Sgt. Rock

In another trial run of my NCA OFCC list, I played Pete with his ALEPH. In typical Pete fashion, he systematically dismantled me, further impressing upon me that I find that list, and the idea of NCA in general, to be reasonably effective but uninspiring. New project is to test out a FRRM list with Mirage 5 for the big show. It might not be effective, but parachuting werewolves are always fun. Eric and I talked tactics after game night, and I think I've got some ideas I'm going to try and put into practice in my next couple test games. I'll be giving it a first run tomorrow against Bob, so we'll see how it does, and if I like it, I've got some models to buy/paint...

In the interest of being a pedantic jackass, it was a Seraph. Squalos aren't available in MO, they're NCA. JUST SAYIN'.

But there are so many pretty faces in that room...

I have a couple OFCC list ideas I wanna bang around, for sure.

Dammit, Seth, I wanted you to let me beat you again!

Well, at least my girlfriend got to build up her Tohaa collection some more...

Woohoo! Lookit me!

Well, after my heady victories of last week, Pete managed to bring me crashing to earth yesterday. He utterly cleaned my clock, which I've come to expect when I play him. The lone bright spot was having my Crusader Bro pistol-crit his Myrmidon in the face in CC. That was pretty fun. But in the end, he managed to get me down to my lone, sad Fugazi bot, which, with no one left alive to guide it, simply sat there in my backfield being sad. My list was not my best work, I'll admit. I wrote it yesterday morning when I was tired and didn't want to put any thought into anything, so rather than meticulously combing over the list like I usually do, I just threw some stuff together and said "Whatever, it'll work or it won't." I toyed with running my Father Knight as my Lt., but decided against it, then immediately regretted it when Jay told us what the scenario was. Anyway, here's the horrible list: 4/9 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 110 PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) NISSE MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 34) BLACK FRIAR (Albedo, Biometric Visor L1) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser, Drop Bears / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 28) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) KNIGHT HOSPITALLER Doctor (MediKit) MULTI Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 41) PEACEMAKER Heavy Shotgun + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21) AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) LOCUST Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Shock CCW, Knife. (0.5 | 38) CRUSADER MULTI Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31) REGULAR (Sapper) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 22) FATHER-KNIGHT Spitfire / Breaker Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 50) GROUP 21 FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) 5.5 SWC | 299 Points Open in Infinity Army In my second game against Seth, I pulled out my OFCC list, which did pretty well. Seth had no answer for all the ODD/TO I had on the board, though to be fair, any opponent with a solid MSV piece won't have much trouble. It was brutally effective, and I imagine it'll be plenty strong against Ariadna, but I may need to revise it a little bit so that I'm not so wholly dependent on it. I'm still not 100% happy with bringing a Fusilier link, but I feel like leaving the Spec Ops out there all by his lonesome is just asking for trouble. It feels like the format for OFCC is really going to favor the use of link teams, which is kind of unfortunate, but them's the breaks. Anyway, I'll be taking the break from next week to get some more models painted (poorly) and maybe re-work my OFCC list a little, see if I can come up with something that makes me a little happier.

I just posted a new article on Pride of Rodina! It's about the use of Happy Seppuku base stamps (thanks to Pete and Jenni for the discovery in the first place!)

Learn something new every day!

Eric, a sawbuck is a $10 bill. New Zealand isn't an economic powerhouse, but they're not *that* bad off.

I'll bring both lists, and play whomever for whatever. ROCK ACCEPT ALL CHALLENGERS! ROCK SMITE FOES TO GROUND!

Can't wait to see the stuff, it looks pretty sweet!

Look out, Eric, I'm coming for you!

Damn, scary stuff! I'll have to watch out for that...

Harsh! Does it target hackers or HI in general?

So after Sunday, I've determined a few things. Number one, the Nisse MULTI sniper loadout is way too good, and I'm starting to lean on him a *lot.* Two, even in an expensive faction like PanO, piece trading is sometimes worth it. Giving up a Locust in favor of nuking 3/5 of a link team is well worth the sacrifice. And three, I really need to start mucking around with Father Knights a bit more. He feels like a miniature TAG out there. I think next time I might give the Spitfire loadout a try. My game against Joel went a lot better for me than I expected it would, though admittedly, I got a lot of help from his dice (seriously, there is no way Scarface should have failed that many saves on one shot) and after going back just now and looking at my list, I screwed up something fierce. That Bulleteer with the heavy shotgun that took out like 3 models actually had a Spitfire, according to my list. So, sorry for cheating, Joel! I could have sworn that I put the shotgun loadout on him. Anyway, losing Scarface on top of turn one really put Joel on his heels for the rest of the game. Even so, I had a lot of fun, and I hope he did, too. I had a lot of fun playing against Seth and Jenni, too. Anyway, here's the list I brought. After last week, I took Evan's advice and went through the list with a fine-tooth comb to try and make sure I knew exactly what each model was supposed to be there for. There were a couple that, in retrospect, were perhaps not worth the investment; the Acontecimento Regular hacker is great, but so expensive, especially for a model that isn't likely to use that LGL very often. The FastPanda is great to have, but I'm not sure it's worth the investment. Also, I know there are some people who will cry heresy at me for saying this, but I'm just not finding that Black Friar to be all that useful. I'm probably using him wrong, but he's got too much going on to be worth hanging out in my DZ, and his gun is too short range for that anyway. But he's only a 4-2 move, so he has trouble getting up to where he needs to be. I hardly ever use the Drop Bears on him, and I don't think I've ever busted out that Nanopulser. He's a fantastic toolbox, but it feels like he doesn't know what kind of job he's going to be doing, so he just brought a random selection of crap that he might maybe conceivably need. I wonder if the MULTI sniper version is any better; he would give NCA a slightly lesser equivalent to the Nisse that I hold so dear. 4/2 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 110 BLACK FRIAR (Albedo, Biometric Visor L1) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser, Drop Bears / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 28) NISSE MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 34) KNIGHT HOSPITALLER Doctor (MediKit) MULTI Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 41) FATHER-KNIGHT Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 50) PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) REGULAR Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10) REGULAR Hacker (Hacking Device, FastPanda) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 23) LOCUST Boarding Shotgun, Grenades, Drop Bears / Pistol, Shock CCW, Knife. (0 | 30) BULLETEER Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 23) FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) GROUP 22 SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25) FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army Anyway, thanks Joel, Seth, and Jenni for the games, and once again, Joel, I'm sorry I cheated! I have no excuse, I just wasn't paying attention. See you all next week!

Got steamrolled there, too.

Better late than never, right? I've been meaning to do some work here and post some of my articles on the Pride of Rodina, but my arm has been jacked up, so I haven't been writing them. Anyway, here's the list I took yesterday: 3/26 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 110 FUSILIER Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15) FUSILIER HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 18) FUSILIER (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) FUSILIER Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) SWISS GUARD Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 69) BLACK FRIAR (Albedo, Biometric Visor L1) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser, Drop Bears / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 28) BULLETEER Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 23) PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) GROUP 24 MACHINIST Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) LOCUST Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Shock CCW, Knife. (0.5 | 38) BULLETEER Heavy Shotgun / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17) CSU Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army The game was very, very bloody. The Fusilier link didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but they did manage to smoke a Tankhunter ML and a Scout. The Swiss Guard didn't do dick all, which is very disappointing for a 69 point model. I lost, 5-4. so it was closer than it felt like. It's a little weird... after, what, 3 years since N3 dropped? I'm still trying to find my footing in this game. I've talked with some folks and it seems like I'm playing Infinity like I (tried to) play Warmachine... very blunt, straightforward, and in-your-face. Which I've since found doesn't work in Ariadna. I'm doing better with Pano, but I can't decide if I want to go NCA, Vanilla, or try and slowly expand into MO. A heavy infantry pain train would probably suit me well, but I get the feeling Bolts would do a pretty good job for me, too. I suppose I just have to keep experimenting and try to figure out what I need to do to actually win a few games. I intend to get some painting in tonight, so hopefully I'll have a model to share tomorrow.

I'd like to try and make it next year... if I'm going to get steamrolled in games, it may as well be big!

So after the Toffee Club last night, on a lark, I stopped into a little brewery that was right next door called Scout Brewing. They have a wide variety of seriously good beer (much better selection than the TC!) plenty of space to sit, well lit, low key, and they're usually pretty quiet on Sundays, according to the gal behind the bar. They have some snacks, but they allow outside food, so theoretically you could get something to go from the TC and bring it over. I think we should check them out next week. Thoughts?

I plan on being there. Shouldn't be any more drunken tomfoolery keeping me in the house this time.

Oh, for sure, but staying up until 6 AM getting drunk off my ass with my future brother-in-law after spending the last two days with them may have been a poor choice. At the very lease, my body informed me that it was not a good decision... every time I pull some stunt like this, my body reminds me that I am, indeed, getting too old for this [big bad swear word]. Also, thanks for the compliments on the avatar. My last name is Rockwell, and people have been calling me Rock since I was in high school, so in the context of a military-ish wargame, it's always made sense to make that reference.

Sorry I didn't make it this week, guys. Sister and her fiance came down, and any time he and I get together, late nights and many drinks are had, so I was pretty hungover on Sunday. Could barely stand upright, much less play Infinity. :P

I'll be there... with a mysterious new friend! Dun dun DUNNN!