Spring Slaughter Debriefing

Second time in Birmingham was fun as expected and overall was a very fun day, even though I did not do as well as I hoped to do. The new ranking system made it feel very different in the sense that after each round the ranks felt very close as everyone was like 1-2 Tournament Points difference. Which is a lot technically, but saying it doesn't feel that way. Just something to get used to.

I did well at first two games but the last game sent me down in ranks. Funnily, it didn't occur to me until now that I faced three vanilla armies (never mind that Tohaa don't have Sectorial). In the end I came 9th out of 24 players so I am happy. The last time I played here I was 8th out of 18, so I think I did better this time but next time I gotta rank higher!

There was four of us coming from Leeds and we all did well I'd say. James came 1st, Matt 2nd, me 9th and Oliver 11th, so we all ended up above the middle line. 

Don't know yet if I qualified for the Masters as I am not sure what the ranking requirements are, will find out later.

My Warzone List 1
My Warzone List 2

Game 1: Supremacy - Caledonia vs Tohaa
Won 7 to 4 (2 TPs)

My deployment zone.

In this game I used my Wulver Link Team, which kept up its winning streak and smashed through everything it faced (makes me worry of the day they will get obliterated). I had the second turn in this and my opponent had three Triads in one combat group and second group was a Triad with two MSV Lv2 Snipers, which worried me. My first roll, which was my sniper vs his sniper was a Critical Hit which kind of set the tone of the game, I managed to roll 11 Crits in that game. Even I felt bad and bought my opponent a drink after the game.

The full table from my side.

Wulver flank.

"Cheap" units flank.

The game was more in my favour after the first turn. He left two of his Triads on the edge of the zones but kind of in the open, or at least it felt that way to me. On my flank I had my Wulvers two killed everyone, plus a TO Infiltrator who put down a mine, which I then proceeded to Dodge with everyone in the Link. On the other side, I had most of my cheap units as the table didn't let me deploy much in the middle and while I would like to have my snipers in the same quadrant, I needed to oppose his snipers. At any case, on the other flank it was Highlanders who did all the damage with Chair Rifles. I think I killed all but one.

The fist Crit of the game, green dice on 12.

Second turn I lost both my snipers and I believe two Highlanders but there wasn't much my opponent had left so he couldn't push on. He was close to Retreat so I rushed my SAS across the board to get two Consoles, and at that time I was winning by 5 Points as he only had one console. He started his last turn in Retreat which screwed me a little as he managed, by accident, deny me Secure HVT, he also took another Console and because I couldn't get my turn we also had same number of quadrants as I had only 9pts hold one. This bumped him enough to stop me getting a Total Victory.

I still had 2 TPs, 7 Objective Points and around 230pts alive so I felt good about my chances still, even though some people did get 3 TPs.

The survivors.

Game 2: Antenna Field - Caledonia vs Combined Army
Won 7 to 1 (3 TPs)

I was bit worried going into this mission because CA have lots of sneaky troops and I am not a fan of missions where you have to hold objectives base-to-base each round. It was a very open board, especially around the objectives was lots of empty spaces. There was only one hidden behind a building so when I won the Lt Roll, I picked deployment and my opponent chose to go second. The table really was to his disadvantage as it turned out he had more of an aggressive force where I was more defensive.

My left flank.

In my first turn what I found quite amusing situation, my opponent deployed lots of Hungries and one Witch Doctor in a square behind a building so I run my SAS with Grenades to the building and did Speculative Shot into middle of them. It landed and managed to hit all of them, most Dodged though but three still died and everyone else spread out because there were exploding Hungries. After that I couldn't get more than one. In the turn I also I took out his sniper and managed to deal with Impersonator that was close to my Deployment Zone. He deployed it next to one of my Camo Markers (who was FO SAS) and it took several Orders of moving about a little and trying to do stuff before he took the bait and revealed eventually. This allowed my Wulver to run up and upload T2 Rifle into the Speculio, who did kill my SAS when it revealed previously. With last Orders I put a second FO SAS and 112 into contact with objectives and put the Wulver into Suppressive Fire, watching over objectives I couldn't get to.

My right flank.

My opponent started his turn with the Hungries running over the building towards my SAS who killed I think two of them in CC with Knife, some were killed on the way by long range Pistol shots from my Link Team. He spent the rest of the turn trying to get to his objectives but my Snipers and Wulver had his half of the board locked down and everything that moved out got killed. This lasted for the rest of the game. I moved up my 112 to the middle objective to secure more Objective Points, but otherwise I haven't moved around that much as everything was in place.

They're coming outta the goddamn walls!

I did put my opponent into Retreat in the end but I didn't mind this time as I already had Total Victory for 3 Tournament Points. I would have totally understand my opponent's frustration because it was an unfortunate match up and a board for him, but he was really cool about it so it was fun game. 

Game 3: Comms Centre - Caledonia vs Haqqislam
Lost 0 to 10 (0 TPs)

I would want to say that this was was an unfortunate match up for me but that is kind of just trying to justify my terrible decisions during the game. Hands down I'd say its the worst game I played on my part in a long time. Everything from choosing sides, deployment and in-game decisions. Might have been nerves too, I was among the top and really wanted to win. Though in the end even if I scored 3 TPs, I'd come second as James would have had more and still win the tournament. Looking back I could have done a lot better. Also would like to take a second and appreciate Wallace's WIP 15, I won all the Lt Rolls today.

The table from my side.

So to start with this table was very open in the middle. The Deployment Zones were decently filled but the middle was just empty, full of crates and had an extremely high tower. I was concerned about Infiltrating Snipers that could deploy there, yet I let my opponent have the side with the tower, and he decided to go first. Going second is usually better in these kind of missions but his list was suited for Alpha Strike. And he did lots of damage in his first turn, taking out my Engineer, WarCor, 112 and Uxia just with one Impersonator. He did deploy a marker on the tower and I managed to Infiltrate on top of it too with one of my SAS but I fluffed te face to face rolls and SAS died. Funnily enough the sniper did nothing for the rest of the game.

Another look at the table.

 
I tried to run Wallace with Highlanders down a flank to get into enemy DZ to start taking out Orders but I miscalculated how far I could get and used too many Command Tokens just to get them into safe enough position but they were all out of the Link. Which sucked for me as the Highlanders started going crazy afterwards. Looking back I should have put them on the flank with more cover, I had to cross lots of open space which just left me too exposed and needed too many Orders for Smoke to cross.

Isolated Wulver =(

In the end, I just made too many mistakes to even bring the game back to a Draw. I even positioned my FO SAS wrong for my last turn and didn't have enough Orders to get enough Objectives.

Hopefully I will remember these painful lessons and not do them again!

Wallace and Highlanders by the tower.

Caledonian Volunteers Corps

The Volunteers Corpare arguably the backbone of almost every Caledonian army. They are the our Line Troops; our cheerleaders, but on top of their generic duty of proving Orders they do have some interesting options to add to your army.

These guys are one of the most, if not the most, versatile units in Caledonia when it comes to the profile options alone and as such can be played in many different ways. Therefore please keep in mind I am only covering the ways I play them in and my own thoughts, but there could be more uses for them I am not aware of!

Profile

The Volunteers profile is below average for a line trooper, but this is reflected by their cheaper cost. Going as low as 6pts I believe they are the cheapest Regular Troops in the game. Everything about their profile is really basic, though I often found ARM 1 very handy. Their Special Skill Multiterrain (Jungle or Mountain), I have never used thus far but it is these if you ever play on a board with terrain rules. They are also Linkable if you play then in Caledonia, they can't link in vanilla Ariadna.

Standard Weapons

In total we have four "standard" weapon options. First lets look at the 0 SWC options, a Rifle at 8pts and Chain Rifle + Light Shotgun for 6pts. If you take the Rifle, your best bet is often using them as Deployment Zone (DZ) protection in Suppressive Fire. In cover they get up to ARM 4 and it gives you Burst 3 ARO with -3 Modifier to the enemy. It does make a good speed bump if nothing else.

Even better option in my opinion for that role is the Chain Rifle option. It is super cheap for a Regular Trooper and gives you a large template. This is a great deterrent for groups of enemies, like Link Team and can cause some serious damage if people are not careful. It also makes people think twice with 1 Wound models, no matter how good they are, Chain Rifle is a guaranteed hit at DMG 13. The Light Shotgun is good when you face someone up close and want Face to Face roll, with up to +6 BS, even BS 10 Volunteers is now hitting on whooping 16!

For an extra 0.5 SWC you can get a HMG for 19pts or a Light Shotgun with Light Grenade Launcher for 10pts. Now lets just take a second to appreciate the fact you can have, if you really to, TWELVE HMGs! That is just insane amount of firepower and you still have 72pts left in 300pts army. In all seriousness, the HMG is a decent long range weapon if you can't afford pay Points (or dont want to) for the Heavy Infantry options. Even if you don't take twelve, they are cheap enough to easily have two or more. With Burst 4, even if you are at BS 10, you can usually out-roll people but you do have to pick your targets. Elite Snipers will take you down more often than not but other Line Troops will likely try to dodge, especially if they don't have a long range weapon.

The last weapon I have not used often but I feel like I should. Light Grenade Launcher gives you the option to Speculative Fire, which is a great way to take down pesky Infiltrators and other units in hard to get places. The best use is combined with Forward Observer so you can remove the -6 Modifier to Hit but even if you can't, just get to the good range band (over 8" but within 16") and you'll be hitting on 7. Its not great but its probably still better than anyone else going against OOD or TO Camo (without Multi Spectral Visor Lv2, which we dont have in Caledonia anyway). If people get too close, you have a shotgun to use.

Inferior Infiltration

This is something you don't see on Line Troops outside of Ariadna (as far as I know). For some additional points, you have option to take Volunteers with Inferior Infiltration and Limited Camouflage. This means that you have to try deploy on the enemy side of the table and you do so as a Camo Marker, which gives you one Surprise Attack (you can't go back to Camouflage). It is a risky business though because they are deploying on -3 PH, which means you have to roll 8 or less for them to get there. So its not something you can rely on.

The two options you have is a Rifle with D-Charges for 0 SWC and 11pts, and Light Shotgun with Light Grenade Launcher for 1 SWC and 13pts. Personally so far I have only used the first option. I like to take it sometime in case I draw Sabotage for Classified Objective. Which is basically plant a D-Charge in the enemy half of the table, so if you land, you can just get it done with a cheap trooper. Something I haven't done yet but think would be great to do is to run this Volunteer into CC and plant the D-Charge on some enemy trooper. With Limited Camo you also get Surprise Attack (if you don't do Surprise Shot) which gives -6 MOD to enemy instead so you have a good chance to win CC unless they are really good at it. If you succeed, you can then use your Engineer to blast them to hell with the explosive.

The other option in theory would allow you to do good range Speculative Fire shots on the enemy Deployment Zone, something that could do decent amount of damage if you target a group of troopers. All they can do is Dodge at -3 PH if they can't see you. Downside is, you could waste lots of Orders and do nothing, so don't get too trigger happy. Also remember you have a shotgun, so its better than Rifle getting up close.

Paramedic

This is the only Specialist option Volunteers have. Unfortunately we don't get a Forward Observer like most other Line Troops. It only costs 2pts more than a regular Rifle option, which makes the Paramedic the cheapest Specialists in Caledonia. It is a good option if you want to add extra Specialist to your army and they do give you the MedKit option during the game.

Best use I found for these guys is healing Cameronians and McMurrough. Chances are those guys, if Unconscious, are somewhere in the open and you don't want to risk your 112 Doctor to go there. The Volunteer on other hand is more expendable, so send them in and you have the same chance to bring back the Dog-Warriors as you'd have with 112 Doctor. Cameronians and McMurrough have PH 16 so with -3 they are coming back at 13 or less, which is the same for 112 as their WIP is 13 and you can't re-roll anyway because Dog-Warriors do not have Cubes.

Also keep in mind you can shoot the MedKit, so you don't have to go base to base. Only downside is that you have to Hit before you have a change to Heal someone.

Lieutenant

Last but not least, the Lieutenant (Lt) option. The Lt comes with the same weapons as a regular Rifle option and costs exactly the same as well. Which is very useful if you want to hide your Lt. You can easily have two or three Volunteers with Rifles hiding somewhere in your DZ and make the enemy guess which one is the Lt.

This is the cheapest Lt option in Caledonia, so when you don't want to use any other Lt this is a great option. Myself I do sometime use this option as the next cheapest Lt options cost almost triple (23pts).

On the battlefield - Fireteams (Link Teams)

Overall the Volunteers have some useful and potentially fun options but personally I think where they really come into their best is in a Link Team (also called Fireteam in rules). In a full Link of five, the HMG especially becomes much more aggressive in the Active turn. Usually you'll be shooting someone in cover in your good range which means you'll be on BS13 in general, and with Burst 5 those are pretty good odds. Now if you catch someone out of cover you can do it on BS16, or best on BS19 if they were Targeted by a Forward Observer.
 
But again, I can't stress it enough, pick your target. Even in a full Link, a HMG might fail you against an elite model and even against a basic HMG Remote, you are both almost on same odds. Best is to target single shot AROs, like snipers and other Line Troops. 

In a Link the Volunters also become much more effective in the Reactive Turn, everything from Chain Rifle to Light Grenade Launcher becomes Burst 2 which is a lot of templates. This is how I prefer to play them, defensive Specialist escort. One set up I like is two HMGs, Chain Rifle and Paramedics, or one Paramedic and one Light Grenade Launcher. As a Link they can usually hold their own around an objective.

In conclusion, it is very likely you will have some Volunteers in your army to give you Orders but despite their cheap cost and below average profile, they can help you toward victory and you'll be better off if you try to make the most of them.

My miniatures

I wanted all my Volunteers to look like they are from a single unit. The two main inspirations were Scottish Black Watch Regiment (to paint the tartan and hats) and Browncoats from Firefly (for their brown coats). Currently I have seven painted (with three more to do), six of which have the same colours with minor differences to differentiate between them, and one in camouflage jacket to be my Infiltrator Volunteer.

Sometime I think they are all quite dark comparing to other Infinity models, but considering they wear cloth and maybe leather instead of shiny armour, I think it looks good.

And something I found out only when writing this article, the motto "Bydand" that appears on the Volunteer Corps logo means "abiding, steadfast" which is a motto of a real Scottish Clan Gordon. Their tartan seems to be blue and green with yellow lines so I am considering to add those yellow lines onto my Volunteers kilts to give them more colour and make them a Clan instead of a unit.

 
Most photos in this article by James from Gribbley Gaming.

High Value Target

When it comes to High Value Target (HVT) I feel like they are becoming increasingly more important in ITS missions, especially those where Classified Objectives are worth 2 points each and of course Highly Classified mission which can end up being all about the HVT. So I been thinking, is it better to deploy HVT in the open or hide them? Is there a "best place" for the HVT?

Open vs Hidden

Personally I tend to always place the HVT behind a building or some other piece of terrain so my opponent can't spot them easily with Forward Observers. In many games my opponent placed their HVT right in the open, which I thought wasn't a good choice as it meant my own FO can see them but most of the time it didn't end in my favour for other objectives. The other HVT objectives are about getting a hacker within their ZoC, and Engineer or Doctor/Paramedic base to base.

After trying it out myself I think having a HVT in open makes it easier to protect it. Especially if you have lots of elevated positions around your deployment zone, you can cover most, if not all, approaches to the HVT. This might not stop your opponent getting base-to-base but it might make them spend more orders avoiding and/or dealing with your AROs. The more Orders they spend on HVT, the less they have for attacking else where, which is always good. You just gotta make sure to maintain your defense because if your unit leave, the HVT is just right there in the open. 

If you happen to have a really good hiding spot in your half of the board, I'd say that might be the best time to hide the HVT. Otherwise, more times than not I end up blocking my own Line of Fires to the HVT or at least limiting them a lot. One game I played recently, my opponent had bunch of containers in his half which were touching edge of the board and arranged in such a way that I would have to go around the whole thing to get close to the HVT and that was a problem since the Classified were getting base to base. Even climbing over the containers would have taken lots of Orders. It put the game in his favour from the start. That said, I wouldn't expect these kind of hiding spots happen often but its good to keep an eye for them.

Overall I am getting more in favour of putting HVT close to my own deployment zone and in the open where I can protect it with defensive troops, or even just cheerleaders that won't be leaving the deployment zone.

"HVT Shield"

I still haven't figured out how to make this a viable tactic but it is good to remember nobody can place templates on the HVT intentionally. Or even if you can, if you kill it you lose the game so nobody in their right mind  will do it. This can be used to your advantage.If you are near the HVT it is unlikely people will be able to target you with things like missile launchers and even flamers/chain rifles can be hard to deploy near the HVT.

The HVT also has Silhouette 2, like a regular trooper, and block Line of Fire. Therefore if you see some small line across the board that you want block, you can use HVT to do it.

Going off on that, do be careful with placing mines around HVT. Your opponent could avoid it by hiding behind the HVT, or just in a direction where the mine would have to go over it as mine templates cannot be placed over Friendly or Neutral models. The mine would neither not trigger or some people said it would be lost. (Rules citation to be added but to me it sounds more like it wouldn't trigger.) Either case, it is a way to avoid mine templates.

Best place for HVT

This was on my mind for a while, is there a best place for HVT? By that I mean being able to place the HVT outside of ZoC of any potential enemy trooper so they can't hack the HVT from the start of the game. I made this handy graph to find out, no there really isn't.

This of course is assuming there is no terrain preventing enemy Infiltrators deploying right on the edge of 24", or an Exclusion Zone. Since you have to deploy the HVT withing 8" of the middle line, they can almost always be in ZoC from the get go.

Looking at the graph though I think it might be a good idea to deploy the HVT close to the middle if you know your opponent has access to Airborne Specialist. That way you can force them to spend extra Orders getting to the HVT from the side. At the same time though, you can lure the AD Specialists and set some traps for them if you have TO troops.

My miniature

I wasn't sure how to paint my HVT but in the end decided to go with red and black because it helps make the HVT stand out in my Caledonia and I really like red armour, I just try to avoid it in Infinity because I done too many of those in my wargaming years. I also took inspiration from the studio Alguaciles for the blue hair.

Overall I am happy with it but I wish I was more careful priming the face as it came out bit too rough for my liking, though its only a problem when you look really close.

If you are interested in how I paint faces, I wrote about it in this article.

How I paint faces

The other day my mates James asked how I paint faces/flesh and while I think its a simple process I tried to explain, figured I'd do like a "step-by-step" to show it with pictures. I am not going to claim this is some "pro-paint" tutorial, just how I paint my minis, so keep that mind. Cheers.

For flesh and faces I generally use only three colours, five if I want to add bit more detail. The colours are:

1. Ratskin Flesh
2. Kislev Flesh
3. Reikland Fleshshade
4. Ceramite White
5. Evil Sunz Scarlet

These are Games Workshop paints, but if you are using a different brand its basically dark flesh colour, bright flesh colour, flesh ink/wash (its kinda brown-ish), white and red.

Step 1 - Base + Wash

To start with I pain the whole face (and any flesh parts) with the base dark flesh colour and wash it. This will make it bit more darker.

As a word of caution, it pays out to take time with the undercoating of a face. More than once I ended up finding out the surface isn't smooth anymore because I used too much paint which left tiny clumps. But its only noticeable when you look super close.

Step 2 - First Highlights

Then I use the same dark flesh colour to start highlights. Its hard to see the difference on a photo but in person you can see the new layer is bit brighter.

Step 3 - Second Highlights

 In this step I sometime go straight to the brightest flesh colour I have and build up highlights with watered-down paint, or first do a layer where I mix the dark and bright and then pure bright.

Step 4 - Details

I don't do this on all models, but when I do I mix some white into the bright flesh do to small very bright highlights on the cheek, nose and sometime chin.

The red is for female models, where I also mix it with flesh to tone it down and then pain the bottom lip to make it stand out.

Step 5 - Eyes

Lastly, when the model has big enough eyes I first pain a strip of white horizontally and then put in a dot of black. Sometime I do it in three steps there I do big black stripe first, then white and then pupils. It is often a painful process so I am looking for a better way, but it does the job.

Alternative (faster) way

On some models I combined Step 1, 2 and 3. I paint the face with dark colour, do strong highlights with the bright colour on top and then wash it to blend it in. I do this on older miniatures where the faces are small, or when you can't see much of the face.

Also for line troops I don't often do Step 4 and 5, even without details and eyes they still look good on the table. Below are some more explames of faces I have done for my Japanese Sectorial Army. 

WarCor in Caledonia

This is a first article of many that should be coming over the next several weeks (probably months). Majority of my Caledonia models are half painted, which in my case means that they have everything painted in basic colours, maybe a layer of wash/ink and a base but it all lacks highlights and detailing. I really want to finish my army and write about my experience with the units, so I have decided to try write about them as I finish painting them so I can include pictures of my models in the articles.

I wanted to do WarCor first because I think it is a very underrated unit and I use him in most of my armies. Next will be article about High Value Target.

So to get right to it, lets talk about how Warcors fit in Caledonia and why I think they are great.

Profile

At first look there is nothing really special about the WarCor profile, basic MOV, below average CC and BS, average PH and WIP in Caledonia, no ARM and BTS and standard 1 W. The Journalist L1 skill doesn't do anything in a regular game either and there are no official rules for Aerocam per say (though it has been used as 360 Visor). On top of that they are Irregular, which means generally they can only use their Order. Combination of all of this, despite its extremely cheap cost, is likely why many might not give this unit a second thought, I know I didn't use to.

Weapons

It is not until you look at the weapons that WarCor becomes appealing. We can more or less discount the Knife because you'd be lucky to hit in CC. The Stun Pistol is great on paper as it can send anything with Wounds (not Structure) Unconscious just by failing 1 BTS roll (thought I couldn't find if it works on 2W models or if those just loses 1W) but usually you'll be hitting on 12 at best, which you can bump to 15 if you plan ahead of Target the approaching enemy with FO first. Use of Stun is sure situational but it is a goo tool to have if you need to accomplish Coup de Grace.

This gets us to the best thing about WarCor, the Flash Pulse that can Blind. Since its a Technical Weapon, you use WIP instead of BS, which means between 8" to 24" you'll be hitting on 16. I would say the Blind state is very underestimated by players, in most games I get some "free" unopposed rolls because people don't think it will do much. Until their hard hitting unit is Blind and can do very little for rest of the turn. While Blind, you can only do pretty much only MOV skills and CC, anything that needs LoF is unavailable. The worst/best thing about Blind is that nothing can fix it, it remains until end of the player turn and there is nothing else that can be done about it.

In Caledonia

You might have thought this already; most of this applies to WarCor in just about any army but there is one thing that makes this unit even better in Caledonia (and two other armies in the game).

If you take William Wallace as your Lieutenant, his Inspiring Leadership makes everyone in your army Regular (among other things). This effectively means you are gaining an Order for 3 Points! This is the cheapest Order that you can get. You can only have one WarCor but it is almost always better to have that extra Order than not.

As I mentioned earlier, this can be also done in two other armies; PanO and Military Orders where Joan of Arc is Lieutenant. She is the only other model in the game (thus far) to have Inspiring Leadership.

On the battlefield

Taking all of this, how does it apply to a game? The best use of WarCor I found so far is mid-range or long-range ARO threat. If you put him in the right place, he can sit there the whole game and just generate an Order. People who know how crippling Blind status can be will think twice and spend their precious Orders killing a 3ptd mode, and people that don't know it are likely to leave their models exposed.

I like to use WarCor in what I call a "buddy sniper system". Basically you place this guy in a place where he can see the same places as one of your snipers (or other long range AROs). This will force your opponent to either split their Burst or give you a free unopposed roll. I can't promise this is guaranteed to work, but in my experience most of the time people either face the WarCor and the sniper, or they go around trying to pick off the WarCor first. Which again, helps you as well because while they are spending Orders killing the cheapest unit in your army they are not killing something more expensive (and likely more useful), or better, they are not doing the mission objectives.

Other but similar use that I found useful was protecting Deployment Zone flank. This is especially useful if you think your opponent has Airborne troops. If they land where your WarCor can see them, you have a chance to Blind them before they even do anything, which is definitely worth it.

Overall, I'd strongly suggest to anyone to get a WarCor and try it out yourself. Give it few games and found your best use for them.

My miniature

Last but not least the painting part of this article. The photos above were taken by James, you can find more awesome photos from events and games on his blog.

My intention with the WarCor was to make him look like a civilian with some military gear, so I went with white shirt and blue jeans for clothing and the same greens for the military vest and leg guards. I was going to make the helmet green as well but I really liked how the yellow looked on my Dozers.

I was quite happy how the detailing came out too. Though I might revisit this mini in the future to add Caledonia flag somewhere and put PRESS (or BBC) on his helmet.

I didn't plan to paint the eyes at first but on this mini they were quite big so it didn't look without them.

This was actually my first attempt at painting chips on armour. I only did very few, just to try it out and figured the WarCor wouldn't be too battle-worn. I am happy with how it looks so I'll be definitely doing more of these on other models.

It was hard to take a good photo of this but I noticed part of the basing was missing so I decided to make it look like a little mud puddle. In person you can also see slight gloss on the bottom of his boot.

Northern Open 4

Last Saturday I have attended Northern Open 4 event as Tournament Organizer. I quite enjoyed the experience of seeing a tournament from a different perspective. There is lots of work behind the scenes that I don't necessary think about when I go play but I can certainly appreciate more all the hard work that goes into events from the organizers. Northern Open is one of the biggest events we do up here in North, I think we always had around 20 players after the first one, so it was quite busy but having experience from our previous events I think we were ready for everything.

I would say the busiest part was before and after the event. We had to set up 10 tables in less than hour and a half and then clear them out just fast afterwards, but lots of people helped out both times which was great to see. I had a chance to play two of the three rounds as we had odd number of people in the end, and that really made me realize I should think about table set up even more. I think next time I'd at least measure where the deployment zones are and consider the missions more so you don't end up with objectives and HVTs in the most awkward places. I know, I know, games of chance are not really about always fair but at the same time I don't think unfair advantage is good for the game either.

As I walked between the tables I found it lots of fun to see how the games went and hear all the crazy things that happened, I think on one table someone managed to kill Achilles with a USA Grunt, in CC at that! It was also good opportunity to see all the different armies and how people played them, which you don't have time to do much when you are playing.

Surprisingly, our defending champion of NO3 ranked 3rd of 4th and my mate James who won last two events we went to also had some bad luck. In the end it was Yorkshire Renegades that took the crown this time. Will see if they can defend it in May!

These were the ten tables we had:
(more photos from the event can be found on Facebook groups and the Infinity Forums.)

Weekend Warlords: Yorkshire returns victorious!

On Sunday the 24th we went to Loughborough in somewhere not-Yorkshire, but it was my mate James who scored the first place. We both did very well in our first game and had unfortunate match up against each another for the second game, which to my bad luck was Nimbus Zone. We practiced the mission like two days before and he won that too. I was doing okay at first but had some bad luck and made mistake of spreading myself too thin, maybe going first wasn't great either. Last game I was confident about that I could pull it back, but ended up loosing by a lot.

Its been a while I lost two games out of three, but its not the new ITS season yet so I am happy to get my bad games out of the way!

Game 1: Quadrant Control - Caledonia vs Combined Army
Won 8 to 1

We played on a very open board, there were no long fire-lines but there was lots of room between terrain pieces which made it difficult to maneuver around without going into open. My opponent had a small army, half his points were in Morat TAG and Sogarat Tempest Regiment with HMG. From my perspective he had Sogarat on the left and TAG on the right. With the rest spread in between. I also had fairly small army, only 12 models. I deployed Wallace and Wulvers in the middle, Cameronian and McMurrough on each side and SAS in camo infiltrated as far as they could. I chose side and deployment, my opponent went first.

Table from my side.

The start of the game was fairly uneventful, I deployed with almost everything hidden so the only shooting happened between Sogarat and my Cateran sniper, but neither of us died. My opponent moved up most of his units so that he had around 100pts on one side, and 150pts on the side with TAG. I wanted to assault across the board to take my opponent's quadrants but I was too cheeky and didn't think it through. The idea was to run my Wulvers across the board and split them so I had more points in both quadrants, but first mistake was that I was completely oblivious to the fact I did not move across the middle line and second that I really only needed to take one of his quadrants, not both, so I should have just charge into one of them with the full Link. Albeit I did not and we both got 1 point each. My Cateran also managed to put the Sogorat unconscious.

The luck turned against my opponent in his second turn. He did bring back the Sogorat with Automedkit and survived the free shot I had at it, but then I won the next attack and since he was on 1 Wound this time, the T2 sniper bullet took him out. Then the most unlucky thing happened, he moved his TAG forward to attack McMurrough but I also had a shot with WarCor. With the ARO I managed to Critically Blind the TAG and McMurrough dodged away, he couldn't flame it because my HVT was in the way. In my turn I more or less managed to secure board dominance, though I did lose two Wulvers in the process. One T2 Rifle died to a Plasma hit, he went against two of those Remotes and managed to kill only one. The second Wulver with Heavy Shotgun died from Fire. I attacked the TAG and hit it three times, but he flamed me and I failed three rolls in the row. Though he also failed all three of his rolls and the TAG went down, which was very unlucky for him. With my last orders I also killed few more troops and moved up to claim my opponent's quadrants.

In his last turn my opponent had less than 75pts on the board, he moved around defensively but all I had to do in my last turn was to switch my Classified to Secure HVT so I could score 8 Points because I couldn't do any of the ones I drew. I had enough Orders to probably finish the last few troops standing but we ended the game there.

I really did not do much with my other troops, almost everyone survived the whole game because I used the Wulvers the most. The SAS especially just sat Prone on a roof in the middle of the table. 

Game 2: Nimbus Zone - Caledonia vs French
Lost 4 to 7

This board was also very open, with few blocks of terrain but not much scatter in between. My side had the advantage of the highest level on the board but it was without cover and at that time I did not know how to make use of it without leaving my snipers exposed. I had army of 20 troops and James also had like 18 to 20 in his French army, so there were troops everywhere. I deployed everything more or less hidden, because I knew James will too and my skirmishers went as close as possible to the objectives but not as close as I'd like because of Exclusion Zone. I went first in this mission because James won the roll but chose to go second.

Table from my side, but objectives were removed.

I started my turn as I usually do in these kind of missions. Camo Markers move forward and try to take Objectives. If memory serves me right, I got both of the objectives I could get in first turn and then spend the rest of my orders positioning myself for the second turn. I dont think I killed anything in my first turn because everything was hidden or just too far and across the nimbus zone. I don't remember where James spent all his Orders because he didn't do any of the objectives but he did shot at few things and set up his skirmishers in annoying positions for me.

As soon as it was my turn again, I started to blast the objectives James didn't capture in the first turn to deny him Victory Points and secure 3 for me. I destroyed both of them but I should have just stop at one because then the Nimbus Zone was gone, which was good and bad at the same time. I was on a good way to win but I knew I could still loose because I would have to stop James from downloading and controlling more of the objectives in the middle. Which was hard, for starters there was one objective I couldn't get to as it was on a platform with no ladders and he had a skirmishers deployed on it from the start. The other two were more or less in the Open and I did not have enough Orders to get more troops to them so I was relying on my SAS to hold them, which James knew and send his troops to take them out.

In the last turn I was just trying to minimize the damage but it was more or less a win for James. My army was pinned down but few of his troops on high up positions and a Paratrooper with HMG on the ground. I was pretty unlucky with my Linked HMG as it took like twenty shots to take out a single trooper, and then not to mention where James passed like five Dodge rolls when my Cameronian attacked his Link Team in previous turns. I wasn't even able to do my Classified Objective because he killed my Hacker. In the end I ended up only with 4 points but I learned a good new tricks.

Game 3: Highly Classified - Caledonia vs Corregidor
Lost 3 to 9

I was going confident into this mission, up until then every-time I played Highly Classified I scored high. Which was my only chance to rank in the first three. I wasn't sure what to expect from Corregidor though I knew hacking I don't have to worry about. I am not sure now who won the Lt roll but I went first and my opponent made me deploy on the most bare deployment zone that I have ever seen, literally it had no cover and I had to rely on level variations of the ground and buildings to hide my troops. The Objectives we had were Doctor the HVT, Coup de Grace someone, Doctor your own trooper and Engineer your own remote. I also drew Data Scan. In my opponent's deployment zone, there was a bridge that extended out of it and he deployed two troopers of his Link Team on it, which made me Infiltrate Uxia right in front of them and I passed the roll. We both passed all of our Infiltration rolls actually, he had a Bandit in Camo and I also had a Volunteer.

Terrible image, I know but hopefully gives an idea of the table.

The first turn went good and bad for me at the same time. Uxia managed to kill one of the Link members (dying in process but she did also active both Crazy Koalas, which was worth it) and my SAS Forward Observed his Total Reaction remote which was next to his Link Team and took few Guided Missile shots. I also managed to take out some Jaguars I believe, reducing his Order pool by a chunk. The bad thing was I did not managed to get any of the objectives. I dont know why but I had this stupid idea moving one of my SAS around too much and wasted lots of Orders on it. My opponent managed to get at least one of the Objectives because he healed one of his Link members after he brought in his Tomcat Doctor.

The next turn I killed few more things and I did my Data Scan with my Link Team but I spend lots of Orders running them to the opposite half of the board where the enemy HVT was. I think for some reason I was worried taking on the enemy Link Team that was protective the HVT (it was in the open right in front of them) even though I had the advantage of numbers and range. I also tried to Doctor someone but failed that roll. My opponent did better, the Tomcat managed to get to my HVT and get that objective, then if I remember right his Classified was to hack my HVT which he did with the Bandit and he also Coup de Graced one of my SAS. He also killed my Doctor by finding a good route I did not see, I thought my Doctor was hidden well.

In my last turn I got Coup de Grace with my Cateran (thank you climing plus) and I made my Traktor Mul fall two times but it kept passing its ARM save and I run out of Orders for it. In desperate move I run my Link Team across the board into open trying to get my Paramedic to the HVT but that failed too. My opponent couldn't get the last Classified as he did not have any Remote left to Engineer (not sure if he had an Engineer on the board). 

Looking back at the game, I don't know what happened but I made some pretty bad decisions. From the start I should have move my Link Team across my Deployment Zone, get close to the enemy HVT, take out the Link Team and lock down that side of the board. Which would have given me a better chance to do the objectives. I am still glad its not the new ITS season yet! This is the final ranking provided by Tim the Organizer: