The tournament was a 300 point ITS with 12 point Spec Ops. The missions were Safe Zone, Decapitation and everybodies favorite Biotechvore. I brought a Vanilla PanOceania list that I have to admit was less than optimal. The tournament had a painting requirement and I did not have a lot of time to paint anything due to the new job. I had to use what I had painted and do a bare minimum 3 color treatment to 4 of my units.
This was the first tournament I have played in since the release of Human Sphere N3. The Infinity community is developing here and we have a mix of seasoned veterans playing since N2 and new players. I myself have been playing since N3 came out. There were 8 people participating and a few onlookers coming into the gaming area to see what was going on. Lets take a look at the lists I was running first off.
Josh "SeerK" Linde OP Space Bunnie List 1
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GROUP 1 10
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
AQUILA HMG / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 62)
BOLT Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
BULLETEER Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 23)
SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
NISSE MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 34)
INDIGO Spec-Ops (12 XP) (WIP:15, Doctor, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
TRAUMA-DOC Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
GROUP 2 4
ORC Lieutenant MULTI Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 40)
AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
MULEBOT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points
Josh "SeerK" Linde Op Space Bunnies List 2
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GROUP 1 10
AUXILIA Lieutenant Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 14)
AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
MACHINIST Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
TRAUMA-DOC Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
INDIGO Spec-Ops (12 XP) (WIP:15, Doctor, Engineer, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
SQUALO (Armored Cav.) MULTI HMG, Heavy Grenade Launcher / AP Heavy Pistol. (2.5 | 95)
AQUILA HMG / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 62)
PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
GROUP 2 2
BOLT Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun, Drop Bears / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
BULLETEER Heavy Shotgun / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points
Not really optimal, but I have to say they did perform rather well. I used list 1 twice and list 2 once. I used list 2 in the Biotechvore mission, which was a gamble. It turned out the Squalo was one of the last units to die. lets take a quick look at my 3 rounds.
Our first Mission was Safe Zone. I squared off against the Japanese Sectorial. My opponent was running a O-Yoroi TAG as well as a Fire Team of Domaru Butai. I set up my Nisse Sniper and Aquila Guard in positions that gave them some pretty optimal fire lanes. In fact the Aqulia Guard was in such a good position, he was able to take out most of the opposition single handed. In the first turn he managed to take out all of the Domaru Butai and the O-Yoroi by turn two. This accounted for a majority of the points of my opponents list. This forced him into retreat. I had managed to take two of the Consoles and controlled 3 sectors of the board. I ended the game with 8 objective points to my opponents 0. This was a rough game for my opponent. the loss of the Fire Team was a big blow. His dice were working against him as he did not make a single dodge roll the whole game.
Round two was interesting. The mission was Decapitation. This was only the second time I had ever faced Tohaa. There are not many Tohaa players in the area. This was also my first experience with the updated Tohaa rules. HSN3 is out and the Tohaa got a big update. This round of the tournament I was on the receiving end of that update. The board lacked any real height advantage and was a series of streets and alleys. I hit my ORC LT begind some shipping containers and deployed most of my force as far forward as possible. I had limited targets with my opponent putting a big chunk of hi units prone on the roofs of the buildings in his deployment zone.
I have to say Decapitation is a very rough mission. With 16 inch deployment zones it can be very advantageous for armies that rely on close quarters fighting, especially when the terrain is as dense as it was. We exchanged sniper fire and the Aquila Guard managed to take out a couple units. The real thorn in my side this game though was the Kotail Mobile unit.
This guy ran up the left side of the board and was a terror. Despite hitting him several times, not his holo echoes, he survived. Only after he downed several of my troops did I manage to bring him down. Fusiler Bob once again proved his worth and took him down with combi rifle fire. I failed to kill the Tohaa LT and my opponent laid to waste to my army. He managed to get a full 10 objective points to my 0. This was a very rough, but fun game.
Round three was my favorite mission ever (yes this should be read with gobs of sarcasm), Biotechvore. I think my biggest issue with Biotechvore is you are playing against the mission as well as your opponent. This mission was rough. I took more casualties from the tech virus than I did from my opponent. Being a tournament organizer means I design missions. To me this mission is flawed, because you can actually be taken out without your opponent actually doing anything. I squared off against more Tohaa. I put everybody as far forward as I could. My opponent had first turn. He blew his whole order pool moving a single Triad up to my largest concentration of troops and hit them with a heavy flame thrower. I lost about 3 models, not as bad as it could have been. The mission then took 3 of his units. I moved up as many troops as I could using a coordinated order. It was rough using the coordinated order due to all the G synced units in the army. I managed to wound the Gorgos and take out a couple units. I then lost almost my entire force to the Biotechvore Virus. The game was basically down hill from there and I did not score any objective points. Yancy, my opponent, scored 10. I don't feel so bad though. Yancy was the winner of the tournament and the mission beat me in all reality.
So the first ITS out in Grand Rapids was great fun and a success. My thanks go out to Nate and Ryan for putting it together. I don't get to play in tournaments a lot because I am running them most of the time. This was fun and if you are in the Grand Rapids area check out the Grand Rapids Infinity Facebook group and I am sure Nate and or Ryan wold be happy to give you a demo. I will be out there as my schedule allows. I am going to try and make it out to the Detroit area as well. They have a decent sized community out that way. I have gotten a couple games in over that way while I have been working over there this month, but sadly not on their normal game nights.
Well that is all for now. Next time we will be talking Relthoza, namely my new concept of the Relthoza "Cruise Dozer". Since that name was coined by Spellduckwrong, I have had to come up with a new name. Next time we will be talking about the Relthoza "Cruiser Swarm"
Until next time crush the Alliance and as always....
REMEMBER DRAMOS!!!!!!!
I agree biotechvore is a poor mission, it really punishes vanilla armies who can't move 3-5 troops per order. It was a gamble rushing out of and then back into the biotechvore zone to try to flame Josh's army but with two templates (b2 from link) I was able to hit 9 models, I was surprised that he managed to save all but three considering how many of those hit had shot at my Makaul and not dodged. Having put the remaining models from that triad in suppressive fire just outside his deployment and still in the biotechvore zone, I felt forced him to be more cautious with his movement of those remaining units (and I did kill off at least one more unit that way) and thus he was left with all but 4(?) units still in the zone at the end of his turn.
ReplyDeleteTohaa did get a huge HUGE boost in HSN3, and their symbiot armor making them 2 wounds, and the use of the symbiomates made them particularly durable in this mission. I left my Gorgos (tag) in supressive fire in my deployment zone till turn 3, and it did most of the work killing the Squalo, though I think my MVP was the Kosuil Engineer which along with a Gao-Rael spitfire had accompanied the Makaul on the suicide run (and both survived the game getting out of said zone turn 3). He killed at least one model while in suppressive fire and turn 3 he accomplished both my classifieds (d-charge a building, and Coup de gras an enemy) as well as taking the last wound off the squalo.
In the end it was a tough game for Pan O but Josh kept his chin up and soldiered on. Look forward to getting another game in with a sometime.
Thanks for the blurb Yancy. It was a hard game to play, but it was a learning experience. So much so I ended up picking up a Tohaa army lol
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