VIRD in an ITS Batrep: Bloody Christmas:

My first ITS with Varuna! The tournament was 22-person, 3 rounds, and had 4 Top 20 US players in attendance. It would be a perfect setting for seeing how the Snake Eaters handle on the tabletop. Missions were:

Transmission Matrix
Frostbyte
Firefight

Trans Matrix would require special considerations. I expected a lot of E-Drone Combined Army players, and very heavy info war, plus guided, so I wanted to include few hackable targets that I'd be relying on for combat. Both Transmission Matrix and Firefight are great missions for Airborne Infiltration, so I doubled up on Echo Bravos to maximize the ability to attack from the flanks and rear:

Trans Matrix/Firefight
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GROUP 1 10
ECHO-BRAVO Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun, WildParrot / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
ZULU-COBRA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28)
KAMAU HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 28)
KAMAU (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
KAMAU Heavy Rocket Launcher, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 23)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
MULEBOT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2 6 2
ECHO-BRAVO Boarding Shotgun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)
ZULU-COBRA (Sensor) Combi Rifle, Jammer / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
MULEBOT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
TRAUMA-DOC Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
HELOT MILITIAMAN Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 9)
HELOT MILITIAMAN Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 9)

6 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army


Frostbyte was worth giving special consideration. Most squishy 1-Wound Snake Eaters aren't happy trying to survive in the midfield, so Patsy seemed a natural choice here. Not only could she fight off attacks or hunt the enemy Data Tracker at close range, but she's a Specialist, and is able to bring along a nice Haris team as well. I nearly brought a Croc Man Assault Hacker here, as a great button-pusher, mine-equipped, and able to authorize REMs. I changed my mind at the last minute though, opting for the Echo Bravo's versatility (besides, Echo Bravos are rad... I know what a Croc does, but I need Echo Bravo practice, and I wanted to use this event to learn.)


Frostbyte
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GROUP 1 10
ECHO-BRAVO Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun, WildParrot / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
PATSY GARNETT Submachine Gun, Nimbus Plus Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 37)
MACHINIST (Varuna Div.) (CH: Mimetism, Stealth, Aquatic Terrain) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
KAMAU HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 28)
KAMAU (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
KAMAU Heavy Rocket Launcher, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 23)
FUSILIER Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)

GROUP 2 5 2
ZULU-COBRA (Sensor) Combi Rifle, Jammer / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
MULEBOT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
TRAUMA-DOC Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
HELOT MILITIAMAN Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 9)
HELOT MILITIAMAN Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 9)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army



Game 1: Transmission Matrix vs USAriadna

USAriadna Ranger Force
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GROUP 1 10 1
BLACKJACK T2 Sniper, Submachine Gun, Chest Mines / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 36)
FOXTROT (Forward Observer) Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
FOXTROT Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19)
FOXTROT Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
MARAUDER (Multispectral Visor L1) Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 26)
MARAUDER Molotok / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
MARAUDER Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22)
MARAUDER Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22)
MARAUDER Lieutenant Rifle, Heavy Flamethrower / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
MAVERICK Molotok / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 29)

GROUP 2 4 2 2
DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
DOZER (Traktor Mul Control Device) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
112 Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 12)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army


Great looking table. My Core link deployed around that vantage point bottom-left.


The EB gets the shot of a lifetime: shotgun + parrot on a 5-man Marauder link team.


After a couple turns of gunfighting, I ran the link up into the midfield. Fugazi cleared the way through a minefield, letting the Kamau HRL Datatracker SMG the HVT (located where the token is visible below,) as well as a bodyguarding Foxtrot. The removal of of the Foxtrot cleared LoF to the remnants of the Marauder team. Not wanting to trigger Retreat, I didn't pull the trigger with the HRL in my turn, letting my opponent start his turn with the HRL covering him, while pinned by the Zulu Cobra holding the midfield console.


Highlights from Game 1:

• Zulu Cobra Jammer had a good game, stopping a run from a Desperado Molotok before it could get to my backline, then camping the middle objective all game and projecting Jammer around it. Prone behind the objective, the Zulu was quite safe thanks to overwatch from the Kamau HRL, Kamau MSV2 sniper, and 2 helots.
• Kamau MSV2 did serious work, outshooting the Blackjack T2 Sniper in ARO and stopping the bikes from pushing too aggressively into my crowded DZ.
• Echo Bravo! Parrot + shotgun is link team death, especially when you can deploy the Parrot to hit maximum link team members. Nasty, nasty profile.
• The Kamau HRL is a great tool. Cheap, nasty with that hard-hitting armor-ignoring Fire ammunition, and you even get an SMG for scary close-range work. This is a great investment for a link team.

Conclusion: 10-1 for VIRD

Round 2: Frostbyte vs Tohaa

Frostbyte
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GROUP 1 10 2
CLIPSOS (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
AÏDA SWANSON 2 Submachine Gun, Viral Mines / Viral Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 24)
SUKEUL HMG, D-Charges / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 35)
KOSUIL Engineer Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Panzerfaust / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 13)
KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14)
CHAKSA AUXILIAR (Baggage, Sensor) Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 10)
CHAKSA AUXILIAR (Baggage, Sensor) Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 10)
CHAKSA AUXILIAR (Baggage, Sensor) Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 10)
KERAIL PRECEPTOR Submachine Gun, Smoke Grenades + 1 Surda SymbioBeast / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 20)
SURDA SYMBIOBEAST Pulzar / Viral CCW. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2 4 1
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10)
ARMAND (Multispectral Visor L1) MULTI Sniper, Nanopulser / 2 Breaker Pistols, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (1.5 | 45)
SAKIEL Lieutenant Viral Combi Rifle, Nimbus Plus Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 21)
KAELTAR Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioBombs / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)

5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army


Le Muet as Datatracker use his forward deploy to set up in the sniper tower in the top right, near the objective room. My Patsy Haris deployed bottom right ready to storm up the table there. My Core link went down in the middle of my DZ, with my Helot and Zulu Cobra Jammer on the left to oppose his strongest Triads.




My Core link deployed, mostly hiding. The DZ was getting very crowded...My defense on the left, where I expected the most pressure. Kamau MSV2 is standing in the street, watching that long lane. I was very unhappy with her deployment because I was expecting a Sukeul HMG to challenge her from the orange shipping crate, but thankfully my opponent hugged the left table edge and tried to get close. This let the Helot Decoy and Jammer Zulu Cobra (next to the white shipping crate) pose a threat.


The Zulu Cobra goes hunting. Had a chance for Triangulated Fire Assault Pistol against a Revealed Clipsos, but she managed her Dodge. Her moving out of the way opened a long, long shot against a Krakot, who also managed his Dodge. I was happy with the move, but not the outcome!



The hilarious and dramatic culmination of the game. While I tried to contain the Tohaa on the left, Patsy and her Haris (HMG Kamau and Machinist) went strong up the right. Patsy gunned down the Krakot, pushed a console (phew, activated my DZ heater, I was very worried my opponent wouldn't let me get this one.) I tripped 2 of Aida's Viral mines with a quick 6-6 MOV Fugazi run. The Machinist then gave his life for the cause, eating her last Viral Mine in the face but gunning her down. This was really important for stopping her counter-attack on my Haris Team, who was camping in the midfield.

Since my opponent was up on objectives and classifieds, he went prone with Le Muet Datatracker to try and block me dominating the midfield. Patsy and the Kamau climbed up the sniper tower to get him. Let Muet's Symbiobomb and ODD soaked about 5 Orders of point-blank coverless SMG fire, until Let Muet eventually Crit Engage Patsy, thinking he'd be safer in CC. Turns out that Patsy, supported by a Kamau, wielding her d-charges, is actually kind of nasty. She eventually managed to slap enough D-Charges on Le Muet to get him down.


Highlights:

• The Kamau MSV2 has a big psychological effect. Even if she never shoots at anything, she can have a big impact on the game.
• Go Patsy! Her team kept me in this game. She's really the Joan of Arc of Haris teams... She herself is a decent combatant, but she's an amazing team leader who can carry those squishy 1-Wound Snake Eaters up the table and help them get where they need to go. Having her with two Wounds, Specialist, etc really lets her act as a much-needed anchor.
• Helots did fine here, giving my opponent something to shoot at, eating Orders without really affecting my gameplan or my Orders pools. They passed one or two helpful Discover rolls here also, in additio to their shooting.
• Though the Zulu Cobra Jammer didn't pile many bodies this game, his potential was all there. The opponent has to think about that Jammer, and the triangulated fire vs hard-to-hit opponents was big.

Conclusion: 6-1 for VIRD

Round 3: Firefight vs Combined Army

Looking at this table, the first thing that occurred to me is the big central catwalk. A fireteam up there could dominate the game. The second major factor was all the areas my Echo Bravos could come in. The last major factor was that my DZ was effectively "split" by the terrain. As a result, I left a baggage bot on the left side to hopefully bait a Speculo or AD into going after it, and clustered all my troops in the bottom right side, with access to that catwalk.




I took a bit of a gamble here, putting both the Zulu Cobra Jammer and Kamau HMG hiding up top. I figured they weren't too likely to come under direct attack, unless the Speculo wanted to go for them. But having the Speculo stuck up there wouldn't be bad. The big obvious risk to them was Guided. I know my opponent loves Satlock or Repeater + Spotlight and guided. if these troops could survive into my Turn, they could rush the catwalk and lay waste with plunging fire.

Of course, my opponent had no intention of letting that happen. He spent the bulk of his Turn 1 Orders Spotlight + Guiding them both.

I knew the Speculo was coming, but wasn't sure where. My opponent took advantage of an error on my part, splashing the shotgun blast through a Decoy to hit two Fusiliers. One managed a crit Dodge, and the Speculo got Flash Pulsed for her trouble, then SMGed in the back by the real Helot in my turn. With her down in my DZ, I scored Coup de Grace without having to run around too much.


Highlights:

• The crux of the game revolved around two things: gaining control of that long catwalk, and using it to clear entry points for my Echo Bravos. My opponent did what he could to challenge this, bombarding my rooftop troops on Turn 1, and then setting up his Q-Drone, Haiduk and E-Drone + Repeater to challenge my link team's movement up there.
• The MSV2 Kamau ate a Crit on her first attempt to challenge the Q-Drone, but a quick Doctor attempt and a link reform gave her a second chance, and she nailed it to Unconscious. Another MOV - Shoot let her bag the Haiduk. The Kamau HRL fired on the Unconscious Q-Drone, burning it off the table and also splashing a nearby Imetron as well.
• From here, the link team retreated so that it wasn't completely stacked up on that narrow catwalk. I didn't want a plasma rifle firing down that alley to splash everyone.
• The link spent the rest of the game making short quick forays up the catwalk to challenge what it could, but mostly stayed in my DZ to try and preserve their points and keep everything at bay.
• The light rocket/boarding shotgun Echo Bravo came in, used his rocket to target a Sensorbot and Splash Doc Worm, a couple of shots at the Rodok (passed both armor saves, Failed Guts to safety, never ended up getting this guy) and he generally made a big nuisance of himself. The Burst 2 in a 1 v 1 gunfight is awful, not very reliable, but obviously is great if you can make those templates do some work.

Conclusion: 5-1 for VIRD

Wrap-up:

• Two majors and a minor, not bad! This was only good enough for third place, but I had very difficult Strength of Schedule vs two very, very experienced ITS players. Perhaps my biggest point of pride for the day was the number of Snake Eaters who survived their three different Ops. I ended the day with 850 Victory Points surviving, so I was pleased with being able to keep my play quite stable.
• The next goal to improve upon, of course, is button pushing and maximizing Objective Points. VIRD did well with gunfighting and defense, so now it will be about maximizing those Objective Points. From an ITS standpoint, every round has to be maximized as much as possible... Minor Wins and low-scoring Objective Point rounds can turn 1st place into 5th place, even in a day where you go undefeated.
• I think that working a Croc or two into my lists will help with scoring. They're expensive (nearly twice the cost of a Foxtrot FO) but obviously very capable and order-efficient for gunfighting.

Next ITS in early January, so I'll have some time to keep practicing before then.

 

@DukeofEarl
Thanks for reading, bud. We'd love to get up there too, if you have any events coming up.

Triangulated Fire Burst 4 is definitely great, if the target's close enough. Even having the Combi for backup is a great deal. It's a fantastic interplay of rules and abilities. Combined with Jammer, it's one of the more creative profiles we've ever seen from CB.

@Make PanO Great Again :P
Yeah, I'm looking forward to future mission lineups where I can make better use of the Camo/Infiltrating options in VIRD. Transmission Matrix is a decent mission for Forward Deploy or Infiltrating troops, but of course you need to be careful if any of them are Hackers. Frostbyte's challenging because of the Exclusion Zone and the fact that you only need to push one console to still score effectively, so I didn't load up too heavily on midfield troops there either. And of course in Firefight, midfield Specialists can actually hurt your Score.

I'm hoping for an event in January or February with more active button-pushing.

But because I didn't need a lot of midfield troops, I was happy to structure my lists similarly to NCA. The lack of anchor wasn't terrible... For many years, before they could use mixed fire teams, I used high-Order Shock Army in a very similar way, where all the troops are 1-Wound. Getting certain gifts like Shock Immune on Kamau really helps with this too.

Patsy is a decent anchor though. She herself isn't a very dominant gunfighter, but she's great for leading the charge into the midfield, and babysitting a Specialist and a Gunner who are part of her Haris. She can easily eat a mine or a Chain Rifle hit to help keep the rest of the team safe, and I suspect I will be using her a lot as an aggressive Data Tracker.