A Life Less Interesting

Pre-Deployment

The game drawn for my game against GregHolg was signs. This map had been grounds for my first ever league victory so I feel a bit optimistic about it. Last time I had deployed machina and might do it again since the center building seems like an ideal scanner position. I wouldn't take spawn on this map since there isn't much room to sneak around. The presence of low walls, trees and lots of destructable buildings would also suit marines well. Greys I won't even consider since I'm fed up deploying them right now.

There's also a fair bit of terrain between my deployment zone and the enemy's so I probably won't have to worry about missiles hitting me too soon. There are also fairly clear lanes of fire so I'm not terribly worried about being rushed by spawn. That said, my opponent could be any of four races, so I'll prepare for that.

Next up, deployment.

Post-Deployment

Marines it is. I've set-up 4 grenadiers, 2 snipers, 5 grunts, 2 medics and an HQ. They're set up into three teams going initially three ways: a sniper, a grunt, a grenadier and a medic (or a grenadier element and a sniper element with the grunt switch into a medic) are trying to deploy the sniper into the northwestern building. Two grunts and two grenadiers (or two grenadier elements) will attempt to take control of the central building. Finally, a sniper, a grenadier and two grunts (or a sniper element and a grenadier element) will set the sniper up at the garden next to my deployment zone. This leaves one medic standing near the HQ waiting for something to do. Since I most often lose marine games due to my medics buying it and my other troops being near dead, I wish to keep at least one of them safe.

My first objective, besides advancing and taking control of some of the buildings, is finding out which race my opponent has deployed. If he is spawn, my force would be far too spread out deployed according to my initial plan. Otherwise it should be a fairly solid deployment.

About to be eaten...

My men advanced as planned, and ran into bugs! There is a group of four buzzers and a group of four drones south-east of the central building, running towards my men in the garden. The drones are further away while the buzzers are about to make contact. Also, there are at least two, probably more, drones on the west side of the central building, supposedly advacing towards the northern building. Now I'm going to have to contract a bit.

The plans is this: the grenadier in the garden tries to land grenades on the path of the charging drones as the grunts gun down the buzzers. The sniper will try to get shots in the advancing drones as well as making sure I'm not surprised by anything coming from there. The grenadiers in and around the central building will also land grenades on the path of the drones while their grunts secure paths towards our position. The northern group shall grenade a suspected path of the drones thearening them while the sniper starts firing over the barrels.

Ouch!

Well, that went wrong rather quickly. The southern drones avoided all my grenades by going through my building and the northern drones went east. These two packs of drones quickly overwhelmed the central building team and all that remains of them is a lone grenadier. Meanwhile, the garden team was eaten by buzzers. I somehow managed to not realize that buzzers can fly through holes in low walls. Only grunt left standing, and he is near dead. The northern team remains unscathed.

The garden grunt will retreat to a corridor of trees and will try to shoot anything coming his way. The lone grenadier left of the middle team will try and grenade himself, hopefully taking some foes with him, but it's likely he'll die before he can launch.

The unscathed northern team begins a desperate counterattack. The grenadies jogs to a better launch position and drops 'nades at potential drone positions. The sniper and the grunt cover him, while the medic watches their rear. The lone medic at the HQ will stick there for now.

The end is near

The suicide grenadier managed to get a grenade off, but it didn't kill anyone. The surviving grunt retreated and was attacked by two buzzers in an orderly queue. He proceeded to gun both down which cheered me up a bit. A grenade fired last turn also killed something, but I don't know what. The fact that the vile spawn have a queen has also been confirmed.

The northern team was rushed. No kills nor casualties yet, but it looks pretty grim. The drones are somewhat damaged by my grenades but there are a fair amount of them. Also, my rearguarding medic has been attacked by spikers.

Everyone is shooting like crazy trying to take some of the enemy with them (so much for clever planning). The rearguarding medic is cornerdancing against the spikers although I expect that he will be rushed from the side.

Cleanup

This turn saw the remnants of the northern team get killed, with only one sniper surviving. They took a few drones with them, but nothing to change the tide at this point. My HQ is also under assault, the lone medic there killed by drones. The grunt at the garden is still (barely) alive.

The sniper will try to take a few shots at the drones. It's likely he'll just die. The grunt at the garden will go and try to take a shot at the queen.

Second to last?

Amazingly, the garden grunt survived this turn. I basically ordered him to stand and shoot anything he sees.

Eaten

Well, the last grunt died without even seeing who killed him.

Time to find a new game to write about.