Another week, another game night full of brutal lessons in my continuing crash course in Infinity.
This week I went up against a vanilla Haqqislam force with a modified Shasvastii list. I kept the 3 seed soldiers, but took out the aswuang liutenant in favor of a Shrouded liutenant, and took a Caliban with a combi-rifle instead of a Feuerbach this time. The Speculo stayed in. I also took a Noctifier with a combi-rifle, so I was at 7 orders instead of last weeks 6. (We’re playing at 150 points)
The Plan:
1. Use my seeds as a link team this time. I’m using a sectorial to take advantage of this, in part.
2. Take advantage of my camo units more actively.
3. Combi-rifles seem awesome. I’m going to use more of those, and less heavy equipment.
4. Hide my seeds all under 1 camo marker to add a further layer of confusion to deployment. That will help keep them in linking distance as well.
5. Let my Speculo do the heavy lifting as usual, and hopefully play the second part of the game where the fight shifts to my other forces more effectively.
6. Stick to the “all-camo marker” deployment thing. From what I’ve observed, it really freaks out opponents, and if I can get better at it, it will give me a unique angle/advantage as I improve.
So, I’m still really really green at this game, and instead of giving an actual battle report, I’m going to break down everything I did wrong, because the battle post-mortem was more instructive than the actual game.
The Mistakes:
1. I didn’t use my link-team of seeds at burst 2 during ARO. This basically cost them a crucial kill of an air-dropped Ragik with an HMG. That mistake probably more than anything else cost me the game.
2. I failed to distinguish between camoflage and Thermo-optic camoflage. My Noctifier had the latter, and that means it should have been much harder to take down, and also could have been given hidden deployment.
3. I failed to remember that my Shrouded can infiltrate. Doh!!!
4. I was frightened off by the fact that my opponent had a ton of flame template weapons, which ruin camo, and therefore didn’t deploy my Speculo in the most advantageous position for optimal killing. Here’s why that was a mistake: I forgot that they have to make multiple discovery roles at a negative modifier before they can even think about using those flamers on my Speculo, due to its level 3 impersonation. So I should have deployed it much more aggressively. As it stood, she killed a single dude immediately, and then was too far away from the fight to do much else.
5. I’m still not confident about when to hatch seeds on ARO. One time in the game I hatched them thinking I’d be ready to blast away on the next opponent order, but it turns out that I had misjudged the path of movement, and basically hatched them to just get murdered. My opponent let me undo that action, since it was only my 3rd game, but that still gave away what was where. And ultimately I’m STILL not sure I hatched them at the right time later. Gotta get those rules down better because it’s fundamental to using this force.
Further observations the day after:
1. The shrouded liutenant generally isn’t worth it, because it has a SWC of 2, which at 150 points doesn’t leave you much room for other toys, and he “only” has a Combi! It seems that the minelayer option would be much better in small games.
2. Combi-rifles are good, in moderation. They can straight up murder just about anything in close-mid range on your active turn, but if you don’t have anything with longer range, your opponent has a real advantage in shooting by staying out of range and using longer-ranged weapons (like HMGs) at a positive modifier while your combis are at -3 or -6 at range, which is even worse in the case of a single shot ARO.
3. I think that more than other forces, getting your deployment right with Shas is CRUCIAL. They are a “finesse” force as opposed to brute strength. You have less orders, and even fewer within your list to take advantage of things like T.O. camo. Hidden deployment, infiltration, and camo deployment are the strengths of your force; you need to get it right before the game even starts, or you are just fighting uphill.
So, that’s my morning after breakdown of my latest thoughts as I learn this fun and deep game! I also picked up the Haqqislam starter set while I was there, so now once that is painted up I’ll have a pretty decent list of stuff to choose from once I decide to try out Haqq.