Help me not embarrass myself at my first tournament

Okay, for Infinity, randomly chosen missions is BAD. Capital letters bad because some missions heavily favor some units while others don't, and some factions are better at building utilitarian 'take all comers' lists than others. It's all part of the assymetric balance of the game, and knowing which mission you'll play beforehand really helps in that regard.

As for your list, since you are trying for a generalist mindset, here's what I would do:

Ditch the prowler. If you want a glue gun, get the Lunokhod. Prowlers are expensive as fuck and aren't that much better than hecklers for all that cost.

Consider an interventor LT. Pair with a Zero or Bandit Killer hacker and you will dominate the hacking game, more so with all your repeaters;

Either the Intruder Sniper OR the HMG, both are going to drain your orders quite fast.

Consider a pair of morlocks for throwaway smoke throwers on group 2. They're fairly effective at dropping smoke and way more expendable than jaguars. Plus, impetuous and irregular means they don't drain your main order pool to drop smoke. Just plan their move paths ahead when you deploy them.

Consider a Zero minelayer instead of the deployable repeater. It adds a threat in your midfield and allows you to stall an enemy for one or two orders if they're afraid of your mine. And if you kill something with it, bonus!

All in all, your list isn't bad by any means, but not knowing which missions you'll play beforehand will hurt you. This list is gonna suffer if you roll something like Biotechvore.

 

Oh boy, random missions are not a good sign

I would recommend you build 2 lists, one with a good spread of specialists and one with mostly attack pieces and maybe 1 or 2 specialists that takes mostly Veteran, Elite and HQ troops. This should cover most mission styles including hunting party. If you try to cram everything into one you will not have a good time.

I second everything @DaRedOne said. I know the sniper intruder looks like he would be a great ARO piece, but there are much better ones to choose from, including the eponymous TR bot, which you can buff considerably with your hackers and will not eat your points. That said, your choice of 2 intruders strikes me as one of those "might be just crazy enough to work" things so you do you my guy.

Hope this helps, and best of luck on your first tourney!

 

Random mission plus limited to a single list. Really not a good sign. No idea if you'll have direct action and/or specialist.

I'd go with just a few specialist and mostly attack pieces. Some specialist mission can be won by killing enemy specialists and scoring just a few Objective Point yourself.

For example, i recently played hunting party with a mission tailored list and got wiped out by a direct action list that killed all my stuff while scoring his classified (he had also stun pistol my Lt - which does IMM in this mission - but i spent a command token for my engineer to ignore retreat and fixed my Lt for a 2-0 loss).

 

Random Missions and a single list is a terrible idea, but like you said, that's not up to you.

I recommend giving Biotechvore, Highly Classified, and Rescue very close reads. They are the most list-restrictive of the ITS missions, and you will want to prepare your list to deal with the objectives and obstacles in those missions. If you have time, practice playing any of the missions that you havent' played yet.

If the missions are random and you can only bring a single list, the dice are going to matter more than anything else, so your choices aren't as important. In a way, that's very freeing!

 

IMO add hunting party to that list too.

 

If you want long range Sniper ARO, consider a Spektr instead. BS12 isn't that much different than BS13, and ODD and MSV+Smoke are the same modifier. Plus you get to place it on different positions on the table, and get Hidden deployment for a nasty surprise.

 

The Grid (less so) and Looting & Sabotage (more so) also fit into that restricted category.

I'd try and tie the TO down to at least a mission set style. Direct Action Operations, Special Operations, or Joint Operations. That will at least give you a limited set of missions that could come up

 

I'm going to buck the trend here a bit. Yeah, random missions is crazy talk if this is a competitive event.

Presumably the organizer knows that's a terrible idea for a competitive event.

Just make a balanced list as best you can, and enjoy the event. Meet new peeps to play against and enjoy the experience.

If you can find some way to spend that last swc. But other than that don't sweat it.

Also ask whether this is a wet or dry event. I really enjoy meeting people while playing beerfinity.

 

^^ This!
You can't expect too much of yourself at your first event and certainly it isn't possible to 'embarrass' yourself (unless the people you're playing with aren't worth knowing anyway!)

While the Infinity tournament scene is competitive, players manage to in my experience be an inexplicable balance of serious about the rules and nuances of the game and how to use them to win, and awesome people who will help new players through (even competitive) games and are generally all stand up dudes (and dudettes!).

Just take whatever list you want, would recommend what ever you know you are comfortable with, don't suddenly take a load of units you haven't practised with before or it will be a bit overwhelming, especially with a time limit if you aren't used to that for games normally.

I hope you have an awesome time and look forward to hearing how fun a day you had!

 

I'm headed to my first tournament next weekend at NOVA Open.

Technically, it's my first THREE tournaments, as I'm doing the Narrative Event, The 3 Mission ITS, and the 5 Mission ITS. Hopefully by day 4 I'll be drunk enough to offset the exhaustion.

In any case, my primary goal with all of it is to play tight and quick, and to stay organized. That's it. I'd rather make bad gameplay decisions quickly and make sure all of my games go smoothly and finish on time.

I think that's the best goal to have, because it will be hard enough to do that without also worrying about trying to win, LOL. A big part of this is having a plan for whatever lists I'm brining. Is it a good plan? I dunno. But it is what I am going to do.

You're in a tough spot with the one list, random missions thing, but you'll be in the same boat as everybody else.

Whatever list you take, I recommend having a plan for how you are going to play it.

No matter what the mission is, dominating the midfield is a strong strategy, so I would build a list to do that, and have a plan for precisely how I want to accomplish doing that.

Frontline? Dominate the middle.
Deadly Dance? Dominate the middle.
Rescue? Dominate the middle.
Antenna Field? Dominate the middle.
Etc. etc. etc.

"Control the midfield" is a straightforward goal to have, it is something that Nomads do very well, and it will almost invariably make for a good game, even if you don't win.

I would ditch the Prowler and the Krakot, and use those points to take a second Moran, make both of them Forward Observers, take two more Jaguars and an extra Zondbot, and make your Repeater Zero into a Minelayer.

This gives you four models that can infiltrate into the midfield, lay mines/Set Koalas, and go into Suppressive Fire. That's annoying to deal with no matter what the mission is.

Do your killing with your Intruders, help that by laying down smoke with your 3 Jags. Push up your Transducers to speed bump anybody trying to move in on your dudes in suppression.

Put Mary up high out of LOF, and bring her out as backup. She can hack through the Morans and the Transducers if your opponent tries to move up HI, TAGs, or REMs. If there's an opportunity, have her reposition and/or drop a repeater to nail a juicy target or IMM someone before chewing it up with your Intruder. In a pinch, put her into Suppression and Cover, and give your opponent a problem to deal with.

If the mission needs specialists, you've got them in spades. If it needs killing, leverage suppressive fire, camo, mines, koalas, and do your best to bring those Intruders to bear.

That's what I would do. And good idea or not, it is definitely something that you CAN do.

That'll put you at 299 and 6 SWC, if my math is right.

But you've already got a fine enough list to stick to whatever plan you want to make. Personally, I'd say it is much more important to make one plan and try to pull that off smoothly than try to make the BEST plan.

 

Not disagreeing but MSV+Camo+1 BS has a much higher average relative BS than TO even in ARO. Hidden deployment and Infiltration would be the reason to take the Spektr. For me the MSV2's role in WB counter is a big deal but I think both are good choices.

We often play this way. And if I make the maps I usually try to make a set piece over balance, and we often do custom missions that are never balanced. Putting your skills against other people in fair play can be fun but it's not the only way, and it can be stressful if you never have games that give a casual and unique experience the priority. I think it also builds a good spirit for when it does get competitive because you get used to laughing off sided games.

 

There is nothing wrong with going and losing. I would probably recommend taking a ten order list and just focus on the tournament basics, make sure your games arent going over and that you are able to keep track of orders in a way that is clear to your opponent. You needn't memorise all your range bands or hacking programs but try to have a grip on the core ones.
Don't sweat the power of the list until you have got the above nailed in my opinion.

 

Random missions is a bad idea because it's much more punitive to new players who are trying to learn how to play than it is to experienced players. Infinity already has a massive gulf between new players and players who have mastered even the basics of shooting and moving. Why make it wider with oddball houserules?

Learning doesn't have anything to do with winning or losing ... that's completely irrelevant. But If you try to play baseball with a golf club, all you learn is that you had the wrong tool, when you could have learned so much more by being told 'Hey, we're playing baseball today, bring your bat'.

 

I think it's the reverse. Newer players aren't as good at building for a mission so it can put them on a more even ground.

 

But you are building for a mission. You’re building for a random mission. Which requires intimacy with all of the possible missions.

 

A new player won't be building for the mission either way. It's like turning the lights out on a blind man.

 

Except that the experienced players get to see the entire room and look around and explore it before the lights go out. The new player just gets thrown in blind. I cannot agree with you @loricus

 

newbie advantage goes from 0 to 0
oldbie advantage goes from 4 to 3
Does that make more sense?