Northern Open 5

This has been our biggest event yet, 28 people! And they all showed up, which was awesome to see.One again Northern Open tables were all fully painted so I think we can keep our bragging rights about best tables in the UK.

Lots of photos from the event can be found HERE.

I ranked 9th with win-loss-win performance. Which I blame on being paired up against James for the second game. Out of 28 people I think its still good and if I scored one more Objective Point, I would been higher. I blame Tim for denying me his HVT!

Also shoutout to Andy from Ragnarok Games. He brought his stock of Infinity and it was so great to see so many boxsets and blisters in one place. Just looking at it made me want to buy stuff.

My Army Lists

NO5 List A
NO5 List B

I went with Caledonia and the lists were tweaked from what I used before. One of my main focuses was using Isobel without a Link Team, just to see how useful she would be. I quite liked my Scots Guard Link but two of the missions had lots of objectives, so I ended up using it only once as my other list had lot more Specialists. The Scots Guard List was more about if I was going against an army with not many Orders and try Alpha Strike them.

Game 1: Seize the Antennas - Caledonia vs Neoterran Capitaline Army
Won 6 to 3 (2 TPs)

For my first game I set up challenge against Tim. We played twice before and so far I been winning, though second game we had it came down to his bad dice rolls on WIP checks. I think I won the Lt roll and decided to go first, I was expecting heavy PanO resistance and was hoping to pull off Alpha Stike and reduce his Orders a lot from the start. Tim was afraid of my Cameronian and set up a whole Link Team and Remote to face him, which I found kind of funny. It did force my hand with how to use Uxia, instead of hunting for Lt I had to deploy her to weaken the Link.

My first turn did not go badly. I lost both of my Infiltrators, SAS and Uxia, but they did take down few models. Uxia managed to hit two Fusiliers and them Rem with Shotgun and killed the Rem and one Bolt. SAS hit two Auxilliers with Chain Rifle and took out one of them. My Scots Guard Link Team was unlucky at first, a Fusilier killed my Missile Launcher but my 112 did good and healed him back. They killed the Fusilier and then with Wallace left their position and advanced into a building. I think Missile Launcher managed to take out another of Tim's Rems. I couldn't do any objectives due to Aquila Guard in a very annoying place. Nothing could take him out easily and he could see through smoke. Tim couldn't do much in his first turn, though he did kill at least Isobel and the Cameronian. I think the 112 died as well.

Scots Guard Critial Roll

Starting my second turn, despite having the advantage in terms of firepower and board control, I had only two Specialists left so I could still lose the game easy. Neither of us took objectives. So my idea was to hit and hit hard, put Tim into Retreat and take my Classified, so I would win with 1 Objective Point. Tim's Lt was too far from my Army and I was worried he'd hunt down my Specialists or just use his last turn to take more objectives. So I used my Scots Guard to hammer down anything they could see. The Missile Launcher killed Fusilier with HMG, catching Bipandra in the blast. The whole Link then advanced further and Molotok took care of Aquila Guard after two to three rounds of shooting. With last Orders I moved Highlander to Tim's HVT ZoC and tried to FO (my Classified) the unconscious Aquila, but failed the rolls so I was relying on the HVT capture.

Tim thought he was in Retreat but then pulled out his TO Hexa Specialist and it put him 5pts over the limit. She revealed on an objective so I was super glad I got to have my next turn, otherwise I would have lost. Tim managed to get the objective but the Hexa was in total view of the Link and D.E.P. rocket took her out. I don't know why but Tim then run his Lt into CC with my Highlander. So I activated Berserk and killed it. In my last turn I run the Link Team to the middle of the board and then back to my DZ to be able to take the two objectives. When I was finished Tim had only three troops on the board so he was in Retreat and couldn't take the objectives from me, but he did kill my Highlander and then tried to take my HVT but luckly, my Link Team stopped that attempt.

Overall I must say I was super glad Scots Guard now have FO option, makes them so much more useful as a Link Team. Also I could have just got for it and risk Isobel in my first turn to take an objective. She would die either way but at least my second turn would have been easier.

Game 2: Emergency Transmission - Caledonia vs Ariadna
Lost 3 to 8 (0 TPs)

As it often happens, me and James go paired up against each another. Which was somewhat annoying out of 27 other people! On the bright side, I got to play on my new board, which I enjoyed. I was expecting this game to go as it always goes between us on events. James' vanilla army is hard to beat with my Caledonia, with my army I have to be aggressive but it is hard to pull that off against 20 Orders army that is full of tricks.

The one advantage I had was that I knew James' list. More or less anyway. So after we deployed I figured out who his Lt was and thought if I could kill it, I'd have a change to secure my position and objectives, making it hard for him to hit back. Uxia managed to Infiltrate next to the Lt who was a camo marker (it was a Foxtrot Lt) and I did Discover+Shoot. James took a risk by not reacting but it paid off because Uxia failed the WIP check. At least I managed to take three objectives and set up defensively. James was also lucky with his ARM saves on his Cateran.

James decided to drop Van Zant in the first turn and started to shoot at Highlanders and other units on my right flank. While he didn't do much damage in terms of points lost, he did kill like five cheap units. James then used his HMG Spetsnaz to take out my SAS in Supressive Fire and WarCor. My second turn was all about holding the objectives I had, and stopping James from taking one that I didn't have so he could have two near his DZ. I killed Van Zant with Wallace and remaining Highlanders but it was hard to do much else. My Cateran also hot outrolled by James' Cateran.

Learning from his past mistakes, James was careful not to put me in Retreat because if he did, I would have won by having more objectives. In my last turn, for some reason, I thought it was the last turn of the game (to my defense it was really hot in the venue!) so I thought I'd run my Specialist to the middle of the board and put him base to base with the objective there. James did activate it, but didn't stay with it. It didn't work due to some fire lines I didn't see before, but I still thought we could Draw. If I managed to have more of the other Objectives I'd get 4 OPs, and James would get 4 OPs for the middle objectives. We both did one Classified.

I made the mistake of leaving the uncontested objective without defense, running Wallace and remaining Highlanders to the middle instead. Which ultimately allowed James to have the same number of those objectives, plus the middle one.

Overall it was a hard game and few different results could have changed the outcome, but as I mentioned earlier, match up like these are hard for me to beat with my play style. James was smart with use of his Ambush Camo. One turn I wasted four Orders discovering one and avoided another one the whole game thinking it was a mine.

Game 3: Cold Sleep - Caledonia vs Hassassin Bahram
Won 8 to 1 (3 TPs)

In the last game I was paired again Brett and his Hassassins. From the start I was worried about Impersonators so I took the first turn. I had no clue who could be Brett's Lt but guessed it was a member of his Link Team so I sent Uxia there. One of my SAS also managed to Infiltrate on a roof where I figured he'd have good place to take out Snipers and call artillery strikes. Though Brett deployed a viral mine on the roof thanks to a Mine Layer. And as expected, one Impersonator was deployed near my DZ but far enough so I couldn't Discover it easy.

In my first turn my first concern was a Rocket/Missile Launcher on a roof. First attempt was to call an airstrike, so my SAS revealed and FOed the trooper. He also survived the mine and being shot at, which was great for me. The guided missile didn't do any damage. So instead one of my Caterans revealed and with the additional +3 was hitting the trooper on whooping 18 as I got him out of cover. Next up was Uxia, she was lined up in front of three troopers, the first one a trooper with Jammer and then two members of the Link. With her Boarding Shotgun she Wounded the first two, making them go Dodged and then survived a Chain Rifle hit herself. Last thing I could see to shoot was a lone Ghulam hiding on a roof. She survived about two rounds of shooting from my Snipers but died eventually.It turned out the Ghulam was Brett's Lt. Which made his first turn difficult. I had no losses and he mainly advanced his troops.

My second turn was about taking objectives, I took both near my DZ and then Isobel run on my left side to get the one on the middle. She put down E-maulers all around the Impersonator and then went into suppression, along side Volunteer and Dozer, hoping to defend against the Impersonator. I have also used Cameronian to take Brett's Doctor that was near an objective. SAS that was near the objective on the right side, which was on a roof, took out Brett's Infiltrator. The other SAS that survived a mine, was in CC with a Lasiq for the longest time. I kept winning the CC roll but Brett was passing his ARM saves. Brett used his second turn to take one objective near his DZ, on my right side, which was also on a roof. He then used his Impersonator, who was Al Djabel, to attack Isobel. He decided to CC her from Smoke, using his Martial Arts to get Burst 2. In a stroke of luck, Isobel rolled a crit and killed the assassin.

Last turn for me was all about securing objectives. I run a Paramedic to a building on right and he climbed all the way up (it was faster then moving through the building floors) to double on the objective with SAS. Isobel did the same with Paramedic. That way using Intel card against me would have no effect. In a very cinematic way, my SAS killed the Lasiq (finally), then called artillery strike from a roof on troops below him, once they were dead he climbed down and took an objective near Brett's DZ, on left side. Brett was in Retreat with very few units left so he couldn't do more.

This game was the perfect example of when everything goes according to plan. He was unlucky on bunch of rolls where I managed to win by a very small difference, plus the unfortunate Lt deployment. The table also allowed me to set up two Caterans in very high place where they could see almost everything, which was hard to deal with once I took out Brett's long range weapons. I think he might have benefit from setting up his Impersonator to take out my Snipers but since I had the first turn I would been able to run my Link of Highlanders (who did nothing the whole game) and take care of the Impersonator.

Just Play Games - USARF Civil War

This was the first ITS event for my USAriadna army and it went better than I expected. I think I made a decent list for the missions, though I was more focused on taking things I want to try out some tactics, than trying to make it as good as possible. I wasn't overly concerned with winning the event, though when I did end up on the final top table anyway, I did want to win.
But combination of bad dice rolls, bad range bands and some bad deployment choices did not help me at all! This event went to Mark, one of the locals from Liverpool. I only ranked 4th out of 8 players.

Though it wasn't as bad as my mate James' second game, the first game he lost this ITS season due to forcing his opponent into Retreat unintentionally and loosing the third turn. Which meant he couldn't get the objectives he could easily get otherwise in his third turn.

Overall it was a really fun day and I am definitely going to play USA Rangers more often. They are very different to Caledonia, but I enjoy the challenge.

My army list

Open in Army 6

I did have only one list for this, mainly because all the missions were objective based and I didn't feel like I needed to change anything.

Game 1: Seize the Antennas - USA Ranger Force vs USA Ranger Force
Won 7 to 4 (2 TPs)

In my first game I faced Luke again. We both played USARF and the table we got was unusual looking. I liked the look of it but it was hard to say if it will be difficult to play on. Turned out it wasn't, it was actually a really good table I thought. What made the biggest difference was that the hedges were enough to give partial cover to S2, not all of them were the same but we played them that way as that was the intention (or so I been told). It meant that even with very little over I had lots of good deployment options. One thing that could have made the table very different was the Church (sniper) Tower that could see basically everywhere and was by far the highest point. But Luke didn't use it as it was outside of the Deployment Zone and there was no easy access to it. I deployed all my Infiltrators across the middle line and the rest of my army was up to the edge of DZ as well.

I had three Grunts with Heavy Flamers to Infiltrate but they all failed, while Luke managed to infiltrate two of his.Before we started, what I noticed Luke deployed his Grunt Link Team in a line behind some crates. Which decided what my first turn was gonna be like. Unfortunately there was a Grunt with Flamer, a camo marker and an Unknown Ranger in the way. First I tried to kill the Grunt and only managed to get my Minuteman killed by a Light Shotgun. Then I noticed one of my Grunts with Flamer was in range so we flamed each another but only my Grunt survived. Next up was the camo marker. For this I brought in my Airborne Ranger (Forward Observer). He came on near to the marker and Luke took the bait, revealing it to take a free shot. Which missed, fortunately for me. Once the revealed Foxtrot was killed, I first used one of mine to attack the Unknown Ranger, causing one Wound. Then my own Unknown Ranger finished him off.

Now the path was free for my Hardcase. He was able to take one shot with Light Shotgun across four Grunts of the Link but killed only one. After that I only moved up some troops, think I took the objective near by DZ also with my Grunt Link. Luke's first turn was spent on trying to kill the Hardcase. He broke off Light Grenade Launcher from the Link and tried to hit him and also with Urugan but my Dodge and ARM rolls were good and survived for a long time. Luke wasted lots of Orders and then had few left to move some troops around, he also healed the one Grunt I killed. I had no other casualties.

I guessed Luke's Lt had to be one of the Grunts in the Link and he left them more or less as they were so my next turn was about trying to kill the Lt. First I tried with a Marauder who run up to their flank and hit them with Heavy Flamer, which did not kill anyone. I think it was only the second Order that managed to kill one Grunt but the Marauder died also. Last try was with a Foxtrot. He run to the same place again and killed both potential Lt Grunts. With both of them dead Luke started in Loss of Lt and couldn't do much his turn. There was a flanking attempt with a Desperado (might have been in the first turn) but he died to my AROs. If I remember right Luke used one of his Marauders to get an objective in his DZ.

Even though I had the advantage so far I knew I could still lose the game because I didn't have the middle objective and realized too late I didn't move enough specialists nearby to secure it. I had to break a Grunt FO from my Link to go grab it, as Marauder Paramedic who was close died to an ARO from Urugan. With few Orders I had left, I killed two to three troops I could see, trying to limit Luke's Orders as much as possible. In his last turn, Luke used his HMG Grunt first to kill my HMG Grunt and also the FO Grunt, basically leaving the middle objective almost unprotected. Luke had only five or six Orders for the last turn so then he had to actually go for the objective with his Foxtrot FO. He had to do it with two Orders to get to it but my Warcor still had Line of Fire to the objective. He tried to kill the Warcor with the Foxtrot with first Order but I won the roll and managed to Stun the Foxtrot, which meant he couldn't do the objective anymore. I also managed to do Secure HVT for my Classified for extra Objective Point.

Game 2:  Cold Sleep - USA Ranger Force vs PanO
Won 8 to 0 (3 TPs)

My second game was against Andy on a very different table, it was full of high buildings. He said he was a new player so I tried to help him during the game as much as possible. I deployed very similar as in first game, everyone was lined up to edge of DZ, Link Team was defensive and Infiltrators across the middle, though one had to go on a roof as I had an objective there. I also managed to land one Grunt with Flamer. Andy deployed mostly hidden but had Sniper on a tall building and a HMG Remote also on a roof.

I went first and started with the Infiltrated Grunt. She managed to hit an Auxillier and a Fusilier with the template but they both survived, while my Grunt died. Then I tried to kill the HMG remote with my HMG Grunt, but Andy rolled a crit. So it wasn't a good start. I had to spent few Orders for my Paramedic to climb up, which was worth it as the HMG Grunt was healed back up. I also had a shoot out with my Foxtrot vs the Sniper, I won the roll but didn't kill it. One Marauder grabbed an objective and then I put six troops into Supressive Fire to end the turn. In his turn, Andy revealed a Swiss Guard on my right flank. My Sniper from Link could see, and one of my Marauders. Fortunately for me, the Swiss Guard had a missile launcher so I was always rolling more dice. After few Orders of Swiss Guard vs Sniper and Marauder, I managed to double crit with the Sniper. Which was very lucky. Andy then also dropped an AD trooper in my DZ, which tried to kill one Marauder but a Grunt with Flamer was able to change facing when he landed and then killed him with the flamer. (I didn't realize at the time the mission didn't allow AD Combat Jumps.)

My second turn was spent on getting more objectives and hunting down Fusiliers, which were Andy's Lt options that I knew of. I managed to get the objectives in my half of the board and the two in the middle. I also killed all the Fusiliers which put Andy into Loss of Lt when he started his turn. He attempted to move towards objectives but I had good AROs. Though he did kill one Foxtrot with Aquila Guard.

In my last turn my Airborne Ranger arrived behind the Aquilla Guard and outside of his ZoC as well so I had a free shot with AP rounds and it managed to kill the Aquilla. After that I only moved my Unknown Ranger and Airborne Ranger to one of the middle objectives, making sure Andy couldn't deny it by using his Intel Card to stop one being a Specialist. In his last turn he only had two units left I believe. One Auxiller who tried to get an objective but was shot by my Link Team and then his Sniper tried to kill my Warcor, but I managed to crit with a Stunt Pistol which was a very funny last shot.

Game 3: Emergency Transmission - USA Ranger Force vs ALEPH
Lost 0 to 10 (0 TPs)

In the last game I believe I was on top place and Mark on second, which made me want to win the event. I played Mark before and expected him to play similarly so I chose the first turn with hopes to deal some damage to his ALEPH troops. Unfortunately none of my Grunts landed and I knew I had the bad deployment side since all my buildings had flat roofs and so were useless to deploy on, while Mark had the sniper tower which during the game proved to be able to see more than I anticipated.

I have deployed in such a way that I could take five of the seven objectives but thanks to the sniper, I couldn't do any of them without getting shot and Mark also used Minelayers to put mines to the middle. Though it was my fault for not remembering he couldn't place mines with a camo marker in Area of Effect. I tried to take out the sniper with an Unknown Ranger but it failed because my only cover was 16" and half away from the tower, which put me at worse odds. Running out of cover did not help either, all my attempts to kill the sniper failed and my Link Team was deployed on other side of the board. Where they couldn't see the sniper as I was unable to deploy on higher levels. The Link did manage to take out Mark's REMs but too late as I didn't have Orders left.

Mark went onto a rampage with his Spitfire trooper as I expected him to do, and it worked for him again. There were some "hidden" Line of Fire that looked closed to me but I should have double checked from Mark's side. I think I lost six or seven troops in his turn. I tried to heal some of the troops but my Paramedic went on a killing spree this whole game. With less Orders each turn I was also unable to go kill Mark's Lt which I could have flank if I either had more Orders or the sniper was dead. With the large number of objectives, I couldn't do much after most Specialists were dead.

In my last turn I tried at least for a draw but my rolls kept being bad. The only good rolls I had was Airborne Ranger killing the Spitfire with a Crit from behind. In his last turn Mark didn't have to do anything to win as he already had more objectives secured than me.

Looking back at the game, it reminded me of my old thought if I don't take the side with highest vantage point, I'll lose. But my list was designed to go first so it was my own fault. I think even though I didn't want to deploy a whole Link around a single building I should have done it and stay within LoF of the sniper town to kill anyone on it. Lessons learned for next time!

USARF Conversions Part 3 - Girl Grunts

In this third article about USARF conversion I'll talk about female Grunts. Reason for making these was that I wanted five female Grunts to make girl power Link Team but all in different poses.

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

Girl Grunts

These twos gals are Sniper and Paramedic (she can also be any generic Grunt with a Rifle). I liked how on the Grunts from SWC Boxset they have an extra pocket (or pouch) on the back, which the Grunts from Starter Set do not have. I thought it would make a great item for painting Red Cross on it to make it stand out as a Paramedic.

Bits used:
- Ariadna Sniper Rifle

Everything else in this conversion is a straight arm swap. As you can see on the photos below, the Grunt on the right has arms and weapon from the Grunt on the left. The arm with the gun fit easy and didn't need any greenstuff later. The other arm with the ammo clip I wanted to be close to the gun so there was a gap to fill afterwards like with most of these USARF conversions.

The Sniper Girl was bit more tricky. The arms are from the Grunt on the right, originally she was holding Rifle with Light Grenade Launcher. First I changed the Rifle for the old Ariadna Sniper. I thought I could see the whole rifle stock but I had to cut most of it off to make it fit, the Grunt's breasts were in the way. After that, first time I glued the arms on, I made the Sniper to be on the side, facing forward from the hip and the other arm was also on her hip. Then I realized I could put the second arm onto to the scope.

It did require lots of greenstuff afterwards. The arms were glued on just by sides so lots of shoulder space to fill and then I also greenstuffed top of the stock so it was visible. Heads were kept the same for both, no swaps there.

Harlequins - Winning Streak Over

As I came back from Tumbridge Wells, the very next morning we drove to Preston. Which gave me only few hours of sleep and no time to change my armies. So I went with the same lists.The journey was good and I was surprised by the venue. It was a gaming store with a large are to play. On the same day they had trading cards event going on so we couldn't spread out over the whole floor but they did fit all eight tables in comfortably.

I had some fun games on the day, even though I lost my second one. I don't believe I played any of my opponents before so it was great to play against someone new to me.

They had a really nice large cut out of some dark Angel from Magic The Gathering, and I thought if I was going to win I'd try trade it for the £40 voucher but unfortunately I came on 5th place, so I couldn't try to haggle!

James and Jasper, who were the top two in the final round, somehow managed to Draw their last game. Though they still ended up on 2nd (Jasper) and 3rd place (James). This, however, broke our winning streak from Leeds. Until now, every event we went to this year either James, Matt or me have won.

Army Lists

Totally CRIT List A
Totally CRIT List B

As mentioned, it is the same lists I played in Totally CRIT VI. Though I have only used one of them on this event.

Game 1: Supplies - Caledonia vs Qapu Khalqi
Won 9 to 0 (3 TPs)

I can't remember the name of my first opponent unfortunately. I think my opponent won the Lr roll and decided to go second, though I am not certain who won the roll. At any case, I had the first turn so I set up my army according to the plan for supplies. My opponent deployed two TAGs, Scarface and Iguana. I was less worried than the last time I faced two TAGs because this time I had a Missile Launcher in a Link Team.

The first turn did not go as well as I planned. I was able to take only two of the objectives because my opponent had a Total Reaction Rifle and HVS Lv2 HMG trooper protecting the middle objectives. Because of the terrain I could get only one Sniper face the HMG trooper, which I thought would be enough but decided to spend Orders on getting the two objectives I had as hidden as possible. In my turn I believe I only killed an enemy sniper and a Line Trooper from a Link Team. My opponent started his turn with Yuan Yuan who made a smoke path for Iguana to advance down my right flank. Fortunately for me, the smoke path also meant the TAG couldn't see my troops. I still had a camo marker and two Snipers (one still in camo) overlooking the middle objective so instead of going for it, my opponent advanced Scarface down the left flank. However because it was very open and long range, I was able to take the TAG out with Caterans.

In my second turn I used Cameronian to Coup de Grade Scarface to make sure it can't come back. Then I spent Orders on my Scots Guard Link Team to take out Iguana. First round of Molotok didn't kill it, so I spent another Order for another salvo and moved up a Guard with DEP to finish the job if needed. The second volley killed it but only to unconscious state so the pilot ejected. Though he failed his PH roll and went off the board. I moved most of the Link back to where they were and before I ended the turn, one of my snipers killed the HMG trooper. My opponent didn't have much left in his second turn, to attack with anyway. But he still had Specialists and bunch of troops. He advanced forward towards the middle objective. The TAG Pilot came on the board edge and tried to take on the Link Team but nothing happened.

In my last round I had to get the last objective and my Classified Objectives, which wasn't easy because my 112 was dead by this point and both of my cards were about Doctor skills. I planned to change it for Secure HVT so using my second Order pool I sent Cameronian to Chain Rifle the enemy Remote and Cordelia behind it. I think he killed one of them. Then he jumped back to be close to enemy HVT. My remaining SAS (the one in the middle also died previously) was on the very right edge of the board but I had plenty of Orders so he went to the Link Team and they took the objective. Then he went all the way to the middle of the board and took the objective. With last Orders he climbed up onto a building to hide with it. My opponent started his turn in Retreat, so there wasn't anything he could do to take the objectives from my troops.

Game 2: Safe Area - Caledonia vs Ariadna
Lost 0 to 9 (0 TPs)

I never played Lawrence before and when he said he is playing Ariadna, I decided to keep using the list with Scots Guard. Usually I would play my Wulvers on this mission but I wanted those extra long range AROs as I was expecting lots of troops and camo markers against me. I don't remember who won the Lt Roll but I chose sides and Lawrence went second. After he deployed there were two non-specialists Line Kazaks on the board, I was guessing one of them was the Lt so I decided to try Alpha Strike. I managed to Infiltrate SAS in front of the Kazak in the middle, and Uxia close to Kazak on my left side.

I started my turn by trying to take out some of the long range threats. I was able to kill a sniper and Spetsnaz but Veteran Kazak with T2 Rifle was giving me lots of trouble. The SAS then sacrificed himself to kill the Kazak in CC and Uxia killed the other one, though she then also died by taking down an Irmandinho that shot her with Chain Rifle. Mission was accomplished however and Lawrence started his first turn in Loss of Lt. Turned out the Kazak Uxia killed was the Lt, not the one in the middle. I do not believe there were any casualties on my part in my opponents first turn.

I did have the upper hand beginning of my second turn and I think it made me bit too confident and blind to the bigger picture. I started my turn with Highlanders chasing after camo markers, there were at least three enemy Infiltrators at the middle of the board. I managed to reveal two Chasseurs and kill one of them. I made two mistakes this turn, first was holding back with my Cameronian. Instead of running forward and making use of the chain rifles, I kept him back the whole game. The worse part though, I advanced with my Link Team and focused too much on trying to kill Veteran Kazak in Supressive Fire. I seen it as too much of a threat when in reality I should have focused on killing enemy Cameronian that was nearby. Lawrance smartly took advantage of this and used his Cameronian to Chain Rifle my Link Team, twice. This cost me two Scots Guard and Wallace.

Survivors, except Uxia.

Which effectively crippled my entire last turn. Instead of being able to run my Specialists to the objectives, all I had was few Orders to move everyone how was left out of my deployment zone, all but my 112 who was too far. I was basically hoping that Lawrence would also have only his quadrants and I could deny him specialist with my card. I managed to kill off his FO Foxtrot and 112, so he had only second Irmandinho left. I was going for a draw at this point. Unfortunately for me, Lawrence kept playing smart and didn't move anything to give me AROs. He was able to take his quadrants just with one model in each and while I had both of my own too, one of them was very close, only few points difference. I added 20pts into it with my card, but Lawrence had 30pts extra, winning him the game on both quadrants and objectives.

Nevertheless it was a very fun game and it taught me the lesson of assessing my priorities of threats better.

Game 3: Transmission Matrix - Caledonia vs PanO
Won 10 to 4 (3 TPs)

After scoring no Objective Points I knew I couldn't get into the top three and I did not practice this mission so I didn't know what to expect going into this game. My opponent Simon, I met him on tournaments before but we never played. I believe I won the Lt roll and decided to take the side with the tallest buildings on it, letting Simon deploy first and he decided to take the second turn. After he deployed I was able to guess who his Lt was because from all the possibilities there was only one non-Specialist Fusilier. At the time I didn't know Aquila Guard can be Lt as well but I would not really expect anyone to have a heavy hitter as their Lt without Chain of Command on the board. With that, I decided to try Alpha Strike again because it worked well in the previous game,

I did fail both SAS rolls, and Simon kept his Aquila Guard as reserve. He thought I had no more Infiltrators so he deployed the Aquila where it couldn't protect the Fusilier but my reserve, Uxia, passed her Superior Infiltration. I started my first turn by running Cameronian down the right flank to support Uxia. He threw down a smoke grenade to blind a Fusilier that could see Uxia before she reached her target. There was a total reaction Remote protecting the Lt so I was looking for a way to kill it but there was Nisses I would have to deal with first so I decided to risk Uxia. She did kill the Lt Fusilier and died herself but I knew Simon couldn't retaliate in his turn because of Loss of Lt. Now it was time to take out the long range threats. My Caterans, deployed on the tallest roof, crawled to the edge and took on the Nisses. One of them died but the second able was able to do it. I don't remember what took out the HMG Remote but it was either Linked Missile Launcher on another roof or the surviving sniper. I ended my turn with moving troops to Objectives and using Cameronian to kill the Fusilier in smoke and then Chain Rifle a Knight, Engineer and Auxilier with Auxbot. Only the last two died. I took out five troops in my first turn and the Lt, so Simon did not have an easy first turn.

His main problem was the Cameronian. He was too close to one of his objectives so he had to deal with him. He used his Hospital Knight to kill him but in order to see the Cameronian, he had to move backward and at the time did not realize it would take him more than 4" away from the objective. Which gave me two over his one, and 2 Objective points. In retrospect I think Simon could have just more the Hospitaler closer to the objective and ignore the Cameronian, the Knight was more expensive. Though it would have meant I could do even more damage in my second turn, so I get why he wanted to kill him. Before end of the turn Simon's Aquilla also killed my Missile Launcher, but not before I scored 1 Wound on it. It broke my Link Team though and I could not re-Link as I burned all my tokens.

In my second turn I focused on taking out more Orders from Simon. Cateran killed a second Auxilier and then I run up with my Molotok Scots Guard to middle of the board and had a shoot out with the Aquila. I was able to get him out of cover, good range bands for me and had AP rounds so I did kill the Aquila. I moved up some of the other troops and I tried to kill a Bulleteer with my Cateran but didn't cause any damage. I ended the turn holding three objectives and Simon had only five or so Orders. Which wasn't enough to attack my troops holding objectives, but he did do his Classified. I had none done so with 2 Points per Classified, we were on 4 Objective Points each by end of the turn.

My last turn I went for my Classified. I spent few Orders on SMG Scots Guard to move him close to Simon's HVT and used a Highlander to Coup de Grace a Fusilier who was killed by Cameronian in the first turn. I was able to take out the Bullteer remote with the Sniper, a Magister Knight with Molotok and in the end, Auxilier with Chain Rifle (he was healed by the Knight previously). Which put Simon into retreat for his last turn. The Knight healed the Auxilier again but the last surviving Fusilier tried to run away, only to get shot and killed by Cateran.

For me the game was a good lesson about pushing the advantage an Alpha Strike can create. Simon was good about the game too, so I believe we both had fun.

Totally Crit Open VI - Invasion by Yorkshire

I believe I mentioned it in some other article about the Qualifier Tournaments for UK Masters event, but my idea was if I don't rank good enough on the first Qualifier I attended in Birmingham I am going to travel down South of UK to attend an event before I go the Qualifier in Leeds. Basically so I have three chances to qualify with some good ranking. I ended up 9th in Birmingham so down South I went!

Totally Crit Open VI was the only one before Leeds, which I thought was cool because it gave the chance to meet the guys who do the Totally Crit podcast, and meet some of the players from the South.

I traveled to Royal Tunbridge Wells by train which was I enjoyed, though in London I had to use the tube and that I could do without. Those underground trains feel too confined and I would not want to experience it during rush hour. Since I don't know map of London at all I didn't realize the train would be going pass the Big Ben but on the way back I remembered to snap a photo.

The event was held in a nice social club venue and we had lots of space for the tables. They also had a bar so I went into my final game refreshed with a pint of Dark Fruit Strongbow cider. In total they had nine tables set up and all of them had good amount of terrain.

All three of my games were fun and the last two were quite tough. My last two opponents had something in their armies that I did not expect. I won all three games but only expected to come out 2nd at best because I was 3rd after the second round.

Table X.

Though as they were announcing the rankings I realized that the only player who had 6 Tournament Points after the second round (the rest of us with two wins had only 5), lost his last game. At that point I couldn't remember if his opponent had a major victory or not but there was a chance I was the only person with 8 TPs in the end. Which turned out to be true! So finally I had my win of the 2016 season. 

Me and James, the TO.

For the first place I got the ITS Winner Pack, £30 voucher, Desperados logo patch, some new tokens and a set of golden camo markers. I have no idea what company makes those but they are funky.

Army Lists

Totally CRIT List A
Totally CRIT List B

Before I get to the games, just briefly about my army lists. I had my Wulvers Link list for missions that require zone control. I do enjoy using them to dominate zones and thus far the Wulvers have not failed me. Their decent ARM 3, high PH 14 and 2 Wounds makes them very survivable against most weapons and in a full Link team they can take on many things and come out on top.

My second list was bit of a risk, for the first time I used a Scots Guard Link Team instead of running Wallace with Highlanders and three snipers. But a Missile Launcher in a Link, backed by two snipers proved to work well and I am definitely going to play the Guard more often. The list was designed for Supplies mission. Three Infiltrating Specialists to grab the objectives, take them back to my deployment zone and then everyone else just stop my opponent getting into my DZ and taking the objectives off me.

(A small side note, these lists were made before Human Sphere N3 book.)

Game 1: Supplies - Caledonia vs ALEPH
Won 9 to 2 (3 TPs)

In my first game of the day I played Lee and his ALEPH. I was bit wary because last event I went to I had mixed experience with ALEPH (won one game, lost the other) and their ODD on everything can be hard to deal with without Multi Spectral Visors and flamers. Lee won the Lt roll off and decided to go second, which was a relieve for me because for this mission especially I designed my army to go first. I chose the side with the highest vantage point and let my opponent set up first. Lee set up just about everything in hidden positions, which meant I could move my troops around without dealing with long range threats first but I also knew it meant I couldn't take off many Orders either and those troops would come for me later.

ALEPH deployment.

I started my turn just as I planned with this mission, three Infiltrators behind each objective grabbed the Supply Box and run back to my deployment zone. I was slowed down a bit by one SAS who took about four Orders before he passed his WIP check to get the box. Because of that I had to use one of my Highlanders from second order group to take the box and run further back. I did the same with a Cameronian. This allowed me to leave two SAS in the middle and put them back into camo for some defense. With the last orders I re-positioned my Link Team for some defensive AROs. Lee used his first turn to advance with Achilles down my right flank. He took out one of my Caterans, WarCor and a Highlander. Some other ALEPH units followed Achilles but there were no other casualties.

In my second turn I knew I couldn't take Achilles head on, or if I could, it would take lots of Orders so instead I decided to strengthen my defenses and hide the Supply Boxes. Cameronian jumped onto roof of the highest building (behind my surviving Cateran), one Scots Guard took it from Uxia and also climbed onto a roof with everyone else in the Link. Last one was harder to hide due to lack of Orders in the second group so the Highlander just run further behind a building. I had T2 Sniper, Molotok, AP Marksman Rifle, Missile Launcher and SAS in Supressive Fire waiting for Achillies to show himself. I think I killed one or two units that turn. Lee didn't push with Achilles but focused on getting his Classified Objectives (I had none of mine done yet) and moving up his troops.

I knew I could still lose the game in the last turn so my goal was to protect the troops with the objectives best I could and try take off some Orders from Lee's pool, and get my Classified (so lots to do!). I run the Highlander onto a roof as well so all three objectives were off the ground, the idea was to make Lee spend extra orders climbing or running around to the stairs. I couldn't do one of my Classified (Doctor a trooper) because everything that died was shocked to death, but my other was to Forward Observe enemy HVT. So I run camouflaged SAS to it but only too late realized Lee had a trooper next to it (it was behind a building so I forgot). So I moved the SAS pass the trooper and risked FOing the HVT. Lee decided to Engage, which he managed to get and I only passed one roll to FO. It meant I couldn't FO again without winning the combat first. I decided to take my chance and shoot a missile launcher into the melee. First shot killed the SAS but a second shot killed the ALEPH trooper.

I still needed the objective so I used my second SAS to run to the building from the other side and FO the HVT, which worked. I also kept him close so at the end I could change my second Classified to Secure HVT. The SAS ended facing towards my deployment zone for some potential AROs. I ended my turn with moving Uxia to a corner of a building to face direction of Achilles.

This turned out to be a bad decision when Lee started his turn by dropping down an AD trooper behind all my troops that I did not expect. He passed his PH roll and I had nothing facing that way anymore. To make things worse, the AD trooped had a heavy flamer thrower and super jump! So he of course jumped up and flamed my Link Team. Fortunately he couldn't hit the Guard with the objective but it could have killed off my AROs against Achilles. I managed to pass all of the Dodge rolls and had two AROs against the trooper. Uxia failed her roll on 17s, but the SAS who was all the way over the middle line landed a hit and killed the AD trooper. Lee didn't want to risk all the AROs so he first dropped a smoke grenade so Achilles could cross without being shot. He had only few Orders left and by climbing up the building to where the Highlander was he had only one Order left to attack. Which meant at worse I'd drop the objective but he couldn't grab it. I tried to hide in Smoke and rolled 15 but I was out-rolled and the Highlander died.

I would say the mission was more in my favour as Lee did not expect me to grab all the objectives so fast. If I do manage to get all three of them into my deployment zone it is hard for anyone to take them all from me. Granted as long as I can protect my DZ with long range weapons. Lee did have rocket launcher that he did not use during the game, which might have helped him to do some damage but he would have faced at least three AROs (two from Link and one Sniper) which would have make those shots hard.

Game 2: Safe Area - Caledonia vs Japanese Sectorial Army
Won 4 to 3 (2 TPs)

After chatting to people during the dinner break I knew I wasn't on top, I only had 9 Objective Points and few people had 10. I was expecting to play someone who I knew also had 9 but I was paired against someone else, Stuart and his JSA. Turned out from all the other 9s I was highest by only two army (victory) points. This mission was bit of a gamble on my part because I had only three specialists, but I believed I'd be able to take all the TO troops I was expecting from the Japanese army. Turned out Stuart's main hitters were Haramaki in a full five man Link Team. I won the Lt roll and decided to take the side with the best sniper spots, so I knew were Stuart deployed his Link and it might have been a smarter choice to deploy my Link on the other side of the board but at the same time if I smashed his Link I'd dominate the board, and I was confident in the Wulvers.

Stuart started his turn with the only TO trooper he had, Shinobu Kitsune. She appeared like right in front of my Link but everyone around her had Berserk and good CC, so Stuart had hard time getting the best use out of her. In the end she spent few orders moving between my troops as a TO Marker and revealed herself to attack one Wulver. I think she managed to score a Wound and it allowed some of my troops to change facing with Warining!. She then decided to throw a Smoke grenade. All of the Wulvers who saw her failed to hit and I couldn't Chain Rifle with a Highlander because I'd hit my troops so I did Engage as his roll was unopposed. It passed and when she decided to attack the Highlander in CC, I activated Berserk and killed her. I thought to myself, biggest threat avoided but I was so wrong. The punishment was just about to come. Stuart run out with his Link team and killed both of my Caterans with a Missile Launcher. One time I had a choice to either shoot face to face with the Link Leader or hit someone for free, I decided to have face to face because the Missile Launcher was the biggest threat but in retrospect I should have hit someone for free as I could have put them unconscious with T2 ammo and Stuart would then have to spend Orders healing them or have only four man Link.

After Snipers were gone, the Haramaki moved to face my Link Team and since then the whole game revolved around one corner of the table. Fortunately for me, because of the Smoke from Kitsune my Wulvers were all hidden. Unfortunately for me Stuart ended his turn in such a way that if I activated the Link, three AROs were coming my way, one of which was the missile launcher. I could have broke Wallace from the Link and use him to throw Smoke to help me advance but I was perhaps bit too overconfident in the Wulvers and wanted to face the enemy Link. I had Uxia near by so the plan was to take out one Haramaki to take away the +3 BS from them and then use the Wulvers. It did not go that easy but eventually I was able to take off some Wounds off the Haramaki with Uxia and her shotgun, and make the Missile Launcher hide. It was time to attack, but I also made one stupid mistake. One Wulver was able to see one Haramaki, another Wulver was able to see two. So I made the first Wulver Link Leader and activated, completely blanking out the fact Stuart would get a free ARO against the other Wulver. Outcome of the firefight was one dead Haramaki and two of my Wulvers Isolated. Which really sucked for me as I had no Engineers in the list. I ended my turn by putting one Wulver into Supressive Fire and hoping they would survive the upcoming onslaught.

This was were Wulver with Mk12 proved man of the match for me. Stuart tried to kill him with the Missile Launcher but because we were just within 24" he was rolling on a lower number, so the Wulver kept winning the face to face. However the Haramaki tanked like three or four saves and when I did kill him, he was healed back up by a nearby Doctor. Though during the fight, one Wulver died to a missile blast because I moved him too close to the Mk12. Stuart also tried to deal with the Mk12 by running up his Remote with Spitfire and MSV Lv2, but I managed to score a critical hit with the Mk12 and kill it.

In my turn things got little complicated. When the second turn started, the Tournament Organizer came around and said we had 30 minutes left, neither of us realized we took that long with the first turn but we also didn't feel like we were playing slow. I knew at best Stuart would get a part of his third turn but I wouldn't. So like at any other time in this situation I talked to my opponent about it to try agree on ending the game when we both had same number of turns, so there is no unfair advantage to anyone. We talked to the TO about it too and from it all I believed we agreed to end the game at the end of my turn, so that is how I played it. Instead of being careful with my troops, I run them out into open (but not through AROs) just to get them into the quadrants in front of my deployment zone. I also moved my SAS and Paramedic Volunteers base to base with one objective so if Stuart used his card to make one of them non-specialists, I'd still have one touching it.

When my turn ended there was only like five to ten minutes left and Stuart wanted his turn because he didn't move any Specialists to the objectives. He had the Orders to do it in his second turn but he thought we'd play all three, so there was some unfortunate miscommunication. My troops were standing out of cover so even in five minutes he might have killed them, so we had the TO to make a decision and he decided to end the game without the third turn as we were on the time limit and had two turns each. I felt bad so I offered Stuart we can score it as a Draw because we both had only two quadrants and he would have been able to get one objective. We both had our Classified Cards to use, and I think I might have been able to still win by denying him a Specialist because if I remember right, Stuart didn't know the cards had that use in this mission. In the end Stuart didn't take the Draw and let the results be as they were, with me winning by holding that one objective. He was good about it afterwards too, which was cool as I didn't want to leave anyone with a bad experience from playing against me.

(After I had a look at the final scoring in the end, I still would have won the tournament if we did a Draw. I'd lose 1 TP and 1 OP, so I'd draw with the second place on TPs but I was 3 OPs ahead. I think instead of being 3rd after the second round I'd be 4th and still face the same player in final game.)

Game 3: Frontline - Caledonia vs Military Orders
Won 9 to 0 (3 TPs)

In the last round I got to play Adam from Birmingham (who I thought I'd play in the second round), he organises the Warzone events but I don't think we ever played each another before this. The TO showed us the rankings after the second game so I knew I was 3rd, ahead of Adam just by victory points. I was expecting our game to be fight for the 2nd or 3rd place. I think I won the Lt roll off and chose the side with the best sniper places. Adam decided to take the first turn, and deployed two Seraph TAGs, which I knew would be hard to deal with. One TAG I can take out, two is tricky as my army was very focused on one Link.

The terrain we were playing on showed how terrifying Super Jump on a TAG can be. The buildings were not that tall and the Seraphs were able to jump around and move really fast. I was able to get a hit on one of them with T2 Sniper and take off two STR points, so he went back to hide. The second Seraph, however, took out both of my snipers and tanked free shots I had against it at one point. Thankfully Adam had only 8 Orders in total after I took off two with a Command token so he couldn't do more damage but ended his turn with one Seraph on top of a building which mean he could see a lot.

My Wulvers were on others side of the board and one Smoke grenade allowed them to move where I needed them to. The wounded Seraph was behind a big garage building and while I couldn't move all the way around it (it was too close to the board edge), I was able to move just enough to be in cover but see it in the open. I did manage to kill it on a second attempt, though I can't remember if it was Mk12 or Heavy Shotgun that went second. With the TAG dead, and more importantly, its Auxbot deactivated, I was able to move inside the garage. This allowed me to attack more troops inside Adam's deployment zone. In front of the building was a wall with three or four troops lined up so the Heavy Shotgun could have done lots of damage. The only problem was the second TAG, it could see me if I run out. I probably should have just throw Smoke Grenade and ignore it, but I had a Highlander inside the building on which it was standing, so using his Order pool I run him into CC so the TAG couldn't see anything. I won the face to face CC roll but done no damage. I also managed to heal one Cateran with a Paramedic. I ended my turn killing one trooper I could see and the unconscious TAG because I didn't want to risk an engineer getting back up.

(In retrospect I think I should have really just ignore both of the TAGs after I made the first one unconscious. The alive one was very far away and with Spitfire it would been hitting on negative modifiers to BS. If I was smarter I would either just run out with the Shotgun and take the one hit, or use Smoke. Getting my Wulver around that wall would have likely crippled Adam's next turn a lot more because it was very likely I'd kill all those troops.)

Adam used his turn to kill the healed Cateran and took on the Wulvers with some cheap Remote, but it didn't do any damage. Some of his other troops also moved up the board. The Seraph in CC won it this time and Explosive weapon killed my Highlander. The TAG then proceeded to jump off the building and move across the board to jump on top of the garage. His Auxbot tried to flame my Link team but they all managed to Dodge. Which was great but he left it right in front of them, so if they activated another template was coming my way. This forced me to use Uxia (again coming to the rescue of Wulvers) to take out the Auxbot. I think she did get hit by the flamer or it might have tried to Dodge but she survived either way but the Auxbot didn't. One threat was dealt with but I still couldn't just move the Wulvers out. After unsuccessful attempts to kill Order Sergeant with TO and Sniper Rifle, I was confined to the garage building. At the time I couldn't think of a way to get out and either kill the TAG or the troops that were still behind that wall. As I am writing this I think if I used Smoke to block the sniper I could have try use the Heavy Shotgun against the TAG or put the TAG into Smoke and then use SAS I had on the same roof to CC it, or even just have Wulvers use their Climbing Plus to go CC it.

Speculations aside, I ended my turn bunkered down inside the garage. Adam moved lots of his troops forward though only one made it far enough to maybe be in the zone in front of my DZ, one made it to the middle and then he had three in the zone front of his DZ. The surviving Seraph jumped down from the roof and either killed a Wulver, or I might have had only three left by that point. Hard to remember now, but the turn ended with me having only Wallace and two Wulvers left in the area, Uxia and SAS that were also around got killed in Adam's turn. My third turn was the final turn so I was trying to take all three zones, or at least the zone in front of Adam's DZ which would give me the most points. My only other troops were a Highlander, Volunteer with Chain Rifle and a WarCor.

First I tried to move the Wallace, the idea was to throw Smoke at the TAG and then use Coordinated Order to run him and two Wulvers into CC, which would have given me Burst 3 attack at Damage 16 with Explosive weapon that would crit at 12 or more. I was able to smash TAGs like this before. It would likely mean dead Wallace or one Wulver, but it was a trade off I was willing to take. However, none of that happened because I didn't know Seraphs had Nanopulser. So he shot the template and it of course hit everyone, Wallace dodged and the Wulvers also survived but I did not dare to activate them again. I had my card worth of 40pts to add to a zone and Adam decided to use it as Classified instead so I knew he couldn't add points, so I hoped Wallace and Wulvers plus 40pts were more than the TAG and three troopers.

After the failed attempt to kill the TAG I moved my WarCor out of my DZ and the Volunteer moved even further out so he was in the middle zone and close to Adam's HVT so he couldn't get Secure HVT (at this point he didn't do his Classified yet so I thought he might try to change it). The last Highlander did not move anywhere, I cancelled his Impetuous Order because he was already outside of my DZ and he was in LoF of a Fusilier and I didn't want to risk Adam rolling a crit, he rolled too many of those already before.

Everything I could do was done, so I ended my turn. We started with measuring where Adam's DZ ended and it turned out his TAG jumped back too far and was over 50% inside the DZ! Which meant he wasn't scoring and Wallace with two Wulvers were easily more points than his three cheaper troops. In the middle zone I had only 6 points Volunteer and he had over 20 points with two units. In the last zone, I held it with Highlander and WarCor, 9pts in total, and Adam had no troops in it. So I added my 40pts into the middle zone and was able to take all three.

Overall it was a very crazy game, I did not expect to face two TAGs. and while I think I didn't play bad, I could have made some smarter choices.