Another undefeated tournament, another 2nd place (first round draws suck). Some big lessons from this tournament. The main one being that as Tohaa relies on turning the screws gradually, the final turn is critical and thus you can't ease up your play even when it is obvious that you've got the win.
Other big lesson is to think more constructively about what I can do with group 2, especially when my opponent deploys in a very dug in way with few units showing. I can be a bit one-track minded and not think through my entire order pool effectively, which cost me at times. It might have just been that I was ill.
Tournament was out at Wayland Games in Essex. Great venue and a good turnout of 20+ players. Terrain was a little basic but they're starting to invest in more apparently (i.e. there will be less cardboard), and all the tables were very playable (at least the ones I was on). Wayland Games is a funky venue. It's a warehouse basically, with no food outlets in sight, but they have a kind of Canteen on site where you can get very basic hamburgers and hotdogs and such. Quite good. The tables themselves are really spacious, which is so nice. 40K terrain is amazing if anyone is going for that.
300 points with spec ops extra (blurg). Missions were highly classified, supplies, safe area, firefight. I thought firefight was frontline haha, but it didn't matter in the end.
Round 1: Highly Classified versus Morat Aggression Force
My secondary was sabotage. The primaries were test run (Tohaa can't do basically), data scan (the other one that is tough for us, but no so much with spec-ops), HVT inoculation and coup de grace.
He had a Gakis link, a Yaogat Harris with spitfire, panzer and sniper, 2 rodok paramedics, a q-drone, 2 ikadrons, his triple-specialist spec-ops, an LI chump, BIT and KISS and a Zerat.
I was running the following list:
Wayland - Highly Classified Spec-ops
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GROUP 1
SUKEUL Lieutenant (Forward Observer) K1 Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 32)
KAMAEL Paramedic (Medikit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 13)
GAO-RAEL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1 | 31)
HATAIL Spec-Ops (12 XP) (BS:12, Doctor, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
KAMAEL (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
GAO-RAEL Spitfire / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 33)
KAMAEL (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 13)
NIKOUL Viral Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
GROUP 2
GAO-RAEL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1 | 31)
KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 21)
KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 21)
KUMOTAIL Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22)
CHAKSA SERVANT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
6 SWC | 300 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=BwBgjAPgzCIQ6gQwJ4BtEDsAmACAtDgBICWA5gBarI4DC6AzvcQGbECmuAygA5sDGeAPbd6EAEwAWAKQB2AJwgpMCWCkBCVQDYJmqWLFRda4FM0BWKHrGa56y9pP6JM9WFiKZIXZK9SQAKjAoAC4wMVCwUJDIkFD/WJjg2OSk/xkJAEKQLP8LLJy3bKKNUx0rKDM7UsdJExLtbwNK41MLKxtXSs1NRX1gSwABewka53UxDzBbSShLNQnZKb0JWfVbc2l9GTFXLTNGmV0BgaA]Open in Infinity Army
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I've been running this list a lot. It is my list for highly classified, the grid and power pack at CanCon. With the spec ops I could make things a bit nastier because I didn't have to spend 0.5 SWC on a white hacking device, which allowed me to fit in an extra Gao-Rael sniper, something I'd been wanting to try. I took a spec-ops with doctor + hacker, so I had two triads that could do all the HVT classifieds.
He chose to go first. I picked deployment and made things hellish. There was a sniper tower in my DZ with sights on pretty much the entire table, and a big building just outside the DZ that I could tuck a HVT into and make it extremely difficult for him to get to, especially if he didn't go through all the snipers. Here are some pictures:
In hindsight, I think I should have tried a little bit harder to get a sniper to cover the right-hand flank (perhaps using the Gao Rael team from group 2). He managed to move through there a bit using the central building. My problem was that the sniper spots in those builds were either not great from a sight-lines point of view or outside my 12" deployment zone. I couldn't even put the Nikoul down anywhere in a fox hole that was good. I probably just needed to search more though.
Anyway, his first turn was very ineffectual, taking on my snipers and losing basically. I popped a Yaogat and his Q-drone came around on the right flank and died. He put a krakot in suppression down that flank.
My first turn I rushed things a bit, which was a theme for the day. I figured my Sukuel with K1 could take the Krakot, but it really couldn't because of the range penalty, suppression and B4 vs B3, so I ended up with a wounded Sukuel. I then burned orders sending the Gao Rael spitfire team around the long way to kill the Krakot, coup de grace the TR bot (denying him test run, which was basically a victory condition for me) and also putting his Yaogat unconscious (this was unfortunate, as it would later give him his private classified of experimental drug - you've got to be careful in highly classified that you put everything into dead all the time unless you're going for coup de grace). I then spent my 4 orders in group 2 to run a Chaksa servant up and sabotage a building. That was my turn. A decent turn, but not what I was hoping for.
I think it would have been smarter to break my Gao-Rael link (I tend to be too greedy with snipers, especially when there aren't hard HMG targets on the board that are a real threat), move forward and data-scan and coup-de-grace the Q-drone (always data scan unconscious stuff, as it saves orders from reset), then mimetic spitfire the Krakot and drop into suppression. With the Krakot gone, I could get chaksa servant all the way to his HVT to innoculate with the orders from group 2. This would give me all my possible cards except sabotage (easy) turn 1 and allow me to concentrate on killing as much stuff as possible with my Gao Rael spitfire on turn 2 and being really cagey about giving him any classifieds.
His turn 2 he picked up the Yaogat to get experimental drug, fired more ineffectual shots at the snipers and moved bit and kiss up to the midfield. He didn't seem to be playing to the objectives much. He was also playing really slow, which was actually putting me on tilt a bit.
My turn the tilt kicked in and I rushed things again. I sent the spitfire hacker forward to score data scan and inoculation, killing the Yaogat again and then moving to data scan the Ikadron, forgetting that it is a repeater and that BIT is a killer hacker. I failed the data scan and I went unconscious. Dumbass. I then shot his Ikadron with my combi-rifle forward observer, which I should have done first, because two-levels of unconscious would mean I can't possible put it dead, and then I can data scan in safety as the repeater turns off. This gave me the space to send my Chaksa in to inoculate the HVT. His turn he moved BIT into the centre building to data scan a unit I had on suppression around the corner and he got it off first time. Then he waded through 2 full salvos from 3 snipers and my sukuel firing B2 to kill and then coup-de-grace that LI. Staggering stuff. Still, at this point I thought everything was fine. I had a turn to pick up my spec-ops with the chaksa and score data scan on the unconscious ikadron, giving me the win 10-4. I had the orders in group 2 for the Chaksa, 3 command tokens for the re-roll, and then 7 orders to do the data-scan on an unconscious trooper. What could go wrong?
First order went on the Chaksa to revive the hacker on WIP14. 18 fail, command token re-roll, 19, command token re-roll, 20, command token re-roll, 18. That hacker is dead and the game is a 6-6 draw. Entirely my fault, as it shouldn't have come down to that, but I still felt pretty miffed, especially as I'd just rolled a bunch of 20s and 19s when firing with the sniper squad at BIT as she went for the coup de grace. Oh well. Don't rush things and ask your opponent to play a bit faster rather than going on tilt.
Round 2 - Supplies versus Corrigidor
Same table! My opponent was running a single gecko, no bandits or morans, an Alguacile team with lgl, 2 jaguars, intruder HMG, a warcore, a TR bot, a sensor bot, 2 flash pulse bots and maybe something else that I'm forgetting.
I was running the following list, which I also took into rounds 3 and 4:
Wayland - Frontline, Supplies, Safe Area
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GROUP 1
HATAIL Spec-Ops (11 XP) (CH: Mimetism, Doctor) Combi Rifle, Viral Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
SUKEUL Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 36)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (0 | 13)
GAO-RAEL Spitfire / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 33)
KAMAEL (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (0 | 13)
GAO-RAEL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1 | 31)
SAKIEL Lieutenant Viral Combi Rifle, Nimbus Plus Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 21)
CHAKSA AUXILIAR (Baggage, Sensor) Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 10)
GROUP 2
GAO-RAEL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1 | 31)
KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 21)
KAMAEL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
KERAIL PRECEPTOR Submachine Gun, Smoke Grenades + 1 Surda SymbioBeast / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 20)
SURDA SYMBIOBEAST Pulzar / Viral CCW. (0 | 8)
CHAKSA AUXILIAR (Baggage, Sensor) Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 10)
6 SWC | 300 Points
[url=http://army.infinitythegame.com/index.html?l=BwBgjAPgzCIQ6gQwJ4BtEDsAmACAtDgGIBOA9hgC6oCWGApgDQ4DKArgA7s10DOTziAGZ0cAQWJ1EEMLBABSAOwgAbHIBMAFhVyQAKjBQAXGDDHTB44ZDHd1u1Yd3dwKAEKQ73WuCuArG70PIIBCTUUATnkYLTlg4Dllf3U1ZXjgqASNeLVNNLBM1RyoX1j4xIyc1NiM5SzkjQVYtUzGnI0NJvkFMHD1DSgM4JkE3xKchQyAARq6tsbQrp6+gdj82sK1GCbmhV98tVHeoflEsbUJuUnJoA==]Open in Infinity Army
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My plan was to use the alpha strike team, and things were looking good. There was a remarkable number of long cross-fire lanes with a few dudes sticking out that I could nuke with my missile launcher from >32". So I sallied forth and drew lof on an alguacile and the template hit the clockmaker as well. Unfortunately, I had rushed things again and drawn sight from the warcore as well. This was really lame because I could easily have spent an order from group 2 to shoot it first. I decided to risk the warcore and take the shot on the Alguacile, who turned out to be my opponent's lieutenant (always expect that against Corrigidor). Anyway, the missile incineratoed the LIs but I got hit by the flash pulse. I should have taken it with the symbiomate because there was so much more carnage to be had, but I didn't and I went blind. I thus spent the rest of the turn moving link teams up a bit.
His first turn he went toe-to-toe with his TR bot against my Sukuel and it died. I can't remember much more than that. Turn 2 I basically just continued on with my plan A, firing long missiles cross-field and then rounding a corner to deliver B3 light shotgun death into his bots and a Jaguar. Turn three I grabbed all the boxes. He fired some lgl specs to try to get me to drop them but I got pretty lucky with my rolls and walked away with the full 10 points.
So the alpha strike team is pretty good! I imagine there will be tables where it isn't so easy to get long cross-fires going with the ML, but then you can probably rush up with the viral and do work, or the B3 light shotgun, which is quite effective on the BS13 and mimetic Sukuel. I think it's still better to go second a lot of the time (probably should have gone second in supplies) but good to know I can do some damage to a mushy list.
Round 3 - Safe Area versus Neoterra
I got a bit lucky here as my opponent had the worst result in round 1 and then got the bye, landing him me as an opponent in round 3 because I was bottom of the winners pool because of my draw. He was very new to the game but knew the rules quite well. He was playing Neoterra with 2 locusts, a hexa sniper, swiss guard with ML, bulleteer spitfire, no link team, two Auxilia FOs, his spec ops and maybe something I'm missing. 10 orders all up.
He had first turn but didn't do much in it. I had two snipers each covering one approaching lane, so he stuck to cover and just pushed a lot of stuff up. My first turn I was suspicious of something huge with TO because he only had 8 orders in turn 1. At the very least, I suspected a Hexa sniper. So I decided to focus on killing the locusts with cheap template dudes and poured my orders into that. I took both out with a combination of my Symbiobeast and a Chaksa. I also killed the bulleteer. Then I spent a couple of orders moving link teams forward slightly.
His turn 2 he decided to take on my snipers with his TO units but wasn't successful, mostly thanks to symbiomates. Mates are devastating against factions that rely on surprise shot to remove key pieces. My symbiobeast traded with an Auxbot. My turn old mate the Gao-Rael went on a rampage, as he does, killing maybe 4 units. His turn his swiss guard rounded a corner and died to flame from my Makaul. Turn 3 I killed everything left on the board, claimed all four quadrants and all four buttons, and secure HVT. 10-0
Round 4 - Firefight versus Haqqislam smoke spam
My opponent was running a very smoke-heavy vanilla Haqq list with 4 mutts (obvs), Tariq, Kasim Beg, Saladin (why?), maybe 2 daylamis, 2 ghulams, a fiday, chain of command farzan, a Djanbazan HMG, spec ops hafza with viral sniper, one of those irregular dudes with panzers and maybe some other bits and bobs. He chose deployment, I chose to go first, looking to practice the alpha strike again. He deployed very dug in, with a lot of guys on the roof. There was still some solid turn and shotgun options for me, but they were defended by Mutts.
I deployed the alpha triad on a flank ready to bum rush, noticing that I only needed to drop a single eclipse template there to get through. I had to spend 2 orders to nuke the panzer dude there, then I could get forward. What I didn't notice as I moved up was that one of his guys on a roof wasn't prone. It turned out to be his spec-ops with viral sniper. But he probably shouldn't have revealed it because I won the face-to-face and he and Tariq exploded in a fireball. Then it was my turn to stuff up. I sent the Makaul and spec-ops with viral combi forward to complete the alpha strike, risking that one would get jammed along the way. I survived the Jam order but then had a brain fart and pushed with the viral combi (who also happened to be my doctor) instead of the Makaul. The viral combi died to a chain rifle but at least killed some stuff. Not a good trade. If I'd been attentive I could have led with the Makaul, killed the Mutt and the Ghulam, then doctored myself back up, ready to rampage in full link mode next turn. I might have been thinking about having a 2W sakiel rather than my 1W spec ops, I don't know. I probably just stuffed up.
All my orders in group 2 went on the preceptors to kill the fiday. Happy with that. Fidays are much more worthwhile to hunt when you are playing tohaa because they deploy in imp1 instead of 2, so discovering them at close range is actually easy peezy.
His turn 1 mostly involved throwing smoke and moving a few dudes forward, like Kazim, and then I went on crushing, this time with the Gao Rael. Basically what the game came down to was that he only had 2 specialists and I couldn't reach any of them, so he had those points. I also foolishly moved my Sakiel lieutenant out to loot some panoplies and didn't withdraw him, which gave my opponent the lieutenant condition. I should have brought that back when a Makaul dropped two heavy flamer templates on Saladin on my last turn, but the bastard made his armour rolls. So in the end I won 6-4. My list was basically a hard counter to his.
One thing I learnt from this game is that I am a bit obsessed with reforming link teams when I should just swap to coordinated orders and suppression instead. I left a couple of guys exposed after looting panoplies because I really wanted to reform them into a link team. It was unnecessary. I also spent too many orders looting panopolies when a bit of thought would have revealed to me that he didn't have the orders to challenge my 3 loots.
Finished 2nd in the end, which I was happy with even if I was not happy with my play.
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