Saturday just gone saw my local club Pigmar hold a little tournament to celebrate the end of our little Infinity Slow Grow which had been running since January. My regular opponent and fellow blogger Darren was running the day, although due to a last-minute drop-out he ended up also standing in to avoid any bye rounds. Luckily, our friend (and also another blogger) Jez was also able to help out and make sure the day ran smoothly!
‘All Grown Up’, as it was dubbed, was a non-ITS tournament, so our missions were chosen from the main rulebook, with some tweaks to ignore the scenery structure rules as that can lead to some balance issues for the missions we’d chosen. Since everyone was pretty rusty in terms of Infinity 3rd Edition (mostly because we’re all still getting used to the new rules set), this was more of a fun event and an excuse to play some games. That said, there was still some fantastic prizes up for grabs for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and best painted army.
The missions to be played were The Armoury, Supremacy and Annihilation. Table setup was surprisingly fast, and we’d managed to source enough objective rooms for the first mission, The Armoury.
Here’s what the tables looked like at the start of the day:
Round 1 – The Armoury
My first round draw was against our local Warcor Peter on table 4, who was using Aleph. I was feeling relatively confident with my Tohaa, although knowing how good a player Peter is did worry me somewhat. I ended up going first (although I forget who won the roll-off for Initiative/Deployment), and so I began deploying my troops.
I’d chosen the following list for this mission:
Combat Group 1:
Clipsos – Forward Observer
Aelis Keesan – K1 Combi Rifle
Makaul – Heavy Flamethrower
Makaul – Heavy Flamethrower
Sakiel – Spitfire
Makaul – Heavy Flamethrower
Kumotail – Combi Rifle
Gao-Rael Sniper Rifle
Kamael – Combi Rifle
Kamael Lieutenant – Combi Rifle
Combat Group 2:
Nikoul – Minelayer
Kotail – Forward Observer
Chaksa – Heavy Flamethrower
Chaksa – HMG
(The main combat group is separated into links for clarity)
Without going into a blow-by-blow account of each game (mainly for the sake of my sanity and to ensure people don’t get bored), some highlights were:
- The Tohaa getting into the armoury quickly and grabbing several weapons, and proving difficult to shift at least initially
- My Gao-Rael Sniper locking down the right-hand side of the board almost single-handedly, adding Scarface and Machaon to his kill-count
- A lone Sophotect (who later revealed himself as Patroclus) clearing out the Tohaa from the Armoury, proving that Patroclus isn’t ‘useless’ as all the people on the forums say he is!
Here’s a shot from about turn 2 (my memory is a little hazy to be really specific I’m afraid!):
In the end, despite my best efforts, I was unable to clear out Patroclus from the objective room, and Peter won the mission 9-1. Had I been a little more sensible and kept at least one of the models with a looted weapon alive the score may have been slightly different, but I made the mistake of trying to hunker down inside the room rather than get into a better position elsewhere, and ultimately that cost me the game.
Here’s a few images of the other games being played during Round 1:
Round 2 – Supremacy
Round 2 saw me paired off against Alessandro with his Haqqislam on a re-arranged table 4 (we’d decided that after round 1 the tables would have the objective rooms removed and get re-arranged slightly).
The list I’d chosen for this mission was as follows:
Combat Group 1:
Rasail Lieutenant – Combi Rifle, Mines
Gao-Tarsos – Paramedi
Kotail – Forward Observer
Chaksa – Heavy Flamethrower
Sakiel – Spitfire
Makaul – Heavy Flamethrower, Swarm Grenades
Kumotail – Combi Rifle
Gao-Rael Sniper Rifle
Kamael – Combi Rifle
Kamael – Combi Rifle
Combat Group 2:
Nikoul – Minelayer
Chaksa – Heavy Flamethrower
Chaksa – HMG
Some highlights:
- The ‘ghost Fiday’ who appeared behind my Gao-Rael Sniper, then when it came to dice-rolls, Alessandro discovered that he didn’t have a Fiday in his particular list! *phew*!
- My Gao Tarsos catching a Djanbazan, Barid and Odalisque in a crossfire with a Makaul in flamethrower range, and the resultant shots in teh back from both sides!
- Alessandro’s Ragik who cleared out said Gao Tarsos then put me into Loss of Lieutenant by shooting the Rasail in the back
- A final turn rush from my Gao-Rael/Kamael link to secure a quadrant
Here’s a shot from around turn 2 before I went into Loss of Lieutenant:
Thankfully, due to some sneaky smoke placement, I was able to advance my Kumotail link up the board and claim more quadrants per turn than Alessandro, and so I won the game 6-2. I did however make the mistake of not going for a coup-de-grace on an enemy model, which would’ve gained me an extra objective point as it was one of my Classified Objectives! Whoops!
Round 3: Annihilation
The final round saw me face off against Stuart with his Combined Army on table 2. I reverted back to the list from game 1. For my classified objectives, I rolled Telemetry and HVT: Retroengineering.
Given the mistakes I’d made in the first two games of forgetting my Classified Objectives, I was determined that I would achieve at least one of mine this game (especially as they’re worth 2 points each in this mission).
I kind of forgot to take any pictures during this game, aside from this single shot illustrating my Clipsos’s hidden deployment:
Some highlights:
- Killing a Q-Drone and Batroid with Plasma Sniper Rifle, only to have them both resurrected, then spend many more orders trying to put them down again over the next two turns! I’ve never seen so many successful armour rolls!
- The Gao-Rael Sniper once again locking down the board and preventing the advance of a Charontid
- A Kotail trying multiple times to Forward Observe the body of an Umbra Legate, eventually spotting it after 4 attempts!
- The final turn of the game seeing a mad rush by the Kumotail link to get to the enemy HVT to get the Retroengineering Classified objective
In the end, with the kills I’d made and relatively light casualties sustained, I actually won the game 8-6, although had I not gotten the Classified Objectives, I’d have lost it 6-4, so it just goes to show how important those Classifieds are in Annihilation!
In the contest for best-painted, only 3 of us entered – myself, Peter and Mike. I’m not sure of the exact voting split, but the prize went to Mike for his superb Ariadna based on the videogame Stalker:
The prize for the painting competition was the fantastic Yojimbo boxed set – I’m sure Mike will do a fantastic job painting him up!
With the painting prize awarded, we got onto the final standings for the day. I had no idea where I’d placed, but since I’d won two out of 3 games, I was happy with my result wherever I placed, as I wasn’t last for a change!
It was with great surprise that I’d actually managed to bag third place (by way of technicality), but only just! I’d managed to out-point Stuart by 27 Victory Points! I say technicality because even though Darren had gotten first place, it had been agreed before the games started that his score wouldn’t count for the final standings since he was only a stand-in.
First prize went to Peter, which was a box of Kaplan Tactical Services, second place for Adam was the Warcor model, and I got this chap:
A really pleasant surprise – although I’d gone in fairly confident with using the Tohaa in N3, this was my first real taste of using them in proper objective-oriented missions in this edition, and I’m pleased to say I achieved the personal target I’d set myself of winning at least one game on the day!
Huge thanks should go to Darren for organising the day, and also to Jez who also helped Darren out at various points, and of course a big thank you to all of my opponents, who I hope also enjoyed their games!
So, the future for the Tohaa in N3 is looking bright!
2screens 
Very nice prizes 🙂