Adam and entourage (myself included) arrived at the Rose City Raid venue, the Lucky Labrador Beer Hall, at about 9:30 AM to get things ready for the tournament at noon. After much help from all our friends and Adam’s lovely wife checking in the 31 participating attendees (sadly some folks had to cancel due to family/work emergencies), it was clear that we’d have an odd number of players. Adam had me on deck to be a ringer for the tournament in preparation for just a happenstance. I had been looking forward to spectating some games and heckling our friends as they played, but that was not to be, at least for the first day. We had a drop at the end of the first day, so I was back to my regularly scheduled TO duties on the second day. I’ve been playing that ridiculous Corregidor list for a few games now, so I figured I would just take it as far as it would go on day one, and play this list on day two for Decapitation and Annihiliation:

Other Stuff GROUP 1 | 9 1 INTRUDER Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 35) SEÑOR MASSACRE Breaker Combi Rifle, E/M Grenades, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, E/M CCW. (0 | 29)

JAGUAR Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 13)

JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

JAGUAR Adhesive Launcher, Panzerfaust / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 13) REAKTION ZOND HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)

HELLCAT Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)

SALYUT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

BANDIT Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 25) GROUP 2 | 5 INTRUDER HMG, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 42)

MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) 5.5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Infinity Army

In any case, the tournament itself was great fun, both as a player and a deputy organizer, and I’m sure Adam will have more to say about it (as will I, hopefully, work permitting). Here’s a shot of my table, all packed up and ready for travel:

I’ll just say this in advance: if I got anything wrong in these battle reports, my bad!

Edit: I’ve been going through the raw data from the RCR Tournament JSON and I got two of the lists a little wrong, mostly in combat group composition. You can find the correct ones linked at the bottom of the lists in question.

All three of my opponents, Andy Brandt, Leif Hendriksen, and Tony Fern, were class acts and I look forward to playing them again, hopefully sooner than the next RCR. I think they’re all from Seattle? I was indirectly involved in a ton of games this weekend and a lot of shop talk, so my memories are a little fuzzy–plus the event was at a beer hall, so I’ll just leave it at that, yeah? Also, there are less pictures than usual, because tournaments are timed and I definitely don’t want to be the player, much less the TO that makes a game go to time because I’m fiddling with my phone. Thanks to Adam and Nate for being awesome organizers and for letting me be part of that little crew, to all our sponsors for giving us TONS of prize support, and to each and every one of the players that drove, flew, or even just rode shotgun in cars on the way to the RCR. We loved having you here, and can’t wait for next year’s RCR! Warning: The difficulty is going to ratchet up a few notches next year! Without further ado, here are the records for the three games that I had the absolute pleasure of participating in.

Game 1 – Intruders and Incapacitations

Game 1 was against Andy Brandt (V4340), running vanilla Nomads. He had a pretty baller display stand, which let me get some intel on what he might be running. I don’t generally like knowing additional information about my opponent’s possible lists until we hit the pre-reserve portion of deployment, but it’s kinda hard to not look at some pretty Nomad models and then forget what you’ve seen. In any case, it was Transmission Matrix and I was pretty sure I would be facing some unpleasant Nomad hacking shenanigans. I also had home turf advantage, as I was playing on Andrew’s table, aka SimpleKnight.

Overview

Mission : Transmission Matrix

: Transmission Matrix Forces : Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor versus Nomads

: versus Deploy First : Nomads

: First Turn: Nomads

Looting and Sabotaging GROUP 1 | 8 2 1 WILDCAT Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19)

WILDCAT (Fireteam: Haris) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)

WILDCAT Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (2 | 20) SEÑOR MASSACRE Breaker Combi Rifle, E/M Grenades, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, E/M CCW. (0 | 29)

JAGUAR Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 13)

JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

JAGUAR Adhesive Launcher, Panzerfaust / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 13) BANDIT Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 25)

McMURROUGH 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Templar CCW (AP + DA). (0 | 31) GROUP 2 | 6 INTRUDER HMG, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 42)

MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

SALYUT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Nomads GROUP 1 | 10 INTERVENTOR Hacker Lieutenant (Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)

INTERVENTOR Hacker (Killer Device Plus UPGRADE: Lightning) Boarding Shotgun, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)

ZOE & PI-WELL . (0 | 47)

ZOE (Hacking Device. UPGRADE: Stop!) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28)

PI-WELL Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 19)

INTRUDER HMG, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 42) KRIZA BORAC HMG / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 54) TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10) GROUP 2 | 1 4 3 REAKTION ZOND HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)

MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 6)

MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 6)

MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 6)

WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3) 6 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Deployment

Andy put down a Reakton Zond and a Warcor watching most of the board atop a rooftop on the right side of his deployment zone, with a Transductor also pulling ARO duty in the center. Zoe and Pi-Well hung out on the left, with a Jaguar parked right behind the Andy’s left antenna and a Interventor KHD behind it in a building. Andy’s Interventor Lt went on the other side of the table, hidden inside a building. His Morlocks were right up at his deployment zone edge, clustered towards his left. Some sort of camo token showed up in his deployment zone on his left on the roof. Gee, I wonder what that could be? He finished his deployment by placing double Morans inside the tall building on his left and on a balcony near the center and close to his deployment zone edge, but neither was dominating any antennas. I did a quick count of SWC and decided that it was possible that he could put down a smart missile bot next, so I knew I would have to honor one in my deployment. It’s much easier to count SWC that points, so I missed the Kriza HMG sized hole in his list. In any case, it was my turn to put down two Morans, which I immediately did. One went on my left, in a tall building to protect my Intruder, which I suspected would be on my left along with McMurrough. The other went down in a building with all closed doors and no windows, primarily to protect my link with Koalas, and also to prevent Andy from driving Koalas up to lock my Moran down. He also was in a good position to dominate the rightmost antenna within an order if necessary.

My Jaguar link spread out on the right side of my deployment zone, with the Transductor Zonds hanging out near the antennas to dominate them and the Salyut behind the left antenna, facing backwards to at least be able to call an Alert! if any Hellcats came a callin’. My Wildcat link spread out in the middle of my deployment zone, with two on the the ground to be able to run to either antenna and the HRL on the roof in some cover. The Salyut was also with a single order of dominating the left antenna–I figured I should at least put at least two backups on both near antennas. I figured I might have to sacrifice the Bandit KHD to the Interventors during Spotlight attempts, so I just stuck her in the central room dominating the central antenna. McMurrough came down well outside of repeater range on the left, as I suspected there’d be some missiles flying my way. Imagine my mix of surprise and irritation when Andy plunked a Kriza on the table. Drat. Too focused on a different threat to properly point count. I countered with my Intruder on the left to deal with the TR Zond and Warcor. After nominating DataTrackers (Kriza and Massacre for Andy and I, respectively), we were off.

Turn 1

Top of Turn 1 – Nomads

Andy started things off with a wave of advancing Morlocks. My Koalas met them, asking only for the most friendliest of hugs, but were rudely rebuffed by the Morlocks, who dodged away from their questing arms. Disappointed, the Koalas relegated themselves to a farm upstate, where they would be free to hug anything and not be rebuffed by rude Morlocks! Andy poked his Kriza out next to clear out my Wildcat HRL, which he did handily in a single order. The Kriza then jetted up the table, taking out my rightmost Transductor Zond. Andy then did the provoke change face ARO trick with the Kriza, running into the room with my Bandit on the second order. I made a mistake here, and even as a TO had to call over one of the other TOs to clarify something. In short, Andy had everything right and I had my memory cache polluted but some really bizarre Avatar game that between Adam and Erik we had been discussing a few weeks back. Andy’s next order was to discover, so I engaged, hoping to tie up the Kriza (and maybe kill it in CC) or at least reset against repeated hacking attempts from the Interventors. Sadly, Andy made his heavy pistol shots, and the option was closed to me. Sorry Bandit! I have failed you! Andy then attempted to nab a HVT kill with his DataTracker Kriza, retreating back into the building after making his shot (we were playing with Star Trek doors). My HVT crit dodged his way to safety. If I were clever, I would’ve dodged in the way of the door to keep it shut or something, but that definitely would be a complicated terrain interaction that none of the TOs had discussed beforehand. Fortunately for me, the Kriza was out of orders.Andy then coordinated an order with his Morlocks to move them up, and then he tucked the central two Morlocks into a nook near the central antenna to force me to go dig them out. With that, it was my turn.

Bottom of Turn 1 – Corregidor

McMurrough was forced to head straight for the Kriza, but not before I threw smoke to cover my Intruder. In doing so, the Kriza got a free shot and wounded McMurrough. Ah well. I gunned down the TR bot with the Intruder through smoke and then settled about handling the Kriza situation. Massacre and crew scooted up the board towards that all important central building and hucked a smoke grenade at the Kriza’s feet, then piled in. As it turns out, the Massacre/Jaguar is sorta designed to kill things like the Kriza, so that’s exactly what happened. This did, however, provoke a white noise being dumped out on top of the warcor from Andy, which is a clever move and I applaud his Nomad shenanigans! I poked out a bit to see his Transductor Zond, attempting to bait the Warcor into shooting at me, but Andy is far too savvy for that, so I settled for depriving him of an order instead by dropping the flash pulse bot and then recamoing the Intruder once it had retreated back into total cover.

I didn’t really need the TR bot down, as I had plenty of smoke on the table, and forcing Andy to spend orders picking it back up (and possibly killing it, even with Zoe’s WIP 15) would be a win for me. I still had those two Morlocks to contend with, so some careful scooting about with a chain rifle Jaguar and pistoling/chain rifling as appropriate eventually let me kill both of them. That +3 PH Morlock really makes it tough, and Andy made all the right calls, the dice were just on my side. It took about 2-3 orders, so after all that was said and done, all I could really do was settle everyone into a more defensible position around the central building with my LSG Jaguar watching the approach of the remaining Morlock. I missed a nearby Koala in doing this and lost Massacre to a subsequent failed regen roll. D’oh! I needed to recapture the rightmost antenna in my deployment zone, so it fell to the Moran that I had left there for that purpose to do so, moving his final Koala into position to contest the last Morlock’s advance.

Turn 2

I hold the center, and we each have our deployment antennas. 2 points on the board for me.

Top of Turn 2 – Nomads

Andy’s last Morlock goes down to my last Koala on the right. Andy informs me that he’s also got an Intruder HMG, revealing his camo token on my right and attempting to gun down my Jaguar Panzerfaust. My glorious Jaguar Panzerfaust illustrates why I have 3 Panzerfaust sculpts (it’s my favorite profile in vanilla) by crit-Panzerfausting Andy’s poor Intruder in the face, blowing it off the table. Yikes! Sorry Andy! Andy’s next move it to chip away at my Panzerfaust Jag with Pi-Well, sending it dogged and then finally killing it. Pi-Well retreats to keep Andy’s leftmost antenna dominated, and then Andy sends in the Jaguar that was doing that to clear out the central room. My first game dice are pretty hot, and I pass my ARM, but Andy fails both saves on his Jaguar, keeping my link intact and at burst two. With that, Andy proves again that he’s a veteran player, and sets up for the next turn. He picks up the TR bot with Zoe’s Zondbot, who had been hiding behind the TR bot on the balcony, then throws up marksmanship on it with his Lieutenant order. Or maybe it was a regular order, I don’t remember. As a avid Nomad player myself, I knew there were only two Lt profiles on the table. Once the Kriza died and Andy wasn’t in loss of lieutenant, the jig was up and Andy wouldn’t have needed to try to fake me out anymore. I think picking up the TR bot is also what he needed to grab the

Bottom of Turn 2 – Corregidor

I spent a ton of orders on McMurrough smoking up a path to the Interventor HD+’s hidey hole and then went to say hello. Andy managed to put McMurrough down with a combi shot, but two chain rifles was enough to put him in loss of lieutenant his next turn. The pressure off for the next turn, I was able to focus on other things. I repositioned the remaining Wildcats to get them into a dominating position on the right antenna, letting my Moran on the right leave his building to go HVT hunting. I had to clear a Koala with his combi rifle over two orders, then managed get him into LoF of the HVT. Andy dodged, I shot, and then this happened: What goes around comes around, I guess! I was out of orders for my Moran, so he just sat there in the building on the other side of the door from Andy’s HVT, pondering his life choices in a pool of self pity.

Turn 3

I control the central antenna and my two, so that’s 4 points on the board for me!

Top of Turn 3 – Nomads

As predicted, Andy is in loss of lieutenant, but he makes the best of it. He’s got a ton of command tokens, so after shuffling some guys into better positions he dumps the rest of his pool into Pi-Well, cleverly shifting some troops around with a coordinated order on all his now-irregular troops. Pi Well kills my Moran menacing Andy’s HVT before retreating to Andy’s left antenna along with his Interventor KHD to really lock it down. Andy tries to kill my Jaguar LSG and Wildcat Haris with his Moran on my right, but only succeeds in killing the Jaguar.

Bottom of Turn 3 – Corregidor

Zoe is out pointing me in the center, so I flip my last command token to put my Transductor Zond into my first group and start running my Intruder over. I cross the gap with the Intruder and make it into the building, but he’s discovered by the Warcor. From where I ended up, the TR bot can see a sliver of my base, so I’m stuck there. I’ve got two orders left. Easy peasy right? I throw smoke with my Jaguar that’s right there… and roll an 18. Fudge. I cast about wildly for another option, but there isn’t one, so I just move the Intruder into the zone and exchange fire with the TR bot, hoping that BS13 beats BS11. It does not, but on a roll of 15 ARM 3 saves the day and the Intruder lives! Andy and I have a good laugh about this and we shake hands on this

6-1 Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor Victory!

Thanks to fellow Bromad Andy for a great game. It was super tight and came down to some pretty redonkulous rolls for both of us!

Notes

Notes for Me

I haven’t played Nate in awhile, so I was a bit rusty on counter-deploying Morans. I wanted to be able to use my Koalas to clear out theirs, but by the time I had an opportunity to, Morlocks had already rudely sent all my Koalas upstate. =) At least I remembered to protect my Moran by putting him in a windowless box!

Also, always ask where Koalas are before moving!

McMurrough did exactly what he needed to do. Be two wounds to let me buy smoke for my Intruder for a wound, and then go assassinate something important, in this case an Interventor Lieutenant.

A lot of pretty ridiculous rolls this game. Can’t say I’m disappointed with the result, and those kinds of things really make a game. Andy and I had a good laugh with the gang afterwards about it.

Transductors are pretty great, but are a little… big-based to safely hold the antennas in this mission. I think my deployment is probably the best this list can do–Transductor per antenna, Wildcat Haris in the middle ready to shift, and a Salyut as backup on one side.

I am yet again reminded why I don’t put Morans on rooftops if I need them to go somewhere. Last turn I was really wishing I had a mobile Moran to go hunt down the HVT for some more points. Really tough though, because WBs like Morlocks change the math there.

The Wildcat HRL does not hold up well against a dedicated kill piece. I think I need to resconsider my deployment of her, she’s more to control chaff. Losing 2 SWC hurts a lot, as is having your Intruder be your only other long range piece. I think I need to carefully consider my other options. Perhaps grabbing a Tsyklon would be appropriate, or a TR remote. Or just better deployment. Hard to counter a Kriza out of reserve though. I think one thing I can do to improve as a player is to pretend to deploy a scary thing as my opponent and see where it would go. That might help with the Kriza and other, similar, business.

Notes for Andy

You probably could’ve saved yourself an order by throwing up assisted fire on Pi-Well before going to hunt my Jaguar panzerfaust. You wouldn’t have been able to throw up assisted fire on the TR bot, maybe, but I don’t think you really needed it, given you knew I would probably just smoke it up. Putting Pi Well in suppression somewhere or getting him into the building to gun down my Jaguars might’ve helped you if you had the orders (hard to say, order counting is hard in batreps).

Great job using White Noise in ARO. Not enough people do that, and it’s the entire reason I don’t take Briscards in Transmission Matrix!

Also a great job killing my Bandit! They can be a nightmare, but are very squishy in reactive.

You definitely over-extended the Kriza on turn 1. With full information now, I’m guessing your plan was to grab the HVT points and then let me kill the Kriza at some non-trivial cost, then use the Intruder as your secondary attack piece.

It would’ve worked too, but a live Kriza in your backfield would’ve changed the character of your second turn, I think. You probably use the Kriza instead of Pi Well and a pretty immobile on the roof Intruder to eat my link, and then at your leisure on turn 3 you can take the HVT points after my Jaguars are dead. The call you made was sound, but the dice betrayed you. It’s hard to defend against the Jaguar link, even with an Intruder given that they have Eclipse smoke, really the best defense is distance and AROs, even weak ones.

Hmm. Definitely a tough pickle. I don’t think I could’ve really done much better if we had just switched table sides and forces after deployment was over.

Great game. Nate’s the only other vanilla Nomads player I see regularly, and I’m really glad to have had the opportunity to face someone as awesome as Andy. Looking forward to playing you again, sir!

Game 2 – Mutts and Mayhem

Some more home turf advantage. This time I was playing Leif Hendriksen (Norsecompass), also from the Seattle area on Alex Sinkowski’s (Twinmasks) table, which is a beautiful rendering of an underwater base, complete with aquarium plants that function as saturation and low-vis zones. Leif was one of the few if not only the only person there taller than me, which is an accomplishment! He was also running Hassassins for Looting and Sabotage, which meant at least one Fiday, four Mutts, and probably a Muyib link plus whatever else he could fit. He ended up fitting a whopping 20 orders in there, which meant I was in for a slog of a game just chewing through bodies. Leif immediately came across as a serious, motivated gamer, so I knew that each of those 20 orders were going to be put to good use.

Overview

Mission : Looting and Sabotaging

: Looting and Sabotaging Forces : Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor versus Hassassin Bahram

: versus Deploy First : Hassassin Bahram

: First Turn: Hassassin Bahram

Looting and Sabotaging GROUP 1 | 8 2 1 WILDCAT Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19)

WILDCAT (Fireteam: Haris) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)

WILDCAT Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (2 | 20) SEÑOR MASSACRE Breaker Combi Rifle, E/M Grenades, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, E/M CCW. (0 | 29)

JAGUAR Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 13)

JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

JAGUAR Adhesive Launcher, Panzerfaust / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 13) BANDIT Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 25)

McMURROUGH 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Templar CCW (AP + DA). (0 | 31) GROUP 2 | 6 INTRUDER HMG, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 42)

MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

SALYUT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Norsecompass GROUP 1 | 7 3 MUYIB (X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)

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)

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

MUYIB (X Visor) Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 28) FIDAY Rifle + Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)

FIDAY Rifle + Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)

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) GROUP 1 | 4 6 4 GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)

BARID Hacker (Killer Hacking Device UPGRADE: Lightning) Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)

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

RAFIQ REMOTE Rifle + Light Shotgun, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 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)

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) 5.5 SWC | 298 Points | Open in Infinity Army | Leif’s Actual List, from the RCR JSON

Deployment

Leif started the game by attempting to infiltrate not one, not two, but five Daylami. Thankfully he only landed two, one on each side, the other three falling back to guard his AC2. As predicted, four Mutts showed up behind the largest building, shoulder to shoulder with Leif’s Muyib link. The Rafiq was all the way on my left flank and a single Fanous guarded the central firelane towards my deployment zone. My right flank was covered by a Barid KHD and his Ghulam lieutenant. I stuck my Bandit on the right next to the Panoply, near one of his infiltrated Daylami, hoping Leif would just leave my Bandit alone. I knew that if I spent any sort of orders killing his Daylami, I would lose, so I sacrificed my Wildcat HRL to the altar of coordinated panzerfaust and left her out to take as many with her as she could. My lieutenant hung out on the roof with the HRL and a Transductor Zond. I specifically left her up there because no self-respecting Fiday would be up there for Looting and Sabotaging, so I figured she’d be relatively safe. Also, that building is large enough to fit a circular template, and I wanted to be able to light some Ragiks on fire if necessary with her LFT. My other Wildcat was on the ground in case I needed a problem solver down there. The Jaguar core covered the entire right half of my deployment zone with AROs, and I tried to keep them all out of template formation so there weren’t any juicy shotgun targets. I deployed a Moran on the left to discourage Mutts from hanging out there, and also to be within a few moves of the left Panoply (if necessary) and then plunked my other Moran in the building next to my AC2 to be able to cover it with Koalas. Did I mention that there was a Fiday on the bottom floor of the building? McMurrough was centrally located, and my Salyut watched my back left to Alert! in case of Ragik sighting as I didn’t have much in the way of ARO resources to devote over there. A second Fiday showed up in the bottom of the building as well, which was more than I was expecting, but then again the last time I did this I did this with vanilla! Knowing that I would have some serious problems otherwise, I placed my Intruder prone on the near right building, just watching the AC2 through a little gap in the lip around the building. A hearty good luck and a handshake later, and we were off.

Turn 1

Top of Turn 1 – Hassassin Bahram

Mutts did mutt stuff. Lots of shuffling around in the back and careful throwing of smoke and then the impetuous phase was over. Leif knew he needed to get rid of my Intruder to be able to smoke up the AC2 and go to town, so he threw both infiltrated Daylami at the problem, failing to secure a successful discover and taking a bunch of HRL and flash pulse fire. My Transductors were the heros of this turn, stunning just about everything that poked its head out. Leif really needed to get something going here, so he threw his link at the problem, attempting a discover at long range and failing thanks to the low vis and my camo+cover. Even a 20 order pool eventually runs dry, and Leif knew it was time to make his move. After dropping an E/Mauler on his AC2 and smoke on my AC2 with his Muyibs, he coordinated the Fidays into base to base with the AC2 and started whacking away. It was at this point that I chose to spring my trap! The Intruder stuck his grenade with aplomb, wiping out both Fidays, who only managed to do one wound to the AC2. Phew! If Leif was perturbed by this turn of events, he didn’t show it, keeping his cool and just setting up to make my life difficult. A spec-fired grenade from the Muyib link took out my Jaguar DataTracker, almost taking out Massacre too were it not for a skin of the teeth dodge roll. After throwing his Ghulam Lt into suppression, he moved a Mutt up on my right under the cover of smoke to meance my Bandit with a Jammer, and if that wasn’t enough, he put the Barid there as well! After this setting up this decidedly unpleasant double whammy trap for my Bandit, he passed the turn, game face ON.

Bottom of Turn 1 – Corregidor

Holy moly. Leif just had piles of angry things everywhere for me to deal with. Time to go to work. McMurrough makes it forward towards my AC2, chucking some smoke for my Intruder, who is already sighting down his HMG. The Wildcat HRL takes out the Daylami pinning my Intruder, and a few orders later and the Muyib LGL is dogged, the Muyib HRL is off the table, and the Fanous is unconscious. My Intruder ejects a spent mag and watches the Jaguar core spring into action. I want to get them across the table and into base to base with the AC2, but I’m not going to have the orders. I settle for taking out the Mutt pinning my Bandit, who immediately Redrums the Barid off the table. After trading some fire with a Daylami, the Jaguar link nestles in amongst the aquarium plants. With that, I’m out of orders and pass the turn back.

Turn 2

Top of Turn 2 – Hassassin Bahram

The Mutts continue their dance in the backfield, with Leif eventually losing one or two to the Jaguars and Wildcats. Massacre eventually goes down to something, I don’t really remember what (there were ALOT of things moving around back there), and my Wildcat HRL and Transductors rack up a fair amount of kills and stuns as Leif’s irregular orders run amok around the board. He even loses the Rafiq to a lucky HRL shot. It’s when he runs his Muyib link into the open for the Panoply that I realize he’s trying to put himself into retreat so I don’t get a third turn, but the only good hostile Muyib is a dead Muyib and I just let ’em have everything I’ve got, trusting in McMurrough to get the job done when it counts. After dying on the hill, the Muyibs at least have gotten Leif something out of the panoply, forcing at least one order spent on that for my next turn, and he tells me it’s my go. Apparently the Norsecompass points straight to death!

Bottom of Turn 2 – Corregidor

I do what I have to, and McMurrough starts his way up the board,, throwing smoke to cover his advance against what’s left of Leif’s forces. I clear out a Daylami with my Moran on the left, and then race him across the board to take out the last Mutt that’s guarding the AC2 with a jammer. I have only one order to do it, and only manage to send it dogged. McMurrough has to go now though, so he races through the gap, threading the needle and dodging an E/Mauler. I miss the eye and tank a Jammer, then I’m in base to base with the AC2 under the cover of smoke with 3 orders left. I only need 2. My Bandit grabs something out of the right Panoply and it’s back to Leif.

Turn 3

Top of Turn 3 – Hassassin Bahram

Leif informs me, as expected, that he’s in retreat, and we shake on it. He did manage to snag a classifed somewhere in there, I forget what, so it’s a

6-1 Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor Victory!

I’m glad the game was over in Turn 2, because we basically almost went to time, even with Adam letting everyone get started a bit early. 20 orders is a absolute bitch to play quickly, and Leif did a great job doing it. I think the ambient noise made the game much slower, as did Alex’s beautifully crafted and complicated table. Here’s a sample exchange, trying to be heard over the noise:

Me: “Can your FO bot see me through those turtles if I move here??”

Leif: “WHAT?”

Me: “CAN YOUR EFF OHH BOT SEE ME THROUGH THE TURH TULS!?”

Leif: “WHAT? I’M SORRY CAN’T HEAR YOU.”

Me <pointing wildly at the adorable turtle aquarium toy then at the Rafiq>: “CAN YOU SEE THROUGH THESE TURTLES?!”

Leif: “OH! TURTLES! NO!”

This was a tough game. I’m just lucky the Fidays didn’t do that much damage and I was able to stop them in time. Very well played by Leif.

Notes

Notes for Me

Hindsight is 20-20. I wish I had moved my Bandit to the second group, grabbed a MULTI Rifle from the Panoply, then hunted down the Mutt. That would’ve been much more efficient.

The Jaguar core is pretty tough to dislodge. They’re not just excellent hunter killers they do a pretty good job at area denial.

I think this was the first time I played this list in Looting and Sabotaging, even though I had designed it for this scenario. I’m really glad I included McMurrough. He is indeed the correct choice to tackle the AC2. If only he could be a DataTracker in Corregidor.

Daylami and Mutt spam is a absolute PITA. So many bodies to chew through.

I was pretty pleased with my deployment, especially my Intruder trap, but it only worked through due to Alex’s table, which is just a giant pile of saturation and low vis.

In fact, low vis + cover + mimetism + probably bad range bands puts most things at -12 to hit a Transductor. That’s just amazing.

It is really hard to remember saturation zones, even if you’ve played on similar tables before. Leif had to remind me several times, sorry man!

I guess thanks to Alex for winning this game for me with his aquarium plants?

I didn’t ever really feel in control of this game. Even in the throes of death, Leif’s list was a multi-headed hydra thrashing about and tearing everything apart.

This is a case where putting the Moran on a second floor is most definitely warranted, thanks to double Fiday!

I never really have had to think about defensive Moran placement as much as I have with this tournament.

Notes for Leif

Well done playing a 20 order list quickly. You’ve clearly got an excellent command of your army.

I was a little surprised to not lose the Wildcat to a coordinated Panzerfaust, but I guess you had bigger fish to fry.

I think once you lost the Fidays your only other option would’ve been to run the Muyibs up. I think you probably had the orders to do it, but I guess I had enough there to make it difficult for you. It’s hard to know how scary your stuff is from your side of the table, you always feel really vulnerable.

I noticed you spent a bunch of command tokens flipping orders regular. I’m curious about your combat group organization–is that normal for you, to flip orders like that? If it is, why not just have a regular and an irregular group? Moving into HB myself and want to learn from the masters!

I think if you hadn’t been distracted by having to kill the AC2 this would’ve been a MUCH worse game for me.

That Barid KHD + Mutt to handle my Bandit was devious! I love it.

Well played putting yourself into retreat.

Game 3 – Antipodes and Armor

Game three was also on home turf. I was playing on Adam’s island table, which you’ve seen on this blog before. My opponent was none other than Tony Fern (Zhukov2), who wasted no time checking sight lines on the table and getting acquainted with the lay of the land. I had done the same from one side of the table, and I think that’s what did me in. I picked the side with what I thought were more defensible positions and so he took first turn. I knew this was gonna be a tough one and I was hitting the wall, having been awake for quite awhile at this point. I was determined to give Tony a good game though, so I put my big boy pants on and powered through.

Overview

Mission : Supremacy

: Supremacy Forces : Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor versus Ariadna

: versus Deploy First : Ariadna

: First Turn: Ariadna

Looting and Sabotaging GROUP 1 | 8 2 1 WILDCAT Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19)

WILDCAT (Fireteam: Haris) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)

WILDCAT Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (2 | 20) SEÑOR MASSACRE Breaker Combi Rifle, E/M Grenades, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, E/M CCW. (0 | [yb]29[/b])

JAGUAR Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 13)

JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

JAGUAR Adhesive Launcher, Panzerfaust / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 13) BANDIT Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 25)

McMURROUGH 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Templar CCW (AP + DA). (0 | 31) GROUP 2 | 6 INTRUDER HMG, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 42)

MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)

TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

SALYUT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army

Tony GROUP 1 | 9 1 VETERAN KAZAK Lieutenant AP HMG / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (1 | 47)

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

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

SCOUT (Forward Observer) Ojotnik, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30)

SCOUT (Forward Observer) Ojotnik, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30)

SCOUT Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)

CHASSEUR (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)

CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)

ASSAULT PACK . (0 | 25)

HANDLER Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (- | 10)

x3 ANTIPODE AP CC Weapon. (- | 15) GROUP 1 | 5 1 TANKHUNTER Portable Autocannon, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 34)

TANKHUNTER Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)

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)

WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3) 4.5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Infinity Army | Tony’s Actual List, from the RCR JSON

Deployment

Tony deployed first. There were a total of 8 camo tokens on the table when he finished deployment, which wasn’t particularly bothersome, but it did make it difficult to properly anticipate what was what. As it turns out, from left to right, staggered across the centerline of the board it was: Scout FO, Chasseur Minelayer, Mine, Scout FO, Chasseur FO, Scout BSG. Tony’s backfield, also my left to my right, was Warcor, Volunteer, Volunteer, Dozer, Tankhunter ML, Tankhunter Autocannon, Antipode Controller, Vet Kazak, with a pair of Traktor Muls, one on either flank. I knew that there were Antipodes coming, and I super suspected Van Zant would show up–you always have to honor it! I deployed my Wildcat link in total cover, more or less, watching my back board edge for Van Zant–this was also to protect the HRL from any Spetznaz or Tankhunters that might come calling. I didn’t have particularly good vantage points for my Transductors, so I made do, and my Morans were near the close objectives, covering the board edges with Koalas just in case. The Salyut was up at the edge of my deployment zone, ready to dominate one of the nearer zones. My Jaguars went down on the right, with my Jaguar ADHL up to ARO things and the rest of them watching board edges with chain rifles and shotguns. McMurrough was stuck on the left prone behind a cliff. Tony dropped his Antipode pack on my right, and then I put my Intruder on the same side as it was the only place that had a reasonable elevated position. I stuck him on the back lip of the island so he could get an ARO against Van Zant too, if necessary, figuring my camo state would protect me from any long range threats that could pie slice him on Tony’s turn. Apparently Tony was also pretty fried from a long day because both of us forgot INTELCOM. With that, we were off.

Turn 1

Top of Turn 1 – Ariadna

Tony spent basically his entire primary order pool getting the antipodes into my backfield. I killed two of them with Jaguars, but lost the Moran on the right to a ball of teeth and claws. The last surviving Antipode managed to get a sensor off on my Intruder before going down to a hail of gunfire from basically everything. I was pretty pleased with myself until Tony poked a camo token out on his side of the table that could see my Intruder. I though the boxes were enough to break LoF, but Tony had found a spot! We were on one dice each, and I had the advantage of MSV2 to see through all the trees, but the Tankhunter was in good range and out diced me, blasting my poor Intruder off the table. After shuffling the dastardly Russian back into cover and moving up his Traktor Muls, Tony passed the turn.

Bottom of Turn 1 – Corregidor

I canceled McMurrough’s order and carefully extracted him from LoF of the Tankhunters with smoke, advancing him onto the island on the left flank. My Jaguars pushed up a little to claim the right scoring zone, but this left me without a reasonable place to leave them and not enough orders to get up on to the plateau safely. I definitely had chosen the wrong side, as Tony’s Tankhunters commanded the board with ease. I spent my last few orders shifting the Jaguars into a less stupid position–it was still pretty stupid. Then there was the question of what to do in the second group. Losing the Intruder really degrades the utility of the second group on a very long-ranged table, but fortunately I had a specialist in that group. My Moran took advantage of McMurrough’s smoke and nabbed me my near left objective before retreating into a better position. I was careful to not leave my Koalas in a place that would let him catch my Moran with a ML template (which he later remarked was something he had been hoping for), and then passed the turn.

Turn 2

We each have two zones, so 1 point on the board each.

Top of Turn 2 – Ariadna

Tony started sending in the scouts. The BSG one attempted to blast my Jaguars but I fended it off, dropping it with a chain rifle. After clearing out my Transductor Zond with the Tankhunter, next was a Volunteer, jetting up the boardwalk and taking out my Jaguar Panzerfaust. With the link degraded, Tony ran in a Chasseur to cover the link with a flamethrower and then parked a FO scout in my near right zone after killing my Moran on the left with his Ojotnik. Sadly, he was now out-scoring me. Thankfully Tony was out of orders and passed the turn.

Bottom of Turn 2 – Corregidor

I figured I was going to lose the right flank, so I set about pushing the left one. McMurrough chain rifles down the Scout FO there with an intuitive attack, and then I throw some smoke to protect him from the Tankhunters. After hacking Tony’s HVT, who was behind the scout, for a classified, I figure, hey, why not just super jump and hit the Traktor Mul there with some chain rifles? Then I can get my Bandit into position to grab the far left antenna, right? After that’s done, I’ll be able to figure out a solution to the Chasseur/Scout problem on my right. So I super jump up, throw a pair of chain rifles at the bot, who dodges. Fine. Let’s make it a normal roll. Super Jump, grenade! Passes ARM. Let’s try again! Passes ARM. Last order. Passes ARM. Frown intensely. Pass turn.

Turn 3

Due to the Traktor Mul being alive, Tony has three zones to my one on the left, so it’s now 3-1 Tony. I had misjudged the centerline and only the Bandit was over.

Top of Turn 3 – Ariadna

Tony just runs away with his lead, killing my Jaguar LSG with his Scout, forward observing my HVT for a classified, and then taking both of the right antennas with the Scout. His last orders are spend shooting the antennas with his Tankhunter Autocannon to deny me points, and the he passes the turn.

Bottom of Turn 3 – Corregidor

With the Scout having retreated, I’m now out-scoring Tony in my near right zone, so I just need to take the far left zone, as my Salyut is holding my near left. Without much else to do in terms of point scoring, I just settle for trying to kill the Traktor Mul. In trying to set up smoke for this, I get flash pulsed by the Warcor and roll a 20 on my smoke. Tony rightfully doubles over in laughter! I send in the Bandit, who doesn’t fail me, and I drop the Traktor mul after sinking 3 more orders getting into position and shooting it. So yeah. 7 orders later, the stupid Traktor Mul is dead. I’m dominating more zones, putting me up to 3 points, plus 2 more for my classified and my antenna. This makes it a

5-6 Ariadna Victory!

A big thanks to Tony for a great game! We both knew what was at stake here so we both came out swinging. I made a few minor play mistakes, which Tony was gracious enough to allow me to correct, aside from the obligatory yell of: “THE TO IS CHEATING!” All in all, a great game against a great opponent. I’d definitely like to face off against Tony again sometime! It was a real close one, even in victory points.

Notes

Notes for Me

I lost this one by an inch. Had I kept my cool and moved both McMurrough and the Bandit into the far left zone, my Salyut would have my near left, and 31 + 25 > 20 + 25 points. I didn’t carefully think about it and point count, and I clearly had enough orders to get both McMurrough and the Bandit safely into the zone and probably grab the far left antenna. Foolish, especially since I had discovered the Chasseur’s mine somewhere in there, and I know exactly how much all that stuff costs. Dammit.

That would’ve put us on 2-2 going into the last round. Tony probably couldn’t have dealt with the my left flank, keeping those two safe, so what was likely was for him grab the rightmost antennas and his classified, just like he did. That puts him on 3 more points, and with my antennas and classified ties us up at 5-5. Then I have a turn to be able to snag my near right with the Wildcats, putting me possibly on 7-5, or if I can’t do anything, a 6-6 tie.

CLOSE GAME, either way.

My Jaguars fought tooth and nail to hold their zone and sold their lives dearly! I’ll take it.

My Wildcats were totally out of the fight. I was too scared of Van Zant and needlessly losing the HRL to a Spetznaz or Tankhunter. I also didn’t want to push them to the right and lose my Lt.

I also forgot Wildcats have Multiterrain, saving them from Adam’s table. Like a chump. I think I would’ve thought more carefully about things.

This game is a great example in stopping to think carefully about what is actually neccessary to accomplish before executing. I saw red trying to kill the Traktor Mul and got distracted.

I am still violently in love with this list, although I may swap the Bandit and the Salyut, just to give both pools some redundancy in attack pieces.

Notes for Tony

Great Intruder snipe. Honestly, I don’t know what I would’ve done with him, there wasn’t a whole lot for him to shoot until the Chasseur moved around the corner, and you probably wouldn’t have done that if he was still up.

Yeah, you kept your cool better than me this game, definitely a mark of a veteran! Well done sir, playing to the objectives.

We chatted a bit after the game, there was definitely a bunch of AROs we both missed. Adam’s table is very difficult.

Yeah, I dunno. That was about as perfect a game as I’ve ever seen from someone. Well played.

Overall Notes

I’ll be writing up some more thoughts about the tournament at some point, but I just want to say that Adam did a great job organizing. He and his lovely wife did literally everything, Nate and I just were a sounding board for pretty much the entire process. A HUGE thank you to everyone who showed up, especially those of you who just showed up to hang out and even bring terrain (lookin’ at you, Chris Matthews!). See you all at RCR 2019!