Gaming thoughts – Spring Challenge Aftermath

Another great time was had down in Exeter for the Spring Challenge. I didn’t do as well this time around as I did at the Winter Challenge, finishing 20th out of 30 players. I put this down a little to making some daft choices during my games, plus over-confidence in the ability of my Dakini remotes, who all died in every game without achieving anything of note!

300pts of Aleph – click to enlarge

The lists I took were as follows:

List 1

Deva Functionary – (Lieutenant) Devabot with Heavy Flamethrower
Deva Functionary – Devabot with Heavy Flamethrower
Deva Functionary – Hacking Device
Dakini Tactbot – Paramedic
Dakini Tactbot – Paramedic
Dakini Tactbot – Paramedic
Dakini Tactbot – HMG
Naga – Monofilament Mines
Sophotect
Yudbot
Asura – Spitfire

List 2

Deva Functionary – (Lieutenant) Devabot with Heavy Flamethrower
Deva Functionary – Sensor
Deva Functionary – Hacking Device
Dakini Tactbot – Paramedic
Dakini Tactbot – Paramedic
Dakini Tactbot – Paramedic
Dakini Tactbot – HMG
Naga – Hacking Device
Sophotect
Asura – Spitfire

Game 1: Beacon Race vs Matt B (Drastic), PanOceania

My first game was against Matt, who was using PanOceania. Annoyingly, I neglected to take any pics of the tables before, during or after the games. Thankfully, Ian (aka The Wargaming Trader), being the fantastically organised Tournament Organiser that he is, has pictures of every table on his event post on the official forum, and he’s allowed me to re-post some of them here. Each layout changed slightly between the time these images were captured and when I got to playing on them, due to different missions requiring different/additional pieces of terrain.

Game 1 table – click to enlarge (reproduced with permission from Wargaming Trader)

The above photo shows the layout of table 1, although for this mission the central buildings were replaced by a single Objective Room. There were also 4 scoring zones at the extreme front-corners of each deployment zone. Inside the Objective Room was a Beacon Generator. However, for comedic effect, the mission had been re-named ‘Bacon Race’, and each centre console was actually fashioned into a ‘Bacon Vending Machine’! Conveniently, this photo is taken from my viewpoint, so the table edge at the bottom is my deployment zone. I elected to go with List 1, in order to use the Naga to place mines around the inside of the objective room.

I won the roll off and decided take initiative. Matt elected to choose the far side of the table and wanted me to deploy first. I placed my Asura prone on the tallest building on the right, with a Yudbot near to her in case she needed patching up. I had a Deva and Devabot watching each of my flanks, with the Sophotect and Deva Hacker placed near the centre, ready to shift forwards and open the doors/get to the centre console. In turn 1 I got in , the Naga placed all of his mines then re-camouflaged himself in the room, ready to hold off any attempts by Matt to get in. As the game progressed, I was able to seize one plate of Bacon, and grabbed a second from the Vending Machine ready to score again. After turn 1, Matt had clearly given up on trying to get inside the room and instead concentrated on gunning me down and trying to deny my scoring attempts – a pair of TO Camouflaged Specialist Sergeants stalked across the board to try and hinder me, accompanied by a Sierra Dronbot and a pair of Bulleteers. Luck was on my side, however, and I was able to deal with them, although I lost my Hacker to a Bulleteer, and my Sophotect was too far out of position on turn 3 to get the Bacon and score, so I instead used her to repair one of my disabled Dakinis, which gained me an extra point as it was one of my Classified Objectives. My other was Data Scan, which I was unable to complete due to losing my Hacker before she could get close to anyone.

Result: Win (6-2)

Game 1, turn 2 – MINE ALL THE THINGS! – click to enlarge

Game 2: Frontline vs Killian (Deep-Green-X), Acontecimento Shock Army

Buoyed by a first-round win, I went into round 2 with a bit of optimism, which unfortunately turned out to be my downfall, and Killian proceeded to give me an absolute hammering in this one. I lost the roll-off and Killian elected to go first. I’d chosen List 1 again, reasoning that Monofilament mines might help slow down Killian’s advance.

Game 2 table – click to enlarge (reproduced with permission from Wargaming Trader)

The above photo shows the table from Killian’s perspective. It was slightly different to this, with the two largest hills being replaced by more irregular shaped rocks and the walkways losing their access stairs. Some silly deployment on my part plus an over-reliance on Mimetism to save me meant that I was quite a few orders down by the time my first turn rolled around, and it was all I could do to avoid going into Retreat. Killian’s Naga with Mono-mines took a risky decision in deployment to infiltrate close to my lines, but it paid off as he dropped a mine and wiped out my Asura and a Dakini with one mine, while a Deva who was near by got a lucky escape, but spent the rest of the game prone fighting off a link team of Acontecimento Regulars. When I was eventually put into retreat, I was able to claw a single Victory Point by marching my remaining models back towards the front scoring zone.

Result: Loss (5-1)

Game 3: Antennae Field vs Phil (Ernest_The_Yak), Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor

In this final round, I elected to choose List 2, as I figured I’d need another Specialist to help grab more Antennae.

Game 3 table – click to enlarge (reproduced with permission from Wargaming Trader)

There were some minor differences to this table before our game – the grey stairs/platform near the centre was swapped with the yellow car on the far side of the board. Also, the white building nearest the centre was replaced with an Objective Room.

I won the roll off and elected to go first. Phil chose the deployment zone closest to the camera. Unfortunately, due to the way the table was laid out, it gave Phil a clear fire-lane directly from his central Antenna, across the centre of the board, to my own central Antenna. Not an ideal situation for any game of Infinity, let alone one where I’d have to advance onto these objectives to score points every turn. A Wildcat Link team with Heavy Rocket Launcher locked down this central line, leaving me with no option but to go for the flanks. My Dakinis all died again, this time to McMurrough storming across the table and wrecking face with his Chain Rifle. Ouch!

By the time Turn 3 came around, we’d each only managed to retain a single objective per turn, giving us 3 points. My turn 3 actually put me in retreat, but unknown to me, I’d actually killed off Phil’s Lieutenant at the end of Turn 2, which meant his Turn 3 was incredibly short.

Result: Draw (3-3)

It was a good game, but I can’t help but think that the open field of fire in the centre really imbalanced the game a little, especially for this particular mission. Nobody’s fault in particular, but I do feel that the game could’ve played a lot differently had that centre fire lane been reduced a bit.

In all, I had a great day, and placed 20th overall (out of 30, so at least no wooden spoon for me this time!). We even got the usual goody-bag with a single figure, a resin base from Antenociti’s Workshop, two pin-badges (I got the Chandra symbol and a Tohaa one) plus a pair of Micro Art Studio Infinity tokens and a couple of art cards.

You can see the final results below – Adam and Darren placed very well, (11th and 9th respectively) and Darren (unsurprisingly, but thoroughly deserved) won Best Painted too. A massive thanks must go to Ian for his superb organisation, and for his massive efforts running the event!

Spring Challenge Final Results – click to enlarge (reproduced with permission from Wargaming Trader)