Ariadna Tactics – Scouts

Intro

I thought it was time to get back to writing some of the more tactical articles that I was used to producing over the last couple of years, so after a couple of recent games running pure Kazaks in limited insertion, I figured where better to start than there?

A lot of Kazak models weigh in at the “elite” end of the scale in Ariadna, and as a result, this makes some of them fairly straightforward to use. Generally, shoot the other guy to bits, survive, and score objectives. But one of the more nuanced choices among the Kazaks is the expensive (but insanely flexible) Scout. Of all the pieces I’ve seen used in the Kazak arsenal, this seems to be one of the models that people have most trouble with using. Often in fact, players are expecting it to perform a similar role to a simple Foxtrot FO, and they find themselves disappointed in paying the extra expense without getting any extra mileage.

Today though, I hope to shed some light on the real STALKERS of the Tartary sectorial, going over what the model does, some of the tactical uses, where they should be used, and some of the pitfalls to avoid.

So let’s get started!

Profile

To start with, the Scout has a similar profile to our other camo infiltrating brethren (Foxtrots, Chasseurs and SAS). For those of you who are less acquainted, that basically boils down to Infiltration, Camoflage, and Multiterrain. In addition, the SAS has Martial Arts L2 (exemplifying its melee role), the Chasseur has the incredible Sixth Sense L1, and the Scout has Marksmanship L1, giving it shock on all its weapons). Otherwise, all of them are near identical in terms of statline, with the SAS only pulling ahead on CC skill and paying slightly more accordingly. The Scout though is unique for having the only ARM (1, which is nothing special) and BS 12 (a more noticeable bump).

	MOV	CC	BS	PH	WIP	ARM	BTS	W	AVA
Foxtrot	4-4	13	11	13	13	0	0	1	3 (4 US)
Chasseur	4-4	14	11	13	13	0	0	1	2 (4 MRRF)
SAS	4-4	19	11	13	13	0	0	1	2 (4 Scots)
Scout	4-4	13	12	13	13	1	0	1	3

Overall though the points cost is the biggest outlier. Looking at the common FO profile, Foxtrots cost 18 Chasseurs costing 20, SAS costing 24 and Scouts all the way up at 30. Clearly then, stats isn’t where it’s at. No, where the Scout pulls ahead is it’s wonderful array of fantastic equipment.

You see, while most of the other profiles are stuck with a standard rifle on a scoring profile, the most interesting profiles for the Scout are instead equipped with an Ojotnik, a unique DMG 14 weapon with arguably one of the best range bands in the game.* That’s right folks…. +3 within 8-32″. Fantastic. On top of this, the Ojotnik is AP, and thanks to the Marksmanship Lvl1 on the Scout, Shock as well.

*I know the Scout also has a Boarding Shotgun and AP Sniper profiles, but both aren’t really interesting enough vs. the competition in Vanilla to usually be worth including. As I lack much experience with either one and find them less effective than other choices, I’ll be focusing only on the Ojotnik profiles for now.  

Rounding out his specialist weapons, the Scout also has Mines (just like the Foxtrot and Chasseur) but he gains flexibility in being able to trade them out for E-Maulers (if you don’t take him as an FO, namely, you’re trying to save a point) and crucially, D-Charges. This lets the Scout blow open doors to the Armory rooms, complete the Sabotage classified objective, and maybe once in a blue moon blow somebody to hell in close combat.

All of these point to a clear direction for the Scout – flexibility. He pays a lot more in points compared to the other skirmishers in faction, but he gains quite a bit in capability. If it’s barebones scoring, minelaying and stacking mods in suppressing you want, the much cheaper Foxtrot is definitely the right call. But if you want something that can adapt to multiple roles, cover more bases, and play a much more aggressive flanking attacker, then the Scout is considerably more effective.

Uses

So far, so good then. The equipment profile of the Scout looks fairly straightforward as an upgraded skirmisher, primarily gaining a better gun and a few bits as well. But what makes the Scout stand out, and simultaneously, harder to utilize, is how to use it.

First things first, the Scout is a “bully” model. For those of you in Infinity who are familiar with snipers, you might be familiar with the concept, but the idea basically is a model that excels on picking off models that are much weaker than it is. The Scout isn’t a straightforward gunfighter then, as low burst tends to make fair fights too risky and it isn’t durable enough to take a hit on the chin. Nor is it disposably cheap either, like many Ariadna models. So even if you do get into a tactically sensible fair-fight, there’s always a decent sized chance it will go wrong and you’ll lose 10% of your army quite trivially.

Second of all, appearances to the contrary, the Ojotnik Scout is not a standard Sniper either. He’s decent enough at shooting, sure, but the Scout is inherently a flexible and mobile model, that wants to adapt to an evolving gameplay situation in order to get the best out of its abilities. Primarily, snipers are just too static, and not only do we have better options for them in faction, but it near guarantees that the Scout isn’t using a decent sized chunk of his toolkit. He of course can adapt to situational sniping as he carries himself around the board (which we’ll get into) but I just want to caution readers against leaving him in a firebase all day long.

Finally, the Scout does not have a fixed role. A lot of models in Infinity have a single role they aim to perform all game and stick to it, but  the Scout deploys with one plan and adjusts on the fly. How you play it in one game is almost unrecognizable to how it performs in another, and that adaptive mindset is definitely the primary focus of the model.

This leads us nicely to…

Step 1 – Shooting

Namely, abuse range bands! The Ojotnik is an amazing gun, but to get the most out of it, you really want to abuse range bands more than any other weapon due to the low burst. This weapon is unique for having a range band advantage vs. just about any other weapon in the game, so vs. Snipers and HMG’s you can hit them accurately inside of 16″, vs. Rifles you can clip them beyond 16″ and vs. Spitfires you can hit them outside 24″. So no matter which opposing model you’re fighting, you can (and should) be able to engage them in such a way that you’re always stacking the odds heavily in your favor.

This flexibility, combined with the fact that the gun is essentially both AP and Shock means that the Scout is lethal to just about anything. It’ll still take some time to plink away a beefy tag outside of 32″ or just about anything with a negative modifier, but in essence, the Scout is at the very least a “threat” to almost every model your opponent can field.

Really the only weaknesses of the weapon is trying to fight inside 8″ and beyond 32″. Obviously you want to avoid these types of fights where possible, but sometimes it’s just so tactically necessary that at least you have the option. In the former case, don’t forget to use your pistol! I think I’ve scored more kills with the Scouts pistol than just about any other handgun wielding model in the game, just due to positioning (and especially when the enemy model is busy dodging a mine, see below). His handgun is nothing special, but at least you still have camo and the shots still have shock, which means you can likely still stack mods and pop a weak cheerleader, especially in the back.

In contrast, fights outside of 32″ are a different ballgame. As a camo model that has infiltration these don’t tend to come up very often, especially as you almost always have the option to move in closer under a marker state and get a more favorable range band. Still, if you do have to fight beyond 32″ at least you’re only on 0 mods for range. This means that unless they have negative modifiers like camo, at least you can still hit them on a 9, whereas opponents might be fishing for much lower beyond 32″ (usually -3 for range, -3 for cover, -3 for camo and maybe even -3 for Surprise Shot for that magical -12).

Now 9’s aren’t great to ensure a kill (there’s a decent chance nothing will happen in a F2F roll, and most opponents have higher odds of dodging), but if it means stacking the mods so low that your opponent has to dodge with something like a TR bot, that’s infinitely better than trying to engage them inside 32″ where both your odds are better.

Shooting inside 32″, TR bot opts to shoot – 35% you wound , 32% nothing happens, 32% TR bot wounds

Shooting outside 40″, TR bot opts to shoot – 37% you wound, 43% nothing happens, 19% TR bot wounds.

Better performance improvement overall. But really, you’re best off if you try this with Surprise Shot. This forces the TR bot to dodge (it can’t hit at -12) and you get the following:

Shooting outside 40″, TR bot opts to dodge – 44% you wound, 46% nothing happens, 9% TR bot wounds.

In summary, there are a few cases where the Scout might want to fight outside 32″, so even if it isn’t a particular strength for the model, it does come up. There are very few models out there you can’t bully with the Scout at some uncomfortable range band, so finding some weaker piece and bullying it from one of those sweet spots is key to using this model.

The other half of this coin though is that because the Scout is such a threat to anything, anywhere, and costs a fair chunk of points, in turn, it has a big target on its head. Now we’ve already discussed how the Scout won’t stand up well in a real firefight, so we need to look at other ways to keep this model alive. This brings us to…

Step 2 – Positioning

Scouts are excellent flanking models. Unlike a lot of infiltrators, they are just as comfortable at fighting decently up close and plinking models halfway across the table. However, they are just as squishy and quite a bit more in points, which combined with their less than ideal 0-8″ rangeband gives them all the more reason to avoid a quick death from many of the template weapons, mines and shotguns that tend to plague any midfield.

But it isn’t just weaponry that encourages the Scout to take a flank, it’s tactics. Offensively, one of the key reasons to situate your Scout on a flank is because it gives you an easier way to circumvent the most dangerous enemy troops, and hopefully find a way around and over to start bullying some cheerleaders or other vulnerable pieces. Most opponents have fewer models eyeing up the flanks compared to the midfield, which lets you not only makes it easier to fight them one-on-one (if you want/have to) but it makes it much easier to slip past one as a camo marker (where you can always recamo if you get discovered).

Defensively, the Scout can also have an easier time of running away again towards the ends of a turn. Your own left/right corners tend to have fewer eyes on them on a given turn, and it usually costs a fair few orders for opponents to go after the Scout again. If you do have valuable cheerleaders or a Lt back there, this also gives you the option of laying mines defensively, whereas a Foxtrot or Chasseur is likely to be much further away by comparison (We’ll cover mines in more detail shortly).

Finally, being on the flanks is a half-decent place to watch for AD models, as markers have 360 vision (essentially), most opponents aren’t willing to take an unopposed shot to the face (straight up 40% chance with a pistol to kill an AD model landing in the open, 75% if the Ojotnik), and you can sprinkle mines again defensively if they move in close enough.

Oh look, that’s the second time we mentioned mines. So I guess we should discuss them.

Step 3 – Laying mines

Unlike Chasseurs, Scouts can’t start with Mines in play, but that makes them no less useful. If you’ll recall, we mentioned how the Scout has a bit of a “weak spot” within 0-8″, and Mines in many ways help to mitigate this weakness. The best way to do this is often to combine them with the Pistol, as while it’s nothing too special, most opponents would rather dodge than fight back in an attempt to avoid the mine. In such cases, your average PH 11 trooper only has about a 25% chance to dodge you (40% to dodge the mine) so you’ve got decent odds of whacking him. Because of this, if you know they’re going to want to dodge it’s often better to break cover if it means that you can clip him in the open, bringing your odds up to a comfortable 50% chance of killing an ARM 1 troop (and he could always fail to dodge the mine as well).

Aside from using them as a “direct weapon”, there’s also laying mines for later on. Scouts will likely be adopting a different position from the rest of your other mine-laying models, which makes them better suited to lay mines on the flanks while other models manage the center. Because the scout has both Camo (and therefore Stealth), it’s often easy to creep around key opposing models and start laying mines around/behind them, often tying up things like link teams and wasting orders until the Mine is dealt with.

This makes minelaying with the Scout very different from how you use it with something like a Foxtrot or Chasseur, who are more focused on blunting an opponent’s advance. Instead, forward probing Scouts will be trying to circumvent enemy forces and drop off mines deep in their territory, killing opportune models along the way and retreating to one of the obscure corners of the board.

Next, there’s using mines defensively to cover the Scout itself. If you’re too far forward (and can’t/don’t want to spend orders retreating again) or you’re covering a particularly good long firelane, Mines can help cover the blind spots. In this sense, the mines protect the Scout more like a good sniper/heavy weapon, perhaps making it difficult to take some approach or simply making it that much harder for the nearest model to it to go and deal with it on your opponent’s turn.

In summation then, if you’ve done your job right, the best threats to the Scout will have been eliminated, the mine will keep the opponent outside 8″, and the nearest model might be too weak to go and deal with it. He can now either leave it alone (in which case, you can probably go and hunt down more cheerleaders, score, kill key models etc) or some more important model will have to go and deal with it, again letting the scout “handle” a decent chunk of enemy points, whether they’re dead or not.

Finally, we should make a quick mention of E-Maulers. These are a particularly dangerous bit of kit, because while a lot of more durable models aren’t nearly so terrified of treading on a mine, an E-Mauler with a bit of luck will seriously cripple one for the rest of the game by putting them in an Isolated state. Even high BTS models need to be concerned, as at most they are getting BTS 5 (halved from 9) which means failing roughly 1/3 of the time. Furthermore, if they’re HI, REMs or Tags, then the E-Mauler will also Immobilize them, potentially neutralizing a dangerous threat permanently unless they get an engineer over there. Lastly, any model with comms equipment loses that as well.  In short, any high-tech model in the game is not going to want to tread on one of these, and even low-tech models that plan on not being Irregular for the rest of the game aren’t exactly fond of the idea.

The tricky part with E-Maulers is two-fold. Firstly is that while the opponent doesn’t know you have them while you’re in a camo state, your information is open as soon as you reveal (e.g. deploying one) so most savvy opponents will know that this is what you deployed. Therefore you want to keep the “threat” hidden as long as possible. Second of all, the E-Mauler is sadly NOT on the FO (specialist) profile of the Scout, which tends to be the preferable option in much of ITS. That being said, if you’re running missions that don’t particularly need specialists, or you are keen to shave off a point, then they are an excellent option.

And speaking of specialists and missions, the Scout has an excellent non-combat role…

Step 4 – Objectives

Aside from being pretty decent in combat, the scout is also an excellent model for accomplishing objectives.  The base profile comes with a decent price-tag, which combined with camouflage makes it pretty strong for any type of zone control scenarios. It’s easy for opponents to think that a pair of camo markers are only mines, fakes, Hardcases and the like, but when you unveil a pair of 30 point scouts it can dramatically swing the points in a zone that your enemy thought they comfortably held.

Furthermore, all the most interesting Scout profiles come with D-charges. This lets you accomplish the Sabotage objective very early on given his Infiltration, as most table setups you’ll be able to pick a terrain feature right next to his deployment. D-charges also give you another option to blow up Armory room doors on scenarios with central rooms, as well as do things like destroy Nimbus Antenna if you have the chance.

Finally, Scouts have the excellent FO profile, which I’ve mentioned a few times throughout this piece. This turns the model into a specialist, allowing you to score most standard objectives. On top of this, you also gain the marginally useful “Forward Observe” skill, which lets you mark targetable objectives you can’t get to and bomb them with missiles instead… not to mention the usual uses of the skill, especially things like buffing Spec Fire.  Lastly, being an FO gets you a Flash Pulse, giving you even greater weapon versatility. Many decent models out there can’t be killed so easily with an Ojotnik, but stunning them with a decent roll via Flash Pulse can be incredibly useful in a pinch.

So as we already discussed in the positioning section, the Scout wants to be taking a flank, which makes it ideal for both grabbing objectives over on the side and forward observing targets behind enemy lines. Usually if you want to go for anything more central, you might want to divert a different closer model to the task, but doing things like blowing the side doors of a central Armory room isn’t exactly out of the way for where the Scout wants to be. Otherwise, as they’re pretty flexible models, they can still go for both yours and the opponent’s more central objectives, but just be wary of getting into close-range “fair” fights, and decide if it’s not better to send a cheaper and more disposable model for the task.

Step 5 – Lieutenant

Finally, the Scout has the option of being your armies Lt, which is currently the only option to get a Camo Lt option without spending any SWC, even if it is a fair price tag. While most Lt options you buy in Ariadna will undoubtedly be squishy, being in a camo state negates this nicely, forcing most opponents to spend usually another order to get to you first (to discover you) and making it harder to kill you once they do (factoring in the -3 from camo). He can also lay mines for his own protection, detonate D-Charges safely after others lay them, and because the Ojotnik is such a flexible weapon, he can usually contribute to a fight from a safe distance without over-exposing.

Really the main downside here is cost. The Scout Lt weighs in at a hefty 29 points, which is more than every other camo Lt option currently. Furthermore, a lot of this cost is going towards equipment and abilities he may not necessarily use, as an exposed Lt like this is likely to get killed pretty quickly as soon as your opponent discovers he is your Lt, given the inherently fragile nature of the Scout. So why might you want to do this?

First of all, during the last turn of the game you don’t care about Loss-of-Lieutenant, so there’s always at least one turn where you’ll get some mileage out of him, even if you do play him cautiously tucked away all game. Because the Scout has a long range weapon in the Ojotnik, once you do bring the Lt into play, he doesn’t exactly have to play catch-up keeping pace with the rest of your models on the board, and revealing a last minute decent ranged weapon from a piece that was inactive all game can quickly swing things in your favor.

Second of all, certain scenarios and situations help to mitigate this risk. Chain of Command is the obvious inclusion, and while Ariadna only has one source of it outside of SpecOps events (The Unknown Ranger), the option does exist. Scenarios like Decapitation also make your Lt obvious anyway (and remove the LoL penalty if he dies) so many players enjoy having a more active Lt and the protection of camo in these cases, rather than the usual shell-game of cheaper troopers that you cannot mask the Lt’s identity with so easily.

Finally, one has to consider the alternatives for a camo Lt. Your main options in Ariadna are

1.) The Foxtrot, who while much cheaper in points (17) costs a massive 2 SWC. This means you have some trade-offs to make, as some lists have a lot more of one than the other, and eating up a third of your SWC for a simple rifle is not a decision most take lightly.

2.) The SAS, who is nearly exactly the same, but 5 points more and gains some melee power. Unless you’re always getting your Lt into melee (and note that most dedicated assassins will still probably beat you out) this is definitely a profile to avoid.

3.) The Tankhunter, who costs 25 points but still 1 SWC. He gains in durability, WIP (good for the roll-off) and Courage over the Scout, with most of the weapons being a debatable trade. Again, like the Foxtrot, really this is just about trade-offs, as both are good options.

4.) Bruant, who while strictly speaking only Limited Camo (which doesn’t tend to matter if you only plan on using him for a single turn) and costing 1 SWC, is still one point cheaper and brings a real heavy weapon to the party in the Molotok. This generally makes him a slightly better gunfighter, but of course you pay for it and lose some of the weapon and model flexibility in the package.

Overall I’d say the Scout compares very fairly with these options as a viable alternative, and the only one without SWC cost. Even though he is the most expensive option, this doesn’t have to be a bad thing, with both surviving army point/zone scoring scenario possibilities to consider and Limited Insertion now being an ITS option that makes more expensive Ariadna models inherently desireable. It won’t be an option you reach for every game, and indeed many like myself still prefer the cheaper Line Kazak profiles for overall cutting of costs. Nevertheless, if you enjoy the flexibility of the Scout and are looking for a better way to protect your Lt, then it might be a choice to consider in your next game.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Scouts are a very flexible model that some opponent’s struggle to get enough use out of, but I hope this article shines some light on some of the more subtle ways to utilize this piece. Trying to use them like other (read: cheaper) midfield camo infiltrators usually isn’t the way to go, so instead you want to position them further over to the flanks and make use of all their different skills to make the most out of their bigger price tag.

Anyway that’s all from me for today, but hopefully I’ll be back soon with some more tactical advice on getting the most out of all your infinity models.

Until next time! 🙂

Painting Progress 3

Once again, I’m back with another painting update.

As some of you have no doubt been following, MidnightCarnival and I have been having ourselves a little wager. The plan was simple – paint 25 models by the end of the year, or buy the other a chunk of models for their new army.

Anyway this post comes a little later than I’d hoped, but the combination of moving house and getting a new Husky pup meant that real life had other plans entirely.

– Bark bark! A real Antipode Jr. this one!

Fortunately for all of you, this delay in posting actually means I’ve completed more models, including an entire Grunt link! These models are definitely in the newer style for Ariadna, sporting combat sweaters, newer looking weapons and some really neat other details that gives the link a lot of character. I had a lot of fun painting this lot, and with only a few more US models to go, I’m quite pleased at the pace I’ve got with these guys, even if painting similar models is getting a touch repetitive.

And speaking of links, next up is my last remaining Volunteer, who I picked up around the same time as Isobel to finish that link team as well. Bringing a hefty HMG is really sweet and a solid way to get dirt cheap firepower buffed with all the standard link team bonuses. Only one more surprise guest to go for this link, and that’s 2/3 link teams done for me!

Finally, we have another Scot, the diminutive (but undoubtedly badass) SAS. For whatever bizarre reason, this sculpt was definitely released during Corvus Belli’s “small scale” period, as he sits a full head lower in size than most of my other sculpts, making him approximately 4.5 feet tall?

Of course I’ve affectionately given him the name “Mouse”, and the gentle ribbing he gets from his teammates as a result only serves to fuel his kill drive as he’s been diving deep behind enemy lines and blazing away with an assault pistol, meleeing an opponent’s Lt in another game, and scoring countless objectives when fielded as a Forward Observer. These guys are so useful when playing Scots that I have gotten myself a 2nd, with pics to follow when I have a chance.

Anyway that’s all from me folks, and with another 9 models down that leaves only 8 to go! I’ll also be attempting some more tactical related content in the future, so for any of you budding infinity players out there, keep your eyes open!

 

Infinity Battle Report 3 – Ariadna vs. Pano

Last week, I managed to get 2 games on that magnificent space table, so I wanted to take the chance to do another battle report for my second game. To keep things simple, we kept most things pretty much the same, with the same table, scenario and the same list on my part. Here is the first battle report for those of you who missed it, and I encourage you to check it out if you want to see more images of the overview of the table.

https://midnightcarnivalwmh.wordpress.com/2016/10/10/infinity-battle-report-1-ariadna-vs-aleph/

My list was exactly the same, although at least this time I was more familiar with the list so I think I generally put them to better use this time.

My opponent’s list was both incredibly thematic, and rather off-the-wall at the same time. Considering this was a space table with a lot of Zero-G, both of us agreed it would be really awesome if he ran the Santiago link in Military Orders. With a chance to actually use those weird terrain skills, how could he refuse?!

Only 8 orders and 2 SWC spent was a bold decision, but on the flip-side, a big mass of heavy infantry on a clustered board like this one and a central room meant this list would be a real challenge to overcome.

Next we drew Classifieds – I don’t recall what my opponent got as he didn’t complete either, but I drew Sabotage (selecting the green building on the left this time) and Telemetry. My opponent won the roll-off, so he opted to choose turn order and left me to pick deployment. This time I opted to switch sides from my last game, thinking I could use the better firelanes with my big guns on this side and hoping he would leave me with the second turn so I had a last-ditch effort to dislodge that mass of heavy infantry from the central room. Here you can see the end of my opponent’s deployment, with the big mass of Joan/Santiagos on the left, the Hexa proxying a Black Friar just behind them, the Fusilier Paramedic behind the building and the lone Father Knight over to the right.

– Commence boarding action!

My deployment was understandably a bit more conservative, with the HVT and one Scout in the green room to the left, Le Muet covering a long fire lane just behind them and a Tankhunter HMG ready to take his place if need be. In the middle is the fake marker covering another fire lane, the big Antipode pack and Controller at the back, with the Veteran positioned in the little blue room to make a break for the central room. Finally over to the right you can see the Spetznaz in the purple room, the 2nd Scout positioned over by my console, and lastly, the Tankhunter Autocannon covering another lane the Santiago link might use to advance (just off-screen).

Largely I was hoping to position models to make it difficult to move up the link, hoping to pin them down and keep them out of that room as long as possible. To this end, I stripped him of 2 orders, and we were away.

– Deus Vult Heathens!

The Father Knight began the proceedings by quickly stomping up to the objective, buckling somewhat under the weight of Zero-G movement and failing his first attempt, costing a full 3 orders to turn the console and occupy the green room. With a crucial need to get the hell out of that opening platform, the Santiago link stomped up, turning the Spitfire quickly on Le Muet. My opponent knew that the ODD and cover would make it difficult, and matters were only made worse when we measured to find him just out of optimal firing range and I could catch him in the open.

– With a prayer on our lips…

Even though he needed 5’s (BS 17 in a 5 man link, but -12 for range, ODD and cover), 5 dice vs. 1 still proved to be enough, as Le Muet’s shot flew wide and he landed a lucky Crit to break his Symbiont to boot, knocking off the ODD. Divine Guidance indeed! Still, with only a couple of orders remaining and not fancying pushing his luck, he opted to move Joan and a few other models closer to the central room, ready for the next turn.

Vowing revenge, Le Muet clipped him with another shot out in the open, this time favoring the odds with at least 2 dice vs. 2, even if his ODD was gone. One shot was cancelled by the Dodge and the Santiago passed both ARM rolls from the Double Action ammo, proving that the Santiago was still blessed with some kind of sacred ward. Having had enough of this silly fight I opted to move up the Tankhunter HMG in his place, stacking camo, Burst 4 and surprise shot in my favor to finally blow the Santiago into pieces and resolutely break the link.

– Dodge this, said the Tankhunter, spying the Santiago Spitfire in the open…

It was time to position the rest of my forces, needing to sort both of my objectives before I even tried to take that central room. I started by having both scouts score my respective objectives, even iif it took a couple of orders to do so. Next I began coordinating the Spetznaz and Tankhunter further over to the right, moving Le Muet to cover the green room door from the impending Father Knight and bringing the Veteran up to the central room. The Tankhunter had a perfect bead on the rest of the Santiago link, and even if he hadn’t opted to hold his ARO (vs. a camo marker), the range band difference and camo meant that I felt pretty safe, even out of cover.

With only a few orders to go I opened the room up with the Veteran, ducking inside behind the boxes and positioning the dogs not far behind him. As my last order I decided to put up some suppressing fire, with the Tankhunter and Spetz both hoping to force my opponent away from the objectives on my side, the Veteran holding his own in the central room, and the Antipode controller joining in the bullet parade for a laugh.

– Brrrrtttttt! (Suppressing Fire)

Of course the inevitable was coming, and the remaining Santiagos pressed on with Joan’s coordinated order. The Autocannon opened up and miraculously the Santiago survived with a dodge (!), making it to the right door of the central room intact. He quickly fire off a burst of nanopulser into the Veteran, hoping to take advantage of the lousy Ariadna BTS. Thankfully his luck ran out, and the Santiago lost a wound to a flurry of suppressing  AP rounds and my Veteran survived the blast of nanobots in turn.

Next it was the Paramedic’s turn, and the shifting luck continued for my opponent as she promptly failed to help the downed Santiago spitfire and watched him bleed out helplessly instead.

– I thought you said you WEREN’T a trauma DOC?!!

With only a few orders to go, the Father Knight began his rampage. A blaze of bullets were exchanged at the entrance to the green room without result, so with another order, he assaulted the Scout and chopping him clean in half. The move was not without consequence though, as one of Le Muet’s breaker pistol shots found it’s mark and dealt a wound, and at least I managed to get a mine down before the Scout found a fast-track up to heaven.

My opponent ended his turn with a coordinated order, bringing his Paramedic Fusilier closer to his objective (I can’t remember if he made it and flipped it or not?) and repositioning a few models near the door. Again, a Santiago attempted to dodge the Tankhunter but he wasn’t so lucky as his predecessor, exploding into showery pieces among the hungry stars as the heavy rounds hit home.

– Boom!

It was my turn again, and although I still barely held that central room, there were more heavy infanntry just outside and a Father Knight bearing down my left flank that would have to be dealt with. Quickly my dogs piled into the room, my opponent opting to hold his ARO as the looming camo markers approached.  This suited me quite well as I opted to spread my markers out as much as possible to avoid templates catching several all at once, so they positioned all around the lonely Santiago.

In the couple of orders they charged in and the whole thing became a bloodbath, with the Santiago and Black Friar just outside blasting nanopulsers at the slavering hounds before the Santiago tried to desperately fend them off in melee. It took a couple of orders to do so and their lives, but the Antipodes fought through my opponent’s surprisingly hot dice and eventually brought the brave knight down. When the smoke cleared the Knight was unconscious along with 2 of the poor pups, leaving the last one immobilized in what could only be described as amazement.

Next, it was time to do something about that Father Knight. Le Muet and him exchanged a volley of Breaker Pistols, but 3 dice to 1 eventually brought him down and my alien sniper redeemed himself in the end.

Now free to act, the Veteran laid his sights on Joan, catching her in the open and spending my last few orders to bring her down. Three heavy infantry unconscious and I had bought some precious time, dropping his Lt in the process.

– The bloodbath in the central room (note, we moved one of the Antipodes who was dead on the crate for this shot so he wouldn’t be damaged trying to balance)

It was his last turn now, and with a small stack of command tokens left at least he could afford to make every order regular again. The Black Friar advanced into the room, lobbing a Drop Bear at my Veteran before nailing him with the combination of her rifle and the subsequent explosion. That left the central room entirely unoccupied, and she laid down another drop bear for good measure in the doorway in order to make it difficult for me to respond. If I couldn’t take back that central room I think I was likely done for, and there was only one model even close enough to try, my second scout.

With a couple of orders remaining, I had to be careful about how I pulled this off. Rather than trying to push through the front entrance I instead sent the Scout around the side instead. It cost me a couple more orders trying this approach, but thankfully it let her get a bead on the Black Friar and drop him before following up with a Forward Observe roll to score Telemetry (+1 Point). More importantly though, the Scout had the tiniest sliver of room just inside the doorway behind the downed Santiago, so he crept up carefully with a knife clutched tightly to his chest.

Because there was no way for the mine to clip the Scout without also touching the Santiago, the scout smiled as he circumvented the deadly but surprisingly “humanitarian” explosive, snapping the Knight’s neck in two and keeping very still as he waited for reinforcements to arrive. The room was ours (securing the nearby HVT), and with the Engineering Deck held once again, my Kazaks went 2-0 in victories for the day.

– Stay very still…. Minesweeper Muls will be here shortly!

I hope you all enjoyed the write-up of this second battle report, and with any luck, I’ll have a chance to bring you more games in the future.

Until next time! 🙂

 

 

Infinity Battle Report 2 – Ariadna vs. Aleph

So it’s time for another battle report!

Once again, my opponent and I were pretty fortunate to play on a pretty spectacular table. After playing a number of games on some pretty “same-ish” boards, we opted to run something a bit different, and came up with this rather interesting space station board for me to return to my Ariadna on.

 

– Ariadna in spaaaaccceeeee!

As you can see from a few angles of the table, everything is nicely divided between indoor little rooms (treated as normal terrain) and the “outdoor platforms”, which we treated as Zero-G. What this meant is that all normal models could NOT Move/Move, meaning they were restricted to skills like Move/Shoot, Move/WIP and so on. Furthermore, just for a bit of fun, we decided to give ALL models both the Super Jump and Climbing Plus skills when outside, and any models that already had either of those skills or the Zero-G terrain skill/Multi-terrain could ignore the movement restriction.

Really this only came up a couple of times to help models get around out in the open, but I’m sure if we played on it again, we would have noticed far more tactical applications! The scenario was Engineering Deck, which felt oddly appropriate and gave a nice balance between trying to take the central room and still pushing up the flanks to circumvent the enemy.

Anyway in celebration of this special occasion, and after promising more Kazak coverage on the Ariadna forums, I decided to run with something particularly challenging – a (mostly) Kazak list**! Despite not having an actual sectorial and being already restricted by the “Limited Insertion” rule of the scenario, I thought this would be a particularly exciting way to play this game. The fact that all of my models were painted also made it quite appealing as well!

**I say mostly Kazaks, as I did run Le Muet in this battle, given that I lacked enough high point Kazak-only models to run for Limited Insertion!

Here is the list!

– Prepare for docking Товарищи, we’re going in… 

My opponent had an equally nasty surprise waiting for me. This time he was running Vanilla Aleph, and cleverly noticing the house rules we had laid down, opted to run a Marut! The multi-terrain skill largely meant this thing could stomp around unhindered, and the combination of the MSV2 vs. my camo, Multi-HMG for the open areas and the Heavy Flamer to empty out the rooms had me worried.

 

– Defense protocols initiated! 

On any normal board I’d have been a lot less concerned. I was sporting 2 tankhunters and some Antipodes after all, not to mention that the damn thing couldn’t even fit in the central room (chuckle). But the general absence of firelanes and greater close quarters focus of this battle made it quite a challenge to bring my big guns to bear, meaning it would be more of a game of “sneaki breeki” than the usual “cheeki breeki”   My opponent won the roll-off, so I was given turn order and chose to go first, leaving me to deploy first as well. I drew the objectives “Extreme Prejudice” and “Sabotage” while my opponent grumbled about his (and didn’t achieve either, so I never saw them!)

– Ariadna deployment overview.

It’s a little tricky to see from the map given all the camo markers, but I’ll do my best to explain. On the left hand side I had a Scout (by the box) and the real Spetznaz guarding the door. Further back in the little blue room I had Voronin, with the Tankhunter Autocannon standing by the entryway to his room. Up at the front was the Spetznaz’s fake marker, with the Veteran Kazak inside the blue building ready to take the central room. Le Muet, the 3 Antipodes markers and the controller sat behind the blue building, ready to reposition quickly. Finally, on the right side, the camo marker in the green room represented my second Scout, the Tankhunter HMG took cover behind the console, and my HVT sat at the front of the big blue room.

­– Aleph deployment overview.

Here was my opponent’s side of the table. At the bottom sat the Marut, with the Myrmidon standing behind it to provide smoke and Thamyris nearby to protect with hacking options. In the middle was the Posthuman Mk5 by the room, a Minesweeper Probot and a Dakini HMG, ready to adjust to the evolving tactical situation. Finally at the top was the Posthuman Mk1 Engineer (barely visible behind the building) a Zayin TR HMG bot, and a pair of Netrods that deployed on the edge of the table for this slightly amended scenario (placed on the edge of the table, like Cold Sleep). My opponent stripped me of 2 orders, and we were away.

Knowing that I didn’t want to get stuck in a fair fight and play into my opponent’s game, I moved the left Scout up through the Orange building, switching over my console on the way. Eyeing up those Netrods from the start, I first had the TR bot to deal with, so I recamo’d and crept to the edge of the pink room door. I couldn’t exactly hit it in “bad range” but, straight dice for me (+3 Range, -3 Cover) and -9 for him (Camo, cover, surprise shot) at least ensured that he needed 5’s in return, even if he had way more dice than I did.

– Taking aim… 

When I rolled a 1 and a 19 though my heart sank, thinking it was over. Thankfully, all of my opponent’s shots missed, so my Scout successfully put the bot down! Now free to proceed unhindered, he put both Netrods down (just cut off to the left of that previous shot) with his pistol and kept on ruthlessly pushing up the flank… with Multi-terrain ignoring the penalties imposed by Zero-G! Along the way, my Scout spied the Minesweeper Probot over on the side, slamming a couple of rounds into it’s side and knocking it unconscious. Running out of orders, I did think about trying to kill the Posthuman (risking a nanopulser to the face) or WIP the console (which he’d only take back right away). But given how early it was in the game, I figured there were easier ways to make things hard for him.

Instead, I opted instead to coordinate a couple of my guys up closer (the Spetznaz, Tankhunter Autocannon, Scout and Le Muet) to get them further up the field.  Finally, my Scout my crawled over to step on the broken remote (achieving Extreme Prejudice for a guaranteed point) and hid in the corner to end my turn.

– All sneaki breeki like

It had pretty much my entire turn on the Scout, but my opponent was already down 4 orders and risked losing a couple more if that sneaky little Kazak wasn’t dealt with soon. The Marut powered up and began stalking the open platforms, spying the forward camo marker along the way. It opted to Discover and successfully passed, cursing the Spetznaz’s fake and continuing the search for real prey.

– Commence extermination protocols…

– Target acquired!

It didn’t exactly take long for my opponent to find the real one though, blasting it at the edge of the orange building and sadly tearing him in two. Turning around the Marut found the Scout, hosing him down with the heavy flamer successfully but not before he had time to lay a mine. I did think about revealing the Tankhunter to ARO the Marut as he crossed the gap, but by this time my opponent’s pool was already low on orders, so I knew it was more important to deprive him. Knowing he had to at least get out of the open then, my opponent tried to Discover the Tankhunter on the platform (this time failing), set off the mine (it did nothing to its ARM 8!) and opted to hide behind the main Engineering building.

2 models down to my opponent’s 4, and even if I felt like the Spetz’s death could probably have been prevented, I was feeling in pretty good shape. This time it was time to activate the second Scout, pulling back to activate the second console on my side before returning to pretty much his original position. Noticing that my opponent wasn’t really covering his green room, my Scout crept slowly inside, laying a D-Charge at the door (for Sabotage) and attempting to WIP his objective. After failing multiple times, much to my frustration, my Scout laid a Mine at the door instead, knowing that Myrmidon would likely want to close with me on his turn and would be more than happy to cleave my poor 2nd Scout in two!

Finally it was time to coordinate a few of my guys around, including the Scout, and this was when my opponent opted to reveal his nasty TO – a Posthuman with a Boarding Shotgun! Thankfully my Scout was the Spearhead leader (thinking I’d try to WIP that silly console one more time along the way!) so he desparately fired his pistol in return. Somewhat miraculously, my opponent rolled a 17, missing the Scout and actually losing the face-to-face roll as a result. Failing the armor save and cursing the Scout having Marksmanship Lvl1, the Posthuman dropped dead straight away, much to the shock of everybody, including my Scout! The mine however did nothing (even though it probably should have killed him anyway), so I guess either way my opponent’s Posthuman was likely to go down.

It was at this point that one of our other regulars raised an interesting contention, and it was something we discussed extensively after the game – why did my opponent not reveal his TO earlier, perhaps say, when I was Move-Moving inside the room (so he could nab me on my second short skill). Now as it happened, neither one of us had actually noticed that it was my second short skill that I entered the room with (and thus LOS), so neither one of us even spotted that this was indeed an option.  In fact, this was almost certainly the better bet to avoid the mine I dropped later and take me out with an unopposed roll. Really I should have been less careless if I’m honest, as there was no need to have made such a mistake and taken the ARO risk of a possible TO! But as my opponent rolled a 17 on his dice, thankfully it didn’t matter either way!

Things were getting a bit difficult for my opponent, and it was time for a bold plan to turn things around. He could probably deal with the second scout quite trivially, but he wasn’t getting any closer to the objectives and my order pool was still very much intact.  Instead he decided to continue leaning on the Marut heavily, leaping across the platform with a gravity defying leap and attempting to Discover the Tankhunter for a second time. Again, my opponent failed the check, much to his frustration so of course I opted to keep the powerful Tag hunting weapon hidden to avoid its wrath. The powerful Tag then wheeled around to fight my Veteran Kazak at the door, washing him with the powerful heavy flamer and stomping dangerously close to my backfield. The Kazak successfully clipped him with a wound during the first exchange (AP rounds ftw) and survived the burning flames, but then cunningly my opponent pushed his Tag deeper still, catching BOTH the Tankhunter (still in camo) and the Vet Kazak in the blast. It was then that my luck ran out entirely, with both models dropping unconscious but not before I dealt him another wound.

Finally, my opponent spied the almost helpless Antipode controller, still unfortunately positioned right behind the slew of still camo’d Antipodes and therefore an elligble target for the Flamer. The dogs all dodged with ease (PH 15) and she miraculously did the same, scattering the pack with a slew of 4″ dodges and thankfully keeping them spread out enough to avoid a repeat experience.

My opponent knew that he was probably done at this point, but he backed off with his last order, whacking each of the dogs and the controller  with the multi-HMG and they all successfully dodged again, one of them even managing to Engage his Tag in the process. At this point even I felt sorry for the dice betrayal of my opponent, but not sorry enough to still leave the Marut standing once my turn rolled around. The rest of the pack quickly closed in, the Marut quickly dispatching one of the dogs in melee but being torn to shreds quickly by the others.

– Bark bark!

Losing his last offensive piece and his lieutenant, my opponent was happy to concede. He was a bit disgrunted at not being able to flambee the little dog pack, which even I expected. However, with the second Tankhunter over on the right side in a pretty prime spot, I think I could quite possibly have finished the job either way given the final position of the TAG.

It was certainly an interesting game, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I did playing on such a different table. I managed to get a second game in on this table which I’ll put up soon, but until next time! 🙂

Infinity Battle Report 1 – Pano vs. Aleph

Infinity is a wonderful game. But the more you play it, the more you realize how important terrain is. Sometimes though, the discussion of placement practically supersedes any conversation about what type to play on, and for such an imaginative terrain-based game, some of the boards I’ve seen have just been, well, boring.

But my latest game yesterday was on a board I felt was so magnificent, I simply had to share it. And with that comes the first (of hopefully many) Lazarus infinity battle reports!

– Just look at that majestic table

That’s right. Not an urban building, neon sign or car in sight. Now I know what you’re thinking…”That board is WAY too open” but even then we came up with a crafty solution. While in the river, all models would count as prone. This meant that they obviously moved slower (although we said models with aquatic terrain could ignore this penalty) but it let them duck pretty low out of sight from models blazing away across the table. Perhaps more importantly though, any kind of height advantage, such as being on a bridge or in a building, would let you shoot “down” at the models trying to cross the river, so you weren’t completely safe either.

– View from the other side of the board (apologies for the blurriness, the picture had to be taken from above my head due to the angle!)

And with that quick bit of house-ruling in place, we were off. It was Limited Insertion and we opted to play Safe Area as the scenario. Here are the lists:

But wait Lazarus, that’s not Ariadna, you might say. And you would be right. For I’ve been slowly branching out into another faction, Pano (well, Neoterra strictly speaking at the moment), and that’s something I’ll no doubt be showing you all as soon as I’ve finished my little wager on the site and have a chance to paint them.

Unfortunately though, that did mean there were a few proxies. My Fusilier link was representing the Bagh Mari, my Aquila is the Orc Lt, and I personally use the Commtech as a Machinist (engineer) and Bipandra as the Trauma Doc (doc) as I don’t really like those official models.

And here is my opponent’s list. A nice slew of ranged shooting power which was probably a good idea on this board, some lethal close combat, and still a few key scoring models. Very snazzy.

He went on to promptly ace the rolloff, and quickly chose deployment. This was a sneaky move on his part as going 2nd is probably the advantage in this scenario (last turn scoring) but he knew that if I had to choose turn order going second, he’d have all the deployment advantages against me. So I opted to go first, and hoped a bit of board control would swing the odds.

Here you can see my deployment, with the Tikbalang being slapped down last as my reserve model on the right of the house with the Orc and Machinist, the Bagh Mari link over on the left with the Doc, and the Remote in the middle with the Palbot. Really my placement of the Tik wasn’t quite “optimal”, but the idea was generally to try and speed bump his Myrmidon link and let my Bagh’s run rampant over the other side of the table, trim his order pool, and score.

And here is my opponent’s deployment, with the Myrmidons behind the Red-roofed building, Netrod scattering into the open and the Thorakitai behind the riverbank by the trees. We discussed this after the game that he perhaps should have put his Thorakitae link IN the river at the start, rather than behind the bank. It was a tactical trade-off, as this would have let them get behind the mill sooner for fewer orders, but of course might have left them more vulnerable had I been able to use the height advantage from somewhere to pick them off. Of course he didn’t know I had a Climbing Plus Tik in reserve heh, so maybe it was the right call? Otherwise the rest was fairly standard, with the HMG bot he reserved opting to skulk a little further back for fear of being picked off quickly by a sniper, especially as there were few good spots to put him. He stripped me of 2 orders and we were away.

So first of all, Tik went up and slaughtered the Netrod, before spending a few orders to stomp across the bridge and lay a mine roughly at the corner. I did think seriously for a moment about pushing the attack and going in hard with the heavy flamer, but at that close distance I was likely to simply get engaged and chopped to little pieces. Perhaps more importantly, I needed to get my Bagh’s up on the other side, so I advanced them quickly into the midfield and took up some aggressive positioning around the bridge. A few orders later and my Sniper drew a bead on both the Zayin TR HMG bot and Hector, but the extreme distance gave her a massive dice advantage, even splitting her burst. The remote predictably went down, but Hector safely dodged his bullet and skulked further back out of view.

– Poor Zayin… (this photo taken at the start of his turn after the link had moved)

Realizing I was running low on orders, I coordinated the Tik a lot further back to a safer position, and used the opportunity to move up my Remote and doctor to where they might be a touch more useful.

Over to my opponent then, and he was down to 9 orders (Hector having Strategos). The Myrmidon hacker popped some smoke off to cover the gap between the bank and the building, and then the team quickly piled inside. Very carefully they traipsed through the interior so as to avoid the mine, and then hector came out the other side to begin fighting the massive tag. With 6 orders to go, my opponent contemplated (and we rolled it out to see) blazing away with the Plasma rifle, as needing 13’s was pretty good, even if I was ARM/BTS 6, meaning I had to roll above 8’s to survive it. However, more problematic was that I could simply fry him with the heavy flamer back in turn, and as I said, we rolled it out and he ended up charred 2 orders later while I was down to my last wound.

Instead then, he opted to use the safer play of popping smoke, catching the tag in the cloud and moving Hector up to carve it in two. Thinking he would need about 5 orders for the job (1 to smoke, 1 to get there, 3 to fight vs. my decent ARM and STR) he had his Thorakitae team try and move up a bit, with the Feuerbach picking a fight vs. my sniper. Unfortunately the odds were very much in my favor here, as the 5 man link team and catching him in the open meant I needed 18’s on 2 dice, while he had 3 dice needing 12’s (also in the open, but I had Mimetism). The sniper hit home and killed his Thorakitae, temporarily breaking the link before he reformed it again on Thrasymedes.

Returning to Hector then, my opponent figured that with his high CC, high PH and crucially, an EXP close combat weapon, Hector had pretty good odds of smashing the Tag. Although the fact that I was CC 17 myself and AP meant that I managed to make a pretty good fight of it and caused some of his dice to miss. That, combined with the low number of orders left meant that I actually survived the fight with a single wound left. This is the key issue with melee combat in this game – even if you have all the skills in the world, it’s still 2 dice (Martial Arts Level 4) vs. 1, and you can always roll those low numbers. And roll those low numbers he did, with me actually winning one fight (dealing a wound) and him only getting 3 hits on me in turn. 9 dice, needing 8+ to survive, so yes, it was a bit below average that I lived. My opponent was understandably a bit upset at this point, but his luck would change soon enough.

My turn comes around and the poor battered Tikbalang is stuck there, so I sent my Orc Lt in to try and dig him out again. Some of the Myrmidon link team members were really out in the open here (in the river) so I figured if I could get him on the bridge and try to pick them off, that might deprive him of some orders as well as scoring in that zone. Perhaps more importantly, that would leave the nearby Machinist safe to walk up to the Tik and try and fix him, again hopefully depriving my opponent of more orders to simply kill the thing.

Unfortunately though this plan fell far short, with Machaon, my first intended victim, successfully passing his Smoke roll and shrouding most of them in fog. My Orc, sighing with frustration, clambered up to the side of the bridge and dropped prone, before spraying Phoenix, the only one not protected by the smoke, right in the back. Of course bloody Sixth Sense level 2 (from being in a link) meant that he too passed his dodge smoke, and with that, the plan was over. My orc used his Lt order to go in suppressing fire (hoping to suppress link team members if the team activated to fight the Tik, and hoping to stay alive…) and that was that.

Over on the other side of the board though and I was much more successful. My Bagh Mari team moved up, crossed the river to the far bank, and introduced Thrasymedes to my favorite new friend – a link team boarding shotgun. +6 for range, +3 for the link team, and only -3 for his ODD (gotta love that sweet Bagh Mari MSV1!). I can’t remember he tried to fend me off with the SMG (I was in the open after all, but I did have Mimetism) or hose me down with the nanopulser, but either way I survived and all the remaining Thorakitae dropped.

With only a couple of orders left I repositioned the team to a better midfield position and waited to see my opponents retaliation.

His turn rolls around, and Hector, sick of his ongoing combat with the tag, breaks out of the link so that I wouldn’t suppress the other members with my Orc. He quickly dropped the TAG in a single order, smashing it to pieces with all 3 dice and finally putting the odds back in his favor. Not in the order he wanted mind, but hey. With only 4 orders left he then turned on the Orc, but not being able to reach it in melee and no longer being in a link, it wasn’t exactly an easy fight for him either. In fact, with both of us rolling 3 dice and him needing 10s (+3 range, -3 for cover as I was prone and above him, -3 for Suppressing) and me needing 14s (suppressing him in the open), I actually ended up dropping him. Only 2 orders left and only 3 models on the table and he conceded, knowing my Baghs had complete control over the other side of the table and could happily reposition to come after the remaining Myrmidons.

Really I felt like my main mistake was with the Tik. What I should have done with him was actually pretty simple – put him pretty much where the Orc was standing on the other side of the bridge(using dat Climbing Plus yo!) and go on suppressing instead of moving further back. That would make choices difficult for my opponent, as I could suppress him if he tried to shoot me from the building (I’d only be at -3 needing 12s, he’d also be at -3 overall due to my Mimetism and Suppressing, needing 10s) and closing with the Tik would be damn near impossible for melee combat or at least more costly to do so. It also would have meant the link team could have potentially added supporting fire and chew up more orders needing smoke to cover the advance as a result.

Otherwise, deployment could have been better, but it was certainly a tricky board to eyeball and of course I was deploying first. Tik would have been far better hunting down the Thorakitae, whereas the Baghs should have been more central to go after the Myrmidons no matter where they went. On his side of things the main issue was the placement of the Thorakitae as we said, and while my opponent was initially happy with that choice of side, the lack of deployment zone cover didn’t make it easy for him when I was going first.

Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this feature, and if it proves popular, I’ll try to take more pictures and write up reports of some of my weekly games. Next time I’ll probably run some Kazaks (who are fully painted by the way!) so that should be a lot of fun!

Unboxing the Inflictor

It’s here!  After a wait of entirely too long, and an edition change, we finally have the Inflictor/Seether kit!  Here’s a quick unboxing before I get to assembling it!

Much like all of the new plastic kits, they were nice enough to include instructions!  There’s the sexy beast on the right…

It all comes neatly packaged inside a little plastic bag.  Remember, bags aren’t toys, don’t let your pets or infants get at them.

The first sprue is the torso.  It comes in 2 halves much like all of the torsos do, and I have to say, I much prefer having to assemble the torso halves while they use a higher quality plastic instead of the spun plastic that they were using previously.

Next are the legs and shoulder plates.  The feet are separate, and at first glance, looks like they may only fit in one position.  Nothing a little bit of modelling putty and an exacto knife can’t fix if you want to adjust the position.  Not just that, but it appears to be relatively easy to adjust the position of, or perhaps to make it in a running pose.

Here we go.  This is the sprue I was waiting to see.  Inflictor parts!  The clock wasn’t reset!  It wasn’t a troll box either!  It really does exist!

I suppose I should at least mention that the Seether parts are in there too.  I still don’t like the Seether, but that’s not the point of this post, so I’m not going to get into that.  Needless to say, there is actual game to the Seether now with an Iron Lich Overseer, so it isn’t all that bad to show the Seether bits too (plus I know some of you guys love the Seether, and that’s ok!).

Finally, everything together!  I’ll post a fully built Inflictor as soon as it’s built, but I really wanted to just show you guys that the clock has not been reset!  It really is here!

’til next time!

 

 

Terror on the high seas

Another Gencon has just passed and with that, Gencon ninjas have come through!  I said that once Aiakos went full warcaster, I would be all-in on him regardless of how good or bad his rules ended up being, and so, Captain Aiakos is next up in my caster queue of casters to play.

In the next few weeks, I will be doing quite a lot of testing with Aiakos to see what makes him tick.  There are some obvious weaknesses and he’s going to want every single last bit of focus efficiency he can get but I personally see a very fun caster who can reach out from a long ways out.

This is just a quick post to give you guys an update as to what’s coming up next.

’til next time!

Painting Progress 2

Time for another update!

Since my last post I got a handful of nice models done as part of our friendly wager (See here https://midnightcarnivalwmh.wordpress.com/2016/04/30/a-friendly-wager/ and my first progress post here https://midnightcarnivalwmh.wordpress.com/2016/05/21/painting-progress-1/). I’ve been very happy with the way these models turned out, with a bunch of really cool recent releases,  a couple of box exclusive sculpts and even a couple of larger models.

First up then is one of my favorite sculpts in the US range, the Maverick biker.

– Zoom zoom!

This model was a lot of fun to paint, with all the machinery you don’t get to focus on with most Ariadna models and a healthy amount of dirt and grease to really add to her character. One of the loadouts that first caught my attention was the Light Rocket Launcher/SMG setup, which brings some unique firepower options that aren’t easy to get elsewhere in Ariadna without breaking the bank. Unfortunately there is no sculpt for this loadout yet, but as you can see here, a quick bit of conversion work on the weapon was all it really took.

– Taking aim and….

Finally all I really needed was some details – the dials really add a nice bit of freehand to the model and the windshield and lights are definitely a nice eye-catcher.

Of course no Maverick sculpt would be complete without a paintjob of her lovely dismounted version.

– Seriously you guys, come and pick me up!

I must confess to have never actually dismounting my biker during the game (and unless I use the FO profile and need her to reach some obscure objective, that probably won’t change). That being said, she makes a lovely HVT model and the little bandana + braids she has gives her a lot of character.

Next up is another larger based model, Colonel Voronin.

– Grrrr!

This guy also is full of details and I had a lot of fun painting him. In particular I’m very happy with how his face turned out, capturing his weathered senior officer look and contrasting nicely with the much more animated pet Antipode by his side.

– Leading tactically from a prone on a roof position near you….

One thing you might also notice is I stuck the dog higher up on the curb, as it made the dog more imposing and it fits in nicely with the uncontrollable look of the much bigger adult Antipodes that I have in every list right now.

Moving on to another favorite sculpt of mine is the incredible Hardcase.

– The cheapest and most annoying source of camo markers…

I loved everything about this guy when he first dropped, but as I started painting him the lack of string on the bow was really starting to annoy me. One quick bit of thread glued round the spools and done, ready to skewer some fool quietly with double action ammo.

­– Uncle Ted reporting in!

Of course I never actually use the bow really in favor of the rifle or shotgun either profile carries, but hey, it’s nice to have for an ARO I guess!

Finally I come to one of my favorite sculpts, the lovely Isobel MacGregor from the Ariadna side of the Dire Foes range.

– Who said Ariadna couldn’t have Hackers…

I actually plan on entering this lovely lady into a local painting competition, so I really went all out with the details. The face is one of the best I’ve managed to do, and she has quite a bit of freehand, from the computer console and Scottish flag wristband to the tattoos on her arm and of course the tartan pants.

– Almost rivalling Uxia with the sheer quantity of equipment here… (T2 Rifle, Flash Pulse, E-Maulers, D-Charges, Defensive Hacking Device, Pistol, Knife…)

I’m seriously happy with the way she turned out, and obviously  she’s pretty happy with her new paintjob too, as the last few games have demonstrated with her uncanny accuracy with that lethal T2 Rifle (great for Nimbus zone) and numerously successful taken objectives.

Anyway that’s all for me right now, and with only 17 models to go to meet my wager goals, I’m well on the way to having this lot done by Christmas. Unfortunately as our local store recently started a journeyman league for WMH I’ll be taking a little break from painting infinity to get some more Skorne painted up, but I’ll be back with some more US and Scots by August, don’t you worry!

🙂

 

Mk3 Cryx Review – Warjacks

One thing MidnightCarnival and I discussed pretty early on in the Mk3 Cryx release was trying to do something of a comprehensive faction review of Cryx in Mk3. All over the internet people have been extensively discussing many of the changes, but as part of our effort to chip in, we felt something that was more of a discussion and an analysis than a simple, dull, changelog would make for better reading.

So as part 1 of this article series, we turned to look at Cryx warjacks.

 

Slayer

Lazarus – Okay okay, Lets do something sensible with this! Basic Slayer, go!

MC – It got cheaper, it got more boxes. I mean…. it still has the same output. It gained hard head, but I mean, it got cheaper and better

Lazarus – I love it now. I hadn’t realized till today, but it has a lot of utility, simply for being the only thing in it’s pt bracket and ARM cracking being more of a premium.

MC – It still loses it’s arms. But at least you’re paying less for it.

Lazarus – Right and thing is, fragile tho he is, he fills more of a role now, simply because of the way WJP work out (and people are taking more heavies, for which hes kinda adept at taking out?

MC – The way I’m seeing the slayer is as a fire and forget missile

Lazarus – Agreed. And two nodes are only 12 pts usually. So the slayer suddenly comes in handy if ur sitting there thinking, eh, i dont want much more jack wise than this? Or alternatively, single node casters can get a Slayer, Node and usually something like a Harrower for 30. Whereas DJ would leave u short on WJP.

MC –  I’m liking slayers in pairs honestly

Lazarus – Yeah, i could see that. Esp low pts levels when you need ARM cracking.

MC – Paired slayers are ok because they’re cheap, disposable and require them to put a big gun into it

Lazarus – And yeah im noticing fragile tho they are, theyr more functional now. Powerup leaves them pretty independent tbh.

MC – Power up is the reason why I’m ok with taking them as a pair.

Lazarus – Little bit sad about the “2 extra boxes” rumor being untrue mind. But yeah with Banes being such a problem child to deliver, the Slayer I think actually has a place now. Esp if u don’t have ARM debuffs and esp in a more jack friendly meta, where they can usually alpha at least. Which is such a weird place to be in.

 

Reaper

Lazarus. So the Reaper. Identical apart from standard tusk changes (1″ rng, Hard head), and just a touch cheaper.  Honestly, i like it. But god i wish it was 12pts. Would that be fair to say? If it was 12, id love it to pieces

MC – I like the reaper. I still think the reaper is just as good as it has been. And I think the reaper is pretty fair where it is. You’ll never use hard head mind you, but it’s still got a place as far as beingt able to pull people around

Lazarus – You see, at 12 it’d be an easy sell for fitting a great space between springing a little extra for the Inflictor and dropping pts for the Slayer. But im not sure trading the gun for the Inflictors Shield is worth it for the same cost atm? Even if sustained is better.

MC – I think it can be because if people are going to be taking more heavies and less colossals again, then the reaper will have targets

Lazarus – True. It’s very much a meta question. And ofc the eternal Malice comparison we’ll get to haha.

 

Corruptor

MC – I think the thing I’m most excited for with the corrupter is the change to the necroburster. Ahe arc node warrior model having 360 is really good. So, here’s a funny thing for you. You shoot an opposing unit with the corrupter, and have venethrax channel 2 dead weights through the new arc node. That kills 2 more infantry models and can make 2 opposing heavies forfeit movement or action. So if they have the infantry close to their jacks at all, you can seriously screw them for it, in particular, say…choir boys

Lazarus – The corruptor got a lot better. Im a little surprised at the cost, but he got majorly buffed. Extra POW, bigger blast, 360 arc, bigger heal, immunity corrosion (eh). It’s a big list of changes

MC – For me, the biggest change by far is the 360 arc. That just opens up so many tactical options for getting spells where people don’t want you to have them

Lazarus – It’s bascially everything we always wanted for the jack – Reliable healing. Check (Esp now Skarre cant have the necrosurgeon do it!) – Really good arc node. Check – Huge ranged anti infantry AND viable anti-heavy gun (esp now the Levi got nerfed). Check. And better in melee to boot.

MC – Is the gun really enough though? For dealing with heavies. I really like it for shredding infantry.

Lazarus – No. But I like the utility of it.

MC – Ok, that’s fair then. It’s got great utility uses, just not a good anti-heavy gun.

Lazarus – I guess I meant vs heavies, I had the following in mind. Generally speaking, it’s a weakness of some dedicated anti-infantry pieces that they can’t do anything to heavies if the troops are dead. However,this thing can sit in the 12″ sweet spot and put a boosted 14 into something, maybe take a column with some luck (Read: Debuffs)

MC – Just hit the warbeast with mortality first, haha

Lazarus –  Agreed. So the anti-heavy gun part i mean as backup. As in, if u dont need a node right now, or don’t need to pop troops. A better example maybe would be solo busting (along with the harrower) because hes got a 18″ unassisted threat with a solo killing gun for 0 focus needed (powerup). Thats nice to have. So all in all, he can do a little of everything basically.

MC – Yeah, I’m not sure he’s got a very dedicated role, but at least he’s cheap. Side note…I may be comparing every warjack to either being used with venethrax or shade3 because they’re probably 2 of our best casters for running warjacks

Laarus – Put it this way. I don’t know where to take him, yet (Venny maybe). But the key point is, now i WANT to take him. Which is a huge improvement.

MC – For sure

 

Leviathan

MC – So, I have 1 issue with the levaithan, and only 1 Let’s see if you can guess what that single issue is

Lazarus – Well the ROF is rele the only difference. But im gonna go out on a limb and say the problem is the same one it had end of mk2 – Seppy exists now.

MC – Yeah, see, that’s just it. The sepulchre exists and is straight up better because the sepulchre is a ROF4 effectively, while the leviathan is now ROF D3. And if there’s one thing I dislike greatly, it’s an unreliable ROF

Lazarus – I agree entirely. I can’t stand unreliability. If it had Reload at least… But i worry that I’m done w the Levi. Into the trash heap i think it goes I think. I already had problems with it in Mk2 struggling to find a role.

MC –  I don’t think it’s quite THAT bad. But it’s pretty bad without being able to get a reliable ROF2 or ROF3. Hell, if it was straight ROF2 and cheaper, I would be fine

Lazarus – See thing is, im not taking it. I’d rather a corruptor now (Wow, up is down lol!)

MC – You know, I think the only time I’ve ever said I’d rather take a corruptor over something is over a seether.

Lazarus – Or more importantly, a Harrower. Boom. Now THERES a jack….for the SAME cost!

 

Harrower

MC – Best non-character jack in the faction. I’ve said it all throughout MK2, and I stand by that. I still think it’s the best non-character jack we have

Lazarus – See and thats why im never looking at a levi again at this rate. I just dont care when i can take a Harrower for that price. So lets get this lovefest outta the way. I think it’s unanimous, we both agree the Harrower is friggin amazing

MC –  It gets so dumb with murderous. Shade3 gives them murderous, if you don’t need the hit buff, then it gets dark shroud

The fact that it collects souls within 5″ that convert during it’s activation rather than at the start of turn is pretty damn good

Lazarus –  Murderous from 3shade yeah. Coven, ugh im too bitter to discuss them still 😉

MC – Ok, fair. But, like the harrower with terminal velocity, or you know, 2 harrowers with terminal velocity

Lazarus – Its just so much better at what it does, and now cheaper too.

MC – Yeah, and when they made it cheaper, I was ecstatic

Lazarus – The only thing u gotta be careful of is… 1 – Greater collection range not boning other models (rarely a problem) and  2.) Souls only convert next turn, so u need to make sure u actually live that long. But other than that, totally worth it. The other big change is to ghost shot, which is actually much better. You spend the soul and not only gain ghost shot, the shot is fully boosted too! (!!!). So u whack a bunch of guys, churn up souls, and send a fully boosted shot into some solo, clustered troops (boosted damage on the WHOLE AOE!) or whatever. Crazy crazy good

MC – Yeah, I just can’t believe they made it better honestly. It was already nuts in MK2, and then they made it better and cheaper.

Lazarus – Also, Harrower is +1 rng now. Because, reasons? And the gun is magical. Haha

MC – Pretty sure I’m starting most of my battlegroups now with 2 harrowers. Yeah, it’s really really goodI don’t understand why they needed to buff it, but given that I’ve had for a really long time now, I’m in no way shape or form complaining

 

Desecrator

Lazarus – Ok, Desecrator?

MC – I still dont like it. Accumulator “our most nerfed unit”

Lazarus – At least it works on all banes. But yes (I never understood why it had that anyway). Grievous Wounds is nice tho. And +1 RNG helps, tho it rele needed to be rng 12.

MC – Accumulator satyxis makes way more sense on the crabs

Lazarus – I know right? heh

MC – Grievous wounds is solid. The big thing to note is that grievous wounds stops repairs now

Lazarus – Oh, and the jack is cheaper.

MC  – Yeah. I can already tell you the new grievous wounds is going to annoy the hell out of me when I’m playing gargossals

Lazarus – So yeah. I mean the Desecrator didn’t get fixed exactly, but it did get some help. It basically only ever needs 1 focus now (and even then, only for melee) and it got a bit of a bump. But i think i wont have room for it most of the time? So def on my “maybe” pile, as i used it w eLich a few times before I guess…

MC – Oh ok, I just haven’t really seen any appeal to it

Lazarus – Ironically, i think the corruptor kinda kills the desecrator, as i can just whack troops that way now, and yeah, utility. But im months from knowing that for sure, as both are highly “meta” dependent pieces

MC – I just don’t see the point in the desecrator

Lazarus – It doesnt do anything i need doing atm. But if GW and scather gets needed, ill look into it

MC – I also think that things may not be as pillowfisted as they first appear at least as far as an assassination value goes. And see, crab chassis is still the superior chassis because of pathfinder, and steady also, the slightly better damage grid

Lazarus – Pretty much. And now ghost walk is a lot less prevalent…

 

Inflictor

Lazarus – Anyway, let’s do the Inflictor 😀

MC – Still the same amazing warjack. Shield guard is even better now than it was before

Lazarus –  Tho u cant catch sprays. So there is something to keep in mind there. And without soul drive, he is no more focus efficient than other choices. That being said, durable, cheap, reach still means sold basically

MC – To be fair……….every jack got soul drive. Power up basically killed the need for soul drive to exist as a rule

Lazarus – Well agreed. Im just saying hes no longer filling that niche as focus efficient jack compared to anything else… Lol thats for the desecrator now 😉 kidding…

MC – Haha! I think the slayer is definitely the new focus efficient slot. But the fact that he kept shield guard is huge. And yeah i always like the inflictor. Hes less bonkers on morty now, but venny loves him mre than ever basically

Lazarus – And now, the Seether. Sigh

 

Seether

MC – The seether is still unplayable trash. I mean, on the PLUS side…. it’s only 3 points more than a slayer. On the downside….skornergy and it got worse

Lazarus – yeah on the Seether im inclined to agree. I dont want it

MC – My opinion on the seether hasn’t changed. Uncontrollable rage is straight up bad. I mean, it’s not HORRIBLE because the slayer chassis has no guns anyways…

Lazarus –  Yeah i just wish it was free charges, not MUST charge.

MC – But it feels like a fluffy rule that’s just terrible

Lazarus – So the bigger problem is Barathrum, who is a straight upgrade. Unless pts are very tight, im taking him every time

MC – Well, I’nm taking a harrower everytime really. If I want an infantry killer, the harrower is straight better because of reach and thresher… Also, needing to charge makes hard head completely pointless

Lazarus – That too. Berserk without reach or overttake as well….:(

MC – And countercharge?  Venethrax exists, and barathrum has it anyway. I legit can’t say anything good about the seether. I’m trying, but there’s literally nothing good to say. They basically found a way to make a bad model WORSE.

Lazarus – Ok, so if we are trying to be fair to the seether mind… Hes a LOT cheaper (now only 1.5 pts equiv over the slayer vs 3 pts more), he does more damage now (+1 pow), he’s less vulnerable to crippled systems (no chain attack) and uncontrollable rage, ironically, can be controlled. He just runs 0.01″ basically. Really the loss of DEF is what is silly. It should have gone UP, not DOWN

MC – It needs to go back to 14/17 like it was in MK1. That was part of what made the seether actually good in mk1

Lazarus – Im not optimistic on the seether. But as ill now have parts for one, via the multi kit, ill certainly test it.

 

Nodes

Lazarus – Ok lights. Nodes all together? (Seeing as theyr mostly similar)

MC – Yeah, that makes sense. Especially given that most of the nodes lost their combat capabilities. I mean, realistically, when it comes to the nodes, they’re effectively better for their primary purpose. The defiler and the ripjaw losing combat capabilities sucks, but them being cheaper is a fine trade off

Lazarus – Yeah basically nodes just got more streamlined in their role. The loss of DEF is what hurts the most i think actually, but that’s a problem for all Cryx lights

MC – It is, but at the same time, I think the decrease was pretty much across the board. Like, if you notice, most of the high def got neutered

Lazarus – Yeah pretty much. The one model u rele have to watch now w nodes is bloody Kell. Who can just look at one funny and straight up remove the node. Hitting on 4s, auto 3 damage x2. Bye bye node. Irritating.

MC – Yeah, it’s actually a big problem. But see, part of that makes me wonder if a third node may be potentially worthwhile? Though to be fair, I think at that point, I can just take a corruptor and have a flexible third node

Lazarus – Nodes being cheaper doesnt mean as much as it wld in mk2 mind. It basically just means a slightly better jack choice for the rest of your WJP now in practice. And iv thought about 3+ nodes, but the lack of external utility beyond arcing makes me have doubts now more than I even did in Mk2 about nodes, as they cover fewer bases now.

MC – Yeah, thats my thought too. Corruptor all the way now lol. Basically, the defiler and ripjaw lost the most in that respect.

Lazarus – Defiler the most, being a full 2pts more

MC – Yeah, defiler still has uses though. Sprays are better now than ever, but the problem is that it’s spray got weaker

Lazarus – Ripjaw traded the super weird vice lock for powerful attack, which is annoying. Losing Vice Lock is a shame, but he might get used for one simple reason – hes only 1pt more than a Deathripper, and sometimes, u will have a point somewhere (esp if its a WJP). The fact that he’s only Crit ARM piercing though is what kills it utterly for me.

MC –  I liked vice lock though, it had a lot of really weird cornercase applications that were really really good. So to me, the ripjaw lacks appeal because if I want a combat jack, I’ll take a stalker now or cankerworm. And for 1 point, you can take a soultrapper

Lazarus – Hey, there’s always spare WJP! And thats the thing w cryx jacks i find odd, that some of them could have been so much more appealing in the new high WJP meta if they were costed in the right bracket. But yeah, i dont like luck, so I’m not interested largely 😉

MC – Altho now at least it can potentially armor pierce on all attacks

Lazarus – Hehe yeah, i guess….

MC – To me though, the nodes are strictly nodes now

Lazarus – Basically. And Defiler losing 2 pow is yeesh btw

MC – It’s a big hit It still has a place because there are still things that you want to spray down

Lazarus – The one that saddens me most though is the nightwretch. It being auto 3″ AOE is good, but it utterly KILLED the Deathripper vs Nightwretch debate by being 1pt more now. Game over, Deathripper wins.

MC – Right, like the others, it’s more of an opportunity upgrade. For a node, yeah, I think the deathripper is probably straight up a better choice being the cheapest node, and 9 times out of 10, the nodes did nothing but arc.

Lazarus – See now its between paying 1pt to upgrade a DR to a NW or a Ripjaw.

MC – Which means that in those exact same situations, a deathripper is the better choice

Lazarus – And most of the time, i wont pay that pt unless i have it spare

 

Scavenger

MC – I’m not sure if the scavenger really has a place. My biggest issue with the scavenger at the moment is that when I put it next to the stalker, there’s nothing appealing to the scavenger

Lazarus – In theory, I should like the Scavenger. It kept most of what it needed to, and got a touch cheaper too. Generally like before u still want the Stalker, but now they arent priced the same. That being said, the only casters that rele bothered with the Scavenger before (Morty and Coven) both changed and took a hit respectively, which definitely alters their use case. So im putting it under “decent, but i just dont know where to actually put it?”

MC – The bigger issue is the fragility. Unlike the Stalker or Helldiver it doesnt have a defense mechanism, and it’s not as cheap as a node (while being closer to the action as a melee piece). That means i think they just die. And it lost a point of defence didn’t it?

Lazarus – Yeah. I think pretty much every cryx light did.

MC – See, and to me,that seals the deal. The stalker still has stealth. And while i get that flight is a really good rule, we have a unit of these guys now. And the scavenger is even more fragile than it was before

Lazarus – Yeah actually thinking about it more i think ur right, the loss of DEF and not having Ghostly + TV on the same caster anymore wrecks the terror bird. Maybe, maybe Coven will still work, but its gonna be tight

MC – If goreshade1 still had shadowmancer being the same, then I could maybe see a spot there. But with the change there, I wouldn’t even consider it there now

 

Stalker

Lazarus – Ok, stalkers?

MC – Sure. Stalkers are STILL absolutely amazing. The biggest benefit for them came from the change to backstrikes and then them gaining leap.

Lazarus – I agree. Stalkers are amazing. However, I will say they have had a definite role switch. They’re very very good for sniping out support models now They are now arguably MUCH better at solo hunting or picking off UAs than going after casters. The loss of AA and the changes to grevious wounds, combined with the way that camping works and having to spend a focus to leap (fewer attacks), means that assassination is generally off the table. That being said, they are AMAZING at cleaning up the backfield. So i see them closer to a Cryx Raek than their old role?

MC – For sure, and raeks are amazing as well. Stalkers and raeks are crazy good

Lazarus –  Exactly. So stalkers are really good and will see plenty of gametime. You just have to use them differently.

MC – Venethrax with 4 stalkers

Lazarus – Yes. Still good with Morty (the ovverrun changes, AD + leap means they can get to the opponents DZ in almost a single turn lol). And Coven aint bad with them still ofc either.

MC – I still love them with shade3. But the big issue I have with them now wide shade3 is that I no longer play him for assassination first. Which means that the purely assassinatino module is gone. That being said, stalkers on aiakos are still delicious

Lazarus – Oh yes. And 3Shade. But i think ur right, his focus away from being assassination is likely to see them dropped for attrition pieces.

MC – For sure, also, stalkers should not be 8 points. And this is where the comparison with the scavenger happens. See the scavenger flies, but the stalker will just leap instead

Lazarus – That’s true. Also worth a note – them gaining AD means the combo with leap is just ridiculous threat improvement. They’re already 6″ further up turn one and now threat +5″ further

MC – Yeah, AD is another thing is just another thing that they gained that they didn’t need

Lazarus – i think its more a problem that the Scavenger needs to be 6 than the stalker needs to be 9. And Scavenger should have kept the higher DEF. Ya know, for being more movable

MC – I own 4 stalkers already, and I’m so glad I do.

Lazarus – Oh, AND stalker gained 1″ reach, while the Scavenger kept 0.5 :(. So we’re actually talking a 5.5″ increase in threat AND a 6″ increase in board position. Nuts. Ok, so onto the Shrike

 

Shrike

MC – So…the scavenger is bad…and shrike is a slightly better scavenger

Lazarus – Well the shrike did get massive improvements, which we should discuss at least. Its only nerf was losing 1 DEF, as did most cryx jacks. But its:

– Cheaper

– Free tramples now

– Boosted attack rolls

So its at least not a “terrible” choice, as now it can reliably wipe any infantry it hops over.

MC – But it didn’t gain any defensive tech, and that’s where my big issue with it.

Lazarus – Now i dunno if that’ll be enough by itself, but im at least not writing it off like its mk2 version. And i agree, thats still a concern. Now its more of a “probably not” choice than a “garbage pile” choice.

MC – I dunno, I still think it’s really bad because cryx lights need something to not be die to hand cannons. And stalkers have that, but shrike and scavengers don’t.

Lazarus – Right. So i think it’ll depend for me how the meta pans out. If we see a lot of boosted attack shooting for example, shrikes are worthless.

MC – And with bigger battlegroups, I think it’ll be the case

Lazarus – Esp now that a lot of cheap jammers are out. But ill reserve judgement for now because it def got better at what it does and cheaper, so im more inclined to at least consider it, even if as you said, its still probably a “nah, stalker” choice overall.  Ill also note that the nerfs to biles also greatly impact it’s consideration as well.

MC – Yeah, and that’s just it….compared to the stalker, both the other 2 options are just not good

Lazarus – They are cheaper tho. It might be all they have going for them – a situation where u can’t fit a stalker, but u wouldnt mind a solo hunter or some such. It’s at least enough to leave them on the “reserve” bench i think, but im inclined to agree.

 

Helldiver

MC – Holy crap…did burrow get nerfed

Lazarus – Indeed. Im not gonna lie, im kinda glad that even tho i have 2 Scavengers (lol) that i dont have any helldivers

MC – I’m pretty sure burrow got completely gutted. It lost a lot of vectors, and basically….I’m at a point with the helldiver where I’m not sure I would ever take it over a stalker. Not being able to attack the turn it unburrows is a huge hit, not being able to reburrow is an even bigger one

Lazarus – I would never buy one. So that probs says it all

MC – I own 2….I think they may be relegated to being slam targets. Except with the new change to the throw rules, that’s not even necessary

Lazarus – Yeah i just think they got hit too hard with the nerf bat. Burrow in general did, and while the dig in + drag below trick is cute, id rather Barathrum for that than 2 helldivers say.

MC – Probably the second most heavily nerfed model we have

Lazarus – But, i will confess that not actually owning any, my advice concerning helldivers isnt worth all that much. Altho i doubt experience counts for much either given how much they changed

MC – They lost too much

Lazarus – The thing is, overall, im just not sure what their targets are supposed to be now?

MC – They basically got gutted and while I agree that they needed to do something about them, they got hit to the point where they’re pretty much pointless. Even if they took away the ability to re-burrow and retained the ability to attack the turn they unburrow, that would have been fine. But the fact that they took BOTH of that away, means that there’s nothing for helldivers to do now

Lazarus – I agree. Or even if the burrow marker could move faster than a hilariously lousy 3″ a turn! Then it wouldnt matter if it had to forfeit

MC – You saunter up really slowly, then get shot the turn you unborrow. Great, you spent points doing nothing

Lazarus – Yup. Its silly

MC – Basically, the only combat light so far that I would even consider is the stalker

Lazarus – Heres the problem with the Helldiver – compare to the mk2 Razorworm. Also had AD, similar-ish stats, had dig in and drag below. Even had the advantage of the fury system and an animus (admittedly 4 pts). And nobody took it, nobody. It was hot garbage. So its basically a shitty razorworm with a terrible burrow rule attached. Nobody is gonna care.

MC – Pretty much. Stalkers and cankerworm all day, every day

Lazarus – There is one other light im taking, and thats our next choice

MC – We have 2 really really good combat lights, and 3 godawful ones

 

Cankerworm

Lazarus – Cankers! The loveable guy is just straight up better and i adore cankers

MC –  He’s actually better, which I didn’t think was possible, but he got better

Lazarus – Yup. I was shocked. Him being 9 pts is an AMAZING price point. Gotta shave 1 pt off a Slayer? Boom. Got a spare point? Upgrade a stalker. Boom.

MC – Kept everything about him that made him great, still has one of the best damage grids in the game

MC – I think in every case, I would take cankerworm before a slayer. Stealth is a much bigger deal now and cankerworm still has it. Granted, his bond is worse now.

Lazarus – Yup. Id argue the mild loss of reposition (straight 5 vs full advance) is rele no biggie. I much prefer Salvage/Adapt now for being less clunky and now will come up more often.

MC –  The salvage and adapt changes are way simpler now

Lazarus – Oh, and not costing a focus!

MC –  Yeah, and salvage is just better now. Which again, could not understand why they did that, but I won’t complain. He’s still a 9 point autoinclude for me in lich3

Lazarus – I think its that all imprints are gone. Which is big for Nightmare, who we’ll get to soon heh. And yeah agreed. Also, interesting i think he opens up in a big way for morty, as he no longer breaks tier ofc.

MC – He’s also going to shine with more jacks on the table

Lazarus – But yeah largely being the same with minor buffs basically means hes as good as everr with the new advantage of agressive price points for list construction and more jack heavy meta

MC – “Please give me your gun victor” Oh, and free focus is great

 

Malice

Lazarus – So only something a bit different on the char spectrum. Malice

MC – Ok, I’m at a loss with malice again because malice got better, and at the same time, I have the same malice vs reaper issue

Lazarus – Malice does confuse me a bit. The inability to immediately use souls for attacks is minor,  but the loss of starting soul via well of souls is more problematic.

MC – Possession is better, don’t get me wrong

Lazarus – Why, as u can control chars now?

MC – Teah, especially with more people taking character jacks across multiople lists. Taking over ruin and then having him cleave butcher in half will be glorious, especially when you combine that with a few machine wraiths

Lazarus – Shes also now in an uncomfortable points bracket with many other great choices

MC – Possession is actually fantastic. But the reaper has a 2″ sustained attack weapon and hits harder

Lazarus – Agreed. The bigger problem i think is ur gonna have to set it up more, because the lack of starting soul means u do have to order of operations correctly (or trapper, which has its own issues) to get her going

MC – I still think I’d rather have a reaper in all honesty

Lazarus – But yeah otherwise her role is similar – good at dragging heavies as a setup for your army. If the meta is less gargossal friendly then she has more opportunities to shine.

MC –  I’d rather drag something in and kill it Rather than drag something in, move something else closer to expose it and then probably lose 2 of my feather armoured heavies

Lazarus – Probably? The other interesting point is that now shes only 1 pt off a Reaper, not 2. And yes, tho Malice is more likely TO drag somebody (+1RAT and +2 POW)

MC – Malice is definitely better at it, but the reaper will output more damage overall. The reaper will drag in and do a TON of damage. Malice will drag in…and probably miss at least 1 attack? Reaper will do half of a heavies boxes to it probably

Lazarus – So it depends right. Malice does 2 more damage on the drag, vs. the Reapers +1 POW. But, if the reaper is more likely to boost the harpoon (either hit, damage, or both) vs. Malice, then i don’t know

MC – Yeah, reaper will more likely boost at least one of the rolls, but won’t need to boost the attacks after. Malice definitely feels like an actual utility heavy, but I’m not paying 14 points for that

Lazarus – Both boost vs ARM 19 heavy- Reaper should do 3 damage with the harpoon, Malice 5. Then free attack, Reaper does 4 Malice 3. Then bought attacks x2 (8 vs. 6) . So we’re talking a difference of 1 damage.

MC – But it’s that you need to roll to hit with malice, whereas the reaper doesn’t. So if your target is a higher DEF warbeast, the reaper is significantly better

Lazarus – And yes, the Reaper is auto hitting vs. Mat 7. However, Malice is more likely to hit with the drag. So calculating THAT is tricky.

MC – 15 points for malice even, not 14

MC – I will say, the open fist does have some good uses over just the piston. And yeah, soul harvester being a 5″ collect is actually quite good

Lazarus – Agreed gathering in 5 is still a nice buff for her.

MC –  So it’s not that malice is bad, it’s just that I’m willing to give up sustained attack and 2″ melee range

Lazarus – Yeah. Im def leaving her in my maybe pile. She is very good, and potentially amazing if the meta favors her in the future.

 

Erebus

Lazarus – Now my favorite choice – Erebus. Who i would argue is an absolute god in Cryx now.

MC – Erebus got real good, specifically with scaverous. He’s good with other casters too, but you really see him shine with scaverous. And 1″ melee range is a big deal when you have overtake..

Lazarus – Stationary is incredible, immunity cold is sometimes clutch, and 1″ reach benefits him more than any other standard jack because of overtake, as you said.

MC – Stationary is fantastic

Lazarus – Oh and Morty. I love him w Morty. And im also gonna make a case for Venny

MC – See, this is the thing, erebus has the defensive stats that the reknown chassis should have had

Lazarus – Straight up stationary is rele rele big for us, as we lost a lot of setup type abilities, and most of our heavies can’t 1 round (but can cripple) handily, which stationary is great for. Even if ur target lives to shake, his great defensive stats and them being 1 less focus/fury means he might actually survive retaliation. All it takes now is a crippled cortex to make him completely safe, or crippled arms which with one less focus (shake) means he ain’t going anywhere. And yes, on the renown chassis, agreed!

MC – When you combine that with scaverous’ Knowledge of the Damned ability, poltergeist and Starcrossed from wrongeye and snapjaw, your opponent is going to have a really hard time digging out erebus.

Lazarus – So Erebus, who i already had a soft spot for, got amazing id argue. He’s unique for being an AMAZING soultion to medium wound infantry, and i think we’ll still see things like MOWs a lot now Ah, and I almost forgot – Terminus ravager trick as well is just better

MC – Especially since you can stick deathward on erebus too. 14/20, poltergeist, force your opponent to reroll successful hits, pick the column you take damage on….AND he can collect souls for scaverous to power knowledge of the damned. And yeah, he’s really strong for medium based infantry

Lazarus – Yup. Autoinclude w Scavs. I already liked him there, but even more so now

MC – The 1″ melee range chain with overtake to get the train started is real good for scaverous. And I would make a case for all of the heavies basically wanting to be with their assigned casters because of how good the bonds are

Lazarus – Also last point w Scavs – TK + Erebus. Love… Totally diffuse opposing heavies from being able to touch him, line up perfect chains. Hilarious

MC – Even better though is that erebus kills a guy, gives a soul to scaverous, you can use that soul immediately to reroll any misses. that is a VERY strong duo now. And of course, also abuse that with starcrossed to deal with any retaliation they may have

 

Barathrum

Lazarus – Ok. Now an interesting choice. Barathrum. Who is now priced correctly I feel

MC – I don’t know how I feel about barathrum. He’s actually very very good for his points. 15 points is where he should be, and dig in and the same solid defensive stats means he gets there

Lazarus – I like Barathrum a lot more (but I was always a fanboy of everything but his price).

MC – Same ol’ AD

Lazarus – And countercharge

MC – Countercharge is good, drag below is cute.

Lazarus – He lost souldrive but it doesnt matter because powerup

MC –  Again, I think this is a case of better with his assigned caster, because unyielding is a big deal

Lazarus – Yeah he got a lot more sensible w Terminus, which made no sense in mk2.

MC – You could put him with skarre2 or scaverous as well, who can help him with an armour buff, or deneghra1 who can crippling grasp whatever tries to get into him.

Lazarus – Drag below did get a slight nerf – it can’t work on beasts anymore, just warriors. BUT the fact that u now don’t take free strikes anymore probably means that Drag below is still better most of the time than it used to be.

MC –  So I mean, stilt legs will see play. And that’s true, drag below is probably better than I’m seeing at first glance

Lazarus – Yeah the free strike immunity is very important for him. In the minimal games i played in mk2 with him, i felt he was much stronger once he had Ghostly. This is even more important in mk3, where ghostly is actually harder to come by with fewer Ghost Walk options.

MC – I still really like him with terminus more than other casters, especially since ravager on him is going to be strong still.

Lazarus – Oh, and standard hard head. So basically, Barathrum got better overall, and cheaper. Morty, Coven and Venny are my other places im playing him, and im still thinking maybe gaspy3.

and at that point, you’ve already been engaged and can trigger berserk now

it doesn’t stay, that’s right

but you’ve gotten a free advance mid combat action and then continued your attack string

 

Nightmare

Lazarus – Anyway onto our next biggie. Nightmare. Whos an interesting devil, but id argue is overall better

MC – Ok, denny’s my girl, and I gotta say…I still love nightmare with her. Again, I go back to stealth being a big deal right now, so as he gains stealth with her, on a heavy with prey, and a chain attack, that’s a big deal. Especially as he has 2 open fists for being able to do all power attacks and hard head to benefit from the power attacks that don’t use his fists

Lazarus – Lost reach though, which blows. And he traded combo strike for chain attack G&S. But, getting effectively cheaper, stealth being better and just being STRAIGHT ghostly is massive. Oh, and +1 POW. Because heh why not? So Nightmare better im gonna say?

MC – Nightmare definitely got better. I’m ok with losing the combo strike for chain attack. It gives him more of an identity

Lazarus – I agree. Chain Attack is always good (at the very least it’s free damage from a headbutt, often knockdown) whereas Combo was only even an option that you used some of the time. I want to say that unless you’re tackling high-end ARM, you’ll still output more damage with all the initials + headbutt than you would with the combo anyway, especially now you’ve got the extra POW over old Nightmare.

MC – Oh and especially with the seether losing chain attack, nightmare just basically said “i’m better than you in every way, suck it”. So I mean, I liked nightmare before, and I like him even more now

Lazarus – Haha yes, true. Massively more expensive tho ofc than the Seether. Seether is still outdated because Barathrum tho, who outdamages it

MC – Especially since chain attack: Grab and smash ACTUALLY has synergy with hard head, unlike on the seether where uncontrollable rage and hard head are skornergy

Lazarus – Haha actually YES

MC – Pretty sure I’m always taking nightmare with a deneghra

Lazarus – Esp D2

MC – Both 2 and 3. Really, power up made it so that he works well with all the deneghras

Lazarus – Agreed. It was always his main issue w D1 and D2, so that helps a fair bit

 

Deathjack

Lazarus – Ok, now – DJ?

MC – Ok, so deathjack got hit the same way that all spell slaves got hit. Even though necromancy is better than spell slave because you don’t have to worry about the focus limitation on the spell, the fact that deathjack can’t upkeep cycle is a big deal. He lost 360 arc, which is…..maybe a buff? Snacking is worse than his healing mechanic before and hard head is whatever

Lazarus – He did. And yeah the snacking also turns off his ability to gather souls which is the bigger problem, namely, losing cull soul

MC – But he did keep the good defensive stats, still hits just as hard, and still keeps skulls of hate. Losing cull soul is weird… I still love deathjack personally, and I think deathjack will still have a place with some casters. For example…deneghra2 will still adore him

Lazarus – And more importantly, tho we lament these small nerfs, we need his arm cracking. Nightmare did close the gap, but hes still our hardest hitting heavy and we’re likely to need that in mk3

MC – Venethrax will adore him because he can cast mortality. He still allows for double hellmouth on D2. So there are some setups he’s designed for.

Lazarus – Yeah the spell slave changes mostly hurt people like Coven, 3Lich etc.

MC – He lost his place in lists where you need him to help cycle upkeeps early on. I think now, you’ll see deathjack reserved for lists that actually have spells for him to cast, basically, non-upkeeps, so things like mortality, influence, hellmouth, and here’s a big one….he gives venethrax an extra deadweight. I think he’s still brutally strong but I think he no longer belongs in skarre2. He’s still really strong in terminus, but skarre2 lost perdition, and she has mostly upkeeps now. And deathjack can cast ravager for terminus

Lazarus – So im going caster by caster here in terms of Spell Slave (not considering him as a beatstick in this)

Agathia – Nope

D1 – Nope

D2 – Yes

D3 – Probably

Shade1 – Less likely?

Shade2 – Nah

Shade3 – Nah

pGaspy – Nah

eGaspy – Nah

3Gaspy – Nah, no need now

Terminus – More likely now, but i think Barathrum first, Erebus 2nd, so probs no

pSkarre – Maybe

eSkarre – Much more dubious i agree. Not so much for the upkeep spells, which sucks, but the feat and loss of Perdition

Scavvy – No room? Still very strong but i dont think i have space

Sturgis – Don’t care

Venny – Great

Morty – Also great

Coven – Nah, better choices

MC – I wouldn’t take him in scaverous. Venethrax and  e/3 deneghra are his best casters right now

Lazarus – So that’s my main list. Now obv some of those casters might still reach for DJ for pure muscle beatstick reasons, but thats also more of an investment than Barathrum or Nightmare, at a full 8 and 5 pts more respectively

MC – See, once again, I think the reason for deathjack will fall to “is there something useful for him to cast”. He can still cast overrrun which is nice

Lazarus – But yeah he lost a lot of utility and i think the bumps in other character powerhouses (who are often cheaper) and nerfs to spell slaves will see him as a much more situational piece than how he was used in mk2.

MC – But we have a surprising number of upkeeps. And I think that’s what it comes down to, is how good the spell slave will be

Lazarus – Yeah so Morty, D2 and Venny are my main ones now for him. The rest im just leavign to meta decisions

MC – Venethrax, deneghra2, deneghra3 are places where I can definitely see him being good. And terminus. I’m not sure I like him in lich3 anymore, I mean, don’t get me wrong, deathjack with unyielding is scary, but deathjack literally cannot cast anything on asphyxious3’s spell list that isn’t hellfire/hex blast, and I’m not paying 23 points for that. Lich can just cast it himself, since you aren’t gaining anything more.

Lazarus – See Terminus im gonna vote no – I still want Erebus for the Ravager trick (even better now, as is Erebus) and Barathrum.

MC – It’s got to pull weight like deneghra2 getting double hellmouth or venethrax getting a 3rd deadweight

Lazarus – Agreed. So yeah i stand by my list of 3 🙂

 

Wraith Engine

Lazarus – Anyway i should discuss the Wraith Engine. I played this piece a fair amount in mk2, so I’m quite familiar with how it worked and the various strengths and weaknesses. Chief among them of course was durability, because at only ARM 18 and the same number of boxes as a node, it was really made of glass.

Now the thing is, in Mk3, I dont think people appreciate btw that the wraith engine may well have been nerfed. It gained inscrutable (admittedly nice)  speed and straight incorp. However, it lost apparition (better than 1spd) the ability to create clouds (huge!) and cleave is worse than just gathering souls quite a bit. The cloud production was just really significant for it, both in keeping itself alive and protecting other elements of the army. . So ill test but im not optimistic atm

MC – Yeah, I was thinking about that a lot lately, and I think it may have actually gotten worse

Lazarus – So ultimately, a lot is resting on the machine wraith creation ability. The utility of that is very hard to gauge as it is so completely different from everything we had before. And I rele hope it works basically, but I feel like the Wraith Engine will live and die on the ability to create new Machine Wraiths being useful. Im gonna try it, but the loss of clouds worries me and its gonna need to stand on the abilitiy to put wraiths in play

MC – I think I’ll largely defer to you on all things Wraith Engine related haha.

 

Colossals

Lazarus – So next up then – Kraken

MC – So the kraken kept the one thing I hated most about it, and more or less stayed the same

Lazarus – I never rele played either Cryx colossal, so my feedback is gonna be pretty limited tbh

MC – Ok, so, here’s the thing. The kraken’s flayer cannon is STILL D3+1 shots. 2-4 is….fine? But the sepulcher gets 2-6. That being said, the hellblaster is still a very very strong gun, with a potential POW17 AOE5 at RNG16 is a solid option, especially with kill shot. With appropriate support, you can kill a lot with it very quickly, but it’s still not killing another colossal. The good thing is that it still has better threat range than most colossals, especially under venethrax with terminal velocity and the 4″ reach is very very good.

Lazarus – My big question mark is mostly going to be how the meta handles colossals in general

MC – Oh and amphibious may actually be a thing now. And see, this is the thing, it hits straight harder than the sepulcher because of meat fueled, but its ranged weapons are not as good. Whereas the sepulcher has utility purposes, as well as still being a reasonably strong combat unit, the unicorn horn is interesting though because it is our longest ranged weapon.

Lazarus – Yeah as the levi basically got taken out imo, ranged power is gonna be more of a premium

MC – But then, we come to the other colossal which actually is better for cracking armour but doesn’t handle infantry as well. The kraken also has to be the model that kills to be able to throw things into the furnace which is another knock against it, but that’s neither here nor there in all honesty. It is a prime target for infernal machine still, but the kraken is stronger in melee for armour cracking for sure, going up to a whopping 22 with just a few kills. Factor in something that can swing armour and you’re in for some serious armour cracking

Lazarus – And yeah see thats the other thing. The changes to DJ n Banes makes them less desireable, which might make the colossals more necessary if ARM cracking is more important, plus they’ll play better in a meta that has issues breaking ARM with fewer tools out there in other factions

MC –  So, speaking of armour cracking, the sepulcher actually lost melee armour cracking. The spawned mechs and brutes have to forfeit action when they’re put into play, but it actually GAINED in the ranged cracking department because of the changes to how ROF works, especially since it can get 2-6 impaler shots and the big gun on the sepulcher kept the crit paralysis. It lost 1″ on it’s corpse collection range, but the chain weapon on the sepulcher also has pull, which the kraken doesn’t have. So with more of a push towards spamming armour, I may be leaning with the favourability towards the sepulcher still, even though the kraken did get a bigger pie plate to deal with infantry. That being said, the 2 colossals are now significantly closer in power level now than they were before

Lazarus – I agree with that. Before Seppy was so far ahead it was hilarious, but the closing of the gap was needed

MC – Yeah, and the sepulcher also contributes to a stronger attrition game, which the kraken doesn’t. Oh, and the sepulcher has arcing fire

Lazarus – So verdict – think both will see strong play

MC – For sure. Again, venethrax, maybe denny3

Lazarus – But im still kinda glad i wont be forcing them in, because it lets me try so many other things in lists

MC – For sure, I do think that as we progress through though, we’re going to find that the gargossals are going to become more and more key in Mk3

Lazarus – I think their usage is gonna depend on the broader meta questions, but yes in principle i agree

MC – Agreed

 

Conclusion

So that was the end of our conversation about Cryx jacks. Mk3 has brought a lot of very exciting changes to the game, and it’s good to get some initial analysis of the models we have available to us. At the very least, it should make an interesting comparison in the years to come when opinions change about certain models and their usage gets revised

If people enjoy this more casual review format, next time, we’ll do a piece on units and continue the conversation. 🙂 Until next time!

Let’s paint!

Painting challenges are fun!  Especially since any type of painting encouragement is always good in my book! So without further ado, here’s some progress.

 

Nothing like a little Hac Tao Hacker action!  It’s a great sculpt and I was really excited to get paint onto him!  This big guy is definitely one of my favourite sculpts in the game, and likely to be the army centerpiece model for whenever I play vanilla Yu Jing!

’til next time!