The Art of Losing

This is the first article shared with the Pride of Rodina blog, which you can find here. Although Pride of Rodina sure loves their Kazaks, the blog covers everything Infinity related from a number of different authors. This year should see more collaboration between various Infinity blogs, so keep an eye out for that!

Why play Caledonia?

If you are reading this then either you are interested in playing Caledonia or just curious what I got to say about the army. Either way I hope you will find this useful and perhaps join the Caledonia Highlander Army!

Caledonia is part of the Ariadna faction so you can expect very limited access to hi-tech equipment and weapons, but just like Ariadna, Caledonia offers lots of cheap troops and plenty of camouflage. This way you can almost always outnumber your opponent and keep them guessing with hidden units. What makes Caledonia stand apart from Ariadna and its other sectorials is more aggressive play style. 

It is not the only way you can play Caledonia but the army does excel at getting close to the enemy and most of the units are good in Close Combat. If you like the idea of destroying your opponent with claymores and giant werewolfs, Caledonia army might be for you.

This list of strengths and weaknesses is not exhaustive but it should give you a good idea of what to expect.

Strengths 

• Cheap and effective units
• Aggressive
• Plentiful access to T2 ammunition

Getting close to the enemy requires Orders, in Caledonia you won't struggle finding those Orders because you will have access to Regular Troops as cheap as 6 points. The Volunteers are just very basic Line Troops but they do a good job of giving you lots of Orders. Other cheap troops are Highlanders, who by default are Irregular but they are very cost effective. They are fast, have Smoke Grenades, Chain Rifles and extremely good in Close Combat. The most expensive unit in Caledonia is only 43 points (excluding a Mercenary TAG), which means you will not struggle to fill your army with elite troops supported by plenty of Orders provided by Line Troops.

Playing aggressively is not for everyone, it does require you to play in a certain way but if you are up to it, Caledonia is great at taking the fight to your opponent. The army has a selection of very mobile units and plenty of Smoke Grenades to make it easier for your troops to maneuver on the battlefield. Cameronians are one of the toughest and fastest units in the game. They have 6"-4" Move, Super Jump and Total Immunity, which means they can get wherever you need them to and are hard to kill.

For those new to the game, T2 ammunition causes two Wounds for every failed armour save, instead of one. This makes it lethal to Heavy Infantry which usually has two Wounds, and worries even units with three or more Wounds. In Caledonia there are five units with access to a T2 weapon, so you will not struggle fielding this deadly ammunition type in your army.

Weaknesses

• No units with Airborne Deployment
• Impetuous and Frenzied units 
• Expensive Infiltrators

 

No Airborne Deployment (AD) units is not as bad as it can sound, it does mean you can't flank your opponent with paratroopers but Caledonia does make up for it with being mobile in different ways (see above). But from experience, I find it easier to forget AD units exist because I can't play them in Caledonia so they are not on my mind. 

Playing aggressively is not always a choice in Caledonia, some units force your hand because they are either Impetuous or Frenzied, which makes them Impetuous once they kill something. This can be daunting because it makes your units rampage towards the nearest enemy and they loose all advantages from cover but if you learn to manage this, you can use it to your advantage as it technically gives some of your troops extra free Orders!

Caledonia's Infiltrators are the SAS. Their cheapest option is 20 points and for a Specialist it is 24 points. In comparison, Foxtrot Specialist (from USA Ranger Force) is 18 points. The difference might not seem that big but these points add up quickly. However, the SAS do stand out from other Infiltrators by having Martial Arts special skill and good Close Combat value. This gives them a unique application on the battlefield and you can easily surprise your opponent with infiltrating camouflaged assassins.

TTCombat Objective Room Review

This is a first of several articles I plan to do about the various terrain pieces that I use for my Serenity Valley gaming table. To start with I'd like to give a review on the TTCombat Objective Room (Building B).

Disclaimer: This is just my personal review of the product. I have not been sent this by any company to review it. In this case, I have also won it on a tournament and as such not paid for it.

Clean up and assembly

The building came in wooden MDF sprues, I believe there were two of them, slightly lager than A4 sheet of paper. None of the pieces were hard to get out. The clean up was easy too, only had to file down the small places where the pieces were connected to the sprue. 

The assembly was mostly straight forward. The main walls and the ceiling/roof slotted together nicely. The only slightly tricky thing were the protruded outer walls, each of those is made of three separate panels that have to go on in a certain way but it was really easy to figure out which way. 

Personally I have closed the side gap on protruded outer walls. It was easily achieved by cutting out shapes from a left over Infinity box. I will explain why I done it later on. I have also removed doors and a hatch on the roof, mostly so the roof can be easily removed. Otherwise I think you would struggle to take the roof off as there is no way to grab onto it.

Practicality on table

The building is the required size for an ITS Objective Room, or at least feels that way (I haven't measured it). For that reason I recommend to have the roof removable as you need to be able to move your miniatures inside and the walls are infinity height for ITS Objective Room so you can't get on the roof anyway.

If you play it as a regular building, it is bigger than S2 models so it can hide your regular troops. As with any other building that has hexagonal shape to it, you either have to agree with your opponent no shooting at legs (underneath the building) or be very mindful the protruded walls do not hide your units even when they go Prone.

My concern with this building was that the protruded walls have too many holes you can see through if you don't close the gaps on sides (as I mentioned earlier). The three panels do not connect with the main walls so you could draw a light of sight from higher level throuh the protruded wall, which personally I do not think is a good thing, kind of defeats the purpose of having terrain. It gives the terrain pieces too many unpredictable Lines of Fire, which tends to be only frustrating.  

I have found the building to work better if something is placed inside of it, otherwise it is very empty. The inner walls are just flat. Otherwise as long as you address the hexagon shape with your opponent before the game I found the building to be fairly practical. The protruded walls and gaps between them give you more options for cover than buildings with flat walls.

Conclusion

Although the assembly is easy and after minor fixes the building is practical, if I am perfectly honest I do not believe it would be my first choice if I was shopping around for an Objective Room. If you want something to only be an Objective Room there are easier options and on other hand, if you want something that can be an Objective Room and also a regular building, there are products with more details.

If you don't fix the gaps, this building could easily be frustrating for you and your opponent. Which would be the main thing to turn me away if I was looking at the picture in a store, but granted, it can be easily fixed.

That said, this building does have a different look to it and I could definitely see it fitting on tables that have other hexagonal shaped buildings. I do think the product is a good value for money for £10.

TTCombat also has a new Objective Room which is different in design, more detailed and costs the same. A very good and detailed review of that product can be found on Splayed Paint Brush blog.