August Store Tournament Report and General Thoughts on Reinforcements

So I've been kind of lacking in posts, and it's mostly due to trying the new Reinforcements rules and focusing on hobby projects for an event coming in November.

But I thought I'd write a tournament report with a short write up of my games but with the goal of kind of explaining how Reinforcements feels at the current time.

My Lists:

So since Exrah had returned and I've been playing the faction as is, I went with Combined Army. 

So the first list is clearly a vanity list with the Avatar with the intent of just playing it only for Mindwipe, matchup permitting. That said, I could also use this for supplies if I feel spicy about it.

The other list is built with Countermeasures in mind but it definitely can do Mindwipe and Supplies without any problems in list building for the most part.

I will kind of admit CA feels rough to build reinforcements for. This will go into detail on my overall thoughts but the fact you have to take a Nox Trooper, Morat Vanguard or Unidron feels hefty as a tax for what I usually like to take in a list. As well I didn't get as much practice with these lists so it might not be the best I could have done.

Game 1: 

Bye sadly. That said I managed to watch a little bit of agame which was a Tohaa mirror match and how rough that can be for both players. Though I I would be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued since they were good players piloting them.

Game 2: vs. Tohaa (Countermeasures). Loss 2-6

This was a bit of a rough game. I didn't deploy as good as I could and I had Nourkias get-got on the first turn. I did manage to score one classified on the first turn, but Extreme prejudice eluded me because I outright killed his Greif Operator instead of just putting him unconscious. In return I didn't push with my Speculo when I should and tried to do as much damage as I could since he got Extreme prejudice off it because of Tohaa bullshit known as Endgame (lol). Certainly could've played it better but is what it is.

Game 3: vs. JSA (Supplies). Won 6-2.

This is not my proudest game (or moment) as I played my Avatar list against a new-ish player. That said, I kind of ran over my list and what he did, and for the most part he did the correct thing and ignored the Avatar and played towards objectives when he could. 

My reinforcements never came in since it was only a two round game but his managed to get on and get one of the boxes away from me. I did make a comeback since I possessed his Anaconda and my Gaki managed to kill a CSU and Miranda to have him drop the box. He managed to get it back after saving against a Explosive shot from the Avatar.

Final thoughts:

So I had two games of reinforcements before this, and then three for the tournament so I figured five games would be good to explain my thoughts.

In concept, I think Reinforcements is a great addition to the game and a good way to have another format to play in. Especially since it is a format that feels like the Alpha Strike doesn't feel as strong. This said the execution is something that is...mixed at best for me, even though I enjoyed these games. 

And it boils down to two things:

1) the Commlink is quite the tax in a game mode where you need to play it. So instead of having 250 pts and 5 SWC you're essentially down 18 to 24 pts and half an SWC in your list. 

It does make list building quite awkward since the player has to take it. 

2) The reinforcement section feels quite hard to list build for properly, as not everything alings at a perfect 100 points. And tied to that, you cannot go over either limit for either the main or reinforcement sectiom, so depending how it is built either the main list or the reinforcement section might be at an awkward shortage of points.

So it goes to the main question: Will I play it again?

I think so but I don't think I'd want to do it in a competitive setting, at least in its current iteration of Commlink and a few tweaks to the mission. I am assuming latter problem will have the newest ITS mission pack in mine for that. The former is a larger issue I take with that hampers my enjoyment of what is otherwise fun and unique game mode.

As for the specific faction I played?

As much as I enjoyed being able to field the bugs again, Combined Army felt really hampered by the Commlink tax just to take them. Granted I did kind of go full-on meme mode with the Avatar in reinforcements, but from the few games I played with it in reinforcements the Avatar more often feels like an hindrance more than a help to reinforcement lists.

As well the Reinforcements profiles CA gets are good but feel rather limited what you can do with them, as you don't have any doctors/paramedics nor durable pieces outside the Caskuda. Granted the former kind of feels thematic since the Exrah do kind of die easily.

But at least I'll admit some of my opinions of reinforcements is colored by the fact I played only CA, but I kind of stand by reinforcements as is feels in a beta stage still.

So for now any battle reports for Reinforcements might be limited, if non-existent.

Infinity Releases: June 2023

 This is going to be a bit late but figured I'd make a review on the stuff that came out in June. This is a bit more releases than last month but here we go trying to cover it now.

Here is the rating scale for standard rating of the models:

The Schriber Scale according to Tanako Skyler:

1. Privateer Press levels of disappointment. Avoid at all costs.

2. Eh, not that good. But if I need to, I'll buy it for my army. 

3. The Corvus Belli Standard Work. 
4. Now we're cooking with gas! We're in the territory of amazing and good.
5. This release made me erect. The best they ever made!

And here is the Infinity Critposting Memeability Scale, introduced in the May release coverage. This is only a rating to 1-3 on how silly, memey or other factors that make it out here in terms of CB standard:

1. Eh, not too Critpost-y. Little meme potential.

2. Possible memeability but also soon to be beaten like a dead horse. 

3. Truly the peak of Critposting. 

Patchers, Structural Response Team

Rating: 4 (The Entire Box)

This is obviously inspired by the Marines and Firebats from Starcraft, but at least it has its own twist on it. I don't on the box but god they are pushing the limit of being an S2 model, but the design of it is very on point for Ariadna in my opinion. 

Profile-wise this is where the Firebat comparison comes in. At 

Infinity Critposting Memeability Scale: 3

Truly this does start breaking what should be an S2 model. Also all the continuous damage on the model makes this wild in Kosmoflot along with fitting that retro-future style Kosmoflot is going for.

O-Yoroi Kidobutai

Rating: 5

Seriously I am shocked how well the new O-Yoroi turned out and looks a lot more bulkier and less fiddly than the previous N2/N3 sculpt. As well, the box gets the new Crazy Koala sculpts which were rated lost month. Definitely a bonus but I wish it did come with the pilot, like always.

Stats-wise it's a pretty good gunfighting TAG with BS 14 and a AP HMG. Though the main gimmick of it being good in CC is something you shouldn't be proactively trying to get into CC, but use it as either a defensive tool or attack of opportunity. Especially with the Crazy Koala being dropped before engaging since it can force the opponent into an ARO tree they have to deal with 

Critposting Memeability Rating: 1

Since the O-Yoroi also came with the new Crazy Koalas like the Hulang this month and the Sputnik pack, it is clear the Crazy Koalas won out in this box because it is the better of the profiles in their respective faction. Otherwise just a solid model.

Sputnik Remotes

Rating: 2.5

It seems that this is a prepack of the old Tsyklon and Lunokhod remotes. Though this is a way for Nomad players to get the new Crazy Koalas... despite the Morans recently getting a new set of models earlier this year. It was something that is kind of infuriating but something tells me the design of the new Crazy Koalas weren't finalized in time.

Looking at the stats for both of them remotes, the Tsyklon is a gun fighter with the ability to shoot out pitchers to extend your hacker range. Which as a Nomad player, it certainly helps to have more out besides Morans.

The Lunokhod is the one that supports the backline with minelayer with the aforementioned Crazy Koalas but also templates on the bot himself.

Critposting Memeability Rating: 3

Seriously, the fact the new Crazy Koalas for the Nomads in the box with the old style battle remotes is certainly the most bafflingly. Not only that, I feel the the Lunokhod is more than likely gonna be a proxy for a second Tsyklon or Vostok if you didn't buy into Crimson Stone (which as a newer Nomad player, you should have).

Stigmata

Rating: 3

Certainly, a fine model, but it personally doesn't stand out too much for me. It is kind of a static pose but it gets the job done. The cloak and religious imagery on the paintjob looks amazing but sadly the imagery does not look like on the model basekit it seems like. 

Statswise, the Stigmata is a rather unique TAG as of writing this post (not withstanding the Caskuda which is coming back) since it is a TAG that hacks but without a high-burst gun perse. It has a CC stat of 20 with a E/M CCW, but you don't want to engage with it intentionally but it is helps. The last main point to this model is the aforementioned hacking, which has a hacking device but an upgrade to its Carbonite has +2 damage. The downside it also opens it up to another avenue of attack by killer hackers.

Critposting Memeability Rating: 2

I know you people are making UWU Stigmatas. Don't lie to me.

Rodoks

Rating: 2 (If you decide to get them)

A set of kind of disappointing sculpt for a somewhat disappointing unit. Which is kind of fitting for the Rodoks. What you get is an SMG, Missile Launcher and Spitfire Rodoks, which in this box 2 of the 3 models are worth taking as is.

Looking at the stats, these monkies have Super jump and mimetism, but you are paying in the 20-30ish points for a 1 Wound model with 2 ARM and 3 BTS and only BS 12.  The submachine gun profile has Strategic Deployment, which to this day arguments as to how it works still goes on. 

My take is that you declare the link team at that point but the models in the link team can deploy further than before. But I've never seen this rule played in person sadly.

Critposting Memeability Rating: 3

As of right now, Rodoks will still be one of the worst units in the game. And currently I think they are worse than their N3 counterparts which had killer hacking devices and 2 light shotguns (or would be +1 Burst in this edition).

If you managed to win a game with Rodoks I'll give you a secret prize.

(Fun side story is when the Adepticon Seminar was showing off the new upcoming releases, the Rodoks got shown and the room went quiet in abstract disappointment).

JSA Expansion Pack Alpha

Rating: 4

Something of a repack but it's a place to get a lot of the ninjas you are going to be using in JSA, especially the much coveted Tac Bow Ninja from Red Veil. The box here gives you two ninjas as mentioned, a Shikami, an Oniwaban (which is the same sculpt from the JSA action Pack) and Shinobu Kitsune. 

While I think this box is definitely great for it's value for a newer player, I'd highly recommend getting the Domaru and Tanko box first since most JSA lists focus on Samurai link teams.

(This said, the poses and sculpts for thjs repack are really good so getting them for that reason alone is definitely not a bad thing in my book. In fact, I think the JSA range is my top favorites in Infinity)

So for profiles, the Ninjas as your midfield specialists for JSA. Unlike most skirmishers that are you dedicated specialists, Ninjas forgoes the usual equipment of mines and rifle-like weapons (save for one profile) for being great at CC and sporting either an AP or DA CCW depending on the profile. They tend to be on the pricier side since they are better in CC. Most often you are probably taking only one ninja in a list.

Even though the Oniwaban and Shinobu Kitsune are different units, they are the same kind of unit so I'll cover the two together. Ideally the best way to describe the Oniwaban as a whole is that they are impersonator-esque as in they act as assassination pieces for either the enemy LT or some other key piece. However they do not have the Impersonator rule and instead have a +6 Modifier on their Infiltration so it is always a roll to deploy in the enemy half. The Basic one can either be a boarding shotgun or Submachine Gun with Nanopulser, but their main CC Gear is both an E/M and Monofilament CCW. The basic Oniwaban also has CC 24 and MA 24, which makes them very lethal if it lands with either.  Shinobu Kitsune only has a Monofilament CCW but has CC 25 MA5 to get that extra burst in CC. As well her cost is slightly inflated due to the Combi rifle. Most of the time I'd say the generic Oniwaban is the slightly better pick since it has the E/M CCW to force more saves even if it doesn't kill outright and how crits with Monofilament work in N4. This said, you can definitely do well with Shinobu too.

The last model in the box is the Shikami, which is a CC-oriented HI like the Hulang. While cool in concept, it is kind of let down by his weaponry, with profiles a Contender with Flash Pulse and Assault Pistols or Combi-rifle with D-Charges. With CC23, MA 3 and a AP+DA CCW he can be lethal in an up close fight. The problem is the lack of Smoke Grenades to cover his approach up field. At most you may only take one to be your solo striker piece of your list allows for it.

Critposting Memeability Rating: 2

With 4 of the 5 models out of the box, you can make a list that is very close to a 'blank courtesy list'. Will I think it will be a good list? More than likely not unless you know how to pilot expensive one wound models well.

Will it be fun? Oh yeah.

Starmada Expansion Pack Alpha

Rating: 3.5 (3 for the Sarko, 3.5-4 for the Sekudroid)

The newest box for Starmada and it comes with three models (two being new units for Starmada and one is a deployable weapon for the Sarko, the Wildparrot). I give the Sarko a 3.5 because while I really do like the design for the Sarko, I find the pose a little static. The Sekudroid though looks like he is about to put a stop to some criminal scum with his Adhesive weapon of some manner.

For these new profiles, the Sarko is kind of a generic level camo skirmisher with interesting kit. Instead of having a combi-rifle, their weapon loadouts only consist of either a submachine gun or boarding shotgun. As well he has climbing plus to reach up to objectives that are high up on buildings. It also have a wildparrot in one of its profiles, which can give him the option to go HI or TAG hunting depending on what you are up against. 

The Sekudroid is a non-lethal (save for a heavy pistol) but cheap option to fill your Betatrooper links out. Sporting either the Adhesive launcher or Akrylat-kanon in unison with a +1 burst flash pulse. While it cannot get an additional burst being in a link team anymore, the flash pulse is a nice backup piece of needed. 

Critposting Memability Rating: 1 

Not much for me to meme about these models honestly. Pretty solid no questions asked. 

Arguing About Cyberpunk Ice cream: Sectorial vs Vanilla

So the topic is coming up again and figured I thought I throw my lot in with my "hot take" on this particular point.

Basics on Vanillas and Sectorial Armies

The basic concept in terms is that 'Vanillas' refers to the main generic army for a particular faction while 'sectorial' is playing a sub-faction within the faction. So with a faction like PanOceania, the Sectorials for that faction is Neoterra Capitaline Army, Shock Army of Acontecimento, Military Orders, Varuna Immediate Reaction Division and Svalarheima Winter Force to use as an example.

Vanilla armies are what started this game, but sectorials got added in Human Sphere in N2 with variations and new sectorials being added and how fire teams works. However that is for another post and this is more about the benefits and weaknesses of both.

Benefits to Playing a Vanilla Army

-Full Toolbox of units available to that faction. Which means you can tackle all missions in a line-up potentially

-Tied to the second point, allows you to pick most of the models you may like between a few sectorials and pick and choose what you want to take.

-Ability to spread out models across the deployment zone without much of a downside.

-The ability to spread out certain models and also have the full range of models in faction means you can easily combo without having to risk that many models so close together.

Downsides to Playing a Vanilla Army

-Most lists may come out to be somewhat Min-maxed, relying on a few power pieces that will be too common.

-Facechecking against a fully-linked ARO piece may prove a bit challenging if you are not skilled or do not have the right tools for the job.

-Tied to the first two points, you are often going to have to take models specialized in something but might struggle to spend orders efficiently on them.

-Most of the cognitive load is front loaded in list building, considering that there is a lot of options in vanilla.

Benefits to Playing a Sectorial

-Thematics. Playing a sectorial means you are playing a specific force in otherwise a large army.

-Link teams, which is the selling point of sectorials. Learning how to play them and around their weaknesses can be quite powerful.

-Higher AVA on units in that specific unit, which gives you a reason to run some profiles on some units you may not see in a vanilla lists.

-Smaller Selection of units, which is good when starting out.

Downsides to Playing a Sectorial

-With a limited toolbox, some sectorials may struggle to do some missions or how to deal with some situations.

-Link teams. They are both a blessing and a curse as a poorly deployed link team can cost you the entire game.

-Information obfuscation and mind games are harder to pull off due to the fact there are less profiles with camo or Hidden deployment to play with most often.

What do I prefer?

While my batreps for the blog have has been more on the vanilla side, I tend to consider a sectorial player more at heart. I tend to like the thematic restrictions imposed by sectorials and trying to figure out how to deal with missions and problems within that framework. That said links are a bonus I really love because they are powerful but can be countered still.

This said, I tend to also play a bit of a dark horse so I'll play what is not played in the stores I go to (which most of the time is vanilla factions). Personally I do not think one is overtly more powerful than the other and it comes down to personal play style and taste to what one likes. If I had a little hot take it is the fact vanilla might be a little more flexible because of having more tools at your disposal.

Thanks for my reading my take on the matter! Hopefully there is something to take away from here even though it has been talked about to death.

Infinity Releases: May 2023

So to make new posts without trying to write out battle reports that take a while, I am going to do a monthly release review. Its more to critique of the newer releases, but I may do a unboxing of some things in the near future. 

What is the Metric (You hack fraud) of how you rate models?

So what I thinking of doing is using the late Mayacast's Schriber Scale. Mostly because I am not that original but also, I think it should be honored since I think it is a pretty good way to rate Infinity models. 

The Schriber Scale according to Tanako Skyler:
1. ENDLESS TRASH. DO NOT BUY AND PROXY IT INSTEAD.

2. Eh, not that good. But if I need to, I'll buy it for my army. 

3. The Corvus Belli Standard Work. 
4. Now we're cooking with gas! We're in the territory of amazing and good.
5. The GOAT of Infinity models. Good for even other games or just to own for non-Infinity releases.

As well, I wanted to have a twist on rating these models. Since I run Critposting, I wanted to have a Infinity Critposting Memeability Scale. This is only a rating to 1-3 on how silly, memey or other factors that make it out here in terms of CB standard:

1. Eh, not too Critpost-y. Little meme potential.

2. Getting there. Examples of this is overuse of tactical rocks/garbage or weird paint job/posing.

3. Truly the peak of Critposting. 

Now, let's get started:

Hulang Shocktrooper w/ 2 Crazy Koalas

Rating: 3 (Hulang), 4 (Crazy Koalas)

Not a bad model that looks decently cool. The ribbing of his armor in the abdominal area is actually pretty cool, along with his skull helmet but otherwise it is standard Yu Jing fare. I think the highlight of this box ironically is the new Crazy Koalas, which was a much-needed update and deadly adorable. 

Profile wise the Hulang is kind of meh in both vanilla and IA, but you can certainly do worse in my opinion. Just really overshadowed now that Bixie exists in Yu Jing's toolbox. 

Critposting meme rating: 1

Nothing that egregious in the model. Maybe more that the only way to get new Crazy Koalas outside of tokens is this. Moving on. 

Daturazi Witch Soldiers

   Rating: 5 (all models)

So Corvus Belli took a great box and pretty much updated it to perfection. As much as the swords are very angular and kind of have the anime sword syndrome, the new Daturazi fit the updated aesthetic quite nicely. Honestly I can see this being used outside of Infinity for something like Starfinder/Star Grave to use as enemy jobbers or a pirate character.

Profile wise they are your warband smoke throwers for Vanilla CA and Morats. More on the elite end at 14-18 points, but more than likely you are taking the cheap chain rifle profile to use as DZ defense.

Critposting Meme Rating: 3 

Leaving the serious territory of this model review here, these monkey boys are truly looking like they are having the time of their life. The top-right one looks like he is Andross from the Star Fox series, with the bottom left guy clearly knows he is going to go balls deep into someone's DZ. The tactical rocks are also good here. 

But we can make it bigger.

Code One Haqqislam Booster Pack Beta 

Rating: 3 (Al Fasid HRL and Hortlak Jannisary), 2.5 (Asawira AP Spitfire)

This box is a repack of existing models to put into one box for newer players. Asawira is starting to show its age a bit with not so much the model itself perse but the pose kind of weird and wonky. The Al Fasid HRL and Hortlak Jannisary are good as is, holding up still despite it being kind of bog standard. Outside of Code One, this box leans more towards to playing  

Speaking on the three profiles here the only you're going to probably use the most in vanilla is Asawira, especially since it can duo with the Rafiq. In Hassassins, the Asawira cannot link with the Rafiq (for some god forsaken reason), but has the benefit of being a wildcard to any link team for a beefy beatstick and gunfighter. For the other two models, they are in Ramah together. Using them is kind of playing with a handicap compared to what else is available in Ramah, but in certain missions like Frostbyte they fulfill that role of something that can survive the cold since they are HI.

Critposting Meme Rating: 1 for the Al Fasid and Hortlak, 2 for the Asawira, 3 for the box existing. 

Seriously the Asawira pose is still wonky even though I have a soft spot for it since I love the profile. Box itself is kind of all over the place since there is only one Hassassins model. Kind of wish the Alpha and Booster packs for Haqqislam gave them new models but it is serviceable.

Code One ALEPH Booster Pack Beta

Rating: 4 (Acmon), 3 (Machaon and Makhai ML)

Okay so to admit my faults, I kind of have a soft spot for models dual-wielding both a rifle and a pistol, so I have high marks for Acmon and much improved over his old sculpt personally. Wish one had his gizmokit, but rule of cool wins out for me here. 

 Machaon is definitely a step up from his old sculpt if a bit generic. I wish they had his medikit out since he is a doctor character but otherwise, not a bad sculpt.

 Makhai has a definite sassy attitude to her, which might be warranted since she is carry a huge missle launcher to drop templates on something unfortunate to fail the face-to-face against her. Otherwise kind of a static pose for her. Do like her arm plates on her and Acmon since it reminds me of Isaac Clarke's suit from Dead Space.

Critposting Meme Rating: 2

I already made a meme about Tomboy GF with her two Dilf boyfriends (or mutual menage-a-tois), but that's all I got. That said, the releases this year of the 'I'm a healer but...' class of characters have been fire. Please CB if you are reading my shitty blog, take a free idea and give Exrah a combat medic.

Meteor Zond

Rating: 4 

When the tactical rocks works to the benefit of the model.

Honestly, this is a great redesign of a classic model that uses something that people kind of complain about (most of the time with good reason), to support it. Granted it might not be that popular of a take, but I hate flying stands with a passion, considering you have to either prime it separate from the base first or prime it attached. Weird complaint from me but thought I'd get it out there. Otherwise the model design fits well with the Nomads current aesthetic.

Profile-wise the Meteor Zond is in all of the Nomads armies save for Corregidor. It's unique due in part of being a parachutist and combat jump, which can give you a repeater on the side turn two or three or even use it to press the console.

Critposting Meme Rating: 3

Seriously, nearly the whole model is tactical rock and I kind of love it. I also expect a renew amount of bemoaning from the forums because of the tactical rocks and Nomads having more repeaters (though they complain about Nomad's existence in general).

Final Thoughts

While not a big month of releases, most of these were pretty solid. If I had a rare the releases in ones I am most excited by, it would be the Haqqislam Code One Box> Hulang Shock trooper> Meteor Zond=ALEPH Code One Box=Daturazi Witch Soldiers. 

I already picked up my ALEPH box but once I come back around to Combined, I am really tempted to pick up the new Daturazis. Anyways looks like July is an interesting month ahead since we are finally getting new PanO arm bots. But for now, tune into a small tournament report in the next two weeks or so where I take vanilla ALEPH.

Battle Report 04: Robots Tasting Metal in the Air (ALEPH vs Spiral Corps- Radiation Leak)

So painting up most what I could for my ALEPH, I am giving them a run now. I've had a few games with them now, but this will be the first battle reports written playing them.

So the mission we did is Radiation Leak, which is a custom mission made by Wise Kensai from the Dice Abides network. Link to it will be here: Radiation Leak - Google Docs

The general idea of the mission is one side is trying to protect the reactor and the other is trying to destroy it. You also get points for being in the room but the radiation from the reactor has a chance to kill your models.

(Disclaimer: I was playing an earlier version of this mission where scoring was in the first four play turns of the game instead of the last four. Hence if you are looking at it later and seems a bit off on the scoring that is why)

Lists

After Adepticon I decided to ALEPH so here is what I was running. I played more toward the mission and for the most part I liked how it functioned on the table. Having Parvati, Mk. 1 Engineer, Acmon and Machaon gives me a good amount of redundancy but also can cover most of the classifieds in the deck. However, Classifieds would not be a concern here.

For my opponent, he was running Spiral Corps and more wanted to run his favorite of a "fake" Chaksa Longarms Haris which a cheap Chaksa of some sort with the Portable Autocannon Chaksa in reality being a Taagma Viral Sniper with MSV 2. The other man Haris in his list was a Draal supported by two Taagma schemers with one of them being the Tri-core. And the main piece was topped off with Neema as the LT and Jaan Star being out of Impersonation state with a Symbiobomb.

Deployment

My opponent won the roll-off and decided to take the first turn. And in turn I took the side where I could hide all my models I could but have an easy access to have one of my units with D-charges or antimaterial weapons blow open the door.

My opponent deployed his two Haris teams on both his flanks, with his 'fake' Long arms team setting up on the building on his left and then Draal team on his right to preform his alpha strike in the first turn. And then Neema Sataar in the middle to move up into the Radiation room if needed. 

            A Piece that may or may not do           something this game

Not wanting to give my opponent that many easy targets, I put most of my stuff in null deployment save for a couple flashpulse bots to slow him if I can. There, my Agema ML placed in hidden deployment covering the lane where I expected his Draal to go. 

Then he deploys his two heldbacks, which were the Keltar and then Jaan Staar in that specific order, with him getting the symbiobomb and then the Draal getting the Symbiomate. I of course held back the Liberto minelayer to lock up Jaan Star and makes sure if he was going to Symbiobomb Hippolyta he'd have to pay the price for it potentially. 

I elected Hippolyta as my master breacher and my opponent chose Neema. In which in this mission, it gives Zero-G terrain but the main thing is D-charges to use to blow open the door. 

Round 1

Turn 1 Spiral Corps

   A Story of Jaan Star getting memed on, told in three parts.

Wanting to take care of my Liberto and have Jaan Star safely hit Hippolyta, he spends a few orders shifting over his Taagma sniper to get to the Liberto and his mine. He spends a few orders clearing the Liberto, but the Liberto managed to lay a mine down to further trap Jaan Star. The Taagma failed to discover and remove either mine, which is where my opponent kind of goes 'Yolo, I need to try to take out Hippolyta with a Symbiobomb'. Fortunately for me and not so much for him, Hippolyta made her BTS saves even though she failed the face-to-face, and Jaan Star went down to the two mines from a fully healthy Symbiont armor profile.

This is where he switches gears and goes on the offensive with his Haris led by the Draal. When the Haris managed to walk out of the cover, this is when I revealed my Agema ML and took a shot against it. This sadly lead to the death of the Agema as he failed to hit and failed to make both of his armor saves against the Draal.  He pushes up his Haris onto the edge of my deployment zone instead of pulling back, and managing to put down the Dakini HMG.

In my turn I would try to exploit the Spiral Corps Player's over-extension as much as possible. 

Turn 1 ALEPH

I decided to try to take care of the Draal haris by either killing all of the team or at least putting down the Draal so he would not be a problem later. However it had taken a few orders (including a risky play of using Machaon and his LT order to attack the Draal) before I put two to the three team members down. From there I breached the Reactor room with Acmon which blew the door open in one order. The Mk.2 Hacker then went in there, hiding behind the reactor and then using the rest of my turn to reposition Parvati to get into range to repair and heal the Dakini HMG and Hippolyta that went down on my opponent's active turn. The radiation saves then came in which my Mk.2 Hacker made with ease, which will be an re-occurring theme in this battle report. 

While this turn is written shorter than I would have wanted, it is truly the main focus of my turn for the part. 

Round 2

Turn 2 Spiral Corps

   Eventually Hippolyta had to succumb to Tohaa/Spiral Corps Bullshit
Realising he had lost a good chunk of his haris, my opponent decides to use Neema to get into the room and start having points in the room to score. However, the Mk.2 Hacker was able to Isolate Neema after two orders he spent trying to blow open the door with her D-charges. The rest of the turn was used to reposition his Helots and then having his Taagma Sniper watching over the lane where I could make one potential run to heal Hippolyta, in which he put unconscious with his Igao after sneaking up my flank. 

Turn 2 ALEPH

The main impetus of the turn was to get my Dakini HMG and Hippolyta to hopefully get more units to engage then get into the Reactor room. The Dakini HMG managed to get back up and managed to force the Taagma down but did not kill him. However for the need of this turn it was good enough.

For the purposes of the this batrep I am going to wrap up Round 3 in general as pretty much the game was sealed at that point. My opponent managed to get Neema out of isolation and then moved into the room. Then Hippolyta ran into the room, took out Neema and then brought the Reactor down to 0 STR with the D-Charges from being the Master Breacher.

The game went to me in a 7-1, as my opponent managed to disable one of the safety looks on his final turn. 

Final Thoughts

This is a little more delayed than I wanted to be, but I wanted to talk about the mission more than the game itself even though it was fun to play. 

My thoughts on it is that it delves into the asymmetrical aspect Infinity that is present in the gameplay, but I feel doesn't get explored in the current design climate of ITS. I may get a few more games in before I have a solid take on Radiation Leak, but I like the main gist of it. 

One thing I really like is that you have a decision tree as the attacking player to either blow it early and force the defending player to repair it, but it also makes it harder for both sides to score points for holding the room. The damage scaling depending on the state of the reactor does also give some incentive for the defending repair it outside of scenario points tied to how much health it has.

The couple critiques I might have is that it falls into the trap of Looting and Sabotaging where it is highly discouraged that you want to repair the Reactor as the defending player, since the failure state is that you are giving your opponent free points if you fail. While this is mitigated by the fact that the reactor always is on the table and can still repair it at 0 STR, it punishes factions with average to below-average WIP (looking at you PanO) if they have to be the defending player.

The main suggestion is that failure state of the engineering skill should not be applied, or perhaps the use of command tokens allowed to reroll failed rolls. 

The second critique is a bit minor but the safety interlocks may not affect the game too much after the door has been blown open by D-charges or whacked with an anti-material CC weapon. The way this could be changed is that you cannot destroy the doors but at the same time, it takes away a tactical option. 


Sorry this took longer than I wanted to get out but I had some IRL stuff that happened and was in a bit of a funk. Currently I am working on a post about Impersonators which is kind of going slow since I am currently not playing a faction who runs them. Hopefully I can get it out soon-ish, but I want to have ALEPH be my main focus for the next few months (I.e around 3 more batreps or so). 

Tune in next time!

Adepticon Tournament Report

So over the last weekend I had participated in the Adepticon 2-Day Satelitte Tournament. While a good amount of our local guys made it down, there was a good amount from the greater Midwest region of the US and a good amount that came from California and other regions. 

At the end I'll post the faction breakdowns and who the overall winner was but I wanted to go through my games.

So a spoiler to the set-up, I went 2-3 but all my losses for the most part were really close games. I got 30th which is not the top half of the rankings I think I did well all things considered.

Game 1 vs. White Company (Power Pack) Win 6-4:

So this was a more contentious game I felt a bit bad for winning but I managed to get a 6-4 due to the fact I had flipped both consoles and managed to have a turn where I camped on his objective with the Fiday. 

I won the LT and decided to choose deployment since I wanted to have what I thought was the better side and then force him to go first. In general there was a good trade of both of us losing our units but he managed to kill more since most of the time I had avoided his linked Haidao sniper that was watching a lane he could see. His last turn he had his Guilang walk over to my console since I didn't have anyone standing up, but come my turn I managed to shoot it off and made an attempt to get someone on his console and failed.

The contentious part of this game is were my opponent had pressed the antenna first, but decided not to flip them back after I had activated them. And this was him believing that the Activated antenna in Power Pack account for both players and not the one who activated it last. As I explained it to him at the end of the game, I could sense he felt robbed of a game he could have won. And if he had remembered that part, I definitely think he would have won with one more point over me and his play on his last turn to have Hawkwood and the linked sniper watch over his console was a solid tactic to avoid me getting the console.

Game 2 vs. Dahshat (Unmasking) Win 7-3: 

There were some deployment and play mistakes I had made this game, but in general I think I had done the best I could to pull the victory from the Jaws of near defeat.

I won the LT roll, which I took first turn in order to get the drop on one of his HVTs if possible. I held back my two Fidays which of course one got locked up by a Liberto mine layer. Kind of sucks but is to be expected since I assumed he wanted to protect the real HVT. 

First turn comes up, which I try to get the console far up the building. The Barid KHD gets shot, so now I had to shift my game plan, so my Asawira+Rafiq duo had to reach the middle one and managed to kill one of decoys. The only thing I really managed to put down is his Rui Shi. 

My opponent's first turn came up and he managed to get a lot done. He managed to repair his Rui Shi after not electing to impetuous with McMurrough. He gets the left console and managed to guess the right one and kill it with McMurrough. McMurrough had managed to do a decent amount of damage this game, but managed to put him down. During this he managed to position his Haris to grab the button next turn. That said I was down on some major pieces to kill his models. 

The rest of the game, I had managed to kill the Haris with the Krakot renegade, flip the rest of the consoles to get his other decoy and his main one, and be managed to only switch one of the three I pressed (especially the annoying one on top of the building). The main HVT of his was killed by a guided missile, and kept him from flipping both. So I was cautiously confident going into the third round since I was doing pretty well at this point.

Game 3 vs. Kosmoflot (Supplies) Loss 2-3:

So this game was played against John Carlson (aka MooingFish) of the Swiss Miss Gaming podcast. Knowing he was playing Kosmoflot I had to snap pick first turn if I can, grab a box or two if I can and then have a defensive set-up against his bears if he had them...

Which guessing correct, he was running a double bear list and Mirage-5 so I had to set-up my Ghazis Jammers at certain defensive points to stop either his bears or Duroc and make a mess of my backline. I set up my Fiday by some stairs to see if I could bait him into spending orders on him. IIRC he electric to strip orders from the small group the Fiday was in. 

First turn comes, and I managed to complete most of my objectives I had wished to do. Both of my Muhktar models went NWI to Uxia's shotgun template but managed to put her down so I could get the box and then put my Muhktar Red Fury in suppressive while my Muhktar hacker ran back with the box to hide. His first turn he had to contend with Knauf and Muhktar Red Fury watching his deployment zone and his bears unable to run up under the cover of smoke. That is when he brings in Margot and shot and Knauf, killing him. Then he moves her up and then kills my doctor and then tries to kill my Muhktar hacker, but gets clipped by my Ghazi's chain rifle and went unconscious afterwards. Sadly I revealed my Nadhir a bit too early thinking I could get the drop on Margot but she was just out of range of my Flammenspeer.

Second turn comes around and all we both managed to do is get some stuff moved up.  My turn but I lost my Fiday to an unlucky crit from his Rokot but managed to guided missile one of his pieces to get a free kill as I move my Muhktar hacker back. Then I put my Muhktar and Nadhir in suppressive fire. He tries to grab the box but multiple failures means he had to waste more orders on it than expected. Then he uses UKR to engage my Nadhir in suppressive fire but my Nadhir managed to live and put UKR in NWI.

Our last turn I failed to get the box from his Irmandino who grabbed it, putting both my Asawira and Rafiq into unconscious just to get the job done. However my Asawira managed to make his Regen roll and basically watched the box he failed to pick up. All my opponent managed to do was run up with William Wallace and get a classified.

In the end he managed to win 3-2 because we both had boxes but managed to do a classified over me. Which in fairness, this was the most fun game of the tournament I had. Now I was going into day two with a 2-1 record.

Game 4 vs. USARF (Countermeasures) Loss 2-5:

This game was against a local by David Clark. Since he won the LT roll, he electric table side and I got the first turn. This would play into how the game went on since he managed to get a table side that got his Marauder sniper watching most of my side of the table, which made it hard to maneuver around. The first mistake I made was not using my Fiday to hunt his obviously where it would have not stopped his Marauder sniper, he would have had the first turn to do anything. Instead I have wasted a bunch of orders trying to take out his linked sniper and then only get a classified. Then he had his first turn where he maneuvered the rest of his big link, and he kept healing since he kept making his saves from being outright killed by my Nadhir. 

Second turn comes around and I managed to get another classified but I only managed to kill some chaff and that is it. His Wardriver survived my attack, in which he used to have his total reaction Traitor Mul to kill my Muhktar Red Fury in his turn and then got three classified in one go.

In the third turn, I was in retreat. The best I could do was try to grab one more classified since the rest were hard to grab. However the last classified grab I failed the roll and then called it there. 

This one was close on objectives but with some other play, I definitely think I could have done better with this game.

Game 5 vs. Military Orders (Decapitation) Loss 4-5:

This is the case of essentially having a game in the bag, and then going too hard for points that I wasted my advantage.

I won the initiative and decide to take the first turn. This mean I set up first, which I put most everything in a defensive set-up, save for the two Fidays and Knauf I held back to set up after his HVT drop. While not having a hacking network like Nomads, I still set up in a way to protect Saladin from a Santiago drop or have my opponent come in from the side. He sets up having his link hiding but defending the lane if possible, and his Sepulcher knight in a defensive position where it would be hard for him to get to without a good expenditure of orders but in a position to strike when needed. As expected he also had a Raveneye with E/M mines and a hidden deployment Trinitarian minelayer with a regular mind.

My first turn comes around and I use it to basically use my Krakot to take out his two HVTs instead of my Fidays to use them for later. The Krakot managed to trip both of the mines, take out a couple bots (especially a flash pulse bot that managed to blind Knauf for a turn) and put a wound on the Sepulcher knight after guessing the correct one. The rest of the turn for me was repositioning and protecting my right-most HVT. His first turn came around and managed to do a lot of damage with a Crusader Brethren. First he used his Sepulcher Knight to kill my Krakot but I managed to put him down in an rather unlucky armor roll. Then he went on his attack run with his Crusader Brethren. During this I revealed my Liberto to try and stop him but failed. My Ghulam Doctor, regular Ghulam, missile bot and Liberto died so now I felt like I was down on points. 

Turn two came around and my main goal was to try and get rid of his Brethren, which Knauf managed to do after an great expenditure of orders but then I managed to have my Awasira duo run up and do a decent amount of damage by taking out his Order Sergent HRL and his Raveneye but managed to e/m mine my Rafiq. Kind of sloppy but it was still worth amount the damage I did. I end with my Asawira repositioned into my deployment zone and then watch over the approach into my DZ and then the flank. His turn comes around and he brings his knight in, he kills my other Ghulam and then I stopped him in his tracks, backing up an attack he made when he realized that Knauf would get him out in the open. This is were he revealed his Trinitarian and killed my HVT, and then saved against the mine I laid the turn earlier. Then he ended his turn there. 

Third round is where I threw away the victory I had by trying to get more points. This was more due to using my Fidays very aggressively to kill his models, and then Al-Jabel had wasted a bunch of orders trying to kill both the EVO bot and his Teuton LT. Here what I have should have done is hold back a few orders to reposition my Fidays and have them re-impersonate to give them a layer of protection. The last turn of the game comes around and he engaged my Fidays. One I tried to shotgun with his Order Sergent who he healed, and we both died. And then I tried to smoke with Al-Jabel and then he died, which my opponent ended his turn there. 

The game ended in a 4-5 win to my opponent, with my amount alive was 6 points off from what my opponent had left. This was a great game but it came down to me getting tunnel-visoned and then some bad luck. I'd say it was one of the closest games of the event.

Final Thoughts:

While I had a 2-3 record for the event, the main tournament was great fun. While I had played the two other events, I wanted to focus on the main event.

This was my first time doing a vanilla army instead of a sectorial, and a non-PanO army. While I view myself of as mainly a Sectorial player, I wanted to spend the year playing Vanilla armies to get more out of my comfort zone. I found vanilla Haqqislam a great departure but similar to how I like to play most of my other armies that are not PanO sectorials. When I go back to sectorials, I might grab my Hassassins and given them a go, along with JSA since the new O-Yoroi dropping. 

Sorry for the delay on this post but I tend to be slow with write-ups and kind of wanted to decompress from talking about Infinity for a bit. Though I plan to get back to writing battle reports, with some vanilla ALEPH coming up. And a possibily long-winded post about a primarily sectorial player playing Vanilla armies.

Pre-Adepticon Adepticon (or The Evening Setup of The Two Day Tournament)

With Adepticon nearly two weeks away, I can assume many are trying to get painting goals done and trying to work out lists. As for me I am quite excited to come back to Adepticon for my second year, especially since I am planning to do four days' worth of Infinty events. This is something I might regret later but going to enjoy the day of. 

While I am planning to do the narrative event and duos tournament, the main focus of this post is to talk about the five main missions of the ITS event. The mission lineup is Power Pack, Unmasking, Supplies, Countermeasures and Decapitation. The faction I am taking- due in part of Critposting's 'democracy'- is vanilla HaqqIslam. 

In truth, this actually works out well since for the most part HaqqIslam can do all these missions quite easily. For the most part, I have built my lists to tackle the mission line-up. I hope to place in the top half if I can, if not I am there to have fun and see some people I have not seen in a while.

So here is my lists I am planning to take and why I have made my lists like this:

List One: Power Pack/Unmasking/Decapitation 

Since Unmasking and Decapitation require you to kill HVTs, it seemed like a no-brainer to take a list that both ran a regular Fiday and Al-Jabel. If I was going to do that for those missions, I figured I would make this list my Power Pack since I can use the Fidays to either camp on his console to rack up objective points as well as forcing the opponent in an awkward position they would need to deal with turn 1.

Saladin is the lieutenant since he does have NWI and the identity of the LT is known in Decapitation. While it does make him a potential target his value bringing that extra command token and order each turn will help to squeeze out one or two more orders to get the mission done. Hackers and guided missiles are here to give me another attack vector if needed, with my main guns in the list being my Asawira Spitfire in a duo with the Rafiq and Knauf. Zuleyka and of course (and the surprise Krakot) makes an appearance since she will provide corner guard duty and smoke until I can use her to make an attack run to do as much damage as I can.

The rest of the list is my backup specialists like the doctor, as well as the chaff and order monkeys. There is only one Daylami instead of two or more to give me an option to have the Liberto lock down a lane or be a potential held back to lock up any enemy Impersonators to protect Saladin.

List Two: Supplies/Countermeasures

Since these missions are more specialist heavy, I changed a few things around from the other list to this one. Running both the Muhktar and Awasira+Rafiq Duos, this gives me enough coverage on the board to get the supply boxes and most classifieds in the deck. The largest omission in this list is any kind of Engineer. This is due in part to Haqq not having great access to an Engineer that can be generally useful. There is the Govad Engineer but needing other things for my list I decided to leave it out and hope the engineering classifieds do not pop up during the game that is Countermeasures. 

Naffatuns were chosen to be the lieutenant and decoy as the points were needed to have two Ghazis with Jammers to guard the DZ but potentially lock out the opponent's specialists. The Nadhir can act to grab the box in Supplies or stop the opponent from doing so.

Final Thoughts:

While I am happy with these lists for the most part, the one mission I may struggle with the most is Countermeasures if I cannot get the first turn. That said, I am confident in my lists to get it done.

I hope to see you all at Adepticon if you come!