Ikari Tactics and Playtesting

God I love this sectorial!

• I love the fluff: Japanese revolutionaries and deserters from the Chinese penal corp committing dishonorable war crimes; mercenaries; machismo
• I love the units: a shit-tonne of impetuous dudes including the amazing (top 5 units in the game) Yuan yuan backed up by HI link teams, the Rui Shi (another top 5 unit, though maybe not at 1.5SWC) with smoke support, and cheap specialist profiles from Keisotsu
• And I love the playstyle: BANZAI!!!!

The only thing stopping me from completely committing to this faction for the next 12 months is that I freakin' love STARCO as well. 

Alright let's break the faction down and do up some initial lists (date: 03/04/2018):

Strengths

• Yuan Yuan: sometimes an auto-win if your opponent doesn't expect them, always a pain for skirmishers, always make deployment a headache, very capable of knocking out lone snipers like Atalanta and noctifers. 
• Wu Ming with a clipper: undercosted HI link teams are one of the most busted things in Infinity, and this team is no exception. The main problem with the Wu Tang Clan I mean the Wu Ming in ISS is that they don't have a defensive piece (the HRL blows) and they are expensive with a largely redundant 5th man. No such problems in Ikari - you get HMG, a great secondary attack piece in the MULTI+LGL, Missile Launcher clipper capable of good offence with marksmanship, FO specialist with shotgun, and a cheap as chips template dude, all for 151 points. 9 wounds, all range bands, offence and defence, specialist, direct templates, impact templates and a utility weapon (the lgl) at bargain prices. Amazing!
• Note: I am tempted to take the panzerfaust + LS profile instead of the MULTI+LGL. The MULTI is very expensive and I worry that I won't use it or the LGL much, whereas the panzer saves you 10 points, is useful on defence and can fire 2 shots and then guts behind cover if you lose the ftf roll. It seems especially important in the context of the clipper being an offensive rather than defensive piece. 
• The Rui Shi: the game's best sweeper. With marksmanship lvl2 this thing is an offensive force to be reckoned with. 4 dice hitting on 15s no matter what thanks to MSV2 at DAM14 with shock on a 6-4 platform can gut an order pool in a single turn. With smoke (and the copious quantities of it in Ikari) it just becomes even more disgusting. 
• Cheap LI specialists: the keisotsu hacker is perfect - gives you gadgets for the cheapest possible price and can brain blast in a pinch if someone comes to hack your Wu or Rui Shi. The engineer and doctor do what you need them to do at rock bottom prices with WIP13, and the keisotsu FO and paramedic are decent specialists with some utility in a link team. 
• Smoke everywhere: not as powerful as eclipse, but still a big advantage against a lot of factions, especially with the Rui Shi and the Banzai style of Ikari. It helps that the smoke platforms are excellent: the Yuan Yuan and dual assault pistol desperado (13 points for something that can gut an order pool quick as a flash is a bargain). 
• So much impetuous: y'all know warbands are broken right? The impetuous discount is too big.
• Lu Duan: one of the main things I look for in a faction is a solid secondary attack piece that doesn't cost SWC. The Lu Duan is one of the best examples of this. You've got a two-way MOD stack with holoprojector and MSV1 (plus marksmanship!), the echoes can clear mines against TAK or an enemy who has fortified buttons, and the MK12 hits hard with a great range band at 0SWC - all for 21 points!

Weaknesses

• Defence: other than the one defensive piece in your core link (Tanko with keisotsu or clipper/panzer with the Wu Ming), you're really struggling for board control on the opening turn and are very vulnerable to an alpha strike. If you go first it's fine because you can put enough road blocks in the midfield and potentially even just kill the main threats, but as a former phalanx player this makes me nervous. 
• Lieutenant: you're basically taxed 16 points to have a Brawler who is vulnerable to assassination, especially if you aren't running the Keisotsu team as a roadblock. You don't have any veterans, but at least a lot of your list is impetuous-irregular, so your first turn is similar regardless of whether you go into loss or not.
• Your veterans/HQ suck: Ikari does not like hunting party. Use STARCO Edit 18/09/2018: The Druze core is actually disgustingly good at hunting party because they have b2 ADHLs and the isolation slinging lgl with EM grenades, and they are better than in the Druze sectorial because they bring a tanko ML rather than weak hackers. 
• Your TAGs suck: Ikari does not like show of force. Avoid the Non-Aligned Armies here. 

Some other noteworthy things

• MOD stacks: you don't have many, but they are on the correct units (Rui Shi, Lu Duan), so I don't think it's a huge problem, and with the number of chain rifles you are packing you don't care about skirmishers. 
• Specialists: I initially thought this was a problem for Ikari, but between the Ninja, pathfinder, Bashi, cheap Keisotsu and the Wu Ming's FO dragging ability I think you're actually fine in contemporary ITS mission mixes. If Season 10 brings back something like Beacon race I might reconsider. 

Let's get to some lists then shall we? When I start out with a faction I usually begin with a list for killing missions and a list for button pushing missions and then tweak from there to specific mission mixes. With that in mind:

 Wu Ming - Direct Action
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GROUP 1 
 WÚ MÍNG MULTI Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 39)
 WÚ MÍNG HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 39)
 WÚ MÍNG (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31)
 WÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Duo) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
 CLIPPER DRONBOT Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 17)
 DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
 RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)
 BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
 KEISOTSU Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
 PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
 KRAKOT RENEGADE Submachine Gun, Chest Mine / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
 KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
 TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
 YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

 5.5 SWC | 300 Points

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For now, I'm going with the MULTI+LGL in the Ming team. If I find I need more defence or orders I'll pull in the panzer instead and grab a keisotsu with combi for group 2 as a decoy lieutenant.

I think this list is l33t, but might have a teensy bit of trouble with a big TAG list like the Marut backed by TO snipers build. That said, I suspect the Yuan Yuans will gut their order pool pretty effectively and if you can out-range the Marut on turn 1 with the marksmanship clipper it will go boom (1 dice on 9s vs 2 dice on 18s).

Most of the time turn 1 involves YYs and desperado dropping smoke, then the Rui gets marksmanship and rushes forward to kill things. Any remaining orders get spent on the warbands to clean up shop. Don't overlooked the option of turning a failed AD yuan yuan's order regular using a command token so that 1 guy who did land in  a juicy spot can go especially gangbusters. Turn 2 you rush with the desperado and the Wu and press some buttons. Your opponent should be dead by now. I think this is basically a better Janissary list, because you have Rui Shi to sweep and bum rush.

Next list:


 Wu Ming - Specialists
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GROUP 1
 WÚ MÍNG HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 39)
 WÚ MÍNG (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31)
 WÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Haris) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
 RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)
 BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
 TANKŌ Missile Launcher / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 32)
 KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
 KEISOTSU Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
 KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
 NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
 PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
 TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)

 5.5 SWC | 300 Points

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Oh my god I'm running a Harris. Unprecedented outside of Tohaa. The Keisotsu link team is really just there to get you the Tanko and free up some points. You take the paramedic, hacker and bralwer anyway. This way you get a dirt cheap and +3BS Yan Huo with missiles plus some useful specialists who can also guard your chump lieutenant. You can still fit the Wu Ming Harris, which I think is better than using a TR bot with marksmanship as your HMG because you can drag a specialist around and get a B3 shotgun for clearing out congo lines in the midfield (you can potentially even bum rush with the Harris if your opponent has deployed badly). The rest of the list is a couple of cheap specialists in the ninja, pathfinder and engineer, a cheerleader in the Fugazi and the obligatory Yuan Yuans. The game plan is still to bum rush with the Rui Shi and Wu Ming, but you've got a little bit more static board control, and enough warbands to keep your opponent off-balance while your fast and reliable specialists (Ming FO, Pathfinder and ninja) push the buttons.

Onto some playtesting!

15/04/2018 - Supplies against a very good player using Onyx

My opponent was running a fairly standard take-all-comers Rodok list - Kernau, Nexus hacker, 5 rodoks in a link with a ML and HMG, Q-drone HMG, flash bot, 2 ikadrons, sensor-bot, doctor worm, noctifer ML, 2 Imetrons. I got first turn. He took the two regular orders out of the Yuan Yuan pool. Note to self, it might be worth starting the ninja as a marker if you have first turn just so you have an order for the Yuan Yuans in this situation.

One Yuan Yuan made it into his deployment zone. Chain rifle at a Q-drone, Imetron and slave drone. Slave survived, others died. My dude amazingly survived the Q-drone shots. At this point, I should have immediately turn an irregular order regular and continued killing stuff with this guy, but alas I am unskilled in the ways of the irregular. My other Yuan Yuans arrived on the flank and dropped smoke for the Rui Shi, who proceeded to rush forward. A Yuan Yuan chain rifled his Rodok ML to death. The Rui Shi then started capping cheerleaders. Unfortunately, I observed a facing wrong and thus two flash pulse shots at one point. I split burst and lost both ftf rolls. Blind. I then retreated hoping to protect my shizzle, but the noctifer revealed in an unexpected spot and smoked me all the way to dead. Boo. My next move was to take that noctifer with my Wu Ming HMG. Took about 3 orders to get into the right range bad. 5 dice on 10s versus 1 dice on 12. Crit. Oh man. Wu Mizzle went unconscious. The other boys reformed and bailed into a nearby building.

His turn 2 the rodoks healed and then came forward to kill my Tanko ML and paramedic. In the first face to face between the tanko and rodok HMG he needed 15s on 5 and I needed 13s on 2. I rolled a 12 and he...crited me. Oh man. Then he moved his whole team and I decided to detonate one of the other guys and just die in a blaze of glory. He claimed a box and retreated, laying a mine. My turn the Yuan Yuans who failed their AD came round and templated the exposed Rodoks while eating the mine. My ninja then chopped the box carrier in the head. Sadly, I did not have the orders to abscond with the box. My Wu Ming then came through looking to hunt noctifer, but the bitch made his dodge and went prone up high. My assault was largely ineffectual, so I retreated into a neat defensive position. I wish I had a photo. I thought the Ninja could engage if someone tried to leave with the box, while my Wu could shoot his SMG over the top. I was wrong.

My opponent masterfully extricated the box. He could move using a corpse as cover, grabbed a box and pooped a mine. He then brought over an Ikadron so his KHD could hack my KHD through the repeater. I had to go for it, but that triggered the mine and my ninja bought the farm. He spent the rest of his orders grabbing a second box on the other flank.

My last turn I started trying to go for the win with my Wu Ming FO. I had to kill his Rodok, which involved getting past the Noctifer. Noctifer Dogged caused problems, but the real kicker was that his Rodok, reasonably because the dice favoured him, made a dodge and retreated too far for me to really be able to get him. I then spent orders on my Keisotsu team to go and get the central box, which they did, but my Brawler again failed to kill the Rodok box carrier and push the draw. His turn he basically just shot my box carrier with that Rodok and then claimed secure HVT.

Overall an excellent game. Ikari have mad power going first. I definitely made some mistakes, but there were also a few clutch dice rolls early on.

29/05/2018 - Updating Lists

I haven't done much playtesting (been working on ISS instead), but I have been theorycrafting a lot of lists for Ikari. I'm going to the UK again in October for a few months of intense tournament play, so I will be perfecting my Ikari game there. I might bring that forward for MOAB in September, but I like to keep my tech fresh (i.e. secret). Anyway, here is where I'm at:

• I think the Keisotsu link with Tanko ML + Wu Ming Harris is the optimal build, rather than the 5-man Wu Ming link. The Clipper doesn't stand up on defence and its offensive power is unnecessary. What's more, with the Tanko + ML build, you can leave the Tanko at home to survey the field while the Wu move forward. The opportunity cost of doing this with the clipper is massive. The Core + Harris approach costs a bit more, but most of the keisotsu team you will take anyway: the hacker for your REMs, the brawler for your lt, and a paramedic to heal the Tanko. That just leaves one extra chump, which is a fine cheerleader. 
• While desperadoes are great, the most obvious threat in the list is the Rui Shi, and opponents are likely to gun for it. You don't have much defence to slow this down. My solution to this problem in ISS has been to run a Lu Duan. This provides a back-up Rui Shi with some different applications (e.g. heavy flamer for TO units, holoechoes for mine clearing). It also allows you to deploy as two desperadoes (AVA 2) (or 2 Rui Shi in ISS), which messes with your opponent's deployment decisions because desperadoes must be respected (the points are about the same 21/0 vs 26/0) and, if you're on ARO turn 1, can act as a roadblock because people will move to hunt down a desperado who is poking out of cover. Turns out it is an echo - what a waste of orders. 
• The other roadblocks that you can use are a Krakot, a repeater web using a pathfinder and Fugazi, a warcore and Keisotsu FOs with flash pulses. I find the Keisotsu hacker isn't enough of a deterrent with the repeater web because he is WIP12 and the web isn't very dense. The pathfinder is also a bit expensive and not very useful. The Krakot is gas - I will almost always take it. If you have turn 1 then the Yuan Yuans become a major roadblock for your opponent because they throw smoke on 17s and chain rifles are always effective on defence because your opponent can't dodge and must take the hit. 
• I'm not sure how many orders you want for the Yuan Yuans, but from QK playtesting we found 2 is fine. This means that you can use them to go on a rampage, but against better players you can't go on a rampage anyway. Just set them up defensively in that case and use them to throw smoke for the Rui Shi. 
• A ninja with a KHD is very useful, but the price point rankles me. All of your attack pieces and even your major defensive piece is vulnerable to hacking. Good players can slow you down a lot with a repeater web, and Kernau link-firing pitchers into your DZ is really painful. A KhD Ninja deployed within 8" of where those repeaters are going to go puts a stop to this garbage. All this said, most factions aren't running hackers anymore because killer hackers have squeezed them out of the meta. My approach is to run the Ninja in a separate list for button pushing missions and to bring it out against factions like Nomads or Onyx where I am likely to be up against a lot of hackers. One complication here is that you would ideally like to have a second list with a 5-man Wu Ming team rocking the big HMG for killing HI links. 
• A complication that arises is how to distribute the order pools in Ikari. You want the 10 orders for the Rui Shi bum rush, but this necessitates putting the hacker in a different order pool for supportware. This means that you either need the hacker to be on his own in a group, or for the Tanko team to be in a different group and run an extra keisotsu (not the worst cheerleader). There usually aren't many points for that. An additional reason to have the hacker separate is so that he can activate without simultaneously activating the Tanko and giving your opponent a free shot at big boy. 

So here are the lists I am currently working with. First, direct action:

 Direct Action

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GROUP 1

 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

 KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)

 LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)

 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

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

 WARCOR (Sixth Sense L1) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)

GROUP 2

 TANKŌ Missile Launcher / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 32)

 BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)

 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)

 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)

 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)

 WÚ MÍNG HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 39)

 WÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Haris) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)

 WÚ MÍNG (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31)

 RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)

 TOKUSETSU EISEI Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)

 5.5 SWC | 300 Points

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The idea here is to go for the order pool and not worry too much about hard targets like HI link teams and TAGs. Ikari don't really have the tools to kill hard targets to be honest. You try to nerf them by either getting a Yuan Yuan into base to base and then chilling, or by killing all the orders. The doctor is there to heal the Tanko and push buttons on the final turn. 

Group 2 either fuels the Yuan Yuans on turn 1 or the Lu Duan (potentially with supportware) to kill an ARO piece. You then swap supportware to the Rui Shi and it goes on a murder run with a full complement of orders. Ignore ARO pieces that are not vulnerable to the shock spitfire, like HI link teams, and focus on cheerleaders who can't fight back and can be efficiently gunned down. your absolute priority is to cripple your opponent, not to take out key threats. Turn 2 it's the Wu Ming's turn to rambo, but their focus is mostly on pressing buttons and getting a good board control position where they can soak orders on ARM4+cover with shotguns and suppression weapons. Do not be afraid to break the link team for the suppression bonus. It is often critical. The idea is for these guys to die hard to deny your opponent good positioning. Your Lu Duan sweeps around to kill exposed units. Turn three it's mop up with whatever you've got left against whatever they have left. If at this point your Tanko or Rui Shi are still alive you have probably won. 

Note that the plan is a little different against factions with defensive fortifications e.g. Tohaa and Riot Grrls. Here you want to go second because they can rarely alpha strike you anyway. Choose deployment and get a good spot for the Tanko. Let them come to you. On your turn 1, depending on the situation but this is likely, use the Wu Ming HMG to kill softer snipers like Gao Raels; avoid all others as you bomb forward with the Rui Shi as usual. If you suspect a lot of TO, like against ALEPH, consider using the Lu Duan instead (TO hate holoechoes) or at least try to draw out the TO using Yuan Yuans. Losing the Rui Shi when your opponent has a lot of TO is really bad. Note especially that the Rui Shi is probably the hardest counter to proxies and noctifers because they can't stop it smoke shooting and it shocks them straight to dead. 

That leaves the second list for button pushing missions. I confess that I don't really know what I'm doing here yet, but my inclination is to run the Wu Ming at 5-man. The list is something like this:

 Buttons

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GROUP 1

 NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)

 BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)

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

 WÚ MÍNG (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31)

 WÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Haris) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)

 WÚ MÍNG Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)

 WÚ MÍNG HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 39)

 CLIPPER DRONBOT Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 17)

 RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)

 PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)

GROUP 2

 KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)

 TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)

 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

 6 SWC | 300 Points

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It's a crying shame Ikari can't put Karakuri in a link team. They are hot. A keisotsu link with Tanko and a Karakuri Harris would work wonders. I guess that's too JSA (but they can't get the Tanko in so cheap), I'm tempted to change the krakot out for some more orders, but he is a good roadblock. 

Alright so the idea here is actually to play a lot slower than with the direct action list, which isn't very Ikari style but whatever. If you have first turn, deploy the ninja out of reserve. The Rui Shi always goes down on a terrain-dense flank where the Yuan Yuans who fail their AD roll can walk on and throw smoke, so it doesn't need to be in reserve.  If you expect your opponent to set up a big overwatch fort, then you can deploy the ninja in hidden and spend all your 7 (9-2 for command token) orders on the Wu Ming team killing stuff with the HMG and sometimes the clipper. Stay in your own bunker. Leave the clipper out on overwatch with marksmanship active and the engineer nearby. Defensive factions are slow to come forward, so a few Yuan Yuans and the clipper will be enough to neuter their first turn. If all you've lost at the end of turn 1 is the clipper, the Krakot and a few Yuan Yuans and they've got no overwatch left you've probably won. Put supportware on the Rui Shi and go ballistic with 7 orders on an overreaching opponent. Any spare orders go into pushing the 4-man Wu team forward to a commanding position and push buttons. Final turn is a button pushing frenzy, but you've got the tools in the Ninja, linked FO and pathfinder to do it efficiently. If you do go on a Rui Shi binge on turn 2, try to make at least one order coordinated to get the pathfinder and Ninja up a little bit. If you don't expect a big ARO fort, then deploy the ninja as a token. Your options here are either to kill what ARO is out (e.g. a TR bot) before pushing buttons with your ninja and pathfinder, then returning to marker state and supportwared suppression fire respectively. OR, if your opponent has no ARO out, just gadgeting the Rui Shi and killing stuff on a rush. Be wary of losing your only ARO piece. Turn 2 will involve the Wu Ming occupying prime real estate and turn 3 will involve pushing buttons, mostly with them because they are savage in close quarters. 

Incidentally, I think this list would be quite good at rescue because it is resilient to TAG rushes (most TAGs have terrain) and has the tools and resources to drag a civilian on turn 1 and then again on turns 2 and 3 if your opponent's defense isn't strong. Meanwhile you can put up OK roadblocks to your opponent's own attempts to drag civilians with the Yuan Yuans and pathfinder on suppression with supportware (14s to hit on 3 with an unavoidable -3 plus cover is no joke). Be wary of assassination runs on your brawler. 

Just remember to take it slow turn 1. Kill the ARO pieces, score a point and leave orders to recamo and go into suppression. This list is very good at the long game because of the Wu Ming.


Further list-building thoughts 21/06/2018

I've realised that it would be better to build 2 Ikari lists that can do any mission but are tuned to different opponents. There are two main reasons for this. First, the KHD ninja is a necessary inclusion in any Ikari list because all of your threats are hackable. The inclusion of the ninja means that you have enough specialists to do any contemporary ITS mission (ninja, Wu Ming link and a few random LIs - this is plenty in an alpha strike faction). The only missions where you would need to adjust things are highly classified and maybe the grid because you want more keisotsu FOs there. The second reason is that the primary Ikari list (the keisotsu  + Tanko core plus the Wu Ming harris and remotes) is really good against just about everything but has a few hard counters, so you want to build a second list not for missions but for matchups. I'm not sure what the relevant matchups are yet, but an early suspicion is HI link teams because they are resilient to the Rui Shi rush and the 3-man Wu Ming HMG is not enough of a beat stick to knock them over. The obvious answer here is the 5-man Wu Ming link team. I'll keep thinking about other tough matchups. Here is where I am at with lists:

 Ikari TAC
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1
 TANKŌ Missile Launcher / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 32)
 BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
 KEISOTSU Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
 WÚ MÍNG HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 39)
 BRAWLER Doctor (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
 WÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Haris) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
 LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
 RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)

GROUP 2
 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)
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 8)
 NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
 KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
 WARCOR (Sixth Sense L1) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)

 5.5 SWC | 300 Points

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Very similar to the discussion in the previous update. I've included the ninja and moved the hacker into her own group. This allows me to kill defensive hackers with orders from group 2. It also allows me to put supportware up without activating the Tanko or burning orders from group 1. This costs a lot of points though, so I can't quite fit the Krakot in there. More playtesting will reveal whether the extra orders in group 2 are necessary. At present, I'm thinking that sometimes you will need the regular orders to move the ninja quite far and then KHD someone. You can then command token one of the Yuan Yuan irregulars to pay for supportware. Remember that pretty much everything in my Ikari thinking is designed around getting a full 8 orders into a smoke covered, support-wared Rui Shi (or Lu Duan if you fear a lot of mines or TO snipers). If that goes off you basically win against anything that isn't Rui-proof, like a 5-man HI link team or two Gao Rael snipers with symbionts. Krakots are amazing in a vacuum but I'm not sure what they bring to this list. The warcor is actually nice to have for defence on first ARO turn and you need the orders for the above mentioned optimising of the alpha strike. I also love the idea of 19 bodies on the table.

Stuff that I still need to playtest more: desperadoes (Lu Duan can post up as two baggage bots), baggage bots, krakot, various inclusions in the Wu Ming team, crazy amounts of smoke for the lols with Yojimbo and everyone else with a melee weapon.


17/09/2018

Had a game with the list above yesterday against Tohaa in Frostbyte (new season 10 mission). Got the win, but the Tohaa list was weird and my opponent and I both think he made some questionable decisions. He was running 18 orders or something with 4 chaksas, Makauls outside of link teams, preceptor with 2 beasts, A rasail (ewww), Nikoul, Gao rael sniper in triad with two kaeltars and a diplomat. He chose to deploy second, I chose to go second (that's usually the best thing against Tohaa, but my opponent has read all my writings and knows how to alpha strike with them, so I was nervous - I also wanted to test my ability to weather an alpha though).

I had a solid sniper spot for my tanko ML in the centre of the table with 3 lines >24" including one into the DZ, deployed my Wu Ming off to the side where the HMG could quickly close to within 32", my keisotsus in bunkers or prone on rooves and my Lu Duan off to the left-hand side. Rui Shi deployed out of reserve into the middle of the table. Ninja was close to a button just outside the exclusion zone. My classified was to kill people in close combat. A favourite.

Turn 1 his Nikoul killed my tanko in a single exchange. Sad face. I was expecting the Rasail to bomb forward after that with lt and datatracker order, but my opponent decided to play it cool instead, turning on heating units and laying huge numbers of mines to counter YYs. My turn my the YYs couldn't come down into the DZ because it was too well fortified, so they all walked on around the exclusion zone and threw smoke or got into cover. In general, I think it is totally find to do this with Yuan Yuans. They've already done a job if your opponent managed to counterdeploy, and from the midfield they can harass easily. You paid like 3 points to several orders worth of free movement - worth it. My HMG then killed his Gao Rael (that's precisely his job) and then my Rui Shi went on a run into midfield to smoke shoot at a triad. Foolishly, I decided to take the Makaul out first thinking that would remove eclipse and flame counterattacks. My crafty opponent threw smoke unopposed onto the rest of the triad. So I got a kill, but then my Rui Shi had no more targets. I retreated to a good suppression spot. I burned a few orders and a command token on a YY who had bootied an EXP CCW to try to kill a sakiel in CC for my classified. I won the first ftf but he passed two armour rolls. I then lost the second ftf and died. Boo.

My opponent spent most of turn 2 killing my Lu Duan with his Rasail and pressing the third button before destroying a heating unit, which meant that my half of the table was not heated at all. Honestly I didn't give a shit, because I started turn 2 with another 9 orders and I figured all my dudes were in link teams so they could always get out. The Rui Shi cleaned house, killing at least 5 guys, maybe 6, including his rasail and datatracker. My Wu Ming team then advanced a bit to a good suppression bunker within striking distance of the midfield (the harris dude was my datatracker).

Turn 3 my Rui Shi traded lives with a Makaul, then my opponent got his Nikoul into a slightly better position. Main action was the preceptor coming to kill my HMG through smoke, but thanks to a stretched congo line of suppression his beasts died and my datatracker survived on full wounds. That meant that on my turn I casually walked my datatracker into the midfield to score those points. I think at this point I was winning 5-4 or thereabouts. I then moved my Keisotsu team forward, turning off his backfield heater as I went (which killed all his baggage Chaksa), but leaving on his frontfield heater, which I then used to survive with the link team. This didn't seem to be something my opponent expected. Finally, I finally revealed my ninja, who went over to try to chop a Makaul in CC to make it 10-0. I lose that ftf. Boo. Still, a good win. 

Main takeaways:

• Ikari are very vulnerable to the alpha if the ML tanko goes down easily. I knew this, but it is worth underlining. 
• Unless you fear the alpha, the Wu Ming core list is perhaps better in frostbyte because it is HI. However, it is hard to fit a harris in that list. 
• I think you can play for the turn 3 swing in Frostbyte. This was my game plan going in, and it seemed to work. Obviously I want to test more, but killing your opponent (win on points killed) and then holding the midfield with your datatracker (more points)seems key, rather than heater shenanigans. Obviously winning on points is easy if your opponent's army dies to the cold because they don't have a heater, but with a link and a harris you will make it out. 
• If you have turn 1 it might be worth moving a ninja to associate a button with your backfield heater, but it depends on what that does to your alpah. Ikari is all about the alpha.  
• Overall, happy with the list. The Keisotsu link is a great order battery + sniper. The REMs are fierce at killing with assist from the YYs and Ming, and the HMG does a solid job clearing MSV overwatch pieces. 

20/09/2018

Missions are out for CanCon next year: supremacy, decapitation, frontline, supplies, firefight. I will definitely be taking Ikari to CanCon (hence why I haven't published this post), so I thought I should write out my initial thoughts on tackling these missions.

Some general points:

• While many of these missions require some specialists none of them involve specialist spam or required pics like veterans/anti-material. This is good for Ikari, but also good for the all the other power builds. 
• Two of these missions have long deployment zones - this is great for Ikari provided you can go first. 
• Three missions reward going first: supplies, firefight and decapitation. This is good for Ikari. The other two missions reward going second (frontline and supremacy), but they also reward curb-stomping your opponent on turn 1, so I think I'll be fine. Phalanx loved frontline. 
• Initially I thought that lieutenant hunting was bad for Ikari because your lieutenant sucks, but actually it's great because your lieutenant is obvious anyway and this way you don't go into loss of lieutenant when the brawler dies. 

Supremacy:

• Curiously this is one of the weaker Ikari missions because you need to score every turn and I want to spend most of the game just pounding my opponent into dust and only focusing on scoring at the end. My cheerleaders tend to sit in the DZ while a single unit charges forward (I call this the rook and bishop approach to offence - lots of long moves). Lucky it is first up. 
• Still not bad if you get the alphas strike off, because a ninja and the Wu can hold two backfield quadrants pretty easily while you clean up. I will likely deploy the Ninja as a token on a roof in this mission to generate an order while scoring. The Wu Ming will do most of the button pushing. 
• Don't be afraid to deploy your Yuan Yuans for scoring rather than killing, especially on turn 1. Think about which quadrant your opponent is not going to push dudes into and drop two YYs into there. 
• Note that a good alpha strike is a hell of a distraction for an opponent. When there is a bunch of stuff just outside your DZ in suppression threatening to come in for another crush you tend to forget about getting into forward quadrants. All you need is for them to forget about scoring on turn 1 - then you're set for turn 2 draw and turn 3 win. 

Decapitation:

• So this is kind of bad because your lieutenant is paper thin and obvious, but on the plus side it means you can't go into loss of lieutenant. 
• Most of the points are about killing more stuff and killing the designated target with your datatracker anyway, and Ikari is pretty great at that. 
• You really want to go first. Bomb forward with the Wu Ming, kill the HVT with your datatracker (either Wu Ming or ninja deployed from reserve out of marker state if you have turn 1 and can deploy at the HVT), drop into suppression. Turn 2 hunt the lieutenant with your REMs. 
• I would be a bit worried about going against a TAG lt. list here, but the Rui Shi and Yuan Yuans can just gut their order pool on turn 1 (hopefully - going first against an Avatar is rare). 

Frontline:

• As with Phalanx, this is a good mission for Ikari because all you want to do is get downfield and smash your opponent's face. You are then in the frontline. It's not quite as strong as in Phalanx because you're not pushing a whole link team into the frontline unless you're running the Wu Ming list, but it is solid. The Harris can hold the centre as datatracker and your Keisotsu link can pull up the rear. 

Supplies:

• All G here fam. Cripple your opponent turn 1 while your ninja makes off with a box. Wu Ming pick up another one turn 2 on the clean up and you're done. Ariadna players used to talk about running Van Zant in this mission in case you need to go and extract a box from your opponent's DZ. I'll see you Van Zant and raise you Yuan Yuans. Also super fast REMs.

Firefight:

• I am salivating for this mission. If I make the final table it will be on like Donkey Kong. This might be the best mission for Ikari and it is certainly the fluffiest. 
• Big 16" deployment zone for that Alpha strike
• +3PH for those Yuan Yuans to hit the AD 
• No loss of lieutenant
• Points coming mostly from killing. Oh yes. 

With this mission mix there is no need to have specific lists for specific missions so I am free to design lists for matchups instead. Will be running the TAC and Wu Ming lists for sure, just got to tweak them a bit. The only other list is a Druze core for hunting party really.


01/10/2018

Last month of my PhD but I'm finding weird amounts of time to crank games. I went to a small tournament last weekend as a break and took the Ikari. Played safe area, acquisition and unmasking. Then had a game last Sunday of Frostbyte and a game last night of decapitation. In the first 3 games I used the Wu Ming list, in the last 2 I used the TAC list. Some thoughts:

• The Tanko just keeps dying (as did my Wu Ming panzerfaust the one game he played). He has yet to hit with a single missile and has only survived a single shot to live another day. Worse, he keeps dying to snipers, not even a Vet Kazak HMG or something appropriate. 
• That said, Ikari is really light on defence without these pieces and could be alpha struck quite easily, so I am not about to cut them. I am planning to squeeze warcores in more though. 
• The Lu Duan is critical. One of your REMs tends to die early, and if you don't have a backup you can get easily shut down late game by a camo sniper or a skirmisher in suppression (the latter because your Yuan Yuan sweepers are dead; also note no smoke left). 
• Don't fixate on dropping the Yuan Yuans in the deployment zone especially if they are just going to die in a suicide run. What you ideally want to do is take on some isolated chump (like netrods) and then position so that anyone who comes by has to eat a chain rifle. This gets the kill and forces your opponent to spend orders. Of course if your opponent has a light infantry link team sitting pretty for some hot metal death then drop in and let rip, but don't risk the dispersion death for the sake of killing a flash pulse bot, especially in ground control. 
• The ninja is consistently great but tends to not appear until late game, which means that having it in a group with the Lu Duan is tricky because the Lu Duan has no orders. But then if the Lu Duan is in group 1 then you have all your major order sinks in the same group, which isn't ideal. I am not sure how to resolve this problem but I am working on it. One option, in the Wu Ming list, is to not run the ninja, which frees up points for orders. The Wu list is used against HI teams (Riot Grrls, Janissaries, Military Orders), Tohaa and Ariadna (specifically USARF). None of these factions are bringing assault hackers (except maybe Ferzen in MO).  

02/10/2018

Played a couple of games last night with a new version of the Wu Ming list, this time without the ninja. First game against Tohaa in frontline, second game also frontline was against Nomads with some hacking. The list as follows:

 Wu Ming 
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1 10
 CLIPPER DRONBOT Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 17)
 WÚ MÍNG HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 39)
 WÚ MÍNG (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31)
 WÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Haris) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
 WÚ MÍNG Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)
 BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
 RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)
 LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)

GROUP 2 4/5
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
 WARCOR (Sixth Sense L1) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
 TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
 KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
 KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

 6 SWC | 300 Points

[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=JwBgLAPgzCIQ6gVwAQFkCWA7A5siAmAVgFIBGcADmKgsJGIEIA2MkfKagdifudfa5MwjFuQFRuVPmI4SmHBvn6kuhJYpXkwwmmBKKlWkrpYNNbHd2CNz+S02sABUoZBRjFUlJet31T96ufjReNkEeoYrW5Gr+hKakwuQS/kQ2/Jac6raZCvii4NY0hCqOjkA]Open in Infinity Army
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Basic idea was to have more orders by cutting the ninja. I wanted to try group 2 being all the support pieces - the hacker, the keisotsu specialist, the engineer - and group 1 all the attack pieces. Idea was that you could pour orders from group 2 into the Yuan Yuans on turn 1 and 2 while group 1 assaults. results from the games.

• As usual, Tohaa weathered the alpha strike quite well, in part because my opponent was running an unusual list (that I am very excited about because it innovates on the game's basic formulas) with a very high order count (lots of Chaksa corner guards) and melee triads of 2 Makauls and a Sakiel paramedic (also preceptors). Note that a Sakiel and a Makaul in close combat with you will kill basically anything in an order and the best that you can hope for is to strip a mate off the sakiel (the Makaul rolls 2 dice on CC22 with a viral weapon and DAM17...ouch). His rasail counterattack was not so effective but it did kill my Lu Duan. My Wu Ming counterattack was equally nerfed by some eclipse smoke (on 11 when I had 5 dice hitting on 16s...grrr!) but I did kill the Rasail. He then smashed the Wu with one of those Makaul teams and ended the turn engaged with last 2, which ruined me because I didn't have any attack pieces left. 
• Note sure how I could have played that game much differently. The Lu Duan is perhaps not the optimal attack piece, but the alpha would have been nerfed even if it was a Rui Shi because it was mostly about critical dodges and high armour rolls. Usually I would respond by charging with the Wu instead and looking for shotgun kills, but then they get eaten by the melee counterstrike, which is unstoppable because of the ultra-reliable PH16 B2 eclipse smoke approach. Might just be a bad matchup. Shame because otherwise I think Tohaa is a good matchup for this list. 
• Second game went by the book - Lu Duan killed TR bot, Intruder and two jaguars turn 1. Died to Kriza afterwards but not before stripping a wound (all luck). Wu Ming killed a few more things next turn and turn 3 and he didn't have enough orders left to control any quadrants thereafter. 
• Lu Duan as two desperadoes gets everyone. It doesn't last long because you declare holoechoes at the start of your first turn, but it's enough to slow some shit down. 
• I definitely think I need to use the Wu more aggressively. They are strong on defence against most things because of shotguns, especially if you can get one guy standing behind another guy prone so that they generate an ARO each against an assault, just be mindful of templates. Awkward thing is that the clipper becomes pretty useless once you're in the thick of it. Maybe I should use it on defense turn 1. BS15 sniper on turn 1 could work against a lot of stuff. Hmmm.I don't think you can afford to run 5 Wu - very expensive, especially with HRL. One thing to try here would be to give the Wu their own group with the Yuan Yuans, but this means that you might only have 6 orders turn 1 for a Rui Shi alpha (2 taken by command token, 1 by hacker for supportware and 1 by irregular warcore, but you can turn that regular). That's what I'm going to try next. 

08/10/2018

Had a game last night with the "Wu Ming in group 2" list against an Avatar. It didn't go well, mostly because a Q-drone (mimetic TR bot) survived two chain rifle hits and then got a crit against a Rui Shi smoke shooting at it. But a noticeable thing was that the Wu really wanted a full order group on turn 2, which they didn't have. So I am going back to Lu Duan as the attack piece in group 2, but going to experiment with having only 3 Yuan Yuans so that I can get an extra order in there. I'm also going to make the Krakot an engineer, but I really want the bot for him and I just don't have the points.

15/10/2018

Had another playtest with the Wu Ming list last night against NeoTerra with a Squalo (HMG no HGL), fusilier link, 2 bulleteers and a thousand flash pulses. I alpha struck really hard, mostly because a clipper with marksmanship managed to drop the TAG to unconscious in a single order (2 hits went through and he failed 3/6 saves needing 8s). I then cleaned it up before he could repair it. This put him in loss of lieutenant, cost him his main attack piece and meant that he couldn't hurt me much on turn 1, so my turn 2 was basically another punishing strike. That said, if I hadn't killed the squalo it wouldn't have been all that punishing.

One thing that worked well was the Lu Duan in group 2 chewing through five orders and 3 command tokens to really hit some shit. I'm almost tempted to go Rui Shi in group 2, but the Lu Duan is cute because it can spend a few orders, smack something (usually a sniper or flash bot) with surprise shot and then go into hiding and reactivate its holoprojector, forcing someone to come and get you and eat flamer. That's the way to play that piece - trade 20 points for 30 and orders for orders. If he lives to turn 2 you're doing great. The Wu Ming are the main advance in group 1 because having them in the midfield gives you a modicum of board control with the shotguns and templates, and the Rui Shi lances up on turn 2 to cripple your opponent.

The warcore is excellent as a speed-bump and potential command-token order monkey. She is especially great right now because you can synch the xenotech to her and potentially plant the button basically for free.

3 Yuan Yuans is optimal against a good player because you'll mostly want to walk them on as corner guards for board control and to throw smoke for your Rui Shi. Just remember to deploy the bot on a flank. I would like to run three in my tanko list as well but I am already at max AVA on keisotsu there and I don't think baggage bots are worth it - I already have trouble deploying the Rui Shi and the 3 Lu Duan Echoes.

I have to learn when to leave the clipper at home or on a cross-fire lane. Even with just BS12, B1 and marksmanship, it can hold down a table after an alpha strike with its range band from 32-40" against anything that isn't an ideal attack piece. Another thing I need to learn is how to leave it covering a >24" channel that means someone either needs to engage it at good range while it is in a 5-man link (i.e. hitting on 18s with 2 dice and gibbing you if it wins the ftf) or coming the long way round and having to tangle with the chain rifles and shotguns of the Wu Ming on the way. There are definitely some nuances to playing this guy that I have not yet mastered. I also need to learn to leave the engineer to repair him rather than the Rui Shi or the Lu Duan. Engineer deployment when you don't have points for a yudbot is difficult.

I'm calling these two lists done. I will be taking a brief break from playtesting Ikari to play a nostalgia game or two with Tohaa and do some playtesting of Vedic (mostly to discover its weaknesses). My main playtesting buddy is owed some variety. I'll be taking Ikari to a small tournament in November and then to the UK in December for some intensive playtesting. Should be able to get in at least another 20 games with these two lists before CanCon.

 List 1 - Wu Ming
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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)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
 RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)

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)
 KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
 LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
 TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)

 6 SWC | 300 Points

[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=JwBgLAPgzCIQ6gVwAQFkCWA7A5hAbAKQCMIATFAVAOx4gECEhJ5lNFjxZF1eYDTXVngAcDUgFZOYUVGHi69UgLDBKcomM6kN1caQYbmfHqsWHwx4WEn1zpYzVUABUqpJ614qgf0kok2SJvW18QfzUgn05wwOC7Byp9RVDrNTBCWy0HPFN4oVy+P29ZCQInJyA===]Open in Infinity Army
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Only three specialists, but this is a boon in firefight and plenty in supremacy and supplies where your Wu Ming FO is heading downfield anyway. Note that I don't have a ninja - do not take this list against someone that you expect to be rocking a lot of solid hackers, like Vedic. Fortunately the meta is against hackers at the moment because killer hackers are so swish. The basic game plan is to burn a lot command tokens into group 2 to smash face with the Lu Duan and Yuan Yuans on 1 while the Wu Ming clear the ramparts and fortify in the mid-field, leaving the clipper in a strong overwatch position (consider how the clipper could do overwatch on turn 3 - this might actually be more important than turn 2). Turn 2 the attack pieces in group 2 are usually dead, so the orders there go to the specialists to press buttons, heal dudes or move into board control positions. Meanwhile the Rui Shi absorbs most of group 1's orders to make a long run into the opponent, crippling them and then settling into suppression somewhere solid for board control. Turn 3 should be clean up and scoring.

Note that because you always want to go first in Ikari because your defence is so shit, it is important that you really wreck face on turn 2 and completely put the boot in on 3 otherwise you can be blindsided by cagey scoring at the bottom of 3 by a wiley opponent. The Wu Ming team is a critical piece of board control. Learning how to have them hold down an area is a very important skill to develop. They have the tools - shotguns, chain rifles and panzerfaust - it's all in the positioning.

List 2 - Tanko Overwatch (TAC)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1 
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
 KEISOTSU Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
 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 (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
 RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)

GROUP 2
 KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / 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)
 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

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I really want the 5th order in group 2 but the only option is a baggage bot as I am at max AVA on keisotsu and I don't think it's worth it (though 4 baggage bots with the Lu Duan tempts me to a playtest). This is the list I take into newbs (Yuan Yuans for the win), hackers (the brawler doctor can clear repeaters for the Wu Ming and the ninja can alpha strike) and anything where I think a tough overwatch piece is really going to help (Hassassins, vanilla Haqq and smoke-shooting Yu Jing). This list plays a little slower, with the Lu Duan unlikely to kill more than 1 thing on turn 1 (though look for opportunities to deploy the ninja as a marker on a roof in ground control missions) and the Rui Shi likely to be the main attack piece on turn 1 because the Wu Ming Harris is nowhere near as tough as the core so they don't want to get stranded mid-field. The objective of the alpha strike is to kill things that could take your Tanko in a straight up firefight, and things that can throw smoke. The Tanko should then be able to get you a lot of economy by denying easy movement. This channels opponents into the tight/dense parts of the table where your Yuan Yuans, 8-24" weapons and Harris shine. Don't be afraid to deploy a Yuan Yuan into your zone to throw smoke for your Rui Shi if you think it will be necessary for a smooth alpha. One other point that I must remember: the Harris can all go into suppression with a command token, which can be super powerful board control in the late game.


04/11/2018

Played a small local tourney yesterday and learned some things. Missions were supplies, armoury and engineering deck, in that order. I used the TAC list with the Keisotsu-Tanko link and Wu Ming Harris in supplies, and then the Wu Ming list in the bunker-busting missions.

Game 1 vs Vanilla Aleph 

My opponent was running Achilles order spam with Atalanta (and a myrmidon for smoke), a Chukra CoC and a proxy hacker with boarding shotgun. I didn't like the build: no KHD, no TR bot for clearing snipers that can't hold Achilles down, no eclipse grenades to get Achilles forward. Still, always a tough list to play against. I got the better of the early dice rolls and that was enough to carry it. Atalanta lost a ftf smoke shooting against my Tanko. Achilles then lost his first ftf against the Tanko as well and took a wound (4 dice on 15s vs 2 dice on 13s). Tanko then took a wound and went prone. So I started my first turn with only a warcore as a casualty. Rui Shi then went on a rampage (partially using smoke) killing 2 thorakites, 2 netrods, a proxy mk5 and a warcore. The Lu Duan killed a flashy boy and 2 of my Yuan Yauns traded with a flashbot and a thorakite. At one point his hacker appeared from TO and nearly oblivioned my Rui Shi, but the old 6 BTS saved my bacon. My ninja then chopped the hacker with MA2 and DACCW. In hindsight I should have double-moved into rear arc and then chopped her to avoid the nanopulser. I need to develop more finesse with CC. 7 regular orders down though. The Rui Shi died to a chain rifle (it was hard to hide him effectively, but I probably could have done a better job of positioning for suppression fire. My Yuan Yuans died to Achilles. Still, not a bad turn. Turn 2 I think I could have played better. I was conscious that opening boxes was risky as Achilles could then steal the supplies. I should have just made a beeline for his proxy, which would have locked him out of opening any boxes and then gone after Achilles. Instead I went for one box with the Harris, revived my ninja and moved her around in recamo with an eye to getting a second box. She was discovered and killed on turn 3 and my opponent got a box. My turn 3 the Keisotsu link team descended from the roof (alpha strikes with things like Achilles don't work as well when you can hide on roofs) and walked all the way around to kill the proxy (in CC with the Tanko!). 1 box to 0 is a major victory in Supplies. That was the main lesson.

Game 2 vs Vanilla Yu Jing

Armoury and my opponent chose deployment. I was worried about a Rui Shi alpha strike. I should've clenched my butt cheeks and gone second, but alas. My plan was to fire missiles across table, but I didn't have the orders to get past a minelayer efficiently and so didn't kill enough stuff, and then my link team got badly damaged by a Rui Shi smoke shooting and some Shaolin in CC. My own Rui Shi nearly pulled it back, but I didn't have enough points to contest the armoury on the final turn against a Dao Fei.

Main lessons:

• You really, really want to go second in armoury. 
• The Wu Ming + Clipper alpha strike can be neutered by minelayers. Lots of templates on the way can also slow you down, but minelayers are particularly bad because when you kill the minelayer it drops another mine, which prevents the clipper from breaking through for another turn. 
• Go second against Yu Jing. The Flashy boy and a 5-man panzerfaust can hold the fort against a Rui Shi. 

Game 3 vs Hassassins

My opponent elected to go first to avoid my alpha strike, but going second in engineering deck is huge. I turtled. His first turn didn't hurt much, though I was a bit frustrated when my panzer won the first ftf against a TR bot, then it got engineered back up and hit my three times in a salvo so that I was dead. I really need a doctor in this list. That is the major difference between Wu Ming and Janissary links - the Muslims get back up. My first turn was a bit of a disaster. A Rui Shi scrapped into Jammer range and got stuck. His TR bot then survived the Lu Duan, killed the Wu Ming HMG and survived two chain rifle templates before succumbing to a lucky coin flip ftf against my clipper. Fortunately, the clipper was then a beast on ARO, winning everything including a ftf against a lasiq sniper that took most of the link team out. The Wu tightened the screws from them, picking off dudes standing out in the open and making it hard to approach the objective room. On turn 3 my FO stormed that fort to secure it while some LI specialists beeped boops to claim a major victory.

Main lessons:

• You really want to go second in engineering deck, even with there no longer being a button inside the objective room.
• I really need a doctor in the Wu Ming list to get the big boys up. The REMs are usually too far away and can easily be killed all the way to dead once they are unconscious because they don't fall prone. I'm going to try replacing the engineer with a doctor to stand around with the link team on turn 1. This will make me more confident leaving the panzer on overwatch as well.  

12/01/2019

Quick battle reports from my games in the UK. Only managed to get three in - one against ISS in supremacy and two against Hassassins in frontline and decapitation respectively. 

Supremacy game was a classic case of a link team getting stranded in the midfield and dying. My opponent was running a Wu Ming core (2 HRL because they have shotguns - weird), Rui Shi, CG + 4 Kuang Shi, some other CG. No sophotect. His first turn was quite ineffectual. My Tanko took up a position that required him to fire smoke to move the Ming forward. He did so, and that was enough of a speed bump that the Wu ended in mid-field without killing anything. His Rui Shi then charge forward in a "Queen Sacrifice" but only had one order to shoot. I randomly won that face to face (it was not through smoke, but I think maybe I was shooting with a flash pulse bot or something). Next turn I basically collapsed the flank that his link team wasn't on and killed one of the Ming with my own Ming HMG. Next turn he didn't really have the orders to hurt me and the Ming stayed stranded. Turn 2 was shaky for a bit but eventually my Tanko fired a missile into the back of 2 Ming by relocating, thereby disintegrating the link. I had turn 3 to claim quadrants basically unopposed to a big win. I am perhaps insufficiently aggressive at scoring turn 1 in supremacy, but I always keep an eye out to dominate the quadrant with my xenotech in it. I think this is critical to winning supremacy in this season. 

First game against HB felt close until the final turn when I ran away with it. He was running triple Fiday, defensive Ghulam link with 2 ML and 1 sniper, Mutts, 4 daylami panzers, Ayyar, CoC Farzan. I was in loss of lieutenant turn 1, which was annoying, but I managed to kill bits and bobs and shore up my backline against further Fiday incursions. IIRC a key turning point was when my Rui Shi won a ftf against a fiday while in suppression. I could then rampage, notably killing Djabel. We called it at top of 3 because his turn would be ineffectual and I could casually claim front and middle quadrants.

Second game I ended up losing 59 to 57 on army points. It was a very close fought contest. I started well with the Rui Shi killing a whole bunch of stuff smoke shooting. The problems came on turn 3 when my datatracker and lieutenant (the same model) Wu Ming FO had to make a push into the midfield to kill stuff. The final two orders of the game both my Ming died to Leila fighting solo, which swung the game in a big way. In hindsight I should certainly have sent the FO home and just used the HMG to kill stuff before falling into suppression. I hope that in a tournament I would have taken the time to count the points and figure out exactly what I needed to do, but we were pressed for time as the club was closing. 

Back in Australia now and ready to play about 20 games before CanCon. I want to practice against major matchups - Riot grrls, Phalanx, more Tohaa games, Ikari mirror, Shock army or something else with a solid hacking presence, OSS etc. 

JANUARY 2019

Played a small tournament yesterday but it was basically a fun game - I ran a list full of every bike and smoke thrower I could pack in besides the Al Fasid, plus the Tanko harris with choppers and a brawler doctor. Had a blast but didn't learn much for CanCon except that the Libertos SMG is a fine profile. 

THE NIGHT BEFORE CANCON

Thought I should remind myself how to play the CanCon missions as a preparation exercise.

Supremacy:

Major thing in ITS Season 10 supremacy is that you get points for dominating with the xenotech in quadrant. It’s critical to do this each turn, so don’t forget to move the xenotech on turn 1.

Ideally, you spend group 2 on turn 1 pressing a button with the ninja and then moving to a roof to hide in a forward quadrant, and moving the xenotech out with the warcor (and try to place the marker). Any additional orders go into Yuan Yuans. Order pool one is for smashing face.

Decapitation

Good idea to go first and kill the designated with your datatracker while the table is relatively clear. If you have first turn just deploy the ninja next to it out of camo and make the ninja your tracker. Otherwise the Ming harris gets the bunker-busting job and the SMG does data-tracker duties.

It’s not a terrible idea to try and casevac your own HVT into your deployment zone to make it especially hard for your opponent to kill it.

After you’ve got the HVT, next priority is to kill the enemy datatracker. This is rarely an option though, because they’ve already done their job or are buried in the deployment zone somewhere, so just focus on smashing face and scoring those 2 points for killing more army points.

The lieutenant will hopefully die as part of your assault. If it’s something really annoying, like a camo lieutenant or TAG, then plan for the assassination run on turn 3. Focus on crippling through turn 2 and protecting your own lieutenant (easier said than done!).

Frontline:

Just wreck face. Do bishop moves (long and deep attacks) with the Rui Shi, Libertos and Lu Duan early and drop into suppression to keep your opponent pinned into his table half. Bishop runs hurt your opponent and impede their assault without exposing many of your dudes. Similarly, threaten with the Yuan Yuans so your opponent doesn’t have scope to move forward. Come through with the Wu Ming late game to claim the centre quadrant – don’t forget the xenotech!

A ninja deployed on the 24” line can claim any quadrant in an order. Be mindful also that the ninja can synch easily with the xenotech, so try to run the xenotech towards the ninja in early orders.

Supplies

A curiously bad mission for Ikari I find. You want the tanko ML to cover the boxes with the Libertos. If you have turn 1, have the ninja grab a box while the Harris grabs another. Leave box 3 alone or get the libertos over there to act like a mine. If you can survive to turn 2 without that 3^rd box running away, counterattack to it. You only need 2 boxes for the big win as long as your opponent has none.

If your opponent goes first and runs away with the boxes, the default is to press down the soft flank with the Wu Ming and sweep across on the final turn to force them to drop boxes while you pick up a single one. Hard to get a major this way though, so be careful. An opponent who takes no casualties on turn 1 because they focus on boxes is likely in for a hell of a counterstrike, but it depends if the terrain is in your favour.

Firefight

This is the mission for the Wu Ming core, because it has durability. If you can soak 4 wounds onto the Wu Ming without losing a model, you’ve probably won. The Wu can also hide a replacement lieutenant well. The strategy is to play lame: expose nothing. Make long runs with the bots and then drop into suppression as a roadblock. Your opponent now has to move a long way to engage anything. Trade up with the Yuan Yuans and use them and the libertos to prevent long runs from your opponent. Only expose the clipper once you have taken out things like HMGs and snipers that can really contest its missile. When you do assault with the Ming, press down a flank so that you can use the HMG and the SMG as appropriate.

An exception to this approach is if you have first turn and your opponent puts a congo-line together. Bomb the Ming forward and shotgun that sucker. But be aware that this is a very high risk (greedy) play. If there is something unexpected, like a TO assault hacker or sniper, that delays you then you’re in a lot of trouble.