Round 1 was transmission matrix, which is usually a breeze for Tohaa because you can't be hacked and you move a lot of points to except button with multiple link teams, but I happened to draw the only combined army player and he just happened to be running an E-drone, which turns a good mission into an absolute nightmare. The E-drone has exile, which allows you to hack anyone in a link team regardless of whether they are otherwise hackable (so basically my whole army). It's B1 DAM16 and failing your BTS save (which Tohaa usually have 0 of) results in isolation and link-team cancellation. It's totally savage. Fortunately, I managed to play the mission quite well and he got a bit distracted killing things, so I got up in the end. I used the following list:
WotW - transmission matrix and comms centre.
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GROUP 1
SAKIEL Lieutenant Viral Combi Rifle, Nimbus Plus Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
KOSUIL Engineer K1 Combi Rifle, D-Charges, Nullifier / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (0 | 13)
SUKEUL HMG, D-Charges / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 35)
KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 21)
KAMAEL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
GAO-RAEL Spitfire / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 33)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (0 | 13)
KAMAEL (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
CHAKSA AUXILIAR (Baggage, Sensor) Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 10)
GROUP 2
GAO-RAEL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1 | 31)
GAO-RAEL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1 | 31)
KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 21)
KAMAEL Paramedic (Medikit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
6 SWC | 300 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=BwBgjAPgzCIQ6gewC7wAQFo0HECGi0AlXAUwBsIAmAUgDYAWAdmssvvuoEJKxrH7aLAKxRenYHREtKtCdw6MAnCGowocyisZhFLelChdeDQaxhdDDCa3pyJtKa1lG6A6VCFGVDz60aGAAUtbaSYLV2s2Zm4tHT0DFxN3QQCAoA==]Open in Infinity Army
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Pretty standard set-up: tough and hard to avoid sniper link team in group 2 (if it dies, you've still got 10 orders), 3 link teams to dominate zones in group 1 and a spare baggage Chaksa to contest a zone, discover critters with sensor and guard a flank with a heavy flamethrower. Link teams tend to be Sakiel + Kosuil + Makaul (anti-armour and anti-infantry close range guns, eclipse to get them forward, specialist in the engineer) Sukuel + Kaeltar + Kamael (long range gun, specialist if need be, chump) and Sakiel LRL + Kamael FO + Makaul (hard hitting gun, eclipse to get it forward, specialist).
He was running a very elite list with a speculo, Charontid HMG/MSV3, Sheskin red fury, Ko Dali, a Fracta, a couple of Ghakis, lone unidron FO and Bit + KISS.
He chose to deploy second; I took first turn. It's not a good mission for turn 1, but I was hoping to get a bit of an alpha strike off on his HVT and maybe assassinate the E-drone because there weren't many places to hide it. In hindsight, second might have been the better play, but I avoided it because I didn't feel like I had good sight with my snipers and I was worried about a plasma rifle coming through and ruining me. I've got to remember that Tohaa don't really have alpha strikes (though in datatracker missions it can often be worth it to kill the HVT without much opposition).
First turn I had to spend two orders moving though a hacking zone to bomb it up a flank at some exposed LI and his HVT. The first time he targetted my Sakiel data-tracker and I doubled moved out of the bubble hoping to take any hit on my symbiomate. The second time he targetted my engineer who broke off from the link (I did not expect it to survive) to go somewhere he could bunker down and contest the button in suppression. He failed his WIP to hack both times - so lucky for me. My Sakiel and Makaul then rushed forward, killed Sheskin with sweet, tasty viral, popped an eclipse to prevent AROs from the Charontid, nailed KISS with viral and then shot the HVT with datatracker to bank 3 points. I left the Makaul to contest one of his buttons and the Sakiel to shoot Bit if he came around the corner. Last few orders went on a single discover with my Chaksa on his speculo and then a few orders in group 2 to run my paramedic round and go into suppression within sight of the Speculo in case she decided to kill the Gao Rael she was standing behind.
His turn he burned his orders bringing in Ko Dali and gunning down one of my link teams. I had a bunch of AROs against her each order but she kept winning ftf rolls. Eventually the last Kaeltar (also my lieutenant at this stage as my Sakiel was isolated) managed to knock her over with a light shotgun at flat range. If he'd died it would have been a different game. Last few orders went on the speculo chopping at my Gao Rael but not managing to bring him down thanks to symbiomate and a save against the mono. End of the turn I had 3 zones to his 1 to go 5-0.
Turn 2 I used the Sakiel's irregular to kill BIT, then rush the E-drone with my Makaul to free my link teams to move. It went down in a fireball. Makaul then went after the Charontid, but failed to wound. I then stood standing up to him so if he moved he'd take an ARO - I love to drain orders. I picked up a classified here but I can't remember what it was. I spent some orders to push my dudes forward to contest more objectives.
By turn 2 he was quite short on orders, and used some to bring on his Fracta and kill my HVT, who I thought was in a real dick position around a corner he couldn't access without coming into my half of the table. Good show from AD. The Charontid took a shot at a sniper, but I bounced the symbiomate and then guts into cover when I failed my symbiont armour.
My final turn I put him into retreat by killing the Charontid with the Gao Rael spitfire and then a shock shot from one of the snipers. 9-1 overall.
Round 2 - Hunting Party
This was a really weird game. My opponent was a fairly casual shock army player running a regular link, a bagh link, an ORC with multi, Montessa with combi (no LGL), a tech bee and a warcore plus machinist and trauma doc. Not a lot of specialist for me to glue, especially after my Sukuel ML decimated the regulars with missiles and then he ran his Bagh into another missile while pressing a button. I got surprised by an Akali, who then shot my Kaeltar as he was making his way to one of the buttons. The buttons had been set up at elevation (never do this!) in places that were hard to access from my side of the table. As such, on the last turn I had to spend all my orders on one team getting it up to a button, press it and then glue the tech bee standing by the other button. Everything went fine except that it took me 4 orders to press the button, leaving me without enough orders to glue the tech bee. Thankfully I got a classified and he didn't, so I ended up with a 2-1 win, but it was a nail-biting finish considering that I had something like 250 points left and he had 71.
My list was:
WotW - Hunting Party
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GROUP 1
GAO-RAEL Spitfire / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 33)
KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 21)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (0 | 13)
SAKIEL Combi Rifle, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 23)
KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 21)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (0 | 13)
SAKIEL Lieutenant Viral Combi Rifle, Nimbus Plus Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
KAMAEL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (0 | 13)
KERAIL PRECEPTOR Submachine Gun, Smoke Grenades + 1 Surda SymbioBeast / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 20)
SURDA SYMBIOBEAST Pulzar / Viral CCW. (0 | 8)
GROUP 2
CHAKSA SERVANT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
CHAKSA SERVANT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
KUMOTAIL Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22)
SUKEUL Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 36)
GAO-RAEL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1 | 31)
KAMAEL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
6 SWC | 300 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=BwBgjAPgzCIQ6gewC7wAQFo0GUCuBrXAUwBtoBSANgBZhyAme28gQnpHIHYwBOB6qFFZ1KAViGNKdNlWqcGTDmw7c+TQcKriFU1vVnzG1aqzCzKCmJrET6utvs6iz9UaL4ABMGbEXGnCxZvLT96ANY+MRN/fTYTTh4OGGolIRo6I3kg80sODw8gA]Open in Infinity Army
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Basic idea here is that the sniper team provides defence and some orders to the Kumotail to push her helpers forward if there is nothing to shoot, which gets them into position for classifieds and to unglue link team members later in the game. She can also heal the snipers. Every link team has at least 1 veteran with a glue gun. My main way to glue people effectively is to smoke shoot with the Gao-Rael. Burst 2 thanks to the link team and a big -6MOD to your opponent makes it a reasonably effective if order intensive strategy. I think it might be better to run another Gao Rael with adhesive and combi instead of the Sakiel LRL in this mission, because that gives you a B3 Adhesive launcher.
I'm not sold on the LRL sakiel (the viral is just more efficient I think) but I need more playtesting.
Round 3 - Comms Centre
I used my list from round 1 here. My first mirror match against a Tohaa player running a very similar list to me but with snipers more spread out (an idea I am going to test a bit). He chose deployment and I took first turn hoping to nail his HVT with my datatracker. It's very hard to stop Tohaa doing that because of eclipse grenades. In hindsight I should probably have taken second because then he would have spent a while killing my snipers and I could have had run of the buttons on the last turn. Again, I need to remember that Tohaa can't alpha strike.
So I deploy with link teams spread evenly throughout each third of my deployment zone, and sniper team on a nice elevation with a railing providing cover. He deploys his HVT off on a flank behind a building. I make my Sakiel my datatracker, he makes a Makaul on the opposite side of the board to my HVT his datatracker, which I thought was a bit odd but he must have had some plan in mind. Turn 1 I thread some eclipse together and get my link team forward for the assassination run. All going really smoothly until I have a brain fart and decide that my Makaul will be more effective at killing the HVT than my Sakiel and so I end up killing the guy with someone other than my datatracker. There goes a point. I think make the mistake of overextending myself in the quest for buttons. I had pressed the button immediately outside my DZ, but then should have bunkered down in the midfield with that link team and pressed my Gao Rael link team into a more advantageous position. As a result, his turn 1 was quite effective, killing my exposed link teams. I had trouble bringing it back from there, especially as his Sukuel won every exchange with my snipers, and then my HMG didn't manage to do a single wound to the two units that he hit on my turn 2.
On my last turn I decided to give up on winning the button race and instead try to get up on specialists and protect my HVT. Some valiant runs from two Makauls and a Chaksa got me 2 specialist kills and then I nabbed another one on ARO on its way to kill my HVT, but he also managed to kill a 4th one of mine so I ended up down 9-0. A learning experience to be sure, but I was a bit disappointed in my play. My opponent went on to win the tournament.
Overall a really fun day. I'm liking the UK scene a lot. Much more chill than Australia and better terrain for the most part (if a touch repetitive). The hosting shop - Ibuywargames in Woking - was fabulous and good Korean food next door.
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