Huge thank you to my fellow organisers, especially Rid Sullivan doing his first tournament and absolutely smashing it out of the park as chief organiser. Thanks also to everyone who lent us tables for the event. As you can see below, the tables were beautiful and varied. And finally, a massive thank you to all the sponsors. We had so much prize support that all 70 players got something on top of their goody bags, and we had something like the 14th placed player walk off with a knights of dice strike case valued at about $100. Lush.
If anyone wants to read all the playtesting of Ikari that I did in preparation for this tournament (lots!), the link is here: http://emperorsghost.blogspot.com/2019/02/ikari-tactics-and-playtesting.html
I was running the following lists:
Ikari Take-all-comers: Games 1 to 4
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GROUP 1
KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
KEISOTSU Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
TANKŌ Missile Launcher / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 32)
WÚ MÍNG HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 39)
WÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Haris) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
BRAWLER Doctor Rifle + Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)
LIBERTO Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 8)
GROUP 2
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 8)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 8)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 8)
WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=JwBgLAPgzCIQkgawIYCcCWACAKgQQMIQCMApESAExglQDsAbMCQISnlU223WtmXV1aUFhT4VSdAKyjmtMaKn0WS9sLr0QysWoYAOEWIncmzcXzADdYSSxhkKu4WAaaAAhRXgmUXZNK92AS4ZBz4/Gl9hU1FyawiwJVZNcjsfEBtWGJAoGx8iOUy+HIj8liIs4ryCiiZyaQjJOVdXIA==]Open in Infinity Army
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I don't think this is how CB designed Ikari to be played. I do alpha quite well, but this list actually has a lot of staying power. The Tanko gives you some solid overwatch and makes your cheerleaders more capable of defending themselves. Your first turn assault involves either the Libertos, the Harris or the Rui Shi in group 1, and some combination of the Yuan Yuans and Lu Duan in group 2. Lu Duan ideally kills one thing with surprise shot, then chills and reboots its holoprojector. Second turn is usually the Harris doing work on objectives while the Yuan Yuans clean up. Defensively you are a little weak but you have what it takes to survive an alpha on most tables. The Tanko, Warcor and Libertos are speedbumbs and the cheerleaders can defend themselves because they are in a 5-man link or have mimetism and a flash-pulse. You only have to declare holoechoes at the start of your active turn, so on turn 1 reactive you can deploy the Lu Duan and baggage as 4 baggage bots, one of which has a flamer. I find it confuses even the best players. My baggage bot didn't die all weekend!
Wu Ming for Tohaa, 5-man heavy link teams, and Firefight
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GROUP 1
WÚ MÍNG HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 39)
WÚ MÍNG Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)
WÚ MÍNG (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31)
WÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Haris) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
CLIPPER DRONBOT Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 17)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)
GROUP 2
WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 8)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 8)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 8)
LIBERTO Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 8)
KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
6 SWC | 300 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=JwBgLAPgzCIQ6gVwAQFkCWA7A5hAbAKQCMIATFAVAOx4gECEhJ5lNFjxZF1eYDTXVngAcDUgFZOYUVGHi69Up1JFW4pfVXM+PYAy1kdVKuwOkjePYoNgdwsJIACpPSXWU5VfUpJRJsoi9NHxA/D0DvTjCAoJhiUmEKMBoFMyMqDVIBMD1ZcVVNPl8vWQkxEIcPMEJHRyA===]Open in Infinity Army
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This list is more durable than the TAC list but has less defense. I use it mostly for the 5-man HMG, which can clear Tohaa snipers and linked HI Missile Launchers. I expected to only use this list in firefight and that turned out to be the case. The 5-man link brings a lot of durability and long-range pain, both of which are critical in firefight where you want to play really lame - rarely exposing assets and soaking wounds rather than losing points.
ROUND 1: SUPREMACY AGAINST ISS
Hsien in a Harris with Zhangying, one of whom had madtraps (madtrap triggers an ARO, Hsien then smoke-shoots unopposed), two Kuang Shi links, Sophotect, Rui
Shi, warcore, CG hacker, ninja KHD.
Up against one of the best players in the country. He had first turn; I took deployment. He deployed the Hsien Harris with madtraps and I realised I would need to build a castle. Almost everything he had was in the big cargo bay on the top left in the picture. I did a refuse flank with pretty much everything going bottom right.
Turn 1 he marched out and I got lucky and the Tanko ML managed to dodge prone. He couldn't do much damage after that because of the refuse flank, so he wisely pressed a couple of buttons with his sophotect and then hid her in a spot that would be basically impossible for me to dig her 31 points out of. A kuang shi link moved forward to deny table space. I played my turn tight-aggressive. Yuan Yuans found good drops and killed his Ninja, 2 Kuang Shi and a CG smoke launcher. My Wu Ming Harris spent a few orders to press up a flank, turn a corner and nuke the Rui Shi, then retreat behind cover. My Tanko then took pot shots with its ML at 3 Kuang Shi. He still had plenty of orders left, but not much to hit with besides his Hsien. I spent a few orders to move dudes, including the xenotech, into quadrants. I thought I had more but I had forgotten about the Sophotect. This was double bad because it meant my xenotech didn't score, when I could easily have moved her an inch the other way for the point. Blurgh.
Turn 2 he made a bomb laterally to kill my HMG with the Hsien Harris, then failed with his final lieutenant order to put my Wu Ming SMG out of commission.
At this stage we only had about 20 minutes left to play, so I called it and said we would end on this turn. My opponent was not slow playing, but he is a very precise player and we both had 20 order lists, so it took a while. In hindsight, we should have just played into lunch, but I didn't even consider that. I think I had a strong position going into bottom of 2, and my opponent was happy to play to 3.
Anywayz...I thought my Rui Shi should go on a rampage. First order to move, second order to fire with assisted against the Hsien, 4 on 15s against 1 on 14s, took a crit and died. Blurgh. That made it hard. I didn't have the orders to drop the xeno marker. I failed to press a button maybe 3 times on WIP 12, which happens. Long story short, I made a smart move to run the Tanko to the top left and deny that quadrant, including its xenotech, but I didn't have the orders to do the other stuff that needed doing, so I went down 4-1.
If we had played to turn 3, I think I would have tried to kill the Hsien with my Tanko ML. Assuming that stuck, I would have killed one Zhanying so that my ninja could win that quadrant, while my Tanko-link denied the xenotech. I would have left him just on the retreat threshold and cleaned up turn 3 to claim a minor. Assuming his Hsien survived, I could have killed everything but it and the sophotect and done the same. Doesn't matter because this way I could submarine.
ROUND 2: DECAPITATION AGAINST NCA
All the Sydney players had been telling me that decapitation gives a huge advantage to whoever goes first, especially if they can just spec fire or use an infiltrator to kill the HVT. Well I got to go second against a Squalo HGL and prove to them that the scenario is balanced. My opponent had the TAG, a fusilier link with HMG and ML, a bolt hacker, CSU, pathfinder x2, warcor and machinist.
I reckon my deployment was tight as, with no spec-fire opportunities and all my important pieces well hidden but able to come forward cheaply. I then got a bit lucky. My opponent took 6 orders to kill the HVT with spec fire and that didn't leave much to do with the rest of his turn. I knew I needed to counterattack hard, but I didn't really have the orders to do it while also killing the HVT. I took the HVT out with my Wu Ming Harris, and then continued pressing into his flank, killing a CSU and the machinist (in the back of the head). I needed to drop some smoke on the way to obstruct the Squalo and ML. A big part of Ikari is knowing when to aggressively drop your Yuan Yuans and when to just walk them on to throw smoke. Flank runs are critical to the faction's success. Not the most devastating first turn but I had a threatening position and it was 5-5.
His turn 2 his second CSU tried to kill my HMG but I made armour and retreated. His pathfinder then made a move forward to sensor my libertos and he killed my warcor with the HMG fusilier. He spent about 4 orders trying to kill my lieutenant with spec fire from the Squalo, who survived thanks to sixth sense and one armour save.
Turn 2 I pressed hard with the Wu Ming, killing the CSU, warcor, ML (a critical face-to-face), another pathfinder and the bolt hacker, then the SMG went on a dirty sneak attack and took out the lieutenant. My tanko ML killed the other pathfinder, leaving him with 4 orders. The Squalo became the LT.
He managed to dead my lieutenant on his turn but that was about it. I was now winning 7-5, but I needed to kill the Squalo to claim 10-5. I figured I could crit it off the table with my HMG. 4 orders later, no crits but a wound and then I took an explosive shell and died. Hmm. I had enough orders to get one swing off with my ninja coming out of TO in group 2. I decided to press first the SMG - AP rounds can do work. I marched over and on the third volley managed to do 2 wounds! Down goes the Squalo! 10-5, major victory in decapitation going second against a Squalo. I was proud of myself.
ROUND 3: FRONTLINE AGAINST MORATS
My opponent was a great bloke looking for a fairly casual game, so we played a bit loose. He got one of my votes for sportsmanship. He had a fueuerbach Sogarat, gaki link, rodok KHD, ikadron, Rasyat with shotgun, doctor worm, Q-drone, flash bot and an E-drone. He chose first and deployed bunkered down and ready for AD (Evo drones tend to telegraph this).
This was a really weird game where the dice were super lame: very few hits for either player and most of those were saved. There were barely any casualties going into turn 3 and we were both still in our deployment zones for the most part. Keep that in mind as you read.
The Rasyat turned up on turn 1 and tried to complete a classified objective. It took 5 WIP rolls. That didn't leave orders to rampage with, so he tried to kill my Tanko ML and then retreated into a building. I lost the face-to-face but saved the hit and went prone. My libertos hunted him down on my turn. My Rui Shi killed the Q-drone in midfield while a Yuan Yuan eventually managed to send doctor worm unconscious.
Turn 2 the Sogarat came forward and killed my Rui Shi, warcor and a Yuan Yuan, then bunkered down in that same building. This time my Wu Ming killed him using the SMG. I think I spent the rest of this turn using a ninja to extricate my Xenotech and place the marker.
Turn 3 I nearly had a heart attack when I found out that Sogarats had automedkits. Up he got and came for my Harris and its 100 points worth of dudes. I lucked out here and took only a wound. His Gaki squad and most of his other dudes took up positions along the midfield to contest the centre quadrant. My turn I had the orders to kill Sogarat and have the Harris hold the frontline, while a Lu Duan kill most of the midfield and claimed HVT and the midfield with the ninja. A lone baggage bot brought up my backfield for the major victory.
My opponent was running a rodok link with ML, HMG, and 2 paramedics (and a KHD?), a nexus hacker, a Samaritan, Q-drone, 2 ikadrons, 2 imetrons, flash drone, fracta shotgun and doctor worm. He chose deployment and took first turn, planning to grab boxes and hopefully kill a few things. The deployment zone was horrible, with very little cover. I figured I could walk a Yuan Yuan over on the right side canyon to throw smoke, so I deployed the Harris there for another flank press. Rui Shi went on the ground in the middle-left with the Lu Duan. Tanko took up a good position on the hill behind the barrels while his link hid behind some stairs. We played all the bases/stairs/railings as solid.
First turn went pretty swimmingly. I walked a Yuan Yuan on and threw smoke for my Harris as planned. They grabbed a box and shot a flash bot, imetron, and the Rodok HMG (who would later get up). A Yuan Yuan also came down on the other side just outside of the drop zone and nabbed the imetron there first go, then put I think 4 chain rifle (maybe 5) shots into the Rodok ML to put it all the way to dead.
His turn the Fraacta dropped and I held my breath. Sixth sense makes the link pretty strong against AD, but if he got through them it might be carnage and if he took down the Tanko my flank might collapse with the Samaritan jumping over the helicopter. Fortunately he stood up to shoot some guys and the Lu Duan on the ground floor broke echo state to flamer him all the way to dead. In hindsight, I think I should have offered to let him move prone here, but I was in a panic and took the AROs without thinking. Bit of a dick move that I'm not proud off. My opponent didn't argue. I wish he had.
The rest of his turn was his HMG killing my HMG in about 3 orders and then miraculously failing to kill my box-carrying doctor, who retreated deeper into cover. My hero Yuan Yuan also got shot.
Turn 2 my Rui had a decent run killing an Ikadron (took a lot of orders) and then two of the Rodoks. I spent group 2 grabbing a box under smoke with my ninja and then high-tailing it back to base.
His turn he didn't have many orders left. He brought the nexus forward to grab the middle box and positioned Dr Worm on overwatch after he killed my Rui Shi (I didn't have the orders for suppression after the Ikadron took so long to kill). His Samaritan turned to kill my Dr and was poised behind the copter ready to jump over and make a run for the box that was dropped. I used the Lu Duan to kill Dr worm and my libertos to kill the Nexus and grab its box. I then spent my last 4 orders to reposition the link team onto the hill and get the Tanko across about 12" so he could take a shot at the Samaritan. He exploded in a hail of gibbets. With almost no units left, my opponent conceded.
ROUND 5: FIREFIGHT AGAINST JSA
Another lovely opponent running a keisotsu link with MSV2 kempetei and ML, Daiyokai Harris with Neko and another samurai, Yuriko, a Ryuken ODD and a Ryuken HRL, a spare keisotsu and an Oniwaban.
I had a vintage Ikari first turn. Two Yuan Yuan's landed with the firefight bonus right next to his Keisotsu link and I burned command tokens making orders regular to put chain rifle after chain rifle into the link. Thanks to some cagey prone deployment and good armour saves, I only managed to kill 3, but that included the ML and kempetei, so I was happy. The dude who died was not the lieutenant - she was safely off to one side. I thought perhaps it was Neko - not so. My third Yuan Yuan came down on the other flank and threw tasty smoke for my Rui Shi, who killed Neko and the other Samurai there before going into suppression.
His HRL Ryuken came round and killed the Yuan Yuan and Rui Shi in a single volley. Lame, but at least they had done their job. At this point we realised we hadn't declared data trackers. He made Yuriko his tracker while mine was the Wu Ming SMG. Yuriko was hidden but could be shot from a weird cross-table angle. This would be important later. The rest of his turn was the oniwaban grabbing smoke grenades from the panoply (yikes!) and his Daiyokai taking up suppression fire in the midfield.
I killed the Daiyokai with my HMG and the oniwaban with my libertos, then took up overwatch positions with a supportware buffed clipper bot. My plan was to press into the middle of the table on turn 3 to secure panoplies and kill Yuriko to get ahead on specialists.
His turn he used a Ryuken to kill a keisotsu who had run forward foolishly to fail to activate a panoply, grabbed a panoply herself, placed a mine and then retreated his HRL. He didn't have orders to do much else.
I executed my plan, bombing the Wu Ming forward and killing Yuriko, though it took longer than I had hoped. It also took longer to kill the Ryuken than I had hoped - indeed, I failed to put her down. As such, I had to hide the Boarding shotgun a bit because it was a specialist while everyone else just took hits from the Ryuken while getting items. I got ahead by one box with my last order. My opponent then graciously charged for the boxes and my specialist, dying on the way, rather than claiming secure HVT. I think I ended up 7-1, but it could maybe have been a minor if the dice had been even worse at the end there.
A FEW SUMMARY COMMENTS ON IKARI
Ikari are a very strong faction with obvious tools (see my playtesting report), but they take a surprising amount of finesse to play, especially in missions that involve more than smashing face. The main things are Yuan Yuan placement and survival (it is often hard to both be around to throw smoke and get into the meat of your opponent's exposed units), knowing when to use command tokens to turn orders regular (I never finish a game with tokens unspent, but there are so many opportunities for it you must be choosy), knowing when to go with the REMs and when to use the Harris or libertos, and knowing when to (over)extend yourself versus retreating the REMs to fight another turn. I found all my games at CanCon surprisingly nerve-wracking despite winning almost all of them comfortably. This owes partially to the fact that infinity's power level has increased recently to a less-forgiving point, and partially to the fact that Ikari makes you sweat. I recommend the faction, especially to JSA players who already have most of the units, but expect some tough learning experiences.
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