Game One, Code One
With the release of Infinity: Code One, it was only a matter of time before Adam and I got a game of it in remotely. We decided to try Supplies at 30 points, both of us trying brand new factions to us (O-12 and Yu Jing) just to get the ball rolling.
We used the same table I set up for my game against Erik, but removed the civilians to be in compliance with Code One.
Overview
- Mission: Supplies (Code One)
- Forces: O-12 versus Yu Jing (30)
- Deploy First: Yu Jing
- First Turn: Yu Jing
I finally got my O-12 assembled, and by that I mean I waited long enough for Adam to get distracted by a new shiny (in this case White Banner) and want to sell his O-12. So I traded my unbuilt models for his built ones so he could sell unbuilt models. Lucky me!
With the changes to hackers, specifically the amazing hawtness of Spotlight now, I decided to go all in on that strategy with two Razors. I figured it would be oppressive if I managed to target something and then keep it locked down with a Lynx MULTI Sniper, so that made it into the list as well.
I’ve wanted to take a Gamma Feuerbach lieutenant ever since I found out they existed, so that made it in. Then I was looking at the rest of my options and found I had a ton more points to spend even after paying for 3 TO troopers and a beefcake of a lieutenant. I decided to just try out a bunch of random O-12 stuff. I took a Lambda and two Peelers, and then pulled in a Beta and Hippolyta. I decided I wanted to try out the Crusher as well, because who doesn’t like a Mimetism AD troop with a boarding shotgun?
Adam took some serious beefcakes as well. Daofei Lt, Yan Huo HRMC, and the new Hundun and Jujak. The rest of his list mostly utility like Guilang, but Jing Qo made an appearance as well. I’m pretty excited to try her out, and the mini is awesome.
Anyway, onto the game! If you want to watch the whole thing, as well as the thoughts we had at the end, go for it below!
Deployment
I won the rolloff and took deployment, mainly to leverage the sniper tower that Erik’s Kamau caused so much trouble from in our last game.
Adam spread his stuff out, putting Guilang on the left and right objectives and the Daofei on the middle one. He backed everything up with his Engineer/Doctor combo, tucked into the back, and then put the Hundun on overwatch. Jing Qo and and the Jujak (band name?) were on second-string duty.
I counter-deployed the Guilang with my Razors. It was very wierd placing TO Camo tokens on the table for Adam to see, but hey, it’s Code One. I figured I’d cover the middle and right objectives from my perspective with a Razor, and then dedicated a whole Razor for the left one.
I put my Lambda in the back to defend against Tiger Soldier incursions, then set up shop with the Lynx where Erik’s stupid Kamau was last game. I figured that any Peeler TR bots I left out would be gunned down in short order, so I tucked them into annoying spots covering the Guilang on my left. One of them was tucked into relative safety behind a building and the other was left out to challenge a few key spots, particularly the Guilang on the left. I put Hippolyta and the Beta on either flank to guard them with Nanopuslars against Tigers, and then it was Adam’s turn to deploy his reserve.
Adam decided he wanted to use his Yan Huo to fight the TR bots and deployed it on the ground where it could maneuver into a position where it could take on a TR bot at a time while avoiding the Lynx. I deployed the Gamma away from the Yan Huo and left it out to ARO against a possible attack by the Jujak.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Yu Jing
Adam dropped in his Tiger Soldier, intending to go after my TR bot with his Gamma, but he flubbed the roll and the Tiger Soldier ended up on the right side of my deployment zone. Phew!
Adam then decides the next best option is to attack with one of his Guilang, which I’m convinced is a Daofei. It pushes hard into my deployment zone, and I delay with everything except the Beta. Unfortunately I fail my discover on the Beta and the Guilang keeps moving.
It manages to get all the way behind my Gamma, and is really making me nervous. I keep delaying, figuring that I really don’t want to give it shots on the Lynx and trusting the Gamma to take care of itself.
Adam keeps pushing into my deployment zone, trying to get out of line of fire of the Gamma once it turns around. I end up failing at ton of dodge rolls to turn around on the Lambda, but there’s a bit of an area where Adam can hug the edge of 8″ and see only the Peeler and Gamma.
He ends up there and reveals, dumping all his shots into the Peeler, but I pass ARM. The Gamma finally turns around, but the Lambda is too busy playing on her iPad or something and fails dodge again.
On his second attempt to down the Peeler, now something like 6 orders in, my Peeler crits the Guilang and between it and my Gamma’s heavy pistol, shoot it off the table.
Adam’s understandably frustrated after that exchange and decides to try his Yan Huo plan, which goes off without a hitch. Once he’s in position, the Yan Huo crits the first Peeler off the table, with me failing both rolls…
and a quick peek around the corner, slicing the pie to avoid the Lynx sees the other Peeler crit off the table as well.
All in all that took 3 orders instead of the 6 it took to fail to kill the Peeler with the Guilang. Not a great outcome for either of us, but I think Adam’s definitely worse off.
Bottom of 1 – O-12
The Yan Huo is still in the open and I’ve got a Gamma a short move away. I spend my Lieutenant order failing to do anything to the Yan Huo, and then move back to my original position to cover the Jujak, failing to wound the Yan Huo yet again.
I take a page from Erik’s book and start playing to the objective, sneaking a Razor on the roof and baiting out a discover from the Hundun and the Yan Huo, but I manage to go prone next to the box and break contact.
I snag the box and scoot away (it’s so nice to not have to roll for this!) and eat an unopposed Carbonite from Adam’s Daofei, who fails its WIP roll. Phew!
I decide that I can’t let the Hundun recamo and send in the Gamma, knocking it out before I retreat back to my original position covering the approach of the Jujak.
My last order is spent crawling the Razor away another 2″ and having a spotlight/carbonite fight with the Daofei, which I win.
I figure having +3 WIP to future hacking rolls will help me win the future hacking fights, or at least drain more orders, and if Adam tries to fight me with a BS attack that will help too.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – Yu Jing
It’s really hard for Adam to do attack planning in a remote game, so he asks me if there’s any way to get Jing Qo to a box and back safely. I spend a bunch of time peering around the table and we find a way to leverage her Climbing+ to get to the box and back in 5 orders, so Adam spends most of his resources doing just that.
He makes things difficult by hiding her prone on the roof too, which is quite annoying.
With his last few orders he decides to attempt to deal with the Lynx, marching the Yan Huo into view. I don’t take the bait and just settle for Carboniting the heavy infantry. The Razor in a stalemate with the Daofei throws in a spotlight for good measure but whiffs his roll.
Since Adam can’t spend the orders on shooting stuff with the Yan Huo, he decides to annoy me by picking up the Hundun, but the Zhanshi Yisheng fails his roll and that’s that.
Bottom of 2 – O-12
I finally manage to take out the Yan Huo with two orders spent on the Gamma. It resets the first time, but I at least win the face to face and shoot it off the table on my second order. That thing is TOUGH.
I decide to go after the last available supply box with my Razor, causing Adam to reveal his Guilang to try and hack my Razor, but I win with Carbonite. This sets up a cross-map shot with my Lynx and I snipe the Guilang off the table with a crit.
I want to deal with Jing Qo, so I try and drop in the Crusher behind Adam’s lines and fail my roll, deciding to come on near Hippolyta to help protect my Razor on that side.
Adam’s got one more big gun on that side of the table, the Tiger, so I send Hippolyta in to take it out, which she does just barely from outside 16″ and with some lucky dice.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – Yu Jing
The Daofei goes for broke, scooting out of hacking range and losing a Carbonite fight.
It manages to reset out of Targeted now that it’s out of hacking range and then climbs the ladder, Carboniting my Razor and surviving all the return fire. With his last orders, the Daofei goes prone, survives all the return fire again and finishes off my immobilized Razor.
Bottom of 3 – O-12
We’re now tied at one supply box each. Adam informs me that I have to be a specialist to even pick up a box. Union rules or something, I suppose. I debate the merits of fighting the Daofei on the roof with my Beta and picking up the Razor’s box or just trying to take out Jing Qo with my Beta and taking her box. I get greedy and go for Jing Qo.
Some 4-5 orders of shooting later, Jing Qo is still alive and we end with a tie game.
2-2 Tie
Post Game Analysis
Adam and I did an almost hour-long discussion after our game, which you can find here (I’ve fast-forwarded for you in the embedded video):
We talk about the game itself as well as our initial impressions of Code One. To summarize though, for those of you who don’t have an hour, I definitely should’ve just picked up the box from the downed Razor instead of trying to get fancy and take Jing Qo’s box.
I also think Adam’s crazy Guilang suicide mission was a bit of a waste of time–the Yan Huo was the right tool to take out the TR bot and it accomplished the mission with ease. That would’ve left him with a lot more orders to do some more damage or just play to the mission and send in Jing Qo a whole turn early to get the box. We even discussed an attack plan with the Yan Huo during deployment–I’m not entirely sure why he didn’t execute it first, I suspect he was just unwilling to get into a even fight with the TR bot with the Yan Huo and wanted to stack some mods.
I think a lot of it is that the remote game format really gives you tunnel vision if you’re not careful. I need to a lot more to help my opponent in that respect, and I think I’m really finding that groove, like where we were able to co-plan a mission to get Jing Qo to a box and back in the minimum amount of orders.
I definitely think I should’ve retreated the Razor on the roof some more, that would’ve really secured me the victory more than anything else. Combat Jump is incredibly risky in a limited insertion format. I think I’ll have to think more carefully about AD troops in general.
In general, we both really enjoyed our experience with Code One. It’s definitely not going to replace N3/N4 as a game for me, but it’s an excellent teaching tool. The Spotlight change alone will make me go back to my Nomads in full force once N4 drops. I’m really excited to just abuse the living daylights out of that with grenade launchers–hopefully spec-fire mechanics remain similar. It’s going to be a wild world.
Neither of us really though that 30 points was a good fit for Code One. We’ll have to see how 15 points goes, but we’re pretty sure that for both of us Code One will remain a teaching tool. That said, we’re both attracted leveraging a deep reservoir of tactical options, so we’re perhaps in the minority for this. I do think, however, that there is a home in my gaming headspace for Code One at 15 points in “speed chess” mode, where you use a chess clock and try to hammer out a full game in 20-30 minutes including deployment.
We have some problems with play speed in our meta, and I think adding some extreme artificial pressure will be beneficial. We attempted to limit deployment in some Tigerlands, and that went reasonably well. I wouldn’t be surprised if Speed Code One remained a format that only Adam and I enjoyed though.
In any case, I gotta say–Corvus Belli has knocked it out of the park with Code One and the new rules. They’re clean, tight, and intuitive. It’s not all roses of course–there are a lot of criticisms to be leveled against their launch, bugs and typos in the army builder, etc. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Is it going to be a great gateway game for N4? YES!
Code One is absolutely its own game, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Recon+ here. I think Code One the correct tool to supplant Recon+ as a teaching framework. It was too difficult to police degeneracy in lists, something that CB has resolved by just eliminating a bunch of options from the factions. Initially I was annoyed by this, but I think it’s a good plan overall.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Stay safe, stay sane!
