Ariadna Camouflage Guide - Part 1: Kazaks

If you play Ariadna or have thought about it, then you realize just how many Camouflage (camo for short) options there are. Camo is Ariadna’s thing, but it can be daunting trying to figure out which one to use, for that sweet camo list you want to build. There are so many options, how are you supposed to figure that out?!

Don’t worry, the Pride of Rodina, with the help of Straight Outta Caledonia, will help you decide which one of these beautiful, majestic ‘beasts’ is the right one for you, by comparing every camo troop in Arianda and each of their camo’ed loadouts!

Note from Peter: This series of articles have been written by Kyle from the Pride of Rodina, I am only adding small commentary from my perspective and of sectorials. 

Part 1: Kazaks

Part 2: Scots

Part 3: Americans

Part 4: French

Spetsnaz (Light Infantry)

Strengths

• Marksmanship Lv. 2
• Good at shooting and close combat
• Ambush Camo

Weaknesses

• Bit expensive
• A bit vulnerable, for the price

If you’re familiar with me at all, you’ll know how much I love Spetsnaz (if not, check out this article). They’re great and they’re essentially multi-tools. The Spetsnaz are able to deploy two camo markers in your Deployment Zone, within the Zone of Control of each other, but only one is the real Spetsnaz; however, once the Spetsnaz is revealed, the decoy goes kapoots. This is a massive help! Taking a Cateran and want to hide his location? Already taking a Spetsnaz HMG? Deploy the Cateran on a roof, the decoy on a different roof, and the Spetsnaz HMG somewhere else. Your opponent will have to gamble which is the biggest threat (if a threat at all) and try to deploy accordingly. Decoys are great, use them, master them.

That’s just the kind of fun you can have during deployment, haven’t even gotten to the active turn stuff. All Spetsnaz options also excel at close combat, so your opponent will more than likely avoid that, so they’ll try to outgun you. Problem is, your Spetsnaz is also really great at shooting. Use their active turn burst to eliminate the biggest threats and then hide them. Your opponent will hunt them down, with no remorse, so it’s best for you to send them on a goose chase. Spetsnaz are a bit too expensive to gamble on keeping them alive in the Reactive turn, so don’t do it.

HMG (38pts, 1.5 SWC): The bane of your opponent, the Spetsnaz HMG has absolutely no mercy for the enemies of Ariadna. They ultimately excel at eliminating targets with their higher burst, ability to stack mods, and ability to negate the most common mod in the game: the -3 from cover to your BS. They’re great for taking out enemy visor-equipped troops, although it’s not exactly advised.

Sniper (34pts, 1.5 SWC): While arguably not worth taking over the HMG, the sniper still has a sweet niche; eliminating ARO pieces. When you can stack up a -12 on your opponent and shoot at them with BS 15 (most of the time), it’s terrifying. Good bye TR bots. See you next time Sin-Eaters. It can be hard to decide between the Cateran sniper of Spetsnaz, though, especially when the Spets costs 1.5 SWC. The big differences come in the Spetsnaz accuracy, decoy, and Regular Order. Both have their niches, so I’m not going to tell you which is better.

Note from Peter: If you are deciding between playing vanilla Ariadna or Sectorial, I believe Spetsnaz is the main reason why you would go vanilla. They are arguably the deadliest unit in the game. I like to believe they are the reason why Corvus Belli hasn't released Kazak Sectorial yet, making Spetsnaz more than AVA 2 will make them unstoppable!

Tankhunter (Medium Infantry)

Strengths

• Full suite of anti-armor weapon options
• Most loadouts have D-Charges
• Camo Lieutenant option

Weaknesses

• Very expensive, SWC wise (even the Lt. option costs 1 SWC)
• Really only effective against extremely heavy armor, otherwise other options outshine

Art from http://its-robot-jones.tumblr.com/

These troops excel at cracking armor with a variety of weapons. They start in your Deployment Zone, so they can help with the shell game there. Your opponent already dreads the sight of camo in your Deployment Zone, so why not add to the confusion and fear by tossing in some massive anti-armor options? Now what is that camo marker? A Tankhunter, with one of the plethora of options, a Cateran, decoy, Scots Guard of some kind, mine, or a Spetsnaz?

Mostly, Tankhunters will really only be worth their points when going after heavily armored targets, or you should invest in the Spetsnaz or Skirmisher options. However, luckily for you, your opponents will almost always have some heavy armor for you to crack (unless they play Ariadna, than more than likely not). The Tankhunters are some of your best anti-armor options, but the Scots Guards are definitely second and sometimes can be better, since they options worth taking that don’t cost SWC.

Also worth noting, all options besides the missile launcher has D-Charges, so that’s fun.

AP Rifle (25pts, 0 SWC): Very rarely worth taking, when you can take the Scots Guard, SWC-free options instead. Although, a Surprise Shot Adhesive Launcher can ruin even the best plans.

AP HMG (35pts, 1.5 SWC): One of the best anti-armor hunting options in all of Ariadna, especially thanks to camo. It’s high burst, AP ammo, and ability to easily stack mods against your target makes this loadout absolutely fantastic. They work well as backup Spetsnaz HMG’s for when they bite the dust.

Autocannon (34pts, 1.5 SWC): A truly fear-invoking weapon. They’re alright at active turn hunting (the AP HMG is better for that), but this option has a mighty punch to it, thanks to being explosive. They also make good ARO pieces, but they’re a bit expensive for that, when a ML does the exact same job, but cheaper They’re the middle of the road option, or for those who like to gamble on maximum destruction (seriously a potential of 6 AP wounds, that’s brutal!).

Missile Launcher (29pts, 1.5 SWC): One of the deadlier ARO options, the ML excels at out-ranging a target and blasting with a single AP+EXP shot or an EXP blast template. “Nyat Fireteams”, says the Tankhunter ML. While a risky endeavor, nothing is quite as satisfying as watching the expression on your opponent’s face as you react to their Fireteam’s moving by revealing a Tankhunter ML and declaring a shot.

Lieutenant (25pts, 1 SWC): By far, the most secure lieutenant option you can take. Even if your opponent realizes that this specific camo marker is your lieutenants, good luck to them to reach this marker and then even more luck to them to resist being glued or shot. The SWC is a bit of an investment, but you pay for protection. One thing’s for sure, you will almost never (I’ve never had it happen out of the 15+ games I’ve played) go into Loss of Lieutenant with a Tankhunter Lt.

Note from Peter: Tankhunters are just very versatile unit that you will be glad to have, especially the AP HMG option, if your opponent deploys a TAG or lots of Heavy Infantry. Plus the fact the A HMG is 3pts cheaper than a Spetsnaz will let you add a WarCor for 3pts, win win! 

Ariadna Scout (Skirmisher)

Strengths

• Marksmanship Lv. 1
• D-Charges (on all except AP Sniper)
• Infiltrating (baby-Spetsnaz)

Weaknesses

• Expensive
• All weapons only burst 2

We all know I love Kazaks, but do you know that Scouts are one of my favorite troops in the entire game? Sure, I might be biased, but the Scouts earned their place as one of my favorites.

Scouts are the most versatile skirmishers you can get in Ariadna. While they lack the close combat skills of the S.A.S., they have the ability to complete Classified Objectives with ease, they are excellent for short-mid range shooting (if taking Ojotniks), they excel at eliminating hostiles (thanks to Marksmanship Lv. 1) and they’re handy for board control, with mines or E/Maulers. Every weapon they have can shoot Shock and AP ammo, making quick work of most targets. They’re what happens when you combine a Chasseur and a Spetsnaz into the same troop and they’re fantastic.

One problem with them is how expensive they are. It can be hard spending 30 points on a Forward Observer in Ariadna, when you have plenty of other, much cheaper FO’s, even when compared to other Skirmishers. Another problem is that all of their weapons are burst two, so they can easily be out-gunned.

Ojotnik, Mines (29pts, 0 SWC): While a pretty sweet kit, you already have plenty of mines everywhere else, so you might as take the E/Maulers (for something unique) or spend one point for the Forward Observer.

Ojotnik, E/Maulers (29pts, 0 SWC): There are only four sources of E/Maulers in all of Ariadna: Isobel, Zouaves, Moblots, and Scouts. Isobel pays 0.5 (because of her hacking device) and can’t reach the midfield as easily. The Zouave costs 1 SWC and can easily reach the midfield, but is somewhat vulnerable to be dropping E/Maulers. The Moblot costs 0 SWC and has Infiltration, so can be a nice way of getting E/Maulers up the field, but that’s about all they’ve got going for them. The Scout has the ability to easily snipe targets and use those E/Maulers effectively. Even when they run dry, the Scout still has the ability to hunt targets with ease and drop off D-Charges.

Boarding shotgun (25pts, 0 SWC): The same price as the S.A.S. shotgunner and 6 more points than the Foxtrot one, but this kit includes D-charges, better general stats, and Marksmanship Lv. 1 (yes, the spray template becomes Shock). It’s a highly aggressive, close range hunter that can make short work of light and medium Fireteams or hunt down heavier targets, in a pinch.

Forward Observer (30pts, 0 SWC): One of the deadliest Skirmishers in Ariadna is now a Specialist. This loadout is extremely versatile with its ability to complete objectives, eliminate targets at range, use mines to control the board, and use D-charges for Classifieds. The only problem is it’s not that great for holding objectives, like the Chasseur or Foxtrot who can use Suppressive Fire. However, the threat of being shot by an Ojotnik can still scare most targets away.

AP Sniper rifle (29pts, 1 SWC): You lose the D-Charges to gain a point of damage and some longer range bands, while losing the closer ones of the Ojotnik. It’s kind of a toss up whether it’s better than the Ojotnik, but it does have one advantage: it can easily outrange most targets and impose a -12 on them. While the Ojotniks are fantastic weapons, they won’t be outranging most threats you’ll be engaging. Plus, the extra pip of damage can make a dig difference. It’s arguably not worth it over the Cateran or Foxtrot sniper, if you’re looking for some cheap camo’ed snipers, but it does excel at cracking armor better than those two. If you aren’t taking Scots Guards, Tankhunters, or don’t want to engage heavy armor at close range with your Ojotnik-wielding Scouts, the AP sniper is your best friend, from afar.

Lieutenant (29pts, 0 SWC): An excellent and deadly camo Lieutenant option, but a risky one. Scouts are fairly aggressive hunters, so they’ll want to hunt down enemy troops, but you’ll more than likely want to keep your Lt. safe. It’s a bold move, but could really be an interesting one, especially on the second or third turn when you aren’t afraid of going into Loss of Lieutenant. Also doesn’t even cost SWC! However, if you want to go for the defensive and safe camo’ed Lt. option, take the Tankhunter. 

Note from Peter: I think Scouts are very underestimated unit because there are much cheaper Camo Specialists in Ariadna. But once you master using your Camo units I would say you will appreciate the Ojotnik for what it is, a powerful Sniper rifle that can get advantage over any other weapon, you get close if you enemy has long range weapons or you can go over 24 inches if they have short to mid range weapons. In vast majority of scenarios, you'll always be at advantage.

Pride of Rodina Interview

The Pride of Rodina blog has a really cool series of articles about players of Infinity. I think it is quite neat idea as it shows all the diversity we have in our hobby. I was lucky enough to get my own interview which you can find here.

USARF "Speed Painting", Part 3

Considering my pace of painting the miniatures is far from fast I should change the name of these articles, but I am committed to consistency! This "third step" was not part of my initial plan, it came out of necessity to get some of my USARF models done to the very basic tournament standard to look decent on the table from distance. 

I was very undecided what to do with the bases. First I wanted to make them match my Caledonia so I could use them all as a vanilla force and they would have the same bases, but then decided to go with a very simple desert bases instead. Mainly because I didn't have much time to paint them before the Northern Open 8. I will be adding some more terrain to the bases so they are less flat but I am happy with the colour, I think it goes well with the green.

Which is another thing I am undecided on. I still haven't figured out how to break apart the green, it feels like it is too much. After I am done with all the other colours, I think I will do some subtle camouflage on trousers and perhaps other cloth too, just so the only flat green are armour panels.  Though I will admit that when I played with them it didn't look as bad, that they are all mainly green.

As you can see from the photos, the miniatures are still very much work in progress and in the pre-washes stage. I would like to get all the base colours done before doing the washes for shadows and then highlights. That should very much improve on how the minis will look. I only had time to do some of the other colours, like metallic silver and flesh, which is why you don't see many browns or grey yet, and why everyone's hair are still green.

Before the tournament I have also picked up a new unit to proxy for Traktor Muls as I wanted something different for my USARF. These models are from Anvil Industry game Afterlife, they are called Unity Council Bastion Support Platforms. Their website sells them with more weapon options but I bought them on a wargaming show and they only had the missile launchers. I have also found on their website unit called Republic Taurus Gun Tractors Mk.II, which looks closer to the Traktor Muls so I might get those instead later. 

Army List Tactica 5: USARF Grunt Horde

This was the army that I have used in Norther Open 8. I ended up 9th out of 22 people with this army but as you can read in my NO8 report, I think it was mostly due to not using the army correctly. There is room for improvement (as always) but I am happy with this army overall.

To open this list in Infinity Army, click here.

Overview

As the name would imply the biggest focus of this list are good old Grunts. They stand out above all other Line (Garrison) Troops of Availability Total (unlimited) because of their Armour 3 and Shock Immunity which makes them one of the most, if not the most, survivable units in the game in terms of value for points. The basic Grunt with Rifle is only 10 points! With that in mind, and because I ended up with lots of Grunt models, I wanted to make a list based around them.

This list has total of nine Grunts, six of which can form a Fireteam and three are Inferior Infiltrators with Heavy Flamers. The overall idea behind the list is to maximize the number of Orders with cheap yet effective units, and use Specialist troops to accomplish objectives. I did made this list for Objective based ITS missions and have no experience yet using it in killing missions. There are eight Specialists in total, though in effect only five of them I think of as units go for the objectives 

Units

The Unknown Ranger - Personally I really like the Ranger for his versatility and Chain of Command (CoC). I think of him as one of the main attack units and Specialists but if I am perfectly honest I have not come across many situations where his extra skills were needed to justify the high cost, which could be my fault for not using him correctly. CoC is the main reason I like taking him.

Grunts - As I already mentioned, these guys are the backbone of the list. I went with three special weapons, two Lt options and a Paramedic. The main idea behind them is to be a strong defensive Fireteam. With two Sniper Rifles and a HMG you have enough long range weapons to cover large parts of the boards. I went for two Lt options because I didn't want to make it easy for my opponent to guess who the Lt is, the Light Grenade Launcher was mainly chosen because I had the points. The Paramedic is there to give me a backup Specialist and to try heal unconscious units if the 112 Doctor can't. I also went with six Grunts so I can make Fireteam of five if one dies. I liked the idea of two Snipers because I thought sometime I could deploy the second one separately and make use of the Marksmanship X which is not as useful in a Fireteam because it makes your Sniper Rifle Burst 1.

Grunt Infiltrators -These guys are one of the main reasons why I love playing USARF. They are not very reliable to pass their Inferior Infiltration roll (you need 8 or less) but that is why I have three, on average at least one does make it. For only 11pts and 0.5 SWC these guys are really good at harassing enemy units close to their deployment zone, or just lie in waiting somewhere near objectives. Heavy Flamers can be quite deadly, Damage 14 and large template, not even Heavy Infantry wants to be hit by those because they can burn to death with one hit.

Marauders - This is another unit I find really good value for points. As a Specialist with WIP 13 and Forward Deployment they can start closer to objectives and are good at taking them. Then you have a Rifle to put them on Suppressive Fire and with ARM 3 and Courage (thanks to Dogged) they do have good survivability to hold the line. On top of that you get Stealth and Heavy Flamer. Which allows you to sneak up on enemy units. Dogged is also good option to have if you need them to stay alive until end of a turn. Their downside is being slow so not the best option to advance across the board.

WarCor - I firmly believe a WarCor should be every possible list and it is the best 3pts you can spend. He is amazing at harassing the enemy units with Flash Pulse and with Aerocam (gives him 360 line of sight) he does make a good ARO piece against enemy AD troops and flankers to warn your other units. The only downside is that he is Irregular and USARF does not have a way of making him Regular.

Foxtrots - These guys are very standard Infiltrating Specialists with Camouflage. None of their skills or equipment sets them apart much but for 18 points they are cheap and do exactly what you need them to do. One thing I tend to forget is that they do come with mines so they can help with defending objectives or just make it harder for your opponent to move around the board. I like to combo them with another unit (like the Ranger or Marauders) to protect objectives as the Foxtrots can also go on Suppressive Fire.

Dozer and Traktor Muls - As my mate James likes to put it, for 24pts you get three Regular Orders and a Specialist. That makes it 8pts per Order which is a very good value for points. The downside of the Muls is their large base, it can make them hard to hide and without weapons they are only good for Orders and Alert! reaction. Though do keep in mind they have Minesweeper if your opponent gets cheeky with deployable weapons; you can try take them over. The Dozer himself is a decent unit (in Ariadna) with Courage and BS 11 so worth not discarding him either, which is a mistake that I make.

112 - I use the Doctor mostly to revive unconscious Snipers, which does sometime feel as a waste as he spends my games Prone on roofs. He can be surprisingly deadly with his Light Shotgun and Courage if you use him to take Objectives. For me it is almost always auto-include. He is only 12pts for a useful Specialist.

Hardcase - This is another unit that I consider another auto-include and great value for points. They are Irregular, which is their only downside. However, unlike the WarCor, these guys will be always using their Irregular Order so it is not a problem. For as cheap as 12pts you get an Infiltrator with Ambush Camouflage (you get two markers instead of one) and a Light Shotgun. This allows you to deploy half way up the board (or even further if you want to take risk of rolling 10 or less), get close to the enemy as a camo marker and then Surprise Shot them with a shotgun. Do not underestimate how deadly this is. You can go as high as BS 17, and your opponent will have up to -9 modifier (-3 camo, -3 surprise, -3 cover) so you can easily stack the advantage in your favour. If your opponent makes the mistake of leaving (or deploying) his units in a group, Hardcase is your way of punishing that. The bow might not be something you will use often but it is good to keep in mind it has the Silent trait and Double Action ammunition.

What worked

I have used the phrase "good value for points" often and I do think it is one of the strengths of USARF as a whole. There are many units that are relatively cheap and good at what they suppose to do. You could say it is also a downside because they might not be good at much else but because they are cheap, you can easily have enough units for different tasks. Versatility is one of the main things I believe worked well with this lists, it gives you enough tools to be able to adapt to what is happening on the battlefield and also gives you multiple ways of attack.

You can shoot from distance with full Fireteam support bonuses, you can set up defenses in the middle with good armoured units or get aggressive with infiltrators. Whatever your opponent has on the board, you should have an answer for it and enough Order to do it. Which might be kind of obvious considering it is a 20 man list, but I think it is worth mentioning this list doesn't really have many "useless" cheerleaders to get you those Orders. Only the Muls are there to simply give Orders, everything else has some utility. For example, even if the Infiltrator Grunts fail their roll (which is likely) you still have a Heavy Flamer and a Light Shotgun defending your back-line against Airborne Deployment troops and flankers.

What I found very useful in every game so far was having the six Grunts that can form a Fireteam. The Snipers and HMG are a big threat so they will be a high target for you opponent. You have to count on them dying at some point but having that one extra Grunt to fill the gap when one of the Snipers died helped to keep them a threat for longer. The more Orders your opponent is forced to deal with them, the less they are focusing on the mission.

What didn't work

In hindsight I think the main thing I would change is The Unknown Ranger, especially if you would use this list for Objective Missions. The CoC for me never came to play as my opponents had enough to deal with and did not even consider hunting the Lt. I do think he is a good unit but I also feel his role on the field could have been accomplished by Minutemen Specialist just as well. My mate James suggested I should change him for Van Zant and I could definitely see the benefit of that. This list already gives you enough Specialists and with Van Zant you could cause even more problems for your opponent if they leave an opening in their back-line.

Which brings me to the next thing I found lacking. This list doesn't give you any elite units. The Ranger and Marauders are the only units with BS 12 or higher (outside of Fireteam support bonus) so if the Grunt Fireteam is not effective, you have no back up. I do not think it is a big problem because you can overwhelm your opponent with numbers and between Flamers, Mines and Shotguns you should have enough tools to kill enemy elite units. Though it definitely makes this list harder to play as you can't rely on your elites to do everything.

Most of this army is also slow, 11 models are 4-2 MOV, which can make it difficult to move on the battlefield should you need to move long distances. However, this downside can be minimized by good deployment. You can spread your forces so they don't have to walk far to help in different parts of the board, and deploy them as close to their objective as possible. The difficulty I faced in my games was that I deployed most of the Grunts on top of buildings, which did give them good lines of fire but also make it very hard for them do get anywhere else. I was just entrenched too much to make proper use of them later in the game. For example, in three games during Norther Open 8 I never used the Grenade Launcher or the Grunts with Rifles because they were always hiding and after Snipers and HMG died, they were kind of useless in those positions.

The one tool I really missed during my games was Smoke. This list has no Smoke Grenades, which can be easily solved by adding a unit that does have them. In all of the games there was always a situation where I felt Smoke would have made a massive difference in terms of moving my units into tactically better post.

Suggestions for improvement

As mentioned in the segment above, I think the easiest way to improvise this list would be to switch Van Zant for The Unknown Ranger. If nothing else, just to give you the option to attack from any angle with BS 13 AP Rifle or Heavy Pistol.

However, on equal measure you can drop The Unknown Ranger / Van Zant entirely and make your army slightly bigger. I would also change the Grunt with LGL to a regular Rifle Grunt, saving you extra 4pts. This would give you enough spare Points to add Minutemen Forward Observer and a Maverick with Light Rocket Launcher. Both of these are good attack units, one of them is Specialist and Maverick gives you Smoke. The WarCor would have to go into a third combat group on his own as you'd have 21 troops. Click here to open this suggestion list in Infinity Army.

Another small change could be adding Airborne Range if you like having AD troops (instead of the Minutemen for example). Those guys can also be Specialists. After that you can always do some big changes to the main Fireteam, which I think really comes down to your preferred unit and the models you have available. You could have a very similar list based around Marauders or Minutemen as your Core Fireteam, though with those you might end up with less than 20 men as they cost more than Grunts.

I know I named this list the Grunt Horde, but what I see as the main composition of this list is the second combat group; the Infiltrators, 112 and Dozer with Muls. This group is only 117pts and 1.5 SWC (120pts if you count the WarCor) which does leave you with enough Points to form an attack group of your liking.

Northern Open 8 - Making USARF great again

The first Northern Open of 2017 felt like a weed infestation with all the Tohaa players we had! It was crazy, I never seen so many. And hope I never will again. We also had few new people come to Leeds, which is always great to see, some of them came all the way from Scotland. Hopefully we get to see them again next time.

For this tournament I decided to take my USARF because I haven't played them in a while and it was a good reason to get them bit more painted. I wrote a 20 man list which was mostly focused around Grunts and Specialists because all of the missions were objective based. I think the list was good but I really wish I practiced with it because throughout my games I definitely felt I could have been using my units better. It just played so differently to my other armies.

I did win my first two games, the second purely by luck if I am honest. If I scored higher in my second game I could have done better overall but as I wasn't used to the army I failed to press the advantage I had after first turn.

I came 9th out of 22, but everyone else in our group did better. The winner was Matt, one of the Leeds locals with his Tohaa. I can't say for sure but I don't think we had any consecutive winners yet, which I think shows that anyone who plays well has a chance to win Infinity tournaments. I don't know if its the same in every Infinity scene but here we do seem to have a good mix of players.

Army List

List A

I did have two lists for this but they were virtually the same and I only used this one. The only difference in List B was changing The Unknown Ranger for Van Zant. I feel like this lists deserves a separate article to explain it so that will come soon! 

Game 1:  Cold Sleep - USA Ranger Force vs Neoterran Capitaline Army

Won 7 to 2 (3 TPs)

My first opponent was Dom, someone I never played before and he said this was his first tournament (if I am remembering it right). He played NeoTerra which I am used to play against thanks to Tim so at least I felt confident about knowing what is on the table. Dom surprised me with two OOD Remotes, but both had shotguns. Otherwise I can remember two flamer bots with Auxiliers, Fireteam of Fusiliers and Aquila Guard. The table we played on was interesting for this mission as most objectives were in the open with only one side having slight advantage in the objective placement. I think Dom won the Lt roll and chose deployment and I chose to go second.

In my deployment I failed all thee rolls for Inferior Infiltration for Grunts with Heavy Flamers, which wasn't a good start but thanks to having the highest vantage point on my side I was able to deploy both of my Snipers on a good spot to look over the board. There was only one objective Dom was able to get to with his Fusiliers, Bipandra among them, without being shot at. To make way he used the Aquila Guard to take on my Grunt Fireteam. The firefight took much longer than it should have in theory and my Grunts came out on top in the end, I got lucky with Crit roll and Dom failed a regular ARM save too.

I spent most of my first turn getting the two objectives closest to my deployment zone, Paramedic Marauder on the right and Unknown Ranger (Chain of Command) on the left. I did try to take out some of the Fusiliers, I think I killed one of them but managed to get a Foxtrot and a Hardcase killed.

Dom went on to press for objectives with his Fusiliers. With some careful maneuvering he was able to take on my snipers one at a time, killing one of them with a missile launcher. The second sniper prevailed though and kept his other units pinned down. Dom was struggling to get to the second objective near his deployment zone.

In my second turn I have put my Fireteam back to five Grunts (I had six in the same Group in case one dies). Then I have sent four Specialists to an objective in the middle zone on the right. It was less protected but my problem was I knew Dom had chose to use his Classified to deny me a Specialists instead so I had to get two Specialists base to base with the objective. I was trying to kill his Diva in the process which I knew was his Lt but she just wouldn't die. Every AMR Save was a pass. I did however managed to get one Marauder Paramedic base to base.

In his last turn Dom went on to securing an objective in the middle on the right. He tried to also move up his REMs with OOD but I had plenty of AROs to take them out as they moved in the open. Once units got to the middle of the board there were long diagonal fire lanes. He did manage to secure the objective with the Fusiliers though and placed the surviving ones on ARO positions, making it hard for me to get there.

Which made my last turn difficult. I still had to secure the objective on middle left with a second Specialist, which would give me minor victory as a I had more of the objectives near deployment zones. To get more Objective Points I had to kill the Specialist Dom had base to base with an objective as I used my Classified as normal to get 1 Objective Point (I went with Secure HVT). I was able to get another Specialists to join the Paramedic by running through Dom's AROs and surviving. With that done I used The Unknown Ranger to go kill Dom's Specialist. But Bipandra, who was standing in the open next to me was causing problems as the Ranger was already on No Wound Incap so one more failed ARM save and I'd be dead.

We were close so I was able to outshoot her with Heavy Pistol while moving back but she just wouldn't die. I even used HMG Grunt to unload into her with Burst 5 and she still lived! In the end she did die but it left me with only two Orders to kill the Specialist that mattered. Which thankfully proved much easier and the Unknown Ranger got the kill. The swing in points in the end was big because I controlled more objectives with Specialist and more activated, which doesn't show how close the game was.

Game 2: Antenna Field - USA Ranger Force vs Tohaa

Won 6 to 4 (2 TPs)

With the second round I did not feel confident at all, I was put against Matt and to make it worse he was playing Tohaa (a different Matt with Tohaa than the tournament winner). On tournaments I think he always beat me when we played. My plan was to at least score some points so I don't walk away with nothing. On the board we had all of the objectives ended up in the open which did not make it easy as we had to be base-to-base with them end of each round. Which is where I think Tohaa have the advantage with their extra Wounds. I lost the Lt roll again and Matt decided to go second, as most people would in this kind of mission to have the last turn advantage.

I have again failed all three rolls for Grunts with Heavy Flamers which made it rather difficult to deal with two Snipers in a Triad that Matt deployed on a roof to protect all objectives. There was a path I could have attacked them one by one with my Foxtrot but I did not see it (only found out after the game) so my plan was to use my Fireteam of Grunts to take care of them. This was where my luck turned insane. My HMG Grunt put full 5 Burst into one Sniper, giving the other one free shots. I managed to score a Crit and enough hits to kill one Sniper (he couldn't use the Simbio-mate to negate Hits as I had Crit. After I wrote this article we realized the rule actually states the mate can still be used to negate the other hits, but the crit would go through as normal).

My Grunt then survived the free shots and proceeded to kill the second Sniper also. With them gone I was baffled on what to do next because I just did not expect it. I don't think I killed anything else since Matt was hiding the other troops, so I positioned Specialists around objective near my deployment zone and then on the left side.

Matt was surprised as much as I was with how the tables turned and tried to get rid of my HMG Grunt, but he just wouldn't die. No matter what he threw against it, I kept winning or surviving and passing Guts Checks. It was kind of crazy. Matt tried to kill some of my Specialists with Tohaa Beasts but judged the distance wrong and the template was about half an inch short of all my guys, so I was able to kill the beasts and then survived the hits from it too (and if I didn't, I'd still have someone base to base). Matt couldn't move any of his units to the objectives so I won the first round.

As I mentioned earlier, this is where I made quite the mistake. I had more or less free reign on the board but only managed to take one more objective instead of pushing for all five, which I could have done. Thanks to my HMG pinning Matt's units, he was forced to leave a Triad behind a building in a line, which allowed my Hardcase with Light Shotgun to take them out easily. Paramedic Marauder with Heavy Flamer then finished them off. After that I still had Orders to push for more but I didn't, it was a mix off not knowing my army well enough and also the game so far seemed pretty demoralizing for Matt so I thought he couldn't back from it (stupid assumption to make!).

That said, Matt's second round did not go much better than his first. My Fireteam still dominated but he was able to inflict some casualties on units holding objective on the left, I had The Unknown Ranger there, Foxtrot and Engineer (I think, might have been second Paramedic Marauder), everyone but the Ranger died either way. I think Matt was using his second turn to get ready for the last turn, which I did not see, but I did win the second round.

I decided bit too late to move my Grunt Fireteam out of a building and get them towards an objective. Unfortunately I did not have enough Orders because they had to first get down from the building and then they are only 4-2 MOV so not the fastest. I had to leave them in the Open but at least they still had lines of fire to objectives. Everyone else who could went on Suppressive Fire to stop Matt from taking any objectives from me.

In the last turn Matt proved he could back from the massacre that was going on. I only held three objectives so his plan was to kill off units from two of them, leaving me with one and then take two himself, which almost happened. With my Fireteam on the ground, Matt was able to move base to base with an objective at his deployment zone. His first attack then didn't work out as The Unknown Ranger survived. That, however, did not stop him from attacking the center. Using a unit with Eclipse Smoke Grenades he made a path to the middle and then was able to kill my Marauder in CC, bypassing all the AROs I had ready if he tried to go in the middle. We both did our Classified before end of the game.

 In the last turn we both had two objectives, giving us 1 points each, Matt got 2 more for holding the central objective at the end of the game and then got 1 for Classified. If he managed to kill The Unknown Ranger he could have make us Draw by having 2 points for holding more objectives which would give him 5 in total, same as me without getting 1 point in the last round. This really showed me that if you keep your head in the game it is possible to come back from almost anything, even if just to minimize the loss.

Game 3:  Supplies - USA Ranger Force vs Imperial Service

Lost 0 to 8 (0 TPs)

 My last opponent, Ben, was also new to me and since locally nobody plays IS regularly I wasn't sure what to expect. Though I was expecting to see three Total Reaction REMs. The table was interesting in the sense that the objectives were on equal ground, more or less. One was in the open and then each side had an objective hidden from the other size. The unfortunate thing was no good high ground on either side. I won the Lt roll and decided to take the size which had better deployment options (I thought so) but in hindsight I wish I went first instead. I could have utilized my army lot better in this mission.

After Ben deployed I was surprised he did not seem to have much. He only had two Total Reaction REMs and then a Fireteam of Celestial Guard, Dire Foes Character (Xi Zhuang) and Crane with X-visor and Sensor (plus some throw away units and Engineer). I deployed my Fireteam of Grunts in such a way to block the flank where Ben's Fireteam was. Which limited my lines of fire a lot, so might have not been a best idea. I also managed to pass infiltration with one Grunt with Heavy Flamer, finally, but the other two failed.

Ben didn't do much in his first turn, he felt it would take too many Orders to change the route for his Fireteam so decided to take my Grunts head on after killing my Grunt with Heavy Flamer near his Fireteam. But the fight between full Fireteams did not go well for either of us, though it did go in Ben's favour. The Crane had enough ARM to take all the hits I scored and my Grunts did too. I think only one Sniper went unconscious, or maybe both. Otherwise Ben only moved his REMs around a bit so I couldn't flank his Fireteam.

Which I tried to do anyway, his Fireteam was left in a line, a great juicy target for shoguns and flamers but my Hardcase got himself immobilized by MadTrap without killing a Total Reaction REM which then blocked path for my Marauder. I then used my 112 to heal the Snipers, one of them came back, allowing me to go back to a full Fireteam (again I had sixth Grunt nearby for this reason). I used my HMG to attack the Crane with Burst 5 but rolled really bad, getting myself killed and doing no damage. Since I couldn't kill anything I went on to moving units into defensive positions to make it hard for Ben to get to the objectives.

Which somehow worked. I had Marauder in cover on Suppressive Fire and Ben spent at least 7 Orders trying to kill him with the Crane in full Fireteam, and failing. I had three dice, looking for 9 (-3 for Cover, 0 for Range) while Ben had four dice and needed 13 (+3 for Fireteam, +3 Range, -3 Cover and -3 Suppressive Fire). After all those Orders he brought in an AD trooper to deal with the Marauder. My bad luck continued as I had a free shot at the AD unit but failed it. Overall though, it caused Ben to kinda waste his second turn as he didn't do any of the mission objectives.

The problem we faced now was that we played slow and were running out of time. We decided to finish my turn and see how much time we had left, so I made the mistake of rushing. I played it like I would play my last turn, just getting as many objectives without much through for the next turn. I did get two objectives. One with Foxtrot in the middle and Unknown Ranger on the right. I also managed to get a good shot with 112 and his Shotgun, I noticed there was a window I could use to hit them all if I shot the front person.

If we ended the game on time I would have won but we decided to continue which allowed Ben to kill my units with the objectives and grabbing two for himself. He killed the Ranger with a REM that had Spitfire, and then Ninja took the objective on the ground. His Fireteam took an objective on the left and he killed my Foxtrot who put mines all around himself as AROs to prevent Ben from taking the objective, he'd have to risk getting his units killed or waste Orders shooting the mines. In my last turn I was able to kill the person in Ben's Fireteam that held the objective but I had nothing to get to the Ninja, plus my Classified were to Engineer a REM and Ben's HVT, which I failed to do. Ben managed to get both of his.

 So in the end I lost pretty bad. I think the lesson from this game is to decide with your opponent on what to do when you are nearing the end of the time limit. From my experience it happens quite often the games only last two rounds. It is okay to go over if TOs allow it but don't make the mistake of rushing your turn like I did. Its hard to say how it would have played out but I could have used my second turn to put units on Suppressive Fire and try to stop Ben getting to the objectives and then in my last turn all I would have to do is run to them and pass the WIP rolls. I would also say we both made the mistake of ignoring the mission until the last turn, very bad idea. It was a fun game though, good learning experience if nothing else.

The Art of Losing

This is the first article shared with the Pride of Rodina blog, which you can find here. Although Pride of Rodina sure loves their Kazaks, the blog covers everything Infinity related from a number of different authors. This year should see more collaboration between various Infinity blogs, so keep an eye out for that!

Why play Caledonia?

If you are reading this then either you are interested in playing Caledonia or just curious what I got to say about the army. Either way I hope you will find this useful and perhaps join the Caledonia Highlander Army!

Caledonia is part of the Ariadna faction so you can expect very limited access to hi-tech equipment and weapons, but just like Ariadna, Caledonia offers lots of cheap troops and plenty of camouflage. This way you can almost always outnumber your opponent and keep them guessing with hidden units. What makes Caledonia stand apart from Ariadna and its other sectorials is more aggressive play style. 

It is not the only way you can play Caledonia but the army does excel at getting close to the enemy and most of the units are good in Close Combat. If you like the idea of destroying your opponent with claymores and giant werewolfs, Caledonia army might be for you.

This list of strengths and weaknesses is not exhaustive but it should give you a good idea of what to expect.

Strengths 

• Cheap and effective units
• Aggressive
• Plentiful access to T2 ammunition

Getting close to the enemy requires Orders, in Caledonia you won't struggle finding those Orders because you will have access to Regular Troops as cheap as 6 points. The Volunteers are just very basic Line Troops but they do a good job of giving you lots of Orders. Other cheap troops are Highlanders, who by default are Irregular but they are very cost effective. They are fast, have Smoke Grenades, Chain Rifles and extremely good in Close Combat. The most expensive unit in Caledonia is only 43 points (excluding a Mercenary TAG), which means you will not struggle to fill your army with elite troops supported by plenty of Orders provided by Line Troops.

Playing aggressively is not for everyone, it does require you to play in a certain way but if you are up to it, Caledonia is great at taking the fight to your opponent. The army has a selection of very mobile units and plenty of Smoke Grenades to make it easier for your troops to maneuver on the battlefield. Cameronians are one of the toughest and fastest units in the game. They have 6"-4" Move, Super Jump and Total Immunity, which means they can get wherever you need them to and are hard to kill.

For those new to the game, T2 ammunition causes two Wounds for every failed armour save, instead of one. This makes it lethal to Heavy Infantry which usually has two Wounds, and worries even units with three or more Wounds. In Caledonia there are five units with access to a T2 weapon, so you will not struggle fielding this deadly ammunition type in your army.

Weaknesses

• No units with Airborne Deployment
• Impetuous and Frenzied units 
• Expensive Infiltrators

 

No Airborne Deployment (AD) units is not as bad as it can sound, it does mean you can't flank your opponent with paratroopers but Caledonia does make up for it with being mobile in different ways (see above). But from experience, I find it easier to forget AD units exist because I can't play them in Caledonia so they are not on my mind. 

Playing aggressively is not always a choice in Caledonia, some units force your hand because they are either Impetuous or Frenzied, which makes them Impetuous once they kill something. This can be daunting because it makes your units rampage towards the nearest enemy and they loose all advantages from cover but if you learn to manage this, you can use it to your advantage as it technically gives some of your troops extra free Orders!

Caledonia's Infiltrators are the SAS. Their cheapest option is 20 points and for a Specialist it is 24 points. In comparison, Foxtrot Specialist (from USA Ranger Force) is 18 points. The difference might not seem that big but these points add up quickly. However, the SAS do stand out from other Infiltrators by having Martial Arts special skill and good Close Combat value. This gives them a unique application on the battlefield and you can easily surprise your opponent with infiltrating camouflaged assassins.

TTCombat Objective Room Review

This is a first of several articles I plan to do about the various terrain pieces that I use for my Serenity Valley gaming table. To start with I'd like to give a review on the TTCombat Objective Room (Building B).

Disclaimer: This is just my personal review of the product. I have not been sent this by any company to review it. In this case, I have also won it on a tournament and as such not paid for it.

Clean up and assembly

The building came in wooden MDF sprues, I believe there were two of them, slightly lager than A4 sheet of paper. None of the pieces were hard to get out. The clean up was easy too, only had to file down the small places where the pieces were connected to the sprue. 

The assembly was mostly straight forward. The main walls and the ceiling/roof slotted together nicely. The only slightly tricky thing were the protruded outer walls, each of those is made of three separate panels that have to go on in a certain way but it was really easy to figure out which way. 

Personally I have closed the side gap on protruded outer walls. It was easily achieved by cutting out shapes from a left over Infinity box. I will explain why I done it later on. I have also removed doors and a hatch on the roof, mostly so the roof can be easily removed. Otherwise I think you would struggle to take the roof off as there is no way to grab onto it.

Practicality on table

The building is the required size for an ITS Objective Room, or at least feels that way (I haven't measured it). For that reason I recommend to have the roof removable as you need to be able to move your miniatures inside and the walls are infinity height for ITS Objective Room so you can't get on the roof anyway.

If you play it as a regular building, it is bigger than S2 models so it can hide your regular troops. As with any other building that has hexagonal shape to it, you either have to agree with your opponent no shooting at legs (underneath the building) or be very mindful the protruded walls do not hide your units even when they go Prone.

My concern with this building was that the protruded walls have too many holes you can see through if you don't close the gaps on sides (as I mentioned earlier). The three panels do not connect with the main walls so you could draw a light of sight from higher level throuh the protruded wall, which personally I do not think is a good thing, kind of defeats the purpose of having terrain. It gives the terrain pieces too many unpredictable Lines of Fire, which tends to be only frustrating.  

I have found the building to work better if something is placed inside of it, otherwise it is very empty. The inner walls are just flat. Otherwise as long as you address the hexagon shape with your opponent before the game I found the building to be fairly practical. The protruded walls and gaps between them give you more options for cover than buildings with flat walls.

Conclusion

Although the assembly is easy and after minor fixes the building is practical, if I am perfectly honest I do not believe it would be my first choice if I was shopping around for an Objective Room. If you want something to only be an Objective Room there are easier options and on other hand, if you want something that can be an Objective Room and also a regular building, there are products with more details.

If you don't fix the gaps, this building could easily be frustrating for you and your opponent. Which would be the main thing to turn me away if I was looking at the picture in a store, but granted, it can be easily fixed.

That said, this building does have a different look to it and I could definitely see it fitting on tables that have other hexagonal shaped buildings. I do think the product is a good value for money for £10.

TTCombat also has a new Objective Room which is different in design, more detailed and costs the same. A very good and detailed review of that product can be found on Splayed Paint Brush blog.

They said I could be anything...

... so I became a HVT!

This happened before the last Norther Open, the 7th, I just forgot to write about it sooner. One of the sponsors for the tournament, Arts of War Studios, made us HVT (or civilian) tokens in likeness of the Northern Open HQ Members.

From left to right on the picture above its Ed, Colin, myself and Matt. Arron who does lots of the organizing was unable to take a picture of himself before the deadline so sadly he didn't get a token. I thought it was a great idea and sent them a photo in my Caledonian outfit. In my opinion they captured it quite well and even gave my token a beard feature!

The tokens are super cool and good quality. I can only recommend to buy tokens from the Arts of War Studios. They do have a range for Infinity and other games too.

You'll have a chance to play with them if you come down to any future Northern Open event. We don't let people keep them but they are offered as token for the games. During NO7 I of course always used myself as the HVT.