A Time for Batreps Part 2

All righty folks and welcome back to another post by yours truly, I certainly hope your day is going well and you are enjoying yourselves.  We’re following up on last batrep post with another one, except this time we are going to try and cover 3 games all in this post!  Truthfully it’s because I sort of…maybe…didn’t take as many pictures as I had before?  Woops.  Anyways here we go with the next game we played, Guild Ball!  Sadly I took fewer pictures as we played, a bad habit of mine, and so the picture quantity and content is limited.  My apologies.

So starting the game off Wells wanted to try a different guild this time around and settled on the Mortician’s Guild versus me playing as the Alchemists.  Our rosters were:

1.       Obulus

2.       Dirge

3.       Cosset

4.       Ghast

5.       Mist

6.       Silence

1.       Smoke

2.       Flask

3.       Katalyst1

4.       Compound

5.       Vitriol

6.       Calculus

I felt bad for Wells because my friend here plays 40k a lot, but doesn’t get much exposure to other games and so I could tell he was having a hard time.  Throw on top of that a new team, especially one as nuanced as the Mortician’s, and it was just hard for the guy.  I can’t say for certain if he felt this way but the way he was playing suggested that he initially went defensive because he wasn’t sure of what his team could do.  Also, the terrain was randomly generated (by tossing the 2D terrain like pancakes from like a foot away lol) and so it was hard for him to maneuver around without taking penalties.  I’d say about mid-game the gears were turning again for Wells mechanically (also he had an overnight break to read about his team) and he started to work on making plays but at this point, it was too late.  The Alchemists had strong board control, kept slowly ticking away at his health with condition damage, and the scoring potential was too strong.

Right at the start of turn 2-3

In the end, the game was 13 to 3, with the Alchemists scoring 2 goals and 3 KO’s (one was the mascot).  Smoke is a fun captain I have to say with her Cloud Jumper ability and AoE manipulation.  Wells and I talked about the game afterward and his early game hesitancy really hurt his chances in the later phases.  The lack of team knowledge definitely hurt him as well and coming from a Fisherman’s coach straight into Mortician’s with no pre-knowledge was not going to be easy.  We also talked a bit about how some of his player use was sub-optimal and if he decided to try Mortician’s again what he could have done differently, for example, he rarely used Ghast except to shuffle around the board a bit when his playbook is pretty solid for damage and some board control.  I think next time I’ll see either the Fish back on the field or perhaps this new Falconer’s minor guild that might be interesting to Wells (dude loves birds).

Vitriol on the right went and scored while the middle was jammed up

Our next game was Infinity and I’m not going to lie I was really excited about this game.  I’ve been feeling the Infinity itch lately with some of the new models being published (the new JSA force is so goooood) and so Wells agreed to try it out.  We had a beginner style game at GenCon last year and he enjoyed it and so we decided to do “intermediate rules.”  This was like a style that had more than the basics but wasn’t full blown Infinity either, for example TO camouflage was the -6 to hit a penalty but didn’t have the marker/deployment shenanigans.  Our lists were 300 points and made up of the models from Operation Icestorm and Beyond OIS.  Wells went with PanO and I went with Nomads.  We settled on the scenario Supremacy from the core rulebook and because we were using starter box models/lists we decided everyone would be a “specialist troop” but in a generalized sense so they didn’t get any special abilities apart from if they were an actual specialist.  Also, we didn’t play with Command Tokens because we’re still acclimating to this game.

Not Infinity, but Smoke on the top left scored the last goal of the game

So I won the initial roll and chose deployment zones and order and let me tell you this was my crucial mistake.  I chose a bad zone and I paid for it dearly.  This game was in Wells’ hands from the beginning and it was like shooting fish in a barrel for him.  My active turn 1 had my Spekter, Intruder, and my Kriza Borac all go unconscious because of his sniper Nisse.  Oh man, this was going to be rough.  Then my Reverend Healer acted as if she was a bad anime trope as an MMO healer and ended up killing off the Kriza with a natural 20 on her Doctor roll.  At this point, I lost a significant chunk of my firepower and it just went downhill from there.  My Mobile Brigada Lt. was able to move up along a building edge and take out the Nisse before being able to move in and secure a computer for 1 point.  On Wells’ active turn it was just a slaughterfest.  He jumped his Akhali out of LoS from anyone, moved him up, and took computers for his ever-increasing score.  He moved his Father-Knight up from out of cover and was able to take out my Lt. and hold the zone.  Turn 2 and 3 there wasn’t a whole lot of interesting action, as Wells bagged the game early on with his sniper.  So the score ended up being 9 to 1 with PanO walking away from this fight with barely a scratch.  Rough game but it taught me many lessons about Infinity in general and it’s still a game I very much enjoy, even when I am dying by the droves.

Do you see the Spekter and Intruder down for the count?  The peeking Kriza in the bottom left was down too!

Our final game of his trip was a match of Dark Age and we played a 1000 point match where I made a couple lists I had been using (not that they are super-efficient or anything since I’m still newish to the game also) and we played Kukulkani versus Horde Skaard, Wells and myself respectively.  The scenario was Ancient and Bloody Wasteland where the goal was to kill each other dead.  You gained a VP per 100 points (rounded up by to the nearest 50) killed off and whatever Secondary Objective VPs gained.  Think Secondary Objectives like the Tactical Objectives from 40k, randomly drawn objectives but with the caveat that you can tailor the deck (as long as you have at least 16 cards) with whichever cards you think you can get that game.

I’d like to spend a lot of time on this game as Dark Age is a pretty solid game overall.  I only took one picture however and Wells having only played 2 games before was not prepared with knowledge to know how to best use his guys.  As a result it was a pretty harsh game for him as he struggled with a lot of the nuanced rules that K3 have and as much as I tried to help remember which rules he had, there was only so much that could be done.  The other part was not knowing how to use the models to the best of their abilities.  I give Wells credit it though he started to piece some things together pretty quickly and started using squad-links and combos here and there.  The nature of Dark Age is that it’s a brutal game and by the time the gears were turning, the sand was stained deeply with Kukulkani blood and littered with crystal skulls.  The game ended with a big advantage to the Skaard with a total of 13 to 3 VPs.  The Warhead gave a lot of damage out that, at times, was absolutely terrifying.  When down to only 1 hp that lummox hits with a PW of 14, and if you happen to be prone that’s x2!  For those unfamiliar with Dark Age mechanics when you hit someone they then make an armor check where you take your armor value and subtract the attack’s PW.  In a game where you are rolling low that means even if you had the highest armor value of 20 you’d still only be able to avoid a hit like that on a 6 or lower, and if there’s a damage multiplier then you roll that many dice and need to save on ALL of them to not take a wound.  Oh yeah, he was nasty.

How to ensure that no one else plays with you

So overall despite the beatdown Wells seemed to have enjoyed Dark Age and my impression was that with more games for experience and perhaps a different force then it would have definitely been a different game.  I think the big difference was that K3 is a wonky force in my opinion and the learning curve, while not too steep, does require some practice games in before it starts to click.  There were a lot of little rules here and there that ended up making a big difference and I think once taken into consideration I think our future games will be vastly different. 

Well, that’s it for gaming my fellow wargamers and I hope you enjoyed the batreps despite the lack of pictures and further details.  We pretty much played a game a day and so the details started to get hazy at times and the longer I play the more likely it is I forget to take some snaps.  Anyways I hope you’re enjoying your hobby and time and until next time have a fun game and may your dice be kind!

Infinity Human Sphere Sectorial Series: PanO

Good afternoon fellow wargamers and welcome to the start of a small series where I plan to talk a bit about the recent release of Human Sphere for N3 Infinity.  It's been a welcome release thus far and with the updates/clarifications on rules and some tweaked profiles I believe the game to be in a pretty sweet spot right now.  So with that I wanted to go over the official Sectorial lists for each faction and give my 2 cents to them.

Disclaimer: For those who know me personally you'll know that my hands-on experience with Infinity is growing.  So for those who don't know that part, well now you do.  My thoughts are based on what I am primarily toying around in my head and my actual board experience is still growing.  So feel free to add in your thoughts on these posts and correct me, add some insight, etc!

My disclaimer reasoning

I'll be mentioning the new rules about fireteams and presume you know what the rules are/terms mean/etc.  If not here is a link to the Human Sphere N3 rules from Corvus Belli!

Instead of going over each Sectorial for each faction I am going to focus on the ones that I think I would be most likely to play or most interested.  So to start off let's begin with the big ole's boys in blue: Panoceania!  PanO currently has 3 Sectorial selections: Shock Army of Acontecimento, the Military Orders, and the Neoterran Capitaline army.  I'll be honest I have no idea what each one's playstyle is supposed to be but I do know that I most interested in the Military Orders.

How I want thee to be updated so badly, yea verily

So the Military Order Sectorial represents the PanO's Catholic Church's organized military power and boy do I like it!  A big downfall I feel the Sectorial has, which is not unique to the MO, is the prevalence of older sculpts that when redone will look simply amazing, especially given the quality of CB's releases these days.  They've updated and released some new models that just blow away the older sculpts so it's a bit more difficult to just ignore.  I mean, have you seen the Seraph? Like omg!  So let's take a look at the Sectorial list itself.  For those who want to follow along here is the most recently updated unit profile list with Sectorials, fully HSN3 compatible right here.

Like omg! Like so good!  Like so pretty!

Unfortunately one of the flaws I see with this list is that you pretty much are limited in your fireteam choices since the Sectorial lacks Haris options, but it does have quite a few Duo teams and several options for a Core fireteam.  One thing to keep in mind is that you choose a "primary" order of knights (Montessa/Hospitaller/Santiago/Teutonic/Sepulchre) which then become AVA 4 and then you can have 2 other knights of a different order at AVA 2.  That means, for example, 4 Hospitaller Knights and 2 of whatever else. It does not mean 2 of each other order, but 2 total alternative knights.  One thing to also note is that this Sectorial has a lot of rules/options for its fireteams and it is quite useful to be familiar with those requirements and restrictions before buying anything.  With that in mind I'm probably going to roll in with Hospitaller or Santiago for reason I can explain in a bit.

Color scheme examples of the different orders

The other thing that I will need to keep in mind is that a large chunk of my options lack specialist profiles.  Most of the knightly orders lack specialist options, save for Santiago and Hospitaller, and some of the choices in the Sectorial show that specialist profiles are in short supply.  That's not to say that I am completely without specialists, but it does mean that certain models are going to almost be auto-includes to make up for the lack of options found elsewhere.  What the orders do have though in abundance is durability and a certain level of elite playstyle that I do enjoy from time to time (almost like an Eldar force in a way, but not so fragile save in numbers).

One of the things that has drawn me to MO, aside from lore and aesthetics, are some of the model choices that can form a fireteam.  For one: Magister knights.  I love these guys and I'm a bit sad that they ended up getting a nerf with their CCW's but it's something I can understand as well.  Having EXP CCW's is not something that would be too kind to receive, especially with the updated rules on close combat for fireteams.  Personally I would be fine sticking them in a fireteam with a couple of Teutonic knights for that hard hitting close combat team with some pretty decent resilience.  Another example of a interesting fireteam I would be inclined is the Father Knight bro duo team.  Either take both as hackers or use one as a hacker and the other with a spitfire then combine them with their stats?  Hoo boy those bros are going to be a nice little nut to be cracked.

Bro team of two of these? Yes please!

I think that's a primary draw for the MO is their resilience.  A good portion of the models, Order Sgts and Fusiliers aside, have elite stats with pretty decent ARM and BTS.  This tends to make the MO Sectorial able to take a hit or two and stay standing for the next round.  On average in cover you're getting an ARM of 6 which against your standard combi-rifle shot gives you a pretty solid chance of not taking a wound.  Oh and most of the knights have 2 wounds to start with, also bypassing shock ammo.  Not bad at all PanO, not bad at all.  If I choose my main order as Hospitallers then I can go ahead and take Joan in a fireteam with them, which she appears to be a badass on paper for sure (also +1 to SWC if she is my Lieutenant whoooo!).

What my PanO might end up looking like

So that's my blurb on what Sectorial I'd choose for PanO, next up I will take a look at another Sectorial I am interested in and will probably be looking up Ariadna or maybe the Combined Army.  If you have any comments, suggestions, tips, feedback, please feel free to let me know!  Until then fellow gamers happy gaming!