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Infinity Thoughts Blog


Kremmet

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I've recently decided to start an Infinity thread to collect my thoughts (ie ramble) on the game as I find myself spending a lot of mental time there.  

 

As a bit of history, I started with Infinity back in the early N2 days as I've always liked sci-fi, but I also like rules that don't suck so I left 40k behind many years ago.  Since then I've spent most of my gaming energy on WHFB and Warmachine, but with one of those dead and the other in a pretty bad spot I find myself spending more and more time with Infinity.  It definitely helps that N3 is so well received with my gaming group and several people went the extra mile to stock pile nice terrain for the game as a big sore spot for getting any traction back in N2 was the lack of ready-made terrain for the game.

 

That all aside, I'm currently a YJ player and have been for all of N3.  When the Onyx Force box came out I also decided to pick up CA as we're weirdly inundated with YJ players up here in Seattle and my snowflake-ism started flaring up.  I love me some Jade Empire, but damn if a bunch of "evil" robits hasn't hit the spot—especially with the recent local obsession with Limited Insertion (or as we call it, Sex Pun) games.

 

I've also recently spent a lot of my painting time in the Infinity universe, but as I'm a contract painter very little of that is thrown my own models' way.  I definitely don't mind the lack of focus on my own models as switching gears from the exaggerated details of GW model,s and the poor imitation of that which PP attempts, was definitely not an easy process.  The place where I've spent most of my learning has been on my friend Patrick's Haqqislam army which works perfectly for me as they were definitely my first love.  The models are mostly interesting to paint as they're both aided and impeded by their size.  Their dainty features definitely paint quickly, but the smaller scale makes tough-to-reach areas even more so.  I've mostly stayed true to the studio scheme here as that's what Patrick wanted (and I find the CB color choices pretty great across the board), but I've made my own style choices here and there.  One such choice is that I prefer to paint Haqq with darker skin tones than CB does.  Mostly this is because I like to use the gamut of skin colors humans have rather than the Eurocentric style most models present, but I also just find it more aesthetically pleasing with all the bright greens and desaturated yellows the Haqq palette has.  As an example, here is a model I finished up a few weeks ago for said army:

 

RVkxDFR.jpg?3

 

I unfortunately messed up the join between his butt and the seat of the bike along with some of the lighting being thrown off by the bike's lean which wouldn't allow for the rider to sit at all on top of it.  The model was pre-assembled this way so it wasn't evident while I was painting, but I definitely should've checked before leaning in.  C'est la vie I suppose....

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awesome yea post more often would love to hear your game and paint thoughts!  im also stretching to the EI with shasvastii.  for as old as most of the models are, they really are not bad(at least not as bad as the old shock army regulars lol).  the unidrons are beautiful along with the umbras(my favorite EI models) which makes onyx quite tempting... especially with the new TAGs as a cherry on top.  

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I’m not a huge fan of the Shasvastii models, but there are a few I have picked up.  The Noctifer with Spitfire and spec op are cool enough looking that I don’t feel bad about not waiting for the inevitable Shasvastii relaunch.  As for CA as a whole, I think the models they’re putting out are pretty rad.  I mean, that Overdron you alluded to alone is well worth a pick up just for sheer coolness.  I also find the crunch of CA fascinating. 

 

I mainly play vanilla Yu Jing which gives me a  model count somewhere between twelve and fourteen dudemens so I wasn’t super worried about the small amount of orders CA has access to.  This turned out to be a mistake.  You see, while CA has hardier models, it isn’t their specialty like in YJ.  I find myself buying models like the umbras or a Maakrep which pack that offense I’m used to, but aren’t protected behind ARM 5 and W2 like a Yan Huo or Hac Tao. No, for CA I needed to be tricksier with my expensive toys as they couldn’t all be Charontids.

 

In my experience with CA, the army performs like a well-oiled machine.  That is to say, everything goes smoothly until even a spec of dirt gets into the gears to muck things up. Losing firefights where you have massive advantage, poor positioning with their larger models (nothing hardy in CA is S2 it seems), and/or the classic failed WIP 17 checks on consoles leaves CA very open to a stern rebuttal.  Their low model count and toolbox approach to faction design leaves them vulnerable to surgical removal strategies and good ol’ fashioned dice. “Crit happens” indeed.

 

Good examples of this weakness can be seen in models such as the Maakrep and Dr. Worm.  MSV2 and a real doctor are both highly sought after tools in armies with the doctor being especially important in such a small order pool.  The problem is that neither of these tools comes on much of a robust platform.  This is further exacerbated by their inability to spam the abilities as only three troop types in CA have access to MSV2* with one of those being Ko Dali who doesn’t exactly have the weaponry you’d want on your MSV trooper.  It’s even worse when you look at Doctor choices as the good worm is literally the only choice (and is severely limited due to his more-than-a-little confusing silhouette).  This all comes together to mean that you’ll be picking a list of one-of’s often while playing CA which, while great against generalist armies, makes them a difficult to succeed with against anybody who brings heavily skewed lists.

 

*Note that there should be a special mention for the Charontid here as he is the exception to what I’ve written above as he’s both very durable and has access to MSV3.  The problem I see with him is that he’s just too valuable as an Lt. hacker which loses him the MSV3 and Sepsitor+ options. Maybe if the meta shifts heavily towards killer hacker TO models I’ll reconsider the MSV3 option.

These oddities in list design are further exacerbated by the Onyx sectorial that I’ve spent most of my time on recently, but that’s a ramble better left for another time.

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Another day and another topic!  Today I thought I'd detail a sex pun game I played with a buddy of mine for his birthday.  

 

My list:

logo_604.png Limited Onyx v1.2
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
orden_regular.png10  
logo_1.pngUNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)
logo_1.pngUNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)
logo_7.pngUMBRA LEGATE Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 43)
logo_1.pngUNIDRON Spitfire / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1 | 18)
logo_2.pngNEXUS Lieutenant Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nullifier / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
logo_16.pngQ-DRONE Plasma Rifle / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
logo_10.pngXEODRON K1 Combi Rifle, Blitzen / Heavy Pistol. (0.5 | 59)
logo_6.pngMAAKREP TRACKER HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 33)
logo_13.pngMALIGNOS Hacker (EI Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 41)
logo_14.pngMED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
logo_20.pngSLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 
5.5 SWC | 299 Points
 
 
His list:
 
I know it was standard ALEPH, but other than that the details are a bit fuzzy.  Here are the things I think I remember:
logo_701.png ALEPH
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
orden_regular.png7  
logo_3.pngDEVA Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 31)
logo_49.pngPROXY Mk.5 (Forward Observer) 2 Submachine Guns, Nanopulser, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
logo_17.pngPROXY Mk.1 Engineer Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
logo_18.pngPROXY Mk.2 MULTI Sniper Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 24)
logo_4.pngASURA Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 70)
logo_6.pngNAGA (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
logo_8.pngMYRMIDON Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 26)
logo_3.pngDEVA Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Nanopulser + Devabot / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
 sep.giflogo_3.pngDEVABOT Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (4)
logo_11.pngZAYIN Rebot HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)
 
5.5 SWC | 251 Points
 
 
For the life of me I cannot remember what the remaining three models are, but this'll give you the gist of what the list was about:  a few specialists and backfield troops supporting an Asura as it rampaged through the enemy.
 
Setup:
 
985I9TX.jpg?1
 
Mission: Firefight
 
My opponent won the WIP roll and decided to go first.  Since I received side, and of course made him deploy first, I decided on the side closest to the camera so I had a better vantage point on the right panoply.  It's a little hard to tell from this angle, but the right-most panoply is behind a building on my opponent's side of the table and is mostly a killing ground for my side.  The same is somewhat true for the left side, but it doesn't quite have the quantity of fire lanes that the right does.  
 
I forgot to take a picture directly after deployment had finished, but my link team of unidrons+hackers with my Q-drone setup behind the building in front of my tan card holder while Dr. Worm placed to the left of them behind a storage crate.  The right saw the Maakrep peaking out from behind the crate where my orange impact template is pointing with the slave drone close by.  My Malignos used hidden deployment to be as close to the right-most panoply as possible to ready for the inevitable push away from my link.  Lastly I held my Xeodron back as a last pick and placed him on top of the central building in my deployment zone to counter the Asura's placement with his Blitzen.
 
Turn One ALEPH:
 
My buddy Adam received a birthday treat by getting to go first in this game.  As far as I remember, he decided to activate his Asura first who was in full LoF of the Xeodron and couldn't quite make it into the 24" she needed for her Spitfire.  It ended up not mattering as I missed with the Blitzen entirely (16's are elusive beasts), but so did the Asura.  Now that she was safely place in total cover from the Xeodron, the sniper Proxy decided to step up to the plate and take a shot.  Since the model was on top of the second-from-the-left building in my opponent's deployment zone, I (correctly) guessed that it was out of the 32" I needed to nail it with my second Blitzen shot and chose to dodge.  This didn't really work and the Xeodron was hit with two DA shots to the chest and promptly failed one ARM roll before scurrying down the building to hide from the sniper.  Seeing no other juicy targets, my opponent decided to Rambo with his camo marker.  After a few failed discovers from my Unidron w/ Spitfire on the way in, the Naga w/ shottie had a perfect killzone lined up on my very bunched up left flank.
 
gBRAifE.jpg?1
 

This beauty of a shot ended with all three of my Unidrons failing to beat my opponent's roll while the Q-drone deftly crit dodged like a champ.  Luckily for me the Legate wasn't in the blast and lit the poor Naga up as he attempted to finish off my link (the Nexus agent could neither see nor be hit in the blast to participate).  The end result was thus:

 

UXR2xXL.jpg?1

 

Two of my Unidrons, including the Spitfire, were down, but the Legate had shown the Naga who was boss and punked him straight to dead.

 

The last order of my opponent's turn was to place several models into Suppressing Fire with a Combined Order to which I replied by revealing my hidden Malignos Assault Hacker and targeting his poor Naga.

 

zRJf7zv.jpg?1

 

I nailed the poor Johnny 5 with a Sucker Punch and he went straight to dead.  This were definitely looking good for my first turn.

 

ALEPH Losses:  Deva Hacker, Naga Minelayer

Onyx Losses:  Unidron w/ Spitfire, FO Unidron, 1xwound on Xeodron

 

Turn One Onyx:

 

The filthy humans had tried their best to keep us out on their turn, but the CA was about to strike back with a bang!  And by "bang" I definitely mean heal the fallen and collect some booty.  Such violence!

 

Mostly the CA turn was spent repairing wounds on my robits (both the Unidrons were returned to operational status along with the wound on my Xeodron healed), reforming my link team, and grabbing the right-most panoply.  That last bit was accomplished by the Malignos who yanked a +3 ARM bonus out of the box and was ready to mess with the Asura.  Bring it on!

 

The last few orders of the turn was spent trying to get my murder on with the link slapping Marksmanship 2 on my Spitfire Unidron and heading up to deal with the TR bot guarding the center of the field.  

 

EhRGvJ4.jpg?1

 

While we did manage to drop the TR bot, we didn't manage to remove him from the table which was going to be an issue given the Proxy engineer standing right next to him....

 

Oh yes, and there was the "small" bit of putting the Asura into IMM 1 with a classic Stop!  Gotta love those EI hackers.

 

ALEPH Losses:  Deva Hacker, Naga Minelayer, TR Bot

Onyx Losses:  Zilch

 

Turn Two ALEPH:

 

Well, things started out about how you'd expect them to.  First a Myrmidon with combi decided that that Malignos was well due for a little dirt nap and took aim on the green bug.  Trusting in his sweet, sweet lucre the Malignos decided to spend his ARO nailing a dodge.  Afterall a 12 is better than a 9, right?  And the Myrmidon needed 6's anyway so what's the worst that could happen?

 

O6OB1C1.jpg?1

 

And that's how the Malignos died.  Well, not entirely as there was the small bit where an Asura curb stomped the poor Shasvastii into a green paste, but WHATEVER.  Note that this did give the ALEPH their first VP by achieving coup de grace.  

 

Not much else happened this turn besides a Devabot flaming down the Unidron w/ Spitfire and dying in the process.

 

ALEPH Losses:  Deva Hacker, Naga Minelayer, Devabot

Onyx Losses:  Unidron w/ Spitfire, Malignos

 

Turn Two Onyx:

 

bo1ziIl.jpg?1

 

With my Malignos down and my link (again) needing to be reformed, the CA forces were mildly in disarray.  Thankfully I'd been drinking pretty heavily by this point so I knew exactly what to do:  ignore any thoughful decisions and start spraying the table down in bullets!

 

To begin, I spent a few orders getting my Maakrep into position to murder the senseless Myrmidon who had dared kill one of my hackers.  Even in close range, my HMG had little issue dropping the lad down and leaving him ripe for the pickings.  You see, I also had coup de grace and could not find any reason why my sweet, darling slave bot couldn't perform the action.  After delivering space mercy to the Myrmidon, my sweet slave also went to inoculate the HVT and secure a second objective for the CA.  For this, he took a few bullets and will need to be congratulated in his next cycle.

 

aIjeDyo.jpg?1

 

I'm pretty sure this didn't take all of my orders, but I can't remember really doing much besides stealing another beer so we'll just move on!

 

ALEPH Losses:  Deva Hacker, Naga Minelayer, Myrmidon, Devabot

Onyx Losses:  Unidron w/ Spitfire, Malignos, Slave Drone

 

Turn Three ALEPH:

 

KkGzyOO.jpg?1

 

Turn three for ALEPH saw a few small things happen.  One of these small things was the coldblooded murder of my Xeodron so, in retrospect, maybe not that small.  This was accomplished by the Asura rolling one or two crits with the Spitfire and the Xeodron rolling another natural 20 for his Blitzen shot back.  Good job, buddy!

 

Along with murdering my TAG, the Asura also managed to open a Panoply and get at its innards only to be matched in this effort by a Deva (who was in fact the Lt.).  Unfortunately there were a few hiccups with opening those tricksy boxes so the Deva Lt. ended up ass-in-the-wind right by the remnants of my link.  Hope is a kind of skill I suppose....

 

ALEPH Losses:  Deva Hacker, Naga Minelayer, Myrmidon, Devabot

Onyx Losses:  Unidron w/ Spitfire, Malignos, Slave Drone, Xeodron

 

Turn Three Onyx:

 

JWNXOkn.jpg?1

 

Turn three opened with the CA force being rather behind on points, but having easy access to some catch-up mechanics due to positioning on my opponent's part.  Unfortunately I was a little too deep in my cups to bother with photography at this point, but I did manage a few things.  One was that my Maakrep managed to gun down the stupid Asura and likely assure me the points lead there.  The other was my Legate chopping up the Deva Lt. and securing another panoply.  Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to secure a third pull so had to settle for the tie there.  

 

All in all it was an entertaining game won solely through my masterful skill and humble attitude.

 

ALEPH Losses:  Deva Hacker, Naga Minelayer, Myrmidon, Devabot, Asura

Onyx Losses:  Unidron w/ Spitfire, Malignos, Slave Drone, Xeodron

 

Final Score:

ALEPH:  2 pts

Onyx: 9 pts

ALEPH Losses:  Deva Hacker, Naga Minelayer, Myrmidon

Onyx Losses:  Unidron w/ Spitfire, Malignos, Slave Drone, Xeodron

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So just finished Emerald City Incursion with my Onyx list and thought I'd write up my thoughts.

 

1)  The Rodok-based list I wrote was pretty much trash.  It was meant to be defensive, but in Limited Insertion where Tohaa can be rocking almost 30 wounds it just can't get enough done.  

2)  Without a defensive list, I basically have to win first turn or I'll suffer too much attrition to fight on objective.

3)  It is very difficult to fight for objectives with Onyx.

 

In my games, I suffered two crushing defeats, and three sweeping victories, due to a mixture of poor list comp and extreme dice failure.  I definitely don't want to disparage my opponent's play in the games where my dice turned dark, but there's only so much you can do when you're firing Spitfires on 17's with five dice and you still miss.  Multiple times.  Really these losses showed me that I really needed to construct a better defensive list if I want to play Onyx in LI along with putting some thought into how the faction as a whole plays.  It's weird to be so close to ALEPH in terms of theme and yet not have any of the aggression they're allowed.  I'm pretty sure that I need to be styling my play closer to how I used to play Nomads:  sneaky and button-pushy while forcing my opponent to chase me.

 

As a nice bonus, my army did win best painted and I played against some great guys.  I've been missing competitive miniature gaming lately and it's nice to know that people willing to play hard are in the Infinity scene here.

 

KktMyqD.jpg?1

 

A picture of the (mostly) assembled army transport I received for Best Painted.  Really cool stuff!

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Since ECI, I've had some thoughts about what I want to be playing.  Right now my area is still very focused on Limited Insertion which is nice due to how short the games tend to be, but that does mean my standard lists are out the window.  There's also the issue of how long it takes me to put paint on my YJ models (I think the first two averaged at like 3.5-4 hours a model) which leaves me wondering about CA lists instead.  

 

I've written up a few lists since ECI using the data I gleaned from there, but very few have been Onyx.  The problem as I see it with Onyx is that they're a severely limited version of an already-limited faction.  CA isn't like ALEPH because, while both have expensive models, ALEPH still has cheaper models that have smaller silhouettes.  Add to this the fact that proxies are incredibly undercosted and ALEPH doesn't have the same issues that CA has.  What CA does gain access to is a few bespoke toys and the excellence that is an EI Aspect...which Onyx loses access to.

 

Throughout my games I lamented my loss of power pieces such as the Charontid or a Speculo.  While a Sphinx is certainly nice, it has a problem in that it isn't that tough and protection through additional tough threats and even simple smoke can't be brought.  Things like ODD/TO are really amazing when you can place enough of them on the table to overwhelm your opponent's ability to deal with them and/or completely capitalize through use of smoke to make hitting non-MSV troops just completely screwed.  That said, I think Onyx definitely has some interesting lists if not a little lower on the power scale than vanilla CA so I wrote a new defensive list to back up my more normal list.

 

logo_604.png Limited Onyx Pairing v2.3
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
orden_regular.png10  
logo_8.pngUMBRA SAMARITAN Spitfire, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Vorpal CC Weapon. (1 | 44)
logo_10.pngXEODRON Red Fury, Blitzen / Heavy Pistol. (1 | 59)
logo_10.pngXEODRON Red Fury, Blitzen / Heavy Pistol. (1 | 59)
logo_1.pngUNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)
logo_1.pngUNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)
logo_1.pngUNIDRON K1 Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 17)
logo_1.pngUNIDRON Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)
logo_2.pngNEXUS Lieutenant Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nullifier / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
logo_5.pngRODOK Paramedic (MediKit) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
logo_14.pngMED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
logo_20.pngSLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 
5.5 SWC | 300 Points
 
This list banks on the survivability of the Xeodron link along with being able to slap out some decent cover with the Unidron link.  It has some pretty severe problems with ODD/TO and has no forward deployment, but it is able to compete defensively which I believe is a strong asset in Limited Insertion.  It is unfortunate I couldn't squeeze in the Legate as having a tinbot up for hacking is super nice.
 
The other two lists I wrote are vanilla CA and rotate around models I own or a few I'd like to convert.  The first is what I believe every CA player made when they learned of the format:  an Avatar list.
 

logo_601.png Limited Avatar v1.2
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
orden_regular.png10  
logo_9.pngAVATAR Lieutenant (Strategos L3) MULTI HMG, Sepsitor Plus / DA CCW. (3.5 | 137)
logo_10.pngSHROUDED Hacker (EI Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 30)
logo_10.pngSHROUDED Hacker (EI Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 30)
logo_12.pngSPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | 34)
logo_20.pngR-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
logo_20.pngR-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
logo_41.pngIKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
logo_41.pngIKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
logo_36.pngÍMETRON . (0 | 4)
logo_16.pngMED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
logo_35.pngSLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
logo_35.pngSLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 
5.5 SWC | 298 Points
 
Everything here is pretty straightforward.  The plan is basically to Rambo with the Avatar until I remove enough threats for my Shrouded to pop out and grab central objectives.  The Speculo is there to keep people honest while also dealing with any threat that actually worries the Avatar (which are few and far between).  I've already played the list a few times and, while it isn't much fun for my opponents, it is definitely effective.  Things that worry me are lists such as Achilles/Maruut-based 2xTR bot ALEPH, TAG+2xTR bot PanO, and Tohaa wound spam where I don't get to go first.  Against such a foe I'd probably just hide in my DZ, let them complete whatever they wanted turn one, and then try to remove as much as I could turn one before worrying about the mission later.  
 
My second list is more of a hide-and-seek style list.  
 
logo_601.png Limited CA v2.1
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
orden_regular.png10  
logo_16.pngMED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
logo_35.pngSLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
logo_35.pngSLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
logo_18.pngQ-DRONE Plasma Rifle / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
logo_20.pngR-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
logo_5.pngMAAKREP TRACKER HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 33)
logo_10.pngSHROUDED (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
logo_10.pngSHROUDED (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
logo_12.pngSPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | 34)
logo_29.pngGWAILO (X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 23)
logo_7.pngCHARONTID Lieutenant Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Plasma Rifle, Nanopulser / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 73)
logo_24.pngASWANG Boarding Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
 
5.5 SWC | 300 Points
 
With this list I again have an EI Aspect doing most of the heavy lifting, but I'm hoping to use it more as a deterrent than anything else.  Sometimes the best way to win is just to have a giant murderbot running around doing objectives while your opponent wonders whether he's worth the time.  To back the Charontid up, I brought several problem solvers in the way of the Maakrep, Speculo, Gwailo, and Aswang.  The idea is that I can afford to lose any of these (probably not all of them) without jeopardizing my ability to do the mission so they're my interdiction/ARO pieces pointed at various button boxes and shooting people who try to use them.  I've had mixed success with this list, but I feel that's more of a style problem than anything else.  I've spent so long playing YJ and getting used to just tanking shots that hiding takes a bit of practice.  I feel this list is likely weak against the same match-ups as the Avatar one, but it shores up those weaknesses the best I can.  It is currently very difficult to do much about how OP proxies are and how amazing Tohaa is in Limited Insertion, but that's definitely part of the fun.
 
 
 
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In Infinity, the main difference between playing a sectorial and playing vanilla is that vanilla gets all the toys while sectorials get links. Sure there's more to it than that, but that's the gist of it. When I first looked at Limited Insertion this difference seemed pretty incredible to me as the limited number of orders acts as a force multiplier for the already powerful link teams. I didn't see much of a reason to run a vanilla list outside of very specific builds such as in ALEPH and CA where their sectorials don't have access to models that also synergize very well with the format. It's hard to ignore how powerful order efficiency is in Infinity so I sorta wrote off making any vanilla lists with my Yu Jing for quite awhile. Well, after playing quite a few games of Limited Insertion, I'm ready to try it out again as I discovered something about the list building side of the format that is immediately interesting to me: the ability to write hot nonsense and have it maybe not be as terrible as it would be in a normal game.

 

What I mean by this is that Limited Insertion allows for the type of black sheep lists that just don't work in normal games due to 16+ order lists being so prevalent. I'm talking about things like TO spam or all heavies lists. My particular obsession lately has been to get as many Tiger Soldiers and weird support ideas onto the table as I can which has yielded some interesting thoughts on the game. You see another peculiarity of Limited Insertion is that drop troops have immediately dropped in usefulness in lists. Mainly this is because, again, order efficiency is so important to the game and is so limited in the format. That said, this leaves a door open for people looking to exploit the meta with some well placed counters especially when those black sheep models are as powerful as a Tiger Soldier.  

 

To get the idea up and running, I had a few core concepts I wanted to adhere to:

1)  I wanted an EVO in the list to make sure I didn't have to bother with guiding their jump if I found it necessary to do so.

2)  I wanted at least one of them to be a specialist to handle the spread out missions Limited Insertion pushes.

3)  I needed to get orders back into the list so my first turn wasn't a dud especially if I was forced to go first as I could expect to be another two orders down if so.

 

With those thoughts in mind, this is what I came up with:

 


logo_201.png Yu Jing
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
orden_regular.png10  
logo_20.pngSUN TZE Lieutenant (Advanced Command) Boarding Shotgun, 2 Nanopulsers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 60)
logo_25.pngIMPERIAL AGENT (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun, Stun Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 29)
logo_39.pngPANGGULING Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
logo_3.pngTIGER SOLDIER Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
logo_3.pngTIGER SOLDIER Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
logo_3.pngTIGER SOLDIER Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
logo_6.pngWÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Duo) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
logo_6.pngWÚ MÍNG Heavy Rocket Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 33)
logo_44.pngRAIDEN (Minelayer, X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 21)
logo_35.pngTOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
logo_38.pngYÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 
5.5 SWC | 300 Points
 
 
As you can see, I approached these concepts in a bit of a weird way.  First I wanted to try as many tigers as possible to really get some critical mass shenanigans going on.  I'd learned from my few all-ninjas-all-day lists that you really want to go hard on the deployment gimmick if you were going to try it.  Plus it lets me test things a lot quicker when I'm pushing the concept as hard as this every game.  Secondly I made sure to have two different suites to act as force multipliers for the tigers with one being the EVO and the other being Sun Tze+Pheasant.  The former is a pretty obvious inclusion as having a hacker is necessary for some missions and auto guiding my jumps can be helpful if I decide to go with what the Codex Astartes calls Steel Rain. This also allowed for the unique opportunity to mesh Sun Tze's Advanced Command with the EVO programs to get a Duo into the mix. Since I was interested in trying weird things out I thought why not and picked up a link of Wu Mind with a Heavy Rocket Launcher for added punch. As a side note, I'm very tempted to try and force Shang Ji into the list as well, but that would likely be a different type of build that is a little lighter on the tigers than I currently want to go.  
 
The latter inclusion was mainly done because I thought running Sun Tze in this format might be a bit of fun mostly because it's pretty easy to guess Lt.'s in Limited Insertion.  The plan is to mostly let him lead from the back and maybe slap out some Flash Pulses on the last turn to cancel my opponent's bid for objectives.  You know, standard Sun Tze things.
 
Lastly I threw in a Raiden as their major expense is in SWC and not points for what they bring to the table and they throw a second camo token down just for additional mind games. To back the whole thing up there is a lowly engineer to mostly be a cheap specialist, but also handle the occassional IMM2 issue and/or D-Charge mission card.  I don't really expect him to do much, but he also doesn't really need to.
 
I expect the army will play pretty aggressively with at least the Spitfire tiger hitting the table turn one in some capacity.  Putting a BS 13 MI with Mimetism into your opponent's backfield is a pretty solid way to knock off more than a few orders along with forcing them to deal with the issue rather than rushing my depleted army.  It definitely feels a bit weird considering bringing the tigers in the first place is what diminished said army, but weird is half the fun!
 
To wrap things up I'm hoping to have a quick game with this list sometime this week to which I will write something right proppa.  Until then I'll continue working on even more circuitous lists!

 

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Team pro still seems like a gamble, even with the +1 command token from Sun.   If you go first you will still need a regular order to put up team pro (bringing your initial order pool to 6, or even 4 for the first turn if you get 2 taken out) and a command token to form the duo (not so bad since you have 5).  If you plan to use a command token to start it when you go second then you would be down from 5 to 3 tokens at the start of your first turn.  This might be limited even further if you plan to use a command token as strategic use to sap your opponent's order pool, putting you down to only 2 tokens at the start of your first turn.   

Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea of duos in vanilla and want it to work out, but I don't see it being worth the cost of resources for the benefit.

On the other hand, I would love to see a tiger soldier list like this on the field, and the EVO +3 to drop is definitely going to make them nasty.

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Generally speaking, using TeamPro+Sun Tze means I just start the game in the same state I would be without them and since I'd take all the models involved regardless of TeamPro I'm not too worried about it.  The only constraint it placed on the list is that I had to pick up the SMG Wu Ming instead of a different 25 pts model.  Since the list needs the models that start on the table to be pretty tough, the second Wu Mind is still a pretty solid pickup.

 

I did use this list tonight in a fight with a non-Limited Insertion ISS list and the tigers definitely put in work.  Well, one of them did....

 

His list (as I remember it):

logo_202.png Imperial Service
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
GROUP 1sep.gifsep.giforden_regular.png10  orden_impetuosa.png4
logo_13.pngSOPHOTECT Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31)
logo_20.pngYUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
logo_8.pngSÙ-JIÀN Spitfire, Light Flamethrower, Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 59)
logo_28.pngKǍNRÈN Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Knife. (0.5 | 32)
logo_9.pngNINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
logo_1.pngCELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13)
logo_10.pngKUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
logo_10.pngKUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
logo_10.pngKUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
logo_10.pngKUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
logo_1.pngCELESTIAL GUARD Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 
GROUP 2sep.gifsep.giforden_regular.png4  
logo_4.pngIMPERIAL AGENT (Chain of Command, Fireteam: Haris) Red Fury / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (1.5 | 36)
logo_3.pngBÀO TROOP (Multispectral Visor L2, Biometric Visor L2) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
logo_3.pngBÀO TROOP (X Visor, Multispectral Visor L2) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
logo_1.pngCELESTIAL GUARD (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 
4.5 SWC | 299 Points
 
 
It seems low on SWC, but maybe I got a load out wrong on a Bao Troop or something.  Either way, it's close enough.  The mission was Frontline and I won the roll to choose and chose table side and to deploy second.  My opponent chose to go first which was very nice for me.
 
The table looked something like this (note the model placements are pretty random as I mostly forgot to take pictures during the game):
Voi62jP.jpg?1
 
For my deployment, I put the engineer behind the blue box on the far left with the EVO being placed behind the building to his right.  The Wu Ming were placed by the ladder right in front of my templates while Sun Tze and the Raiden (eventually) deployed on top of the building prone.  The Pheasant deployed behind a wall off screen on the far right along with a Yaozao due to a misunderstanding of where my opponent's HVT was (which also turned out to be irrelevant as I kinda forgot I had an engineer and not a doctor for my Inoculation mission card).  
 
My opponent had both his links to my left along with the Kanren deployed in holo2 up where you can see the two painted models in the distance.  His Lt. Celestial Guard deployed on the building in the far right prone while the other models hung around in the middle.  His ninja attempted to push his deployment beyond the center line, failed, and was forced back on the right flank.  
 
Turn one:
ISS:  This turn consisted mostly of trying to figure out what my two camo markers were which was quickly decided when the ninja tried to get back into position and I went for an observe which succeeded.  Then, deciding that rocket ARO's weren't fun to take, my opponent had his battlecat race across the center lane to set up in Suppressive Fire by the ladder right in front of the EVO you can see in the picture.  Otherwise, the turn consisted of moving his links forward and getting into position.  Or so he thought.
 
YJ:  On my turn, the  first thing that happened was my Spitfire tiger came in from the left table edge right below that bench.  At the time the only thing that could see me was the Yudbot who promptly failed his dodge.  Over my next three orders, I rolled around the back of the bench building and removed all three members of the Bao Haris through a mixture of rear shots and slicing the pie so only one member could react at a time.  My opponent was rightfully dismayed at this loss which was compounded when the tiger rolled under the left-most bridge and shot the Su-Jian into NWI as well (effectively removing the Suppressive Fire through a forced Changed Facing as well).  Sun Tze himself then finished the catman off with a shotgun to the butt while he and the Raiden moved forward a bit to put themselves in the first sector.  The Spitfire tiger spent a few more orders trying to down the Kanren as well, but was unable to finish the job.  I ended my turn bringing the other two tigers in with one right under my opponent's lieutenant and the other by the bench the Spitfire one had emerged from (thus catching the Kanren in a crossfire).
 
Turn two:
ISS:  Things weren't looking great for my opponent as I'd removed quite a few of his hitters and he was inundated with Tiger Soldiers.  To his credit, he took this in stride and proceeded to remove all three with some very timely armor saves and crack shooting.  Both the paramedics were removed as they attempted to burn the Kanren and Celestial Guard Lt. respectively and the Spitfire was gunned down in a duel with the Kuang Shi link.  The only other noteworthy things that happened was the Yudbot eating a rocket from the Raiden and the Kanren being discouraged from popping his head out anymore by a rocket from the Wu Ming.
 
YJ:  With all my tigers unfortunately out of commission (definitely should've kept one back), the brunt of the killing fell to the Raiden and Wu Ming link.  Since one of those two was a link of heavy infantry, I opted to go with the latter.  My Wu Ming spent most of my orders moving around and popping the remaining models on the left flank.  This ended with the Kanren dying, two Kuang Shi, and the Celestial Guard w/ LSGL so all-in-all a good turn.  I think the Raiden and Sun Tze continued to crawl forward on their catwalk, but there wasn't much else going on.
 
Turn three:
ISS:  With desperation being the order of the day, the remaining two Kuang Shi rolled forward to do battle with the Wu Ming.  One fell in the ensuing firefight, but they did manage to drop the SMG Wu Ming because of course they did.  The rest of the orders consisted of the ninja getting revealed (again) and trying to bow down the Raiden.  This ended when the ninja reached combat with him, was Flash Pulsed by Sun Tze, and the Raiden passed both of his wounds from the ninja's DA sword.  100xfolded steel is obviously garbage.
 
YD7IIUA.jpg?1
 
YJ:  With a pretty obvious lead, I decided to push my advantage with the HRL Wu Ming cleaning up the Sophotect and Forward Observer Celestial Guard before sprinting into my opponent's sector.  My cheerleader pheasant also used this opportunity to push into the central sector to contest the Kuang Shi who was the only remaining model on my opponent's side sans his Lt. 
 
Score:
ISS:  1
YJ:  9
 
Conclusions:
 
I definitely had fun with this list, but I'll probably drop the Wu Ming in order to get some sort of other HI along with a doctor.  It was definitely hard looking at all my unconscious models and being unable to do anything about it. Granted that was partly because I got all my paramedics killed for nothing, but they're those butchers are more likely to gut each other than engage in actual healing.
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As I'm pretty free at the moment in terms of work, I've had plenty of time for games of Infinity lately and managed to get another Limited Insertion round in this past afternoon.

 

Mission:  Firefight

 

My Opponent's Army:

 

logo_403.png Qapu Khalqi

──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
orden_regular.png9  orden_irregular.png1  
logo_9.pngJANISSARY Missile Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 37)
logo_9.pngJANISSARY Akbar Doctor (MediKit) AP Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 41)
logo_9.pngJANISSARY Boarding Shotgun + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 32)
logo_9.pngJANISSARY HMG / Pistol, CCW. (2 | 40)
logo_9.pngJANISSARY AP Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 36)
logo_10.pngHAWWA' Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26)
logo_4.pngHAFZA Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
logo_7.pngDJANBAZAN Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 31)
logo_3.pngBASHI BAZOUK Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
logo_10.pngHAWWA' Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26)
 
6 SWC | 300 Points
 
 
My Army:
 
logo_201.png Yu Jing
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
orden_regular.png10  orden_impetuosa.png1
logo_3.pngTIGER SOLDIER Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
logo_3.pngTIGER SOLDIER Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
logo_3.pngTIGER SOLDIER Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
logo_25.pngIMPERIAL AGENT (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun, Stun Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 29)
logo_6.pngWÚ MÍNG Heavy Rocket Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 33)
logo_39.pngPANGGULING Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
logo_30.pngHARAMAKI Missile Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (1.5 | 33)
logo_20.pngSUN TZE Lieutenant (Advanced Command) Boarding Shotgun, 2 Nanopulsers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 60)
logo_35.pngTOKUSETSU EISEI Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
logo_35.pngTOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
 
5.5 SWC | 298 Points
 
 
The Table:
 
IJtHiqh.jpg?1
 
I won the roll off and chose to deploy second and chose the side opposite from where the above photo was taken.  As a small note, we both forgot about the 16" deployment until after we had both deployed and decided to go with Plan Meh to solve the issue.  On with the show!
 
Haqq Deployment:
 
bP2YMMO.jpg?1
 
I apparently didn't take any shots of the Haqq deployment except for his Janissary link who are backed up by the djan sniper and the Hafza pretending to be a Ghulam.  I do remember that both the Hawwa hackers where deployed by left and right panoplies and the Bashi decided to parachute in.
 
YJ Deployment:
ElthZPp.jpg?1
 
This picture shows my doctor and HRL Wu Ming sitting opposite the Janissary link (both prone).  I didn't think I really needed any more force over here as I didn't want a bunch of models to be trapped fighting a HI link team especially with my reduced order pool.
 
YCORzQI.jpg?1
 
My left flank was a bit more densely populated with Sun Tze and the missile Haramaki taking the roof (prone again) while the EVO, engineer, and pheasant hid around the edges.  A very aggressive deployment to be sure....
 
Turn One:
Haqq:  I apparently didn't take pictures of this part either, but the turn was pretty simple.  I knocked his order pool down from 9 to 7 and my opponent chose to bring in his parachutist behind the crate in front of my pheasant.  The Pheasant reacted by changing facing and prepared for the inevitable firefight.  The Bashi then chose to climb the building by the Pheasant which prompted my EVO to Alert everyone around him which prompted the Haramaki to stand up and ready his missile launcher.  The Bashi didn't like this much so radioed his friend the Djanbazan sniper to silence the Haramaki with the ensuing "sniper" duel ending with the Haramaki taking a wound and dropping prone again, but now Warning Sun Tze who stood up in his stead (note:  this turned out to be a rule error as we both thought that Warning allowed for the same "movement" as Change Facing.  It does not so you may not actually cancel the Prone state with it).  The Bashi just sighed and chose to continue trucking forward.  Reaching the edge of the roof, he looked out at the Pheasant and all three models (the Pheasant, the Bashi, and Sun Tze) fired their shotguns like some sort of All Edgelord Overwatch match.  When the dust settled, the Pheasant was dead while the Bashi merely hit the deck from Sun Tze's apparent warning shot.  Not the best outcome for YJ.
 
The rest of Haqq's turn one consisted of shuffling around the Janissary link and the right-most, from the YJ perspective, hacker opening the panoply for the choice of ADHL or Flash Pulse.  He went for the laser pointer.
 
YJ:  With the Pheasant gone, Sun Tze decided that caution was obviously a mistake and ordered his men to close in.  First was a paramedic tiger who showed up on the board edge next to the Hawwa who had opened the panoply.  The poor man attempted to hack the tiger's pack as he descended, but failed and ended up with a tiger staring at his bum (note:  I decided to Combat Jump this tiger due to the inherent +6 for an EVO and Firefight making everything a Landing Pad along with having no good spot on a table edge to come in from without getting shot).  Deciding that the hacker's fine backside wasn't quite pretty enough, the tiger reduced the Hawwa to a red mist with his combi.
 
XqDXnkP.jpg?1
 
As one of the mission cards I had was to inoculate the HVT, my first tiger then strolled up to the pretty lady and sprayed her down in "medicine."  It was also at this point that I synced with the HVT in case I needed to swap my last card (Extreme Prejudice) for Secure HVT at some point.  
 
My tiger then decided to get into a firefight with the missile launcher Janissary that he won with a nice crit, forcing the heavy infantry to fallback behind total cover.
 
sJQenp2.jpg?1
 
With the missile launcher no longer staring at her, my first tiger then opened up the panoply for the ADHL the Hawwa had left behind.
 
Over on the right side, my other tiger paramedic decided to drop in as well next to the left-most panoply before opening it up to find...nothing (note:  I rolled double Mimetism here which is a rule Tiger Soldiers already have).  Disappointed, this paramedic took cover behind a crate only for the other Hawwa to ARO Spotlight at him and complete Telemetry.  A job well done.  
 
jBF6V9g.jpg?1
 
With that, my first tiger, with enemy HVT in tow, decided to book it back to my deployment zone and hide out there.  Sexy parties followed when we all realized that she'd taken her to the YJ HVT's hidey hole.
 
Turn Two:
Haqq:  With one Hawwa dead, the left-most Hawwa decided that he could probably nail a tiger unlike his friend.  First though there was the problem of the HRL Wu Ming who had stood up and was looking at the Hawwa's attack path to the tiger, but that was quickly solved with another excellent showing from the Djanbazan who not only wounded the Wu Ming, but also forced the coward to go prone.  Poop.
 
With the Wu Ming out of the way, the Hawwa opened the panoply to receive yet another laser pointer and trucked around the crate my tiger had his back to.  Coming around the tiger's butt meant that I only received a change facing, but that was enough as my 2 beat his 1 (and my innate Mimetism stopped a crit).  Pumping another order into the Hawwa, the hacker finally hit the tiger killing him, but dying to the ARO flamethrower to the face as well.
 
nAT0ZnB.jpg?1
 
Over on the non-BBQ side of the table, the Janissary link pushed forward to hunt down the remaining tiger.  Though she tried to shoot back, the Boarding Shotgun HI proved too much for her and both tigers on the table fell.
 
qrP756g.jpg?1
 
The remainder of the Haqq turn consisted of the link repositioning around to get better firelanes.
 
YJ:
With two tigers dead, Sun Tze thought long and hard about what to do next.  Then he remembered the third tiger and patted himself on the back for such a brilliant plan.  The third and final tiger landed very near to where the first tiger had and proceeded to survey the field.
 
rFX0cVw.jpg?1
 
Deciding to move forward and take a pot shot at the link leader for the Janissaries, the doctor, the tiger took aim with his Spitfire.  The gun inflicted a nasty wound and, for his trouble, many of the members of the link turned around to make sure he couldn't try that again.  Deciding to go after "easier" targets, the tiger wandered off to the nearby building which held the sniper and what he thought to be a lowly Ghulam.  
 
Even while tromping around in his heavy boots, neither Haqq trooper seemed to notice the tiger until he had already climbed the ladder to their little bungalow.  The sniper managed to hear him this time and readied his pistol just in time to have his hand blown off by the tiger's superior Spitfire.  Feeling the hot spray of his friend's blood across his body the "Ghulam" finally  turned to face his would-be-assassin before revealing himself to be a Hafza in disguise.  Unfortunately his shimmering hard light disguise proved useless versus the glorious Jade Emperor's soldier and he too fell before the might of the final tiger.  Revealing my last mission card, Extreme Prejudice, I slit the hapless lieutenant's throat and my opponent called it.
 
nLA4sXV.jpg?1
 
Conclusion:
 
The list worked OK, but I think it owes most of its success to my opponent's relatively low experience with Haqq (he mainly plays ALEPH) and my tigers just rolling hot nonsense throughout the game.  It was actually pretty amazing as the first turn had me failing everything while the latter half of the game was my opponent's chance to roll all 20's.  Definitely goes to show you that getting bent out of shape about initial dice failures is not really worth the energy as you can quickly bounce back.  
 
NUFPrzE.jpg?1
 
All in all, I like how the tigers performed in this weirdo Limited Insertion list and I will definitely be buying the Spitfire model I'm missing as it has performed every time I've used it.  I'll likely try the list again some time in the future, but with fewer odd choices like Haramaki or Sun Tze.  Next up is adding the flair tigers bring to LI to the powerhouse of models such as the Su-Jian and Ruishi.  I'm also looking forward to painting up some more of my YJ in the future as I'm quickly finishing off the last of the Haqq I'm technically on the hook for which is definitely exciting to me.  I can't wait to get them onto the Top Down tray I won at ECI and finally get that "finished army" feel I've been missing since the death of WHFB.
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actually change facing itself doesnt allow a movement to switch from prone/standing.   can only pivot around unless there's some FAQ i missed about it.  also spotlight is NOT an ARO option and only short skill.   

 

Thanks for the very good BR.  Seems like it was a good time!  Also excited to see your paint on that tray with your army.  3 tigers is hilarious and brutal.  

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Managed yet another game tonight.  As the point was to show a newer friend how to play, we both whipped out (giggity) our YJ lists for some Limited Insertion with me playing vanilla and my opponent playing JSA.  I didn't take any pictures so this will be a shorter explanation of what happened.

 

Mission: Antenna Field

 

Opponent's List:

 

logo_203.png Japanese Sectorial Army
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
orden_regular.png9  orden_irregular.png1  
logo_9.pngNINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
logo_9.pngNINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
logo_9.pngNINJA Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Shock CCW, Knife. (0.5 | 40)
logo_21.pngSHINOBU Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW. (0.5 | 47)
logo_1.pngKEISOTSU Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 9)
logo_4.pngRAIDEN (Minelayer, X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 21)
logo_4.pngRAIDEN (X Visor) Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 26)
logo_24.pngMIYAMOTO MUSHASHI Chain Rifle, Flash Pulse / Pistol, AP CCW, EXP CCW. (0 | 24)
logo_9.pngNINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
logo_10.pngONIWABAN Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Monofilament CCW. (0 | 41)
 
5 SWC | 295 Points
 

 

My List:

logo_201.png Yu Jing
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
orden_regular.png10  
logo_35.pngTOKUSETSU EISEI Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
logo_35.pngTOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
logo_38.pngYÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
logo_7.pngDÀOFĚI Lieutenant Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CCW. (1.5 | 55)
logo_32.pngSÙ-JIÀN Spitfire, Light Flamethrower, Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 59)
logo_36.pngRUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20)
logo_11.pngGŬILÁNG (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
logo_11.pngGŬILÁNG (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
logo_40.pngSHINOBU Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW. (0.5 | 47)
logo_22.pngCELESTIAL GUARD Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
logo_22.pngCELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13)
 
6 SWC | 300 Points
 
 
My opponent won the WIP roll and chose side and for me to deploy first.  I chose to go second as it's so important in control missions such as Antenna Field.
 
Deployment:
YJ:  My army pretty much deployed with all of my models hiding behind, or on top of, the buildings/crates in my deployment zone.  The Daofei and Guilang pushed as forward as they could without entering the exclusion zone.  My held back model was Kitsune who used Superior Infiltration to sit by my opponent's antenna.
 
JSA:  Pretty much everything deployed as tokens given what sort of list my opponent had with Kitsune and the Oniwaban choosing to use Superior Infiltration to push onto my models.  My opponent's held model was his Keisotsu Lt.
 
Turn One:
JSA:  After removing two orders from his pool, my opponent was left with a measly six orders as both his Kitsune and oniwaban were in hidden deployment. He spent his orders mostly pushing forward with his token force and setting up to spring on me as I ran forward. His final order involved Mushashi rolling up out of cover to which I revealed my Kitsune about 7" away.  With that, his turn ended.
 
YJ:  The first thing I did was roll forward with my Kitsune until I was behind my opponent's Mushashi.  With my second order, I initiated a Suprise Attack on the TV samurai and was greeted with a pistol shot from a nearby Raiden (the HRL one to be exact) who was on a roof above watching the action.  Kitsune crit Mushashi to cut him in half and deftly weathered the pistol shot to her back.  With that, Kitsune continued around the building to kill the HRL Raiden only to fail a few times and succeed after getting on top of the building with him which also revealed the Spitfire Raiden on a nearby rooftop.  Unfortunately, I couldn't successfully down this Raiden when the Su-Jian opened fire and he decided to Guts to be prone, but I did manage to BBQ the oniwaban who attempted to engage my cat as he rolled around into position so I'll call it a win.
 
Turn Two:
JSA:  With two heavy hitters and one heavy rocket down, my opponent was in trouble.  Luckily he had a few answers in his assault hacker ninja who successfully IMM1'd my Su-Jian and the Raiden just critting Kitsune off the table as she attempted to NINJA VANISH with a smoke bomb.  The turn ended with him getting the assault hacker ninja near (but crucially not touching) the central objective.
 
YJ:  Remembering that this mission wasn't really about murdering things, I decided it was time to get my specialists into position.  With a coordinated order, I moved my doctor into b2b contact with my antenna and made it to the left-most antenna, which was on top of a building, with one of my Guilang FO's.  This last bit turned out to be a tight victory as there was another killer hacker ninja who attempted to engage me as I did so, but was about 1/2" out.  For his trouble, he received a mine being placed right on his only way up.
 
In terms of murder, I managed to get my Rui Shi into action by putting some Marksmanship2 on him and rolling around to deal with the Raiden.  Before I was able to, however, Kitsune appeared and shot him with a Nanopulser (I had moved the Rui Shi with a coordinated order so couldn't retaliate).  Thankfully my Rui Shi successfully passed his BTS roll and proceeded to paste Kitsune with two crits in the next order.  Unfortunately, he wasn't able to take down the Raiden w/ spitfire and fell prone on the rooftop my Su-Jian had started behind.  Furthermore, my second Guilang attempted to drop the assault hacker ninja with his combi, but only managed to make the trooper angry.  I ended the turn scoring one scenario point for having one antenna to my opponent's zero.
 
Turn Three:
JSA:  My opponent's turn was rather simple:  he needed to get as many specialists into b2b contact with as many antennas as possible and hope to weather the storm of bullets coming to stop him.  First he decided to remove my Su-Jian, who was now operational again, as he could see four of the antennas from his vantage point.  An apparently very skilled killer hacker ninja managed this with two strikes of her sword before moving into b2b with the right-most antenna.  She also managed to take out the Guilang hanging out by said antenna apparently as parting insult.  Over on the left side of the field, the other killer hacker ninja managed to armor save the mine I had placed for her and proceeded to engage my Guilang over there.  This was in turn answered as the Guilang passed all the armor saves required of him against the ninja's sword.  The turn ended with JSA touching four of the antennas and controlling three putting the score to 1-1.
 
YJ:  With my work cut out for me, I proceeded to try and force my opponent off the antennas and/or score my mission card (successfully repair something) to get a narrow victory, but there was a slight problem with my pretty-limited order pool.  It was at this point that I realized I had, except for turn one, been playing an order down the whole time as my Celestial Guard Kuang Shi controller had fallen off the table.  Cool beans!  So anyway, here I was starting my turn with five orders and trying to figure out how I was going to accomplish what I wanted.  I quickly decided I couldn't get to all, or really any, of the antennas so gunning down the people on them was a better idea.  Since the Rui Shi is especially good at dealing with ninjas, I decided to start with attempting to fix him which succeeded.  Next up, the Rui Shi gunned down the assault hacker ninja on the central objective before turning to the killer hacker ninja on the right-most one.  This second burst was less successful and ended with the ninja going prone.  At this point, I only had two orders plus my Lt. order left and couldn't make it to the central antenna for an easy point so I decided to throw caution to the wind and run up to where the right-most ninja was lying prone to gun down the little devil.  With my last order, I (barely) managed to do so putting us at one antenna controlled each at the end of the game.  As I had finished my mission card, I won 2-1 in a very entertaining game.
 
Conclusion:
 
While basic Infinity is a great game, these are the types of lists that make Limited Insertion so much fun to me.  I love the idea of placing an entire ninja army down, but it is just unfeasible in the normal game given how much better quantity of orders is to quality.  My opponent and I both played well and I think the major factor in deciding the victor was my ability to protect and leverage my MSV2 to deal with the ninja threat which feels great.  I love feeling like I won a game due to my play decisions rather than mistakes on my opponent's part or sheer luck. 
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Played another game last night against my regular ALEPH opponent.  While short, it is the first non-Sex Pun game I've played in a long while.

 

Mission:  Supplies

 

Opponent's List:

 

logo_701.png idk dasyu and achilles and stuff
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
orden_regular.png10  
logo_33.pngACHILLES Lieutenant Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, EXP CCW. (2.5 | 75)
logo_21.pngMYRMIDON OFFICER (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 35)
logo_7.pngDASYU Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 37)
logo_18.pngPROXY Mk.2 Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
logo_49.pngPROXY Mk.5 (Forward Observer) 2 Submachine Guns, Nanopulser, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
logo_17.pngPROXY Mk.1 Engineer Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
logo_14.pngYUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
logo_20.pngTHORAKITES (Forward Observer, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
logo_20.pngTHORAKITES (Forward Observer, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
logo_11.pngZAYIN Rebot HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)
logo_11.pngZAYIN Rebot HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)
logo_8.pngMYRMIDON Chain Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 16)
logo_1.pngDAKINI Tacbot Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)
 
6 SWC | 300 Points
 
 
My List:

logo_201.png YJ Vanilla Pairing v2.0
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
GROUP 1sep.gifsep.giforden_regular.png10  orden_impetuosa.png2
logo_11.pngGŬILÁNG (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
logo_11.pngGŬILÁNG (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
logo_32.pngSÙ-JIÀN Spitfire, Light Flamethrower, Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 59)
logo_22.pngCELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13)
logo_22.pngCELESTIAL GUARD Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
logo_23.pngKUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
logo_23.pngKUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
logo_1.pngZHANSHI Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
logo_7.pngDÀOFĚI Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 55)
logo_36.pngRUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20)
 
GROUP 2sep.gifsep.giforden_regular.png2  orden_irregular.png2  orden_impetuosa.png2
logo_3.pngTIGER SOLDIER Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
logo_35.pngTOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
logo_38.pngYÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
logo_13.pngSHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5)
logo_13.pngSHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5)
 
6 SWC | 299 Points
 
 
Deployment:  As I won the roll off I chose to go first to try and nab a few of the coffins and hide before my opponent could retaliate.  My opponent chose to set up on the far side of the table last.
 
TQiRn44.jpg?1
(Note:  This picture was taken after turn one had started).  I deployed both of my Guilang as close to the outside Tech Coffins as possible while the rest of my force setup behind cover.  Specifically, to the left of the picture you'd find one Kuang Shi and Shaolin ready to advance straight to the building in front of them (without being able to cross any possible LoF of course).  In the picture itself, you can see the Rui Shi and Yaozao setup by each other behind a planter while both of the Celestial Guard sit behind the building to their right.  Continuing to the right, my engineer deployed next to my other Shaolin (pictured here after his Impetuous advance) with my Zhanshi taking cover behind the barrer next to them.  My battle cat was setup forward prone behind the stack of three green boxes while the final Kuang Shi was off to the right of the picture trying to cut LoF using the smaller gray building you can see peeking out from in front of my tape measure.  My held back model was the Daofei who deployed prone on top of the large building in the center of the table.
 
For my opponent's part, I'm not particularly sure where everything is.  I know the Mk5 is sitting prone between the two planters in front of the left-most Tech Coffin while the first TR bot is behind the barricade in front of his hand.  The other TR bot was setup at the top of the stairs on my right side of the table while Achilles was his held back model and hid somewhere around the staircase as well.
 
Turn One:
YJ:  Beginning with my Impetuous moves, only my right-most Kuang Shi could be seen by anything and was quickly mowed down by the TR bot at the top of the staircase as the silly bomb head sauntered into his LoF.
 
At the beginning of my actual orders, my main group (which my opponent had reduced by two orders) decided to use the cat to solve the exposed TR bot.  He transformed into his feline form to get on top of the building where he's shown above and proceeded to shoot at the TR bot easily removing it using his Spitfire with a crit plus two failed saves.
 
CNWBjMY.jpg?1
 
With the TR bot removed, I decided to have my Guilang get a move on and grab up two of the objectives for themselves.  The Mk2 Proxy attempted to pop out and shotgun the right-most Guilang, but I won the f2f roll putting a wound on the poor guy before he decided to fall back behind the barricade he had appeared by.
 
h6T1sWK.jpg?1
 
The remainder of my orders were spent getting the left-most objective and coordinating my guys into position/back into camo.  (the blue tokens represent the supply boxes for the mission objective)
 
TJCuaFY.jpg?1
 
ALEPH:  My opponent's turn began with him trying to remove the Guilang as I lacked the orders to also have them go prone after camoing.  On my left, the Mk5 Proxy attempted to move forward and get a Discover+Shoot on my Guilang.  Fortunately for me, he was just out of 8" so ended up missing the Discover.  Deciding that an Intuitive Attack would likely be better, the Mk5 aimed his Nanopulser at the Guilang.  I shot back, missed, and proceeded to pass my armor save against the successful template attack.  The resulting guts check allowed my Guilang to move back behind full cover with a sigh from my opponent.
 
qrHS3sy.jpg?1
 
As my more-exposed Guilang was now pretty well entrenched, my opponent decided to just do what ALEPH does best:  pump all of its orders into Achilles.  Spending a few orders to get into position, Achilles decided that taking down the Su-Jian was probably a good idea.  So, popping out from the other side of the barricade from where the right-side Mk2 had attempted to kill my other Guilang, Achilles popped a few shots into the Su-Jian forcing the cat to lose a wound and fall back into cover.
 
G24Rjnk.jpg?1
 
After some waffling about whether or not moving forward was a good idea (Achilles had now activated his Impetuous State so cover was no longer of use to him), the decided to stay where he was to ensure my backfield troops, especially the Shaolin, did not get any free AROs on the greek.  In the firefight that followed, Achilles rolled a high of a three while the Su-Jian managed to nail him with his final Panzerfaust shot.  Picking up the dice, Achilles proceeded to fail all three armor rolls and end up as a smear on the edge of the table.  With that, my opponent decided to call it as he had little chance of dislodging my models with the supply boxes and I'd removed over a third of his points for no loss of my own.
 
Conclusion:  Well, we're reminded again that dice are a cruel mistresses and anything can happen in such a high variance game.  I liked quite a bit of the tools I brought in this list although I do need to think more on how to properly utilize it on lighter terrain boards. The Su-Jian and Guilang continue to be excellent game pieces so I'm happy to see them almost single handedly win the game for me.  Hopefully next time the dice will go more my opponent's way, but the only thing I saw as a misplay was using Achilles to try and gun down the cat.  Personally I would've rolled around to the left side of my Su-Jian using the fact that only the Guilang on the left side of the table would be able to react to him.  Then, just bum rush him in melee where Achilles is far superior and the cat is rather mediocre.  It probably would've been an order or two more intensive, but my opponent quit long before he was out of orders and I didn't have many answers for Achilles ready to reach him over on my right.  Plus, if he turns himself impetuous there (which is likely given how the cat's wounds work), he'll be locked in combat where cover can't help him anyway.  The only downside is I'd likely shoot the flamethrower at him to reduce the ODD to Mimetism, but I think that's a small price to pay for a rather superior move overall.
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My understanding of frenzy is that the unit still claims cover as normal until the start of his next turn. See N3 rulebook pg. 49:

 

"When he deployed a trooper with Frenzy is Non Impetuous. However, if he causes an enemy to lose one point from their Wounds or STR attribute, then he will start (bold emphasis in original) -his next Active Turn - as an -Impetuous- trooper and will remain Impetuous for the rest of the game."

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Even more reason to dodge that flamethrower I suppose! Good to know about the Frenzy bit. I don't tend to use my Domaru often (or they're in a link if I do) so I deferred to my opponent for that  On the plus side, even with cover Achilles still died. The dice were very, very bad.

 

The last pic makes it look like I had the boxes still, but that was just a mistake in staging that shot after my opponent had forfeit as I'd picked up all the tokens before taking the shot. My Guilang carried the boxes to their final locations and then dropped them to go into Camo. The plan was to pick them back up on my next turn and book it to my own DZ and safety, but we never made it that far.

 

As for the Dakini paramedic bit, we didn't know we were playing Supplies before as building lists after choosing the mission just isn't that interesting. The only thing we knew about the missions going in was that they were likely to be chosen from the Limited Insertion list so any kind of game could be played on the table.

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