Adam and I have been working on a mega Infinity table for Rose City Raid, gluing together three full tables, so we decided to bring it to our February ITS tournament. The narrative behind the table is there’s a FRRM mountain base, with a giant Cheyenne Mountain Complex style gate on one end of of the three tables leading to a yet-unbuilt underground complex. Outside the gate, there’s a (mostly) Warsen.al military base, with some Dust quonset huts and other assorted scatter. This completes the first table. The next table is the base perimeter, with Warsen.al pillboxes and a gate whose origin I forget, and the table is divided in half by Adam’s chain link fence that he built for the table. A few more pillboxes and towers guard the outside of the base, complete with minefields, and then just outside the base is a crashed FRRM Ektroplan. It had hoped to make it to a nearby airstrip but was too badly damaged to land safely and the pilot crashed it in the forest just outside the base. None of the tables are anywhere near finished, but you can get a sense of the scale of the thing from the picture below: Game tables are easily delineated by the edge of the game map, so we can have scenery elements bridge tables to provide a sense of continuity without breaking gameplay. Speaking of which, this was a Spec Ops tournament. I’ve long maintained that the Muyib Spec Ops is the most ridiculous one, so of course that meant I was going to be taking my Hassassin Bahram out for the first time. After having the Asawira Haris used to such good effect against me I wanted to use it against someone. Plus, Muyibs are just silly.

Game 1 – Too Close for Missiles? NAH.

Going into the tournament, Adam and I were both pretty sleep deprived. Me from Hong Kong-induced jet lag, and Adam from a 1 month old baby. Since we’re both Warcors, we’ve agreed to trade off a bye so we both get to play in a tournament with an odd number of people. We were both looking forward to potentially taking naps in our cars, so we were both surprised to be sitting down next to each other while the rest of our players started deploying. It turned out that Adam had forgotten to add me to the OTM, and we actually had an even number of players. After quickly fixing that, we shuffled over the “extra” table we had set up (suddenly this made way more sense) and got down to business.

Overview

Mission : Annihilation

: Annihilation Forces : Hassassin Bahram versus Caledonian Highlander Army

: versus Deploy First : Hassassin Bahram

: First Turn: Hassassin Bahram

List A GROUP 1 10 GHULAM Lieutenant HMG / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)

GHULAM Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 17)

GHULAM Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 17)

GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)

LEILA SHARIF Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Shock Marksman Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20) ASAWIRA (Fireteam: Haris) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 44)

MUYIB (Minelayer) Rifle + Light Shotgun, D.E.P. Antipersonnel Mines, E/Mauler / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)

HUSAM Spec-Ops (12 XP) (BS:13, CH: Mimetism, Doctor) Rifle, Light Shotgun, 2xPanzerfaust / D-Charges, Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24) FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

FIDAY Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 31) GROUP 2 | 2 4 3 ÁYYĀR (Surprise Shot L2) Rifle + E/Mitter, D.E.P. / 2 Viral Pistols, CCW, Knife. (0 | 37)

FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 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) 5.5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Caledonian Highlander Army GROUP 1 | 4 6 4 WALLACE Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CCW. (0 | 35)

HIGHLANDER Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 6)

HIGHLANDER Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 6)

HIGHLANDER Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 6)

HIGHLANDER Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 6)

CATERAN T2 Sniper Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 24)

CATERAN T2 Sniper Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 24)

S.A.S. Chain Rifle, Grenades / Assault Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 22)

S.A.S. Chain Rifle, Grenades / Assault Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 22)

INTEL Spec-Ops (12 XP) (AD: Inferior Combat Jump) Rifle, Molotok / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) GROUP 2 | 7 3 2 UXÍA McNEILL (Covert Action) (CH: Limited Camouflage, Superior Infiltration, Specialist Operative) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 27)

HIGHLANDER Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 6)

HIGHLANDER Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 6) HIGHLANDER GREY AP HMG, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 34)

VOLUNTEER HMG / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)

VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)

VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 6)

VOLUNTEER Paramedic (Medikit) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) S.A.S. Chain Rifle, Grenades / Assault Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 22)

WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3) 4 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Deployment

Definitely wanted to go first against Adam’s 20 order list full of nasty, so I was delighted to find that I had won the roll off. Adam chose the better side, leaving me with a bit of a deployment puzzle. I saw a reasonable spot to put down my double missile launcher link team and did just that. One of the MLs was up high, watching the whole board, and the other covered the left table edge and a little into the center of the table. My Ghulam doctor, HMG, and Leila tucked themselves into some corners to be safe, and I screened the approach to them with an Ayyar and a Farzan minelayer. My Mutts were spread out evenly across my backfield, basically with a full short skill move of total cover. There was a convenient roof for a warcor in the middle of my deployment zone, so Jill Newslady settled in for some journalism up there, and I put her Fanous camera bot just behind her. Finally, my Asawira Haris went on the right, in what I thought was total cover. I deployed them bunched up, intending to spend orders on them in the first turn, and covered their left flank with a mine. The Muyib Minelayer has both mines and E/Maulers (so ridiculous), but against dogged Galwegians, the mine was the right choice.

It was now Adam’s turn to deploy, and he knew what was coming. He talked through his sleep deprivation: “How do I best deploy to counter what I know is your reserve?” He puttered about, peering at various firing lanes and angles before settling on a interlocking web of chain rifles thanks to his Galwegians and Volunteers. His AP HMG Grey lay prone behind a barrier, ready to stand up and start gunning stuff down, with the added insurance of a nearby Volunteer paramedic. Adam loves his SAS CRAP and Uxia, so four camo tokens went down in the midfield, ready to cause havoc. He put two SAS CRAP and Uxia on the same side as my Ghulam link to give himself some redundancy there, and then threw a SAS CRAP on the left for good measure. He saw a keyhole through which he could shoot my Asawira, so he put a Cateran down there. The other Cateran (gross) came down in a position to take out my Ghulam ML when it was time. I responded by putting down my Fiday in view of Uxia but out of view of everything else, planning to take out the Grey, the Paramedic, and hopefully Wallace before I lost it. I forget what Adam held in reserve. I think it was one of the SAS CRAP.

Turn 1

Top of 1 – HB

I start the turn off with my Mutts impetuous orders–my positioning paid off and there were no AROs. Then it was time for Fiday stuff. I spent an order getting out of LoF to everything, then yet another order to throw smoke–I didn’t want to give Uxia an ARO (although I had no idea what that camo token was at the time). Thankfully, the smoke goes down without issue, then I place a mine covering the Grey, the Paramedic, and one of the seemingly infinite Galwegians on the table… then poked out of the smoke and back to drop two shotgun blasts onto those same three models. The Paramedic and the Grey were in a link, and they both dodged, but the Galwegian was not, and chain rifled my Fiday. I miraculously survived the chain rifle shot, as well as a pistol shot from a faraway Galwegian, but all three models I targeted went down, with just the Grey remaining, unconsicous. Bouyed by my success, I re-impersonated the Fiday, and then went after Wallace, getting discovered on the way by yet another Galwegian. No matter, I poked around the corner and let Wallace have both barrels, so to speak. Adam did some quick math, and decided that he could probably tank one of the two shots and just go into NWI, so he elected to flamethrower back. Of course, I roll two 19’s on my shotgun, missing, and die to the flamethrower. Whoops! It’s at this point that I realize that I’m out of orders in my first pool, and my Asawira is literally under a Cateran’s gun. At the time, I thought it might be a Scots Guard with ML, which would be even more nightmarish, so I ran a Mutt in under the cover of smoke to block LoF through the tiny Keyhole that Adam had found. Adam hadn’t really left much for me to go after with Mutts, so I just settled for putting them into places that would be sufficiently annoying for Adam on his turn, then turned things over to him.

Bottom of 1 – CHA

After impetuously advancing several Galwegians without incident, Adam turned his attention to his Caterans. My Mutt plan paid off, and I was able to get the Cateran to pop camo on the Mutt before it went hunting my Asawira. Ideally I would’ve landed smoke, but I got a thin red cloud of vaporized Mutt instead. Adam then splits burst on my Asawira and Husam (Muyib Doctor). I should’ve dodged but decided to fire back with panzerfausts and Spitfire. Not the best idea, but I thought I might get lucky. In any case, I lose both face to face rolls and the Asawira goes down. Thankfully, my Husam’s armor holds, and she scoots out of line of fire thanks to a passed religious roll. Adam’s second Cateran makes an appearance, and pastes one of my Ghulam ML’s without much difficulty. With two major threats down, Adam decides to go hunting after my Mutts and activates one of his SAS CRAPs. I manage to discover it before it goes prone, but it doesn’t matter. The SAS CRAP scoots all the way to the edge of the building overlooking my Mutt in the center, and pops up to assault pistol the Mutt, killing it. I attemped to trade by chain rifling the SAS, but it takes a shot from my HMG Ghulam to take it out. There’s only one Mutt left on the board, so Adam scoots his second Cateran over a bit and pastes it too. With that Mutt gone, Adam sends in another SAS CRAP, intending to take out my link team with it. My Farzan Minelayer has done its job though, and my Ghulam ML’s missiles beat out the SAS’s assault pistol, so the SAS is knocked unconscious. Adam sends in yet another camo murderbeast, Uxia. She advances into range and unloads both assault pistols at my troublesome Ghulam ML. Unfortunately for Uxia, Adam misses 5 times and I land a missile crit, blasting poor Uxia off the table. I guess something’s wrong with Adam’s assault pistols today.

Adam’s got deep order reserves, so he sends in yet another attack piece, this time a AD:3 Grunt with Molotok. After walking on the Grunt on my left table edge, Adam finally takes out my Ghulam ML with the Molotok. This opens a lane for Adam to send in a Galwegian to some more damage with his deep order pool, but my Ayyar puts a stop to that with a firm DEP to the face denial. At this point, Adam’s finally out of orders, so after (justifiably) whinging a bit about how everything he tried ended up with missiles to the face, he passes the turn back to me.

Turn 2

Top of 2 – HB

All my Mutts are dead, and the Ghulam ML being taken off the table leaves a nice Ayyar-sized hole in my first order pool, so I free agent it over. I set about fixing what’s broken, and do some fancy footwork with the link. This lets me take some shots at Adam’s warcor (regrettably through a saturation/low-vis zone resulting in…nothing) with the HMG while I get the doctor into place, then I pick up the Ghulam ML and reform the link. The Ghulam ML takes a shot at a pair of Galwegians on the opposite corner of the board, but whiffs while I retreat the doctor into safety. My Muyib SpecOps picks up the Asawira next, reforming the Haris and scooting out from under LoF of the Cateran. I lay another mine to cover my right flank, and then attempt a long range shot on the Grunt SpecOps with the Asawira, again through that infernal sat/low-vis zone. I save an order to tuck the Asawira into a building for safety, and after doing that pass the turn.

Bottom of 2 – CHA

Adam’s Galwegians continue advancing. Hilariously, I have a small keyhole with which to take a max-range rifle shot from my Muyib Minelayer, and crit. Adam wants to remove my Warcor, who has been attempting flash pulses on everything she can see, and gets his Cateran stunned for his trouble. The Galwegian that took the rifle hit manages to get down some smoke on my left flank despite my Ghulam ML’s best attempts to missile him off the table. This gives Adam a window to get his Grunt Molotok (also a Doctor) into base to base with the SAS CRAP that had been fooled by the Farzan’s mine earlier. Of course, Adam’s dice luck (or lack thereof) holds and he kills the SAS. Frustrated, Adam attempts to take out both my Ayyar and the Ghulam ML by splitting burst with the Grunt. I E/Mitter the Grunt but it doesn’t matter–a missile blasts it off the table. Adam’s still got orders to burn, so he sends in yet another SAS CRAP after my Farzan, successfully taking it out before passing the turn.

Turn 3

Top of 3 – HB

I’ve got a wild SAS CRAP on the loose on my left flank, so I let the Ayyar do what he does best. Stupidly, I forget about his dual viral pistols and use my rifle instead. I also didn’t drop a mine with the Farzan’s last breath, but I’m not firing on all cylinders. In any case, the Ayyar makes up for my shortcomings and finishes off the SAS CRAP, which leaves me only a few orders. I elect to use them castling up the Asawira Haris, screening the high-point Asawira with my Husam and Muyib.

Bottom of 3 – CHA

Adam’s gameplan basically revolves around killing my Asawira. A pair of Galwegians rush forward, but my Muyibs can’t drop them. Adam manages to take out my Minelayer Muyib with the Cateran. Rather than shoot back, I drop my final mine, in anticipation of the incoming Galwegians. The Cateran does some Climbing+ nonsense to get a shot on my Muyib SpecOps, but I dodge out of trouble. Adam knows he has to get rid of my Warcor, just in case Jill Newslady manages to flash pulse the Galwegians on their way in, but she flash pulses Adam’s Cateran instead. It ends up not mattering, because Adam is able to sneak his Galwegians in thanks to some smoke crits. After face-tanking the mine, Adam’s Galwegian punches my Muyib SpecOps in the face, only to find that she’s dogged and that he’s only got one order left. Out of options, he calls it. Both of our DataTrackers are alive, and I’m up on points, making it a

6-2 Hassassin Bahram Victory!

Notes

Notes for Me

I’ve told myself this many times before–don’t assume that you’ll get orders to fix deployment issues. I should’ve deployed the Asawira Haris much better.

My Mutts did their job and drained a bunch of orders. I should probably be more careful with them, but I honestly thought that aside from the one that I sacrificed to body-block the Asawira/Cateran LoF, they were mostly safe. I figured I’d trade the one on the left with the SAS there, and didn’t expect the Cateran to be able to see it. Ah well.

Never forget the Ayyar’s double viral pistols, especially within 8″! They’re even on the damn model!

Also should’ve dropped a mine with the Farzan against the SAS’s assault pistol. Ah well.

Quite pleased with the above average performance of the Ghulam ML this game, especially since most of the interactions were within 24″. Might be worth thinking about taking a Ghulam Sniper instead–I’ve actually converted a second Ghulam sniper and a second Ghulam ML, so either is possible…

Very pleased with the Ayyar this game as well. Not very flashy, didn’t need it to go on the attack, but it was a solid DZ defender and a turn 3 janitorial crew.

Asawira Haris generates a HUGE amount of aggro from opponents, holy cow. This would be a theme throughout the day.

Some pretty good return on investment from my Fiday. Too bad I couldn’t get Wallace off the table too, which would’ve pretty much shattered Adam’s plans, but I really can’t complain about bad dice this game.

Notes for Adam

I hate Caterans. They’re so awful.

I think I got quite lucky this game–your SAS CRAP and Uxia should’ve rolled right over my Ghulam ML.

I’ve noticed that you die a lot of shooting at stuff out of cover, relying on camo and surprise shot… With that deep of an order pool, I think you can probably get a better position before shooting, which might’ve saved your bacon in a few interactions. Less efficient, but better outcome.

Glad Game 1 was against you, so we could flail around and be tired together. Also, our first game in quite awhile! Only fitting that it should be with two new armies for us too. Of course, CHA is a “new” army for you, but you get the point.

Game 2 – YARRGHGHGH and other Arnold Noises

Game two was against Gunnar. Every other game we’ve played, he’s killed my lieutenant. Since my Lt this game was a Ghulam HMG, I figured there was a high likelihood of this happening again. I had briefly considered using my second list for this mission, but the FRRM base we were playing on was quite open, encouraging me to take my double ML team again.

Overview

Mission : Frontline

: Frontline Forces : Hassassin Bahram versus Operations Subsection (300)

: versus (300) Deploy First : Operations Subsection

: First Turn: Operations Subsection

List A GROUP 1 10 GHULAM Lieutenant HMG / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)

GHULAM Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 17)

GHULAM Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 17)

GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)

LEILA SHARIF Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Shock Marksman Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20) ASAWIRA (Fireteam: Haris) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 44)

MUYIB (Minelayer) Rifle + Light Shotgun, D.E.P. Antipersonnel Mines, E/Mauler / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)

HUSAM Spec-Ops (12 XP) (BS:13, CH: Mimetism, Doctor) Rifle, Light Shotgun, 2xPanzerfaust / D-Charges, Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24) FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

FIDAY Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 31) GROUP 2 | 2 4 3 ÁYYĀR (Surprise Shot L2) Rifle + E/Mitter, D.E.P. / 2 Viral Pistols, CCW, Knife. (0 | 37)

FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 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) 5.5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Operations Subsection of the S.S.S. GROUP 1 | 10 DEVA Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 31)

DEVA Lieutenant (Sensor) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)

CSU (Specialist Operative) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)

DAKINI Tacbot HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 21)

DAKINI Tacbot Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1 | 17) NETROD . (0 | 4)

PROXY Mk.5 (Forward Observer) 2 Submachine Guns, Nanopulser, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)

PROXY Mk.2 MULTI Sniper Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 24)

NAGA (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)

NAGA (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)

NAGA (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27) GROUP 2 | 5 LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

DART Submachine Gun, Viral Tactical Bow, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 34)

NETROD . (0 | 4)

GARUDA Tacbot Boarding Shotgun / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21) 5.5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Deployment

Gunnar wanted to go first, so I took the more commanding side of the table. After landing some Netrods, he deployed a mixed Daikini link in the middle of his deployment zone, and then littered the midfield with a bunch of Naga Minelayers. Gross. He put down a pair of Lamedh remotes, one up high to ARO stuff, and one down low to cover a firelane. This second one would prove to be a problem for him, as it was in the way of his link’s movement. Dart lurked on his right flank, with a Proxy Mk5 on the left. He actually formed a 4 man link without the CSU, which was synced to his Xenotech. He figured he’d deal with that later, after dropping the Multiscanner. I responded by putting two Ghulam MLs down, covering the table from the second story of the Comanche Barracks. Lelia hid in the barracks garage, with the Ghulam Doctor and HMG prone in the upstairs room of the barracks. There wasn’t much cover on the left of my deployment zone, especially on the advance into the midfield, so I just compressed my deployment zone onto the right half of the table. I scattered three Mutts across the deployment zone, as per usual, and then tucked my Ayyar into a corner on the right, covering my back table edge with a DEP, and then put the Asawira Haris nearby. My Farzan took a central location, covering one of the Naga’s approaches with his mine, and then I put my own Xenotech on the right, synced to my Ayyar. Gunnar informed me that he had placed his reserve, meaning it was a Mk2 MSR or AHD, so I placed mine. Due to the terrain, Gunnar had put some of his link team in a line, so that was a natural place to place a Fiday with shotgun. It was really the best possible place–there was a Netrod between the Fiday and the first member of the link, a Daikini HMG, and the link was spread out such that it would be unlikely for the HMG to be able to be the link leader. Either I’d get a free shot on 14’s (the Daikini was out of cover from this perspective), or Gunnar would leave the link in place and I’d shotgun the Netrod on 17’s and still hit the link. Works for me.

Turn 1

Top of 1 – OSS

Gunnar started things off by taking out a Ghulam ML with his Proxy Mk2. I manage to pass both ARM saves on the Mk2’s next target–my other Ghulam ML, and drop him prone. Gunnar wants to go after my Asawira Haris, so he sends in the Proxy Mk5. I manage to get some smoke down with a Mutt while he tries to clear the way… so Gunnar turns his attention elsewhere while he mulls that problem over. Knowing he has to get the Xenotech forward, he moves the CSU up and tries to drop the Multiscanner without success. He then sends in Dart and takes out Leila, dropping my Ghulam link down to three. Sadly, my Farzan can’t do anything about this… yet. Gunnar then turns his attention back to his Mk5 and decides to leverage my smoke, move-moving into it… and into the trigger area of my Muyib’s mine, killing the Mk5. At this point, Gunnar decides to move the link away from the Fiday, using the Deva as link leader. I pop the Fiday out of impersonation and take the shot against the Daikini HMG, which lets me face to face the Deva’s combi rifle. Gunnar wins the face to face, but the template still covers the Daikini HMG and the Lamedh behind it, and they both fail their ARM saves while I pass mine. Unfortunately for Gunnar, he misses a mine trigger here on my Fiday and is forced to pass the turn a little worse for wear.

Bottom of 1 – HB

Leila’s dead, allowing me to free agent the Ayyar over. I’m really loving that. I throw some smoke with the Mutts to block LoF to the Mk2 and manage to advance them without trouble. I specifically manage to get some smoke down to cover the Farzan’s approach towards Dart. Most of Gunnar’s link is standing up, so I activate my Ghulam HMG with the intent of scooting the Doctor closer and closer to the downed ML just outside the Barracks door. My Ghulam HMG then proceeds to give a pretty good Arnold Schwarzenegger impression, gunning down the Deva in the open. Next is a Daikini LGL. I play the odds and keep crawling the Doctor forward. Gunnar manages to land a grenade though, and even though I drop the Daikini with the HMG I lose the Doctor. Drat. Down to a two-man link now, Ghulam Arnold guns down the CSU as well. I leverage the Mutts’ smoke to get the Farzan in place and drop a mine… then advance the Asawira Haris and try to take her out. Gunnar’s got some good rolls and manages to tank the mine, only suffering one wound from the Asawira’s Spitfire, meaning Dart goes into NWI. I decide to use the Fiday to go after the two Netrods, and this time Gunnar remembers his mine trigger. I lose the Fiday but manage to take out one of the Netrods after splitting burst. For some reason, I think it’s a good idea to try to overwatch the Mk2 with my Husam SpecOps and climb it up to do so–panzerfausts and Mimetism don’t mean I’m going to win that interaction, especially if I’m in bad range… but oh well. I try to get a Mutt into position to chain rifle Dart, but it gets stunned by the remaining Lamedh, so I settle for dropping another mine with the Farzan and getting my Mutts into position to protect my left flank.

Turn 2

Top of 2 – OSS

Gunnar starts off by trying to take out my Husam SpecOps. Thanks to BS13, I can still hit him on 1’s, but of course I don’t. I pass both ARM saves from the one DA shot that makes it through, and pass my religious roll to go prone. Fixated on my Asawira, Gunnar sends in a Garuda, electing to use AP mode against it to avoid getting his template canceled by the HVT behind the Asawira–and also to defeat the Asawira’s armor. I Nanopulsar him twice, and we end up trading. After shuffling a Naga Minelayer around on my right, to take out my Muyib minelayer, Gunnar’s pretty low on orders, so he attempts to deal with a Mutt by throwing an E/M grenade on it, but I manage to strawberry jam Dart instead.

Bottom of 2 – HB

It’s now my turn, so one of my Mutts eats a viral bow to the face but thankfully manages to chain rifle Dart off the table. I then use the other Mutts to block the right side of the table off from the Mk2 with smoke. I advance my Ayyar and the Xenotech and try to take out the Naga on the right, but fail. I try to drop the Multiscanner, but fail at that twice. Sigh. Well, my Husam Spec Ops still has two Panzerfausts, thanks to me taking a second one, so I throw them both at the Naga and kill it. I then climb the Husam SpecOps off the catwalk, pick up both the Muyib and the Asawira, reform the Haris, and then settle them into a defensive position near the unconscious Garuda. In the spirit of keeping the streak alive, I attempt to get my Ghulam Lt killed by sending it after the Proxy Mk2 with my Lt order, but instead wound the Proxy before retreating to cover.

Turn 3

Top of 3 – OSS

In the process of doing all of this, I forget to extract the Muyib Minelayer to safety, and lose it to the Mk2 immediately, which means I also lose the Haris bonus. Gunnar takes out one of my Mutts on the left, passing his ARM against the chain rifle. He then sends in another Naga on my right. While he manages to kill my Husam SpecOps, he runs out of orders to take out the Asawira, which was his goal. With his Lt order, he stands up his Deva to provide an ARO on my turn 3.

Bottom of 3 – HB

I’ve got stuff in all of the zones except for the far one, so after failing to get the Multiscanner placed again, I have just enough orders to get the Asawira over there, gunning down the Deva Lt for good measure. My Ghulam Lt takes out the Naga on my left with his Lieutenant order, clearing my close zone. With all three zones and the Xenotech domination bonus, I’ve got 8 points, but -1 for failing to get the Multiscanner down. This makes it a

7-0 Hassassin Bahram Victory!

Notes

Notes for Me

Well. I am very impressed with the performance of my Ghulam HMG this game. Definitely a more useful choice than the Ghulam ML Lieutenant. I think he accounted for something like 4 models, all by himself.

I made a conscious decision to not stand up the surviving Ghulam ML. It was worth more to me as an order than a one-order tax on the Mk2 to shoot it.

That Asawira! So much aggro!

A very open table. I think I played it right, just castling up on the right.

Very pleased with my Fiday placement as well. I think that won me the game, especially considering Ghulam Arnold’s subsequent rampage.

A little miffed that I couldn’t get the Multiscanner down, but hey, I tried.

I felt in control of the game, mostly, so I think my deployment and subsequent positioning was good.

Notes for Gunnar

Streak broken! My Lieutenant was alive at the end of the game, sadly. I would’ve loved to keep the streak alive.

Your damned Proxy Mk2 is always such a huge pain in my butt. I’m going to have to start doing a better job of counter-deploying it with mines.

Sorry about the missed mine trigger. I didn’t notice it myself till I started writing this report.

Link teams in lines… almost always a bad idea.

I think you could’ve deployed the Xenotech with the Mk5. That would’ve been fine. I would’ve let you move your Xenotech, had you asked–I didn’t think about it till writing the report.

Definitely something to be said for TO snipers on open boards. Food for thought for when I return to Nomads or want to put a Taureg on the table.

Thanks again for the game!

Game 3 – They’re in the Trees!

Sadly, right after our game, Gunnar had to drop due to some travel logistics–he drove 2 hours up from Eugene in an… aging? car and the roads were getting dicey. Adam was kind enough to sit out–really he wanted to nap–which meant I had the honest pleasure of facing Alex Sinkowski. We were playing on Adam’s place crash table, which is a holy terror. Everything on it that isn’t the game mat is a low vis + saturation zone and difficult forest/jungle terrain. This means most things are down a burst and -3 to BS, making anything with a visibility mod or MSV the king of the table. I had briefly entertained a list with a Govad HMG, and boy, did I wish I had taken one.

Overview

Mission : Firefight

: Firefight Forces : Hassassin Bahram versus Yu Jing (300)

: versus (300) Deploy First : Hassassin Bahram

: First Turn: Hassassin Bahram

List B GROUP 1 10 MUYIB (X Visor) Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 28)

MUYIB Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)

MUYIB Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (Normal and Smoke Ammo.) / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 23) ASAWIRA (Fireteam: Haris) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 44)

MUYIB (X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)

LEILA SHARIF Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Shock Marksman Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20) HUSAM Spec-Ops (12 XP) (BS:13, AD: Inferior Combat Jump) Rifle, Light Shotgun, 2xPanzerfaust / D-Charges, Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)

FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) GROUP 2 | 2 3 3 GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)

GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16)

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) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Yu Jing DĀOYĪNG Lieutenant L2 Hacker (Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)

GŬILÁNG MULTI Sniper Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 33)

GŬILÁNG MULTI Sniper Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 33)

NINJA Combi Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 34)

HAC TAO HMG, Nanopulser / Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 68)

LIBERTO Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 8)

TIGER SOLDIER Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)

TIGER SOLDIER Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)

LIÚ XĪNG Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 32)

GUĬ FĒNG Spec-Ops (11 XP) (CH: Mimetism, Doctor, Hyper-Dynamics L2) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13) 9 1 | 5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Deployment

I went first, so I just covered all the Panoplies with Farzans and their mines. I have no idea what to expect from Alex–other than sniper rifles. He’s got a love affair with MSRs, but other than that there really could be anything on the table. I just try to set something reasonable up. I put a Mutt all the way on the left, just in case there’s a juicy target over there, a Mutt in the middle, and another one on the right. The biggest section of crashed plane is a reasonable spot to put all my stuff, so I dump basically the rest of my list over there, tucking Muyibs and the Asawira into various spots, figuring I’ll sort the rest of it out on my first turn. It’s worth noting at this point that the jetlag is really hitting me hard, so there’s a lot of “EEHHH WHATEVER” going on in my decision making process. Alex then proceeds to set up a pretty bizarre deployment, at least to me. Two Guilang MSRs threatening my link on the left, and his Spec Ops and a Hac Tao HMG on the right. He’s got a Ninja and a Libertos covering my left Panoply, and he stuck his Daoying hacker pretty far forward, behind some boxes. He even deployed all the TO stuff in regular camo, just to mess with me. I figure he’s got some Tiger Soldiers and maybe a Liu Xing waiting, but who the heck knows. In any case, I plunk down a Ghulam sniper, just ’cause, and he does… something. I forget what his reserve was. I form a full Muyib core and let the Asawira hang out by himself for now.

Turn 1

Top of 1 – HB

I start things off by activating my Mutts, left to right. The first one baits a reveal of the Guilang MSR on the plane, fails to smoke it out, and goes dogged. The second, middle, Mutt, does the same with the Hac Tao HMG, also going dogged. At this point I’m very confused… normally I wouldn’t reveal such pricey units in reactive, but in retrospect it’s not bad with all the low-vis and saturation on the table. Anyway, I move my third Mutt and jam the Guilang sniper on the top of the plane, which reveals the last Guilang sniper, who is in the forest to the right of the plane. This time, I pass both ARM saves.

With the Guilang on the plane revealed, I send the Muyib Spitfire after him, and promptly get shot in the face. I go unconscious, since I have a Doctor right there. I foolishly forget about Number 2, and assume the link is broken. First time out with Muyibs, after all! Now’s a good time to drop in my Husam SpecOps though, which I do behind both Guilangs. I manage to take out the one in the forest with a lucky rifle shot, and then throw a Panzerfaust at the one on the roof of the plane. That fails, so I reform the link and send in the HRL Muyib, burning the Guilang off the table. I spend a few more orders on the Husam SpecOps, attempting a Panzerfaust at the Hac Tao’s back, but fail and settle the Husam into some cover. I try to take out Alex’s Spec Ops, but he dodges with his silly Hyper Dynamics nonsense, so I give up. Thanks to Alex docking two orders, I’m basically down to just what’s left in my second pool. I push the left mutt up and intuitive attack the Ninja, who attempts a Dodge-Engage. We both fail. This lets me hope over the boxes and use the Ninja to chain rifle both it and the Libertos behind it. The Hac Tao gets a shot and puts the Mutt down, and the Ninja makes its ARM save. The Libertos does not. The Ninja is poking out quite a bit from the boxes, so I reposition a Farzan and take it out with some boarding shotgun shots with my last first group order. My Mutt on the right has one more irregular order to spend, so I run it backwards to protect the link from any AD troops… and pass the turn.

Bottom of 1 – Yu Jing

Good thing I did too, because Alex drops in a Liu Xing BSG, covering the Mutt, Leila, and my Muyib doctor with the template. My Doctor dodges successfully, but Leila doesn’t and goes down. The Mutt E/Marats the Liu Xing, and my Ghulam Lt hits him with a LSG. Between the two of them, they manage to put the Liu Xing into IMM-2, Isolated, and NWI. I’ll take it! Alex tries to drop in a Tiger Soldier, but deviates off the board, so instead he comes in behind my Husam, shotgunning him in the back. I pass ARM and manage to duck into total cover, but the Tiger Soldier keeps chasing me, finally putting the Husam dogged. Alex is out of orders at this point, so he passes things back to me.

Turn 2

Top of 2 – HB

I pick up Leila and the Spitfire Muyib with the Doctor, then form a 3-man core of the Spitfire, Leila, and the LGL and a Haris of the HRL, the Doctor, and the Asawira. The Spitfire core finishes off the Liu Xing and repositions itself. I finish things off by settling the Asawira Haris in a slightly better position, grabbing ODD out of the center panoply with a Farzan, and throw my Ghulam Lt into suppression with his Lt order. At some point I tried shooting the Hac Tao with my Ghulam Sniper, just for the LULZ but nothing happened.

Bottom of 2 – Yu Jing

After forcing my Ghulam Sniper prone with his Hac Tao, Alex drops in a second Tiger Soldier, for a total of three AD troops, and then tries to take out my ODD Farzan and my Lieutenant. The rest of his order pool later, we’re both lower on ammo but nothing has actually happened.

Turn 3

Top of 3 – HB

I take out the Tiger Soldier with my Spitfire core, and then send in the Asawira Haris, trading fire with the Hac Tao as I do so. Eventually, I get to the point where I can see the Daoying, but I keep moving. The Daoying catches both of my Muyibs with a BSG, but I just dump all five dice of Asawira Spitfire into the Daoying for the Lt kill and a specialist kill. I trade some more fire with the Hac Tao, and we both take a wound. I’m out of orders after popping up the Ghulam sniper again to take an ineffective shot, but Alex is in Loss of Lieutenant.

Bottom of 3 – Yu Jing

The Hac Tao finishes off the Asawira, and then finishes off the Ghulam. After points are totaled, and thanks to my Farzan getting Secure the HVT, it’s a

7-0 Hassassin Bahram Victory!

Notes

Notes for Me

Well, I kinda like the Muyib blob + Asawira. Lets you use the 5-man link to punch out and then you can break it up into a 3-man core and haris. Not bad.

Ugh. I wish I had brought Govads.

AD:3 Muyib is pretty awesome!

I made a total mess of deployment on this table. Will have to spend a lot more time on it before I have anything really useful to say about it though.

Farzans are pretty awesome. Mines and shotguns. What’s not to like?

Mutts finally got to do warband things! Hooray!

I was pretty out of it, and took a lot less photos this game… sorry about that.

Notes for Alex

Well, talk about a great list for that table. AD where you need it, and some of the most annoying things to deal with in a saturation/low-vis situation. That Hac Tao! So annoying.

I’m not sure I would’ve dropped the Liu Xing there… but there’s something about no AD into terrain zones, I think?

Would’ve been a hilarious time to bring a Tiger Soldier MSR.

Your list has me thinking… I like it a lot. I’d tweak it a bit to make it my own, but it’s very unusual and pretty interesting…

As always, a great game with you!

Tournament Results

Well, we tallied up the results…

Player Faction Tournament Points Objective Points Victory Points WiseKensai HB 8 20 459 darkapostle TAK 5 18 531 TwinKnight YJ 5 16 377 Saint Anthony CHA 4 15 346 TheDiceAbide CHA 3 11 330 Kiboshed SEF 2 10 217 twingecrag OSS 1 4 167 Paladin_Eks DBS 0 4 61

and I took home the victory! Fittingly enough, there was an HB patch to take home too. A big thanks to everyone for coming out, and to Adam for powering through his sleep deprivation to give us a great tournament.