Thursday, September 30, 2021

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.

๐Ÿฐ๐Ÿš Extraction by RedeenedRyan: reach the detention facility, open the gates and bring your HVT to safety!

๐Ÿ’ผ๐Ÿ’‰ 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.

๐Ÿฆพ⚙️ 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.

๐Ÿƒ‍♀️⏰ 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.

๐Ÿ’ฃ๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍๐Ÿ”ฌ 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.

๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍๐Ÿš€๐Ÿ˜ฑ 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.

↖️๐ŸŽ 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.

๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍๐Ÿญ๐ŸŽด 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.

๐Ÿคณ๐Ÿฉบ 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.

๐Ÿ’ฃ๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍๐Ÿ’ป 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.

๐ŸŒŒ☄️ 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.

๐Ÿฐ๐Ÿค– Prison escape 3.0 by Cabaray: save civilians from the armory and get the REM guard to your side by hacking a console. 

๐Ÿง‘‍✈️๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍✈️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! 

๐Ÿ›ฐ️๐Ÿ’ฅ 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.

๐Ÿƒ๐Ÿ”„ 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.

๐Ÿ‘จ‍๐Ÿ’ป๐Ÿ“Ÿ 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! 

๐Ÿคผ๐Ÿ“ก 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.

๐Ÿงจ๐Ÿš‚ 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.

๐Ÿ•ต️๐Ÿ’ฑ 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.

๐Ÿฆ๐Ÿ” 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.

๐ŸŽฏ๐Ÿ›‹️ Hole up and breech by GHOST00: dominate the objective room and take the enemy HVT inside. 

๐Ÿ”ช๐Ÿ’ฝ 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. 

๐Ÿ‘‘⛳ 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".

๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿš 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. 

๐ŸŽฎ๐Ÿ”š 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.

๐Ÿƒ‍♀️๐Ÿ˜Ž Extraction by Infinity_Gamer: take the enemy civilian to your deployment zone while protecting yours. Elite troops have a bonus when syncing.

๐Ÿฉธ๐ŸงŸ‍♂️ 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...

๐Ÿ–ฅ️๐Ÿน 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.

๐Ÿค”☎️ 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. 

๐Ÿ—️๐Ÿ—️ 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. 

๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿš 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.

๐Ÿ“ค๐Ÿฅถ Escape by Ieldin Soecr: save three civilians by activating the pairs of consoles that are freezing each one of them in place. 

๐Ÿฆ๐Ÿ”ซ 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. 

๐Ÿ“ธ๐Ÿ‘จ‍๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍๐Ÿ‘ง‍๐Ÿ‘ฆ 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! 

๐Ÿ“ฆ๐ŸŽฏ 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. 

๐ŸŸฅ๐ŸƒDATA CUBE RUN by Nincoreween: steal 6 data cubes from the central objective room and bring them to your deployment zone to score points. 

๐ŸŒก️๐Ÿฅต 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. 

๐Ÿ•ต️๐Ÿ’ฅ 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! 

๐Ÿง ๐Ÿ•ธ️ 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.

๐Ÿ’ฅ๐ŸงŸ‍♂️ 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. 

๐ŸŒ™๐ŸŽญ 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. 

๐Ÿ“ก๐Ÿ’‰ Experimental Treatment by Reverend Clyia: activate one of two antennas to have a bonus for treating 3 enemy HVTs. 

๐Ÿ”ญ๐Ÿ’ฃ Seek and Destroy by RobertSheperd: Unmasking variant with 4 HVTs, all of them will eventually be revealed as Designated Targets. 

๐Ÿ’ช๐ŸŽŽ 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. 

๐Ÿ๐Ÿ Finish line by SkyKnight: take your datatracker to the other side of the table while killing the HVT and extracting items from panoplies. 

๐Ÿ“ถ๐Ÿ“ก Expunge by Snowball: upload your data pack to the enemy server. Controlling consoles provides a WIP bonus. 

☣️๐Ÿ“ก 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. 

 ▶️๐ŸŒฉ️ Into the storm by Tabuk_kebab: escort the HVT to the central console with a guardian trooper while fighting your opponent. 

๐Ÿƒ๐Ÿ”ซ 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. 

๐Ÿšช๐Ÿฆ THE VAULT by ThunderSquid: activate consoles to open doors to the objective room and dominate it to win! 

♻️๐Ÿ’ป 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. 

๐Ÿ’ฐ๐Ÿ’พ 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.

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿฆ 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. 

๐Ÿ™Š๐Ÿ“ฅ 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. 

๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ•ด️Secure 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. 

๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍⚕️๐Ÿš 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. 

๐Ÿ‘จ‍๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍๐Ÿ‘ง๐Ÿ’จ 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 

๐Ÿ”ฎ๐Ÿ’พ 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. 

๐Ÿ›ฐ️☄️ 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. 

๐Ÿคœ๐Ÿค› 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.

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