The Rise of the Novice: Episode 01

Intro

Sivok the Hollow pointed its staff toward the forest and limped along the old trail, nothing more than a faded trace overgrown by wild vegetation. Jaketh the Wanderer and Elwoth the Watcher followed the Dark Prophet suspiciously scanning the surroundings. Like a puppet maneuvered by an insane puppeteer a Bone Stalker leaped back and forth scouting ahead and watching the rear of the ominous posse. 

Thessalia was running as fast as she could through the undergrowth of the forest. There was not much of "fey" in the thorns scratching her shins and forearms. She was worried and upset by the hurry with which the Granite Council had urged her to go check that remote corner of the Carathon Forest. Aerith and Duddwort had joined her as planned, she could hear the reassuring thuds of the giant battleborn's steps as well as the ghostly stride of the gnome's purple shadowfox ride.

-This is the place. Those are the waystones.- rasped Sivok. The sinister glow of its staff was growing brighter as a similar glare started to emanate from three monoliths covered in weeds and ivy.  -I don't like this place. Smells like elves.- replied Jeketh. -Quiet now! They are here.- hissed Elwoth nocking a twisted arrow in his bone bow...

Operation Golden Ratio: episode 07 (season finale)

Intro 

Time passed. Despite working effortlessly on the remains of Patroclus, Nomads technicians got nothing but a glimpse of Laocoön and its meaning. However, back on Concilium, heads rolled for what had happened on Space Station Donacimiento. Aleph went paranoid at the idea of further Laocoön anomalies now that Nomads had case zero and issued a full scale update program on all Aspects and recreations to limitate and ward off any inconvenience. The damage in terms of delays and subsequent litigations was considerable, especially adding the fine paid to Varuna for what was later dubbed "The Donacimiento Incident". 

But after some time under apparently cold ashes, the flame of Project Laocoon started burning again. The OSS had been monitoring Batth'o Ubelin, the silk trader whose luxury ship's wreckage had been used by Tunguska as a base for infiltration on the Space Station. On his leisure world recreating the Old West, Ovestland, the attractions re-enacting Pat Garrett and his posse had started to malfunction, forcing extraordinary maintenance. The OSS figured out the malfunctioning was due to parts of Project Laocoön hidden into the attraction's software. Even if it meant to blow up Aleph's cover on Ovestland, the legacy of Project Laocoön had to be destroyed... 

Getting into a new Infinity army: the way I have done it

Ciao!

I started with Infinity back in N3 splitting the Icestorm box with my game and blog buddy Uopo. I got the Nomads part and not digging too much the fluff and the look and feel of Corregidor and Bakunin I learned the game playing mainly vanilla. Then Tunguska sectorial was released and its all concept and background really resonated with me and my love for cyberpunk. It was love at first sight. Being quite a casual player I did not feel any lack of variety, the options available within the sectorial were enough for me. 

From time to time I have been scanning the Infinity Army and the store looking at the many gorgeous models and cool profiles available across all different factions. Still, it was not enough to trigger a real interest and a purchase. Then a few things happened:

Dune remake movie was released. I was already a fan of the book and the David Lynch movie and this sparked my interest again. 

About shadows, tactical rocks and the end of Infinity

Hey everyone! It's been a while since my last post and despite life had effectively and pleasantly limited the amount of time I can spend with my toy soldiers I didn't sit idle and managed to paint these three caballeros from Combined Army Booster Pack Alpha.

This post is less focused on Infinity as a game, leaving further tactic considerations to the upcoming Misson Focus posts, its intention being to deepen some thoughts that roamed free in the back of my head as I painted these miniatures. So, without further adue, let's start with...

Painting walls and fences: back to basics

 "Sticks and stones may break my bones (but also protect my home, if properly assembled)".

It’s been a while since I’ve uploaded something; even more since I've painted some sceneries. Family and work have absorbed me a lot in the last two years. However, I have recently managed to carve out some time on Friday nights to get back to painting and modelling. 

As an athlete who has been away from sport for a long time, I decided to start again with something simple. These walls and fences were lying forgotten in a box and I decided to give them a well deserved dignity.

I came up to this result after a couple of relaxing hours. They're now ready to provide decent cover during battles (or, in the worst case, to be forgotten again, but with a good looking paintjob on them).

Gilles de Gillesville - Mordheim Questing Knight

Ciao!

This is my entry for #SeptemBret2021 contest on Mordheim Italia Facebook Group.

I managed to get 2nd place for best background story and 2nd place for best painting - "Newcomers" category. 1st place in the category was awarded to Armand de Chamillon, herald of Cups, another entry from an author of this blog 👍.

The winners in the "Champions" category were just another league, I strongly recommend to check all entries out on the Facebook group and on Instagram! 

A cynical wargamer at Pollenzo MMXXI

Ciao! 

As mentioned in a previous post I brought my "Band of Brothers" Reikland Mercenaries warband to the "Warlords of the City" Mordheim Pollenzo MMXXI narrative event. 

In this post I will tell about this amazing event from my perspective, for overall event coverage please refer to the organizers' social media channels. I encourage you to check out tables, warbands and the whole background story of the event.

So I have my warband built and painted and my background story written, I am ready to go! I packed my stuff and hit the road!

 

Pollenzo is a frazione (parish) of Bra in the Province of Cuneo, a Piedmont, northern Italy counting 748 inhabitants. For some unknown reasons it is home of one of the most enthusiast and hardcore Mordheim community in Italy!

Pollenzo is actually interesting beyond Mordhiem as it is a ancient Roman archaeological site (!), you can easily find more info about on the internet (Wikipedia and the such) which I will not copy paste here. Before the event I had a walk around and took some pictures.

I also did join the first 2020 event and I was impressed and amazed by the huge quality step up they were able to achieve with respect to the quality of the tables. Also, in 2020 there were 10 participants (4 from the local club and 6 external guests), in 2021 there were 20 participants all external guests.

Game 1

In the first game I am facing a Marienburg Mercenaries warband painted with the red and green Hocland scheme and interesting use of Black Fortress models. Fully kitted heroes with dueling pistols, archers, swordsmen and the classic Elf Ranger and Ogre Bodyguard. My list is actually fairly similar, just cheaper equipment but better BS. As hired swords I opted Halfling Scout and Dwarf Troll Slayer.    

The Scenario is Wyrdstone Hunt with 3 shards placed by the organizers.

 

 

I carefully place my marksmen to get good table coverage and push the Youngbloods to get the shards. My opponent gets to the high ground with the Elf and his marksmen. I am a little more reckless but I am partially saved by the average BS of the enemy archers. Still, only one out of two Youngbloods is able to get back with some wyrdstone, the other is killed in the attempt.

The game is stalling but he has an Ogre pushing on the left so I decide to force the issue with the blunderbuss moving it forward to claim the third shard next to the fountain.

He somehow manages to survive the hail of arrows and finally discharges his weapon on 3 enemy warriors, including the Captain! An archer goes OOA and the leader is knocked down. He is now out in the wind, blunderbuss unloaded so he pulls out his two daggers and gets ready to fight.

The other Champion maneuvers to flank the Ogre but he is charged in an alley by an ambitious Youngblood who mercilessly guts him.

At this point we are both testing for Rout but nobody wants to give it up! So the Blunderbuss markseman charges into the other Youngblood defeating him only to be then butchered by the backup swordsman and recovered Captain who picks up the wyrdstone shard for himself.

 

On the left flank the Slayer and the Champion bravely confront the Ogre-swordsman-Younglblood trio. The Dwarf meets his doom by the hand of the Ogre but the Champion is able to put OOA both the swordsman and the Youngblood before being finally crushed by the Ogre.

At this point I voluntarily rout leaving the Marienburgers standing victorious.

In the end damages are limited, I have to recruit a new Youngblood and hire a new halfling but I am still able to purchase a new marskman with longbow and purchase a longbow for the marksman with blunderbuss.

Game 2

In the second game I am facing the Cult of the Possessed in the Chance Encounter scenario. The table we are playing on is an amazing scratch built masterpiece. Unfortunately it turns out to be quite challenging for the low models count close combat oriented Chaos worshippers and the game ends turn two with an unlucky failed rout test.

We both make good loot and level up our henchmen. I actually roll a "the lad's got talent" and a crossbowmen becomes a trigger happy hero. I am also able to hire an Ogre and buy a couple lucky charms.

Game 3

The final game is the classic Skirmish scenario but limited to 5 turns and without Rout Test. I am facing the virtuous knights of Bretonnia. As much as I love the Bretonnians (I am working on a warband myself) I have to admit they are not very performing... Anyways myself and my opponent are not top tier and at this point we are playing for the glory.

I do not have pictures as we were running late, we actually had to end the game at turn 4 and weather through a rain of meteors sent from the friends of the Facebook group 😅 

My warband has higher rating and the Ogre alone is able to power through several opponents.

Conclusions

All in all a great day! 3 games under the belt played on beautiful tables against awesome opponents: true gentlemen, passionate hobbists and sportsmen. The overall organization was just perfect and such a nice opportunity to meet in person many fellow Mordheimers.

I go home happy as a little boy on Christmas Day with a box of candies, a bottle of red wine and a custom dice 😊

 

Infinity Mission Focus: Organized Play At Home

With the end of the #OPATHOME contest issued by Corvus Belli, we can now read all the missions created by the community, which can be downloaded here.

Sadly I don't know Spanish, so I just read all the English-written missions and wrote a brief description for each one, trying to highlight what caught my interest. I didn't want to "rate" these creations full of passion, so I tried to remain objective, describing these mission with the help of pitches and commentaries written by the author themselves when available. 

If you, as the author, feel like your mission has been misrepresented by this post just let me know, I'd gladly have a chat and change my point of view.

My overall feeling is that the participating community went for mission with objective rooms, civilians or a mix of the two. 

The contest itself would maybe have benefited of a standard template (Author's note: my mission was among those with the worst graphics) and in hindsight I think a couple of lines pitching the mission and its objectives would have helped everyone putting their creations in frame for a casual reader.

🏰🚁 Extraction by RedeenedRyan: reach the detention facility, open the gates and bring your HVT to safety!

💼💉 Seize and Vaccinate by 1337Bolshevik: definetely a relatable mission these days. You have to reach the vaccine cache, pick up the vaccine and shot the enemy HVT with it. Docs and paramedics have, of course, a bonus.

🦾⚙️ TAG-RAID by Abydog: There's a new TAG in the middle of the table and everyone wants it! By using Total Control, either via Hacking or Console, you can pilot it to your Deployment Zone. The TAG is initially unequipped, but the 4 consoles can be used to equip it with fancy gear.

🏃‍♀️⏰ WITHDRAW UNDER PRESSURE by AntipodeanBolt: everyone forward deploys! You have to take the HVTs and bring them to your behind-the-deployment-zone extraction zone. Friendly HVT is easy to sync, enemy HVT is not.

💣👩‍🔬 EVACuation by Archon: reach the lab, evacuate civilians and deactivate the bomb. Docs and paramedics have a bonus in civilian sync while hackers and engineers have a bonus in bomb deactivation. Troopers with Journalist skill may provide 1 additional Objective Point by reaching the whereabouts of the lab.

👩‍🚀😱 What happened to X5R-73 by Arrgh: flee to the center of the table while a poison gas creeps from the edges, but double your first MOV value because of low gravity! Also, suffer recoil when shooting and being hit. Reminds me of snakes and ladders game, where you advance fast but may also fall fast. The recoil mechanics have a great impact on the game, pushing you forward and out of cover.

↖️🎁 Extrication by Aspect Graviton: a diagonally symmetric map where you have to unlock vaults, pick up supply boxes and have them beamed out of the map from defined positions.

👩‍🏭🎴 EDX_Operations by Badlazzor: this is admittedly a variant/recreation of Engineering Deck from Season 10. Connect the consoles and secure the Objective Room but both players have the oppotunity to get "final turn" points.

🤳🩺 Sampling by Bardiel: probe your enemies with a PH roll and scan them to reveal their Private Information. Also, lots of troopers get an Adhesive Launcher. You score points by probing, scanning and immobilizing your enemies.

💣👩‍💻 Bomb Squad by bordersen1313: defuse the bomb and pick it up, but be careful: an enemy hacker may arm it again! You also have panoplies, as in Supplies, for extra points.

🌌☄️ SkyFall by butchee86: deploy 4 panoplies on the table at the end of the first game round by rolling 4 face to face rolls. The winner of the FtF decides the crash location, which works like Combat Jump (Explosion)! You can stack bonuses for the rolls by controlling comms antennas and protecting your Flight Controller Operative.

🏰🤖 Prison escape 3.0 by Cabaray: save civilians from the armory and get the REM guard to your side by hacking a console. 

🧑‍✈️👩‍✈️Raid on TAGs by Cedwfox: every S2 specialist is also a pilot. Reach the three mining TAGs in the center of the table and pilot them to victory! 

🛰️💥 Breach by Chumadan: jam the gates or use the activation codes obtained by comms antenna activation to prevent decompression events dangerous to your troopers. TAGs have a bonus in jamming gates and REMs don't suffer decompression.

🃏🔄 Espionage by Crimsonwraith: a variant on Countermeasures but you can activate the antenna (no rolls if it's your Lieutenant!) to change one of your Classified Objectives.

👨‍💻📟 Key captive by Dixi Mission: kill or take the rogue hacker hidden inside the armory. The armory can be reached by hacking if you activate consoles, which also provide Objective Points. For more fun, extract hacking device and programs from cyber panoplies! 

🤼📡 Invasion by Dom: an asymmetrical mission! The winner of the Initiative rolls decides who attacks the communication array and who defends it. Defenders have +2 SWC while the attacker have +100 points of reinforcement that can be deployed by activating a console.

🧨🚂 Nitro express by EccentricOwl: another asymmetric mission! Player A is attacking and wants to sabotage Player B’s train. Meanwhile, Player B wants to dispatch their train. The longer they wait, the more cargo can be loaded, but also it increases the risk of sabotage.

❄️⛄ Frostbyte 2.0 by ers: a variant on Frostbyte with an objective room in the center providing a safe area from the cold.

🕵️💱 Prisoners exchange by Eustach: A tense exchange of POWs turns bloody as someone fires the first shot. Both sides scramble to make the best of it, secure a tactical victory and maybe even free their captured comrades. Neither side is willing to allow their own captives to slip away in the commotion and may resort to terminating them if necessary.

🏦🔍 The Heist by FKaos: enter the vault, pick up the supply box and panoplies but get out without leaving no trace behind! For additional fun, it gets more difficult to hack the vault console if you have failed to open its gates and you can plant evidence using enemies in null states.

🎯🛋️ Hole up and breech by GHOST00: dominate the objective room and take the enemy HVT inside. 

🔪💽 Data breach by Gyro88: extract data knives from tech coffins placed in the center of the table and use them to access enemy servers. Among them is the Data vault, which is more valuable and open information. 

👑⛳ The Hill by Hartmann: dominate the central hill for Objective Points and hack the central console to make it an extension of your hacking area. Having your lieutenant provides additional points. The Hill is low visibility and difficult terrain but the map is a designated landing area. The whole map has a range restriction, neglecting shots over 32".

👉🚁 Dropship Evac AKA Get To Da Choppa! by HBomb: players deploy both close and far from the dropship, in a peculiar 4-quadrants diagonal deployment. The intent is to take off with the dropship using one of your specialists as a pilot, taking with you your civilian. 

🎮🔚 ENDGAME by Helsbecter: run to the objective room/safe zone and leave the table with everything inside by activating a console. Otherwise, destroy the consoles and share a terrible fate with your opponent.

🏃‍♀️😎 Extraction by Infinity_Gamer: take the enemy civilian to your deployment zone while protecting yours. Elite troops have a bonus when syncing.

🩸🧟‍♂️ Enemy Within by JGC: This mission was created using as reference and inspiration those fantastic space horror movies from 80’s and 90’s such as Aliens and Event Horizon. Sync with the civilians to bring them to safety but be prepared for the consequences if you don't make it...

🖥️🏹 Cyberhunt by journey: lock the rogueAI into a tech coffin to be controlled by activating consoles. Blow up the trapping tech coffin to start over.

🤔☎️ Scrambled communications by KinglyMathorne: pick up 4 Classified Objectives, take two, tun one of these two up and give two tuned down to your opponent. You can only complete turned up COs but you can change either yours or your opponent's COs by activating comms arrays. Lieutenants have bonuses but may be killed for OPs. 

🗝️🗝️ Two keys by Kps: dominate an Objective Room that can only be accessed when activating and controlling both consoles. You may also blow up the doors, but you won't be able to score points by two-key entry. 

🔥🚁 Hot Evac by Lambert_Simnel: another asymmetrical mission! One player deploys in the center and defines the Objectives. These are 4 civilians, and a variable number of consoles and tech coffins for a total of 4. The other player deploys in the four corners. Points are scored by hacking consoles and by controlling/evacuating civilians+supply boxes.

📤🥶 Escape by Ieldin Soecr: save three civilians by activating the pairs of consoles that are freezing each one of them in place. 

🏦🔫 Vault Raid by lexeon: assault a vault guarded by two CSUs to extract up to three supply boxes. In order to extract the supply the boxes you have to hack one of two consoles, each guarded by a CSU. 

📸👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Humanitarian Grounds by Matt Bissel: save civilians and repair water pumps, but only if the press is looking your way! In the meantime, don't forget to shoot the enemy! 

📦🎯 Warehouse by MrTapir: a Supplies variant with no doc bonus and extra points for shooting down enemies carrying supply boxes. You also get points for controlling supply boxes with your Lieutenant at the end of the game. 

🟥🏃DATA CUBE RUN by Nincoreween: steal 6 data cubes from the central objective room and bring them to your deployment zone to score points. 

🌡️🥵 Heatstroke by Obyiscus: sort of a variant take on Frostbyte. Make sure to reach a table quarter with an active cooling unit by the end of the game or face the killer heat! Interesting to note that localized decompressions grant safety to your troopers. 

🕵️💥 Destroy the evidence by PeetiePeetie: search unconscious guards, remove mechanical implants from the hostage held in the central objective room, interestingly positioned tuned 45° instead of the common "straight" position, and then destroy all evidence! 

🧠🕸️ Neural Net by Perzan: inspired by the classic comms centre, but with more player agency since one terminal can be locked by each player, and less emphasis on end of game strength due to the ‘machine learning’ mechanics that makes rolls more difficult each turn.

💥🧟‍♂️ The Thing by pseudonymmstr: Unmasking variant with panoplies where HVTs are revealed by silhouette contact. Two are decoys but one is a Natural Born Warrior with CC 24 and 3 Wounds. 

🌙🎭 A night at the opera by Puldin: Unmasking variant with fixed Classified Objectives and Infiltration bonus. One HVT is real while the others are a mine and a repeater in disguise. 

📡💉 Experimental Treatment by Reverend Clyia: activate one of two antennas to have a bonus for treating 3 enemy HVTs. 

🔭💣 Seek and Destroy by RobertSheperd: Unmasking variant with 4 HVTs, all of them will eventually be revealed as Designated Targets. 

💪🎎 Forced Retrieval by Santyago: reach the HVT inside the side placed objective room and take him/her to the evacuation zone on the opposite corner. You can kill the enemy HVT when in civevac state and you can also score points via panoplies. 

🏁🏁 Finish line by SkyKnight: take your datatracker to the other side of the table while killing the HVT and extracting items from panoplies. 

📶📡 Expunge by Snowball: upload your data pack to the enemy server. Controlling consoles provides a WIP bonus. 

☣️📡 Hazmat Sweep and Clear by Spoggalator: activate antennas to activate or deactivate biotechvore in designated areas. Points are scored by controlling antennas, killing specialists and completing Classified Objectives. 

 ▶️🌩️ Into the storm by Tabuk_kebab: escort the HVT to the central console with a guardian trooper while fighting your opponent. 

🏃🔫 Fugitive by Thane75: in this asymmetrical map, the enemy HVT must be killed. By activating consoles, you remove buffs making the HVT difficult to hit. 

🚪🏦 THE VAULT by ThunderSquid: activate consoles to open doors to the objective room and dominate it to win! 

♻️💻 System Reboot by Toasty and Arglebooster: hack consoles to win but it gets more difficult every turn and one console gets removed for assymetrical balancing. Note that your datatracker must be a REM. 

💰💾 Fragmented Data Delivery by Torias: extract data packs and deliver them to a smuggler with an interesting repositioning mechanism via Command Token. Troopers with superior deployment have a malus for data extraction.

🇮🇹🏦 THE ITALIAN JOB by Tox, Il Corinzio, mazzacheammazza and Arrapaho: reach the vault from corner deployment zones to dominate it and extract Classified Objectives. This mission is deadly so stay alert: every time you interact with the vault's features your opponent can mess you up with its security systems. 

🙊📥 Overload by Tristan228, Burp & ZlaKhon: each console has a Classified Objective assigned. You have to first activate the console to accomplish its corresponding CO. Each player also elects a Scout trooper for additional bonuses. The mission also have a difficult and extreme mode for extra fun. 

🔐🕴️Secure site by Triumph: escort your HVT to the Objective Room where only HTVs can enter and retrieve server data. By the end of the game the data must be in possession of your army troopers and you have to make sure the blame for the intrusion falls on your opponent. 

👩‍⚕️🚁 MedicalEvac by Upir Lihi: a top-secret facility has been the target of an outrageous nanotech attack, but some of the personnel have inexplicably managed to survive. Now the opposing special forces are competing to secure these unlikely survivors for further examination and salvage the surviving prototypes from the destroyed testing sites. All while avoiding the residual devastator swarms and trying to cripple each other. 

👨‍👩‍👧💨 Escort by Uthoroc: a Rescue variant where you have to take your 3 civilians to the opposite table edge while preventing your opponent from doing the same 

🔮💾 SEIZE, DECRYPT, & TRANSMIT by Vanderbane: as the title says, intercept the data cache from the enemy HVT, hack the enemy console which is also an enemy repeater and transmit the data via the center placed antenna. 

❌✖️ Multiple by W0rstC4se: activate the antennas and control the beacon each round for Objective Points. Additional OPs can be scored by completing 4 open information Classified Objectives. 

🛰️☄️ Close Orbit by Yugie: activate consoles in the center of the table to reveal the enemy Lieutenant and shoot him/her from orbit. The more activated consoles you have the more effective is their activation. 

🤜🤛 Push and Pull by Zanpano: activate central consoles to move one of the loaders by 10 inches. Score points by taking loaders by your side of the table and extracting data from the enemy's loader.

Band of Brothers Mordheim Warband

 

Ciao!

I want to share the "Band of Brothers" Reikland warband I have been working on for a while and which I am planning to play on October 3rd 2021 at the "Warlords of the City" Mordheim Narrative Event in Pollenzo.

As required by the organizers I also wrote some background story for my brave mercenaries, hope you like it!

Concealing the discomfort coming from the injuries to the left arm and the forehead, the officer walked into the office of General Roald Sulzberger and stood to attention.

"Captain Hoffman report to Sir General." he spoke in a firm voice. The general slowly raised his gaze from the papers that cluttered his desk, stared at his subordinate with arrogance, and then, slumping noisily into his chair said:

“Captain welcome, better late than never… I'm really curious to know what happened. I hope you realize that due to your delay, my girls were unable to attend the prom. The fact is really unfortunate since they cared so much. They couldn't wait to wear the new dresses I had given them!"

Rutger Hoffman stiffened his jaw but managed to stay calm.

"Sir, according to the orders received, the Company was on time at the rendez-vous with the ferry to escort Miss Sulzbergers during the last leg of their journey to the Capital. Unloading operations took much longer than expected. The quantity and the size of the luggage exceeded any reasonable expectation. It also took the ladies a few hours to freshen up and choose what clothes to wear for the trip."

The General listened absently, cleaning his fingernails with a letter opener.

"The march then proceeded slowly, punctuated by countless breaks including snacks, refreshments, card games and even a game of badminton!"

Hoffman continued.

“When we arrived in Kleindorf we were greeted with enthusiasm by the population. They thought we were the backup they had sent for. The village had been under attack by bands of Beastmen for days, and they had sent several relays for help. Needless to say, no messenger made it out of the woods around the village alive and we weren't their reinforcements. At that moment I made the decision to defend the village, without our help they would have had no escape. We fought for three days and three nights and finally managed to disperse the attackers. In this regard, I would like to point out some soldiers who have distinguished themselves in a part-"

The captain's report was abruptly interrupted by the general who, red with anger, had sprung to his feet and, banging his fat ringed hand on the desk with fury, began to yell at Hoffman:

“Captain, shut up, I've had enough! You have disobeyed specific orders and endangered the lives of my daughters who I was told they also had to take care of the wounded! I don't even want to think what horrors you exposed my little girls to!"

As Sulzerberg gasped, the Captain replied:

“Sir, the whims of your spoiled offspring had by now delayed us by more than half a day on the schedule. Continuing further, the darkness would have surprised us in the forest with far worse results. In addition, the lives of over a hundred families, including elderly and children, depended solely on us. I made the only decision I could have."

“And so you are guilty of treason and sedition! Captain, you are a deserter and an insolent! You are under arrest and suspended from command with immediate effect!”.

A heavy silence fell into the small room. Hoffman had realized he had passed the mark but could no longer bear the nonsense of his superiors, particularly that slimy and corrupt parasite of Sulzerberg. The general had not dismissed him and therefore he stood at attention waiting.
Sulzerberg, for his part, had recovered from the fit of anger and was now sitting thoughtfully rubbing his temples. Then he let out a grunt of satisfaction and, glaring at the captain, said to him:

“Captain, I could have you and your men executed today. And Sigmar knows how much I would like ... On the other hand, I cannot deny your qualities as a fighter and commander. By virtue of the latter, I want to offer you a way out. Collect what's left of your Company and go to Mordheim. Bring me a cart full of wyrdstone and you will be forgiven... And now get out of here, by tomorrow at dawn you have to be on the move!"

Captain Hoffman saluted and took the door.
Lieutenant Schott and Sergeant Major Lemberger met him as soon as they saw him.

“Gentlemen, recover the men who are still capable of fighting and let's get ready to leave. Schott, I saw that a Halfling Scout and a Dwarf Slayer are bivouacking by those campfires, ask them if they are interested in joining us for a fair pay. Let's go to Mordheim..."

Armand de Chamillon, herald of Cups

The Mordheim Italia Facebook page issued another contest and this time I had to participate! The theme was Bretonnia so with the help of my brother I found an old knight and decided to put some paint on it.

You can go and search for #SeptemBret2021 to see all entries!

Lionel stopped under the portal, distracted by a distant, barely audible sound. While his zombies continued in pursuit of the last Tileans of Kemperbad, who had come to seek fortune and death in the city of the Damned, the necromancer retraced his steps, leaning on the parapet that overlooked market square, as if he wanted to find that noise with his gaze. When it finally found the young man's ears, the sound had become more distinct: Lionel recognized the hunting horns that had besieged his master's tower and decided to gather the band to leave that palace as soon as possible. Climbing over the bodies of the Tileans, he ran up the stairs to the main floor, dimly lit by a waning moon that could be seen from the gutted walls. In the center of the hall, a thin figure was drinking from the jugular of an unfortunate halberdier. 

"Genoveffa, the Hunters are approaching, we must go". 

The vampire dropped the body to the ground, getting closer to Lionel. Her long black hair swayed in the dark, as if weightless. 

"My young friend, you are as well versed in the dark arts as you are unfamiliar with the traditions of our old world. Can't you distinguish the sound of a Bretonnian trumpet?"

At that moment the sound returned, carried by the night breeze, as closer and clearer. It was a sweet and ringing call, evocative of noble deeds and lofty ideals, yet veiled by a shadow of sadness, as of melancholy for a golden age now past. 

"What you hear is the trumpet of Armand de Chamillon, a Bretonnian knight. His sire sent him to Mordheim in search of his eldest daughter, with whom the young man was secretly in love. Since then, he has traveled the length and breadth of the city trying to recall her with the sound of his trumpet ". 

Lionel grimaced, annoyed at his mistake but visibly captured by the tale. He strained his ears to hear the sound of Armand's trumpet once more as he trotted away among the rubble buildings. 

"Human tragedies are bizarre, I am very intrigued. I wonder if his is a vain hope or if he will ever be able to reunite with that girl and bring her back to her land".

"I doubt it" replied the vampire "I don't want to go home".

I also toyed with the idea of making it possible to see this character in action so I wrote, but didn't test, the rules for his Dramatis Personae profile.

Painting Infinity: Ko Dali

Finally, my Ko Dali from Betrayal is complete! I really tried to push myself, painting the best I could. Therefore I didn't use inks, painting shadows by mixing complementary colors. I hope you'll enjoy the final result as much as I do.

I also tried to sculpt some additional roots in the base, following Marco Frisoni's milliput tips. 

In fact, Marco's videos were really inspiring and, even if spending so much time on a single miniature does not match with my ideal hobby schedule, I'm glad to have had this adventure out of my comfort zone.

Ko Dali will only play as a proxy/HVT for my second Sectorial, Shasvastii, which I will start painting from now on. Anyway, I think her profiles are very well balanced and versatile so I will definitely play her as soon as I have enough models to run a vanilla Combined Army list.

If you haven't already, make sure to check out the Betrayal graphic novel: it's a graceful mix of action and complex topics, accessible and enjoyable both to the casual reader and to the Infinity long-time enthusiast!

Infinity Mission Focus: Biotechvore

Welcome to another episode of this series focusing on Infinity Missions. After the delicate extraction operation of Rescue, we now face a legendary mission which will stress both players and troopers: Biotechvore.

In this mission, players compete to accomplish more Classified Objectives and killing more enemies while a deadly plague invades the map from all sides.

Skills, weapons and equipment 

🎯 Marksmanship: your opponent will likely use every short skill order to make their trooper march forward, away from the dangers of the biotechvore. Terrain won't always be by their side but when cover will be available, make sure to bring some aces up your sleeve. REM snipers like the MULTI Sniper Rifle Dakini or the Plasma sniper rifle Unidron Batdroid are always scary, but here they really make the best out of their EVO hacking device combo. 

Picture by @InglebyJim: Blue Wolf and Yáoxiè Rui Shi make a great duo for this mission: for 2,5 SWC and 94 points you get a fast TAG killer who'll bring flamethrowers to the center in the blink of an eye and a MSV L2 hugging the antenna for the sake of its comrades.

🧊 Albedo: since the map gets smaller and smaller, everyone with a smoke granade will show up in this mission, increasing the number of troopers with Multispectral Visor invited to the party. Since you can't really afford to waste orders throwing eclipse grandes or running white noises around, I strongly recommend bringing your albedo-covered troopers. 

☀️ Plasma rifle: make every hit count...twice! Plasma weapons are really Double Actions in disguise. Moreover, the impact template and the possibility of going in suppressive fire mode really pose a threat to those swarming fireteams. 

Picture by Cristian Il Corinzio. The Charontid is Combined Army's breakthrough ram. This beast has a number of different profiles including a WIP 16 (!) hacker born for Classified Objectives.

Behaviours and tactics

🤗 Hug the antenna & quickscope: not much to say here. Since it's not that difficult to wipe out the antenna it's better to pick expendable snipers like a Helot or a Ghoulam. 

Picture by Cristian Il Corinzio. Cheap, fishy and irregular. Helots are the perfect piece for antenna hugging. 

🗣️ To glory! Got an obvious, beefy, big and scary lieutenant you never pick because it's a magnet for enemy fire? It's time to use it! With no retreat and the desperate need of moving everyone to safety, it's not that important if you loose your commander in the process. 

Like, really big and scary lieutenants.

🥠 Counterespionage: there are 3 "crosshair" Classified Objectives that can cancel 4 "white cross" CO. The crossair Objectives all require presence in the enemy half of the table and one of them specifically requires base contact with the HVT so it's no use to go for secure HVT if you've got one of the "white cross" ones. Since you've got 3 COs, my suggestion to manage this variable is to prioritize their execution: "crosshair" first, then normal COs and "white cross" last. 

Final thoughts 

Picture by @ponty_painter. Fast, heavily armored and you're too busy fleeing from the biotechvore to dedicate one of your hackers to it. There may be TAGs like this Szalamandra in this mission: be prepared!

Some players may risk big and go for a superior deploying list despite the negative effects of Confused deployment. To face such a threat, in case you don't have cc-oriented units to match your opponent, you should just take your time, advancing at the pace imposed by the plague. In any case, don't rush your advance but prioritize by weapon range bonuses: there's no need in reaching safety from the biotechvore if that trooper is going to be shot to pieces anyway.

Infinity Mission Focus: Rescue

Welcome to another episode of this series focusing on Infinity Missions. After the trickeries of Unmasking, we now examine the delicate dynamics of a mission where helpless civilians are involved: Rescue.

In this mission, each player must reach and escort to safety four civilians. Points are scored at the end of the game and take into account who has rescued the most.

Skills, weapons and equipment 

❌ Minelayer: despite being pretty useful in every mission where your opponent has to reach stuff on your side of the table, this skill here goes the extra mile since you've got a lot of road to cover to score points so you want to save as many orders as you can. 

🤖 Tinbot: high infantries are indubitably well suited for this mission since their high armor and wound/structure values but they will have to get their hands dirty to reach civilians and bring them back so make sure to cover them with tinbots if you have the chance. 

Picture by @ponty_painter. Tinbots can help you in various ways but the most common configuration is firewall, boosting your defences against comms attacks. Pretty useful even when you're a Mobile Brigada with BTS 3.  

🔫 Shotgun: +6 within 8". Even a light shotgun unit can effectively make the difference when defending, resorting to impact template if it looks like their last ARO. 

Trinitarian by Cristian Il Corinzio. For 1 SWC and 28 points you get an unhackable specialist minelayer with boarding shotgun and various layers of superior deployment: what else?

Behaviours and tactics 

🍾 Building a bottleneck: since civilians are 8" from each other, you may consider useful to mine the space between two civilians in order to deter your opponent from reaching both. In fact, just one mine may be a risk they'd gladly take to have access to two civilians. So let's follow another logic: if we mine the external corridor between the end of the table and the external civilian our opponent would take a mine to have access to one side of one civilian and that's really unlikely. If we do the same on both sides we are reducing the table of our opponent, forcing them in a 24" board that we can control better. Chances to apply this tactic ultimately depend on the table elements, but in general putting low energy constraints to your opponents helps you steer the game where you want.

And when the bottleneck is ready, you just wait for your enemies to show up! Hidden/revealed Swiss Guard by @stefanodrei11

📊 Fireteams: the mission specifies that units in a fireteam cannot sync with civilians. Should that turn you away from fireteams? On the contrary! In fact I suggest having as much as you can to save movement orders. If you have one duo, one haris and one 3-model core you can dedicate one entire fireteam to 3 of the 4 civilians. Since civilians are 8" from each other, it means you'll easily reform fireteams to hold the line while you escort them to safety as long as you have enough wildcards.

Kosmoflot troopers by @mikipaintstudio: Rokots can make an interesting, cheap and effective Rescue core fireteam with access to a set of bloodthirsty wildcards with either Superjump (Volkolak) or Climbing Plus (Cadin "Firststrike" and Wolfgang Amadeus Wolff).

🧗‍♀️Climbing plus & superjump: these skills really cast a new light on maps and players unfamiliar with them may have a hard time chasing enemy troopers with rescued civilians. 

Final thoughts 

Despite all the minelaying tactics we've discussed above, I can guarantee you'll face hidden deployed snipers like this Hexa, a Knauf-based conversion made by Uopo.

To leave or not to leave no man behind?
This mission is somehow similar to Capture and Protect but forces you to spend a lot of orders on movement and each time one of your trooper goes down you must carefully evaluate if spending orders to put them back up or continue with the rescue of another civilian. Therefore, I believe linked paramedics can be as incisive than a doctor with peripherals here, since all armies kinda have linkable paramedic options. This is also a mission where big linkable bots like the Vostok Sputnik or the Rudra Gunbot can shine, despite their inability to sync with civilians.

Infinity Mission Focus: Unmasking

Welcome back to another episode of this series where we inspect the various missions of Infinity The Game. After the fatal equilibrium of Safe Area, we now scrutinize a mission capable of putting in crisis even the most experienced player: Unmasking.

In Unmasking, you and your opponent place three HVTs: two are decoys while the last one is your secret Designated Target. Before you can shoot it down, you have to find it by activating a console and guessing which one is which. 

Skills, weapons and equipment

🗳️ Jammers: despite the nerf that brought them to disposable (2), those are still very effective weapons against hackers and I can assure you there will be lots of them in this mission since they have +3 and B2 for console activation. In case your army doesn't have Jammers, E/M grenades can be an attractive alternative.

With forward deployment and a robust set of defensive skills, Hecklers have several interesting profiles for Unmasking, starting from the 22 points killer hacker to the 23 points with jammer and FastPanda.

💡 Neurocinetics/Total Reaction: sometimes protecting your Designated Target with mines and hidden deployed troops can be ineffective or just drain your order pool. Masters of disguise taught us it may be wise to hide things in plain sight: nothing both deters and taunts your opponent like a trooper in suppressive fire with no range limits.

Sin-Eater by Cristian Il Corinzio. Untamed and armed to the teeth, Bakunin's Sin-Eaters can make every point count if deployed effectively. The 0 SWC, 29 points profile with Mk12 will unleash a storm of bullets over enemies too close to your HVTs at a reasonable price.

🔄 Counterintelligence: this skill is always useful but it really becomes essential in missions like Unmasking where your agenda is full but you still have to navigate in a volatile and uncertain environment.

Táowù by Cristian Il Corinzio. The Aristeia! Mastermind not only provides you the benefits of Counterintelligence but can also lure your opponent in a deadly trap thanks to holomask and his proficiency in cc. 

Behaviours and tactics 

🔓 Open information: deploying and acting like your opponent already knows who is your Designated Target is very straightforward and order effective plus it can ultimately mess with your opponent's strategy. They have to activate a console and guess the HVT anyway, so there's already plenty of stuff to do before guessing it right.  

Not every army has access to cheap hidden deployers and impetuous orders so sometimes you may just follow the simple strategy of superior force.

⚖️The trade: consider leaving completely out of the picture one of the consoles, conceding it to your opponent without too much stress. This tactic works better when you go and deploy first. You opponent may be tempted to lean toward the unguarded console to save orders on his/her first turn, thus lowering the watch on the other two. 

There is no need to introduce the Swiss Guard and its hidden deployment profiles with heavy weapons, which fueled and keeps fueling memes edition after edition.

🤫 The unbalanced trade: act like explained above BUT also add hidden deployed troopers watching for the "unguarded" console. Using an Hac Tao or a Swiss Guard for this task might be an overkill, so look for units like MULTI Sniper Rifle Malignos or Shock Marksman Rifle Lynx. 

Final thoughts 

Picture by @InglebyJim: Armand Le Muet is quite pricey but gives you access to a wide set of tools, making you capable of reacting to ambiguous scenarios. 

Unmasking can be frustrating. Your opponent defines the two most important variables, namely where are the HVTs and who's the Designated Target. This is a major difference with, for example, missions like Mindwipe where the position is set by the rules and the rogue AI location is defined by chance. These factors, added to map variability, tend to demotivate players. Remember that your opponent is in the same situation so leverage on your advantages to get the higher ground. Got a better hacking game? Stay out of LoF. Got better cc? Take your time to smoke/dodge your way to victory. Got better dice rolls? Keep doing whatever you like!