Vanilla Nomads at MOAB

This is a summary of all the playtesting I did of my vanilla nomads lists in the lead-up to the Mother of All Battles 2018 (MOAB) in Sydney. I should note that I have been trying to make a list like this work for ages. Like at least 18 months. If you go back in the blog you'll see a lot of discussion of it. It has never quite come together. That changed a bit with Tunguska. The heckler with Red Fury filled a huge hole in Nomads, namely the sweeper piece. In the past I was having to use zeros with combis to kill stuff in the late game. Now I have this much more reliable killer. The heckler with jammer and fastpanda filled another huge hole - deployable repeaters in the midfield. Together, these guys also increased the camo shell game substantially. Finally, Mary problems gives you a potent hacker with an ideal device (HD+ is wasted without REMS and AD), and she can deploy straight into the midfield to score and never drain orders. So when this rundown begins I am working with an infowar list that you can see in the second post, below.



05/07/2018 

Got a tournament coming up (MOAB) that I'm considering playing in. The missions are direct action: looting and sabotaging, supremacy, safe area, decapitation and transmission matrix. One mission will be replaced by biotechvore. This will be declared at the start of the relevant round. I suspect it will either be supremacy or safe area, because they are very similar, or looting and sabotaging because some factions just really suck at it (e.g. USARF). All of these are okay to great for my nomads list (especially transmission matrix, dear God), which is just about the only list I find fun to play at the moment. The only exception is biotechvore, which is horrible for anything that can't spam link teams. So when considering playing in this tournament, the main thing I had to think about was whether I had any hope of making a decent biotechvore list in vanilla, which of course has no access to link teams. The puppetcompany doesn't really help because the puppets move separately to the controller, who then dies to the virus. They're also more of a defensive and sweeper unit, which isn't great in a mission that is all about charging forward. So I took a different approach:

 Szalamandra Biotechvore
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GROUP 1
 HOLLOW MEN Missile Launcher, Chain-colt / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (2 | 35)
 SZALAMANDRA Hyper-rapid Magnetic Cannon, Heavy Flamethrower / . (2 | 90)
  SZALAMANDRA PILOT Contender / Pistol, Knife. ()
 KRAKOT RENEGADE Submachine Gun, Chest Mine / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
 KRAKOT RENEGADE Submachine Gun, Chest Mine / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
 ZONDNAUT Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
  ZONDMATE Chain Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Electric Pulse. (5)
 ZONDNAUT Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
  ZONDMATE Chain Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Electric Pulse. (5)
 BAKUNIN ÜBERFALLKOMMANDO . (0 | 23)
  CHIMERA Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Viral CCW. (0 | 20)
  x3 PUPNIK DA CCW. (0 | 3)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 KRIZA BORAC Lieutenant HMG / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 54)

 6 SWC | 300 Points

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Szalamandra! Such a hot model. Not the best unit (it's basically a no-frills TAG) but TAGs are typically unexpected in the contemporary meta of high-order counts, and the Szalamandra in particular is rarely expected, so I'm hoping for some surprise factor (hence why I am posting this after the tournament). The HRMC is the apex killer of non-TO ARO pieces, which would usually be handy but in biotechvore I don't expect to see many such ARO pieces because people just want to send everything forward. Nonetheless, the Szaly has some interesting pluses in biotechvore:

• He can survive the virus. With BTS 9, you have a 75% chance to survive virus hits, which means szaly doesn't necessarily have to charge forward if you're worried about getting minced in the midfield or hacked. 
• Szaly is a TAG, and thus unlocks REMs, notably the Zondnautica, without burdening you with a hacker that will either fail an infiltrate roll or die to the virus while hiding like a bitch. Note that the virus discourages other people from taking hackers who could possess your Szaly. 
• Biotechvore is mostly about charging your opponent orders to kill things that then makes it hard for him to get all his dudes out of the virus. The Szaly in suppression and cover is basically immovable (watch out for smoke-melee), which makes it excellent in this role
• The Szaly is fast, and can potentially exit the virus in a single order.
• TAG lists lend themselves to limited insertion. This is a big deal. While usually a liability, in biotechvore having a limited insertion list is actually excellent because it means your opponent cannot spend command tokens to prevent you from using multiple coordinated orders on turn 1. As such, given some smoke and HMG power, a limited insertion list can easily get all 10 of its orders out of the virus

The rest of the list is written with biotechvore in mind, but also with an eye to playing against Tohaa and Ariadna (who would not be touched by my other, infowar-focused, list) and being capable of winning supremacy and looting and sabotaging. 

• Just about everything is impetuous: 2 krakots, 2 zondnauts, and the uberfallcommando. This gives you 15 orders in a limited insertion list, which is much more than usual in such builds. 
• Most of these guys are also fast, especially if the Krakots pick up 6-4MOV with metachemistry. 
• You're also packing 2 lots of smoke and 1 eclipse grenade, all of which give you cover to get out of the zone unmolested (and into melee thereafter) and without necessitating the execution of ARO pieces.  
• All told, these guys get themselves out of the virus reliably and economically. They then wreak havoc in the midfield, especially if you go second and can counterattack into a bunch of dudes in the midfield who fled the virus. The commando typically plays alongside riot grrl link teams that bait your opponent into creeping under their 24" range band limit. In biotechvore, the virus does this job for you (but I am also running the Hollowman ML). 
• The Kriza's HMG complements the Szaly's HRMC to knock over ARO pieces and then becomes a total douchebag in the midfield in suppression. 
• The Kriza is a tough lieutenant to assassinate, but even if he goes down the rest of the list is so chock full of impetuous that you actually function fine for a turn of all irregular, especially as you'll just be move-shooting in the midfield.  
• The Jaguars are basically there as cheerleaders, but they can piggyback on someone else's coordinated order to get out of the zone and then sell their lives dearly with dogged chainrifles. They also have that extra bit of smoke that helps on occassion, and they can punch an AC2 to death in looting and sabotaging with DA CCWs. 
• The Hollow man missile launcher is the hardest to move ARO piece available to vanilla Nomads with ARM4 and 2STR and an ML that turns any luck ftf roll into a gamechanger. Superjump means that he can potentially get out of your DZ to avoid the virus despite deploying on a roof, unlike a riot grrl. This guy is here to harass your opponent as he moves his dudes out of the virus. With BTS6, he might survive a turn in the virus as well, so if you go first and he doesn't make it out, it's not so bad. ML can win the game on a poorly laid out table in looting and sabotaging. 

Weirdest thing about this list is that it doesn't have a clockmaker, but I just don't think it is worth it because old mate will just die to the virus anyway.


10/07/2018

Had a small tournament full of new players over the weekend that I used to playtest some Nomads stuff. I had two lists. One infowar and another for factions that aren't hackable. The nonhackables list will have to be replaced with something for biotechvore at MOAB, but for the record, it was the following:

 Non-hackables
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GROUP 1
 BAKUNIN ÜBERFALLKOMMANDO . (0 | 23)
  CHIMERA Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Viral CCW. (0 | 20)
  x3 PUPNIK DA CCW. (0 | 3)
 BRAN DO CASTRO Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 33)
 KUSANAGI Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 43)
 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 BANDIT (Forward Observer) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 23)

GROUP 2
 KRIZA BORAC Lieutenant HMG / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 54)
 HECKLER Boarding Shotgun, E/Marat / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19)
 MODERATOR Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 11)
 HECKLER Red Fury / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 24)
 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)
 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

 6 SWC | 300 Points

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This is not a bad list, but it isn't good either. I basically just threw a bunch of stuff together that I wanted to try to see how it would go. I wanted to try Bran and I also wanted to use Kusanagi while she still has the datatracker bonus from the Backd00r crisis. I had a win against French, but then, it's the French - even with the recent changes they're still a bit shit.

My other list was this bad boy, which is nearing tuned-up status:

 Hackables
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GROUP 1
 BANDIT Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 25)
 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
 HECKLER Red Fury / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 24)
 HECKLER Combi Rifle, Jammer, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
 MARY PROBLEMS Hacker (Forward Deployment L1) Submachine Gun + Zapper, Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 30)
 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2
 MORAN Boarding Shotgun, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
 MORAN Boarding Shotgun, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
 INTERVENTOR Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
 KRIZA BORAC Lieutenant HMG / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 54)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

 6 SWC | 300 Points

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This, again, is not a great list. Against some factions, you will have a great time. Other matchups will be quite hard. Playing this thing well is always a challenge. Your success relies in part on your opponent not knowing your game plan. It is also only really good in ground control missions and those that involve either a lot of or quick buttons pressing (e.g. supplies, the grid). Other missions, like Decapitation, are pretty bad. When I do win, I often discover after the game that I did a bunch of stuff right that I didn't even realise I was doing right. My opponent tells me or I realise it while I am pondering how the games went. What this suggests to me is that experience is a massive part of being good at this list, much like experience is critical for winning with the triple fiday hassassins list (which is a top tier list, but damn hard to play). Despite these shortcomings, this list is a blast to play, so I'm sticking with it.

Onto some match reports:

Round 1: Supremacy

My opponent was running a limited insertion corrigidor list with a Bridaga link (HMG, hacker, combi + tinbot B, Shotgun, MULTI), massacre harris (2 chain rifles + shotgun), an intruder HMG and lupe for smoke. We played on a table with a bunch of corridor buildings in the middle with rooves. He chose to go first. I counterdeployed pretty much everything on the roof except a bandit, heckler red fury and some cheerleaders. He then deployed an intruder out of reserve on the roof. Damn.

Intruder proceeded to kill my Morans, which was annoying because I was then worried I would have a hard time stopping the Brigada if they did an alpha strike. He chose instead to move with Massacre. I had a mine poking out from behind some barrels in the middle of the table. He chose to throw smoke to cover his advance, planning, I suspect, to get into shotgun for intuitive attack range. His MOV-MOV order through his eclipse landed him in the mines trigger area, and the entire harris shocked out. It was a massive swing in the game.

My turn a bandit killed Lupe when she chose to discover then lost in a pistol vs. shotgun duel with the intruder (lesson: spend the order for melee). Fortunately I was able to then kill the intruder with my Heckler red fury. This guy makes such a huge difference to Nomads it is actually crazy. In the past I would have had to try and remove that intruder with a zero combi rifle. I then ran a fastpanda into some cover within range of the Bridaga and moved dudes to score. 2-1 (he had a button). The Kriza came round to fire one volley into a Bridaga, winning the ftf, then I went into suppression down a 12" corridor.

His turn he spent all five orders on his hacker trying to brain blast my hackers. With his tinbot it was pretty even (I needed 7s mostly and he needed 4s). My interventor kept making saves like a boss (BTS9 is tough) and eventually he ran out of orders while taking 1 wound from Mary's lightning. My turn Mary finished her off. Rest of the game was me scoring basically. 9-1.

Round 2: Acquisition

My opponent was running French, so I cracked out the nonhackables list. We were playing on a canyon table, which is pretty crappy for Nomads because there aren't many good places to hide. I won the roll and chose to go second, as I have found that is critical in acquisition. He deployed a Briscard harris up high and a moblot link on a flank. I tried to dig in as best I could. Mines on the ground floor deflected attention away from a bandit smack in the midfield. A red fury heckler deployed up on the mountain of skulls ready to rain death below once snipers were out of the way. Kusanagi and the impetuous warbands deployed on the far flank where they would be hard to alpha strike.

Turn 1 my opponent rocketed a morlock and sent his moblot link to the left-hand button. He climbed up onto the top floor, discovered Bran and shot him (sad face - I was really looking forward to jumping down into melee), then survived the mine I had cunningly laid after dodging on his way back down. His HMG got into a foxhole. My turn the Kriza murdered the exposed Briscards and the foxholed HMG, but only after my red fury lost in a ftf to the moblot that had killed Bran. That was quite a blow (typically nomads being fragile to a single bad roll). I made some errors on the right flank. I used the pupniks to discover the chasseur there (they are great at this because they get so many discover roles), then I kept moving with them instead of bringing Kusanagi up to kill the chasseur. Had I done so, Kusanagi would have been in a better position and the chimera could have eaten the Briscard link, leaving her and her pups in a safe position. Instead they were left exposed, but I did kill the chasseur.

I can't really remember turn 2. Not much happened I think. he killed the chimera and made a run at my moderator. My bandit killed some cheerleaders and Kusanagi pressed the right hand button, but I forgot to put her into suppression. I should have used more coordinated orders this turn to move Kusanagi around while also moving Jaguars forward to chain rifle chasseurs. Turn 3 a spare moblot HMG came to try and kill my bandit after putting Kusanagi away with 2 crits in 2 orders, but he got ADHL'd. He then got onto some buttons. I had the orders on my turn to claim everything, but the damn moblot on the left just wouldn't die. He took a salvo from a Kriza and two from a bandit but kept making saves. As such it ended on a small win instead of a major.

Round 3: Frontline

My opponent was running JSA with a 5-man Samurai link, a Daiyokai duo with a Domaru lt, Saito, a Keisotsu hacker and a Ryuken-9 with SMG. He chose to go second. I deployed in all the hardest to reach places on the interconnected rooves of this Yu Jing slum table, taking care to place mines where they would hit any ninjas trying to sneak up to Mary and my interventor:

This is basically a best case scenario for me. My opponent's army is almost entirely hackable and my repeaters and scoring units are hard to reach. The problem was that he avoided me the whole game and in the end I couldn't kill his samurai because I didn't have the appropriate gun. Still, I would have won had I been paying a bit more attention.

First turn I snuck my bandit around to KHD his hacker from a roof. I then tried to shotgun the Ryuken in the back, but her ODD saved her. Her mine meant that I couldn't go up and chop her. I retreated to the safety of a dumpster and recamod. His turn his Ryuken laid some mines and his Daiyokai moved forward a bit. Saito revealed himself and promptly dodged 2 koalas before chopping the Moran controller. I was a little sad he didn't die to the Koalas. That would have been game over straight away. My turn I set up about killing his Daiyokai Duo with my bandit and Kriza. His turn 2 he just moved his Samurai team into the midfield alongside Saito to deny it to me (my Kriza datatracker was already there - his Daiyokai datatracker was dead). I had a heckler there with a jammer, so the whole team got frozen, but I didn't have anything to kill them with. I realised in hindsight that I couldn't actually hack them because they all had martial arts i.e. stealth, so I either need active turn or sixth sense to hack in ARO. This makes me very nervous against military orders.

My turn 3 I moved a bunch of stuff up but was basically lazy. I needed to hide my bandit in the frontline, priority 1 (I did not), and then a heckler into the frontline (which I did). Everything else was cosmetic. He couldn't contest both his frontline and my midfield at the same time (mostly because of Mary's 30 point ass), so he chose to deny me points in the midfield. In the end, he killed the bandit with his Ryuken, which left us tied in my frontline. I had a 32 points intelcomm card, so I thought I was safe, but he had the same card! This left us in a draw there and he won 3-1. I'm not too cut though because I think in a serious tournament I would have thought about it a bit more thoroughly.

Lessons Learned/reaffirmed:

• You want to deploy pretty much all your scoring pieces in hard to reach areas where they can claim quadrants and waste a lot of your opponent's orders to extricate. You deploy the mines on the ground floor along with the bandit.
• If you're not using mines to screen Shinobis or something similar from your hackers, the default way to deploy them is behind <S2 cover. This way they are visible to your opponent while S2 camo markers, so they want to discover them. Once they are discovered, they become S0 behind total cover. Now your opponent has wasted at least 1 short skill and still needs to walk past them to advance through their territory. 
• If your Morans are getting shot in a bad ftf, the best thing is just to deploy your koalas. This is more likely to slow your opponent down than trying to dodge, especially if he has a lot of LI.
• Try to get bandits into Melee against any moderately hard target. The shotgun is fine against cheerleaders and the like, but you want that fat -9MOD and automatic hit with your DA CCW against everything else, even if it costs you an extra order. 
• The morlock in the infowar list is close-to-pointless.  I am inclined to cut her and a jaguar and get 2 baggage bots instead. I won't do this at MOAB because baggage is bad in decapitation. I will instead change the interventor into a second Bandit, this time with assault hacking device. The bandit was my main assassin over the weekend, and I think I could really use 2, especially if I expect to face a lot of HI. Once a unit is frozen, you still need to kill it, and melee sneak-attack is one of the most efficient ways to do it. You miss out on white noise, but this list really doesn't need it (the Kriza kills any snipers), hack transport aircraft, which only comes into play against Yuan Yuans and they are still a pain (and you have jaguars for them), u-turn, which is only good against Druze, who suck, and sucker punch, which admittedly is very good. The bandit is weaker on defence, but you can just hide under a marker if necessary. This almost means that I have one less unit in my DZ to worry about. The interventor would really come into its own if Nomads had a REM worth supportwaring, but alas. The 2 leftover points I will spend to upgrade one transductor zond into a 3rd jaguar. 
• The Kriza is an absolute beast. Everything melts. It works well in group 2 with just a few orders. These are enough for him to kill exposed pieces. He doesn't want to rambo anyway. 
• It doesn't seem like it, but you actually have plenty of orders. If you play appropriately then  most of your pieces are static the entire game. This leaves a lot of orders for the bandit, Kriza and Heckler to rambo. Takeaway: don't be afraid to spend that extra order to get the bandit into melee, put things into suppression, or recamouflage. 
• If you are hackable, Mary and an interventor is more than enough to completely ruin your day. That Samurai team froze so fast it was laughable. Even with a tinbot, you would be slowed to a crawl firing resets. One thing to note here is that if you have first turn against HI links in a ground control mission, get a Moran or a fastpanda to the edge of their deployment zone pronto. Lock them into a single quadrant and you can then own the table.   

So the list as it stands is the following:

 Infowar - double bandit
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GROUP 1
 BANDIT Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 25)
 BANDIT Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 28)
 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
 HECKLER Red Fury / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 24)
 HECKLER Combi Rifle, Jammer, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
 MARY PROBLEMS Hacker (Forward Deployment L1) Submachine Gun + Zapper, Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 30)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

GROUP 2
 MORAN Boarding Shotgun, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
 MORAN Boarding Shotgun, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
 KRIZA BORAC Lieutenant HMG / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 54)
 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

 6 SWC | 300 Points

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I've shuffled the orders around so that the bandits have plenty to fuel them, especially on turn 1. Group 2 has enough orders that even if it is stripped of 2, the Kriza can kill any MSV2 defensive pieces sticking out, or, if there are none, I can move a Moran forward into an annoying repeater location. If I need to do both some HMG and some repeater, then I can use the orders in group 1 to move the Heckler forward and throw out a Fast Panda (fast pandas really need climbing plus or be "place anywhere within ZOC" rather than just 8" move from base). The 3 Jaguars are now guards exclusively for my Kriza, but they can also throw smoke in a pinch (you never need it when everything is under a marker).

15/07/2018

Got a game in last night against Shock Army of Aconticemento. My opponent was running a strong list - regular link with 2 snipers, 2 bulleteers, guarda, Naga KHD, lots of flashy boys and a pathfinder. Not the best list for safe area, but strong in general. I got the win 6-0, but a little unexpectedly. Going second is huge in ground control missions (nice thing about my hide and seek style is that I can choose to go second with virtually no penalties attached).

He chose deployment and chose to go second. His first turn involved spec firing an lgl from his regular link to kill a Moran, then using the naga KHD on Mary, who died. He also discovered and killed a zero minelayer with one of his snipers. Not much else happened. My turn I used the heckler red fury (faaark this guy is goooooood) to kill a flashy boy, a pathfinder and a bulleteer. My Kriza knocked over one sniper on a roof, but didn't kill her so the trauma doc picked her back up. Turn 2 a bulleteer discovered my bandit AHD and killed her, then chilled in suppression and acted as a repeater for him to gotcha my Kriza. He spent his last orders spec firing at my heckler, who was prone in a bridge, until said heckler was dead (expect your uncamouflaged dudes to die). I perhaps should have put him in suppression, but I thought he would just die to a sniper if I did that. The ftf against the spec fire was good, I just got a bit unlucky. My turn 2 I didn't do much (a theme of this list). My remaining Moran dismounted a roof and went over to shoot the lgl successfully and claim a third quadrant with his fierce 20 points. Meanwhile a jaguar failed smoke twice but eventually made base-to-base with the peacemaker but failed to kill it in CC. His turn his Guarda over to kill my jaguar but I survived to dogged and then got a chain rifle off to kill the auxbot and wound the guarda. Lucky. He spent some orders pushing the regular link into scoring and claiming a button with his naga. He then brought his guarda over to flamer my Moran but I tanked it and won the shotgun roll. Huge. My turn I killed that Guarda with my shotgun, claiming a third quadrant. That was basically all that mattered, but I also KHD his naga and claimed a button with my remaining bandit to make it 6-0 instead of 5-1.

Thoughts:

• Try to find places for your minelayers where they can creep to a flat edge on the roof and lay a mine. This makes them more useful late game. 
• Prioritise good ground floor spots for your bandits, then your hecklers, then your mines. I often end up using mines to defend Mary so placing them isn't usually that hard. 
• Heckler red fury should ideally deploy in the middle of the board so that the 8-24" can reach everywhere, but they can't be approachable on turn 1, otherwise they have a high risk of dying. It is amazing if you can deploy on a long roof in the middle of the board, as this allows you to claim quadrants, stay mobile and hide like a rat. 
• Bandit AHD > Interventor for now.
• 3 specialists is a little thin in safe area and supremacy, especially as you don't really want to be pressing buttons with your bandits on route to your opponent's DZ, and bandits often aren't alive at the end of the game to hold buttons (which is critical to the major victory in safe area). I might look to return a jaguar to a transductor zond and use the points to upgrade a Moran to FO with combi, but I really like shotguns (why was reaffirmed when I killed that guarda - a BS12 mimetic dude in cover with a shotgun is never a great ftf). Another option would be to upgrade a jaguar or two to LI specialist (will start by trying a single paramedic alguacile for the Kriza in case things get ugly against an ML or some such). Another option is a zero FO - I like E/Maulers. 
• You should often deploy Mary out of reserve after identifying all the threats to her (KHDs, climbers and spec fire). This allows you to go far away from them. She's an odd reserve but she is an important piece for scoring and strategy, so worth holding her back for safe positioning.
• Not from the game: HI with stealth are scary because they can alpha strike you. That said, it occurs to me (thanks to this opponent's comments after the game) that when I get alpha struck it isn't so bad because I lose a jaguar and a zond. It's quite hard to really gut my order pool because it isn't a standard "turn the corner on a flank and offload" situation. I am all over the board, usually prone behind total cover on a roof. Every model takes 5 orders to get to, so an unopposed alpha strike only nabs like 4 kills max. I need to remember this against alpha strike lists: dig in extra double plus deep.   

24/07/2018

Had a game couple of games against Tohaa recently with one new guy running one my Tohaa lists from CanCon and another against a top tier player running a slightly modified version of that list with only 1 gao rael sniper, a HMG instead of a spitfire and 2 symbiobeasts instead of 1 (makes you better takes TAGs). Game against the advanced player was basically a wash in looting and sabotaging. I was running the infowar list just to see what happens. Death is what. Without hacking I can't exert any board control. And Tohaa are resilient to much of my death dealing as well. The other game I ran a bunch of junk thrown together. Was a chance to test out some random stuff. Not really relevant to MOAB because I have to run the Szalamandra as my second list there. Here is what I played:

 Non-hackables 23/07/2018

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GROUP 1 

 BAKUNIN ÜBERFALLKOMMANDO . (0 | 23)

  CHIMERA Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Viral CCW. (0 | 20)

  x3 PUPNIK DA CCW. (0 | 3)

 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)

 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)

 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

 BANDIT (Forward Observer) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 23)

 BANDIT (Forward Observer) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 23)

GROUP 2

 DAKTARI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)

 BRAN DO CASTRO Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 33)

 KRIZA BORAC Lieutenant HMG / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 54)

 HECKLER Boarding Shotgun, E/Marat / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19)

 HECKLER Red Fury / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 24)

 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

 4 SWC | 299 Points

[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=KwBgjAPgzCIQcgewHYFoAWBDAxga0wEYA2ApgM7RgCkALAEx1V3ABsLVUAhGCLeFWBosA7FW68a/QSLFgofGgJoAOat3mTFg1bI0gtKtQE4+vQcBOcTkszQtUAAoL7Aly+Zyij6ygcCFirFRG/hz+lixmYGDWIEa8nJEC0bFGamCMkvKCwuzcmSDZNLmyBUUlDg5AA==]Open in Infinity Army

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First turn I managed to avoid getting snipered on impetuous and then my Kriza killed the Gao Rael in the open. I then ran the commando and Bran onto the top of a build near his deployment zone. He sensored them on his turn. Bran died shortly afterwards to a flamer, but not before the commando ate a triad. I could have eaten more but I didn't want to abuse the "wiggly behind a corner to force an ARO to change facing, then make base-to-base without getting shot" technique against a new player.

Most interesting thing in the game was a triad of sakiel viral, Sukuel ML and makaul setting up out in the open the midfield and me just not really being able to kill them. I didn't play it well with order of operations, but it was still painful. I think in hindsight I should have laid mine over them, shot with my Kriza until people got out of the way (triggering the mines, then laying another one), then coming around the corner with a morlock (if dodge I make btb). Then using my bandit to chop. These sorts of things are really important in the list - you often have to coordinate a lot of different vectors and pieces and really get your order of operations right. I was speed playing a bit. While unable to kill that link team I couldn't get 3 quadrants on him, which was frustrating. I think maybe I should have deployed Bran less aggressively. Anyway. Some thoughts:

• Commando, bran, 3 morlocks and 2 bandits is a bit overkill on melee and irregular
• Morlocks are just a bit average really. Metachemistry is as much a hindrance as a help and not having dogged really blows. 
• Uberfallcommandoes want a full 10 orders. 
• The Heckler with Red Fury continues to be a standout performer
• Life is a struggle when you don't have snipers or hacking because you just have no board control. Two minelayers and some suppression is not enough. I don't think the "replace hackers and morans with more melee" is a viable approach. I will instead experiment with various things involving a hollow man. The Szaly list will do for MOAB. If I take something like this to CanCon I will likely go for something with Zoe and Pi Well and a TR bot as well. But I suspect I will be running something more obviously powerful at CanCon (read: link teams). 

26/07/2018

Had a few games of biotechvore yesterday. Learnt quite a lot. I play the TAG list with the Szaly both games. First game was against steel phalanx with the usual 2 links teams plus snipers. Second was against USARF with a tonne of bikes, minuteman link team and a blackjack. 

I went first in both games. One of our main takeaways from the games was that going first in Biotechvore is bad. It is nearly impossible to alpha strike effectively in biotechvore because: 

• You alpha strike from your viral area to your opponents, so your guys die
• You need to spend a bunch of orders getting people out of your DZ, and a good alpha strike requires at least 8 orders. As such, either you alpha or you save your people. 

The whole point of going first is to get an alpha strike off, so going first is generally bad. So what's the game plan if you do end up going first? Go into suppression with eyes on the exits from your opponent's deployment zone.

Game 1 I failed to do this, in part because my commando failed 2 smoke throws and my bike a third and that meant I had to spend coordinated orders just to bail from my deployment zone rather than to go into suppression (coordinated suppression is what you want). Game 2 I did it reasonably well, but it was possible for a blackjack to fire at my TAG from >24", which you don't want. Note that if your opponent is relying on HMGs to attack, you really want to get within 16" for both your suppression fire and your opponent's HMG to be at flat range 

Second lesson we learnt is that it just isn't possible to get all your cheerleaders out of the viral zone, especially now that it is enormous and you only have an 8" deployment zone. As such, you want your "cheerleaders" to actually be static defensive pieces or infiltrators. Speaking of which:

Static defensive pieces: the super jump on the hollow man does not make him better than the MSV1 on the riot grrl. This unit is going to die. It's job is to slow your opponent's advance and survive taking a hit from the virus. The grrl definitely survives a hit from the virus and is better at slowing your opponent down. Without jump she isn't going to get out of the zone, but that's just fine. 

Infiltrators: If you have a whole bundle of infiltrating/forward deploying stuff, something will land. Furthermore, if you do manage to inferior infiltrate (because you can do that in the virus) a camouflaged minelayer, it is a massive pain for your opponent (I found this out against infiltrating grunts). They can lay a mine straight onto the deployment zone exit while themselves being outside the virus (on a roof for example). So actually, minelayer zeros are probably the best "cheerleaders" in a limited insertion biotechvore list. Jaguars just die, notably because 4-4 move doesn't get you out of the zone. I  think zeros are better than Morans. If Morans fail the infiltration roll they can move their koalas into the midfield, but koalas are way less painful than mines and you won't get out of the virus anyway with 4-4. If you fail the roll, you're cheering the HI forward. 

The new Zondnautica units were pretty good. Counterattacking with them is very effective. A chain rifle and a boarding shotgun do solid work almost always. They also get out of the DZ quite well with smoke and 8-6. They are so fast that even if your impetuous move carries you in the wrong direction, you can always double back to somewhere else. Speaking of which: when planning your exit from the deployment zone, try to create a single vector of smoke and just push everyone through it. Don't make the mistake of trying to smoke up multiple channels. What happens in that case is that one of your smokes fails to go off and your end up with a bunch of dudes stranded. Me mindful of missiles and people choking you with suppression fire units, but in general try to cluster you deployment so that a single smoke grenade gets you whole list out of the virus. 

The krakots were cute but not all that great. This may be the only mission where you actually want them to get 6-4 and super jump because then they can get forward even without succeeding on the forward deployment roll. Krakots are good cheerleaders in biotechvore, but you should expect them to die early. 

The standout player of both games was the Kriza, who continues to impress. If I could run 2 I definitely would, and might even consider an EVO. I am currently iterating lists to make better use of cheerleaders who aren't dead weight and...

I've got two in the works. The first one I was thinking about Kriza duo, then realised I couldn't do it because they are AVA 1 for some reason, so I went over to geckoes. I couldn't quite fit the double gecko, and I didn't want to run an EVO anyway, and geckoes are only 4-4, so I ended up with this thing:

 Biotechvore - Iguana

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10  / 4

 KRIZA BORAC Lieutenant HMG / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 54)

 GECKO Mk12, Chain-colt, Blitzen / . (0.5 | 54)

  GECKO PILOT 2 Assault Pistols, Knife. ()

 KUSANAGI MULTI Rifle + Light Flamethrower, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 44)

 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)

 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)

 ZONDNAUT Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)

  ZONDMATE Chain Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Electric Pulse. (5)

 ZONDNAUT Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)

  ZONDMATE Chain Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Electric Pulse. (5)

 KRAKOT RENEGADE Submachine Gun, Chest Mine / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 15)

 KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14)

 RIOT GRRL Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 33)

 5.5 SWC | 300 Points

[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=KwBgjAPgzCIQQgSwPYBcCmBjAFgN2QE7oAEAtMQJIDmArgIYB2dEwAbAKQCcwALO1L07sAhDzDseUAEzswbGcKgAOCVKFyeAdhFgQE8LJ6ttw3fvFgjJ4CrB3tPEJqHCbs+/ucieKzaz1SmiAcor7+7IEgwN56kuJqYFDsAAKpQA]Open in Infinity Army

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Kusanagi was a late addition because her points were just right. I was mucking around with hecklers for a bit, but I think they're a bit order intensive to be effective, and aren't really that great in suppression (they're about as effective as a zero with combi). The uberfallcommando got cut, but that means I've got no extremely impetuous or irregular (annoying for coordinated orders), and the Krakots and bikes are enough of a counterattack. The basic idea is to get Kusanagi, Kriza, Gecko and a zero that makes the deployment roll into suppression looking at your opponent's DZ and just being a massive nuisance. If you're going second the riot grrl and mines can harass your opponent to prevent them advancing too far and then you punch them with the krakots, bikes and kusanagi before going into suppression again. What I don't like about this list is that is relies on some seriously slow shit - Kusanagi and the gecko. I also always think it is a waste to run Kusanagi MULTI and not use the +1 SWC that comes with her being the lieutenant. So my other list was the following: 

 Biotechvore - Iguana

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 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)

 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)

 KUSANAGI Lieutenant MULTI Rifle + Light Flamethrower, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (+1 | 44)

 ZONDNAUT Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)

  ZONDMATE Chain Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Electric Pulse. (5)

 KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14)

 KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14)

 RIOT GRRL Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 33)

 KRIZA BORAC HMG / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 54)

 IGUANA HMG, Heavy Flamethrower / . (2 | 71)

  IGUANA OPERATOR HMG / Pistol, Knife. ()

 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

 7 SWC | 300 Points

[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=KwBgjAPgzCIQQgSwPYBcCmBjAFgN2QE7oAEAtMQJIDmArgIYB2dEYIApACzhtgcBsAdjYBCVp269BIqAA5OAJgCcPYBznDgcsNqFcBy4WrYC+7eQJDARRk2YtXD7DlDBslYKCOB82i1WyhVH2F5OQ4wZTBgeWD5V3D5Hg4/NgABdKA==]Open in Infinity Army

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Same sort of game plan. You're a bit weaker on the counterattack but the iguana is undeniably more powerful than the gecko and also has the ejection system, which seems perfect - after your opponent struggles through the suppression fire you hide in a cloud of smoke and still have your full 71 points left. The transductor zond is just a cheerleader, but with 6-6 they can exit the virus if it's worth it. Biotechvore might be the only time the Iguana's specs are an asset rather than a liability. Usually the ejection system is a bad thing because you can't repair the TAG, which is half the point (especially for rem pres Pan-O TAGs), but here you don't have an engineer.

So kids, remember, Vanilla is bad in biotechvore, but so is everyone else, even Tohaa, and don't forget to...SUPRESSING FIIIIIIRRRREEEE:

30/07/2018

More biotechvore practice. My opponent was running MAF with a lot of smoke and the new shotgun Raicho profile (mine dispenser is excellent in biotechvore). I ran the Iguana list. He went first and managed to get all but 3 models out despite running two combat groups and being effectively harrassed by a riot grrl ML. I was then jammed in my a Q-drone and the raicho in suppression. It had laid mines to make impetuous smoke difficult. I could have played the first turn a bit better, but ultimately it just felt like my list was lacking power. I want to try a different strategy where I just infiltrate heaps of shit. With camo, you don't have much trouble walking out of your DZ and into suppression fire positions. So here is what I am going to try next:

 Biotechvore infiltrators

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GROUP 1

 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)

 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)

 BRAN DO CASTRO Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 33)

 RIOT GRRL Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 33)

 KRAKOT RENEGADE Submachine Gun, Chest Mine / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 15)

 KRAKOT RENEGADE Submachine Gun, Chest Mine / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 15)

GROUP 2

 MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

 MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

 KRIZA BORAC Lieutenant HMG / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 54)

 BANDIT Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 22)

 BANDIT Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 22)

 PUPPET MASTERS Submachine Gun / PistolKnife. (0 | 12)

 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

 6 SWC | 300 Points

[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=KwBgjAPgzCIQQgSwPYBcCmBjAFgN2QE7oAEiAdgGaIA2qBAhqoQM4RggCkALOB2FwDYA7BwCE7br37CxUEVwBMADj7BBYntyhgOCgJxgoGlUIGcFQkAOMdT5y9YACMbgp1hgUBbM6L3n71Fgaz01Dig1PTEonk5+YBFRGNg+LgSxAXcwBV8QPSNxbx4jflMxbMkSrjLHRyA=]Open in Infinity Army

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Most of the list infiltrates, preferably onto roofs, and lays mines and crazy koalas to make it hard to get out of the viral zone (especially if I am going first and can place extra). Just about everyone is capable of suppression fire. I have found that this method isn't that great for killing stuff, but it is great for slowing people down (-9 from mimetism, cover and suppression is a bit MOD even if the combi can't really hurt you). Puppet master is there for counterintelligence, which I think will be a life saver in a double combat group build. One tactic I will have to watch out for is placing mines and then triggering them with the zero shooting at some chumps. This substantially increases the zeros stopping power and is often feasible in biotechvore because people stand around in the midfield near your infiltrators.

I am not very good at killing stuff, but Bran and the bandits can do a job. I'm basically hoping that the riot grrl can harass my opponent enough that I can then pick off enough enemies with the Kriza and melee to eek out a win. In a good game you will get more than 50% of your guys immediately out of the virus, and the rest can leave with help from Kriza, camo and a couple of smoke grenades. I expect the riot grrl to die. She is just a harassment piece. I am tempted to try to upgrade one of the bandits to an assault hacker to combo with the Morans' repeaters to really quagmire people, but I don't think I have the points and it would only really be relevant when going first and you can push a Moran forward a bit.

01/08/2018

Discovered that in the ITS FAQ from the 2015 season Corvus Belli said that if you fail the infiltration role you lose camouflage. Well fuck. So I adjusted the list slightly to have more smoke cover for people trying to exit the deployment zone:

 Biotechvore infiltrators
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GROUP 1
 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
 MORAN Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
 KRIZA BORAC Lieutenant HMG / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 54)
 BAKUNIN ÜBERFALLKOMMANDO . (0 | 23)
  CHIMERA Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Viral CCW. (0 | 20)
  x3 PUPNIK DA CCW. (0 | 3)
 PUPPET MASTERS Submachine Gun / PistolKnife. (0 | 12)
 KRAKOT RENEGADE Submachine Gun, Chest Mine / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
 KRAKOT RENEGADE Submachine Gun, Chest Mine / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 15)

GROUP 2
 RIOT GRRL Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 33)
 BRAN DO CASTRO Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 33)
 ZONDNAUT Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
  ZONDMATE Chain Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Electric Pulse. (5)
 MORAN Boarding Shotgun, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)
 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

 6 SWC | 300 Points

[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=KwBgjAPgzCIQQgSwPYBcCmBjAFgN2QE7oAEiAdgGaIA2qBAhqoQM4RggCkALOB2FwDYA7BwCE7br37CxMbgCYwfYHNHABHAJzAuHKDs2ylXefI7z1GqKIFKwYeZx6aoYrgA4OQgZ3lCQGqIeXj7m/hoAAjzcUErymmCuolAiJp5gOoHA6fapIEKGyU6KyrFiDpKu/N7lZjxVXDUREUA=]Open in Infinity Army
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If this doesn't work I'm definitely going back to TAG land and working on a better build.


16/09/2018

Played a few games last week. Had a reasonable amount of fun, but not enough, so I've decided not to play MOAB. I'm just too busy with my thesis. On the plus side, I can post this blog. My last two games were against Tohaa and an Avatar list in decapitation and transmission matrix respectively. I played infowar against both. I expected to lose against Tohaa given that I had like 20 points in hacking that I wasn't ever going to use, but I actually managed to win because the Kriza is awesome and my opponent didn't have a good place to deploy his HVT. Game 2 I thought would go my way but my opponent was running an unusual Avatar list with a lot of skirmisher clearers (including Ghakis, who can get your Morans on the roof and dodge mines and koalas no sweat), so I couldn't get the job done.

To summarise this long playtesting run: vanilla nomads don't work. If you want to play hide and seek, look to TAK or Hassassins, or even vanilla Ariadna. The nomad gimmick is hacking, which just isn't powerful right now. It can work, but it usually involves REMs, not ARO hacks. You pay a lot for pieces like Mary Problems and half the time (Ariadna, Tohaa, Haqqislam and many other lists) you can't even use their powers. And many of the hackable things you really want to use them against, like Knights and Samurai, have stealth. Finally, it is damn hard to fit killing power into the list. You can free hard targets, but you have trouble knocking them over. Overall, I would say this is a list to avoid unless you like playing on hard mode. Great for improving your finesse and especially your awareness of the board and the potential depth of infinity, but not a top tier strategy. I'm moving on to Ikari and Starco from here until CanCon.