Campaign Turn 8; Game 2; The Hand of Redemption -v- The Mortlock CartelI've been on the back foot in this campaign for a long time. The last time I picked up a territory was in Turn 2. Since then it's been pretty much all down hill. But with the death of the Gorlock Alliance, I've finally been able to regain my footing. It was my hope that Octavian will find the rich Orlock territories and the sweet taste of revenge for the Orlocj Player's betrayal too tempting next turn, and he will attack them. The Orlock territories should definitely seem tastier than the thin pickings of my Old Ruins or Vents. So now I just had to convince the Orlock player to start attacking either the Van Saar or Goliath territories. Fortunately, I had a plan which I figured would achieve that aim:
Kicking the living amphetamine parrot out of him.
Unsubtle, maybe, but I was sure it would be effective. And very, very satisfying.
Scenario & Set Up:Nevertheless, I was still vulnerable to a Shootout scenario. If the Orlock player got the choice of scenario, he could choose a Shoot Out, hire extra goons, and take me to the cleaners in exactly the same way that Octavian had done. But I had a plan to deal with that too.
When we were getting ready to set up the table, I made a big show of lining up a whole bunch of my Hired Gun miniatures - Scum, Bounty Hunters, Ratskins, and even some specially made custom models bashed together from my spare Imperial Guard bitz. The clear implication (and I was in no way being subtle about it), was that I would be loading up with Hired Guns, and the Orlock player would not be getting a free run if he went for a Shoot Out.
That was all bullamphetamine parrot, of course. I was as broke as ever, and could not have scraped together enough credits for even a single mercenary, but the Orlock Player is too lazy to check my Gang Roster to confirm that, so I figured there was nothing to lose in bluffing.
Anyway, we rolled, and he got to choose. He wavered, but once I started fingering my twin pistol wielding Scum models, he lost his nerve and went for a Scavengers scenario. Which once again was fine with me. Scavengers is my favourite scenario.
We set up the Space Hulk terrain for the scavengers Scenario. All of our other tables are pretty much set in terms of their terrain set up, but the Vent and Tunnels tables are different every time. This one had one long corridor set up down the middle of the table from deployment zone to deployment zone, with a few rooms and corridors branching out. There were other side corridors, but none of them were longer than maybe 16" at a stretch, so there was no doubt as to where I would be placing my Heavy Stubber.
We rolled 4 Loot Counters, and by the way they were set up (one in each quarter of the table), it would be difficult for me to win by taking all 4 counters. The game would be decided in the conventional way by causing the opposition to bottle out.
I set my long ranged firebase (Jacob, Ram and Amon) at the entrance to the long corridor in the middle, and split the rest of my guys into 2 assault teams with a flamer each and a loot running vent team. Asa, Josiah and Zohar were the Vent team.
As is his way, the Orlock Player deployed all of his guys in one big mass in a single room on the left. This was a particuarly poor tactic on this table, because the short narrow corridors (with the one exception noted above) and relatively short fire lanes would make it difficult to take bring a lot of fire to bear in one direction without his own guys giving my guys cover saves. Nevertheless, he had one loot piece completely sealed up.
The Game:I got the first turn. I moved my assault teams forwards with a view to flanking the Orlocks and hitting them on about turn 5 or 6 with both flamers from either side, simultaneously. The Orlock player had kept his models out of line of sight of my ranged team, so Jacob, Amon and Ram went into overwatch. I deployed Asa and Zohar on the Second Loot Counter to the Right on the Orlock side of the table and dropped Josiah on the Third Loot counter to the right on my side of the table. Both Asa and Josiah would run the Loot back towards to my side of the table, with Josiah dumping his loot with my ranged team before coming back and collecting the 2nd piece of Loot from Asa, who would then go back to Zohar. Ponderous, but at least it would allow those two to get back into the fight, which should take longer than usual.
The first turn started disastrously for the Orlock player. He moved two of his lasgun marksmen out of cover and into position to shoot at my ranged team. I could have had Jacob pick either of them off as they appeared, but I decided to take a risk and let them all get into place before opening up. In any case, my ranged team were in heavy cover, and the Orlock player simply didn't have enough shots to shoot both Amon, then Ram and then Jacob. As it was, he missed with both of them anyway.
His Heavy then used his Bulging Biceps ability to waddle into position and shoot at my ranged team. Or he would have, but Jacob picked that moment to open fire. And boy did he open fire. He got 6 shots off, and 4 of them hit, all of them causing wounds, taking the Heavy out of action and both of the lasgun Marksmen down. Even worse, it triggered a rout amongst the tightly packed Orlocks, starting with their leader, Mortlock. By the end of the turn, the Orlocks had lost their Heavy Stubber, had 2 lasgunners down, and 5 guys including their leader, broken. They were a rabble.
That gave my assault squads a turn to run closer to the Orlocks. Any further fire fights during the game would take place within pistol range, which gave me the advantage. I also moved Ram and Amon up the main corridor to make sure they would be within lasgun range in future turns.
You know those games where everything goes to plan? Well this was one of those. The momentum was with me from the first Orlock turn, and nothing the Orlock Player tried could halt it. His tactics, if indeed he had any, were to wait with his guys crammed into one room, stay on overwatch, and shoot anyone who came close.
His problem is that he uses catachan guardsmen as stand in Orlocks, so nearly everyone in his gang is armed with a lasgun, his leader, heavy (gone) and Hied Guns being the main exceptions. His gang is too specialised for fighting at long range. On most tables, he can dominate the first couple of turns, but he has trouble dealing with a Gang that gets close, and that would be easier than usual on this table, especially after I took control of the long corridor.
Both the wounded Orlock Marksmen went out of action, helped on their way by Amon and Ram shooting their prone forms before they could crawl away. Another Orlock lasgunner was taken out of action by another overwatch burst from Jacob.
By that stage, the casualty count was 4 nil to me, with all of the Orlock casualties out of action. By turn 5, I had captured 3 pieces of Loot and was one turn away from being able to unleash Isaac's flamer. While there would have been some satisfaction in taking down another few Orlocks, it would have resulted in some casualties, and I didn't particularly feel like having to make any more serious injury rolls in the post game sequence than necessary. So I just hung back around the corner from the 2 corridors leading to the big room with all the Orlocks and put my guys into overwatch, content to wait until the Orlocks finally bottled out.
Underhand: Alright . . . Overwatch, overwatch, overwatch, overwatch . . . and Amon, Ram and Jacob go into hiding. That's it. Your turn.
Orlock Player: [moves a couple of guys to cover the corridors]. Everyone else is on overwatch.
UH: Okay. Is that it?
OP: Yeah be-atch.
UH: Go ahead and roll your bottle check then.
OP: Passed!
UH: Okay, well, all of my guys stay on overwatch, and everyone that is already on overwatch goes into hiding . Your turn.
OP: Is that it?
UH: Yep.
OP: Well my guys are sitting tight too!
UH: Okay. Bottle check then.
OP: Passed be-atch!
UH: My guys stay in overwatch, and stay in hiding.
OP: Are you just gonna stay and hide for the rest of the game?
UH: Yeah, pretty much. Until you bottle out.
OP: [
realisation dawning] . . .
UH: . . .
OP: Hey guys - Underhand's just going to says he's just going to sit in cover and hide like a be-atch for the rest of the game!
UH: . . .
OP: Come and take me be-atch!
UH: Just roll your bottle check.
OP: Passed! Your turn! Stop hiding like a be-atch and try using those hand flamers! You know you'll get shot down! Be a big man! Bring it!
UH: Everyone stays in hiding. Everyone stays in overwatch. Your turn.
OP: Stop playing like a Tremultuous O!
UH: Mate . . . a couple of things. Firstly, stop using the word be-atch in every sentence. It makes you sound beslubbering retarded. Secondly - I know how to play this game without any help from you, so don't tell me how to play.
OP: You're playing like a Tremultuous O.
UH: I don't tell you how to suck Joffrey's cock, don't you tell me how to play Necromunda.
The only option he had at that point was to either keep bottle checking until the game ended and he lost the territory, or launch some kind of counter offensive and attempt to take out enough of my guys to get the kill ratio above 3:1, but at close quarters, and with a whole bunch of overwatching flamers and handflamers covering his lines of approach, that wouldn't go well for him. He conceded the game, and I took the Vents.
Analysis:It's harder than usual for me to point to all the really awesome things I did to achieve victory in this game, because to be honest, there weren't really any. This victory was earned through the incompetence of my opponent. He just didn't have a plan. All I did was drop my vent team on some of the objectives, have my Heavy Stubber cover the longest fire lane, and gradually move the remainder of my force towards the main body of the opposition troops which remained static throughout.
I don't see things going well for the Orlock player in the next few rounds. He's been relying on a castle defence for so long that he doesn't know how to do anything else. He's specialised his gang into a long ranged shooting gang, and has no real experience with close combat. He has to adapt his tactics quickly, but I don't think he's got it in him, and he's wasted all his creds on hiring scum, so re-equipping them will be difficult. He also just lost 2 games to Jonah who would have been considered the softest opposition in the campaign. He's in trouble.
In hindsight, I actually wonder what might have been achieved had I actually gone after him harder towards the end. Maybe could have completely tabled him without losing a single guy? We'll never know. It seems like a wasted opportunity to find out just how bad a player the Orlock player truly is.
Nevertheless, it's good to finally win a territory again. The last time I won a territory was in turn 2, and since then it's been all down hill. One extra Vent territory isn't much, but I won 6 loot counters this turn, so I'll have a bit of cash to throw about. I still only have 3 territories, but it's all about momentum, and with luck, no one will be coming after me for a while yet.
More importantly, I've taken those Vents back. That's a huge difference both tactically and strategically. Tactically, on a game to game basis, it means I now have 2 Vent teams again - a big bonus for a flamer heavy gang like mine.
Strategically, on a turn to turn basis, the difference is potentially even more significant. There are now 6 Orlock/Escher territories which Gannicus and I can attack simultaneously. I'll talk to Gannicus about what we'll do. I doubt we'll resort to double teaming to conquer territory, but the idea of using double teaming as a response to the loss of any of those 6 territories that we might capture individually would have to be a stern deterrent to any attacks against either of us.
I'm not out of the woods yet, and I still don't have sufficient regular income to properly fund my Gang's campaign, but I've got an Escher Guilder Contact, an Orlock Workshop and a Goliath Spore Cave bordering the territory I just captured. It's just a matter of picking the target.
The Map:Cawdor: The Hand of Redemption
Escher: Gothika
Delaque: Black Coats
Van Saar: The Second Stringers
Orlock: The Mortlock Cartel
Goliath: House Bloodaxe