NOVA Open Infinity Primer Tournament, June 2nd

So, I just finished the last of my Merovingians, which means that my Ariadnan forces as a whole are complete. I will post pictures once I get a camera that’s better than my phone. In the mean time…

We will be having a mini-tournament this weekend, to playtest some of the concepts for the NOVA Open Infinity Tournament, now completely on Sunday, September 2 (website here). The tournament this weekend will be three rounds at 250 points. There has been a LOT of discussion on the Corvus Belli forums (most notably here) on how many points we should have the tournament at. It seems like a lot of people prefer 200, 250 or 300 points in equal measure. We chose 250, not only as a happy medium, but it allows for a player to bring a TAG or some good heavy infantry while still having to make some choices.

I listed tournament objectives here before, but I thought I would restate them before the event. As general guidelines:

·         Each round is strictly win/loss achieved after six rounds, or until one player’s force is off the table.
·         Each round has a primary and a secondary objective. Players who win the primary objective win the game. If the primary is tied, move on to the secondary, and whoever wins the secondary wins.
·         If both are tied, move on to who has more points survived (this was per a suggestion from the Adepticon) – this does not include unconscious models. If these values are tied, then the game is tied - both players must drink a shot of alcohol of the TO’s choice (rules are rules).

Objective 1: Advance

Divide the board into four quadrants lengthwise. Deployment zones for each player constitute two of the four quadrants, and the other two are separated by the midfield line.

Stronger presence is indicated by number of points in a quadrant. Earn the highest point value possible (i.e. if a player has a stronger presence in two quarters, take the quarter that awards the higher points)

·         stronger presence in the quarter-field between your deployment zone and the midfield (1 point)
·         stronger presence in the quarter-field between your opponent's deployment zone and the midfield (2 points)
·         stronger presence in your opponent's deployment zone (3 points)

Objective 2: Collect

Leave unconscious and dead models on the board as they fall. To collect cubes/documents, a model must be in base to base contact with an unconscious/dead enemy model, and perform a short movement skill (succeeds automatically).

·         Earn a point (up to 3 max) for retrieving a Cube/Document off of an enemy

Objective 3: Degrade

·         Kill more of your opponent's SWC than he killed of yours - 1 point
·         Own more SWC than your opponent by endgame - 1 point
·         Kill your opponent's original lieutenant - 1 point

Round 1

Primary – Advance
Secondary – Collect

Round 2

Primary – Degrade
Secondary – Advance

Round 3

Primary – Collect
Secondary – Degrade

Results will hopefully be posted next week. Feel free to play these missions on your own – just roll a d6 for which mission setup you play (I know, d6 = dirty). Plenty of armchair generals have their opinions, but I’d love to hear some actual testimonies on the missions.

As a final note, we have a few last minute cancellations due to unforeseen events, so we’ve got three spots open (two if I step in as a ringer). If anyone lives in the DC Metro area and free this Saturday from 10am to 5pm, we will be gaming, drinking beer and enjoying the weather. Send me an email at laegaire AT gmail.com, and I’ll send you the specifics.

Weekly Infinity Update

What've I been up to?

After Adepticon, I got bitten by the building bug big time.  Also got bit by another sort of bug that caused persistent and uncomfortable respiratory issues (but we won't go there).  As a result, I didn't really make any progress on any figures.  Right now my workbench is covered with two magnetized IG Hellhounds, an IG Demolisher, an IG Valdor, 5 Future Cars, and 10 Technocrates.  So- in regards to the Infinity stuffs...

 The Future Cars from Antenocitis Workshop (see earlier post) were coated with Mr. Surfacer 500.  This served to even out any imperfections and also provide more tooth for the subsequent coats of acrylic paint.  Resin loves to chip off weak paints (read- without solvents!).  After the Mr. Surfacer I went ahead and used a brown gradient for all the windows.  It took about an hour, start to finish, with my airbrush and Tamiya acrylics.  Each car was then sealed with Testors Glosscoat.  The windows were then masked with painter's tape and the Spinners painted with Taimya spray blue and the Future Car painted with Tamiya Mica Red.  The Spinners then got two lighter highlight coats of blue.  As expected, once the tape came off, so did some of the paint beneath.  Fortunately it wasn't too bad and I was able to touch it up.  I've only pulled 5 of the cars out of the 10, and right now I'm adding black washes to the panel lines and black paint as a base coat for the tires and undercarriage.

The technocrates are proceeding pretty well.  I'm something of a perfectionist (read- anal retentive) so I really want this to come out nicely.  As with the Future Cars, I scrubbed the crates prior to priming.  Since they're less delicate, I literally scrubbed them, using a toothbrush and Simple Green.  Then I washed them in soap and water.  Then I hit them with Mr. Surfacer.  Then I used Armory Black paint.  Overkill?  No.  After airbrushing the basic grey color and some blue/gray highlights on the top panels, I masked off areas around the horizontal panels with low-tack painter's tape, airbrushed the colors I wanted, then CAREFULLY removed the tape.  Result?  Still lost a few chips of paint even after all the prep work.  Honestly, just a few tiny specs, so I can say I'm "OK" with it.  I'll probably have to airbrush the short ends the same way as the long panels, but that's for another day.  I'm thinking- decals for logos and insignia, but here's what I have thus far.

The photo shows my resin crates under the papercraft templates.  I've got about 20 resin copies that I'll be offering for sale in the near future.  My hope is to have the cars, the crates, and all the other bits and pieces of terrain ready for action at the NOVA Open.

Yu Jing Works In Progress

 I've been working on a couple Infinity figures from an earlier generation - with some scale differences. Apparently these were some of the early models to come out for the Infinity Yu Jing range. They weren't the first though - there is one god-awful Shaolin Monk model that was included in the first Yu Jing starter pack. This one is a later sculpt. Seems that Corvus Belli was working on a heroic scale in those days and has since scaled down to more lifelike sculpts. This monk stands a whole head taller than current models in power armor. I'm not bothered though, he's a great model. 

Even though he could be passable as a finished model, I'm not satisfied with a couple things, like his flowing orange robes and his chain rifle, so I'm going to be working on those before declaring him finished. His companion below is an odd model. She's doing a flip, which seems like a good idea but as a model, it's a bit strange. See most models have a focal point - the head. This is where a lot of the character sits and provides the viewer with a centered point. This monk model has no focal point so your eyes sort of wander and get lost. You're not sure where to center yourself. And the painter has nothing to really embellish with detail. 

The Gui'Lang Skirmisher on the other hand is a great dramatic sculpt. I've painted him in muted tones with Khaki and Chocolate brown. He's almost done though. In games he's been doing ok, but he isn't the hero I thought he would be. Armor 1, even with Camo Level 2, does not provide much protection when the bullets start flying. Though I expect him to be a regular sight in all my lists. 

Sneak Preview

Not exclusive to Remote Presence, but we thought we would share it anyway. The upcoming Mercenary TAG from Corvus Belli. There is some Battlefoam promotion with this, for Infinity's sake let's hope it does real well.

I think TAGs really help make Infinity unique and add the spectacle of the game - everyone should have one! Here's to hoping we get more great TAGs over the next year or so.

Everybody was Kuang-Shi Fighting!

 Another post celebrating a awesome time at Adepticon.  First- a photo of (some of) the players and organizers.  John, the TO, is second from the far left, with his back to the camera.  Two of our regular crew are also pictured here.  Sure, we didn't get the giant conference hall / ball-room, but we also didn't get gamer stank.

Next batch of armies-  This is Tim's Yu Jing force.  Sadly, the vivid green boxtop made it rather difficult to get a good photo.  Bad Tim! Bad Tim!  Doesn't make much difference, since his Su Jian has already been featured on the blog.  He just needs to post pics of his more recently completed figures...

Lost Cateran brought his Aleph army... no, just kidding, it's his Ariadne force.  Check a few posts back to read his battle reports.

Kevin G brought his Nomads.  Good natured to the end, G took the far opposite of first place and walked away with an Inquisitor Sketchbook and Warhammer Fantasy paperback for his pain.  He seemed quite pleased, though on the Infinity Forum he posted a photo of a baby seal...

Adepticon Infinity Armies

First and foremost, I have to say the Infinity tournament at Adepticon was great fun.  Kudos and thanks to John and Co. for running it so well.  I won't bore anybody with battle reports (yet), but will go ahead and post some photos of the armies that showed up to play.

My first opponent, Andre, brought his Nomad army all the way in from Germany.  Andre teaches demo games back home and was helpful in setting me straight with some of the rules that I had been fuzzy on.  I had to apologize several times for being so slow in round 1.

In round 2, I faced off against Milan's Kazaks.  I learned the hard way how tough Dog Soldiers can be, and how chain guns can burn Kuang Shi out of trees with relative ease.  See that hot medic in the middle of the photo?  Sexy, but deadly- to her own troops.  Apparently Milan lost not one, but two of his own troops to her failed medical rolls.

Final opponent was Brian, the younger and more devious brother of Lost Cateran.  I played this game a bit more aggressively, but wound up losing due to a crap close combat roll by my Ninja and really awful deployment of my Yaokong.  Oops.

This was the army I took.  Their performance was middling, but apparently their livery was well received.

Lost Cateran Game 3 vs Corregidor

Game #3 was Holding the Prisoner, against Nomads. The goal was to rescue your own hostage being held by your opponent, while still holding on to your own hostage. The Hostage was Impetuous, Irregular, and belonged to their own Combat Group.

Game #3 Setup, with Hostages on either side

He had first turn, which he spent moving his Alguacile Linked team forward and discovering my Uxia McNeil. While she attempted to dodge, and get into cover, the Alguaciles finally took her out, as well as two of my Caterans (#2 and #3). He also pushed forward his Sputnik to back up his Alguaciles (I assume it was a Sputnik, since I never received a list from him).

I spent pretty much my entire turn picking off his Alguacile Linked team with my two remaining Caterans. I was also able to pull off a shot against his Sputnik, which killed him. I’m quite amazed as to how well my Caterans take out TAGs and Remotes. They’ve got quite the body count in that regard.

On his turn 2, he pushed his Tomcat onto the board, and proceeded to lay three mines right around the corner from my Galwegian #1, effectively hemming him in. He also put down suppressive fire with his Moran, and one Alguacile moved to my left flank.

My Wallace climbed up the platform with the helicopter on it (yes, that’s a helicopter) and shot at the Alguacile on the flank, killing her. The Moran’s suppressive fire hemmed my Cateran #1 in, so he moved forward to try to pick off the Tomcat. Instead, the Tomcat’s mine blew up, and killed the Cateran. Wallace pushed forward and proceeded to try to climb down from the roof of the platform. Rolled a 20 on his Physique roll, and he took a wound. He attacked the Tomcat in close combat and killed him.

My opponent sent his sole remaining Alguacile to kill Wallace, which wasn’t difficult as he had already taken a wound. This of course made all my troops impetuous, which proved to be a problem for holding the prisoner. The guard holding the prisoner is only allowed to make short movement skills- anything more and the prisoner/hostage is allowed to escape. Therefore, this allowed for my hostage to escape.

Well, I wasn’t going to have any of this. With my last turn, I allowed my Galwegian #3 to retreat, and shot at the hostage with a Chain Rifle from my Galwegian #2, killing the hostage. There was no way I was going to recapture the hostage with Irregular Impetuous troops, so I decided to gain the +25 points by killing the hostage, and deprive my opponent of his +50 points for having the hostage return to his deployment zone.

It was a tactically challenging game, and it was my only loss during the tournament. My opponent played a good game, and clearly knew what he was doing.