To Infinity... Again

Game one of the Infinity league was played by all yesterday. My first round was against Dave and his Ariadna force. It was his first game, but I think he put together a very solid list with what he had. It looks like I may have to make a Infinity batrep sheet, as I can't remember exactly what he took, or what his missions were. You can read on to see how the game turned out. All the new players seemed to have enjoyed their games, even though it was big guys versus little.

My missions were kill somebody in LoF of the civie, which I revealed, check the crate marker, sabotage the to two stacked white containers in the center, and protect my zone. He had the option to take the infiltrate my zone mission, and had a parachutist that could have made that and my Blockade interesting. He took the one to kill a specialist, which in my list turns into kill the Marut, which turned into a bad choice. He took Assess, which he got. Another was to kill two model in CC, which, if he had focused on it, I think he could have gotten against my Netrods.
I won the roll, and gave him Deployment. I had thought to let him have both, but wasn't sure if that would of come across as cocky, instead of just wanting him to see the options, and I was also a little worried about crossing to the center crates after he had moved into ARO position or after he had removed several of my Netrods. He deployed in a refused flank formation, to his right, so I set my Dakini on a crate on that side. I placed my Marut in a center position. I placed one Netrod in the open to my back right, not really thinking about how they should be placed, I was a little rusty. I did remember on the second, but it scattered far up towards his zone. The third landed right were I was hoping to place the second. On my turn one, I moved the Marut up and checked the crate. I took some shots, but only on a single model, but I did knock it unconscious. I then moved my Marut around the white containers to the far side, turned slightly away, so I could guard against his Parachutist coming in behind my stuff. He did manage to get a wound on my Marut, so I was a little worried, but I was in good position for missions. He started by removing my Netrod that had scattered, but did it in shooting, which didn't help his CC mission. A Netrod has Electric Pulse, but I think I would have still chanced it, thinking it an easy kill. He moved up his camoed guy, which the Dakini was able to discover. His uncamoed guy tried to jump a gap and failed. He would have gone unconscious from the falling damage, but I had already declared an explosive damage ARO, and pasted him midair, which led to a very cinematic ending for the stealthy trooper, as we decided that he would have made the jump, but the explosions caused him to miss, fall, land on his face, and break his neck. All of which happened in LoF to the civie, properly displaying what happens to those that cross Aleph. She will tow the line from now on. He also brought on his parachutist, which I probably should have persuaded him against, but honestly didn't think of it. He only had two orders left afterward, which didn't leave him many options. I did, however, point out that from the crate he was behind he could actually circle into the Maruts blind spot, getting a free shot. Unfortunately this used both of his orders to get into position, so no shot this turn.

On my turn, I promptly sabotaged the containers, locking in all of my missions, save keeping my zone clear, which the parachutist was severely jeopardizing. As such, I spent the rest of my orders charging over there to kill him. It took all of my orders and my first overrun, but I was able to do so, and reposition to get my facing correct afterwards, waiting to see what his next move was. He continued to move forward, but kind of piecemeal, I think largely due to lack of experience. I think he had to search the crate as well, but can't remember. I was able to take out his medic as she moved to heal the camo guy. I did make a mistake in that I told him he still got orders from unconscious models, which is, of course, wrong. So, he had a ton of orders on a few guys.

On turn three, all I did was reposition. I placed the Marut dead center with as much LoF as possible, but still getting cover for that neg three to BS. I also moved the Dakini up, out of questionable cover, into no cover, but with a better LoF. He started by moving his last models up, into LoF of my Dakini, but he won the roll and my Dakini went down. At this point, I had lost a Netrod and a Dakini, but had dropped five of his guys. I think this is when he diecided that he was just going out guns blazing. As he had chosen not to reveal a mission, his max for point was four. I already had four locked down, and as long as I kept him out of my zone, I got the fifth, so my goal changed from aggression to defending my zone. I think he could have shut down my Marut on turn four by taking out the rest of my force on three, using the containers to protect his guys, and then doing what he could to finish up missions. Instead, my Marut was able to get some lucky explosive shots in, while being in her sweet spot, while his models were at long range and losing BS. In the end I was able to table him, but he did get two points, and I took my full five.

A great game, I really enjoyed it. He said he enjoyed it as well, but did say I had been right when I told him in the pregame that my Marut was super tough. It also fits my play style really well for the system and lets me have some versatility, while still hitting hard and moving fast. As points go up, I think the list really grows, with more options giving me greater flexibility. Of course, being a known quotient in the league, having played most of the players and talked to everyone about my list, most of the other players are already talking about bringing their own TAGs at the next points jump. With the bigger guns on the table, and with their TAGs being fairly equal in ability but cheaper in points, I may be pressed to win games. However, I think that my larger experience running a TAG will be a huge advantage. I have played Nabors when he ran not one, but two TAGs and was still able to take the win. Nate proclaims a TAG can't go down to small arms fire, but it is small arms fire that actually scares me the most. A large gun can shoot in and do a wound, or three if explosive, but I have ARM 8 or 4 versus AP, plus my counter fire to stop that shot. But a ton of shots that have crap to hit me, but I can only counter shoot so many AROs or coordinated orders, plus a ton of shots, that may only need a five to counter, but sooner or later I am going to roll a four or less. And the more chances I have to roll those low rolls, the more time it will happen. And a good shot(s) on a AP+EXP single shot model, which is awesome versus my TAG, is a non-existent AP+EXP shot model. A good shot(s) on a piddly model may take out three piddly shots or maybe gets a couple and takes out six, while his eight other piddly friends still have three piddly shots each and he spends his entire order pool on coordinated orders, giving me two AROs versus twenty-four blasts to the sphincter. As a math guy, a war gamer, and a an all around bad ass awesome guy, I can tell you that the odds do not favor the Marut in that situation. So, please, everyone load up on a TAG, we will have a high noon shot out, and it will come down to equal dice and placement. Keep your piddlies at home, we wouldn't want the traumatized by the death of a thousand cuts my Marut will suffer before exploding.


Oh, and this is my 200th post. Woot!