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March 22, 2006

Alliance League v Worto03

An alliance game - my first one, so I hope the nerves don't get to me!

Game available here

We're doing a 20FP wipeout on Italy, but the margins matter!

Deployment
A difficult choice, this one. I've never played Italy before, but the 2 LGA games I can find both show large amounts of terrain destruction with MT's
I also know very little about worto03, apart from he's at the bottom of elite with 89 games and a 50/50 win/lose ratio.

I think the MT deployment might be a bit obvious, so I think I'll avoid that.

Spawn are a possibility, but getting control of bodies is going to be a problem. It'd basically be a straight charge, and with the Alliance scoring rules I don't think it'd be helpful

Greys could camp, but would be vulnerable to mechs with MT's. You'd basically be hoping for the end of the game before you got spammed.

So, it's Marines. Difficult to go wrong, and versatile, but a bit fragile.
I'm a big fan of snipers. They have two great strengths: They can see a long way for intel, and they can put a shot through a window halfway across the map.
I'll go with 2 snipers, and 3 assault teams. Normally you'd have 3 point elements, but I'll strengthen each element to 5 - 'nader, 2xgrunt and medic.

That gives one team per "zone" - left, mid and right, 2 snipers for the gaps and just one base

Only one base is a bit of a risk, but I'll be heaviest on ammo early on the game, with the snipers cutting holes, so as long as they can reload at turn 5 or so the base will be less important after that.

Here's the plan: The 3 teams (A, B, C left to right) will slowly move forward, with a grunt running point. I'm not planning to move more than 1/3 of the way down the map. The snipers will spend a few turns cutting holes for intel and access, then reload.

Once the first few turns are over, I should have an idea what race worto03 is playing.
If spawn, fall back slowly to a defensible position, blowing the fronts off buildings to reduce cover. I've got a lot of lasers, so should be able to do quite a bit of damage even at short range

If marines, I can start spotting with the snipers and grunts for targets that the 'naders can kill. I'll try to draw him forward, away from bases and into the pre-prepped buuldings I have with lots of holes in them.

If MT mechs then I need to use the slum clearance to my advantage. I'll do lots of dodging to be unpredicatable for the missile shots, and group the medics for rapid healing of splash damage. Then, once there are sensible clearances, do sniper force-fire down the channels to locate bases

And if AI mechs then I'll need to snow the AI with 'nades each turn, and retreat through the small holes in the building - and watch for HT's. A grunt should take a HT 1:1, but mobs of HT's can be very effective, hence the use of elements.

Turn 1: 10-20 secs

Move forward slowly, and the snipers are drilling holes for access

Turn 2: 20-30 secs
Nothing going on yet, so move a bit more again - the point men are on ROS, in case of a drone rush...

Turn 3 30-40 secs
Which turned out to be rather prudent. He's spawn.
I've got 2 drones coming down the left-hand channel, with a spiker hanging back for fire-support. 2 buzzers scoping out the central building, and also saw a drone go in there - presumably to chew a hole through.

Now, it all depends on what he's planning to do. If he thinks he's caught me off-guard on the left, he'll push the 2 drones on forward. However, I think the 2 grunts (and a medic in a moment) should be able to wipe 2 drones without too much pain - I had exactly this situation in a previous game the other way round, and I'd badly underestimated the firepower grunts can deliver. Test orders show 6 shots should do for a drone (avg 4 damage per shot, 23/4 = 6 shots) so 2 seconds of fire with 3 troops will kill a drone. And he only gets one bite per 2 seconds.

So, the grunts in the left team will red-line the first drone, with the medic arriving in the door to cover. I'll blow an escape route with the nader from team A.

Team mid will pull back in good order, with some looking back on HOS in case he chases with a buzzer. The nader will drop some more cover so I've got some good firezones

Team right will do the same, peeking for shots but generally pulling back

Turn 4: 40-50 secs

Very nervous playing this turn, but the grunts in the left team did their job perfectly - received one bite, got 2 kills. Also saw one buzzer and 2 goo explosions, so that's 8 points accounted for - of which 2 are dead.

So, the obvious thing this turn is to nuke the bodies - which I will do at the end of the turn

Apart from that, it's a controlled fallback, and slum clearance. I'll leave 2 grunts advanced, as he seems to be using buzzers on ROS - the grunts will cause them to retreat, the grunts may get useful intel, and even take a shot or two

Score: 2-0

Turn 5: 50-60 secs

Got a bad bounce, which splashed a couple of my troops on the left. However, everything else went off as expected.

Saw a drone on the left, who popped round the corner on ROS and saw the central point man - so that's good. That does mean I will have to retreat the other point man though, in case he charges with that drone, although the ambush last turn has left him fairly wary. Even if he does change and get me, I'll have control of the body

Also got a hit on a buzzer on the far right - looks like the 'nade about to clear lines of fire there could be very handy.

And a queen appeared in the middle - biting at a wall which my sniper then took down from the other side! Shame the queen didn't take the wall first. Anyway, I'm basically going to ignore it this turn, as he will surely retreat. If he doesn't, there's lots of potential splash damage from clearance grenades.

So, more wall clearance - and I need to make sure I manage ammo. I do suspect that the main push will be on the far left, as there was another goo splat there this turn, so I'll make sure that's well covered with 'nades and lasers. I'll also leave a grunt without many orders, so he can react to events. If I were him, I'd mass on the far left and wait for me to run out of 'nades. I'll also need to make sure my troops are sufficiently spread out to not suffer too much from splatters.

Score: 2-0

Turn 6: 60-70 secs

OK, so the main push is going to be on the right.

He did try to pursue my left-most point man, with a drone and queen - so the drone is dead, at the cost of one bite, and the queen is stranded in no-mans land. That's pretty handy, and you should never underestimate the firepower that a squad of marines can lay down in a short time - theoretically, 3 grunts could do 90 points of damage to a queen in one turn with sustained fire.

There are 4 drones out on the right, two of which are about to take minor splash damage from slum clearance. There are also 2 splatters going that direction, and I saw a buzzer, spiker and spitter move right too. The second buzzer is hiding in the far-right hand building.

So, that's a total of 18 of the 20 FP's accounted for
7 drones (3 dead)
1 queen
2 spitters
2 buzzers
2 splatters
1 spiker

There are several nice things from this. Firstly, there isn't a second queen, and his only queen is badly out of position for grabbing bodies. Secondly, he has a max of 4 splatters - which always scare me as marines. I'll happily trade a grunt 1:1 against a splatter.
Also, I can hope there are no more buzzers, as he's been using them extensively for scouting - another good thing, as groups of 3-4 buzzers are excellent for assasination runs.

I'm not sure what he knows about my forces - I've kept them fairly mobile, so he may think he's seen the same grunts more than once. Obviously the 'naders are pretty noisy, but apart from that, he's probably seen 5 grunts and a medic.

So, to this turn. The spotted medic will take a couple of shots and run as a chewtoy, with several grunts and a sniper covering his flight. I'll drop a couple of 'nades near where the drones currently are, to cover buzzers or splatters following through. I will also push forward slightly in the middle and left, assuming his queen will try and run - if not, the queen will take a lot of fire this turn and next...

If I can survive this turn with minimal damage, I think I'm in good shape for a win

Score: 3-0

Turn 7: 70-80 secs

Hmm. Didn't go that well - his splatters charged in the middle, rather than continuing to one side. That's created quite a hole in the middle of my defenses, with a medic and 2 grunts down.
Additionally, if he contines ahead with the other splatter and my covering grunt misses, I'm in deep trouble - so I think I'll have to sacrifice the damaged sniper to take out the splatter.

On a more positive note, my 2 grunts on the far right have drawn the drone rush, and should be able to kill all 3 drones before they die. Which they will, but they've done their job well.

There's also another 2 spikers, which is good news - more splatters would have been very bad.

So, fairly obvious moves this turn - grunts on the right will redline the drones, troops in the middle will move out of the spiker fire zone and the troops on the left will push forward to cover the 'nader. I'm going to launch where his queen currently is, as I think he'll come through some walls..

Score: 5-3

Turn 8: 80-90 secs

Still tight. Fortunately, his splatter went the right way. Unfortunately, the sniper fell over from a breeze.

The grunts on the right did their business - there's one very badly damaged drone left, with 2 buzzers.

Even better, the 'nades on the left are about to smack one spiker. I'll drop some more 'nades there to destroy the body

I'm starting to run short on troops, so moves are getting shorter, but I still need to be very careful. If I were him, I'd be thinking about chewing through the wall on the far left and charging in. So, I'll place some more 'nades there at the end of the turn

I also think he'll carry on the charge with his buzzers and drone - I'll pull back the sniper, leave a 'nader close-by as a chewtoy, spam round the corner (at an angle so I don't get bounceback) and hope the medic has some good armour-piercing ammo loaded

Score: 8-8

Turn 9 90-100 secs
Much better! That's the way it should go. His rush falters, the spiker takes cover where a 'nade is aimed and the queen pops through right on schedule

Just need to polish off the other buzzer next turn - I'll pull the right-hand 'nader back, out of goo range, and hit the fallen body of his comrade. The left-hand nader will spam the approach route the queen would have to take, falling back behind the narrow door for a reload. The sniper will fall back into cover for some TLC, and try to hit a spitter

If he carries on with his queen, he's in trouble

Score: 8-11

Turn 10: 100-110 secs
The queens are tough, but never underestimate the firepower of the marines. His queen carries on blindly, and eats 2 more 'nades at point-blank range - so is almost dead. Test orders show about 5 grunt shots should do it, so the grunt and medic will go chasing with lots of redline fire to the queen

I got a bit unlucky with a bad bounce, which almost killed my sniper. Fortunately not, though. And a sniper shot has almost killed the further spitter - hopefully splash damage will be enough to do him in early next turn

Score: 8-12

He's in full retreat now, so the grunt got lots of free shots at the queen - which will die just into the next turn. Time to reload, repair and go hunting. The important thing will be to get visibility on the map, so I can then converge forces on him - and so he can't sneak past on the other side of the map...

...

Lots of turns where nothing happens except me demolishing potential hiding places, so I get good visibility on the map. And on turn 26 I find him, killing all his forces by the end of turn 28 - notwithstanding a close call from a bad bounce...

Things learnt:
Don't charge forward - you opponent may be spawn. This pretty much saved me

Splatters are horrid. I think I already knew that, but 6 of the 8 points I lost were to 2 splatters.

Spreading out against spawn can be good. The two grunts on the far right did more than their fair share of damage against the drone rush, and bought valuable time.

You can advance against spawn. Spawn win against marines by pinning you into an ever-decreasing area - which is where the rush strikes. Moving forward gets you advance intel, unbalances the rush, and can deny areas to the weaker support units like goo spitters

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Posted to DibbleNGrub