In the end, I won by 1 Victory Point. I did kill a lot in my last game so I think I would have been okay on that front too if it came down Army Kill Points difference.
Sadly I just completely forgot to take pictures and have only one photo of the first board (but I think people took photos during the day so I might find some later).
The games were like so close and they didn't even start so well for me but I managed to turn them around, despite making few mistakes and facing some frustrating situations. I loved how flexible my objectives list was.
Game 1: Highly Classified - Caledonia vs Qapu Khalqi
Won 10 to 2
Despite having a really high victory in the end, this game did not look for me in the first turn at all. I faced this opponent, Simon, before on event in Birmingham and I have won against him but I did not expect this game go well. Our Open Classified Objectives were Hack and Forward Observe (twice) the HVT, Extreme Prejudice and Sabotage. For my hidden Classified I have ended up with Engineer the HVT. He placed his HVT boxed up between three crates, so long way to get around, so straight away I knew it would be hard to get to it. Simon also had a link team of MSV Lv2 soldiers and those had me worried, its bad enough when people have one sniper and now there was five of them.
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| Gaming table from my deployment side. |
I lost the Lt roll (as I always do) and Simon went first. With like the fist round of shooting, his linked sniper killed my Scots Guard missile launcher and then decided to stay in a high vantage point, though the rest of the team was hidden. He also managed to use his Infiltrating Hacker to hack my HVT to get one of the objectives and also brought on two Yuan Yuan on left side of my table half. My Warcor managed to blind one of them at least. He didn't really have many Orders left so not much else was done. My first didn't go so well, I spent lots of orders moving my Link Team with Isobel to get 8" within the HVT so I could hack it but I kept failing the roll and didn't get it. I managed to kill the Sniper with my Volunteer HMG and my Highlander took care of one Yuan Yuan and the other one decided to Engage.
In second turn things started to turn around. In his turn I have used Berserk on Highlander to make CC normal rolls and I put him unconscious, though my Highlander died too (I think I went Dogged because I took a Wound). With a second hacker, Simon tried to Brain Blast Isobel, my only hacker, but I have used Breakwater as ARO and won the roll. He tried again and I went for Counterstrike, which was risky but he would have just keep spending Orders. I was lucky and won the roll, which reflected the Brain Blast and killed his hacker. On the other side of the board where my HVT was, he had FO nearby but I had my SAS next to the HVT and we ended up Engaged, which was in my favour. In my turn I managed to finally hack the HVT. My second FO SAS stood up on a roof and took a risky FO shot, splitting the B2 between enemy HVT and Total Reaction remote.
In retrospect I should have use full Burst against the remove, but the odds were still in my favour. He was at -6 while I was only at -3 with WIP higher than his BS. I won the roll and had it Targeted which was folleed by a volley of guided missile which killed the remote and little palbot next to it that was linked to an Engineer. I was also able to get the second FO on the HVT and Isobel run into Simon's half of the board to detonate a D-Charge, this gave me three of the objectives. Before end of the turn, McMurrough earned his points by killing the hacker near my HVT and then running quite far into enemy's half and getting two Chair Rifle shots across his Link Team that was in a line, McMurrough died in the process but he killed 3 out of 4, which was great for me.
Last turn I thought could have still go either way because Simon did have few Specialists left. He also used his medic in what I thought was geniously evil idea. I needed to get Extreme Prejudice and there was an unconscious Yuan Yuan near my link team so he shoot it with his MedKit. It was very long range, but if he had hit the Yuan Yuan would either die or come back to life, neither of which would be good for me. Thankfully, he missed since he was hitting on like 5 or 6. In his last turn Simon was only able to do Extreme Prejudice for himself, ending on 2 Victory Points. I spent my last turn getting Extreme Prejudice by killing the Yuan Yuan and then I changed my Secondary Classified into Secure HVT because I managed to clear out all the enemies around mine, and I had troops around his, which gave me full 10 Victory Points. So I was off to a good start!
Game 2: Master Key - Caledonia vs Military Orders
Won 6 to 4
I wasn't sure what to expect from this game. I knew this was a tough mission from the practice games (which I am so happy we did) and my opponent, Adam, scored really well in his last game too, plus I know Military Orders can be quite tough. As normal I failed the Lt roll and he decided to make me deploy first, so I took the first turn. Since this mission had only 8" Deployment Zone, plus a large exclusion zone, I deployment more or less in a line with everything that was going to advance (which was most things). Adam tried to Infiltrate in from of my DZ but failed his roll, the rest of his army set very defensively with no snipers on the table (though I knew there might be another TO) but he had a Seraph, Joan of Arc and Bulleteer, so I guessed it was unlikely because of the high points cost of what I was able to see.
In my first turn, my two SAS and Uxia advanced forward and basically moved up to 3 of the 8 objectives. I think I burned two Command Tokens on this. Then they all actives their objective and moved to defensive positions. My Link Team of Isobel and Volunteers followed suit and gathered around the objective nearest to me and also managed to activate it, so I had 4 in the first turn. My two Secondary Classified were Extreme Prejudice and Data Scan, but I wasn't in a position to do either. The rest of the orders I spent on McMurrough getting into middle of the board to help defend it and then I noticed my Scots Guard was near a fire line across the board into the enemy DZ where I could shoot Seraph. It was risky but I was in good odds since I was in camo and so far away so I believed I could wound it and if I was lucky, maybe even kill it. In the end I did only 1 Wound, but that was good enough. I don't think I actually killed anything.
Adam didn't have much orders so he wasn't able to push for the objectives yet but Joan of Arc went across my left flank and killed the Scots Guard (stupid shock ammo). Going on right flank he managed to kill McMurrough with Spitfire Order Sergeant but it took him two or three Orders. He also moved up his Seraph and Bulleteer close to middle of the board but behind buildings. My second turn turned out to be so crazy. First my Highlander who was advancing near the link team run up to the Bulleteer and managed to put it Unconscious with a chair rifle, but die in the process, which was well worth it. Then I needed the Seraph dead because it was starting down a line I wanted my Link Team to advance through. So one of my SAS did a FO and won the roll, which allowed me to shoot guided missiles. BUT he had two hackers and ECM on Seraph which meant I was shooting at 10 or 7. Took me five, FIVE, missiles before I actually hit the Seraph and then he only took 1 wound, so he was still alive. Only THEN I realized my HMG was on +9 to hit! (+3 for range, +3 for Link Team of five, +3 from Targeted) and the Seraph wasn't in cover (he wasn't touching the building in front of him). But it still took TEN HMG rounds to kill it. With that done and seven Orders burned, I was only able to advance the Link Team and secure a 5th objective.
I actually managed to reduce Adam's Order Pool a lot, the missile that did hit was a DA Blast which killed two or three troops around the Seraph, so he was at seven or eight orders. Joan of Arc kept advancing on flank and shoot at Uxia, who Smoke Dodged but then he run into CC through the Smoke and rolled better than me, so Uxia died sadly. He also run his Spitfire up onto a roof which was facing into the middle of the board and had a shoot off with my Cateran, but I lost and my sniper went unconscious. On the same side (right side of the board for me), his Fuselier killed my SAS and advanced on an objective I had, but failed WIP roll to take it. If I remember right Adam had 1 Objective at this point, the closest one to his DZ.
When my last turn came, I completely forgot I went first so my last turn wasn't end of the game. It was stupid but I was winning so I was excited. My 112 managed to heal my Cateran and he had two rounds of shooting against Joan, the first one he caused two wounds but she stayed alive on her No Wound Incap and the second round she won and I went Prone after failing my Guts Check. Wanting Joan dead, Isobel moved closer to her and then emptied T2 rifle clip into Joan which killed her, finally. My Volunteer Paramedic then run to get a 6th Objective and did a suicide run to Coup de Grace the Bulleteer (I was at my peek at this point at 8 Victory Points, in my previous turn I did successful Data Scan with Isobel). Then I made the biggest mistake of the game. I still had some Orders left and since I still thought the game would end at the end of my turn, I didn't want to risk models dying for no benefit. Isobel was close enough to kill the Fusilier that killed my SAS, she was literally just around the corner next to an objective, I would have been on B4 at BS12 against 1 ARO. But I didn't want to risk Isobel dying, so I just moved her into cover.
To my stupid surprise the game didn't end (I felt like an idiot), though at least Adam was in Loss of Lt, but not enough to put him into Retreat. Though he would have been if I killed that Fusilier! He had only one Command Token left so all he was able to do was take two objectives from me, one with the Fusilier and the other with an Engineer. I did kill him, but he still took the Objective. This made us equal with Objectives, we both had 4 but I did both of my Classified and he had none. So it was a close win and I managed to stay in the lead.
Game 3: Biotechvore - Caledonia vs PanOceania
Won 6 to 3
The last game was against PanO again, vanilla this time. The difference between my 1st place and his 2nd place after the second game was 13 army killed points, so we knew whomever won this game will likely win the tournament (unless the guys right behind us scored really well). Straight away that made the game tense and Biotechvore is not an easy mission to score high. Plus I used a list I never played before and it had 0 SWC points spent, so no HMG, sniper or missiles. Last time I played against this opponent, Matt, I won but that was a 150 pts game so this was a lot different and I knew he had lots of tough units, like Joan, Father Knight and Orc Trooper. I failed the Lt roll even with WIP 15 (I shouldn't be expecting any different at this point) and he decided to pick Deployment and I deployed first. I usually would prefer to go first but in this I wanted to make it harder for him to move, so I decided to go second and I used my Command Token so he could use only one Command Token in the first turn, so he either had to leave more people behind to the virus or not advance too much.
My deployment was very defensive and everything was hidden besides a Dozer with the glue-missile, which I thought would be funny to use in Biotechwore. Out of my three Infiltrators only my SAS passed the roll, Uxia and Volunteer had to deploy normally. Unfortunately the Dozer was shot at with Nisses and even with him out of cover, it was an easy kill for him. Everything else was out of sight so Matt just advanced almost everything to the middle of the board and left behind two Fusiliers, one with missile launcher and other had just a rifle I believe. Around the central crate he had Joan, Nisses, Father Knight, Paramedic, Orc Trooper and two more Fuseliers I think (or at least one). On each flank he advanced with Auxilia and their flame bot.
My first turn didn't go well at all, I was feeling bit desperate by the end of it. On the right flank I had my Cameronian and one Highlander advanced forward, I was able to Dodge Auxilia with Highlander and put down Smoke with Cameronian. My other two Highlanders (one in middle, one on left flank) also moved forward without problems. Then I think I screwed up the orders of how I used my troops, the Nisses was the only thing pinning down my left flank since he alone could see through Smoke, so I charged with Highlander and Cameronian. The Highlander Chain Rifled the Auxilia but killed only the bot, dying himself. The Cameronian jumped out of smoke into the middle and chain rifles six guys, but only some unimportant Fulisies took a wound and event unconscious, everyone else passed. Cameronian of course died. So it was up to my expensive Link Team of Wallace and four Wulvers (Heavy Shotgun, MK12 and 2x T2 Rifle) to take care of the Nisses. This really slowed me down, they couldn't move far and it took at least two rounds of shooting to put the Nisses unconscious. Then, I tried to advance between a building and a container but I didn't realize the missile launcher Fusilier had light of sight to it, so I was lucky it missed but the the whole link team was stuck in a cramped corner. Only other things I killed that turn were the second Auxilia and his bot that were in front of the Link Team. My last Command Token and Orders I had to spend on moving the rest of my army, so Uxia, Volunteer and 112 moved up. In the end only one Highlander and the 112 were affected by the virus. We both lost the units that didn't move out and I felt lucky that missile launcher did not survive. Though since one of my Classified was to heal with a Doctor, I was screwed. My second was FO HVT but the HVT was hidden well and my SAS wasn't in a position to see it without too many Orders.
So yeah, things weren't looking up in my eyes and I thought I was going to lose the first place. Only thing in my favour was that Matt was struggling for Orders, I am pretty sure he only started with 13 in total so I think he had around 8 in main group and then 1 in second group. His high rolling didn't work so well when his Orc Trooper was having a shoot-down with one Wulver who had T2 Rifle. He spent like three or four Orders and I won eventually, putting the Orc Trooper unconscious (gotta love T2 ammo). His Paramedic then healed the Nisses (to my annoyance). He also dropped in an AD unit on my left flank (behind the Wulvers but he couldn't see them). He spent couple of Orders trying to Data Scan but didn't succeed this turn. On the right flank his remaining Auxilia took out my Volunteer. Other than that he more or less just bunkered down more around the middle of the board.
I didn't realize it much at the time but things started to turn around in my second turn. First I tried to attack the center with the last Highlander and while he did chain rifle lots of people, they all passed their ARM roll and he died. Then Uxia tried something similar (she was behind the Highlander) but got herself killed too. This left me with only four Wulvers and SAS hidden on a roof. I was in a position next to a crate where I could see only one model in the center at the a time (the closer I moved to the edge, the more of the center I could see). This allowed me to pick out Father Knight and the Paramedic with T2 Rifle, it took forever though, he passed so many saves! At this point Matt was on very few Orders and only managed to get his second Classified and then kill one of the Wulvers. As it stood, he had only Joan, Nisses, AD trooper and Auxila left, and both of his Classified.
I had to kill two units to drop him below 75 points and I couldn't do any of my Classified, so I was counting on having more alive in the end, and doing more damage. With my last Orders, I have moved Heavy Shotgun Wulver to a corner to take a show at the AD Trooper, I was at 18 to hit and it is D15 weapon, so that took care of him. The next target was Nisses, I knew I couldn't kill Joan with one salvo and the Auxila was too far. I was able to sneak up on the Nisses from behind because he was facing my DZ but the tricky part was, if I didn't kill him in one round of shooting, I had only one Order left which might not been enough to move back out of his Virus zone (I had to go far into the board). Dice were with me though and the Mk12 took out the Nisses.
In the end, I wasn't sure how much I had left alive but it was 161pts in total which put me on 3 Victory Points, and then 3 more for having killed more. Matt had 2 from Classified and then 1 for having more Classified than me so it ended 6 - 3 to me. Which meant I was very likely going to win the tournament but the other games were still going and if they scored over 22 points that I had, I wouldn't win. So the next couple of minutes were as nerve-wracking as the game. But in the end the second highest was at 21 points so I won my first tournament!
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| My Winner Pack for 2015 ITS Season. |
As a small note, how fucking cool it is that Corvus Belli staff are looking at our Infinity Facebook groups? Or at least Bostria is. I really like how connected they are to the community.
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