Infinity N5 - Initial Plans and Vibes

 

The new edition of Infinity, N5, released earlier this week. There's a lot to absorb as a player, and its going to take a while before I think I've got there. Now, I own quite a lot of factions, so I had a bit of a think about what I'm going to do first...

Our club has an escalation league starting up, and after writing one test list, I've decided to start N5 with my Shasvastii. There's not a huge amount of changes, but one of the more powerful profiles, the Speculo, has had some of its rules made a little less powerful, while half a dozen less used profiles have all had an overhaul. Seeing how a familiar faction has changed will be a good way for me to get a handle on the new edition.

I do want to shuffle into vanilla Combined Army in the future too. I'll have more models to paint up for that faction so it'll be Shasvastii first. However, we're still in the first few days and there may be some errors - the fireteams in particular look a bit odd, so I'm waiting to hear back if they can take a Haris team or not.

So, the Combined Army will likely be a bit of a painting project coming up. I've got some half finished bits to finish up first, and will likely get some Shasvastii profiles done to round them out after that. So it's probably a next year thing, but it shouldn't be too hard to get the basics knocked out pretty quickly.

I had a test game of N4 Druze and they seemed pretty good. I don't think much has got worse for them. They'd be fun to run out for six months or so at some point, and I don't need anything painted for them. A few profiles have changed or got a nudge up, which is a bit of a theme, really. I miss Druze, it'd be good to get back to them. There's a bunch of their N4 upgrades I've not gotten to trying out properly yet.

A lot of the Dahshat staples have suffered a bit in the new edition. Their loss of Ghulam snipers hurts a core part of the N4 build I was using for them, and fireteams getting downgraded on top of that is rough. McMurrough isn't as tough, either. There's only a Cateran sniper to be added model wise, and that's not really going to hold me up from giving them a go.

Ikari are sitting in the "some time in the future" box right now. I basically have them due to a big crossover of the models from Druze, and some discounted models. I ran them on a whim once at an N3 tournament without any practice and got absolutely ruined, and they do deserve better.

Qapu Khalqi also need a few bits before I can get them going, but I think they're ahead of Ikari in my brain. I like Haqqislam as a faction, and "QK" have picked up a few new and interesting profiles. Another future project, but one I think I could really put some time into and have fun with.

I've been playing my White Company for a good bit at the end of N4. There's a bunch of new character models that have been added to the faction, which I'll need to get painted up. I'm going to take a break from them, but I expect I'll start to miss them in a bit and want to come back to them soon.

Nomads are the faction I really want to get back to at some point. I want to get them painted first and that's been the real blocker so far. I think they're pretty much queued up after I get vanilla Combined Army done, but that might be a while. So, one for the future...

Infinity NA2 New Forces

 

I sent off a couple of batches of Infinity figures to Thunderbrush to get various bits and pieces I've been picking up for my NA2 factions painted up. Unfortunately, my original NA2 miniatures are on Antenocitis Workshop bases, who are now very sadly no longer trading. Fortunately, Monstrous Makings are now making some base toppers with similar designs.

On the left we have the slightly daftly named "Wolfgang Amadeus Wolff", a mercenary who can fight for the Druze. He's a punchy, tough character, which is really useful for the somewhat fragile Druze. On the right is an old 2nd edition Ghulam sniper I won at a tournament at some point. I think I already have one somewhere but I will often run a multiple sniper defensive link in Dahshat, so it was worth getting him painted up.

Both Dahshat and Druze use Monstruckers, and they also turn up as reinforcements for all the NA2 factions. I grabbed several copies of these as so many of my factions use them and they were going out of production!

Originally, just Ikari Company and Qapu Khalqi had access to Yuan Yuan, but they've been expanded out to Druze as well at some point in N4. I have the old sculpts, but the new ones are really pretty, so I got them an update...

And finally, Dahshat company gets the new Hulang. This is a bit of an indulgence as Dahshat only get one, but it was a flimsy excuse to get the new Crazy Koala models...

Infinity Non-Aligned Armies Reinforcements

 

First up, we have the High value Target from Defiant Truth. She's a "Freelance Stringer", the sort of civilian who might be associated with a rag tag group of mercenaries. This batch of miniatures was once again painted by Thunderbrush Studio.

Next up is the Ghulam from the Haqqislam paint set. He'll be seeing service in my Dahshat Company relatively soon (and maybe Qapu Khalqi at some point when I decided to bring them out for a run.

Meanwhile, for Ikari Company, we have the delightful Tanko Zensenbutai. These heavy infantry used to be the core of the Ikari Fireteams, but the loosening of the Fireteam rules in N4 have made them less essential. They are still great and fit into a lot of common builds, so will certainly see some play time.

This means the only models I'm really missing from Ikari Company now are the Karakuri and the Wu Ming. I don't think I really need either to play them effectively so I could start giving them an outing now. As it is, I'm waiting for the Fireteam rules, but Ikari have definitely moved from "a force I'm building towards" to "a force that's on the bench ready to be learned".

Finally, I got a deal on a couple of Haqqislam Remotes, which I will need for Dahshat Company and Qapu Khalqi. I've been using the old PanOceania remotes up to now, but these ones just look so much better! I'll start cycling the rest in as soon as budget allows.

HATE Meatspace League (ITS 12) - Frontline vs Ariadna

 

I was down at the club again for the Meatspace League. The second round was Frontline, and I was up against Ariadna. He won the Lieutenant roll and chose to go second. I picked deployment and had Ariadna deploy first. I then understood that decision as nothing but a pile of camouflage and a handful of cheerleaders got deployed. In particular, I found it particularly difficult to put my mines down in good locations outside the zone of control of the opposing camo.

As the Ariadnan reserve model was a Blackjack, I decided it was best to use McMurrough to deal with him. He successfully got across the table and cut the Blackjack in half.

The Sensor Remote had a wander up the field and revealed a Chasseur and Uxia McNeill. There was a little moment of "Wait, Sensor is how good?" I need to keep bringing Sensor remotes. I kind of wish Dahshat could bring more than one.

The Ghulam link had a wander up the field and dropped some Grenades onto Uxia unsuccessfully. I forgot to use the NCO order as it was the first time I'd used it. I had it as the second group, and I don't think it was a good experiment.

Jacques Bruant then proved he's amazing now and went on an absolute spree. He took out the Lu Duan and the Sensor bot with ease.

In an attempt to slow his mischief, I dodged a Libertos with a shotgun into his line of sight, although it sadly didn't slow him for long.

Unfortunately, I'd been slack with placing McMurrough into close combat so his facing was not in a good place. The Ariadnans used coordinated orders to shoot him repeatedly from multiple angles. The -3 to one of the flamethrowers because of his facing meant he failed two dodges in a row that would have gotten him out of danger, and down he went.

The Ariadnan Lieutenant then revealed to take out the Rui Shi, and then stayed up to be a very annoying ARO piece. I was, at this point, pretty certain that there was a Chain of Command sneaking around somewhere, although I didn't know Ariadna well enough to know what it was.

I murdered the Lieutenant then sent the engineer servant remote out to repair both the Lu Duan and the Sensor Remote. Having so many irregular orders in my main group really hurt my ability to get stuff done!

I advanced my core link up the field for better scoring at the end of turn 3. 

Unfortunately, someone from the Ariadnan side managed to get a bead on my Lieutenant, meaning my third turn was spent in loss of Lieutenant. This got compounded when Sforza went to go and murder one extra cheerleader in suppression and an unlucky roll meant he went down without me having the orders to get him back up again . . .

I'd managed to stuff up and didn't have anyone in my near zone at all. All Vassily had to do was shoot past a couple of ARO pieces and the game would be Ariadna's. The first thing to do was to get past the Zhencha, who proceeded to roll a crit on a six and leave nothing of Vassily but a pair of smoking boots...

So, a 3-2 win in a hard fought game. That was close! In the end, it was more luck than skill that got the win. That said, I felt I had it a lot more together. I made a couple of deployment errors, and I think I need to switch around the balance of irregular orders between my groups. Plenty to digest before the next League game.

Inaugural Fast Panda Throwdown - Game 3: Supplies vs Neilio

 

For my final game, I was up against Neilio, who was running Starmada. I've not played against Starmada, but I'm aware that they lack cheap support troops and specialise in super violent links. In Supplies, my hope was to utilise my massive number of mid field units to grab some boxes and avoid a straight fight.

My concerns of incoming extreme violence were deepened when my opponent took the first turn, and declared he was spending a command token to hold a model back, which would mean he was holding back three models. With the tiny number of models deployed on the table, I was expecting a TAG. When he placed his remaining models down, it turned up that it was Hector and Parvati in a link team.

This was not an improvement.

A lucky shot by one of my snipers on an Epsilon HMG made me think I might have a chance, but it wasn't to be. I'd misdeployed the snipers so one wasn't in much in the way of cover, so he was quickly picked off, and without the +3 BS bonus, the second shortly joined him. Hector then moved up into the mid field and did a solid murder on an innocent Hunzakut who'd been planning on grabbing a supply box and running away as much as possible.

With everything Hector could see dying, I decided to take an asymmetric approach. Hector would do a lot less with fewer orders, so I sent one of my Libertos after the Kappa fireteam. It was ridiculously effective. Four of the five link members ended up dead and off the board, with only the Kappa Missile Launcher left unconscious and bleeding out. The Libertos was sadly wounded in the exchange and died at the end of my turn, his duty done.

My Zhencha managed to get a box, but didn't have the orders to get far enough away from Hector, who killed him super dead. My opponent rightly identified Hector needed as many orders as possible so simply dropped every command token on moving models into Hector's group to replace the dead fireteam. Deciding that box was too far away, he instead pulled back and went for the box on the other side, his link team picking up the centre box on the way.

At this point, one of the many, many people Hector killed was my Lieutenant, who I'd moved up with the surviving link team members in the vain, vain hope of picking up a box in my following turn. I did manage to pick up a box and score a Classified with my Hacker, but with Starmada holding two boxes, the game ended 6-3 to the cops.

I think I did the right thing by going after the link, and Neilio in turn did the right thing of using Command Tokens to mitigate the damage. I need to be more careful with my deployment when trying to gain cover from height as it doesn't work if you don't end up significantly higher than your opponent. The list needed a better solution to an attack piece like Hector, and didn't really have one. Camo only goes so far, and people can just, you know, discover your models?

All said, I learned a bunch from the game and I've got a lot to think about in terms of how to build lists to cope with this sort of attack in future.

Inaugural Fast Panda Throwdown - Game 2: Supremacy vs Forgedinfury

 

After lunch, opponents were announced and I got to meet Forgedinfury. He was running a beautifully painted Ikari Company force. I was excited to face another mercenary company, but a bit nervous of how much damage was likely coming my way as Ikari Company is a highly aggressive force with some really tough pieces.

I think I lost the Lieutenant roll, but in any event, Forgedinfury had the first turn, while I picked a deployment side and made him deploy first. I was facing a Keisotsu link on his left flank with a Brawler MULTI Sniper and Tanko Missile Launcher, while a Daiyokai and two Tankos in a Haris on his right.  A Karakuri was well placed to move around the roof of a tall building and move between zones, and Yojimbo also lurked back ready to zoom up the field.

I deployed a Ghulam Sniper link on the right, with a Hulang tucked well back behind some scenery. Libertos got scattered around the mid-field, and a Zhencha joined the Karakuri on the roof.

The left hand flank consisted of the Al Fasid and Rui Shi, as I was starting to run out of cover to deploy in and still be able to get out and affect the game!

The Ikari defensive link made an effort to take out my sniper link, but I started rolling critical hits and didn't stop. By the time the game ended, I'd rolled about nine, including five from the snipers alone - and mostly in ARO. The Tanko went down to shooting twice. Broadly, they were lacking long ranged high burst weapons, and I'd deployed to it hard for those that did exist to get into a good spot to get into a fight with the snipers.

He tried to help his Daiyokai advance with a couple of Yuan Yuan walking in from the side, but they ended up being unlucky and not managing to take out much in the way of targets.

Eventually, the Daiyokai and then a Tanko got unlucky from the Rui Shi and Al Fasid shooting, at which point there just weren't enough attack pieces left to make a break into my table half. I also ruthlessly took advantage of having second turn to score zone control as best I could.

In the end, my relentless criticals were too much, and the game ended in a Dahshat victory. I couldn't quite bring enough to bear to get zone control on the final turn, but picked up two consoles and a classified for a solid 7-0 win, with 259 points left alive to Ikari's surviving 73.

All in all, I was pretty pleased with how this went. I mostly made sure to engage on favourable terms, but was very lucky for the sniper link to survive most of the game when mathematically they should have gone down much earlier.

My initial deployment wasn't great and I think I need to work on it a little bit. I feel I needed a better ARO piece on my left flank, but that might be a problem with the list design that I need to look at for future games. Plenty to think about . . . 

Inaugural Fast Panda Throwdown - Game 1: Decapitation vs theclaw

First game, I was matched against theclaw from Fast Panda Gaming. The mission was Decapitation, where you need to hit two "Designated Target" models that are placed in addition to the army, kill more army points than the opponent and kill more Lieutenants than the opponent.

Focussing heavily in on the last aspect of the mission, I wrote a list that focussed heavily on defending the Lieutenant and going after my opponent's.

Claw was running Invincible Army. He'd just focussed on the "doing violence" part of the mission, bringing a Duo of Mowangs, a core link of Zuyong, a Daoying Lieutenant hiding in a camo state, a Rui Shi and then a cheap Remote for the tenth order.

I lost my Sensor remote early so had little chance of winkling the Lieutenant out of the interior of a building in the far corner of the battlefield. I repeatedly over-extended trying to get to the Lieutenant, losing model after model. At this point, the Invincibles advanced, murdering anyone who got in the way. Neither of us got each other's Lieutenants, but Claw had two designated targets and more points killed to my having killed one designated target.

On reflection, I think this came to having too many points in defending my Lieutenant and too many points in fragile assassins. I had very little in the army capable of doing serious violence, which is moderately embarrassing when playing Dahshat, who pretty much specialise in it.

So, as we took a break for lunch, I was one game down, having lost 7-2. I think it was telling I had 87 points remaining while Claw had 277. It's very hard to Do Something Clever when you've been shot full of bullets, and Invincible Army is very good at that . . . 

Inaugural Fast Panda Throwdown - I Went Outside!

 

Last weekend I Went To A Tournament. More specifically, I went to the Inaugural Fast Panda Throwdown in Heywood, north of Manchester. I've been watching the Fast Panda YouTube Channel and wanted to show my support of their first tournament. It turned out I was their furthest flung player, coming from London.

While I've been playing getting my Shasvastii on Tabletop Simulator and have been getting quite a few of them painted up, I decided to take my Dahshat Company. Broadly, this was because I've found Taigha Creatures are pretty vital to playing a strong game with Shasvastii, and I currently don't have any assembled.

I travelled up the night before and stayed in a hotel before getting a lift to the venue on the day. The venue was a Methodist church. As soon as Slimming World were finished, the tables were brought in and set up.

Organisation was good, with match ups being easily sorted out and a reminder coming around each game to make sure people were aware of time. There were apparently shops pretty close, but it was raining and I'd brought cereal bars to power through, so I didn't explore. 

I don't want to write a massive essay covering all three games I had in one post. I'll be posting short reports of each game in future days, but suffice to say I had three really fun games with good opponents.

All in all, it went really well and another event is planned next year. If you're in easy travel distance of the Manchester, UK area, I'd definitely recommend keeping an eye out for future Fast Panda Throwdowns.