Rumble on Route 66 is a world-famous ITS, with 150 players and 5 games. The scope and success of Rumble has been so massive, CB has to keep increasing the size of Interplanetario in order to rival it. Attending Rumble this year was significant for me, because it would be a chance to play Varuna in one of the world’s foremost Infinity tournaments. I’ve been pleased with my success with Varuna so far, but Rumble would be the best venue for really challenging myself. Missions: Day 1: Unmasking Supplies Decapitation Day 2: Acquisition Firefight Edit: Added spoiler tabs to make things a bit more organized. Spoiler: List Building List Building The mission lineup was relatively straightforward. Unmasking and Supplies actually have very similar requirements: midfield defense, mobile specialists, and the ability to attack quickly and break an opponent’s castle if necessary. These two were natural partners. A high-order list with 1-Wounders and lots of midfield presence made sense here. Acquisition is trickier. Specialists are fairly important, but a different kind of defense strength is called for. Having to survive on a center objective is brutal, and you need to retain the ability to crack any kind of list… High orders, TAG, warband-heavy, etc. because there are a lot of different ways to succeed in Acquisition. So this created something of a challenge. I thought about using the same list for Acquisition, Firefight and Decap. Something like a Squalo Heavy Grenade Launcher is great for Firefight and Decap, and could do well in Acquisition as well. And while I think that would have been strong, I also think it’s risky. I knew going into the event that Haqq, JSA, CA and Tohaa would be popular, and each one of those armies can reach into your DZ with TAG-killing tools fairly easily. Obviously VIRD is strong in defense, but I wasn’t willing to take the eggs-in-one-basket risk for 3 missions. Instead, I opted for a conservative approach for Firefight and Decapitation, trying to keep my two lists similar so that they would be easier to play, and avoiding putting all my eggs in one basket. Playing two wildly different lists can be very jarring and result in mistakes, so having my lists be generally similar helps me stay organized with deployment and Order pools. For the Acquisition + Unmasking + Supplies list, I kept my midfield Specialists, and added an ORC HMG for a durable Datatracker. Unmasking/Supplies/acquisition ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 9 1 ZULU-COBRA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28) ZULU-COBRA (Sensor) Combi Rifle, Jammer / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29) KAMAU (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32) ORC (Varuna Div.) (Multiterrain: Aquatic/Jungle, Stealth) HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 45) FUSILIER Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 14) FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) HELOT MILITIAMAN Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 9) GROUP 2 5 1 CROC MAN (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 32) ZULU-COBRA (Sensor) Combi Rifle, Jammer / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) TRAUMA-DOC Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) HELOT MILITIAMAN Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 9) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army For Firefight and Decap, I ditched all non-essential Specialists (keeping only the Zulu Cobra Hacker and the Doctor.) The Croc became a Minelayer, and I used the points refunded from the ORC HMG to buy a Kamau HMG and an Echo Bravo (because fuck yeah, Echo Bravo.) Decap/Firefight 2 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 9 1 ZULU-COBRA Lieutenant (Sensor) Combi Rifle, Jammer / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29) ZULU-COBRA (Sensor) Combi Rifle, Jammer / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29) ZULU-COBRA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28) KAMAU HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 28) KAMAU (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32) FUSILIER Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 14) FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) HELOT MILITIAMAN Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 9) GROUP 2 5 2 CROC MAN (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 31) ECHO-BRAVO Boarding Shotgun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) TRAUMA-DOC Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) HELOT MILITIAMAN Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 9) WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army Thanks as well to @daboarder for his help as a sounding board for list concepts! Spoiler: Game 1 Game 1: Unmasking vs Ben’s Tohaa (Note that all my opponent's lists are rebuilt from memory, so may not be completely correct!) Tohaa ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 2 CLIPSOS (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) GAO-RAEL Spitfire / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 33) MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 13) KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 26) SUKEUL HMG, D-Charges / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 35) MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 13) SAKIEL Paramedic (Medikit) Combi Rifle, Nimbus Plus Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20) CHAKSA AUXILIAR (Baggage, Sensor) Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 10) CHAKSA AUXILIAR (Baggage, Sensor) Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 10) KERAIL PRECEPTOR Submachine Gun, Smoke Grenades + 1 Surda SymbioBeast / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 20) SURDA SYMBIOBEAST Pulzar / Viral CCW. (0 | 8) GROUP 2 5 2 1 GAO-RAEL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1 | 31) MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 13) KAMAEL Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) DIPLOMATIC DELEGATE (iKohl L1, Specialist Operative) Nanopulser, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) CHAKSA AUXILIAR (Baggage, Sensor) Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 10) CHAKSA AUXILIAR (Baggage, Sensor) Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 10) LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10) 5.5 SWC | 296 Points Open in Infinity Army White Noise Ben came all the way from Australia to kick my ass. He had challenged me for Round 1, which I was only too happy to accept. That being said, accepting a game vs a former Cancon winner is probably not the best way to place highly in a tournament, but obviously backing out simply isn’t an option. Plus, Ben’s about the nicest guy on the planet, and I’ve enjoyed the interviews I’ve had with him on White Noise, so I was excited to meet my friend in person and throw some dice. I was curious if Ben was going to bring a pile of new Tohaa toys, but his list was pretty standard for a competitive pre-Daedelus Tohaa list. Our table was a challenge though. Rooftops were all the same height, no scatter terrain on them, few long lanes, and a lot of interior spaces would limit my strengths and favor Tohaa quite a bit. I would have to rely heavily on Jammer to deny area. I won the roll, taking the side that gave me better hiding places for my civvies, easier routes to push the center consoles, a safer DZ, and better chokepoints for Jammer defense. Ben was only too happy to go first. Apparently I’d given him exactly what he wanted… The right side and the right order. So maybe my judgement wasn’t so great after all. Ben declined to use the rooftops at all, not wanting to get any of his troops into a shootout on that open plane of death. This worked fine for me, and while I couldn’t exactly counter-deploy him with my Kamau due to table density, I was able to put my Jammers into two very strong defensive positions. To summarize the highlights: Ben came out strong, but his Turn 1 fizzled badly due to very poor dice. He missed repeated console pushes and multiple 1-dice smoke tosses, which made it hard for him to execute a cohesive game plan. The shortage of orders meant a Clipsos FO ran into Jammer range and got Isolated almost instantly, before it could hit the console it had been assigned to. His Gao-Rael datatracker straight into my table half for a quick civvie kill (not the true Designated Target, just a Decoy) but ended up stalled in my table half without any orders left to fall back with. I counter-attacked the Gao Rael with a Zulu Cobra, punched it off the table and was feeling comfortable. Ben had killed one Civvie and revealed another, but my actual Designated Target was still safe, I had a Jammer in place to defend the final console Ben needed to push, and I’d bleeded him a bit. I kept the attrition going, taking down the Isolated Clipsos, 2 Makaul, and a Sakiel Paramedic. However, I didn’t have any Consoles yet. I’d need turns 2 and 3 for Console pushing. Ben’s dice came back to life, and he went on a strong tear with a Sukeul HMG that was close in to my DZ. My Kamau Sniper managed to knock one wound off her before going down to a Crit, and she took down a Fusilier too before ending in Suppressive. This wouldn’t have been too bad, but it cleared a window for ben to move his Diplomatic Delegate up to park on an objective. I had planned to sneak my Croc right past that Suppressive Sukeul, but with the Diplo Delegate’s Nanopulser standing there, I’d have to find a way to take her out while staying out of Nano range, which would mean the HMG could see me. Tricky. I maneuvered my key defensive Jammer to shoot the Sukeul in the back of the head, with 4 shots missing. Sukeul spun around. I revealed a Croc to lay a mine trap, which would hit both the Diplo Delegate and the Sukeul. Fired the Zulu Cobra again, only one hit, passed save, mine detonated, killed the Diplo Delegate, Sukuel tanked the mine. Fired the Zulu Cobra again, missed all my shots again, died to the Sukeul’s pistol ARO, and suddenly had lost the Jammer that was defending the last key console. That was bad news for me, because it allowed Ben to do an all-or-nothing push to grab the last console, set up on it to make sure I never pushed it, and kill my last Civvie. Now the pressure was really on. I had managed to toss a pretty strong lead because of some bad dice in that exchange with the Sukeul, throwing away a key defensive piece. This was undoubtedly my worst exchange of the entire tournament, and potentially the costliest. However, I was able to grab two consoles, reveal two Civvies, and thankfully one of them was the correct target. I had spotted a lane for my ORC Datatracker that would let him get LoF to potentially all three Civvies with his HMG in only 4 Orders. Ben admitted his big error was not seeing that 4-Orders lane, and not locking it down his AROs. So my ORC made the run, taking down the true Civvie. Both of us were pretty friend, thinking the other had clearly won. Ben was stressed because he’d lost his Datatracker, and failed to kill the Designated Target with his Datatracker. Plus, my Datatracker was still alive. I was stressed because Ben had pushed more consoles, and killed all three civvies. When we totalled up… 6-6 Draw. Wow. Ben was a gentleman, played a good game (especially after a really discouraging opening turn) and saw the moves necessary to score those points at a critical time. This was a really enjoyable round, and despite the competitive nature of the event, I think we were both quietly happy to score a draw after many months of buildup to this game. Spoiler: Game 2 Round 2: Supplies vs Randon’s TAK Tartary Army Corps ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 7 2 2 STRELOK (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20) VASSILY (Chain of Command) T2 Marksman Rifle, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 39) VETERAN KAZAK AP HMG / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 47) LINE KAZAK Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16) LINE KAZAK Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 17) LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9) LINE KAZAK Lieutenant Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9) DOG-WARRIOR 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CCW. (0 | 29) IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8) GROUP 2 5 3 2 STRELOK (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20) DOZER (Traktor Mul Control Device) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5) TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5) ASSAULT PACK . (0 | 25) HANDLER Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (- | 10) x3 ANTIPODE AP CC Weapon. (- | 15) DOG-WARRIOR 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CCW. (0 | 29) IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8) 4 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army TAK’s a really good army, Randon's a veteran player, and he was prepared to make heavy use of Total Immunity. Thankfully I was prepared for this one, really happy I’d brought two Jammers instead of one. I won the roll and opted to go first. Conventional wisdom for this mission is you rush quick and try to get two boxes. To be honest though, I think this is a trap. The artificial pressure for getting two boxes results in poor judgement and unforced errors, so I tried to scale back to getting one box. My Croc was in a good position to do so, and I just needed to take down a couple of overwatch units, all of whom were perched on top of the white-and-green building in my opponent's DZ at the top of the image there. The ORC HMG advanced up to the white-and-black building in the midfield, then leaned out for a Line Kazak Sniper, and got Crit. Tried again, and dropped her on the second Order, stripping the 5-man link bonuses, before hiding inside that center building. Just one more overwatch to go, needing to drop a Line Kazak missile so that my Croc could access that box. Croc revealed in that little grey shed next to the right objective, advanced slightly to get inside combi range of the Line Kazak missile also on the roof of the white-and-green building, then three dice on 12s vs 2 dice on 2s. My opponent Crit on a 2, lost my Croc. Immediately, I had to shift gears to defense. I wasn’t going to be pulling any boxes Round 1, so Had to be sure my opponent couldn’t snag them all. I used my remaining Orders to position my Jammers, pull troops to safety, and stand my Kamau up (she was on the white building in the bottom right corner) to contest my opponent's ability to maneuver. My opponent came out strong with a lot of Impetuous, rushing one Irmandinho for the box my MSV2 Sniper wasn’t covering. Lucky for me, the Irmandinho left a slight gap in one his smoke tosses, leaving space between smoke and console where a Helot could spot the Irmandinho and trash him with an LRL shot. This was a big moment, to stop my opponent grabbing any boxes. naturally, both the Helot shots missed… The Irmandinho pulled the box and ran back into the smoke, but the Helot connected with his second ARO attempt, and burned the Irmandinho down to Unconscious. However, a Strelok ran up, grabbed the box off the Unconscious Irmandinho, and sprinted it back to the TAK DZ. Ouch. My opponent finished by rushing a man-Dog at the Helot, wanting to use those Chain Rifles to weed out the mass of Camo Tokens I had in that area. Lucky for me, the dog just barely MOV-MOVed into Jammer range and I nailed the Isolation to stop him in his tracks. New game plan. With the Croc dead, I was relying really heavily on the ZC Killer Hacker for box pulls. The ORC HMG went to work on the Isolated dog to get him out of the way, then smoke went down, and I maneuvered the Kamau Sniper slightly to finish him off through smoke. The ZC KHD sprinted for the middle box, pulled it, passed it off to a Fugazi who ran in back to my DZ, then hid herself in the midfield to hopefully pull the last box next turn… The Vet Kazak HMG with 3-man bonuses went Crit Fishing vs my Kamau MSV2 and succeeded. This let my opponent attempt an Antipode Rush, hoping to get into my backline and force me to waste Orders digging them out rather than grabbing the last box or hunting my opponent’s box hunter. This fizzled though when I nailed a long-range Discover on one pack member with a Fugazi, and then my opponent was worried about me splashing the whole team with a Helot LRL template. This forced him to leapfrog between terrain, re-camoing vs my Discover attempts, meaning the team couldn’t quite reach my DZ. I reshuffled my defense, arraying my AROs and choking off “staging areas” that the dogs could use to launch CC attacks, and then didn’t have to worry about them for the rest of the game. After some deliberation, I decided to go for the 2-box win, my Zulu Cobra KHD making the long run to get the last box and run it back to my DZ. The last detail was Classifieds. My opponent had run a Dozer up to an Unconscious Irmandinho. I had no clue what he was up to, until I realized he was attempting to Casevac. I reminded him a PH11 Dozer couldn’t lift a PH14 Irmandinho, and we backtracked his Orders and let him bring up a Traktor Mul instead. Unfortunately for him, I had pulled Capture, which meant I needed that Unconscious Irmandinho just as much as he did. The result is that Turn 3 was spent battling for Classifieds, with my Zulu Cobra ruthlessly hunting his Traktor Mul, taking it out of play, and securing both Capture and Secure HVT at the same time. This ended with a decent 7-0 for me. Randon’s a legend… A Rumble icon… And getting a chance to throw down vs his TAK was a pleasure. Spoiler: Game 3 Round 3: Decapitation vs Dano’s Onyx Onyx Contact Force ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10 OVERDRON Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon / . (2 | 74) STALDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0) UMBRA SAMARITAN Lieutenant Spitfire, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Vorpal CC Weapon. (1 | 44) MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) NOCTIFER Missile Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32) RODOK Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28) RODOK Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19) RODOK Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19) RODOK Hacker (EI Killer Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22) FRAACTA Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28) SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) ÍMETRON . (0 | 4) 6 SWC | 299 Points Open in Infinity Army Decapitation is a hot mess. There’s very little reason both players shouldn’t score 5 points each, since killing a (mostly) defenseless civvie with a Datatracker is pretty easy for a decent player with a decent list. My opponent opted to go first, so I knew exactly where his HVT would be. The HVT was set up on the large yellow building on the left side, behind the helo-ad sign. I set up my defensive link (and most important, my light grenade launcher datracker) to try and go for that kill. Everything else, including my HVT and my Zulu Cobra LT, went down on the right side, to stay as far from my opponent's concentration of troops as possible. Now, although Decapitation is a hot mess, sometimes surprises happen… Like when an HRMC Overdron rushes your Civvie, gets shot by a Helot, splits its burst to defend itself from the Helot, and gets Crit in the face by the Civvie’s Stun Pistol… I was going to aim for the 10-5 on this one, to still score the Major. However, that hilarious bit of luck made it a 10-0. My Zulu Cobra KHD counter-attacked with breaker rifle, dropping the Xeodron in 3 orders. Things started to unravel for my opponent. I saw his Spitfire LT deploy, put down my Kamau MSV2 25 inches away, and (sadly for him) he was at -9 to hit and couldn’t find the Crit. Two Double Action hits, 2 failed saves, and I’d netted a few more points. He tried a drop in my backfield and missed his role. His Noctifier went for a shot, missed, and ate Triangulated Fire from a ZC. Running out of options, the Rodoks attacked, critting both Kamau with long range boarding shotgun shots (!). But I was able to pick up the pieces with the Trauma Doc, walk the Echo Bravo in to knock over a few Rodoks with LRL blasts, and let my Fusilier LGL Datatracker free to hunt down his Civvie. I was planning to lob grenades, but with my Onyx running short on bodies, I just ran my Datatracker into LoF for Burst 4, BS18 Combi shots. My opponent was a gentleman, especially in light of that hilariously awful Stun Pistol crit early-game. Ending with 10-0 here, I was going into Day 2 ranked #11. Spoiler: Game 4 Round 4: Acquisition vs Chris’ Haqq Islam. Haqqislam ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 AL-DJABEL Rifle + Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW, Knife. (0 | 35) FIDAY Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 31) ASAWIRA Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 43) KHAWARIJ (Fatality L1, Multispectral Visor L2) Mk12 / Pistol, AP CCW. (0.5 | 36) LASIQ Viral Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 25) FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) BARID Hacker (Killer Hacking Device UPGRADE: Lightning) Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) SALADIN Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 36) FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) KAMEEL (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) GROUP 2 6 3 MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) DAYLAMI (CH: Limited Camouflage, Inferior Infiltration) Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 8) DAYLAMI (CH: Limited Camouflage, Inferior Infiltration) Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 8) DAYLAMI (CH: Limited Camouflage, Inferior Infiltration) Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 8) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army Okay, fresh day. Game 4 is always toughie, because it often sets the tone for how you’ll finish in the tournament. You can have a great Day 1, but it’s easy to throw away by staggering into Day 2 without concentration. Haqq would be a mixed matchup. There direct gunfighting would never compete heavily with VIRD, but it was really important to keep them at arm’s length. The table was fairly open, but the tall apartment buildings stacked up around the middle meant my opponent would be able to bring up his close-range units fairly easily. My opponent was sharp. He opted for first turn, and I naturally took the table side that would give me great vantage points as well as the best Jammer vantages overwatching the center objective. My opponent didn’t miss a beat though, crowding Daylami onto the rooftop of the orange building to make me nervous about putting any Jammers up there. Instead, both of my Jammers went onto the rooftops of the center grey building so that they could help protect my DZ as well as challenge the middle objective. My Kamau Sniper went on the roof of the blue building (bottom right) along with my Trauma Doc. My opponent used Strategos well of course, keeping both his Impersonators back to hit me where it hurt most. His attempt to drop a Fiday on the same rooftop as my Kamau failed (rolled a 16… This was a really helpful bit of luck…) but Al-Djabel went down near my ORC. Turn one, Al-Djabel worked his way in and MA4ed my ORC. A plucky pistol shot negated one of the hits, which was game-saving, though my jam attempt failed wildly. Thankfully, as usual with Haqq, everyone was deployed supporting everyone else, so he took a Flash Pulse in the face. I failed both BTS saves vs Viral, but there was no chance for my opponent to follow up. He rushed up the table hard, hoping to stage all his mutts behind the tall orange and light-blue apartment buildings, where they could Jam or template rush very dominantly. The Asawira Datatracker got the Xenotech into the middle console and got the beacon down, but risked fighting a Helot in the open to do so. Helot LRL crit and burned the Asawira to Unconscious, so my opponent sent his MSV2 Mk12 to knock the Helot over and then Regenerated the Asawira back to life. Now I had some choices to make. I need to get the ORC back up, and my opponent had done a very good job contesting all three center objectives with a network of Jammers. My first hope was to break up those clusters of defense, which meant a few Orders spent lobbing grenades. These rolles didn’t go great for me… Even with the -3, my opponent dodged the 4-5 minis all caught in blasts, but it did create some urgency for him to try and press up, rather than stacking up in that dead ground in the midfield. I think this actually ended up winning the game for me. First I had to clean up my house by taking down Al-Djabel, which I was able to do with a Zulu Cobra assaultpistol. Next, I redeployed my defenses and got ready for the big rush, with my Kamau MSV2 doing a pretty risky but ultimately successful split-burst shot vs Panzerfaust and a Lasiq, taking down both of them with no damage (two on 16s vs the Lasiq’s one dice on 9, and one on 19 vs the Panzerfaust’s 8.) Those aren’t odds I’d typically accept, but the reward in this case felt worth it. Because of that LGL pressure, plus the dominant position of the Kamau MSV2, and no Doctor on the table, my opponent felt compelled to try and break my back. The Asawira came out, engaged in its good range band, but fell prey to a DA Sniper crit that took it to dead. The MSV2 Mk12 tried a hail mary on the Kamau, similarly losing that exchange. Those failed exchanges took the wind out of my opponent’s sails. I picked up the ORC, ran him into the midfield to down a Specialist, and him close to the center objective. My opponent had to take a less-than-optimal shot from long range, out of cover with a Farzan Boarding Shotgun to try and take down the ORC, but the ORC’s BS carried through and won the f2f there. The Croc went hunting for Jammers, sweeping wide up the left side to flank that center light blue building, hoping to take down the last Mutt and then retreat to align/contest the left console. He did take down the last Mutt, though took a boarding shotgun on a 2 (opponent needing a 3) to go Unconscious and stop be synching one of the objectives. I was able to tidy things up for 9-0. Chris is a talented player, with a great eye for using Haqq’s strong tools for those assymetrical trades. His next project is Ramah, which I think he’ll really enjoy. Spoiler: Game 5 Round 5: Firefight vs John’s OSS Operations Subsection of the S.S.S. ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 ASURA (Fireteam: Haris) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 71) DEVA (Fireteam: Haris, Sensor) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25) DEVA MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) SHUKRA Lieutenant (Strategos L1) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) PROXY Mk.1 Engineer Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) PROXY Mk.2 Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21) LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) PROBOT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) PROBOT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) NETROD . (0 | 4) GROUP 2 6 Rebot SAMEKH FTO Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 17) DAKINI Tacbot MULTI Sniper Rifle / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 21) DAKINI Tacbot Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 15) DAKINI Tacbot Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 13) CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11) NETROD . (0 | 4) 6 SWC | 298 Points Open in Infinity Army Wow, what a ride. I was now on #2 table, playing my friend John. John was my Round 1 opponent from Rumble 2018, and we were thrilled at the idea of a rematch in the rarified air of a high-ranked table. We both cheered when we saw our pairing posted. Now was a good time to put my Firefight theory to the test, hoping to quickly secure a good point lead, then shifting to defense to deny attrition and preserve the bulk of my points. A lot of players fall into the trap of thinking they need to rambo anything/everything they can, but it’s easier to carefully manage your lead over an opponent and not overextend. I lost the LT roll, and John chose the side with a likely vantage point and the option of seeing my deployment. He wisely put his Dakini link as far from my light grenade launcher as he reasonably could, also keeping interposing buildings between most of his force and my Kamau MSV2. As a result, my first turn started out pretty modestly. I took down a flash pulse bot, a couple of badly scattered netrods, and finished by challenging his Dakini Sniper with my own (got crit the first exchange, survived, Doctored, reformed, fired again, scored one hit, he made both sides, tried a third time, took down the Sniper.) On my last Regular order, I switched to the HMG to down the missile bot, also confronting a Flash Pulse bot. My plan was to give the missile the full Burst 5, eat the Flash Pulse, then fail guts to safety since I was out of Orders for that group. when John revealed his Mk2 AHD for an 8-inch shotgun blast, things got a bit more complicated. I had a doctor nearby though, so was willing to risk the shotgun blast unopposed, throwing everything at the missile. The logic worked out pretty well. The shotgun missed, I dropped the missile bot, the Flash Pulse hit and I ducked back to safety. I burned a Command Token to convert the Helot Irregular to a Regular, spent it on the Kamau Sniper to maneuver and try a 0 rangeband shot at the Mk2. I only hit once, but the Mk2 missed wildly and I knocked a wound off her. Burned another Command Token to “reform” the link, shifting the link leader to a Fusilier safely in cover, since I expected the MSV2 Kamau to be doing some ARO work pretty directly. Not a bad opening turn, taking down 2 Netrods, the Dakini Sniper and the missile bot. With me up on points and dug in pretty well, the Asura Haris came to life and marched up the table. The Asura's order pools were pretty much entirely intact, so this had the potential to be a rough turn if my opponent could find the gunfighting matchups he wanted. Before committing too hard, my opponent ran a Sniffer up and Discovered my Zulu Cobra Jammer, just to know what he was dealing with. He very wisely stayed outside Zone of Control, dropping the Sniffer within ZoC to score the Reveal. The Asura saw what she was dealing with, ran up, and blew away the Zulu Cobra pretty comfortably. She wanted to engage my Kamau MSV2, but had to maneuver out of Cover past a Warcor, who promptly flash pulsed her with a 15 (brutal, considering he was 5 dice on 14 vs the Warcor.) She needed a Crit to answer that, didn’t get it, failed her BTS, and my opponent’s counter-attack came to a screeching halt. Not wanting to risk a Deva-vs-Kamau duel, he pulled back as much as his orders would allow. Unfortunately for him, that Haris was a little tightly grouped. My Kamau MSV2 manuevere, blasted down the Mk2 AHD, and open a gap for me to bring on an Echo Bravo. The EB blasted the bot that had dropped the Sniffer, splashing a Deva and burning her down. A followup shot inflicted two hits on the 2nd Deva, taking him down as well. At this point, my point lead was pretty comfortable. The Asura was still on her feet, but even a strong rambo by her would have to work pretty hard to even the points up. I snagged a Panoply with my Zulu Cobra KHD, and got ready to hold off the Asura. My opponent’s big hope this turn was a heavy Asura Rambo. Unfortunately for her, she walked into a CroC mine for a Wound. She did eventually maneuver to duel the Kamau MSV2, taking the Kamau Unconscious. The Asura was getting ready to hunt my pile of Fusiliers all clustered inside a building, needing to pass by that same Warcor first. I wasn’t too worried about the attack on the Fusiliers… I’d have them all fire, and even if the Asura nanopulsered to try and hit multiple, the Fusiliers could likely do enough damage to kill the Asura. One turn spent in Loss of Lieutenant and 30 points of linetrooper was a decent trade for ~70 points of Asura. Once again though, the Asura strolled past that Warcor in the open, and once again, the Warcor blinded the Asura and stalled his attack. The Asura started pulling back as quick as she could over 3-4 Orders, and I immediately revealed the Croc to just continuously ARO her retreat. Not wanting to MOV-Dodge at -3 all the way back to safety, my opponent went for the MOV-MOV with the Stunned Asura, and the Croc took his time with repeated Combi shots over a few Orders to take down her remaining 2 Wounds. My opponent was on the ropes, and he hunkered to try and deny Objective Points. I took care of my Classifieds, than ran that Croc waaaaay into his DZ, leapfrogging from Total Cover to Total Cover, giving myself two Orders to try and take down his Shukra LT and Datatracker. I managed to bag the Shukra on the first trigger pull, ensuring myself a 10-0. John’s a gentleman, a tremendously fun opponent, and a rising star of American Infinity. I’m looking forward to seeing him at future events. Conclusion When the smoke had cleared, I had 13 Tournament Points (1 for a Draw, and 4 Majors for 12.) This didn’t seem particularly impressive to me, until I remembered that Rumble had ~40 or so very excellent players all capable of keeping one another to minor victories. As a result, noone had a perfect 15 TP run, with only one player at 14 TP, and quite a few players tied at 13. However, I had done very well in Objective Points (42 in total) which was enough to break ties and put me 2nd overall. Spoiler: Unit Review Unit review Zulu Cobra Sensor One of my big priorities for this event was to have very strong midfield presence, and maximize my capability for defense. The Jammer accomodated this beautifully. They did manage a few very helpful Isolations during my 5 games, but naturally it was the threat of their presence that helped keep my games stable and my backline safe. I also used their Assault Pistol a lot. Flanking a target is obviously quite strong, but it’s especially strong when you can sling Triangulated Shots and threaten an opponent regardless of modiers. Zulu Cobra Killer Hacker This gal was actually the unsung hero of the whole event. She had a few key gunfighting moments, including taking down a TAG all by herself, but most of the time she was quietly pushing buttons and achieving objectives. This is doubly true since my Croc ran into some very bad luck with Crits, meaning the Zulu Cobra had to take over twice for game-winning button-pushing runs in Supplies and Acquisition. She even pulled an HMG out of a panoply in Firefight, which is a pretty spectacular concept. Though I may have had more spectacular trigger-pullers, she’s the reason I did well. ORC HMG Hmm. I took this guy for his durability, and honestly it really paid off. He got Crit pretty much first order in Supplies, but stayed on his feet to remove a crucial Line Kazak ARO piece, threaten some Irmandinhos and Dogwarriors, and help me project firepower from a different angle than my main link. In Acquisition, he contested an MA4 Viral Surprise Attack, got Doctored back up, fought off a boarding shotgun attack and helped me score a very important Major. Curiously, I didn’t link him once… Having him both Datatrack and link felt far too restrictive in terms of crowding my deployment and starting him far away from where he needed to be. I’ll remember that for the future. But he did alright on his own as a solo, fairly durable Datatracker. Trauma Doc w/ Palbot Grrrrrrl. Folks who don’t Doctor are missing out, especially when you can pick up key units like Kamau MSV2 Snipers or ORC HMGs using just 1 or 2 Orders. She just quietly hangs out prone somewhere until she’s needed, and whenever she springs into action, you can almost always see the misery on my opponent’s face when I bring back a unit that they worked hard to put Unconscious. She’s always coming along for the ride. Kamau MSV2 What is there to really say? The impact that this unit has on each and every game is staggeringly powerful. The challenge she places on an opponent is always tremendous. If you can deploy her where she’ll be relevant, but avoid throwing her away, she’ll project a huge amount of power and really dictate the flow of any game. She’s an active turn monster as well, and when she’s on the move to aggressively engage a target, she can do with almost complete confidence. What a profile. Fusilier Light Grenade Launcher I really love this gal. She’s cheap, but she adds a very useful tool to every game. If you can use your Jammers, Helots and Kamau to deny areas, she’ll aggressively hunt the “blind spots” in your defense and make sure enemies aren’t massing for an order-fueled objective run or attack on your DZ. That being said, Speculative Shot is both order-intensive and unreliable, so it’s important to know just how many Orders you can safely commit. Because the Kamau MSV2 may also be chained to a rooftop also, you need to be careful about managing your link coherency, the number of linkable bodies in your army, etc. so that you can have 4 link buddies able to move with her, get her into the sweetspot for grenade fire, then retreat with her so you can reform around your MSV2 Kamau once more. I did this a couple of times this event, most notably in Acquisition vs Haqq. Even though that particular game didn’t generate a ton of grenade kills, I think the urgency it put on Chris to attack my defenses really helped ratchet up the tempo of the game. She is an extremely useful Datatracker for Decap, fully able to either Combi or Grenade an HVT into the ground. Fusilier Rifles These boys in blue just quietly get it done. They had a couple of good rifle kills, but most of the time they quietly watched corners and tables edges, making sure noone tries to do anything too reckless. They’re a pretty decent little threat even when their Special Forces Sisters and Brothers are Unconscious, and I’m always glad for the role they play in any game. Croc Man FO/Minelayer Rumble was a mixed bag for the Croc Man FO, since he ran into some pretty unfortunate dice in the games I played. Granted, I did put him in danger before he could push buttons, but in both cases, my opponents needed eithers 3s or 2s to hit, and both times the Croc ate those shots. Still, Hidden Deployment and mines are a major asset to Varuna, and I’ll continue to use the Croc Man as my best Specialist option for button-pushing missions. The Minelayer had a much better run. That mine was great for shoring up my defense, especially in both Decap and Firefight where my Zulu Cobra Jammer Lieutenant was focused on staying safe. The surprise factor of Hidden Deployment was also critical in the two games where I used him, the first one taking down a Rodok missile that was stopping me from an HVT attack, and the second time simply AROing a Stunned Asura with with Combi shots as she tried to retreat to safety. That same game, he sprinted into the enemy DZ to down a Shukra who was both LT and Datatracker, which was a critical point boost for my overall result. That lone Camo token from his Mine is also one of VIRD’s best psychological tools. This is a great unit in missions where you need strong defense. Echo Bravo BSG/LRL The 2-dice man on a mission. After mixed performance in past events, I told myself I wouldn’t use this profile again. I had to think very carefully about him, because I could have easily exchanged him for the Red Fury if I wanted. Ultimately, I went with the LRL profile because I really wanted both Fire and Blast. My Firefight and Decap lists had a lot of light troops, all 1-Wounders without too much in the way of AP, EXP or other anti-TAG, anti-Heavy Infantry tools. As a result, I wanted that LRL as insurance in case anyone threw some big game at me. In the two games I used this profile, he made his impact felt. A great purchase for 25 points, but you can’t expect miracles from Burst 2. Do what you can to arrange unopposed shots in someone’s back, or splashing a template off an Unconscious enemy or piece of equipment. Helot SMG/LRL They typically don’t kill much, but damn are they worthwhile. Having a Camo token lurking with a multi-Burst weapon simply forces a lot of movement errors and anxiety among opponents, and they always have to spend orders on a decent gunfighter to ensure that Helots are safely removed. The best thing about them is covering angles that the Kamau MSV2 can’t, plugging gaps and covering short approaches. When they’re paired with Jammer, they can Discover Camo and force Stealth models to act, triggering Jammer AROs and stopping opponents from simply sneaking past your carefully built to defense. They’re very useful for just trying to Discover enemy Camo trying to maneuver across open gaps, and they’re especially brilliant for dropping aggressive Chain Rifles and other threats trying to rush your DZ. Converting their Irregular Order can be a lifesaver during a busy turn as well. Fugazi 8 point bots, quietly doing their thing. With so much Sensor and not a lot of Hacking, I’ve thought a lot about dropping these bots just to get more Fusiliers. I haven’t though, just because Flash Pulse and 6-6 can both play crucial roles. One of my Fugazi scored a game-preserving Flash Pulse vs Al-Djabel in Game 4, while the 6-6 MOV of a Fugazi accepting a Supply Box hand-off was great when my Zulu Cobra KHD had to pop open two boxes herself. Besides, they just look so good on the table, and if I’d run across a Vanilla Ariadna, Shas or JSA opponent, setting up a huge Sniffer network can be crucial. Overall, my lists performed well. I would have loved to find room for an Echo Bravo in the list I used for Unmasking, Supplies and Firefight, but ultimately the need for an ORC and the Exclusion Zone in Unmasking made it clear that I should spend my points elsewhere. Conclusion I have a really strong connection to Varuna. I've been excited for VIRD since I first picked up an Infinity miniature for the first time. And while I've had decent ITS success with them, Rumble was the true test, the one that really highlighted their capability to be consistent and dangerous in a competitive, large-scale, 5-game format. Being able to conclude Rumble with a strong finish really helped me feel at home with the Sectorial.
Fantastic write-up! I was a bit astounded by the consistency in your games, nothing really seemed to hinge on a lucky roll or crit. Everything performed mostly as expected (Croc Luck aside...) which is always something I look for in effective lists, models and plans. Looking forward to seeing what VIRD is capable of in the coming months of big tournaments.
Thanks for the read, guys. You bet, consistency is really the idea for a big event. If a player can distill a game down to one or two crucial moments, then they probably didn't play a very stable game... They were pursuing a fairly risky strategy, or let things get away from them too much. Games like that tend to be the best games, because they're incredibly fun and highly memorable! But when you're trying to achieve consistent results over 5 Rounds, you don't want your games hinging on one or two key moments.
Grats on results :) It's always a bit funny to read about mistakes opponents make, they are so silly and obvious (post factum) :) Nice unit/tactics analysis. And it's always good to see good tools in able hands being used.
@Fearbox Good question. Let me see if I can organize my thoughts here... I'm still sick from travel so I'm not thinking very clearly. The Patsy Haris is good for a number of things: Order efficiency for moving bodies around. Aggressive firepower that can relocate quickly, particularly with Patsy's SMG or a Kamau heavy weapon. Multiple Specialists that can be brought to an area of the table fairly quickly. Providing a fairly durable Datatracker with diverse capability (Patsy.) Broad Classified Objective coverage. When you field it though, you're usually giving up some things too: You're probably fielding a lot fewer Zulu Cobras and Crocs, so you're giving up all of their Camo, utility and defense. This is big. You may also be giving up your Camo Infiltrator or Forward Deployment midfield Specialists, which can hurt your ability to push buttons effectively. Most importantly, you're tying a lot of your capability to the troops in your DZ. If you can't break out of your DZ, you have fewer troops to fall back on. Looking over the missions, I saw that I didn't need the strengths of the Haris very much. Supplies and Unmasking would reward Camo Specialists. Supplies, Unmasking, and Decap didn't require overwhelming firepower... Merely light, quick firepower that could attack quickly to drop a civvie or take down a box runner. Running an entire Haris into the enemy table half was risky, and frankly represented some serious Overkill, when a Zulu Cobra or Croc could achieve most of the counter-attack capability that I would want in these missions. Additionally, every single one of these 5 missions heavily emphasized defense: Unmasking: Mines and Jammer to protect the three consoles/three civvies can be critical. Supplies: Defend the boxes to stop enemy box running, and protect the boxes you claim. Decap: Protect your own Civvie, as well as your LT. Acquisition: Protect your Datatracker in the midfield, defend the midfield line. Firefight: Defend everything. With that in mind, I really wanted to have 2x Jammers and at least one unit with Mines. If I was going to do this while also having the Kamau MSV2 + Fusilier LGL Core team, I knew the Patsy Haris wasn't really going to be an option here.
@barakiel Thanks for the tactical break down, some great insight into how you look at the different missions. In my games of Unmasking I have found that I needed a lot of fire power to get across the board kill their HVTs, I will have to try a softer approach and see how it goes. This has been talked to death but most of my games against the VIRD have hanged on my ability neutralize the Kamau MSR, if your games how important has the Kamau MSR been?
@Fearbox Definitely, firepower certainly doesn't hurt... The ability to force your way to consoles, then follow-up against civvies, is definitely helpful if you have heavy firepower. But I also find that multiple camo units can often sneak through gaps in enemy defense. Something like the Zulu Cobra Jammer is great because it actively defends against the opponent achieving their own objectives, and lets you counter-attack to take down Civvies yourself. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer, because there are certainly moments (such as when Ben's Diplomatic Delegate is standing in the way) when having a full haris with a 2-Wound leader is going to be a lot more useful than a flimsy 1-Wound Camo infiltrator. For the Kamau MSV2... She was critical in every game I played, except for my first game. Counter-deployment and aggressive AROs have always been part of my PanO gameplan. For CB to give us an even more perfect tool is absolutely key for making VIRD such a competitive powerhouse. In game 1, the table was simply too dense, and too focused on building interiors, for her to have very good firelanes. Her shootout with the Sukeul actually happened at the 0 range band, at fairly close range. Game 2: She had Randon cursing pretty heavily. Even slamming Damage 15 against Total Immunity Wolves, she was critical. She also helped me clear a path for the helpful 2 Classifieids I scored in Turn 3, and she was a goddess of the battlefield in slowing TAK's run on those midfield objectives. Game 3: She shot down the Onyx LT in ARO, fortunately catching his Spitfire at 25 inches and stacking all the mods she needed to win that shootout. She did get Crit in the face by a boarding shotgun, but she played her part perfectly before then. Game 4: Possibly her most critical game. She caught a lucky break when Chris' Fiday failed to Impersonate onto her rooftop, and after that, she basically took down everything she saw in both active and reactive turns. She was far more dominant than she had any right to be, not only protecting herself, but providing some really key defense for my ORC Datatracker as he tried to hang on in the midfield. Because of her Overwatch, rather than the ORC facing a fully Camo'd shotgun Surprise Shooting in the +6 range from cover, the ORC fought a visible shotgun shooting at the -3 rangeband with no cover. This was really key for me scoring some much-needed Objective Points in Round 4, and she also personally accounted for an Asawira Spitfire, Mutt, Daylami, Flash Pulse Bot, Lasiq Sniper, and MSV2 Mk12 (most of this in ARO.) Huge performance in Game 4. Game 5: Once again, she's the umbrella under which the rest of my VIRD units operate. Took down the Dakini Sniper, which was a key shootout, and even went after the Posthuman Mk2 Hacker in the 0 band to score that really important kill. She was the focal point of the Asura's wrath, with the Asura Haris slogging into the midfield in order to duel her. She eventually went Unconscious to the Asura, but her threat was so great that she pulled a ~120 point Haris up the table where the Echo Bravo could go after them. That was a really game-defining moment. I almost took two Snipers! I didn't for a few reasons... The first being that it isn't much fun for an opponent. The second being that I expected more White Noise. Tohaa could have dropped it, but Ben was running Mates. Onyx could have as well, but the Limited Insertion setup restricted that a bit. It would have been really dangerous against OSS, where I honestly wasn't expecting the Mk2 with boarding shotgun (I see the Sniper version far more often.) I'm friends with the extraordinarily talented @deltakilo , and I've read of him doing amazing things with White Noise to help an already-strong OSS maximize all their gunfighting advantages. A White Noise laid down on my Kamau MSV2, followed by the Mk2 sneaking past my Jammer network, then blowing away my House o' Fusiliers in their hiding place would have been really nasty. Part of the reason I wanted to go first was to help avoid my opponent playing strong games with White Noise, and while it ended up not being an issue, I was still glad I took the precaution.
@barakiel Thank you for answering my questions very informative and insightful. Have you found any armies or play styles that VIRD struggles with?
Anyone who can leverage White Noise and good gunfighting is going to be a threat. I'd be very worried about Combined Army or Nomads closing off the sight lanes for the Kamau MSV2, then applying a lot of backline pressure with good AD, fast Chain Rifles, etc. You can still do a lot to mitigate that, thanks to Jammer and positioning. But in terms of game mechanics, VIRD's defenses are very dependent on one another. For example, Stealth bypasses Jammer, so you need Helots or a Kamau to challenge lanes and force the enemy to make a roll and break stealth. But Marker state bypasses Jammer as well as shooting AROs, so then you need mines to break marker state and force camo units to be visible. A smart opponent can unravel VIRD's defenses, and the Varuna backline is very squishy if something manages to break through, so I worry the most about opponents who can bring those proper tools.
@barakiel Thanks you again for posting your thoughts I have played USAriadna into VIRD and was able to leverage infiltrating flamer grunt very effectively, getting to the squishy parts of my opponents list, but if I had not landed the grunts I would have been in a bit of trouble. It feels like many factions only have a couple of specific answers to the layered defense of VIRD and end up taking a lot of risks to contest and take back board position against VIRD. OSS also has the tools to brute force their way through the link in the active turn with a hacker supported Dakini HMG, without wasting a bunch of orders. Also when I have the option I always deploy Helots in a camo state and have not really found a reason to deploy them as decoys, in what situations do you deploy as a decoy vs. Camo.
@Fearbox USAriadna is an interesting one. The Infiltrating Grunt's a strong candidate for opening things up vs VIRD, but as you say, it has its drawbacks. Most VIRD players are going to put Jammers down to make sure that the Grunt won't get more than 1 or 2 Orders of effectiveness. Sixth Sense L1 also means link members will generally delay if a USAr player is trying to set up a "flamethrower or shotgun" forced decision, either contesting the shotgun with combi/pistol or Dodging away from the Flamethrower and hoping to break LoF. Tricky. So you're probably hoping for one-way-trip flamethrower runs vs link members and hoping to get lucky. The Devil Dog is a pretty decent tool these days vs VIRD. Van Zant is great for preying on Fusiliers and softening up link bonuses. Finding a gap for a bike to slip through is very strong too. Agreed that OSS is in pretty good shape. They can go toe-to-toe vs VIRD gunfighting. Their midfield tools are great too... Dart's brilliant, and some of the less common units like the Arjuna or Yadu are actually good at taking on Zulu Cobras. Zulu Cobra Sensor/Jammers cringe in terror when a Drop Bear Yadu comes cruising around. The Helot question is a good one. I generally use Camo too... I've been running 3 Zulu Cobras a lot lately, and their stock goes up even more when there are a couple of Helot Camo Tokens out there to confuse the enemy and make them nervous. I always split my ZCs and Helots across both Combat Groups too, so there are always at least two Camo Tokens that could either be a Jammer or a Neurocinetic weapon. The one time I've been most happy with Decoy is against opponents using a ton of AD (like 4 Yuan Yuan dropping in) or a lot of Chain Rifle warbands. The possibility of two Helots being in 6 possible locations means they have to throw smoke everywhere, or be ultra-cautious with their drop angles, and that can be really helpful in keeping all those close-range troops at bay. In matchups like that, you probably want your Jammers maximizing their use of Forward Deployment and be as far up the table as possible for max jamming attempts, so they're never going to be able to "double" with Helots who are stuck back in your DZ. Even then, you can still make the case for Helot Limited Camo... Simply making your opponent guess what's under a Camo token is really powerful.
@barakiel Excellent write up, ta¿hank you for sharing I saw your lists and I want to ask it in generally you use three ZC, two sensors and one killer hacker? or its because of the mission that you play? What about ZC visor X. And I have the same qestion about crockman .... This structure of three ZC and a crockman (FO / minilayer) is usual in your games independent of the scenario? and plus two helot, and the link with Kamu sniper is the backbone of your list? Leaving a little room for variations like an orc vs a kamau HMG, or an EB. Regarding that what is your opinion about using similar lists all the time. For one hand you loss the "surprise factor" against your rivals, but in other, the more you use a list (the same base with variations depending on the mission), the better you understand the game form of your army and the more effective your strategy becomes
Good questions, @Cadmo. Your assessment is very accurate. Your post is exactly the issue I'm working on right now. As you say, once you're done paying for 2x Jammers, 1x KHD, defensive link and Helots, you've already committed a lot of points to a very familiar list structures. I think it's a strong structure.. 2x Jammers to either concentrate defense in one area, or distribute defense in two different areas, is a very strong asset. I'll probably experiment with removing the Zulu Cobra KHD or Croc to refund some points, letting me take my list building in a new direction. I do think it's helpful to have familiarity in your lists, since it speeds up play, and makes deployment easier. I have to worry about local opponents becoming too familiar with my lists, but this is less of a problem when I travel for ITS play. VIRD is interesting in general because I think the Snake Eaters are all designed to be interchangeable. So you swap a few Snake Eaters around, and it changes the tactical capability of the list a lot, even if most of your list remains the same. I like that design a lot, but it means a lot of my lists end up very same-y. I think it's mostly Patsy and TAGs that represent the biggest capability for me to change the kind of lists I play. I will continue to use 2x Jammer, KHD and Croc for button pushing missions, but will explore other options for other missions. The ORC did well as a durable Datatracker, but it won't be a staple for all my lists... Just one more tool to use. I do like the ZC Marksman rifle, but I find I tend to reach for the jammer first (so much utility) or the KHD (combination Specialist, multiple classifieds, armor-cracking weapon.) All the ZC profiles are brilliant, it's just about finding which ones work for your list and your mission requirement. I tend to play very defensively, preserving my order pool and my capabilities as long as I can, so double jammer naturally works well for that. Sorry for the rambling reply... Am traveling and replying from my phone, so my thoughts aren't very organized. Let me know if I missed any part of your question.
Thank you @barakiel for your answer, is very clear and cover everything. I agree with you, it is important to play in the way that suits you best, infinity is a diverse game and allows many approaches to the same army, that is what makes it so interesting. The backbone that you propose is certainly defenesive but very effective, I felt that I could not get the full performance to the ZC sensor, because I use only one and the area of denial that it produces, although it is wide, it seemed a bit scarce, and I felt disconnected from the rest of the team. What could be the use of a ZC sensor, the same as using two?, I use to protect my DZ than objectives or areas in the middle of the table. Two sensors in the middle of the table on the other hand, power it a lot (they are almost 80/32 cm/inch of covering) and allow a staggered defense along with the Helot, Crockman and Kamau sniper as you indicate. Well, for my part I try to play more offensively and in that Varuna gives many options. As we have discussed before, the use of a stepped attack pleases me a lot. That is why I use a bulleteer (with assisted firing) and a ZC X visor attacking the flanks, to open the table, this has worked out very well for me. To continue with the Core with an Orc and a Kamau sniper, and depending on the moment, enter an Echo Bravo (LRL or RF) and the ZC KHD to consolidate the missions. But when playing like this I can not take a crockman/doctors/engeneer and as specialists opt for less quality profiles like fusiliers hackers, paramedics and tech-bee. This has sometimes made the capture of objectives more complex. For that reason I have intentions to vary the list and your proposal seems interesting to me. In your great post abaout Varuna tactics, you left a space for lists, it could be very nice to see and compare defensive and offensive lists among others (if you allow me a suggestion). Finally, when I carry the link with the Orc HMG and the Kamau sniper, I often see a slight opposition between the two, since I tend to place the Kamau in elevated positions, so, sometimes, it's difficult for me to move the firteam to attack (it's not a big problem because the range of the HMG is quite long, at least compared to spitfire, redfury or other similar). In general, I wait until the kamau dies (attacking with bullet, ZC and EB), and I have an additional fusilier to reform the link. On one of your lists I saw a Kamau sniper and the Orc, but I got the impression that both were not on the same link. How do you use them? How was the kamau sniper alone? Thanks :-)
@Cadmo I like the units you use to open up the table. I do miss having the Bulleteer. I've been having my hands tied by the ITS lineups I've been playing lately. When I play a 5-round ITS, my lists need to perform so many different roles, it usually means none of my lists are perfectly optimized for a single mission. I've been needing lists to perform multiple functions, competing in multiple scenarios with different requirements, so you have to compromise when it comes to selecting certain units. An example there would be the Zulu Cobra Marksman Rifle. Great unit, great profile, very efficient and dangerous. But it competes very directly with Jammer in missions where you may want strong defense, or with the Croc Man Specialist or Zulu Cobra KHD in missions where you need to get consoles. As you say, using less elite Specialists still works here. The Pathfinder is particularly good... 6-4 MOV and WIP13 make it good at running for objectives once you've cleared the field. I'll think about filling in that space with some army list ideas. Thank you for reminding me. For the Kamau MSV2 and any HMG, whether it's the ORC or the Kamau HMG, I have been fielding them separately more and more often. Obviously it's very nice to be able to smash something flat with a Burst 5, BS16/BS17 HMG. But as you say, if you give the Kamau Sniper a strong vantage point, you may lose your ability to maneuver effectively for HMG shots. Because of that, I've started using both my HMG units as solo attack pieces. Not only can they attack or retreat more easily than a big Core link, but they can also be held as a reserve drop, and deployed solo in a place where they will do most damage. Since the ORC is often my Datatracker too, maybe linked to the Xenotech, it's important to deploy the ORC where the scenario needs him, and not in the link team. For the battle reports above, I didn't link the ORC HMG in any of my missions, but he still made useful gunfighting contributions, and was important to each mission. BS14 is still quite good, even when unlinked, and the list has enough defense (2x Jammers, Kamau MSV2, 2x Helots, mines) that the ORC can usually survive even without the defensive safety of link bonuses. More and more, I have been putting less points and strength into the Core link. Being able to project power and area denial in a lot of different areas has been working very well for me. I would like to be playing missions that focus more on Direct Action, Quadrants, and other criteria where I can try some different listbuilding approaches. I've been playing so many missions with Exclusion Zones, for example, that it's been difficult for me to use the Echo Bravo effectively. I also haven't had access to many TAG-friendly missions, and I do enjoy fielding TAGs when the missions support it.
