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.