Infinity Battle Report: The Armory

I’ve been busy as of late, hence the lack of posts for the past few months; so I apologize for that. It’s been both a combo of work stuff and being addicted to Sleeping Dogs (the video game…serious go play it). However that should end soon and I plan on starting to do things that will hopefully motivate my painting.

DYNAMIC ENTRY!!!
No seriously, been spaming the running kick due to how effective it is!

Also our club has started another slow grow league! This time round I’m going to try and run a strict Yu Jing only force, and making a rule on my spending habits that I only buy new Yu Jing models (especially with the HI as the new HI is huge…if you haven’t already noticed). Plus I’m slowly gearing up for MERCS…but that’s a story for another day!

Last week I had a game at 300 points (that I don’t normally do) against Ex’s son (see Ex’s blog here) (let’s call him Ex Jr). They’re this awesome father and son combo who have a strong presence in our Infinity community and are always a pleasure to play against. And, as the title of the post gave away, we played the Armory scenario.

For those that don’t know, the objective of the Armory is to get into and hold the Armory (an 8” by 8” box in the middle of the battlefield) for 3 turns. You gain points for having the most troops in there at the end of each turn and the end of the game. Also there are two weapon cabinets that you can raid (for booty), and you gain points for scoring more booty than your opponent. The Armory itself contains 4 doors (the walls, doors and cabinets are also destructible) which only specialists can open. Opening one door normally will open all doors. Blowing a door up OR using the Lockpick hacking protocol will only open a single door. Finally, no one can deploy within 8” of the centre line of the board.

On top of that, I ended up having the classified objectives of Data Scan and Extreme Prejudice. I instead swapped the last one for secure the HVT.

I ran JSA, a simple force with the idea that the link team would hold the room and everything else would deal with attackers. A hacker in the link team and an Aragoto hacker would make coming near the room dangerous for HI; the Lu Duan would deal with camo and generally get upgraded and go on suppression. Also I decided to bring two Raidens for lols and an Oniwaban for assassinations. Ex Jr was running Yu Jing.

Japanese Sectorial Army
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Group 16 0 3
ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 26)
ARAGOTO Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 30)
ASUKA KISARAGI Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Assault Pistol, Knife. (27)
LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (22)
RAIDEN MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 27)
KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (9)

Group 28 0 0
KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (9)
KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (9)
KEISOTSU HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 17)
KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
YURIKO ODA Combi Rifle, Panzerfaust, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, CCW. (24)
RAIDEN (X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 19)
KEMPEI (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW, Electric Pulse. (23)
ONIWABAN Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Monofilament CCW. (41)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Finally before the report we have a house rule on trees which was a carryover from N2; you cannot see through 2 lots of trees (which are the green tiles on the board).

As you can see, trees everywhere!

Ex Jr won the Lt role, making me deploy first, so I took the first turn to make it worth my while.

I deployed with the sniper Raiden guarding one end, and a Kemp and lone Keisotsu guard the door; link team among the bunkers and the Lu Duan in close proximity; the other side I placed the HRL Raiden and my three bikes, with the idea of using them to deal with that flank.

Lu Duan Holo 2 was the real one

Ex Jr then deployed a couple of camo tokens, one near the door and another with TO on top of the buildings with a yaozao. Behind the build there where 2 Shaolins, 2 panzerfaust Wu Ming, a Celestial Guard (totally not my Lt I swear!), and a Zhanying with HMG prone on top of the building. His other flank (where my bikes where), he deployed 2 Zhanshi FOs and a doctor.

I deployed my reserve Oniwaban behind the building in an effort to make a run for his HVT, and Ex Jr. deployed a Su Jian (crap) behind the building near his FOs.

I opened up with rapidly advancing my bikes forward; hack to the Armory, spitfire to the gap and Asuka to the door to cover any sneaky attack that way.

Burning rubber...kinda

I then link team hacker to give the Lu Duan marksman lvl2, and then activated the Lu Duan and slowly began moving it towards the edge of the Armory. This forced an ARO from the TO camo marker, turned out to be a Hac Tao with Missile launcher. Luckily due to the trees in the way, and the Lu Duan MSV1 (ignore low vis, and TO was down to -3) AND cover due to marksman I managed to win the roll with a single shot. Alas its ARM 5 still managed to ignore the shot. Ex Jr made it go prone. With the last order in that group I activated suppression fire on the Lu Duan, spitfire and Asuka with a command token.

MSV + Marksman lvl 2 is awesome

 Once again, now without fear of the Hac Tao, activated the link team and moved towards the door on my side. Yuriko blew open the door with a d-charge to prevent the other doors from opening, and the link team moved inside with Yuriko then making a run for the cabinets, scoring herself +3ARM. Mines were also dropped around the place for general protection.

Ex Jr then began his first turn, rushing his Shaolin monks out from behind the buildings, the first one went down to the Lu Duan suppression fire, however the second one managed to drop smoke in time. Needing to remove the Lu Duan he activated his Zhanying, managing to take out the Lu Duan.

Sad face

It then became his attempt to ID the camo maker on that flank with the Zhanying, who failed the WIP roll. The Hac Tao then stood back up and the Wu Ming began making a move through the trees to the room.

One managed to make it to the door, however was hacked to hell by the two hackers, placing it on Imm1 for 2 turns while also performing Data Scan.

Got em!!!

Still needing to get in, the camo token rushed the door on his side, revealing it to be a Guilang FO who opened all the doors, allowing the Su Jian to then climb on top of the building and attempt to rain spitfire shots into the room. The Keisotsu with HMG managed to put a wound on it though, send it prone, but not before it took out one of the combi’s in said link. However the turn ended and I gained 1 VP, meaning it was 2-nil.

It was at this stage I realised I was running out of time and needed to wrap the game up, so we decided to play to 2 turns. In my impetuous phase the hacker and Asuka remained where they were while the spitfire started moving further forwards, dislodging the Guilang from near the door in the process (but not killing it).

I then went all out with the MRS Raiden on my left flank firing shots into both the Hac Tao and Zhanying. The first shot two shots everything missed on both sides, before on the third order one shot took out the Zhanying while the Hac Tao scored a direct hit on the Raiden…who almost survived the shot! I finished up that group by moving the spitfire in range of the other Wu Ming, however I failed to put a wound on it and it ran for cover. Firing through the trees is probably what allowed the Raiden to survive for so long.

I then activated my Oniwaban, and tried to get it towards the Su Jian to take it out before it could cause more havoc on the link team. It managed to get almost right up behind be before the Hac Tao saw the token, luckily it failed the WIP roll meaning I got a b2 mono strike against the Su Jian with a -6MOD to Ex Jr. And while I killed the Su Jian, the Hac Tao managed to destroy the Oniwaban. With the remaining orders I activated the link team with the HMG, moving it around to the other side door trying to see the un-immobilised Wu Ming. Alas all I could see was the immobilised on. Failing to clear the path with the order, I placed the link team on suppression, breaking the link.

That'll do Oniwaban, that'll do

Sorry about the poor quality

Ex Jr’s last turn began with activating the Shaolin, rushing it towards the room. All shots attempting to take it out failed to hit it, even the mine failed to kill him (and the Wu Ming), and somehow it dropped smoke into the room.

Smoke?! Anything but smoke!

However, in his hurry he forgot to transfer the Shaolin from one group to another, meaning he was unable to activate it anymore!

Realising orders were limited he activated the Wu Ming not immobilised. After panserfausting the Aragoto spitfire it got itself immobilised by the hackers. An attempted reset coordinated order on both Wu Ming also failed (one got torn up by the HMG). In a couple of final attempts he tried to break into the room with the guiling, who fell to the HMG, and the doctor, who fell to the hacker.

Hahaha, who said JSA can't hack?!!

Time was up and the turn was over. Final score was 4-nil!

All in all it was a fun game. It was a pity that I had to leave so early, and my guess is that Ex Jr would have played his 2nd turn a bit safer, instead of trying to deny me the points in the last game turn. Also I am really impressed with hacking now, even JSA can hack these days! And REMs are definantly a viable option for them as well. I kind of wish I had bought a DOmaru link team though, someone mentioned that they are the best sort of unit to hold the room as they have chain rifles, and their close combat prowest mean they can really handle themselves if smoke comes into play.

Down side to this I learnt I do not have time generally for 300 point games...oh well!

One other thing I failed to factor is if Ex Jr had had a Tiger soldier I would have been screwed, and we were joking about it the whole time that a tiger anywhere on the battle field would have caused total havoc. Hopefully we can have a rematch at some point and finish the actual game! Hahaha!

Cheers!

dulydude