Kitsune, Gardener of Artichokes
I was pretty fried after two days and five games of Infinity at Day 1 and Day 2 of the Best of the Pacific Northwest, but someone put up the bat signal asking for a game. No one else was free so I put on my warcor pants and answered the call! I’ve got a Deadly Dance showdown tournament set up for 3/11 and 3/14 this month, so my opponent really just wanted to get in some practice.
Overview
- Mission: Deadly Dance
- Forces: Japanese Secessionist Army versus Tohaa (300)
- Deploy First: JSA
- First Turn: JSA
Deadly Dance
SHINOBU Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW. (1 | 47)
O-YOROI AP HMG + Heavy Flamethrower, CrazyKoalas / EXP CCW. (2 | 86)
RYŪKEN (Forward Deployment L2, ODD) Submachine Gun, Antipersonnel Mines, D-Charges / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
KEMPEI (Multispectral Visor L2) Shock Marksman Rifle / Pistol, CCW, Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
YURIKO ODA Combi Rifle + E/Mitter, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 23)
YOJIMBO Contender, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 21)
LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
9
1
1 | 5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army
I hadn’t unpacked my minis from the Best of the Pacific Northwest because I came home and basically crashed, so over my lunch break at work I made a list that I could proxy with the minis I had that would work better for Deadly Dance than the lists I brought to the Best of the PNW. Really I wanted to get rid of the 5 man core I’ve been ragging on for so long and to try out the Lu Duan, which I told myself I was going to holo as a second baggage bot. It was also an opportunity to get both Shinobu and Yojimbo in the same list.
Tohaa
SUKEUL Lieutenant (Forward Observer) K1 Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 32)
GAO-RAEL Spitfire / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 33)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (0 | 13)
KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 21)
SAKIEL Viral Combi Rifle, Nimbus Plus Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
KUMOTAIL Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22)
CHAKSA SERVANT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
GORGOS Squad Chaksa Peripheral A . (2 | 86)
CHAKSA PERIPHERAL A Light Shotgun, Stun Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (7)
My opponent had made the above list for Show of Force… somewhere on the internet one of us got our wires crossed. He gamely decided to play the list anyway. I think it’s pretty fine for Deadly Dance, but he had concerns.
Deployment
I derped really hard and totally forgot to take pictures of deployment. I’d blame it on being fried, but no excuses. I messed up. Sorry! I went first so I deployed first. Yojimbo went in the center, a Ryuken on each flank, and my 3-man core went on the left. I put the baggage bots in not very suspicious places, with the Lu Duan on the left. The TAG went in the middle. If you saw my game against USARF from the Best of the Pacific Northwest, I basically repeated the deployment from that, but with the link on the right instead of the left.
My opponent responded by putting a Sukeul ML on a tall building on my left. Sadly we discovered later that it didn’t really have LoF to anything. Always check your ARO pieces’ LoF, kids! Essentially the remainder of his list went on the right, with his other Sukeul holding a SymbioBomb next to his Gorgos, which was ‘mated and ‘bombed. I really don’t like how the SymbioMate makes you not hold the Gorgos in reserve. That’s a huge detriment versus JSA. Anyway, I placed Shinobu on the centerline opposite the Gorgos and my opponent deployed.. something. I forget what.
There’s some nuance to his deployment, but it’s hard to adequately discuss without a picture. The key points are that he could have engineered it such that there were two ‘bombs covering the Gorgos, a mate on the Gorgos, and the Gao-Rael watching the Gorgos’s butt. What actually happened was a ‘mate on the Gorgos, and a ‘bomb on the nearby Sukeul, as I mentioned before. Again, sorry for the lack of pics. I don’t know what happened to my brain. I choose my O-Yoroi as my DataTracker and my opponent goes for his Sukeul Lieutenant. We roll for quadrants, and I get the far left quadrant. For fairness in the upcoming tournament, I decided to diagonally mirror the selected quadrants, so my opponent gets my near right quadrant.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – JSA
My opponent had more or less null deployed against me, save the Sukeul ML that couldn’t see most of the board. This let Yojimbo get across the table in no time at all and cover both Shinobu’s approach to the Gorgos and the Gorgos itself with smoke, all from out of LoF. What happened next was pretty gross. Shinobu dives into the deployment zone using her Lt order since she deployed as a token and crits the Gorgos off the table, and the Sukeul whiffs the ‘bomb roll. My opponent elected to use CC instead of the ‘bomb on the Gorgos because its CC > WIP.
The Sukeul is in smoke, or at least Kitsune is, and she does what she was born to do, and slices the Sukeul in half.
I could be conservative here, but I elect to sacrifice Shinobu for the chance to kill the Gao Rael spitfire, and do so. I lose her to the pair of Makaul that are watching with heavy flamethrowers. Worth it.
With only the DataTracker order left (which was my TAG), I just drive the TAG forward and into cover and guard the corner approaches with Koalas.
This does leave Yojimbo out to dry, and I forgot to drag the Koalas with him across the table, which will be relevant shortly.
Bottom of 1 – Tohaa
Their triads are broken, so the Makauls come screaming in. Yojimbo puts one down with his contender, but no one can see the far right one, so it just moves forward.
A wild Sakiel appears and viral combi rifles Yojimbo off the table against his smoke. Had I been clever and kept the Koalas nearby, I could’ve at least shaved a wound off here. Ah well.
With Yojimbo down, this opens a pathway for the remaining Makaul, which throws Eclipse smoke to protect his advance against my Kempetai MSV2. It does trigger a Koala on the way in, which it dodges easily while the Sakiel advances behind it as part of a coordinated order.
There’s not enough orders to get it into CC with the TAG safely without spec-firing a grenade, so my opponent throws caution to the wind and commits. This time, I remembered to place Yuriko’s mine, so the Makaul gets hit with the O-Yoroi’s flamethrower, the mine, a Koala, and my Kempetai MSV2. My opponent whiffs his dodge and the Makaul gets obliterated.
The Sakiel goes into suppression behind the Makaul’s smoke.
Turn 2
I’ve killed my opponent’s DataTracker, so I’ve got two points on the board, but no one has any quadrants.
Top of 2 – JSA
I’d like to get rid of the Sukeul ML, which can see my assigned quadrant, but the Sakiel is in the way. My Kempetai MSV2 tries to take it out and succeeds in doing a wound, which forces it back and into total cover. I send in the suspiciously fast baggage bot, i.e. the Lu Duan. I’m proxying it with Kuroshi Rider. I fail to wound the Sakiel, who drops prone and out of sight.
I have some wiggle room before the ML sees me, so I use the TAG in extreme close range and just gun down the Sakiel within 8″ using the AP HMG.
I’ve got one order to go after the Sukeul ML, but fail to even hit it, ending the Lu Duan’s movement out of LoF.
I’ve done a fair amount of damage, so I settle for throwing the TAG and the Lu Duan into suppressive fire before passing the turn.
Bottom of 2 – Tohaa
My opponent has a stroke of brilliance and jumps the Sukeul ML off its rooftop perch, tanking the falling damage with the SymbioMate. Of course, we look this up later and discover that it’s not legal–it needs to be an attack or something. We ruled it as totally fine in the game though. Anyway, the Sukuel makes it up to my Lu Duan and drops three light shotgun shots onto it. I respond with the flamethrower and roast that artichoke!
My opponent gamely attempts to take out the TAG with his Kumotail, even critting and doing a wound, but we call it there. I’ve got my assigned quadrant at the end of the game round and at the end of the game, making it a
5-0 Japanese Secessionist Army Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Well, that went way better than I expected. I suppose if you null deploy against JSA with Shinobu and Yojimbo on the table, bad things happen. I am a little miffed that I forgot about Yojimbo’s Koalas. Ah well. Here’s a transcript of a post game chat with my opponent, edited for grammar, formatting, and clarity. It covers my main points, and it exposes some of my opponent’s thinking as well, so I thought it a good format.
WiseKensai: My suggestion, no changes to the list, but put the Gao-Rael watching the TAGs’ butt.
Opponent: Yeah, the list building for this mission also helps JSA too. They have one of the better TAG removal systems out there.
WiseKensai: and if you can get another SymbioBomb guy nearby… That’d be great. If you can get “burst two”
Opponent: Probably the Doctor could instead be an engineer panzerfaust.
WiseKensai: Yeah, exactly. can he have bombs? If so that would’ve been awesome.
Opponent: The TAG? Yes. But if I do the bombs then I am giving up my melee.
WiseKensai: No, the kosuil
Opponent: Yes.
WiseKensai: Yeah, he and the Sukuel have bombs nearby, the TAG has mates and the Gao Rael watches the tags’s butt. That’s a totally different situation, and even if you still messed up the Sukuel ML deployment, I have basically one shot on the tag before Kitsune dies.
High likelihood the tag and she both die, but your Sukeul and Gao Rael are still alive and basically no changes to the list sans the Kumotail to Kosuil change. you can probably shuffle dudes around and get the same effect anyway.
Also, you can fake me out. Set up a tag castle on your left and hold the TAG in reserve. I put Kitsune down out of reserve and place her near your TAG castle. You laugh and put her behind your ML.
Opponent: Can’t hold the tag in reserve or it gets no symbiomates.
WiseKensai: I think that’s fine. If i can’t get to your TAG efficiently, then you don’t need SymbioMates. I have to send in the Lu Duan and Yojimbo and hope things go well.
Also, body blocking with the TAG’s buddy can help. It won’t prevent me from getting there, but you can make it take awhile.
I think versus JSA it’s reasonable to assume TAG death. If you can make it cost my whole turn, and only lose the TAG, you do it back to me on my turn with a Makaul, and then we’re on even footing with you a point up because you left something in your scoring zone.
In any case, thanks to my opponent for a fun game and for sticking with it to the end after a rough first turn!
