Infinity - 'A larger font please Corvus'.

 I am the first to appreciate that me writing a blog about Infinity N3 rules is a little rich, and is tempting fate to poke me in the eye*.  Countless, are the times that I have confidently given a rules pronouncement and been proven wrong (sorry Mike). I will hope, that whatever mistakes the next few paragraphs contain a good willed reader will attempt to rectify them. Thank you.

(*If you want to read a blog with a profession approach to rules interpretation visit Peter Acs brilliant Lead Rising Blog).

Above: There's something in there somewhere.

(*However, I will say that sometimes the mistake it is not all my own fault. For instance, in a recent Infinity game I used the Zsalamdra Tag for the first time. Well, the Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon does have five shots, but it has two shooting profiles, and only the burst one profile has DA special ammo, not the burst five profile, which is AP and Shock. (Sorry, Ziggy, but you should have won that game). In my defence I shall make a small request to Corvus Belli, please can we have a larger font on the army lists please). 

Smokin'

It is odd, that something as impossibly useful in a skirmish game as smoke, is so rare in the army lists. Even rarer is a specialist with smoke. I wonder why the impetuous troops receive it on their utility belt, whereas troops who should know better, stare hopelessly at an enemy fire lane asking themselves, 'if only there was a cheap piece of equipment that could allow me to get over to the other side of the street and avoid becoming so much Swiss cheese?' Hold on. I'll just wait for my slightly deranged colleague* with his smoke grenades to arrive'. 

(*Morlocks for my beloved Nomads fulfil this role. I appreciate that Jaguars also have smoke grenades, but they also become a little unhinged should they cause a wound. My Intruder (MSV 2 Visor) and his Jaguar friend are such a permanent partnership in my vanilla list, people have begun to talk).

Even less rare is the smoke grenade launcher. Again, Morlocks come to my rescue and I can try and attempt to give a Tomcat some smoke cover before they walk onto the table edge, apparently oblivious to all the carnage, death and destruction around them.

Ok, I can't put this off any longer. Let's see how much I can be corrected on looking at smoke in Infinity. In these next few examples, I am looking at how Smoke effects the decision of which ARO to take. I am ignoring other modifiers, such as range, cover, camouflage etc. For the sake of simplicity.

First smoke needs to be in play.

Above: The Jaguar (left: Active player) approaches an Alguacile (right: Re-Active player). The Alguacile declares an ARO shoot, and the Jaguar declares a smoke dodge......

Above: .....which is successful. The Smoke template is placed and remains in place until the end of the active player's turn. 

Above: In his next order the Jaguar is going to make the most of his Smoke. He declares a full order Intuitive attack (WIP roll) with his chain rifle, leaving the Alguacile to decide between shooting (-6 modifier for Zero Visibility Zone, or dodging with a -3 modifier due to the template weapon attack). 

Above: Next order, and the Jaguar's friend, an Intruder, appears (with his smoke ignoring Multispectral Level 2 Visor), and the Alguacile has the same two choices as before, to shoot or dodge. 

But if the Intruder decides to move for his second short skill, then neither the Alguaciles' shooting attack nor a dodge can occur (because, if the Intruder doesn't shoot, the Alguacile has no line of fire, and so cannot react with either shooting or dodging). 

Above: In the next example, the Alguacile is a member of a four man link team, which grants Sixth Sense Level 2. The Intruder declares idle, leaving the link team to decide upon their ARO.

They could all declare a dodge, or, due to Sixth Sense Level 2 (which ignores the Zero Visibility Zone for models being shot at), the link could also declare a shooting attack back at the Intruder, but without the -6 modifier.

Now, if the Intruder declares his shots at one or more link team models, each one targeted can shoot back as normal (1 shot in ARO, and one extra burst for being in a four man link). But only by models who are targeted!

My last remark on this relates to Visors. Although Multispectral Level 2 Visors can look through smoke, they do have an Achilles heal; White Noise. Using a Hacker to place a White Noise template in front of a Visor wearing model, you reverse the tables, and your Visor wearing model has the same issues as suffered by the Aguacile. But this time, the Aguacile is unaffected by White Noise and ignores it for its line of fire. 

Above: Time for the Intruder to make a tough decision.

You all have a fun wargaming time.

Alex