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.)