Just Play Games - April Assault

We have set off to Liverpool once more and returned to Leeds with the 1st place again... but not held by me, again! First thing I noticed after we got there was that the guys at Just Play Games added more to the terrain and had really nice objective markers too. Out of the five boards used, I think only two could have used more tweaking. We thought making the buildings diagonal would have solved it but others were pretty set on horizontal set up.

It was a good day overall and more lessons learned, despite my win-loss-loss performance. I was okay with the first loss, it was a tough game and I felt like I played good for the most part. The second loss was kind of painful as it came down to some deployment mistakes I can't seem to shake off.

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Table 4. Deployments were on left and right.

Table 5

After some post-games discussion, I still can't decide if I like the new ITS Scoring system or not. I do see how needing three wins is fair, but it works against me as I was comfortable with two wins and try for high loss. It sure puts bit more pressure on every game if you are going for high ranking.

Also something that I didn't think about till today was the mission grouping. In this event they chose to have three objective based missions and in the end I ended up using only one list for all three games. Being used to having objective list and killing list made me feel like I didn't know what to do with the second list. I think if I spent more time thinking about it ahead, I could have one list for dense tables and one for open tables or something like that. Some people had one list tailored against a faction, which is something to consider as well.

Game 1: Seize the Antennas - Caledonia vs ALEPH
Won 10 to 2 (3 TPs)

With the first game I played Mark, whom I never played before, or at least not this year. I don't face ALEPH often so I wasn't sure what to expect. After roll off Mark went first while I chose deployment. I think I won the roll but not sure. The first turn was way more brutal than I expected. He didn't have many Orders but was very bold with his Forward Observer and Hacker, which allowed him to kill handful of troops with Guided Missiles and despite my best efforts I didn't stop a single one. Even fluffed all of my free shots. Mark had an obvious Lt choice, some ALEPH TAG with Strategos Lv3 so I focused on trying to kill it, hoping to cripple Mark's next turn so he can't focus on the objectives. After some failed attempts to kill the TAG with T2 Rifles and Sniper Rifles, I sent Cameronian after it. The TAG survived the chain rifles but went down in CC. I even spent a command token so I could Coup de Grace the TAG, I didn't want to risk it coming back.

There used to be a TAG where the Cameronian is.

After that what happened was mostly Mark trying to defend the objectives and me trying to take them all. By the end of my second turn I put Mark into retreat and at that point we both had one Objective and he also had Classified done, I didn't. Thankfully ITS now says Retreat make the game end at the end of the Turn, not Player Turn so I had my last turn. (edit; after some discussion on Facebook we figured out we understood it wrong on the day. They might have changed the wording in ITS but the game still ends by end of Player Turn if they start in Retreat.) Though because of limited number of Orders I was on the edge. It took my Engineer four rolls before getting an objective and thankfully Uxia took the one Mark had with the last Order.

In the end I changed my Classified to Secure HVT as I failed all my Doctor rolls, so I scored full 10.

Game 2: Cold Sleep - Caledonia vs Combined Army
Lost 2 to 6 (0 TPs)

As it tends to happen, I ended up facing one of my mates from Leeds. Matt also scored 10 in his first game so at this point we were on top ranks I believe. I knew he was using his Combined Army which worried a bit because there is lots to do in this mission and in previous games his CA always gave me lots of trouble. However the table was good and I ended up having the first turn so I could set my defenses and deal some damage. Or so was the idea, but dice didn't go in my favour. I lost everything that I should have won, like shotgun at point blank range or sniper vs line trooper at very long range. I don't think I killed anything but was able to get my guys into position and also had my Cameronian right in front of Matt's Total Reaction HMG Remote, close enough for Chain Rifle template. In my turn I run out of Orders trying to keep hitting it.

It ended up somewhat in my favour because Matt had to deal with it and revealed his Anathematics Hacker. The Cameronian died but took a Wound off with Chain Rifle, as did a Highlander which made Matt lot more careful with it for the rest of the game. He also managed to pull off Smoke-MSV Lv2 trick with his HMG trooper, which I always hate to face since I just have to take the damage and hope to survive. Lucky for me it didn't end up doing much and Matt moved the trooper off a roof. Which allowed me to deal with it easier in my second turn. My biggest problem was being unable to deal with the HMG Remote and the Anathematics. My Volunteer HMG in full Link failed to kill the Remote and after that I had nothing on that flank to deal with it.

It more or less cost me the game, it kept my mind focused on the problem so I didn't make the smarter choice of going for the objectives on the other side of the table. Matt was able to take out the Link Team one by one and take objectives with the Anathematics. He couldn't move much to the other of the board because I had good lines of fire everywhere he couldn't deal with easy. The scoring in the end was close, we both had two Tech Coffin Objectives and the main difference really was that the Anathematics and another Specialist very able to hold Console and I had none of those since I didn't really go for it.

In retrospect I think I should have go more for the objectives and stay focused, I did feel like I was trying to do too much and spread my Orders thin. Could have been a very different result if I managed to also get two Specialists into contact with a Console.

Game 3: Highly Classified - Caledonia vs ALEPH
Lost 3 to 10 (0 TPs)

Funnily enough both Marks played ALEPH but this was a different person than I faced in the first round. I played him in the previous month where I won the mission, this time it was his turn to deal the pain. I admit I underestimated how un-effective it would be to deploy hidden against Mark on the board we played. I was expecting his Spitfire trooper to run into my Deployment Zone again but thought I protected myself enough. Which was proven wrongs. Thanks to some fire lines that I did not see he was able to take out my Engineer and also tore apart my Link Team. ODD really makes the odds bad even when I was in good range and a full Link. With some Camo Iflitrator he was also able to take out both my Paramedic and Doctor, which put an end to a chance to win before I even started playing. Two of the main Classified Objectives were Engineer something and Doctor someone.

With my game crippled, I was going to try force a draw. I had done my secondary Classified and was able to do two of the remaining main Classified. I did one of them and then needed to get my hacked to Mark's HVT ZoC and hack it. With bad judgement on my part, a failed Cautious Move cost me my hacker and it was really game over. The most I could do was make it harder for Mark to get the remaining main Classified, which he did get all in the end thanks to some lucky Fall Damage rolls.

The main lesson from this game was that I really need to work on my deployment techniques when playing on an open table. I usually play on boards were buildings have interior and then end up on a board with closed building in an event and suddenly its lot harder to deploy almost twenty models. Definitely at least need to keep my Specialists hidden better and not near each another for Shogun blasts to kill them.

USARF Conversions Part 2 - Foxtrots

This article will cover my conversions of the Foxtrots. To see other articles in this series, click on the links below:

Part 1 - Marauders
Part 2 - Foxtrots
Part 3 - Girl Grunts
Part 4 - Grunts with Heavy Flamers

Foxtrots

You'll notice two of the Foxtrots are actually Ariadna Scouts bodies. This is because I had them left over from another conversion I was doing for my Caledonia army and had no other use for them. They do not have the Foxtrot hat but I think they work just as well.

Bits used:
- Ariadna Scout bodies
- Shotgun and Rifle arms from 45th Highlander

The one thing that all of these guys shared were gaps between shoulder and body. Because the miniatures are metal I didn't want to spend too much time re-positioning the arms, so they were glued to look right and the gaps were filled with greenstuff. The gaps are more obvious from behind.

Going from left to right, the first model was the most straight forward. I gave him arms from the Foxtrot that comes in the USARF starter box. The second miniature was also fairly easy, main difficulty was that I couldn't get his left arm connect so it required the most greenstuff.

The hardest was the third miniature. The rifle is very close to his chest and to make it fit I had to cut off some of the breast pockets but the arms still didn't connect well. Though I was able to glue them on in a decent place and greenstuff concealed the gaps well.

It might have been easier to give this guy the shotgun but I quite liked the pose with the rifle. 

New Caledonia Fireteams in HSN3

The information for this article are mainly from the Beasts of War video about Fireteams, you can watch it yourself here:

http://www.beastsofwar.com/infinity/human-sphere-n3-week/fireteams/

In this article, as you probably guessed, I will only talk about Fireteams for Caledonia but the video has news for all the faction.

So whats new?

From what Bostria said, on top of the Core Links we have now (Volunteers, Grey Rifles, Scots Guard and Wulvers, plus Highlanders with Wallace) two units will have Fireteam: Haris and one unit will have Fireteam: Duo.

Fireteam: Haris - Mormaers, Wulvers
Fireteam: Duo - Scots Guard

They both work as regular (Core) Links do but have lower capacity. Haris can have only up to 3 members, while Duo has only 2. This does limit the bonuses you get from being part of the Link, full Haris will get you +1 Burst but Duo gets you nothing. But with all of them you can activate more than one trooper with one Order, which is always helpful!

Personally I was bit surprised that Grey Rifles do not have Haris but you can still link them as normal and I guess they didn't want us to have one Core Link of Grey Rifles and one Haris, in the same army. Rumour is that Grey Rifles will be able to join with Volunteers and maybe other units but don't know officially yet.

I hope they will raise AVA of Wulvers in Caledonia because I'd definitely want to run more than four now. Even if they don't though, it'll be useful to have them as 3 man Link on top of a second Link. I could definitely see myself playing defensive Volunteers or Scots Guard while using these guys to attack. The best thing will be that as long as they stay in a Link they ignore Frenzy which is one thing that makes them less useful, since they lose Partial Cover after wounding or killing something. This is assuming Link Teams still make units Not-Impetuous.

For Mormaers it is definitely a boost to be able to Link. My problem with them always was that they are slow, and I really like the idea of Burst 4 T2 Rifle or Burst 5 AP HMG. I think personally I would run them as two T2 Rifles and AP HMG, but if you really want to you could Link three AP HMGs! All ARM 8 in cover. That sounds pretty badass and hard to shift for your opponent. Hopefully Dogged will no longer drop you out of the Link either, at least not immediately.

Duo seems less useful than a Core Link or Haris because its just two troopers, but for a 4-2 unit I think it can really help. I could definitely see using a Scots Guard to attack something and another one just trailing behind to get closer to the enemy or just to a better position while you are doing something else. I doubt you will be able to Link the Camouflaged Scots since those can't Link even now.

Overall I am excited to see what more HSN3 has for Caledonia. These new Link Team options definitely open up a whole new range of tactics on how to play this already very versatile army.

(Photos of troops are from the Infinity catalogue.)

USARF Conversions Part 1 - Marauders

Recently I have expanded my USAriadna collection by dozen models or so and as the range for USA models isnt that big yet, all of those were duplicate of models I already had. Personally I dont like to play two models that look identical so I have decided to do several weapon swap.

In this series of articles I will talk about the conversion I have done and do my best to describe how I have done it so if you are looking to do weapon swaps yourself, you can use this as a guide.

Part 1 - Marauders
Part 2 - Foxtrots
Part 3 - Girl Grunts
Part 4 - Grunts with Heavy Flamers

There will be some sculpting involved but I don't think any of these were complicated, myself I have only basic sculpting skills and all I used were mostly "standard" tools. So without further ago, lets get started.

Marauders 

This unit has the option to form Haris Link Team so I wanted to have three guys with different weapons; Heavy Flamer, Shotgun and Rifle to be specific. The current only available model comes with the Heavy Flamer and fortunately is in a such a position where weapon swapping is relatively easy. Basically all I had to do was cut away the flamer and then attach a new gun.

Bits used:
- Shotgun from 45th Highlanders
- Rifle from USA Grunt

First off, you want to cut away the Heavy Flamer carefully so you can use it later but if you dont care about it, you can just chop it off. But if you do want to use it later, first make sure to use your clippers to cut the bottom handle but leave enough under the hand so you can tell he is holding something.

Then I have used a small saw, but a knife/scalpel should work too, to cut the weapon in half. You don't have to cut all the way through, you can just cut in a bit and then gently bend the weapon few times and it should "snap" where you made the cut. If you have a small filer, I recommend smoothing the cut. On the image below I have cut where the red lines are:

Then you'll need to cut the weapons you are swapping. It doesn't matter as much where you cut them, the goal is to cut away the back part with the handle and arm. In my case, I was able to cut the rifle and have enough left it connected straight to the remains of the flamer but the shotgun wasn't long enough.

I did not do any positioning of the Marauder's left arm but if you want to spend more time on it, you easily could get the shotgun connect. 

 

I solved the gap by placing a small rectangle of plastic (cut away from a left over sprue) in there and then filling the whole gap with greenstuff. You could probably do it with greenstuff straight away. 

The same thing was done on the rifle as well, but there was barely any gap to fill. If you want you can also add some small details with the greenstuff to make it less obvious the weapon was swapped.

The gap filling is the only use of greenstuff on these guys. This is my end result:

 

All three of them are in the same position but I don't mind, its a very action front line pose and I like that.

USARF Blackjacks and the Unknown Ranger - First Thoughts

With the upcoming Human Sphere N3 book, Corvus Belli started to gives us a taste of what is coming. For the first time recently they gave us profiles of the long awaited USAriadna units, the Blackjacks and The Unknown Ranger.

The profiles are quite interesting and I wanted to get my thoughts down before we get the books.

Blackjacks

I seen people calling this the first true Ariadna Heavy Infantry (HI), but I don't really see it that way. To me "normal" HI in Infinity has 2 Wounds, Blackjacks have 1 Wound per profile. Which is pretty interesting on its own! Not many units in Infinity have two profiles, unless you play Tohaa. At first glance this reminds of the Yu Jing unit that can transform but this seems more like Tohaa Symbiont, it gets worse after taking damage.

V: Courage is not new, but Lo-Tech A and Heavyweight is. I am guessing the Lo-Tech A is the rule that makes it downgrade after taking a wound because it is not in the second profile and Bostria said something along those lines in the Beasts of War video. It would be nice if this rule always kicked in, even if you go straight to dead, so you could never be taken out too quick but I doubt it would be that badass. Harder to guess what Heavyweight could do, no mechanics comes to mind where being heavy would affect it. Maybe you can jump on people and cause damage?

I do like the statline though, BS13 is always nice to see and it has ARM 5, after taking a wound it goes to BS12 and ARM 4 which isn't too shabby either. It is a slow HI unit, which was kinda expected but I am guessing it will be more of a sit back and deal gunishment unit. With AP HMG or T2 Sniper Rifle, you are not going to be charging forward, but they do have Chest Mines and SMG or DEP, which are pretty good at keeping people from getting too close.

Sadly it is Hackable though, which I am not fan of as Ariadna was always famous for not being Hackable but we can't have everything I suppose.

Both weapon options are 36pts, with only SWC being different. Personally I think I'd see myself going for the HMG option because I have enough Snipers in my USA but the 2 SWC cost might be bit high so it'll depend on the rest of the army, but I'd be happy with either to be honest. There is a potential for both, or more, since in USARF sectorial I expect the AVA to be higher.

As far as the model, I am expecting it to be a suit of armour rather than a robot-style. The current Ariadna HI do not actually have that many armour plates so would be cool to see this being either armoured from head to toe, or like a battle-mech suit. With Silhouette 5, its gonna be big either way. If it was S6 I would guess it might be a Dog Warrior with lots of armour, which would be epic. I hope they make two models box set so you have a full power version and a damaged version, it has lots of potential to look awesome.

The Unknown Ranger

The Unknown Ranger is definitely either Chuck Norris or Rambo, or mix of both! Will see when the model comes out who was the inspiration. It is a quite costly unit at 41pts or 47pts +1.5 SWC but it does seem worth it and most of things in USARF is cheap. If I am honest I was expecting more of a Camo+Infiltration loner unit with close range weapons, D-charges and such but this profile seems to be more of elite commander.

The Ranger looks very beasty in CC, not only he has Natural Born Warrior to negate enemy Martial Arms but he also has CC22, Kinematica and T2 CCW, thats insane! Though because of the price tag, he might not be in CC that often. It tends to be safer to shoot people still.

Scavenger and NWI are also pretty useful. I think this makes the Rifle option much more appealing than the Molotok. You get Chain of Command so you don't have to worry about your Lt as much and after you kill someone, you can take their weapon most of the time so you can easily grab yourself a HMG or Sniper Rifle and go on a killing spree from long range.

The Chain of Command also has some decent combo potential in both vanilla and USARF. In vanilla the new Lt unit is coming out with Strategos Lv2 which is fun and you wont have to worry about obvious Lt.

In USARF though, you can get your first Lt killed, this guy becomes Lt, then drop in Van Zant with Executive Orders so he becomes the Lt and has the Lt Order for use and when he dies, the Ranger is Lt again! Fun times.

I think I will often try to find a place in my army for this guy. Hopefully the mini will look as badass as the profile is.

112, Emergency Service

In my opinion the 112 Emergency Service of Ariadna is arguably the most badass Doctor in the Human Sphere. In Caledonia he is also currently the only available unit with the Doctor Skill therefore you will very likely find him in your army at some point as part of the "standard" Doctor & Engineer support group and Specialists.

Thankfully, despite being the only Doctor option, the 112 Emergency Service is very useful in its own right and so it doesn't feel like you are wasting points on a "should have" unit.

Profile

Generally speaking, Doctors tend to have about the same stat line as Line Troops and maybe higher WIP. This is the case when you compare the 112 to Like Kazaks (Ariadna Line Troops) but in Caledonia their stats are better than Volunteers. For extra 2pts (over Volunteer Paramedic) you get +1 BS, +1 PH, +1 WIP and V: Courage; which can always come in handy.

You have AVA 3 on the 112 but I never played more than one, so don't have experience using multiple 112 but it might be worth considering if you have the models.

So, for only 12 pts you get a decent (more or less average trooper in Infinity as a whole) unit for your Caledonia army, who is also a Specialist in ITS missions and gives you a chance to heal your unconscious troops. In a quick summary, in my opinion the 112 is worth the points.

The 112 also comes with a Light Shotgun, CCW and Pistol. Gives you few options when it comes to defense or attack. If you are wondering why would you ever use Pistol over Shotgun, remember the Light Shotgun always uses the Impact Template and in some situations you could find yourself unable to shoot it as it would affect Friendly units.

And lets not forget the MedKit. I think people, beginners especially, might not realize that you can shoot the MedKit. It has the same Range Bands as a Pistol, and if you hit, the unconscious (Null) target has to pass -3 PH check to heal. Which is lot riskier than normal Doctor check, but sometime it can save you Orders or gives you a chance to heal where you can't get into base contact.

On the battlefield

You of course take a Doctor for the chance to heal your Unconscious troops but its not always simple as that or even worth doing. In my games I found the 112 used in these roles generally speaking:

ITS Objectives and Classified Objectives are arguably the main reason to include a Doctor, who is a Specialist. The 112 is actually well equipped for this. With Light Shotgun you can defend objectives from close range, or even attack, and because of V: Courage you can always count on your 112 to stay on the objective and not run away or hide (or you can decide to hide if you really want to). Guts Checks should not be underestimated.

It might be bit of repeating but I would like to stress out the use of Light Shotgun for defense and attack. Within 8" your 112 is shooting at BS17, which is excellent. Against most troops you can hold off with even one dice (unless you just roll really bad), though it obviously won't work as well against Camo, TO or ODD. Same goes for your active turn. If you can catch someone out of cove, the 112 should be able to deal with them. I think your opponents might be surprised by it, I am guilty of underestimating 112 too; not many people expect a Doctor to charge out and be good at taking out units.

I don't recommend CC with the 112, but if you do find yourself Engaged, at least you are dealing Damage at full PH thanks to the Close Combat Weapon, which is a sweet looking axe.

One scenario where I use the 112 specifically for Healing is "Sniper-Healing". By this I mean using the 112 to sit back near my Snipers and heal them back up if they go down, which you expect them to do so. The most important thing about this is to deploy your 112 over 2.5" away because you don't want him to be caught by a blast that might hit the Sniper, or Sniper caught in a blast because of the 112. If you have more than one Sniper, its worth deploying in such a way where you can reach one Sniper base to base and at least see the second one for some ranged healing with the MedKit.

The downside of the above role is that your 112 is usually far from everyone else and probably on a roof somewhere, so he might not be able to get to Objectives reasonably fast. Because of this, consider what is more important to win the mission, healing your Snipers or getting Objectives. Hint; in an objective mission the objectives are more important.

My miniature

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with my first 112 so I took lots of inspiration from the Corvus Belli studio miniature. The main difference being I went with grey jacket over blue-grey and with less yellow stripes. I am happy how it came out, it fits into the military setting with green overalls but stands out.

My favourite thing about the 112 are all the little details, like the gas mask, the flash light and the shotgun shells on the chest.

I find it hard to take pictures of this but I did do bit of dirt on the bottom of the jacket, though I might make it bit darker later on as you can only really see it in person.

Last but not least, this was my first mini where I played around with blood paint. I wanted to use it for a long time but so far never finished anything to such a level where I could do the final detailing so when I finished the 112 I took the opportunity to add blood to his axe and a blood splatter on the base. More blood will definitely follow for my other minis later on.

Most photos in this article by James from Gribbley Gaming.

Just Play Games - At the edge of victory

Only week after the last tournament, I have attended another one. This one was in Liverpool in a brand new venue of "Just Play Games". They have really cool set up of being just a gaming venue instead of a store with some space to play. Drive to Liverpool was fun and we only got lost like once in the city looking for a car-park. The turnout on the event wasn't as big as expected but it was their first Infinity event and they said most of their local players couldn't make it, so next time it should be bigger. I had good fun and looking forward to play there next time.

For more info, check out Just Play Games website.

In brief overview of the games, I won the first two rounds and was in the Finals but just like last week, got smashed and lost the chance of victory. But I did win myself a shiny new Camo Token.

Liverpool docks. We got lost on the way to Tesco.

My Just Play Games List 1
My Just Play Games List 2

About my lists, it was all very killing missions so I wanted my Wulvers List for sure. The Mormaers were bit of a wild card because I played them only once before but I was happy with them, though I feel two are bit too much and the list does need tweaking. I think the T2 Rifle version is lot letter and might be good in a List with Isobel and Volunteers Link.

Game 1: Front Line - Caledonia vs Nomads
Won 6 to 3 (2 TPs)

I got to play Luke for the first time in this round. I met him bunch of times on previous events but we haven't faced each another. It was a tough game but I was lucky that I could draw long file lines from my DZ, well I say lucky, but I did chose the side with the highest vantage point for that reason. Luke has four remotes, two of which were Total Reaction HMGs so I was concerned about how I'll advance to the section of the board near his Deployment Zone (DZ).

Playing in the first turn, Luke is not in the picture. I am wearing the 111 cap.

In Turn 1 tried to kill a Jaguar on roof because I knew he was going to give smoke to the camo marker next to him (which was undoubtedly Intruder with MSV L2) but I didn't try enough which was a mistake that I paid for dearly in Luke's turn. From what was on the board I figured Luke's Lt was Interventor Hacker so I tried to kill him with Grenades but didn't work out. I would have prefer to get close but couldn't without too many Orders and AROs. I also killed as many Remotes as I could from distance with Guided Missiles and Snipers but didn't have enough Orders to keep shooting them so one Remote was only unconscious. Ended my turn with setting up Mormaer and SAS in Supressive Fire. As expected in Luke's turn, the Intruder with HMG in smoke was big problem and he killed a lot: Uxia, SAS, one sniper (maybe both) but couldn't get rid off my T2 Mormaer in cover and Suppresive Fire. Almost killed my second SAS but I managed to keep him alive.

End of Turn 1.

The Intruder ended up prone after failing Guts Check and I couldn't deal with it in my turn as there was no easy access to the roof, so I healed one sniper and then advanced my army forward. Wallace with Highlanders run on one flank to the middle and but stupidly, I run too far into a mine which killed at least one of them. Though after that I split the Highlanders out and one run out to chain rifle Remote and Engineer, killing both, another one killed Total Reaction Remote also with Chain Rifle. My HMG Mormaer also advanced and went back to Supressive Fire. In Luke's turn the Intruder caused more trouble and another one showed up as well, with a rifle but he didn't have enough Orders to do major damage.

The pesky roof with my Intruder nemesis, currently in camo.

In my last turn I advanced with more things to try assure my victory. I was counting on Baggage Mul and Cateran to hold my back line. From what was on the table I knew Luke could only threaten that zone with two camo markers but they were on roofs and would take long to get down. I did not think he had any AD troops. T2 Mormaer was holding the middle zone, and Wallace with a Highlander to get the enemy zone. I wasn't sure how far I got my HMG Mormaer but either way he would boost middle or enemy zone significantly. And then I had my Classified Card to add points to a zone. I managed to take out the second Intruder with a Highlander which left only three things that could take off my points. Two camo markers in the middle and the HMG Intruders on the roof. I set up Mormaers in Supressive Fire again and hoped I covered myself enough.

End of Turn 2.

Luke still could have won or at least draw if he managed to kill Wallace and the HMG Mormaer, but he had few Orders left and needed to do it all with one round of shooting, two at most. One Zero shot Wallace but I won that roll off. Then another Zero was shooting my HMG Mormaer, but couldn't kill straight away though and I failed my free shots at it with Cateran and T2 Mormaer. The last two rounds of shooting I am not sure who was it, but I think once we both rolled crit and in the end I believe it was the HMG Intruder who managed to kill my HMG Mormaer and this basically cost me the middle zone so I couldn't score total victory.

Game 2: Supremacy - Caledonia vs ALEPH
Won 7 to 3 (2 TPs)

I played Mark in the second round, also someone new I haven't played before. He had a scary list as he had two HMG Total Reactions, Missile Launcher with MSV Lv2 and few ODD troops. I chose sides again and Mark decided to go first, which gave me the second turn I wanted. I deployed very hidden which seemed to surprise my opponent but allowed his ODD Spitfire to run into my DZ and cause lots of trouble, he ended up being trouble for the rest of the game as I couldn't kill it. I also failed to realize I had long range Sniper AROs against it few times.

In my first turn it was fairly easy to take out the Remotes with Snipers from over 32" range but I didn't have enough orders to kill them fully, only disabled them. I also managed to kill the missile launcher which freed the board for Wulvers to advance and take two quadrants. They dominated those for the rest of the game as Mark didn't have anything to deal with them on that side of the board after his Chain Rifle suicides itself against them. In retrospect I tried to do too much that turn and burn myself out of Command Tokens too quick. Mark manage to heal back both of his Remotes but I killed them both again, but also the Engineer bots and the Engineer itself. 

End of Turn 1.

I was happy with the Wulvers, once more they proved themselves to be worth the points. After they got into position Mark had to burn Orders getting to them but couldn't do enough damage. Only time I was at disadvantage with them was at over 16" range against ODD trooper in Cover, I was only 4-man Link so was at -12 to hit. Admittedly I also got too lucky with Crits, there was a point where I got one too many so it was little frustrating game for Mark.

I did made few mistakes with the Wulvers though. I left them sometime too exposed for no good reason and Mark managed to kill two of them and put the last two on 1W each, which I think is the most damage someone did to them this far.

Though my biggest and dumbest mistake cost me the Total Victory. In the last turn of the game it came down to me needing to take one of my quadrants back as Mark had 1pts more there than me. He had 31pts OOD trooper with Spitfire and Netrod for 4pts, 35pts in total. I had 24pts SAS and 10pts Paramedic for 34pts in total. 

Wulvers going strong.

What I should have done was to put my Classified Card worth 19pts there and then spend all my Orders on the SAS activating one objective. BUT I forgot about the Card so I tried to take a different quadrant with Wallace because Mark had only 13 or 14pts there, or basically less than 35pts. But there was a mine and two AROs I needed to Survive. Which I didn't and got Wallace killed. I think I had only three Orders left at this point and realized I only needed to kill the Netrod, which I managed to do with a T2 Rifle Wulver. With last Order my SAS took the objective.

The worst part of that, however, was that Mark managed to get Secure HVT Classified Objective as my Wulvers moved out of his HVT's ZoC and Wallace was dead. Which put changed my victory from 5 Points difference to only 4 Points.

Game 3: Safe Area - Caledonia vs Ariadna
Lost 0 to 8 (0 TPs)

Getting ready for the finals on the middle table.

Despite my mistakes I was at this point on 2nd place and everyone was 1 TP behind (I think), so basically if I managed to get 3 TPs I would have won the tournament. Unfortunately I faced James who also managed to win his previous two games. I knew it was gonna be tough but expected it to go better than it did. Usually we are on equal footing until the last turn but I felt the game was pretty much lost right after deployment unless I got lucky. It happened just like last week, I faced an army with lots of Orders, somewhat "open" table, did not chose the side with highest vantage point but took second turn instead and my opponent deployed in my DZ and took out too many Orders with his Alpha Strike in the first turn. 

My deployment.

Instead of going throught it turn by turn, lets break down what went wrong (and try to learn from it): 

- Facing an army as big as mine is not a problem in itself, I play against James' Ariadna all the time, but it does reduce the numbers advantage.

- I admit complaining about a table is bit silly, and it was a good table for the most part but the deployment zone was way too open. The buildings were set up on an angle which meant many LoF could be drawn across it very easy from flanks by getting over the middle line. Because of this I didn't feel comfortable deploying my Mormaers in most places, they would be out of cover in most places and too experience to risk that way. 

My left flank...

... and after enemy Uxia.

- The highest vantage point does become a problem when going second and you can't fully hide on the roofs. Sniper battles are often 50/50 (or close) but in favour of the Active Player as they tend to have highest Burst. This becomes even more in their favour if they can deny you the Partial Cover  Modifier. It simply makes things harder, I rely on my Snipers and its just "funny" that I won the games where I chose the side with the highest point.

- I still think going second is a big plus in this kind of mission if you can hold off the Alpha Strike, which is why I chose it but I couldn't hold off. This is not something that went wrong, just makes it even more like last week.

My right flank...

... and after Heavy Flamer.

- This is something I seem to be unable to prevent or even prepare for, especially on tables with open DZ. James managed to land his Heavy Flamer grunt near my Link Team and this forced me to deploy Uxia trying to stop it. And he also got his own Uxia on my other flank, which admittedly was my mistake of deploying "weak" troops there. I could have fortify it better for sure but I didn't see how. James took out way too may Orders for me to do much the whole game.

Second turn holding ground.

In the end I was simply bunkering down in one corner, barely able to take off any Orders from James as I couldn't see most of his army. Which left him just too many Orders for me to hold off for long and he had the whole table free to get everyone into position for objectives. I couldn't even kill his Uxia, she did amazing, which is how I want mine to work but she never does. I kinda had hope to take off quadrants because I had the last turn and my most expensive units were still in play but after James killed the Mormaers in his second and last turn, it was game over. In the end I had only Wallace alive.

Last turn, last stand.

All the complaining aside, James had the upper hand and played well. I could have risk few rolls and deploy my Infiltrators near his Lines which might have force him to focus on those rather than my deployment zone but I didn't feel I had enough Infiltrators to do that as I needed them for objectives. Infiltrating Grunts with Heavy Flamer (or any kind of template weapon really) are too deadly when they manage to land.

My only Crit of the game, Mormaer vs Briscard.