Cold Sleep – Infinity Battle Report

(ITS Infinity battle report in a North England wasteland – written by Ross)

At this point you must have been under the Dreadfort being flayed not to notice the growing love for the game of Infinity. Matt and I have been playing for a good 5 years and endured the, terribly translated, edition that felt like a beta and needed constant clarification. But the recent release of the excellently written & translated N3 and the Operation Ice Storm box set has made it more accessible for gamers to get involved and with all the reasonably priced high quality scenery it makes for very exciting aesthetic when playing the games.

As a game, it plays very differently to the old “I go, you go” turn system. Most Infinity scenarios have 3 turns. If it’s your turn, you are the “active” player and your opponent is the “reactive” player. That means your opponent can react to your orders in real time, so you have to have some foresight when planning & making your moves, or your opponent can punish you with reactive fire and smear you all over the walls.

Now I know there are some GW fan boys that may have been shunning the idea of playing a game that wasn’t spewed out by the fascists over in Nottingham, especially one that uses D20s, and some of you are not going to like the Manga/comic book aesthetic with all the vibrant colours. But if you haven’t taken the time to look at the Infinity miniatures range, I suggest you do, because it’s hard not to fall in love with at least one of the factions, and after giving this a read, hopefully you’ll see what a dynamic and entertaining rules system Infinity has and for a smaller investment, than a GW game, you will want to give it a try.

Before we dive in too deep it’s always nice to have a little bit of background about the universe and two armies. Infinity is set in the near future of the 23^rd century as man has taken its first steps out into the cold dark of space and have set up colonies over 11 star systems, collectively called “The Human Sphere”. Currently within The Human Sphere there are 5 human, 2 alien and an AI faction battling for supremacy. (Within these armies there are different factions so there’s a ton of lists to choose from when deciding who you want to play as).

Matt is playing a NeoTerra force from the PanOceania faction. PanOceania is the leading nation in terms of influence and power. Pioneering space exploration and the development of the ALEPH AI faction, PanOceania was able to harness its technology to gain an edge over other powers. It sees itself as a model for others to follow, and is willing to fight anyone who would threaten its station. In order to maintain its status, the Hyperpower uses the full extent of its influence in international policymaking, safe in the knowledge that it is backed by an army furnished with the most advanced and destructive technology in the Human Sphere. As they have plenty of high caliber troops and their forces are usually small heavily armoured and elite.

Adam is playing an Ariadna force. Ariadna was founded by the descendants of the first human colony ship, thought lost when it disappeared into a wormhole. Left to their own devices on a hostile, resource-poor planet, endurance and mettle had to make up for the lack of state-of-the-art technology. Cossack, American, French and Scottish fought each other and they all fought the planet, and from all the fighting emerged Ariadna, where only the toughest survive. Wild and savage Ariadna make up in numbers what they don’t have in sophisticate tech.

Let’s hear from the guys as to why they chose their armies.

Matt – Why did I choose PanO and the NeoTerra sectoral specifically? Was it the fluff, the rules, the TAG’s or the number of Swiss Guard you can take? Simple answer really, Bolts. Love the models, love their whole vibe. They resonate with me at my purest inner child level, when I was a kid “Battle of the Planets” was one of my favourite TV shows. The main protagonists were from Spectra the basic troopers just remind me of the Bolts. (If you painted them blue and gave them red helmets and squinted a lot!)

My list was specifically designed with Missions in mind and keeping enough specialists alive to get the job done. More importantly though, I included the models I like. Even before the Bolts I’d been eyeing up the Axillia – little robots on wheels with flamethrowers you say? Hell yeah!

Adam – I’ll just say this… WEREWOLVES. But seriously WEREWOLVES!! Honestly, I like playing Ariadna because of their simplicity. In a future world of big robots they have somewhat stayed the same. Much like me in these modern times, I’m basically still a caveman interwhat? Technolowho? I love the idea of this ragtag band, descended from the toughest forces humanity had to offer, waging a guerrilla war on all the intruders on their planet.

I’ve gone for a balanced army that has plenty of specialists (I’m running with 4) some heavy hitters like the Tank Hunter with an auto-canon, a couple of snipers to pick off those difficult to hit targets, and of course 2 Big Bad Werewolves!

Forces

“Watch me, learn from me, I can teach you everything you need to know about this business” – Swiss Toni.

When building an army in Infinity it is very much like any other game. You set a point limit normally 200-400pts, for which your force is broken down into battle groups of 10 models, and then you have a criteria on the numbers of each type of model you are allowed. In a normal(ish) 300 point army, you’re looking at having 8-12 models.

Each troop also has an SWC, support weapons cost, which in game terms helps limit the amount of heavily armoured troops, giant robots (TAGs) and special weaponry you can take. This game was to be played to 300pts giving them 6 SWC points to spend. (SWC is worked out by dividing your agreed points by 50).

Infinity has a great system of using “specialist” troopers to capture objectives and to do entertaining things, using your hacker to take control of, or upload a virus to, your opponent’s biggest TAG is always fun! So it’s imperative to include a good balance of these if you want have a chance of winning the game. Especially since different scenarios use different specialists to achieve victory. Doctors, Paramedics, Engineers, Forward Observers and Hackers are the main specialist types. For this foray, Matt’s army has 5 Specialist, Adam’s has 4.

Swiss Toni’s salesman 300pts, 5.5 SWC

The Swiss Guard and Hexas have something called TO Camouflage. This is normally some kind of advanced electronic cloaking device that allows units with this special rule to deploy secretly, unseen by your opponent. During games we always place them and take a picture of where they are for future reference, to reveal them at the most opportune time.

When models with TO move before they are revealed they become a counter and can be discovered, should your opponent wish to try looking for them, however if the TO model shoots or gets within an enemies control zone, 8 inches, they are replaced by their model. Once they are on the table it also gives them a high negative modifier when being shot at. Making models with this ability excellent snipers and assassins.

Grunts Runts 296 pts, 5 SWC

Adam’s force is from a lower tech world in the human sphere. They don’t have access to the TO level of camouflage but they are good at using regular camo and make up for their lack of technology by having Werewolves! The standard camo allows models to deploy as counters on the table. Your opponent doesn’t know what they are, and so long as they don’t move too fast, or get too close, they remain as counters until they fire or are detected.

A big part of the strategy in Infinity is knowing when to reveal your hidden troops. Using them to obtain maximum surprise and damage without leaving yourself open to retaliation. This will be a key factor in the upcoming battle.

Scenario

For this game we are using a mission from the Infinity Tournament System (ITS) pack called Cold Sleep. In it there are 3 objectives – 2 Scenario specific and the other is a classified one rolled up randomly before most games.

For the specific ones Matt and Adam are fighting over 4 tech-coffins and 2 consoles. The tech-coffins in question are disabled defence turrets, that each player is desperate to reactivate to lock down this section of the city. But they also need to access the control consoles to boot them back up and control them remotely.

Hacking/accessing a turret or console gives that player control. But should your opponent access it, they wipe your control code and it reprogram it with theirs. The simple objective is control more turrets and consoles than your opponent, without being forced to withdraw.

For the classified objectives Adam has to destroy any one part of a building on the enemy’s side of the table using demo charges, and Matt has to secure a high value target (HVT). Both players always deploy the opponents HVT model on their side of the table as a possible objective, as neither knows what classified objective their opponent will have.

Deployment

Is straight forward, roll some dice, figure out what board edge you want, who’s deploying first, who’s going first blah blah blah you can read about that stuff yourself.

What’s important/cool is your TO troops, Camo markers and their associated decoys, if your troops can place them, (Adam has a mine layer who can lay a mine as a decoy, very nasty) and infiltrators – both airborne and ground.

For this scenario infiltrators can’t deploy touching an objective, and due to low visibility, aerial drop troopers cannot use their Combat Jump skill, which is an accurate aerial deployment method similar to deep striking.

As it happened, Matt won the roll and pick his side first, he then deployed first. He put all of his troops in some kind of cover, because cover is your best friend! It makes you harder to hit, and gives you a positive modifier to your save. Units of note where his Hexas deployed secretly covering the left flank, his Aquila in almost plain sight on the gantry (using the railings and a steam vent for cover. With it’s high armour value Adam will have a tough time moving him, not to mention he has a special visor so he can see through cover and camo, so hopefully he’ll ward off too many brash moves from Adam’s more aggressive army) and the Swiss (Toni) Guard deployed secretly on top of the highest building so he could see everything.

It’s worth mentioning that for almost any other model this would be plain suicide. But good ol’ Toni has TO giving him a -6 modifier to hit, when he finally reveals himself, and that’s before range or cover modifiers! He also has a huge armour save! Think of him as a slimmer, more manoeuvrable, cloaked Terminator with a whacking great missile launcher that’ll blow anything it hits into tiny bite sized pieces. Matt did this because he knows Adams Ariadna are a little impotent when it comes to tech, and without the visor Matt’s Aquila has, there isn’t much chance of Toni getting hit very often.

Adams deployment was very similar. HIDE ALL THE THINGS!

Half of his army deployed as camo markers, sneaky buggers, but units of note for Adam were his two snipers up on the tallest building. The Grunt was prone, ready to pop up at an opportune moment and the Spetsnazs was in camo ready to surprise anyone that dare run through his line of fire. His camo Tank Hunter, with his auto canon was hiding out ready to blast Matts high armoured targets, and finally the Chasseur infiltrating and using his decoy mine marker to surprise anyone who decided to sneak down amongst the buildings.

Matt also ended up with the first turn. With the table set and the orders patched through on the comm-links it’s time…3…2…1…FIGHT!

Matt’s Turn 1

Swiss Toni stood on the edge of the habitation-slum surveying the city below. He checked his suit’s environmental replicators functionality. The readings were optimal, but he still wasn’t happy to be stationed up here without anything to hide behind. He peered through the haze, his HUD only able to make out details a few hundred meters away. With so few habitable planets, it made him sick to see the primitive state that had befallen this one. The thick smog meant their LZ was outside the city centre, and they had to move in on foot. That was giving the savages time to close in on their objective. If they couldn’t get the turrets back online, it was likely they would lose this part of the city. A loss, high command had stated, that would severely weaken their control of the whole sector.

“I can see movement 2 Streets over.” A crisp clean voice reported. Looking down to his right his HUD highlighted the outline of the Aquila in a gentle blue glow. Toni could hardly see him crouched low against the gantry railings behind a cloud of smoke.

“Hey, do you think you can get me one of those visors?”

“Sure, as soon as you get me a enviro-rep suit.”

“You can probably have mine in a bit, for all the good it’ll do me standing up here!” Toni replied.

“OK guys cut the chatter.” A stern female voice interjected. “Everyone is in position, lets get these turrets back online and blast a few savages while we’re at it. Axulia move up”

“Yes Sir” 2 voices echoed back…

At the start of each player turn the active player totals up their available orders to issue. There are 4 main types: Impetuous, Irregular, Regular and Lieutenant. The Regular orders go into a pool that anyone in the Battle Group can use. All the rest have to be used by the specific model that generated the order, simples!

An order can be used on a model to:

Make a Short Movement Skill followed by a Short Skill

Make a Short Movement Skill followed by another Short Movement Skill

Make an Entire Order Skill

Once the player declares the first part of their order, the opponent has a chance to make an Automatic Reaction Order, or ARO for short. Any enemy model with a Line Of Fire to the acting model can take one. The acting model then declares the second part of its order and everything happens simultaneously. That, in a nutshell, is the basic play during each turn, so let’s see how Matt’s first turn plays out.

Matt totals up his orders for the turn. He has 10 regular and a Lieutenant. Before he has a chance to act Adam uses one of his special “Command Tokens” (both players start with 4) to remove 2 of Matt’s first turn regular orders, this can only be done by the reactive player on the first turn! Leaving him with 8 and one for the Lt.

Matt starts by double moving Auxilia 1, and his connected Aux Bot 1, up under cover on the gantry towards Tech-Coffin #1.

For his next order he tries to activate the Tech-Coffin. To be successful he needs to roll under his willpower (WIP) of 12 but hacking these turrets carry a negative 3 modifier so he needs a 9. He rolls a 13 and fails.

Not to be put off he tries again to activate the Tech-Coffin. The recoding is obviously too difficult to do quickly as he fails again, rolling an 11.

Next up the Bolt with the Spitfire (like an SMG) makes a double move to reach the barrier,and uses another order to activate suppressing fire. (This allows him to fire more shots during a reactive shooting action) effectively giving him a commanding overwatch along the street.

Since objectives are what will win you a game of Infinity Matt goes all out and sends his Auxilia Observer 2 and his Bot 2 out towards the cover of the barrels in the middle of the street. Since no one has made any AROs, Matt decides he’s going to push on and moves the Auxilia Observer 2 up to Tech-Coffin #4 and tries to reboot it. He has the same WIP as the other Auxilia so needs a 9 and rolls a 20. Complete fail!

As a final move Matt decides to move his Trauma Doctor up to support the line troops in the event of someone going down in the coming turn.

You’ll notice Matt didn’t use his Lt order, he did this so he didn’t have to reveal who is Lt was so early in the game. Losing your Lt is a big deal in Infinity. Their death means you have to use all your orders like Irregular orders until the turn after his death, which could cripple your plans and cost you the game.

 

Adam’s turn 1

“This is our planet” the sniper thought. He had shuffled slowly to his vantage point over the last 18 hours, his urban-camo cloak breaking up his outline as he leaned on the droning extractor vent. In his ear the com-link hissed into life. “Rumour has it they’re not going to let us waltz in here and take our land back without a fight boys!” Lieutenant Grant Grunt barked. “And if it’s blood they want to spill, I’ll gladly help them spill it, using their own fancy guns! Scopes sit-rep!”

Looking down his sight he slowly traced the crosshair along the street below. It all looked clear. Maybe they weren’t going to contest the ground after all. “It’s all looking quiet Sir.” As he finished speaking he noticed a small blue figure dart across the street from behind some barrels. “Bugger, cancel that, one just ran out across the street on the right flank towards a turret, better get moving!”

“Copy that scopes.” Grant said eagerly. “OK boys… Release the hounds!”

Adam counts up his orders and has 4 Impetuous, 4 Irregular, 10 Regular and a Lt. (That’s a lot of orders in this game!) However they are split and can only be used by their respective battle groups. Meaning Battle Group 1 has 2 Impetuous, 2 Irregular and 8 Regular orders and Battle Group 2 has 2 Impetuous, 2 Irregular, 2 Regular and the Lt.

Impetuous orders have their own phase and have to be activated first. Essentially, they represent all manor of uncontrollable units with a high amount of fury. These units have little instinct for survival, and also means they don’t gain benefit from partial cover. Impetuous orders have a special combination of skills they can declare. One of which always needs to be a move directly toward the closest enemy model.

Starting on the right flank with Cameronian (Werewolf) 1- he lobs a smoke grenade into the alleyway to cover his advance. Needing a 13 he rolls 7 and moves into the smoke directly towards Auxilia 2.

Werewolf 2 move up towards Auxilia 2 and attempts to throw a smoke grenade to cover his next advance. In his eagerness to get to grips with the enemy he rolls 18 and throws the grenade clear off the board!

On the left flank Irmandinhos 1 & 2 move up through the alleyways towards Auxilia 1.

With the Impetuous orders done, Adam moves his Doctor up into the big building on the right flank. There’s a Tech-Coffin on the roof, and if she can access it, Matt will have a hard time gaining control of it.

Next up, the Spetsnezs takes advantage of his camouflaged state and makes a surprise shot at the Aquila standing on the gantry. The Aquila beads in on the fire to take a snap shot back at the Spetsnezs with an ARO shooting action.

In this situation the two models act simultaneously, and take what is called a face-to-face roll. Both roll their allotted dice simultaneously with the highest successful roll winning and landing the shot(s). The Spetsnazs sniper rifle is a burst 2 weapon giving him two dice. He has Ballistic Skill (BS) of 12 but gets +3 for Marksman level 2 skill and +3 for surprise shot. Meaning he needs 18 or less on D20 to hit!

The Aquila only gets one shot when firing as part of an ARO. His BS is 15 – 3 range, – 3 cover. He would have had an additional -3 but he ignores the Spetsnezs camo because of his multi spectral visor! That means he needs a 9 or less to hit the Spetsnazs.

The dice roll, and Adam hits with a 15 and 11 and the Aquila totally misses!

With two hits, it’s up to the Aqulias armour to save him. The Damage value for the sniper is D15. Meaning the Aquilia would need over 15 to save. However he has Armour (ARM) 4 and +3 for the hard cover meaning he only needs 9 or more. He rolls a pair of 17’s and saves them both!

 

Not put off by the Aquilas apparent invulnerability, Adam orders the Spetsnazs to fire at the Aquila again, and he ARO fires back.

This time Matt also decides that he needs a little more support and reveals Swiss Toni with an ARO shooting at the Spetstnazs.

AROs can be declared by anyone that has line of sight the acting model, or if the model is inside their control zone of 8 inches. Meaning, you have to be careful and can’t be overly gung-ho without the fear of having everyone shooting back at you.

In the face-to-face roll the Spetsnezs rolls 19 and 2 and the Aquilia rolls a 19. Both the 19’s miss, but the 2 hits the Aquilia!

Swiss Toni’s shot is not a face-to-face, as he wasn’t being targeted, so he’s under no pressure to perform under fire. His BS is 15 but gets the following modifiers – 3 cover -3 camo +3 surprise shot +3 range. So he needs a 15… and he rolls a 12 and hits!

Save for Aquila +3 for cover +4 armour D15 rolls a 7 fails and takes a wound! One more and he’ll be down.

Save for Spetsnazs the missile blast ignores cover and halves the victims armour. Because it’s a particularly nasty weapon, it also does 3 wounds for every hit… missile launchers aren’t nice, and at D14 the poor Spetsnazs with only one wound needs to roll 15 or more. Adam rolls the dice 16, 11, 10 two wounds he’s DEAD!

 

 If Adam had made two of the rolls, the Spetznas would be unconscious and would be revivable by a paramedic or doctor, but since he took an additional wound over his profile wounds he goes straight to the dead state, and is removed from the board. Not a good start to his turn.

 

Worried about the dominance Swiss will have from that vantage point, Adam uses two orders to creep his Tank Hunter spot where he can see Swiss Toni, and takes a surprise shot. (This could be Adam’s best chance to kill the Swiss Guard, as the Tank Hunter has an auto-canon with a high rate of fire and multiple wounds for every hit). Swiss obviously ARO fires back along with the Aquila who can also draw a bead to the Tank Hunter (not very good positioning on Adam’s part there, as he moved him much further than he needed, leaving the Tank Hunter outside of cover).

The Tank Hunter and Swiss Toni go face-to-face. The Tank hunter has BS 12, +3 surprise shot, +3 range, – 6 TO camo so he needs 12 or less. Toni has BS 15 +3 range, -3 for camo. The dice roll… Adam gets a 10 and 11 but Toni beats him with a 14! Winning the face-to-face and landing the only hit!

If Adam had rolled exactly a 12 it would have been a critical hit and he would have won the f-2-f and caused an automatic wound, but he just missed it! So now, because Matt’s roll was higher, it cancels the lower “to hit” rolls.

The Aquila, encouraged by the amazing accuracy of Swiss Toni, rolls 1 and also hits. Not that you would know it, as Toni’s D14 missile launcher causes 2 wounds incinerating the poor tank hunter he is straight to DEAD.

 

Unfortunately, that was one of Adam’s best bets at bringing down Ton0,i the unlucky f-2-f, and not keeping him in partial cover, really hurt him here, because Swiss Toni would have had a further -3 to hit so his 14 would have missed, and Adam would have scored two hits, which multiply to 4 saves, because it’s a nasty big canon.

Since shooting doesn’t look like it’s going to win this game, Adam uses an Irregular order on Irmandinhos 1 who throws a smoke grenade and moves into contact with Tech-Coffin #2. The brash Irmandinhos gets to work on the recode, but after 2 more orders he still can’t seem to crack the code, and moves back into cover. (Smoke dissipates at the end of your turn so he would be standing in the street with Swiss Toni looking straight at him!)

On the right flank, the Cameronian 1 uses his Irregular order and throws another smoke grenade into the alleyway. Using it to cover his advance but as he can’t see anything he decides to pray and spray with an intuitive fire order at the Bolt with the Spitfire from inside the smoke. He can do this as he has a template weapon, but only gets one shot. The Bolt decides to react and dodge away from the incoming fire. They make a f-2-f roll and the Bolt rolls a higher success, winning and dodging out of the template, but in moving he breaks his suppressive fire order.

With only 3 orders left Adam uses Cameronian 2’s Irregular to move up him into the alley. A regular order on his Chassuer to make a cautious movement, so as not to break the cover of his camo, and finally Irmandinous 2’s Irregular order to move back into cover under a ledge.

 

Matt’s turn 2

Riding on a high after a very successful reactive turn, Matt starts out by ordering Auxilia 2 and his Bot 2 to move and hack the Tech-Coffin, and he fails again! It must be the proximity of those smelly wolves. So he spends another order so that Bot 2 can shoot his heavy flamer into the alleyway. The template hits both the Wolves,  so Cameronian 2 ARO fires back and Cameronian 1 tries to dodge.

Templates hit automatically, so unless Cameronian 1 can dodge successfully, they will both be hit! The blocked line of sight hampers the wolfs reaction, and he fails the dodge roll, both of them are hit. Cameronina 1 fails his first save, and when you get hit with a flamer you continue to burn until you make another save. Luckily he makes his next one leaving him with 1 wound. Cameronina 2 makes his first save and fires back with his chain rifle hitting the Auxilia Bot 2 and Bolt Spitfire.

 

Since the shot was an ARO, the Bolt Spitfire can’t react and is hit automatically by the template! Both models fail their saves destroying the Bot and downing the Bolt … is there a Doctor in the house?

There sure is, and Matt issues a regular order to move the Trauma Doctor within range to fire the nano bots from his medikit without exposing himself to any ARO fire. He takes aim and the nano bots fly towards his target, BS12 +3 for range he rolls 13! The nano bots hit but will the Bolt recover?

The Bolt takes a Physical (PHS) roll 11 – 3 for their rampant programming. He rolls a 10! The nano bots fail to save him and probably did more damage so with that the Bolt dies and it seems the Doctor’s reputation for killing more of their patients than saving them carries on!

 

Looking to make up for the death of his comrade, Swiss Toni shoots at Irmandinous 2 who is peeking out from behind cover. Adam decides to dodge, they take their f-2-f roll. Matt gets an 8, Adam rolls a 2! Looks like Swiss got the jump on him. In blast mode the missile is Damage 14 (D14), the Irmandinous gets +1 for his armour so he needs 14 or more to pass his saves. The dice are cast and Adam rolls 14,15,18 passing all of them! If only he’d have saved the Tank Hunter that way!

Shooting isn’t working out too well, so Matt goes back to the main objectives and orders Auxilia 1 to activate the Tech-Coffin. Crouching down Adam realises he can see him with his Minute Man who takes an ARO shot, hitting the Auxilia and Matt promptly saves. Under pressure, the Auxilia’s sense of urgency increases, and he manages to finally recode the turret!

With that complete, Matt spends another order moving Auxilia 1 towards Console 1 getting him halfway up the ladder. As he breaks cover the Minute Man takes another ARO shot and misses.

Happy that he’s safe for the moment, Matt orders Auxilia 2 to go to work on the second turret, and he promptly fails 3 successive orders to recode it! With the Cameronians bearing down upon him, the Auxilia’s final action is to set a suppressing fire zone, and hope he can weather the storm.

 

Adam’s turn 2

With two units down, Adam will have 2 less regular orders to spend on Battle Group 1 this turn. Staring with his Impetuous orders, Cameronian 1 throws a smoke grenade under the gantry onto the objective and tries to run under it. Unfortunately Adam misjudged the available space, and he doesn’t fit! (All models have a size on their profile that corresponds to a silhouette template. This template is used to show the volume of the model for line of sight, and access to small areas etc. The wolves have one of the biggest S6, a standard trooper is S2. Since this is his impetuous order, he has to move via the quickest route, and that means using his jumping ability to launch himself over and onto the gantry. Definitely not ideal, as without a smoke screen, Swiss Toni can see him clearly and ARO fires at him. The poor Camerionian didn’t even see it coming, failing two of the three saves, and knocking him into an unconscious state.

 Learning from this mistake, Camerionian 2 declares his impetuous order tossing a smoke grenade up onto the gantry and jumping up onto the hab-block towards Auxilia 2.

Over on the right flank, the Impetuous orders continue with Irmandious 2 throwing a smoke grenade out into the street to cover his move into the alleyway. Irmandious 1 also throws a smoke grenade, but onto the Tech-coffin, and moves towards it, into the alleyway. Then using the smoke he just threw as cover, Irmandious 1 uses his Irregular order to move up to the Tech-Coffin and try reprogramming it. He needs 10, and rolls a 6. Success!

 

Worried about the possible loss of his assault troops, Adam issues a regular order to the Doctor to move out the building down the alleyway. (This could be a big mistake on Adam’s part. As the activation of the Tech-Coffin on top of the building would be really hard for Matt to counter!) Continuing with another order, the doctor makes her way toward the wolf. As she passes through the smoke, Matt’s Aquila AROs and shoots at her! His Multi-Spectral visor allows him to shoot through smoke! As Adam had elected to move twice with the Doctor (essentially a run) there’s nothing he can do but hope Matt misses! With BS15 -3 for range the Aquila needs a 12… and he rolls a 12!! Critical Hit! He’s using DA ammo, which causes two wounds per hit, but as it,s critical, Adam doesn’t get a chance to save, so the Medic is DEAD!

 

 With the right flank not performing too well, Adam turns his attention to the left flank. Ordering Irmandious 1 to throw more smoke in the street to cover his advance. The canister makes a bad bounce and it misses the spot, so Adam had to use another order to try again. Success! With the smoke set, the Irmandinous runs to the building on the far left.

He had been told to blast access holes in the walls of the buildings on the left flank so they could out manoeuvre the turrets if they become operational again. This looked as good a point as any! Taking a charge from his pack, he set it against the concrete wall, pushed the red wire into the putty, and primed the detonator. Stepping aside he squeezed the trigger…

Adam orders the Irmandinous to set a charge on the building; it detonates causing 2 structure points of damage to the building. 1 more to go! Ordering him to lay another mine he presses the detonator… nothing… it’s a dud!

 

Using a Command Token to turn an Irregular order into regular order, he then uses that order with another command token to do a combined cautious move (allowing him to move up to 4 models toward the same point on the board) on the SAS, Chusser and the two 2^nd Battalion troops all in camo.

With the support in place, Adam sets about trying to tear Auxilia #2 to pieces. Using his Irregular order Cameronina 2 jumps over the gangway to get into combat, as he does so, Matt’s Aquila AROs using his Multi-Spectral Visor to see through the smoke. Since Adam is focused on moving and fighting the Auxila, it’s a straight shot from the Aquila. He hits and with his DA ammo means Adam has two wounds at D13 to save. The Cameronian has armour 3 so needs 11 or more. He rolls 12 and 17 saving both! Auxila #2 uses his ARO to dodge away. His Physical (PHS) is 10. So he needs 10 or less to dodge. Matt rolls a 7 but since it’s a f-2-f roll with the attacking Cameronian, it’s up to the Wolf to beat a 7! The wolf is a close combat specialist his attacks need a 22 to hit. That’s an automatic hit and means he will cause a critical hit on an 18, 19 or 20! All he has to do is beat a 7 surely he can’t fail!! He rolls a 2! The Auxilia beats him, and dodges away from the Cameronians fury leaving him standing in the open!

 Matt Turn 3

 It’s the start of Matt’s last turn. He only has only lost one order at this point, so still has 9 and his lieutenant one. Matt starts out by using a regular order to make a cautious movement with his Hexas, revealing it as a TO token. He continues with another cautious movement towards the Irmandinous. Setting off demo-charges isn’t going to let you go unnoticed, so looking to get the jump on him, the Hexas stealthily drops down to the street. Because the Hexas is a counter now, and in line of sight, Adam can make an ARO to discover him. It’s a WIP roll needing a 13 -6 for TO he rolls a 4! The Hexas is discovered, revealing the model!

 

With his cover blown, Matt orders the Hexas to shoot with his spitfire! He gets 4 Shots at BS12 +3 for range, so he needs 15 or less. Facing that much fire, the Irmandinous opts to use ARO to Dodge and get out of the way. They make it a f-2-f roll. Adam promptly rolls a 20… total failure. All Matt’s rolls are under 15 so he get’s 4 hits. Adam fails two saves and he’s DEAD!

With the Auxilia having dodged away from the manic Cameronian, the Aquila decides to take this moment to shoot at the big bad wolf. With a BS15 +3 for range he needs 18s. Adam declares to ARO dodge with the Cameronian, since the Aquila has a burst 3, armour penetrating, shock ammunition weapon!!! But before their f-2-f roll, the Mortok decides this is the time for a surprise shot and ARO shots the Aquila. BS12 +3 surprise +3 range -3 cover -3 camo puts him at a base 12 to hit. He shoots and … hits! But the Aqulia’s armour is too thick and he saves the hit. Back to the f-2-f and the Cameronian rolls a 19 on his dodge… whomp whomp. For which the Aquilia promptly hits him twice. Adam makes one of his saves, but since the Cameronian has already taken one wound the shock ammunition means he bypasses the unconscious state and he’s removed from the board.

With Big Bad Wolf removed, and the pressure off, the Auxilia moves back and tries to access the Tech-Coffin. For his trouble Adam’s Chasser AROs and takes a surprise shot, revealing himself. He has BS12 +3 Surprise -3 cover he rolls an 11 and Hits! With D13 the Auxilia wold need a 14 or more to save but has +1 for his armour and +3 for the cover so he only needs a 10… he rolls an 18 and saves.

“Hey Toni, apparently I’m not as well hidden as you” The Aquila calmly stated. “There’s a guy on that rusty walkway shooting at me. Almost did some damage too! See if you can’t persuade him to move along.”

Swiss Toni raises his missile launcher, and takes aim at the Mortok.

“That bastard on the roof is butchering us boys.” The Lieutenant barked through the comm.-link. “Wait until he moves, and then blast everything at him. Otherwise we might as well pack up and go home.”

As Toni raises his weapon the Chassuer notices a glint high up on the building, so does the 2^nd Battalion SMG and both take an ARO shot. At BS11 +3 range -6 for TO the Chassuer needs an 8. Pretty tough shot, which he promptly misses. 2^nd Battalion SMG is firing from a Camo-Marker and so his is a surprise shot, BS12 +3 surprise shot, -3 range, -6 TO leaves him needing a 6 an even tougher shot and he misses too!

Toni lets fly with his missile towards the Mortok who tries to ARO dodge. They roll a face-to-face Tony rolls a 17 and misses and Mortok rolls a 2 and dodges away!

With all eyes on Toni, Auxilia 2 tries again to access the turret. It’s all or nothing now, as he stands up to reach the control panel, needing a 10 to be successful. As he does the Chassuer AROs and shoots at him. There’s no f-2-f roll here, so they make their rolls the Chassuer shoots the Auxilia as he presses the upload key. The Auxilia fails his save and is down, but managed to successfully upload the code and get the turret operational again!

Hearing the Auxilia go down, Swiss Toni trains his missle launcher on the Chassuer. Having avoided his last shot the Mortok AROs and shots at Toni. He’s obviously off balance from the previous dodge, and misses by a mile! TO is amazing (and Matt is really lucky) I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything take that many shots and still be standing in the same place.

The Chassure tries to dodge, and in the ensuing f-2-f, he rolls a 4 but Tony rolls a 9, Toni is successful! The explosion causes 3 wounds, of which the Chassuer saves 1, and is blown to pieces!

As it’s Matt’s last turn, he has to go all out on the objectives, ordering Auxilia 1 to finish climbing the ladder and run for the console, he’s going for the win!

Adam’s Mortok takes an ARO shot, BS12 +3 range he needs 15 or below and rolls 16! Adam’s Minuteman also takes an ARO shot which hits, but the Auxilia’s armour saves him!

With his last order, the Auxilia dives towards the console needing a 9 to activate it … he rolls a 1! The console hums into life!

 

 Adam’s Turn 3

It’s the final turn of the game. Currently, Matt has activated two Tech-Coffins and a Console. He also controls the console he activated, as he is in base contact with it. Adam only has the one Tech-Coffin activated. If he can shift Matt’s Auxilia, and reprogram the console, he has a chance at winning the game.

Things are a little bleak on the order front for Adam. He’s down to 1 Impetuous, 1 Irregular, 6 Regular and his Lieutenant. That’s 10 orders down from where he started, but still a reasonable amount when compared to Matts.

Adam starts out with the remaining Impetuous order telling Irmandiniuos 2 to throw smoke and move up into the street. Using his Irregular order he then throws more smoke covering his advance so that he is able to reach the side of the building by spending a regular order.

At this point, the Irmandinious is at the crux of the two buildings on the left flank. It’s possible that he could climb up and hack the back of the console without anyone seeing his advance. Adam issues the order and moves up next to the console. Matt can’t draw a line to him and so the Irmandinious attempts to hack it unmolested, needing a 10 he rolls a 6! The console is his! Now to move that Auxilia.

With the Auxilia on the other side of the console, no one can get a shoot at him, so it’s up to the Irmandinous to assault him. Before he does, Adam tries to even the odds and orders his Grunt Sniper to have a shot at the Aquila. The Aquilia AROs and returns fire and so does Swiss Toni. For the face-to-face the Grunt has BS11+3 sniper +6 marksman -3 for cover needs a 17. Rolls a 14!

Aquila ARO’s and fires BS15 -3 range -3 cover. Needs 9 and rolls a 6. It’s successful but as Adam has the higher value success meaning he wins the f-to-f and the Aquilia is hit!

The Aquilia needs to save a D15 hit so he requires 16 or more but gets +3 for cover and +4 for his armour. He rolls 15 and makes the save with no worries.

Swiss Toni’s ARO is a direct fire. He hits the Grunt Sniper causing 3 wounds! The sniper is incinerated!

 

Still apprehensive about charging around into combat, Adam orders the Mortok to move into a different position and fire at the Auxilia. If Matt chooses to dodge he will break contact with the console and Adam will control it, so he decides to ARO fire. Adam’s Mortok gets 4 shots needing 15 or less to hit, Matt can only ARO with 1 needing a 12. In the face-to-face Adam rolls 17,10,9,3 Matt rolls an 11. Adams 17 misses so Matt wins the face-to-face having the highest successful hit! The Mortok then fails his armour save and goes down. Adam’s luck is pretty terrible today.

 

With all other options expired, it’s now or never for the Irmandinious. Adam issues an order to throw smoke and then another to move into combat. The smoke makes it so only the Aquilia with his Multi-Spectral Visor can shoot at the Irmandinious. So for the last time he obliges, since Adam is pushing for combat, he can only watch as the shot hits and blasts a hole right through the Irmandinious.

With the Irmandinious down Adam is out of specialists. With one order left, and no hope of even a draw, the Ariadna go into retreat and withdraw to fight again another day.

 Total VP Matt – 6 Adam – 3

After thoughts

Well, there you have it. Matt’s NeoTerran force withstood the horde of savagery that Adam sent his way. If Adam had managed to kill the Auxilia and stay in contact with the console, he would have won 5-4. So even though he lost most of his force (75% points loss made him go into retreat after the loss of those last 2 models) he could have scraped a narrow victory.

This game sets a real importance on objectives. Sure, you can sit back a blow your enemy to pieces, or spend your game hiding, but unless you move on the scenario objectives, you could still get your arse handed to you. Adam got a little preoccupied trying to kill Swiss Toni and had he done two things differently he would have put the game in a very hard position for Matt to win. First, Adam had the Tech-Coffin and Console on the right flank just sat there. They were easy objectives; his Doctor pretty much walked up to the one on the roof and then changed her mind and the Chassuer started next to the console, and went in the opposite direction! Never mind though, you live and learn, and there’s always next game.

 

 I hope you enjoyed reading this little insight into Infinity’s game play. I promise Swiss Toni is not an un-killable demigod (the next game I killed him on turn 1 with a lowly 18 point T-drone and a pretty spectacular, some would say lucky, hit). So if you get a chance, take a moment and play a game, you won’t regret it.

(Note: We know we made mistakes, we know we’re not perfect. So don’t rag on us, just enjoy the ride).