Jump to content

A nice Frozen Synapse game


Space Voyager

Recommended Posts

Turn 7.

 

I try to relocate hoping he will try to storm the place - guess he was too scared.

 

Turn 8.

 

No action - really ? That afraid for total wipeout ?

 

So I've learned my lesson here that better do that duck at the end and never if need for cover better run not strafe.

Sorry mate, if you don't want to lose a game you better take the initiative. I'm not going to risk my people for your killing pleasure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Silencer being at least as good as I am and 7h just not managing to lose a match I had to take it out on random suckers. At first this looked like a doomed position but after going through several scenarios of first turn I became pretty confident I have a fighting chance. I guessed his first turn to the last detail. Three scenarios of his first rocket were taken into account and I used my first rocket to remove the chance of him shooting at that same corner while making sure the two remaining possibilities wouldn't kill any of my guys. The rest went as smooth as possible.

 

The only thing that was a surprise was that my second rocket got his MG instead of SG, which made things even easier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:opens champagne:

 

Finally I managed to beat 7h30n... I'm posting this game for its rarity alone. Rarity as in how rarely (twice) it happens for me to win against 7h, that is. He has 9 vids of my humiliating defeats to post...

 

ANYway.

 

Turn 1

Oh crap, here we go again. One man down.

 

Turn 2

No explosives in the game. Let's group and go for his most isolated guy.

 

Turn 3

Knowing he would stay behind cover SG is the only answer. Weird pathing of my SG is the result of me thinking he would go for grouping as well and cover the guy we went for. This was the shortest route from cover to cover which in most tries resulted in his guys not being able to get a clear shot. Seeing the result my worries were unfounded but hey, this is 7h, no room for mistakes.

 

Turn 4

I thought he would go for the cover to get a good overview in the direction of my SG but 7h seems to decide to get some room between his MG and my SG. Always a sound move, but he seem to overlook the direct sight across the battlefield, costing him (to my huge delight, I'm ashamed to say) another MG.

 

Turn 5

I notice 7h taking the initiative to cover the death lag and rushing his SG toward the position of my MG which shot the last one to croak. In FS an MG always gets claustrophobia when facing SG in tight spaces so in my fear I overestimate his rate of movement. If I knew he is this far behind at the start of turn 5 I would send my MG to safety while covering him with the one further up, already in safe distance. This way I hope 7h was going for an SG rush, pushing forward as fast as possible, counting on my flight. My imagined starting position for his SG is a bit closer so most escape tries ended with my fleeing MG dead. So I opt for an ambush and hope for a direct route of his SG.

 

Turn 6

Ah crap, he stopped. My covering MG shoots but the speed of SG movement behind covers makes it impossible to score a hit. So. What the hell? I know his remaining MG saw my soldier move behind the building. Where is he going to go?! A brief glance and my MG is dead as a duck. Now come the most sweat spraying seconds of my FS history.

I go through several scenarios of his SG going one way or the other, all ended in the death of my MG. I take a risk and decide he might have guessed my ambush (he is that devious) and will simply run me over. No risk for him as SG shoots so much faster he doesn't even need to bother with sights too much. The plan was for him to go around over the north side, so my movement goes south to duck for cover behind the window. He goes south... Not in any of my plans. He even checks the door my MG will go through just a moment later, first "I shouldn't be alive" moment.

Still, when his SG peeks around the corner, his sight only covers the side of the building. A degree more and... Second "I shouldn't be alive" moment. My MG doesn't have enough time to shoot so his SG moves back to cover unharmed. Funny enough, these sneak peeks give me almost complete knowledge of his movements while his far MG could not see my guy at all after going behind the building so I know he is operating in the dark.

Through this turn my SG is moving through relatively safe short routes toward his remaining MG.

 

Turn 7

No way to do a damn thing. Hunker down and hope for a lucky shot should his SG come by. Any movement and my MG is dead.

I can only guess but I was pretty certain 7h would not expect my MG inside the building through which his SG just came. So he would either go around on the other side or skip it completely going for more likely locations. Nope, he seems to realize we are dancing around each other and goes another round through the building, but being less careful with iron sights. My MG, crouching, with sights in his general direction and fixed focus on the SG, manages to get the upper hand on his SG (presumably without using the line of sight) in tight corner. Third "I shouldn't be alive" moment.

Ashamed again, but I gave it a real loud laugh, however nervous, when I saw what happened. Finally I can breathe.

Meanwhile my SG moves after his fleeing MG but can only check his position without risking too much. Same for my MG, which had to keep watch over the SG-MG dance.

 

Turn 8

MG moves into the building to have a covered view of the south side should his MG flee even further. All the plans show that his last MG doesn't stand much chance to shoot my SG whatever he does so, covering with both MGs, I go in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

FS has not won just yet, but I can not stay away from this addictive game for too long.

 

You know how I hate to post my victories https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/Smiley/pinochio.gif but this one has history. Apart from regular SC members I rarely play two games with same FS player as I just turn game seeker on and wait for whatever hits me.

 

So I was a bit surprised to find a game already started and it was neither Silencer nor 7h. It did turn out that I already played with this person so I checked the previous game. The person happens to be the same one who lost somewhat ungracefully two vids ago. The game must have stuck in his throat so this must have been a payback. Well, I expect more challenges to make things even. ;)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

While I wait for my problem to be solved, I'm playing the single player and loving it. Such an excellent game.

 

Thanks to superb support from Mode 7, I'm back in the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp8OcWXzKp8

A little sloppy, but it's been a long while. Snipers just take too long, so my 3MG should have been better placed to give additional covering fire, my poor 4G should have been ducking when he fired, too. Almost a flawless victoly!

 

SV, challenged you. Who else wants some?

 

Improving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sbOMEsuOh0

 

Better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV9ZIbFV3XQ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WOW, I see StrategyTube channel is loaded with Frozen Synapse vids! I hope your connection problems are over though as playing against the AI is just not the same. Funny though, after you played with real opponents the AI presents a challenge just because it doesn't stick to "smart" moves all the time. grin.gif

 

BTW, some time ago I managed to completely underestimate a statistical noob (very few games played) and also relaxed far too fast, so he spanked me around some! I managed to pull a trick of a sort, so everybody ended up dead, but he still won, interestingly enough.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO0nOvKAaG8&list=UUGGOtu382bhg7EdMvZ3hUCw&index=1&feature=plcp

 

EDIT: BTW, Silencer is whooping my arse lately as well! I can only recommend him as a challenge. 7h30n is still an enigma to me, luckily he doesn't have much time to play. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Shape of Things to Come

 

Gauge1 and 2 led them in across the wasteland.

 

MG1 and 2 followed, covering the flanks.

 

Rocket and Grenade brought up the rear, completing the diamond shape, the tail of the kite.

 

Snipe was some distance away, gaining height.

 

--Tactics had babied the vatforms into the action zone and eased them into position with their aggression dialled down and their senses peaked, each one running cool but with tripwire reactions and subroutines in place. Here, at the edge of the Geist, deep within the Torpor, out of Petrov's reach, Tactics watched them through the Prism, and aimed them--

 

The building was a long thin annexe connected to a fat cube of a hall, a sledgehammer shape. Gauge1 and 2 would attack from the base of the handle and proceed upwards, with the other vats flanking the outside and picking off any fleeing targets.

 

Gauge1 and 2 reached the building, forming up on the door, one each side. MG1 and 2 went wide, to the building's corners, each watching down the flank of the building for targets. Rocket went left, forming up behind MG1. Grenade went right, slotting in behind MG2.

 

--the shape is thin here, out on the edge, with data packets coming in waves, infrequent surges instead of the vibrant thrumming pulse found in the Geist. Tactics checked everything through the panopticon of the Prism, and set the vatforms in motion--

 

Gauge1 and 2 hit the door, one massive-calibre shotgun blast shearing lock from door from jamb and they went through, 1 left, 2 right. A long corridor, doors on both sides. 1 covered the corridor, 2 cleared a room. 2 covered the corridor, 1 cleared a room. They alternated, each entering with shotgun at the shoulder, muzzle and eyes aimed, ready, reactions maxed.

 

MG1 and 2 watched. No movement, no lights, no sounds. The door breach had not raised an obvious alarm.

 

--Tactics probed the shape, checking for encrypted alarm signals and found nothing. Setting an AI to sniff for the distinctive scent of warning packets, he forgot about it and went back to the Prism--

 

Gauge1 and 2 were halfway along the corridor and had four rooms left to clear when it happened. Gauge1 was beside a door, prepping for entry, when a burst of small calibre fire came through the wall. Gauge2 did not feel anything as 1 dropped, it simply side-stepped off the axis of incoming fire and fired a pattern of eight rounds in reply, low-high, the semi-automatic shotgun spitting out loads of tungsten shot in dense cones. They passed through the walls with ease.

 

The other vatforms felt neither disappointment nor sadness, but they tasted the bitter tang of possible failure. MG1 ran right, along the wall, to the doorway, and leaned in, covering the length of the corridor.

 

Gauge1 was sitting by the door, both legs offline, attempting to turn away from the wall and bring its shotgun to bear. Training had covered combat from unarmed to long range, in all weathers, light conditions, and terrain, but it had not covered paraplegia. As Gauge2 moved in, sliding along the wall, another burst of fire cracked through the wall, and Gauge1 slumped forward.

 

--Tactics watched every signal flatline from Gauge1 and felt awareness ebb, a vacuum the shape swelled to fill, increasing the detail from the other vatforms--

 

MG1 entered the corridor, and took its cue from the remaining Gauge, who saw an uneven row of bullet holes in the wall at knee height. MG1 dropped to one knee, rotated its weapon thirty degrees to the left of vertical, tilting its torso to keep the butt at the shoulder, and fired. The burst was long but controlled. Because the machine gun was tilted off vertical, the recoil added impetus to the sweep instead of lifting the muzzle off-target. The sweep drove from the door, all the the way through to the back of the room, each bullet slicing through intervening matter, probing for the hostile.

 

The shotgun fire, in the close confines of the corridor, had been painfully hard metallic barks. The machine gun fire was a deafening roar. Neither vatform paid the slightest attention.

 

After thirty rounds, MG1 stopped and Gauge surged forward, kicking the door open and clearing. The hostile was laid on the floor, twitching, with multiple lateral GSW. Gauge fired a single round into its head and exited the room. MG1 covered the corridor while Gauge finished clearing the rooms. Neither vatform paid any attention to the corpse of Gauge1.

 

MG2, watching the right side of the building, spotted a door handle turning. It knelt, and double-checked every weapon setting, sights set on the door's position. Grenade stepped a little closer, remaining around the corner and hence in cover, but covering MG2's flank and rear.

 

The hostile exited the building and simply turned the wrong way, rifle and body and intent turning left.

 

--Tactics knew the problem and felt vague sympathy. When entering or exiting, an operative needs to clear both left and right, but can only choose one. No matter how closely followed by team mates, for a fraction of time that might as well be forever, the operative's back is exposed. It is a coin flip one must eventually lose--

 

MG2 opened fire. The hostile, in the process of turning, was hit by five of the six rounds, and fell. It was still coming around even as it hit the ground, and its weapon was coming as well, however uncontrolled, however unaimed. MG2 fired again. Another precise burst of six, aim dipped anticipating the recoil, and the impacts jerked the sagging hostile to sit upright before it lolled over backwards, rifle spilling free. MG2 felt no anger or hatred or victory, merely a cool and mild relief that a threat had been removed.

 

MG1 advanced along the corridor as Gauge entered and cleared the hall. It was empty, echoing with the bang of the door, darker than the wasteland outside with windows painted over, shafts of milky pale luminescence falling through the skylights to highlight soft squares on the peeling laminate flooring.

 

Gauge walked on, MG1 ran to catch up.

 

MG2 and Grenade slipped down the right flank of the building,

 

Rocket proceeded down the left flank of the building slowly, lagging behind.

 

MG2 paused for a quarter-second at the body of the hostile, evaluated it neutralised with multiple torso GSW, including obvious spinal strikes, and no residual movement. Grenade stopped, taking responsibility for the one-eighty of their view as MG2 stepped past the body and looked through the open doorway.

 

A small room, not much more than a closet. A desk and overturned chair.

 

--Tactics synced the view from MG2 with Gauge's view from the interior, watched the spatial estimates match, wrote the building off as clear--

 

The vatforms moved on. It was getting darker, and their lenses automatically flicked over to night vision, laminating each other a rich, friendly green amidst the duller false colours of the world.

 

Still no lights, no alarms, no shouts, no incoming fire.

 

Three more objectives, two equidistant, one beyond those.

 

--Tactics split and synced the vatforms into two groups even as they merged back into one team beyond the building--

 

MG2 and Grenade headed to the team's 2 o'clock, straight for a small hut and wire-enclosed vehicle park.

 

Gauge, MG1, and Rocket kept their 12 o'clock heading for a much bigger residential building.

 

MG2 and Grenade reached their objective first, and waited. MG2 reloaded its weapon. Grenade checked its launcher while scanning for hostiles, every function tested with hands or electronics. Their respiration and heart rate were normal, for vatforms, neither suffering from excess adrenaline. They waited as perfectly and thoughtlessly as if meditating, existing from second to second, with no boredom or restlessness, no anxiety or impatience, expecting nothing but prepared to react to anything.

 

Gauge, MG1 and Rocket padded to their positions. With the house between them, Gauge covered the rear, and MG1 and Rocket stood off some distance away and covered the front and flanks. MG1 reloaded. Gauge reloaded. Rocket prepared several thermobaric rounds and waited.

 

--Tactics ramped the vatforms up to maximum. Linked by and through the shape, the vatforms fell into synchronicity--

 

Grenade opening fire was the start. It fired a pattern of six rounds over the wire mesh fence, and the grenades bounced off chassis and thudded into wheels and smashed through glass. It fired another six, launcher thumping hard and springing back and up in its hands, overlaying pattern with pattern for maximum overlap. The timing was immaculate, and as explosions bloomed, throwing light and fire and debris, MG2 opened fire, a stuttering burst interrupted by a too-close explosion.

 

MG2 dropped to both knees and then leaned forward, dropping flat, bipod springing free to support its weapon. Prone under the sudden wash of heat, MG2 continued firing, riddling the hut from one side to the other and back again with rounds in a constant battering percussion.

 

Simultaneously, Rocket began firing. Four large windows identified four large rooms, two on the ground floor, two on the first floor. It fired and loaded, fired and loaded, as MG1 knelt waiting, weapon ready for hostiles exiting the building. The thermobaric rounds smashed through the toughened glass and exploded. The first charge in each round shattered the warhead apart, filling the room in an instant with a cloud of nanofuel that was lit the next instant by the second charge. Each explosion ruptured windows, shattered doors, and crumpled walls.

 

By the third round, the house sagged a little, leaning to one side drunkenly. The fourth triggered a partial collapse of one quarter of the building, opening up a ruined cross-section to the outside world, a gaping wound in the exterior that leaked dust and smoke, letting rubble sift and the occasional whole brick tumble.

 

Rocket loaded a fifth round, a simple fragmentation type, and waited. MG1 moved up slowly, clear of the windows which were Rocket's priority targets, and entered. Gauge entered at the rear. Inside they identified three neutralised hostiles, and perhaps a fourth who had taken a direct hit. They came out and paid no mind to the gore slicking their boots.

 

MG2 cleared the hut as Grenade destroyed the few remaining vehicles. The initial twelve rounds had damaged thirteen of the nineteen vehicles beyond anything but the most intensive repair, and the remaining six were soon disabled with direct hits lobbed onto them. Windows blew out, doors splayed open, tyres popped like tiny secondary explosions, axles shattered, seats burned, petrol tanks leaked and spread flames.

 

Two hostiles were slumped together in the hut, both neutralised. MG2 backed out, reloading. Grenade reloaded, dropping a fat barrel magazine from the launcher and replacing it with a full one. They moved away from the flames and light, nightblack clothing blending them into the darkness.

 

MG1, Gauge, and Rocket held their position as MG2 and Grenade ran to join them.

 

--Tactics looked at the results, the buildings cleared, the dull infotags of the bodies, the wrecked vehicles. He collated and judged even as he put together news sets of orders for the last objective, forgetting the irritation of the lost vatform, moving on, and with the last objective within reach the AI finally produced a result--

 

The last objective, a sprawl of a warehouse/factory conglomeration. Busy with heat and light, now busier.

 

Gauge began a long, looping run off to the left, that would bring him out and around in an arc almost three hundred metres long, to end against the left flank of the building, and a side entrance. Rocket knelt, lining up a row of fragmentation rounds before him. MG1 and 2 split up, putting twenty metres between them, and advancing on the building, with Grenade following.

 

A long, flat expanse of wasteground separated them from the objective, and as the tinkling of glass reached them, they dropped flat. As incoming fire scythed in, the vatforms did not stop or flinch or hesitate or even think of hesitating. The plan was definite, there in the shape for them all to see, with no room for ambiguity or error, none misinformed or left out. The fact that bullets were passing so close their supersonic cracks stung perfect vatformed eardrums was just one factor among many.

 

Prone, body angled away from the rear of its launcher to avoid the backblast, Rocket began targeting the flickering points of muzzle blasts that dotted the building. MG1 and 2 alternated crawling and firing industriously, swarming forward on elbows and knees, weapon cradled across the chest, then snaking into a lower firing position, the bipod angling itself to present a lower weapon profile, and letting rip in tight bursts. Individual accuracy was irrelevant now, the matter was weight of fire.

 

Grenade attempted to lob rounds in, but had little success. The high arc that gave each grenade the necessary range to reach the building ensured they detonated harmlessly on the roof of the building or banked off the wall and exploded in the dirt outside. It resumed crawling, undeterred. Closing the range would mean a flatter trajectory and a better chance of posting rounds through windows and doors.

 

Gauge was still running, weapon slung, breathing hard but evenly, and had drawn no fire. It was perfectly on time.

 

--Tactics remembered Snipe and struggled with the Prism in a rush of haste and anger, fumbling before bringing the vatform's feed up from minimised to full resolution, joining the others. The vatform was nearly in position. Tactics sketched out a light framework of basic routines that meshed nicely with the others--

 

Rocket had blasted half a dozen rounds into the building, and the facade was holed seriously in several places, but although the incoming fire had lessened, there was still more than enough to justify expending its remaining ammunition, and it set about doing so, dispersing them in a methodical system. A round landed to one side of a group of hostiles. The whole group would move, sometimes by metres, away from the explosion, shifting along. A round aimed at the other side shifted them back, but the movement was never perfectly even, ensuring they clumped together. Several direct hits then resulted in a much higher neutralisation-per-round ratio, as the hostiles instinctively moved closer together for the comfort they needed to operate as a team, requiring weaknesses such as body language and audio and eye contact.

 

The vatforms just needed the shape.

 

MG1 and 2 both stopped moving and began an intense fire, long horizontal blasts that raked back and forth. Gauge reached the side door of the building, unslung its shotgun, and breached.

 

The long corridor ran almost the whole length of the building, and the number of hostiles immediately fulfilled all necessary protocols for maximum violence, a swath of crimson in the tactical overlay. Arteries went large-bore, pupils dilated to maximum, heartbeat peaked, a biological chariot driven by an electronic demon. The line of hostiles was still looking outside, peering through windows and doors and blasted holes out at the other vatforms. Gauge raised its weapon and charged, firing. It maintained a stable firing stance and neutralised three with as many rounds before the hostiles realised what was happening.

 

A rocket hit further down the corridor, sending pieces of brick spalling through the air, tearing a hostile apart.

 

Gauge was as quick as the quickest human ever born, superb reflexes amped by nanofilaments and subroutines that could jump lengths of nerve fibre altogether if necessary. It increased its pace, running now, directly along the line of hostiles, firing, one round per hostile, stepping amongst bodies and rubble and dropped weapons.

 

The hostiles were largely unable to return fire, as Gauge had moved amongst them. A hurried burst missed Gauge but killed a hostile. Another hostile managed to get a grip on the shotgun's barrel and Gauge did not struggle but immediately altered its grip, sliding both hands up to the stock as the barrel was wrenched down with panicky strength. Gauge drove the butt forward, stepping in and smashing it forward into the hostile's skull. The hostile fell away, hand slipping free, and Gauge slid its hand back down to the barrel and, without altering the position of the weapon, fired a round into the stunned hostile as it lay stunned on the floor.

 

Several hostiles ran. Gauge continued its run, neutralising the last few hostiles as the rockets and machine gun fire swept just ahead of it, fire guided by the shape. It shot one hostile twice, noting body armour, caught two hostiles with the spread of tungsten shot from one round, stepped hard on the throat of a prone hostile reaching for a dropped weapon, shot another hostile in the back as it turned to run, and barged directly into the last two hostiles. Gauge ejected the empty and slotted in a full magazine as the hostiles hit the floor. It knelt on one, patella lodging firmly in the soft cushion of a stomach, and fired a round into the other, neutralising it. The last hostile attempted to raise its weapon one-handed, and Gauge blocked it, leaning in, so the stock bounced off its shoulder and the weapon pointed nowhere but the ceiling. Gauge pressed its shotgun muzzle in under the chin to guarantee neutralisation and fired.

 

MG1 and 2, Grenade steps behind, reached the building and entered, passing through the corridor that was now one long trail of blood, and on into the smaller rooms beyond. The remaining hostiles were fleeing now, further resistance would be isolated and minimal.

 

Snipe, perched two hundred metres up a shape relay tower almost two kilometres distant, took aim. Heartbeat and respiration were the minimum necessary to guarantee both efficiency and accuracy. Snipe negated the push of the wind against its body with minute balance adjustments. From here, even with the powerful scope, the targets were small and fast moving. The shape guided it, information flowing from the other vatforms, providing triangulation data, speed, and heading. Snipe began picking them off with predictive fire as they ran, firing between heartbeats to minimise aim interference from a bodily function it could not suppress. Hostiles highlighted by the tactical overlay in its eyes winked out, some making it several hundred metres before bullets found them, curving silently down out of the darkness, ahead of the noise of each shot. Those who stopped and tried to hide were neutralised sooner. Those who kept running sometimes required three or four shots before the wind estimates averaged out correctly.

 

Snipe did not hurry, even when the last hostile had reached the very periphery of its range. It estimated and re-estimated, an attempt that did not improve shot hit probability, and fired.

 

The last hostile, a fading red spot barely bigger than the aimpoint of the scope, winked out.

 

Snipe reloaded.

 

--Tactics watched Rocket, Gauge, MG1 and 2, and Grenade make sure the last few rooms of the final objective were clear, and dialled the vatforms down to merely watchful. Heartbeat and respiration returned to baseline within seconds, the adrenaline tailed off in a briefer version of the natural fade, and although they were scuffed and cut and bruised, they were in perfect operating order. The loss of one unit was a very small demerit when taking into account the proof of concept that had just been validated. Tactics grinned, and delved back into the Prism--

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wouldn't say I am kicking ass. I make mistakes as usual.

 

Well, you know, that was my arse kicked right there, so I must be doing bigger mistakes, he he he!

 

FA, great AAR. Frankly I have a problem calling this an AAR, this is a short story, inspired by FS. I wish I was as good as Tactics from your story...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's an inspiring game to play in many ways.

 

I'm still having trouble viewing the battle as a whole. I keep thinking of it as traditional turns, so I keep leaving 'gaps' in my moves near the end and beginning of each turn. I need to ensure my units are doing something, 'bridging' the time when the turn occurs. Not moving and acting is not only wasting time, it's leaving me wide open to attacks.

 

I also need to work on my room entry, I keep thinking in very dynamic terms, thinking the advantage is with me when I enter a room versus an enemy unit. This is only true with the shotgun, and then only when not facing another shotgun. Makes entry tricky, so I need to take less obvious routes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
  • Create New...