Comms center. A concerto on Tarik Mansuri and Magghariba Guard.

Last Wnedsday, I’ve met with PIetia in our local gaming club to play Coms centre mission in 300 pts format.
The idea was to take pictures of the game and then compile them with some battle report to help promote the game and our club – that is Klub Strych in Kraków, Poland.
To that end we’ve set up a table with our recently painted buildings and newly printed custom mat. We’ve also agreed to field most of our best painted models in hopes that attractive visuals would bring us new players. As Pietia is much more into social media he undertook to publish this as vastly as possible, while I myself took on writing this report for your reading pleasure.
So, as said; we played coms centre which is fun mission in that it has a pinch of everything: you get points:
for clicking antennas,
for disabling your opponent from clicking,
for killing specialist
and defending your own
and last but certainly not least killing designated target and best doing so with your data tracker.
There is also one classified objective for each player, but as you’ll see we were both too busy with all the other things to do that it did not come into play in our particular game.
One more thing – there is exclusion zone in the middle of the table affecting infiltrators (and mech deployed guys) as well as airborne deployed troops.
W both went for our most played armies, Pietia brought his Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor in form of this:
Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1 9 1
GECKO Mk12, Chain-colt, Blitzen / . (0.5 | 54)
GECKO PILOT 2 Assault Pistols, Knife. ()
INTRUDER (X-Visor) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 43)
MOBILE BRIGADA Lieutenant MULTI Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 39)
BANDIT Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 25)
MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
ALGUACIL HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 18)
ALGUACIL Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15)
ALGUACIL Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
GROUP 2 2
REAKTION ZOND HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)
TOMCAT Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower + 1 Zondcat / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 26)
ZONDCAT Electric Pulse. (4)
6 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army
I went with highly elite Haqqislam list:
Haqqislam
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
8 2 2
MAGHARIBA MULTI HMG, Heavy Flamethrower / . (2 | 78)
MAGHARIBA PILOT Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. ()
TARIK MANSURI Spitfire, Nanopulser, Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (1.5 | 55)
SALADIN Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 36)
HASSASSIN HUSAM YASBIR (Infiltration, Holoprojector L2) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW, Knife. (0 | 34)
HAWWA' (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
HALQA Doctor Plus (Medikit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19)
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
BARID Hacker (Killer Hacking Device UPGRADE: Lightning) Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
3.5 SWC | 299 Points
Open in Infinity Army
For propaganda purposes I also took heroic style picture:

The table was up like this (this are pictures taken from different edges of the table, starting in Haqqislam DZ):



The mission doesn’t particularly favour going first or second (IMO at least) and my army was very much in favour of going first, thankfully Saladin gives a bit of edge in that regard. It is even easier when your opponent fails his roll completely which was the case in this game. With humble 4 on my yellow dice I picked up turn order and Pietia chose to deploy in DZ granting rooftops with good overview of centre of the table, he also asked me to deploy first. That was not too much of a deal, with Saladin I’ve held Magghariba and Tarik as my reserve.
Last thing worth noting in deployment phase is that my army has only one combat group so it doesn’t suffer from most common strategic use of command tokens (in ITS at least).
My DZ:

I’ve deployed pretty conservatively, with one exception: my Husam Yasbir (who I rarely take and my opponent did not expect) deployed in DZ (not using infiltration) at the left edge of the table, disguised as Ayyar shock marksman rifle, whose value is well known to Pietia.

Saladin took the highest roof in my DZ and went prone, ready to command (because real commanders command, not fight).

Barid in the centre was prepared to shoot his pitcher should Magghariba need some anti-hacking help in the future (he was also ready to use repeater on Saladin as my opponent’s assassin of choice is killer hacker bandit).

Hunzakut deployed at the centre antenna near my edge of the table

and Al Hawwa with Halqa doc and Krakot in vicinity of the right closest antenna.

Lonely Ghazi started more or less in the centre of my DZ.

That meant, most of my army was on the left side of my DZ and right side of infiltration area. At that point Pietia expected I held Magghariba and probably Fiday but was not expecting Tarik and Magghariba.
After seeing my opponents deployment, I’ve decided to start with Tarik and hold Magghie as secondary attack piece (?!). Therefore she was placed in safe shadow of highest building in DZ guarding my designated target, and Tarik started on opposite side of the table ready to attack.

Krakot rolled super mobility in meta chemistry table gaining 6-4 MOV and superjump.
In the opposite DZ, Pietia placed his Alguaciles link on my left with HMG and ML covering longer fire lanes and paramedic ready to click the antenna in least orders possible.


In the centre, on rooftops he deployed MobileBrigada multi rifle – which was obvious Lt. (after so many games we’ve played I know this guy very well), close to him there was Reaktion Zond as main ARO piece and prone camo token (which was obvious Intruder, only question was if he holds HMG or MSR).

Gecko took position on the ground in front of presumed Intruder. Two infiltrators (Bandit and Moran) deployed near opposite antennas. It was also well visible that some points are missing – meaning Tommcat or Hellcat (presumably specialist) are on the air drop mission. This kind of deployment left vast and relatively safe attack avenue on my right (bottom of below photo) – this is reason for placing Tarik there.

Designated targets were deployed in safe places defended by Magghariba and Hunzakut on my side and Alguaciles link, Moran (koalas) and Reaktion Zond on Pieta’s.

Tarik (bad choice, should have gone with Maggie as she was on targets side of the table) and Gecko were appointed respective data trackers.
So, with all scenery and actors ready, we(I)’ve started the show.
My plan was to beat the opponent as hard as possible in the first round and leave some potent attack piece near his DZ to give him something to deal with for his first round, then take centre of the table with my TAG and safely do my clicking assuming killing was already done. I had good tools for that and plenty of orders (8 regular, 1 Lt.’s counted as regular, 2 irregular, 2 impetuous).
To achieve my plan I’ve started with some insignificant movements from impetuous troops. Then Tarik started his concerto. At first coordinated with Yasbir/Ayyar and Krakot moved forward. Previously coordinated two gained defensive positions against expected airborne attack, and Tarik in his second order reached position for shootout with Reaktion Zond – we’ve rolled 8 (4 each) dice and… none result was lower than 15…

Well, this is what all total reaction REMs are for – eat enemies’ orders… A little discouraged I’ve repeated that action again. This time Tarik prevailed and with 3 hits managed to cause 1 damage, fair enough. This opened the table and let Tarik (who is also known as Alibaba in our group) to attack more aggressively. He left his cover and opened up on extended Alguacil paramedic across the table at long range, scoring a critical hit on 1 (Fatality! As heard in Mortal Combat 2) and another hit, removing poor medic from the table. Moran who stood less than 8” from dying Alguacile changed facing to gain chance for reaction to imminent attack from Haqqislam’s hero. That did not extended his life too much, he went unconscious with my next order.

Next Tarik entered LOF of camoed Bandit who decided not to react. This was mistake on my opponent’s side in my opinion, she had more chances to stop Tarik in his killing raid by engaging him in CC than shooting with LSG which she did later. Anyway, Tarik gained angle to shoot Gecko from outside of his LOF and caused 1 damage with his 3 dice (Pietia had extremely lucky ARM rolls on this one), but at the same time managed to incapacitate bandit who opened up with her LSG.

In the end of that order, Tarik gained cover behind one of the buildings in enemy DZ, and Gecko who chose to fail his guts roll repositioned to somewhat safer spot. So Tarik was left in total cover in enemy DZ with only two regular orders. I’ve decided that is time to tactically retreat him to a safer place where killing him would cost my opponent more orders. So Tarik engaged in shootout with hated TAG once again (in hopes to kill it and open his way to safety), this time, however, it was man not machine who took damage. That was disappointing I really hoped I could kill that damned TAG… Tarik again had to act more recklessly than I would want, he moved to the open but at the same time got Gecko without cover. This time he managed to score 1 damage but was left in the open. To reach safe position with Tarik I’ve decided to change Hunzakut’s irregular order to regular and moved my Alibaba behind the building at the very edge of the table, scoring 3rd and last damage on the Gecko in the process.

Last thing I did in my turn was repositioning Ghazi to guard rear of my DZ against airborne attack. I thought about changing that order to regular and giving suppressive fire to Tarik, but in the end I considered that it is better to lure opponent into attacking Cpt. Haqqislam (as they call him) and into burning most of his orders in the process. Had I engaged suppressive fire, I guess Pietia wouldn’t go after Tarik considering it to much of a hazard and took some less anticipated and therefore potentially more devastating plan (for me I mean).
Tarik’s heroic action in round one left Nomad player with only 6 regular orders and Lt. order. In the beginning of his round Pietia moved a trooper (outside of the table at that time) to his main combat group with use of his first command token. Then he started with 3 coordinated orders moving Mobile Brigada towards Tarik’s position, setting Intruder on ARO position and moving Gecko’s pilot towards antenna. Whole that manoeuvring allowed Brigada to take on Tarik with his Lt. order. Tarik prevailed in FtF roll but Brigadas ARM roll allowed him act further without fear of LOL in his next turn.

All in all in 4th regular order of the round and after spending all command tokens and Lt.’s order Brigada managed to kill Tarik dead. With only two remaining orders Pietia decided not to bring his airborne deployed troop but moved his linkteam and attacked Yasbir/Ayyar with a ML. At that time, however, Yasbir revealed himself and smoke-dodged the attack with a crit.

At the end of turn one, Haqqislam had 2 OPs for killing more specialists, none antenna was connected, and both datatrackers were out of action.
I’ve started second round in good mood – with 7+1 regular orders, untouched Magghariba and well softened opposition.
Ghazi had to impetuously run toward Mobile Brigada crossing LOF of the camo token (Intruder) in enemy DZ. Pietia decided to reveal and shoot little Ghazi in the face. With no use of smoke against MSV sniper Ghazi decided to dodge, in effect Intruder rolled 20, Ghazi 17 so the only effect from this action was reveal of the Intruder sniper (at least one order for discovery saved). Krakot again decided to stay put.
Following that, I moved Maggie forward twice only to learn that at some point, enemy commander seen my TAG from afar and decided to dodge. I didn’t expect to see him, but, well, it is even better. Full burst of AP ammo wounded heavy trooper and pushed him further to cover.

After that my Maggie went on regular killing raid, a killing bonanza you might say… she removed Intruder, Gecko pilot and Gecko wreck,

3 Alguaciles: HMG, ML and combi. She also lost 1 STR in the process.

At that point I was afraid if the raid haven’t put my opponent in retreat state (he had only Mobile brigade and Alguacile rifleman on the table), so again instead of engaging suppressive fire on Magghariba I decided to click some antennas, to secure points should the game end with this turn. Hunzakut completed that mission with her irregular order.

My opponent’s army was in really poor shape after that, however, we’ve checked that not deployed and therefore not killed troops do count against retreat limit and that saved us third round. The JCC player started his round with 2 regular and one Lt’s orders, which allowed him to accomplish his only goal for the round – he killed Magghariba with AP ammo from multirifle on MobileBrigada.

As last effort he also entered his Tomcat Doctor and Zondcat at the edge of his DZ.

Second turn gave additional 4 OP to Haqqislam due to connected antenna.
I have started my third round slightly disgusted with poor performance of Magghariba’s armour, but well, I was in comfortable spot anyway. With those emotion I started making mistakes. Out of 6+1 regular orders, I’ve spent 4 and one irregular with command token on top, to allow Krakot kill that damned Brigada (he died in the process BTW).

Whole that effort could not achieve anything pointwise, therefore had no impact on the game whatsoever. Then, I made AlHawwa click another antenna, again without any possible impact on final scoring. That left me with 2 regular and 1 irregular order on Hunzakut to kill designated target. Suffice to say, that she had only one chance, with burst 2 deployed on 17's, she managed to miss one and tie second with dodge attempt from treacherous civilian…
In final Nomad’s round, played in retreat state, courageous Tomcat tried to shoot med kit into bandit but failed and that finished battle with following scoring:
Haqqislam 6 OP (152 VP):
To have more Connected Antennas than the adversary at the
end of the game - 4 OP
To kill more Specialist Troops than the adversary - 2 OP
Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor - 0 OP (36 VP)
So, that’s it for the battle report.
If any of you dear readers ever visit Krakow, please contact us for a game, demo or Infinity chat. Our club is located downtown and we meet every Wednesday afternoon (and play until around 9 PM), if you’d prefer different days of a week just drop us any info.
We usually have two seasons of Infinity league every year and play small tournaments (RECON rules) every now and then.

Official FB of the club may be fount here: https://www.facebook.com/Klub-Strych-w-Krakowie-154826701241203/

 

Thanks for comment.


And yes, couldn’t agree more. Good pictures of painted minis played on nice terrain attract people who then get interested in the game.


Hope we’ll be able to deliver more similar stuff.


BTW, I’ve always appreciated your reports on Youtube, thanks for producing them.