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!

Infinity Mission Focus: Safe Area

Welcome to another episode of this series focusing on Infinity Missions. After the carnage which is Firefight, we look into the compelling mix of ZO domination and specialists relevance: Safe Area.

Skills, weapons and equipment 

🤬 Frenzy: safe area is a mission generally played defensively, since points are made at the end of the game, so you can expect to face big links with snipers well castled within their deployment zone. This is why you may want to have your murder machines with that sweet impetuous order when times are ripe. It can start on turn two, but turn three is the real moment for cc units to shine. 

👯 Holoprojector: since all of the above, having some threatening decoys around can be a big boost to your manouvering capacity. Specialist profiles with holoprojector can make you win games: units like the Tian Gou or the Bashi Bazouk may really be your trump cards. 

The Knight of the Holy Sepulchre was born for this mission. With holoprojector and multi marksman rifle +1B, the specialist profile with chain of command will efficiently hold any console and its ZO.

🌋 Dazer: it is very unusual to mention something available only to a handful of armies in a mission focus but underestimating this equipment can be ruinous. Malignos and Draal saboteurs can be proficient both when attacking and defending, tampering your order efficency with the subtle stratagem of an unexpected difficult terrain area. 

Shrouded by Cristian Il Corinzio: despite not being as relevant or resilient as the Malignos, the Shrouded can still be a pain to deal with for your opponent. The 0,5 SWC, 23 points profile with boarding shotgun, minelayer and Dazer, despite its moderately high cost, can be an interesting choice for this mission. 

Behaviours and tactics 

🗡️🛡️ Sword and shield: aka attacking Haris and defensive Core fireteams. This is a classic formation regardless of the meta you play in and I find it extremely effective in this mission. The best way to preserve it is also the best way to counter it: use the third part of your list, meaning all the units that are not part of those fireteams. Bulleteer, Posthumans and Mary Problems all cover this "third part" role in our Operation Golden Ratio series. 

With either 2 wounds or NWI, any Posthuman proxy profile will allow you to stand tall during your reactive turn with no fear of losing orders.

⛹️‍♀️ Buzzer beater: this tactic is particularly appealing to Haqquislam, Nomads and Ariadna since they have access to cheap parachuting specialists with no SWC cost. Playing with low orders can be tough, but if you wait until the very end of the game you can change everything on turn three. Watch out with a coordinated suppress fire of your advanced troops on turns two and three if your opponent is suspiciously low on orders and you started playing first: they may seize victory right under your nose! 

Picture by u/Stormygeddon: Karakuris may not be everyone's piece of cake, but these STR 3 specialists with two unconscious levels can make a Haris with the ever frenzy Domaru Butai: a deadly combination that works both long range and in close combat 

🃏 Winner, winner, chicken dinner: in this mission, you and your opponent can turn your Classified Objective to either Increase your army points in one Zone of Operations or to make one enemy specialist count as a non-specialist. This is a great strategic boost but you have to declare it before the beginning of the game. I don't like dos and don'ts but if you can't read the situation and you can't make your mind up, always go for the Intelcom card if your opponent did so or you think they will. Moreover, since the "non-specialist" use of the Intelcom card means less points inside a ZO, you could fill the gap by including a Baggage unit in your list, granting you 20 easy additional VPs inside its ZO (especially if you think that the maximum VPs provided by the Intelcom card are 20, assuming you are lucky enough to randomly draw that specific card!). At the same time, keep an eye for enemy units with Baggage if you have to choose first what to declare.

Final thoughts

The Grenzer is a recurring sniper in our games and has proved repeatedly how dangerous they can be against any playstyle, even when not in a 5 trooper fireteam.

Safe area is a call to arms for all those not-hacking specialists profiles with a low SWC cost so there will be a lot of firepower anchored in the deployment zone, ready to jump forward on turn three. You will also face and/or list beefy troopers with specialist profiles, usually put aside in other missions where specific specialists are preferred. About this, please note that a lot of TAG pilots are Specialist Operative. Compared to similar missions like Quadrant Control, where points are made round by round, Safe Area nerfs Forward deployers and Guards unit which are not as effective, so take your time to take them down in case they show up.

Useful links

• Safe Area text battle report by us!

Operation Golden Ratio: episode 06

Intro

As the landing shuttle was approaching the surface of Rodne, J. "Wimpy" Wellington turned on the team radio:

"The high wigs pulled many jackets in the O-12 commissions and in compensation of all Aleph's dodgy deeds we got permission to inspect that research facility no one did know about and that was checking data and running experiments in parallel to what was going on that mess of a space station lab. We are officially entitled to go in and recover as much data, information and material we can. 

I cannot and do not want to understand what is going on here, I just want to get this done as effectively and efficiently as possible. Questions...?"

Unknown to VIRD High Command, TJC's operatives are also approaching the research facility to clean up all evidences and make it a... safe area 😉

Missions and lists

300 pts - Safe Area form ITS Season 12 supplement - 

🕷 Tunguska Jursdictional Command Vs 🐬Varuna Immediate Reaction Division.

Two different although similar lists: 

✅ defensive big links

✅ aggressive haris with specialist

✅ EVO hacker and mimetism -6 REMs 

As differentiators Tunguska brought 2 Puppetbots FO and Combat Jump Raoul while Varuna a pair of midfield Zulus, an Echo-Bravo parachutist and some more SWC in the big team.

Deployment

Tunguska wins the roll-off and decides to go first. Varuna deploys second on the side with the tallest building . The areas with the trees on top are played as difficult terrain (jungle) and saturation zones.

🕷 Tunguska places Core link on the right, Haris link in the middle and on the left EVO, Clockmaker and Puppetactica.

🐬Varuna goes for big link in the center (MSR and HRL both standing), Patsy Haris on the left and EVO-Bulleteer on the right.

Turn 1

🕷 Tunguska

The main threat are definitely those linked ARO pieces with LoS on a large portion of the battlefield. It's time for the Vostok to pay its cost back. 

1 order for Assisted Fire, 1 order for White Noise, 1 order to position and the REM is ready to engage the Kamau HRL first and the Kamau MRS second. Dice roll in favor of the Vostok and both Kamaus are shot to pieces. The Haris can then advance and position ready to defend, the Stempler FO in contact with a Console.

Then the Puppetbots are sent forward to contend the Console in the Varuna's half of the table. In the process they also discover and kill on of the Zulus.

Last order to slightly reposition the big link and brace for impact waiting for the imminent Varuna's retaliation.

🐬Varuna

Despite the unlucky ARO rolls, still plenty of orders (8+5) available to fuel the action in the active turn. Bulleteer is also granted Marksmanship and one of the Puppetbots goes unconscious.

The Bulleteer's advance on the flank is now threatened by the Grenzer MSR which has the advantage of range and the Mimetism -6 malus evened out by the MSVL1 and big link bonus. Patsy's team then advances in total cover on the left until the Kamau peeks out to pepper the Grenzer with HMG shells. Dice roll and Tunguska wins the FtF, DA ammunition sending the LI trooper straight to dead.

Echo Bravo then shows up, LRL loaded. He peeks out of cover and engages the Vostok but once again Tunguska wins the FtF and the Dam. 16 Mk12 causes another casualty. The remaining Zulu also goes for a surprise shot on the Vostok but does not have better luck and after a couple of orders he is killed. 

As ending moves the Bulleteer now opts for a cautious move to bypass the MSR threat and engages the Vostok through the saturation zone only achieving to remove one STR point from the REM. 

Turn 2

🕷 Tunguska

The turn opens with Raoul jumping in wearing a fancy suit he borrowed from a Hellcat. A mimetism -6 NWI Natural born warrior specialist operative is supposed to be quite a headache for Varuna to deal with. He rolls a nice 10 for landing and proceeds to engage Patsy. On the way in he is critted by the Machinist combi rifle and fails both the armor saves! He'll be dead at the end of the order but can still bring Patsy with him. Raoul wins the CC with an 18 forcing Patsy to roll 3 ARM checks with his DA CC weapon but she laughs at him passing all three as he goes limb with a combi bullet in the back of the head.  

Things are still looking ok for the Nomads. The Zondbot goes on an adventure and fixes both the Vostok and the Puppetbot. With burst and cover advantage, the Vostok then proceeds to disable the Bulleteer. 

Finally the big link gets on the move, climbs down the building and places points in the quadrant. The Interventor goes in contact with the Console and the Securitate Paramedic breaks the link going in Suppression. A command token is spent to reform a 4 men link.

🐬Varuna 

The best part of Turn 2 is spent by Patsy lobbing grenades on the Interventor. Statistics don't work and despite the large amount of coinflips (11s speculative fire vs 10s dodge) the Interventor ends up unharmed 

Patsy also tries to exchange fire with the Securitate Paramedic in suppression but loses a wound. 

 

Turn 3

🕷 Tunguska

The Vostok haris advances further to also contest the farthest quadrant shooting down the Machinist in the process.

The Interventor detaches from the link team and goes in contact with the console immobilizing Patsy in the process.

A new 4 men team is reformed without the Interventor and the Grenzer engages Patsy at short range. Patsy survives the first bursts, successfully resets and then the AP submachinegun rules over the MSR and the Grenzer is knocked unconscious.

The rest of the orders are spent repositioning and pushing points out of the deployment zone.

🐬Varuna

The order pool is now quite limited and Patsy walks back to remove the Interventor and get in silhouette contact with the Console.

Closing moves are played by a fusilier that peaks out from cover and fights the HRL Hollowman but no one hits and the game ends.

With more Zones and more Consoles it’s a Tunguska victory.

Debriefing 

🕷 Tunguska

Everything worked out nicely and the units under test, Vostok and Puppetctica did really well. Dice did definitely smile to the Nomads so it has to be considered that not all that glitters is actually gold!

🐬Varuna

The game was quite biased by Tunguska spiking too many FtF rolls. The list is solid, balanced and fitting the mission.  Should the game be played a hundred times victory would be PanO's at least 50% of the times 😉. Knowing the opponent was Nomads hackers and HI were kept at minimum, different variants of the list might include a crocman hacker and/or an Orc with feuerbach instead of the Kamau HRL.

Outro

The leds on the Stempler Zond dashboard blinked as it removed the data-link from the last Console chirping and beeping like an astromech droid in a XX century sci-fi movie. 

Servers successfully formatted and all data permanently deleted. Kasia, freshly appointed Securitate Lieutenant of the operation, nodded and turned on her headset moving a lock of pink hair:

"Spider-puppy to spider-mom: the area is safe. Repeat: the area is safe. Back to the nest.". 

Infinity Mission Focus: Firefight

Welcome to the sixth installment of this series focusing on Infinity Missions. After analyzing the beloved classic which is Acquisition, we dive into a multi faced mission that can be approached in radically different ways: Firefight. 

In this mission you score points killing more specialists, lieutenants and army points than your opponent; acquiring more items from panoplies than your opponent and completing 3 Classified Objectives. 

Skills, weapons and equipment

Rasyat Diplomatic Division by Cristian Il Corinzio: we wrote about this unit when analyzing Mindwipe and you're definitely going to meet it again in Firefight!

⛽ Disposable strikes back: if you're a fan of coordinated mine deployment remember that you can also use a panoply to cancel unloaded states. It's important to do that before succeeding the panoply WIP roll or you won't be able to use it again with the same trooper. Moreover, your opponent may have lowered his/her guard after you've used all your blitzen, sepsitor or panzerfaust: prove them you have more rounds up your sleeve with this simple trick (which is way better than using one entire order on baggage). 

PanOceanian Echo-Bravo Rapid Reaction Unit. This parachuting troop has two interesting specialist profiles with disposables: an hacker with Panzerfaust and (in picture) a paramedic with WildParrot

🌚 Hidden deployment: this mission really push you for some heavy airborne deployment, providing a +3 bonus and the opportunity to reach the enemy deployment zone. Setting up hidden deployed troops to welcome combat jumpers is a good way to break your opponent's nerves.

💂Veteran: this skill is not cheap but is still better than informing your opponent about who to kill next via Chain of Command, it will ultimately save you some precious command tokens. Remember: only the Veteran troop type is useful for Classified Objectives, not the skill!

Behaviours and tactics

Hexa (top center) and other PanOceanian troops by Supermassive Barnowl

🐅🐉 Hidden hacker, crouching camo: since the classified deck has 25% of the objectives that can be completed by hackers, you may definitely want to bring some here. Hackers with parachutist or hidden deployment have a defensive edge that will improve their life span so watch for this kind of units. Once you reveal them they will be on top of your opponents' killing list so troops below 30 points like Ninjas, Hexas or Noctifer are the real deal. My final line here is: lower your revealed specialists to the bare essential (doctor/engineer), make sure they have two peripherals and go for camo specs if you think you need more.

With camouflage, hidden deployment, infiltration, mimetism (-6), surprise attack (-3) and two specialist profiles the Croc Man is an excellent Firefight unit for PanOceania!

🤖 Remote spec. party: this is the occasion for your remote presence specialists to shine. With two levels of unconscious and a few hackers around, these guys can be a real pain for your opponent in this mission even when they're not hackers themselves like Parvati, Dakinis, Betatroopers and Dropsuit Taryots. Just be sure to have enough GizmoKits to bring them out of null state before the end of the game. 

📔 Be ready to change your agenda: you may have an idea of how to take the match home on turn one, based on how you and your opponent have prepared for the mission. This is ok and proves that you've made your due diligence, but victory cares about opportunities and you must be ready to seize them. If you have a specialist oriented list you may still win through army point killing in case you have a lucky reactive turn and, vice versa, you may still have a chance to win by classified even with a super aggressive born-to-kill army. Don't sit on your premises and keep trying to understand what is going on. 

Final thoughts 

Firefight tends to be a very oscillating mission so don't be surprised if things look irrecoverable at the end of turn one. Despite all the midfield elements, there is a high chance the game will be played around deployment zones so watch out for your cheerleaders and consider spending an order on them any now and then.

Infinity Mission Focus: Acquisition

Welcome to the fifth installment of this series focusing on Infinity Missions. After gazing at the everchanging dynamics of Capture and Protect, we now examine everyone's beloved classic: Acquisition.

In this mission you'll have to activate antennas, control them and control a tech coffin but remember: you only score points at the end of the game.

Skills, weapons and equipment

👨‍💻 EVO hacking device: there's always room in any list for some EVO hacking device but here you have 2 big reasons added to the benefits of its characteristic programs: 

• one additional cheap (doesn't apply to Scylla) specialist "automatically" activating antennas: doesn't matter how low is your WIP if you get a +3 bonus and burst 2; 
• antennas are 12" from the border so you want something to buff your combat Jump and nerf your opponent's. 

@ponty_painter's Salyut Zond is ready to hack! 

🪂 Airborne deployment: an excellent way to contend your opponent's achievement at the end of the game if you can resist the first two rounds without one order. Parachuting can be a good choice if your opponent has controlled jump, especially if your model has MOV 6.

Akalis, Sikh Commandos: the Shock Army of Acontecimiento can field up to five!

👻 The Libertos effect: forward deployed camo marker between the tech coffin and one antenna? That will definitely bug your opponent! The libertos is a very good pointwise choice to push your opponent forward and making mistakes. However, having one irregular order is not optimal so you may lean toward pricier profiles. My two cents: anything with these skills and a cost higher than 20 points should also be a specialist.

Behaviours and tactics  

😊 Among us: you're gonna bring hackers for this mission so you'd better remember what they can do. Cybermask is your friend for this mission: don't forget it. This is a very good reason to list those 0 SWC Killer Hackers.

🕵️‍♂️Hack antenna, achieve classified, spoil HVT, contest: remember you score objective points only at the end of the game? It means player two will always have a chance to challenge player's one achievements. Once you have one hacked antenna it may be useful to achieve your classified and spoil your opponent's possibility to secure HVT; the last step in this strategy will be to protect your hacked antenna and contest the tech-coffin. By doing so you're focusing your game on just two elements, forcing your opponent to keep at least one model in base contact with the other antenna: if it's a valuable model you're keeping it out of action and if it's a cheerleader you'll have a good chance to blast it.

u/Stormygeddon's Hisen shows us how to keep your opponent away from your HVT

Final thoughts

Profiles with high mobility (motorcycles, superjump, combat jump) and infiltrating units have an edge in Acquisition but can be countered with deployables so don't be stingy on mines and remember they can also be deployed with AROs. Watch out for units with dogged/NWI since they'll likely be used in the final round to challenge control of the antennas and of the tech-coffin.

Useful links

• Acquisition text battle report by us: Tunguska VS OSS
• Acquisition text battle report by us: Varuna VS OSS
• Acquisition video battle report by the amazing Ash Baker from Guerrilla Miniature Games