Battle Summary: Tao Coalition vs HDF [150 points]

Battle Summary: Tao Coalition vs HDF [150 points] Jul 16, 2019 2:08:20 GMT

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Post by jason on Jul 16, 2019 2:08:20 GMT

Setup: 22"x30", 6" deployment zones

Tao Coalition [Minor variations to this army is 5 for 6 wins]

1x Grunt Captain w/ Gun Drone
3x Grunt w/ Pulse Carbine
2x Grunt

Human Defense Force (got some figures, built based on what figures I have built so far)

1x Commander w/ Pistol/CCW2
1x Veteran w/ Grenade Launcher & Grenadier
1x Veteran w/ Flamethrower & Grenadier
2x Veteran 2/ Plasma Rifle & Grenadier

HDF won advantage, so got first action. Had a few units take pots shots that missed interspersed with some forward movement from the TAO, when some targets presented, the commander activated, all other units were in 3" of one of the others, so all activated... lots of misses, flamer advanced to cover that TAO couldn't get LOS on and shoot in 1 movement. HDF got a few other bad shots and the ones that hit TAO got saves (including all 3 from the blast of the HE grenade - 12.5% probability for the unit in question to get that save). Flamer burned down 1 TAO. Round 1 ended with at least one HDF stunned.

Round 2, Captain got stunned before being able to activate, lots of others got stunned or taken out, didn't get any effective attacks in. Was down another unit (captain) and had 2 stunned units at the end of round 2, didn't do anything relevant to the TAO.

Round 3, HDF lost another unit and remaining two ended stunned, again did nothing to the TAO.

Round 4, HDF routed (auto failures on morale). TAO win.

Thoughts

The lack of "tying a unit up" in melee, means the Tao melee weakness really isn't much of one, the only thing the 5+ Quality seems to really impact is moral and the occasional punch back, yet they seem to have some of the most point effective ranged units in the game.
The above HDF list didn't work out really well, the only way I think it could have out done the TAO, would be on a really big board, so the range difference would have meant the TAO was not shooting, but the HDF was. However, 6" move + 18" => 24", so if the HDF can shoot the Tao, the Tao are in range to move + shoot back. The only possible issue there would be cover availability.
I am finding some abilities, that seem like they are probably well priced for Grimdark Future, they seem over priced for Firefight... or I am just not seeing how to best use them.
I find it odd for the HDF to have 'clumps' of units, given that I thought Firefight was based on having singular figures