1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Brief rundown post-HeroCon (Qld, Australia)

Discussion in 'Yu Jing' started by paraelix, Dec 9, 2019.

  1. paraelix

    paraelix Seed Embryo Scholar

    Joined:
    Jan 31, 2018
    Messages:
    1,163
    Likes Received:
    1,206
    Howdy forum dwellers,

    Just a quick rundown/recap of my weekend at HeroCon where I came 3rd with Invincible Army. The event was run by my local Warcor @Knockout_013 and attended by a mixed group of players from Brisbane, Ipswich, Rockhampton, Cairns, Townsville, and Newcastle. We ran 5 rounds over 3 days and played through missions as follows;
    Countermeasures
    Capture and Protect
    Looting and Sabotage
    Frontline
    Supplies

    Additionally, of the 20ish tables for play (we ended up with 38 players at day 1) around 5 or 6 of them had table-wide terrain effects imposed on them - something Knockout has done a bunch in the past.

    (NOTE - Photos are just of the boards, not my games. Other people's minis (and arms) are present)

    For the lead up to the event, I had a couple of runs through Countermeasures with IA, and played a preceding event at a local club covering the day 1 missions. The 2 lists I ran were as follows, though I only used list 1 for Countermeasures, despite it being the list I'd had prepared ahead of time, and the second list (list 4) being thrown together the day before.

    Unwinnable Army List 1
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────

    GROUP 1[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]9 [​IMG]1
    HǍIDÀO (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 37)
    SON-BAE Yaókòng Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 17)
    ZHANSHI (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
    ZHANSHI (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
    ZHANSHI Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
    DĀOYĪNG Lieutenant L2 Hacker (Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)
    WARCOR (Sixth Sense L1) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
    TAI SHENG Mk12, Chain-colt, Stun Grenades / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 45)
    ZÚYŎNG (Fireteam: Haris, Tactical Awareness) Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot B (Deflector L2) / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0.5 | 34)
    HǍIDÀO Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 26)

    GROUP 2[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]5
    RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20)
    MECH-ENGINEER Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
    YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
    Zhanshi YĪSHĒNG Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
    YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
    CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
    CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

    5 SWC | 300 Points

    Open in Infinity Army

    Unwinnable Army List 4
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────

    GROUP 1[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]9 [​IMG]1
    HǍIDÀO (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 37)
    SON-BAE Yaókòng Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 17)
    ZHANSHI (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
    ZHANSHI (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
    ZHANSHI Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
    DĀOYĪNG Lieutenant L2 Hacker (Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)
    WARCOR (Sixth Sense L1) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
    HÚLÁNG (Fireteam: Duo) 2 Submachine Gun, E/M Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 41)
    LÉI GŌNG Shock Marksman Rifle, Nanopulser, Blitzen / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 34)
    MÓWÁNG (NCO) Red Fury, Akrylat-Kanone / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (1 | 52)

    GROUP 2[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]3
    ZHĒNCHÁ (Forward Observer) Submachine Gun, D.E.P., Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 34)
    CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
    CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

    4.5 SWC | 300 Points

    Open in Infinity Army

    Round 1 - Countermeasures. Tablewide terrain - Desert. Effect - Saturation Zone.
    Opponent - TAK
    I've played Player 1 a bunch over the last few years... Like, basically every local event. I also hate playing TAK, which is his main army. Adding insult to injury, the tablewide effect - coupled with the inevitable Total Immunity on his Dogs - meant my list's strengths were pretty neutered.

    My opponent's list was 2 full combat groups. A mixed bag consisting of 3 Dog Warriors, 4 Irmandinhos, 2 Strelok FOs, a Vet Kazak/4 Line Kazak link, a couple extra kazak bodies, antipodes and controller.

    I won the Lt roll and chose deployment. There was one board edge that I felt gave me a much more solid defensive vantage for my link team, and the board had sufficient blocking terrain that my opponent could have probably turtled enough to weather my Turn 1 assault without too much concern.

    Board 1.jpg

    Turn 1 saw a whole load of carnage as Irmandinhos walked out into the open and got nailed by MSV Sniper fire. The loss of burst from the saturation was frustrating, but most shots were chasing 19s. The Dog Warriors likewise were drawn out by impet moves, I believe each one sustaining a wound from the sniper. There were a few unopposed shots, as models threw smoke to cover again the fireteam's missile launcher. My opponent then moved up his Vet Kazak link, duelling across the board with my Rui Shi (on a roof for max anti-warband AROs). It was made short work of, and my opponent edged around to take a blat at the Haidao sniper. In doing so, however, he opened himself up to a Warcor flash. The Haidao won the exchange and pinged a wound off the Kazak, and the Flash pulse (unopposed) stunned him. The rest of his turn saw Dog Warriors edge forward, dodging inside smoke clouds against sniper rounds - ending with one of the dogs getting a double chain rifle shot on the link (declaring 2 targets to avoid losing burst). I took some damage on the missile bot and the Haidao shrugged the damage and put him down. NOTE - all of the Dogs took only enough damage as to drop Unconscious.

    My turn 1 had the Tai team shimmy up a flank, Tai performed the WIP check on Unconscious enemy to claim a DT classified and I hacked another unconscious body with the Haidao for a second. I left Tai's team in a moderate overwatch position - still guarded by my Missile/Sniper team. My second group moved up some bots and repaired the Missile rem.

    Turn 2 - my opponent surged forward with the HMG link again and obliterated my Haidao with a crit and some hits, then cut down the missile bot with the next order. Unsure how he could move the link up further, he instead long bombed some medpack shots into an unconscious Dog Warrior - healing it. Have to say, I didn't expect this. The Dog leapt across the flank of Tai's team and sprayed double Chain again. I took 1 wound on the Tinbot Zuyong and dropped the dog again (once more, only a single wound dealt). This action was repeated by my opponent twice more until the link and the dog were both dead. In the midst of this, a Strelok made a dash for an objective on the opposite flank but copped a stray ARO and went down.

    My follow up was limited. Tai was still Unconscious, so I edged my doctor up the flank with 1 order, and spent the remainder of that group's orders on running a flashbot into the downed Strelok for a coup de grace. With my opponent's link in the open, exposing all his paramedic and FO kazaks, I spent group 1s orders moving Zhanshi forward and split-bursting across the table to try and drop them. I got a few, but ultimately not enough.

    Turn 3 - with the flip of new Classifieds, and my opponent's veto and replacement, he ended up with a Doctor/Paramed on an enemy specialist, a Datatracker on HVT, and an FO on a building in enemy deployment card. Exactly the 3 types of specialist he had. Furthermore, his DT was the Vet Kazak HMG who had no other specialist roles it could've completed. He shot a few of my guys down as he edged up the board, and his final 4 orders played out as;
    - move and doctor Tai Sheng to complete classified
    - move and use Vet Kazak on HVT to complete classified
    - move and shoot my Doctor, putting me into retreat
    - move and FO a building to complete a classified

    With me in retreat and with no CP left, I had no way of completing any further classifieds - so the game ended with a 7-7 draw.

    Round 2 - Capture and Protect. No terrain effects.
    Opponent - Tohaa
    This player came from up north and we'd never crossed paths at an event before. His name was recognisable from Facebook posts on Infinity Aus, but I had no clue what to expect.

    Tohaa list - 2 Groups consisting of 4 Chaksa Auxilliars, 1 Kaeltar, 1 Gao Rael sniper, 1 Tacquel Spitfire, 1 Draal SMG, 4 Makauls, 2 Clipsos, a Fishman, a doctor/paramed, and space Beyonce.

    I forget which of us won the Lt roll for this match, but I ended up with first turn and my opponent with deployment. I reserved my Mowang for, what I believed would be, maximum plan disruption. In hindsight, I was too concerned with Duoing the Hulang and Lei Gong to try and get some work out of the Hulang - I should've kept Lei in reserve to counter the inevitable Gao Rael.

    I set my link up in as dominating a position as I could, covering most firelanes. Hulang/Lei Gong covered the same flank the Link was on, the flash bots and warcor were spread out, and I dropped the Mowang on the opposite flank. His Gao Rael/Doc/Kaeltar sat in the opposite corner to my Fireteam, the Draal/Mak/Mak in the middle, and the Tacquel/Mak/Mak on the flank the Hulang/Gong were on.

    Board 2.jpg

    Turn 1 - I tried to look for a means of getting Lei Gong up to fight the Gao Rael with his Albedo, but no dice. They were on opposite sides and it would have been too order intensive. Instead, the Mowang swept up the other flank in the shadows of buildings until he could edge up to a corner for a bead on the sniper. From memory, it took 3 orders of shooting to down the thing but I got him. From there, the Mowang poked out and killed the Diplomat on a roof, and one of the SymbioKoalas of the Taquel. I then slid the Gong/Lang duo up and took a pop at a Makaul and the other SymbioKoala. Smoke saved the Mak but the last perimeter died. I carwled my Zhencha forward on his rooftop and took a blat at the other Mak linked to the Taquel, pasting it with some SMG fire, but allowing a Chaksa to dodge into cover whilst retaining eyes on the Obj. With my last orders, I shuffled the Mowang, Gong, and hulang around and put them into suppressive fire, I also stood up my Haidao and poked the Missile bot around a corner to watch all the firelanes.

    My opponent started his turn healing the Unc Gao Rael - as expected. Then he threw a load of eclipse around to block the Fireteam and suppression LoF to the sniper, and stood the dude up. The Draal link moved up showering smoke everywhere. The Draal initially tried shooting at the Mowang, but dropping a mate and then a wound for it's trouble. Changing tactics, he then tried to throw the Makauls at me to get into combat - the Mowang dropped one and the other was left in the open. In an attempt to finish me off, he also revealed a Clipso and took a shot - everything bouncing off my armour. Finally, he finished up with the Fishman peaking a corner and firing off a DEP in a vain attempt to clear my missile bot. The bot pasted him.

    Turn 2 -
    With smoke dissipating, my Fireteam's missile bot and Haidao both had LoF to his Gao Rael, and the Haidao to the Draal. Knowing the Draal was an SMG, I activated the Missile bot and shifted into total cover. As I gambled, my opponent FtF'd the missile with the Gao, but threw down a Dazer with the Draal instead of taking a potshot. The Gao, and his Doc friend, ate missiles and perished. I then spent another order with the Haidao leading the link to drop the Draal (who failed at dodging). The Dazer that went down effectively locked the Mowang off from any supporting elements I could throw in to kill the Makaul in his face - which is gonna be a bad time - so to make sure it was worth, I Yolo'd Lei Gong down the guts of the table, managing to avoid most LoF, pick off a Chaksa from outside HFT range, grab the Obj, and leg it back to my deployment zone. With 2 Lt orders and my group 2 orders left, I figured I needed to throw a repeater bot in to save the Wang. I did this the wrong way around though. When I moved the repeater, it just ate a bullet from the Clipso. In hindsight, I needed to do my next actions first, and then counter with the Repeater. So I shuffled the Wang back and sprayed bullets. He failed to engage, but I failed to kill. I spent a second order, failed to kill again - he dodged forward.

    His turn 2 saw the Makaul see red and dive headlong after the Mowang. With a solid amount of smoke cover, he murdered it in short order. He then poured his remaining orders circumventing all my lines of fire with scenery and smoke, and scorched Lei Gong to death while eating danger close missiles from the bot (thanks to 6th sense).

    My turn 3 had the missile bot grab the box and castle up behind the building the rest of the link was on - the rest of the link standing up to maximise AROs. My Zhencha was shifted into Group 1 and took a walk across the board with my other orders so that he could fondle a corpse for a classified. I spent all remaining orders taking shots at anything I could, or standing models to enable subsequent AROs.

    My opponent's final turn was spent feeding troops into my ARO machine. The Makaul walked around the corner into a Haidao crit. The Taquel walked around the corner into a Haidao crit. The 2 Clipsos both ate MSV sniper rounds as well. It was a bloodbath. Game ends 8-0.

    Round 3 - Looting and Sabotage. No terrain effects.
    Opponent - Invincible Army
    Another regular who I've faced at local events a few times. We'd talked shop a bit about lists so I had some idea what I'd be walking into. He was running;
    The same Fireteam - Haidao sniper, 3 Zhanshi (incl Hacker) and a missile bot
    Guija
    Engineer w/bot
    Zhencha
    Lu Duan disguised as an Evo
    Liu Xing Multi Rifle/D-charges

    Player 3 won initiative and took first turn. Not unexpected. I took the favourable deployment (also, on one of my tables no less). He deployed his link centrally, camo on the right flank, engi and bot on the left. There was obviously a huge gap of points for either the Guija or a Hac Tao, and the Engi more or less signposted the former. I set up my fireteam with missile and haidao staring at his Haidao, but - foolishly - without my missile bot having eyes on where I expected the Guija to land. Mowang held in reserve and my forward deploying elements were all prone on rooftops to avoid the link or the Guija.

    Board 3.jpg

    Turn 1 - Guija shimmied to the corner of the building it hid behind and opened up on the Haidao. I won the FtF somehow, and even put a wound on the Guija. Instead of immediately continuing the fight - the Engineer went next and ran his bot to the rescue. He subsequently rolled high and failed to repair, went to use a CP to reroll, then realised he couldn't. With the Guija down 2 Str, he chanced another Engi roll and succeeded - declaring the success of his Classified. The Guija, still with armour plates dented, resumed the firefight with the sniper. We traded a bunch of orders before the sniper dropped. His last orders were spent running up his "Evo bot" and going into Suppression. I was perplexed for a moment, then realise it was a Lu Duan and he was using the Holo2 trick to poke the corner.

    With my link down to 4, my missile bot in LoF of his 5 linked Haidao and Suppressive Lu Duan Holo... I knew I couldn't risk touching it. It was time for the Wang to go nuts. With a combo of move and 2 cautious moves, I got into a position to firefight the Lu Duan - killing it instantly. I then cautious moved some more to avoid a mm thin strip of LoF the Guija had to get further up the board and engage the Haidao up close. a couple of sprays saw him die. With the missile bot freed up, I spent my last order giving the Guija a lick - dealing no Str to the TAG but dropping the helper bot with the template. Group 2 devoted it's orders to crawling the Zhencha away from the Missile Bot's LoF, and clipping a Zhanshi from the link with SMG. He then readied for a chance at DEP AROs against the TAG.

    Turn 2 - The TAG activated immediately to use it's active burst 4 to annihilate the missile boat. He then edged around to get a lock on the Mowang. I ARO'd with my Akrylat Kannone and asked the gods for a Crit. They delivered. But for both of us. My crit was matched by two of his. He tried again - no crits this time, but the Akrylat won out and statue'd the TAG. In desperation, my opponent made efforts to leg his Engi to the TAG's rescue, but didn't have the resources to get there.

    I'd brought the Hulang specifically for this mission, because IA's anti-mat is rubbish. Thus far, the Hulang and Lei Gong were pinned on a building by the Missile bot's LoF. Stupidly, I positioned them so that if Lei took a blat, the Hulang would eat any blasts. So the Mowang rode in and sprayed the Missile bot to death while, soaking a hack with the first order, and getting IMM'd by the second - which was fine, as the bot had died. Lang and Gong then skipped merrily across the board to a panoply and drew an Automedkit for Gong. The Lang then pulverised the AC2, but took all 3 orders/D-charges to do it.

    Turn 3 - My opponent activates AD support with his hacker and nails the drop on top of my AC2 unit, which I've stupidly left with no relevant overwatch. Saving my bacon, though, the Daoying is within 8". He manages to ping 1 Str off the thing before becoming IMM'd, then successfully resets, then takes 1 more Str off with his last order

    I spend my last turn scooting my Hulang across the board to the frozen Guija and cut it in half with Monofil. I've been playing since second ed and have NEVER managed to monofil a TAG before. Achievement unlocked. Game ends 8-3.

    Day 2 to come in subsequent post.
     
    #1 paraelix, Dec 9, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2019
  2. paraelix

    paraelix Seed Embryo Scholar

    Joined:
    Jan 31, 2018
    Messages:
    1,163
    Likes Received:
    1,206
    Day 2

    Round 4 - Frontline. No terrain effects
    Opponent - Vanilla Haqqislam

    This match was an oddity - due to weird shenanigans with OTM pairing and 2 players dropping from day 1, I was allocated a bye. In place of Knockout playing the bye-bust, there was a visitor from Cairns who wanted to attend the tourney but hadn't been able to guarantee the time. So he gap-filled with TO's permission.

    The board for this mission was super vertical. My opponent had first turn, and informed me he had Strategos 3 (Saladin) so I had no reserves and he would have 2. I, of course, assumed this meant I was about to be Fiday'd a bunch... But I was wrong.

    His force was 1 group;
    Saladin
    Odalisque
    Khawarij Rifle
    Djanbazan Shock Marksman
    Naffatun Rifle/HFT
    Zhayedan Rifle
    Ghulam Doctor w/bot
    Asawira Spitfire
    Tuareg AHD
    Le Muet (MSV1)

    I was shocked by the basic-ness of the list, and almost assumed he was a new player - it read like a painted starter box. He was, however, a knowledgeable player and - between that and my horrendous dice rolling - it was a brutal game.

    I deployed my defensive link on the left (Haidao and 2 Zhanshi on the roof, missile and zhanshi at ground level), overlooking the rooftops that Le Muet and the Djan were on, and the streets that Saladin/Asawira/Odalisque/Khawarij would move up. He had his Naffatun and Zhayedan on the right where my Hulang and Mowang were chilling. My flash bots sat in the middle, 1 overlooking my fireteam. My warcor also overlooked the fireteam. Zhencha went on a central building roof behind cover, and Lei Gong was prone on a rooftop with a gantry close by. My Daoying was sat on a roof nearby to the Fireteam, placed so that it could potentially hack anything walking the route to my DZ.

    Board 4.jpg

    Turn 1 -
    My opponent started off by revealing a TO marker on the same roof as my Zhencha - prone - and crawled along the cover out of sight. He then revealed and intuitively placed a mine around the corner of cover, right in the Zhencha's face. He then re-camo'd. Next he activated the Asawira and took a jog forward, rounded the corner and blew my missile bot away in 1 round of shooting. I'd misdeployed the Haidao thinking I had vision of the corner he rounded - but alas, no. Having some success there, the Asawira jogged further forward, blowing away my warcor. He then entered my hacking zone as he b-lined for the remaining Zhanshi at ground level. I revealed and hacked - failed. He activated again to get around the corner and murder the Zhanshi - I flubbed my shots and the hack. With the couple of orders he had remaining, he did some coordinated orders to shift up the board with his ground level troops, and tuck the Asawira into a corner.

    With the devastation of the first turn wrought on me, I had a choice - I could run the 'Wang forward to take out the Zhay/Naffatun, or try to cross my DZ and long-bomb the Asawira. I estimated he couldn't do much more with the Asawira besides kill the repeater bots, at least not without a longskill climb and eating AROs... So I headed up the flank. I had deployed my Mowang really conservatively in case of Fidays, so it took a few orders to get in position. I peaked a corner and sprayed at the Naffatun. After doing some math on the mods, my opponent chose to dodge. I flubbed another round of shooting, and the Naffatun successfully dodged back up the wall - now in a position I couldn't possibly see without being in HFT range. Moving the Mowang around the other way would've bled me dry of orders, so the Hulang went for a jog instead. He snuck the opposite way and blitzed the Zhayedan up close with burst 4 SMG, and then turned to get the Naffatun in the back. 1 Order to move and shoot - completely failed. A second order to move into CC and swing - hit this time, but a roll of 13 for Arm. With only 3 orders in my second group left, I shifted on of the repeater bots up and baited the Tuareg into revealing and hacking - Isolating the bot. Now revealed, though, I seized the chance to clear her from the midfield with the Zhencha - climbing over the cover, tripping the mine, and shooting her with SMG. She fired back. I dunced all my shots and ate a wound from the Shotgun in return. Somehow, my dice allowed me to survive the mine. So, near defeat, I threw another order at it - again eating a wound from the shotgun and carking it.

    Turn 2 -
    My opponent ignores the plight of the Zhayedan and abandons him to his fate. He decides his best bet is to rampage with the Asawira more. He takes out a repeater bot and climbs some stairs in my backline. By doing this, he gets LoF on the back of my Haidao (now, I think I had been in total cover from this approach, but the table had been knocked - specifically the building my fireteam was on - and as it sat, LoF was clear) so he gave him a spray, took a wound off him, and I opted to fail guts to keep him alive. Continuing to circle my hacking zone, the Asawira plugged the Isolated repeater bot, and set up in suppression in my backline slightly left of the midline. With his remaining orders, my opponent again used coordinated orders to move up or stand up his troops for ARO. By the end of his turn, Le Muet, the Djan, and the Khawarij were positioned ready to fire on any models who stood on rooftops.

    Bleeding even more orders was hard. I needed to salvage this. With my 3-man link intact, I crawled my Haidao to the edge of his cover and sliced the pie on the Khawarij and killed him. I then repeated the manoeuvre for Le Muet and ate a crit. Changing tactics, I spent a Lt order on my Mowang and crept back down the edge of the board, managing to get an eyeball on the Asawira from around 28". My opponent saw that he was obviously beyond 24" and declared a dodge, but my single glue shot flew true - making him a statue. I then spent the remaining Lt Order to scoot up to cover the Hulang and tried to puzzle out how I could threaten Saladin on the other side of the board. I gave them a rest and tried to do something about the Djan's AROs. I threw my faith behind weight of dice and ran into the open on the gantry and fire on the Djan in cover. His single return shot dropped me a wound. I spent another and moved up to cover, my shots pinging off armour. I sunk one more order into it, going prone with my other short skill - this time I dealt a wound, but only the one. He went unconscious. Without much else I could do to further my momentum, I sunk another order into the Hulang - his 3rd attempt to kill this Naffatun - and finally succeeded.

    Turn 3 -
    My opponent decided to entrench. He regen'd his Djanbazan in the middle zone. Spent an order re positioning his Tuareg on the roof with a mine for defence. He sunk some orders into his Ghulam Doc to achieve a HVT classified, and called it quits.

    All or nothing time. I stand my remaining Zhanshi FO and spend 2 orders Observing his glued Asawira to claim my Classified. I spend an Lt order to re-camo my Daoying and another to crawl to the edge of the building she's on. I then spend an order to surprise hack the Tuareg who is just inside my ZoC. The hack succeeds but the Arm check passes. I try again without Camo and my opponent succeeds at his reply hack (oddly, he had chosen to use Blackout instead of Oblivion. I'm gonna chalk this down to pure error/confusion). Without my hacking device, I throw one last go at it and stand up and shoot. I hit (finally) but the Tuareg soaks it and my Daoying explodes from a DA sniper round. Without any remaining chance to do any damage, I coord the Wang and Lang to make double sure they're in the far zone and the game ends.

    I hold my near and far zone, he has the middle. Both of us had a classified. Neither had our designated FO remaining. 6-4 to me.

    My opponent played a fantastic game with a list I completely underestimated. His moves were all measured and calculated. My dice certainly betrayed me during the first game turn, but I felt outplayed and outdeployed for most of the game.

    Round 5 - Supplies. Terrain - Zero-G. Effect - Low Vis Zone (board wide)
    So, via some extraordinary fluke, I was on Draw, Major, Major, Minor and this landed me on the second from top table again the player in 3rd position. RIP.
    Opponent - ISS
    I won the Lt roll and, after much anguish, declared I'd take deployment. He chose first turn. He then informed me that he had Strategos 3 and I would have no reserves. Whilst discussing the board, we also established he had an AD troop (something I'd actually expected anyway).

    Board 5.jpg

    Opponent list;
    Group 1
    Kuang Shi controller
    4 Kuan Shi
    Sophotect and bot
    Su-Jian
    Sun Tze v1
    CG Hacker
    FO Bot
    Group 2
    Kuang Shi controller
    3 or 4 Kaung Shi
    Rui Shi
    Garuda Spitfire

    This board was a corridors board. The means of advance were all fairly obvious and scatter terrain meant there were barely any firelanes linger than 12-18". This had me scared because IA really struggle against CC and close assault/disposable DTWs.

    Each of our DZ was essentially 1 hallway with a couple different doors to look out of, so his deployment was his corridor and mine was mine. I forward deployed my Daoying and Zhencha on top of some crates so that they could be relevant, but only risked attack if things actually spent time climbing/discovering (probs not the best tactic vs a Su-Jian). The Hulang did the same on the left flank, but on a smaller box that was visible to S2 head height it turned out. The 'Wang deployed in almost total cover, just eyeballing slightly out the left side into the long corridor my opponent had deployed nothing into. His reserve drops were just Su-Jian and Rui Shi into the same corridor.

    Turn 1 -
    Kuang Shi ran impetuously forward. 1 eating a sniper round to a thin gap between cover. Realising how limited my defensive fire arcs were, my opponent immediately surfed the Sophotect into the central room and stole the middle supply box and surfed back into his DZ. He moved up the battle kitty and obliterated one of my repeater bot sentries. He then AD walked on his Garuda into the empty hallway behind cover and moved a his hacker to add supportware. The Garuda then swept down the corridor, killing the Warcor, wounding the 'Wang and forcing me to Guts back from the corner, and destroying the Hulang. He dropped into suppression. The battle cat then moved on the same spot. Realising he didn't have the orders to get into a protracted firefight vs the Wang, he changed tac and leapt into some cover and went suppressive facing the Wang's doorway.

    So I start my turn with the age old query, "Do I do the dumb thing?" My opponent told me not to, as that would inevitably work against him... So I did it anyway. I merged my two groups for 10 full orders and Lei Gong started a run across the whole board. He scooted up and shot at 2 Kuang Shi in the opening to the main area. I plugged one but couldn't drop the second as I continued my sprint. I edged up to cover at the entrance to his DZ corridor that the Hacker was at (good thing I'm MI) and crawled along the edge of it (another of those boxes S2 can *just* see over). I finish a crawl with LoF on the Su-Jian's back and Blitzen the bugger. He is now a statue. I then swap to the Wang and dice off against the Garuda, dropping it to Unc. With the Su-Jian and Garuda both in need of an Engineer, I crawl Lei Gong around the corner and drop a nanopulser over the helper bot behind the box - also covering the Hacker and Sun Tze. Now, we screwed up here and my opponent ARO'd with Sunny and the Hacker *through* the S1 bot when they wouldn't have had LoF. I manage to drop a wound off Sunny, but the others survive. I take a wound in response. I shuffle my link up to try and get a better firing spot, and edge the Wang into cover overlooking the doorway Lei Gong is firing into.

    Turn 2
    Things get a bit messy. The remaining Kuang Shi makes a dash for Lei Gong. After getting into a firing position, I find out I derped my placement of Lei Gong and have to eat a Chain Rifle without an ARO. I take a wound from the attack, dropping to NWI and turning in response. The Kuang Shi has another go and I drop him with my rifle and tank the hit. Sunny them decides to deal with Lei Gong and, now realising our LoF issue for return attacks, he walks out into the hall to get a bead and fires on Gong. I drop another template and knock the Hacker down, but Sunny and the bot are made of sterner stuff. Gong passes his saves vs the Shotty hit. I then remember the Wang is watching the hall and chuck an Akrylat shot down the hall, gluing Sunny to the spot. Then begins the rescue mission - Sophie passes off her box to another model and scoots down the hall, the link showers the hall in smoke, Sophie fixes Sunny, resurrects the Hacker, the Hacker retreats, Sophie retreats, Sunny drops an intuitive on Gong and finally removes him. All the ISS troops finish the turn backed into the hallway again.

    I start by shifting my missile bot up and destroy the Controller from group 2 with a blast. I dump a bunch of orders into my Zhencha to climb down from his box, seize the supplies, and run into the midst of the link - passing off the box to the missile bot who retreats further back, leaving the Haidao as point defence. The Zhencha then continues toward the left Supplies and then I remember the Hacker is still covering the approach on my opponent's side, and need to backtrack towards my dz. Without the orders to get where I want, I duck behind a crate and re-camo, using the Lt orders to shift the Wang into cover on the last Supplies and enter Suppressive.

    Turn 3 - My opponent puts the Rui Shi into overdrive, activating Marksmanship supportware. It zooms into the middle room and downs the Haidao with a few bursts. It then changes course towards the Wang. The Kuang Shi link then runs towards the left flank, the controller moving out into LoF to carpet smoke for the Rui Shi to fight the Wang. Unfortunately for him, I crit the shot. There's then a brief rules discussion about Suppression modifier affecting his smoke shot - if it does, he misses, and if it doesn't, he crits his smoke as well. With time running down and Knockout doing award presentation for the other game system he was running that day, my opponent rolls with my interpretation and we play on (this is later backed up by TO evaluation). My opponent decides there's no choice, and dives the Rui Shi in anyway. We dump about 3 or 4 orders spraying each other before the Wang finally dies. With his last orders, my opponent spreads out his AROs to stop me getting the last Supplies.

    I begin my turn with the crazy belief I can possibly get my Fireteam up to his DZ and drop templates close enough to kill his carrier. So I hand off the supply box and race forward, eating laser beams from Sunny and killing a couple of Kuang Shi. I continue this until I'm on my last 2 orders, then realise it is impossible. Had I spent the orders otherwise, I might have been able to nab a classified. So with my final act of desperation, my Zhencha does a move-move, and a move-dodge to reveal itself inside 8" of my opponent's HVT with him having no troops near mine. The game ends. 2-1.

    It is important to note here that I haven't mentioned continuously how the Low Vis zone continued to affect shooting, and how I was at an advantage dealing with this courtesy of my 2 MSV troops and by having Multiterrain on the Wang. This gave me a solid advantage in most of the firefights that I instigated throughout the game.

    Clarification; I completely failed during the setup for this game. When I drew my first classified, my options were a Doctor/Paramed objective or an Engineer one. I didn't have an Engineer, so the choice was clear. Only, I somehow managed to keep the Engineer one and discard the Doc/Medic one...

    So I finished on Draw/Major/Major/Minor/Minor - 3rd Place on countback for OPs (1 behind 2nd place). It was a stellar weekend and my games were solidly enjoyable, if a little anxiety inducing at times. I'll see if I can source some photos of the tables to assist in the visualisation :D
     
    #2 paraelix, Dec 9, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2019
  3. ObviousGray

    ObviousGray Frenzied Mushroom

    Joined:
    Nov 27, 2017
    Messages:
    1,848
    Likes Received:
    3,155
    3rd place over Austrailian Tournament, excellent job! Waiting for further reports.

    For me list 1 is a 'staple' build, although I find it amusing you built some really defensive link with extra body to fill the gap. Investing 3 SWC is a tough choice for me!

    List 2, now thats quite peculiar. Lei with Hulang/Mowang - Did you paired him with one of them, or was it from some deeper consideration? Also, why did you left Zhencha with 3 orders, which seems to be the bodies for sale while AROing pulses?
     
  4. paraelix

    paraelix Seed Embryo Scholar

    Joined:
    Jan 31, 2018
    Messages:
    1,163
    Likes Received:
    1,206
    I needed a solid anti-mat for L&S, so I figured I'd try Lei Gong as the Hulang chaperone. His SMR making up for the range deficiency of the Hulang's SMGs. There were some games where I ran Lei solo. I think I mentioned in some of the breakdown, I generally held the Mowang for my reserve, when it should probably have always been Lei Gong in order to abuse his Albedo.

    Also, list 2 was thrown together the day before the event without any planning or play testing. I knew I liked the defensive link and Daoying, so that went in. Then the Hulang per above. Then Lei Gong to try and complement the Hulang. Then the Wang for NCO and because the model is basically the reason I picked up IA. The Zhencha and Repeaters were just filling points, adding ARO, and giving me a true skirmisher. I ended up going second in all but 1 game I played, so I didn't get hurt by extending beyond Limited Insertion (this time).

    Regarding the Fireteam, the defensive link was a star all weekend. The Missile and MSR have a little bit of overlap, but there were plenty of instances where the ability to Template was more important than the MSV, and vice versa... And had I had a HMG instead of one or the other, I think I'd have been the worse for it.

    Overall thoughts from the weekend;
    Haidao Sniper is great
    Mowang Red Fury is the superior Mowang
    Lei Gong is solid as hell, and SMR > SMG
    Zhencha is fragile
    Hulang is still super mediocre
     
  5. Azuset

    Azuset Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2018
    Messages:
    574
    Likes Received:
    231
    @paraelix thanks for the recap. I really enjoyed reading it. Excellent job landing 3rd place with IA. I will be reading this over a second time. :)

    You never mentioned the score of game 2.

    The first fireteam I thought about with Lei Gong was with the Hulang. I have not tried it out yet. The idea being able to move them both up and braking them up when needed to some order efficiency. I am very excited to try Lei Gong. He seems to fit my play style (on paper at least).

    I as well run the Haido Sniper and Missile bot as my primary link. I have had an absolute blast killing all thing things with this link.
     
  6. paraelix

    paraelix Seed Embryo Scholar

    Joined:
    Jan 31, 2018
    Messages:
    1,163
    Likes Received:
    1,206
    Was 8-0. I had a box, he didn't. I conpleted a classified. My DT (Mowang) was dead :(
     
    Knockout_013 and Azuset like this.
  7. Section9

    Section9 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 24, 2017
    Messages:
    6,148
    Likes Received:
    9,666
    Congrats!!! (feels good to pull that off, doesn't it?)
     
    Knockout_013 likes this.
  • About Us

    We are a company founded in 2001 in Cangas (Spain), and devoted to design and manufacture games and figures. Our main product, Infinity the Game, was born with the ambition to satisfy the most demanding audience, offering the best quality.

     

    Why are we here?

     

    Because we are, first and foremost, players.

  • Quick Navigation

    Open the Quick Navigation