The 'Hacking' Nomad List and the Escalation League

My tournament faction has been vanilla Nomads for quite some time now, but recently I changed my approach. Instead of the usual 'shoot, shoot, bang, bang' list, I ventured into a different strategy of aggressive hacking. This has opened up some new and interesting possibilities, and where it may not have lead to a massive increase to my victory percentage, it has given my opponents a great deal more to think about in our games. 

Above: No need of printed lists for Joe or Richard.

Infinity N3 Escalation League - Missions Rejig

Amongst others, I must thank Nate, Dan and Mike, for their comments and changes to the missions below. The agreed view was that they needed to more closely mirror real ITS, but still allow scoring on both sides and assist new players to learn the game. Two missions from the original four have been totally changed, and the other two have been tweaked. Mission four now allows a HVT and uses the classified deck.

Above: Ahh. Happy Infinity gamers.

40K 8th Edition - First Impressions

Thanks to my wargaming chum, Dave G. I finally got round to my first full game of 40K 8th edition. Apart from the odd game of Killteam, 40K in its 7th version, disappeared from my wargaming radar. The diary clash back in May between our club's own 40K tournament and a nearby Infinity ITS event was no contest for me. I had put up a metaphorical sign up against GW's flagship game; 'no fun to be had here'.

Above: Dave setting up.

Infinity N3 Escalation League - Missions

Enough people in the club have picked up Infinity now for me to take it to the next stage, an escalation league. I know that some of the Infinity newbies at the club have been playing full 300 point games, however, now that we have got past the Critical Engagement tournament and Dan's well received Blood Bowl league is reaching its conclusion, time is ripe to for those who have been left behind to catch-up. 

This also coincides with my attempts to use a new faction, Haqquislam. I have played two full 300 point games so far, but it has been all to clear, that I need to learn my new faction by taking baby steps. (The pictures accompanying this blog come from a recent Ibuywargames event in Woking, their biggest yet, with 20+ players. We shall not dwell on how well I did. The most recent Totally Crit podcast covers the event).

Above: A room crowded with ITS excitement.

Critical Engagement: So Alex how did it go?

Saturday 8 July brought 20 stalwart Drop Zone Commander gamers to Chessington, Surrey, for the annual Critical Engagement, 1000 point, 4 game tournament. With preparation finally over, we had now arrived. On the Friday evening I had snuck in a finally practice game against Stephen (last year's event winner). I managed a narrow one point victory, in a game where his Alexander put five wounds on my Thunderstorm in one activation (quite a feat) before the resin tea-tray was finally blown to smithereens. The next morning came around, and before long Mike, Dan, Ed, Joe and myself were eating a pre-tournament breakfast.

Above: Player registration. 'Waive for the camera'.

GamesExpo Day 4 - To boldly go.

The final GamesExpo day arrived all to quickly. However, the four of us had signed up for the spaceship bridge simulator, and were excitedly intrigued as to what was in store.

Above: A morning's game of Tiny Epic Western whilst we awaited our trip to the stars.

GamesExpo Day 3 - Infinity 3 game Tournament

And onto day 3 of our Expo experience. Board games took a back seat as Joe and Ed took part in the Drop Fleet tournament and Mike and myself went off to play at the Infinity N3 ITS event. As with previous years Peter Acs (Lead Rising Blog) and Ian Wood (The Wargames Trader) were hosting the latter. This was Mike's first Infinity tournament and a very brave little soldier he was too. He took his Yu Jing, and I took along my long suffering Nomads.

Above: Gamers for as far as the eye could see.