Infinity Mission Focus: Capture and Protect

Welcome to the fourth installment of this series focusing on Infinity Missions. After studying the possibilities of Highly Classified, we now examine a mission where both players have to go to Hell and back: Capture and Protect.

In this mission you'll have to reach and steal the enemy beacon to bring it to your deployment zone, while your opponent does exactly the same.

Skills, weapons and equipment

🩹 Akrylat-Kanone: pair this beauty with a 5-core link and a baggage bot and you'll be shooting glue blasts from deployment zone to deployment zone at BS+6 saving on PH-6. On average, it means hitting on 18s and saving on 4s. Your opponent is eventually going to waste a lot of orders on engineering skills to unglue its troopers. By the way: only Starmada Bronzes have Akrylat-Kanone and core link so be advised. Plus, they have BS 13 so make sure you bring some smoke even if you have -6 Mimetism.

🔥 Impetuous: anything fast is good here, especially motorcycles! Just remember that these troopers can't benefit from partial cover so think twice on turn one: it may be wiser to reveal/remove enemy snipers before finding yourself in a tight spot. 

👓 360° visor: in this mission you'll definitely cross paths with your opponent so this equipment will work like a charm. Sixth sense is good too but I don't see it as a reason to push for 4-core links. 

Behaviours and tactics 

🐂 Come at me bro! Don't let your opponent taunt you unless you really want to. The risk of being lured towards a trap is high. Better send un-hackable/sixth sensed units ahead if you feel like things look a little too easy. 

📸 Blinded by the lights: picking up the beacon is an attack skill and therefore cannot be performed by a stunned trooper. It may sound strange, but a flash pulse bot can put up an excellent defense for your beacon.

🚨 Steal your own beacon: just remember it can be done. I see it as an order waste but it can be situationally relevant. 

Oooops! No you can't: only enemy beacons!

Final thoughts 

👁️‍🗨️ Out of sight: before playing this mission you'd better familiarize with all those weapons that can be used without line of fire. Speculative and perimeter weapons are always a pain to deal with and can really be useful to turn the tide in this mission. Also watch out for guided bots: all troopers (especially the carrier 😉) may be targeted by an hacker or by a forward observer and have a close encounter with a guided missile.

Useful links

• Capture and Protect text battle report by us!

Operation Golden Ratio: episode 05

Intro

As the ship started its approaching maneuver over Rodne, Alisaa sat next to Gina. In a matter of minutes, they would have landed on Island 3, a PanOceanian outpost built during the construction operations of Space Station Donacimiento, now reduced to a mass of falling debris over the lush rainforest covering the planet. The outpost had been scanned by Aleph's probes which revealed recent biological activity: investigations on site were extimated to be compromised by Nomads interference with an 83% chance, henche the armored support.  

"I fear the Greeks, even bearing gifts."
Gina looked back, without saying a word, uncomfortable with Alisaa's approach, who continued: "Apparently, this is something Laocoön said. According to Virgil, he was a Trojan priest who saw through the ruse of the horse and was therefore punished by the gods."
Alisaa stopped for a moment, looking at the barrel of her Combi Rifle, as if considering how to go on.

"After the Perseus incident, PanOceania made a motion to O-12 for the development of a failsafe dormient biotech antibody that would trigger upon Cube disconnection during class E missions. The motion was approved but Maya managed to soften it: mission class was rised and the bioweapon was only loaded on a limited number of subjects as a pilot program. Despite a number of close call events, Laocoön remained silent, until six months ago...".
Gina felt like she could ask for more information. It was a game she was not yet used to.
"So it triggered without satisfying the requirements?"
 "Yes, and not on a common trooper."
Their comlog light up, commencing mission countdown... 

Mission and lists 

This 300 point mission was Countermeasures, from ITS season 12 supplement. 

After the last defeat, Aleph goes for a more order intensive list bringing back the Dakinis and Parvati. The unusual 3-proxy formation is kind of a forced choice made to guarantee an adequate ARO power since the Garuda and the Dasyu are not on the table at deployment. 

Deployment 

Aleph wins the roll and keeps initiative, deploying and going first. A command token is spent to keep out the proxies and the Dasyu. The left flank is taken by the MK5 proxy supported by the hidden deployed Dasyu. On the center left goes the proxy MK2 and MK1 medic both on top of the building while the Danavas remains at street level. The center right is occupied by the big core link while the Naga goes on the far right. 

Nomads counter deploy with the Grenzer MSR and his two Securitate buddies on a rooftop with decent LoS to interfere with Aleph's approaching the HVTs. On the other end of the board, the Transductor also on a rooftop for some annoying flash pulse ARO action. The Perseus-Hollowman-Stempler Haris goes in the middle next to the Puppetattica minelayer. Zondnautica on the left flank in total cover ready to impetuously scoot forward. Mary and the Heckler also in the center making best possible use of forward deployment to hack and jam enemies going for the middle HVT and hopefully score some objectives themselves. Last but not least the most neglected of my toy soldiers, the Spektr FO goes in hidden deployment on the right, in the thick of the jungle ready to leverage his Terrain (Total) skill.    

Turn 1 

Classified Objectives: 

• Net undermine
• Identity check 
• Mapping discarded in favor of Capture

One command token is spent to move a Netrod from group 2 to 1. The core link advances toward the center, securing Identity Check with the MSV Deva. The MK2 proxy reveals herself to shoot the Grenzer sniper. Saturation reduces her active turn efficiency and she is shot down by DA ammo despite surprise attacking. She tries once again after being healed by the doctor but then goes down for good.

Nomads draw: 

• Follow up
• Identity check
• Capture is discarded in favor of Inoculation 

The Zondnautica comes forward covered in smoke to complete Net undermine and Follow up. The Naga reveals himself as a hacker and tries to trinity the Zondnautica but to no avail and moments later is shot down by the Grenzer. A camo token reveals himself as a Heckler and places a fastpanda in the center of the table. Through its repeater, Mary Problems isolates the combi Dakini. 

Turn 2 

Classified Objectives: 

• Inoculation
• HVT kidnapping canceled in favour of HVT designation
• Experimental drug    

The MK5 is in position to take HVT designation home easily and makes it. The MSV Deva goes on the right to wipe out the Zondnautica and succeeds. She then proceeds forward to shoot the Grenzer with her spitfire. Despite the 5 shots in good range she's not only sent to NWI, which would have been positive since the Experimental drug objective and nearby Parvati, but also to the graveyard. Cautiously moving, Parvati comes in range of the HVT and reaches him to complete Inoculation. The objective is secured, but Grenzer sends her to unconscious level 1 with just one DA hit.

Nomads draw: 

• Rescue 
• Test run
• Experimental drug is discarded in favour of Sabotage. 

The Hollow man comes forward and exchanges shots with the HMG Dakini, which surprisingly damage it. The damaging is a great opportunity to complete Test run and the clockmaker reaches the HI to heal it, securing the objective. Trekking once again through smoke, the same engineer aims for Sabotage. He goes unconscious due to the fire from Dakinis and MK5 proxy but succedes, securing the objective. The rest of Nomads army comes forward. 

Turn 3 

Classified Objectives: 

• Rescue is discarded in favor of In extremis recovery
• Telemetry 
• HVT: retroengineering

The Garuda parachutes to secure Telemetry but is made unconscious by a lucky shot. Trying the easy way, the Proxy MK5 goes for the Transductor Zond but a hidden Spektr is revealed and he steals the objective succeeding in forward observing. The Deva lieutenant goes though enemy fire to reach the unconscious engineer and secure In extremis recovery. 

With 5 objectives completed to 4, Nomads are declared victorious. 

Debriefing 

Aleph - OSS

In hindsight, I should have run White Noise with my Danavas the first time I shot the Grenzer. That would have allowed me to move freely on the right side with the core link to tamper Nomad's left flank. It will be something to remember for the next game. Having no hacker-only objectives drawn has been both a blessing and a course. It didn't allow me to use the well placed Dasyu I had in HVT ZoC and ultimately made it a waste of points in this mission. Overall I think I didn't help myself when I had the opportunity and on the rest of the occasions dice where pretty rough to me. 

Nomads - Tunguska

Pulled a victory out of a few crits and good armor rolls. All my specialists did well: Zondnautica and the Clockmaker excellent value for money. The Spektr did nothing but achieving the objective in ARO and securing the game. Mary and the Hollowman haris did not shine but still anchored the center and a STR 2 HI was good for Test Run. The Grenzer MSR is just solid but I might have said that already, even in a 3 men team he was a pain for my opponent to deal with. 

Outro 

Boris opened the hatch and went down the blood stained stairs, reassured by the low parameters detected by the Grenzer's biometric visor. Back on orbit Ludmilla, his trusted Clockmaker, briefed him via comlog: 

"One of the escape pods left Space Station Donacimiento during the biotechvore event. It was dubbed as a system failure but it must have been the subject they were looking for. Landing here and surviving on this rock mustn't have been easy."

Boris cautiously opened the door, pointing his gun to the body lying on the opposite side of the room. His flashlight lighted up the battered body of a Myrmidon, unconscious and with a missing arm. Despite the damage delivered by the biotech antibody, his face was still recognizable to the astonished nomad. 

"Ludmilla, call for a top priority extraction: we've got Patroclus here."

Infinity Mission Focus: Highly Classified

Welcome to the third installment of this series focusing on Infinity Missions.
After studying difficulties and opportunities when playing Mindwipe, we now indulge in one of the most erratic missions of all: Highly Classified.

In this mission, four Classified Objectives (COs for short) are drawn and shared by the two players, while each one draws a personal Secondary CO.

It is not that important nor difficult to get familiar with the CO deck: it's an additional set of rules introduced in ITS Season 10 composed by 20 cards, each one detailing an objective and the requirements and rolls needed to accomplish it.

To be prepared for this mission, let's see if we can brake it down in order to be prepared whatever our 5 cards will be.

Breaking down the deck

👨‍💻 Hackers: 25% (5 out of 20) of the COs can be accomplished with an hacker. Only 1 of these (5%) requires base contact, therefore it may be very wise to bring pitchers to this game.

👩‍🔬 Other specialists: doctors/paramedics and engineers cover 25% of the objectives, with one being shared and the rest being evenly divided between the two academic skills. Also forward observers have their share but their objectives can also be accomplished by hackers and therefore were already counted so in the previous paragraph.

🎖️Veteran/Elite/Chain of Command: 15% of the COs can be accomplished by having CoC or by using a Veteran or Elite trooper.

🤷 Various: 5% of the objectives can be achieved by using Heavy or Medium Infantry, another 5% by equipping a Multi Spectral Visor, a Biometric Visor or using sensor and the last 5% can be achieved using D-Charges.

Completing the analysis

Adding all those percentages together, you'll reach 80%. That means there are 4 COs missing. These four don't have specific requirements and can be divided in two groups: premium and normal. 

🏆 Premium COs: these can be overachieved to have additional Objective Points. To reach them, you'll need to be proficient in Close Combat and to have very high PH and mobility. 

🚰 Normal COs: these only need you to be in base contact with Unconcious enemies and perform an action.

👫 Get personal with your HVT: last but absolutely not least, remember that 35% (7 out of 20, that's the highest ratio we've seen) of the COs require an interaction with the enemy High Value Target. It may need LoF, ZoC or base contact, but since HVTs have to stay 4" away from any deployment zone it means any Superior Deployment skill will save you some orders to reach that HVT.

Fast units like @ponty_painter's Lawkeeper shown in this picture can be very useful not only to complete objectives but also to deny the enemy's efforts to fullfill their CO agenda! Check out his Twitter profile for more Infinity pictures!

Final thoughts

Taking all the above information can be a bit overwhelming and is really not that different from reading through all the COs so here's the takeout:

WATCH FOR POLYVALENT UNITS

It's easy to understand that units with all the requirements above would be essential in this mission so you should be looking for units in your list (and in your opponent's) that can cover a high number of requirements. These will be your mission wildcards, capable of tackling most of the COs you'll draw.

Such a unit will likely be (in this order): a hacker, with a Superior Deployment skill, with troop type Veteran or Elite, equipped with some sort of visor and d-charges, either an HI or MI, proficient in CC and with some high mobility feature like MOV 6, Super Jump or a Motorcycle.

Of course there's not such a unit and some armies will have a hard time satisfying just the first requirement* but you'll find that there's a pattern you can follow here.

Notable examples

• Liú Xing from Invincible Army: these guys were born for this mission. I won't even start talking about their Combat Jump (explosion).
  

• Knight of Justice from Military Orders: super effective in this mission but lacks Superior Deployment so I see Kinghts of Santiago to be the perfect complement to them. Watch out for both.
  
• Ekdromoi from Steel Phalanx: these guys are dirty cheap for what they can do in this mission and you can bring 4 of them!

I won't go in detail for every army because I don't want to get trapped into making tier lists or whatever but I've spotted valid alternatives in each sectorial to cover this "Jack of All Trades" role.

*Ariadna and Tohaa players, I'm looking at you: you'll have to make things work out differently. I believe your strength here lays in fireteams but I'm not 100% sure. I'll keep thinking about this and come back for you.

Operation Golden Ratio: episode 04

Intro

Laying on an intensive care bed Boris Legasov was debriefing with Tunguska's high command while nano-surgeons were at work to patch the effects of the biotechvore on his battered body. Actuating costly and highly compromising show of force he had failed twice to secure high value targets. It was now time to go back to more conventional tactics. 

Varuna's intervention made things more complicated and simpler at the same time, Aleph was now inclined to a quicker although sub-optimal solution, it was time to negotiate and set up an exchange. Boris had no illusions, Alisaa Murdock was going to try to trick him, but he knew the game well and was confident to be able to turn the tide in Tunguska's favor.

Mission and lists

This 300 point mission was Capture and Protect, from ITS season 12 supplement. 

The Armory and Panic Room, tackled with 5 men "death star" Core Link Teams built with different mixes of Krizas, hollowmen, characters and REMs went really bad for Tunguska (there might be a dedicated post to the topic but before that I want to play the mission/list combo some more times) so now we are back with a more standard and trusted selection of troopers. Aleph instead sits the Marut on the bench and brings back the Asura with a Yadu-heavy brigade.

Deployment

Aleph wins the initiative roll and decides to have Tunguska deploy first which in turn elects to go first. 

Tunguska places the defensive core team castled on the center-right, Puppettattica, Lunokhod, Heckler and Warcor guarding the beacon perimeter, Clockmaker on the far right and Transductor Zond on the far left. A command token is spent to keep 2 troopers to deploy later: Mary Problems and the Zondnautica.

Aleph anchors the left flank with Asura's 3 men team and the right flank with Deva's. The beacon guarded by an hidden deployed Dasyus.

Seeing a weaker side with an exposed hacker Mary Problems goes there while the Zondnautica takes the center.

Turn 1

Zondnautica Zips forward and parks in total cover waiting for the threat level to be reduced before further advancing toward the beacon. Mary goes on an adventure, pushing the flank and placing some repeaters so that the Interventor can activate white noise to cover her advance from the MSV Deva. Once in ZoC she starts pounding the Yadu hacker with Trinity, it takes a couple of orders to remove it from play. Then Raoul Spector’s lands into the white noise zone, so close to the Deva she can feel the heat of the retrorockets. Combined efforts of Mary’s submachine gun and Raoul’s DA CC weapon eliminate the Deva and the Yadu HMG.

Aleph begins with 3 orders less and some issues to deal with in its own deployment zone. The surviving 3 men team advances in the middle laying down a drop bear nearby the beacon. The MSR Grenzer performs well stopping the advance and neutralizing the HRL Yadu. All responsibilities fall over Asura's shoulders, she wears a cybermask and advances frying the Zondnautica hacker in the process ending the turn in a protected position at the edge of Nomad's territory and also achieving the classified objective!

Turn 2

The Heckler shoots its Fast Panda into the Asura's ZoC and Mary Problems engages OSSSS Lieutenant with killer hacking programs. The Asura is a tough nut to crack and after a couple orders a single wound is lost by the HI.

Raoul runs now for the beacon. He eats the drop bear (risky as NWI does not grant shock immunity!) and survives the surprising appearance of the Dasyu with his boarding shotgun. He manages to disengage and makes it close to the middle of the table, inside friendly repeaters' ZoC. With the last order Mary Problem attempts one more Trinity against the Asura, this time killing her.

Aleph's turn 2 begins in LoL and Retreat! With 2 orders left the only chance is turning one regular and dash the Dasyu to land one last boarding shotgun hit in Raul's back. If he can make it will be an OSSSS victory (thanks to the classified objective). The Grenzer MSR and the Securitate with Feuerbach are guarding Raul's back and despite the inconvenience of the saturation zone the Dasyu is exploded.

Game ends with a 3-1 victory  for Tunguska.

Debriefing  

Nomads - Tunguska

Back to the comfort zone of a more solid and tested list. Grenzer MSR in big link is just awesome both in active and reactive turn. Mary and Raoul did the job and nobody missed Perseus. The speed bumps placed to protect the beacon did not come into play but would have worked ok I assume. The Zondnautica also did not have the chance to shine, everybody loves it and I want to bring it again.

Aleph - OSSSS

Weird list built around the Dasyu, a unit I wanted to test since long time. Lesson learnt: no more than 2 Yadus.

Still the list itself, was not so underpowered: the main error was to spread out my troops in a linee too thin although I knew I had less orders and I was going to go second. It would have probably been better to entirely deny the flank with the big link and castle around the beacon in a stronger position to increase turn 1 survivability and then retaliate with my hard hitters.  

Outro

Tessa had just finished working on Alisaa when the door opened and Gina, the ship's Danavas attaché, entered the room.

The young aspect, empowered by her role, questioned her senior Sophotect with no preambles:

-Is she operative?

Tessa looked at Alisaa's face: nanobots from her mother forge kept going in and out her empty eye sockets.

-Almost... Her voice came out faintly, as she had been out of breath, but in a whiff she re-established her normal tone.

-...but you were there. So tell me: what happened?

The Danavs assumed a stiffed position, as if she had been reporting to Maya herself:

-She went careless. They had numerical advantage and she didn't seize the initiative when she had the opportunity.

The Sophotect turned to the nearest porthole: the relict of Space Station Donacimiento was now entering the upper atmosphere of Rodne. A broken station crashing over a desert planet: an appropriate allegory of what she thought about the whole operation.

-Where's the tech coffin, is he safe?

-He...? The Danavas look puzzled and Tessa realized she didn't know the full story of project Laocoon. A typical behavior of ALEPH: sending ahead her aspects without proper information. She should have known better, after all these years.

The mother forge announced the end of the repairs, quenching the silence between them, and Alissa woke up.

-The tech-coffin - she said, rising up sitting on the bed - is in a safe place. You don't have to worry about it. Now the Nomads have a bio sample, a copy. However, even if the asset we had to secure is safe, we're still missing the one we had to find...

Both Gina and Tessa hold their breath.

...and I think it had been on Rodne all along

 

 

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!

Infinity mission focus: Panic Room

Any road may lead you to either victory or defeat, yet probability and psychology can help us navigating in the sea of uncertainties which is wargaming.

With these essays, we try to make some considerations on the game's missions trying to stay away from the temptation of defining do's and dont's or establishing tier lists.

Panic Room is a mission from ITS season 12 supplement which pushes both players toward the center of the table in an attempt to score points and flee from the upcoming biotechvore.

Skills, weapons and equipment

🤩 Mimetism: wether you choose to rush the panic room or wait to turn the tables, you'll find yourself inside the room with no cover so be prepared and remember that it takes a level 2 multi spectral visor to nullify a -6 mimetism.

🙄 Superior deployment: this mission forces a PH -3 roll on troops using special skills to deploy. Unless you have PH 14 consider using something else if you don't want to loose you camo or hidden deployment state to a coin flip. There are not big downsides to a fail if you only have forward deployment but you're really paying for skills you're not using so it may be more useful to spend those points differently.

📶 Pitchers: just like diamonds, repeaters are forever. Like mine dispensers, pitchers can shoot up to 40" but, unlike mines, repeaters can be triggered multiple times. In case your opponent is holding the room with units with Mimetism remember that you can spotlight them to pieces.

Behaviours and tactics

🏃‍♀️Rush A: the first player may be tempted to rush the room and occupy it with as many models as possible, especially with fireteams. This may not always be productive because of range exposure and lack of cover inside the room. If you're playing first, consider taking the room with only one model, leaving the rest in cover. This way, you're forcing the second player to contend your achievement by exposing a small part of your power.

💥Blow that antenna: depending on your arsenal, it may not be easy to do it but it's worth remembering that a Multi sniper rifle has the anti-materiel trait and shoots DA rounds from antenna to antenna with a +3 bonus. Does it mean it can be smart to take a sniper cheerleader to a close quarter fight? Hell yes! Remember that you or your opponent may resort to antennas also in later turns and not only during deployment (see below).

🕺Stayin' alive: you can score 5 points just by holding one Essential Personnel Trooper in the room, complete your classified and then duck away from the panic room, shooting enemies through open doors. Easier said then done, right? What I mean is you don't really have to go into the room with all your troopers if your enemy has better close combat skills or more mines and flamethrowers than you: bring the fight where you can handle it!

Final thoughts

Panic Room is only apparently a straightforward mission where you fight to control the objective room. Differently from The Armory, a lot of the fight may take place outside the room and sacrificing troopers towards certain death may be more rewarding than careful investment and position holding.

Operation Golden Ratio: episode 03

In previous episodes, Nomads from Tunguska have been fighting against Aleph's OSS over a PanOceanian research facility on Space Station Donacimiento. Fights stormed both the station and the Nomads' hideout, while Aleph tries to get control over its mysterious assets on the Station but a distress signal is sent from the station to call for PanOceanian reinforcements....

The Varuna Immediate Reaction Division was established to be the first to face any threat against the Hyperpower or its interests and a distress signal sent to Neoterra by space station Donacimiento was no exception. 

Minutes before docking, J. "Wimpy" Wellington briefed his soldiers: 

"They will let us in but it doesn't mean they'll avoid confrontation, aknowleding our authority. In fact, by entering the station, we're walking right into Aleph's trap. They'll try to crush us with everything they have and blame Nomads or what else for it. They have the station and they control the narrative, so we need to find what they're looking for before they do." 

He had already visited the station, six months before, escorting an S-tier classified sample to the attention of professor Anastacio Esguerra, lead research of project Laocoön. As he recalled the eerie sensations felt at the time, sitting next to the frozen tech-coffin, a bad feeling dawned on him: could it all be due to that sample?

300 points of masterfully painted Varuna 

This 300 point mission was Acquisition, from ITS season 12 supplement. 

OSS starts first and immediately tries to break Varuna's defensive stance by sending a Garuda tacbot behind enemy lines. The landing fails and the Garuda has to go back to table edge with the only positive effect, for both players, of revealing an hidden deployed Croc Man. 

Look at that spaceship!

On the other side of the table, MK2 proxy shoots the Orc, forcing him to duck down. Now, with only the Kamau sniper still standing, it is Marut's duty to move away from the center to PanO's left flank and shoot him. With the last orders, the Shukra consultant moves up on the right flank and completes the classified objective. 

Varuna starts its first turn by moving forward the haris fireteam on the left. The link is supported by the Bulleteer, which goes on a rampage over the Dakini link exploiting the assisted fire support program provided by the Mulebot. The haris team hacks and controls the left antenna, also completing the classified objective. Meanwhile, at the center of the table, the Orc and the Marut start exchanging shots, wounding the TAG. 

On turn two, Aleph secures the right antenna with the proxy MK1 hacker and shoots down a Fugazi dronbot with the Shukra consultant in an attempt to thin down PanO's order pool. Trying to take down the central Orc, the Marut is heavily damaged and has to be repaired, consuming important orders that would have been useful to neutralize the incoming Bulleteer. 

Varuna has the upper hand on turn two: the central Orc finally takes down both the Marut and the Shukra consultant, forcing OSS to play turn three in loss of lieutenant. The Deva hacker is also wiped out by the Bulleteer, leaving the table without having spent an order. With only two command tokens and five irregular orders it looks like things cannot be recovered by Aleph. 

Left: MK2 sniper controls the alley between the tech-coffin and left antenna.
Right: Marut is about to go down despite being in suppressive fire (don't mind the wrong token).

Turn three starts with Parvati: using her own order, she superjumps onto the center platform next to the tech-coffin. As a result, the camo marker is revealed to be a Zulu-cobra trooper who tries to take down the doc/eng with his jammer, but fails. With the last two orders provided by the netrods, the Zulu-cobra is shot down and the tech-coffin is controlled. The rest of OSS can do little if not bracing for Varuna's turn three. 

The Bulleteer uses all the orders from its group to take down Parvati but to no avail. The haris group tries to reach the tech-coffin from the left flank but is pinned down by the proxy MK2 sniper and the need to control the left antenna. Leaving its position, the Orc reaches the tech-coffin but its put to unconscious state by a lucky submachine gun shot. With the last two orders, the Fusilier lieutenant reaches the area but to no avail. The match, dominated by PanO firepower, ends with an unexpected 7-4 victory for Aleph.

What next?

Before retreating from the docking bay, J.W. looked at the tech-coffin one last time: the refrigerator module had been shut down and the frost on the front panel had started to vanish. Pressed against the glass, as crying for help or cursing its enemy, was a mysterious burned hand... 

Fake news!

Breaking news: In a dramatic turn of events, following a biotechvore hazard incident and rumors of an attack from Nomads terrorist, Space Station Donacimiento is once again in the eye of the storm. 

According to Alisaa Mudlock, Aleph's aspect now in charge of the station, terrorists have hacked the station to send a false distress signal promptly picked up by Varuna separatists who tried to seize the station. The attack was foiled by the OSS but the terrorists have taken control of one a station's modules and managed to compromise its orbit. 

The Varunan High Command still haven't made comments on the matter but a statement is expected by the end of today.