Infinity Thoughts Blog

[Kremmet]

This week in Infinity gaming, I managed to not just play against ALEPH forever (gasp).  No, instead I was blessed with a rare appearance from one of the two Nomad players in the area.  I was especially blessed as I was playing against the Nomad player I sold my army way back in N2 to buy Yu Jing instead.  It seemed like a good idea at the time....

 

Anyway, here's the lowdown as I remember it.

 

Opponent's List:

 

Nomads

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9  1  

IGUANA HMG, Heavy Flamethrower / . (2 | 71)

 IGUANA OPERATOR HMG / Pistol, Knife. (0)

ZOE & PI-WELL . (0 | 47)

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

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

LUPE BALBOA Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Panzerfaust,  Smoke Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 23)

REAKTION ZOND HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)

TSYKLON Feuerbach, Pitcher / Electric Pulse. (1 | 34)

SPEKTR MULTI Sniper Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 39)

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

INTERVENTOR Hacker Lieutenant (Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)

ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)

 

6 SWC | 300 Points

 

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My List:

 

Limited Onyx Pairing v2.3

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10  

UMBRA SAMARITAN Spitfire, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Vorpal CC Weapon. (1 | 44)

XEODRON Red Fury, Blitzen / Heavy Pistol. (1 | 59)

XEODRON Red Fury, Blitzen / Heavy Pistol. (1 | 59)

UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)

UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)

UNIDRON K1 Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 17)

UNIDRON Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)

NEXUS Lieutenant Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nullifier / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)

RODOK Paramedic (MediKit) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)

MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

 

5.5 SWC | 300 Points

 

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Mission:  Highly Classified

-Objectives:  Telemetry, Espionage, Data Scan, Sabotage, Test Run (his hidden), Experimental Drug (my hidden)

 

Pre-game Thoughts:  My opponent approached me for a more funsies style game that I was only happy to oblige him with.  Digging up my finest "what even is an Onyx?" list, I set out to dominate the hacker faction with wave after wave of my own robots.  Not a great plan, but it was mine dammit!  As a bit of an aside, I had two proxies in this game with my Umbra Legate appearing as my Samaritan as my Samaritan model is not ready to cooperate with physics and my Zhanying w/ Missile Launcher being the Unidron with the same weapon as I don't own that set.  

 

With all of that in mind, I won the Lt roll off and chose to go first because reasons (this was a for-fun game so I didn't intend to take things too seriously).  My opponent chose to deploy on the stronger side cover wise and gave me first deployment.  

 

 

From left to right, my Rodok paramedic is off picture to the left of the Xeodron haris behind some boxes.  The plan was for him and the haris to abuse their Super Jump and overtake the left flank.  To their right is Dr. Worm (my HVT is next to him as I had forgotten to set her up yet again).  Off picture is my core link of Unidrons who are hugging the right side of the right-most building.  You can also barely see Fellowship Worm peeking out from behind the wall in front of said building.

 

My opponent deployed fully behind cover with his REMs taking control over his central building.

 

Turn 1:

Onyx:  With no real plan, I decided to charge up the board with my haris and try to cause some damage.  Upon my first activation, however, my opponent revealed his Spektr sniper who was set up on top of some crates on the other side of the field.  He decided to shoot at the link leader Xeodron who decided to shoot back.  A crit and a hit later, my opponent decided that revealing his sniper like that was probably a dumb idea to which I had to agree.

 

 

With that taken care of, I sped off to my real objective:  silencing the TR bot because reasons (again, I didn't really have much of a plan for this game).  I jumped on top of the central building with my haris and proceeded to take aim with the Samaritan's Spitfire.  While my first salvo ended with me soaking a wound, I did end up dropping the TR bot and placing my Samaritan prone to finish out the plan.

 

 

Lastly, I moved my core link team around a bit to help protect my TAGs a bit from my opponent's strong flank.  I am loathe to place models as "ARO pieces" especially with Onyx where everything is a little too glass-cannon, but I couldn't spend enough orders to get my haris down off the building and wasn't comfortable with leaving them without any support.

 

 

Nomads:  Things are a little fuzzy here as the game was a few days ago, but here's the gist of it.  First, my opponent activated his hacker Lt. to place Marksmanship2 on his Tsyklon in an attempt to disrupt my haris.  This ended in an amusing firefight where I lost one set of Blitzens in exchange for the Tsyklon getting IMM2 and dropped once each requiring Zoe to step in and waste my opponent's orders.  

 

 

All would've been well had the Iguana not broken my link and placed himself in Suppressive Fire staring at all of my models.  Man do I miss having cost-effective infiltrators when I play CA....

 

 

Turn 2:

Onyx:  Turn two saw the beginning of my obsession with downing the Iguana.  Besides reforming my core link, I spent the entire turn trying to reach its preset kill limit with my waves of men.  This ended up costing me the remaining Blitzens I had, two wounds off of one of the Xeodrons, another Unidron (thankfully Fellowship Worm was nearby to fix him up), and my Slave Drone.  All in all, it was not an effective turn for the Onyx force.

 

Nomads:  Where I acted only with blinders and rage, my opponent tried to run around and actually get in position to do things.  Just like a filthy Nomad to ruin a perfectly good firefight with an attempt at winning.  Still, it seemed that Lady Luck was on my side as the Bandit Hacker and Lupe both attempted to down the same Xeodron who merely crit dodged his way through the danger until my opponent thought it wise to spend orders elsewhere (a failed adhesive shot and two fully absorbed Panzerfaust shots will do that to a man).  Unfortunately for him this just continued the fail train as the Iguana took a wound in his effort to finish off my wounded Xeodron and my remaining FO Unidron at the same time.  It was of course the Unidron who sneaked the wound through as apparently TAGs are useless.  The only other player of note was Lupe trying to take down my Rodok, succeeding at being forced into Dogged, and then taking the monkey man down with her in an amusing corner firefight no other model could witness.  Well played, Lupe.

 

Turn 3:

Onyx:  Dawn of the final turn.  Sensing a sudden urgency to get [big bad swear word] done, I decided to actually attempt some scenario points.  To do that, however, I first needed to finally drop the Iguana...which happened unceremoniously when the same FO Unidron just popped him in the chest to drop the TAG.  

 

 

The pilot who popped out apparently put a bit too much fuel into his chair and dispersed on top of some stairs right in front of my core link.  This time it was the Missile Launcher's chance to shine who proceeded to drop the poor guy before he even had a chance to remove the buckles from his chair. With that done, I set to work with my Nexus hacker who hacked my opponent's HVT, nailed the Spotlight on the downed pilot, and then scanned him with my last breath (ie I had to spend my Lt order to get the Data Scan done).  My turn over, I passed to my opponent.

 

 

Nomads:  As my opponent had completed his secret objective, Test Run, some turns ago, he just needed to complete three of the public objectives himself for the win.  In a perfect example of "easier said than done," Pi-Well attempted to observe my Nexus Lt for a sneaky bid at victory.  This failed not once, not twice, but three times before the Nexus managed to dodge move all the way to total cover and my opponent decided to call it.

 

 

Results:  Onyx victory 

 

Conclusion:  Yeah, this is just one of those games that show you how dice spiking can quickly change the outcome.  My opponent failing to nail the glue shots or get any of the Panzerfausts to stick really killed his mid and end game as the super exposed Xeodrons just shrugged everything that was thrown at them off and threatened to gun any specialists that attempted to win on mission.  He did make a self-professed mistake in revealing his Spektr so early which I totally agree with.  Especially with Nomads, this list is so afraid of TO hackers that I have to be very careful with how I do anything not to mention the fact that he was a sniper meant that my actual shot attempt on the TR bot would've been interrupted by a sniper and siphoned off at least one shot to make it not a normal roll.  

 

For my mistakes, I made plenty.  The big one was in not allowing for enough orders to extricate my Haris after removing the TR bot.  This did end up costing me many more orders than I thought it would, but I think I should've abandoned the plan to better hide my main killers better and live to fight another day.  That or just break the link to put them into Suppressive Fire.  In the end I'm not super worried about mistakes with this kinda list though as it's really just for fun rather than a competitive angle I'm actually pursuing.  Xeodrons are cool models, but I don't think they really bring enough to the table in a sectorial already struggling with relevance.

[Kremmet]

MOAR GAMES!  So I've been remiss in posting anything Infinity related lately so let's try to change course and post a quick batrep.  As I'm currently working on a few commissions I'll likely also try to take a few crappy phone pictures in the future to get some more creative thoughts on the game. But that day is not today so on with the batrep!

 

Mission:  Rescue

 

Opponent's List:  

 Jurisdictional Command of Bakunin

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GROUP 1  8  2  2

 MODERATOR MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 17)

 MODERATOR MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 17)

 MODERATOR Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 11)

 MODERATOR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)

 MODERATOR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)

 ZERO Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)

 TSYKLON Spitfire, Pitcher / Electric Pulse. (1 | 31)

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

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

 PROWLER Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, CCW. (2 | 36)

 

GROUP 2  3  1  1

 KUSANAGI Lieutenant MULTI Rifle + Light Flamethrower, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (+1 | 44)

 REVEREND CUSTODIER Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 34)

 REVEREND HEALER Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, EXP CCW. (0 | 32)

 BAKUNIN ÜBERFALLKOMMANDO . (0 | 23)

   CHIMERA Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Viral CCW. (0 | 20)

   x3 PUPNIK DA CCW. (0 | 3)

 

7 SWC | 299 Points

 

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(don't quote me on the combat groups as this is just a loose approximation of them)

 

My List:  

 

 Onyx  Sphinx 2.0

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GROUP 1  10  

 SPHINX Spitfire, 2 Heavy Flamethrowers / EXP CCW. (2 | 106)

 UNIDRON K1 Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 17)

 UNIDRON Plasma Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 24)

 UNIDRON Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)

 UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)

 UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)

 R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

 IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)

 ÍMETRON . (0 | 4)

 ÍMETRON . (0 | 4)

 

GROUP 2  4  

 NEXUS Lieutenant Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nullifier / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)

 MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

 SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

 M-DRONE Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17)

 IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)

 

6 SWC | 298 Points

 

Open in Infinity Army

 

My list is based off of two things:

1) A recent trade of mine had come in an included a Sphinx.

2) I really want to make my Onyx force work so I'm trying some new things.

 

Board:

 

 

My opponent won the pre-game roll off and opted to choose table side and to deploy second (the far side to be exact) which left me with the choice to go first or second.  I definitely think, as in a lot of missions, going second in Rescue is a pretty good deal, but I also was running a TAG rambo so I decided on going first. I waffled with this decision until I had finished deploying which is why some of the deployments are a little weird. The various animal robots are my opponent's civilian models while the Eldar Pathfinders are mine.

 

Deployment:

Onyx:  From left to right my deployment is:

-Nexus Lt. hacker

-Ikadron 1 (proxied by a Keisotsu up by the building with the stairs)

-Unidron link team (the Noctifer with ML was my stand-in for the Unidron with ML while the Autocannon dude is the plasma sniper)

-Slave Drone

-Imetron 1 (this one stuck the landing here)

-R-Drone

-Imetron 2 (this was just one of those freak deviations where I ended up in a much better spot)

-Dr. Worm

-M-Drone

-Ikadron 2 (proxied by a Keisotsu by the potted plant offscreen to the right)

 

My held back model was the Sphinx who deployed in marker form behind the wall central to my deployment zone.

 

Bakunin:

I don't rightly remember every little piece, but here's the gist of things (again from picture left to right):

-Uberfallkommandos

-Zero hacker in marker state

-Morlock 1 (who rolled +3 phys)

-Prowler with Spitfire in marker state

-Kusanagi Haris (behind the green and blue boxes in the far back of the deployment zone)

-Morlock 2 (who rolled +6 BTS)

-Tsyklon

-Moderator link (all prone except for both the snipers who are visible on the far-right bridge)

 

His held back model(s) were the Uberfallkommandos who decided they wanted nothing to do with my obvious Sphinx and deployed on the opposite flank from it.

 

Turn One:

Onyx:  After my opponent reduced my main combat group by two orders, I began my attempt to remove some key pieces with my Sphinx before (hopefully) grabbing a civvie and legging it.

 

 

After climbing around the wall directly in front of me, one of the Moderator snipers spotted me and I was left revealed behind some boxes for cover.

 

 

In two short orders, I had removed both snipers as my opponent lamented not attempting to dodge when I slammed three shots into each one given he needed a seven with one roll and fours with the following rolls (I removed the +3 bonus by dropping a sniper with the first salvo which knocked the subsequent shot down to a four). If I remember correctly, my opponent attempted to dodge the second set of shots and still ended up missing the target number. A good start to be sure, but what followed was definitely nail biting. As I skulked around the right flank, we read the rules for CivEvac and, as far as we could tell, it didn't break the Stealth granted by my TO Camo which meant I could synchronize with a civilian without his hackers being able to blast me through the Tsyklon's Repeater. If we got this wrong, please tell me where to find the rule as I definitely couldn't find it. 

 

While I did manage to knab the first Eldar for my collection, my opponent slammed me with two crits for my troubles along with a few Chain Rifles that rolled off my sleek exterior. The remainder of my turn was spent moving the Sphinx back to my half of the table and healing him back up to full with my Slave Drone which also happened to fulfill my hidden objective which was Test Run. A mistake I made here was not ending my turn with the Sphinx in Suppressive Fire, but I'm otherwise happy with my playing.

 

 

Oh yes, I also slapped out Marksmanship2 onto my ML Unidron using my Lt. Order. Maybe not the smartest plan to reveal my hacker Lt. to a Nomad opponent, but I felt the ML was going to be a very important ARO piece in the coming turn so I went for it.

 

 

Bakunin:

 

My opponent began his turn with his Impetuous troopers running straight for my Slave Drone and, by extension, my Sphinx.  Still they managed to never enter my various view finders and instead just littered the streets with smoke of various kinds.  This smoke allowed the Tsyklon to toss a Pitcher over by the Sphinx in anticipation of hacking the TAG down.

 

 

With the Pitcher in place, the Zero hacker revealed herself and advanced into the eclipse smoke to my left before nailing me on her first try using Basilisk.

 

 

 With my TAG immobilized, my opponent went into the think tank about how exactly to best utilize that.  Unfortunately he couldn't figure anything too good out and was forced to give me a free reset as he moved a Morlock up to engage the Sphinx which I passed.

 

 

The Sphinx being back in service rattled my opponent who decided to ignore it in favor of taking down the ML Unidron on the roof.  This was met with varied success as the Tsyklon did manage to fully remove the robit, but only after spending all of his remaining orders which left him ass in the wind.

 

 

Turn Two:

Onyx:  I started the turn wanting to drop a few of the Nomads that were now out in the open, starting with the Zero hacker, to allow for my Sphinx to go pick up some fresh meat.  Unfortunately with the Pitcher and Repeater so near my TAG, I needed to use my link team to accomplish this task first and I had not really set them up well for the sniper to be a good active turn piece.  This ended with me losing one of the Unidrons to a coherency check and knocking my link down to a 3-man style, but I did manage to use my Lt. order to grant Marksmanship2 to the sniper through the R-Drone standing to its right.  Taking careful aim through the exclusion zone, the Unidron sniper managed to hit and put the Zero into unconsciousness which was a load off my Sphinx.

 

My second combat group decided it needed to be helpful so Dr. Worm walked out to grab the Sphinx's civilian with the M-Drone advanced to kill the Pitcher trapping the TAG (it did not succeed).  With the Pitcher still in place, the Sphinx rolled back ready to reset in active turn, but that turned out to be wasted as my opponent missed the hacking ARO on him so he climbed the nearest building and dropped the troublesome Pitcher.  

 

With two targets of three down, I decided that the Sphinx was the most likely to be able to drop the Tsyklon efficiently as the Unidrons were going to have a hard time advancing around the buildings. Mirroring the events that forced the Tsyklon to just stand in the middle of the street, my Sphinx only managed to drop the REM after spending all of the orders in my main combat group which left me again outside of Suppressive Fire on my TAG.  Poo poo.

 

 

Bakunin:

Running low on orders and even lower on stopping power, my opponent began his turn trying to figure out how he was going to grab any of the robotic animals he had promised to save.  One Morlock valiantly ran forward to Chain Rifle one of the Unidrons off the roof of the building, but when his sister tried to do the same against the plasma sniper, Imetron, and Slave Drone she was met with a bullet to the head from my Sphinx and a series of successful dodges/ARM rolls.  Seeing little chance for victory, the Uberfallkommandos ran forward to engage my Sphinx while the Prowler snuck around in the smoke to net one civilian to his name.  The Pupniks did a great job of passing all of their dodges while attempting to engage, but unfortunately their Vixen commander fell leaving them all disconnected.  This left my opponent in dire straights as my third turn began.

 

Turn Three:

Onyx:  Really all I did here was gather my orders, move the Sphinx up to gun down the Prowler, and snag another civvie with it.  My opponent conceded at this point, but I definitely had a shot at getting a third civvie and dragging the one the Sphinx had nabbed back to my Dead Zone for max points.

 

 

Score:

Onyx: 10

Bakunin: 0

 

Conclusion:

Overall I'm rather impressed with this version of an Onyx list even if my opponent professed to being rusty at Infinity and very new to Bakunin. I still feel the sting of the lack of tools especially considering CA is supposed to be the high tech faction, but I was able to push a rather decisive victory while being able to being able to see where things went well and where they didn't rather than the crapshoot I generally get while playing Onyx. I'm eager to try out more high order Onyx lists in the future although I won't be including the Sphinx as often as all that. It's definitely a powerful piece, but the loss of models like the Legate was definitely felt.

[Don't Panic]

While it is a short movement skill I'd say stealth works. Here is requirement http://infinitythewiki.com/en/Civilian_Rules#Synchronize_Civilian

[Kremmet]

Right, I knew all of that which is why we played it the way we did. I was more wondering if there was some forum erratum that I was missing as it is quite the weird corner case.

[Kremmet]

A few more thoughts about Onyx today. Recently I've been reading as much as I can about Onyx as I really do enjoy the models I have, but feel like there's just so little control compared to when I play my Yu Jing (and even less so when I look at how good ALEPH has it). What I mean by control in this context is that I wasn't really covering the board well, didn't have any smoke/other counter-interdiction pieces, and I didn't really have the big threats that normal CA can throw at problems like the Anathematic. Really, I was just stuck which is why I found it fascinating when threads about Onyx mainly talked about how high order count the army was. Granted, those same lists were making judicious use of Spec-Ops which doesn't seem to happen here in the States, but the point still stood. That's when I started heavily formatting my lists to get as many orders as I could without seriously jeopardizing my ability to either kill or run scenarios. One of those lists I posted in my last batrep which uses a Sphinx to help deal with killier/area control missions, but I also wrote a list that is more capable of "normal" missions which looks like this:

 

YOU KNOW NOTHING DRON SNOW!

──────────────────────────────────────────────────

 

GROUP 19  

NEXUS Lieutenant (Specialist Operative) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)

UMBRA LEGATE Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 43)

MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

FRAACTA Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28)

M-DRONE Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17)

R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)

E-DRONE Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 28)

ÍMETRON . (0 | 4)

 

GROUP 27  

Q-DRONE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)

UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)

UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)

UNIDRON K1 Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 17)

UNIDRON Plasma Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 24)

UNIDRON Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)

ÍMETRON . (0 | 4)

 

5.5 SWC | 300 Points

 

Open in Infinity Army

 

While a few of the pieces were chosen just because of what I have painted (eg the Fraacta), the rest uses the idea that more is better and, with 16 effective orders including a link team, I think I've accomplished that goal. The lack of any warband/smoke users in general definitely hurts, but it was moderately freeing when looking at the army as it saved me points trying to shoehorn a Maakrep into every list just for the MSV2. The philosophy in this army is to ignore what they're weak at and just focus on the good with that good being all the robits I can find. That definitely brings its own problems for missions like Transmission Matrix and Rescue (why can a Su-Jian grab civvies, but Unidrons not?) which likely just means I'll need to make iterative changes for events that involve them (the Sphinx list actually being my first "solution" to Rescue in Onyx).

 

The other issue with getting these lists together is it means I have quite a few additional models to paint up if I want to remain fully painted which I do. I find events to be the best motivator for me to paint personal projects and Infinity proves to be no different as I'm currently hurrying to get the nine remaining unpainted models for my two lists (which are thankfully very similar in terms of troopers used) painted in time for an event next Saturday here in Seattle (technically Kirkland, but w/e). I have at least started on them with my progress visible below:

 

 

Things are definitely a little rough at the moment with only the orange anywhere near complete (it probably needs another three or so layers before I'll call it that), but I'm still confident I'll have them done in time. What I'm more shaky about is how I'm doing these guys as I plan to test my mettle by heavily using masking to get the main color down with my airbrush (which is that light tan you can see throughout this thread). I'm trying this for a few reasons, but chief among them is that the orange organic interiors of the models really need a purely tonal base to work from with any additional hues seriously marring the end result never mind that the tinting I use to accomplish the orange is very messy as is evident in the picture above. This means I'll be trying out some new masking fluid and seeing whether this method speeds things up appreciably enough to skip using my brush the next time I need to do this (tinting the interior of the model being as popular as it is in Infinity models). I'll keep y'all posted with the results!

[Raindog]

That is a great list. I am waiting for your paint updates and battle reports.

[Don't Panic]

second that.  think that is close to my favorite onyx style list ive seen yet!  niiice

[Kremmet]

Thanks for the kind words!  I completed a game today with the list above against an ALEPH player with his list being something like this:

 

ALEPH

──────────────────────────────────────────────────

 

10  

PROXY Mk.1 Engineer Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)

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

THORAKITES (Forward Observer, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)

ACHILLES Lieutenant Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, EXP CCW. (2.5 | 75)

DAKINI Tacbot Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)

YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

ZAYIN Rebot HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)

ZAYIN Rebot HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)

DASYU Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 37)

PROXY Mk.2 Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)

MYRMIDON OFFICER (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 35)

MYRMIDON Chain Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 16)

THORAKITES (Forward Observer, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)

 

6 SWC | 300 Points

 

Open in Infinity Army

 

Mission: Highly Classified (with alllllllllllllllllll of the HVT cards in play)

 

Setup:

ALEPH: I won the roll off and chose to deploy second so my opponent deployed something like this:

 

 

The left side of the table looked something like this with Achilles, the smoker Myrmidon, and one of the TR bots taking cover behind the boxes in the center of the picture. Next to them is the prone Mk5 proxy I believe with the CoC Myrmidon hiding off in the background. The right side looked like this:

 

 

Behind the wooden building is the second TR bot, the proxy engineer, and the Dakini paramedic with the thorakites behind the bridged building to the far right. 

 

Onyx:

 

 

From left to right, we have my M-Drone, Legate (barely visible up by the wall two buildings up), the E-Drone, Slave Drone, Nexus, Unidron link (ML, PSR, FO, Tinbot, FO) with an Imetron mixed in...

 

 

...R-Drone, Imetron the second, Q-drone, HVT Dragon Lady, Ikadron, and Dr. Worm.

 

Turn one comprised of my opponent hacking the HVT with his proxy hacker only for the plasma sniper to put him in NWI, the Dasyu hacker killing my Umbra (shoulda put up Kaleidoscope as I originally thought), and Achilles messing about with my robits. On my end of the deal, I managed to burn the proxy hacker to death with my Ikadron (and a few shots from the link team), kill the Dasyu with my Fraacta, and remove one TR bot while disabling the other. I didn't accomplish any objects which was a shame as my hidden one was Test Run so I was eager to finish it before the good doctor was murdered by Achilles.

 

Turn two was more of the same from ALEPH with a few coordinated orders moving his forces up the table while Achilles attempted to deal with my right flank. He managed to disable the Ikadron, but not quite kill it although the Fraacta crumbled before the might of Achilles. Other than the Achilles shenanigans, I also managed to lose my plasma sniper and the ALEPH TR bot still on the table stood back up. Onyx turn two was comprised mainly of pissing off Achilles (we did manage a wound and to burn his stupid ODD away), removing the TR bot, and having my Slave Drone go mess with the enemy HVT. Since my doctor managed to get the Ikadron up and working again, I was ahead two main objectives and my own classified so ended the turn in a dominant position.

 

Turn three was cut short as my opponent needed Achilles to clear out the area around my HVT to get his specialists over to it, but was nailed with a Flash Pulse off the bat and decided to call it there.

 

Conclusions: 

 

This wasn't much of a game with quite a bit of it being decided by the worst Highly Classified draw I've seen with four central HVT objectives. If I'd been willing to be a bit more devious, I would've opted to take first turn and just run off with my HVT after syncing it to make the objectives all but impossible for my opponent. As it was, things weren't quite that awful. 

 

One thing I am thinking about is how poorly my Fraacta continues to do. Since I don't own the Spitfire version and she's such an abysmal specialist, I run her mainly as a drop Boarding Shotgun which hardly seems worth the effort in most games. I'm heavily considering a list where I drop her in favor of a second Nexus with normal hacking device to get a possible three Marksmanship2's going along with another powerful specialist. That list would look like this:

 

YOU KNOW NOTHING DRON SNOW!

──────────────────────────────────────────────────

 

GROUP 18  

NEXUS Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nullifier / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)

UMBRA LEGATE Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 43)

MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

M-DRONE Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17)

R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

E-DRONE Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 28)

ÍMETRON . (0 | 4)

Q-DRONE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)

 

GROUP 28  

IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)

NEXUS Lieutenant (Specialist Operative) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)

UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)

UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)

UNIDRON K1 Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 17)

UNIDRON Plasma Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 24)

UNIDRON Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)

ÍMETRON . (0 | 4)

 

6 SWC | 299 Points

 

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The slightly weaker punch in losing the Fraacta surprise might well be made up through the additional Marksmanship and I do gain a very minor ability to play Hide the Lt. which is otherwise incredibly obvious if you know anything about Onyx going in. Thoughts?

[Raindog]

Play a game or two without the Fraacta, and I think you will miss the unit. The BS always seems to open up lanes of play and remove turtled up units. It is a solid tool and constant threat.

[Kremmet]

I've mostly played Onyx without a Fraacta and you may well be right about missing the ability to scalpel out dug in units, but I'm not sold that this list needs that. Even without the mission focus I'm looking at right now (Rescue, Capture and Protect, and Highly Classified), the Fraacta just isn't pulling its weight. Maybe if I ran the Spitfire variant I'd change my mind as the weapon plays to the unit's strengths (wounds and jump), but I find that variant a difficult sell with the core concept of this list being to inundate the table with robots. Still the decision can wait as I don't need to paint anything additional in the case of either list winning out.

[Don't Panic]

if you arent feeling the fraacta, thing i was thinking when i first looked at it was dropping it and the flash bot for a malignos FO.  adds a specialist as well as a great tactical infiltrator.   

[Kremmet]

Yeah, the Malignos is pretty great and I do already have one painted. Well I have a Noctifer I use as a Malignos painted because the Malignos looks stupid. Same thing.

[Kremmet]

Played in an ITS event this past Saturday with my Onyx which was definitely interesting. Missions used were Capture and Protect, Rescue, and Highly Classified with no special modifiers (eg SpecOps, Sex Pun, etc). For my lists just look above as I ran the Sphinx list and the posted Onyx list with Fraacta. On the note of the Fraacta, I decided to heed Raindog's advice and leave it in mostly because it's a really cool model, but also because my results were probably skewing its usefulness a little too hard given the zero Ariadna players and very few Haqq games I can get in around here. As a bit of foreshadowing, that turned out to be a good idea.

 

I'm not going to do big run downs of each game, but I can talk a little about how all of them went.

 

Game one saw me playing against a Haqq player who ran, to me, an unusual list with very few orders. IIRC he had something like this:

 

Haqqislam

──────────────────────────────────────────────────

 

8  2  2

FASID HMG + (Smoke and Normal) Light Grenade Launcher, Antipersonnel Mines / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 53)

HAWWA' Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26)

TUAREG Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 33)

FIDAY Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)

FARZAN (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 26)

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

SALADIN Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 36)

MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

RAGIK Spitfire / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 32)

 

4 SWC | 253 Points

 

Open in Infinity Army

 

Obviously there was more to the list, but this is all I can remember. I ran the Fraacta list and we played Capture and Protect. He won initiative (actually I failed the roll on a 20) and chose to go first and reduced the Fiday group (I believe there was a smaller second group) by two orders. Most of his turn one was spent running around trying to dislodge my link team and accomplish his Classified Objective (Telemetry) before clicking my left-most console for the main objective. My turn one consisted of killing his Fiday, Saladin, the Farzan, and the Hawwa along with connecting the antenna and accomplishing Telemetry for myself. Given his dire straights, my opponent did the best he could throughout the next two turns, but it wasn't enough as I used my link to grab the beacon and drag it all the way to my deployment zone. Score ended up with a 10-2 victory to me with 188 VP left.

 

Game two saw me playing not only against Ariadna, but a Caledonian spam list in Highly Classified which again left me no real choice beyond my Fraacta list. The objectives were all the to observe the HVT, hack the HVT, fix a robot, and perform a coup de grace with my secret one being engineering on the HVT. I guess my game with all HVT-related objectives was a good primer for the tourney after all. 

 

My opponent's list looked something like this:

 

Caledonian Highlander Army

──────────────────────────────────────────────────

 

GROUP 11  9  9

McMURROUGH 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Templar CCW (AP + DA). (0 | 31)

WALLACE Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CCW. (0 | 35)

CAMERONIAN 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CCW. (0 | 23)

CAMERONIAN 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CCW. (0 | 23)

CAMERONIAN 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CCW. (0 | 23)

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

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

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

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

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

 

GROUP 27  1  1

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

UXÍA McNEILL (Covert Action) (CH: Limited Camouflage, Superior Infiltration, Specialist Operative) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 27)

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

ISOBEL McGREGOR Rifle, Flash Pulse, D-Charges, E/Mauler / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 23)

VOLUNTEER Paramedic (Medikit) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)

WARDRIVER Hacker (Defensive Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)

VOLUNTEER Light Shotgun, Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 10)

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

 

3 SWC | 298 Points

 

Open in Infinity Army

 

Again, this list isn't exact, but the key features are there (Volunteer+Grey+Isobel link, Uxia, all the dogs, scots). Again I failed the Lt. roll and my opponent again chose to go first. After failing all of his infiltration rolls, he decided to just get a move on with his dogs on my left flank to deal with the Unidron link who were set up in my backfield for support. This didn't end well as, all on his turn, the Grey went down (but got better), Uxia went down, all the dogs died, and McMurrough took a wound in exchange for three Unidrons and my Q-Drone. As my turn began, I wanted to do some nonsense with the HVT given how many of those objectives we had, but my opponent couldn't really accomplish any of the goals so I just had my Umbra go accomplish all of mine instead. I managed to land the hack and Spotlight on the HVT while also repairing one of my Unidrons (I generally just go Dogged, but he nailed one with his last order of the turn so I decided it was safe enough to nab objectives off of) and putting a coup de grace on Uxia. Again this was a tough game after my turn one for my opponent as I brought the Fraacta in turn two to drop Isobel and the Wardriver which left him with no way to actually win. The game ended with an 8-1 victory for me with 102 VP remaining.

 

Round three should've been the toughest I saw, but my opponent went for a weaker table with some wide fire lanes playing Morats into my Onyx. As we were playing Rescue I ran my Sphinx list who is perfectly situated for the mission (also being one of 10ish models in the whole sectorial that are allowed to sync with civvies isn't bad either). I don't really remember much about my opponent's list beyond the Suryat+Raktorak+Kornak link and a Q-Drone so I won't pretend to army it up here. 

 

The game went pretty slowly with my opponent making me go first, but also choosing to deploy on the side without a two story building in the deployment zone that could see 3/4ths of the table. My Unidron link deployed there and he had to react with his Suryats to that so deployed them in cover looking at the ML and PSR. I then proceeded to drop his Suryat HMG and HRL with my link, kill the Q-Drone and a Vanguard with my Sphinx, and link up with a civilian before dragging it almost to my deployment zone. My opponent's turn one consisted of anything moving foward getting killed by the Unidrons before he just passed turn. The Nexus grabbed the civvie from the Sphinx before I grabbed another one and could've easily moved it to my Dead Zone, but my opponent conceded before I could leaving me with a 5-0 victory with 300 VP. Note that he did ask the TO first whether conceding could hurt the outcome and, since no one could get enough points to contest me, we just quit it there.

 

In the end I did indeed win the event which was a welcome surprise as I definitely thought about skipping before breakfast that day! I'll write up another post a little later about my thoughts on how the lists performed, but for now I hope you all enjoyed my victory vicariously  !

[Kremmet]

So, as promised, here are some quick thoughts on the lists I ran last weekend.

 

-The larger order pool was everything I wanted it to be and more. Onyx doesn't have much in the way of quality rambos (beyond Sr. Sphinx that is) so being able to fill in gaps as pieces fell was invaluable. The fact that the majority of those wounds are also on robits was also of some help even though I barely repaired anything all weekend. Just the threat of it was of some comfort.

-I haven't spent much time in the past fiddling with Dogged on the Unidrons, but I definitely did this time. In the past this was mostly because I was both playing LI and running a much more offensive link setup. This time with the defensive nature of the link I felt much better about just letting my dron plop into Dogged and continue holding down the fort. This also helps keep the link together during the active turn as you can go Dogged and then swap who the link lead is on your next order. Nice stuff there.

-The Fraacta was definitely more helpful here than she has been in any previous game I've used her in. Both rounds I used her she dropped some pretty important models and, while a Tiger would've done so better, she still didn't fail me.

-While I tried to get everything painted in time, I only managed to get the block colors down on most of the models due to various problems. As I'm now finishing the lists for the Ordo challenge I'm worried the new problem will be not wanting to play with my unpainted metals while I have all these painted bots.

-Rescue, while a very fun mission, does have some balance issues. I was lucky in getting a list and table that couldn't effectively deal with the Sphinx, but without that the no-REMs-allowed rule for civvies makes it very, very difficult for Onyx. My first reaction is that maybe the faction restrictions can be loosened a bit for ITS tourneys giving you the option of faction and one sectorial to build your two lists with. This might just be the fact that, after so many years of competitive WM play, I can't help but notice the similarities between the two formats. I'm loving watching ITS grow to be a truly competitive format, but some of these smaller issues still rankle me (such as the very game-able retreat rules).

-I need to remember that the E-Drone has a gun. The addition of the combi and the 40mm base size makes the E-Drone an EVO I actually consider a competitive choice, but forgetting that it has the gun makes this sort of a moot point. Granted the only shots I forgot to take were AROs during my Caledonian game, but they could've potentially saved my Umbra (impetuous troopers with chain rifles do not like being picked on by any real gun).

-Ikadrons are the bee's knees. This shouldn't come to anyone who's used them/played against them and now it is something my bones are aware of too. It's just such a versatile piece between the Repeater, the flamethrowers, and the Flash Pulse I can't imagine running many Onyx lists without at least one.

-I ran the Q-Drone with an HMG this time around as the list it was in was lacking in ranged firepower not tied to my link team. I definitely don't like the setup more than the Plasma Rifle, but the jury is still out on how effective it is comparatively. At least running the HMG variant meant I wasn't throwing orders into it trying to Rambo as I'm wont to do.

-I need to keep playoff games to a two drink maximum. I missed the closing ceremony for the tourney so I could go watch the Hawks play and boy did I pay for the festivities the next day. I'm not a youngin' anymore. 

[Don't Panic]

TBH it's really weird that REMs are disallowed yet a giant robot is not lol(TAGs). Congrats on the win! I actually played against a similar list to what you played(non sphinx list) and really like it! Also ditto with drinks......

[Kremmet]

I think the idea is likely one of fluff, but the fact the Remote Presence as a whole isn't allowed to sync makes that pretty weak. If you look at it from a game perspective, maybe they were trying to limit how effective REMs are without impacting the far more rare TAG. Still seems like a poor balance compromise, but still leaps better than say Biotechvore in terms of being a meta breaker without nuking it from orbit.

[Kremmet]

So it's been a hot minute since I last posted anything on this thread, but I've been a little busy with life. While my time has been limited, I did manage to get a few more CA models to TT standard which you might be able to make out in this picture of a recent game:

 

(the visible newer ones are the Imetrons and the special weapon choices for the Unidron link)

 

As you might expect I've also managed to get a few games in with the Onyx "order spam" list I posted before which has cemented the list's viability in my mind, but it did get me thinking about where I can go with the sectorial. I'm not sure that Onyx offers much more than some minor list permutations and format choices. This saddens me a bit as I do enjoy playing with my painted models, but I think the time has come to mess around with my Chinese soldiers once again. With that in mind, here is my latest mess of a list:

 

what's a robit?

──────────────────────────────────────────────────

 

GROUP 19  

SOPHOTECT Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31)

YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

HÙSÒNG Yaókòng HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)

HÙSÒNG Yaókòng HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)

RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20)

LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)

PANGGULING Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)

WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)

WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)

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

 

GROUP 29  4

RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20)

CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13)

KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

ALIVE Anti-establishment Group . (1 | 50)

 CYPHER 2 E/Marat, E/Mauler / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)

 BIT Stun Light Grenade Launcher + Pitcher + FastPanda + KISS! / Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 15)

 KISS! Adhesive Launcher / Electric Pulse. (0 | 4)

 SWITCH 2 E/Mitter / 2 Stun Pistols, Knife. (0 | 15)

 

6 SWC | 298 Points

 

Open in Infinity Army

 

I might be a little robot obsessed these days, but I couldn't help wanting to play with the new ALIVE toys. This list is mostly an ARO-fest between Overclock, the link team, and the double TR bots which is definitely intentional. As I've shown before, I have a deep want to get the EVO to be worth it and, while I've played with the Coordinated Jump shenanigans before, I decided to mess around with Overclock this time. Overlcock is one of those programs that I never really put up because having that many Repeaters isn't that common (at least in my lists). This list has a frightening six Repeater REMs in it with a variety of equipment and guns that should have most non-elite troops worried about moving across the table. While it may seem counterintuitive given the gimmick of the list, I think I actually prefer going first here. The plan would be to scalpel out some easy models/skirmishers as I have plenty of orders to spend while setting up in the midfield with the robots. After that I'd be pushing for a lot of crossfire on the center line with multiple B2-4 AROs leaving my opponent trapped. At least that's the idea. 

 

In practice I doubt things will work out that well and I plan to quickly make some iterative changes to this list to get in things like a normal Hacking Device and maybe some CoC for extra protection, but for now I want to see if sheer weight of orders and dice can win the day. Maybe I'll be able to scrounge up a game this week to try it out. If I do, I'll try to post about it ASAP. Cheers, all.

[Raindog]

So is CB going to make the Bit and Kiss, Cypher, and Switch models?

[Kremmet]

I have no clue! I would assume so as now would be the time to sell a box like that, but only time will tell.

[Don't Panic]

im so buying those models... my robot army will be complete and destroy all humans(and space bugs/apes/artichokes)!

[Kremmet]

Long time no post! I've been a little busy with life lately so I haven't had as much time to chronicle, or even play, Infinity. That said, I did recently get in a list using my "what's a robit?" list shown above. I played against a friend and fellow ISS player with him using a LI list which definitely had nice juxtaposition. His list looked, as far as I remember, like this:

Imperial Service
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

10  
CELESTIAL GUARD (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
CELESTIAL GUARD Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13)
XI ZHUANG Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, MadTraps / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
CRANE IMPERIAL AGENT Lieutenant (X Visor) Spitfire, 2 Nanopulsers / Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 54)
SOPHOTECT Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31)
YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
BÀO TROOP (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
SÙ-JIÀN Heavy Shotgun, Light Flamethrower, Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 54)
KǍNRÈN Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Knife. (0.5 | 32)
NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)

5 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

 Mission: Deadly Dance

I won the roll off and chose sides and to deploy second (mostly because I didn't want to be on the side trapped by the 40k game next to us) so my opponent had the opportunity to go first. Being sporting, I also chose to not reduce his order pool by two as he was running an LI list, but I did activate Overclock.

Deployment saw my opponent hiding mostly behind a central building with his core link while the Su-Jian swept up my right flank behind some larger structures. His Kanren setup in holo2 behind the central building we had. My deployment was as symmetrical as I could make it with my two Husong amd Weibing pairing up on a few walkways between smaller buildings in my deployment zone that overlooked about 60% of the table combined. Besides my lieutenant who was prone hiding with one of the Husong+Weibing pairings, everybody else setup on the ground level with the robots ready to ARO. Switch and the Lu Duan setup right by each other with Switch pretending to be another Celestial Guard (to play hide-the-lt.) and the Lu Duan pretending to be an 8 pts garbage bot.

Rolling randomly (this mission is dumb), we both luckily ended up needing to go for one of the quadrants on our own side of the table.

Turn One:
LI ISS: My opponent began by rolling up a bit and laying down some smoke cover as he knew the Bao would need to get some work in if he was going to survive. Standing up on the smoke-covered rooftop he'd deployed on, the Bao proceeded to target both my Husong+Weibing teams for destruction and managed to take down all but my right-most Weibing in the process. This was followed up mainly with some positioning to get his link team out of fire while still setting the Spitfire Crane to have a few of the weaker bots in his LoF. With his last few orders, the Su-Jian attempted to mess with my garbage bot which turned out to be my Lu Duan who managed to put him in NWI for his troubles. He quickly slinked away to lick his wounds.

Robit ISS: With all of my HMGs down, I started my turn with a few applications of my Sophotect's space wrench. After three passed repair rolls (and some smoke cover to protect myself during them), I was ready to hunt the Bao down with some cold justice. Unfortunately, the first amped Rui Shi I sent was easily dispatched, but the second made short work of the leopard man before rolling up to protect his flank. As my opponent had failed to activate any consoles, I had Cypher run up and flick one on to hopefully shift his objective around. Lastly, Bit shot out her Fast Panda to have Cypher put the Su-Jian into IMM1 just as a bit of insurance.

Turn Two:
LI ISS: We rolled to see if my opponent's objective zone changed and it did: it was now the same as mine which at least was close to where most of his models were. With the Bao gone, battling all these multi-ARO robots was going to be difficult so my opponent decided to take a different route and reveal his ninja to try and hack some of these dumb ALIVE assholes away. Running up to my Fast Panda, the ninja revealed before declaring a Trinity attempt targeting Bit and Cypher who both attempted to hack back with Bit slapping the ninja with a Breakwater and Cypher going for a Carbonite. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Switch revealed himself in order to Trinity right back at the ninja and the trusty EVO declared Brain Blast. The results were:

• Ninja: 3xsuccesses 
• Bit: Success (winning the FtF)
• Cypher: Success (losing the FtF and failing his BTS roll to die to the Shock ammo)
• Switch: Failure
• EVO: Success (ninja put into unconscious one)

While this was surprising, the end result I would say was good for both parties. After the weirdness of the hacking, the Kanren holo team moved forward and the link Spitfired down a few more robots including KISS, my right-most Weibing, and my right-most Husong...again. As a note, the only FtF roll I won this turn was Bit's which was a little sad.

Robit ISS: Again deciding to fix a few of my robots, my turn began with the Sophotect getting the right-most Husong up (again) along with my disabled Rui Shi who had been dropped by the Bao on my first turn. This was followed by my Lu Duan moving forward a bit to try and build a repeater web in front of my opponent's link team which prompted the Kanren to reveal and attempt to hack the robot. While he was successful, BTS 6 is a helluva drug and the Lu Duan shrugged the attack off. This, unfortunately for the Kanren, opened the door for Switch to slap the poor Kanren around with a lethal application of Trinity to the poor man's brain. I also managed a few more shots into the link team, reducing it to four members after dropping the FO Celestial Guard, but I was otherwise content to guard the scoring zone as the Kanren was the only enemy model that had sullied it thus far.

Turn Three: 
LI ISS: Things weren't looking good for my opponent who basically spent his turn rolling up with his link and placing some shots into my robots who mostly crumpled. Everything was over but the crying so we ended it there with me taking the win.

Final Score:
LI ISS: 1
Robit ISS: 5

Thoughts: While this scenario has interesting bones, the completely random nature of the initial objective placement is simply bad. I like that it's random and generated after deployment as it forces a more central deployment, but it really should be a 50/50 roll to one of the two quadrants on your opponent's side of the field as it can otherwise quickly turn into a single die roll you have no influence over to lose a tournament.

 

 

PAINTING:

Recently, I also finished the last few models I needed for my main two Onyx lists. Well, I sorta did. Unfortunately I just didn't have the drive to do all the weathering I do on my CA models so I have that to look forward to, but they're still all tabletop ready which is a plus! It definitely feels nice playing fully painted even if I feel obligated to play the same lists over and over because of it. I recently picked up the CA pilot pack so I guess now I have to paint the Sphinx pilot model to be truly "finished," but I'm not too worried. Hopefully I can eek out some time to do that this month as I would love to have the army fully done and maybe travel down to some not-so-local events in the area. 

Anyway, enough rambling. I'll close out with a picture of the Onyx models and call it a day. 

[Kremmet]

Unfortunately, the past week has seen little painting hobby time as I've been busy working on other people's stuff, but I have managed some build time at work which left me with a few odds and ends assembled and ready for the battlefield! The lucky winners are:

• Overdron
• Zerat Hacker
• Xi Xuang

I'm hoping to get some painting in on them in the next month or so, but we'll see.

In gaming news, I managed another game of Deadly Dance tonight with my regular YJ opponent. This time we both brought TAGs to try and actually play the mission.

His list (IIRC):

Yu Jing
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

10  
MECH-ENGINEER Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
Zhanshi YĪSHĒNG Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
TIGER SOLDIER Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
TIGER SOLDIER Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
ZÚYǑNG Lieutenant (AutomediKit) HMG / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (1 | 39)
GŪIJIĂ MULTI HMG, Heavy Flamethrower / AP CCW. (2 | 88)
 GŪIJIĂ PILOT Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0)
CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
GŬILÁNG (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
PANGGULING Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)

3.5 SWC | 300 Points

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My list:

Japanese Sectorial Army
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

10  3
KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
DOMARU Lieutenant Chain Rifle, E/M Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 25)
DOMARU Chain Rifle, E/M Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 25)
HARAMAKI Missile Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (1.5 | 33)
HARAMAKI Missile Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (1.5 | 33)
HARAMAKI Blitzen, Contender / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22)
CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
O-YOROI HMG + Heavy Flamethrower, CrazyKoalas / EXP CCW. (2 | 83)
 O-YOROI PILOT Contender / Pistol, CCW. (0)
SHINOBU Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW. (0.5 | 47)

5.5 SWC | 300 Points

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Mission: Deadly Dance

Deployment: My opponent won the roll off and chose sides which left me to choose to go first mostly because I wasn't taking the game particularly seriously (hence the list based around firepower rather than objectives).
JSA: I deployed my models with a sort of spread idea with my TAG and engineer sitting by themselves all the way to my left, my Keisotsu and Chaiyi sitting centrally, and my HI link on the far right. Mainly I wanted to be able to react to Deadly Dance's "excellent" scoring zones, but also these areas were the best spots for my killing spree to happen. The far left had long corridors of buildings where slicing the pie would be easier and I could abuse Stealth on the O-yoroi while the right had a defensible area in my DZ, but otherwise was wide open with LoF to a good 20ish% of the table where MLs could flourish. 
YJ: My opponent decided to go for a refused flank with all of his models setting up either opposite my link team out of LoF or on the tops of buildings prone in the case of the Guilang.

With the TAG being such a juicy target (and a likely Lt. to boot) I decided to go for the Superior Infiltrate on Kitsune to cut it down before it had a chance to do anything. Kitsune nailed her roll and setup just out of my opponent's DZ out of LoF of everything but the Guijia. My opponent's ninja deployed in marker form on top of a roof to my left in the same fashion as the Guilang.

Mission Roll: Playing Deadly Dance means contending with its terrible randomization rule for scoring zones. While we'd dodged this being a problem last time, this time we ended up with the zone we were going for being the same one which just happened to be where my opponent was castled up with few ways in that wouldn't elicit a bunch of guns. Oh, and it was the farthest one from my O-yoroi who needed to get in there for max points. Super.

Turn One:
JSA: Seeing that I was unlikely to get into my opponent's zone with all the might-be-hackers markers on the table blocking both my TAG and HI link (who would also have to trudge across no man's land to get there), I decided to send Kitsune in to deal with the Guijia hopefully before it had a chance to score. She did accomplish her task with a crit mono hit, but the Guijia managed to burn her unconscious with his flamer on the way. Still, a trade most definitely in my favor. Otherwise, my turn consisted of running around with the O-yoroi putting his koalas in opportune locations before ending on my opponent's side of the table in Suppressive Fire daring markers to come down from the roof and try her.

YJ: With the Guijia down, my opponent decided it was time for the tigers to come down. His plan, which he revealed to me later, was to deploy as a refused flank which would force (hopefully) an inordinate response from me and allow his tigers free rein. This made sense to me, but unfortunately was met with a bit of failure as my engineer and O-yoroi could cumulatively see the entire table edge he wished to come in from with good range for the engineer in particular. As he had an EVO, my opponent decided to just jump the paramedic in out of LoF of my army and dispose of the engineer to let the shotgun tiger sneak up on the O-yoroi. While the medic landed the jump, he unfortunately lost the firefight with the engineer who crit him right in the face. Not to be deterred, the next tiger attempted to jump to the same spot and deal with both targets now...and promptly caught a gust of wind that brought him into the area of one of the koalas who gleefully latched onto his face before exploding.

With his tigers and TAG gone, my opponent could have quit reasonably, but he decided to stick it out which was fortunate as his Zuyong stood up and popped one of the ML Haramaki with his remaining order before setting up in Suppressive Fire himself.

Turn Two:
JSA: Well, things were definitely going well for the Japanese who decided to push up and finish the last visible threat: the Zuyong. My O-yoroi seemed the smart pick for the job as I needed to get her into the zone anyway to score so up she rolled to shoot the suppressing Zuyong in cover with +0 for range modifier. Given the difficulty of the shot, it was of no surprise when the Zuyong was splatted with three failed armor rolls. After this, my FO Keisotsu decided to try and mess with the antenna to swap the scoring zone for my opponent, but WIP 12 is a helluva drug and he just failed.

YJ: With the Zuyong now gone and in LoL, my opponent was definitely in dire straits. He took this as a challenge and sent the ninja to deal with the O-yoroi herself. She did manage to land a few blows with her sword and even penetrated the TAG once, but it wasn't enough and the TAG still stood. With his limited order pool, this basically concluded my opponent's turn.

Turn Three:
JSA+YJ: As it was all over but the crying, I decided to just roll my remaining four HI into the scoring zone and sit it out. My opponent tried again to fell my TAG with his few remaining orders, but was unable to land a telling blow which ended the game in a whimper.

Score: 
JSA: 8
YJ: 1

Thoughts: Crits are pretty devastating in LI especially when you build heavily skewed lists like we were running. I'm not sure there was much to learn here besides that it's sometimes fun just to relax and throw dice.

[Kremmet]

So I recently was able to get in a few games of the Zombies!!! Halloween mission a Owen Schindel wrote. The gist of it is:

Basics:

• A normal 4'x4' Infinity board is used (heavy terrain saturation is a must) for setup with an objective room for the center
• All players are cooperative
• The player spawn point is a 24"x12" box situated on one table edge
• There are six spawn points for zombies (each in 12" intervals on all non-deployment edges)
• Each list is built using 100 pts LI format with additional caveats being:
  • each HI choice must be matched by two non-HI choices per selection
  • that there are no named characters allowed.

Zombies:

• Roll a die for each spawn point at the beginning of each game round. On a 1-15, 1+X zombies spawn (X=the number of players)
• Zombies are considered enemies with 4-2 MV, 0 ARM/BTS, 1 W, and 10's for all other stats. Zombies also have NWI and an immunity to isolation.
• Activate zombies using two Impetuous orders every turn. Zombies will attempt to charge the nearest enemy each round (ignoring LoF) and are treated as using the Berserk skill when they do so.

Civilians:

Rescuing civilians is the point of this mission and is accomplished through syncing with them before getting them into the objective room in the center before battening down the hatches to wait out the zombie attack. Civilians follow all the standard rules found in the HSN3 book.

• Setup civilians AFTER the first round is finished. To do this, use the standard scatter rules placing the template and model directly over the center of the table (point the zero on the template towards the center of the player deployment zone).

And that's about it for the mission! It's pretty simple and this short write up isn't the best, but I don't want to get too bogged down in this before getting to the game itself so it'll have to do.

Lists:

I'll admit that I don't really remember exactly what Morat player was running, but I'll do my best from memory:

Morat Aggression Force
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

4  
YAOGAT Boarding Shotgun, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 27)
MORAT Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
MORAT Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
SURYAT Lieutenant MULTI Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 41)

0 SWC | 100 Points

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Imperial Service
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

4  
PHEASANT IMPERIAL AGENT (Chain of Command, Fireteam: Haris) Red Fury / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (1.5 | 36)
BÀO TROOP (X Visor, Biometric Visor L2) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
BÀO TROOP (X Visor, Biometric Visor L2) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
CELESTIAL GUARD Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)

1.5 SWC | 99 Points

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Combined Army
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

7  
NEXUS Lieutenant Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nullifier / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
SEED-SOLDIER Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
UNIDRON Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 14)
UNIDRON Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 14)
UNIDRON Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 14)

0.5 SWC | 100 Points

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I was the normal CA player in the match fielding a list I purposefully tried to make weak while still using the models I had at hand. I say that I tried to make it weak because I had previously played Zombfinity with the ISS player using things that I thought might be fun to play with and the challenge ended up being way too low. Besides the hacker I had to bring to unlock the REMs, I endeavored to spend zero SWC and not max out my list to the obvious 10 models.

With the lists ready, we were off!

Deployment:

We each rolled off to see in what order we'd activate and, as I won the roll, I decided to setup as the vanguard for Tom (Yu Jing to the right) and Allen (MAF to the left). The idea was to have equal numbers guarding and looking at the table as the civvies could end up anywhere and we didn't want to spend an extra round rooting them out. I'll come back in a bit with some more pictures and a rundown of how things went!

[Kremmet]

So yeah, instead of giving a rundown of every turn with pictures, I thought I'd just talk a bit about the game and then throw some images at the end. Sound good? Good!

Overall, the mission is interesting. This time around we specifically built the table to be a bit more shotgun maze-y in an attempt to give the zombies a better chance of getting to us unmolested (this is also why the lists are all weaker than what you'd expect). The problem with this is we then inadvertently brought a bunch of template weapons which made short work of the packs of four zombies.

Pictured: the ISS and CA robit forces stare down a bunch of zombies (well, most stare at a wall, but that's just as good!).

Even when the dice turned cold, the zombies were still at a pretty massive disadvantage. This proved true whether we spread out, brought a bunch of robots (none of whom can sync with civvies), or lowered our model count. In my few games of this before making heavier modifications, the closest a zombie came to killing anything was when a Domaru was bitten a few games ago after he rushed a pack of three.

Zombies lining up for a nice shotgun to the face.

Since this game, I've played another round with some minor alterations that aimed to give the zombies a better chance at causing some damage.

1. Zombies still appear on a 1-15 roll, but a 16-20 creates a super zombie (basically a zombie with a second wound, ARM 3, DA on its claws, and immunity to template weapons).
2. Zombies gain Climbing+.
3. Players are limited to 5 models max.
4. Dead player models turn into zombies with identical stats to their starting profile.

While I didn't stop anyone from bringing blast weapons when we tried this new version, I personally brought nothing with templates or Shock in the hopes that the difficulty would increase. This time around, we had five players (Ariadna, ALEPH, JSA (me), Pan O, and MAF) which made the game go on way too long (I recommend capping it at three players), but it was still entertaining. Unfortunately, all the super zombies were very easily dealt with and, again, template weapons such as mines made short work of the zombies. Next up I want to try severely limiting equipment and try a campaign-style game where equipment is found. Kinda like a Zombicide without all the quarterbacking.

Still, even though it's very easy, it is nice to use Infinity models and rules in a cooperative way. Opens up the idea that Two-Headed Giant might be fun!

[Raindog]

Or like...

 

Zombies appear on"

1-2 - (2) Camo Zombies - It is coming through the sewers, dirt earth, duct work, and has to be discovered to appear.

3-5 - (3) Heavy Zombies -  4-4 MV,  3 ARM/BTS, 2 W, and  15 CC 15 Ph, Poison. 10's for all other stats.

6-10- 5+x for Zombie Gen.

11-15- 1+x for Zombie Gen.

16-20 - Nothing.