- I want to be able to play a finesse faction - something that relies on things like melee, hacking, stealth, smoke shenanigans and jank like sat-lock to win games rather than just pounding my opponent with first-order optimal strategies (e.g. link teams) and units (e.g. Rui Shi).
- I think link teams are a bit broken (make BS only work on active and B only work on reactive) and I don't really see any reason to play vanilla these days. As such, playing Vanilla is basically a handicap. I like the idea of playing with a handicap and still winning
- I've been trying for ages to make a camo-spam Nomads list work but it just doesn't because hacking is over-costed (compare it to a 5 point Mutt that does the same thing) and under-powered (mostly because everything you want to hack has stealth...<cough> knight <cough>...)
- I'm bored with infinity because second-order optimal strategies are so tough to make work.
Well I have an announcement: vanilla Ariadna may save Infinity for me.
Here is the list I am currently working with. I would describe it as pretty jank, but it works brilliantly. There is only 1 support weapon - a single HMG with no MOD stacks. There are also barely any serious guns: T2 marksman rifle and a couple of Ojotniks. The rest is shotguns, mines, flamers and the occasional assault pistol. But trust me, this shit is fucking deadly. And super fluffy and fun too!
ARIADNA - CHARLIES IN THE TREES
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GROUP 1
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
SCOUT Lieutenant Ojotnik, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
UXÍA McNEILL (Covert Action) (CH: Limited Camouflage, Superior Infiltration, Specialist Operative) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 27)
VASSILY (Chain of Command) T2 Marksman Rifle, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 39)
112 Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 12)
GROUP 2
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
MÉTRO Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 8)
STRELOK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
FOXTROT (Forward Observer) Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
PAVEL McMANNUS Ojotnik, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, T2 CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)
BLACKJACK AP HMG, Chest Mines, D.E.P. / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 36)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10)
5 SWC | 300 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=MwBgjAPqIQKgFgUwAQGUDGBDANgB0dhGAJwCkATACwCspAHJeaQIQkU32MvkBsF1TOnWDc+5AfWEswTcsDr1yAdhbAVvEcTALmPWmDDUwpRtTLNyZcbSFkAApQqhSSnucdyQLt9y9U+DOY8xga8JmDAjsxWwDYGLDx8BtSOjIksRi5KtOR0PEy6CjJKKpRKHHZ2QA===]Open in Infinity Army
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The basic idea was to take all the good camo, then add in all the cheerleaders with direct templates and shotguns (volunteers, grunts and 112). These guys mean attacking your order pool with glass cannons like AD troops is a facile proposition. The grunts might as well be the infiltrating ones because sometimes they are savage (like when a link team deploys on a roof that extends beyond the deployment zone. Next stop is something to kill MSV2 snipers that might be a smoke-shooting pain for your camouflage, like Atalanta. The blackjack is the best for this because she's cheap, crit-proof, can take a sniper rifle hit on ARM5 + cover, and shoots decent on BS13. The Spetsnaz HMG is more vicious but not effective against link teams and isn't crit proof. You need redundancy. Last stop is some kind of sweeper. Lots of options here: bruant (4-4 but only limited camo), scots guard molotok, loup Garou viral rifle, paratroopers, frontovik. I eventually opted for Vassily because he has a good gun, the best kind of specialist (chain of command), can do sabotage and all the veteran classifieds, and has dogged so he is a bit crit proof. He is slow certainly (4-2), which is a huge pain in a sweeper, but he makes up for this a bit in reliability with WIP14 and BS13 with hard hitting guns in the T2 marksman rifle and heavy pistol. Additionally, he is 0SWC, which means that the ambush camo marker that he deploys is a serious decoy cateran or tankhunter ML. Incidentally, because Vassily is MI he gets forward deployment in ITS season 10, so he deploys beyond the deployment zone while his ambush marker deploys inside the DZ. This makes it even more credible as a cateran or tankhunter ML - no mistaking it for a Spetsnaz or some such.
On the camo front, the auto-includes are the libertos minelayer, 2 chasseur minelayers, pavel, and Uxia. A strelok is also an auto-include, and I went for the 16 point SMG to have the gun variety, because she doesn't want to move until the ambush camo is gone and this makes the antipode weak, and because she is very cheap. Then I have a foxtrot FO because I think you need one more mid-field specialist, she's cheap, she has mines and she can go on suppression effectively. In a mission mix with few button presses I would potentially use the SAS with chain rifle, assault pistol and grenades because he is a swiss-army knife and can melee effectively against hard targets with Pavel and Uxia. The last camo piece is the Scout lieutenant with Ojotnik. I wasn't sure about this guy but after a couple of games I actually think he makes everything come together. He's a very different unit to everything else, which cranks the shell game up a big notch. He is never expected because scouts are considered bad (quite reasonably - they are very expensive). The Ojotnik means you can have him on one flank and Pavel on the other, with no snipers in your DZ, and pwn people at long range from completely unexpected angles (sometimes in the back!). People often discover moving targets from across the table assuming that you can't shoot back with a shotgun - surprise, Ojotnik! He's a great lieutenant because he uses the order really well to shoot or lay a mine and recamo and is a pain to assassinate. If dies Vassily picks up command. D-charges also make him sabotage-capable, so that classified is definitely getting done. (Random aside: Uxia using D-charges in a melee pile-on is hot).
This list plays ultra lame in the sense that you never attack in a way that exposes you and you are deliberately passive and cagey. Your opponent spends most of their orders moving around inefficiently to then discover mines that they then cannot shoot (because the silhouette is S2 but the mine is S0) and ambush markers. When they do find somebody it's usually a chasseur with a flamethrower that holds its ARO while still camouflaged using SSlvl1 so that you're fucked, or someone with a shotgun so the face-to-face is no good. My cheerleaders are annoying to gut because they hide in corners with templates and shotguns - the blackjack is bait. On your active turn, reveal as few models as possible to pick off exposed targets, press buttons, and sneak up on people and encircle them with mines before going back into camo. Taking shots at your opponent with mines when they get no reply is delightful. This list has 18 mines. Your opponent spends a lot of orders manoeuvring around mines whereas you spend relatively few orders placing them. Look for opportunities to push the libertos and Uxia on deep bishop runs into your opponent's DZ with their shotguns to kill congo-lines of dudes. The groups are split 8-8 so that you can do this on turn 1 regardless of which groups get command tokened. This is the main form of attack, along with using the Ojotniks to pick off exposed units. Once the board is a little bit dilapidated and littered with mines, use your Ojotniks and suppression fire guys (Strelok and Foxtrot) to supplement the mines and establish board control.
The list excels against factions that rely on quality LI and REMs, like Neoterra, Ikari, Tohaa, OSS and Russians. LI spam, like Yu Jing, is a bit trickier because the warbands eat your mines well, but at least they shock out and can be killed easily by your shitty rifles and light shotguns. The main weakness of the list is hard targets, especially back-field TAGs (limited insertion variants are not so scary because they don't have the orders to discover you). Ideally, you will just ignore such units and focus on claiming objectives. This is not always possible though. You can kill their cheerleaders, or try to draw them into the midfield. There they can be killed. A T2 rifle in the front and a boarding shotgun in the back will drop a TAG quick as a flash. Light link teams are easy enough with mines, but HI link teams are trickier. Lay mines around them, certainly, then come through with a shotgun. If they dodge you will hit somebody with the shotgun. If they shoot the mines will hurt. Once the team is down to 3, use stealth and melee to mop up the remaining guys. This is not a beginner skill, but once mastered is actually quite efficient. You move within 4" but out of sight, declining to use stealth. This triggers a change facing ARO for the link that they cannot delay because they no longer have SSlvl2. You then make base-to-base. Get a bunch of people in and then start using the best one - usually Pavel or Uxia - to cut people down with your burst advantage, high CC, MA2/NBW and T2CCW/d-charges. Mixed link teams like the Varuna fusilier + ORC + Kamau are actually a blessing here because the LI can be killed with mines, leaving the HI exposed.
13/02/2019
Played a fun game of power pack against vanilla combined today. A pretty conventional CA list with an Anathematic, noctifer, gakis and daturazi, libertos (my friend is kind of obsessed with libertos - probably should have been a q-drone), guided bot (currently experimenting with this jank - it does not work), I can't really remember the rest. My favourite part of the game was definitely doing this for the first time:
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GROUP 1
ASSAULT PACK . (0 | 25)
HANDLER Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (- | 10)
x3 ANTIPODE AP CC Weapon. (- | 15)
UXÍA McNEILL (Covert Action) (CH: Limited Camouflage, Superior Infiltration, Specialist Operative) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, AP CCW, Knife. (0 |
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
UNKNOWN RANGER (Specialist Operative) Molotok / Heavy Pistol, T2 CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 47)
DOZER (Traktor Mul Control Device) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
112 Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 12)
GROUP 2
GRUNT Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
GRUNT Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
CATERAN T2 Sniper Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 24)
TANKHUNTER Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
BLACKJACK AP HMG, Chest Mines, D.E.P. / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 36)
VASSILY Lieutenant (Forward Observer) T2 Marksman Rifle, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 35)
IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
6 SWC | 299 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=MwBgjAPqIQggTgSwIYBMB2yAEBVdBbZAZwGtF0BzCMAVgFIAmAFjDoA5gA2OgQmAHZGnYHQCcYNrzCjGTemyYMpM5vMW8aS/tsZt+IXqEY1ubUUr6sGNQWZGXjt0fYYqa8s3QACTRkf6c9Dy+DP6BvAxKzJJsnKw89KGs2oIJyfyJsRbhYLSsinFSIUwGHEpeXkA]Open in Infinity Army
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Group 2 has the snipers so that if they die it doesn't affect order pool one, which is where the work is done. The rest of group 2 is the blackjack to clear snipers. If they do not exist, then the orders can go on the irmandinho to run forward on the cheap and press a button, or lay a bunch of smoke. In later turns, Vassily can kill things and press buttons, but you need to be conservative with him because he is your lieutenant. Use the ranger and dogs to press and kill early instead.
Group 1 has the unknown ranger datatracker. So expensive but he is just about the only datatracker appropriate piece in the faction. Has a mod-stack (mimetism) but not a marker state, has a gun that hits hard (molotok), is a specialist operative so can press buttons, has 2 wounds and 4 ARM, and has guns at all ranges to kill the designated target. He also brings melee, which can work well with antipodes and Uxia. She is there to push buttons and can also sometimes get into good assassination spots with superior infiltration. The dozer, volunteers, mules, grunts and 112 are there for orders. I don't think this is a great list but it's OK against most opponents, most factions and plays the mission well.
Round 3 - supremacy against vanilla ariadna
I was really looking forward to this game until I drew the mirror matchup. Fortunately, he chose to deploy second, which allowed me to claim a lot of the midfield with camo markers (can't deploy a camo marker in the trigger area of another camo marker) and also choose second turn, which is huge in supermacy. I also want to go second against camo so that he has to reveal some stuff.
His first turn was mostly Irmandinhos moving up and pressing buttons before dying. He then sent a spetsnaz the long way around to shoot my blackjack, but I passed armour (1 wound) and guts behind cover. He also got the xenotech down with his warcore. My turn the blackjack killed some stuff at range while moving the xenotech into position, then Uxia kill the spetsnaz and I claimed 3 quadrants with Vassily.
Turn 2 was a bit annoying because I had slightly miss-positioned Vassily's facing (I hate getting called on that sort of thing when my dude is clearly back-against the wall, but whatever) and so died, but Uxia managed to survive, which allowed me to again claim 3 quadrants to 1 with my xenotech while denying him his on turn 2 despite an autocannon popping out and causing me loads of headaches.
The final turn the tournament's bizarre rules struck. The policy was that when time is called you finish the order that you are on, and then the game is over. This creates an absurd incentive for player 1 to slow play turn 3. Even if they don't it still almost inevitably leads to player 2 having less time to play their turn 3. We had 15 minutes to play and I was sitting on a minor. I could see that I had a major locked up so I asked that we play to 3. My opponent took 10 minutes for his turn, not slow playing (he did take ages to roll dice but I don't usually mind people who get really thorough about randomisation). Not realising the bizarre house rule, I faffed about on my turn killing stuff and calculating with the intention of scoring a massive major. Time was then called and suddenly I lost on quadrants and he got xenotech while I didn't. So the win went from 8-1 or thereabouts to 6-5, mostly because Pavel and his 31 points was just chilling near my deployment zone while I had 5 orders in his pool.
Round 4 - Supplies against Shasvastii
Dammit, I didn't want to play against camo factions! This was a fun game though. He took first turn and I took second deployment because figured he wouldn't have that many camo tokens (I was mindful of a shekin in a link + 2 q-drones + bugs build with no midfield) and there were a lot of roofs and stairways on my side. I had the buttons pretty well locked down with mines and chasseurs that couldn't be approached from >8". His reserve deployment was a speculo minelayer who sank a mine in the strike zone of 2 of my guys.
His first turn he declared discover+shoot with the speculo. I bit the bullet and revealed the libertos to lay a mine, then dodged with the foxtrot when the speculo's mine went off. The libertos survived miraculously, going dogged from the speculo, but the foxtrot died. Nonetheless, his speculo was now fucked. He tried to explode the mine with the decoys of a Cadmus dropping in, but he dispersed off the board and into his deployment zone. He wanted to get doctor worm to the supply box, so he sent a slave drone over to pop the mine, which hit it and the speculo. The drone walked past a chasseur and I chose to do no reaction. Genius. The speculo survived the mine. He then brought a Caliban over to within 8" of my chasseur and I held ARO using sixth sense. Muwhahahahahahha. He was so surprised and then so despondent. He decided to dodge and I laid a mine. Note that dodge in active doesn't give you move, so he was just hanging out in the open. And that was the end of his turn!
My turn the blackjack lost a smoke face-to-face against the speculo, but then killed the caliban. My chasseur then killed the speculo with his rifle and then Dr worm around the corner with his flamer. Muwhahahaha. The rest of my turn was mostly Uxia moving around to discover+shoot a noctifer successfully and getting scan the HVT with a visor-unit. The boxes remained untouched, in part because my foxtrot was dead. His turn 2 the Cadmus came over to kill my chasseur but I tanked the save and killed him with a flamer! He then came at me with an Ikadron and I again tanked the hit and killed him with a flamer!
He spent his remaining orders making off with a box using an FO seed soldier. This actually put me in an odd predicament because if I killed any of his guys on my turn he would be in retreat and win the game. So I couldn't really do anything and just placed mines and repositioned my guys.
Fortunately turn 3 went as planned with Vassily getting forward to one box and killing everything on the way, and then Pavel making a big run down the field before stabbing the seed soldier to make him drop the box, giving me an 8-0 win.
Round 5 - Frontline against Ikari
My opponent was running a frankly bad list with a keisotsu link (no tanko), an Al Fasid, a Lu Duan but no Rui Shi, an EVO, 4 yuan yuans, a cube jaeger, a Karakuri with shotgun, a desperado and a libertos SMG.
I'm not going to go into this game because the memory of it makes me mad. I did not play flawlessly but I absolutely had it locked up going into turn 3. We went into turn 3 with 14 minutes on the clock. At the start of my turn I had 4 minutes. I said to my opponent, "we've only got 4 minutes but do you mind if I just play out my whole turn, it will be quick obviously?" The board was basically empty at this point after Vassily had popped his Al Fasid. My opponent said, literally, "yes you are well within your rights". So I took it easy, had a look around and tried to calculate points and quadrants etc. I spent two orders trying to doctor my blackjack for the major win, but he died. I then had 6 orders on Vassily to kill the Jaeger and the Keisotsu and casually walk to a minor. I spend the first order on Vassily, time is called, and my opponent says "this is your last order". Perhaps he had a brain fart and forgot what we had discussed earlier, but he did seem to be acting like a total dick. I wasn't about to argue that he had just said I could play out my turn. I am here to play well not win. So I was like OK fine fuck it, and I moved Vassily 6 inches forward, which was 0.5" short of the frontline. This meant that I lost 7-4 instead of winning 8-5. My opponent was then seen gloating to his mates. I made sure they appreciate that I had 5 orders left with which to comprehensively win. I spoke to the TOs afterwards gently to say that the approach to turn 3 was terrible. They said that it was to ensure that games finished on time because the store closes strictly. Fair enough, but there must be a better way. Hell start an hour earlier at 9am.
Anywayz....I was overall very happy with the weekend. I was playing my 5th through 11th games with the faction and I effectively went 4-1 with only a minor loss in a bad mission with a bad matchup. I like Vanilla Ariadna. If you play them regularly into the same meta you have to adapt your lists or people start to get used to that lone ambush marker not being a sniper and things like that. You also basically can't win exclusion zone missions. But ground control and button pressing missions they are fierce. One of my favourite things about them is that despite being paper thin I rarely lost any units until turn 3. The blackjack would often absorb orders and a hit early, leaving my camo unmolested, and then I could counterattack hard.
I am now for realz retiring from Infinity for at least 18 months. Spiral Corp nearly got me back in but they are just missing a thing or two. Shasvastii also nearly got me back in, but they aren't quite funky enough. I want to play Darshat to run McMurder, but the faction otherwise bores me. I'm moving overseas for at least a year. We'll see after that.
Oh, one last thing. I loved this table. It could use a bit more work, but the basic idea is gorgeous:
The list excels against factions that rely on quality LI and REMs, like Neoterra, Ikari, Tohaa, OSS and Russians. LI spam, like Yu Jing, is a bit trickier because the warbands eat your mines well, but at least they shock out and can be killed easily by your shitty rifles and light shotguns. The main weakness of the list is hard targets, especially back-field TAGs (limited insertion variants are not so scary because they don't have the orders to discover you). Ideally, you will just ignore such units and focus on claiming objectives. This is not always possible though. You can kill their cheerleaders, or try to draw them into the midfield. There they can be killed. A T2 rifle in the front and a boarding shotgun in the back will drop a TAG quick as a flash. Light link teams are easy enough with mines, but HI link teams are trickier. Lay mines around them, certainly, then come through with a shotgun. If they dodge you will hit somebody with the shotgun. If they shoot the mines will hurt. Once the team is down to 3, use stealth and melee to mop up the remaining guys. This is not a beginner skill, but once mastered is actually quite efficient. You move within 4" but out of sight, declining to use stealth. This triggers a change facing ARO for the link that they cannot delay because they no longer have SSlvl2. You then make base-to-base. Get a bunch of people in and then start using the best one - usually Pavel or Uxia - to cut people down with your burst advantage, high CC, MA2/NBW and T2CCW/d-charges. Mixed link teams like the Varuna fusilier + ORC + Kamau are actually a blessing here because the LI can be killed with mines, leaving the HI exposed.
13/02/2019
Played a fun game of power pack against vanilla combined today. A pretty conventional CA list with an Anathematic, noctifer, gakis and daturazi, libertos (my friend is kind of obsessed with libertos - probably should have been a q-drone), guided bot (currently experimenting with this jank - it does not work), I can't really remember the rest. My favourite part of the game was definitely doing this for the first time:
Basically, when someone moves to discover your chasseur camo marker you can hold your ARO using sixth sense level 2, this means that they are fucked. If they discover you hit them with a flamer, if they move away you hit them with a flamer, if they dodge you drop a mine (or fire your pistol/flamer), and then you get to hit them with a mine and a flamer next time. It's savage. Puts a stop to any glass cannon alpha strike, like a libertos or Rui Shi.
Game was a bit awkward for me because the middle of the table with all the objectives was a totally open kill box. Not easy to get objectives with my weak-ass camo pieces. The table was also set up a bit odd so that I had to deploy the long range pieces into the middle rather than onto the flanks, which made them easier to attack. I had a good spot for a scout, but he got a super jumping krakot (could have been a Gaki with different meta-chemistry) up there to kill him with berserk. I had turn 2, so I basically hoped to clear the kill box and then win with one objective or something. That's basically how it went down, but I didn't kill much. His gakis dodged all my mines but then I shot them on the counterattack. The noctifer was annoying but revealed to assault pistol a chasseur. He survived and then killed the noctifer with a flamer. Final turn his anathematic pushed a second button and put me into loss of lieutenant with a very astute jump attack (WIP16 makes discover a cinch). I pressed one button with Uxia and then claimed his console with the hero chasseur for a 2 point win. Good times.
I am loving this list. I like seeing my opponent flail about uselessly to kill a 20 point model through mines. I love the look of cluelessness that they adopt when they are looking at 16 camo tokens at the start of their first turn. I love the ingenuity of a lot of my kills. There's also lots of curious decisions to make. Like it's rarely clear what I should do on my turn, but it matters a lot which approach you choose. I'm honestly not even sure how to play against it. If you have second turn you should just play to the objectives, but I will always play to the objectives, so that's not so easy. Tough resilient things are not easy for me, but in ground control missions I can basically just hide on roofs and trade, then adjust on turn 3 for the win. Maybe hard for me to claim a major, but depends on how exposed the expensive pieces get.
24/02/2019
I'm visiting the UK in April and have decided to play in the UK's main Satellite tournament - the Firestorm in Cardiff. The missions are hot for this Ariadna camo garbage: highly classified, unmasking, supremacy, supplies, frontline. Two are ground control, which Ariadna loves because it deploys into scoring range and can't be dug out, especially supremacy where I can easily press all 4 buttons on turn 1 and then hide to claim quadrants. The others suit lists that can spring on objectives and then recede into the darkness (leaving mines behind), which is something this build excels at. I had to make a few modifications to the list for highly classified, so I thought I'd share my analysis.
HC in xenotech season is a lot more challenging than in the past, but also more doable for factions that don't have hackers. This isn't because hackers are no longer necessary, but because there are a bunch of classifieds that factions with hackers are going to struggle with that Ariadna owns. Having to spread yourself thin also makes assassination runs more painful, which again plays to Ariadna's strengths. Here is a list of what you need:
Veteran/Elite/CoC
HI/MI
Hacker
Forward observer
Paramedic/doctor
Engineer (in one case to heal your own guys with STR, which is basically impossible for Ariadna)
Biometric/MSV/sensor
D-charges
Close combat
And then there is a smattering of stuff like coup de grace and civ-evac. My core list struggles a bit with the MI/HI objective, had nothing that could do the visor objective, had only 1 doctor, no engineer, and only 1 FO. So I made some tweaks. Voila:
Ariadna camo spam - HIGHLY CLASSIFIED
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GROUP 1 (7 / 1)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
VASSILY Lieutenant (Forward Observer) T2 Marksman Rifle, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 35)
TANKHUNTER (Chain of Command) AP Rifle, Adhesive Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 30)
STRELOK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10)
GROUP 2 (8)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
112 Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 12)
FOXTROT (Forward Observer) Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
PAVEL McMANNUS Ojotnik, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, T2 CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)
UXÍA McNEILL (S.A.S. CP) (CH: Camouflage, Infiltration, Multispectral Visor L1) Boarding Shotgun, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 28)
MÉTRO Paramedic (Medikit) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
BLACKJACK AP HMG, Chest Mines, D.E.P. / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 36)
6 SWC | 300 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=MwBgjAPqIQggTgSwIYBMB2yAEBjZBbAeywGcAHArAWiwAkBJAcVoBkBNLAYRdgGVf6AMXoBRACIQwATgCkAJgAsAVhkAOBXJkBCafOVqN2uQDZ5SzatXAjpuebVXtxlWDBKwMjcY9aVc4B4KYMCyWt4yriaewQpOqhFyAOyJnon6AAKx/iAyicahWaC5+UaydiqWoWXAFa5Opq5KsV6mWsApJtZSYClacjmKpqpKKr4eyX6qxprp6UA=]Open in Infinity Army
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The main changes are:
- Assault pistol Uxia gives way to MSV1 Uxia, who does not have superior infiltrate nor d-charges but can recamo, which makes her exquisitely capable of scoring the visor objective while still making shotgun runs into enemy territory or laying smoke.
- Vassily takes over as lieutenant to give me an additional forward observer and give him a bit more scope to press forward early for the elite/veteran/CoC missions (bit of a waste of the ambush camo, but such is life). Speaking of which, while I cut the scout (an elite), I have a bunch of characters, all of whom infiltrate/FD, so I think I'm pretty solid on those missions.
- As Vassily will be murdering fools with his lieutenant order from turn 1, I need the tankhunter CoC unit, which replaces the scout (leaving me with little long-range firepower). I am not a fan of this unit because AP rifles don't hit very hard, he's slow, and he costs 1SWC. But for HC it's a really good unit as it can complete elite/veteran/CoC missions, the medium infantry mission and sabotage (d-charges!). As MI can forward deploy in the current ITS season, this change also doesn't mess with my camo shell game.
- Saving a few points on the Vassily/Tankhunter swaps allows me to upgrade the metro to a paramedic, which should make me more reliable for the experimental drug and HVT: inoculation mission. I think this is better than giving the Strelok an antipode for the sensor mission. The antipode ruins the shell game and costs 1 SWC and an order.
I'm quite solid across all the missions except hacking/engineer (i.e. 4/19). Not ideal, but highly classified is the first mission so hopefully I will not be playing against someone really good.
- 4 Elite/Veteran/CoC pieces: Uxia, Pavel, Vassily, Tankhunter
- 3 MI/HI pieces: Blackjack, Vassily, Tankhunter
- 2 reliable melee units: Uxia and Pavel (with enough camo nearby to make stacks-on possible)
- 2 doctors/paramedics
- An excellent MSV piece for claiming the HVT: Identity Check mission
- 2 FOs - the Foxtrot and Vassily - both of whom have camo and infiltration to help them get behind enemy units for designation or approach the HVT unmolested.
- 2 d-charges units with forward deployment and camouflage - Vassily and the tankhunter (Vassily will be doing a lot of heavy lifting in this mission!)
In addition, I can surround my HVT with mines to make life hard for my opponent and his LI specialists. I have enough smoke and camo to get to their HVT, and I have enough nuisance pieces like the libertos to slow my opponent down while I efficiently score cards using my infiltrators. I will have heaps of dudes out of my DZ but within my table half for the casevac mission. I have a decent datatracker in the blackjack. And I am still packing some decent punch (often a challenge in HC) with AP everywhere. I am sad that I don't have a second long range gun among the infiltrators, but it strikes me that if Vassily wants to get forward he's better with T2 marksman rifle than sniper, and this way I can hang onto my infiltrating grunts (0.5SWC each), who may be able to assassinate key units on my opponent's side of the table or at least slow things down while I score and lay mines.
17/04/2019 - Satellite in UK
I had some playtesting games between this post and the previous one but I can't remember them for shit so it doesn't matter. One of them was unmasking against vanilla Aleph and I recall losing in part because I chose to go first and then my side of the table didn't have anywhere good to hide the HVT. This post is about the UK satellite at firestorm games.
First up, the venue was amazing. Look at the size of this store! You can't even see the part where they sell their actual stock. They have a little cafeteria thing in there that makes basic food super cheap to boot. Terrain was mostly amazing. The tournament was well run except for the approach to the timing of turn 3, see below.
Round 1: Highly classified against Rahma Taskforce
The board classifieds included test run (which requires an engineer that I didn't have), spotlight the HVT with a hacker (which I didn't have), and the classified where a specialist has to be in base-to-base with an enemy specialist and succeed at a WIP roll, which is super hard. It also had the mission with sensor/visor, for which I had a grand total of one model. So pretty bad all up. Fortunately my hand classified was the one about a veteran/elite/CoC/character doing a WIP inside your opponent's table half, and I have 4 people that forward deploy in camo who qualify.
My opponent was running the full Khawarij link with Tariq, a TR bot, a ghulam smoke launcher, a monstrucker, an EVO (odd) and one of the other new HI guys in limited insertion. His card in hand involved engineering, which was fortuitous but I didn't find out until the end of the game. My list was the following, which I used for every mission except unmasking:
Bastariadna - HIGHLY CLASSIFIED, FRONTLINE, SUPREMACY
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
MÉTRO Paramedic (Medikit) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
PAVEL McMANNUS Ojotnik, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, T2 CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)
FOXTROT (Forward Observer) Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
UXÍA McNEILL (S.A.S. CP) (CH: Camouflage, Infiltration, Multispectral Visor L1) Boarding Shotgun, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 28)
GROUP 2
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10)
VASSILY Lieutenant (Forward Observer) T2 Marksman Rifle, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 35)
STRELOK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
TANKHUNTER (Chain of Command) AP Rifle, Adhesive Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 30)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
112 Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 12)
BLACKJACK AP HMG, Chest Mines, D.E.P. / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 36)
6 SWC | 300 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=MwBgjAPqIQQghgZwC7wE4Et4BMB28ACAWgIAkBJAcVIBkBNAgYRoEEBlN8gMXIFEARADQEuAJQDyAOQAqNcpN7C2AVQAKo3gFkWjOhDABOAKQAmACwBWIwA4zJowEJDpyzbuOTIFwDYbFqw4mviYW9tbWwB7BoTYRjt6+YGAWZkZ2CY7GJsBW1kmOwADspt6RBmDFAALe1kZgJoXFZoWuDt5WSRZgaUHdbd1JQWlgwKkOVtndZiPGDqnZXoXes/OgRkuzJln+sbNd64UT1t72lZVAA==]Open in Infinity Army
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He chose first turn, I took a side with a bunker for my HVT (you can see the U-shaped wall in the middle in the picture above) and covered the entrances in mines. His first turn he basically just moved up and tried to get through mines. He shot at my blackjack with a TR bot at long range looking to get test run, but I was facing the wrong way so just took a hit rather than shoot back, then failed my guts and went further around the corner. My turn I had to clench my butt cheeks a lot. Uxia needed to kill his TR bot, kill the monstrucker (who has a chain rifle), and WIP roll against the HVT to get her visor card. To get to the TR bot and engineer in the first place she had to go past some discover rolls. Fortunately my opponent was worried about a boarding shotgun to his link team and so held and let me walk past. I then had to kill the TR bot, which allowed the engineer to change facing. I sent a libertos down the other flank with the other order pool, laying a mine to hit tariq and then coming around the corner to kill the ghulam. I then went further around the corner into sight of the link team in order to shoot the EVO in the back and hit the monstrucker with the shotgun template. Genius, if I do say so myself. His link team took 4 shots and I miraculously only took 1 wound. The mine I had planted went off and did a wound to Tariq. w00t. And I needed it, because the bloody engineer and hacker survived. I took another set of shots and killed the hacker, but the engineer survived! So I clenched my butt and moved out of LoF to sensor the HVT. He chain rifled to avoid a face-to-face against the shotgun, and I passed the dodge and breathed a sigh of relief. I then scanned the HVT and came back to shoot the engineer. I even managed to pass my armour roll!
Turn 2 he spent a bunch of order to hunt down Uxia, which I thought was unnecessary (she didn't have good range bands on the link, and in 5-man they could take her even in ARO). He ended in melee and then discovered that Uxia is pretty good in melee. I proceeded to win 2 face to face rolls and deal a wound. He then jumped a dude over the wall to my HVT but died horribly to mines.
My turn 2 I scored my hand card with Vassily and then came back around to kill the link, who survived despite being shot in the back with T2 and I ran out of orders. Then I spent some orders trying to take out the visor guy in the link with a foxtrot. This was foolish because it left one of my specialists exposed for him to potentially score nanoespionage. His visor survived. I then spent my last order on Pavel to shoot Tariq, not expecting much. Pavel managed to wound and then kill Tariq! My opponent was in loss of lieutenant on his last turn! I consequently romped home to an 8-0.
Round 2 - unmasking against Rama taskforce
I was running the following list. which was an attempt to maintain the camo-approach that I wanted while adjusting for the exclusion zone and the high order intensity of unmasking:
Bastariadna - UNMASKING
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GROUP 1
ASSAULT PACK . (0 | 25)
HANDLER Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (- | 10)
x3 ANTIPODE AP CC Weapon. (- | 15)
UXÍA McNEILL (Covert Action) (CH: Limited Camouflage, Superior Infiltration, Specialist Operative) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 27)
FOXTROT (Forward Observer) Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
BLACKJACK AP HMG, Chest Mines, D.E.P. / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 36)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
GROUP 2
112 (Motorized) Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (1 | 20)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10)
VASSILY Lieutenant (Forward Observer) T2 Marksman Rifle, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 35)
PAVEL McMANNUS Ojotnik, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, T2 CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
DOZER (Traktor Mul Control Device) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
6 SWC | 300 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=MwBgjAPqIQQghgZwC7wE4Et4BMB28ACAWgIFUA5AWQEEBlAaQElyBxCMAVgFIAmAFjBcAHMABsXAITAA7L1HAuATjBDJi3sG5CwgiR0HTp3HkNE9JPcTw7mhIi1ZvD7EvhpBdpo9a/efvXAACAWAmbnxeuqKqoYZcEXzcEqLcOvrxllHiaeGW4hJg6vxafOYFRYnCpZKgvBziQoplwILWso0KUq0c7YoKgYFAA==]Open in Infinity Army
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
I was very pessimistic for this mission but thought I might have a chance against a limited insertion Rama list. Unfortunately he was running a relatively high order count list complete with MSV2 Muktar link with shock immune dickheads (ghulam core + muktar link + taureg doctor + filler, which strikes me as the optimal approach to Ramah). He chose first turn and I couldn't defend the buttons on the terrain, in part because the superior infiltration zone was empty, and consequently he did basically everything on turn 1. I perhaps chose deployment zone wrong. I looked for places to hide my HVTs where I could put a mine on them, but it is the boxes you need to defend, not your HVTs. If I had chosen the side closest to you in the picture then I could have superiored into the hangar and the objective room, thereby potentially slowing his approach vectors.
An annoyance was that we thought that shock immunity allowed his Muktar to use their BTS (6!) against mines, when in fact only bioimmunity does that. This might have made a difference as he passed multiple saves on 12s. He had every point scored at the end of turn 2.
I fought back valiantly but the best I could hope for was a minor loss. He managed to hunt down Vassily on the last turn to put me into loss of lieutenant thanks to his MSV2 guy and some optimistic placement on my part. Nonetheless, I nearly brought it back on the last turn by running an antipode pack across the table in a mere 3 orders to engage his designated target. I had one order to kill him in melee. He crit the dodge :(
In hindsight, you just can't take the camo approach to unmasking in vanilla. The exclusion zone just wrecks it. You must take snipers to defend the buttons and a datatracker who is 'ard and can both press buttons and kill the designated target (a link team with a specialist and a killer is ideal). Antipodes can easily dust one target and perhaps even two while also denying territory in camo. You also need a lot of orders because moving up, pressing buttons and then moving somewhere else to kill a HVT takes a lot of orders. So for me, something like the following:
Ariadna Unmasking17/04/2019 - Satellite in UK
I had some playtesting games between this post and the previous one but I can't remember them for shit so it doesn't matter. One of them was unmasking against vanilla Aleph and I recall losing in part because I chose to go first and then my side of the table didn't have anywhere good to hide the HVT. This post is about the UK satellite at firestorm games.
First up, the venue was amazing. Look at the size of this store! You can't even see the part where they sell their actual stock. They have a little cafeteria thing in there that makes basic food super cheap to boot. Terrain was mostly amazing. The tournament was well run except for the approach to the timing of turn 3, see below.
Round 1: Highly classified against Rahma Taskforce
The board classifieds included test run (which requires an engineer that I didn't have), spotlight the HVT with a hacker (which I didn't have), and the classified where a specialist has to be in base-to-base with an enemy specialist and succeed at a WIP roll, which is super hard. It also had the mission with sensor/visor, for which I had a grand total of one model. So pretty bad all up. Fortunately my hand classified was the one about a veteran/elite/CoC/character doing a WIP inside your opponent's table half, and I have 4 people that forward deploy in camo who qualify.
My opponent was running the full Khawarij link with Tariq, a TR bot, a ghulam smoke launcher, a monstrucker, an EVO (odd) and one of the other new HI guys in limited insertion. His card in hand involved engineering, which was fortuitous but I didn't find out until the end of the game. My list was the following, which I used for every mission except unmasking:
Bastariadna - HIGHLY CLASSIFIED, FRONTLINE, SUPREMACY
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
MÉTRO Paramedic (Medikit) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
PAVEL McMANNUS Ojotnik, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, T2 CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)
FOXTROT (Forward Observer) Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
UXÍA McNEILL (S.A.S. CP) (CH: Camouflage, Infiltration, Multispectral Visor L1) Boarding Shotgun, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 28)
GROUP 2
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10)
VASSILY Lieutenant (Forward Observer) T2 Marksman Rifle, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 35)
STRELOK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
TANKHUNTER (Chain of Command) AP Rifle, Adhesive Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 30)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
112 Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 12)
BLACKJACK AP HMG, Chest Mines, D.E.P. / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 36)
6 SWC | 300 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=MwBgjAPqIQQghgZwC7wE4Et4BMB28ACAWgIAkBJAcVIBkBNAgYRoEEBlN8gMXIFEARADQEuAJQDyAOQAqNcpN7C2AVQAKo3gFkWjOhDABOAKQAmACwBWIwA4zJowEJDpyzbuOTIFwDYbFqw4mviYW9tbWwB7BoTYRjt6+YGAWZkZ2CY7GJsBW1kmOwADspt6RBmDFAALe1kZgJoXFZoWuDt5WSRZgaUHdbd1JQWlgwKkOVtndZiPGDqnZXoXes/OgRkuzJln+sbNd64UT1t72lZVAA==]Open in Infinity Army
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
He chose first turn, I took a side with a bunker for my HVT (you can see the U-shaped wall in the middle in the picture above) and covered the entrances in mines. His first turn he basically just moved up and tried to get through mines. He shot at my blackjack with a TR bot at long range looking to get test run, but I was facing the wrong way so just took a hit rather than shoot back, then failed my guts and went further around the corner. My turn I had to clench my butt cheeks a lot. Uxia needed to kill his TR bot, kill the monstrucker (who has a chain rifle), and WIP roll against the HVT to get her visor card. To get to the TR bot and engineer in the first place she had to go past some discover rolls. Fortunately my opponent was worried about a boarding shotgun to his link team and so held and let me walk past. I then had to kill the TR bot, which allowed the engineer to change facing. I sent a libertos down the other flank with the other order pool, laying a mine to hit tariq and then coming around the corner to kill the ghulam. I then went further around the corner into sight of the link team in order to shoot the EVO in the back and hit the monstrucker with the shotgun template. Genius, if I do say so myself. His link team took 4 shots and I miraculously only took 1 wound. The mine I had planted went off and did a wound to Tariq. w00t. And I needed it, because the bloody engineer and hacker survived. I took another set of shots and killed the hacker, but the engineer survived! So I clenched my butt and moved out of LoF to sensor the HVT. He chain rifled to avoid a face-to-face against the shotgun, and I passed the dodge and breathed a sigh of relief. I then scanned the HVT and came back to shoot the engineer. I even managed to pass my armour roll!
Turn 2 he spent a bunch of order to hunt down Uxia, which I thought was unnecessary (she didn't have good range bands on the link, and in 5-man they could take her even in ARO). He ended in melee and then discovered that Uxia is pretty good in melee. I proceeded to win 2 face to face rolls and deal a wound. He then jumped a dude over the wall to my HVT but died horribly to mines.
My turn 2 I scored my hand card with Vassily and then came back around to kill the link, who survived despite being shot in the back with T2 and I ran out of orders. Then I spent some orders trying to take out the visor guy in the link with a foxtrot. This was foolish because it left one of my specialists exposed for him to potentially score nanoespionage. His visor survived. I then spent my last order on Pavel to shoot Tariq, not expecting much. Pavel managed to wound and then kill Tariq! My opponent was in loss of lieutenant on his last turn! I consequently romped home to an 8-0.
Round 2 - unmasking against Rama taskforce
I was running the following list. which was an attempt to maintain the camo-approach that I wanted while adjusting for the exclusion zone and the high order intensity of unmasking:
Bastariadna - UNMASKING
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1
ASSAULT PACK . (0 | 25)
HANDLER Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (- | 10)
x3 ANTIPODE AP CC Weapon. (- | 15)
UXÍA McNEILL (Covert Action) (CH: Limited Camouflage, Superior Infiltration, Specialist Operative) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 27)
FOXTROT (Forward Observer) Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
BLACKJACK AP HMG, Chest Mines, D.E.P. / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 36)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
GROUP 2
112 (Motorized) Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (1 | 20)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10)
VASSILY Lieutenant (Forward Observer) T2 Marksman Rifle, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 35)
PAVEL McMANNUS Ojotnik, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, T2 CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
DOZER (Traktor Mul Control Device) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
6 SWC | 300 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=MwBgjAPqIQQghgZwC7wE4Et4BMB28ACAWgIFUA5AWQEEBlAaQElyBxCMAVgFIAmAFjBcAHMABsXAITAA7L1HAuATjBDJi3sG5CwgiR0HTp3HkNE9JPcTw7mhIi1ZvD7EvhpBdpo9a/efvXAACAWAmbnxeuqKqoYZcEXzcEqLcOvrxllHiaeGW4hJg6vxafOYFRYnCpZKgvBziQoplwILWso0KUq0c7YoKgYFAA==]Open in Infinity Army
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
I was very pessimistic for this mission but thought I might have a chance against a limited insertion Rama list. Unfortunately he was running a relatively high order count list complete with MSV2 Muktar link with shock immune dickheads (ghulam core + muktar link + taureg doctor + filler, which strikes me as the optimal approach to Ramah). He chose first turn and I couldn't defend the buttons on the terrain, in part because the superior infiltration zone was empty, and consequently he did basically everything on turn 1. I perhaps chose deployment zone wrong. I looked for places to hide my HVTs where I could put a mine on them, but it is the boxes you need to defend, not your HVTs. If I had chosen the side closest to you in the picture then I could have superiored into the hangar and the objective room, thereby potentially slowing his approach vectors.
An annoyance was that we thought that shock immunity allowed his Muktar to use their BTS (6!) against mines, when in fact only bioimmunity does that. This might have made a difference as he passed multiple saves on 12s. He had every point scored at the end of turn 2.
I fought back valiantly but the best I could hope for was a minor loss. He managed to hunt down Vassily on the last turn to put me into loss of lieutenant thanks to his MSV2 guy and some optimistic placement on my part. Nonetheless, I nearly brought it back on the last turn by running an antipode pack across the table in a mere 3 orders to engage his designated target. I had one order to kill him in melee. He crit the dodge :(
In hindsight, you just can't take the camo approach to unmasking in vanilla. The exclusion zone just wrecks it. You must take snipers to defend the buttons and a datatracker who is 'ard and can both press buttons and kill the designated target (a link team with a specialist and a killer is ideal). Antipodes can easily dust one target and perhaps even two while also denying territory in camo. You also need a lot of orders because moving up, pressing buttons and then moving somewhere else to kill a HVT takes a lot of orders. So for me, something like the following:
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1
ASSAULT PACK . (0 | 25)
HANDLER Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (- | 10)
x3 ANTIPODE AP CC Weapon. (- | 15)
UXÍA McNEILL (Covert Action) (CH: Limited Camouflage, Superior Infiltration, Specialist Operative) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, AP CCW, Knife. (0 |
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
UNKNOWN RANGER (Specialist Operative) Molotok / Heavy Pistol, T2 CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 47)
DOZER (Traktor Mul Control Device) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
112 Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 12)
GROUP 2
GRUNT Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
GRUNT Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
CATERAN T2 Sniper Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 24)
TANKHUNTER Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
BLACKJACK AP HMG, Chest Mines, D.E.P. / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 36)
VASSILY Lieutenant (Forward Observer) T2 Marksman Rifle, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 35)
IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
6 SWC | 299 Points
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Group 2 has the snipers so that if they die it doesn't affect order pool one, which is where the work is done. The rest of group 2 is the blackjack to clear snipers. If they do not exist, then the orders can go on the irmandinho to run forward on the cheap and press a button, or lay a bunch of smoke. In later turns, Vassily can kill things and press buttons, but you need to be conservative with him because he is your lieutenant. Use the ranger and dogs to press and kill early instead.
Group 1 has the unknown ranger datatracker. So expensive but he is just about the only datatracker appropriate piece in the faction. Has a mod-stack (mimetism) but not a marker state, has a gun that hits hard (molotok), is a specialist operative so can press buttons, has 2 wounds and 4 ARM, and has guns at all ranges to kill the designated target. He also brings melee, which can work well with antipodes and Uxia. She is there to push buttons and can also sometimes get into good assassination spots with superior infiltration. The dozer, volunteers, mules, grunts and 112 are there for orders. I don't think this is a great list but it's OK against most opponents, most factions and plays the mission well.
Round 3 - supremacy against vanilla ariadna
I was really looking forward to this game until I drew the mirror matchup. Fortunately, he chose to deploy second, which allowed me to claim a lot of the midfield with camo markers (can't deploy a camo marker in the trigger area of another camo marker) and also choose second turn, which is huge in supermacy. I also want to go second against camo so that he has to reveal some stuff.
His first turn was mostly Irmandinhos moving up and pressing buttons before dying. He then sent a spetsnaz the long way around to shoot my blackjack, but I passed armour (1 wound) and guts behind cover. He also got the xenotech down with his warcore. My turn the blackjack killed some stuff at range while moving the xenotech into position, then Uxia kill the spetsnaz and I claimed 3 quadrants with Vassily.
Turn 2 was a bit annoying because I had slightly miss-positioned Vassily's facing (I hate getting called on that sort of thing when my dude is clearly back-against the wall, but whatever) and so died, but Uxia managed to survive, which allowed me to again claim 3 quadrants to 1 with my xenotech while denying him his on turn 2 despite an autocannon popping out and causing me loads of headaches.
The final turn the tournament's bizarre rules struck. The policy was that when time is called you finish the order that you are on, and then the game is over. This creates an absurd incentive for player 1 to slow play turn 3. Even if they don't it still almost inevitably leads to player 2 having less time to play their turn 3. We had 15 minutes to play and I was sitting on a minor. I could see that I had a major locked up so I asked that we play to 3. My opponent took 10 minutes for his turn, not slow playing (he did take ages to roll dice but I don't usually mind people who get really thorough about randomisation). Not realising the bizarre house rule, I faffed about on my turn killing stuff and calculating with the intention of scoring a massive major. Time was then called and suddenly I lost on quadrants and he got xenotech while I didn't. So the win went from 8-1 or thereabouts to 6-5, mostly because Pavel and his 31 points was just chilling near my deployment zone while I had 5 orders in his pool.
Round 4 - Supplies against Shasvastii
Dammit, I didn't want to play against camo factions! This was a fun game though. He took first turn and I took second deployment because figured he wouldn't have that many camo tokens (I was mindful of a shekin in a link + 2 q-drones + bugs build with no midfield) and there were a lot of roofs and stairways on my side. I had the buttons pretty well locked down with mines and chasseurs that couldn't be approached from >8". His reserve deployment was a speculo minelayer who sank a mine in the strike zone of 2 of my guys.
His first turn he declared discover+shoot with the speculo. I bit the bullet and revealed the libertos to lay a mine, then dodged with the foxtrot when the speculo's mine went off. The libertos survived miraculously, going dogged from the speculo, but the foxtrot died. Nonetheless, his speculo was now fucked. He tried to explode the mine with the decoys of a Cadmus dropping in, but he dispersed off the board and into his deployment zone. He wanted to get doctor worm to the supply box, so he sent a slave drone over to pop the mine, which hit it and the speculo. The drone walked past a chasseur and I chose to do no reaction. Genius. The speculo survived the mine. He then brought a Caliban over to within 8" of my chasseur and I held ARO using sixth sense. Muwhahahahahahha. He was so surprised and then so despondent. He decided to dodge and I laid a mine. Note that dodge in active doesn't give you move, so he was just hanging out in the open. And that was the end of his turn!
My turn the blackjack lost a smoke face-to-face against the speculo, but then killed the caliban. My chasseur then killed the speculo with his rifle and then Dr worm around the corner with his flamer. Muwhahahaha. The rest of my turn was mostly Uxia moving around to discover+shoot a noctifer successfully and getting scan the HVT with a visor-unit. The boxes remained untouched, in part because my foxtrot was dead. His turn 2 the Cadmus came over to kill my chasseur but I tanked the save and killed him with a flamer! He then came at me with an Ikadron and I again tanked the hit and killed him with a flamer!
He spent his remaining orders making off with a box using an FO seed soldier. This actually put me in an odd predicament because if I killed any of his guys on my turn he would be in retreat and win the game. So I couldn't really do anything and just placed mines and repositioned my guys.
Fortunately turn 3 went as planned with Vassily getting forward to one box and killing everything on the way, and then Pavel making a big run down the field before stabbing the seed soldier to make him drop the box, giving me an 8-0 win.
Round 5 - Frontline against Ikari
My opponent was running a frankly bad list with a keisotsu link (no tanko), an Al Fasid, a Lu Duan but no Rui Shi, an EVO, 4 yuan yuans, a cube jaeger, a Karakuri with shotgun, a desperado and a libertos SMG.
I'm not going to go into this game because the memory of it makes me mad. I did not play flawlessly but I absolutely had it locked up going into turn 3. We went into turn 3 with 14 minutes on the clock. At the start of my turn I had 4 minutes. I said to my opponent, "we've only got 4 minutes but do you mind if I just play out my whole turn, it will be quick obviously?" The board was basically empty at this point after Vassily had popped his Al Fasid. My opponent said, literally, "yes you are well within your rights". So I took it easy, had a look around and tried to calculate points and quadrants etc. I spent two orders trying to doctor my blackjack for the major win, but he died. I then had 6 orders on Vassily to kill the Jaeger and the Keisotsu and casually walk to a minor. I spend the first order on Vassily, time is called, and my opponent says "this is your last order". Perhaps he had a brain fart and forgot what we had discussed earlier, but he did seem to be acting like a total dick. I wasn't about to argue that he had just said I could play out my turn. I am here to play well not win. So I was like OK fine fuck it, and I moved Vassily 6 inches forward, which was 0.5" short of the frontline. This meant that I lost 7-4 instead of winning 8-5. My opponent was then seen gloating to his mates. I made sure they appreciate that I had 5 orders left with which to comprehensively win. I spoke to the TOs afterwards gently to say that the approach to turn 3 was terrible. They said that it was to ensure that games finished on time because the store closes strictly. Fair enough, but there must be a better way. Hell start an hour earlier at 9am.
Anywayz....I was overall very happy with the weekend. I was playing my 5th through 11th games with the faction and I effectively went 4-1 with only a minor loss in a bad mission with a bad matchup. I like Vanilla Ariadna. If you play them regularly into the same meta you have to adapt your lists or people start to get used to that lone ambush marker not being a sniper and things like that. You also basically can't win exclusion zone missions. But ground control and button pressing missions they are fierce. One of my favourite things about them is that despite being paper thin I rarely lost any units until turn 3. The blackjack would often absorb orders and a hit early, leaving my camo unmolested, and then I could counterattack hard.
I am now for realz retiring from Infinity for at least 18 months. Spiral Corp nearly got me back in but they are just missing a thing or two. Shasvastii also nearly got me back in, but they aren't quite funky enough. I want to play Darshat to run McMurder, but the faction otherwise bores me. I'm moving overseas for at least a year. We'll see after that.
Oh, one last thing. I loved this table. It could use a bit more work, but the basic idea is gorgeous:
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