Strippers, Booze and ThermOptic Camo: NCA at the Las Vegas Open

The Las Vegas Open...

For anyone who hasn't attended, nothing about this name is hyperbole. This is a major wargaming tournament that takes place in Bally's Hotel and Casino, set right on the Las Vegas Strip. This is my 4th year in attendance, and the Infinity scene has just grown in leaps and bounds.

This year pulled together some truly major names, encapsulating some of the best players in the Western United States. Sgthulka from LA... Ben K from San Diego... Myomer (#1!) and Polynikes (the invitational winner from GenCon.) We even got some Mayacast stardom in attendance.

I didn't play on Friday, but that went down with 300 points of Limited Insertion. Lots of stompy robots and angry Heavy Infantry. I was trying a new approach for this convention, trying not to overdo it across multiple days of gaming. GenCon last year was something of a cautionary tale for me; I did well across 3 days of gaming with some 1st, 2nd, 3rd placings, but I was severely burnt out on that last day. I wasn't going to make the same mistake again.


So on Saturday, we had 300 points with Soldiers of Fortune! Scenarios:


Powerpack

Tic Tac Toe

Comm Center

Capture and Protect


The decision on what to play here was tough. Ordinarily I’d go with Acontecimento… Nagas, mines, good ARO coverage, high Order count are all golden for this mission lineup. With Soldiers of Fortune in the mix as well, I expected a lot of Yuan Yuan and McMurrough coming to eat my lunch also, and being able to start with multiple minelayers on the table was a reassuring thought.

However, after seeing the tables on Friday, I changed my mind to NCA. The tables themselves were quite dense, and while mines remain very good, I wouldn’t be able to rely on defensive Acon staples like Sniper AROs. I also wanted the security blanket of Hidden Deployment; if something nasty did bust through my defense and reach my Deployment Zone, I wanted Hidden Deployment to protect my best assets and maybe surprise a Chain Rifle wielder or two.

So with that in mind, I really just focused on one list, trading infiltrating button pushers for the ability to be as methodic and stable as possible for both attack and defense. My second list was basically a variant of this, making room for slightly higher Order count and a Tech Bee as a backup button pusher. Really though, I knew this list could handle all the missions, so I was focused primarily on playing this list as well as I could, using its tools effectively.

Neoterran Capitaline Army
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GROUP 1 10
SWISS GUARD HMG / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 68)
HEXA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 27)
AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
FUSILIER HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 18)
FUSILIER Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
GROUP 2 7
HEXA MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 32)
AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / 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)
6 SWC | 299 Points
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Round 1: Power Pack versus Tohaa


Tohaa
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9 1 2

GORGOS Squad Chaksa Peripheral B undefined. (2 | 82)
GORGOS AP Spitfire, Flammenspeer, Pulzar +1 Chaksa Peripheral B / Shock CCW. (2 | 82)
CHAKSA PERIPHERAL B Pulzar / Pistol, Knife. (4)

KOSUIL Minelayer K1 Combi Rifle, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
MAKAUL Boarding Shotgun, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (0 | 19)
MAKAUL Boarding Shotgun, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (0 | 19)
SUKEUL Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 36)
KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric
Pulse. (0.5 | 21)
KAMAEL (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
NIKOUL Viral Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
RASAIL Lieutenant Viral Combi Rifle + 1 Chaksa Peripheral / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 39)
CHAKSA PERIPHERAL Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (- | 4)
JÄGER Submachine Gun + E/Mitter / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon. (0.5 | 18)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Whoa. This table shouldn’t have passed muster. It was very open, with very little DZ cover, and especially little DZ cover in the corner deployment zones. This is the kind of setup where extreme massacres can occur, and where setup is even more critical than normal because Total Cover is almost impossible to maintain if your enemy is willing to maneuver for an Order or two. Having the enemy start 16 inches up the table didn’t help either.




My opponent won the LT roll (I rolled that dreaded 13, giving away the identity of my LT pretty obviously and failing the roll) and he opted to go first.

The issue was made more nervewrecking because he was going for the Alpha Strike: 10 Orders with the Gorgos. If people tell you the Gorgos is bad, they’ve clearly never had one with a Symbiomate stomping around their Deployment Zone. The ultra-high BTS also means it doesn’t care about Flash Pulse and Nanopulser AROs, which is a big staple of my defense.

So, how best to handle this. Thankfully, with him going first, I got to see where he was loading up for attack. Helpful. When I saw the Gorgos deploy in the left Quadrant, I put the bulk of my troops in the right Quadrant, as far away as possible, and able to hang out with missile and Hexa Sniper AROs to contest the Gorgos as it moves around.


However, my right side was already way too crowded, so the left side close to the Gorgos got all my short-range stuff; CSU for shotgun and nanopulser AROs, Auxilia, and the Swiss Guard HMG hidden.

For his reserve, he dropped his Nikoul inside 24 of my Fusilier missile for the rangeband bonus, and started going to work (you can see in the image above just how close it started to my DZ... It was actually a major help to me that he couldn't afford the minelayer equivalent, because that mine would have made things tricky too.) It was a decent move to deploy at that range, still leaving the Nikoul hitting on12s with my Fusilier at 9s, but we were both slap fighting with one dice because the entire table, with mountain terrain plus the PowerPack parameters, was a saturation zone. Eventually he did knock down my Fusilier Missile and Fusilier HMG, but I’d achieved my goal of draining his pool pretty decently. The Makaul team started zerging forward, walking right into Hexa Sniper AROs that popped a Makaul (I zapped the non-link leader, so he could only Dodge instead of smoke toss, pretty critical here.)

The remaining Makaul did get smoke down to block my Hexa, but then walked straight into a diagonal shot from my Swiss HMG who revealed from hidden deployment and zapped the Makaul.

With just a few Orders left, the Gorgos saw the threat of the Auxilia, and maneuvered for a Flammenspeer shot on a CSU that would splash the Auxilia. I did see that possibility during deployment and tried to deploy the Auxilia out of range of the blast, so we disagreed a little about whether the Auxilia was in range or not, but I opted to roll the dice for the Auxilia’s Dodge to see if it mattered. The auxilia crit the Dodge, so the point ended up being moot. The Gorgos took something like 6 different AROs when it stepped up onto the landing platform to make this shot, but the mate soaked them all. I did squeeze through a Crit with the Hexa though, which was significant.

I was little bloodied going into my Turn 1, but I’d averted disaster. My CSU ran into boarding shotgun range of the Gorgos, eating a template hit and managing to slap another Wound off with her shotgun. The Hexa Sniper maneuvered, catching the Gorgos out of cover, and in 2 more Orders managed to peel the suit off the operator. My Fusilier team, now just a 3-man, crawled forward into Combi range of the Nikoul and toasted it with some Combi Bursts.

I sprinted my Auxbot up, zapping the Gorgos operator with the Auxilia's combi rifle as I went, then went for flamethrower hits on the Sukeul who gracefully Dodged twice in a row for easy survival.

Majorly bloodied, the Rasail LT went for the throat, knowing my LT was a Fusilier. Thankfully, those plucky Fusiliers (plus the Hexa Sniper) put up a savage defense. Two Fusiliers gave their lives over 6 Orders to protect the LT, and my Hexa didn’t help by missing 4 unopposed shots in a row. However, I managed to keep the Rasail at bay. He ran a Cube Jaeger onto my back table edge, look for the LT kill, but I had multiple Fugazi covering my backline who succeeded in blinding the Jaeger, before he stumbled into an ARO from my Trauma Doc who dropped him with a Combi ARO.

My opponent wasn’t able to extricate himself from the Auxilia trap though, and the Auxbot pressed the attack and eventually killed the Sukeul. Knowing my opponent was close to retreat, the Hexa quickly ran to push two buttons just in case.

With the Rasail pinned by multiple TO AROs from the Hexa and Swiss, it tried to crit fish but couldn’t overcome that TO. I tipped him into Retreat in his turn, using my Turn to finish midfield button pushing, Foward Observe the Cube Jaeger’s body with my Pathfinder for my Classified, and running my Data Tracker (that plucky lone Fusilier Lieutenant) all the way up the field for max points.

My opponent kept up his spirits on a very tough table, doing his best with aggressive attack in a 10 Order list. I was pretty lucky that my defense held out on Turn 1, otherwise that Gorgos would have ended things very quickly.

Game 2: Tic Tac Toe vs Morats

Morat Aggression Force
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GROUP 110 2
ANYAT K1 Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, Smoke Grenades, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
MORAT Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 19)
MORAT Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
MORAT Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
MORAT Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 14)
YAOGAT Spitfire / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 32)
YAOGAT (Fireteam: Haris) Combi Rifle + Panzerfaust / Pistol, CCW. (0.5 | 30)
YAOGAT (Number 2) Boarding Shotgun, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 28)
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)

GROUP 24
M-DRONE Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17)
E-DRONE Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 28)
Bit Hacker (UPGRADE: Expel) Submachine Gun + Pitcher, Deployable Repeater + KISS! / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
KISS! Adhesive Launcher / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

5.5 SWC | 299 Points

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This table was made by Hexagon Mills, which meant a lot of three dimensionality and high catwalks for quick, aggressive advances and plunging fire. I’ve played on these tables a lot, and I know that the catwalks are often underprotected and can provide easy angles for effective gunfighting.



So that’s what I did. My opponent took side and made my deploy first, so I kept the Swiss back with the full intention of deploying him wherever aggressive attack was best. I did spot a catwalk area that would let me tackle a Daturazi, a Krakot and a few Vanguards, while letting me avoid the Yaogat and Vanguard EXP AROs, so that’s what I did (image below gives you a sense of the table's major vertical layout, with the Swiss poised to advance and some hunkered Morats visible in the distance.)



The Swiss runned and gunned, dropping a Dat and two Vanguards. I wanted to make sure that Krakot was down, so I revealed the Hexa early and maneuvered her for some plunging fire to keep that Krakot away from my squishy Fusilier backline. I used some Coordinated Orders while both these troops were maneuvering to shove some Specialists up the table, getting them ready for button pushing.

My opponent wasted no time with retaliation. His remaining Daturazi did have to walk into a missile ARO, but his Yaogats steamed up the table, climbed some ladders, angling for possible nasty little panzerfaust or boarding shotgun back-arc shots on my Swiss. Thankfully I had a palbot watching his back, and the Alert allowed him to change facing and contest any attempts that way. Instead they settled for my Hexa Sniper, who got thrashed by Spitfire rounds and went Unconscious. His remaining Vanguard jumped out of their DZ for some button pushing.

With the Yaogats dangerously close, only two or three Orders of movement away from being able to fire down into my backline, I wanted to clear them out. I ran an Auxbot up the ladder to flamethrower, managing to bag one and open the door for the Swiss to do Swiss Guard things, punking the other two. The Doc picked the Hexa back up to limit my opponent’s ability to maneuver around the midfield, while my other Auxilia ran up and hosed his Vanguard team to kill one, and pinning them all with a Flamethrower ARO next round.

In his turn, Bit used her SMG to kill the Auxbot, freeing up Anyat to try and cap all her close objectives. With the Hexa alive though, she had to dispense a fair amount of smoke, causing her to miss the last button push by one Order.

I responded by closing things out, advancing the Pathfinder to sprint up and kill Anyat, before the Hexa finished capping the three objectives straight up the middle, and the Swiss secured HVT to hand me a chunky win.

My opponent gutted it out on terrain that was very friendly for me, giving me lots of unusual long lanes that were great for TO and Hidden Deployment units.

Game 3: Commcen vs Ariadna



Ariadna
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GROUP 1 8 2 1
SPETSNAZ (CH: Ambush Camouflage) HMG / Pistol, CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 38)
VETERAN KAZAK (Forward Observer) AP Rifle, Light Flamethrower / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 38)
CHASSEUR (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
DOZER (Traktor Mul Control Device) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
ASSAULT PACK . (0 | 25)
HANDLER Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (- | 10)
x3 ANTIPODE AP CC Weapon. (- | 15)
IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2 7 2 1
SPETSNAZ (CH: Ambush Camouflage) HMG / Pistol, CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 38)
UXÍA McNEILL (Covert Action) (CH: Limited Camouflage, Superior Infiltration, Specialist Operative) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 27)
CHASSEUR (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)
FOXTROT Lieutenant Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 17)
WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

6 SWC | 300 Points

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Once in a while, you run into scenarios where you tell yourself “please don’t let me play that opponent, in that mission, using that specific army.”

This was one of those games, where I played the immensely talented Lazarus0909 using his Vanilla Ariadna.

I lost that LT roll, and he quickly pounced on going first. However, that did give me a very good table half, with comfortable sniper vantages in each corner. The Fusilier missile went in one, the Hexa Sniper in the other. He did successfully land one of his Grunts near my DZ, so I hemmed it in with Auxbots and Fugazi to give it nowhere to go without dealing with multiple AROs.

Here's the table from my DZ, followed by a shot of the Hexa's field of fire down a long diagonal lane.










His reserve drop was unsurprising, with Uxia successfully landing right next to my HVT.

I knew I was going to forfeit those points immediately, not much I could do about it. However, I did make Uxia work for it. He used his Infiltrating Grunt to spread shotgun blasts across my Auxbots close to Uxia, hoping to knock them out so they couldn't deter Uxia from maneuvering. The split Burst did bag one but failed to get the other, with the Grunt dying fiery death for his trouble. A Spetsnaz also ran far up to trim down one of the Fugazi bots covering that area. He clearly hoped that Uxia could work my weak flank there if she managed to live.

Thankfully, I did have a lurking Pathfinder who noone was able to reach, and he had Uxia pinned pretty neatly. So when Uxia used her first Order to gun down my HVT, the Pathfinder did squeeze through his Flash Pulse to leave Uxia dazed and confused. Phew.

He wasn’t happy about my Fusilier Missile though, who was in a very dominant vantage point. The other Spetsnaz came rolling up close, maneuvering through the center pink-walled building, working to get inside 24 inches of the Missile. When he did, he leaned out to take shots at the Missile… Walking right into the ARO of my Swiss, who revealed with his HMG.

Lazarus threw everything at the Fusilier, wanting that model dead. However, a decent roll by the missile managed to negate all but one hit, and the Fusilier tanked the armor save (phew.) The Swiss missed his shot, but at least drove the Spets back into Total Cover where it had to wait out the turn.

Well, now I was in a hole. His HVT was totally inaccessible, pinned in an area I’d never be able to reach. His other Grunt that failed its Infiltration role had walked onto the table right next to his HVT, standing sentry in a pretty effective way that would stop me just casually walking close and blowing away the HVT. Now I was playing for the minor win.

First things first, killing Spetsnaz.

The leftmost one that had supported Uxia fell victim to Coordinated CSUs. The Spets was hiding behind a building, so I circled the building and came at him from both sides, with me having the choice of shotguns or nanopulsers. Nanopulsers took care of that.

The other Spets, who had gone after my missile Fusilier, got caught out of cover and Auxilia'd.

My Swiss and the plucky Fusilier missile had some angles to work, with me dispensing Orders to grind down my opponent's Orders and taking out some valuable Specialists to put me ahead in the Specialist-killing count: In addition to both Spets, I managed to take down a volunteer, an Irmandinho, a Warcor, and a Chasseur.

I’d made a big hole in his list and had a comfortable lead in killing Specialists, but he was up on button pushing, and had bagged my HVT. I’d have to use my remaining turns well.

Turn 2 was his massive button pushing turn. He successfully capped all his DZ objectives, and all midfield objectives, though it cost him a Dozer and his Vet Kazak to do it (the Vet Kazak went down to the Hexa Sniper catching him in the open... He walked down that long boulevard in the photo above, right into the Hexa's waiting MULTI Sniper fire.)

Lazarus had put a lot out of units out in the open, knowing that if I killed them, it would edge him closer to Retreat while he was in the lead. If I did pretty much anything, he’d either get unopposed shots on me, or I’d kill them and tip him into Retreat. With so many Ariadna bodies on the floor, I wasn't likely to get my third turn, so I had to use my Turn 2 to uncap all his objectives while capping mine.

The Pathfinder’s great at this kind of quick objective running thanks to his 6-4, so up the table he went. Lazarus actually Dodged the Antipodes into the Pathfinder’s way, blocking forward progress and threatening engage. I wasted 3 Orders just trying to shoot one down, but despite 5 dice on 15s (I got the Fusilier HMG into the game for the first time.) Lazarus was rolling in the sweet spot and Dodged all those big boy bullets coming his way though. Hmm… I couldn’t afford to waste any more Orders here, time for a new approach.


I brought the Hexa KHD out of Hidden Deployment. Note as speedy as the Pathfinder, but she snuck past the Antipodes no problem, barely able to to uncap enough of his objectives and flip them to me. By the time the smoke cleared, I controlled 4 objectives to his 3. Classifieds failed me (Test Run and Kidnapping were my choices, and that sentry Grunt was stopping me from Securing HVT) but I was still happy to walk away from this one 6-3.


Game 4: Capture and Protect vs Combined Army

Combined Army
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GROUP 110 2
SHROUDED Hacker (EI Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 30)
SHESKIIN Red Fury, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 51)
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)
Q-DRONE Plasma Rifle / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
HAIDUK Smart MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 23)
YAOGAT MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 34)
ZERAT (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, Grenades, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22)
ÍMETRON . (0 | 4)
ÍMETRON . (0 | 4)
MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

GROUP 24 2
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
NEXUS Lieutenant Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nullifier / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
GAKI AP CCW. (0 | 4)
JÄGER Submachine Gun + E/Mitter / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon. (0.5 | 18)

6 SWC | 300 Points

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Eesh. Top table, which is a nice place to be, but I knew my opponent well and knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Polynikes is one of the best players in the country. Last year he scored 2nd at Rumble, and he won the GenCon Invitation as well, so he has some big wins under his belt. This would be a tough game.

My first Classified draw was Scan the HVT and Doctor the HVT. With no HVTs here, I had to get something else, so I redrew and opted for Telemetry. Not bad.

I won the LT roll off, which was helpful. This terrain had very dense DZs, with plenty of buildings that had both playable interiors and roofspace, but a very open center. I knew this kind of “fishbowl” setup well, and it’s a very good one for NCA thanks to our dominant long-range AROs.

Here's the table, viewed from my opponent's DZ.



Polynikes opted to go first, which meant I needed a strong defense to weather his attack. Seeing his deployment, most of his firepower was coming from two snipers, one in the exact center of the table on a roof, and one on my left. With that in mind, I set up heavily in my rightmost corner (the unpainted one-story building in the top left corner above,) putting most of my troops there, Hexa Sniper on the roof, setting up my ARO pieces in locations where they couldn’t be seen at all by his snipers without spending some serious orders to travel, but they could still cover the center of the table and challenge anyone trying to run the beacon.

Here's my Hexa, standing on a building crammed with Fusiliers:



Though I loaded up my right flank heavily, I opt for a bit of misdirection here: My left flank was left very open, with a token Fugazi there. However, I deployed my Swiss over there in Hidden Deployment, hoping that the apparent hole in my Deployment would either encourage Polynikes to pack a bunch of troops over there, or leave it undefended, either of which would benefit the Swiss. This was a risk though, because the left side had no Line of Fire into the "fishbowl" in the middle of the table. This meant that the Swiss wasn't going to be able to contribute AROs if the Combined Army came up the middle to eat my lunch. This decision of the Swiss' placement ended up being critical to the game.

Swiss' Hidden Deployment location (visible in the photo above on the right side of the table.) What the hell is that sword for...



Polynikes started things off by sprinting a hungry fast into my weak left flank, using the change facing trick to pin down my token Fugazi with his second move and killing it in CC. This meant that, except for the Swiss, my left flank was no completely open. CA wasted no time, running the Plasma Q-Drone straight up the middle. I expected him to grab my console and run it back home, in which case I had the Hexa Sniper ready to reveal on the retreating Q-Drone and kill him in the middle of the table.

However, Polynikes very intelligently played the long game, ignoring the Beacon entirely and going after my Order pool. Splashing hot plasma through my DZ, he took down two some order bots, an Auxilia, and my Trauma Doc before I stopped it with a fortunate Flash Pulse crit. So I was down 5 Orders, awkwardly split between two pools before my turn began. Since I had started everything in Hidden Deployment also, my starting pools would be very low. I’d have to be patient here, doing my best to stay in the game despite those low starting pools, to try and build for future turns.

With the Q-Drone comfortably settled comfortably into my DZ, he started pouring troops through that weak left flank he'd open, moving up a Camo Token, a Daturazi and a Zerat.

Thankfully, that advance in the weak flank was exactly what my Swiss was hoping for. His TO Token revealed about 2 inches away from the hostile Camo Token (it had stopped on the far side of the crate visible above, using it for cover.) I spend an Order to back away, then I did a Discover + Shoot on the token, which turned out to be a Shrouded Assault Hacker, who gleefully responded with Oblivion. Scary, but thankfully the Swiss toasted it pretty handily even in a bad range band, and the Hacker's WIP roll failed. The Swiss was just warming up though. With 5 Orders to spend this turn, he killed 5 minis: Shrouded Hacker, Hungry, Imetron that had dropped into that weak flank, Yoagat Sniper, and lastly Daturazi and Zerat (both in the open) with a split Burst HMG.

This was a critical juncture. If those troops had been able to pour into my DZ through the weak flank, I never would have dug them out.

With bare minimum Orders left in my small pool, I revealed the Hexa Sniper to drop an Imetron and Ikadron with a split burst, then refshuffled my crowded right corner so that no models were lined up for Plasma blasts. That Q-Drone had the potential to end the game this turn, and I didn't have the Orders to go after it while still capitalizing on the opportunity that was available to my Swiss. My one hope was to catch the Q-Drone with a decent ARO, using the Hexa KHD and Hexa Sniper to overload the drone with targets. It was a tough call, whether to hunt his vulnerable models or go after the Q-Drone, but I think I made the right choice: take high probability shots to deplete his Order pool and reduce threats, versus low-probability shots to kill one enemy unit, even if that enemy unit was in my DZ and a scant 3 Orders of movement away from my Lieutenant.

Going into Turn 2, both Polynikes and I were limping along with depleted Order pools.

He was poised to end me though, so the Q-Drone started up and did its thing. It maneuvered to challenge my Fusiliers, hoping to deplete their link bonuses so that either the Q-Drone or Sheskiin could come in and clean up. It scuttled out to take on the first Fusilier… Who promptly sent a Combi Crit straight into it.

Awesome. Majorly fortunate here, and I felt the game’s momentum shift massively.

He wasn’t done yet though. My Swiss hadn’t recamoed (simply not enough Orders) and I had a feeling he’d have to tangle with an AD trooper. Sure enough, on came the Cube Jaeger, change Face tricking his way into B2B with the Swiss. I think Polynikes would have gleefully swung away with that Monofilament scalpel if he’d had more Orders, given that the Swiss is no hotshot in close combat, but he was content to pin the Swiss and let me kill myself on my own turn.

To make the matter tougher, he nailed his Automedikit roll to pick the Shrouded back up, parking it close to the Swiss. If I swung against the Cube Jaeger in melee, I was risking Isolation or Imm-1 from the Hacker. A nasty trap.

Thankfully, I did have another option for my Turn 2.

Consolidating my banged up Order Pools a bit, the Pathfinder came to life. It swung over to Forward Observe the wrecked Q-Drone for my Classified, then ran out for a 40-inch cross-table shot against the Cube Jaeger. Working the wonders of Triangulated Fire, I scraped the Cube Jaeger right off the Swiss, who was then free to maneuver to see the Shrouded, blow it away, then step on its head for good measure.

From there, the Pathfinder sprinted straight up the table towards the DZ, into Repeater range of his LT. Polynikes knew what was coming, so made the smart move to Blackout the Repeater. My Reset failed, but my BTS save passed, and my Hexa went for a Surprise Shot Redrum to hopefully nuke his LT, put him in Loss of Lieutenant, and effectively ending the game. He passed both BTS saves, failing Guts out of Repeater Range. I didn’t have enough Orders to both move the Pathfinder back into range, as well as attempting to Hack again. So close...

For the final CA turn, it was Sheskiin’s moment for glory with a Hail Mary play. She had been itching to storm straight for my Fusilier link team all game, but with my missile and Hexa comfortably defending that right flank bastion, she came straight up the middle instead, using her Movement to avoid the Hexa. The Hexa did manage to squeeze a hit through, dropping her to No Wound Incap, but she still made it into my DZ and picked up my beacon. She went in Suppressive, hoping to hold out long enough to run to safety.

Alright. Final turn. I needed to kill Sheskiin for a minor win… I had a Classified, and my opponent did not. If I could get into my opponent’s DZ too, I could snag the beacon for a bigger win.

What’s a good tool against a Suppressive Fire target with super stats who always counts as having Partial Cover? Auxilia!

My remaining Auxilia, plucky and ready to go, maneuvered for 3 Orders to torch Sheskiin. She Dodged the Flamethrower effortlessly… But not all the Combi Shots. Since she was in No Wound Incap already, she was toast.

Next step: kill the remaining Sniper who was babysitting the enemy beacon. My Hexa had stayed prone all game; standing up would have made her visible to the enemy Sniper, for a pretty epic duel at something like 45 inch range. I decided she should take the risk. Standing up, with no cover, she took her Burst 2 (needing 9s) vs the Sniper’s Burst 1 (also needing 9s). Not great odds, and I wouldn’t have initiated this gunfight early in the game, but the Hexa was in her own pool with 2 Orders to spend, and she wouldn’t be needed for anything else. If she could save the Swiss the risk of killing this Sniper himself, that would be huge.

Thankfully the dice fell in my favor, with one of my shots connecting vs the Sniper’s miss, and putting the Sniper down.

Swiss time (I need a theme song for that.) He ran up the table, ran into the DZ, gained a narrow bead on the Hacker LT, blew it away, then (very last orders) picked up the Beacon for a 7-0 win.

The final score was not indicative of how close a game this was.

Conclusion.

I ended the day with 11 of 12 possible tournament points, 33 out of 40 possible Objective points, which was good enough for 1st place in a very close field. On the whole, a great day of games, with solid competition. I was hoping to cross paths with Myomer again (he owes be a beating, after my Acon got the better of his Haqq at GenCon) but it was a pleasure to catch up with him between rounds. What a gentleman, what a player.

My opponents for the day were solid, especially considering that Vegas itself is an unspoken opponent in each game. Showing up with a clear head and the stamine for 10 hours of gaming is… Rough. All four of my games were immensely enjoyable, with good competitive gentlemanly play throughout. My hat is off to them, as well as to Rattlernxt for TOing, and Bostria for making the long trip to come tell us awesome things about Infinity.

I was happy I went with NCA in the end. Despite not running into the huge pile of Yuan Yuan that I was expecting, I was very pleased with their amazing defense. I had never used the combination of 2 Auxilia, 2 CSU before, and I found it a winning proposition. Shotgun are rare for PanO, so sometimes it’s nice to just run something cheap into 8-inch range and offer them the choice of a shotgun or a nanopulser. I fell in love with Auxilia again this tournament as well; I haven’t used them with regularity in many months, and they had some hugely critical plays this event, so they’ll be making a comeback for my NCA lists.

And now, a moment of reverence for the Hexa sniper. This girl gets it done. Whether it’s critical AROs, or precision hard-hitting active turn action with that Burst 2, she played a key role in every game I played. Unlike the Swiss too, where he really can’t be risked unless the situation is desperate, the Hexa’s just inexpensive enough that you can throw her into some situations that would yield big swings. That being said, she survived every game (though just barely against the Morats!)

Is it Varuna time yet?

 

Thanks to you both for reading. I'll respond more thoroughly when I have a chance to sit down, but wanted to address @eciu 's question about the mission. Yes you're correct, the missions asks you to discard all HVT objective cards from your deck. Since we were playing under the clock though, my opponent suggested we just draw, and discard anything that was an HVT card, confirming it with the other. I agreed, since it would save us a few minutes of sorting and shuffling. The end result works out to be the same.

 

Oh yeah right, I did come in first. Will edit to mention that.

Yeah no doubt that things were close at the top... Lots of folks with 9 or 10 objective points.

I almost added the Uhlan in for a Cap and Protect list, but I was feeling shakey going into this event and kept things simple and easy to maintain with my lists. The Acon lists I also wrote for this event did have a Tikbalang, but the terrain density on some of those tables would have made TAGs very vulnerable to their usual threats of hackers, CC, shotgun, etc.

 

Taking more time to read through the replies:

-I had to balance the retreat rules carefully. It helps being able to do that arithmetic in my head, it played a big role.
-Hexa Sniper is great, and I can see the TO Order Sgt working similarly. Having infiltration on a sniper is a bigger advantage than being realize.
-I'm glad you enjoyed the write-up @Superfluid . This is my first time using Auxilia in a while, but they were valuable in every time. I was expecting them to have to defend vs more Warbands, but they were great on the attack. Glad to inspire you to get some NCA on the table too.
-Tesla, great to hear from you! Yeah first place did happen, though it was close. My opponent in Round 4 got knocked down to 5th as I recall, which I thought was a shame for a tough game on top table. The competition for 2nd and 3rd was immensely close. As mentioned above too, I did consider the Uhlan, and I did have Cutter lists in mind for the LI event on Friday (ended up not playing.) Varuna will definitely have me put the Cutter on the table.

 

Two models are around the corner from one another. The active model moves without Stealth, avoiding LoF. The enemy model around the corner can only Change Facing, Reset, etc as an ARO... Nothing aggressive. The active model then uses it's second short skill to walk around the corner, into B2B. Since the defender has already declared an ARO, and "hold" or "delay" are not legal options, it's a sure-fire away to initiate close combat as long as you have the movement with your second short skill to reach the enemy. Particularly good on something like Hungries with their 6-6 MOV, which is hard to defend against unless you stay faaaaar away from corners.

Does that make sense?

 

Glad to inspire, and hope you enjoy your MO and Vanilla sprees. I have three more events in the next month, so I may jut go all-out with NCA/Acon and then see if there are new Sectorials that catch my interest.

I actually haven't played my NCA a ton lately... Mostly been Acon... So it was nice to put them back on the table for this event.

I do own MO, and I've been waiting patiently for the Hospitaller box. I may give them a try, but I want to wait for an event where I feel comfortable with them in the mission lineup. For example, my next ITS has Highly Classified, so I probably won't be running MO. Perhaps one of the other events coming up though.

Thumbs up to that one. I use it a lot to disengage troops from CC, especially since PanO is just so famously bad at CC, but (as you know) there are lots of great ways to get use out of it.

It felt good to put a fairly restricted PanO Sectorial on the table in a button pushing event full of Mercs, and do well by using PanO tools to do PanO things. Certifiably fun, but it also means that the quality of firepower in this Sectorial has a habit of ruining me for playing other factions.