Low-Hanging Fruit
Our recent tournament was intended to close out ITS Season 8 with some TAG missions, but Season 9 dropped before the date of the tournament. To ensure that people could still take Scarface for the TAG missions, our TO made it a Soldier of Fortune tournament, so I was practicing the Frontline mission with mercenaries. Haven’t played against SEF in quite awhile, and never in a take-and-hold ground scenario. They are quite irritating to remove!
Overview
- Mission: Frontline
- Forces: Nomads versus Shasvastii Expeditionary Force (300)
- Deploy First: SEF
- First Turn: SEF
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/logo_501.png[/img][b] Frontline — Soldier of Fortune (SoF) Rules Active[/b]
[b]GROUP 1 | [/b][img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_regular.png[/img]8 [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_irregular.png[/img]2 [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_impetuosa.png[/img]2
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_16.png[/img] [b]INTERVENTOR Hacker Lieutenant (Hacking Device Plus)[/b] Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]25[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_4.png[/img] [b]INTRUDER (X-Visor)[/b] MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | [b]43[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_33.png[/img] [b]LUNOKHOD[/b] Heavy Shotgun, Heavy Flamethrower, D-Charges, CrazyKoalas (2) / Electric Pulse. (0 | [b]25[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_32.png[/img] [b]TSYKLON[/b] Spitfire, Pitcher / Electric Pulse. (1 | [b]31[/b])[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_30.png[/img] [b]MORAN[/b] Boarding Shotgun, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]20[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_10.png[/img] [b]ZERO Hacker (Assault Hacking Device)[/b] Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]24[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/1/logo_20.png[/img] [b]McMURROUGH[/b] 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Templar CCW (AP + DA). (0 | [b]31[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_48.png[/img] [b]KRAKOT RENEGADE[/b] 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | [b]14[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_13.png[/img] [b]JAGUAR[/b] Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | [b]10[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_9.png[/img] [b]BANDIT (Forward Observer)[/b] Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | [b]23[/b])[b]GROUP 2 | [/b][img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_regular.png[/img]2 [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_irregular.png[/img]4 [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_impetuosa.png[/img]4
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_13.png[/img] [b]JAGUAR[/b] Adhesive Launcher, Panzerfaust / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | [b]13[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_13.png[/img] [b]JAGUAR[/b] Adhesive Launcher, Panzerfaust / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | [b]13[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/1/logo_1.png[/img] [b]YUAN YUAN[/b] Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | [b]8[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/1/logo_1.png[/img] [b]YUAN YUAN[/b] Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | [b]8[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_12.png[/img] [b]MORLOCK[/b] Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | [b]6[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/501/logo_12.png[/img] [b]MORLOCK[/b] Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | [b]6[/b])
[b] 6 SWC (1 SoF) | 300 Points (47 SoF) |[/b] Open in Infinity Army
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/logo_603.png[/img][b] Shasvastii Expeditionary Force[/b]
[b]GROUP 1 | [/b][img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_regular.png[/img]10
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_8.png[/img] [b]SHROUDED Hacker (EI Assault Hacking Device)[/b] Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]30[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_8.png[/img] [b]SHROUDED[/b] Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]23[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_8.png[/img] [b]SHROUDED (Minelayer)[/b] Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]25[/b])[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_8.png[/img] [b]SHROUDED (Forward Observer)[/b] Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]25[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_12.png[/img] [b]MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID[/b] Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]23[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_17.png[/img] [b]SLAVE DRONE[/b] Electric Pulse. (0 | [b]3[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_14.png[/img] [b]Q-DRONE[/b] HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | [b]26[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_14.png[/img] [b]Q-DRONE[/b] Plasma Rifle / Electric Pulse. (1 | [b]25[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_16.png[/img] [b]R-DRONE[/b] Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | [b]8[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_10.png[/img] [b]SPECULO KILLER[/b] Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | [b]34[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_10.png[/img] [b]SPECULO KILLER[/b] Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | [b]34[/b])[b]GROUP 2 | [/b][img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_regular.png[/img]3
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_4.png[/img] [b]ASWANG Lieutenant[/b] Combi Rifle, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]26[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_18.png[/img] [b]IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater)[/b] 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | [b]9[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/603/logo_18.png[/img] [b]IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater)[/b] 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | [b]9[/b])
[b] 5 SWC | 300 Points |[/b] Open in Infinity Army
Deployment
Our LGS is running a Guildball escalation league at the moment, so space and tables were at a premium. We made do. My new phone arrived, so I have pictures for you, testing out the wide-angle feature on the phone. I kinda don’t like it, but it does give you the view of the board as I saw it. I won the roll off and had him deploy first to mitigate the effects of any Speculo Killers that were going to show up. Right off the bat, he deploys an impersonation marker in the middle of the right side of my deployment zone. His Plasma Q-Drone starts in the nest of hexagonal buildings on the left, with his HMG Q-Drone starting by the tall pipe/building with two silver pipes. Dr. Worm is nearby the HMG Q-Drone, with his slave drone by the plasma Q-Drone. He deploys a shrouded FO out of camo on top of the building at the right, and puts a pair of Ikadrons down, one on each side of the table. An R-Drone settles in for a slog of a game behind one of the diagonal orange walls. His Shrouded AHD hangs out in the building just above the big D6, and he has a minelayer Shrouded on the ground nearby with another Shrouded behind the hexagonal building closest to me.
I put McMurrough and two Morlocks in a position to cover the Impersonation token, with the Krakot backing them up from his position of forward deployment. My Lunokhod guards the approach to the left side of the board with its Koalas. One Jaguar panzerfaust watches the narrow gap between the two buildings right outside my deployment zone, and the other watches the section of the board with the diagonal walls. My Intruder goes prone on top of the spaceship, with a Jaguar chain rifle in front ready to throw some for him. Behind the spaceship is my Tsyklon. I attempt to throw the Bandit over the centerline, but fail and she hangs out with the Tsyklon near the spaceship. I put my Moran atop the nearest Hexagonal building at the farthest corner from my deployment zone, with his Koalas covering the deployment zone, and my Zero AHD tucked into the square building with the reddish building atop it.
His last impersonator appears on the left side of the board, and then I place my Interventor Lt away from everything atop the platform on the right. My opponent mentions that he has an easy first order shot on the Interventor with the shrouded FO, who he nominates as his DataTracker (mine’s the Moran). He offers me the opportunity to adjust my deployment very graciously. There isn’t a terribly better place to put my Lieutenant, because there are impesonators everywhere and I don’t want to hide him near anything for fear of getting missile launchered by a noctifier in hidden deployment. I shrug, thank my opponent for the opportunity, and leave my Interventor there as low hanging fruit, ready to take my lumps!
Turn 1
Top of Turn 1 – SEF
As promised, my Interventor dies outright to the Shrouded FO on the first order. He spends most of the rest of his order pool running the speculo killer on my left up the building to kill my DataTracker Moran. I manage to get him out of impersonation, but it’s too late. He’s already in range and he lightsabers my Moran in half before getting blown up by Crazy Koalas. Well, there goes my left-side repeater coverage, meaning his plasma Q-Drone is safe to advance, so he does so, killing the Jaguar on top of the building. His last few orders are spent gunning down a Morlock with the HMG Q-drone from max range, laying some more mines and advancing his minelayer shrouded, and forward observing my Interventor’s corpse for a classified.
Bottom of Turn 1 – Nomads
I’m in loss of lieutenant, but it starts raining Yuan Yuans. I walk the first one on behind the plasma Q-Drone, in full view of Dr. Worm’s bot. I roll E/M grenades and squeal with delight! I attempt to land the second Yuan Yuan out of LoF from the Q-Drone behind the large pipe, but she scatters into the open in front of the R-Drone and gets flash pulsed. I try to get my Krakot to take out his Ikadron on the right, but the Krakot fails and burns to a crisp in the attempt. McMurrough advances, chucking a smoke grenade atop his remaining impersonator to give me some respite from the evil speculo killers! I activate my Intruder and gun down his DataTracker by shooting it in the back. Revenge! My Intruder borrows the CR Jag’s order with a command token and attempts to discover his remaining speculo through the smoke, but fails. 
The Yuan Yuan on the left chucks a few E/M grenades, borrowing another order from the remaining Jaguar panzerfaust, finally taking the plasma Q-drone out of the action. Unfortunately the nearby Ikadron and slave drone survive the rain of grenades without incident. I attempt to clear a mine with McMurrough, and succeed in getting rid of the mine, but now McMurrough has a wound on him. D’oh! Talk about the wrong time to roll really high on your dodge! Both of my REMs scoot up the board without much to do while my Bandit scoots forward into cover with her irregular order. I bring my remaining Morlock back into my deployment zone with his irregular order to challenge the speculo, and forget about my Zero AHD because her camo token blends into the shadows too well! I nominate the Jaguar CR as my new Lt, given that I have so few options.
Turn 2
Top of Turn 2 – SEF
The HMG Q-Drone sets about dismantling my left flank, sending my Jaguar Panzerfaust into dogged, landing a shot on my Jaguar CR (who passes ARM and ducks), and the Tsyklon whiffs. He kills the Tsyklon and Intruder with the Q-Drone, but ignores the dogged Jaguar panzerfaust, who takes the normal roll and drops the troublesome remote! The Ikadron on the left advances a little and flamethrowers the non-E/M grenade Yuan Yuan, burning her to a crisp. My left side is now just a single Jaguar CR, a Bandit, and my heroic E/M grenade Yuan Yuan. My opponent sets about removing my Bandit, using a BSG shrouded to do so. I eyeball the distance anxiously, decide it’s over 8″, and declare ADHL in ARO. We measure, and I was right! We both whiff, as we both have cover and camo. He tries again, retreating into the alleyways between the buildings as he does so, but I glue him to the ground. With his last orders, he uses Dr. Worm’s slave drone to fix the Plasma Q-Drone, with me whiffing the E/M grenade ARO. Now everyone is out of LoF of that Yuan Yuan.
Bottom of Turn 2 – Nomads
My Yuan Yuan advances and throws smoke so as to not get plasma’ed to death as he comes around the corner. McMurrough super-jumps forward and fastballs a grenade at the Ikadron, who is just outside of flamethrower range! My Morlock runs away from the Impersonation token and tries to get in position to do something. I remember my Zero exists and try to kill Dr. Worm with her, but she cannot hit the broad side of a barn, even with two orders! I advance my Jaguar into the first scoring zone with his Lt order, and recamo the Bandit. Finally, I move hero Yuan Yuan into position to chain rifle everything if it activates.
Turn 3
Top of Turn 3 – SEF
He activates his Plasma Q-Drone, and I decide to try gluing it with the Bandit. He throws one at the bandit and two at my Yuan Yuan. The bandit whiffs, but the Q-Drone misses its shot against the Bandit too. My heroic Yuan Yuan dodges, and proceeds to do so for the next three orders! PH 14 is amazing!
No matter though, he pops his Shrouded AHD up and guns down my Zero, with my Lunokhod and the Zero missing the return shots. He gets his Shrouded minelayer into scoring position in the far zone, and runs his Speculo up past my Morlock into scoring position too, but I manage to drop it out of impersonation state as it does so. With his last orders, he picks up the HMG Q-Drone with Dr. Worm and pushes the Ikadron and R-Drone up the field.
Bottom of Turn 3 – Nomads
Talk about having my work cut out for me!
My Morlock chain rifles his Speculo, his shrouded minelayer, and his Q-Drone HMG , but everyone survives except for the Morlock and the Speculo. UGH. McMurrough comes around the corner, setting off and dodging all of the remaining mines. Thank goodness! My Yuan Yuan chain rifles the Plasma Q-Drone down but evaporates in a cloud of superheated gas. I don’t have many options left, and roll McMurder around the corner to earn his moniker. He chain rifles the HMG Q-Drone, Dr. Worm, and the Shrouded minelayer down in one glorious order! I spent a coordinated order on him and the Bandit, moving the Bandit forward and super jumping McMurrough into view of the R-Drone and grenading it. I forget about the fact that Shasvastii still count for points if they’re unconscious, and the fact that Ikadron are baggage bots, and try to secure the middle zone by putting my Bandit into it. I’ve definitely got the far zone, because everything in it but McMurrough is dead. My opponent reminds me of the aforementioned super sad facts, and I am stuck holding my last order in my hand… wondering what to do. I’ve only got my Jaguar in my nearest zone at this point, and I need to remove both the speculo and the shrouded minelayer. I look at my Lunokhod, chewing my lip in frustration, and then remember it has climbing plus! I skitter it up the building and with some weird template angling manage to get both the speculo and the shrouded under its heavy flamethrower template. Of course the model itself isn’t able to sit on the side of the building, so I put it atop it for safety.
Sadly, the speculo passes its arm even though the shrouded burns. With the Ikadron alone, he beats my Bandit, and the speculo beats my Jaguar, so he’s got his mid and far zones. I’ve only got the far zone, and he’s got his classified.
9-5 SEF Victory!
Notes
- I asked my opponent what he was scared of, and he replied that he was worried about my Lunokhod and its CKs in the midfield… so I should’ve done that…
- I also should’ve been smarter with my Lt’s deployment, but very unsure what the best plan was for that.
- Probably should’ve just ignored the speculo killer on the right side of my DZ, it really didn’t do all that much. My opponent lamented that he should’ve tried to lightsaber McMurrough with it though.
- My Intruder didn’t really do all that much this game. My opponent explained that the threat of the MSR kept him out of the right side of the midfield from my perspective, so I guess that’s something.
- McMurrough = McMurder.
- I should’ve been more careful in my last turn and did some points counting and zone eyeballing. If I had contested my close zone with the Bandit, Jag, and Lunokhod, they would’ve beat his shrouded+speculo by 3 points easily. Missed that low hanging fruit! Drat.
- My Yuan Yuan E/M grenade guy did amazingly well! I think I was too excited about the E/M grenades and should’ve just chain-rifled a bunch of stuff instead… but he did waste a bunch of my opponent’s orders.
- During that dodge spree, I kept running him away. I think should’ve dodged towards the plasma q-drone and engaged on next order to “safely” kill it.
