Data Entry - An attempt at a blog thing

[dataentity]

Okay, so I've been half meaning to maybe start a log of Infinity adventure-y stuff, but I've just kept putting it off. Good way to keep track of takeaways, stuff learned, etc. because dang has Infinity has a lot of depth. And so I figured now would be a good time to start one since I semi-switched to a new army what with Tunguska having dropped and today being official game 1 with Tunguska. I would have gone with Toh-Mads as a blog name, but just in case I start something else in the future.

 

So, game 1. Today was a quiet day with just PaladinX and Jay being the only other people there. Jay, being the gracious Senator, let me play. So yeah. With no planned mission, ended up playing Annihilation. First time playing Annihilation and seeing the worst organized information table in existence. I mean, seriously, the table that shows how to earn objective points is the worst thing.

Anyway, my list.

 Jurisdictional Command of Tunguska
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 10  / 1
 ZONDNAUT Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 32)
 SECURITATE HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 21)
 SECURITATE Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 SECURITATE (Repeater) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
 SECURITATE Feuerbach / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)
 SECURITATE Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
 PUPPET MASTERS (Minelayer) Submachine Gun, Antipersonnel Mines / PistolKnife. (0.5 | 14)
 HOLLOW MEN Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 37)
 KRIZA BORAC HMG / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 54)
 DAKTARI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)

GROUP 24  
 HECKLER Combi Rifle, Jammer, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
 HECKLER Combi Rifle, Jammer, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8 )
 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8 )     Stupid 😎 face.

 6 SWC | 299 Points

Really wanted to try the Zondnaut, then secondarily the Hollow Men. Also it was nice having actual fireteams again after leaving Tohaa for Vanilla Nomads for a while, even if I never moved the Securitates and only had the Kriza-Hollow duo turn 1.

PaladinX's list was Druze and bots, with Killer and Assault hackers making me cautious with my Duo.

I won the roll off and went first. First lesson: Puppet Master as a cheerleader is really really good. PaladinX just declined to use a command token at all due to Counterintelligence. Makes the puppet master, regardless of using the puppets, almost an autoinclude.

Deployment. Hold back was the Zondnaut, but because I deployed first, PaladinX dropped a Peacemaker midboard right in front of my Zondnaut. AKA if I used my impetous move, Zondnaut would then take a heavy flamer to the face. Not great. At least it was only regular impetuous and not extreme, so I could decline to use it and have my Kriza knock out the Peacemaker safely. Second lesson was remembering that I can decline the impetuous, as much as I want to use it.

From there, wanting to try the shiny new thing, I moved the Zondnaut up. Used smoke to get into closer range with the Druze HMG (Data-tracker) in the opposing 5-man link to catch the Druze out of cover and in bad range. Too bad I forgot Druze have a chaincolt. Also, 3 armor on Druze is really good. Spitfire shots failed to wound and chaincolt to the face brought down the Zondnaut. What I should have done was use Auxilia-Sync bot shenanigans. Suicide the motorcycle in to chain rifle the lined-up Fireteam. But, since I forgot about the chaincolt, I thought I could out-dice the bad-range HMG and move on to just picking guys off. So lesson 3: remember to check / ask about equipment.

Fourth lesson is, actually, basically the same thing. Read the rules. Remember what they do. I moved up my Heckler on top of the buildings into good range against the HMG druze DT. I then wanted to jammer them, but PaladinX was kind enough to remind me that Veteran L1 means they ignore isolated. So so much for that plan. Combi rifle still brought down the Druze, but chaincolt back knocked down the Heckler too. But, objective points are objective points and taking out an HMG from a 5-man link is not nothing.

A bit more happened during turn 1 active turn, but not much worth mentioning.

Turn 1 reactive taught me lesson 5. This was literally my first game with a full 5-person core link. Having fought against the 5-person links before, they certainly felt invincible. Since the offensive should have the benefit of choosing the fight (for range bands) and a dice advantage. The defensive properties of the 5-person link definitely felt like it took that away. With them always having +3 BS, and having extra burst, it at best felt even attacking the defensive link and, at worst, felt like I'm going into a losing fight. But yeah, my 5 securitate link lost the feuerbach to the Druze multi-sniper. Sniper had the range advantage and mimetism. This made me wonder if the Grenzer Missile Launcher would be better than the Securitate Feuerbach. Given the high number of good attack pieces, the link is going to be on the defense more than the offense, so it might be a good switch. .5 SWC extra, and 7 points for an extra BS and more survivability. MSV 1, depending on who you ask, might not be an advantage.

Turn 2 was a mix of Hollow man and Kriza double team (technically not since I broke that link voluntarily). 6-2 move with super jump is really good. Combi-rifle still feels week, but don't know if it's worth dropping a pseudo-fast specialist to get a real gun when the Hollow man will start off duo'd with the Kriza. I hate combis.

So this is already way too long. Most of the interesting stuff / learning points happened turn 1 anyway. Only thing worth reiterating is armor 3 is really annoyingly good. I would say 'darn Druze survivability' buuuuuut there may not have been much stuff left alive on the Druze side at the end. Let's just say 9-1. Sorry.

[PaladinX]

It was a solid game.  I enjoyed it 😆

[dataentity]

I had fun too. Just, still, sorry about the murderizing of all of the things.

[dataentity]

Okay. Trying to keep up. Game 2 with Tunguska was practice for OFCC. Played against Sgt. Rock doing the mission Doctor Doctor.

For posterity:

Quote

 

Set-Up:

7 Injured civilians are on the table. They will be placed in the zone that is 8 inches from each side of the center line. No civilian will be within four inches of another.  The civilians are prone and will be placed by the TO. 
The goal is to Forward Observe and heal as many of the civilians as possible. You may not target the civilians for any attacks.

Scoring: 4 Points for healing more civilians than your opponent.
               3 Points for FOing more civilians than your opponent.
               2 Points for killing more opposing doctors / paramedics than your opponent.
               1 Point for killing more opposing forward observers than your opponent.

Special Mission Rule: Any civilian that has been forward observed, may re-roll its PH roll for any doctoring or for use of the medi-kit, if the forward observing is on the same side.

*Palbots can help heal for scoring points in this scenario. 

 

My list:

 Jurisdictional Command of Tunguska
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

10  
 PERSEUS FTO (Fireteam: Haris) Breaker Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / 2 Pistols, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 33)
 SECURITATE HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 21)
 SECURITATE Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 SECURITATE Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 VORTEX Spec-Ops (12 XP) (BS:13, WIP:15, Doctor, Engineer, CH: Mimetism) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 HOLLOW MEN Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 37)
 HOLLOW MEN Spitfire, Chain-colt / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (2 | 36)
 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 😎
 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 😎
 STEMPLER ZOND FTO (Super-Jump) Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 18)

 3.5 SWC | 200 Points

KwBgLAPgzCIRBGKBSBCQOWcAOZBCTdHATmShIHZKCiRTySdNDV6yLKA2W2EVND2zVkIAFRIAXFPTTg0ySGlilCRQqWaVAQpC6xwKNrAltAJhw69IfGDYkzWWHlv3H2EMAJnHadE64XHwF/bEDaPDQQIWi7AAEEoA

Sgt. Rock played vanilla Ariadna with some Kazaks, some chasseurs, and Voronin.

Deployment: I won Lieutenant WIP off and chose to go first. Interestingly Sgt. Rock decided to deploy first in order to deny any infiltrators. With no infiltrators in my list, didn't harm me.

Turn 1 Active: Hollow Men pushed up my right flank to take out a HRL ARO piece using the spitfire. Continued to be aggressive with the Hollow Men, taking advantage of the super jump to get on top of the central building (which had 2 civilians) to try and knock out the Zouave paramedic from Sgt. Rock. An unfortunate crit later from a DEP meant bye bye Hollow Man. As bad as that crit was, still think it was the right play to try and knock out a mission relevant specialist early on.

After that, Securitate link pushed up. Knocked out the sapper Zouave sniper on my left flank. Full link HMG versus a sapper sniper was not too big of a contest. That left me able to forward observe some things with my stempler and medkit someone back up.

Turn 1 Reactive: So I goofed with my link. I left Perseus, my Spec-op, and my HMG in a line behind a building. Then I didn't notice that there was a camo marker on the other side of the building. It was a Chasseur. Flamethrowers man. Luckily, only my HMG died to the fire. This was probably my biggest lesson. Double check where the markers are. Don't leave things in lines. Luckily my Stempler was able to KO the chasseur before it could kill anything else.

Stempler went bye bye due to a Spetz with HMG. Don't know Ariadna stuff well. Probably shouldn't have left the stempler out quite that much, but I had been trying for objective points. Other then that, some civilians were FO'd and killed via paramedic rolls.

Turn 2 Active: This was primarily a hollow man turn. My Assault hacker was still alive on the right flank. While I thought about using spotlight for the objectives, I really wanted to knock out specialists especially any doctors and paramedics. I probably went a little too aggressive with him, but jumped on to buildings and shot lots of things. He took a ton of AROs and lived... mostly. Jumping around he was able to knock out the doctor, though could not bring down the paramedic on the central building despite his best efforts. He did also remove the obvious lieutenant Voronin. Unfortunately, the Hollow man went down after just a couple too many AROs. But yeah, super jump is really really good.

Left side of the board, Perseus was useful for smoke, allowing my spec op doctor to heal a civvie.

Turn 2 Reactive: Not much defensively happened on my end due to Loss of Lieutenant on Sgt. Rock's half. He did end up killing another civilian, successfully healed one, and FO'd more. At this point I definitely could not beat him on the FO objective with both the hacker and my FO down. And, I was up only 1 civilian healed so I had to make sure he could not tie or beat me.

Turn 3 Active: 6 orders. Pushed up with Perseus and the Securitate team. Smoke let me get into good range with Perseus to breaker rifle the Spetz down. This freed up the left side of the board for me to take out the paramedic Zouave. Luckily for me, the Zouave had stood up to attempt a paramedic heal. Had the Zouave been prone, I don't think I could have had LoF. But, I was able to then take out the Zouave with some long range breaker rifle shots.

Lesson from this turn was to pay attention to the lateral fire lanes. While nothing of mine went down, there was a fire lane that crossed from the left to the right of the table that allowed free shots to happen against other members of my fire team.

Turn 3 Reactive: At this point the game was over. Sgt. Rock couldn't heal anything to take that objective from me. He already had the FO objective. I didn't have any FO's left to kill and we were tied on the FO objective. I only had 1 doctor in the list, when I had already killed a paramedic and doctor on his side. It just left a half turn for gratuitous combat. Securitate spec ops died to the Kazak spec op. My lieutenant then died as well.

Final score: 6-3.

 

So far I am liking this list. 6-2 move with super jump is still absurdly good and is opening up a lot of attack vectors that just aren't possible otherwise. I had been concerned about the climbing mission for OFCC, and was wondering if I needed climbing plus. But, seeing super jump able to make it to the top of just about any piece of scenery removes a lot of my worries about that. This list does still have climbing plus in the Stempler, so smoking then climbing is still a valid option.

Other take aways from this mission. Might need to work on the list. Having only the 1 doctor is iffy. A good assassination run could definitely ruin any chance of succeeding in this mission, which that Chasseur with LFT almost succeeded. I at least have semi-redundant source of FO with the assault hacker hollow man able to use spotlight. Options are to either drop the spec op from the link to then use zondbots to heal civilians or to bring a daktari and give her zondbots. WIP 13 is a bit painful when coming down from my WIP 15 spec op in this list. Paramedics are horribly unreliable as Sgt. Rock saw after killing 2 civilians this mission.

Decisions decisions.

[dataentity]

So quick write up of game last night.

Third Tunguska game which was a rematch with Sgt. Rock. We played the OFCC Move Move scenario. Basically, it's Frontline.

 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 😎
 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 😎
 HOLLOW MEN Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 37)
 HOLLOW MEN Spitfire, Chain-colt / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (2 | 36)
 HECKLER Combi Rifle, Jammer, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
 PERSEUS FTO (Fireteam: Haris) Breaker Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / 2 Pistols, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 33)
 SECURITATE Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
 SECURITATE Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 SECURITATE Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 VORTEX Spec-Ops (12 XP) (CH: Mimetism) Combi Rifle, HMG / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)

 2.5 SWC | 199 Points

Sgt. Rock won the roll off, picked to go first. I deployed second.

We were on a very dense table with not many fire lanes. This resulted in a very safe deployment zone which, short of spending basically all of your orders to get there, you weren't really going to threaten much on my side. Not a single shot was fired on Sgt. Rock's first turn, so it was more about establishing board control. Downside to that was it got his models closer to me, allowing me to be aggressive on my active turn, but also didn't remove any orders from my order pool.

Highlights from that match were Hollow Men still being very good. Fast and mobile with the 6-2 Superjump, they ran around on top of the building and knocked out a couple of Chassuers and a Maverick. Definitely helped to limit orders. Still not super familiar with Ariadna, resulting in me somewhat being caught out by the Ambush Camo, which let an HMG spetz get behind both the Hollow Men on Sgt Rocks turn 2 to knock them both out. Woops.

Other nice highlight was the Heckler. A Jammer being in a safe position can definitely result in some very powerful board control. Uxia ended up in the ZoC of the Heckler. Don't know how much it actually ended up limiting Uxia's use (since she was in a good scoring position anyway), but having the threat of isolation was not nothing. Even if she ended up making every single BTS save ever against it.

 

On another note, recently saw a question on good ol' facebook about pinning and alternatives to it. One of the recommendations was instead of gluing metal to metal to add a tiny piece of toilet paper between. So in the socket of the model, with the glue, have the tiniest piece of TP in there. I tried that today while assembling a Zond, what with the old remotes being awful for assemby. Smooth round sockets and then tiny surface area contact to the base make for a painful gluing experience. Instead of toilet paper, I added small pieces of tissue paper. In the ball sockets, drop of glue, paper on top of the drop, and place the piece. Stuck within a few seconds. Did the same thing with the feet. I dropped it onto the base and it was instantly set enough to be able to pick up the model and the base comes with it. Just yesterday I was trying to assemble up a Hollow Man. It took 5+ minutes of holding that mini on the base before it was set enough for me to leave it alone. 10/10 would recommend.

[DustGod]

Baking Soda when done right makes a almost carbon fiber like substance... 

But only lightly dust part ends prior to gluing make sure your fit is right so that once you drop glue your ready to connect... strong bond..

I also run small pins with a pin vice between part... wire from bread ties or ethernet cords are great for pinning

 

 

[dataentity]

Now that OFCC is done so I don't have to worry about 200 point lists anymore, and with the Hollow Men box dropping, I've been brewing some 300 point lists.

Currently, been thinking about this.

 Jurisdictional Command of Tunguska
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 10  
 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 😎
 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 😎
 HOLLOW MEN Missile Launcher, Chain-colt / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (2 | 35)
 HOLLOW MEN Spitfire, Chain-colt / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (2 | 36)
 HOLLOW MEN (Specialist Operative) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30)
 HOLLOW MEN Combi Rifle, Chain-colt + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31)
 STEMPLER ZOND FTO (Super-Jump) Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 18)
 CLOCKMAKER Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
 ZONDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 PUPPET MASTERS Submachine Gun / PistolKnife. (0 | 12)
 SECURITATE Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)

GROUP 24  
 INTERVENTOR Hacker (Killer Device Plus UPGRADE: Lightning) Boarding Shotgun, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
 GRENZER (Fireteam: Haris) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26)
 GRENZER Missile Launcher / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
 SECURITATE Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)

 6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

 

Delicious Hollow men paintrain with some scary AROs available. Missing out on the doctor/paramedic as a specialist, but wasn't sure where to cut points to do that.

Funny that this is one of the highest order count lists I've brewed and seriously thought about taking considering it has a HI core link. Even with tons of light infantry, I don't think I made and brought a list with this many orders in Tohaa.

Any thoughts on the list?

[dataentity]

Just a note to self, and to maybe anyone else who may actually read this.

 

I learned a way that nimbus grenades on Sakiels can be useful, for whenever I go back to Tohaa. The Poor visibility zone causes a -6 modifier to anything that draws LOF through the zone including dodge. So, Sakiel drops the Nimbus grenade, then a Makaul flamers resulting in a -6 to the dodge from the opponent. Weird that dodging does not have a -6 when it interacts with a zero visibility like smoke.

[Raindog]

Rule Citation please 😀

[rudra34]

It's in the rules for low and poor vis zones.   I never realized it either, but it certainly does say that it's a -3/-6 to the relevant attribute for anyone getting LOF through said zones.

[dataentity]

http://infinitythewiki.com/en/Poor_Visibility_Zone

 

How do the MODs for Low/Poor Visibility Zones apply to Dodge Rolls? And to Engage?

A: The MODs apply whenever a Skill, Special Skill or piece of Equipment requires LoF and is declared from, into or through a Low or Poor Visibility Zone. Note that if the trooper is within the Visibility Zone this also applies to Dodge Rolls against template weapons from outside LoF. So: Any Dodge declared inside a Low/Poor Visibility Zone suffers the negative MOD, even in Close Combat or if the Dodge didn’t involve LoF. Any Dodge which LoF to the enemy trooper passes into/out/through a Low/Poor Visibility Zone suffers the penalty. The negative MOD will also apply to the Engage Common Skill.

The negative mod being -6 for poor vis, -3 for low vis.

[Sgt. Rock]

Huh. That makes the Father Knight FO profile considerably better, actually. I might have to try fielding him with that. If I can pry myself away from the amazing AHD profile...

[dataentity]

Ooookay, write up times after being lazy for a while.

First week of Fall Escalation. 150 points. Mission was to KILL KILL KILL.

List for the two games I played: 

Tunguska ──────────────────────────────────────────────────7

HOLLOW MEN Spitfire, Chain-colt / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (2 | 36)

HOLLOW MEN (Specialist Operative) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30)

STEMPLER ZOND FTO (Super-Jump) Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 18)

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

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

CLOCKMAKER Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)

ZONDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

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

2.5 SWC | 148 Points Open in Infinity Army

 

Game One against rudra34.

Lost WIP. Rudra elected for turn one, so I deployed second. This ended up mattering because a Ratnik really wanted to tear up the right (from my perspective) of the board. I was able to counter deploy the Interventor to at least threaten some hacking. The Ratnik kept moving up and threatened my clockmaker who survived some pointblank shots. The clockmaker then thought better of her option to fight the Ratnik and failed guts to hide better. Rudra's turn 1 ended up with the Ratnik killing a grand total of 11 points: A Tranductor/Flash Pulse bot and a Warcor.

On my turn spent basically the whole thing wasting bullets at his Warcor while getting into position to immobilize the Ratnik through the Stempler's repeater, then shooting it down with the spitfire. I goofed super hard here and left my Spitfire Hollowman facing the wrong way (I should have just guessed I'd be able to knock out the Ratnik with 5 uncontested shots).

My hollowman accidentally mooning the enemy let the Line Kazak + Frontovik link move up the board to T2 rifle him in the rear. One order to unconscious. Second order of shooting to take another 6 wounds. There's an unconscious level 7 right? My clockmaker can definitely fix that, right?

This left me without my big gun and my shotgun Hollowman awkwardly pinned in the corner without an easy way to get into good ranges to fight. Stempler died after trying to take on the Frontovik after being buffed with Assisted Fire. Hollowman was able to take an alternate way around and splash damage from the Irmindinos to take out the Frontovik, letting him break the containment. Extra shot splashing through a Line Kazak to KO a mine, and my last movement leaving my Hollowman next to my Clockmaker's zond.

Top turn 3 had a Strelok running up to fight the Hollowman. Point blank shotgun vs point blank shotgun. Strelok ended up winning, but left my Zondbot alive. The Strelok had a mine baby and the turn was over.

Bottom turn 3 had me using the Clockmaker through the zondbot to bring the hollowman back up. Mine goes off on the zond, hitting the hollowman. Zond lives, Hollowman goes unconscious again. Re-repair the Hollowman who was then able to fight the Strelok with a Discover+Shoot, winning the exchange and the game.

Clockmaker MVP.

Game Two against Exile.

The face punchiest game.

Same list, this time I went first.

Hollowman link ran up the side. I completed forgot he had an assault hacker resulting in my Stempler getting Comms Equipment turned off and then it getting isolated. RIP +1B. While the Stempler was getting punked by the assault hacker, the Spitfire Hollowman won some fire fights with some Dakinis. I made sure to take the Dakini HMG off the board so that the Proxy Engineer could not bring it back up. I then tried to knock out the the FO Proxy, but to do that would take some shots from the Assault hacker's shotgun. I split burst which resulted in the FO Proxy only losing 1 wound allowing it to survive to NWI. Looking back, I should have just poured all those shots into the Proxy and eat the potential single shotgun shot. The E/M grenades were a big threat and I was more likely to lose structure to point blank dual SMGs than I was to a single boarding shotgun when it got around to my reactive turn.

Reactive turn, FO Proxy did exactly what I thought it was going to do and KO'd both Hollowmen before going down to an uncontested Stempler shot. Engineer Proxy KO'd teh Stempler.

Top of turn 2, I was out of kill-y pieces in a kill mission. Welp. I sent my Interventor up in Cybermask. Surprise hacked the Assault Hacker Deva with Sucker Punch. Still not sure on the math if the one die of Sucker Punch is actually better than Brain Blast. It has higher damage and a negative mod on the opponent, sure, but two dice is a heck of a lot more reliable than one. Anyway, Assault hacker was gone but so were my orders.

Bottom of turn 2, Proxy Engineer worked it's way around and knocked out my Interventor as to be expected.

We called it there. I'd be in LoL turn 3 and I had 37 or so points left on the board compared to lots for Exile. 

Looking back, I probably should have tried to use the Zondbot to bring up one of the Hollows again. Would have been safer and got back a much deadlier piece to fight with than an Interventor. The Zondbot was also closer to where the action was, not to mention faster.

Oh well. Learning lessons every game.

[Raindog]

I love that you make this work. I would never take, but you find success and win in what I would look over. This is why this game is great. I see trash. You make treasure. 

[dataentity]

Thanks. At this point, you're used to a lot of orders with Haqq. I'm on the opposite side of the spectrum where I like the tough units (which come at a premium price point).

And on the Brain Blast vs Sucker Punch. According to the Infinity Dice Calculator:

An interventor against a Deva. I had to finagle things to get it right, but I think I did. Interventor was on -6 regardless due to -6 from Lightning. Deva was on either -3 from Surprise or -6 from Surprise+Sucker Punch.

Both have about equal chance of dealing 1 wound to the Deva (30.8 for brain blast, 30.2 for suckerpunch%). Sucker Punch has a 15% chance to deal the second wound, Brain Blast had a ~4% chance of dealing the second wound.

Against Sucker Punch, Deva had a 13.4% chance of dealing damage to the interventor, and against Brain Blast had a 15% chance of wounding the interventor. 

So yes. Interventor was probably better off using Lightning and not Brain Blast. Much higher chance of killing the Deva and has a reasonable increase in survivability for a negligible decrease (.6%) in ability to wound back. Feels wrong because more dice seems better, but the -3 matters a lot I guess.

[Raindog]

Great Analysis!

[dataentity]

Week 2 of Escalation.

Still playing Tunguska. 150 points. Quick mission summary was player with the most models inside a building outside of deployment zone wins. If tied, person with a model in the building furthest outside of their deployment zone won.

List:

Jurisdictional Command of Tunguska
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

8  1  
HECKLER Combi Rifle, Jammer, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
HECKLER Combi Rifle, Jammer, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
MARY PROBLEMS Hacker (Forward Deployment L1) Submachine Gun + Zapper, Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 30)
SECURITATE Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
SECURITATE HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 21)
SECURITATE MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 21)
TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)

3 SWC | 150 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Plan was to get Hecklers covering major avenues of movement out of the deployment zone to isolate troops moving through. They can threaten models while safely tucked away inside a building.

Spoiler alert. exactly 0 things were jammed between 2 games.

2 games.

Game 1 was against Qapu Khalqi (sorry I don't know your forum name). I lost WIP but got to go first. One heckler moved up to the building directly in front of the Ghulam link without ever provoking an ARO. Heckler got inside, closed the door behind himself and waited. Rest of my orders were spent moving Mary Problems up the left side, getting a pitcher out against the Nazmat remotes (though I never hacked them) and then cybermasking. Bottom of turn 1, Haqq did Haqq things. Completely avoided any conflict, played the objective, and got tons of models into buildings. The Ghulams basically ignored the Hecklers because the Heckler could not jam to save his life, failing both completely uncontested (no reset) jamming attempts it had.

Turn 2 had Mary Problems and Heckler #2 fighting against 2 Bashis. Given that the Bashis were left in the open and on reactive, it took almost my entire turn to knock out the Bashis due to just bad rolls. Eventually, Heckler knocked down the second one, fought the Najjarun to take control of that building.  Turn 2 reactive had basically all the remaining Haqq models huddled inside one building. So yes, objective was completed. However, after discussing it with my opponent, he had to do something. As it was, he had 6 models in the one building. However, I had 6+ models that could easily walk up and get into building uncontested, which would leave me with the win due to my Heckler being just ouside his deployment zone / further outside of mine. This resulted in Leila moving out to try and fight, but she went down to the Securitate Multi Sniper.

Turn 3 I moved my securitates up who hid inside the closest building that was outside of my deployment zone. This left me with 6 models in buildings to 5 Haqq models. I also had the one furthest outside of my deployment. Discussing it with my opponent, the Al Hawwa moved out to try and knock out my Securitates as that would be the most efficient way to bring him ahead in models-in-buildings. Al Hawwa ignored my Warcor, taking and saving against 3 or so different flash pulses. Al Hawwa shotgunned my Securitate lieutenant, but ignored the warcor 1 time too many, resulting in the Al Hawwa getting stunned. On my advice, the Al Hawwa attempted to just move into the building with the Sniper and HMG securitates to try and dodge through the rest of his turn. Dodge -3 from stun versus two different pistol shots = one dead Al Hawwa. Had he survived, he had a very good chance of winning due to good range shotgun against pistols.

 

Game 2 against Rudra's TAK.

So same story with Hecklers. Heckler up both flanks, hiding in buildings down major avenues of movement. 0 things effectively jammed. Vet Kazak ignored Jammer on one (due to Veteran L2), Irmandinho walked up to the heckler, ignoring the Jammer (which failed twice), to then chain rifle down the Heckler. Irmandinho scavenged to then become the SUPER MUTT with the Jammer. Vet Kazak out dakka'd Mary Problems to then trogdor Heckler #2. RIP.

Turn 2 Securitate link tried to be useful. Knocked out a Kazak. Hid in a box / building. Dynamo came up the side to smoke my HMG and mine-dispensed in front of the box so the sniper and lieutenant couldn't do anything.

Turn 3 I had the transductor eat the mine (since it wouldn't fit in a building anyway), and then moved up my warcor to get inside another building. With my remaining order, I moved second flash pulse bot into a better ARO position. This left me up 3-to-1, but I was down to basically nothing while TAK had basically everything. Rudra then had free reign of the table to move as much as he wanted into buildings and it was over.

 

I'm just angry at Hecklers. I felt it was a great plan but they decided to just not jam anyone. Mary Problems was more useful taking a wound off a Vet Kazak in reactive and not in suppressive. Against two low-hackable armies. Hecklers just did nothing but eat orders.

[DustGod]

@dataentity 

First, Thanks for the battle reports when I have more time I'll read through them 

How do you feel Mary Problems performs as a Hacker? 

Will you run a 5 Hollow men Link? Whats the best loadout(s)/Best way to run them?

Kriza Boracs... Whats the best loadout(s)/Best way to run them? 

Any Thoughts on Puppetactica...Tactics 🤔

What do you feel is Tunguskas Weakness? 

Just picking your Brain

[dataentity]

I've only used Mary Problems twice and there wasn't much to hack so I can't really say. She was holding her own in shooting because ODD, so at least from that side she's alright.

I 100 percent will run the Hollow pain train. The league is just too low points to do it right now. For load outs you just need a variety. Make sure to include at least one specialist (I like the idea of the hacker to get deflector), and you'll want the spitfire. Otherwise it's up to you. Missile launcher can be scary but it's expensive for low burst. Boarding shotgun is not bad as it's a specialist. Multirifle with pitcher compliments the great hackers in the sectorial.

Kriza HMG and mk12 are both excellent profiles. HMG murders things. Mk12 makes for a good mid field bully. Put him in suppressive and there's no easy way to dig him out other than to just out shoot him.

Have not actually ran the puppets. The puppet master is excellent because it's cheap with counterintelligence, so is relevant in higher point games. Counterintelligence is a very very powerful skill. On paper the puppets look great with basically the cheapest wounds in the game. 1.5 swc, 57 points for bare bones puppetmaster, then one of each puppet, and that's 7 wounds/structure of models.

Tunguska's weaknesses are costs and specialists. They are an elite army. You can have lots of orders, but it's not easy and many other armies do it better. The stuff you want to take are also expensive. Secondly, while the specialists are good with high WIP, they are almost all hackers, leaving them vulnerable to other hackers. Cheapest FO is the stempler, such isn't awful. Next FO up is the Grenzer which is pricey. Securitates do not get FOs which I think is a big weakness. Only doctor is a Daktari which can't go in any links, and is only WIP 13. Engineer is only the clockmaker, which is fine at WIP 15, but without any survivability or extra movement will have problems getting to do classifieds / objectives.

They have the WIP to do objectives (their line infantry is WIP 14) but it's harder to get the specialist variety to do the classifieds easily. I guess with the season X ITS classified deck, I'll probably have to start including the Grenzers since they fill out so many.

[DustGod]

Thanks for the info  @dataentity 

One benefit that I'm seeing is multiple wound models that are very good... 

I'm sure you already know and this is all just papercraft Theory from my end but it seems like they have in cheap abundance really solid, fast, multiple wound heavy Infantry...

While having a lot of orders is fantastic is it really that good if they can't stand up in a firefight? 

 At first I thought it was just a "higher technology faction" But the more I look at Tunguska  the more I'm able to see fire fight and heavy ARO potential. like supporting Kriza Boracs and Hollow men  with the Tsyklon Sputnik: 360 Visor, X-Visor, Feuerbach, Climbing+

Put this thing somewhere high and cover that Heavy Advance

Either +1 Burst ARO or Mkship lvl2 
That's ignoring cover with a Dam 14
AP+DA+Shock
Or 
EXP+Shock 

Or

Burst 2 in ARO 
With 0 Negitives up to 48 and a +3 16-32.... 
Nomads have Such Dope Platforms supporting very survivable Mobile Heavy Infantry and all of it can mix and match Fire team Duo...

don't get me started on huge toolbox applications of the Lunokhod... think about what it could do in Frostbyte  surrounded by heavy armor ... anyway 

Looking forward to your next report 

[dataentity]

@DustGod

You have to remember, orders wins games. While yes, there are kill-based missions, most of the ITS missions require you to. do something else other than kill. This is why Haqq and Ariadna are really good. Generally speaking those two factions don't have fighting potential (Yes, they can do it. Veteran Kazaks are amazing. Fidays and definitely kill things. Asawiras can. But it's not the faction's specialty). But, they have good specialists and are cheap. Even not talking about button pushing missions, you can kill more with a 15 order list than a 10 order list, and you can certainly do more objectives than the smaller list. Infinity is a game where it's definitely possible for any model to hurt or kill any other model. A lowly Keisotsu or Metro can beat an Avatar. It's also possible to win a game without having to ever fire a shot.

ITS Season IX gave a huge buff to small lists due to the changes to Limited Insertion (can't take away 2 orders with a command token). While Season X did keep that buff, it has changed things to push for high order lists again. It has included some missions that just require a lot of orders to get done. Unmasking is order intensive. The Grid takes a lot of orders as well. Rescue will take a lot of orders. The entirety of the new classified deck wants you to eat orders. Any mission with the Xenotech wants you to waste a minimum of 1.5-2 orders to do (which if you only have a maximum of 30 in a game with a 10 order list is a lot.).

[DustGod]

Not alot of button pushers... I was listening to the newest Maya cast they were discussing the classified deck and I was thinking it might be kind of order intensive it seems like it is... I got to get used to this kind of stuff versus the old war games that used to play where it was pretty much kill kill kill

How will -You- cover that deficit inside Tunguska when you build?

I'll open a topic after work so everyone can discuss without blowing up your blog

Sorry if I'm derailing your blog let me know 

[dataentity]

You're fine.

To account for the difficulty in taking high orders, I'd probably be trying to rely on mobility. Hollowmen still only have 8 inches of movement like a standard infantry, but super jump is insane. Obstacles are no longer really obstacles. Stemplers really help bring down the cost of the link as well. But I should be practicing getting higher order counts. Securitates, while on the expensive side of line infantry, are also amongst the most elite. They have the BS 12 of Fusiliers while also having WIP 14 of Ghulams. Veteran level 1 is also useful to have.

And it's not as if Tunguska can't take higher orders. I like the durability of the more elite units, since I come from Tohaa where almost every model in a typical list I took would have 2 wounds. So for Tunguska, if I do a Securitate link, I kept taking Perseus. I don't have to, and he does provide good utility with smoke, but the link will still be fine without him.

 

Jurisdictional Command of Tunguska
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 110  
SECURITATE Feuerbach / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)
SECURITATE Feuerbach / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)
GRENZER Missile Launcher / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
SECURITATE HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 21)
SECURITATE Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
GRENZER (Forward Observer, Sensor) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
INTERVENTOR Hacker Lieutenant (Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)
TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
DAKTARI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
ZONDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

GROUP 25  
LUNOKHOD Heavy Shotgun, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges, CrazyKoalas (2) / Electric Pulse. (0 | 24)
SPEKTR Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Cybermines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 34)
STEMPLER ZOND Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17)
CLOCKMAKER Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
PUPPET MASTERS Submachine Gun / PistolKnife. (0 | 12)

5 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Higher order list with extra models to have a good defensive team if I go second (leave feurbachs and the missile launcher up), so if one goes down, I can just add another securitate or extra grenzer into the link and push up like normal. If I go first, Puppet Master limits the command token 2 combat group negative. This list can reasonably do highly classified as I think it has all the bases covered.

[DustGod]

 

Good list 

[dataentity]

So I'm just going to do a write up during some down time. It's on a phone so please forgive any autocorrect derps.

 

So last Saturday, I played against Rudra again. More Tunguska v TAK. He was an awful person bringing 6 camo markers. Might have been more.

My list:

FO mission──────────────────────────────────────────────────8  1  PUPPET MASTERS Submachine Gun / PistolKnife. (0 | 12)

PUPPETBOT (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Electric Pulse. (0 | 11)

PUPPETBOT (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Electric Pulse. (0 | 11)

PUPPETBOT Red Fury / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 16)

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

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

WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)

SECURITATE Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)

SECURITATE Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)

GRENZER (Forward Observer, Sensor) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)

SECURITATE Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)

SPEKTR (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 32) 2 SWC | 175 PointsOpen in Infinity Army

Mission was to FO and flash pulse things. Threr loot boxes on both sides. Points for FO'ing them to reveal contents. Point for opening a box. So, what better chance to try the puppets?

I went first. Pushed the troupe up the board. Turns out, trying to get objective points is hard. Took my whole turn just FO'ing and flashing a single line Kazak, before finishing it off with a marksmanship boosted red fury.

Bottom of turn 1, Strekok (surprise, no surprise) came and the corner and dueled with the troupe. Turns out a haris equivalent of 2 wound models survive very well. Though I made a disgusting amount of armor saves. I realize I should have dodged so I can get multiple attacks back but I wanted to just put the strelok down with the red fury puppet. Dodging works very well given the hyper dynamics and kinematica.

Turn 2 my spektr pops out of hidden camo. I completely forgot he was staring 2 line kazaks in the face. He gets flash pulsed, while he observes the box in his face. In the box is a chain rifle. He gets stunned for his efforts though, so goes prone. Grenzer + Securitate team moves up. Rest of my turn was pulsing and targeting the Strelok, before finishing her off.

Reactive, Rudra moves up the opposite flank to FO a box. He then sends another Strelok to fight the Spektr. A couple of washes then the Spektr crits the Strelok in the face. Vet Kazak peeks from his hiding spot to kill my Grenzer, breaking my for core link.

Last active turn, Spektr is able to FO a line kazak who then hides. This lets the Spektr take the chain rifle, then go in suppressive. I then reform the link for the defense.

Bottom of 3, Kazak link baits out the shot from the spectr to also the vet to move across the table unopposed. Vet Kazak then gets to free flash, and FO my unconscious puppets, getting Rudra the win.

Awkward have overall. Optimizing points earned took a lot of orders.

First time using the Spektr and the puppets. Puppets feel very Tohaa. They're a tough trio with meh BS (11) that is very order efficient. It was nice not losing any orders after they went down. Spektr was an adequately difficult road block that could do objectives. Need to do more experimentation with them.

The lack of FO line infantry was definitely felt. Having to upgrade to a Grenzer was not cheap.