Parting vines with their sword-tips and stepping silently through swamps, two spearheads of O-Yoroi stalk through the jungles of Paradiso. Focused and grim, they prepare to spring a close-quarters ambush on a column of Squalos escorting an important commander's armored personnel carrier. But the six sharp-eyed samurai-pilots don't notice the shimmer of the Cutter tracking close behind them... until it's too late. Iron Fists is a light rules mod which allows you to play out armored clashes between forces made up primarily of TAGs. It is played like any other game of Infinity, with a few small modifications to unit availability and fireteam eligibility. Armored Clash: Points and SWC for an Iron Fists mission At least 65% of army points must be spent on TAGs and TAG-equivalent units for an Iron Fists mission. - Some factions with limited access to TAGs can count other troops towards this points requirement, see "Field Promotion" section below. Low-tier: 400 points / 8 SWC, at least 260 points spent on TAGs - Normal 15-unit cap on army list choices remains. A maximum of two order groups are allowed. - Played on a normal 4x4-foot Infinity table High-tier: 600 points / 12 SWC, at least 390 points spent on TAGs - Played on a 6x4-foot table, with deployment zones along the 6-foot sides. - More than 15 troops are allowed, up to a two-group limit (so 20 unit choices maximum). A maximum of two order groups are allowed. Bring Out The Big Guns: Increased Availability for armored units All TAGs without the Camouflage, Hidden Deployment, or Combat Jump skills are AVA Total (except the Avatar, Scarface, Maximus, and any other "character TAGs", which remain AVA 1) TAGs with the Camouflage skill but no Hidden Deployment are AVA +1. TAGs with Hidden Deployment gain no AVA bonus. TAGs with Combat Jump (any level) are AVA +1 The Anaconda Mercenary TAG Squad is AVA Total for all Human Sphere and Tohaa factions. They may form Fireteam: Duos with other Anacondas, in addition to any fireteams they are allowed under other rules. Triphammer TAGs are AVA +2 for all factions with access to them, and AVA 2 for other Human Sphere or Tohaa factions (so anyone but Combined Army). [Tip: Use the Mercs option in the Infinity Army app to add Anacondas and Triphammers to your list.] Xeodrons and Overdrons are AVA Total for all Combined Army factions. Field Promotion: TAG-equivalent troopers for Iron Fists The following units count towards the minimum required TAG purchase for Iron Fists, and may also have additional rules modifications as below - Ratniks (AVA Total; receive a Tac Aware order) - Blackjacks (AVA Total; receive a Tac Aware order) - Su-Jian (AVA Total; Fast Attack fireteams allow Fireteam: Haris, not just Duo; Cannot be designated as Lieutenant at start of game) - Dog-Warriors, 2nd Irregular Caledonians, Devil Dog teams (AVA +1; Cannot be designated as Lieutenant at start of game) - Antipode Assault Packs (Cannot be designated as Lieutenant at start of game) - Achilles, Ajax Form Up!: TAG fireteams Fireteams which include TAGs may exceed the number of fireteams that you are allowed. As long as at least one TAG is included, these fireteams may also include other troopers as allowed in the faction's normal Fireteams chart, or allowed to join as Wildcards. Squadron Command: Lieutenant selection The following rules replace the requirement to have a Lieutenant (Lt.) choice for your army list: One of your TAGs or TAG-equivalent troopers must be designated as your Lt. This can be any TAG or TAG-equivalent trooper at all: It does not have to be a TAG which normally has an Lt option. This designation is Hidden Information. The only exception to this is the Avatar, which -must- be the Lieutenant. In Iron Fists, the Mnemonica skill allows the Lt. to pass to another allied TAG as well as REMs and troopers with Cubes, should the Avatar enter a Null state. Non-TAG units cannot be your initial Lt. choice in Iron Fists, but they may be nominated as Lt. if you experience Loss of Lieutenant, and/or may inherit the Lt position through Chain of Command, etc. as normal. Hearts of Teseum: The basic Iron Fists mission This mission is similar to Annihilation: pure destruction, aggression focused to degrade/destroy the opponent's capabilities. Scrap their TAGs, blow up their supply caches, take out their commander, and try to keep your own ass all in one piece! Spoiler: Hearts of Teseum mission rules Objective Points and Win Conditions: TAG Kills: 2 OP for killing a number of points of TAGS within 10 or less points of the number of your TAGs that your opponent killed. 3 OP for killing at least 11 more points of TAGs than your opponent did. TAGs count as "killed" if they are in any Null state at the end of the game. Possessed TAGs are counted as "killed Destroyed Beacons: 2 OP for having destroyed the same number of Beacons as your opponent did (must destroy at least 1 Beacon). 4 OP for having destroyed more Beacons than your opponent did (must destroy at least 1 Beacon). Killing Lts: 1 OP for killing the same number of Lt.s as your opponent killed (at least 1 killed) 2 OP for killing more Lt.s than your opponent did. Classifieds: 1 OP for completing a Classified Objective, including Secure the HVT. Max 1 OP. Battlefield setup and deployment: Deployment zones: Standard setup, 12" deployment zones. Make sure there is total cover in each DZ for at least 3 S7 TAGs, so that they cannot be seen from any point in the opponent's Deployment Zone. Beacons: Before either side deploys troops, both players will place 2 Beacons in contact with the forward edge towards the opponent (the 12" line of the DZ), at least 12" apart from each other. They may be placed on top of buildings as long as their position is accessible by stairs, ladders, or a Climb/Jump of 4" or less. These Beacons have the same statistics as those in Resilience Ops. They may be destroyed by opposing troops, can only be damaged by weapons with the Anti-Material trait, and may be targeted by Engineer or Gizmokit to be Repaired by friendly troops. Close Combat weapons wielded by TAGs are considered to have the Anti-Materiel trait: no weapons carried by any troopers other than TAGs are considered to have the Anti-Materiel trait (so only TAGs can destroy the Beacons). Classifieds: Each player has a single Classified Objective HVTs: This missions uses HVTs, one per player, placed anywhere more than 4" outside their deployment zone as usual. Special Rule: Defensive Measures Anticipating an proliferation of anti-armor weaponry and tactics, the techs of each side have reinforced their TAGs defenses. - K1 weapons have DAM 12, and no other rule may modify this (such as TAGs' common +1 DAM rule). - The player going second may choose to have any single EVO hacker be running any single Supportware program when the game starts. This does not cost orders, command tokens, or anything else. The player must have an EVO remote in their list to use this rule. Other Missions [I'm still developing these, but here are a few ideas to show what you could do with the mobility and range of TAG units.] - Salvage Run: Salvaging advanced voodoo-tech from three wrecked alien TAGs on the centerline: extract technology and secure it from enemy hands. Similar to Supplies but you also get to hit a Panoply when you get the box (aka the Alien Tech Remnant). The Panoply benefit then transfers with the box, and only TAGs or TAG-equivalent troops can carry the Alien Tech Remnant - Endrun: Breakthrough mission, has an attacker and a defender, asymmetric. Attacker is attempting to exit their TAGs off the far end of the board, Defender is trying to prevent them. Played longways on a 6x4. - Research Purposes: Capture opposing TAGs. Have more victory points' worth of opposing TAGs in the Unconscious, Immobilized, Isolated, or Possessed states at the end of the game. +1 VP if you repaired a TAG out of one of these states using an Engineer during the game. - Headhunters (aka Black Spot from BAMS): This time it's personal! Commanders have targeted certain enemy TAGs that must die. Each side nominates six opposing TAGs or TAG-equivalent units as Chosen Targets, which may include camouflage tokens. Each player vetoes two of those choices, resulting in four Chosen Targets on each side. [If there is any doubt about what is under a camo token, the player owning the token must confirm whether it is indeed a TAG: not an issue under the current rules since there are no other S6-S7 camo units...]. Points are scored based on those Chosen Targets being destroyed by game end. [This excellent BAMS mission by YueFei, Wise Kensai, and Nehemiah is played as presented here, with one modification: Units nominated for death (Potential Chosen Targets) must be TAGs unless the opponent does not have enough TAGs to pick from... then you can nominate non-TAG units as well. Similarly, vetoes must be chosen from non-TAG units unless you have only TAGs to choose from. This keeps the focus of the action squarely where it should be (on giant robot suits, not on squishing mere meat-beings). Note that one of your TAGs or TAG-equivalent models gets nominated as a Maya Pirate as well, giving it Holomask and +3 Dodge.] Practical tips for playing Iron Fists Rule #1: Don't hang your TAGs out to get shot. It's tempting to use TAGs with decent single-shot ARO weapons as order sinks, letting your opponent take shots at them to waste their orders. In normal Infinity, a TAG may take your opponent 3-4 orders to take down, if you can kill their best anti-armor weapons on your own turn first. That's a lot harder in Iron Fists, because most TAGs make great TAG-killers too. With Tac Aware orders etc., it's tempting to get bloodlust and advance multiple TAGs to try to kill your opponent's TAGs, to the point where you don't have enough orders to move them back. This is not a good idea: Counterattacks will wipe your multiple TAGs out on the opposing turn, and you'll lose quickly. So treat your TAGs like light infantry, and always hide them at the end of your turn or when deploying, put speedbump units out to make it harder for your opponent to get shots on your TAGs, etc. Rule #2: Make sure each Deployment Zone has at least 3 places where a Silhouette 7 TAG can hide completely from the opposing deployment zone! Because TAGs are usually able to ARO with only a single shot (with the exception of the few TAGs which can Haris), they are particularly vulnerable to being shot down by alpha strikes if they cannot hide on the opponent's turn. If you don't have enough large terrain and have to stack some pieces on top of each other or declare some buildings/cliffs/etc. to be infinite height to hide at least 3 TAGs, do that. Using the Infinity Army app: When building a list in Infinity Army, select your TAGs/TAG-equivalent units first, to make it easier to see your points spent towards the minimum TAG requirement (260 at 400-point tier, 390 at 600-point tier). If you need to add Anacondas, Triphammers, or Scarface to your list, use the Mercs option in the Infinity Army app to allow them to be selected. To create army lists for high-tier games, use the browser version of Infinity Army (mobile doesn't allow 600-point forces). For armylist selections which bundle TAG and non-TAG units (Scarface and Cordelia for example), you may still have to do a little math. Don't forget to subtract Cordelia's 17 points from the armylist points cost when you calculate your minimum TAG spending. She doesn't count towards your 420 or 280 minimum. While playing a game, try placing your Tac Aware orders, damage tokens, status tokens etc. -on- your TAGs' bases. Otherwise they can easily get mixed up with the many tokens from other TAGs placed nearby. Playing on TTS, lock models and their tokens together (already standard practice, but you might want to include the Tac Aware order in the tokens attached to the model, to prevent confusion with the other 4-6 Tac Aware orders you will have). These rules are version 3.1. Please share any suggestions you have to improve them! Thanks for reading. Spoiler: Design notes Design Note: History of this rules mod I first designed a massed-TAG-combat mod for Infinity in N2, also called Iron Fists. I got 4 test games in, and it was good fun. Some of the N4's innovations for TAGs were anticipated in Iron Fists' rules, like Tac Aware orders and small-TAG squads. It was clunky, and the N3 version wasn't much better. In N4 these rules mods are going to be a -lot- smoother and easier to track: it seems like a great time for this mod to be added because things like TAGs in linkteams are already in the core rules. The only things that differ much from standard Infinity are unit AVA rules, which are increased for TAGs and TAG-like units. Since so many people are playing on TTS these days, I hope a fair number of folks can give this a try. If you do, I would really love to hear your feedback and test notes on this thread. Design Note: Table Sizes There are a lot of big bases involved here. Playing lengthwise on a 4x6 is also a possibility, with 18" deep deployment zones. This increases ranges, but also allows more-mobile TAG units to have more room to move around. With the Tac Aware orders on small TAG units and lots of 6" MOV values, as well as a lot of long-ranged weapons, playing longways is doable. Design Note: Increased Engineers? Increased AVA for Engineer units might also be needed at 600 points (since some armies have just one Engineer choice and AVA 1 on that). Should be tested first. It might just be done for a single Mission, maybe a repair-oriented one. Design Note: Hearts of Teseum mission Was considering making this number of STR points of TAGs destroyed or surviving, for simplicity... but that might also end up really uneven what with cost/STR ratios for high-end TAGs vs. Anacondas etc. I also guess it would have to be "STR or W", to cover Blackjacks and Ratniks, Dogwarriors, etc. Also considering removing the Lt. objective and replacing it with points for repairing more STR or W on TAGs during the game. That's not great with Anacondas though, because they explode if you muff that Engineer roll. But if it was matched with STR/W killed or surviving above, that gives Anacondas a big surviving-points advantage over more expensive TAGs too. While the Lt can go to normal troops after the TAG-Lt goes down, most players won't -have- many other troops and those will be pretty squishy. It's also fun to force the TAGs to chase the little humans. Still considering this. Finally, considering allowing player going second to spend an additional Command Token to allow one EVO remote to start the game with a Supportware program running. This will soften first-turn attacks with Total Control. I'm still not sure if this is necessary, but it would at least provide some moderation for lower-tech factions trying to compete in this tech-heavy mod. Spoiler: Edit Log 05.16.24: - Made Dog-warriors, Cameronians etc. +1 AVA on recommendation of CHA player. - Raised AVA of Triphammers to let players field their entire TAGRaid collection at once :) - Edited wording for clarity 05.20.24: - Started working on Other Missions section, added Repair objective to Research Purposes. 05.28.24: - More work on Other Missions section: added text allowing camo TAGs to be Chosen Targets in the Headhunters mission, unlike the BAMS mission it's based on, which does not allow models on the board as tokens to be nominated as Chosen Targets. 05.30.24 - Edited Hearts of Teseum mission to encourage dynamic movement, not sit-and-shoot matches. Added Beacons and Classifieds, removed OPs for surviving TAGs. Added Defensive Measures rules to make alpha strikes a little less nasty. 06.03.24 - Edited Hearts of Teseum mission formatting to make it easier to read. 06.04.24 - Edited Hearts of Teseum mission to make destroying more Beacons 4 OP max, getting more TAG kills 3 OP max. This makes mobility more important than just killing TAGs. - Removed Scarface as option to add to all factions: he's always the optimal first choice, gets redundant. This gives the factions which have him, which are mostly NA2, a bit of an edge there which is nice since their general TAG choices are not as good as Pan O, O-12, etc. Pan O also getting Scarface would be a bit too much. 06.10.24 - Edited AVA rules to cover Combat Jump TAGs again, because otherwise an all-Caskuda list was inevitable.
This post is for record of test games, and thoughts on/ tweaks to the mod following them.Mostly for me and others testing it out, spoilered to avoid boring anyone just reading the thread casually. Spoiler: Testing/Dev session notes here Game 1: Onyx Tries to Break the Game TLDR: Played our first test game of Iron Fists' N4 version, and the core rules work pretty well. Missions and certain tools (K1, EVO) need some tweaks to be most-fun. General notes: Things felt like a normal game of Infinity, though with a bit more autonomy for individuals troops instead of rambo-ing, thanks to Tac Aware. Regarding the physical playing field, ranges, etc, one thing became very very clear as well: Each side really needs to have places for at least 3 TAGs to hide totally, or alpha strikes on revealed TAGs are very easy for the active player. This requirement was added to the Hearts of Teseum mission, as well as the general Iron Fists rules. Match notes: Orders (including Tac Aware) were 15 on one side (Onyx with 4 Xeodrons with K1 Marksmanship rifles in 2 Harises with Nourkias/Samaritan, and an Overdron HRMC, Bit & Kiss), and 17 on the other (Corregidor with a Gecko Haris and 2 Gators, Jazz and an Alguacile Hacker). Complexity and number of orders did not seem to sprawl too much. The Hearts of Teseum mission included points for both killing TAGs and surviving TAGs... this lead to a situation where one player got the lead, then retreated to avoid destruction. Since that's not very interesting, the mission is now modified to include destroying Beacons at each player's 12" line, as well as a Classified objective. Also K12 weapons have a massive effect when you've got 4 TAGs on the board. While they are well. enough balanced in a normal game (and their outsize effect vs armored units is well matched to the outsize effect of ARM 6+ units defending against normal rifles etc.), they become effectively undercosted and overeffective in a game focused mostly on TAGs. Potential fixes for K1 include: - Restricting the number any force can field to 2 or less (maybe best approach but kneecaps OCF a bit... they still have PLENTY of anti-armor options though) - Capping damage at DAM 12 (lightest touch) - Changing SCW or points cost (not desirable because we want people to be able to use Infinity Army app to build their lists) For now we're going to try the DAM12 cap to see if that can work. Otherwise, we'll try limiting number of K1 weapons per side to 2. Game 2: HRMC is a Hell of a Drug TLDR: Core rules continue to be good, missions need to encourage using TAGs in interesting ways. - HRMCs rule TAG-land, but it still feels balanced. - Play-tip: Don't leave your TAGs out to ARO like you might in a normal game of Infinity, unless they're in Suppressive Fire and you've really managed to limit lines of sight to 24" and under. Second test game, my vanilla Nomads (Stigmaton, Gator, Szalamandra, Gecko MMR, and decent hacker network) vs. @wes-o-matic 's vanilla O-12 (Wrecker AP Spitfire, Wrecker HRL, 2 Zetas, EVO but no normal hackers). Played basic Hearts of Teseum mission, which now includes destroying Beacons. I got initiative, only managed to take down the Wrecker Spitfire. In my desire to kill at least one TAG before Wes repaired them all, I overextended my TAGs; I left Szalamandra got glued in the open on one of my last orders, and the Stigmaton tried to hide but was visible to a Zeta with minor repositioning. Wes then punished this, killing the Stig, Szally, and Gecko all in one turn despite atrocious dice. Lesson learned: - Hide your TAGs!: Always consolidate your TAGs out of LoF at the end of your turn and make approach difficult for your opponent. - Use your non-TAG units to protect your TAGs, don't just spend orders on your TAGs: I had plenty of repeaters and hackers as well as 2x e/m CCW Morlocks. I should have been using the hackers to Possess on my active and make my reactive safer, not just make direct TAG attacks. If I had had a better-developed speedbump net I could have blunted Wes's counterattack. Game changes: Wes pointed out that the core rules are fine: the missions need work to encourage interesting use of TAGs. Easiest one to improve is mobility requirement. I'm going to tweak the mission to make OPs for killing Beacons more important, and OPs for killing TAGs slightly less important. If anyone else wants to playtest these rules, I would love to read your experiences, please post in this thread. Giant robot suits rule!
