AAR: INFINITY: 200 points- MAF vs. Neoterran Capitaline Army: N3- Supremacy

Now we're cheaper!

With N3 having just been released, it was time to get a few games under the belt.

And lift the quality of battle-reporting with the hair-pulling and teeth gnashing experience that is GIMP.


ARMIES

Morat Aggression Force- 217th Expeditionary Force

Red faced... everytime.

KORNAK Lieutenant Mk12, Light Flamethrower / Pistol, DA CCW. (43)
MORAT- Marc Antony-  Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (14)
MORAT- Bacchus-  HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)
MORAT Hacker (Hacking Device)- Seneca-  Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
MORAT Paramedic (MediKit)- Trajan-  Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (26)
ANYAT K1 Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, Smoke Grenades, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (25)
DĀTURAZI- Sulla-  Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (21)
Q-DRONE- Nemo-  HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater)- Ingham-  2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (9)

2.5 SWC | 198 Points


This was another variation of a 200 point list I was kicking around with.  It had performed quite well in two preliminary games so I was going to try it out against my old nemesis- the Neoterrans.

The premise of the list is that the link team and Kornak provide good offensive options.  The Q-Drone- being total reaction- would serve as my defence in the reactive turn.  The Daturazi would be an annoyance to the enemy- and if he's going to charge heedlessly towards the enemy, he better have the range to shoot them (hence the combi-rifle).  The Ikadron would serve as a faithful cheerleader.


Neoterran Capitaline Army

Blue.

ORC Lieutenant MULTI Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (40)
FUSILIER HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 18)
FUSILIER Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15)
FUSILIER Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (12)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (10)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (10)
TRAUMA-DOC Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (14)
AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_2 / Pistol, Knife. (20)
AUXBOT_2 (Forward Observer) Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. 
AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_2 / Pistol, Knife. (20)
AUXBOT_2 (Forward Observer) Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. 
HEXA MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 38)

4.0 SWC | 197 Points

There are some proxies:
> The Fusilier HMG is a proxied by a combi-rifle Fusilier aiming down his sights
> The Fusilier ML is proxied by a Bolt ML
> ORC Lt. is proxied by an Aquila
> Trauma Doc is proxied by the Bipandra model.

Now before anyone with sharp eyes can spot it- ORCs can't be options in the Neoterran Sectorial.  I attribute the error to all the paper shuffling, page turning and booting up the old Army Builder 4.0 to check on old profiles.    

It was an oversight but it didn't end up having much of an effect on the game.

TERRAIN

Deployment zones to the left and right

This area of Paradiso is called "La Boca".  A brightly coloured, semi-industrial, port district that has found itself under threat from the Combined Army.

The key terrain in La Boca are:

1. The Container Yard

2. The Garage

3. The Tower (of infinite height)

4. The Block- a three storey apartment building that is now defaced and abandoned

5. The Corner Store

MISSION   

"Friendly forces must SEIZE "La Boca" No Later Than in 3 TURNS In Order To allow Friendly forces to continue their Norstralian offensive."

The mission was SUPREMACY from the N3 rulebook.  The area between the two deployment zones is evenly divided into Quadrants and then scoring is determined by having more controlling more quadrants than the opponent.

On the face of it- it looks like Quadrant Control from ITS2014- except there are now consoles!

4 consoles- painted in red!

Each quadrant has a console and activating one console confers one point.

We used cheer-leader bunnies from the old Blood Bowl game as our consoles....

Drone view of two consoles

Drone view of the other two consoles

CLASSIFIEDS

After rolling for classifieds- my Morats scored HVT: Espionage.  This would mean locating the enemy VIP and hacking him with my Hacker.

I never found out what the Neoterran classified was- as it didn't end up being important.

LIEUTENANT ROLL OFF

I won the Lieutenant roll off- and in a break from tradition- opted to pick sides instead of going first.  I thought that with the power of going second, I would be able to score more points by moving into quadrants not controlled by the Neoterrans.

I guess we'd see how that theory works out!

With that in mind, I picked the side with the The Block.

My opponent- the Neoterrans- chose to go first.

DEPLOYMENT

La Boca- battle lines drawn

NEOTERRAN Deployment

View from NCA deployment zone towards MAF deployment zone

Even spread.

The Neoterran battle line was evenly spread out across their deployment zone.

Fusiliers... still cheaper that you.

The Fusilier link team with the HMG and Missile Launcher took up position on the right with a trauma doc hiding behind the garage.  

An Auxilia and his aux-bot hid out on the top of the garage.

Auxilia and the ORC

The ORC (proxied by an Aquila) hid on top of one the buildings in the container yard whilst the last Auxilia squirrelled himself in and amongst the containers.

Fusilier link team.  NCA VIP can be seen close to the Police Car.

MAF DEPLOYMENT

Ready for N3....

My deployment philosophy was quite simple.... hide!

Hiding out.

My link team took up residence in the ground floor of the apartment building their flanks guarded by Sulla (the Daturazi) and the Ikadron with its twin light flame throwers. 

The Conundrum

I spent a fair bit of time wondering what to do with Nemo the Q-Drone.  The normal thing to do would have to put him on the roof of The Block and let him ARO everything.  However, with the new range bands for the HMGs and the fact that I'd need to use him more aggressively to seize quadrants- I ended up putting him on street on my left.

Q-drone on the left.

RESERVE DEPLOYMENT- NCA

Hidden.

RESERVE DEPLOYMENT- MAF

Found some extra rations in the Corner Store

After some deliberation, I placed Kornak- my reserve miniature- atop the corner store.  I was planning to charge him across the battle field and take on the enemy rather than hold him back.  I did of course, make sure he was deployed prone to hide him from any snipers.

HVTs

Neoterran VIP and the MAF VIP share a flask.

The two VIPs were deployed in the sequence as ruled in N3 (at the beginning of each player's deployment phase) but for ease of reporting- I've squeezed it in here.

HVTs hanging out around the Police Car.

THE BATTLE BEGINS...

NCA Turn 1

Strategic token time!  I used one of command tokens to deduct 2 orders from the NCA order pool- hopefully that would keep them quiet for a bit....

TO Camo... AGAIN?!  Aarrgh!

The ORC trooper (proxied by the Aquila) crawled from his corner further along the roof top- making space for a mysterious figure to appear and move into sight of Nemo.

This isn't going to go well....

Hexa Sniper!

After doing some quick maths- Nemo was out of his positive range band and would have been hitting on -1 if he chose to shoot back.  Which is crap.  So he mustered his tentacles and mediocre physicality and the Q-Drone opted to dodge.

Success!

The Hexa missed with both her shots- thank goodness- and Nemo darted out of the way.

Uh-oh.

With the Hexa failing to kill the Q-Drone, the NCA tried another strategy.  The Auxilia and his Aux-bot got up and climbed down the ladder of the garage...

I think I know what's going to happen....

Advancing...

Hiding out of view of Nemo's TR HMG

Oh no

Why aren't you looking out the window?!

Wait, wait.... I can Hack!

As aux-bot closed in, Seneca desperately cast his Immobilise spell but with typical wretched rolling- he missed.  

Morat hackers....

Pepper your angus... cos they're going in raw

Delighted to have escaped Immobility, the Auxbot and its handler raced forward.  The Aux-Bot unleashed his heavy flamer at the unsuspecting link team who all opted to dodge.  

Luckily, they either all passed their Dodge rolls at -3PH or passed their armour saves!  Ridiculous luck!

(Editor's note:  DTW within LOF are dodged on NATURAL PH rolls- no negative modifiers at all).

KO'd!

Sulla wasn't so lucky- AROing with a shot back at the Auxilia- he missed miserably and was cut down by combi-rifle fire.

In hindsight- what I should have done was ENGAGE with Sulla- to take out the Aux-bot.  There were more orders to burn and it would have bogged the evil bot down.

Torrent of flame!

I wasn't so lucky this time- as Trajan got toasted.

Moar!

Blah!

Bacchus- with his HMG- was burned to a crisp and the Ikadron was knocked out of action.

With the benefit of hindsight (again)- I should have broken the link team to allow for different ARO's- such as letting my hacker have a few more attempts at immobilizing that bot.  

Another point that I've since learned is that DTW fired outside LOF (e.g. Ikadron taking the flame template to the back) can still be dodged with a -3 PH roll.

MAF Turn 1

With that devastating Turn 1, I didn't have many options....

Nemo slinks forward

Skimming along the edge of the street, Nemo remained out of view of the damned Hexa sniper- and claiming a Quadrant.

Time to Save the Day!

Crawling forward, Kornak got out of view of the Hexa and stood up to blast the Auxbot- who of course opted to shoot back with its heavy flamer.

Luckily for Kornak, the heavy flamer fell short.

Unluckily for the other Morats who fell under the template- they died.

The Auxbot was duly blown to bits, however, the damage had been done.

Enough shennanigans with that Auxilia!

Seneca, fed up with his useless hacking programs, grabbed his combi-rifle and laid waste to the impudently grinning Auxilia.

Get off the roof.

With the back line secure, Kornak leapt off the corner store roof and contemplated making a dash across the street- braving the Hexa's sights.

... and wisely decided to stay hidden.

I wish The Ring had never come to me!  I wish this had never happened!

With only Nemo's HMG being a credible weapon now, I moved Nemo into the corner of an alleyway and blazed away at the Hexa sniper.

... And hit!

Only to watch the rounds bounce off.  BOOO!

The Hexa failed her guts roll and dropped prone.

A fusilier!

Nemo, faithful to the last, managed to spot Fusilier and gunned her down.

And that was all.  *sad face*

NCA TURN 2

Fusilier HMG moves up (proxied by the 'aiming' Fusilier).

Fusilier ML moves up too.

Engage!

HMG vs. TR HMG

I rolled horribly and the Neoterrans rolled well.  With that, Nemo was blown to scrap.  

Objective time!

The Auxilia FO in the container yard sent his Remote forward to interact with the console.

(I know that in ITS2014 it was clear in disallowing Ghost remotes from button pushing but N3 makes no such ruling.... that I know of.  If you know otherwise- write down a page reference in the comments below).

In any case, the auxbot failed and the Auxilia handler was forced to sort it out himself.

Never send a bot to do a man's job

Trying again!

With a two dice roll.... success.

Another annotation here:  A specialist and their Ghost: Servant wouldn't be able to do this- i.e. get two WIP rolls.  In the entry on Ghost: Servant it specifically states that "The Doctor/Engineer makes the WIP roll, and it is the Remote which performs it." 

With Ghost: Synchronised a "Synchronized Remote basically replicates the actions performed by its Controller." 

This feels a bit unnatural to me- but there wasn't anything in the rules to outwardly disallow a two dice roll so we let it happen. 

Getting into position

With the last handful of orders, the Fusilier link team ascended a nearby building to provide  overwatch onto the battlefield.


MAF Turn 2

I didn't take many photos- as there wasn't a lot of action!

Anyat makes a mad scramble for a quadrant and a console

The situation was truly dire now- and I was going to need some inspiring dice rolls to get me through.

Anyat ran from the apartment block towards the Tower.  Throwing smoke, she managed to make it across the street under the eyes of the Fusilier link team.

Unfortunately it didn't blanket the wall she needed to climb up....

Spotted by the missile launcher

Anyat was hit twice- and failed 4 armour saves.

Splat.

With only Kornak and my hacker left- and no orders- it would be a straight forward Neoterran mop-up operation.

Time to bite the bullet.


MAF CONCEDES

NEOTERRAN VICTORY

CONCLUSION

Oh my godfathers... what a drubbing.

I can imagine the cringing that went on when that heavy flamer toasted my link team.  When that happened, it was all over.  That being said, a few game points are worth discussing for the benefit of the people new to the game.

Learning Points:

1. Deployment/ Link team positioning
If you're going to deploy defensively then deploy defensively.  Make sure approaches are covered by appropriately expendable or deadly models.  Not having a single combi rifle covering the other side of the apartment block cost me my link team (and the game).

This belies the underlying point that good deployment is pivotal in Infinity.

2. Engage with Kinematica

A really useful short skill in ARO when auxbots are rolling right past.  Remember to use it.   Athough it's not clear whether Kinematica works with Engage, the Auxbot was well within 2 inches anyway.

3. TR Bot utilization
When setting a bot up for the reactive turn- attempt to use the Program: Assisted Fire.  Being able to negate partial cover AND have Shock ammunition... deadly.  Especially when I knew that Fusilier link team was going to engage my Q-Drone in Turn 2.

4. Breaking Link to ARO
It may have been a better choice to break my hacker from the link team so they could ARO Hack whilst everyone else ARO- Dodges.  It's a small point but it might have saved my HMG Vanguard.

And having played a few games since this one- Morats still have a rough time against ODD.  A very rough time.  MSV2 could be the answer- but with Yaogat snipers/ spitfires costing what they do- it puts a big crimp on everything else.

Vigilant for rules done wrong!

As this was one of the first games of N3 we've played- feel free to comment- as it is certain that we've got rules wrong.

Hope you have enjoyed reading this.

Until next time!