After Action Review: Operation Hybrid Force: An Infinity Battle Report
We're back again with another Infinity Battle Report, this time seeing the forces of the PanOceania Kestrel Colonial Force face off against the Japanese Successionist Army Shindenbutai. This battle report is very similar to the one played over on OnTabletop, as we are both using the forces provided within the Operation Sandtrap box set, one of the mission from the box set, and using the gaming mat and terrain from the box set. We set out to use EVERYTHING only from the box set, but my opponent (who got the box early) forgot them at home; and we needed Classified cards, to which those did not come inside the box.
Also, in typical fashion, I did not take many/any pictures during turn 3. We were expecting the game to go a LOT faster than it ended up going. I also managed to forget what most of the classifieds that were drawn for this game. More on that later. There's also no side-story for this one, I did not have anything really planned for it, so here we go!
(A week post-game thought: We clearly went picky-choosey with what rules to translate over from N4 to N5 if the N5 rule was not present, I am aware of this. I cannot change the past. Our bad, it may or may not happen again, no promises.)
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Mission: Master Access
Main Objectives:
1. At the end of the game, have reconfigured one gate of an Outpost Module (1 Objective Point for each Reconfigured Gate)
2. At the end of the game, control the Yamabushi (3 Objective Points)
Classifieds: Each player has 2 Classified Objectives (1 Objective Point per classified)
Forces and Deployment
The game is being played at 150 points, we have 3 SWC available to use. The game table size is 24" x 32" in size. The deployment zones at 4" x 24" on the short edges of the board. There is an Exclusion Zone detailed below:
- The Exclusion Zone is the area covering 12 inches (8 inches in 150pt games) on either side of the Central Line of the game table. Any Special Skill with the Airborne Deployment or Superior Deployment Labels cannot be used to deploy inside this area.
Scenario Special Rules
Outpost Modules:
- As seen on the map, players place the operation hub (Capsule 01) in the center of the table. The Power Plant (Capsule 04) and the Research Lab (Capsule 05) buildings are placed on the central line of the game table, with their centers 12" from the game table edges (6 inches in 150pt games). Players must also place the Storage Warehouse (Capsule 02) and the Medical Station (Capsule 03) buildings in different halves of the game table, with their centers 24 inches from the game table edge (16 inches in 150 pt. games) and 6 inches from the center of the game table.
Gates:
- Each Outpost Module has one gate. Each Gate is represented by a narrow gate token. Players cannot open these gates
Yamabushi:
- The Yamabushi is placed int he center of the table on top of the Operation Hub (Capsule 01). Players can use the Yamabushi Token OR the Yamabushi miniature to represent it. In this scenario, the Yamabushi is a Neutral Civilian to both players.
Control the Yamabushi:
- The Yamabushi is controlled by a player as long as that player is the only one with at least one (1) Trooper (as a Model and not in a marker state) in Silhouette contact with it. So, there cannot be any enemy Troopers in Silhouette contact with the Yamabushi.
Specialist Troopers:
- For the purposes of this scenario, only Hackers, Doctors, Engineers, Forward Observers, Paramedics, and Troopers possessing the Chain of Command skill, or the Specialist Operative skill are to be considered Specialist Troopers.
- Hackers, Doctors, and Engineers cannot make use of Repeaters OR Peripheral (Servant) models to perform tasks reserved for Specialists.
Reconfigure Gate (Short Skill)
- Requirement: Only Specialist Troops can declare this skill.
- Requirement: The Specialist Troop must be in Silhouette contact with the Gate
- Effect: Allows the Specialist Troop to make a Normal WIP Roll to Reconfigure the Gate. If the roll is failed, it can be repeated as many times as necessary, each time spending the corresponding Short Skill and making the roll.
- Effect: A reconfigured gate can be reconfigured again by the other player, applying the same procedure. In this situation, the Gate is no longer Reconfigured by the Adversary.
End of the Mission
This scenario has a limited time frame, so it will automatically finish at the end of the third Game Round. If one of the players started their Active Turn in a Retreat! situation, the game will end at the end of that turn.
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So the mission is pretty clear, deploy in a thin deployment zone, move our specialist troopers into silhouette contact with the gates to reconfigure them to our own side, hold the Yamabushi at the end, and do not die along the way. Sounds easy right? As you'll see below, we have pre-built force rosters, which I do not think are really the best for this sort of fight, but that's my opinion, especially at a 150pt game, but this was mainly to show off the freshly painted models for Operation Sandtrap;
### The Forces ###
Kestrel Colonial Force
The PanOceania newest sectorial is here! And although I was not the one to get the operation box early, my buddy commission my --average-- painting services to paint up the PanOceania side. I was weirdly excited to paint up these models, already having had an idea for the paint scheme. I am currently debating some changes for my personal scheme, but I may also just keep this scheme as well!
Biggest concern I had was my only specialists are line troops, which is just a limitation on the known rules and rosters.
Shindenbutai
The Japanese Successionist Army has gotten their promotion to a full fledged faction, and with that comes the perks of a new sectorial! Welcome to the Shindenbutai! My opponent was the one who worked on painting these units up to fight again the Kestrel Colonial Force I painted. I do not believe my opponent is planning on flushing out the full JSA roster, but merely using the sandtrap box (and possibly the Beyond Sandtrap and Dire Foes) to run smaller demos or "learning games" following along with the older N3/N4 Operation Box scenarios.
The biggest concern with the JSA lies with the Hatamoto rules-wise, as we do not know how the monofilament or E/M CCW weapon profiles look, other than the E/M is resolved with PS=4. This will be touched on later on.
Pre-Game
The Shindenbutai won the Lieutenant Roll-off, electing to keep initiative to go second, considering the mission scoring is all at the end of the game. Which left Kestrel to keep deployment, opting to have the Shindenbutai deploy first.
The two classifieds I ended up settling with were:
#1: (I dont remember)
#2: (I dont remember)
The Shindenbutai's Classifieds were:
#1: Predator
#2: (I dont remember)
### Deployment ###
Shindenbutai
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| Pregame Deployment |
The Hatamoto and Jizamurai deployed on the JSA Left Flank, prone and in a Fireteam Duo. The Senku Troops deployed as a fireteam Haris on the right flank, prone. The Raiden deployed in Hidden Deployment on the back line, trying to keep that Missile Launcher in the positive range band when possibly engaging a target. The Nokizaru deployed using it's Forward Deployment straight towards the central building on the JSA side.
Kestrel Colonial Force
After seeing the deployment choices of my opponent, I elected to have my Fireteam Haris (consisting of my Black A.I.R., Fennec Fusilier, and Griffin Troop) hold my entire right flank, taking cover behind a convenient chest-high wall for cover. I placed one of the Paramedic Fusiliers on the left flank behind a barricade, while my other Paramedic stood in the open but also outside of LoS/LoF of any known JSA targets; since I knew I was going first. The Scarecrow (in hidden deployment) went right up to the edge of the exclusion zone and deployed a mine via his Minelayer Skill. The Banshee stayed in reserve.
### Turn 1 ###
Turn 1: Kestrel Colonial Force
First orders were using my central Fennec Paramedic to open the gates on the building directly ahead of him and the building off on my right flank and then move him back to hold a corner. A very quick turn 1.
Turn 1: Shindenbutai
First order was on the Nokizaru moving up and flipping the gate on the JSA side. The Raiden would reveal on the backline and trade some shots with the Griffin Trooper, to which the Griffin would win the trade off and but the Raiden down. The fireteam duo of the Hatamoto and the Jizamurai would
activate, having the Jizamurai "slice the pie" and tag off against the Black A.I.R. to not good effect, somewhat forgetting the A.I.R. has Neurocinetics. The Jizamurai would eventually fail a trade off with it's Thunderbolt vs a Multi-sniper, leaving the Hatamoto sad and alone. The Nokizaru would move around to get up to the central building after dodging a snap-shot from the fennec holding the corner. The Hatamoto would eventually also "slice the pie" and kill off the Black A.I.R. which breaks that fireteam.
I will admit we are not the best when it comes to looking things up, such as Nanoscreen. The Hatamoto has both a Nanoscreen, which should be affected by the Frenzy he would be in since he killed the Black A.I.R.. This is a significant "oopsie-daisy" as this majorly changes how the rest of the game goes. The Griffin Trooper is proving to be a standout unit to me, if for nothing more that the fact Ariadna doesnt have access to a base high BS value as this trooper.
### Turn 2 ###
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| Turn 2 Board State |
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| Griffin Trooper down; failed every save |
to reform a Fireteam Duo with the Fennec Fusilier and the Griffin Trooper on my right flank. I dabble with the idea of bringing in the Banshee, only to realize the board edges are so open it's not worth it right now. I instead opt to reveal my Scarecrow, who engages the Nokaizaru and over a few orders, the Nokizaru goes down. The Griffin Trooper in the fireteam activates and tries to but a shot on the Hatamoto, who either makes his dodge rolls or survives the armor rolls I force him to take (usually thanks to the cover he should not have being Frenzied/Impetuous).
Turn 2: Shindenbutai
The Hatamoto alone was what won the game for the JSA this turn. The Hatamoto moves up, dodging through nearly every possible shot I sling at him cause of our little cover issue (I strip 1 wound off of him eventually), and he eventually gets into melee/CC range with the Fennec/Griffin fireteam. He kills off the Griffin in melee (see below for the extra details on that), and ends his last turn looking at the Fusilier.
End of Turn 2
The nanoscreen cover/frenzy/impetuous thing is really annoying to be on the receiving end of, and it's at this point we pause to eat dinner, and we discuss if something it off with it. Regardless of what we chose, we decided to keep rolling with it since we've been doing it the whole last turn. This is also when we hit another roadblock, this time with the non-standard CC Weapon profile(s). The monofilament CCW doesnt have defined rules in the rules provided at the time, and the E/M CCW is the same EXCEPT that is has the (PS=4) modifier. The usual weapon definition for E/M CCW and Monofilament weapons are, well, not present. Thankfully they will be defined later on I hope.
### Turn 3 ###
Turn 3: Kestrel Colonial Force
I start the turn in Loss of Lieutenant. I spend 3 Command Tokens to translate my 3 Fusilier irregular orders into Regular Orders. I'm starting the turn with a Hatamoto playing around in the backlines, while still being frustrated about this whole impetuous thing and its cover (even a week later im frustrated about it). I drop in the Banshee to try and play with him, and he promptly dodges into melee with the Fennec Fusilier cause I forgot he dodges 4 inches. Must be nice. I ended up losing 2 units (the fusilier in the back AND the paramedic fusilier that was there) to it dodging and fighting in CC. Garbage.
I end up putting the Scarecrow back into Camo and moving it up to try and get to the yamabushi. I am short by a an order essentially. and the Senku fireteam manages to discover me with a -9 modifier due to mimetism and cover. We love dice games, do not we?
Turn 3: Shindenbutai
I do not remember much, other than only having a Scarecrow alive and looking at the Hatamoto standing next to the Yamabushi, cause having Impetuous, 2 LT orders, and a source of 4 regular orders from a total of 4 models is a thing this guy loves. JSA gets a classified as well (Predator).
End of Game: Shindenbutai wins
### Final Thoughts ###
My thoughts moreso go with the nit-picky bits, i.e. we currently (at the time of play) do not know EVERYTHING that's changing between N4 and N5 for the game. We took some liberties with equipment like the Nanoscreen, Monofilament CCW, EM CCW, etc. but we also made our own mistakes with that that would have drastically changed the game, as the Hatamoto would have been unconscious by Turn 2 if it (in it's impetuous state) would not have been getting cover bonuses from the Nanoscreen. Other nit-picky things were just how the rules sheets were formatted (weapon profiles could have been in alphabetical order for ease of searching) and also that the Nokiazaru dies not have the Hacker skill while having a Killer Hacking Device, which seemed odd. I'm pretty sure we played it as having the hacker skill.
I still anticipate playing/collecting the PanOceania Kestrel Colonial Force. I really did enjoy painting the models for this project, and I'm likely to keep the same relative scheme for them as well. But I will (hopefully) be mainly running Ariadna, as my collection of TAK and Kosmoflot seem to be the majority of the Generic Ariadna roster.
Until the next batrep, I hope your dice roll better than mine did this time!
Table layout looks fun. Awesome report, thanks for posting!
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