Nerdfight
Whelp, Tim (Chainsaw) moved into town and then N5 dropped, so we decided to get a game in!
This was on a school night, so we just broke out the airplane table for simplicity and ease of use.
Overview
We each built a single list for Last Resort and Supply Raid, following Tabletop Throwdown rules. When we set up the table, we rolled off to choose which mission.
- Mission: Last Resort (BAMS v0.1)
- Forces: Nomads versus Invincible Army (300)
- Deploy First: Invincible Army
- First Turn: Invincible Army
Last Resort forced the inclusion of Biometric Visors, and made me actually look at the Rounders for the first time. Holy crap. What a profile. I mean look at this:
The Red Fury and MULTI Marksman are very affordable gunfighters and can be linked with smoke sources such as Perseus. I took the correct Grenzer for the mission and decided to pair it with a Mobile Brigada HMG, mostly because I really like the models and up until recently didn’t have a compelling reason to include in a list in N4. Nothing wrong with them, I had just grown bored of Corregidor. I took an Interventor Lt, a Zondnautica Hacker, and a Moran because I know those tools and don’t have to think about them. Always good to start from a solid base.
Last Resort and Supply Raid
INTERVENTOR (Lieutenant, Hacker, Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle ( | FastPanda) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 23)
MOBILE BRIGADA Heavy Machine Gun / Boarding Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (1.5 | 38)
GRENZER (Discover [+3], Biometric Visor) Combi Rifle, Light Flamethrower(+1B) ( ) / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
ROUNDER Red Fury / Boarding Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 26)
PERSEUS MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / AP Heavy Pistol, DA CC Weapon(PS=5). (0 | 34)
ZONDNAUTICA-C undefined / undefined. (0.5 | 23)
ZONDNAUT-C (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 23)
ZONDMATE Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (- | 5)
TRIGGERMEN (Neurocinetics) MULTI Sniper Rifle, E/Marat / MULTI Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 43)
MORAN (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage [1 Use]) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse, D-Charges, Crazykoala / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 18)
SPEKTR (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, D-Charges ( ) / Silenced Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 35)
INTRUDER (Hacker, Infiltration, Killer Hacking Device) AP Submachine Gun(+1B), Pulzar(+1B), Grenades ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
10
1 | 6 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
I then decided to take the new Intruder profile. The MSR and HMG Intruders are great, I was just super bored of them, having used them since N2. It was nice to see a new profile that does something quite different, even though there’s no model for it. Enjoy it while it exists, much like the other KHD Intruder from N4. It’s really nice that they gave it a Pulzar to replace the LFT on the original Intruder combi profile, although I wish there was an Lt profile. I miss having a camo Lt in Nomads and was really sad when that profile went away.
I then threw in a Triggerman Neurocinetics MSR. It’s way more expensive than a Sin-Eater, but it adds a whole burst and extra wound, plus regeneration, so it seems quite good. The non-neurocinetics profiles look really fun too. I also really wanted to try out the new silenced pistol, so I made room for a Spektr. You’ll note that I’m playing a Limited Insertion list. I think I’m going to be attempting to play mostly Limited Insertion this edition, at least initially, to keep the list building puzzle well contained. I would’ve done this even if Corvus Belli hadn’t added the Limited Insertion order protection back in, but I’m glad to see it back.
Tim has been really excited about the changes to Invincibles, so he made this:
Tim (Chainsaw)
DĀOYĪNG (Lieutenant [+1 Order]) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 23)
HÚLÁNG (Forward Deployment [+8″], Minelayer) Combi Rifle(+1B), Light Flamethrower, D-Charges, AP Mine / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon. (0.5 | 38)
KOKRAM (Forward Deployment [+8″], Minelayer) Heavy Shotgun, E/Mitter, Chain-colt, E/M Mine ( | Deployable Repeater) / Heavy Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 37)
TAI SHENG Thunderbolt(+1B), Chain-colt, Flash Pulse / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 33)
ZÚYǑNG (Tactical Awareness) Combi Rifle ( | TinBot: Firewall [-6]) / Breaker Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
HǍIDÀO (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun(+1B), Pitcher, D-Charges ( ) / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 22)
ZHĒNCHÁ (Hacker, Hacking Device [UPGRADE: Trinity]) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges ( ) / Silenced Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 34)
LIÚ XĪNG (Hacker, Hacking Device [Firewall -6]) Boarding Shotgun ( ) / Boarding Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
YĀN HUǑ Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 47)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mine / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8)
1
1 | 4 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Tai Sheng is pretty interesting now with her Thunderbolt. There are definitely some other nice improvements on profiles across the list, e.g. the Zencha getting Trinity and IA getting a Liberto (because that needed to happen. Ah well).
Deployment
I won the roll-off and took deployment. Tim’s list isn’t really tuned for alpha strike, so I figured this would be fine. Tim set up the Hulong, Krit, and their mines on a Decoy on the left, figuring that he would fake me out by over-committing to protecting in. The Liberto was in the middle on the real target (it’s in the trees just past the Libertos), and the Zuyong screened the last Decoy on the right.
Tai Sheng and crew went on the left as well, and then Tim’s right side was anchored by the Yan Huo, who got Immunity (ARM). Well, that’s something that happened. It really seems like having a diversity of weapon types is a good idea this edition, or just oops all plasma (clearly this is the right answer). I spread out my material, with the Moran defending the two Decoys on my left, the Intruder centrally located to respond to the changing tactical environment, and the Spektr on the plane to protect the actual target from Krit and the Hulang.
My attack teams were the Brigada team on the left and the Rounder team on the right, with the Zondnaut all the way on the left. Tim’s reserve was the Yan Huo, so I put the Triggerman in a spot where I could cover a Decoy and the Target but not be within a single order of the Yan Huo. With all that done, it was time to break in the new edition!
Turn 1
Tim chooses the Zuyong Tinbot to be his special master, and I choose the Zondnautica.
Top of 1 – Invincible Army
While Tim does only have 10 models, he has Tac Aware so I’m allowed to dock him orders, so I do. He drops in a Liu Xing in revenge, landing it right on top of my Zondnautica.
We have to pause frequently to re-learn the rules, and while it’s likely we got something wrong, it does seem like I can dismount my AI Motorcycle in an ARO: Dodge, so I do. The Zondnaut dodges into CC without a problem, but the Zondmate fails its dodge and gets blown up.
Now that we’re in CC, Tim lives up to his name and tries to beat the Zondnaut down in close combat. The first order sees me pass an ARM save.
The second order sees me hit the Liu Xing, but it passes ARM.
Tim wants to get rid of my Moran, so he moves the Libertos into view and then on a new order declares Discover.
I waffle for a bit and then decide to shoot, thinking I gave it a boarding shotgun, and then am sad when I re-read my list. The Koala does kill the Libertos, but the Moran goes down. Very sad, especially because I rolled a shotgun crit. I will say that it’s really nice to not have to worry about the double template anymore and be able to shoot back.
Tim is a little concerned that Krit and the Hulang are a bit forward, so he backs them off and drops another mine to really try to sell that the decoy is the real target.
Bottom of 2 – Nomads
Well, I might as well use the impetuous order! The Zondnaut shoryukens the Liu Xing off the table and my left flank is a little safer now.
I decide to further secure my left flank and bring the Grenzer up to challenge the obvious Zencha on that side. It takes a bit of doing, and I have to be cagey with the Brigada as the Zencha is a hacker, but I get into range and discover it without much difficulty.
A few orders later I’ve shot the Zencha off the table.We have a brief moment of Tim being elated that he rolled a 15 on his ARM save only for me to remind him that a 15 is now a fail.
I want to take a moment here to rejoice at the shotguns no longer having templates change. They’re now just +6 slug mode and got a discount because they lost the template. Sure they can’t hit a whole link anymore, but I think 5-man links are going to be very rare–even 3-man links are going to relatively uncommon. In N4, this would have been a trade, or the Grenzer would lose. The Zencha templates, and the Grenzer would just drop two flamethrower templates. The Zencha probably passes enough saves to stay alive, and the Grenzer probably drops. Now, we’re dicing off in a face to face and the Grenzer’s MSV1 is relevant, as is getting the Zencha out of cover, etc.I think this is a very healthy change and makes actual template weapons pretty important. Really wonderful.
I’ve got two orders left. I spend one discovering one of the impersonators and am pleasantly surprised that it’s the Designated Target!
I then tuck the Grenzer and Brigada away, and cybermask my Interventor to buy me some time.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – Invincible Army
Tim declares that it’s Yan Huo time and just deletes the Triggermen in one order after moving into position. Wild.
He then pushes his way into the Grezner and Brigada. He’s happy to just dump 5 dice into the Grezner even on bad range bands, and his gambit pays off while the Brigada dodges into view.
The Brigada tries to contest with his boarding pistol and manages to not take a wound, failing guts back into cover.
Tim continues being aggressive and moves to catch the Brigada out of cover. This time he’s able to dice it down.
Tim manages to break one Impersonation level on the nearest Decoy and passes turn after advancing Tai Sheng’s group forward.
Bottom of 2 – Nomads
Ow. Well, that sucked. I don’t really have the capability to deal with the Yan Huo at the moment, but it’s all the way on my left and Tai Sheng is about to take the midfield. I can’t allow that, so I decide to take her on which will also delete some orders for the Yan Huo. I reveal the Spektr and engage Tai Sheng, who is the only model standing in that link. She flash pulses the Spektr but I pass BTS.
The next order sees me get lucky and drop Tai Sheng.
I peek out further to see the Haidao and use the Silenced Pistol at just outside of 8″, giving me a nice way to hit the Haidao’s BTS 0. I do a wound and the Haidao fails guts into cover… on the same side of the crates as the Intruder.
I get to use my fancy new toy and gun down the Haidao with the Intruder’s dual AP SMGs.
I need to deal with the Yan Huo and I’ve got a handful of orders left. I coordinate the Intruder and Spektr into better positions while pushing the Interventor towards the Yan Huo, eventually dropping a Fast Panda.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – Invincible Army
Tim drops his speedball tokens, choosing Switch On for the Yan Huo and landing it.
The Zuyong Tinbot randomly gets Switch On as well, and that one lands too.
Awesome. Well all my hacking is now useless, except for spotlight. Tim moves the Yan Huo over the speedball to pick it up and get out of range of the Fast Panda. I was perhaps a little too conservative in my placement of the Fast Panda, but if I had opted to place it closer it would have been in view of the Yan Huo (it’s in the plane) and he could have just shot it on the way out because he doesn’t need to reset.
Anyway. I do a 1-2 split on Spotlight-Carbonite. I have the Interventor do the Spotlight and the Zondnaut/Spektr do the Carbonite. This gives me good odd to land the Spotlight and force Tim to burn the Switch On, which is exactly what happens. Tim then reveals the Decoy on my far left (bottom of the picture below).
The Zuyong then reveals the other Decoy (the above picture is me getting confused about what happened, the Yan Huo only discovered the bottom Decoy).
With both Decoys revealed, it’s now clear what Tim has to do. He pushes towards the Target, where the Intruder is hiding, and attempts to take out the Rounder on the way but fails to do so.
The Zuyong moves to see the Decoy and takes the Discover, giving the Intruder free shots, which bounce off.
Krit and the Hulang move up with the NCO orders and then Tim passes turn.
Bottom of 3 – Nomads
Well I’ve got a lot to do. I try to take out the Zuyong with the Interventor by shooting in the back. I hit three times and Tim passes all his saves.
The Intruder manages to get one wound on the Zuyong in the open, which is just wild.
Thankfully, the Rounder has Marksmanship, so I move it up and delete the Zuyong with one burst before cautious moving past the Yan Huo’s sight line.
I then use the silly new mega-fast Super-Jump nonsense and move Perseus 12″ into view of everything that’s left and the mines. Really I just want to clear the mines, which works out fine (but not for Perseus).
The Rounder then discovers the Target, and also gets pasted.
Both Targets are alive, I’ve discovered 1 Decoy to Tim’s 2, and my Special Master is alive, making it a
5-5, 108-145 Tie!
Post Game Analysis
Well, I can say with reasonable confidence that casual N5 with friends is going to be a good time. That’s a mark in Corvus Belli’s favor–if the game isn’t fun casually, it’s a dead game. It’s far too early to make authoritative statements about the competitive state of the game. I haven’t even looked at all the profiles in Infinity Army yet, so I’ll withhold judgement for now. I don’t want to expound on the state of N5 versus previous editions too much yet. I’ve played a grand total of one game so far, so I can’t reasonably have drawn hard conclusions yet.
I will say that I was pretty unexcited about N5 going into it–losing so many armies, everyone being upset, and then Corvus not really addressing community concerns while showing some very very power crept profiles at a slow pace was not a recipe for a healthy launch, in my mind. The game is still fun though, and even though many in my local community are now openly hostile towards Infinity, I’m excited to explore the edition if for no other reason than to really give it a thorough evaluation.
As far as the game went, I think Tim and I are pretty rusty, but we quickly warmed up. I think as a general rule deployment zone defense is going to be even more important this edition than others, and I just didn’t have a lot of it. It’s hard to have much in a 10-order list, so I’m concerned about the overall viability of 10-order lists in a competitive meta.This led to the Zondnaut being pretty exposed. If the dice hadn’t gone my way I think I would’ve had a much more difficult time, having to deal with the Liu Xing and all that. I think I did just enough damage with the Spektr to recover from getting Yan Huo’ed so hard on Tim’s second turn.
As for Turn 3, Tim had an opportunity to kill my Interventor, but he chose to play the objective instead. Arguably the right call., but not decisively so. Had he done that, would have probably been on 2 points for Decoys, 1 point for Special Master alive, 1 point for Target alive. I would start my third turn with 2 points for Target discovered, 1 point for special master alive, and 1 point for Target alive. Even though I’d be in loss, his Zuyong would have been exposed and I had enough in the area to take it out with irregular orders, probably giving me the 4-3 win. Hard to say though, because dice. Still, probably the right call to force a 5-5 tie over a potential 4-4 tie or 4-3 loss.
I will say that the vanilla duos are much more usable than those in N4, so I’m more likely to link things now in vanilla. I’m also really happy that I only really care about the Level 2 bonus, meaning I can keep playing duos. Everyone else will be too, but I can at least say “I did it before it was cool” to keep my hipster cred, right? Anyway. Not sure where my Infinity journey will take me, life is really getting in the way of gaming (or sleeping), but at least for now I’m still here and excited to get some more games of N5 in. Thanks for reading, and happy holidays!
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