Infinity Battle Report

I fought an Infinity game with my friend Harry this week at the Christchurch Crusaders club.

We played a 250pt game, Harry with his Haqqislam and me with Yu Jing.

HAQQISLAM
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GROUP 1 (Regs: 10/Irrs: 0):

GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife (13)

NAFFATÛN Rifle + Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife (12)
  
GHULAM Doctor Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife (17)
 
2x GHULAM Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife (13)

MUYIB Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (Normal and Smoke Ammo.) / Pistol, Knife (23 | 1)

DJANBAZAN Doctor Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW (32)
  
DJANBAZAN HMG / Pistol, CCW (36 | 1.5)
 
JANISSARY Doctor AP Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW (49)

RAGIK Hacker  Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW (42 | 0.5)
  
250 Points | SWC: 3

ARMY CODE: [code]eNozMVQ1VbNQM6wxVAPCGlM1czBpACfNwOKGhmomEArMM1EzAlFGasZqhgDnkQ6L[/code] http://www.devilteam.com]Army Infinity v.3.0.

My list was  a bit different to last week, although there were some familiar faces.

YU JING
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 GROUP 1 (Regs: 8/Irrs: 2):

CELESTIAL GUARD Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife (13)


ZHANSHI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife (11)

CELESTIAL GUARD MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife (27 | 1.5)


CELESTIAL GUARD Spitfire / Pistol, Knife (20 | 1)

ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife (29 | 1.5)


SHÀNG JÍ Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Shock CCW (42)


DÀOFĚI MULTI Rifle / Pistol, Shock CCW (60)

NINJA Combi Rifle / Pistol, EXP CCW (38)


2x SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW (5)



250 Points | SWC: 4

ARMY CODE: [code]eNozNFQ1VjNXM6wxVDMAksZqxmDSBEhaqBmCxA3AEoYQeSNjNSMQZQpWB6EA8sEOtQ==

I've since realised this list is not legal as you can only take 2 celestial guards, so the list should have a Zhanshi lieutenant instead.

It was quite a treat this week as Harry jointly owns the Warmill terrain company was game testing some prototypes for some new terrain, so we were using one of the club's urban boards instead of the trench one from last week. This is a shot of deployment with markers indicating where we set up

My ninja has Thermo-Optical Camo, so deploys completely hidden from my opponent at the start of the game - he doesn't even know I have a ninja, let alone where it is!! The Daofei in the bottom left conversely is deployed as a marker saying "camo" my opponent knows there is something there, but not how hard it is (it could only be an anti-personal mine, but is in fact a hard-as-nails heavy infantry!)

We were playing a game someone else introduced me to, so I might have messed up all the rules, but basically there is a civie + 2 bodyguards in the middle of the table who will receive a data download at the end of turn 2. Both sides have to try and get this data. If there is any combat within civie's LOF he will spook and run. If this happens before end of turn 2 he will not get the data (so everyone loses!). Once spooked he moves towards the side of the table. Info can be got by synching, interogating (short skill WIP), or short skill WIP to remove his memory cube after death. Whoever gets the Info has to make it off own board edge. 6 turn limit.

 

Turn 1

Cagey movement was the order of the day, the Yu Jing spent most of the orders on the impetuous troops to get them far forward. The Celestial spitfire made a silly move-move order into the large hab unit on the right of the picture, the second move order revealing him to a Djanzaban for a long-range ARO*. One shot, one kill.


(* - An "automatic reaction order" lets your troops react to orders given to enemy troops in their own turn, its a little like "overwatch" in old versions of 40K, but everyone has it all of the time)

The second Djanzaban was taken unconscious by the rampaging Aragoto spitfire

View from the Haqq side of the board

 Celestial Sniper provides cover

In turn 2 the Haqq forces again moved into prime positions to intercept the courier and to provide covering fire, the Janissary doctor healing the Djanbazan who had got spitfired in turn 1. The Yu Jing impetuous troops again dashed forwards. The monk on the Yu Jing left got shot as he attempted to throw a smoke grenade, but the right flank exploded into life, the Aragoto went on a suicide run gunning down both Djanzabans and taking a wound off the Janissary doc without taking any return hits. Crucially though both Djanzanbans were only unconscious not dead...* The monk on this flank ran up to support and the ninja revealed himself as a marker and ran up to support as well, eventually being discovered by the Janissary as he closed in.

(* - In Infinity most models have 1 wound, when you lose that wound you go unconscious,and can be healed by doctors or some special skills. If you lose another wound while unconscious you die)


In the following Haqq turn the Naffatun ran forward and flame everyone, killing the monk and aragoto and burning the Thermo-Optically Camouflaged ninja who passed his armour roll (but lost his camo abilities due to the flames), he then attempted to flame again, but the ninja succeeded in his dodge roll and dodge into close combat with the janissary!

Things then got even more complex! A ghulam popped up from the central building and shot into the combat between the ninja and the janissary, the ninja electing to dodge. The ghulam missed by miles, but the ninja made his dodge. We then weren't quite sure what was supposed to happen as a dodge in CC seems to take you OUT of CC in the rules. This is the way we applied it, so the ninja dodged back, promptly got shot in the face by the janissary who then healed both Djanzanbans with his doctor skill!!

The suicide mission had cost a monk, a ninja and an aragoto for no Haqq losses! However it had cost all 7 of the Haqq orders this turn to deal with the threat.

Turns 4 & 5 - the Haqq Ragik dropped down at the back of the board to threaten the Yu Jing firebase (A ragik is a type of airborne deployment troop), but was taken out in the Yu Jing turn when the lone Zhanshi ducked behind the shipping crate and shot him.

The Janissary, Djanzabans and Naffatun made their way towards the target who was rapidly approaching the board edge.

Meanwhile the Daofei moved rapidly from left to right across the middle, driving ghulams back into cover, but not causing any wounds. The celestial sniper tried to pick off the Djanzaban HMG but was taken out in ARO instead!

The Haqq forces dispensed with subtlety as the clock ran down, the naffatun ran forward, round the right-hand crate and flamed the target, killing both bodyguards, the twice healed Djanzaban ran forward into cover and was promtly shot in ARO (unconscious #3).

The Daofei again ran to the right, taking out both the Djanzaban HMG and then last wound from the Janissary in consecutive turns, both to fully dead. He ended in touching distance of the target, with the Shang Ji in support.

The Naffatun ran forward and tried to flame the target and the Daofei who elected to stand and shoot, resulting in all 3 going unconscious. The Djanzanban regenerated, but was promptly shot with a critical ARO from the Shang Ji (unconsciousness #4!) he then regenerated a second time and attempted to reach the unconscious target and was again wounded in ARO! (unconsciousness #5!!)

In the Yu Jing turn the Shang Ji flamed the unconscious Naffatun and Djanzaban to put an end to his regenerating antics. The Muyib attempted to take him out with repeated speculative grenades* and although some were on target no wounds were caused, it also allowed the Shang Ji to move into full cover and into base-to-base with the unconscious target.

(* - troops with grenades can launch them parabolically to drop down on troops they can't see)

At the end of the Haqq turn we realised that Yu Jing didn't have enough orders to get the target's memory cube off the board (& were in retreat due to their losses) and Haqq were unable to retrieve the data so we declared a "winning draw/minor victory" for Yu Jing.

It was a cracking game with loads of fun little talking points, the Djanzaban regeneration/doctoring was great, real relentless intent. I found it pretty funny when my sniper who had spent the first few turns passing up ARO's and shots to avoid spooking the target finally got a clear shot on the HMG in the open, missed both double-action shots (special ammo) in their excitement and got killed by the ARO! The prototype Warmill buildings played really nicely, good balance between cover and "permeability". Hopefully a version of them will be available to buy in the near future.

Thanks for reading!

Roman Heavy Cavalry

Thanks for the comments on the recent posts, very much appreciated!

These two units are again Pendraken Imperial Romans. And again a combination of one unit I got in the 1000pt starter army and another I picked up from a friend in a bag of unwanted Romans.

As with a lot of Pendraken packs there is just the one pose in there, which can make like a little boring, I have painted up one unit with red shields and one with blue so I can tell them apart. A lot of people tend to paint small blobs of paint on the rear edge of the base so they can see which stand belongs to which unit as they move them, however I always prefer wherever possible to make slight variations in the paint job so it is obvious.

I've got another unit of the same to paint up, but as with yesterday's archers they are a 0-2 choice for Imperial Rome so the 3rd unit would only ever get use in a campaign or 2000pt scratch game, neither of which happen very often and even in a campaign the odds of getting a territory allowing you to select heavy cavalry is slim!

These guys were again quick to batch paint, but there are some routine casting errors on the horse's bridle that appear on a lot of the models which is a shame. I also think in hindsight they have a horsehair crest on top of their helmets? I've just painted it in silver...

I'm hopefully having a game of Infinity tonight, so if I can get any pictures I'll report back.

Roman Archers

I've got a fair few units of archers in my Roman force. You get one unit in the Pendraken 1000pt starter army, and I then picked up another 100 or so Pendraken figures from a friend who wasn't using them, which gave me a second unit. Finally I picked up a couple of packs of Pendraken greek archers at Colours one year. I thought with the addition of some Pendraken Roman command figures they would make great auxiliaries.

Unit 1 - "The Blues"

Both Roman auxiliary archer units

Greek/Cretan auxiliary/mercenary archers. For these I gave the command stand a complete first rank of Roman figures with the 3 command figures and a "1st archer". I wanted to make them stand out from the rest of the Roman force which is a bit homogeneous, hence the green tunics! I've still got one more unit to paint up, but to be honest as archers are a 0-2 choice in an Imperial Rome army for Warmaster Ancients I will only use the 3rd unit once in a blue moon for a 2000pt game, so it doesn't seem necessary at the moment!

The figures for both types from Pendraken are solid without being spectacular. Obviously only have one pose does make for a slightly boring job painting them, but on the flip side you can race through them batch painting. The tunics and hat brims on the greeks are nice, as there is enough recess that a base-wash-spot highlight really make them "pop".

German symmachiarii - Warmaster Ancients

Sticking with the Warmaster theme for now, these are some of my first 10mm figures, but I've never got round to taking pictures of them until now.

They are part of Pendraken's Imperial Roman starter army and are two units of German javelinmen symmachiari. I painted and based them before I had any rules or any idea, so the base size is a little too big (~45mmx20mm) and I've based them pretty densely for skirmishers. I could easily have got 4 units from these figures. I've never really been too bothered about re-basing them though. I don't tend to use them much really and I'd rather just buy some more skirmishers for Rome than rebase these.

They are nice little figures though, the pose is a little odd, below is a side on version from the Pendraken website:

But they paint up fairly quickly and Pendraken seem to use a much harder white metal mix than say Magister Militum, so the spears stay rigid and don't bend when you look at them! The main disadvantage is the single pose. However this can easily be got around with a bit of foresight. If I was going to do skirmishers (for pretty much any N/W/E European ancient's army), I'd buy one pack of each of the above mentioned Germans, the Dacian javelinmen (which I used as part of a mixed warband project) code:AD6

 & Greek javelinmen GRE10:

For £12 you would get 90 figures, in 4 different poses, all of which have javelins, bucklers and bare heads, so are pretty much indistinguishable. If you based them with 5 figures per stand (pretty normal for WMA) that is 6 units with a fair bit of variety.

Gauls - Warmaster Ancients

I'm hoping to get a bit more organised with my blogging in the future, I think I need to try and blog smaller and more often, but we'll see how it goes. I've been doing a lot of Infinity recently, but there is still a fair bit of Warmaster Ancients love around. These are my finished Gauls for my Carthage army. I'm hopeful eventually of expanding these out into an army in their own right, maybe Gauls, maybe ancient brits.

I have painted up 5 more units (15 stands) in total.

These guys are 2 units of Magister Militum gallic nobles, so in my Carthage army they are just standard warband, but if I field a full barbarian army they would be inner circle infantry with an armour save.

I've really gone to town on these and painted individual shield designs freehand, some of them have striped, or tartan effect cloaks, full works!

A super-close-up of the detail work.

I've also done a more basic job on 3 units of Pendraken Gallic warband that I picked up from the Colours wargame show for about £6 for the lot last year. Excellent bargin bin rummage!

All in all that gives me 10 units of allied gauls for Carthage, or 8 units of warband and 2 units of nobles for barbarians