If you have read my other articles, especially the battle reports from tournaments, you might have noticed the term "Alpha Strike" before. I think I did go into it briefly at some point but I thought it would be a good idea to explain it in bit more details and give my take on it. I don't believe the term is anything new in Infinity but to me it is still relatively new (as I am witting this) because I haven't really thought about it until one of my mates brought it up earlier this year. The premise of this tactic (or strategy, whatever you want to call it) is actually quite simple, it is about maximizing the damage done to your opponent in the very first turn of the game. As you can imagine though, pulling it off can be tricky.
In this article I will go through a general overview and then how to utilize it in Caledonian Highlander Army. You do need specific tools to be able to do this, at least the way I do it.
How does Alpha Strike help you?
Going to any ITS event you will quickly learn that in many ITS missions it is beneficial to go second. It gives you that last turn before the game ends to take the board zones or activate objectives, and the same goes for end-of-turn objectives. Which means that in general people will likely select Initiative and go second if they win the Lieutenant Roll before the game starts. So if you also based your plan for a mission on going second, you will be at a disadvantage which is not where you want to be on tournaments. To maximize your chance of winning, you should also have a plan for going first. This is were Alpha Strike comes in.
In your first turn, the very first turn of the game, you hit your opponent hard and cripple their army. In the best case scenario you want to take out their Lt, special weapons and some line troops. Against most armies, if you take out 5-6 troops in the first turn, you pretty much half their Order pool and make it really hard for them to retaliate. However, even if you pull it off do not get overconfident, Infinity is a game where the tables can turn very quickly.
Yes, you do need to be very aggressive, so its worth while practicing this and finding the units that will help you do this effectively. Which will be different from faction to faction. I will explain the units I use in Caledonia later on but every faction in the game can do this, though some do have it easier than others.
Identifying the enemy Lieutenant
Generally speaking, it is always good to take out the enemy Lt if you can but it becomes even more important if you want a successful Alpha Strike. There are of course exceptions to the rule. Do not bother if your opponent is playing Morats since they do not care about Loss of Lt, and make sure to also take out Chain of Command units if there are any on the board, otherwise killing the Lt will not have the effect you want.
Most of you are probably thinking that taking out enemy Lt isn't as easy as I make it sound but honestly, I also thought it would be really hard but in most games I can guess who the Lt is. It is, however, very important you talk with your opponent during deployment and preferably, they gave you a courtesy list. In the perfect world, you'd want to be familiar with your opponent's faction which will make it easier to guess the Lt. But if you are new to the game or just not bothered about learning all the factions, there are few tips that can help you (they often helped me).
It is pretty much a process of elimination. First, disregard all the Specialists like Doctors, Paramedics, Engineers, Hackers and Forward Observers (there are only very few units in the game that can be Specialists and Lt, such as Nomad Tunguska Interventors). The way I see it, those units will be busy doing objectives and so your opponent won't want to risk them being the Lt. Same also goes for the next group to disregard. The special weapon units that have Missile Launchers, Sniper Rifles and HMGs, etc. You can also count things like Spitfire and Molotok. There are plenty of units in the game that can be Lt and have these weapons but more often than not, those will be out there for AROs and/or attack, which again, most people won't want to risk them as the Lt.
It is also rare for Remotes and Camo Markers to be Lts, so most of the time you can disregard those also. As you might have guessed, this will mostly leave you with troops that have basic equipment for their unit. Often it will be the faction's Line Troops. If your opponent is smart, they will have more than one Line Troops as the possible Lt, in which case I go for the one which is the hardest to kill as most people hide their Lts as much as they can. Usually those will be on high places like roofs or at the very back of the board, probably prone behind some cover. If you can, it is best to just kill all the basic Line Troopers to be sure.
Please do keep in mind the process of elimination is a guide line only. Some people do see the benefit of having Specialist or Special Weapon Lts. However, that can also help you identity the Lt. In many cases where a unit has option for Lt, they have a specific set of equipment. For example, in Caledonia Scots Guard unit the only Lieutenant option is armed with AP Marksman Rifle. The other two profiles with the same weapon are either Camouflaged (CH) or have Forward Observer skill. Which are both open information, so if you see Scot Guard with AP Marksman Rifle and he is not a Specialist and he doesn't have CH, he is the Lt. The same goes for majority of units that have Lt options.
This also applies to Chain of Command units. I don't know all of the units that have the CoC option but I do believe most of them have specific equipment. For example, Unknown Ranger with CoC has a Rifle, while the other weapon option does not.
I won't guarantee this will work every time, even I guess it wrong from time to time, but in most games it worked for me so far. To be honest, many people I play still tend to only have one Lt option on the board, I am guessing because they don't expect you to be able to kill the Lt so quick. It becomes easier the more you are familiar with different factions and what their Lt options are.
Lastly, never don't forget there is nothing wrong to ask your opponent "What are your Lt options on the board?". It is something you should go through during or after your deployment anyway, in my opinion at least. Experienced people will likely know anyhow and it is unfair disadvantage if you are playing against someone new.
Taking out heavy (special) weapons
This is easier to do than the previous point because unless your opponent has Hidden Deployment, Camouflage or Airborne Deployment units, you will see where their heavy weapons are. Personally I think this is secondary to taking out the enemy Lt but argument could be made it will help you more as in later turns you won't have these weapons to worry about. By heavy weapons I do mean any kind of unit that is either a big threat as ARO or is your opponent's attack unit. Basically anything with Sniper Rifle, HMGs and other long range and/or high burst weapons.
You will be doing this anyway in most games but it should be part of your Alpha Strike strategy when building an army. I would simply recommend to have a good mix of heavy weapons of our own and a plan on how to take out your opponent's heavy units.
By that I mean, if your opponent deploys a Total Reaction Remote with HMG, how will you take it out? What about a TAG? or Achilles? or enemy Snipers with Camo? The list could go on but you get the idea. This point could really be just part of general effective army building but if you plan to do Alpha Strike, try to select units that can do what you need them to do in the least amount of Orders because you can't afford to waste many even in Ariadna if you want this to work.
You wont be able to always take out all the heavy weapons so it might be worth prioritizing. It might be obvious but for example, a Line Trooper with HMG is not the same threat as a HI elite unit with HMG. That said though, if you don't feel confident (or just can't for whatever reason) attacking elite units, you can just take out all the cheap units and deny Orders.
Order management and Order groups
This is another thing that becomes even more important for Alpha Strike. As I mentioned before, you want to do everything in the least amount of Orders possible and these days you truly do have maximum of 10 Orders to spend on a trooper (unless its the Lt, then you get up to 11). As you make your list you have to decide which units need Orders and which ones supply them. On top of that you gotta decide how many Orders does each unit important to the Alpha Strike will need. Do keep in mind most of the time one of your pools will be 2 Orders short because your opponent can deny them with a Command Token before your first turn.
I like to organize my Order pools according to the type of attack. My first and usually bigger Order pool has my Infiltrators and heavy hitter unit or Fireteam. The second pool is usually made out of my fast and cheap units like Highlanders and Cameronians. As such during the game I can spend the Orders individually without worrying someone else will need them. I am hoping this is making some kind of sense, finding it bit hard to describe.
The point I am trying to make, if you lump all your attack units into the same Order Group they will both be fighting over the same Orders and you might find yourself short to use both units enough.
During deployment and the first turn take bit more time to think about how your units will move, always try to find the shortest possible route.
Post-Alpha Stike
Now lets assume that you have pulled it off, enemy Lt is dead, they are short on Orders and have less heavy weapons. The best advise I can give for this post-Alhga Strike phase is: HIDE YOUR UNITS.
I kept making this mistake often before, thinking that because my opponent can't spend many Orders per unit he can't do much damage. Wrong. Even if they spend one Order per unit they can still Move and Shoot. So why let them? If you hide your units they either have to waste Command Tokens to make Regular Orders to go chase with one unit, or the most they can do is just move all of their units with one Order. Generally it should be hard for your opponent to kill something of yours if they can't see your units with one Order.
Of course keep your ARO units up and don't give them completely free board movement but from my experience you can afford to hide more for their first turn. In the second and third turn you really ought to focus on whatever the objective of the mission is. You should have easier time doing it after successful Alpha Strike, or just mopping up your opponent's army.
Don't over do it
Just a quick point this. As much as I love using this tactic I have noticed that it is making my game worse if I don't have the first turn initiative because I am not really ready for having the second turn. So I would recommend to plan for both scenarios.
Caledonia units for Alpha Strike
In my opinion the key unit to a successful Alpha Strike is Uxia McNeill. She is arguably one of the best, if not the best, assassins in the game. With Superior Infiltration and 2 Assault Pistols she can get where she needs to be really fast and then unleash Burst 5 Dmg 13 weapons. Yes, for this strategy you should have the Cover Action profile. What I found best with Uxia is to keep her as my reserve and then she can deploy where she needs to be in response to how my opponent deployed. With PH 16 roll for Infiltration I do often take the risk of going over the half point but you don't have to. Sometime its better to just spend Orders for her to run across the other half of the board.
Having additional SAS Infiltrators is also not a bad idea. I often like two have two SAS and Uxia. The SAS can Infiltrate over the half line at PH 10, which is not bad. If you really need to Infiltrate somewhere, the more units you have to try with the better the chance of success (thats how I see it at least). The Infiltrators are the best unit for taking out Lt as they can get to them faster than other Caledonia units and if they survive the assassination, they can kill more stuff in the enemy back line.
Do keep in mind both Uxia and SAS are good in CC. As Camo Infiltrators they do have easier time getting base to base. With Surprise Shot the enemy gets -3 but with Surprise Attack (in CC) they get -6 and then you can give them additional -3 from Martial Arts, which means the enemy is at -9 to whatever they do and you are at base CC 19 or 21. Sounds like better odds in your favour, don't it? Both Uxia and CC have CC Weapons so their base Dmg is 13, just like a Rifle Dmg so you are not loosing out in that regard.
I would also like to mention the Shotguns, Light or Boarding, they both have blast option. If your opponent deployed his units behind each another, the risk of rolling on Infiltration roll will have a high reward if you pass it in that case. Uxia always has a Boarding Shotgun and SAS have option for them too.
Another unit I see necessary are Highlanders and Cameronians. They are cheap, fast and have Chain Rifles. Which is a really good combination. More importantly Highlanders have Berserk. This means they can go into combat with CC 27 as an unopposed roll, that is a Crit on 13+. With only 6pts per model, they are excellent to charge into more expensive units and kill them or just hit groups with Chain Rifle. Cameronians don't have Berserk but they are faster, tougher and come with 2 Chains Rifles. Both of these units make excellent shock troops to charge down a flank and cause havoc. I like to use them to hunt down cheap Line Troops to deny Orders and later in the game charge into more expensive units and kill them in CC. Most importantly they both have Smoke Grenades which can help your other units to move across the board quickly.
You will also need a Cateran with T2 Sniper Rifle. They are the best unit at taking out things like Total Reaction Remotes. If you deploy them right and shoot at TR Rem from over 32", they will be at -12 and you hit them for free. At least for the first shot when you go out of Camo. Caterans are just really good snipers overall and with T2 they are deadly to enemy Heavy Infantry with 2 Wounds. With Climbing Plus you can also get them to places to get unexpected angles for shooting. As any Sniper, they are just good at taking out exposed enemy units without wasting too many Orders moving around.
After this is depends on your play style and which units you like using as your heavy hitter. I either use Scots Guard or Wulver Fireteam (it usually depends on the mission type). The Scots I find great for taking out enemy units at range with Missile Launcher or Molotok. In a full Fireteam they usually shoot at BS15 and Molotok can get up to Burst 5. Missile Launcher is great at shooting from long range as it can out-shoot most weapons, and against Snipers you'll often have extra Burst advantage and higher BS.
Wulvers I love to use when I want to get into my opponent's face really quick and hit hard. When I do it right I spend just about all Orders on them but they are fast enough to get into enemy Deployment Zone and do a lot of damage with a Heavy Shotgun (like with the Infiltrators mentioned earlier). Especially if my opponent deploys a heavy Fireteam of his own, I'll go after them and hit them before they can hit me. In my experience most people don't expect this. Sometime its worth even just sacrificing the Heavy Shotgun on its own to get a nice amount of hits into a group of enemies. I will have separate article on the Wulver Fireteam, coming soon!
Examples in action
For new readers, or if you just want to have a read of old battle reports, here are some games where I remember using Alpha Strike:
Conclusion
The units above are just the units I use the most and I am sure you can find a different way of doing the Alpha Strike. The trick is to find the units you are comfortable using aggressively and can get advantage over your opponent units, be it in CC or out-shooting them. Thankfully Caledonia has plenty of aggressive hard hitting units to pick from, all you need to do is practice and find their utility that works for you.
When I started doing this I was worried about being so aggressive but it has paid off in many games and when it works the look of despair on your opponents face is priceless! So don't be shy and go attack!
