Pride of Rodina Interview

The Pride of Rodina blog has a really cool series of articles about players of Infinity. I think it is quite neat idea as it shows all the diversity we have in our hobby. I was lucky enough to get my own interview which you can find here.

USARF "Speed Painting", Part 3

Considering my pace of painting the miniatures is far from fast I should change the name of these articles, but I am committed to consistency! This "third step" was not part of my initial plan, it came out of necessity to get some of my USARF models done to the very basic tournament standard to look decent on the table from distance. 

I was very undecided what to do with the bases. First I wanted to make them match my Caledonia so I could use them all as a vanilla force and they would have the same bases, but then decided to go with a very simple desert bases instead. Mainly because I didn't have much time to paint them before the Northern Open 8. I will be adding some more terrain to the bases so they are less flat but I am happy with the colour, I think it goes well with the green.

Which is another thing I am undecided on. I still haven't figured out how to break apart the green, it feels like it is too much. After I am done with all the other colours, I think I will do some subtle camouflage on trousers and perhaps other cloth too, just so the only flat green are armour panels.  Though I will admit that when I played with them it didn't look as bad, that they are all mainly green.

As you can see from the photos, the miniatures are still very much work in progress and in the pre-washes stage. I would like to get all the base colours done before doing the washes for shadows and then highlights. That should very much improve on how the minis will look. I only had time to do some of the other colours, like metallic silver and flesh, which is why you don't see many browns or grey yet, and why everyone's hair are still green.

Before the tournament I have also picked up a new unit to proxy for Traktor Muls as I wanted something different for my USARF. These models are from Anvil Industry game Afterlife, they are called Unity Council Bastion Support Platforms. Their website sells them with more weapon options but I bought them on a wargaming show and they only had the missile launchers. I have also found on their website unit called Republic Taurus Gun Tractors Mk.II, which looks closer to the Traktor Muls so I might get those instead later. 

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.

Northern Open 8 - Making USARF great again

The first Northern Open of 2017 felt like a weed infestation with all the Tohaa players we had! It was crazy, I never seen so many. And hope I never will again. We also had few new people come to Leeds, which is always great to see, some of them came all the way from Scotland. Hopefully we get to see them again next time.

For this tournament I decided to take my USARF because I haven't played them in a while and it was a good reason to get them bit more painted. I wrote a 20 man list which was mostly focused around Grunts and Specialists because all of the missions were objective based. I think the list was good but I really wish I practiced with it because throughout my games I definitely felt I could have been using my units better. It just played so differently to my other armies.

I did win my first two games, the second purely by luck if I am honest. If I scored higher in my second game I could have done better overall but as I wasn't used to the army I failed to press the advantage I had after first turn.

I came 9th out of 22, but everyone else in our group did better. The winner was Matt, one of the Leeds locals with his Tohaa. I can't say for sure but I don't think we had any consecutive winners yet, which I think shows that anyone who plays well has a chance to win Infinity tournaments. I don't know if its the same in every Infinity scene but here we do seem to have a good mix of players.

Army List

List A

I did have two lists for this but they were virtually the same and I only used this one. The only difference in List B was changing The Unknown Ranger for Van Zant. I feel like this lists deserves a separate article to explain it so that will come soon! 

Game 1:  Cold Sleep - USA Ranger Force vs Neoterran Capitaline Army

Won 7 to 2 (3 TPs)

My first opponent was Dom, someone I never played before and he said this was his first tournament (if I am remembering it right). He played NeoTerra which I am used to play against thanks to Tim so at least I felt confident about knowing what is on the table. Dom surprised me with two OOD Remotes, but both had shotguns. Otherwise I can remember two flamer bots with Auxiliers, Fireteam of Fusiliers and Aquila Guard. The table we played on was interesting for this mission as most objectives were in the open with only one side having slight advantage in the objective placement. I think Dom won the Lt roll and chose deployment and I chose to go second.

In my deployment I failed all thee rolls for Inferior Infiltration for Grunts with Heavy Flamers, which wasn't a good start but thanks to having the highest vantage point on my side I was able to deploy both of my Snipers on a good spot to look over the board. There was only one objective Dom was able to get to with his Fusiliers, Bipandra among them, without being shot at. To make way he used the Aquila Guard to take on my Grunt Fireteam. The firefight took much longer than it should have in theory and my Grunts came out on top in the end, I got lucky with Crit roll and Dom failed a regular ARM save too.

I spent most of my first turn getting the two objectives closest to my deployment zone, Paramedic Marauder on the right and Unknown Ranger (Chain of Command) on the left. I did try to take out some of the Fusiliers, I think I killed one of them but managed to get a Foxtrot and a Hardcase killed.

Dom went on to press for objectives with his Fusiliers. With some careful maneuvering he was able to take on my snipers one at a time, killing one of them with a missile launcher. The second sniper prevailed though and kept his other units pinned down. Dom was struggling to get to the second objective near his deployment zone.

In my second turn I have put my Fireteam back to five Grunts (I had six in the same Group in case one dies). Then I have sent four Specialists to an objective in the middle zone on the right. It was less protected but my problem was I knew Dom had chose to use his Classified to deny me a Specialists instead so I had to get two Specialists base to base with the objective. I was trying to kill his Diva in the process which I knew was his Lt but she just wouldn't die. Every AMR Save was a pass. I did however managed to get one Marauder Paramedic base to base.

In his last turn Dom went on to securing an objective in the middle on the right. He tried to also move up his REMs with OOD but I had plenty of AROs to take them out as they moved in the open. Once units got to the middle of the board there were long diagonal fire lanes. He did manage to secure the objective with the Fusiliers though and placed the surviving ones on ARO positions, making it hard for me to get there.

Which made my last turn difficult. I still had to secure the objective on middle left with a second Specialist, which would give me minor victory as a I had more of the objectives near deployment zones. To get more Objective Points I had to kill the Specialist Dom had base to base with an objective as I used my Classified as normal to get 1 Objective Point (I went with Secure HVT). I was able to get another Specialists to join the Paramedic by running through Dom's AROs and surviving. With that done I used The Unknown Ranger to go kill Dom's Specialist. But Bipandra, who was standing in the open next to me was causing problems as the Ranger was already on No Wound Incap so one more failed ARM save and I'd be dead.

We were close so I was able to outshoot her with Heavy Pistol while moving back but she just wouldn't die. I even used HMG Grunt to unload into her with Burst 5 and she still lived! In the end she did die but it left me with only two Orders to kill the Specialist that mattered. Which thankfully proved much easier and the Unknown Ranger got the kill. The swing in points in the end was big because I controlled more objectives with Specialist and more activated, which doesn't show how close the game was.

Game 2: Antenna Field - USA Ranger Force vs Tohaa

Won 6 to 4 (2 TPs)

With the second round I did not feel confident at all, I was put against Matt and to make it worse he was playing Tohaa (a different Matt with Tohaa than the tournament winner). On tournaments I think he always beat me when we played. My plan was to at least score some points so I don't walk away with nothing. On the board we had all of the objectives ended up in the open which did not make it easy as we had to be base-to-base with them end of each round. Which is where I think Tohaa have the advantage with their extra Wounds. I lost the Lt roll again and Matt decided to go second, as most people would in this kind of mission to have the last turn advantage.

I have again failed all three rolls for Grunts with Heavy Flamers which made it rather difficult to deal with two Snipers in a Triad that Matt deployed on a roof to protect all objectives. There was a path I could have attacked them one by one with my Foxtrot but I did not see it (only found out after the game) so my plan was to use my Fireteam of Grunts to take care of them. This was where my luck turned insane. My HMG Grunt put full 5 Burst into one Sniper, giving the other one free shots. I managed to score a Crit and enough hits to kill one Sniper (he couldn't use the Simbio-mate to negate Hits as I had Crit. After I wrote this article we realized the rule actually states the mate can still be used to negate the other hits, but the crit would go through as normal).

My Grunt then survived the free shots and proceeded to kill the second Sniper also. With them gone I was baffled on what to do next because I just did not expect it. I don't think I killed anything else since Matt was hiding the other troops, so I positioned Specialists around objective near my deployment zone and then on the left side.

Matt was surprised as much as I was with how the tables turned and tried to get rid of my HMG Grunt, but he just wouldn't die. No matter what he threw against it, I kept winning or surviving and passing Guts Checks. It was kind of crazy. Matt tried to kill some of my Specialists with Tohaa Beasts but judged the distance wrong and the template was about half an inch short of all my guys, so I was able to kill the beasts and then survived the hits from it too (and if I didn't, I'd still have someone base to base). Matt couldn't move any of his units to the objectives so I won the first round.

As I mentioned earlier, this is where I made quite the mistake. I had more or less free reign on the board but only managed to take one more objective instead of pushing for all five, which I could have done. Thanks to my HMG pinning Matt's units, he was forced to leave a Triad behind a building in a line, which allowed my Hardcase with Light Shotgun to take them out easily. Paramedic Marauder with Heavy Flamer then finished them off. After that I still had Orders to push for more but I didn't, it was a mix off not knowing my army well enough and also the game so far seemed pretty demoralizing for Matt so I thought he couldn't back from it (stupid assumption to make!).

That said, Matt's second round did not go much better than his first. My Fireteam still dominated but he was able to inflict some casualties on units holding objective on the left, I had The Unknown Ranger there, Foxtrot and Engineer (I think, might have been second Paramedic Marauder), everyone but the Ranger died either way. I think Matt was using his second turn to get ready for the last turn, which I did not see, but I did win the second round.

I decided bit too late to move my Grunt Fireteam out of a building and get them towards an objective. Unfortunately I did not have enough Orders because they had to first get down from the building and then they are only 4-2 MOV so not the fastest. I had to leave them in the Open but at least they still had lines of fire to objectives. Everyone else who could went on Suppressive Fire to stop Matt from taking any objectives from me.

In the last turn Matt proved he could back from the massacre that was going on. I only held three objectives so his plan was to kill off units from two of them, leaving me with one and then take two himself, which almost happened. With my Fireteam on the ground, Matt was able to move base to base with an objective at his deployment zone. His first attack then didn't work out as The Unknown Ranger survived. That, however, did not stop him from attacking the center. Using a unit with Eclipse Smoke Grenades he made a path to the middle and then was able to kill my Marauder in CC, bypassing all the AROs I had ready if he tried to go in the middle. We both did our Classified before end of the game.

 In the last turn we both had two objectives, giving us 1 points each, Matt got 2 more for holding the central objective at the end of the game and then got 1 for Classified. If he managed to kill The Unknown Ranger he could have make us Draw by having 2 points for holding more objectives which would give him 5 in total, same as me without getting 1 point in the last round. This really showed me that if you keep your head in the game it is possible to come back from almost anything, even if just to minimize the loss.

Game 3:  Supplies - USA Ranger Force vs Imperial Service

Lost 0 to 8 (0 TPs)

 My last opponent, Ben, was also new to me and since locally nobody plays IS regularly I wasn't sure what to expect. Though I was expecting to see three Total Reaction REMs. The table was interesting in the sense that the objectives were on equal ground, more or less. One was in the open and then each side had an objective hidden from the other size. The unfortunate thing was no good high ground on either side. I won the Lt roll and decided to take the size which had better deployment options (I thought so) but in hindsight I wish I went first instead. I could have utilized my army lot better in this mission.

After Ben deployed I was surprised he did not seem to have much. He only had two Total Reaction REMs and then a Fireteam of Celestial Guard, Dire Foes Character (Xi Zhuang) and Crane with X-visor and Sensor (plus some throw away units and Engineer). I deployed my Fireteam of Grunts in such a way to block the flank where Ben's Fireteam was. Which limited my lines of fire a lot, so might have not been a best idea. I also managed to pass infiltration with one Grunt with Heavy Flamer, finally, but the other two failed.

Ben didn't do much in his first turn, he felt it would take too many Orders to change the route for his Fireteam so decided to take my Grunts head on after killing my Grunt with Heavy Flamer near his Fireteam. But the fight between full Fireteams did not go well for either of us, though it did go in Ben's favour. The Crane had enough ARM to take all the hits I scored and my Grunts did too. I think only one Sniper went unconscious, or maybe both. Otherwise Ben only moved his REMs around a bit so I couldn't flank his Fireteam.

Which I tried to do anyway, his Fireteam was left in a line, a great juicy target for shoguns and flamers but my Hardcase got himself immobilized by MadTrap without killing a Total Reaction REM which then blocked path for my Marauder. I then used my 112 to heal the Snipers, one of them came back, allowing me to go back to a full Fireteam (again I had sixth Grunt nearby for this reason). I used my HMG to attack the Crane with Burst 5 but rolled really bad, getting myself killed and doing no damage. Since I couldn't kill anything I went on to moving units into defensive positions to make it hard for Ben to get to the objectives.

Which somehow worked. I had Marauder in cover on Suppressive Fire and Ben spent at least 7 Orders trying to kill him with the Crane in full Fireteam, and failing. I had three dice, looking for 9 (-3 for Cover, 0 for Range) while Ben had four dice and needed 13 (+3 for Fireteam, +3 Range, -3 Cover and -3 Suppressive Fire). After all those Orders he brought in an AD trooper to deal with the Marauder. My bad luck continued as I had a free shot at the AD unit but failed it. Overall though, it caused Ben to kinda waste his second turn as he didn't do any of the mission objectives.

The problem we faced now was that we played slow and were running out of time. We decided to finish my turn and see how much time we had left, so I made the mistake of rushing. I played it like I would play my last turn, just getting as many objectives without much through for the next turn. I did get two objectives. One with Foxtrot in the middle and Unknown Ranger on the right. I also managed to get a good shot with 112 and his Shotgun, I noticed there was a window I could use to hit them all if I shot the front person.

If we ended the game on time I would have won but we decided to continue which allowed Ben to kill my units with the objectives and grabbing two for himself. He killed the Ranger with a REM that had Spitfire, and then Ninja took the objective on the ground. His Fireteam took an objective on the left and he killed my Foxtrot who put mines all around himself as AROs to prevent Ben from taking the objective, he'd have to risk getting his units killed or waste Orders shooting the mines. In my last turn I was able to kill the person in Ben's Fireteam that held the objective but I had nothing to get to the Ninja, plus my Classified were to Engineer a REM and Ben's HVT, which I failed to do. Ben managed to get both of his.

 So in the end I lost pretty bad. I think the lesson from this game is to decide with your opponent on what to do when you are nearing the end of the time limit. From my experience it happens quite often the games only last two rounds. It is okay to go over if TOs allow it but don't make the mistake of rushing your turn like I did. Its hard to say how it would have played out but I could have used my second turn to put units on Suppressive Fire and try to stop Ben getting to the objectives and then in my last turn all I would have to do is run to them and pass the WIP rolls. I would also say we both made the mistake of ignoring the mission until the last turn, very bad idea. It was a fun game though, good learning experience if nothing else.

The Art of Losing

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

Why play Caledonia?

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

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

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

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

Strengths 

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

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

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

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

Weaknesses

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

 

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

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

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

TTCombat Objective Room Review

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

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

Clean up and assembly

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

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

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

Practicality on table

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

They said I could be anything...

... so I became a HVT!

This happened before the last Norther Open, the 7th, I just forgot to write about it sooner. One of the sponsors for the tournament, Arts of War Studios, made us HVT (or civilian) tokens in likeness of the Northern Open HQ Members.

From left to right on the picture above its Ed, Colin, myself and Matt. Arron who does lots of the organizing was unable to take a picture of himself before the deadline so sadly he didn't get a token. I thought it was a great idea and sent them a photo in my Caledonian outfit. In my opinion they captured it quite well and even gave my token a beard feature!

The tokens are super cool and good quality. I can only recommend to buy tokens from the Arts of War Studios. They do have a range for Infinity and other games too.

You'll have a chance to play with them if you come down to any future Northern Open event. We don't let people keep them but they are offered as token for the games. During NO7 I of course always used myself as the HVT.

How to Alpha Strike

If you have read my other articles, especially the battle reports from tournaments, you might have noticed the term "Alpha Strike" before. I think I did go into it briefly at some point but I thought it would be a good idea to explain it in bit more details and give my take on it. I don't believe the term is anything new in Infinity but to me it is still relatively new (as I am witting this) because I haven't really thought about it until one of my mates brought it up earlier this year. The premise of this tactic (or strategy, whatever you want to call it) is actually quite simple, it is about maximizing the damage done to your opponent in the very first turn of the game. As you can imagine though, pulling it off can be tricky.

In this article I will go through a general overview and then how to utilize it in Caledonian Highlander Army. You do need specific tools to be able to do this, at least the way I do it.

How does Alpha Strike help you?

Going to any ITS event you will quickly learn that in many ITS missions it is beneficial to go second. It gives you that last turn before the game ends to take the board zones or activate objectives, and the same goes for end-of-turn objectives. Which means that in general people will likely select Initiative and go second if they win the Lieutenant Roll before the game starts. So if you also based your plan for a mission on going second, you will be at a disadvantage which is not where you want to be on tournaments. To maximize your chance of winning, you should also have a plan for going first. This is were Alpha Strike comes in.

In your first turn, the very first turn of the game, you hit your opponent hard and cripple their army. In the best case scenario you want to take out their Lt, special weapons and some line troops. Against most armies, if you take out 5-6 troops in the first turn, you pretty much half their Order pool and make it really hard for them to retaliate. However, even if you pull it off do not get overconfident, Infinity is a game where the tables can turn very quickly.

Yes, you do need to be very aggressive, so its worth while practicing this and finding the units that will help you do this effectively. Which will be different from faction to faction. I will explain the units I use in Caledonia later on but every faction in the game can do this, though some do have it easier than others.  

Identifying the enemy Lieutenant

Generally speaking, it is always good to take out the enemy Lt if you can but it becomes even more important if you want a successful Alpha Strike. There are of course exceptions to the rule. Do not bother if your opponent is playing Morats since they do not care about Loss of Lt, and make sure to also take out Chain of Command units if there are any on the board, otherwise killing the Lt will not have the effect you want.

Most of you are probably thinking that taking out enemy Lt isn't as easy as I make it sound but honestly, I also thought it would be really hard but in most games I can guess who the Lt is. It is, however, very important you talk with your opponent during deployment and preferably, they gave you a courtesy list. In the perfect world, you'd want to be familiar with your opponent's faction which will make it easier to guess the Lt. But if you are new to the game or just not bothered about learning all the factions, there are few tips that can help you (they often helped me).

It is pretty much a process of elimination. First, disregard all the Specialists like Doctors, Paramedics, Engineers, Hackers and Forward Observers (there are only very few units in the game that can be Specialists and Lt, such as Nomad Tunguska Interventors). The way I see it, those units will be busy doing objectives and so your opponent won't want to risk them being the Lt. Same also goes for the next group to disregard. The special weapon units that have Missile Launchers, Sniper Rifles and HMGs, etc. You can also count things like Spitfire and Molotok. There are plenty of units in the game that can be Lt and have these weapons but more often than not, those will be out there for AROs and/or attack, which again, most people won't want to risk them as the Lt.

It is also rare for Remotes and Camo Markers to be Lts, so most of the time you can disregard those also. As you might have guessed, this will mostly leave you with troops that have basic equipment for their unit. Often it will be the faction's Line Troops. If your opponent is smart, they will have more than one Line Troops as the possible Lt, in which case I go for the one which is the hardest to kill as most people hide their Lts as much as they can. Usually those will be on high places like roofs or at the very back of the board, probably prone behind some cover. If you can, it is best to just kill all the basic Line Troopers to be sure.

Please do keep in mind the process of elimination is a guide line only. Some people do see the benefit of having Specialist or Special Weapon Lts. However, that can also help you identity the Lt. In many cases where a unit has option for Lt, they have a specific set of equipment. For example, in Caledonia Scots Guard unit the only Lieutenant option is armed with AP Marksman Rifle. The other two profiles with the same weapon are either Camouflaged (CH) or have Forward Observer skill. Which are both open information, so if you see Scot Guard with AP Marksman Rifle and he is not a Specialist and he doesn't have CH, he is the Lt. The same goes for majority of units that have Lt options.

This also applies to Chain of Command units. I don't know all of the units that have the CoC option but I do believe most of them have specific equipment. For example, Unknown Ranger with CoC has a Rifle, while the other weapon option does not.

I won't guarantee this will work every time, even I guess it wrong from time to time, but in most games it worked for me so far. To be honest, many people I play still tend to only have one Lt option on the board, I am guessing because they don't expect you to be able to kill the Lt so quick. It becomes easier the more you are familiar with different factions and what their Lt options are.

Lastly, never don't forget there is nothing wrong to ask your opponent "What are your Lt options on the board?". It is something you should go through during or after your deployment anyway, in my opinion at least. Experienced people will likely know anyhow and it is unfair disadvantage if you are playing against someone new.

Taking out heavy (special) weapons

This is easier to do than the previous point because unless your opponent has Hidden Deployment, Camouflage or Airborne Deployment units, you will see where their heavy weapons are. Personally I think this is secondary to taking out the enemy Lt but argument could be made it will help you more as in later turns you won't have these weapons to worry about. By heavy weapons I do mean any kind of unit that is either a big threat as ARO or is your opponent's attack unit. Basically anything with Sniper Rifle, HMGs and other long range and/or high burst weapons.

You will be doing this anyway in most games but it should be part of your Alpha Strike strategy when building an army. I would simply recommend to have a good mix of heavy weapons of our own and a plan on how to take out your opponent's heavy units.

By that I mean, if your opponent deploys a Total Reaction Remote with HMG, how will you take it out? What about a TAG? or Achilles? or enemy Snipers with Camo? The list could go on but you get the idea. This point could really be just part of general effective army building but if you plan to do Alpha Strike, try to select units that can do what you need them to do in the least amount of Orders because you can't afford to waste many even in Ariadna if you want this to work.

You wont be able to always take out all the heavy weapons so it might be worth prioritizing.  It might be obvious but for example, a Line Trooper with HMG is not the same threat as a HI elite unit with HMG. That said though, if you don't feel confident (or just can't for whatever reason) attacking elite units, you can just take out all the cheap units and deny Orders.

Order management and Order groups

This is another thing that becomes even more important for Alpha Strike. As I mentioned before, you want to do everything in the least amount of Orders possible and these days you truly do have maximum of 10 Orders to spend on a trooper (unless its the Lt, then you get up to 11). As you make your list you have to decide which units need Orders and which ones supply them. On top of that you gotta decide how many Orders does each unit important to the Alpha Strike will need. Do keep in mind most of the time one of your pools will be 2 Orders short because your opponent can deny them with a Command Token before your first turn.

I like to organize my Order pools according to the type of attack. My first and usually bigger Order pool has my Infiltrators and heavy hitter unit or Fireteam. The second pool is usually made out of my fast and cheap units like Highlanders and Cameronians. As such during the game I can spend the Orders individually without worrying someone else will need them. I am hoping this is making some kind of sense, finding it bit hard to describe.

The point I am trying to make, if you lump all your attack units into the same Order Group they will both be fighting over the same Orders and you might find yourself short to use both units enough.

During deployment and the first turn take bit more time to think about how your units will move, always try to find the shortest possible route.

Post-Alpha Stike

Now lets assume that you have pulled it off, enemy Lt is dead, they are short on Orders and have less heavy weapons. The best advise I can give for this post-Alhga Strike phase is: HIDE YOUR UNITS.

I kept making this mistake often before, thinking that because my opponent can't spend many Orders per unit he can't do much damage. Wrong. Even if they spend one Order per unit they can still Move and Shoot. So why let them? If you hide your units they either have to waste Command Tokens to make Regular Orders to go chase with one unit, or the most they can do is just move all of their units with one Order. Generally it should be hard for your opponent to kill something of yours if they can't see your units with one Order.

Of course keep your ARO units up and don't give them completely free board movement but from my experience you can afford to hide more for their first turn. In the second and third turn you really ought to focus on whatever the objective of the mission is. You should have easier time doing it after successful Alpha Strike, or just mopping up your opponent's army.

Don't over do it

Just a quick point this. As much as I love using this tactic I have noticed that it is making my game worse if I don't have the first turn initiative because I am not really ready for having the second turn. So I would recommend to plan for both scenarios.

Caledonia units for Alpha Strike

In my opinion the key unit to a successful Alpha Strike is Uxia McNeill. She is arguably one of the best, if not the best, assassins in the game. With Superior Infiltration and 2 Assault Pistols she can get where she needs to be really fast and then unleash Burst 5 Dmg 13 weapons. Yes, for this strategy you should have the Cover Action profile. What I found best with Uxia is to keep her as my reserve and then she can deploy where she needs to be in response to how my opponent deployed. With PH 16 roll for Infiltration I do often take the risk of going over the half point but you don't have to. Sometime its better to just spend Orders for her to run across the other half of the board.

Having additional SAS Infiltrators is also not a bad idea. I often like two have two SAS and Uxia. The SAS can Infiltrate over the half line at PH 10, which is not bad. If you really need to Infiltrate somewhere, the more units you have to try with the better the chance of success (thats how I see it at least). The Infiltrators are the best unit for taking out Lt as they can get to them faster than other Caledonia units and if they survive the assassination, they can kill more stuff in the enemy back line.

Do keep in mind both Uxia and SAS are good in CC. As Camo Infiltrators they do have easier time getting base to base. With Surprise Shot the enemy gets -3 but with Surprise Attack (in CC) they get -6 and then you can give them additional -3 from Martial Arts, which means the enemy is at -9 to whatever they do and you are at base CC 19 or 21. Sounds like better odds in your favour, don't it? Both Uxia and CC have CC Weapons so their base Dmg is 13, just like a Rifle Dmg so you are not loosing out in that regard. 

I would also like to mention the Shotguns, Light or Boarding, they both have blast option. If your opponent deployed his units behind each another, the risk of rolling on Infiltration roll will have a high reward if you pass it in that case. Uxia always has a Boarding Shotgun and SAS have option for them too. 

Another unit I see necessary are Highlanders and Cameronians. They are cheap, fast and have Chain Rifles. Which is a really good combination. More importantly Highlanders have Berserk. This means they can go into combat with CC 27 as an unopposed roll, that is a Crit on 13+. With only 6pts per model, they are excellent to charge into more expensive units and kill them or just hit groups with Chain Rifle. Cameronians don't have Berserk but they are faster, tougher and come with 2 Chains Rifles. Both of these units make excellent shock troops to charge down a flank and cause havoc. I like to use them to hunt down cheap Line Troops to deny Orders and later in the game charge into more expensive units and kill them in CC. Most importantly they both have Smoke Grenades which can help your other units to move across the board quickly.

You will also need a Cateran with T2 Sniper Rifle. They are the best unit at taking out things like Total Reaction Remotes. If you deploy them right and shoot at TR Rem from over 32", they will be at -12 and you hit them for free. At least for the first shot when you go out of Camo. Caterans are just really good snipers overall and with T2 they are deadly to enemy Heavy Infantry with 2 Wounds. With Climbing Plus you can also get them to places to get unexpected angles for shooting. As any Sniper, they are just good at taking out exposed enemy units without wasting too many Orders moving around.

After this is depends on your play style and which units you like using as your heavy hitter. I either use Scots Guard or Wulver Fireteam (it usually depends on the mission type). The Scots I find great for taking out enemy units at range with Missile Launcher or Molotok. In a full Fireteam they usually shoot at BS15 and Molotok can get up to Burst 5. Missile Launcher is great at shooting from long range as it can out-shoot most weapons, and against Snipers you'll often have extra Burst advantage and higher BS.

Wulvers I love to use when I want to get into my opponent's face really quick and hit hard. When I do it right I spend just about all Orders on them but they are fast enough to get into enemy Deployment Zone and do a lot of damage with a Heavy Shotgun (like with the Infiltrators mentioned earlier). Especially if my opponent deploys a heavy Fireteam of his own, I'll go after them and hit them before they can hit me. In my experience most people don't expect this. Sometime its worth even just sacrificing the Heavy Shotgun on its own to get a nice amount of hits into a group of enemies. I will have separate article on the Wulver Fireteam, coming soon!

Examples in action

For new readers, or if you just want to have a read of old battle reports, here are some games where I remember using Alpha Strike:

Harlequins - Game 2 and Game 3
Warzone Summer Smackdown - all three games
Northern Open 5 - Game 1
UK Masters - Day 1 - Game 1

Conclusion

The units above are just the units I use the most and I am sure you can find a different way of doing the Alpha Strike. The trick is to find the units you are comfortable using aggressively and can get advantage over your opponent units, be it in CC or out-shooting them. Thankfully Caledonia has plenty of aggressive hard hitting units to pick from, all you need to do is practice and find their utility that works for you.

When I started doing this I was worried about being so aggressive but it has paid off in many games and when it works the look of despair on your opponents face is priceless! So don't be shy and go attack!

Infinity Winter Soldiers

 

The long awaited Winter Soldiers event finally came the other weekend. It lived up to its name as the venue was right cold when we got there! But it was a fun day nevertheless. Our mates managed to get last minute tickets so most of our group traveled and I think it was the first time we managed to get 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for Leeds. Unfortunately, I was not in one of those top places, I was somewhere near the bottom.

To my defense I took my Japanese Sectorial Army and my army list is pretty bad, its just made of the only 13 JSA models I have. But they are fully painted and quite nice, so I wanted to take them to an event for a long time now. If nothing else it allowed me to just have fun with the games, which I enjoyed.

This event stood out because it had massive price support. Like they filled two long tables with just stuff to give out, everything from box sets to t-shirts to painting accessories, it was pretty cool and everyone walked away with something. Maybe for the next event I'll try harder to win something good.

My Army

I only had this one list. Everything in the photo below was in it, plus a WarCor. The Hakamari were with Light Shotguns, Kempei had Boarding Shotgun and my three Line Troops with Combi-Rifles were Medic, Hacker and Forward Observer.

Game 1: Frontline - JSA vs The Neoterran Angels

Won 6 to 3 (2 TPs)

You could say it was fate that I was matched against Tim in the first round. Tis was time to reclaim my honour. It was an epic battle of wits and skill, and I, Pete the Destroyer, have won the day! ... okay I might have exaggerated a little. I actually won by accident. Here is how it really went down:

I won the roll in this game and decided to go first. I knew the army I was playing wasn't that good so I thought my best course of action would be to use my super ninjas to cut down as much of Tim's force as possible. I actually did not realize how crazy open the table was on one side, like I should have got down to check on ground level because it didn't look that way from top view. At any case, Tim chose the side with the better ARO positions. Since we were playing Frontline I deployed my army in a way that I thought would help me to get into defensible positions outside of my Deployment Zone (DZ).

After Tim deployed, I figured who the Lt was quite easy because it was the only option on the board. He deployed the Fusilier behind a building and on each corner had another unit, which I meant to take advantage of. I deployed my Oniwaban in Hidden Deployed just outside of Tim's DZ, near the building. Fortunately he passed his Infiltration roll too. So that was how my first turn started. I moved him as TO marker to the building, he was discovered by Aquila Guard but ended his movement outside of everyone's LoF so went back to TO marker state before moving out to shoot a Doctor with a Boarding Shotgun. The blast also hit the Lt, who was the main target.

It worked, Tim failed all Dodge and ARM saves on both units. The Oniwaban also took a shot at Auxilier, but I think I only killed his Flamer REM. The rest of the turn didn't go as well. Tim had me locked down in my DZ with two Total Reaction HMG REMs, Aquila Guard with HMG and also Hexa sniper that appeared later. I tried to use one of my Missile Launchers to take some of them out but it didn't work. Both of my Fireteams were unable to move.

Since Tim was in Loss of Lt, he just spent his whole turn killing my Oniwaban with the Aquila Guard (after spending all his remaining Command Tokens to make Regular Orders) and then moving back to the same place. I think he might have reveal some of his other TO tokens but not much else happened since all my stuff were hidden.

My second turn was pretty uneventful. My two remaining Haramaki just cancelled their own Extreme Impetuous Orders and my other Fireteam, still on 5-men, tried to attack the Hexa but failed. So I focused on my Domaru instead. He walked into the building in front of him, getting shot by TR HMG REMs and other AROs but Dodging them all, like a boss. He then spent remaining Orders on taking shots at Tim's second Flamer REM but did nothing to it.

Luckily for me, Tim was kind enough to kill the Flamer REM himself by walking it into a mine in plain sight! He was trying to use it against my Fireteam but forgot about a mine he discovered in the previous turn (it was on a roof, placed there by Yuri's Minelayer skill). Since he wasted the Orders already, Tim used the Auxilia to attack the Fireteam but got killed too. He then also moved two of his TO markers towards my DZ.

The last turn was just about trying to get everyone into some zone. One of the Haramaki survived all the AROs as they just run forward. The Fireteam moved into a building where it was safe from AROs and I hoped it took them out of the DZ, or at least two of them. It did appear far enough. Most of my Orders I spent on Shinobu. She was deployed where I thought she could use Smoke to block LoF so the Fireteam could advance, but Tim had too many AROs so I didn't see the point using her sooner. I managed to move her into the furthest zone from my DZ and put her into a building where she'd be hard to reach if Tim wanted to go kill her. I did give him a free ARO by mistake, which made him reveal Swiss Guard Hacker but I rolled double 14 for ARM save against his DA Multi-Rifle!

Since my army was so spread out and not much left of it, Tim had more or less free reign around the board. The only wildcard was that I used my Classified Card for zone points while Tim used it as Objective. First Tim moved one of his TR REMs, the Aquila and Sniper Hexa into the zone in front of his DZ (where I had Shinobu) to make sure he had control of it. Since the zone in front of my DZ would give him the most points, Tim moved his TO marker and the Swiss Guard there. He tried to hack my HVT with it. The first time failed and with second attempt, he moved really close to the building where my Fireteam was. My hacker tried to hack the Swiss Guard but I had no way of killing it.

In the end, Tim did control the zone in front of his DZ. I had control over the middle zone as I had Domaru there and Tim had nothing. Then it turned out my whole Fireteam did not make it out of my DZ and the Swiss Guard walked into my DZ too! So all Tim had was one TO Marker, which was another Hexa. I had Warcor, Yaozao REM and a Haramaki, then I added extra 20pts with my Card to win that zone! So Tim basically lost by moving his Swiss Guard too far, and that is how I won by accident. 

Game 2: Decapitation - JSA vs Neoterran Capitaline Army

Lost 4 to 10 (0 TPs)

I thought I could do better in the second round as the mission was Decapitation and I had one of the best assassins in my army. Looking back though, I chose deployment zone instead of the first turn (I won Lt roll), which did not turn out to be as good. At that time I just thought I could bunker down and let my opponent spread his army a bit. Unfortunately Kai, my opponent, had sensor bot near his Lt and expected me to have ninjas. Which gave me a "smart" idea of deploying Shinobu on a roof. Oniwaban I deployed near my Lt for added surprise protection.

The first turn went okay. Kai was worried about my Missile Launcher so he didn't advance with anyone but he did bring in some ALEPH AD REM unit which he gave Marksmanship Lv2 and it took care of my Missile Launchers real quick. I had really bad luck with rolls, whatever I rolled, he managed to get 1 or 2 higher. The only other thing that moved forward was a Pathfinder REM with a little Flamer pal. Which I did take out in ARO from Hakamari.

My first turn was pretty uneventful. Since Kai did not move most of his army I could not get Shinobu safely down from the three-stories building or even do like a lean-out to at least shoot the Lt. I was saving that as the last turn measure. Instead I moved Yuri close to the other units to get me back to full 5-man Fireteam and positioned them to face the AD REM that was on my right flank. I also tried to heal my Missile Hakamari but managed to kill him.

Turned out, the Fireteam was barely a speed bump for the REM who just managed to out-roll me in every way again. Kai killed 3 of the 5 troops and then found a path that I did not see to speak up on my Lt. My rolls were again pretty bad and he managed to kill my Domaru. The only benefit was, it ate all his Orders.

I chose Kempei to be my next Lt and then used him to take out the AD REM. At least his Boarding Shotgun worked to kill it. The stupid thing on my part was, I did not count the Orders properly and when I had none left he was standing up instead of hiding on the roof Prone.

Kai first went to attack my exposed Lt with his Bulleteer REM. Thankfully I was able to Isolate it with surviving Hakamari before it got too close. It did not help as Kai still had enough Orders to get his Bolt Fireteam into position and shoot my Lt with a Missile Launcher. I of course failed all the rolls.

In my last turn I did not even attack with anything, there was nothing I could do and killing one Lt would not help me so I kept Shinobu hidden for Victory Points (surviving army points). The only Objective Points I had in the end was from Classified, I did Forward Observer an unconscious REM and then did Coup de Grace it in the first turn. Kai on other hand did one of his Classified, Secured HVT, killed more Lts and more Army points (I barely killed anything of his).

Game 3: Biotechvore - JSA vs Ariadna

Lost 1 to 8 (0 TPs)

Somehow in the last game I was paired up against James (my mate from Leeds). I knew I had no shot at ranking well and not much chance against his 12 camo markers list either, so I decided to just have fun with the mission. I selected to go first and wanted to at least get my Classified and then use my super ninjas to take out as many of his units as I could. Unfortunately I deployed my big Fireteam in a stupid place and James took advantage of it by placing a Briscard with Rocket Launcher in their LoF. Thankfully though, he failed all but two Infiltration rolls.

In my first turn the Hakamari Missile Launcher did Discover & Shoot against camo markers he could see and killed at least Uxia, I think I liked one more later one too. Then I had to go deal with the Briscard before anything else. I also hoped the camo marker next to him was Spetsnaz. I sacrificed my Oniwaban to have a shot. The Shotgun blast killed the camo marker which turned out to be a Cateran, but the Briscard escaped. At this point I was under the impression that Biotechvore Zone kicks in at the end of the whole turn so I left my AROs weapons in the virus zone to stop James' advance but only half way through his turn we realized you do the BTS checks at the end of your Active turn. Which resulted in most of my army dying to the virus.

Though before we realized that my Keisotsu Missile Launcher was absolute boss, killing every Impetuous unit James had. Even managed a double crit in one roll! The fact he died to the zone did not change much as my other Missile Launcher survived and also kept hitting. James spent his turn just advancing all his unit and camo markers. He left very few in the virus zone.

The rest of the game wasn't much different. My army was dropping like flies and James kept moving camo markers around. I didn't realizing during the game, he told me afterwards, that at one point I revealed his camo Lt but he quickly went back to camo. My own Lt went balls out and just hunt down camo markers, even getting into CC. That was in my last turn. I also stayed Engaged with the unconscious Foxtrot so when James was shooting at my Lt with the Birscard, he hit his own unit twice but both times passed the ARM rolls. But the third time he managed to hit my Lt failed and I failed all of his rolls.

In the end he didn't get full 10 Objective Points because I somehow managed to kill more than half of his army. To my frustration he didn't even take Spetsnaz in this mission, and I was hunting for it the whole time!