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

New Year, New Army... sort of

The holiday weeks are almost over and the New Year is upon us, time to get back to Infinity. 2016 should be a good year, the new ITS season is coming in February and in the UK we have an event like every month, so plenty opportunities to play. I thought I'd be taking a break until March but there is a tournament in Loughborough around end of January that we'll be going to. More importantly though, this year UK is having its first Masters Tournament, which should be great fun as it will be the biggest one I believe. This will happen in September and there are five or six qualifier tournaments before. I will be attending at least two of them but might go down South for a third if I don't qualify in Leeds or Birmingham. If I remember right about half the tickets to Masters will be open for sale but I would like to attend as qualified.

This brings me to the new army... sort of, part. I will continue to play Caledonia but I want to play it differently. Mainly by making use of Scots Guards which I have hardly played last year. Plus I will make use of the other units I have hardly played, like Mormaers. Basically I want to play the same faction, but differently.

Luckily, most of my Caledonia has at least basic colours but it still has long way to go before being finished. I just have too many models and I wanted to get them all done to the very basic level, so they look okay-ish on the table. I also have four other armies that I want to finish to at least table-top standard. Which is one thing that worries me, if I can do it all. I think I should be though, if I do at least some painting each week. To give you an idea, here is what I have to paint:

Caledonia - 45 models, 10 not painted and/or not based.

USAriadna - 19 models, none painted

Nomads - 25 models, none painted (includes my Bounty Hunters)

Morats - 37 models, 7 not painted

Military Orders - 23 models, none painted

Only my small Ju Ying army is fully painted, but I only have like 13 models for those. So, for only unpainted thats 84 models, 119 if I count that none of my Caledonia is fully finished. This doesn't include some of the stuff I want to buy. Its going to be challenging but I am sure it doable if I don't buy too many new things.

On top of that, I have my gaming board to do. I think I have all the buildings, just need to build them and the scatter. Most of it I will just spray with a single colour, grey, military green, black or brown. When everything has some colour, then I can go into details. My goal with the table is to have it ready for Northern Open in May.

In conclusion, my "Infinity Resolution" is pretty much just get on with painting and win a tournament in the new ITS season.

Sanctuary Gaming Event Results & Photos!

This tournament came kinda out of nowhere. My mate James that I go to tournaments with told me about it last weekend when we were in Stourbridge so there was barely any time to get ready for it and practice. The most different thing from all the other events we went to was that the armies were 400pts, instead of 300pts. If you play Infinity, you know that is a big difference. I basically just "upgraded" the lists I had from week before, and the missions were fairly simple so I felt confident enough.

In the end I came 3rd out of 8 people, and the games had some intense moments. I won me a Weapons pack (which was great as I was looking for some weapons), new Shasvastii badge and Military Orders patch. I think I have a patch now for every army that I play, or at least a badge. My mate James won the first place, which was cool because now we both won one each.

Overall the scorings were close, or at least I think they were, there was no big difference between the top four. Which was good. I like close tournaments. 

The venue was also great, it was basically a big old church (or a small cathedral). Only downside was that it was really cold, otherwise pretty great and I am looking forward to going more often. This was their first Infinity event, so I am expecting they will do more next year.

As for 400pts, I thought it was definitely too much and I think most people I spoke to thought the same. But it was a good experience.

Game 1: Annihilation - Caledonia vs Shasvastii
Lost 4 to 6

The table from my deployment side, after few things already died.

This was a very unlucky game, I think I failed just about every face to face roll off and kept rolling really high in normal rolls, and then really low for armour saves. Just one of those games where there was nothing I could have done about it. In my opponent's first turn, Speculo Killer killed Wallace, which was before my first turn even started as I went second. That wasn't even the worse thing about, the Killer walked between so many models and I failed every single rolls to Discover. Just bad luck all around. It took him a lot of Orders though, and his second Order pool was mainly just drones and baggage bots so  he couldn't really press more. Only other thing that got close to my Deployment Zone (DZ) was Corax (from Dire Foes). Since I was in Loss Of Lieutenant, all I could do was bunker down as best I could to make it hard for my opponent to kill more stuff.

I thought he still could have press the advantage but he was careful in his second turn with his Gwailos Link Team (his Lt was also hiding in it). I was well locked down and the terrain was in my favour where I deployed. Basically he couldn't move in without lots of AROs and then being very close to all my template weapons, so he stayed well back. I only managed to kill Corax, he was trying to out-shoot Wulver with Mk12. In my turn I killed a slave drone that was close to Corax,but everything else just passed all saves regardless what that I threw against it. I even got my Cameronian to chain rifle the link team but he failed to kill anything. Wulvers also didn't do anything with their shooting against the link team. As far as Classified, I managed to do only one because my FO failed to Target the HVT twice.

Corax, the one of two things I managed to kill.

In the end I still scored okay because much of my army was alive, I didn't lose that much but only killed two models... which was my worst performance so far I believe.

Game 2: Frontline - Caledonia vs Caledonia
Won 5 to 2

The table from my deployment side.

Second time now I faced Caledonia and we were both worried it would be a stalemate and knew the smoke tactics would be used heavily. Though the strangest thing about this was, it felt like we played at a decent pace but half way in my opponent's turn we were told half an hour left, so we only managed to get one turn each. It is the main reason I scored only 5 Victory Points, I was on a good way to get more and planned to do so in the second turn. There really is only so far you can get in the first turn. What I did was focus heavily on my right flank, where I had like 300pts deployed. On the other side I just run SAS, Cameronian and Highlander to the middle of the board and the SAS run very far to enemy DZ. He was one Order shot from sneaking behind enemy Sniper and killing him.

In this photo you can see over 300pts of my 400pts army.

My opponent had a very different list, where I focused on hard Link of Wulves, he had over 20 models. I think most of those were Wallace with 45th in Link, few Scots Guard and several Volunteers. There wasn't much fighting, too much smoke and cover on one side of the board. I only killed couple on models with my long range weapons. His sniper tried to kill my SAS that was behind him with a pistol but he was at a disadvantage, out of cover while I was in cover and had a shotgun. So the SAS won. Though I think I would have risk the same, I would have killed the sniper in my turn otherwise.  

The SAS (in camo) that went to kill the enemy sniper.

I think I had the advantage if the second turn was going to happen. We ended up with much of our armies close to each another behind cylindrical towers. My Wulvers though all had Grenades so I would been able to do at least two or three salvos with four Grenades. Even one of them would hit lots of models, and if that wouldn't have worked, the enemy was so close together that chain rifles or even shot gun would be devastating. 

It was still a fun game though and I was able to dominate two of the three zones across the board, and I got one Classified. 

Game 3: Emergency Transmission - Caledonia vs Neoterra
Won 8 to 1

The table from my deployment side.

This was one of the most intense games I played in a long time and we actually had three turns. I wasn't sure where I was in the rankings but I think my opponent was playing for 1st or 2nd (now I know he was, but they only showed us who we were facing, not the points we had). I won the Lr roll (finally!) and decided to go first. My plan was simple, deploy five SAS (well four and Uxia) next to objectifies, get five of them and make my opponent trying to match that.

Isobel with Wallace and Volunteers.

 First thing in my first turn I destroyed my opponent's Total Reaction Remote with my Scots Guard Missile Launcher. I put him at BS -12 so he couldn't hit me (-3 range, -3 cover, -3 Mimitism, -3 Surprise Shot) and I managed to crit and destroy it completely as he failed the other two ARM saves as well. Which was unfortunate for him as he had a Palbot linked to an Engineer on the save roof. This allowed me McMurrough to jump across roofs, it was a very dense terrain, and jump into CC with Aquila Guard that was stopping my SAS from moving. I went into CC as it had better change of hitting and wounding than chain rifles, and even if they didn't I figured I'd be safer being in CC. I did win the CC and he failed both ARM rolls (DA+AP CCW at Damage 16, for the win). But I didn't realize there was a whole Link Team who saw McMurrough jumping into the CC, so he got killed. Then my four SAS and Uxia were able to grab three of the objectives in total, two of the around the board and then the central one. I could have get one more but the SAS kept failing and he was put unconscious by a revealed Hexa. Looking back I was bit stupid with Uxa, I didn't deploy her well. I should have ignore that objective completely, it was in very bad place for me.

Highlander in deployment zone.

In my opponent's first turn, he annoyingly brought his Auqlia Guard back to live with a Crit roll. Though the Auqlia Guard only got into position to make it harder for me in the next turn, instead of going on killing rampage. His Link Team of Neoterra Bolts was close to Uxia and massacred her, just no other way of saying it. First he threw a mine behind her and then taught me a new trick by Idling in her ZoC but out of LoF, I didn't think this forced me to declare ARO at that point so he was then able to use his second movement to get behind her. In the next Order I failed to Dodge anything. I think the only thing that stopped him from advancing further was my Cameronian behind a nearby building, which could decimate them. Luckily for me, he had no Specialists in that team (something he couldn't believe he forgot to add when making the list). He also came out with a Swiss Guard, but he didn't do much  beside walking to the middle of the board and Spotlight my HVT. Though it ended up a threat I had to deal with in my turn.

Scots Guard, not mentioned because he has done nothing as he was facing Hexa.

First I tried to charge him with a Highlander. I figured I could go Berserk and then Dogged if he wounded me, so I had two chances to hit him in CC. But I didn't throw a Smoke Grenade good enough and at one point was out of it but not in CC yet, so he shot me. I caused no wounds and my Highlander died. So instead I used my SAS, one that was in the middle also (very close to the Swiss Guard) went into CC and I think I won and it glanced off, or at least neither of us took wounds. Then second SAS walked into CC and with B2 I was able to stab the Swiss Guard to death (I liked to imagine of them grappled his arms behind his back and the other just stabbed him in the guts with AP CCW). Worth mentioning Isobel did Data Scan on the Swiss Guard before he died. My paramedic healed the SAS that was shot by Hexa, by shooting him with the MedKit, which was great for me. Isobel with support of a Link Team killed the Aquila Guard with her T2 rifle. For good this time. I was pretty unlucky with the Cameronian though (this happened in the Impetuous phase). He charged out towards the enemy Link Team and was seen only by one of them with Spitfire, which I thought was good for me. The Bolt rolled like 3 and 5, and I needed anything but a 20... of course I did roll a 20 and then I needed only to pass ARM roll on 12+, which I do all the time, but failed both. After that I had nothing nearby to attack with. With still lots of Orders left, I noticed the Palbot that healed the Aquila Guard was next to the Hexa, so I sacrificed one SAS to FO the Palbot shot a DA Guided missile. Which did hit both of them but only on1 and they both Dodged, putting distance between them. After that I couldn't really touch the Hexa and while I had 6 orders left I completely forgot you can do Coordinated Orders from any combat group and so wasted some opportunities as I thought I was out of Orders to use on SAS. I tried to end my turn defensively as there was still the full Link Team of Bolts on my right flank.

My opponent went mainly for objectives in his second turn and managed to get one with an Auxilier. I made it hard for him to take objectives from me. And thanks to PanO poor WIP, he spent quite few orders getting even one. I think it was like five in total, two of which was just climbing to the objective. His link team managed to kill Volunteer and Isobel, I put them in a bad position and failed to Dodge with both. Beside the Link Team though, there wasn't much left that could do damage to me, his second Auxilier with heavy flamer bot was pinned down by my sniper and our snipers couldn't see each another.

The last turn for me was a bit desperate because I had to protect my objectives and I didn't have anything that could have effective protect the central objective. I got one more side objective with the SAS that was revived and I left the second remaining SAS base to base with central in hopes he'd survive, I put him into Suppressive Fire too. I thought my best option was to hit the Link Team with any kind of template, try to take few down. First my paramedic climbed to my unconscious Missile Launcher but failed to heal him. So I sacrificed Wallace, hitting four Bolts with a light flamer and managed to kill two of them. I couldn't afford to be careful about it as I didn't have enough Orders.

The street from my opponent's side.

My sniper was pinning down this Auxilier.

At this point my opponent had one side objective and one of his Classified, while I had three side objectives, the central objective and both of my Classified. He basically needed to take one from me and take one of the unclaimed ones to get some more points, or at least make us have the same number and take over the central one. He managed to kill the SAS I had in the middle with a flamer bot. First attack I dodged and had three more AROs against the bot but failed to hit it. Second time I killed it, but the SAS died too, so that cost me two Victory Points. A mechanic of his managed to get unclaimed side objective on the right (where Uxia died). This mean he needed the last unclaimed objective to equal, or take one from me to have more. So he did a suicide run with Auxilier pinned by a sniper to try get the unclaimed one. He failed to Dodge after running out of full cover, but passed ARM roll, but then failed Guts Check and had to fall back. He had to spend another Order to get to the Objective but failed his WIP and my sniper killed him. Last option was to send the second Auxilier jumping across a roof, to try take one objective from me. I had a free shot from my Paramedic Volunteer but failed to hit. He had two Orders to try take the objective, so he run to it and rolled a 20, but I failed to kill him. Last Order, which could have turn the game, he rolled an 11 which was a fail (the side objectives were at -3 WIP).
 

Dead Auxilier.

Paramedic Volunteer who failed to revive the Scots Guard.

The Auxilier that lost the game for my opponent.

It was a tough game for both of us, but lots of fun. That last WIP roll could have been 5 to 4 victory for him and likely put him in the first place, instead of 8 to 1 loss.

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!

Photos from Phoenix Games event

The event organizer James posted about the last tournament from his perspective, with rankings after each game and also some photos that he took.

You can read the posts (there are two parts) on the Infinity forums: http://infinitytheforums.com/forum/topic/34348-sat-12th-december-2015-300-point-tournament-phoenix-games-stourbridge-west-midlands-uk/#comment-746714

Also here is a link to the Phoenix Games Facebook group, its where the event was held. Its a really nice store with friendly staff. https://www.facebook.com/groups/217545775062566/

I have selected photos that were relevant to me, but the posts have few more.

In the first one we have my favourite link team of Isobel and Volunteers. Above them there is my 112 Emergency Service and Volunteer Lieutenant, both were Prone there whole game and didn't do anything, their job was not to die really. Though the Doctor was ready to heal my Scots Guard who was to the left on the same roof, outside of the photo.This was from my first game.

This was my opponent's link team that took out the Scots Guard with Shock Sniper rifle, so my Doctor didn't have a chance to heal him. I can't remember the name of these guys but they all had MSV Lv2.

This is also during the first game, I am at the very back. As you can see there were three tables next to each another and the best part was, all three Ariadna Sectorials were next to each another (nobody played vanilla Ariadna). Me with Caledonians, then James with the French in the middle (on the right side of the table) and Tom had USAriadna (he is on the left, standing). 

This is not my game but it is the table I played my second game on. My deployment was on the right side of the photo and I was facing off against Military Orders. 

Same as the photo above, this is just to show the table where I was fighting for the victory. We were playing on the closer table (the one wit city mat). My deployment was on the right side of the photo and most of my army (in points) moved only between the closest edge (it was left bottom from my perspective when playing) and the green crate thats around the middle. My opponent had most of his army in middle of the board.

And here is my battle cry of Victory!

Phoenix Games Tournament: Yorkshire Reigns Supreme

This was the best end to the 2015 ITS Season for me. I managed to win all of my three games and come out on the first place! It was very close though. The games were not easy and especially in my last one it was so close. After the second round, the difference between 1st and 2nd place was 13 Army Kill Points, otherwise we were the same score. So in the last game I had to win, and score high enough not to be overtaken by the 3rd and 4th person as they were close behind. In this event they had a ranking board with scores, names and faction logos which was a very neat visual touch. They also had a in-house added crate on all board which could been opened with potential for gear, but I forgot in all three games.

In the end, I won by 1 Victory Point. I did kill a lot in my last game so I think I would have been okay on that front too if it came down Army Kill Points difference.

Sadly I just completely forgot to take pictures and have only one photo of the first board (but I think people took photos during the day so I might find some later).

The games were like so close and they didn't even start so well for me but I managed to turn them around, despite making few mistakes and facing some frustrating situations. I loved how flexible my objectives list was.

Game 1: Highly Classified - Caledonia vs Qapu Khalqi
Won 10 to 2

Despite having a really high victory in the end, this game did not look for me in the first turn at all. I faced this opponent, Simon, before on event in Birmingham and I have won against him but I did not expect this game go well. Our Open Classified Objectives were Hack and Forward Observe (twice) the HVT, Extreme Prejudice and Sabotage. For my hidden Classified I have ended up with Engineer the HVT. He placed his HVT boxed up between three crates, so long way to get around, so straight away I knew it would be hard to get to it. Simon also had a link team of MSV Lv2 soldiers and those had me worried, its bad enough when people have one sniper and now there was five of them.

Gaming table from my deployment side.

I lost the Lt roll (as I always do) and Simon went first. With like the fist round of shooting, his linked sniper killed my Scots Guard missile launcher and then decided to stay in a high vantage point, though the rest of the team was hidden. He also managed to use his Infiltrating Hacker to hack my HVT to get one of the objectives and also brought on two Yuan Yuan on left side of my table half. My Warcor managed to blind one of them at least. He didn't really have many Orders left so not much else was done. My first didn't go so well, I spent lots of orders moving my Link Team with Isobel to get 8" within the HVT so I could hack it but I kept failing the roll and didn't get it. I managed to kill the Sniper with my Volunteer HMG and my Highlander took care of one Yuan Yuan and the other one decided to Engage.

In second turn things started to turn around. In his turn I have used Berserk on Highlander to make CC normal rolls and I put him unconscious, though my Highlander died too (I think I went Dogged because I took a Wound). With a second hacker, Simon tried to Brain Blast Isobel, my only hacker, but I have used Breakwater as ARO and won the roll. He tried again and I went for Counterstrike, which was risky but he would have just keep spending Orders. I was lucky and won the roll, which reflected the Brain Blast and killed his hacker. On the other side of the board where my HVT was, he had FO nearby but I had my SAS next to the HVT and we ended up Engaged, which was in my favour. In my turn I managed to finally hack the HVT. My second FO SAS stood up on a roof and took a risky FO shot, splitting the B2 between enemy HVT and Total Reaction remote.

In retrospect I should have use full Burst against the remove, but the odds were still in my favour. He was at -6 while I was only at -3 with WIP higher than his BS. I won the roll and had it Targeted which was folleed by a volley of guided missile which killed the remote and little palbot next to it that was linked to an Engineer. I was also able to get the second FO on the HVT and Isobel run into Simon's half of the board to detonate a D-Charge, this gave me three of the objectives. Before end of the turn, McMurrough earned his points by killing the hacker near my HVT and then running quite far into enemy's half and getting two Chair Rifle shots across his Link Team that was in a line, McMurrough died in the process but he killed 3 out of 4, which was great for me.

Last turn I thought could have still go either way because Simon did have few Specialists left. He also used his medic in what I thought was geniously evil idea. I needed to get Extreme Prejudice and there was an unconscious Yuan Yuan near my link team so he shoot it with his MedKit. It was very long range, but if he had hit the Yuan Yuan would either die or come back to life, neither of which would be good for me. Thankfully, he missed since he was hitting on like 5 or 6. In his last turn Simon was only able to do Extreme Prejudice for himself, ending on 2 Victory Points. I spent my last turn getting Extreme Prejudice by killing the Yuan Yuan and then I changed my Secondary Classified into Secure HVT because I managed to clear out all the enemies around mine, and I had troops around his, which gave me full 10 Victory Points. So I was off to a good start!

Game 2: Master Key - Caledonia vs Military Orders
Won 6 to 4

I wasn't sure what to expect from this game. I knew this was a tough mission from the practice games (which I am so happy we did) and my opponent, Adam, scored really well in his last game too, plus I know Military Orders can be quite tough. As normal I failed the Lt roll and he decided to make me deploy first, so I took the first turn. Since this mission had only 8" Deployment Zone, plus a large exclusion zone, I deployment more or less in a line with everything that was going to advance (which was most things). Adam tried to Infiltrate in from of my DZ but failed his roll, the rest of his army set very defensively with no snipers on the table (though I knew there might be another TO) but he had a Seraph, Joan of Arc and Bulleteer, so I guessed it was unlikely because of the high points cost of what I was able to see.

In my first turn, my two SAS and Uxia advanced forward and basically moved up to 3 of the 8 objectives. I think I burned two Command Tokens on this. Then they all actives their objective and moved to defensive positions. My Link Team of Isobel and Volunteers followed suit and gathered around the objective nearest to me and also managed to activate it, so I had 4 in the first turn. My two Secondary Classified were Extreme Prejudice and Data Scan, but I wasn't in a position to do either. The rest of the orders I spent on McMurrough getting into middle of the board to help defend it and then I noticed my Scots Guard was near a fire line across the board into the enemy DZ where I could shoot Seraph. It was risky but I was in good odds since I was in camo and so far away so I believed I could wound it and if I was lucky, maybe even kill it. In the end I did only 1 Wound, but that was good enough. I don't think I actually killed anything.

Adam didn't have much orders so he wasn't able to push for the objectives yet but Joan of Arc went across my left flank and killed the Scots Guard (stupid shock ammo). Going on right flank he managed to kill McMurrough with Spitfire Order Sergeant but it took him two or three Orders. He also moved up his Seraph and Bulleteer close to middle of the board but behind buildings. My second turn turned out to be so crazy. First my Highlander who was advancing near the link team run up to the Bulleteer and managed to put it Unconscious with a chair rifle, but die in the process, which was well worth it. Then I needed the Seraph dead because it was starting down a line I wanted my Link Team to advance through. So one of my SAS did a FO and won the roll, which allowed me to shoot guided missiles. BUT he had two hackers and ECM on Seraph which meant I was shooting at 10 or 7. Took me five, FIVE, missiles before I actually hit the Seraph and then he only took 1 wound, so he was still alive. Only THEN I realized my HMG was on +9 to hit! (+3 for range, +3 for Link Team of five, +3 from Targeted) and the Seraph wasn't in cover (he wasn't touching the building in front of him). But it still took TEN HMG rounds to kill it. With that done and seven Orders burned, I was only able to advance the Link Team and secure a 5th objective.

I actually managed to reduce Adam's Order Pool a lot, the missile that did hit was a DA Blast which killed two or three troops around the Seraph, so he was at seven or eight orders. Joan of Arc kept advancing on flank and shoot at Uxia, who Smoke Dodged but then he run into CC through the Smoke and rolled better than me, so Uxia died sadly. He also run his Spitfire up onto a roof which was facing into the middle of the board and had a shoot off with my Cateran, but I lost and my sniper went unconscious. On the same side (right side of the board for me), his Fuselier killed my SAS and advanced on an objective I had, but failed WIP roll to take it. If I remember right Adam had 1 Objective at this point, the closest one to his DZ.

When my last turn came, I completely forgot I went first so my last turn wasn't end of the game. It was stupid but I was winning so I was excited. My 112 managed to heal my Cateran and he had two rounds of shooting against Joan, the first one he caused two wounds but she stayed alive on her No Wound Incap and the second round she won and I went Prone after failing my Guts Check. Wanting Joan dead, Isobel moved closer to her and then emptied T2 rifle clip into Joan which killed her, finally. My Volunteer Paramedic then run to get a 6th Objective and did a suicide run to Coup de Grace the Bulleteer (I was at my peek at this point at 8 Victory Points, in my previous turn I did successful Data Scan with Isobel). Then I made the biggest mistake of the game. I still had some Orders left and since I still thought the game would end at the end of my turn, I didn't want to risk models dying for no benefit. Isobel was close enough to kill the Fusilier that killed my SAS, she was literally just around the corner next to an objective, I would have been on B4 at BS12 against 1 ARO. But I didn't want to risk Isobel dying, so I just moved her into cover.

To my stupid surprise the game didn't end (I felt like an idiot), though at least Adam was in Loss of Lt, but not enough to put him into Retreat. Though he would have been if I killed that Fusilier! He had only one Command Token left so all he was able to do was take two objectives from me, one with the Fusilier and the other with an Engineer. I did kill him, but he still took the Objective. This made us equal with Objectives, we both had 4 but I did both of my Classified and he had none. So it was a close win and I managed to stay in the lead.

Game 3: Biotechvore - Caledonia vs PanOceania
Won 6 to 3

The last game was against PanO again, vanilla this time. The difference between my 1st place and his 2nd place after the second game was 13 army killed points, so we knew whomever won this game will likely win the tournament (unless the guys right behind us scored really well). Straight away that made the game tense and Biotechvore is not an easy mission to score high. Plus I used a list I never played before and it had 0 SWC points spent, so no HMG, sniper or missiles. Last time I played against this opponent, Matt, I won but that was a 150 pts game so this was a lot different and I knew he had lots of tough units, like Joan, Father Knight and Orc Trooper. I failed the Lt roll even with WIP 15 (I shouldn't be expecting any different at this point) and he decided to pick Deployment and I deployed first. I usually would prefer to go first but in this I wanted to make it harder for him to move, so I decided to go second and I used my Command Token so he could use only one Command Token in the first turn, so he either had to leave more people behind to the virus or not advance too much.

My deployment was very defensive and everything was hidden besides a Dozer with the glue-missile, which I thought would be funny to use in Biotechwore. Out of my three Infiltrators only my SAS passed the roll, Uxia and Volunteer had to deploy normally. Unfortunately the Dozer was shot at with Nisses and even with him out of cover, it was an easy kill for him. Everything else was out of sight so Matt just advanced almost everything to the middle of the board and left behind two Fusiliers, one with missile launcher and other had just a rifle I believe. Around the central crate he had Joan, Nisses, Father Knight, Paramedic, Orc Trooper and two more Fuseliers I think (or at least one). On each flank he advanced with Auxilia and their flame bot.

My first turn didn't go well at all, I was feeling bit desperate by the end of it. On the right flank I had my Cameronian and one Highlander advanced forward, I was able to Dodge Auxilia with Highlander and put down Smoke with Cameronian. My other two Highlanders (one in middle, one on left flank) also moved forward without problems. Then I think I screwed up the orders of how I used my troops, the Nisses was the only thing pinning down my left flank since he alone could see through Smoke, so I charged with Highlander and Cameronian. The Highlander Chain Rifled the Auxilia but killed only the bot, dying himself. The Cameronian jumped out of smoke into the middle and chain rifles six guys, but only some unimportant Fulisies took a wound and event unconscious, everyone else passed. Cameronian of course died. So it was up to my expensive Link Team of Wallace and four Wulvers (Heavy Shotgun, MK12 and 2x T2 Rifle) to take care of the Nisses. This really slowed me down, they couldn't move far and it took at least two rounds of shooting to put the Nisses unconscious. Then, I tried to advance between a building and a container but I didn't realize the missile launcher Fusilier had light of sight to it, so I was lucky it missed but the the whole link team was stuck in a cramped corner. Only other things I killed that turn were the second Auxilia and his bot that were in front of the Link Team. My last Command Token and Orders I had to spend on moving the rest of my army, so Uxia, Volunteer and 112 moved up. In the end only one Highlander and the 112 were affected by the virus. We both lost the units that didn't move out and I felt lucky that missile launcher did not survive. Though since one of my Classified was to heal with a Doctor, I was screwed. My second was FO HVT but the HVT was hidden well and my SAS wasn't in a position to see it without too many Orders.

So yeah, things weren't looking up in my eyes and I thought I was going to lose the first place. Only thing in my favour was that Matt was struggling for Orders, I am pretty sure he only started with 13 in total so I think he had around 8 in main group and then 1 in second group. His high rolling didn't work so well when his Orc Trooper was having a shoot-down with one Wulver who had T2 Rifle. He spent like three or four Orders and I won eventually, putting the Orc Trooper unconscious (gotta love T2 ammo). His Paramedic then healed the Nisses (to my annoyance). He also dropped in an AD unit on my left flank (behind the Wulvers but he couldn't see them). He spent couple of Orders trying to Data Scan but didn't succeed this turn. On the right flank his remaining Auxilia took out my Volunteer. Other than that he more or less just bunkered down more around the middle of the board.

I didn't realize it much at the time but things started to turn around in my second turn. First I tried to attack the center with the last Highlander and while he did chain rifle lots of people, they all passed their ARM roll and he died. Then Uxia tried something similar (she was behind the Highlander) but got herself killed too. This left me with only four Wulvers and SAS hidden on a roof. I was in a position next to a crate where I could see only one model in the center at the a time (the closer I moved to the edge, the more of the center I could see). This allowed me to pick out Father Knight and the Paramedic with T2 Rifle, it took forever though, he passed so many saves! At this point Matt was on very few Orders and only managed to get his second Classified and then kill one of the Wulvers. As it stood, he had only Joan, Nisses, AD trooper and Auxila left, and both of his Classified.

I had to kill two units to drop him below 75 points and I couldn't do any of my Classified, so I was counting on having more alive in the end, and doing more damage. With my last Orders, I have moved Heavy Shotgun Wulver to a corner to take a show at the AD Trooper, I was at 18 to hit and it is D15 weapon, so that took care of him. The next target was Nisses, I knew I couldn't kill Joan with one salvo and the Auxila was too far. I was able to sneak up on the Nisses from behind because he was facing my DZ but the tricky part was, if I didn't kill him in one round of shooting, I had only one Order left which might not been enough to move back out of his Virus zone (I had to go far into the board). Dice were with me though and the Mk12 took out the Nisses.

In the end, I wasn't sure how much I had left alive but it was 161pts in total which put me on 3 Victory Points, and then 3 more for having killed more. Matt had 2 from Classified and then 1 for having more Classified than me so it ended 6 - 3 to me. Which meant I was very likely going to win the tournament but the other games were still going and if they scored over 22 points that I had, I wouldn't win. So the next couple of minutes were as nerve-wracking as the game. But in the end the second highest was at 21 points so I won my first tournament!

My Winner Pack for 2015 ITS Season.

As a small note, how fucking cool it is that Corvus Belli staff are looking at our Infinity Facebook groups? Or at least Bostria is. I really like how connected they are to the community.

New N3 FAQ v1.0 - Affects on Caledonia

Sometime today (9th of December) Corvus Belli released new FAQ document for N3. It does clarify a lot of things which change some gameplay features. I will not go through the whole document (but you can find it here: http://infinitythegame.com/archive.php), instead I will pick out all of the things that will have some impact on Caledonia Highlander Army gameplay, in my opinion and from my own experience.

Not all of them will be about gameplay changes, some are just general useful things that might come up when playing Caledonia or against it.

Please let me know if I missed anything or if you see it differently! Cheers.

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In the reactive turn, when can you measure the Zone of  Control?
Immediately before declaring a Zone of Control ARO.
(Page 2, Basic Rules)

This is a very board one and applies to every army the same, but its good to know you can measure the ZoC before you declare AROs. It will avoid situations loosing an ARO by guessing the ZoC wrong.

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Is it obligatory to declare that the ARO is delayed when waiting for the second Skill when a troop in Camouflage or Impersonation State is activated?
Yes, it is obligatory.

(Page 2, Orders and Order Pool)

I don't see why people wouldn't say they are delaying ARO, but since Caledonia does have plenty Camo markers options, its good to remember just in case there is a discussion around it.

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Can a miniature throw a Smoke Grenade to protect another figure from an attack?
No. In a similar way to a Dodge, the Special Dodge provided by throwing a Smoke Grenade can only protect the throwing trooper. 
(Page 2, Combat)

I think we all been there when using Smoke for the first time, but here its in black and white you can only use Smoke Dodge for the Smoke Grenade carrier.

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Can you do Speculative Fire or Guided Attack from or into a sealed room? 
No you can’t, because there is no way to trace the trajectory of the Attack.
(Page 2, Combat)

Personally I think it is a bit silly that this needed clarification, but since Caledonia does have access to lots of Grenades that do have Speculative Fire (and other weapons with this trait), remember not to try shoot into a complete closed room.

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How does Speculative Fire interact with enemy troops in Targeted State? For example is the attack affected by Camouflage or Cover?
The Attack is performed without the -6 MOD for Speculative Fire and with a MOD of +3 for being against a troop in Targeted State. The negative MOD imposed for Camouflage, for example, do not apply to a Speculative Fire and the Cover ARM/BTS bonus also does not apply as it is an Attack with a Weapon Template.
(Page 2, Combat)

This is AWESOME, like it makes Forward Observing even more useful than it already is. The more I am discovering about FO, the more I think its brilliant. Only S.A.S. have FO in Caledonia, so at least one is almost a must-have for any competitive ITS list.Might as well remember to make use for it if your opponent has troublesome units bunkered down behind walls and such.

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Can you declare Discover + BS Attack to Discover a trooper but shoot at a different trooper?
Yes.
(Page 3, Combat)

This is also very general to any army with Camo (so all but Morats), but it sounds like something that will be useful to keep in mind and also be aware of it if your opponent will try to do it against your Camo markers.

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Can you split the Burst between several troops, when you declare Discover + BS Attack to discover a trooper and shoot at a different trooper?
Yes. Losing the shots at the target of the Discover if the Discover fails.
(Page 3, Combat)

Same as above, just keep it in mind. 

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What happens if a miniature with a 25 mm base moves inside a room with a Narrow Access receives a successful Engage attack from a model with a 40 mm base?
Both figures will end their movements inside the room, ignoring the Narrow Access.
(Page 3, Characteristics and Skills)

You know how Cameronians can't get inside some buildings? Well now they can if there is an enemy within 2" to Engage in your Reactive Turn. While it does sound little like exploiting, it can stop your opponent hiding troops in a doorway. Though I think most of the time it'll be easier just to chain rifle inside.

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How many D-Charges can be detonated at a time?
One per Order or ARO.
(Page 5, Special Skill)

I got very much used to detonating up to three D-Charges with a single Order/ARO, so this does make some things more Order intensive (like blowing up objectives) and will require some Order planning.

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Baggage can cancel the Unloaded state. Does this mean that the trooper gets one more use or reverts to their full capacity?
All weapons and pieces of Equipment with the Disposable Trait are replenished to their full capacity.
(Page 6, Equipment)

I never seen this being an issue but since Caledonia has Baggage units (like every other army) it is useful to keep in mind.

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When a group of troopers activate simultaneously (using a Coordinated Order or a Fireteam, for example), and they receive an ARO from a Template Weapon, does the attack affect all the troops that traverse the area of effect at any time during the Order, or does the Reactive Player have to declare the exact moment where he places the template, affecting only some of the targets?
The template affects all the troopers that get in contact with the area of effect during this Order, as everything happening during the Order is simultaneous.
(Page 7, Advanced Rules)

When you are playing Caledonia, there is a really good chance you have at least one Chain Rifle. This is useful to know and keep track of how the enemy moves his troops because you might be able to hit them all at some point during their movement even if they end up more spread out.

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Is possible to activate more than one objective Marker (Antennas, Console...) at the same time through a Coordinated Order?
No, because it is necessary to select the Marker as a target, and in the Coordinated Order the target has to be the same for all the participating troopers.
(Page 7, Advanced Rules)

This does changes a lot for me personally. Same as the question about detonating D-Charges, it will make some mission more Order intensive as I have often activated up to three different Objectives with two S.A.S. troops and Uxia. Its not a huge change, but it does mean you have to do things in a different order.

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How does the Targetless trait interact with Coordinated Orders or with increased Burst in reaction, for example when throwing Smoke Grenades is it necessary to target the same point?
Yes, in both cases.
(Page 7, Advanced Rules)

Doesn't happen often but few times I think I did use more than one Highlander and/or Cameronian to throw Smoke on their path. Just means only one of them can do it, or they have to target the same place.

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Does the Regular Order used for a Coordinated Order need to be from the same Combat Group as the coordinated troopers?
No.
(Page 7, Advanced Rules)

This surprised me a lot (and judging my Facebook reactions, lot of other people too). In essence it means you can spend up to 14 orders on the same trooper instead of 10 (15 if you count Lt Special Order). It certainly will make Order manager little bit easier and make it more appealing to have more troops in a second combat group. Plenty of times I found myself in situations where I had nothing useful to do with second combat group Orders but would been nice to have more for my first combat group.

I think it also somewhat negates the impact of loosing 2 Orders if you have the first turn and your opponent chooses to remove them. But it makes it more appealing to spend a Command Token to allow your opponent to use only one One Command Token if the First Turn. Since now people might use Coordinates Orders even more often.

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Can any trooper pass through a Narrow Gate in a Prone State?
Yes, because prone troopers have a Silhouette value of 0, so they fulfil the Requirements to pass through the Narrow Gate.

(Page 9, Scenery Structures)

Another way for a Cameronian (and McMurrough) to enter buildings, simply by going Prone. Keep in mind it doesn't make their base smaller, it stays at 40mm.

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With 3rd Ed rules, can the players apply the burst bonus provided by the Fireteams to any kind of attacks?
No, in 3rd Edition, players can only apply the Burst Bonus to Ballistic Attacks (Short Skill/ ARO).
(Page 9, Fireteams)

This threw me off at first because I thought it meant we'd lose +1B on Smoke Grenades, HOWEVER, throwing any Grenade is still a BS Attack, just uses PH instead of BS, so nothing changes.

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Overall I think the FAQ made certain things more Order intensive but also now you have potentially more orders to spend on one Combat Group so nothing major that would change how to play Caledonia. I am also happy Cameronians aren't always going to be stuck outside of buildings with small doors.

Phoenix Games Tournament: Yorkshire Strikes Back

In October three of us from Leeds traveled to Stourbridge for an event held in Phoenix Games store. Originally it was advertised as a tournament to help beginners and the plan was everyone would have 150pts army and play the games with a partner (so there would be 300pts on each side). Funnily enough the beginners didn't show up and since there were three of them and three of us, we decided to make it Leeds vs Stourbridge. We played three games, all against a different person so everyone played everyone from the opposing "team".

It was challenging because we all wrote lists counting on being paired up but then had to use them on their own, but it was still a good laugh and I actually enjoyed playing something so different. The games also went lot quicker, beside the last one I played because I was playing mainly camo-Caledonia and my opponent was Shasvastii so it was just camo markers everywhere! Gave us both headaches.

This time they are doing a 12-players tournament with 300pts (no spec-ops) armies. Its not really ITS event because they are using non-ITS mission and some in-house additions to the missions. The missions will be:

1. Highly Classified
2. Master Key (from the USAriadna booklet)
3. Biotechvore

So far we have only practiced Highly Classified mission but I am fairly confident the same list will work for Master Key mission. It seems to be about activating objectives on buildings, there are four building in the middle with two objectives each and you get one point for each objective, plus two Classified worth one point each. There is an exclusion zone which will make it harder for my Infiltrating Specialists. Even the deployment zone is only 8".

I have tweaked my Objectives list from NO3 and so far it worked very well, the biggest change is that I went from 14 models to 19. I will do a proper breakdown of it after the event.

My second list is pretty much going to be for Biotechvore which is a nasty mission because if you don't keep moving, you are likely to die. Sectorial do have certain advantage though. I think I will use the same tactics I did long time ago in Northern Open 2, basically have two groups of units that can link and move one out, then make a new Link Team, move out the other. Having bunch of Impetuous troops will also help since they get an extra Order to use.

Next five days will be all about painting and practicing, after that I can take a short break from tournaments.

Recon 2015

Today I have attended another war-gaming event to spread the good word of Infinity the Game. This one was called Recon 2015 and was in Pudsey Civic Hall in Leeds. It was a quite nice venue and they had large free car park, which was a nice plus. We had a table to demo games on a podium and quite few people came over, I think we did six or seven quick demo games. Everyone enjoyed it and I think we managed to successfully convert some people. It was full of traders too but I didn't have cash on me so only ended up buying spray paints for my terrain. But I was surprised in a good way that some traders started to bring card readers.

The day gave me few idea of how to improve the display next time:

- Play a game, and let people observe and participate if they want to. So far we only set up a board and then had minis around, some of which were for short demo games but most people were happy to just look around and talk to use. Plus having a game to play will make the time go faster and make it more interesting for the people walking around.

- Print outs / business cards, I was actually thinking about doing some after last time but forgot. It would have been helpful to give people something so they can remember Infinity when they get home and all the links to FB groups, CB website and such. 

- Bigger banner, I had Operation Icestorm poster to display but I would really like to get a big banner to make us stand out.

- Bring Icestorm, we talk about it a lot and I always highly recommend it as a great starting box and it was useful to have it for show on FIASCO but I don't have one myself, which I should remedy for next year.

I think I will try poke CB if they have some promotional materials and some UK webstores if they could do like a 5% discount on first Infinity purchase or something.


I also remembered to take few more pictures! Our table on the podium:

Our table set up:

The miniatures we had on display:

I found a first trader with Infinity for sale in person! Can't remember their name though.

We did demos with Morats and PanO, Kurgat with Auto-cannon proved very effective and popular.

The Auto-canon never worked so well in my games as it did during demos!

Caledonian Volunteers set up around the table (we had Caledonia vs JSA set up for second demo game if needed):