Northern Open 6 - At the end of season

Towards end of August we had another successful Norther Open event in Leeds. For me it was also the last event before end of the ITS season. It might have been the last even in the UK, or at least one of the last. I started the day well with a major victory but with every round things got progressively worse from a victory to a draw to a loss. My match-ups were Tohaa, Tohha and ALEPH. 

Army Lists

I don't have links to Army 6 this time but I have used variations of Wulvers Link list and Scots Guard Link list. The main thing that changed from last time was dropping Traktor Muls in both lists and having three Infiltrators with the Scots for the Supplies mission. Wulvers also had a SAS in as a second Infiltrator to make it easier to get objectives.

Game 1: Supremacy - Caledonia vs Tohaa
Won 6 to 1 (3 TPs)

In the first game I was playing against Chris, a new opponent for me. He played Tohaa which is an army I am still not that familiar with (the unit names are hard to remember) and after he won the Lt Roll and decided on turn order, I did not feel in a good spot. My preferred plan for this mission is go second but now I had to look for a side which would give me the most advantage in terms of doing damage in the first turn and holding Chris back from my quadrants, while also taking one of his. So lots of hard work but the one advantage I saw was taking the objectives and destroying them before Chris could get more than me, or any at all.

When picking a side for this mission I look for two things (in addition to the usual where is the highest vantage point for snipers), ability to get out of my deployment zone and stay in total cover, and access to defensible position in middle of the table. I chose a side which had a building outside of deployment zone and near an objective, and another set of building close to the edge of the board and in the middle. Normally in my first turn I would go after enemy Lt with Uxia but since I had no clue who it was in Tohaa and I knew they likely had Chain of Command, I didn't bother. She went on to do an objective instead. With my Wulver Link I went to the buildings I was planning to go to and it was kind of a bonus for me that Chris put his heavy guns opposite of those buildings. Mk12 Wulver had a shoot out with them and won (as kind of expected with B4 BS15 DMG15 shots).

Wulver mobility allowed them to set up on the roof as well. My Cateran also took out some unit (can't remember what now) and I ended the turn there. In my opponent's first turn I didn't lose much, I think only one highlander. Chris tried to attack the Wulvers with an infiltrator but the Wulvers prevailed. Otherwise he spend his turn moving to his one quadrant where I didn't have anyone and taking the  objective there. He couldn't advance much further without being shot at. My second turn was all about taking out the objectives. I have grabbed one more with SAS FO and then destroyed three of them (I left alone the one Chris activated). Which put me in permanent advantage of having one more than Chris. My Highlanders had lots of things to attack but Chris was good with his ARM saves.

Chris left the Wulvers alone for the rest of the game so they held two quadrants at the end of each turn, and I just had to make sure to keep the third quadrant with everyone else. I had easier job of doing so because Chris did not have that many units left and to draw at the end of turns he would have to hold two quadrants which would stretch his forces. While not a bad idea to not give someone more quadrants, it would have allowed my units to attack easier in my turn. I believe we had to end the game at the end of turn two, otherwise I would have likely had 8 objective points.

Game 2: Rescue - Caledonia vs Tohaa
Draw 3 to 3 (1 TPs)

The second mission was one of the new ones. Unfortunately I don't recall my opponents name but he also played Tohaa, so again I did not feel like I could Alpha Strike even if I did win the Lt Roll... which I didn't. In retrospect I think I chose the wrong side. I went for the side which seemed to make it hard to my opponent to get to his Civilian Objectives but it turned out to just make it harder for me to get to mine. The big block of a building in front of my deployment zone meant I had only two routes to get to my objectives. Which was also true to my opponent but I had no good defensible locations either. Overall it was bit of a mess and we both made mistakes during the game.

I deployed my Scots Guard Link in such a way that I hoped would prevent my opponent from getting to his civilians easy. Though I did leave my left flank quite week, but again, no good places to defend that I saw. I also infiltrated with two SAS (Uxia failed) but he was quick to counter them in his first turn. My opponent didn't move far in his first turn so I hoped I could snatch at least one of my civilians but the biggest mistake we made during the whole game was that when my opponent said his sniper had MSV Lv2 I believed it and did not bother to check a courtesy list. I would recommend to always do so from now on because before the end of the game (but too late to make much difference) we found out it was only MSV Lv1, which I wouldn't have cared out. I do not believe my opponent tried to cheat on purpose or anything, and its my own fault too.

But it does mean the whole game would have gone down very differently and I would not have such a hard time getting to my civilians. One of my SAS failed to kill the sniper and then I believed smoke wouldn't cover me which left me in a pretty bad place. The important things in the game really happened in the last turn, until then we were just trading units, my second SAS made good use of his infiltration and tried to bring over one civilian but died to the sniper. By the last turn, however, we both did nothing as far as the objectives so it came down to who can get a civilian. My opponent had the upper hand so I was pretty sure he'd take two but he took only one, only too late realizing any unit can take civilians, not just Specialists. I was then able to run with Wallace to grab a civilian and run back, thanks to his 6-4 Move and now knowing Smoke blocks the sniper's LoF.

So where my lesson was make sure to double check courtesy lists, especially when it comes to equipment that messes up my whole battle plan, the overall lesson was also to read the mission pack properly and practice the mission before the event!

Game 3: Supplies - Caledonia vs ALEPH
Lost 1 to 7 (0 TPs)

In the last game I went against Chris, who is also ITS event winner so I knew it would be a tough match even though he was playing ALEPH and not his Nomads. After the last game I went to this with the mindset I have no chance of getting to the top three so I didn't care much but then Matt the TO came over and said we have a shot at winning because nobody else done too well either, which kind of changed things. I wanted to win, and win big. However, before the game started there was also a change to how we interpret the mission wording. It went from passing WIP check to get the objective, to passing WIP check opens the box but then you still have to spend another short skill to take the objective out. Basically costing you extra Order and making it slower to move away from the box. For me this meant having to think about my orders even more and making it really hard to get all three objectives into my deployment zone in the first turn.

Nevertheless, I won the Lt roll and I made that my plan. I was able to smoke my way to the objectives, get all three of them and get them either into my deployment zone or close to it but one SAS failed his WIP roll once and needing those extra Orders really stretched me thin. It meant that I did not kill a single thing in my first turn, which was not great. But I had the objectives and Chris only had 10-12 Orders so I wasn't worried for the first turn. My Missile Laucher Scots killed his sniper in ARO and everything else just moved up a bit.

My second turn wasn't much more eventful, my idea was to consolidate all three objectives in one building and defend it heavily as my deployment zone was fairly open otherwise. I believe the only thing I was able to kill was a Total Reaction Remote with my Cateran, everything else was hidden. I did manage to get most of my units close to the building and it seemed like a good defensible spot. However, in his second turn Chris went more aggressive and started to pick out my units that were away on their own. He also did a triple attack on my Missile Launcher with a Co-Ordinated Order and managed to take him down. Chris' ALEPH TAG was a pain to deal with after that because I had no units in position where I could attack it, especially not after it climbed up on a roof and went into Supressive Fire.

In the last turn I faced a dilemma. Either I will spend my Orders fortifying the building which had all three objectives in it or if I could take out the TAG, Chris would be in Loss of Lt and that would win me the game. I went with the later and tried to do it with the Molotok but I rolled really bad, it didn't help I wasn't on full 5 man Link anymore. By the end of my turn I held two of the objectives with third being on top of the building where my Cameronian died.

Chris still had most of his Orders in his last turn, not a great thing for me. However, his TAG was too big to get into the building and his units would get smashed with Supressive Fire if they tried to enter. All but one unit as it turned out a Myrmidon had Smoke Grenades. We had a debate whether Smoke Grenade would expand fully into a second floor through trap doors, and settled on that it doesn't but you can still be in Smoke when you get to the second floor. Which ruined everything for me as it allowed the Myrmidon to bypass all of my defenses and kill the troops holding my objectives in CC. If I killed the Myrmidon we'd end up on draw, or me winning if he didn't kill both of my units but it would have to be pretty lucky roll on my part. In the end, despite holding all three objectives for 99% of the game, Chris managed to snatch a victory.

It was of course frustrating but I should have defended the building better by having troops on the first floor and cover the entrance. I did not expect Chris to have a Smoke unit, I don't play against ALEPH often but did not remember them using Smoke from past games. Just like in the last game, I should have checked the courtesy list or at least ask more about the units on the field. Hard to say if spreading the objectives around the board would have helped, I was worried Chris would be able to pick them off easier so having them all in the same place seemed like a better idea.

I don't think the game was easy from Chris' perspective after I took all three objectives in the first turn so it is actually impressive to pull a win from that. Shows its always good to play your best until the very last Order.

USARF "Speed Painting", Part 2

Continuing with my (not so much) "speed painting" of USARF, I have completed the next step. Which, as I have predicted in the previous article, has taken much longer than the first step. For my USARF I have decided to go with black on weapons, pistol holsters, straps, boots and chest vests.

The difficulty of this step was making sure everything is painted neatly and the black isn't all over the place. So I ended up spending lots of time with my super small detail brush on the straps which were not always easy to reach. Weapons and boots were the easiest, most of the surface was done with a larger brush and then detail brush again on the surface near hands and other parts of the mini. Chest vests were fifty-fifty, some miniatures has them mostly accessible while with few others they had arms and guns going across them.

I am not sure yet what will be the next step because so far I have not decided on the end result, as in I am not sure about the final colour theme. Mostly likely I will do metallic silver to finish the guns and then flesh, so the minis look playable. I can then do the bases to complete the "table top" look. I do want to add grey and brown to the mix as well. I did try to add a different shade of green of armor plates but not sure if it works. Might need to complete one miniatures to decide.

Harlequins 2

Second event run by the Bolton Gnomes in the Harlequins store (my new favourite store because they sold me card board cut out of Avacyn from MTG). It was a very nice drive to Preston and only myself attended from Leeds. Other guys didn't have time or were down South of UK.

It was a very well run event and props to Ben for going around with time reminders each round. Think he came around every half an hour or so. From what I remember only table run into the lunch break. The turn out was also good, even though it was one less table than last time. I did meet bunch of new people and I am sure for the next one, more of us from Leeds will attend.Also you will notice from the photos that they did fill up tables with the Corvus Belli card board terrain and I thought it worked well enough.

Photos from the day by Ben Tyrer, the TO: http://infinity.boltonboardgames.org.uk/#!album-6

I came 5th (same as the first event) but had a good day of games and the price support was nice. Everyone got a set of Camo/S2 silhouette token with a small round template, both with engraved Harlequins. Which I thought was very neat. There also was a blind-pick of Customeeple baggies. I managed to get a set of Haqqislam tokens (very useful since I am starting Haqqislam).

Photo by Ben. I am in the middle-ish, red top and hat.

Army Lists

List A
List B

These lists might deserve a full breakdown article but if you read my event articles from last few months you will recognize them. My core tends to be the same, Wallace+Link, Uxia, Cateran and Warcor. The list is then based either around Scots Guard or Wulvers. I think the weakest part for both were the 5 pts Baggage bots, they did cause more damage to me than being useful by giving extra 20pts to my opponent. So definitely need to consider their usefulness for missions where you get points for killing more.

That said Urugan with (normal) Hacking Device is a pretty good combo and it helped me a lot. Another less useful unit was Scots Guard with SMGs in Camo. I forgot during one game he is not a Specialist anymore, but at the same time he did work well in one game so it really depends on the mission (as always). Overall I was mostly happy with both lists but especially for Biotechwore I could have tweaked it better. 

Game 1: Supremacy - Caledonia vs Morats
Won 8 to 2 (3 TPs)

It was almost draw of fate that I got to play Lawrence in the first game. Last time we played in Harlequins he won, so this was my chance to even the score. Previously he played Ariadna but this event he came with Morats. It is an army I play myself but have not faced them this year that I remember. Lawrence won the Lt Roll and decided to go first. I chose to deploy on the side with the highest vantage point, as I always try to do when I have to pick deployment. I was running a Wulver Link so my deployment was mainly hidden with troops able to ARO only if Lawrence was trying to get to the Wulvers.

The first turn wasn't very eventful for Lawrence, with only 8 Orders in one pool and 2 in the other (not sure on the second pool, but it wasn't big) he had to spend them all on moving his troops rather than getting something into my deployment zone to attack. My hiding did give him almost entirely free movement everywhere but at the same time it helped me. He was able to get close which would mean less orders for my troops to attack as they wouldn't have to walk far. On the other hand, it was a gamble to let Lawrence be in three quadrants as it meant I had to take at least two from him. In my turn I was able to take out his Total Reaction HMG with a Cateran which allowed my Wulvers to move out. The next speed bump was a Suryat with HMG in Suppression but I was able to get close by being behind a building. Then three Wulvers did Speculative Grenades fire, with Wallace throwing Smoke Grenade. I was only going for breaking the Supression but I landed three Grenades and Lawrence failed all three ARM saves, which was pretty lucky.

I followed it up by Wulvers running behind another building and then on top of it, with Heavy Shotgun Wulver going around the corner. Behind that building was Kornak, Slave Drone and Witch Doctor. At close range with full link support, not much can hold against D15 Heavy Shotgun, especially when I was hitting on BS21 from this range and getting them out of cover! But it did take all my Orders and in the second group nothing really happened. My Scots Guard tried to Surprise Shoot a Raktorak to reduce Lawrence's Link a little but got killed, think he might have been crited. At the end of the turn I held two quadrants as the Wulvers moved just far enough to the top left and I also held bottom left (from my perspective).

In the second turn Lawrence continued with the offensive on my right flank and I think everything got killed. It was mostly cheap Order support so it didn't hurt that much, but it meant I had to be more careful with Orders. The Raktorak Link had three to four Shotguns in it which wasn't great as I didn't have the Orders go take a long way around as getting close would give Lawrence the advantage. Instead I just took out the HMG I was able to see from distance and avoided them otherwise. Only later on I realized I could see another member of the Link from distance and took him out too. I was able to take the two top quadrants and still held the bottom left quadrant. Lawrence only had the bottom right one.

As tends to happen in the last turn, Lawrence had only few Orders to do something with the last three Raktoraks in a Link and one or two other troops. He did managed to kill one of my Wulvers and then fortified his position on both right quadrants. I didn't have the Orders to take the bottom right one so the only way for me to win the third round as to take the top right quadrant where Lawrence had most of his points. I had a choice of attacking to reduce the opponent's point or hold back and just put in more. I decided to go with the safer option and kept out of sight as I moved the remaining Wulvers into the quadrant. Even three of them were over 100pts which was more than Lawrence had. Not spending the Orders on attacking also allowed Uxia, who was doing nothing till now, to get one objective and then move up over the middle line to do Sabotage.

Afterwards we had a good talk about the game and how it could have gone differently. I think the advantage I had was him not knowing how hard hitting the Wulver Link can be and I had the second turn so I knew where to put my points. The way I seen it after the game, he could have either attack them directly in his first turn (basically going for Alpha Strike) or avoid them by taking out my cheap Orders and being very defensive. Though the later option would be more about going for a draw each turn, and the first option is risky as it might have cost him the attacking troops and lots of Orders getting all the way to my DZ.  

Game 2: Biotechwore - Caledonia vs ALEPH
Won 7 to 4 (2 TPs)

I don't believe I played Al before and we did not get a great table for Biotechwore. The table it self was fine, very dense and very few fire lines on the ground level but it was going to be a slaughterhouse in the middle strip outside of the virus zone. As Al was playing ALEPH I was expecting lots of ODD and overall did not fancy my chances. I know from experience my army can bounce off ODD, so it didn't help Al was playing both Achilles and Hector! Al won the Lt Roll and decided to go first. The table had only one high tower and I seen it as my only option for defensive position so I took the side closest to it. After Al deployed and I realized he would struggle to have more than 10-11 Orders, I went for deploying out of sight and only had Camo Marker (Cateran) standing up, everything else would get ARO only if Al came close.

In retrospect I probably should have deny Al use of more than one Command Token but I went with removing two Orders. I figured he'd move everyone out, get closer to me, and burn through his Command Tokens quickly. Which is what happened. What was very lucky for me in Al's turn was criting his Total Reaction Remote with the Cateran. The place where it was going would have given me a world of trouble trying to move anything out of my DZ. I think I also managed to kill some cheap trooper with Chain Rifle that moved too far and my Wulvers saw him. Al ended with Achilles and Hector in defensive positions which gave me only one safe path for the Wulvers to get to the tower. Start of the turn I knew I couldn't get everyone out of the virus zone so I decided to focus on keeping the Wulvers alive and sacrifice everyone else.

It was a gamble but the Link is worth almost 2/3 of my army. I spent the first turn getting to the tower and then getting all the way to the top. I had to spend two Orders for Wallace to climb and realized the top level had no access point to it, which would help me a lot to defend it. The only other unit to make it out of the virus zone was Scots Guard in Camo. Everyone else but Uxia (she failed to infiltrate at the deployment) died in it at the end of the game round. The three Highlanders died earlier in the turn by attacking with their Chain Rifles. Al didn't have much to attack so Achilles and Hector went into Supressive fire to hold back any of my attacks. He also tried to kill the Scots Guard but I was pretty lucky with him, believe I got a Crit against something.

I spent the whole second turn just killing Achilles. I figured he cost the most points and if I can take him out I'd swing the game in my favour. It took five rounds of shooting from the roof (20 dice!) before I managed to kill him by two crits. We were over 16" and he was in Supression but I got him out of cover while he was shooting at me in cover, so we were both at BS12. My only advantage was having extra Burst because I was in full Link. In retrospect probably not the smartest choice but I didn't see other options at the time. Since we were rolling for the same number, I figured I'd try my luck at rolling better.

Al's only option in the last turn was to try take out some Wulvers with Hector but he couldn't just Climb up as it would give me free round of shooting when he got to the top. He tried to Stun me with Stun Grenades but they failed to do anything, twice. In the end Al went into defensive position. In my last turn I used one Wulver to get down from the building to Coup De Grace someone for one of my Classified Objectives.

In the end I won only by a small margin, I had more points alive than Al but also managed to kill more. Which was very close because with both of my Baggage units being dead, Al had those extra 40pts. It was a good lesson at not taking Baggage on mission like this, or at least being more careful with it.

Looking back I think instead of hiding up on the building, I could have take my chances at attacking Hector with the full Link. It would been riskier but I would be able to get close thanks to Smoke and then Heavy Shotgun would have had decent chance at taking him out. Or even more balls out, I could have Smoke the path all the way to him and then take him down in CC with Wallace (or Wulver could be better choice). But considering Hector has EXP CCW, probably not the best idea as we'd likely trade models. If I managed to kill Hector in some way, Al would be in Loss of Lt in his second turn, making it harder for him to retaliate and giving me the time to fortify defenses. The main reason I went with hiding instead of not wanting to get stuck shooting someone while I was on the ground and in the first turn. It doesn't help both Achilles and Hector have three Wounds and high ARM.

After the game we talked about Al choices and he also could have gone into full hiding. Which might have given me more freedom of movement if I got down from the roof, and probably would have make the game very different as I would have to be the one finding a way of attack.

Game 3: Decapitation - Caledonia vs Imperial Service
Lost 2 to 7 (0 TPs)

This was the first time I played Nigel and it was way more fun than I expected it be, mainly because I did not expect my army to work that well against his Remote heavy IS army but we also joked a lot during the game. Overall the game was very back and forward with neither of us having a big advantage and even when I thought I did, he pulled it back and in the end I lost because I made a stupid choice of trying something very risky instead of taking a minute to think about how many points I had alive. The worse thing is, I think I would have won if I simply didn't spend any Orders and kept everyone alive! Definitely a good lesson for the future.

The table itself did look dense but it was actually quite open thanks to no high LoF blocks in the middle. Nigel won the Lt Roll and decided to go first, which pretty much ended my plans of Alpha Strike so I have chosen the side with the best defensible position. I did consider using Uxia to deploy close to enemy lines but Nigel did have the Remote with Sat-Lock and Sniffer, which would kill her fast so I didn't bother and instead positioned her over the middle line to take out some HMG Rems.Wallace and Scots Guard deployed in a two stories building with Wallace all the way on the top so if Nigel wanted to attack him, he'd have to go through the whole Link and some other units. He didn't have Missile Launchers or Grenade Launchers, so I wasn't bothered being bunched up on the top roof.

The first turn didn't start out so well. Nigel started with the changing Rem, Su-Jian, and it proved to be pretty deadly. I believe he got a crit or I might have just roll bad, but my Missile Launcher was first to drop unconscious. This was followed up by shooting my Cateran who died outright and then more fighting with the Scots but Molotok prevailed. The Su-Jian went into suppression near my Deployment Zone. Nigel then moved up his other Remotes to my surprise, he had two HMG Rems deployed on a roof with his Lt. My first turn was about trying to reduce the number of Rems. My one plan of attack was using Cameronian to get to the Lt but the board was way too open and he'd take tons of AROs, so I had to bide my time. My 112 healed the Missile Launcher but he couldn't stand up without being shot to pieces so I used Uxia on suicide mission to take out one HMG Rem, unfortunately for me it didn't die fully though but at least it was out of the way for now.

Then I went to deal with the Su-Jian. First thing was to get it out of suppression fire. I was bit stupid and run out with a Volunteer who Chain Rifled it. I needed to move him due to having a Hacker nearby who needed to move where he was. I could have saved the Order for later by simply moving him away. I think he might have took a Wound off the Su-Jian, so there was that. The Hacker then tried to hack the Su-Jian and while it didn't work, it did force him to do Reset and break suppression. Which then allowed my Molotok to take it out with Burst 5 vs Burst 1. The other target I could safely see was a unit with Holoprojector Lv2. I shot one and it was fake. Then I gave Urugan Marksmanship Lv2 and it blasted the other two markers, managing to target the right one and killing it for good. Don't think I done much more besides getting my Highlanders killed. Nigel had the board locked down.

However, it turned out Nigel's plan of attack was gone. The Holoprojector unit was his plan. He also tried heal his Remote with his Engineer/Doctor ALEPH unit but managed to kill it and he was all out of Command Tokens. I believe he then advanced with a Link Team full of cheap Chain Rifles and flanked with one HMG Remote which I did manage to take out but not before it killed something of mine, I think it was Marksman Rifle Scots Guard (my memory of these last two turns is getting blurred). Half way through my second turn I realized my worst mistake. I believed his third S3 Remote was also HMG, not realizing like a moron it was just some Combi Rifle cheap Rem. The other S5 Rem also only had Spitfire so I was able to outshoot and kill them both with my Scots Guards. But it was too late to do anything else that turn.

To my desperation Nigel managed to fix his Rems in his last turn. He also attacked with one trooper in the Link and while I did manage to kill it and break the Link for good, he also managed to kill my Urugan because apparently I can't save Chain Rifle hits. So we are at the start of my last turn and I am almost certain I have more units alive, at least more expensive ones. But I also think I might have a shot at taking out his Lt with Cameronian which would win me the game. So I risk it and jump out. I figured I could tank two Rems. Problem was, it turned out I was also just in range for two Chain Rifle and again, failed both saves. I still had the choice of going for Classified and healing my unconscious Dozer. Instead I got this idea if my 112 hits Cameronian with Medikit, I still have a shot at taking out the Lt. So he stands up, takes the shot, misses and dies. Then I also managed to get my Hacker killed by going for Classified she failed to do anyway. With last orders my Molotok goes to the top of the roof and takes out the Rems again.

Unfortunately, due to taking the unnecessary risk, I lose 50+ pts and did not even attempt to bring back my Dozer which could have give me extra 14 pts. In the end the difference between our Points killed wasn't that big. I think Nigel managed to get one of his Classified. The big lesson from the game would be to take a minor victory instead of risking a loss to have a chance at major victory, or in other words if you have more alive than your opponent in the last turn and the mission is about who kills more, don't throw away your units. Especially if you are at the top table in the last game!!!

DIY Tokens

This is not something new but I met some people at the last event I been to who were looking to make cheap tokens so figured I'd do an article about it to share. This is the best way I know of as you can easily make hundreds of good looking tokens in minutes and it'll cost you only around £10.

To do this you will need 1" Circle Puncher, Clear 1" Round Stickers (they can be found as epoxy domes or bottle cap protectors on Amazon/eBay) and printed Infinity tokens. For tokens I recommend the Infinity Marker Sheet Creator, it has all the options and super easy to use. Or you can download them on the Infinity website. Plus you get some tokens on every Infinity box.

It is worth "investing" a little into the puncher. I use the one in the link above and it works like a charm. The first one I bought barely worked properly. For any UK people, I bought the puncher in Range store, but any story with crafts section should have it.

After you have everything, just get your tokens ready. Usually I print out mine in a local library because they have a colour laser printer so it comes out in good quality and costs only 20 Pence per sheet. The ones I am using here are from Haqqislam Remotes box.

The puncher is super easy to use. Just slide the paper in and then, well, punch it! It does help if you keep some paper around the token when you cut them out, it makes it lot easier to position them inside the slot of the puncher.

The clear round stickers already come with some kind of glue on them, so you don't need anything extra. Whatever glue it is, it really strong. I use my tokens a lot and I never had one get lose or anything. I bought them last year (over 7 months ago from posting this) and they still work perfect.

This part is also very easy to do, just stick the sticker onto the token and then press it hard between your palms (or against a surface). I thought it might be tricky to get them fit perfect, but its not.

Even if you need to make 100+ tokens, it should not take you long at all. Soon you'll have all the tokens you need. Even for statuses and equipment your army can't use! I do love these tokens, you get exactly what you need and on the table they look just as good as anything you can buy.

Just Play Games - July

This will be shorter post than my usual event articles. Mostly because I forgot to start this sooner and now it has been too long for me to remember all the details. Plus it was a really small event. Which we didn't realize until we got there, but it was still a fun day out. Though I still think the Liverpool local players are just mythical creatures that we'll never see!

https://justplaygames.uk/

Game 2: Decapitation - Caledonia vs Hassassin Bahram
Won: 3 TPs

My first game was against Christian, who is one of my mates and we hang out often but we actually didn't play each another much. My day didn't start well with losing the Lt Roll (as I would throughout the whole day) and when he said he will play Hassassins, I was expecting all the Fidays. But strangely, out of the last three times I played Hassassins, I only seen one Al Djabel!It left me wondering what to expect and Christian ended up fielding a Core Link Team (Ghulams I think), some HI Harris Link and bunch of the really annoying Jammer guys.

I deployed very defensively and I don't think much, if anything, of mine died. Staying true to the mission Christian advanced forward with most things and I spent my turn killing most of his link. But I made the mistake of forgetting I played against Haqq and didn't finish them off, so he just healed them all back in his turn. My Scots Guard Link didn't do much the whole game but everything else was very good, Uxia, Highlanders and Urugan killed lots of things.

I was able to overwhelm Christian's units and by the end of the game I think I wiped out most of his army. What really helped was taking out his Jammers early and taking my time killing them, instead of running out sacrificing.

Game 2: Decapitation - Caledonia vs ALEPH
Won: 2 TPs

The second game was against Mark, and I knew it will be tough. His ALEPH is deadly against Caledonia with all that ODD. Plus he added a second ODD Spitfire! One was deadly enough. My plan for the mission was simply, Alpha Strike his Lt, hide an protect Wallace at all cost. My plan failed before the game started because I lost the Lt roll again and Mark chose to go first as he often does when we play. After I looked over the table, and keeping in mind the 16" Deployment Zone for this mission, the best option I seen to counter Mark's first turn was taking the side with the highest building in the DZ.

The tower landing platform was almost half in my DZ so I deployed my Link Team, with Wallace and 112, on top of it. There was no direct access to the top and climbing would take forever, plus Mark didn't have any speculative fire Grenades (as far as I know, he didn't use any). It also gave my Scots a full view of most of the board. It made the game very difficult for Mark and I wouldn't want to be in his position but tournament is a tournament and it was my best chance at holding against his army.

The one big mistake I made was with Uxia, I thought I'd put her on a high building so she could attack the Lt in my turn but I didn't know ALEPH Remotes have Climbing Plus, which caused her to get killed quickly by HMGs. As expected Mark managed to wipe out almost everything I had on the ground, and in turn I killed all his long rage AROs units (Total Reaction REMs and a Marksman). In my last turn I had a shot at killing Mark's Lt. My 112 jumped from the tower to a roof below, thankfully within jumping distance. Then jumped down again and healed unconscious Cameronian. Who then jumped across the board to hit Mark's Lt with my last Order. I chose two Chain Rifles over CC but Mark passed both rolls and I think I won only by killing more of his army, and maybe having more Classified.

Game 2: Decapitation - Caledonia vs Ariadna
Lost: 0 TPs

The last game was lost even before it started. I went against James and the results this year have always been the same when I play my ITS Caledonia against his ITS Ariadna. We both use similar strategies but vanilla has the advantage of more camo and I can't overwhelm a swarm army with a swarm army. It might have been different if I managed to kill his HMG Spetsnaz, which was his main hitter but when he went against my Scots Missile Launcher he scored a Crit, and then Crit again against Molotok.

To make it worse then his Hardcase killed Urugan and Cameronian with one round of shooting and wiped out the rest of my right flank. I could barely pass a single roll. That pretty much sums up the game. Not to mention Uxia who was on a high roof, killed like two troops and then got glued in place by a Dozer! But in that same Order I moved her back so she ended up in middle of the roof unable to see anything.

The coolest thing for me was in my last turn and last turn of the game, Wallace jumped from a roof to roof and split his Combi Rifle Burst against Uxia and Dozer, both on objectives, killing them both. Still wasn't enough to give me control over quadrants because most of my army was gone.