Puzzle: Hack the Planet?

Well, last month’s puzzle “Solution” is here! We’ll do a drawing to see who gets free stuff on the next Late Night Wargames!

Solution? Andromeda ARO

Here’s another puzzle for you! Please submit your solution to the following Google form by the end of September, 2022.

We’ll do a random drawing from the participants, and send you a blister thanks to Shiv Games!

This situation arose during a real game. You can find the battle report here if you want the full context:

See You Later ‘Gator

Context

• Mission: ITS13 Supplies
• Forces: Nomads versus Combined Army
• Current Turn: Bottom of 1, Nomads active

It’s the bottom of turn 1, you are the Nomad player. This is your order pool after moving the Vertigo and the Moderator into Group 1. There is also a Tomcat Engineer with MULTI Rifle in Group 1, currently off the table and not shown below.

This is what your opponent’s list looks like. They haven’t lost anything yet.

Your opponent left the Overdron HRL sitting on a roof in suppression with its SMG, and there’s a Taigha threatening Jazz and Zoe.

The Morlocks failed to deal with the Taigha, but the Gecko did manage to down the Overdron in two orders. Following a coordinated order to set up some AROs, reposition the Gecko to take on the last Taigha, and move the Transductor Zond far forward, you dodge your Transductor Zond into repeater range of all the ‘drons:

• Imetron
• Ikadron
• Xeodron K1 Marksman

Here’s the situation after cleaning up the Overdron and that coordinated order:

• Resources
  • You have 4 regular orders in group 1.
  • Zoe, Jazz, and the Vertigo are alive and aren’t going to take any AROs if they activate.
  • You have one irregular order in group 2, for the Morlock that’s in 8″ but outside 4″ of the Taigha threatening Zoe/Jazz.
  • You have no command tokens.
  • There is a Tomcat Engineer with MULTI Rifle in Group 1, still off table (not counted in the 4 orders).
  • The Transductor is in repeater range of everything in the picture, as mentioned above.
• Threats
  • The Gecko is very exposed right now, and there’s a Taigha near it. It needs to make at least 1 short skill move to cover, and you could shoot the Taigha on the way.
  • There’s another Taigha threatening Jazz and Zoe, that’s outside of 8″ of Jazz, but if it dodges it can be inside 8″ of Jazz.
  • Bit & Kiss are about 18″ away from your Transductor and are looking at it (hence the dodge).
• Opportunities
  • The Xeodron is near the Ikadron and Overdron that you see in the picture above.
  • There’s another Imetron that the Xeodron is looking at, out of cover, that’s not pictured.
  • A full 8″ move would let the Xeodron be in position to see Bit/Kiss and another Ikadron on a new order. Bit and the Ikadron would see you, Kiss is facing the other way. Rangebands are within 16″ on Bit/Kiss, probably outside 24″ on the other Ikadron.
  • The Avatar is out of LoF of basically everything and is on the other side of the table.

What do you do?

There are a few options:

• Total Control the Xeodron – Risky, not many orders left
• Spotlight and Missile the Xeodron? Imetron? – Who do you spotlight?
• Oblivion the Xeodron

What do you do about the Taigha threatening Jazz/Zoe and getting the Gecko to safety?