Playing Infinity N4: skydiving

The Garuda Tacbot is one of the first miniatures that caught my eye when I started looking into the amazing world of Infinity The Game.

I am starting to believe the more I like a model the more difficult it is to focus it!

Assembling this piece enhanced my awe since its design is so futuristic yet its head looks like it's adorned with a grinning, ancestral tribal mask. The boarding shotgun sculpt really gives you the feeling of a big chunk of sprinting metal dropping from the sky. I tried to intensify this feeling by adding a broken tile, smashed by landing impact.

As I was painting this model, I started looking at the similar profiles offered by other armies. So, I filtered all Spec, trained troops that have the parachuting skill on vanilla armies and produced the following graph:

Here are 4 things that I noticed by looking at it: you may notice more stuff than me, so please let me know your considerations in the comments!

1. Yu Jing has no spec. trained parachutists. 
   They still have powerful alternatives but, being veteran and elites, prices start from 28 points and specialists profiles are above 30 points;
   
   
2. Nomads, Ariadna and Haqquislam have lots of cheap specialists alternatives with no SWC cost.
   Have to keep in mind that these armies could drop a low cost button presser in a nice spot at turn three if you lower your guard;
   
   
3. PanOceania has no 0 SWC options.
   They also have the same veteran and elites options Yu Jing has so it seems like thay have some overlapping alternatives. Although, it must be noted that PanO's options once again show off lots of interesting equipments and weapons since Echo-Bravo can either have a red fury, a light rocket launcher with continuous damage, a panzerfaust + hacking device or a wildparrot. These guys not only can take an objective but hold it!
   
   
4. Aleph, Combined Army and Tohaa are the only ones to have 1,5 SWC profiles.
   And they all have a spitfire! The alien advantage mainly lies in their transmutation skill and pays off the 8/10 points difference from the spitfire Garuda.

I can't wait to field this new piece in my next game!

Operation Golden Ratio: episode 00

"Minutes ago, a sudden firefight took palce right here on Space Station Donacimiento, in subsector six. A tactical unit of Tunguska highly skileld operatives broke in, exploiting the maintenance status extablished in the subsector after yesterday's biotechvore hazard event. 

We have reason to believe Tunguska's hackers were looking for sensible data about our projects. Luckily one of our clients, Aleph, was not convinced by yesterday's incident and had deployed an OSS quick response commitee to welcome potential intruders. 

Here is the footage recorded by our dronbot during the clash. 

We have reason to believe the Nomads were repelled before gathering level 1 information, but this is far from a success: this accident offers Aleph the perfect alibi to question our delay in delivering Project Laocoön..."

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

After a rough start, Aleph won the match by a few inches. 

Here is the post commentary from both players, with group shots and lists.

Aleph - Operations Subsection of the SSS

Really a fun game. Infinity always gives you a chance to turn the tide and this time luck was by my side. I overestimated the need for orders and specialist, which led to some serious mistakes. 

Some considerations on how I used my list and how I may have changed it: 

Yadus had to die

No mimetism, no visors and very expensive: these are toys you don't want to have that exposed on a reactive turn. I learned my lesson and understood more about their weaknesses.

Avoid the 4-core

Seriously, what's the piont in a four model core fireteam? My Dakinis sat doing nothing for 3 turns straight. I should have brought an HMG dakini but I didn't have enough SWC, so the second best thing to do would have been to discard the 4-core completely, make a 2-core with the Deva hacker and the paramedic Dakini and use the remaining points on something tactically relevant: Naga, Garuda...you name it. There were plenty of options but I was blindfolded by my "fireteams are good" bias. 

It's a Queen's gambit

I don't care if the meta or cost efficency drives you towards other choices for your lieutenant, the +1 order Lt. Asura hacker is still a great choice to me. Being incredibly resilient, she's a beast on 1 vs 1 and she will always be pivotal to create space for the rest of the team when things go wrong. Of course, taking enemies one by one is very order consuming, and I think this is the reason for the lack of love from the community: it's not about the profile, it's about entrusting her with so many orders when the sh*t hits the fan.

Nomads - Jurisdictional Command of Tunguska

All-in and fairly ignorant double Kriza limited insertion list with strong 5 men link and a couple troublemakers. 

Grenzer mon amour 

After taking regular beatings from Nisse and Kamau snipers in 5 men link teams it's time for the Grenzer MSR to strike back. Hitting on 19 most of the time (range mod + big team + ignoring cover and mimetism) with burst 3 make it quite successful in the FtF game. 

Exploded Yadu HMG in suppressive fire, Yadu HRL and PROXI Mk2 MSR. 

Well done. 

Krizas, good but not enough 

Krizas are cool and look good on the table. However, it really shines in grinding cheerleaders and so they do not add too much value against OSSS. One was roasted by HRL blast failing miserably 3 50-50 ARM rolls in a row. The other was engaged by the Asura, it stalled for a few orders but then NWI and Sophotec support tipped the scale in favor of the robot girl. I need to get better at deploy and pick the right fights with these guys. 

OSSS can hack too O.o 

Game was lost when the Asura isolated my Interventor LT through a repeater Mary Problems had placed with her Pitcher. It took a couple orders and some bad luck on my side but still placing that repeater with my second last order as a reactive turn threat was not a brilliant move. I should have saved orders to try to Trinity the Asura to death. Instead the Proxy FO isolated Mary Problems lobbing E/M grenades and then the Asura was able to go 1-Vs-1 on my LT. Heckler's Jammer was quite ineffective.

Bring a Zondbot instead of a Paramedic

In this game "Isolated" state was a game changer and having possibility to recover from it looks more important than recovering from unconsciousness. Ideally you would have both, but seems better to have a zondbot to extend the engineer reach. 

What next?

As you can imagine, this firefight will sure have drastic consequences. Let's see what the Scientific Executive of the Station has tweeted right after the clash:

Truth is something strange is happening in the PanOceanina research labs of Space Station Donaicimiento: Operation Golden Ratio has just started!

Mordheim Italia Facebook page #januhunters2021 contest entry

 Ciao!

The Mordheim Italia Facebook page issued a little nice hobby contest which I was happy to participate to. 

Rules were simple: post a picture of a model from the Witch Hunters range (witch hunter, warrior-priest, flagellant, zealot or warhound) together with some character story or background. The community then shall vote the one they like the most. You can go and search for #januhunters2021 to see all entries!

I do not own a Witch Hunters warband (yet), but I had a 6th ed warrior-priest craving for a new paintjob (and a round base, Sigmar forgive me!) so I threw him in the stripping pot of doom and got at it.

Here the final result.

  Let me now introduce you Father Innozenz and his story...

A hooded figure crept silently into the forge illuminated by Morrslieb's sinister light filtering through the skylight. The large bronze bell had been out of the mold for just a few hours and was still emanating heat. The cultist approached the bell and intoning a blasphemous chant sprinkled it with a few pinches of a fluorescent powder from a velvet pouch he took from the depths of his robe ...

Innozenz hurried down the stairs that led from the scriptorium to the courtyard. His brothers were already all gathered to attend the ceremony of consecration and inauguration of the new bell. As a result of complications from ear infection as a child, he was deaf in both ears and his family, wealthy beer merchants from Pfieldorf, had initiated him into monastic life. Innozenz had thus become a skilled amanuensis and an honest prelate living a peaceful and quiet life within the monastery walls.

Not being able to hear the sound of the new bell forged in the renowned foundries of Nuln, which would have brought prestige and importance to the monastery, deeply saddened him but he was still happy to be able to participate to this event and experience the emotion of this moment through the enthusiasm of his brothers.

After the Abbot's speech, the long-awaited moment finally came. The bell monk made the Sign of the Hammer and pulled the rope that operated the bell. Innozenz heard nothing but remained hypnotized by the rhythmic swinging of the bell. When he had counted seven strokes he came to his senses and was shocked by the scene before his eyes.

The bodies of his brethren were monstrously deformed: huge swollen bellies pierced with broken bones, worm-infested mouths and ears oozing purulent humors, eyes in unnatural numbers and positions turning to him with a disgusting expression of violence and commiseration.

In a moment the amanuensis realized that he was facing the manifestation of one of the purest essences of Chaos.

As the crowd of corrupt monks surrounded him, he knelt down and gathered his whole soul in a last and desperate prayer: "Sigmar give me the strength to save my brothers and defeat your enemies.”

Sigmar listened to him.

A golden aura enveloped him, his faith became armor and his fury became hammer. Transfigured by the spirit of Sigmar, he threw himself into the ranks of the possessed, sending them back to the hell from which they had come with holy hammer blows. Sigmar was with him and he was unstoppable.

With a prodigious leap he found himself on the ledge at the top of the bell tower where a cloud of flies and unclean beings swarmed around the cursed bell. Wicked tentacles protruded from the inside while disgusting ooze exuded from the bell that was transmuting from bronze into decaying organic matter, tingling with larvae and worms.

Innozenz raised his arms and struck a mighty blow against that demonic instrument. There was a flash of light and then everything went dark...

He woke up a few days later, lying on the grass in the clearing in front of the monastery. There was no one around and apart from the ruins of the tower, nothing testified to the terrible battle that had taken place. There was something else strange... he heard! He could hear the rustle of the wind in the trees and the warble of birds.

Then he heard a very deep voice, like a thunder that frightens enemies but comforts those who have faith: “Innozenz you are a faithful and courageous servant. I give you back the hearing that the disease had deprived you of. Go to Mordheim, lend your ear to the pleas of the desperate and mercilessly strike the wicked and the corrupt!”. 

Innozenz staggered to his feet, made the Sign of the Hammer, and rising a song of praise set off for the City of the Damned. Along the way many called him but he went straight on his way, he did not hear them, he had been deaf since he was a child...

Playing Infinity N4: a post about posthumans

Having finished painting my box of posthumans, I take the opportunity to talk about how to list them.

Disclaimer: I don't think the following reasoning covers all the possiblities offered by this beautiful game to list posthumans and I am 100% sure it is flawed by my tactical vision and my strategic bias. One of the thing I like the most about Infinity is its resemblance with real life, bear with me, in the elusivity of perfection, since its definition changes from moment to moment and from subject to subject. With that in mind, I'd be happy to hear any comments and objections from the audience.

A true distillate of madness: the PTS-SWC Posthumans Chart

This chart has SWC on x and PTS on y. The green dots represent two-models groups, the orange dots represent three-models groups and the stars are my honorable mentions. All possibile combinations should be listed.

Proxy Bay: this is where everything start, a sort of safe spot. The cheapest teams you can build are here. In fact, my honorable mention here is the cheapest, featuring a PROXY Mk.1 engineer or doctor and a Forward Observer PROXY Mk.5.

Leaving Proxy Bay we find the Uncanny Valley. This area hosts expensive couples in terms of SWC. I don't like them that much since you have lots of cheaper and more effective options to choose. You may be tempted to go here if you use posthumans to round your list up to a point cap, but my suggestion would be to avoid this area completely.

The Specialists' Achipelago: one of the most popular parts of this chart for sure. Here, almost every three-model group option is valid, depending on the mission of course. My honorable mention goes in fact to a group made by a PROXY Mk.1 hacker, a PROXY Mk.2 hacker and a PROXY Mk.5 Forward Observer. It means you have two or three specialists and that two of them won't waste the order they won't provide you, since they're already deployed forward.

Around 60 points, we slip into what I call the Canyon of Choices: an area with SWC and Points so high you should wonder if you really want to bet so much on models that can't join fireteams and give you only one order. For real tho, go take another look at the Asura profile: you can list up to four of those.

South of the canyon, lies Wounds Island. The two profiles in it provide you with a four wound dreadnought with an outstanding ARM/BTS of 4/3 and 5/6. It takes half of your available SWCs on a 300-points list, but it may be worth it.

Our journey ends at the fringe of the known world, where the chart warn us: Hic Sunt Leones, Here There Are Lions. A dangerous and unexplored zone rich of unpractical three-models teams, too costly in terms of points and SWC to be seriously considered. The honorable mention here goes to the WYSIWYG three-model group provided by the box: a PROXY Mk.1 engineer or doctor, a PROXY Mk.2 sniper and a PROXY Mk.3.

Inglorious Wolves - Mordheim Middenheim Mercenaries

Ciao,

this is a post I have been wanting to make for quite some time but managed to get at it only now.

Let me present you the Inglorious Wolves, a Middenheim Mercenaries warband I built and painted specifically for the one day Mordheim Pollenzo MMXX amazing event organized by VIII Legio.

This was the perfect motivation to make some good use of an Empire Militia box and some Middenheim bits which had been collecting dust for too long.

Here below a group picture including some hired swords.

Background (the fluff)

The camp was dimly lit by the embers of the dying fire, the silence disturbed by the rhythmic scraping of the whetstone on a blade.

Upon hearing the sound of footsteps, the man, who was busy sharpening an old halberd, raised an eyebrow then pulled a puff of smoke from his pipe and said: "Rich boy, can't you sleep?".

"No." Leonard answered, ignoring the provocation. He sat down next to the old soldier and let some time pass without saying anything, staring at the moon over the City of the Damned.

"Tell me about the Captain, I need to know more about who will lead us in the ruins."

Without haste, after another puff of his pipe, Juergen spoke: “A year ago a woman came to the estate, a beautiful and charming woman with whom the Captain fell madly in love. She was a cursed witch and a servant of the dark gods. She wanted to assassinate the Elector Count by taking advantage of my Lord's position. We managed to stop her plan but she escaped us and killed the Captain's son in revenge. Since then he has been chasing her restlessly. He looks for her to prevent her from doing any more harm but above all he looks for her to find her before the Witch Hunters do. He wants to be the one to execute her. But fear not, the Captain is the best commander that we could have for this trip to hell, obey his orders and you could even go home alive. Do you feel calmer now? "

Once again Leonard ignored the veteran's taunt and asked again: "What about the others?"

After having emptied the bowl of the pipe and cleaned it carefully, Juergen put it away in a worn case, then resumed speaking: “Dieter has fought alongside the Captain in countless battles. Don't be fooled by his white beard, he is the most skilled and brave man I have ever seen fight. He seeks the witch too.

Hugo and John are two ruffians, the only things they care about are fame, women and booty but they fight like furies and want to make a name for themselves."

A dark howl echoed in the darkness making Leonard shiver and instinctively brought his hand towards the axe handle. 

Juergen grinned in amusement, his hoarse laughter quickly turned into a catarrh cough then he cursed and said, “Don't fret greenhorn, this is our wolf friend telling us that everything is fine. Luckily he's out there too watching our backs, he has already saved us big troubles more than once ... The priest is called Bjorn, he appeared out of nowhere one morning and without saying a word he joined us, the wolf joined him shortly after. Every now and then he has fits, his eyes roll and he shivers all over. He says that Ulric sends him visions. Once I asked him to teach me to pray and he told me to let it go, Ulric doesn't listen.

Peter is my sister's son, he buried his father at the end of the winter and there was not enough food for everyone at home. What about you, rich boy? What mess did you cook to make your father send you to Mordheim?"

Leonard thought of Greta's raven hair and green eyes, her soft, fair skin and her sweet voice. Both he and she were far from the line of succession and there was never any talk of marriage. At the age of sixteen, Greta joined the Sigmarite Sisters and he joined the army. When he learned about the comet and what had happened in Mordheim he immediately volunteered. He had to find Greta at all costs and bring her to safety, saving her, perhaps, he would save himself too...

He got up, brushed off the bottom of his pants and as he walked away to his bed he said, “It was not my to send me here, I'm a volunteer. I want to be free, I seek happiness. "

The boy had already walked away and could no longer hear him but Juergen continued to talk, perhaps more to himself: "Of all the places in this grim and dark world, the last one where I would come to seek freedom and happiness is precisely this cursed city." then he spat into the fire and resumed sharpening his halberd...

List (the crunch)

The list is far from being optimized but I think it has some personality and I feel quite engaged and committed to play it.

Heroes

• Gottfried von Shieffer - Mercenary Captain
• dagger, sword, brace of duelling pistols, helmet wolf cloak
•   Dieter Bode - Champion
• dagger, halberd, helmet, wolf cloak
• Leonard von Richtofen - Youngblood
• dagger, axe, hammer, bow
• Peter Obst - Youngblood
• dagger, axe, hammer, bow
• Bjorn Borg - Wolf Priest of Ulric
• dagger, 2 hammers, wolf cloak

Henchmen

• McEnroe - Wolf Companion (1)
• Hugo & John - Swordsmen (2)
• dagger, sword, buckler
• Juergen Heiniken - Warrior (1)
• dagger, halberd

    

Playing Infinity N4: a list for all seasons

I have just finished painting the second box from my last shopping spree, as mentioned in my last post, so I'm very happy to present you my Yadu Troops:

Capture the objective!

However, I want to focus these posts on "playing" rather than "painting": in these regards, the Yadu Troops box features 140-ish PTS and 3,5 SWC, making it very interesting to expand an OSS Sectorial army that can list up to 5 of them.

Data Center alley

As a new player, I see these models as a shortcut to a balanced and affordable list.
I know that the concept of "balanced" is irrelevant in Infinity, since everything strongly depends on the mission being played, but as a new player I am happy to notice that lists which don't require you to buy lots of different miniatures, yet still give you some room for variations, do exist.

...talking about variations on the theme

Here you'll find one of my favourite variations on this list but the concept is more important than the list itself. The list includes: 1 Asura, 2 Deva, 4 Yadu, a Sophotect with 2 Yudbots and 1 Netrod.

Its points of strenghts are:

1. Fireteam flexibility: everyone but the Sophotect and the Netrod can join a fireteam. You can make a Special Haris and a 4-models Core, or a 5-models Core and a Duo;
2. NCO: this ability makes the model capable of spending the lieutenant order even if it's not the lieutenant. It also works with fireteams. I suggest having one for each fireteam;
3. Your lieutenant is difficult to guess: this is a more of a consequence of points 1 and 2. The list I've linked features a Deva as lieutenant but also the Asura and the Yadus have lieutenant profiles with the same equipment. I don't favour the Asura just because it's the only one with 2 lieutenant order so it either reveals your deception or is a waste of points;
4. Specialists: 3 models out of 8 are specialists and you could also tweak the list to have a 4th with the Forward Observer Deva. I favour the 23 points one so you have another layer of deception to protect your lieutenant since you have two apparently identical Deva;
5. Affordable: not mentioning proxies and out of production boxes, you can buy all the models you need for little more than 100€ (Deva Functionaries box, Yadu Troops box, Aleph Support Pack and the Asura).

Cool guys don't look at explosions, why would they even bother facing the camera?

Of course, this list also has several weaknesses:

1. High point density: these models are pricy so you can't really afford to casually lose one or two;
2. Hackability: all your models are hackable. This is not a surprise for Aleph OSS but it's really dangerous considering weakness number 1. You can list 2/3 hackers with high WIP, but it's still a  danger to consider; Edit: nope, Yadu and Deva are not hackable, unless they're hackers of course! Can't tell why I overlooked this 🤷‍♂️
3. No long range: pretty self explanatory. No multi sniper rifles here, keep scrolling;
4. No field control: aka no camo, no mines, no parachutist nor combat jump. You play with what you have: it's very straightforward but it can become a mousetrap.

Now I only need to test my reasonings: to glory!

Playing Infinity N4: the hobby side

Some time ago I ordered a couple of miniature boxes to expand my Aleph army.
Cleaned 'em, glued 'em, primed 'em and, eventually, painted the first box.

The ring around the Sophotect is a Mother-Forge that I didn't glue to the base, choosing to make it removable.
The front gap is wide enough for the miniature to slide through it after a careful 90° rotation.

Since my brother kindly assembled and primed for me the starter box, it was a long time since I assembled some miniatures and I was happy to discover this process to be far more satisfying and rewarding than I remembered. 

I guess an adult life and a general lack of dedicated space force you to partialize workflow. You can't afford to start something you won't be able to finish or put on hold in the same session, so you learn to recognize and appreciate each milestone, regardless of its importance. This approach to hobbying eluded me when I was a kid so I'm really glad to have experienced it now.

The OSS taking hold of a Kaldstorm settlement.
I'm very pleased with this Scenery Pack: its 4 buildings are definitely worth every cent.
Unfortunately, the game mat is not on the same level: despite the beautiful and detailed print, it shows too much its folding lines.