Infinity Gaming Weekend in Izmir

Ok so another weekend has past, but instead of sitting around painting, I set off to the land of Izmir where my regular opponent resides. Oh and it was his birthday, but I think the Infinity gaming takes precedence, more so since he forgot to give his birthday speech, and thus his birthday did not happen.. or so he says..

So with a quick flight, and a long bus ride from the airport, I am off to a night of drinking to kick off the weekend, and to put ourselves on an even keel for the next mornings games. It has to be said that beer is the great equalizer in these matters..

Onto the games.. for anyone who is not in the know, Infinity is a sci-fi skirmish game brought to us from Corvus Belli and most of the information about them can be found here at their website. The normal rules are set up for straight 1 vs 1 fights, where the person who takes out more of their opponent is deemed the winner. Although this is fun in its own right, many of the fans of Infinity have gone further to create scenarios specific to Infinity to introduce new challenges and move the game away from straight gun fights, where the person with the best location wins.

For these fan created scenarios, you can find them here in the forums. As you can see, not only are they created by the fans, but they are also updated, reviewed, and play tested by fans of Infinity. Making the forum a great resource for both new players and veterans alike.

So onto our games.. never marked down what the rosters were exactly, but the highlights from the games can be seen below:

Game 1 was a simple 200 pt game.. this was meant to get us back into grips with the game itself. This game seemed to take forever, and not just because I was losing. :) A refresher was just what the doctor ordered, and allowed us to remember which of our units we know how to use, and which ones still need some more practice. It was here that I remembered that I don't like Ariadna's camo skills, and that Nomads should not do frontal assaults. Nothing eventful occurred aside from trying to remember the rules and having a few "oh sh1t" moments..

Game 2 was much better.. though the outcome was in dispute due to equal equal mission points at the end, however I had 2 things on my side that pushed the result into my side.. 1) More primary mission points, and 2) There was no enemy models left on the table and I had killed them all :). It was here that we learned the power of HMGs on Total reaction Zoids. A common sight in that game was my opponent checking to see if he was in retreat or not as shown here. We both played with some risky moves, such as I AD:Combat Jumped 3 Hellcats, 1 with HMG to his deployment zone. From here, I was able to place 1 wound on each of his Vet Kazaks with HMGs, and taking out his Scotsman. However they died in the return fire. From here, I followed up with the Tsyklon with spitfire, and over 2 orders, took out the Vets with some very very lucky rolling. From here, it was a constant state of checking if he was in retreat as this was a 300 pt game, but losing these models cost him 122 pts. Ouch! Final moment was the HMG Reaktion Zoid making a few orders in the last turn to race to his deployment zone, spot, and then gun down his last 2 models, while dying in the process.

At this point we spent the remainder of the evening discussing the result of game 2, checking the forums for updates to the scenarios ( which was posted that more primary points = win!!! ).. and then drinking at a local bar to again level out the playing skills for the following morning.

Game 3.. all I can remember from this was Nomad + mass camo = lose :( That being said, Spektors with Multi Sniper Rifles in TO:Camo are pretty cool, but are a glass cannon. This game went back and forth quite a bit throughout, as the beginning 2 rounds saw most of the Nomads being wiped out, while the second half of the game being quite a few Ariadna's being taken out, including the Vet Kazak in a lucky dice roll versus the Intruder Lt.

Game 4 is where I think I began to understand how to use Nomads.. regardless of the fact that the Ariadna list was a fantasy list full of characters, I think I have found the recipe for Nomads that works for me. It is also probably the only list I can remember from my side out of the 4 games. My list was simple, 3 Morlocks, Chimera + 3 Pupniks, Interventor, 2 Reaktion Zoids with HMGs, 1 Tsyklon with Spitfire, Senior Massacre, Bran the Monkey Man, Para-medic Alguaciles. Most of this list never got used, but the tactic was working very well.

Morlocks ran in front due to impetuous mentality, but threw smoke for their second short order. The complete screen of smoke wrecked havoc on the Ariadnas as this limited their ability to see key targets. With cover down, REMs and WBs alike ran forward. Objectives for me in this mission ( being one of the only games I remembered what they were from the start ) was triangulation and collect. Meaning, collect cubes from dead enemies, and place markers in 3 out of 4 corners. The smoke tactic really helped my Chimera + Pupniks gain serious ground across the field, before jumping through a window, and slaughtering all that hide inside. Even with being blasted with shotguns at short range, flamers and the like, their hyperdynamics ( and the Chimera's "normal dynamics" ) allowed them to live through. All I can say is that if they ever reach close combat, the opponent is dead.

By turn 2 it was pretty much a victory, except for the Ariadna bringing a AD:Combat Jump troop up from the rear, and taking out my LT. Causing my turn 3 to be nothing more than selecting a new LT, and waiting for AROs to occur. Once that occurred though, and another model was felled by the Chimera's I was able to collect the Cubes from all the dead in the building, move Bran to spike a marker, and have another marker placed in my own deployment to gain 5 pts in this game, including all primaries due to cubes. I think more of these type of lists will be included in the future, and my Chimera and Pupniks have deserved to be painted up.

The other highlight from this game was a Reaktion Zond holding my left flank and killing everything that it came into contact with, while saving against all shots against it. It too will get a shiny new paintjob soon enough.

All in all though, it was a great weekend of gaming.. more so brought on by the lack of birthday speech from my mate.. though I suspect I have not seen the last of that conversation. Next such weekend will be next month when he travels up to Istanbul to return the birthday favor.

Now back to regular painting schedule in the meantime..