Infinity Mission Focus: Mindwipe

Welcome to the second essay of this series focusing on Infinity Missions.
After Panic Room, we are now analyzing Mindwipe, another mission from ITS season 12 supplement.

In this mission, two consoles in the center will allow each player to score points and understand which of the enemy servers contains the rogue AI that has to be destroyed.

Skills, weapons and equipment

🏰 Albedo/Nanoscreen/Sapper: these are some unusual defensive skills that may totally foil your deployment: check your opponent's courtesy list twice before rolling for initiative!

⏩ Total reaction: the most iconic defensive skill by definition. Watch out for enemy units with this skill and carefully evaluate where to deploy yours. 

👯‍♀️ Peripheral: peripherals can be excellent midfield deniers that are way more expendable than your regular order providers. Wanna reach my servers? You'll have to pass over the dead body of my Chaska periferical! Oh, you did? Well, at least it was just 8 points worth.

Behaviours and tactics

☄️ Origin of asymmetry: rules allow each player to activate only one console, therefore a "preferred" console is typically elected by each player at deployment. Look for hints that may reveal the opponent's preference and act accordingly. If you are going first it may be useful to spend one command token to set aside one extra trooper and wait for your opponent to show his/her preference. Both hard countering your opponent's preference or second it, going for the other antenna, can be effective strategies. Usually, if your opponent has more orders than you, it may be smart to hard counter it in order to leverage on your trooper's (supposed) higher resilience since turn one. 

🐒 Monkey see, monkey does: the Rasyat Diplomatic Division is the quintessential unit for this mission and is a valid benchmark to know what to get and what to fear. With 34 points and 0 SWC you get an un-hackable specialist with eclipse grenades, DA CC weapon and D-charges that can parachute inside the enemy's deployment zone. It's a true game changer but still has BTS 0 so stay away from nanopulsers or keep one close to your servers. 

🍗 Spamming Yuan Yuans: on the other side of the scale, opposite from the Rasyat, are the Yuan Yuans. With just 8 points you'll get all you need to blow those server up. They also have AVA 4 as Mercs so there's plenty for the task. Most of the times they'll show up in turn 2 to make full use of their orders on turn 3. Players having Yuan Yuan's as their aces up the sleeve may show through a particularly asymmetrical deployment, rushing to hack the console asap.

Final thoughts

This mission requires an impenetrable defence and a surgical offence. Not all armies are proficient in both but you can still use the offence/defence code to read through your list and the one of your opponent: how many of the enemy troopers cover offensive roles? How many of your SWCs are spent on defensive troopers? This will give you a quick ratio to read the situation thorugh the match: if you're playing very aggressively but you haven't activated your console by the first 2/3 orders of your second active turn something's not really working as it should.

Useful links

• Mindwipe video battle report by the amazing Ash Barker from Guerrilla Miniature Games
• Mindwipe text battle report by us!