Infinity - First ever ITS Tournament

I have just attended my first ever Infinity ITS tournament and wow what an education that was. Infinity is a game I fell in love with years ago but have only just managed to get to play occasionally now its in its new edition.

Finally getting up the courage to throw myself into the tournament scene, it worked out rather well that whilst I was back home in Lancashire seeing family I could attend the event been hosted by Harlequins in Preston.

This was a 300pt event where you could bring two lists for your force (not that I knew that and only drew up one - but I only had enough painted models to do that list anyway - lesson 1 learnt) and consisted of 3 games covering the following ITS Scenarios:

Supremacy
Biotechvore
Decapitation

I decided to take my ALEPH - Steel Phalanx Sectorial force, mainly as those are the ones I was most comfortable with, playing a few times in the past. That and they are all painted (and we all know painted models play better!!!)

My force consisted of:


Achilles
Myrmidon Officer
Myrmidon with a Spitfire
Myrmidon Hacker
Myrmidon with Chain Rifle
Myrmidon with Combi Rifle
Agema Marksman with Mk 12
Thorokitai Forward Observer
Thorakitai Engineer
Thorakitai Paramedic
Zayin HMG Bot



Game 1 - Supremacy vs Joe and his Haqqislam.

First ever ITS game and I was going second. Joe had an awful lot of orders for his force made up of Impetuous, Irregular and Regular orders, he also had Saladin with his Strategos trickery. With a whole combat group made up of howling mad bikers and a scenario which needed you to control quarters, he was at an advantage very quickly zooming his bikes into position. My only response to this was my total reaction HMG bot and my Agema who would get good ARO's every time his bikes moved, and considering they were Impetuous they had to go straight towards my nearest troops and wuldnt get cover.

So first response, 4 total reaction shots with HMG bot against a poor biker. I get beaten by the face to face roll and his biker pops of one lucky shot which downs my bot even though it was in cover. With nothing to react he used another troop hight up on a building opposite to Panzerfaust my bot which destroyed it and killed the poor prone Engineer who was behind the bot hoping to fix any damage and claim a classified objective! ok not good, welcome to ITS could I recover.

That would be a no! I made some serious mistakes. My link team of Myrmidons were clumped together and although they were getting close to controlling a quadrant, Joe dropped in an Aerial Deployed troop and gunned them down from behind.

Mainly left with Achilles, I went on a rampage gunning down errant bikers and other Haq troops, and although I was killing lots there was no way I could complete the scenario objectives. At the end of my last turn and the game I also got over zealous and attacked a Haq trooper with a Heavy Flamethrower and although Achilles killed him, the fire hit on my Homeride hero killed him as well. 75pts of figure gone (Lesson 2 learnt, I didnt need to go after the flamer and could have saved 75pts)

At the end of the game I had lost significantly 7-0 on objective points.

Game 2 - Biotechvore vs Martin and his Japanese Sectorial.

Ok I had my initiation into ITS, time to try and save some face. Next up was Biotechvore, an evil scenario which has your deployment area and the same size area ahead of you as a bio hazard which will kill your troops at the end of a game round if you fail your Armour saves. Aim is to get out of the area into the rough centre clear area and kill lots of the enemy as well as try and complete your classified objectives. For my classifieds I had to demo charge a scenery piece in Martins half of the board and the other was to repair a structure point on a bot.

I started moving my troops up the board with Achilles and my HMG bot climbing the gantry's on the right to get good height and fire lanes on Martins troops. My Agema moved up and managed to down a Kempetai straight away and my Link team of Myrmidons hugged the terrain cover. Lesson 3 was learnt very quickly as I had run out orders and still had a lot of troops in the bio zone. After some awful rolling I had managed to save my Lieutenant by my link team had been decimated.

Martin managed to get nearly all his troops up the board with only a few being caught and dying in the bio zone, but what he did save managed to get gunned down in the next few rounds by my HMG bot and Achilles. My Thorakite Engineer managed to demo charge the rear gantry steps and then climbed a ladder to fix the Zayin, both classifieds claimed, I was starting to get a better understanding of ITS now.

With Martin struggling to get his troops into a good postion, I managed to kill his Lieutenant and forced him to reveal two Camo Ninjas which ended up on the line of fire as well.

At the end of the game I had killed his Lieutenant, killed more of his troops and claimed my classifieds to win the game 7-4 (First ITS win!!)

Game 3 - Decapitation vs Luke and his USAriadna.

Did I just tell you all I won an ITS mission!! not the biggest achievement in my life but I was chuffed. Next up was Luke and his USAriadna. I met Luke right at the beginning of the day and was glad to get a chance to play him. Everyone I had met or chatted to were really great and it was nice to get hints, tips and advice on playing the game from more experience players.

The aim of this last game was to kill the oppositions Lieutenant, kill more troops and claim your classifieds but mainly kill the boss!!

We deployed and Luke got to go first. I was pleased to hear that he thought I had deployed extremely well to counter his first turn, I must be learning. Most of the game ended up in a long range shooting match between my Agema and his snipers. I managed to make one unconscious and the other finally fell later on in the game. Lukes biker headed straight for Achilles and was mown down eventually by a combination of HMG and Achillies.

My Engineer managed to claim a demo charge classified again and Luke dropped Van Zant into my rear and he got to shoot down my Lieutenant with his assault pistol, he then died to a return nanopulser. My Thorakites Paramedic shot a medikit at an unconscious Myrmidon Hacker and revived her getting another classified and then it was my last turn.

I had 4 regular orders and an LT order all on Achilles. Achilles stormed up the centre of the table, he was hit by a rocket strike from a Tractor Mul shrugging off the wound and stormed up the side of the building which housed Martins Ariadna Grunts and his Lieutenant. A full Spitfire burst to the face saw the Grunt LT drop in a spray of red mist and the game was over.

We had both killed a Lieutenant but I had more classifieds and killed a whole lot more. I had won the game 9-4.

So first 3 ITS games and I had lost 1 and won 2. Overall I came 6th out of 14 and came away from the tournament extremely happy with my performance and had a great day meeting new people.

Just a few of the very nice tables we got to play on

Across the Dead Earth - Murder in the Midlands Tournament - Part 2

 

Hopefully everyone has read Part One of this tournament report.

Third Game - vs Adam and his Unnamed Gang

 

Well after two decent wins and a lunch break we entered into game 3. This time I was up against Adam with his unnamed gang, mainly as he was self confessed in being un organised and hadnt even named his characters. Setting up on table 6 Adam deployed in the centre baseline just behind the large hill whilst I placed my gang near the walled house.

 

Straight away I was on the front foot, gaining a couple of loot counters and storming towards the centre of the table, taking cover on the reverse slope of a hill with Dum, Dee and Whyte Rabbit. Hatter and White Knight went left around the large hill as Adam was moving some of his gang across the terrain in response.

Adams medic (we named him Doc) suddenly found himself in front of Hatters shotgun and was summarilly dispatched in a hail of lead. Outraged Adam's leader charged towards Hatter and as per the medic, was gunned downed mercilessly.

 

On the central hills the Unnamed struck back with Scouter aiming a well placed shot straight between Dums eyes and dropping him where he stood. Rabbit hada great bead on Scouters location now and aimed a shot which paid him back in full. The unnamed were reeling, gang members were dropping like flies and they had no leader to rally them.

 

Adam fought back hard moving his sharpshooter Annie into a good position, but she fluffed her shots and Hatter put her down before moving in for the coup de grace. Hatter was on a rampage and sped after Adams remaining scout and gunned him down remorslessly.

 

The Unnamed had been utterly wiped out and the Wonderland gang had taken the majority of the loot, completely winning with 115pts to 20pts.

 

 

Game 4 - vs Martin and his Concrete Savages

 

Last game of the day and i thought it was close on points between a couple of us. I was up against Martin and his melee orientated savages, if they got into close combat I could be cut to ribbons. We were on table 3 which was my Apocalyptic airbase.

 

After the loot was placed I deployed behind the old transport plane, whilst the Savages entered the fray near the other side. I was panicking, the mad, knife weilding manics were too close for my liking.

 

Alice and Dum sped off to the left as a few loots were quite close by. The White Knight snagged another loot as Whyte Rabbit and Hatter went right around the sandbags to try and catch the savages as they advanced.

 

Fubar from the savages ran up into cover of some sandbags but Hatter took a bead with his shotgun and gunned down the poor maniac. Next up was River who suddenly found herself under fire, and shortly succumbed to the overpowering firepower.

 

The Savages leader ran onto the planes wing and snagged some loot, quickly dashing back down to bank it. Snafu the mad spear weilding nutter charged up onto the plane to counter the moves of Dee and a whirling melee ensued. Thats not a Knife even card was played by both of us so neither would be able to use any combat weapons and bonuses and it was down to fisticuffs! yeh that ended eventful and both characters remained locked in combat.

 

Savage Sid tried to gun down Mad Hatter from his vantage point on the wing of the plane but missed. Not so for the wonderland leader who blasted him off the wing then moved closer to give him the coup de grace. In the scrap between Dee and Snafu it was going the way of the Wonderlanders thanks to back up from the White Knight and Dee finally got to coup de grace the Savage.

 

In a last desperate effort Martin snagged a loot and dashed back to his deployment area whilst another character Clay took on White Knight. The Wonderlanders wouldnt be cowed however and another raider went the way of the rest.

 

The Savages had definately been outgunned and outclassed. The Wonderland gang hadn't got a scratch whilst whislt nearly annihi

lalating their opposition.

 

Another win with a huge 120pts to 20pts

 

So four games and four large wins. After all the points were totalled I had won the day with a considerable margin.

 

 

A fantastic day out and four cracking games against four great opponents. I cant wait for the next one.

 

For my winnings I chose the Angel Gang box set for the 2000AD Judge Dredd miniatures game (which also would be extreamly fitting for Across the Dead Earth). Alot of the great prizes were donated by Lostland Games so much kudos to them.

 

 A couple of the other gangs I didnt get to play.

Across the Dead Earth - Murder in the Midlands Tournament - Part 1

Sunday past I and a few others descended on the leafy suburb of Stourbridge for the inaugural Across the Dead Earth Tournament. You can see in my previous post that I was taking a gang made up of Post Apocalyptic Alice in Wonderland characters.

Arriving extreamly early as I thought the motorways might be busy even on a sunday and having a long two hour journey, I wanted to give myself time for any holdups. Anyway I arrived first and eventually everyone else turned up.  Everyone introduced themselves and I was especially pleased to finally meet Simon from Brummies Wargaming Blog.

After everyone had had a good chat, getting to know each other, we set up the tables in the church hall we would be using and got ready to throw down Across the Dead Earth.

Tables



Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Table 4

Table 5

Table 6



First Game - vs Simon and his Alpha Squad

So after finally getting to meet Simon I drew him first to play. Simon had designed his gang around the GI Joe theme and his miniatures looked great. We set up on table 2 which over the day was nicknamed the Death Bunker. Loot counters were placed and deployment areas sorted and gangs deployed.

First turn was taken up with mostly tentative moves towards cover and especially towards the large amount of loot housed inside the death bunker. My Alice and Whyte Rabbit scooted off left where Alice was after loot and Rabbit gained a vantage point on some large ruins. Mad Hatter ran right towards more loot and Dee and Dum stayed central backed up by the White Knight. Simons crew had Shockwave run towards the trees on his left and Sgt Slaughter hugged the corner of the bunker whilst his leader Beachhead and the others headed towards the bunker.

As the game progressed I scooped up a few close by loots and Rabbit tried to shoot Spirit but failed miserably. Beachhead stormed into the bunker just as Dee entered the other side. In the ensuing melee Dee went down but not out. Shockwave advanced further through the wooded area but came face to face with the Mad Hatter who at point blank range shotgunned him to death! almost immediately the White Knight charged into Sgt Slaughter who was sneaking up on the Mad Hatter.

Slaughter went down in a flurry of blows but just as it looked like Alpha Squad would lose another Joe there was a huge bang! Slaughter had sacrificed himself and took out the Knight at the same time! Beachhead finally took out Dee in the bunker after the Wonderland medic had already healed himself once and Spirit managed to down Whyte Rabbit in the ruins.

Both gangs backtracked slightly after losing two people each and made off with as much loot available.

At the end of the game points were totalled up and I had won 70pts to 45pts

Second Game - vs Jon and his Juno Squad

Juno Squad were based on the State and considering the back story I had come up with for my Wonderland Gang, this was a very thematic match up. Playing on Table 5 for this battle, we would be contesting a T-Junction at the edge of town. Again the loot counters were placed and bath gangs set up in their respective deployment areas. I chose to deply just by the bottom corner of the large ruins at the bottom centre of the table and Jon deployed at the end of the road in the right hand corner.

With such a lot of hard cover, both our first moves were to gain as much loot as possible quickly and then move onto the harder to grasp loot whilst direct action was imminent. Jons Juno Squad were solid, with 3 medics and nearly all his guys dual Class they would be really tough opposition.

Jons dog was extreamly obidient all game and ran about causing havoc whilst his hard hitters tried to flank my gang. For most of the game both sides were cagey loosing off the occasional long range shot but not causing much damage, although Dee was downed, he quickly healed himself to return to the fight.

Throwing caution to the wind I advanced with my whole gang with Mad Hatter and the White Knight going after the guys in the ruins. Dee and Dum stayed central with Alice scooting right and Whyte Rabbit as long range back up stayed high in the ruins and waited for opportunity shots.

This proved the wrong decision for rabbit as he was almost always out of range as Juno Squad members moved away to take on Mad Hatter. They were sorry they did as Hatter slammed a couple of shells into his shotgun and unloaded them directly into Mi'Lady's face taking her out. The White Knight gave Deadeye a damn good thumping and then put in the Coup de Grace taking the State Sharpshooter out.

Seeing their comrades fall quite easily the rest of Juno Squad retreated with their loot.

With the Game over I had managed to gain 75pts beating Jon.

Games 3 and 4 will be covered in Part 2.