Army List Tactica 5: USARF Grunt Horde

This was the army that I have used in Norther Open 8. I ended up 9th out of 22 people with this army but as you can read in my NO8 report, I think it was mostly due to not using the army correctly. There is room for improvement (as always) but I am happy with this army overall.

To open this list in Infinity Army, click here.

Overview

As the name would imply the biggest focus of this list are good old Grunts. They stand out above all other Line (Garrison) Troops of Availability Total (unlimited) because of their Armour 3 and Shock Immunity which makes them one of the most, if not the most, survivable units in the game in terms of value for points. The basic Grunt with Rifle is only 10 points! With that in mind, and because I ended up with lots of Grunt models, I wanted to make a list based around them.

This list has total of nine Grunts, six of which can form a Fireteam and three are Inferior Infiltrators with Heavy Flamers. The overall idea behind the list is to maximize the number of Orders with cheap yet effective units, and use Specialist troops to accomplish objectives. I did made this list for Objective based ITS missions and have no experience yet using it in killing missions. There are eight Specialists in total, though in effect only five of them I think of as units go for the objectives 

Units

The Unknown Ranger - Personally I really like the Ranger for his versatility and Chain of Command (CoC). I think of him as one of the main attack units and Specialists but if I am perfectly honest I have not come across many situations where his extra skills were needed to justify the high cost, which could be my fault for not using him correctly. CoC is the main reason I like taking him.

Grunts - As I already mentioned, these guys are the backbone of the list. I went with three special weapons, two Lt options and a Paramedic. The main idea behind them is to be a strong defensive Fireteam. With two Sniper Rifles and a HMG you have enough long range weapons to cover large parts of the boards. I went for two Lt options because I didn't want to make it easy for my opponent to guess who the Lt is, the Light Grenade Launcher was mainly chosen because I had the points. The Paramedic is there to give me a backup Specialist and to try heal unconscious units if the 112 Doctor can't. I also went with six Grunts so I can make Fireteam of five if one dies. I liked the idea of two Snipers because I thought sometime I could deploy the second one separately and make use of the Marksmanship X which is not as useful in a Fireteam because it makes your Sniper Rifle Burst 1.

Grunt Infiltrators -These guys are one of the main reasons why I love playing USARF. They are not very reliable to pass their Inferior Infiltration roll (you need 8 or less) but that is why I have three, on average at least one does make it. For only 11pts and 0.5 SWC these guys are really good at harassing enemy units close to their deployment zone, or just lie in waiting somewhere near objectives. Heavy Flamers can be quite deadly, Damage 14 and large template, not even Heavy Infantry wants to be hit by those because they can burn to death with one hit.

Marauders - This is another unit I find really good value for points. As a Specialist with WIP 13 and Forward Deployment they can start closer to objectives and are good at taking them. Then you have a Rifle to put them on Suppressive Fire and with ARM 3 and Courage (thanks to Dogged) they do have good survivability to hold the line. On top of that you get Stealth and Heavy Flamer. Which allows you to sneak up on enemy units. Dogged is also good option to have if you need them to stay alive until end of a turn. Their downside is being slow so not the best option to advance across the board.

WarCor - I firmly believe a WarCor should be every possible list and it is the best 3pts you can spend. He is amazing at harassing the enemy units with Flash Pulse and with Aerocam (gives him 360 line of sight) he does make a good ARO piece against enemy AD troops and flankers to warn your other units. The only downside is that he is Irregular and USARF does not have a way of making him Regular.

Foxtrots - These guys are very standard Infiltrating Specialists with Camouflage. None of their skills or equipment sets them apart much but for 18 points they are cheap and do exactly what you need them to do. One thing I tend to forget is that they do come with mines so they can help with defending objectives or just make it harder for your opponent to move around the board. I like to combo them with another unit (like the Ranger or Marauders) to protect objectives as the Foxtrots can also go on Suppressive Fire.

Dozer and Traktor Muls - As my mate James likes to put it, for 24pts you get three Regular Orders and a Specialist. That makes it 8pts per Order which is a very good value for points. The downside of the Muls is their large base, it can make them hard to hide and without weapons they are only good for Orders and Alert! reaction. Though do keep in mind they have Minesweeper if your opponent gets cheeky with deployable weapons; you can try take them over. The Dozer himself is a decent unit (in Ariadna) with Courage and BS 11 so worth not discarding him either, which is a mistake that I make.

112 - I use the Doctor mostly to revive unconscious Snipers, which does sometime feel as a waste as he spends my games Prone on roofs. He can be surprisingly deadly with his Light Shotgun and Courage if you use him to take Objectives. For me it is almost always auto-include. He is only 12pts for a useful Specialist.

Hardcase - This is another unit that I consider another auto-include and great value for points. They are Irregular, which is their only downside. However, unlike the WarCor, these guys will be always using their Irregular Order so it is not a problem. For as cheap as 12pts you get an Infiltrator with Ambush Camouflage (you get two markers instead of one) and a Light Shotgun. This allows you to deploy half way up the board (or even further if you want to take risk of rolling 10 or less), get close to the enemy as a camo marker and then Surprise Shot them with a shotgun. Do not underestimate how deadly this is. You can go as high as BS 17, and your opponent will have up to -9 modifier (-3 camo, -3 surprise, -3 cover) so you can easily stack the advantage in your favour. If your opponent makes the mistake of leaving (or deploying) his units in a group, Hardcase is your way of punishing that. The bow might not be something you will use often but it is good to keep in mind it has the Silent trait and Double Action ammunition.

What worked

I have used the phrase "good value for points" often and I do think it is one of the strengths of USARF as a whole. There are many units that are relatively cheap and good at what they suppose to do. You could say it is also a downside because they might not be good at much else but because they are cheap, you can easily have enough units for different tasks. Versatility is one of the main things I believe worked well with this lists, it gives you enough tools to be able to adapt to what is happening on the battlefield and also gives you multiple ways of attack.

You can shoot from distance with full Fireteam support bonuses, you can set up defenses in the middle with good armoured units or get aggressive with infiltrators. Whatever your opponent has on the board, you should have an answer for it and enough Order to do it. Which might be kind of obvious considering it is a 20 man list, but I think it is worth mentioning this list doesn't really have many "useless" cheerleaders to get you those Orders. Only the Muls are there to simply give Orders, everything else has some utility. For example, even if the Infiltrator Grunts fail their roll (which is likely) you still have a Heavy Flamer and a Light Shotgun defending your back-line against Airborne Deployment troops and flankers.

What I found very useful in every game so far was having the six Grunts that can form a Fireteam. The Snipers and HMG are a big threat so they will be a high target for you opponent. You have to count on them dying at some point but having that one extra Grunt to fill the gap when one of the Snipers died helped to keep them a threat for longer. The more Orders your opponent is forced to deal with them, the less they are focusing on the mission.

What didn't work

In hindsight I think the main thing I would change is The Unknown Ranger, especially if you would use this list for Objective Missions. The CoC for me never came to play as my opponents had enough to deal with and did not even consider hunting the Lt. I do think he is a good unit but I also feel his role on the field could have been accomplished by Minutemen Specialist just as well. My mate James suggested I should change him for Van Zant and I could definitely see the benefit of that. This list already gives you enough Specialists and with Van Zant you could cause even more problems for your opponent if they leave an opening in their back-line.

Which brings me to the next thing I found lacking. This list doesn't give you any elite units. The Ranger and Marauders are the only units with BS 12 or higher (outside of Fireteam support bonus) so if the Grunt Fireteam is not effective, you have no back up. I do not think it is a big problem because you can overwhelm your opponent with numbers and between Flamers, Mines and Shotguns you should have enough tools to kill enemy elite units. Though it definitely makes this list harder to play as you can't rely on your elites to do everything.

Most of this army is also slow, 11 models are 4-2 MOV, which can make it difficult to move on the battlefield should you need to move long distances. However, this downside can be minimized by good deployment. You can spread your forces so they don't have to walk far to help in different parts of the board, and deploy them as close to their objective as possible. The difficulty I faced in my games was that I deployed most of the Grunts on top of buildings, which did give them good lines of fire but also make it very hard for them do get anywhere else. I was just entrenched too much to make proper use of them later in the game. For example, in three games during Norther Open 8 I never used the Grenade Launcher or the Grunts with Rifles because they were always hiding and after Snipers and HMG died, they were kind of useless in those positions.

The one tool I really missed during my games was Smoke. This list has no Smoke Grenades, which can be easily solved by adding a unit that does have them. In all of the games there was always a situation where I felt Smoke would have made a massive difference in terms of moving my units into tactically better post.

Suggestions for improvement

As mentioned in the segment above, I think the easiest way to improvise this list would be to switch Van Zant for The Unknown Ranger. If nothing else, just to give you the option to attack from any angle with BS 13 AP Rifle or Heavy Pistol.

However, on equal measure you can drop The Unknown Ranger / Van Zant entirely and make your army slightly bigger. I would also change the Grunt with LGL to a regular Rifle Grunt, saving you extra 4pts. This would give you enough spare Points to add Minutemen Forward Observer and a Maverick with Light Rocket Launcher. Both of these are good attack units, one of them is Specialist and Maverick gives you Smoke. The WarCor would have to go into a third combat group on his own as you'd have 21 troops. Click here to open this suggestion list in Infinity Army.

Another small change could be adding Airborne Range if you like having AD troops (instead of the Minutemen for example). Those guys can also be Specialists. After that you can always do some big changes to the main Fireteam, which I think really comes down to your preferred unit and the models you have available. You could have a very similar list based around Marauders or Minutemen as your Core Fireteam, though with those you might end up with less than 20 men as they cost more than Grunts.

I know I named this list the Grunt Horde, but what I see as the main composition of this list is the second combat group; the Infiltrators, 112 and Dozer with Muls. This group is only 117pts and 1.5 SWC (120pts if you count the WarCor) which does leave you with enough Points to form an attack group of your liking.

Army List Tactica 4: Phoenix Tournament Winner (Biotechvore)

This is one of the two lists that I have taken to an ITS event in Phoenix Games last year. It was the first tournament I have won and this list helped me to define how I want to play Caledonia in this new year of 2016. Though there is sure room for improvement as you'll find out, and its far from guaranteed to win you games (but that goes for every army in Infinity).   

 

Overview

One of the missions in the tournament was Biotechvore, so this list was pretty much tailored for that mission. Though it could also work for other killing-type missions. In basic, in this mission the goal is to have more Points alive than your enemy. Its made harder but the fact that 16" of each side of the table is "virus" zone that hits any units with Damage 14 hit against their BTS. So you end up with 16" strip in middle of the board where everyone wants to pile up their army. It can be a brutal mission and it can be very hard on Order Management. My plan was to have a tough, hard hitting Link Team, some units that have a chance to Infiltrate, some fast moving units and then few standard units to provide Orders and do Classified.

Achieving the mission

As you can see, more than half my army points were in 5 models, Wulvers with Wallace in a Link. Since they are fast and Wulvers have Climbing Plus, in theory I would be able to move them outside of the virus zone in 2 Orders, saving me 3 Orders for other units. Cameronian with the Highlanders would have it easiest, since they generate two Orders each they can use on themselves. Up to three of my other units, Uxia, SAS and Volunteer had a chance to Infiltrate (you have to pass a -3 PH roll first in this mission to do it), which would leave only two more units (Dozer and 112) needing to move.

I think the theory was sound, but as it often happens, it didn't live up to the expectations. In my game only SAS was able to Infiltrate and my opponent made me burn lots of Orders on the Link as I didn't have easy direct routes, he had lots of AROs in my available paths. That said, with Smoke and shooting some enemies with the Link, they did get where they needed to go; albeit sacrificing some other troops in the process as I run out of Orders to move everyone.

Having an expensive Link Team also worked in my favour in this mission. With 2 Wounds each and ARM 3, they were hard to take down for my opponent.

Units purpose and performance

William Wallace with Wulver Link Team - This Link Team is my new favourite thing in Caledonia. They are very tough, hard to kill and able to deal lots of damage. They have only three weapon options, Mk12, T2 Rifle and Heavy Shotgun but all of those are very useful in a Link. Best of all, all of them are 0 SWC! I think they also have lots of tricks on how to overcome enemies, since they have Grenades, Climbing Plus, Berserk and Natural Born Warrior. As expensive as they are, 32pts cheapest, they are well worth the points. I am certain they were key to my victory in the mission, since only three of them surviving was over 100pts.

I'd say the whole mission almost favours Link team like these. Everyone has to get within 16" of each another to avoid the virus zone, this limits powerful weapons like sniper rifles and HMGs, but gives advantage to mid range weapons. Spitfires are expensive so often you'll face combi-rifles or multi-rifles, but if you have this Link in cover, they are able to shrug off D13 weapons with their ARM6 (with the cover bonus).

As far as Wallce, I think if I didn't have to take him to make it a full Link Team, I probably wouldn't have. I would prefer to have 5 Wulvers, but their AVA is only 4. That said, especially for this mission Inspiring Leadership is quite invaluable for Order management. Plus he can prove Smoke for the Link Team, so he is helpful. Just have to be careful about where you leave him because he will have big target on his face from the start of the game.

Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war. (image from Corvus Belli store)

Uxia and S.A.S. - In this missions, its a 50/50 for them to be able to Infiltrate (better for Uxia), so they can either be very helpful or not so much. In my game SAS was able to do it, while Uxia had to deploy normal. She did die trying to pull off a desperate action, but I was in a desperate position at that time. The SAS did nothing the whole game but hide, which in this mission was good enough.

In retrospect I could have taken two SAS FOs or just two Chain Rifle SAS (or one FO and one chain rifle). This would have save me few points, and either help to double my chance of getting any FO related Classified Objective or provide good attack options with the Chain Rifles since the enemy troops would go towards them. Between Chain Rifle with Grenades or Shotgun, I'd go for Grenades in this mission so you could do Speculative Fire from roofs and such.

Dozer and 112 Emergency Service - These guys were mainly taken to cover Specialists slots but I think I would been better off with one better unit or fewer cheaper units; for example Volunteer HMG and Chain Rifle. Though the glue gun on the Dozer could have been useful to keep the enemy in the virus zone, so maybe just drop the Doctor. Looking back I think the best option would have been to drop them down for another SAS and Warcor. This would still give me two Regular Orders thanks to Wallace but have potential for better tactical options. 

Volunteer - I didn't want to have too many models, so I had the Points and even with Inferior Infiltration he still has a chance to deploy forward and in this mission, if he fails he can deploy normally, so to me it was worth it. However, looking back I feel about him the same way I do about the Dozer and 112, might have been better to have a more useful unit. The D-Charges are nice but have little use if he can't pull of the Infiltration.  

Cameronian and Highlanders - I think these are great options for this mission. Any troops that can generate extra Orders greatly helps to move out of the virus zone. I specifically took four and placed them in the same Combat Group so I could do Coordinated Orders with all of them. Maybe two Cameronians could have been more useful because they can move faster and are tougher, but I like using the Highlanders.

Plus with some changes to the Combat Groups, you could have Wallace to Link with these guys, move them out, then re-Link with Wulvers. Making it even easier to manage your Order pool.

What worked

The Wulver-Wallace Link Team was definitely the main thing that worked for me. They were able to move fast, had their own Smoke cover, took lots of punishment and dealt it themselves. I was glad I had them with mid-range weapons over other hard hitting units with weapons like HMG or Missile Launcher. The Highlanders and Cameronian did good too, I was able to Chain Rifle a group of enemies more than once (although I was unlucky and mostly they all survived). Plus as I mentioned before, extra Orders were a good help.

I think if you break down the mission to the bare bones, I think Caledonia has great potential because they can move fast with lots of Smoke cover.

What didn't work

The cheap units were more or less useless, like my Dozer died straight away, but this was mainly because I used too many Orders on everything else. So in a way they did their job by proving Orders to others. I already said it few times, but I would have prefer to have more tactically versatile units like the SAS, or if I kept the cheaper ones, have more long range AROs to use.

You might have notice by now that my longest range weapon (good range that is) was only 24". This was for two reasons. Firstly I didn't want to leave anyone behind and snipers are always better being as far back as possible. Secondly, I challenged myself to use an army that had 0 SWC spent. Which, if I am honest, was a stupid unnecessary gamble. Cateran would have been very helpful in this mission, and with their Climbing Plus, they can be deployed in high places and still be able to move fast out of the virus zone.

Verdict

Overall I think this list has some good foundations but it does need some tweaking to improve. Its weak point are the cheap units that can't do much if your Link Team can't leave the virus zone quickly. The next time I'll have to play Biotechvore I think I would try to go with the Wulver-Wallace Link, Dozer, SAS FO, SAS Chain Rifle+Grenades, Cateran, Warcor and two Cameronians. 

List on Army 5

Army List Tactica 3: Victorious Link Teams (Guest Army Lists)

As the title suggests, these are not armies that I have played myself. Oren Dotan was kind to share his tournament experience and the Caledonia army lists that won him the event!

This post will not be the usual Army List Tactica format, instead first we'll first get Oren's army lists, his review of the games, bit of commentary about Specialists and then my own thoughts. Without further ado, lets get to it.

The armies

Oren's Army 1
Open in Army 5

Oren's Army 2
Open in Army 5

The games

Oren played three games but only two are covered here because his third opponent was new to the game and while had good army, he deployed badly and was unfamiliar with Caledonia. Oren's first opponent was more seasoned and in the second he faced off someone equally experienced. The games by Oren's words: 

Game 1: Biotechvore – Caledonia (Army 2) vs Military Orders (Open in Army 5)

Military Orders (MO) won the Lt Roll and decided to go first, Caledonia chose deployment. It was a fairly dense table, so I deployed mostly out of Line of Fire as I mostly had close to mid-range weapons, except for a Volunteer with HMG.  In his first turn the Mo player pretty much had moved up and outside of the Virus zone unopposed. He had a link team of De Farsen and 4 Knights on one side and 2 Spec. Order Sergeants with Spitfires and MSV Lv2, plus a Father Knight on the other side. He then moved one of the Order Sergeants up to the side of the Link Team to counter my Smoke shenanigans.

 I started my turn with moving my Super Impetuous units, which I deployed on the same table side of the enemy Link Team and let them rush it. I had two Highlanders who threw smoke in front of the alleyway where the enemy Link Team stayed, allowing only the Order Sergeant to see through. I then sent out the Cameronian to go crazy and launch forward towards the enemy Link, dodging successfully the Order Sergeants ARO and then coming out of the smoke blasting most of the Link with double chain rifles. At this point the Cameronian died from all the ARO shots but took out De Farsen, one Knight out and wounded another (my opponent fluffed more rolls then he should have).

I then started moving my Volunteers Link Team with Isobel up the board without generating AROs as the board had a lot of buildings and all models were on ground floor. I moved enough that I could accomplish a Data Scan after the second attempt. Then I switched the Link Team to the Wulvers with Wallace and moved them up as well on the other side of the table and flanked the Father Knight and rest of the MO army. My opponent started in second turn in Loss of Lieutenant but managed to heal De Farsen and reformed the link. I started my second turn with moving everything out and annihilated what was left of them using Wulver with T2 Rifle and Close Combat, getting myself 10 Victory Points as I got both of my Classified Objectives, I changed the second one to Secure HVT. 

Game 2:  The Armory – Caledonia (Army 1) vs Tohaa (Open in Army 5)

The table setup was pretty Euro style (this means it had lots of open lanes between buildings) but a bit denser. Tohaa won the Lt Roll and they also chose to go first. I deployed my Scots Guard Link Team in a good spot where my Missile Launcher could see one side of the objective room together with one Cateran and on the other side of the deployment zone a Mormaer with AP HMG and Cateran, they were base-to-base with each other and watching the other side of the objective room.

The Tohaa had three triads (Link Teams of three), the first was two Makauls and a Aelis Keesan. He began moving them only to be caught in Line of Fire to my AP Marksmen Rifle and Missile Launcher from the Scots Guard. The missile Launcher shot at one of the non-Link Leader models, catching the whole Link and another nearby unit, hitting them with two Blasts. The AP Marksmen tried to shoot the Link Leader while he tried to Special Dodge using Zero-V Grenades. The Link lost most of the guys and Aelis Keesan went unconscious only to get herself back to life using Regeneration later on. The other Triads managed to make it near the room using Zero-V Grenades, while shooting my Mormaer with a Gao Rael MSV Lv2 Spitfire (before the smoked landed). The Mormaer went down but took some other guy with him. 

In my first turn I tried to wreak havoc with Uxia in the Tohaa back field. She killed a couple of stuff in return for her own life, and the rest of the Orders were used to move up the link close to the objective room. Tohaa player spent the second turn trying to setup defences as much as possible to hinder my movements and make it hard for me. My second turn I blew up the door and entered with my Link Team. They grabbed few things from the Panoplies and managed to dominate the room.

The third round Tohaa managed to send a Makaul inside and kill one of the Scots Guards but didn't manage to do a whole lot more.  I ended up getting 7 Victory Points for dominating the room for the second and third round, plus getting more stuff from the Panoplies than my opponent.

Oren's commentary 

There were two reasons I didn't go Specialist heavy. Firstly, because all three missions, putting Classified Objectives aside, were in not such a need for Specialist. Secondly, Isobel can cover two to three objectives and Uxia can do one of them as well. I did manage to score both Classified Objectives in the first game and I was one order short of doing one in the second game; I planted the D-Charge but lacked the last order to detonate it.

As a general note, it is easier now to go without  all the different Specialists as you can draw four different Classified Objectives, so high chances you will land at least one that your Specialist can do. Then you can also switch up to Secure HVT if you can achieve it.

With armies like Corregidor or ALEPH I put in a lot of Specialists because I can and they have a good variety but in Caledonia the variety is very limited (only one Engineer, one Doctor. They are very crunchy and don't fit my play-style all that much). Using S.A.S. FOs makes me bring out certain units like Traktor Muls and a Dozer because of the great synergy but they take away my flexibility of bringing other tools to the mix thus I usually go on the small amount of Specialists.

My thoughts

The first thing I noticed is that both lists have distinct lack of Specialists, beside Uxia and Isobel as Hacker, and one list only has Isobel. This could make it very hard to get Classified Objectives done, which means loosing out on few Victory Points (which can make the difference in rankings). Myself I would be skeptical going to an ITS event without having all the Specialists but you can see that you don't always need them to win. Though Oren made some very good points and it certainly made me consider using less Specialists in the next ITS season. I have noticed before that I limited myself by trying to include everyone and then some of them never done anything anyway.

Both lists have a very strong Link Team. I think it was a great choice to go with two Link Teams for Biotechvore, it makes it so much easier to move them all out of the Virus zone. The other list seems very strong with ARO threats, two Caterans, AP HMG and Missile Launcher is brutal and can sure do lots of damage. 

For the first list I would have definitely add a Warcor, there were exactly 3pts to spare and with Wallace as Lt, it is the cheapest Regular Order generator. I thought it was really cool Oren used Wallace in both lists, very iconic Lt option for Caledonia. 

Overall, both lists are very different to what I played so far (no SAS and lot less Specialists) but I think they are very hard hitting with plenty of ways to ruin your opponent's day. The main difficulty I would expect is when facing someone with higher Order pool and more Specialists, but I suppose if the missions were Objectives heavy, the army lists would been different. 

Thank you Oren for sharing and contgats on the victory!

Army List Tactica 2: NO3 Supremacy

This is the second army list I have taken to NO3. While the previous one was full of specialists and focused on taking objectives as quick as possible, this was intended for the Supremacy ITS mission. The difficulty of that mission is that 3/5 of it is taking quarters, 2/5 is taking objectives and classified. It was the mission I was the least confident with and took the longest time to decide on a list. Lets get down to the breakdown of it.

Overview

In quick overview of the mission for those that don't know it, your goal is to control more quadrants than your opponent at the end of every turn and hacking consoles (one in each quadrant). You get 1 Point for each console at the end of game, 2 Points for having more quadrants each round (or 1 point if you both have the same amount) and you can also get 1 Point for one Classified Objective if you are below 10 points. One thing about this mission I have noticed from all the times I played it is that it is very hard to control more quadrants than your opponent (mostly in the first turn), usually you both have two so you need to get one from the enemy.

While deciding on what to include in this list, my main goal was to have a force that could be aggressive but hold its own since I always plan to go first and in this mission, it is kind of a disadvantage. My plan of attack was to split my army in half, and have enough units in each quadrant to make it difficult for my opponent to take them without spreading his army too thin, while at the same time, have units that could advance into the enemy's half of the board.

Achieving the mission

So as I mentioned above, my plan was to split my forces into halfs, though it was more like quarters. I had ARO threats I did not count on moving forward, suicide units I did not count on to live long and then my two main "attack" groups. One group was Wallace, Volunteers and Isobel (115pts). Second group was Dozer, 112, Traktor, S.A.S and Uxia (also 115pts, including Baggage). The AROs were Cateran, Scots Guard and Warcor. Cameronian and Highlanders were suicide units. I had few specialists available so how things deployed still mattered on Classified and the terrain

At the time of making the list I thought it wasn't a bad idea, but in retrospect it was a BAD IDEA! I will get to why some of the units were used badly and where I made mistake with them, but overall I think I split my forces too much. My dice were not helpful either during the game (lots of failed rolls) but considering it wasn't the first time I screwed up this mission, I am starting to think I see the problem. I always ended up deploying the attack groups on flanks and then not much in the middle on the board and then when one flank collapsed, it was hard to secure it again because the other half my army was bunkered down on the other side of the board. On the last two events where I played this mission, I always ended up cornered in one quadrant.

Classified objectives never really made much difference so I really should be leaving those to the end.

Units purpose and performance

William Wallace with Volunteer Link Team - (Chain rifle, 2x HMG, Paramedic) I thought this link was good in theory and I am not discounting it yet entirely though the two HMGs haven't really performed that well so far. That said, I can't deny it makes the opponent think twice when attacking Damage 15 Burst 4 ARO. I think my biggest mistake with this Link Team was only realizing too late that Isobel can't start as part of it because I put her into the second Combat Group. Terrible idea! Isobel in the Link Team with her T2 rifle can make lots of difference, plus I would have more orders to use on her if she was advancing with the link team.

Wallace is a risk to take on his own which is why I always play him in a Link Team but I like playing him, he gives everyone Courage and all your orders are Regular, which is always helpful. Also gives the Volunteers smoke cover when needed.

Overall, I think my problem with this Link Team was deploying on them on a flank too far from everyone else and not having Isobel part of it from the get-go.

Uxia and S.A.S. - Infiltrators are always useful in any mission. With the SAS I think I should use him more than just hiding somewhere to give me points, but at the same time, he is lots of points that can be hard to kill. Uxia is the wild card here. With the SAS, they are 51pts that you can have protecting a quadrant straight from the deployment, which is good... if you use her that way. It was my plan NOT to risk the PH16 roll but I did risk it, and it failed, and she wasn't helpful during the game afterwards.

It is always a risk but in some missions it matters less in my opinion. In this mission though I don't think I should have risked it, though if it did work, she would have been in a great place. Overall its just one of those where you need to weight the risks against the potential benefits but when it comes to ITS, I am leaning towards take the sure thing and just deploy in your half of the board.

Dozer and 112 Emergency Service - The Classified did not need Engineer or Doctor so these guys pretty much just hid in a building outside of my Deployment Zone (DZ) to give points into a quadrant. Not much else to say really. 

Traktor Mul - I am still unsure about these things. In one mission it got attacked and killed by someone in cover and with camo despite being in my good range bands and in NO3, it just did nothing whole game beside taking a quadrant. Which isn't a bad thing in this mission, after all you get 38pts for the price of 18pts. I think its my own fault really for not making use of Guided Missiles despite having FO in my list. They seem to be a decent repellent though, with their Damage 14/15. AP+Shock and option for Blast Mode, and Burst 3. I noticed my opponent either left them alone or had to send some hard hitting unit to deal with them. The few times I played against them I avoided them too for the most part, one unlucky roll and they will probably kill your trooper. I think the trick is in deploying them well, so they can't be seen from too far and too many angles.

Cateran and Scots Guard - I am always happy with these guys, they do very well as ARO threats and long range attack units. Though especially the Scots Guard is my second most expensive unit so I think I should try include him in taking quadrants rather than deploying on a roof and not be able to move outside of DZ. Though to be honest, especially for this mission I think I would prefer two Caterans, would save me points and they have better mobility with Climbing Plus.

Warcor - This guy is awesome, especially when taken with Wallace. He is your cheapest source of Regular Order (only 3pts!) and makes for a very underestimated, cheap ARO threat. A Blinded unit is effectively useless for the rest of the turn and they can't cancel Blinded state by anything but waiting for the end of their turn. With WIP13 and good Flash Pulse range bands, you often end up with better odds than most of your other units if they were shooting. They are especially useful against Impetuous units since those can't get cover. So many times my own attacks were halted because of these guys.

Personally I like to deploy them alongside another long range ARO, like a sniper. That way people have to split their Burst or face unopposed ARO. Just be careful about doing it if your opponent has Blast weapons like missile launchers.

Cameronian and Highlanders - I think I made a mistake discounting these guys when making my plan of attack. I always end up being careful with them anyway and not just throwing them away, which could be argued to be a mistake too because I always find myself not aggressive enough in this mission. They are definitely helpful tying down alleyways and any parts of the board with dense terrain where people have to get into chain rifle range to be able to shoot them. One thing I noticed when it comes to the Cameronian, I fail to provide him support. I think its because mainly I just throw him at the enemy so I am not used to having someone nearby to cover him.

What worked

Not much worked as intended but mainly because I made mistakes with Combat Groups and Deployment. Though I think having some plan of attack was helpful, if nothing else at least to deploy my army faster. But it needs more thought to make it work better.

What didn't work

Well, the Combat Groups didn't work to start with. Isobel should been with Wallace and Volunteers (and I could have drop one Volunteer to save points), and Cameronian in the second group with Highlanders. Then I could have add 112 and Warcor to the 1st group and move Dozer and Traktor into the 2nd. That way I should have had enough orders to move my Link Team, and FO something, then use 2nd group Orders to blast it with Guided Missiles.

I also should been more careful with Uxia and take the sure thing over risking PH16 roll. It would have saved me the trouble of moving her from the edge of my DZ.

Also as mentioned, a second Cateran might have been better for points than the Missile Launcher in this mission. Or at least, I should have use the Scots Guard to claim quadrants with his high Pts cost. Scots Guard downgraded to Cateran and no Chain Rifle Volunteer would have save me 16pts, which I could have spend on something else.

Verdict

As it is, the list definitely needs some heavy tweaking when it comes to Combat Groups. It might also have been better off with a heavier Link Team, like Grey Rifles or Wulvers. Though I believe with improvements and smarter deployment it can get the job done, so I am not discarding the list as a whole just yet.

List on Army 5

Army List Tactica 1: NO3 Objetives

Now that Northern Open 3 is over, I can finally start talking about my army lists! For a while now I been wanting to just write about the lists I have used as I keep copies of the lists in a folder but without writing about them, I can hardly remember what worked and what didn't. So this should help and if it might also help anyone out there reading this, even better. For the last several weeks I mainly used (and tweaked) the lists I used in the tournament, which is why I didn't start this soon (you never know, my opponents might have been reading this blog!).

As with any ITS event, NO3 (and Warzone tournament before that) allowed two army lists. They were up to 300pts and no Spec Ops. I am guessing by now it is a standard practice you have one list for objective based missions and the other for more killing missions, or at least its what I did. The missions were Lifeblood, Supplies and Supremacy. The first two score points on capturing objectives and this was the list I have decided to take:

Overview

The core of this list were the specialists to score in the missions, I had eight of them in total. Three of those were in a Link Team, three were Camouflaged Infiltrators and then Doctor and Engineer (the two "must have" for ITS). What Link Team to take was a major decision as it is in any Sectorial Army, I decided on Volunteers because they are cheap and I wanted Isobel to have protection and the Support Bonuses (will be explained why below). My ARO Threats and long range support were Cateran, Scots Guard with a Missile Launcher and Highlander Grey with AP HMG, I think them three are a good mix of range bands, Burst and Damage. 45th Rifles Highlanders and Cameronian is something I pretty much always take to provide cheap suicide units and Smoke Grenades, though they do have other uses too. For this list I decided to hide my Lt, he never does anything beside not getting himself killed by deploying in the least reachable place in my deployment zone.

Achieving the mission

You might have notice that this list doesn't have anything very hard hitting, units like Highlander Grey and Cameronian can deal lots of damage but my plan for the missions wasn't to go on a rampage. As mentioned earlier, this list was for two missions; Lifeblood and Supplies. They are similar in the sense that the objectives are in the middle of the board, or at least near in Lifeblood. For this reason, the SAS and Uxia were going to do most of the leg work with the rest of the army taking care of ARO Threats and protecting my flanks. Depending on the Lt Roll result, my plans were this:

Going First: Deploy SAS as close to the objectives as possible, have my long range weapons in places where they can see a lot, the rest protect the DZ or offer Smoke cover.

Going Second: SAS would still deploy near but in hidden places with my long range covering the objectives as best they could and everyone else protect the DZ again.

Now to explain why I wanted Isobel in a Link Team. One way to score Points in Lifeblood is to destroy the crates. For that you need weapons Anti-materiel trait. In the list Anti-materiel weapons were T2 rifle, T2 sniper, missile launcher and D-Charges. The sniper and missile launcher are great but they can't see everywhere and they were likely to be targeted by my opponent. D-Charges work even better but only Dozer and Uxia had them. Uxia can't be everywhere without spending too many orders and Dozer would likely have to risk lost of AROs running to the objectives. Thats where Isobel comes in, with +1B and +3BS, she can shoot the objectives with B4 at BS18 when in good range band, which I think is great and she always does most of the damage. Plus T2 rifle with all those bonuses is great against everything else too, even TAGs.

Additionally, as a Hacker, Isobel was able to go for objectives and the Link Team included two Paramedics to go for Objectives if needed (and try heal fallen units).Dozer and 112 Doctor were mainly included for the Classified Objectives since both Missions had two of them. They were also there to go for the objectives if all the SAS failed. Overall I was confident in claiming the objectives.

Units purpose and performance

Isobel and Volunteers - The Volunteers were two Paramedics, HMG and a Chain Rifle. I like this Link Team because it is cheap on points and it has some decent offensive capabilities, though I think of it mostly defensive. They tend to sit in the back, protecting the DZ and only pushing for objectives when needed. I think they do have potential to do more but I usually spend most of my Orders on SAS. If I had the models for it, I think I would change one Paramedic to a Chain Rifle as the fifth model is there just to get maximum bonuses, and it would save 4 points. I like to have two Specialists but the third one hasn't really come into play during the missions.

The reason I took 2 Paramedics instead of just normal Rifle was because with the units I had, I had 4 points to spare overall (when they were just two Rifles) and I had a choice of either 2 Paramedics or a Warcor. I went with more specialists.

Volunteer Lt - I prefer the Lt be able to do something but for these missions I just needed the Lt not to die and all the other options seem wasted when just hiding. Sometime I like to put them into Suppression Fire with the Lt Order, just to tempt my opponent into wasting Orders trying to kill my Lt.

SAS Forward Observers and Uxia - Personally I think SAS are the best Objective grabbers in Caledonia and one of the best in the game. They are not the only Infiltrating Specialists but they are geared for Close Combat, which is easy to get into when you are fighting over objectives but more importantly, they have Stealth which comes in handy often. Generally I have at least one FO SAS in my army because they are really good at getting Classified Objectives too, and attacking from Camo when needed. The one thing I don't use them for often it giving +3BS to troops shooting at Targeted units, I tend to forget about it. Only drawback is they are not cheap, 24pts can be a lot to sacrifice when you are going for that last Objective. Nevertheless, I can't imagine playing without them when it comes to objectives.

Uxia comes with two options and to be frank, I never played the SAS profile. I am sure it has its uses (and at some point I will try to find it) but Covert Action is just so much more useful when it comes to missions like these. D-Charges, Smoke Grenades, Specialist and Superior Infiltration is just full of win. Plus you have B5 close range weapon, which is awesome. She is bit fragile but in all games where I wasn't stupid with her, she was worth her Points in gold. The Superior Infiltration doesn't always pay off even on PH16 but most of the time it did for me. She has pretty much the same use as the SAS and lately I kept her as my Reserve during deployment. With the ability to deploy anywhere on the table up to enemy DZ, I can respond to just about all Deployment threats.

Dozer and 112 Emergency Service - In both games they performed as expected really. The Dozer usually hid somewhere in DZ and only got used when every other Specialist failed or when I have Classified Objective that required Engineer to get to the HVT. It was very similar for the Doctor, when I don't need him for HVT Objective, I usually deployed him near one of my ARO threats, like my sniper so I could try bring him back if the sniper went unconscious.

Cameronian and Highlanders - I use these guys as combination of cruise missile and smoke cover. Their high PH and extra Impetuous Order means they can throw lots of smoke to cover the other units. I mainly use the chain rifle option for Highlander, its cheap and effective and their BS is bad for shooting other weapons. The main thing with these guys for them to be effective, in my opinion, is to be careful and check line of sight before you move them, quite few times they been shot by something I didn't expect because I didn't check properly and also you gotta think ahead for the next turn because of their Super Impetuousness.

The Cameronian is bit more versatile because he is faster and tougher. When I am going first, in most games I send him across the board to kill whatever I want dead in my opponent's DZ, more often than not he will succeed at it. When there is nothing urgent to deal with, he is also good at zone denial. In a right place people won't want to come near him, just gotta make sure they can't snipe him from long range. Another really good use for this guy is carrying objectives that can be carried, like those in Supplies. This guy can get close as your Specialist gets the Objective and then you can run away with MOV 6-4 and Super Jump. You'll be back in your DZ in no time.

Highlander Grey, Cateran, Scots Guard - For a while I been using the Cateran and the Camo Missile Launcher as my core ARO threats and I am quite happy with them. They both start in camo so they have effective first Active shot and they both also have Mimitism which always helps. In the Lifeblood mission, they work hand in hand with the SAS so they are deployed in a way where they can see the Objectives and start shooting them in the second turn. The Highlander Grey is the odd one out in this list, I do like him as a unit but in these missions I haven't used him in Active turn or when I did, it was just because the opportunity presented itself. Otherwise I think I would prefer to have a second Cateran or Scots Guard with Missile Launcher, both of those are cheaper but I didn't have enough models. 

What worked

First I would like to mention I was happy with the decision of not taking Warcor over Paramedics. While the Warcor is a nice annoyance ARO unit, I found the Paramedics more useful. That said, if I had extra Chain Rifle Volunteer, I would have taken Warcor as I'd have the points. The Link Team itself either haven't done much but kept my DZ safe, or when I did use them to go after Objectives, they got the job done.

In all the games I played of Lifeblood and Supplies (practice and on the events), the "combo" of SAS and long range weapons with Anti-Materiel worked quite well. Especially when I had the first turn, I could always check at least three crates and then destroy them just as easy. Not much my opponents could do about it besides killing my specialists and Anti-Materiel weapons, but I had plenty of both.

With some tweaking, I could easily push this list to 20 models without changing how it works, so I think it has potential to improve as well.

What didn't work

One thing that was bit annoying was that I haven't won a single Lt roll, which does come down to the dice mostly but it doesn't help when my opponent can pass with a higher number (yeah it happened, I rolled 11, he rolled 13). That said, in Caledonia the only other Lt options are either WIP 13, or 15 if you take Wallace, and including those would likely change the list a lot because they cost more to take.

For being the most expensive unit, the Highlander Grey saw the least use, so that felt like a waste of points a bit.

Also might have been worth putting Cameronian into the second combat group, sometime I felt short of an Order or two for Specialists because I needed to attack with the Cameronian, or other way around where I couldn't attack more because I needed the Orders for Specialists.

Verdict

Overall I am very pleased with this list and how it works together. The only time it didn't work was either when I didn't know what I was doing with the mission (like when I was playing Beacon Race) or my dice just didn't work but there is nothing you can do against being critted a lot or just out-rolled, it is still a dice game. There is still room for improvement though and will surely tweak it when I have more models.

List on Army 5