The road to Season 10: Xenotech starts at Wayland Games in Hockley, Essex.  Good turn-out of 12 players, some local, but also some Yuan Yuans AD: Combat Jumping from the Hydra and Thomas mercenary companies (and you think Ikari has a bad rep!).

The missions were: Highly Classified, FrostByte and Engineering Desk.  The objective room is back!  Each table had an 8”- 8” infinite height objective room for each of the three missions.  We were also using the new Classified Deck on EXTREME mode!  Thanks to an excellent WebAp, we were able to draw our classifieds on our phones!

Some great tables, especially the Antenocities Workshop stuff from the Thomas’s!

I’ve only managed to get to this venue a couple of times as the public transport links to Hockley are a mess due to the CrossLink upgrades.  Now I have a car, so I’m able to get out more to tournaments without relying on Rail.  It also means I get to take my NeoTokyo table up to tournaments.  It was a straight forward 1 hour and 30 minute run up to Hockley from Ashford, Kent – through monsoon like rains…

Wayland Games has great setup with a huge number of gaming tables and multiple events on.  They have a nice café serving snacks, drinks and hot food (dogs, burgers and nacho’s).  Their stock is also really impressive with a large Infinity section.  The only negative about the venue is the tables, which are in long benches, so you have to walk all the way round all the tables to get to the other side, but that’s only a minor issue, and Infinity players are great at helping each other with ARO’s, moving miniatures and other stuff, which is what makes the game great.

Wayland has a good-sized Infinity group and manages to get between 8-12 players in most tournaments, although they sometimes get capped at 12 due to other events at the shop, only allowing them 6 tables.

Thanks to EssexDave our TO and WarCor for the day for organising and getting store credit prizes!

The Tables

 

My Lists

I decided with this tournament to really push with two high order count lists.  Maxing out on Kuang Shi and aiming for 20 orders.  There are two ways to go about this.

Option 1 – Placed 4 Kuang Shi and a Celestial Guard with Kuang Shi Control Device in each combat group. Downside of this is you have to pay out for 2 CG’s – Total cost 66pts and 1 SWC for 5 orders in each combat group.

Option 2 – Place 8 Kuang Shi and a Celestial Guard with Kuang Shi Control Device on one combat group, along with a killer unit like a Rui Shi or Su Jian. 53 Points, 0.5 SWC, 9 Orders.  The disadvantage of this is, what happens when the killer unit dies?  You just have the 8 Kuang Shi and Celestial Guard left.

One tactic I used with both lists is I started with one group of Kuang Shi in a Core Fireteam with the Celestial guard.  This way I could ignore their Extreme Impetuous orders.  I could then fire out smoke grenades at burst 2 on 17’s in 16”. Great for covering fire-lanes and setting up the Rui Shi.  Down side of this is it cost a command token if I went first to change the link team (or 2 command tokens to switch between the primary fire team and Kuang Shi if I went 2nd)

List A

This is my specialist list, mainly for Highly Classified and FrostByte.  As you draw classifieds and then choose lists, if I drew non-specialist classifieds, I could have gone with List B for Highly Classified.

The Imperial Agent Crane Rank with Spitfire was in a Core FireTeam with X- Zhuang (specialist operative), and three Celestial Guards: Hacker, FO, and Kuang Shi Controller with smoke.  This was a great specialist team, with the Crane being a very tough hitter – taking the lead.

The best thing about the Crane was Sensor, which synergised with the Kanren Minelayer/Snifer who I kept in hold back.  If my opponent had Camo midfield skirmishers I would use Forward Deployment Level 2 to deploy at 20” and Minelayer a Snifer 8” away, then in turn one, move up and pop out another Snifer.  The crane rank the could ping them on a 20 (WP+6) to discover.  In one practice game vs TAC I pinged 7 camo tokens in turn 1! I could have made the Crane my Lieutenant  but without a Pheasant Rank with Chain of Command I though this too dangerous.  If the opponent had no Camo I wold just place the Kanren in my DZ and pretend it was a Hsein HMG which just makes people nervous!

Finishing off the list was a Husong TR HMG REM on ARO duty, a Rui Shi MSV2 REM (Loaded Assisted Fire) for shooting through smoke and a Sophotect with two YudBots (one next to each REM).

As the Cranes Fire team in CG1 and the Rui Shi was in CG2 this would give me the maximum order spread between the two.

Note: I proxied Zhanying for some Celestial guards as I have only 3 at the moment.  Looking forward to getting the SWC box

[ERRATA – Ooops, turns out the Imperial Agent Crane Rank with Spitfire, doesn’t have Sensor…. only the MultiRifle version! Shows you shouldn’t assume anything and actually ready the profiles]
ISS Highly Classified List A
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GROUP 1 10 4
CRANE IMPERIAL AGENT (X Visor) Spitfire, 2 Nanopulsers / Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 54)
CELESTIAL GUARD Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13)
CELESTIAL GUARD (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
XI ZHUANG Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, MadTraps / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
CELESTIAL GUARD Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

GROUP 2 9 1 4
RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20)
KǍNRÈN Minelayer Boarding Shotgun, Chain-colt, Sniffer / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 27)
SOPHOTECT Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31)
YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
HÙSÒNG Yaókòng HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
WARCOR (Sixth Sense L1) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

5.5 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

List B

This was the heaving hitting non-specialist team for FrostByte.  Since your data tracker can activate the heating consoles, specialists aren’t needed for the mission (just the classifieds).  I decided to take the Zhanying Hacker as he had D-Charges (to blow up my opponents Heaters).  ISS has only one DA weapon (Ninjas with pH12) so has a tough time destroying the Heating Units.  This also gave the Wu Ming some protection from Hackers.  I had four Wu Ming: HMG for dealing out damage, Heavy Rocket Launcher for ARO duty, and 2 SMG/Chain rifle to get up close and personal (they are also dirt cheap at 25 and one was my Data Tracker).

Combat group 1 was rounded out by a Fire Team Duo of CSU’s (Cheap orders and one 12 point specialist operative), a Chaiyi Yaokong Flash Pulse for 8pts on ARO, my Celestial Guard LT (hidden in a building) and a Forward /Deployment Level 2 Kanren Killer Hacker, for dealing with and skirmishing Hackers.

Combat group 2 was just a hoard of Kuang-Shi powering the Rui Shi and a Celestial Guard to pop out smoke cover.

Although not well suited for Highly Classified, if I drew certain objectives, then this list could have stepped in!  It is a tough list, but lacks the Sophotect to do ENG or DOC rolls on the Rui Shi or Wu Ming, but Sophie was too expensive if I wanted to get 20 orders in!

ISS FrostByte
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 10
ZHÀNYING Hacker (Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 32)
WÚ MÍNG HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 39)
WÚ MÍNG Heavy Rocket Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 33)
WÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Duo) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
WÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Duo) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
KǍNRÈN Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 29)
CELESTIAL GUARD Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
CSU (Specialist Operative) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2 10 8
CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Game 1

• Mission: Highly Classified
• Opponent: Rob “Bobman”
• Faction: Nomads
• List: A

Typical 1^stround draw!  Rob and I had played quite a few games over the last couple of months!  I have to say, Rob had by far the upper hand on victories, and is a great player who always has his eye on the mission objectives (and not just chewing up the enemy).  But I managed to get a win out of our last game (400 point FrostByte)! This game was seriously on!

Before list selection we “drew” classifieds on my iPhone:

• Experimental Drug
• Rescue
• DataScan
• Telemetry

I won the initiative and decided to take 1^stturn.  Rob took deployment.

My List B was driven by my Crane, Celestial Guard Fire Team Core.  Rob was playing a vanilla nomad list, with influences from Tunguska units. Infact his list was a slimmed down version of the 400 point lists he had played in our last game, so I had a good understanding of what was about to go down!

Turn 1 ISS

I started with one my groups of 4 Kuang Shi in a link with a Celestial Guard, so only 4 of my Kuang Shi generated Impetuous orders and ran up the table but generated no ARO’s.

My FD Level 2 Kanren Minelayer started off by moving up in cover using a couple of orders and placing a Sniffer in 8” of the prone camo maker on a roof top at 16” (so that was a FD Intruder then).

My CG Hacker put up Assisted Fire on the Rui Shi and then I formed up the Crane/CG’s into a link.  My Crane link activated, and moved out towards the objective room, and the Crane sensor pinged to reveal the Intruder HMG. Didn’t really help me as I couldn’t get too him at all… but it would prevent him going back in Marker State and doing Surprise Shots.

The Crane link continued to move up around the right side of the OR and got into LoF of Rob’s prone Hollowman with Spitfire, with a Morlock behind him so both could ARO.  I hit the Hollowman but only 1 shot got through the ARM save, and the Morlock threw smoke over them both.  My Crane managed to get LoF on another Morlock and also took him down, but couldn’t really move up more as there was a Camo Token at 16” which I was sure was a Heckler with Jammer.

Plan B – I moved up the Rui Shi in CG2 to the OR and got LoF through the smoke with its MSV2 and managed to take both the Morlock and Hollowman down.  I tried to spend a couple of orders to finish the Hollowman off but he kept saving and remained on Unconcious Level 2.

The Crane team pulled back and deployed defensively in and around the OR, and the Rui Shi went on suppression.

Turn 1 Nomads

I hadn’t left anything out for the Intruder to go for, other than the Total Reaction HMG, so he went for that.  His Jaguar threw smoke over him and I was shooting back on -9 (+3 Range, -3 Cover, -6 Smoker, -3 Camo), but no surprise shot due to the Sniffer.  Didn’t roll any crits in the first exchange but made all its ARM saves, but went down on the second.  He went prone with the Intruder and tried to finish me off by it made its ARM saves again!  At this point, Rob decided to start doing the Classified’s and climbed up a wall with his FO REM and Forward Observed my Husong TR HMG twice for Telemetry.

Switching tactics, he bought up Pi-Well who took a shot at Xi Zhuang, who was covering the north OR door, and he went down (which deactivated his mad traps).

Finally, Rob moved his Krakot to cover his right flank, and then placed some of his troopers on Suppression.

Turn 2 ISS

The Kuang Shi ran up the table unopposed.  The Sophotects Yudbot moved up and fixed the TR HMG Bot.

I activated the Crane link and used a Celestial Guard to Forward Observed the downed Hollowman twice for Telemetry.  They then moved up towards the Camo Token, it didn’t ARO, so the Crane pinged with Sensor and it was a Heckler with Red Fury (and not a Jammer, psych!).  This allowed me to move out with my Crane and get a LoF onto Mary Problems (in Suppression), completely forgetting she had ODD.  I needed 4’s on 5 dice and rolled 3 CRITS, she needed 11’s on 3 dice and got a CRIT! Hmm, plan B.

I activated the RuiShi and sent it out wide down the right flank, where the Krakot (double chain rifle) was covering.  Out of chain rifle range a shot him 4 times, he dodged!  I shot him again 4 times and he dodged again – this time into chain rifle range… now I was in trouble.  Best way to get out of trouble…. apply Kuang Shi.  I ran one of my Kuang Shi up and managed to put a Chain Rifle over the Krakot and put him down!  With only a few orders left I managed to get my Rui Shi up and take down the Heckler and Mary Problems.

Next I tried to move my Crane link team up to take on Zoe (who was prone on a roof) with my CG Hacker, but I neglected the fact that Pi-Well was a repeater so I took an ARO from Zoe and the Interventor HD+ and went down… This broke my link, and I’d ran out of command tokens to reform it, so I moved the Crane Rank using Stealth around a corner to keep him out of LoF of the Intruder HMG.

Turn 2 Nomads

One issue is I had left my Rui Shi out in the open.  Rob tossed smoke over his Intruder, took out my CG Smoke Grenade launcher and CG FO, and Rui Shi

He then activated his doctor (who was prone on a roof) and moved down to heal his Morlock and using his bot across the table healed the other Morlock (Getting Experimental Drug). He then Data Scanned my unconscious hacker.

Turn 3 ISS

My last turn!  The Kuang Shi ran up, and I sent one against Pi-Well and the Daktari Doctor, and managed to kill both!

My Crane moved up to Zoe and cut her down with a spitfire to dead…  So he then had to move down the stairs and move into base contact with Pi Well and use In Extremis (My classified) and nailed it first time!  I then placed the Kuang Shi into Biolocator mode, (which counts as unconscious) and the Crane moved up and CasEvac’d him (Rescue).

With my last orders I put two of my other Kuang Shi into Biolocator mode and tried to heal them with my Sophotect, managed to heal one and with the last dice roll of my turn FAILED! (Experimental Drugs needs you to heal 2 people on EXTREME mode)

Turn 3 Nomads

I was convinced I’d lost, but it turns out I’d read the mission wrong.  You get 2 points for having done the same number of classifieds as the opponent.  I though this only meant the 4 “shared” classifieds but rob told me it was ALL the classifieds including each player’s own personal one.

Rob had only one chance to win.  He couldn’t get Rescue done, as he had nothing unconscious in my half of the table and the whole midfield was covered in Kuang Shi!  He moved up his remaining Morlock and with two orders left, went for my Kanren in the OR, but the Kanren survived.  RoB also had In Extremis as his personal classified and needed to put the Kanren down and then next order In Extremis – so close!

Final Score

Stuart – Partial Victory 2 TP.  6 OP (Same number of classifieds x3 [2], 2 Shared Classifieds [2], Personal Classified [2]). VP 202

Rob – Defeat 0 TP, 5 OP ((Same number of classifieds x3 [2], 3 Shared Classifieds [3]).  VP 109

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Game 2

• Mission: FrostByte
• Opponent: Phil “Fartsocks’
• Faction: Combined Army
• List: B

FrostByte is a great mission, and I’d practiced it a few times with different lists, and decided to take it on with the Wu Ming Core Fire Team.

I drew Demolition for my Classified (my Zhanying Hacker had D-Charges)

Phil won the initiative and decided to go first, and deployed only a few models!  Dr Worm and a nurse worm, and Sogarat HI AP HMG, an Ikadron, a 40 mm TO Camo Token (which I was convinced was a Sphinx), and a 25 mm Camo token.  I knew the speculo killer would be coming, so I placed my LT Celestial guard in a room with 2 Kuang Shi in front of him!  For his holdback he deployed his Impersonation marker, but not in my DZ, instead choosing not to roll and place it just outside. I decided to play mind games and placed a “Hsein” HMG (Kanren) right in LoF of the marker.

My deployment gave me a good bit of high ground so I deployed my Wu Ming Rocket Launcher and 8 point Yaokong Chaiyi with Flashpulse on a high roof, as well as and Wu Ming HMG on group level, all with LoF to the Sogarat.

Phil chose his Sogarat as his Data Tracker.  I chose one of my SMG/Chain Rifle Wu Ming.

Turn 1 Combined Army

At the start of the turn the Hsein HMG became 3 Hsein HMG (with 2 holoecho’s infront of the real Kanren). I think this confused Phil enough that he decided not to start off with the Speculo Killer!

He started off with the Sogarat, ignoring cover, he just walked straight towards the centre.  I thought “well this will be a short fight”, I’m on 19’s… He split his HMG burst and put 2 on each Wu Ming and beat both of them!  The Flashpulse missed! The Wu Ming RL took a wound and the HMG saved.  He went again, and beat them both again, and the Flash pulse missed again.  The Wu Ming RL took another wound and went down, and the HMG Wu Ming took a wound! Another order he successfully punched the console (Morats!) and soaked both HMG shots from my Wu Ming, then chose to fail guts and fall back into full cover!  He chose to activate his DZ Heater.

He then decided to surprise shot my Wu Ming HMG with a Noctifer ML and he missed, my Wu Ming dodged back around the corner to avoid any more shots.  I think that was a mistake not to leave the Noctifer concealed until his reactive turn.

He then moved off the TO Camo Marker, and my Kuang Shi discovered it, an Anathematic Hacker.  He got to the left console and made the WP roll to activate his other heater.

Last off, he moved his 25 mm camo marker up into the centre of the OR next to the last console.

Turn 1 ISS

Well the first turn didn’t go to plan… I used a command token to form the Kuang Shi into a fireteam with a Celestial Guard, so they didn’t run into the Noctifer.  The CG then popped down a wall of smoke across the fire lane.

I needed to deal with the Speculo, I sent one Kuang Shi up – “Is that you Bob?” failed his roll.  I decided to go all in, moving up a whole link team of Kuang Shi and used discover shoot!  “Is that you Bob?”, no ARO, passed.  Down to IMP-2.  “Bob?”, no ARO, failed.  Next Kuang Shi “Bob?”, no ARO, passed, 2 pistol shots!  She goes down to a Spawn Embryo.  Then the Kuangi Shi moved in to the OR and discovered the Shrouded FO and double chain rifled him to dead.

I didn’t have enough orders now to move up the Rui Shi to engage the Noctifer, so went with the Wu Ming. They moved up to the centre objective room and the HMG gunned down the Ikadron, taking and extra shot to make sure it stayed down (there was a Nurse Worm next to it).  With the last orders I moved up the team and got a shot on the Anathematic with an SMG but only got 1 wound through!

Turn 2 Combined Army

Phil decided to walk in a Rasyat for some diplomacy.  He hit a Kuang Shi with a boarding shotgun and caught my Duo of CSU’s killing one. The Kuang Shi laughed, spat out the bullets and chain rifled him but he passed his ARM save.

He shifted over to the Sogurat who went for my Wu Ming HMG, beat him, but he saved and ducked back into cover.

He then moved his Anathematic and took a shot at the Wu Ming SMG, who got hit but saved and fell back to cover.  He then moved towards the OR and on his way past put a plasma shot across 3 Kuang Shi but amazingly only put down one of them.  He next order was to move towards the OR but he got hit by two ARO’s from my Kanren Killer Hacker (nope it’s not a Hsein) and my Zhanying Hacker.  He split a brain blast and my Zhanying went down, but the Kanren got through a hit.

Turn 2 ISS

A Kuang Shi ran out and ate a shot from the Noctifer catching two of his buddies in a ball of fire. Another Kuang Shi ran at the Sogurat and amazingly took him out with a chain rifle!  A Kuang Shi ran and the Rasyat and took him out with a chain rifle.

The Kanren Killer hacker hit the Anathematic with Red Rum and took him out!

The Rui Shi moved up the table and took down the Noctifier and then Dr Worm.

With no more enemies on the table the Wu Ming punched two consoles and held the middle ground, and just for good measure SMG’d the Speculo’s Spawn Embryo

Turn 3 Combined Army

In Retreat and with no orders left the game ended there.

Annoyingly I forgot my Kanren was in the middle and the Rui Shi wasn’t quiet into my opponents Dead Zone so both froze to death!

Final Score

Stuart – Complete Victory 3TP. 10 OP (More Army Points Killed, Heater Activated, Data Tracker Secures “Fro”-zone, Secured HVT).  159 VP

Phil – Defeat 0 TP.  0 OP. 0 VP

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Game 3

• Mission: Enginnering Deck
• Opponent: Rob “AlpexBlue”
• Faction: StarCo
• List: A

Top table! This was going to be tough.  Last time I played Rob, Shinobu had surgically dissected his Moira link team in turn 1… I think he wanted revenge!

I won the WIP roll and decided to go first, mainly because I was very concerned about the infamous Emily Handleman and her Speculative Fire EM/Normal Grenades…

I was tired by this game and started by deploying the wrong army (my list B with only 2 specialists…) before Rob started to deploy I asked if I could change it and he graciously let me!

I chose my Crane Rank as my Data tracker, and Rob chose Emily Handleman.

Turn 1 ISS

Started with the Kuang Shi in a link, and then switched to the Crane/Celestial Guard link.  My Kanren moved up towards a Camo token on a rooftop on the midline and planted a Sniffer.  The Crane the pinged him with Sensor and revealed him to be an Al Hawwa Assault Hacker, and a Hardcase just next to the north door of the OR.  I then switched back to the Kuang Shi link and popped two smoke grenades up to the corner of the OR, loaded up assisted fire and moved up the Rui Shi.

Rob had deployed a 5 man Alguaciles link (with Emily) on a roof top with a HMG and Sniper standing on ARO. The Rui Shi engaged the HMG first, hit it, and it ARM saved and dropped prone… damn it!  The Rui Shi then hit the Sniper, it ARM saved and dropped prone… double damn it!!

The Crane team set off, and moved the CG Hacker to take on the Al Hawwa, but got his Hacking Device fried by Blackout.

The Sophotect had to send out a Yudbot, who managed to repair the Hacking Device while it got Carbonited.  The CG Hacker went for it again and this time brained blasted the Al Hawwa to unconscious.

The Sophotect had to send out a Yudbot, who managed to repair the Hacking Device while it got Carbonited.  The CG Hacker went for it again and this time brained blasted the Al Hawwa to unconscious.

Turn 1 StarCo

My mistake, I had left the Rui Shi out and forgot to put him on suppression… Rob stood up the HMG and put down the Rui Shi.  He tried to kill it with a second burst but failed, and then put 5 shots into my WarCor (who I’d forgot to ARO with…very tired).  Emily popped an EM grenade a caught 3 of my link, and sent Xi to isolated (which oddly enough doesn’t affect his MadTraps).

Because of where he has deployed he took quite a few orders to move the link team across the roof top (involving jumping) and he moved to take on my TR HMG and put it down, and then took it off the table with a second burst.

Turn 2 ISS

First action was to activate the Sophotect and move her up towards the console (which was on top of a pile of crates).  Meanwhile her other YudBot moved to the Rui Shi (I completely forgot that the Carbonite on the other one had worn off).  The Rui Shi was fixed.  My CG then Speculative Fired a smoke grenade ontop of the console and the Sophotect flipped it.

The Crane link (minus XI) moved up the table, and crossed the LoF of a Flash Pulse Transductor Zond. THREE TIMES my Crane rolling 5 dice Spitfire failed to beat the thing, and eventually the Crane failed a BTS!  I moved my team into the objective room, and the FO Celestial Guard with Boarding Shotgun popped out and blasted the HMG Alguaciles at under 8” and shredded him.

Turn 2 StarCo

The HardCase (who I completely forgot about, as I couldn’t see him from my side of the table) outside the OR stepped in and put a Boarding Shotgun blast template over my CG Hacker and CG Combi and killed them both!  He next went for the Crane, who dodged prone behind the console (we played all consoles as S3).  He then finished off by stepping around the corner and taking out the last Celestial Guard FO/BSG.

He then AD: Combat Jumped a Hellcat to outside the OR, but failed and scattered, and landed in ZoC of Xi and got stick down by both MadTraps!  He then dropped in Raolo Spectre just outside the OR, but failed again and scattered him 16” back into his DZ.

Rob then moved his Alguaciles link down.  First Emily popped a Speculative Fire E/M Grenade onto the Rui Shi and shut it down. She then dropped a normal grenade onto the Crane and on the second attempt caused 1 wound.  Emily then ran into the room, and burned down the Crane with Burst 5 Assault Pistols!

Turn 3 ISS

We were playing quick now. The Kuang Shi moved up.

I went to plant my XenoTech’s beacon, and failed, and failed, and failed and FAILED! 4 Orders wasted.

I tried to thin out the Alguiaciles by throwing Kuang Shi at them, but they were too far to be effective, just out of Chain Rifle range.

The Rui Shi got fixed by the YudBot again and moved to take on Emily and Co.  It split its burst between Emily, the Sniper Alguaciles and Hardcase, and hit nothing… amazingly the Sniper’s DA took it off the table.

Last effort, the Kanren ran into the room and put two BS templates down.  One on Emily which also covered the Alguaciles Sniper CRIT.  Emily went down, but the Sniper CRIT back.  Because my CRIT only applied to the primary target of the shotgun, the Snipers CRIT beat my shot and put the Kanren down. The Hardcase took a hit and rolled an ARM save of a 20!

Turn 3 StarCo

Just tidying up… He doctored Emily (he chose not to send her dogged) and got her up.  She flipped the central console and he moved his XenoTech out and planted his beacon on the first roll!

Finals Score

Rob – Complete Victory 3 TP. 9 OP (More consoles [5], Controlled Objective Room [3], Data Tracker in room [1]. 261 VP

Stuart – Defeat 0 TP. 0 OP (1 Secure HVT, -1 not planting Xenotech Beacon!). 116 VP

Great game though! Objective room shootouts are always brutal!

Final Standings

Such a close last game! Still managed to end up 4^th/12, just outside of the top three prizes though!  The last game could have really gone either way, but Emily’s Speculative fire is very tough for ISS to deal with.  ISS don’t have many units that can get into the opponents DZ a root out units like her, other than the Garuda TacBot using AD: Combat Jump.  I guess they easiest way is to have your own Speculative Fire unit like the Wu Ming LGL. I’m not sure if I’ll continue with ISS this season – but the 20 order list was really effective.  Fatigue certainly played a bit part in that last game for both of us!

Looking forward to the next tournament!