The tournaments have come thick and fast recently (the reason for not getting this post out as soon as I would like). I'm off to merry Woking in Surrey where Ian runs Ibuywargames and Keith is hosting a one day three game Infinity ITS event. I hoped that this would at least give me some much needed playing time before the much bigger and scarier Totally Crit 8 event at the end of the month. 10 competitors took to the stage over three rounds. Of those taking part I knew three, brothers Alex and Nick Grey, (usually to be seen playing Drop Zone), and Ziggy, (an occasional N3 player at the club).
Above: I believe that the things hanging from the ceiling are to do with the card game Magic. I can confirm that the one on the left was not as big as it appears.
I arrived at Woking with my very inexperience vanilla Nomad army. I brought two lists, but ended up using the same one for all three games, which was:
Group One
- Spekter, Combi Rifle
- Moran, Combi Rifle, Forward Observer, (2 Crazy Koalas)
- Moran, Light Shotgun, Forward Observer, (2 Crazy Koalas)
- Tomcat, Engineer
- Tomcat, Doctor
- Interventor, Lieutenant
- Alguacil, HMG
- Alguacil, Combi Rifle
- Alguacil, Combi Rifle
- Alguacil, Combi Rifle
Group Two
- Meteor Zond
- Reaktion Zond
- Reaction Zond
- Lunokod (2 Crazy Koalas)
- Salyut
Yes, six crazy koalas, but, I was still coming to terms on how they worked, so I used them poorly during the day by either placing them wrongly or having their handlers killed before activating to the wait mode.
Game One - Fire Fight - Alex Grey - Combined Army
So the Keith decided that with three Alexs amongst the ten participants, two of them should play each other. I was pitted against Alex Grey and his alien menace.
Above: The table for game one.
The result of the game boiled down to a Sepsitor Plus weapon taking control of my Spekter in the final turn. In ARO Alex used it to kill my Lunokod and a Moran as they attempted to secure an additional panoply. If I had been more savvy and better appreciated the position of the game I would not have risked them, but then again, why comfortably win a game when you can throw it away.
When we came to calculate the final points, Alex had killed more my specialist, whereas I had killed his Lieutenant which made it 2 - 1 to me. We had opened two panoplies which didn't change the scores. Neither of us achieved our classifieds so it came down to the four victory points for more kill points scored. Alex lost 136 points and I had lost 139.............argh! A close run thing which gave Alex a 5 to 2 victory.
Game Two - Safe Area - Ziggy - Tohaa
I find Tohaa a very difficult to face as their Triads are very good at having a tool for every occasion. When you are attacking triads with their Swiss Army knife approach you need to know how to deal with them. I did not. To cut a long story short my guys threw themselves uselessly at the enemy and Ziggy was very adept at brushing them off.
The kill points were 292 versus 78, and an unsurprising 10 to nil loss. Shall we move on?
I really like Ziggy's paint scheme which really puts across their alien nature. And here are some pictures to illustrate:
Game Three - Supplies - Nick Grey - USAriadna
It was foretold that only knowing three people at the event I would play the third and final one in round three. Nick Grey was indeed my last opponent. I was very pleased to see Nick playing USAriadna, an army I knew something about.
My Spekter was a real thorn in Nick's side, and was able to take out most of the Ariadna models on the left flank (the -6 modifier for TO camo came into its own). A Moran managed to get an objective for me and bravely hid in a building hugging his prize with all the lights turned off.
Above: Spekter, (bottom left) throwing blue unconscious markers around like confetti.
Above: Somewhere in this building is a Moran.
The rest of the game concerned Alex's Devil Dog and Antipod, and a Grunt Fireteam, trying to winkle the Moran out of his hidey hole, but without success. The final score, a 7 - 1 victory to me. Hooray.
My victory secured me eighth place (my first ever top ten!!!). Three enjoyable games apart from those lame brain moments that still dog me.
Above: Prizes to the winners. [Note: This picture decides to mock me. On the table is a lovely box of Drop Fleet Commander. At the time of writing I still await my email/delivery. I am sure my time will come. Have faith Alex, have faith].
As is the tradition, I wish you all a very happy wargaming.
Alex
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