You join me for the third, and final, part of my GamesExpo 2016 report.
Above: An excellent start to Expo day three.
Today is Infinity N3 tournament day. After two days of 'hard' gaming I was beginning to flag. But today is a particular favourite, Infinity N3. It was hosted by Peter Arcs and for the TO's view of the event go to his excellent blog Lead Rising.
Brave Ed was taking part with me in his first Infinity N3 tournament. Mike, Dan and Joe had a further wander around the NEC before driving home and I understand that Mike was the victorious football manager again, this time versus Dan.
The Infinity participants and organisers had laid on some excellent tables. See below:
Details of my USAriadna army are included in my post from 2nd June. A quick summary; camo, grunts, Van Zant.
Game One - Ian Wood (The Wargame Trader) - Combined Army - Mission: Antenna Field
Much like when you play someone from OB at a Drop Zone tournament, playing Ian (Infinity rules guru) at Infinity tournament is fraught with other competitors coming over to ask Ian rule queries. Not really his job at a tournament, but he is to much of a nice guy to direct them towards the TO. Anyway, any time that we may have lost for polite rule enquiries was dealt with my opening move and Ian's opening ARO. My recklessly placed link team of 5 Grunts (HMG, sniper rifle, medic and two forward observers) moved, and were instantly ARO'd by a Notifer armed with a missile launcher. When the dust had settled, only the HMG and one of the FOs were left. Just for good measure, a 112 was also removed as a casualty. I managed to deal with the offending Notifer. However, my HMG also soon perished, and the odds lengthened even further on my chances of winning the game.
The game still had some fun moments; Ian's Umbra Samaritan approached his own Imetron mistaking if for a antenna.
Above: Ian's Imetron on the right. One of the antennas on the left. No...........wait a minute. See it is an easy mistake to make.
After the demise of the link team, the major action concerned the movement of Ian's link team of Unidrons and an Umbra Legate, the latter, with an obvious death wish. Despite Ian's attempts to put the Legate into perilous situations, the dice decided that the model should lead a charmed life. By the time that the Legate finally fell the game had come to an end with Ian securing a comfortable 10 to 1 win and on his way to an eventual fourth place in the event.
Above: Our game recorded for the history books......twice.
Game Two - Ben - Corridor Nomads - Mission: Supplies
The AD Combat Jumping Van Zant can be brilliant. If you don't do anything stupid when positioning him, the chances are that he will take someone by surprise and score a few points. Unless you don't do anything stupid.
Ben won the initiative role off and chose to go first. He quickly secured the supplies from the central supply crate and with the application of smoke, he had control of a second. For the third, he sent a link team of Morlocks with Senoir Massacre. However, two dodging Foxtrot Rangers and a Grunt using a shotgun, slowed him down, and in my second turn I secured the final supplies for myself.
Ben's models scurried away to hide, and the opportunity to use Mr Zant arose. I could blame my tiredness, but evidence suggests that I would make the same error even if I was bright as a button. I placed my model, but didn't go around Dan's side of the table to do it, and therefore, missed the camo marker which dispatched Zanty in quick time (shoulders sag).
Above: An unconscious Zanty. The offending camo marker can just be seen behind the right hand petrol pump.
There was still a slim chance for me to effect the result. A third Foxtrot Ranger and a Grunt with a Flamethrower made an attempt to get a Template shot on both of Ben's models holding the supplies. Unfortunately, the dice were not kind and the final result was a 6 to 2 victory to Ben.
Game Three - Greg - Tohaa - Mission: Highly Classified
The HVT is one of those models whose placement on the battlefield is crucial. Has anyone completed a thesis on what is a good place? Perhaps not, but at the conclusion of our game, Greg and I, were both agreed he had placed his well.
The 'community' classified cards were, HVT Designation, Test Run, Sabotage and HVT Espionage. My own choice of cards wasn't helpful (No hackers in your list Alex?) so I was stuck with Data Scan. My problem, Greg's HVT was hidden away brilliantly, with me pretty much needing to kill his whole army to get to it. My HVT was a more easy proposition.
In my previous Tohaa games (Daniel at Woking (who was at this event, and won) and John at Tunbridge Wells), I had been smashed. This time, I got some luck. But not the luck that would get me even close to wining the game. It ended with me losing 7 points to 1. Killing Tohaa was not a problem and by turn two Greg was down to just 65 points and flirting with retreat. But, with three of my five classifieds concerned with the HVT, I couldn't get a good line of sight to it without being exposed to many incoming shots. I succeeded at Sabotage, but nothing else (Greg was not going to shoot at my Traktor Mul (whatever I did with it), so that I might achieve Test Run).
This game was as annoying as the previous game had been frustrating. This was not down to my opponents, but rather a combination of unfortunate circumstances and my less than impressive generalship.
During the game Greg dealt with one of model by rolling three dice, needing fives, and achieved three critical hits! [The percentage geeks out there might want tell me what the chance of this is].
I was disappointed with the results. I came second from bottom. On another day perhaps the dice could have been kinder (my dice didn't overburden me with crits), and my list of silly mistakes could easily have been fewer in number. Ed, got a draw and two losses. Not at all shabby for his first ever Infinity tournament, and for what it's worth, finished higher than me. Perhaps my exploration into the world of the Nomads may result in better for the future. Or perhaps not. We shall see.
Happy wargaming to you all.
Alex.
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