Pants!

That's my thoughts of my games today. I guess kinda gives the end result away :) Still, read on to see what happened....

It was more Infinity today and still at 150pts as we continue to get a feel for the rules again.

I decided to give my Pan Oceania force a go today and game up with this list....

Shock Army of Acontecimento
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Regular Lieutenant w/ Combi Rifle
Regular w/ Combi Rifle
Regular w/ Combi Rifle
Trauma-Doc w/ Combi Rifle
Palbot
Akal Commando w/ Boarding Shotgun
Bagh-Mari (Minelayer) w/ Multi Sniper Rifle
Bagh-Mari Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) w/ Combi Rifle
Bulleteer w/ Spitfire

3 SWC | 149 Points

First game up was against Phil and an Ariadna force. I think he is running a Merovingienne sectorial force.

The table:

We decided to try one of the missions in the main rulebook and, as such, we choose to play Supremacy.

The object would be to control as many quadrants as possible each turn whilst trying to take control of the console that was in each quadrant. And we'd have 3 turns.

Deployment began... both of us deploying our snipers into solid firing positions. But my Bagh-Mari feels the hairs on the back of his neck raise as he suddenly gets that ominous feeling, but can't quite figure out why...!

One of the Ariadna troopers had managed to use his camo to infiltrate onto the same roof and out of my snipers LoF. Uh oh.

Suffice to say... first turn and my sniper is dead. (I get my revenge later in the game though as all of my Regular's combine to take him down).

Phil uses the reminder of his turn to go after a couple of the consoles and position himself to hold quadrants.

My turn quickly arrives. Having lost my sniper, my only real offensive option left is the Bulleteer. Luckily the Bulleteer was in a good position.

He popped out to clear a path for my Doc to go after a console in one of the quadrants closer to me.

I then found the Bulleteer was in quite a nice position to say hello to this guy...

Even though he was dug in on the roof (not quite sure how that works...., but anyway), it wasn't enough to hide from the spitfire on my Bulleteer. One of the rounds strikes home dealing a fatal blow...

My Doc makes her move...

... but fails to capture the console. I'll have to wait until next turn now as I need to get my last troop on the table!

The Akal drops in (combat jump) to say hello...

... and then quickly moves to take out the Ariadna doctor.

Retribution is swift though as Ariadna forces combine to send some long range fire over to what could be a serious thorn in their side.. and to which they succeed.

By now, I've got 2 of the quadrant's pretty well locked up, but I've still only got 1 console to Phil's 3. I need to get more quadrants, but a number of my troops are effectively pinned down.

It's over to my Bulleteer who charges forward and splits his fire across the Ariadna Dozer & Traktor Mul destroying the Mul. The Dozer gets lucky as his armour saves the day for him.

A path has been cleared again though and my Doc can move up to contest one of the already captured consoles..

But my Bulleteer pays a heavy toll though, as retaliation from the Ariadna forces combining again blows it to pieces.

Time is running out and I need to capture another quadrant. I move my Hacker out to try and deal to a few of the remaining enemy left. If I can, then I may capture another quadrant which could be the difference.

As my Hacker moves out, a mine explodes and the blast catches him. Just. But its enough and his armour fails to save him

I finally move my Lt and one of the Regulars out to try to tempt Phil's camo'ed trooper into revealing himself, but he's too wise for that. As he stays camo'ed, the game ends and that particular quadrant becomes contested at least.

Overall,  VP result is 6 - 4 to Phil with the consoles being the difference (he won the face off to hold onto the contested one). A close result in the end and reasonably close game.

What could I have done differently? Not sure really. Phil was pretty lucky with some of his armour saves and I seemed to fail all the ones I had to make.

I'm not sure I deployed as well as I could have (both positions and facing in the case of the sniper), but deploying first meant (in hindsight) that Phil was always going to try and infiltrate one of his troopers to try and take out one of my key troops once he knew where they were. I probably needed to have my troops supporting each other better with covering LoF.

I did feel that I lacked a decent offensive option in the force, but at 150pts its hard to add in any of the Shock Army heavy infantry. I still think the extra orders were the better way to go.

Still first time that I've run the Shock Army in a long time, so I'll use that as my excuse :)

So then it was my turn to face Mark who was trying out a medium infantry heavy Nomad list.

We just played annihilation to keep it easy.

My deployment was pretty similar to the first game (I hadn't learnt my lesson at this point) except my Hacker and Bulleteer switched places.

Again I would go second and again my Sniper finds himself immediately in the firing line. This time as a Nomad trooper combat jumps in right next to him!!

My Sniper whips out his pistol and fires!

The round bounces harmlessly of the Nomad's armour. (If I had stuck with the sniper rifle... this would have been a critical hit :( )

The Nomad trooper smiles behind her mask as she ignites her flamethrower.

WOOSH! Hot flame everywhere, but miraculously my Sniper dodges out of the way!! (I think Mark had looked at the wrong model for load out her, but no matter... my dodge was a critical success).

So, slightly annoyed the Nomad trooper fires her correct weapon this time, but again the Sniper dodges! Well... technically it was an engage move...

We're now in combat. Not what Mark was expecting!

Still nothing for it. Both models get their knives out and eye each other warily. Mark spends his order to have a close combat round.

My snipers knife scratches the Nomads armour, but that's all (I won the face to face).

Determined to see the demise of my Sniper, Mark has another go. This time he wins and my armour saves the day :)

Queue a somewhat frustrated and bemused Nomad player :) Who spends another order...

My snipers knife finds a gap in the Nomads armour and her life quickly ends.

Phew I think! That was a close one. My turn next and with the rest of Mark's troops well hidden, I decide to try my luck with bringing on my own combat jump troop - the Akal.

And there's a nice spot at the back of Mark's deployment zone where I have a nice LoF against a couple of his troops..

... but here is where my luck turns....I make my combat jump roll.

I get a 12.

I needed an 11.

Crap.

Ok... how far to I disperse I ask?

16 inches comes the prompt reply.

WHAT!?

Double crap.

Under the new rules, dispersion is a fixed distance of 16 inches. No matter how much the roll is failed by.

Here's 16 inches.. (you also roll for direction and that is the direction I rolled for the dispersion)

Where I end up...

And the all too predictable result of such a dispersion...

The Akal goes down due taking a flamethrower to the face.

Right. Back to the Bulleteer then. I move him up to have a crack at one of the distant Nomads (one that was still in my range band sweet spot).

Mark decides to return fire as his reaction. Fair enough I say thinking dodge would have been the better option....

We work out the mods. Mark would need a 1 on a D20 to hit me.

Guess what he rolls...

A 1.

Which means it is a critical hit, so it negates my hits and causes an automatic wound.

Sigh.

I spend the rest of my turn getting my troops into a decent position (and out of sight of Mark's troops).

Mark moves his troops up to try and give multiple reactions if I try to do anything in my next turn.

At least there is some luck for me.... Mark's Lt. moves up completely oblivious to the mine I had deployed.

End result = one dead Nomad Lt.

And here's where things go from bad to worse for me...

My sniper gets glued..

My hacker gets shot...

There's nothing left for it though. May as well go out in a blaze of glory.

So. My Doc moves out into the same LoF as my Hacker did...

But finally some success! She takes out the Nomad remote, then charges forward and manages to take out another one of the Nomad troopers.

At this point the game is actually quite close. Both of us are one model off from being in retreat.

But I have no orders left. And my Doc is exposed in the open.

So, yeap, she dies and we end it there (I think might have technically been at the start of turn 4 of a 3 turn game, but no matter - it doesn't change the result).

Victory to Mark and a game where it was clear nothing was really going to go my way (apart from that awesome knife fight at the start :) ).

The only thing I think I should have done differently was to deploy my Hacker centrally with a supporting trooper and make a beeline for the central building. I think that may have been a rather more useful spot for him to be in.

Oh and Mark was technically a few points over the 150pt limit, so moral victory to me maybe? :)

Anyway, 200pt lists next week and another crack at a couple of the missions in the rulebook. At 200pts, I can bring on one of my favourite Pan-O heavy hitters. You'll have to wait til next to find out who it is :)

The day wasn't completely lost though. At least I managed to get a couple of nice shots of the DC-3 taking off from Ardmore earlier in the day.