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.