Countryside Infinity Terrain Guide - General advice for your map

In the second part of this terrain guide, I want to give some general advice to set up a map four your game, avoiding strong imbalances and situations limiting the fun for both players. To minimize personal bias here and add some extra quality, I got certain support for this by badlazzor, a quite productive map-designer in the current TTS-community. 

Once you played your first games of Infinity in a club or a store, you may want to build your own terrain and figure out, how things work best. At this point you may have checked the rules about terrain in the core rules, where everything necessary is written down. Why then is there a need for this guide? Well, the section for terrain takes not more than three pages in the rule-book with a lot of empty space there. Everything written there is true and should be considered, but let us face the truth: The section leaves a lot of questions uncovered and much space for creativity or mistakes. Even the example-maps given there are nothing I would consider a good map, since there is a low amount of proper cover, so that your units can be tracked down easily from the opposite half.

An other source for not optimal/enjoyable maps may be the fact that not everybody has enough terrain or terrain of good quality, easing the set up of an enjoyable map. Or even if those things are available, you want to start playing, so the map needs to be set up fast without much planning for the idea behind it. But if you have some rules to follow, it will be easier to place the terrain available in a proper way and deploy it in a reasonable timeframe.

Before you start reading the advice and throwing your terrain on the table, you should be aware of my philosophy for setting up maps. Of course, everyone will have different aims here, but since these aims are woven into the following strategy, it will be good to know about these biases. My aims for each map I create are:

• The map is no servant for your game, but an additional challenge.

• This challenge should have an impact to the gameplans of both players, but without dismissing single list-types or units.

• The choice of the deployment zone should be important due to:

• Differing ARO-positions inside the DZs

• Different ARO-positions inside the half of the map

• Accessibility/defence of mission objectives

• Possible applications/protection of AD-troops, parachutists and impersonators

• For competitive play every unit should be playable on each map (unfortunately) 

The big question here is, how these aims can be achieved. Before I will give you a step-by-step guide how you can set up your map, here are some general advices for an interesting map:

• Set up the deployment zones asymmetric with one side containing more cover and better positions to place ARO-pieces and link teams, while the other one is more open. The good zone may have a slightly worse access to the objectives, so that half of the table may have a bit less cover in general. To even things out, the worse zone may have a better access to objectives and some nice spots for forward deployment units.

• Have one narrow LoF from deployment zone to deployment zone in maximum. Take care, that this LoF don’t need to be crossed necessarily to enter the game. This will reduce the potential for ARO-castles to pin the opponent down completely and may create some false hopes.

• To enable long range weapons, set up one to three longer corridors, optimally slightly diagonal. This eases movement a bit and allows short range weapons to enter the corridors in favourable positions.

• One deployment zone should not be able to overwatch more than 50% of the map and half of the corridors available.

   

    

  

  This spot allows some long shots on the left and middle, but the containers and high buildings limit the sight on the right
  

  
  

• Have at least one third of the map denser than the rest to create corridors where short range weapons and warbands can advance. The limited coverage of this section on the other hand prevents a domination of these units.

• Place the highest buildings between the deployment zones. This breaks up LoF and protects certain positions on ground level and above. The more you move them into the center, the harder they are to reach for ARO units. But make sure to create no new supreme sniper-spot in the center!

• Interrupt long corridors with scatter terrain of different size at different places. This creates safe spots in cover here and there but keeps the LoF, so both range-types can perform well, if needed. Also some good positions for infiltrators are created in this way.

• Place terrain of enough height on the table edges. Interrupt at least two to four this way, one deployment zone and one edge. This creates safe spots for parachutists and denies killing zones on the edges. It also adds some kind of known risk, since there are obvious spots, where you can count on those troops to appear. This adds also to the choice of deployment zone.

   

  

  The interrupted edge creates a possible safe accespoint for the Bashi Bazouk
  

  
  

• The main terrain you are using should be as high as S7 on average. On the one hand, this allows TAGs to move safely, but saves other units from TAGs, since those big guys can’t look that easily above everything.

  

  The initial papercraft-terrain from Corvus Belli is slightly lower than S7, so that TAGs can be seen easily and see a lot of things - make sure there are added things on the roof

 

• Have one oversized piece of terrain at maximum, if you can’t play on or in those pieces. Try not to place those pieces on the centerline. This prevents bottleneck situations and dead areas.

• Try to avoid unclear situations in general to ease the game.

Of course, these are some more or less easy to follow rules, but they are numerous and not always easy to remember, if you are setting up your map in a hurry before the game. To create a kind of routine, allowing you to follow the previous points, here is a practical step-by-step list:

1. Mark places for the mission objectives or set up your objective markers.

2. Spread your tallest terrain pieces loosely in the center of the table with a diagonal orientation

3. Starting from the center to the deployment zones, place the rest of your terrain pieces. Try to give them a diagonal orientation.

    

   

   The tallest buildings are around the center and the density decreases towards the deployment zones

4. Check the corridors created in the previous steps, starting from the deployment zones. Change the orientation, add or remove terrain to create the wished main corridors.

5. Interrupt the edges with additional terrain.

6. Check the horizontal lines of the map and break them, if necessary by placing additional terrain on rooftops.

   
   
   

   

   Even with two big buildings in the center, there is more obstruction needed horizontally - Done with containers on the buildings

7. Check the lines parallel to the center line and break them, if needed.

8. Spread bigger pieces of scatter terrain in the corridors and break up crossings and places, as well as horizontal fire lanes

    

   
   
   

   

   Many of the long corridors can be broken easily with walls or containers, creating the needed density

9. Finalize your map by adding smaller scatter terrain to create more cover here and there.

   

   Smaller and larger planters are great to create the needed additional cover-elements
   

   
   

   

   The final result, thrown together in a few minutes and always interesting to play
   

   
   

   So that is my advice on how to generally put together a reasonable and fun map to play on. Of course, there are many other ways and there will be different experiences. So if you have any comment on this, hit me up!
   

Countryside Infinity Terrain Guide - Introduction

Infinity is a quite complex game with many different factors interacting and determining failure and success. Most of the discussion and optimisation you can find out there, and also in this blog, circles around units, profiles, lists and game plans, while one major factor of the game, the terrain, is only discussed as a side note. Of course, those things are far easier to assess, to change and to handle, since the terrain most of the time is a one shot, quickly done before the game. Nevertheless, terrain remains a major factor in this game, but coupled with different problems and uncertainties. To help mitigating these problems, I want to give  some guiding based on my experience about most of the topics related to terrain in Infinity. Of course, in such a difficult topic there will be different opinions and insights, so feel free to contact me and discuss things! I am always up to new things and like to change things if necessary! The following topics are planned, divided into different posts:

1. Impact of terrain on the game

2. How to build a reasonable map

3. Terrain rules and their impact

4. Trade-off between rules and reality

5. How to get your map together

1. Impact of terrain on the game

What defines Infinity is the interaction of movement, line of fire and positioning. All of this is shaped by terrain, which determines most of the interactions in form of accessibility, targeting, modifiers and range. While you choose the weapon because of the range, the position mostly chooses which unit you take for the job. With this, terrain is a central point for your game.

Maybe you will question this importance a bit, but you probably know a lot of situations where you are pinned down in your deployment zone by a linked sniper, overwatching most of the map or got overrun by warbands templating your deployment without any chance of shooting them on their way. Of course, you can try to deal with these issues with different list-types, but in the long run, most of list-choices will be denied by the one-sided terrain and the fun will be limited. The two factors you can vary on your map here are the placement of terrain and the density. A third factor may be the type of terrain you are using, but since this is a bit harder to assess, this factor will be discussed in a later part on its own. Issues you can address by the other two factors are:

Long range weapons pin you down completely. Assuming terrain of a good quality (different heights and volumes), too long firelanes are often the source of this issue. By replacing the terrain to break up the long corridors into more smaller ones, not only the long range weapons are weakened, but also other weapons have the option to access them via the new, smaller corridors. Also placing the highest buildings more in the center of the table, while having lower ones in the deployment zones, mitigates this issue. Depending on the general horizontal design, the density/amount of terrain can be a factor here, too. The higher single spots are and if there are no high obstacles around, the more difficult this solution is, since you can simply look over smaller terrain and still have LoF. But if you are worrying about two or three long and empty corridors, the addition of smaller terrain pieces of different sizes (scatter terrain) inside these corridors or between smaller ones may help. This way you create spots to hide on the way, maybe allowing cautious movements and give nice spots to shoot out of cover.

 

A sniper in a too elevated position overwatching empty corridors is not only death to many models.Bildunterschrift hinzufügen

Warbands controlling the game with their templates. This problem often is the total opposite of the previous issue. Once you put too much terrain on the map, creating a really dense table, long range weapons lose their reason and warbands harass every more expensive unit with their templates, trading themselves for higher value. By lowering the density, there is more space to overwatch them on their path. 

Parachutists are not played/AD troops and impersonators are too strong/weak. These three units share their initial zone of action. While parachutists need to deploy on one table edge, impersonators and some AD troops may want to work in the adversary deployment zone. While parachutists don’t really like completely unobscured edges, since they are simply gunned down by everything while deploying, obstacles in deployment zones may boost the potential of units landing there. Both problems can be addressed mainly by the placement of your terrain. Putting something with at least S2-size somewhere on the edges give parachutists a safer opportunity to enter the game. Inside the deployment zones it gets a bit trickier, since overdoing the obstruction here, creates a new problem. But with placing some obstacles there, you are creating interesting choices and things to be considered. Increasing the terrain-density in the deployment zones as the second option, adds more different angles to hide your troops from attacking impersonators.

 

Unobstructed lines can cause serious problems in the deployment zones

Besides those zones around the edges, even in the central zones the connection of density and placement of terrain influences the effectivity of infiltrators in the same way as it works with impersonators in the deployment zone. If there is no place to hide them, they are discovered quickly and never reach their target. But with broken fire lanes and scatter terrain here and there, there are always some spots to hide and to take cover. By choosing the right places for these spots, you may direct some interactions and tune the effectivity. This is also valid when it comes to good and not so good spots to hide your HVT, especially in missions with designated targets or many classified objectives. Speaking about objectives, also the normal objectives like antennas or tech-coffins need to be placed carefully and the game can be directed by the corridors around them. Is there one side overwatching the whole approach to one objective? Or can one antenna be defended quite well from one side with a trooper in suppressive fire?

Everything coming from the south will need to deal with -9 or -12 (mimetism -6 + suppressive fire + cover) on their BS attacks

All these issues can really limit your fun with the game, if you have not agreed with your opponent about the specific situations you want to set up with your map. Since there is barely a practical situation where you pre-define each scenario you play with your opponent in this detail, you need to consider those points while preparing the map. In most cases, everyone wants to play the list he prepared for the mission or to test his new stuff and don’t want to be forced into a certain list-type by the map everytime. Nevertheless, if you would really want to, you could design nearly every interaction on your map by setting up special fire lanes, defining the points where you get cover and where you can’t end your movement and so on. But to be honest: Nobody has the time, the patience and the mental capacity to do this to that extend in such a complex scenario as you find in Infinity. And it is not necessary for most of the situations, if you at least think about some basic issues while setting up the terrain for the next game.

The worst day since yesterday (DBS vs. Combined Army)

Cordelia was still tightening the last screws on the TAG as the two explosions shook the freighter they were using to leave Paradiso. It took only a few seconds until the all alarms went on. Not only a hull breach was alerted, but also an atmospheric contamination of an unknown source. "Even while leaving this hell, the shit sticks to our boots..." Cordelia mumbled, as Arslans gathering call could be heared on the comlogs. The only luck they had this day was the placement of their cabins in the nearer sections to the emergency shuttles. On the hallway towards them, Cordelia and her brother met the survivors of the Shock Team around Arslan. Most of the other passengers and some of their teammates already go killed by the contamination, but for the moment they were a bit ahead. But by crossing the next gate, the shit hit the fan as the silhouette of an Avatar-TAG appeared in the flames...

 

After the two previous losses in the aftermath, I was paired against Narzil, who also had two rough games and was without any victory. So we should fight over the last place possibly. I already knew that he is a big fan of the Avatar and Nourkias and with Biotechvore as mission on the horizon, my bad mood about DBS was only increased. The Avatar itself is one of the most dangerous units in N4 and my experience with Nourkias, once he reaches his target, isn't any better. Biotechvore then forces you into certain list-types, which limits your potential solutions for this a lot. At least it was the last game for me in the aftermath and I already decided to pause a bit with DBS, so the outcome was not that important.

Biotechvore expects you to leave the danger-zone as quickly as possible, so you want fast units and a top-notch order efficiency. This is the only reason behind most choices here: A core-team to move half of the list at once and cause some struggles in reactive, a haris to be a bit more flexible and aggressive on the other side of the map and the duo of Scarface to shoot the breach if necessary. The core-team (MSR Brawler, Doc, Arslan, Lt, HD) is a bit miscomposed, since there is no option to shoot their way, once the MSR is shot. Arslan may be a good late-game piece and a slight protection against smoke-throwing Speculos, but that is it. Since I saw no big opportunities in CA for many visors, I took the MSR Druze as anchor for the small team, also containing the ABH with red fury, as needed mid-range gun. Scarface should simply gun everything down. The big benefit here is, that I have no problem to fulfill most of the classifieds.

 

As expected, Narzil focussed on the Avatar and his buddy, Nourkias. As a secondary thread, Messer made an appearance, utilizing the repeater of the M-drone for white noise. Dr. Wurm should be the toolbox for classifieds and keep all the important and expensive units running. The E-drone is arguable, since I see no reason for it here, while everything else grants some cheap orders.

The map I chose for this last round is made by Badlazzor and fits the theme of this mission perfectly. Even if it looks quite open, the walls block a lot of long fire lanes and also the containers and other scatter pieces are placed carefully to tune things down to closer ranges and enable moving.

I win the Lt-roll and decide to deploy second in the south, since I don't want to expose myself in the center towards the Avatar. Nazril decides to go first.

Messer and a Slave drone take the rooms on the left side, while two Nox-troops take the center. Everything else is grouped around the containers on the right side, with the Imetron thrown in front of the DZ.

My core-team, without the Brawler MSR for the moment, hides behind the containers on the right, Scarface and Cordelia take the center and the haris should go for the left to attack the center from the flank.

Nourkias accompanies Messer on the left and the Avatar is deployed in the center. I find a place for my MSR Brawler, filling the core-team, overwatching the path of the Avatar without being seen directly.

CA 1: Nourkias crosses the corridors on the left, tanking a hit from the ABH and then killing the whole haris-team. This scores Predator. Even several hits from the viral pistols could not stop him and his regeneration-abilities. But in the end this has consumed way too many orders, so that only two coordinated orders could be used to advance some stuff and retreat Nourkias out of my danger-zone. The Avatar and the M-drone end up in the center, while Messer also manages to leave the contaminated area. My Brawler manages to wound the Avatar, before he is dropped by a burst from the HRMC. The E-drone and one Nox survive the contamination, while everything else fails their saves.

DBS 1: Luckily, the Doc is lying next to the wounded sniper, which is revived and shoots down the Avatar in one order then. The Doc scores me Experimental Drug here. Now Scarface tries to wreck Nourkias without success and I have to advance the core-team into the open. Cordelia, Arslan, the Doc and my Lt are not able to leave the danger-zone, but only the Doc is killed here and Arslan recieves a wound.

CA 2: With only a few orders left, Nourkias continues with what he is known for: Murdering famous TAG-pilots. First Cordelia is consumed, then Scarface is cut in pieces. The left-over Nox fails to leave the zone and dies together with the E-drone.

DBS 2: Since Nourkias is out of range, I take care of the the M-drone in the center, shooting it with my Lt and coup-de-gracing him with the MSR, scoring Extreme Prejudice. With my Lt in suppressive fire and everything else scattered a bit, I pass turn.

CA 3: The two CA agents shuffle their positions a bit, failing to kill my MSR.

DBS 3: My Brawler has a free walk towards the enemy HVT, scoring Follow-up in one try. I skip the shot at Messer, since loosing my Brawler would probably switch the killed army points into Narzils favour.

With this, the game ands in an 8 - 3 for me, since I have killed 20 army points more and have fulfilled each classified. It was a really close thing for the whole game. After he messed up half of his list in his first turn, I thought it would be an easy one for me, but I fucked up my turn equally, even things then. Nourkias was a problem I can't solve properly and I got lucky, that Narzils love for him let him focus on him and not advancing Messer to erase my core-team. This allowed me to clear the last resources, saving my units from further attacks. My luck with the classifieds in this round did the rest. But yeah, only with my own resources, I would have had no chance here.

Sweating and bleeding the remaining four members of the team were sitting in the emergency-shuttle. Only seconds after leaving the freighter, it collapsed completely.
Saladin was not proud of himself for the moment, but he could not argue the shiver of joy crossing his gut while watching the final explosion of the freighter from a covered shuttle. Revenge always is a thing, and Arslan needed to learn a lesson here.

Cursed by fate (DBS vs. Hassassin)

The great thing about the aftermath of the ENTE is the opportunity to finally play against those guys, you met during the Team-Event but were not able to play against. So I was really looking forward for my game against papu, the former spanish captain. Knowing his results from the event, I expected an experienced player, but maybe a bit easier to access than Minass, his team-mate and sparring-partner. But nevertheless, I was aware of the current strength of Hassassin Bahram and how tricky suppremacy can turn out.

My general feeling is, that DBS is a solid faction when it comes to controlling and holding certain areas. Once you have deployed your link somewhere, they are hard to remove and the irregular troops available also contribute to this capability. With that in mind, I took my standard-list with a defensive core-team around the MSV 2 Brawler, Wolfgang and a Bulleteer to do stuff and a Hunzakut to have some tools in the midfield. Since this leaves some points, I saw the opportunity to try out a haris with the MSR Druze and a Red Fury ABH as flexible link for the second flank. A Bashi Bazouk then is nearly an auto-include for such missions, especially with the SO-option to click the consoles. To have something already in a zone, I chose to give Swanson a try.

If I had to build a HB list for supremacy, I would have ended up with something similar, I guess. A defensive but flexible core-team as a back-up for some camo-troops in the midfield, fueling an Asawira and two Fidays. The Fidays probably interrupt the first turn, while the second turn is done by the Asawira or the camo-markers, leaving nothing behind.

The map is created by Cabaray fom the White Noise-Podcast, if I remember correctly and features the new Kokkyo pre-painted terrain from Micro Art Studios, with some pieces painted by Perzan. There were only few long fire lanes on the ground level, but once you manage to put something on the rooftops of the higher buildings, you could overwatch quite a lot. On the other hand, all the trucks obstructed the main-street quuite well. The more residental areas were placed slightly elevated, so that there were different levels to consider everywhere.

I win the Lt-roll and choose to deploy second on the south. Of course, papu goes first, spending one command token for a second reserve.

A lone Asawira is deployed on the left side, while the core-team is spread on the right side. One Muyib takes a centered rooftop, while the other one prepares his action on ground level, possibly overwatching the right edge. The camo markers are scattered equally  in front of the DZ.

The core-team is squeezed around the two buildings on the right side with the MSR on the rooftop. I use the building to seperate the rest of the link, preparing for a Fiday. On the left, the haris is deployed with the MSR overwatching and everyone else looking at the back. The support-REMs take the back and the Bulleteer is also deployed there, covered by ABHs. In front of my core-team, Swanson and Wolfgang are deployed, hoping to cross that flank and remove the core-link later.

Two Fidays are deployed in front of my DZ. One is looking for my haris, while the other one is in the center, ready to go after my Brawlers. I choose to deploy my Bashi Bazouk as SMG in the center, overwatching both Fidays, once they are advancing. I thought that I can't block one Fiday with the holos completely, so this was the better option.

HB 1: I remove two orders from group one. The central Fiday sneaks towards my core-team, managing to down both hackers, but getting shot by the Bashi Bazouk on the way. The other one uses several smoke-grenades to kill the Red Fury-ABH, the MSR Druze, the Bulleteer and my EVO in CC. The Asawira advances and shoots down Swanson.

DBS 1: Most things are already lost, but at least my Lt is still alive and Wolfgang is also there. The Hunzakuts takes a shot in the back of the remaining Fiday, dropping it. Then the Bashi Bazouk and the Hunzakut advance into my sectors, securing them.

HB 2: The Asawira takes a run, dropping the Hunzakut, the Bashi and my MSR. This frees the core-team, which advances and activates one console. A second one is activated by a Farzan CoC and a single camo-marker advances.

DBS 2: Everything remaining is gathered in group two. The remaining ABH may have an opportunity to shoot the Asawira with his found panzerfaust. For this he needs to cross a small corridor. I misjudge this one with a cautious move and loose him to the Muyib HRL. Now things are done.

We play out the last round roughly, just to talk through actions and plans. Papu manages to secure more quadrants two times, activates three consoles and make his classified, granting him a 8-0 victory.

Even if I had planned a bit for a Fiday, I was not prepared for two of them. Followed by this, I made some mistakes with my placement, having not enough units by hand to discover the Fidays on their way towards my valuable units. The Fugazi in a better position would have been gold and a better placement of the haris would have been good, too. The next thing is the choice of deployment zone. Papu had a great spot for his HRL Muyib on one of the roofs, which would have been better used by my MSR. I really need to improve in reading the map and choosing the better deployment zone, since I made this mistake several times now with huge consequences.
Besides this, I am a bit disappointed by myself and DBS for the moment, since I deployed a good list for most of the tasks, but got no chance against the flexibility and combined strength of HB. At the same time I am bored of picking Wolfgang, a Bulleteer, Scarface or an Anaconda as the only reasonable units and beatsticks. I really don't want to play an army, where I can only play properly by fielding certain units. That is not what I expect from Infinity. So we will see, how things evolve.

But all of my mistakes and arguments shall not and can't overwrite papus disciplined and well planned play, really on the same level as Minass. His general results in this event really show his skill. And as all spanish guys I met via TTS now, he is a really nice opponent, allowing even such a game to be a good experience!

On the other side (DBS vs. Starmada)

While the European Team-Tournament ended a week after N4 was released, I decided to offer an individual aftermath to meet your favourite opponents again or to play against someone you have not faced yet. In three rounds with 300 points ITS 11 but now with N4-rules, we now clash against each other without the support of our teams. My first game here was Acquisition vs. Starmada, played by Al'Espagnol, a spanish guy now living in France.

Since I knew that the opponent would be Starmada with a ton of mimetism and quite fast and potent gunfighters on short ranges, I also shifted my list a bit towards these ranges and challenges. The alltime-favourite core is build around the LGL this time, since I needed one Druze and wanted to utilize my hacking game a bit more. The Bulleteer in group one is the main-beatstick. Everyone will take two orders from group one with him there, so Wolfgang showed up in group two, hoping to have a plan b alphastrike. There is an opportunity to build a haris, but this is only supposed as an option. Wolfgang should act on his own and the KHD with cybermask is also supposed to be a solo-piece. I made no big plans to play the mission, since the Hunzakuts are able to click the consoles easily and controlling them at the end of the game isn't that important. But the tech-coffin needed some more planning. For this, Arslan showed up in this list. He is more durable than most of the other stuff and he is able to gun down mimetism-datatrackers in turn three. From my experience, I should be able to pull enough orders together in my last turn and push him up in the center. Until that time, Wolfgang and the Bulleteer should have gunned down everything else.

We discussed Starmada before the game a little bit and the list in the end. As it appeared, I have done a few more games with Starmada for the moment than Al'Espagnol. He was still struggling with the limited long-range potential in that sectorial, so two Varangians and the Epsilon HMG showed up to compensate this and maybe that is the reason for the Kappa HMG. The added PsiCop is quite flexible and can shift the potential of the core a bit. The Cyberghost seems to be the needed specialist here and there, while the Raptor KHD with Devabot may be a great datatracker. And then there is Andromeda, simply to slow everything on the opponent side down.

Someone may recognize this table from the ENTE, since I simply threw together an interesting mix of maps. It is a quite open map in the center and on the left, while the right is obstructed by saturation and low visibility zones and some big rocks. The new terrain-rules made it a bit easier to play as it was in N3 and Arslan got even more value here, next to the Hunzakuts.

I win the Lt-roll and decide to go first, in fear of a hard alphastrike with a Zeta or whatever. So I am forced to deploy in the south.

My core is deployed around the left building with my Lt, the LGL and the MSR on the roof. One Fugazi reinforces that side, while the rest of group two is deployed on the left. Wolfgang hides in the grass there, to get more vectors to attack. Arslan is allone in the center, drawing some attention from the Brawler Lt and overwatching my back, if there is a Santiago Knight dropping. Hunzakut 1 starts in the center, while the second one hides around the left antenna.

The Kappa-core is deployed on the right but completely prone. The Raptor and his Deva take the center, together with one Varangian, while the rest is scattered on the right. For now, I only see the Kappas and the Epsilon as heavy guns.

The Bulleteer, knowing that I won't use him in turn one, is also deployed in the center and Andromeda appears on my right flank, pinning down the whole group two with her zapper. Arslan is my datatracker, while the Raptor gets to be the Starmada one.

DBS 1: As expected, I loose two orders in group one. This leaves the Hunzakut with enough orders to probably get Andromeda outside of 8" in her back. With my first shot I realize that I am standing in the woods, so not only my odds are terrible, but also I am loosing burst and allow her to dodge nearer to my group two. So I cancel this plan, parking the Hunzakut in front of the enemy DZ in the woods. Wolfgang climbs up the antenna in his forest-zone, from where he manages to gun down Andromeda. Some orders are spent to improve my position and to cybermask my KHD.

Starmada 1: The right Varangian advances a bit, followed by the Epsilon, gunning down my Hunzakut. Together with the Varangian, he advances on my right, killing the Fugazi and Arslan. Instead of placing the chain rifle of Wolfgang over the Epsilon and the Varangian, I dodge into CC with the Epsilon, only to be engaged by the Varangian then. Both die in combat.

DBS 2: My Brawler manages to gun down the Epsilon, while the left Hunzakut activates the left antenna and save it with a repeater and a mine, retreating back into safety. The Bulleteer advances a bit and enters suppressive fire.

Starmada 2: The core-team stands up. The PsiCop manages to down my MSR Brawler, freeing the Raptor. He manages to reach ZoC of my Bulleteer, frying my Brawler HD, while getting crushed by my KHD in return. Meanwhile the Warcor fails several times to score in extremis recovery on my Hunzakut. Obviously a pen can't solve every problem!

DBS 3: I drag everyone into group two and buff my Bulleteer. If I can shoot down the ML-Kappa, I can score my classified (extreme prejudice) on the Devabot and go into suppressife fire on the tech-coffin. So I first shoot the Devabot unconscious and then get two hits from the Kappa in the next order, blowing the remote completely. The left Fugazi tries a rush into the center but is also crushed by the Kappa. So the Hunzakut places an other mine and secures the left antenna.

Starmada 3: The left Varangian takes out the Hunzakut in CC, while the Lambda revives the Raptor. He then secures the tech-coffin with ease, other than the Warcor, failing one more time on the classified, but securing the right antenna. To finish the mission, the PsiCop re-activates the left antenna and secures it.

With that, the game ends as a 9-0 for Al'Espagnol. Loosing the Bulleteer against the Kappa was crucial for my loss, while the success of the PsiCop on my MSR was the only option to get the remaining Starmada-tools into the game. That the Raptor gets two wounds from my KHD was a bit of bad luck. I am still not sure if it was the right decision, to use him to reduce my hacking game. Of course, the Lambda was available to get him back with nice odds, what turned out very good, but it still was a heavy invest, just to kill my Brawler HD. On my side, Arslan was in the wrong position, not only on the table, but also being in the list in general. Besides this, I probably made the wrong decision in my first turn. If I have started with Wolfgang and the antenna, there were 6 orders in group one for the Hunzakut, which had a path to at least suicide-run to kill the Epsilon.But since that would have come down to the last order, maybe even one order short, I didn't want to take the risk and paid the price for this.

In general I felt quite comfortable with my list. Wolfgang does his job(s) and the Bulleteer gets scarier with each turn he is still alive. The Hunzakuts were useful as always, as well as the core-link. I had no opportunity to utilize my hacking game and the LGL here. Maybe I should have used an order to shoot a pitcher on the right flank. The importance of my KHD in this plan still needs to get deeper in my mind. What was a waste of space and points was Arslan. Of course, NWI, hyperdynamics and MSV1 is nice and more useful in N4, but in the end you can take better and more reliable options for whatever Arslan can be useful for in a better position or for less points. If he still would count as Druze for fireteam-composion, he could take the position of the LGL, freeing at least these points...But well, it was a try.

N4 Escalation League Part 1

With the release of N4, our local group started a small Escalation League with four participants and three rounds. For the three games, we gathered a force of Bakunin, one Shasvasti-team, our newbie with Winter Force and myself with Starmada, mostly to get in touch with the new sectorial and to avoid douple Winter Force, 

The following rounds were played:

• 100 points: Fontline
• 200 points: Hunting Party
• 300 points: Highly Classified

To create a little narrative frame, our Shasvasti-player wrote a short story, deriving from the Asteroid Blues-campaign:

Now that Novvy Bankok cooled down a little bit but a lot of troops are still deployed in Human Edge, the more unexplored asteroids around there get some attention from different powers. Covered by a more or less fictional Shasvasti-infiltration on one of this asteroids, a small O-12 party started the exploration, followed by panoceanian and nomad-ships. While those powers directly started fighting about their landing points, Bureau Aegis was more than surprised to really find some Shasvasti there and send out some Varangians. (brief description)

Round 1: Frontline

I really dislike those small games, since they are quite swingy and can be broken easily by some units or sectorials. We restricted ourself to not take any link-teams here. The first attempts for a nice list came down to a FO-bot and an EVO to boost it and simply gun things down on my way. The problem of hacking, the short rangebands and too obvious Lt-options in the end lead to a different list, even with a quite reduced order pool.

Since the mission is a little about killing stuff, I wanted to use the good old smoke-trick to extend, so the Epsilon and two Varangians were there, supported by a redfury Bluecoat as backup gun and toolbox with all the skills on him. Cho should be disguised as something nasty, since I was sure that my opponents won't see the problem of a missing Lt in my list.  

I had no clue what to expect from Shasvasti on 100 points, but four camo markers and two Nox were a quite good riddle. For Frontline, the Shrouded should make a good defense for the zones, while the Mentor can use his mimetism to shoot every target without bigger problems. Swanson with her FD saves valuable ressources in this small game.

We had to improvise a bit on terrain this time, since the papercraft terrain is quite flexible but in the end is a bit too flexible if you take some floor-tiles with it. I loose the Lt roll and deploy second in the south to utilize the bottle-necks around the center with my Varangians.

Two camo markers go on each side of the deployment, while the two Nox sit somewhere back.

Cho, disguised as something uninteresting, and the Kytta take the left side, while the Varangians take the right side together with the Bluecoat.

Aida appears on the central left and I place the Epsilon in the center, too, to utilize the smoke in the close quarters.

Shas 1: Swanson advances a bit, placing a mine behind the central building. Everything except for one Nox advances and Swanson enters suppressive fire with the advanced Nox.

Starmada 1: The Varangians advance in the center and set up smoke. My Epsilon discovers a Shrouded and forces him into total cover, then fails to discover the next marker. Everything advances a bit and the Epsilon, as well as one Varangian enter suppressive fire.

 

Shas 2: The Shrouded places a mine next to the other Varangian. While everything else advances further, the Mentor takes down the Epsilon.

Starmada 2: The Varangian without the mine rushes through the Shasvasti markers, forgetting about the mine and the Shrouded and goes dogged. That boosts is concentration, enabling him to kill the Mentor in CC, dodging the viral mine and critting Swanson with his SMG before collapsing.

Shas 3: Whatever able to advance advances.

Starmada 3: Everything left advances after clearing the last mine. The Bluecoat shoots down one Nox.

While I win 5-1, our newbie crushes Bakunin with a 10-0 victory, taking the lead in the league.

For now I am quite satisfied and a bit surprised by the capabilities of the Varangian Guard, while I also doubt the Epsilon as an auto-include. The smoke here is more a tool to get the Ariadnan guys to their destination or to cover the approach of my other units. But in the end, such small games only give a distorted view of the game.