in to the right channel

And the base sniper will take a shot at his commo, and then try to cover where his 'naders are for an opfire shot

Score: 0-1

Turn 3: 30-40 secs

Nicely done. Everything went to plan - could have done without the grunt in team A taking a commo shot, but better him than the nader. One commo is about to die, and the other one was very lucky, taking almost no damage from a sniper shot.

This turn he will almost certainly try to hit the inside of the wall I'm charging through. I should be able to take one 'nader out before he fires, but the other will get at least one shot away.
My commo will try to hit his 'nader and then hide left from the inevitable 'nade fire. My nader from team C will hit the top of the boxes, where I think his other commo will hide. With sniper fire from a distance against his right-hand sniper, and sniper covering fire for the middle, this should be the turn I break the back of his forces

Score: 0-2

Turn 4: 40-50 secs

Carnage - on his side. Everything works pretty much as I expected, and he loses a commo and a 'nader within a second. His other 'nader has a lucky escape from my commo, but is about to take a hit. I'm a bit lucky taking out his other commo, but would only have been a matter of time - if the 'nade hadn't bounced off him, it would have taken a medic instead.

Just mopping up now - My commo will charge through, and I'll 'nade the two snipers

Score: 11-3

Turn 5: 50-60 secs

His remaining 'nader takes the commo shot in the face - thought it was probably too close to dodge it - and my charging commo draws most of the remaining fire, all of which misses.

His left-hand sniper takes a few shots from my dancing grunts, and then a 'nade finished him off - the right-hand sniper moves, ducks the 'nade and hits my nader in team A, fortunately not killing him.

I'll concentrate on the sniper on the right with my two snipers and the 'nader - Loads of forced-fire coming in, he'll have to run if he wants to survive. And everyone else can push forward.

Score: 15-3

Turn 6: 60-70 secs
The sniper goes down under a hail of fire, and his medic runs into a 'nade launched last turn - leaving one medic. I was a bit careless, and didn't check the angles for an approaching grunt, so the medic gets him

Just a matter of who gets the kill for the last medic

Score: 18-4

Turn 7: 70-80

The commo got him, just ahead of a grunt

Lessons learned:
Knowing where the enemy 'naders are won me the game, as I could pick the one zone (of three) that they wouldn't hit on the critical approach turn.

Grunts are disposable - They're great for drawing op-fire away from more important units like 'naders, and for finishing off damaged units quickly. That means you have to have enough of them!

Change plans if you need to - the right of the beach was completely empty...