4-man ITS Day Aftermath

This weekend, myself and three friends had a little ITS event at my flat. There’s enough space in our open plan living room/kitchen area to put up a second 4×4 table, and luckily, my friend Adam’s table is completely collapsible and (fairly) easy to transport.

We’d been planning this event for quite a while, and July 12th was the date settled on where we could all get together to game. We’d discussed before the day which missions we would play, and we’d divided the cost of a full tournament pack between us, which meant we all got something out of it too (aside from bragging rights over who the best player was!)

The missions we would be playing were Lifeblood, Seize the Antennae and Quadrant Control – two objective-based missions and one more kill-oriented.

Lifeblood is an interesting one due to the random nature of the Crate Drops, and also the requirement for certain ammunition types required in order to destroy them. As one of our group, Craig, was new to ITS, we figured it would be fairest to do at least one mission which none of us had played before.

Seize the Antennae is one of my favourite missions, as it reminds me of many First Person Shooters Domination modes, where two teams attempt to capture three points on the map.

Quadrant Control is also quite an interesting mission as it requires players to move around a bit rather than castle up in their deployment zones. It’s a land-grab mission which can be quite fun and throw up some interesting decisions for the player to make.

While we didn’t have a painting requirement for our little event, I wanted to make sure my stuff was all painted, hence my flurry of activity over the past week in the lead-up to the event.

The Armies

Here are each of our armies (or a selection of models from each of us, at least – these aren’t the exact army lists) –

Adam’s Japanese Sectorial Army – click to enlarge

Craig’s Haqqislam – click to enlarge

Darren’s Bakunin Jurisdictional Command – click to enlarge

My Tohaa – click to enlarge

The Tables

We set up our tables, and before we got cracking I snapped a couple of images:

Table 1: The Residential District – click to enlarge

Table 2: The Research Facility – click to enlarge

As a group, we like to play on fairly dense tables – however, these tables also contain some long fire-lanes due to the vertical nature of the terrain – they may appear like template heaven, but they actually can be quite difficult to get across without getting shot by someone lying in wait some distance away!

The Games

I’d drawn the names out of a hat for the first round, and it transpired that I’d be playing Craig in the first round for the Lifeblood mission. I was going in blind with my Tohaa, having never used them before – I thought this would be a fun way to learn about them with no real concerns about winning or losing. I won’t be going into a blow-by-blow account of each game, however.

Round 1: Lifeblood

Craig had won the roll-off and decided to go first, leaving me with the deployment option. I picked a side which I had plenty of cover, reasoning that I’d prefer to keep out of sight to begin with so I could start my turn with a full force intact. I did deploy my defensive models (a Nikoul Sniper which was proxied by a Gao Rael Sniper, and a Chaksa Auxiliar with HMG) overlooking a couple of the crates, however. Stupidly, I’d left my Gao Rael with Spitfire in a bad position which meant he couldn’t see the crates – a mistake with Craig exploited wonderfully with plenty of smoke from his Kum Bikers, leaving the way clear for his specialists to get in and check four crates in quick succession. I spent my first turn shifting forward into position and attempted to check a pair of crates. The game ended with Craig scoring 9 points, while I ended up with 0! Not bad for his first ever ranked ITS game!

The standings after Round 1 put Craig and Darren on 9 points each, Adam with 2 and me bringing up the rear with a big fat 0!

Round 2: Seize the Antennae

Round 2 pitted my Tohaa against Adam’s JSA at Seize the Antenna. I was feeling a little more confident with this mission, having played it a few times now – however, I think that confidence was misplaced, as I made a couple of mistakes again such as puttng a TO marker (Clipsos Forward Observer) near the central objective on a rooftop rather than using Hidden Deployment, and forgetting that my Nikoul had Minelayer, which would’ve helped stop Adam’s last-turn rush for my own console, which he sent an Aragoto Hacker speeding across the board and capturing a second console to win 6-1 (all I’d managed to do by the end of the game was achieve my Classified Objective of Datascan).

After Round 2, Craig was storming ahead on 15 points, Darren was on 13, Adam had 8 and I had 1. I was off the ground, at least!

Round 3: Quadrant Control

Round 3 was Quadrant Control, and I was facing Darren’s Bakunin. Darren’s probably my most regular opponent, and the lack of Crazy Koalas was a relief, although his Morlocks were equally as frustrating as they routinely refused to die! For two turns we’d had a few firefights and maneuvered into positions to hold two quadrants each but it was a last minute push on the third turn (not helped by a silly move on my part where I pulled a Chaksa HMG forward to fire at a Reverand Moira Link Team, and instead lost the model, losing 25 points in a quadrant, which enabled the Moiras to move forwards and claim a third quadrant, netting him 6 points to my 2.

So, the final standings were Darren on 19 points, Craig and Adam joint second on 16 each and me in fourth place with a grand total of 3 points! Not the greatest of first-outings for the Tohaa, but we all have to start somewhere!

I really enjoyed this day of games, and it was nice to do so in a relaxed home environment with three good friends, and I’m looking forward to doing something similar again – probably in the winter when the weather outside isn’t quite as nice as it was this weekend! That’s probably the only downside was seeing the lovely weather outside which we’d shut ourselves away from!

The Gallery

Anyway, here are a few pics from the day:

Aelis Keesan prepares to move her Trident forward under the cover of smoke – click to enlarge

A Gao Rael watches over an alley while the Sakiel Lieutenant prepares to move his Trident onto the roof – click to enlarge

A Nikoul (proxied by a Gao Rael) watches over the drop site – click to enlarge

Craig’s Haqqislam cover the drop site in smoke and move in – click to enlarge

The aliens are no match for the Haqqislamite troops – click to enlarge

The JSA prepare to take on the Bakunin – click to enlarge

An Aragoto Hacker lies in wait – click to enlarge

Mine and Adam’s game after turn 1 – click to enlarge

A hotly contested objective – click to enlarge

Nomads vs Haqqislam – click to enlarge

Darren and Craig during Seize the Antenna (which we’d used Console markers for instead!) – click to enlarge

The Nomads secure the rooftops – click to enlarge

Despite trying repeatedly, the Nomads just can’t wrestle control of the central objective from the Haqqislam troops – click to enlarge

Avicenna making a break for it – click to enlarge

Darren with his winner’s certificate – click to enlarge