Rose City Raid 2019

Uh oh, it's happening again!

Rose City Raid 2019
June 22-23
Portland, Oregon​

It’s time to get ready for our second year of epic drinking and game playing! Last year was an amazing success, with 32 players from across the country and Canada. Last year was just a rehearsal though, 2019 is going to be the real deal!

What To Expect?
When I pitched the Rose City Raid to Corvus Belli to be a Satellite Tournament, I promised it would be one of the most challenging events around, and they loved it. The scenarios will be difficult, the tables will be challenging, and most importantly, the beer will be flowing!

This tournament isn’t for the faint of heart, nor those with weak constitutions. Just like last year, we will be holding the event at the Lucky Labrador Quimby Beer Hall, with our very own bartender, access to great food, and plenty of after-hours drinking! After talking more with the venue, we will be able to expand the event to host 40 players, giving us 25% more players than last year.



ITS Satellite
Yeah, that’s right, our second year and already approved to be an ITS Satellite Event! Corvus Belli was paying attention last year, and liked what they saw. The winner of the Rose City Raid 2019 will be invited to Interplanetario in Spain. I don’t even know all the details yet, but I’m pumped!



Prizes
One of my guiding principles in running the Rose City Raid last year, was to have an epic prize table. This year will be no exception! I’ve already began reaching out to sponsors for next year, and by increasing our player count, we will have even more to spend on prize support. Like last year, the biggest and best prizes will be able to be won by anyone through a raffle, so even if you don’t do well, you could very well go home with something epic.

To make sure that everyone goes home with something great, i’ve commissioned the amazing Obadiah (ITS: @nehemiah ) to sculpt an EXCLUSIVE MINIATURE that every participant will receive. Furthermore, we will be making extras, which will be available to purchase when you buy your tickets. Every penny of these additional miniature sales will go right back into the event to buy even more prizes.

Scenarios
The scenarios have been hand selected to provide the ultimate challenge to the players. Players will use the Extreme Classified Objective Deck for all scenarios using Classified Objectives.

1. Highly Classified
2. Power Pack
3. Transmission Matrix
4. Unmasking
5. Frostbyte

We have missions where you need specialists, or none at all, bonuses for Heavy Infantry and Airborne Deployment, as well as fearsome hacking areas and exclusion zones. Making your lists for the Rose City Raid is going to be a challenge in itself!

Game Tables and Terrain
Anyone who has followed my blog, The Dice Abide, knows that I’m a fiend for special terrain rules and challenging table set ups. You can expect that there will be plenty of challenging game tables at the event, including several predominantly covered in aquatic, zero-g, jungle or mountainous terrain.



The Obelisk Islands
The most intimidating tables from last year will be coming back again. Battle it out on the Obelisk Islands for control of an abandoned communication site. This table is covered in both Aquatic and Jungle terrain, making maneuvering a challenge. The fastest route from one point to another may not always be what it seems.



Apollo Station
To ensure that there is more than one table with plenty of difficult terrain, I’ve been working with a local artist to produce our very own modular space station table. Produced in high quality MDF, we will likely have a few of these so as many people as possible will experience battles in Zero-G. In space, nobody can hear you drink.

Don’t worry, not every table will be fully enveloped in difficult terrain, but every table will have some element of special terrain in use. Everything from city parks, water fountains, and mountainous buttes, to exotic terrain like Nimbus Zone generators. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the rules for special terrain, because you will be playing with it!

To make life easy, tables will include notes to cover how which special terrain rules the pieces of terrain will follow. Generally speaking, terrain pieces will have a visibility modifier (normal/low/poor/zero visibility), a saturation level (none/low/high saturation), and a movement difficulty (normal/difficult/extremely difficult). There will be a few pieces of terrain which use special rules like Nimbus (such as nimbus zone generators, or space station forcefield doors), and they will be called out in the notes for that table.

Not everyone who is bringing tables will necessarily have special terrain appropriate for it, we will be working hard to make sure we have enough extra stockpiled so that nobody misses out on the special terrain action.

 

The Rose City Raid 2019 is going to be a tournament like none other, in fact, I’m aiming for it to be one of the most challenging events that any of the participants have taken part in! Not only have I carefully selected scenarios which create interesting problems when crafting your lists, but I’m also going to make sure that every game table make some use of Special Terrain zones.

To help players get ready for the unique rules of special terrain, I’ve put together a few example tables for people to be able to take a look at, and practice at home with. If you’re expecting to do well at the Rose City Raid, you’d better be sure to practice on a wide variety of game tables.


LOW COVERAGE
This is likely going to be the most common amount of coverage on the game tables this year. They will play like fairly standard game tables, but with some unique interactions. Be sure to capitalize on things like Saturation Zones with your direct template, or single burst weapons, which are not going to be adversely affected.

For some extra reading, check out my article on Nimbus Grenades, much of the special rules that apply to them are used for the various terrain zones you’ll run into at the Rose City Raid.


MEDIUM COVERAGE
Some boards will use a fair amount of special terrain, things like mountains, rubble heaps, lakes, and woods. When you’re dealing with this much terrain, it’s important to spend a little extra effort planning your movement, finding ways to maneuver around the terrain more effectively. Paying attention to your units with Multiterrain, or specific terrain types is important to be sure you move as effectively as possible around the table.

Remember that being in base contact with terrain means you’re affected by it, just like you were fully inside (exactly like smoke templates), so if you want to gain cover granted by the glaciers in this picture, you’ll end your movement immediately when you touch it (so no moving up then scooting along for cover to peek out of a corner, in a single order), and you’ll also both be affected by a Saturation Zone.


HIGH COVERAGE
Finally, a few of the tables, will be covered heavily in special terrain zones, often meaning the game mat itself is such a zone. This lagoon table is a prime example, significant amounts of the table is covered in difficult and extremely difficult terrain. Bridges are used to connect the different clear areas of the board, and fighters must use Climb in many areas to get out of the beach and onto solid ground. Furthermore, thickets of trees provide saturation and visibility penalties to much of the long-range firing.

To win playing on a table like this, you really have to change your mindset. Playing much more like Limited Insertion is the key to victory — if you spend too many orders on shooting the opponent and hunting down their pieces, you won’t have enough orders to maneuver up the table and accomplish objectives. Infiltration, Airborne Deployment, Forward Deployment, Multiterrain, Climbing Plus, and Super Jump, all become critical skills to have.

This lagoon table will be present, as well as a few space station tables, which will mostly be Zero-G, plus any others I can get people to bring… Personally, I’m hoping for a table which is covered in jungle!


HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS
A very few number of tables will include terrain which is hostile, usually things like pools of toxic sludge and minefields. These terrain elements will be noted when they are in use, including its Hostility Level, and what damage it inflicts. For example a Minefield will be considered Dangerous Hostility (rolls of 18+ trigger the effect) and cause Damage 13 Shock against ARM.

When playing with Hostile Environments, it’s obviously important to steer clear of them if at all possible! Look for other ways around, using smoke if necessary. If you aren’t at any risk of ending your move in them though, they’re generally going to be safe. To capitalize on their effects, hidden deploy models are great, they can surprise your enemy who may think moving through them would be safe. Pop out a TO hidden model, and suddenly any dice roll they make could end up killing them, as well as the ARO piece. It takes a bit more finesse, but you can also try to leverage it so that your opponent is forced to go through them to get where they need.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
Many people do not regularly practice with special terrain zones, and showing up to the Rose City Raid without knowing how they work is going to shoot you in the foot! Don’t only practice the scenarios, be sure to practice on tables with a variety of terrain, so that you can make sure to bring the units you need to handle the different environments. You may even want to consider making lists based on the amount of terrain you’ll be dealing with, not just the scenarios or opponents you may face.

 

Here's a sniper shot of the limited edition Drunk Yuan Yuan that players will get at the Rose City Raid!

 

The time is almost here to register for the event, tickets go on sale January 1st at 12:00 PM PST. Best of all, here is a picture of the exclusive Drunk Yuan Yuan, hand sculpted by Obadiah Hampton, which everyone at the event will receive!

 

Rose City Raid tickets are on sale now and GOING FAST!

https://www.infinitythepdx.com/tickets