Nomads versus JSA.
I thought I'd put together a quick after action report of last weekend's Infinity tournament I participated in. It was very small with only five contestants and it was a first for all of us but it went rather smoothly in the end and was a lot of fun! Unfortunately it took a bit longer than expected so I had to skip my final game.
The armies were set to 200 points and after some deliberating I decided to go all out fast attack with Kuang Shi, an Aragoto and a Sù-Jián backed up by a Gŭiláng, an engineer, a Celestial Guard and my Shangji lieutenant. My force looked like this:
GROUP 1 (Regs: 9/Irrs: 0):
SHÀNG JÍ Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Shock CCW (42)
ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife (29 | 1.5)
SÙ-JIÀN Spitfire, Light Flamethrower, Panzerfaust / Pistol, CCW (56 | 2)
CELESTIAL GUARD Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife (13 | 0.5)
3x KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife (5)
GŬILÁNG Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife (25)
MECA-Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife (15)
YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse (3)
198 Points | SWC: 4
Originally I thought about including a Husong total reaction remote to have some defensive firepower against AD troops and the like, but in the end I decided to go totally on the offensive! So how did the StateEmpire's finest fair? Let's find out shall we...
Match 1 versus Japanese Sectorial Army
Shangji and Sù-Jián advancing on the Domaru.
I started out playing against a sectorial army which made me a bit worried since I had never played against (or with) link teams, and he had a nice big one made up of Keisotsus. A common view in the Infinity community is that the first time you encounter some new kind of enemy troop you're going to loose against it, be it camouflage, AD troops, TAGs or link teams, and while there are certainly exceptions it's something I agree with to a large extent. You simply don't know how to handle them effectively. So I prepared for the worst...
The table we played (you can see it at the top of the page) on was very atmospheric with a stream crossing the center, some woodland areas towards the edges and a few houses around the central area. It looked nice but I thought it was way too open for an Infinity table, especially with four inch tall houses in or very near the deployment zone. It felt like the first one to get on top of those houses would totally dominate the match (more on that in match 3).
Anyway, the JSA got the first turn and the Keisotsu team quickly made it to a nearby house and scaled its walls making it up to the roof. They then put down a suppresive fire corridor just in fron of my Sù-Jián and a nearby Kuang Shi. A couple of Domaru brought up the rear and a Tokusetsu doctor stayed behind in the woods.
During my turn I advanced with my chain rifle toting Kuang Shi toward the link team who decided not to forego their suppresion fire to get an ARO against him. This was a mistake from my opponent's side as I could then simply hose the entire team with the chain rifle! It took a couple of salvoes and I think my Sù-Jián added some shots from his Spitfire as well, but in the end the entire team went down. One Kuang Shi advanced behind some houses to try and outflank the Tokusetsu and/or Domaru while the Sù-Jián took the fight to the two Domaru head on.
In the next JSA turn the Domaru attacked the Sù-Jián with E/M grenades but didn't do any damage. I followed this up by pressing on with the Sù-Jiàn backed up by the Shangji and in the end they managed to take out both of the samurai warriors. One of them was the JSA lieutenant but sine their was a Kempeitai in the army as well there was no loss of command. My opponent was in retreat though and after taking some potshots at the lone Kuang Shi the game ended.
Not choosing to break the suppression fire to shoot the Kuang Shi was the key moment in this game, and had he done that I think it would have gone a different way entirely. When I started my first turn the entire link team was on top of a building in the middle of the table with fairly open terrain around them. Charging them with my Kuang Shi, hoping that their Dogged would allow them to get close enough was about the only thing I could think of against that. Well, in the end I did manage to win the game so I guess I did something right.
Match 2 versus Force de RR Merovingienne
Gŭiláng lurking in the ruins...
Another sectorial! No link teams this time though. I don't remember exactly what my opponent brought to the field as I'm not well versed on the French. But there was a sniper(?), a Zouave with a HMG, two Moblots, two Chasseurs, a doctor and a medic and some light infantry. This time we were on the second table which was made up of Mordheim buildings and some low walls. I think the terrain worked better here although there were still some real corridors of death as well as tall buildings in the deployment zone (his sniper was on the second floor from the start).
With half his force gone I was hoping to only have some mopping up left to do, but there was still that well positioned sniper making it hard for me. My Aragoto raced forward and took out the other Chasseur after a brief exchange of fire but was then taken out in turn by the sniper. I advanced with my Gŭiláng scout and Sù-Jián who managed to take out the sniper. In my following reactive turn they also nailed the doctor trying to rescusitate him. He was in retreat at this point as there were only two troops left standing which netted me a fairly solid victory with my only losses being the Aragoto and my three Kuang Shi.
Match 3 against Pan Oceania
A Kuang Shi and his... handler.
No more sectorials but plain old PanO! This time we were back on the other table only this time I started on the opposite side from last time. As I mentioned the table was rather open and it really looked like a potential killing ground in the middle. He fielded Jeanne d'Arc 2.0, an ORC trooper, a Croc Man and a bunch of Fusiliers. He took the first turn and put a HMG wielding Fusilier in a dominant position on the second floor of a bulding. The Croc man sniper had positioned himself in the tallest building in the middle of the board close to where my own Gŭiláng was lurking in a building opposite. The ORC trooper made his way onto the second floor of another building further back but then proceeded to go prone to avoid being shot.
In my turn the Kuang Shi ran forward heedless of danger and actually made it to some low walls. The Aragoto was fortunately not in any danger since the ORC was prone and could race forward on the road. My Sù-Jián climbed a small building and proceed to gun down Jeanne d'Arc with its Spitfire! It then tried to take out the Fusilier with the HMG but failed which it paid for in my reactive turn as it was simply shot to pieces together with the two Kuang Shi. Apart from that not much else happened though as the Crocman also went prone and the ORC stayed down.
Seeing his opportunity the Aragoto biker raced along the road and as he skidded around a corner he opened up at the surprised HMG Fusilier who went down in a hail of bullets. The Aragoto revved his engine again and swerved around another building in the PanO deployment zone where most of the rearguard Fusiliers were in plain view. He proceeded to gun down three more Fusiliers (one of which was the lieutenant) and wounding the ORC trooper before perishing. This left only two enemy troops but since the Croc man and ORC were together more than 80 points the PanO weren't in retreat quite yet. They were in loss of lieutenant though and didn't really do anything during my reactive turn.
This allowed my Shangji to methodically climb up onto the building nearby the Croc man and simply burn him to death with his flamethrower (first time I've used it actually. Woo!). At this point I made a mistake. I had won the game and if I'd been smart I should have simply waited for it to end. But that wounded ORC trooper who had been hiding behind a wall the entire game just proved too enticing! So I ramboed across the field with my Shangji and even though I spent two full orders pumping bullets into the prone ORC he simply wouldn't die! With my final order he used the flamethrower which did take the ORC out of action, but he returned fire and did the same to my Shangji. This meant that together with the Sù-Jián and Aragoto I was in retreat as well and PanO won on points, even though I had wiped out his entire force. Aargh! Well, that will teach me to curb my enthusiasm!
In my turn the Kuang Shi ran forward heedless of danger and actually made it to some low walls. The Aragoto was fortunately not in any danger since the ORC was prone and could race forward on the road. My Sù-Jián climbed a small building and proceed to gun down Jeanne d'Arc with its Spitfire! It then tried to take out the Fusilier with the HMG but failed which it paid for in my reactive turn as it was simply shot to pieces together with the two Kuang Shi. Apart from that not much else happened though as the Crocman also went prone and the ORC stayed down.
This allowed my Shangji to methodically climb up onto the building nearby the Croc man and simply burn him to death with his flamethrower (first time I've used it actually. Woo!). At this point I made a mistake. I had won the game and if I'd been smart I should have simply waited for it to end. But that wounded ORC trooper who had been hiding behind a wall the entire game just proved too enticing! So I ramboed across the field with my Shangji and even though I spent two full orders pumping bullets into the prone ORC he simply wouldn't die! With my final order he used the flamethrower which did take the ORC out of action, but he returned fire and did the same to my Shangji. This meant that together with the Sù-Jián and Aragoto I was in retreat as well and PanO won on points, even though I had wiped out his entire force. Aargh! Well, that will teach me to curb my enthusiasm!
Wrap Up
In my fourth game I would have met the Nomad force who ended up winning the tournament and I think it could have been an interesting match. But there will be more opportunities I'm sure. The end result was:
1st: Nomads
2nd: JSA
3rd: Frenchies
4th: Yu Jing
5th: PanO
So, what I took away from this tournament was that the fast, aggressive play style that I've been using against Anders' Nomads works well against other players as well. I'm glad since it's a play style I enjoy and where I can use cool models like the Aragoto and Sù-Jián. I'm very happy with how they performed even though the Sù-Jián bought it in the last game. My Kuang Shi also performed spectacularly! They almost never dissapoint and I find it hard making a list without them. I'm also happy that I (kind of) won three out of three games! Yes, I lost the last one on points but I still see it as a win from a tactics perspective.
Looking at the army in retrospect I would get rid of the engineer. She was meant for the Sù-Jián but by the time it actually got wounded it was so far ahead that it would have taken several orders for the little Yáozăo to get to it. I could have squeezed in a Zhanshi paramedic and another Kuang Shi instead. The rest of the army performed well with the fast attack doing their thing while the Gŭiláng acted as backup and the Shangji anchored the deployment zone.
Thanks to the guys who pulled it all together, and apologies in advance for all the stuff I remembered wrong or distorted in my report. I do think the overall flow of the games are correct though. I'm looking forward to the next event where I'll make sure I have time to spare so I don't have to leave early!
