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Bright Lights, Patsy Garnett: VIRD at the Las Vegas Open

Discussion in 'Battle Reports' started by barakiel, Feb 14, 2019.

  1. barakiel

    barakiel Echo Bravo Master Sergeant

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    A couple notes: I'm working on tracking down table photos, so hope to post those up soon. My opponent's rosters are recalled from memory too, but hopefully they give a general sense of what my opponent was running.

    This year's Las Vegas Open was my first chance to try Varuna in a larger format. I've been pleased with their performance in our local events, which certainly arne't easy by any means... We have a pool of some of the world's top-ranked ITS players. But most of them have adapted well to my Varuna approach, so Las Vegas Open would be a chance to try Varuna in a cross-meta environment, and across a pretty broad variety of missions.


    LVO's lineup, in order of play:

    • Armory
    • Engineering Deck
    • Acquisition
    • PowerPack
    • Firefight


    The common theme throughout the first 4 missions was being able to take and hold a key objective. 3 of the missions also had important button-pushing components as well. As a result, I settled pretty quickly on taking at least one Patsy Haris list. Patsy's the Joan of Haris teams... She can build an ultra flexible team, she's very good at supporting it with NCO, and she's also a good modestly-priced DataTracker.

    I used the following list for every mission except Armory, and I was very pleased with its firepower, flexibility, and range of tools. The Specialist coverage was good given the missions. The main decision was whether to include Patsy's Haris and the Core in the same Combat Group, or separate them into 2 Groups for maximum order use. After some practice, as well as discussion with some prominent folks (thanks @daboarder!) I opted to form one Combat Group. The reason for this was because it's really nice to be able to swap which weapon is in the Haris or the Core based on opponent and table layout, as well as having a lot of redundancy for reforming the Core or Haris as necessary.

    PP/Acqui/Arm/EngD
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
    GROUP 1[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]9 [​IMG]1
    ZULU-COBRA (Sensor) Combi Rifle, Jammer / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
    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 Heavy Rocket Launcher, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 23)
    KAMAU (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
    KAMAU HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 28)
    FUSILIER Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 14)
    FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
    FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
    HELOT MILITIAMAN Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 9)
    GROUP 2[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]5 [​IMG]1
    ZULU-COBRA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28)
    PEACEMAKER Heavy Shotgun + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
    [​IMG] AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
    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)
    6 SWC | 300 Points
    Open in Infinity Army


    The second list basically stemmed from me freaking out about Armory, and @daboarder suggesting "why not just take a pile of Heavy Infantry? They'll do fine in the Objective Room." Thanks to daboarder for some great dialog leading up to this event as well.

    Armory/Firefight
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
    GROUP 1[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]9 [​IMG]1
    ZULU-COBRA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28)
    PATSY GARNETT Submachine Gun, Nimbus Plus Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 37)
    ORC (Varuna Div.) (Multiterrain: Aquatic/Jungle, Stealth) Feuerbach / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 43)
    ORC (Varuna Div.) (Multiterrain: Aquatic/Jungle, Stealth) Boarding Shotgun + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 37)
    KAMAU (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
    FUSILIER Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 14)
    FUSILIER (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
    FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
    FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
    TECH-BEE (Remote Assistant Level 1, Specialist Operative) Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
    GROUP 2[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]3 [​IMG]2
    ZULU-COBRA (Sensor) Combi Rifle, Jammer / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
    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


    Round 1: Armory vs USAriadna.

    USAriadna Ranger Force
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
    GROUP 1[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]9 [​IMG]1
    BLACKJACK AP HMG, Chest Mines, D.E.P. / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 36)
    MAVERICK (Forward Observer) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
    FOXTROT (Forward Observer) Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
    GRUNT HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 21)
    GRUNT (Marksmanship LX) Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)
    GRUNT Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
    GRUNT Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
    GRUNT Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
    MINUTEMAN Lieutenant Rifle, 2 Light Flamethrowers / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 22)
    GROUP 2[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]4 [​IMG]3 [​IMG]4
    BLACKJACK T2 Sniper, Submachine Gun, Chest Mines / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 36)
    FOXTROT Sniper Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
    FOXTROT (Forward Observer) Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
    MAVERICK (Forward Observer) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
    DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
    DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
    DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
    6 SWC | 300 Points
    Open in Infinity Army


    My opponent hadn't had the opportunity to practice much for the event, so we played a relaxed game and helped each other get our brains warmed up for a tournament. My opponent took table side and had his Grunts very densely packed, so I took first turn, advanced the Fusiliers up and lobbed some grenades into their ranks for a good bit of damage, taking down the HMG Blackjack with the Kamau MSR while I maneuvered. The Fuerbach blasted the door open, and I packed a couple of helots and a Zulu Cobra Jammer in there to hold the fort.

    He came back at me with his remaining Blackjack, but couldn't find much luck and ate two Fuerbach hits in the face.

    With the Helots and Jammer in room, the Kamau MSV2 and Fuerbach pinning most of his troops in one corner of the table, I ran the Zulu Cobra Hacker up near his DZ and suppressed with it for another layer of defense.

    It worked out well on the whole. The Zulu Cobra held off a pile of USAR troops, I looted a couple of panoplies, and started out with a decent win.

    10-0.

    Round 2: Engineering Deck vs Military Orders

    Military Orders
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
    [​IMG]10 [​IMG]4
    TEUTONIC KNIGHT Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Panzerfaust / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 34)
    MAGISTER KNIGHT Missile Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 32)
    TRAUMA-DOC (Father-Doctor) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
    MACHINIST (Father-Engineer) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
    PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
    PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
    SERAPH HMG, 2 Nanopulsers / EXP CCW. (2 | 79)
    [​IMG] CRABBOT Flash Pulse / Knife. ()
    SPEC. SERGEANT (CH: TO Camouflage, Infiltration, Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
    SPEC. SERGEANT (CH: TO Camouflage, Infiltration, Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
    MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22)
    MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22)
    MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22)
    5 SWC | 300 Points
    Open in Infinity Army


    Here I was vs Joel Traveller's brand new Military Orders. I heard he was running limited insertion, so naturally I thought about TAG and/or a full 5-man HI link team, so I kept defense in mind when I deployed. My big concern was actually a Seraph using the infinitely-tall Objective Room or many tall building to slice or superjump around, denying my MSR her long-range advantage, and knocking over my ARO pieces while Joel packed the center objective room with mines and magisters.

    Thinking about that possible challenge, and knowing I probably could never hold a room against MO going second, I opted to just go first and try to get an advantage in attrition. Joel took the side with better approaches to the Objective Room, but gave me the side with easier consoles to push, so I wasn't complaining much.

    Counter-deployment is a big part of my approach to the game, so I generally dislike going first. This time though, I had a pretty decent opening turn. I put the Kamau HMG into Patsy's Haris, maneuvered them for the left-hand console push, then tried to knock over a magister panzerfaust and reduce the link bonuses for the magister missile high atop a building.

    The magister burned through his panzerfausts and failed Guts to prone, but I'd done a wound. Now I just decided to go for it, running the Peacemaker straight at the missile, getting within flamethrower range. He didn't want that Auxbot in his DZ, so opted to trade the hits. I got lucky and burned the magister down... Incredibly helpful... Before the bot suicided into the remaining magisters and scraped a couple of Wounds of them before going down to massed shotgun fire.

    The Seraph came to life and was looking for gunfighting angles, but ended up walking into a Stun Round from the Kamau Sniper which stopped it in its tracks. Joel shifted over to the Magisters, who sprinted into the objective room to try and stage for a rush into my DZ. One of his TO Spec Sgts knocked over my VIRD Machinist with its Combi Rifle, laying some mines to bottle up the left.

    For my Turn 2, the goal was to knock over every single knight in the midfield, and leave my opponent with the Seraph and not much else. This goal was accomplished by two Zulu Cobras... The Sensor/Jammer and Killer Hacker... Basically working opposite ends of the objective room with Breaker Rifle and Assault Pistol. This was a lot of fun to play and execute, with both the Zulu Cobras catching the Magisters between them, and being able to match their high Hyper-Dynamic Dodge Values with BS16 shots.

    The Sensor Cobra even nailed the TO Spec Sgt for his troubles too.

    At this point I had Joel on full tilt (the half bottle of bourbon probably wasn't doing him any favors) so he brought the Seraph forward again, screaming Deus Vult. It promptly walked into another Stun round, and Patsy was able to pile herself into a corner where the Seraph couldn’t get to her.

    We wrapped this one up 9-1.

    Round 3: Acquisition vs Steel Phalanx

    A new day, and I was starting to get into the rarified air of higher tables.

    Steel Phalanx
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
    [​IMG]10 [​IMG]1
    HECTOR Lieutenant Plasma Rifle, Nanopulser, Stun Grenades + 1 TinBot A / Heavy Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 71)
    ACMON Combi Rifle, Panzerfaust, Nimbus Grenades, D-Charges / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0 | 27)
    DACTYL Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle, Adhesive-Launcher, Nimbus Grenades / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0 | 23)
    THORAKITES Submachine gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 15)
    THORAKITES HMG, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 22)
    AJAX 2 Combi Rifles, Nanopulser / AP Heavy Pistol, EXP CCW. (0 | 39)
    MYRMIDON OFFICER (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 35)
    MYRMIDON Spitfire, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 31)
    MYRMIDON Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0.5 | 31)
    NETROD Electric Pulse. (0 | 4)
    5 SWC | 298 Points
    Open in Infinity Army


    I won the LT roll. I had the option of a side with a very dominant corner Sniper tower and pretty solid approaches to all three consoles, so I went with it. This is one of the surprisingly few games where I ended up counter-deploying, and damn did it go well. From Deployment alone, I pinned a Myrmidon Spitfire in the open outside of 24 with my Kamau MSV2, and trapped a couple of Thorakitai with my Kamau HRL. If this wasnt bad enough, my opponent tried to untangle the ARO web by moving Hector up, who ended up triggering a Helot LRL ARO that promptly incinerated a Myrmidon Hacker, Myrmidon Officer, and knocked two Wounds off Hector himself.

    My opponent was in a tricky spot, and I had to start focusing on scoring pretty much immediately. Patsy and Company, with the plucky Zulu Cobra KHD, ran up the field and fanned out to push and camp both flank objectives, before I piled onto the middle objective. I did a lot of trigger pulling as I went, basically taking down everything but a hiding Netrod and big Ajax himself. My opponent was so bashed up after that unfortunate opening Turn, I pretty much had to commit to getting the objectives right away, or risk his Retreat ending the game quickly.

    This one ended nicely for me as well, with another Major.

    Round 4: Powerpack vs OSS

    Operations Subsection of the S.S.S.
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
    GROUP 1[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]10
    DASYU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 36)
    DART Submachine Gun, Viral Tactical Bow, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 34)
    DAKINI Tacbot MULTI Sniper Rifle / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 21)
    DAKINI Tacbot MULTI Sniper Rifle / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 21)
    DAKINI Tacbot Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)
    DAKINI Tacbot Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 13)
    CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
    SHUKRA Lieutenant (Strategos L1) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
    YADU MULTI Rifle, E/Marat, Drop Bears (Throwing Weapon) / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 36)
    PROXY Mk.2 Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
    PROXY Mk.5 (Forward Observer) 2 Submachine Guns, Nanopulser, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
    PROXY Mk.1 Engineer Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
    YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
    GROUP 2[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]3 [​IMG]1
    NAGA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30)
    NETROD . (0 | 4)
    NETROD . (0 | 4)
    WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
    3.5 SWC | 299 Points
    Open in Infinity Army


    I knew my opponent as a prominent player from Northern California, and we've played many times before. This table was making us both nervous... It was an interior corridor/spaceship table, and while it was lovely to look at, it was tough to play on with general-purpose lists. VIRD has some great close-quarter combat options, but the bigger challenge on this table was that the scenario already had divided deployment zones. Divided deployment zones + corridors meant I had to split my force into two entirely self-sufficient armies, who were very unlikely to be ever see or support the other during the game.

    Once again, I'm not a fan of going first, but with such packed DZs, and such a dense table, I didn't want some short-range template nightmare rushing me before I had a chance to set up my defense. As a result, I opted to go first.

    My opponent counter-deployed, and I saw that one of his Netrod scatters gave me a potential opening. It looked like an easy HRL shot on a Netrod would let me snag one, if not two, of his Dakini link members. This would let me crack open his defense on that side, letting me back all 5 Dakini and also giving me access to his Shukra LT.

    Unfortunately, we ran into a protocol/etiquette issue. I leaned the HRL out and pulled the trigger. Since the Netrod was in the open, and I announced a template, I was clearly thinking I could splash those Dakini. I thought my opponent was setting up the template to verify, and rolled my dice for the shot.

    He failed saves and pulled the Netrod quickly. There was some miscommunication here, because I had anticipated him checking the blast (it was a long lean over to his side of the table.) When he didn't place the template to check and just pulled the Netrod off the table, we ran into a pretty complex issue of how to resolve this one.

    Things broke down a bit from there. I tried to play through, but this was a weird one, and tactically it really damaged my ability to achieve the breakthrough I wanted. I tried to just smash the Kamau HRL into the Dakini the old-fashioned way, 2 dice v 1 dice because of the Sat Zone. I lost the first f2f... Doctored up... Reformed the link... Lost a second time, failed both saves and lost the HRL. Brutal. What’s more, the failed attempt to break through hurt me in other areas, where I could have used my Camo units to stronger effect.

    OSS came on the attack after that, with a Yadu neatly bypassing Jammer thanks to Veteran, before it got hung up on a plucky Helot who managed to keep it from doing serious damage (phew.)

    The remainder of the game was both of us duking it out, trying to break through the corridors but having a tricky time doing so. Eventually, Patsy and the VIRD Machinist had to use Nimbus Plus to slip past the Dakini overwatch, letting me get two console pushes before ending Patsy on my opponent's console.

    However, my opponent had a trick up his sleeve, revealing a Dasyu and a Posthuman Mk2 to flip back two consoles and give him majority scoring.

    We did run into one more issue here, unfortunately. I was confident my Zulu Cobra should have revealed the Mk2 with a Sensor Sweep on Turn 1 of the game, a game-changing move since it was the Mk2 who turned this from a VIRD loss into a VIRD win. I had scanned a Camo Token that would prove to be Dart, and I was pretty confident the Mk2 should have been revealed by that same sweep as well. He disagreed. He didn't have a photo for verification, so we had some difficulty resolving exactly where the Mk2 should have been.

    These were tricky issues to navigate, and eventually wrapped up as a loss for me. What looked like a comfortable 8-4 ended up becoming 4-8 in a couple of Orders, once my opponent unflipped a console. This was a pretty good lesson in the value of clear communication of intent with your opponent, as well as making sure everyone's bookkeeping/note taking is thorough for rules like Hidden Deployment.


    Round 5: Firefight

    Steel Phalanx
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
    GROUP 1[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]10
    EKDROMOS Chain Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 20)
    EKDROMOS Chain Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 20)
    EKDROMOS Chain Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 20)
    EKDROMOS Chain Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 20)
    PHOENIX Heavy Rocket Launcher, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 40)
    MYRMIDON OFFICER Lieutenant Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0.5 | 30)
    MYRMIDON Chain Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 16)
    MYRMIDON Chain Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 16)
    NETROD Electric Pulse. (0 | 4)
    NETROD Electric Pulse. (0 | 4)
    GROUP 2[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]6
    ALKÊ Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 25)
    THORAKITES Feuerbach, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 22)
    THORAKITES (360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
    THORAKITES (360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
    THORAKITES Paramedic (Medikit, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
    PROBOT Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
    6 SWC | 300 Points
    Open in Infinity Army

    This was a very interesting round. It's rare to fight a skew list in Infinity, but this one qualified with its 4 Chain Rifle Ekdromoi who drop on 19s.

    I opted to go first, came out swinging, and when the smoke cleared I'd managed to take down Phoenix, 3 Thorakitai and a Netrod on Turn 1. This is one of the matchups where my Core actually got to bring its firepower to bear (both Phoenix and the Thorakitai Fuerbach don’t particularly like Kamau.)

    My opponent responded with a veritable meteor shower, dropping 3 of his 4 Ekdromoi all in one turn, zerging my backfield by dropping into the little niches that I couldn't quite cover. Thankfully my coverage was pretty decent... Firefight obviously demands you watch out for AD walking on or dropping in, so I had my Limited Camo Helots and Zulu Cobras covering large swathes of area. My troops did a good job only gradually bleeding to those losses… A couple lucky Dodges, ARM saves, etc. meant I managed to weather the storm of 3 Chain Rifles with only one Fusilier completely killed, and 2 Kamau and a Fusilier Unconscious. This was phenomenal… My Trauma Doc was well hidden in the middle of my lines and was very hard to reach, and her Palbot absurdly managed some Dodges and Armor Saves too, so my Healing infrastructure was very much intact.

    After weathering that storm, I went on the attack hard, with Patsy’s link looting some panoplies and taking down (what I hoped) was his Alke LT.

    Unfortunately, his Myrmidon Officer was his LT, and she was safely prone on top of a building, which no chance of me getting to her. I did end up taking down everything else on the table for a handy win, but my opponent used his very last Ekdromoi to drop right next to my Fusilier LT, using the last Order of the game to crit her in CC and turn my Major (7-1) into a Minor (7-3.) This was a time when “standard” VIRD list of multiple Camo troopers, including two ZCs who could have conceivably been my LT, would have been very helpful.

    Conclusion:
    That last Ekdromoi drop was big! Only a few players (including myself) had been consistent about scoring Major victories. My Round 4 OSS opponent went undefeated, but only had 2 Major and 3 Minor victories, for 12 TPs. A major would have given me 12 TPs also, and I was ahead on objective points as well, which would have scored me first overall. Close!

    Still, no complaints. Credit to my Round 5 opponent for seeing the opportunity and making the right move. I love Varuna, but there's still a lot to learn with tightening up my rounds and maximizing points with the same fluency that I found with NCA and Acon. It's good to have a fresh project.

    I ended up taking home 3rd overall, with my Round 4 opponent scoring first place and world-ranked Polynikes getting 2nd.

    Roster thoughts:

    I was very happy with the work Patsy did, and will certainly make her a staple of play in the future. Most of my VIRD lists don't use the Haris, instead using those points for more 1-Wound Camo, TO Camo and AD units for maximum movement and flexibility. I still prefer that list structure, but it tends to be very weak on Datatracker options, so it's great to have Patsy as a strong aggressive Datatracker optionn.

    I was glad to have the full ORC Haris for Armory too, but I also would have liked a super-midfield list for some of these matchups. Having more Zulu Cobra, Echo Bravo, Crocs, etc. would have made me much stronger for some of these missions (PowerPack in particular, where I was penned up in those dangerous corner Deployment Zones. Two Sensors and a source of antipersonnel mines would have been critically helpfull tools for PowerPack in particular, and also vs the drop-heavy list in Round 5 (double Jammers would have been a lifesaver.)

    On the whole, I'm pleased with the overall performance and toolbox of VIRD. There's still a lot to learn and practice with here, but the Sectorial definitely has all the tools required for success. This mission lineup in general really made me focus on VIRD’s datatracker/objective holding capabilities, which is much more challenging than simply attrition or button pushing. It was nice to have this experience under my belt, and I’m looking forward to future mission lineups that will let me try some other tactical considerations as well.
     
    #1 barakiel, Feb 14, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2019
  2. Leviathan

    Leviathan Hungry Caliban

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    I really like your two lists. The Patsy + Kamau HRL + Machinist haris is one that keeps jumping out to me as well, and is more or less what I intend to run most of the time. Having the option to chop and change with the other Kamau is a great idea though, and its definitely a point in favour of running the two fireteams in the same group.
     
    #2 Leviathan, Feb 15, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2019
    barakiel likes this.
  3. Paegis

    Paegis Vincible Officer

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    Been really enjoying your tournament reports, so thanks for posting! Your 4th round opponent going undefeated after some fishy-sounding play in your match feels kinda suspect, but I guess mistakes and miscommunication do happen. Grats on 3rd!
     
  4. daboarder

    daboarder Force One Commander
    Warcor

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    awesome mate, reading it now
     
  5. RobertShepherd

    RobertShepherd Antipodean midwit

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    'Tricky issues to navigate' takes today's award for Most Polite Euphemism.
     
  6. Andre82

    Andre82 Well-Known Member

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    I am really surprised a judge ruled in his favor on those issues.... you did call a judge right?
     
  7. AdmiralJCJF

    AdmiralJCJF Heart of the Hyperpower

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    To be fair, the template one is tricky because it's really on the active player to place that when the attack is announced.

    Of course, the reactive player should also have checked... but it's far from clear cut.

    As to the Mk 2 Proxy, I assume the opponent had the position written down in text? If not then that's a clear breach of the rules and I'm also surprised that a Judge allowed it to pass. If so then the it probably came down to a slightly unclear description of the location, which is always "unfortunate" to have to resolve.

    Nevertheless, thanks very much @barakiel for this writeup. It's especially valuable to have these early in the meta development of a new force like VIRD.
     
    Shoitaan likes this.
  8. Manfred_VR

    Manfred_VR Well-Known Member

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    A great BR, it was an excellent tournament with a good 3rd place, 5 matches are really a lot, It's hard to think straight.

    Some considerations about your two lists. I saw that you didn't play the Croc Man, I used the FO one in my last tournament, my missions were Eng deck, Acquistion and Supremacy, the Maori helped me a lot and gave me many points. But, despite this I find really interesting the haris with Patsy in the same group with a fusi+Kamau link, 'cause is something I didn't think about, you've the NCO order and with also a defensive link the aggressive one is free to use many orders, great idea. Helots are awesome, I too prefer the light rocket conf.
     
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  9. barakiel

    barakiel Echo Bravo Master Sergeant

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    Definitely, not having a Croc Man was a mistake. In hindsight, I was too nervous about the objective room missions. Taking two Patsy Haris lists was definitely overkill.

    Having one of my more "typical" lists with multiple ZC and a Croc would have really helped, especially in that PowerPack round where LoF was ultra-dense on the table, and multiple Jammer and Croc Mines would have saved the day. Thanks for the feedback.

    I tested the Patsy Haris in its own Combat Group, and also sharing with the Core group. I like both versions a lot. The main advantage of having Patsy in the same group as the Core is that it gives you flexibility for which Kamau you put in the link. You can take the HRL or the HMG based on need, picking which one is most useful during Deployment. I like that a lot.

    Moving forward though, I doubt I'll ever leave home without a source of mines. Coming from Acon, I missed them in every round I played.
     
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  10. eciu

    eciu Easter worshiper

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    Oh, I've just saw that you played against MO.

    Well the moment I saw both list involved the result was more than clear.
     
  11. barakiel

    barakiel Echo Bravo Master Sergeant

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    I think that link would have been more dangerous if it had rushed on Turn 3. I think it's a common danger, trying to get to the room too early. With two Zulu Cobra able to crossfire around the room, it was a very dangerous situation for that link. I actually get very lucky that the Auxbot managed to take down one of the Magisters in Turn 1.
     
  12. eciu

    eciu Easter worshiper

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    Yes, that's one of sorry results of new MO. You really have to stay with link in the back till turn 3, otherwise your main portion of orders (and LT problably) will die in mid-field. New links are not robust and crazy resilient like old Hosp+Mag (who could sometimes take stupid amount of bullets and effort from enemy).

    He also had no one who could really engage Kamau, had you been able to counter-deploy him (deploy 2nd).
     
  13. Shoitaan

    Shoitaan Well-Known Member

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    The OSS game sounds messed up. I guess the template issue could have been resolved as @AdmiralJCJF said and probably what would have happened to me as I've very eager to place templates to see how well I guessed a splash. The Proxy MK2 situation though seems BS. I've always anticipated I'd have some kind of nonsense happen to me playing Infinity because of hidden deployment but its never happened so far. I can't imagine having to deal with that BS during an event. Sorry you had to go through that :/

    So based on your lists, I guess its fair to say that VIIRD's sweetspot is around 15 orders (not all regular)?
     
  14. Manfred_VR

    Manfred_VR Well-Known Member

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    Yes, Croc is very useful and it's the only source of mines for Varuna, with it in my lists I was quiet during Acquisition and Eng. Deck, anyway, it also depends on the missions, next time I'll play Safe Area, Firefight and Frostbyte and maybe I'll not include it, but I'm not sure.

    I find really interesting the flexibility of Patsy haris, the choice between Kamau HRL and HMG really gives you a great bonus, it's a great idea and personally I want to test it.
     
  15. SilverSpoon

    SilverSpoon New Member

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    Hey) your Haris machinist+patsy+kamau HRL?
    If yes, it's legal? My community says machinist can join only core or haris of Kamau that means in haris we need kamau Haris. If it's core I can't join machinist to 2 fus 1 orc 1 kamau + machinist because its fus core not kamau ?
     
    #15 SilverSpoon, Jul 12, 2019
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2019
  16. Marduck

    Marduck Well-Known Member

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    It is not anymore due to the 1.7 FAQ which says the haris is a type of haris of the leader and Patsy is an Orco (she is green with big teeth you know ...). But it was legal (or considered legal) at the time he played the tournament.
     
  17. SilverSpoon

    SilverSpoon New Member

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    Oh okay. Thanks)
     
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