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