The inaugural Midwest Massacre Was held this past weekend in Mt. Prospect IL, at Games Plus, and as mentioned last week, your very own Miniature Tim was one of the event sponsors!
I was also one of the players! The Gateway Region was well represented, even if a couple of team members weren't exactly from the St. Louis Area.
So what went on? How did the event go? How went the luck of the dice?!?!
First off, please join me in being insanely jealous of Games Plus' Infinity Stock:
Brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it? Their game room was just as wonderful. It was large, spacious and separated from the rest of the store.
The tournament had 8 teams, with 32 people participating in total. As you may have seen from Wednesday's post, the tables were absolutely spectacular to view as well as to play on. Even though there were 4 tournaments playing simultaneously, the event ran smoothly and without a hitch. I don't think there was one true dispute, and I believe I can speak for everyone when I say a great time was had by all. Wonder for yourself? Do a search on the WGC Infinity Facebook Group for Midwest Massacre and check out the reviews and praise there. The Swag Bags were amazing, and it was beyond awesome to have a hand in sponsoring such a great event.
I was in the 400 point bracket and for the first time ever, ran 2 combat groups. I just had to play with new toys like the Hac Tao with HMG and the new Yan Huo, and the High Tier bracket gave me the perfect opportunity to. Here are the two lists I brought:
List A
Group 1
Zuyong LT with HMG and Automedikit
Hac Tao HMG with Executive Order
Guilang Hacker
Guilang Forward Observer
Zuyong Paramedic
Zuyong Forward Observer
Celestial Guard Hacker
Rui Shi
Keisotsu Combi
Oniwaban
Group 2
Husong TR HMG
Raiden HRL
Tokusetsu Engineer
Keisotsu Hacker
Keisotsu Forward Observer
List B
Group 1
Celestial Guard LT
Guilang Hacker
Guilang Forward Observer
Zuyong Paramedic
Zuyong Forward Observer
Celestial Guard Hacker
Su Jian
Rui Shi
Lu Duan
Oniwaban
Group 2
Yan Huo with 2 Missile Launchers
Raiden HRL
Tokusetsu Engineer
Keisotsu Hacker
Keisotsu Forward Observer
Game 1: Nimbus Zone
My first game was against a Chicago local who brought NCA with a full link of Bolts, a Squalo and an Aguila Guard with HMG. I ran my List A. Playing on the table above, we rolled off and he won, taking deployment and choosing the heavily wooded side. I took top of turn and was made to set up first. Figuring I could either play it cautious or go for broke, I deployed very aggressively and decided to use my first turn to set up AROs, as well as position to grab the center objectives in the second turn. My opponent set up very defensively, and the only thing I could really see was a single Bolt. I successfully infiltrated my Oniwaban and the game began. I moved ahead with the plan, placing some key figures in suppressive fire, along with buffing both my Total Reaction REM and my Rui Shi with Marksmanship lvl2. His turn one saw a lot of AROs while he kept playing defensively, and I even managed to put some wounds on his Squalo. He did manage to knock my TR Remote unconscious though along with blowing up the Raiden HRL with a Smart Misslie…even with U-Turn being utilized!
Top of turn 2, and I blew through all my Command Tokens coordinating orders to move up, tap and take the three objectives, and retreat back. The rest of my orders were spent once more on shots and placing even more models into Suppressive Fire. At the end of my turn, I had 4 models in Suppressive Fire, all three boxes, blitzed my Engineer over to fix the TR Remote to bring it back up, and few casualties. Bottom of turn 2 saw my Suppressive Celestial Guard Hacker crit the Squalo into unconsciousness, and his machinist kill it the rest of the way. Many, many ARO's later and it was back to my top of 3. I disabled the two antenna on my side of the board, popped off a few more shots and finally revealed my Oniwaban to Secure his HVT. The game ended with a 9-0 win for me…only because I kept forgetting to Forward Observe to get my other Classified. That would come back to haunt me later. I did manage to score 7 Crits in this game though!
Game 2: Supplies
After lunch, my second game was against James from the Indy region, played on the table above. James brought one of two armies I was not looking forward to facing in 400 points…Steel Phalanx. I knew this was a possibility as I had seen what he was bringing on Facebook, and was still not looking forward to it. I just don't have a ton of MSV in my toolbox right now. Regardless, I chose List B, because of it's MSV and large threats, and rolled off. I won, and after looking over the battlefield I chose Deployment. James chose top of turn and I made him deploy first, this time he being the one who deployed aggressively. I decided to deploy in a semi-turtle fashion, though I did place the Yan Huo in a place where either he would have to deal with it, or eat an ARO no matter what he did. His reserve was Achilles, and mine was my Oniwaban again. I successfully Hidden Deployed him within inches of Achilles.
James spent 12 of his 16 orders in his first turn just taking out the Yan Huo. The Yan Huo didn't kill a single model, as he would make his Armor rolls or I would miss entirely, but he was well worth his points just to nearly deny James an entire turn. The rest of his orders were spent tapping the center console and move back 4 inches. My first turn saw me reveal the Oniwaban, move into CC…and die to a crit by Achilles. So to get revenge, after a more than a few orders, the Raiden and the Su Jian tag-teamed to taken Achilles down together, the Raiden dealing the final blow. The rest of my orders were spent positioning, fixing the Rui Shi and just trying to whittle down his forces. Thankfully I would out-roll him whenever he would ARO smoke, and I ended the turn with 3 models in Suppressive Fire again. Turns 2 and 3 went faster as there were shots flying everywhere, and Crits following them! James and I actually Crit and out-Crit each other once! The game was bloody and an absolute blast. I ended my last turn with a 7-4 win, and a total of 9 Crits for the game.
Game 3: Highly Classified
The last round of the day saw me on top table in my bracket. That's right, top table!! That's never happened before in the history of my tournament career in any game system! You know what the bad thing about that is? I'm on top table with John Crenshaw who was on top table in the Adepticon Championship Tournament earlier this year. Talk about intimidating! John, however, is a super nice guy and this was the most intense, amazing, nail-biting and fun game of Infinity I have ever played.
John brought Nomads and won the roll to take first turn. I chose sides and had him deploy first. I ended up taking List A again for this final round. For the first time all day, my dice failed me. I failed the infiltration roll on my Oniwaban and John breathed a visible sigh of relief. He then proceeded to pick off models here and there, though I did reveal my Hac Tao for an ARO I could pass up against his Szalamandra. I'm really glad I did that as his deployment, cover and TO Camo made nearly every shot John took against him at either -9 or -12. My first turn saw my Engineer finish off my own TR Remote, and I took a few pot shots of my own, but my dice were still cold and it was looking a little bleak for me. Luckily neither of us got any of the objectives, and it was still tied at 0-0.
Turn 2, and things begin to turn around for me. John does a bunch of positioning in his turn, along with a little murder to secure him Extreme Prejudice as well. My turn I Spotlight a Tomcat to score Telemetry and do a bit of my own murder and positioning as well. We're still tied up at the beginning of turn three, but he has an unconscious Uberfalk that he's able to heal up with another Tomcat after dropping a slew of Zero-V smoke to deny me any chance to thwart it, netting him Experimental Drug. He's able to finish his turn 3 while scoring his secondary classified objective, leaving me in a pickle for my last turn. My turn 3 sees me re-camo my Oniwaban that I had moved up, and Rambo him up the field to try and take out his Szalamandra TAG. I was able to get into base contact, scoring 2 hits while he flames me. While I didn't Crit, I did hit twice and he failed one of the armor rolls. Down goes the TAG to much rejoicing on both sides of the table! Turns out John had never had a TAG mono'ed before and it was a blast. That opened up the field for me to come up, drop a Zero while thankfully not killing him, and then net Extreme Prejudice of my own. We're now tied up on main objectives, with him leading only by his secondary. I have two orders left. I swap out my classified for Secure the HVT and go for broke with a Zuyong FO, only to get dropped halfway there by his remote. With my last order, I peek my Paramedic around the corner and pop the downed Zuyong with a Medkit. The game literally now has come down to one die roll. If I make the Physical save, I win 6-4. If I don't, John wins 6-4.
I didn't make the save.
With many cries of mock-outrage on my part and happiness on John's, we finish the game with handshakes, back-slaps and big grins on our faces. That game was so amazing. I did finish with 4 Crits as well.
With my Objective Point total for the day at 20, I was tied for first. Unfortunately for me, the guy I was tied with only lost 1 model the whole 3rd game and won by tie-break in Victory Points. Remember how I said not gettign telemetry in Round 1 would come back to haunt me? Yup, wouldn't have been a tie-break then. I really can't complain though, as these were the best played games I've ever had, and I came in second place, scoring a $50 Gift Certificate to Warsenal as my prize!. It was such an amazing day. I ended the day with 20 Crits total. And yes, I promised some friend back home I'd count them all.
The winning team was from the Joliet area, just south of Chicago. See their Shiny and Chrome grins below! (bonus points for those who get the reference)
What an amazing day. And in less than a week, I'll be playing even more Infinity at GenCon! I'm even working the Demo tables in the gaming hall!!
I can't wait for the Next Massacre!
- Tim