Sunday Gaming — Game 1

So, Sunday gaming has rolled around once more, and this time we were at the Pukekohe club, in the scout hall off Harris Rd. Good crowd there, but low attendance today.

The game was Bolt Action! (because we all love WW II, right?), and it was my (finally) fully painted USMC up against Noel's IJA. The mission we rolled was Demolition, in this we each have a base (for Noel the stack of crates just left of the northernmost building; and for me my triple 60mm objectives in the south-east sector).

Not a great deal was to start on the table, mostly support forces and a few weapon teams, plus one infantry squad for me and a tank for us both. I placed three units in reserve (Engineers and Medic team on the west flank (left) and squad 2 on the right).

Everything else was in reserve, and almost everything Noel had on the table started both Hidden and in Ambush—dirty Japanese special rules.

Which really did little to help him when my medium mortar landed a hail mary on his MMG as the very first action of the game. Unfortunately in a theme that was to continue most of the game, despite hitting well I only killed 1.

At the end of turn 1 honours are roughly equal, with very little damage actually inflicted on either side, and a whole lot of missed AT rounds. Tanks being hidden is nasty.

Turn two sees a lot of action in the northwest, with my Stuart once more failing to ding the Chi-Ha (Hi, Ro?) but putting some pines on the flamer team there. In reply the Japanese tank puts a pin on the Stuart with its light howitzer.

 The end of turn 2 sees most everything barring my outflankers on the board. Casualties remain low, but pin markers are slowly starting to stack up.

An airstrike pinned the central unit here (squad 1), which then took further pins from a sniper and an advancing IJA squad. Unfortunately for them my Lt raced over, and with his +2 morale bonus saved them as they rallied, removing all pins.

 The outflanking squad on the east fails to show (but this later saves me some trouble).

On the west, however, the engineers show up, and "Toasty Jones" with the flamer proceeds to show everyone how it's done and immobilizes the Chi-Ha.

 Imagine, if you will, a large explosion where the Chi-Ha used to be. Seeing their target sitting disabled and in the open, the Bazooka team make short work of it, putting a rocket straight through the turret and detonating the magazine.

 Here, at the start of turn 3, we see Noel's second airstrike going horribly wrong (he took two FAC's the first who killed one of the MMG's next to my base). The central IJA veteran squad is reduced to 1 man, who gives exactly zero fucks about losing all his friends.

Then everything got pinned and it was hilarious.

 At which point my plane showed up, dropped several 250 lb bombs on a lone IJA officer, and promptly left feeling very happy with himself.

And pinning everything even further, adding insult to injury for Noel.

 Here my Stuart (the "Navy Brat") decides it would be funny to try gunning down the MMG and flamer teams. Pins were inflicted, but once again no kills. Did we load blanks?

The engineers advance around the wreckage of the tank, gunning down the flamer team with massed firepower.

The medic team also arrives, doing a whole heap of nothing.

 The eastern flanking force now arrives and makes its presence felt at the end of turn 3, chewing through entire magazines as they decimate the (previously rather larger) IJA squad in front of them.

Turn 5 saw the big upset of the game, with Bazooka team rushing the Japanese objective after "Toasty Jones" and the engineers cleared the door of the MMG team resting out there.

This was the penultimate act of my forces.

Having nothing to shoot at, the MMG team assaults one man, kills him, and runs back to position. I still have one order die that could turn a hard fought draw into a hard fought win…

Warrant officer Hawkins, carrying the hefty SC-250 radio sprinted forward, technical sergeant Francis at his side. Hawkins skidded to a halt, dropping one knee into a marksman's crouch and unslinging his M1. Beside him Francis started firing at the Jap next to the disabled jeep, but just as Hawkins saw the flash of rounds striking metal the entire vehicle erupted in smoke flames, their injured captain caught in the conflagration. To his left Hawkins heard a dull crump and saw a massive geyser of dirt falling behind PFC Ramirez and his loader. The Japanese supply dump was gone, but it was cold comfort for losing their captain.

From the depths

So, a few weeks back I finally received my Cthulhu Wars kickstarter bundle. It was pricey at the time, but now having it in my hot little hands it is totally worth it. There are some 72 miniatures in there (though that's a slight cheat because 8 of them are little power tokens, but I digress), and the largest of those are the great old ones, with Cthulhu himself standing nearly 8" tall to his wingtips. The others aren't far behind.

They all start out completely unpainted, but for a game this awesome, that just wouldn't do, so I grabbed out the airbrush, mixed up some "deep sea" colours, and got started. After something like 20? hours I have now finished one entire faction… Great Cthulhu, of course.

 That's everything as it stands on my painting desk. 4 Deep Ones, 6 Cultists, 2 Shoggoths, 2 Star Spawn, 2 power markers, and of course 1 Cthulhu.

 These bad boys are my cultists. In the game they are your most important units, the only ones capable of building and opening gates to the realm of the great old ones. And yes, each of those spellbooks is different.

These guys actually took the longest to paint, mostly because they have so much fine detail on them, and perhaps because I'm a little nuts. I still have to touch up some belts and daggers before varnishing them.

Deep Ones. Basic monsters, and good for defending cultists. Or if you want you can simply turn your cultists into one of these, preventing an enemy from capturing them.

 Shoggoths. These will eat anything, and gain a combat boost if they do.

 Star Spawn. With the right spellbook these guy become nigh indestructible, and are possibly the best pure combat monsters in the game. The other factions have a lot of tricksy abilities that can negate that potential though.

Cthulhu. Not looking so great due to some camera flash, but most of that is airbrush colour plus several washes. In the game he's the simplest great old one both to summon and to use. He's also very, very cheap to re-awaken due to being, y'know, immortal.

Infinity Sundays, now with 100% more ITS.

So, two week ago James (who works with Mark, and who I know through the infinity tournaments Garth runs) showed up for some games of Infinity. I obliged with a 300 point MRRF list that had all the trimmings.

Camo, camo, more camo, mech dep, and a hot dropping werewolf. All the fun toys.

So, this is the table, nice big buildings through the centre, diagonal lines of fire as we normally do, only small amounts of scatter.

 My force:
4x Zouave (2 FO, 2 Sniper)
2x Chasseur (1 FO, 1 Minelayer)
2x Dozer (1 Mul Control, 1 Akrylat Kanone)
1x 112 (Doctor)
1x Uragan Mul
2x Metro (1 Rifle, 1 Inferior Infiltration)
1x Aguacile Hacker 
Margot & Duroc

James's force
2x Netrods
Atalanta
Ajax
Eudoros
2 Myrmidons (Spitfire, Chain rifle)
Myrmidon Officer (Boarding Shotgun)
Agema (Missile)
Machaon (2 Yudbots)


My deployment
Here I deployed somewhat conservatively, putting the Zouaves and a mine forward, but holding everything else towards the back line. Having played Aleph myself, I know they're hard, and nowhere near as squishy as my boys will be.

Jame's Deployment
James also deployed conservatively, keeping his link team well out of LoF, along with hiding Ajax and Machaon. The Agema Missile is well placed though, and throughout the game was a real problem for me—though the same can be said of my Zouave snipers to James.

 Having taken the initiative option, I take first turn, and knowing how incredibly dangerous Atalanta can be, I decide she has to die, regardless of the cost. Thus, my FO Zouave fires up his laser designator and marks her—and with the skill being B2 now—also tries to mark up Eudoros.

The link team and Atalanta fire back. Atalanta misses, even with BS17, and gets marked. The spitfire and other link members hit the Zouave, but he makes every save, earning the nickname of "the Iron Zouave".

 A guided round from the Uragan kills Atalanta and her spotbot outright. One problem dealt with. Then, after an epic round of missing the side of a barn with every shot, the missile Agema and my central sniper Zouave end the duel with equal honours—they're both useless.

 Duroc jumps on from the side (this should have happened before everything else, but in the end it changed nothing as he was in total cover when deploying). Margot deployed next to him.

Duroc made a run for the link team, firing as he passed, failing to hit and taking a wound (a critical from the shotgun actually) in the process. Stupid ODDs.

 Not much happened in James's first turn that I can recall, barring his Agema managing to kill both my sniper Zouaves.

My turn opened in style, with Duroc leaping from the roof and firing both chain rifles into the assembled Myrmidons—hitting everything. Twice. They fired back with nanopulsers, resulting in one very dead werewolf—who was going to be dead anyway—and the death of the spitfire and chain myrmidon, and the wounding of Eudoros.

As Margot emerged smoke was thrown, but the roll fumbled as a grenade detonated against the yudbot in the midst of the link (that somehow survived Duroc's earlier barrage), killing Eudoros and wounding the myrmidon officer.

A large number of spec shots followed as spoke was deployed, but Margot finally got a lucky crit, ending the officer, and my turn.



James's turn 2 saw him just shy of retreat, and with Ajax gunning down my Lt and hacker. My turn 3 was spent doing little, but turning 4 orders regular helped get me some more damage, wounding Machaon with another critical spec-shot, and killing the Agema with a guided Uragan round. Ajax went on a little rampage for James's turn 3, but in the end it amounted to little—barely avoiding getting glued by the AK engineer.

This week I brought all my terrain—and realized I have a lot of Infinity terrain. Possibly more than I… nah. We're back to playing at 150 points, but this week I would be playing Will's Acontecimento Shock Army—another sectorial.

 This is the table (yes, I still have a lot left to paint, I know). In the middle, somewhat taller than single level buildings is the MAS objective room, which makes a nice centrepiece. I threw in my trees and walkways as well. The trees really make quite a difference to the overall look of the city.

 I also used a bit more scatter this time, and small-medium sized pieces like the shipping containers and cars, along with my LoF blocker pieces and some bandua waster bins.

In something of a deviation from normal, I set the table up with straight lines of fire—blocking any DZ to DZ lanes, but trying to keep the layout interesting. I think it worked.

 I won the WIP roll off, and elected to take deployment, forcing Will to deploy first. He took initiative, but gave me first turn—this might seem odd, but we were playing Supremacy, which scores after the second player turn each round, so going second is actually an advantage here to rush the zones.

I put everything as close to the consoles as I possibly could, including a mine next to the northeast console (and I figured that camo marker was will doing the same, and if not, bang!).

Will's deployment put his Regular link in the building (keeping them on the roof for ease of play), his Bagh-Mari sniper on the opposite roof, and everything else well hidden.

 Bonjour, mon ami…

 It was my pleasure to kill you.

Top of turn 1 my inferior infiltration metro decloaks and knocks the Bagh Mari sniper out with a critical. Excellent work. He then ducks over the edge, discovers and destroys the camo-marker—it was a mine.

My FO Zouave on the right fails twice to access his console.

So, the Zouave on the left shows him how it's done, leaping through the window, kicking in the back panel and crossing the wires.

Hacking. Ariadna style. Having been shown how to do things, the guy on the right finally manages to get it done with my last order.

Will's turn opens in deadly fashion, his Bulleteer killing the left Zouave. Then the sniper Zouave

The regular doctor, her way now clear, barrels out the door and steals the northwest console for the ASA.

 Next, an Akal Commando drops in, just out of my doctor's LoF—and also just barely outside his ZoC. this is not going to end well.

It doesn't, the Akal killing the doctor with his boarding shotgun. The Dozer nearby, hearing the shots, wisely ducks around the corner and out of LoF to the Akal.

At the end of the round I hold 2 Quadrants to Will's 1, gaining me 2 objective points.

 The Akal's comeuppance is swift—after a risky missed shot and a lucky save form the Uragan, the Chasseur drops camo, lines up his rifle, and takes the shot, the Akal failing his dodge.

 The sole surviving Zouave moves up and takes the northeast console, once again managing it only on my last order… again.

Will's Bulleteer advances, then the Regular doctor climbs through the window of the southwest building, interfacing with the console. It will now be contested and must be won via a face to face WIP roll at the end of the game.

The Bulleteer then moves up and attacks the Dozer and the Mul, managing to kill the Mul, but the Dozer is saved by his armour and the cover of the nearby crate.

At the end of this round we hold 2 Quadrants each, for 1 objective point each.

 My turn 3 (the last turn of the game in ITS style scenarios) opens with a co-ordinated order targeting the Bulleteer. The Dozer spearheads with his rifle—to which the Bulleteer fires back—then the Zouave fires his DEP as the Chasseur lights up the bot with his flamer.

Napalm covers the Bulleteer, searing away its ODD and seizing its joints and controls. Nothing is left but a pile of fused metal blasted into scrap by the DEP.

Having a spare order I decide that re-camoing the Chasseur about now is probably a very smart idea.

Then I have a not so smart idea to try taking a long range potshot with the Metro on the roof, at the regulars hiding next to the northwest console. I don't hit, and they fail to as well.

That's me done.

 Will starts by coordinating his regulars and a Bagh Mari, shooting up the Metro on the roof, who now fails to dodge.

Will moves out with his Bagh Mari(?) hacker and kills my Zouave—but takes a mine to the face for his troubles, falling dead instantly. Yay for minelayer!

Will moves up a Bagh Mari and moves a Regular out to the northwest Quadrant.

 At the and of the round Will holds 2 Quadrants and contests 1, while I only hold, meaning Will gets 2 objective points.

We're all tied up on objective points now (probably VPs too, but we didn't calculate those), and it's down to the consoles.

I hold 2 consoles, uncontested. Will holds 1, uncontested. The final console is contested, and would give me the win, or him the draw. We both have only a single specialist alive. We roll our dice.

…and both fail by a horrendous margin. We re-roll. Will gets a 7. Respectable against his WIP of 12. I get a 10, success. I therefore have the final console, and thus, victory, by 2 objective points.

Breaking it down, I'm not sure I would have done much differently… maybe deployed the Zouave sniper away from the edge (he was prone/foxholed) so the Bulleteer couldn't see him. And maybe put the guy with the flamer closer to the bastardized robot with the ODD.

I don't think there was much else Will could have done differently either. We both played a pretty tight game, and it came down to that final objective. I love the tension in games like that. I know I got lucky with my inf. inf. Metro, and that put a crimp in Will's plans—but the Metro only works less than half the time, so it was luck—which was why the Zouave sniper was also set up to cover the Bagh Mari sniper.

I think the only thing that really let Will down was his lack of specialists. Knowing I'll be playing ITS—and liking having specialists for the combat functions—I tend to be specialist heavy in my lists, at the expense of some combat effectiveness. Will only had 2—and Pan O's less than stellar average WIP didn't help either, but he definitely managed to outshoot me in any fair fight.

But playing Ariadna, if he's getting a fair fight, something's gone very wrong…

Infinity Sundays Return

So, Sunday was fast and furious as far as games of Infinity go. 3 games in a day, even with our pretty easy-going attitude that's fast. It may also be because we're only playing at 150 instead of 300.

 Basic Layout, firelanes covered and few vantage points that can reach the opposing DZ. The near side has more height, the far side more cover.

 Here you can see the advantage of angling the buildings is that not only do they take up more perceived area (relative to the 90º board edges), but that they also better block perpendicular lines of fire.

View from the far side, showing the cover advantage vs the height advantage.

 My erstwhile foes, Mark showing off his old Morats. Not much of the big stuff made it; in the end it was an HI Sogarat, 5-ish Vanguards, and a MedTech.

My army, an eclectic mix of regiments from the Merovingian Rapid Response Force, with a trio of Zouaves, a Chasseur, two Metros, a Dozer, a 112, and a Uragan Mul.








And for the most part I forgot to take pictures of that game. It started badly for me, with Mark taking out my Zouave sniper and my infiltrating Metro, but things changed when my Uragan Mul took out a running Morat from across the board, and my Chasseur displayed great aplomb in kill two Morats, before critting a thrid three times in three successive orders—only to have those crits cancelled by critical dodges from Mark.

The Sogarat was having none of it, running up and killing another Zouave, and then my 112, and nearly killing my Dozer. I brought it back by flanking the Sogarat and shooting him in the back multiple times as he used the Warning! special rule to try and face all his attackers.

Then the last Zouave delivered the coup de grace, making sure the Sogarat's automedikit wouldn't be bringing anything back.

After that bloodbath we tried a boarding action style table. Needless to say things got a little mental.

We managed two game in as many hours. I lost the first due to Mark's creative use of suppressive fire, and being unable to pass armour saves. It started in great style with a Metro busting through a door and double tapping a Morat with his pistol, getting two crits from two shots.

And then moving up and getting another crit against the other Morat in the room. It was all downhill from there, and I'm leaving the sniper Zouaves off the ship next time.

The worlds deadliest Metro. I think this room needs a couple of chalk outlines.

 The Sogarat of doom just chews through my guys, despite them having camo or burst advantages. Seriously, how do you miss with 4 assault pistol shots at that range?

Here the Soggy continues to wreak havoc, taking out another Zouave and my 112, who somehow missed with a point blank shotgun—which is odd, considering he normally crits with his first shot.

Second round went much better, with these four proving the clincher. They moved up, co-ordinated order, and bust through the door.

The Sogarat then has to face 2 pistol shots (easy), and 2 D.E.P. shots (AT missiles). He can only fire back at one of them, and flubs it.

They're still picking pieces of space monkey out of the ventilation weeks later.