The Rout at Relay X-02: An Infinity N5 Battle Report

We're back for another rousing game of Infinity N5! This game was played on December 31 2024. This game saw me piloting a 300-point Ariadna force hailing from the Tartary Army Corps against my buddy Carlonius and a 300-point PanOceanian force hailing from the Military Orders.

From past experience, I figure Carlonius would be playing Military Orders, as his other armies (being Ariadna from USARF and ForCo) are either gone or in a less than enjoyable state to play in. Having listened to the latest Tactical Awareness podcast, I inadvertently got some insight into N5 Military Orders. The Seraph will be a proper monster to fight, the Joan "Pain Train" exists and will be something I may or may encounter here today; and just like my game against JSA recently, it must be nice to be a faction that has access to relative cheap heavy infantry!

I'll get into my list later on, but what I will say now is that I am really enjoying using Dynamos for things, whether or not they actually do anything relating to a mission is up in the air still though. I also find that the Veteran Kazak is a bit better for my play style, as I still, for whatever reason, do not care for the shell-game antics that the Tartary Army Corps seem to be so proficient at (or used to).

Today's game was played using the N4 Uplink Center mission. As per usual, I did not take a wild amount of pictures as my lighting situation still is not where I would like it to be, so the pictures look darker than they actually are while I am playing.

### Prologue ###

Snow was starting to fall at the makeshift operations center; Col Kraznitsky peered out of the observation slit on the trench command bunker. The weather had not been on their side the entire time on the God-forsaken planet of Shinju. Using binoculars and a data-pad with a secure uplink to a small observation drone, he was able to get "eyes on" on the current mission targets.

The joint operation mission was set up to have two sorties occur at the same time, one assaulting a communication relay site and another assaulting a nearby field logistics facility. The report given from regional command indicates that these two facilities are staffed by PanOceanian combatants, likely from the Military Orders of PanOceanian, or it's just standard fusiliers on a routine rotation.

The view from his data-pad showed a hulking silhouette on the further side of the Communication Relay site, something he recalled as a TAG called a Seraph. His experience encountering them was miniscule, having thankfully never had to combat Military Orders fighters in his time in the Corps, but he's been privy to some reports that detail the carnage they can cause.

"We need to refit the comms array team, drone is showing a TAG, they aren't equipped for that, right?" Kraznitsky asked the quartermaster in the command bunker.

"A TAG? Here? In the mountains? Your age must be getting to you colonel! Who in their right mind would bring a TAG up here at this time of year?

Besides, if we had the ability to give the boys and girls better toys to play with, the other team would lose out. New Bay hasn't gotten a proper ammo shipment in weeks."

Kraznitsky let out a labored sigh. The Quartermaster Grieovny was an old Senior Sergeant from Dawn, transferred here after the whole affair on Concilium Prima, where Grieovny worked to help organize logistical facilities for Okolnir. The old bat was good, could take a joke, but was also stubborn as an old goat.

"Is there nothing else we could possibly send along to them?" he asked again.

"At best we can give one or two of them one of the medic kits from the trucks. Give those bikers some extra smoke grenades maybe? If I could detach the rocket launcher from the damn bot in time I'd give it to someone, but we both know how long that takes!" Grieovny replied, letting out a small chuckle as he closed a supply crate.

Col Kraznitsky, in fact, did not know how long it took to remove a rocket launcher from a traktor mule.

"Give them what we can in excess. Let's hope the few guys with heavier gear and that new fangled remote we have will be enough to deal with that TAG." Kraznitsky replied.

"I'll get them what we can, although the drivers wont be happy about it."

"They'll be fine. If New Bay has anything to spare it's some damn band-aids and splints."

Col. Kraznitsky went back to the data-pad, watching the video feed before the drone left the loitering airspace around the communications relay. Seeing the TAG walking around did not sit well with him, knowing that their team would be out-gunned.

He grabbed a clipboard that Grieovny left on the supply crate before he walked out. He needed to know if they had brought any body bags with them.

### ### ###

### The Board and Mission ###

The table, terrain, and tokens are all from the previous bat-rep from here. The mat is from a different company than that, as noted here. Nothing new as of right now. 

The mission we are using is the old Uplink Center from N4 ITS16. 

### The Lists ###

Tartary Army Corps

Army Code:  gTEHdGFydGFyeRlVcGxpbmsgQ2VudGVyIC0gVEFLIC0gMzAwgSwCAQEACgCEbgGQUwAAhG4BkFYAAIDnAQcAAIRmAQIAAIRmAQYAAIDqAQIAAIRwAQcAAIRwAQYAAIc0AQEAAIc0AQMAAgEABQCBAAEFAACA4wEHAACA4wEIAACEcAEIAACHNgECAA%3D%3D

This time, my TAK list is somewhat similar to what I used last time, just expanded to 300 points and built a little better in my opinion for the mission at hand.

The main plan was to have my group 1 see the Streloks and Tank-hunter as the midfield speedbumps, and have the Dynamos and Konduktors sorta cheerleader orders for the Veteran Kazak and his Frontovik Haris to be the big gunfighters they can be. The Paramedic Dynamo could also run around to get objectives should there be a semi-acceptable line of approach.

Group 2 is the ARO group. Dozer, Kazaks and Frontovik are sitting in a core team, Vystrel going to be a backline speedbump with the Neurocinetic PAC. They shouldn't see much play outside of using a ARO to place the deployable Armed Turret (Rifle) from the Dozer.

Military Orders

Army Code:  Zw9taWxpdGFyeS1vcmRlcnMXV29tcCBXb21wIFNlcmFwaCBnbyBCcnKBLAIBAQAKACIBAgAAhc8BAgAAhhgBAQAAhhgBAgAAGAEFAACDAwEEAAAqAQQAAB4BBQAAHgEFAAAeAQUAAgEABAARAQEAACYBAQAAg6cBAgAAMgECAA%3D%3D

The hindsight, as usual, of seeing this list made me reconsider what I brought, as I probably should have had another Tank-hunter with a portable autocannon.

The Seraph would be a problem. As stated further up, I listened to the latest Tactical Awareness podcast and learned how nasty this dude is. Between the Seraph, learning how dirt-cheap Teutonic Knights are for what they can do as 19-point specialists in a fireteam, and then experiencing Joan and some other random heroics from other characters, this is definitely a decent list to really cut my teeth against for facing Military Orders in N5.

### Pregame Rolls and Deployment ###

I believe Tartary Army Corps won the roll off and chose to keep Initiative, where I chose to go second. Military Orders would elect to deploy second; meaning I'm deploying first and going second; ugh.

We both ended up spending a Command Token for Speedball, and I would expend a second command token for removing two Orders from his Group 1 order pool, being 12 orders with all regular, irregular, and tactical orders added up; and therefore able to be reduced by 2 via command token. Something I definitely need to remember more often.

Tartary Deployment

My deployment was acceptable to me, although I made an oopsie for myself and never deployed the Konduktor with Flammenspear, cause I apparently had an older version of the list uploaded where i was missing 12 points cause I never had it in that list!

Anyway, my left flank is properly held down by the Frontovik MSV Sniper core, being helped along by the 2x Line Kazaks and the Dozer. The center is sorta empty, with the main notes being a Dynamo and Konduktor in the deployment zone, a Strelok with Boarding Shotgun and his Decoy just ahead and his mine at the base of the tower. Not pictured here is my other Strelok in the sniper tower, with his decoy down below on the left by the small Akashi pylons. The Right Flank is secured by the paramedic dynamo, the veteran fireteam, and the Vystrel. Note that we correct the Vystrel in sapper/foxhole-state later on. The silhouette bases size does not come into much play where the S4 and S3 would have made a significant difference.

Military Orders Deployment

A solid counter deployment. The left flank was comprised of a Black Friar, Infirmarer, double crosier, and the Order Sergeant FTO. Left-Center was the WarCor. Center was held by the Mule Bot, 2 of the  3 Teutonic Knights, and the Seraph. The Right flank was covered by the final Teutonic knight, Joan, the Dronbot TR, and the Tech-bee. 

### ### ###

The strike team left the operations center when the snow started to come down a little harder, hoping to use the sound of the gales to cover the sound of one of their new Vystrel remotes during their approach. The team was briefed on what Kraznitsky saw from the drone camera, re-briefed on the mission to deal with the communications relays, and advised on a proper withdrawal path once the operation was concluded. Colonel Gretizky would be the observer for the relay assault.

The strike teams command element took the left flank, the Frontoviks and their team took the right with the Vystrel showing that treads still work on stairs. The Streloks were able to advance further in before the rest of the team got close to the relay points. The tank-hunter wondered off shortly after the Frontoviks got into a firing position. She seemed weirdly excited to try and hunt a Seraph.

The Drone's camera feed cleared up as the snow lulled for a few moments. Col Kraznitsky could see the team setup. What the team did not see, however, was the relay site defenders moving towards them already.

"Alrighty Gretz, you got command of the comms relay team. I got the warehouse team to keep eyes on." Kraznitsky said to Col Gretizky, who was unfortunately relegated to coordinator duty after his injuries on his last mission.

"You know how much it pains me to watch this happen Kraz. Especially seeing what they're fighting against." Gretizky replied, taking another drink of his slightly warm coffee before putting the mug back on the small camp burner. "It's like sending them all to an early grave."

"As you told me long ago Gretz, if you blink long enough, it'll all be over. Right? We should have the ability to get any wounded back to New Bay just fine with what we have."

"That's presuming we have wounded. Can't get them if they're all dead Kraz."

Kraznitsky pulled out a small flask from his coat pocket, and pour some of the contents into Gretz's mug. "Here. This should help a little bit. We both know how terrible this situation is. We both petitioned command to wait until we had the actual resources to handle any form of significant enemy contact. What was their response again Gretz?"

"Considering we're out here freezing our balls off while those Rangers and space boys sit back at base all cozy in their bunks and not out here, we know their response Kraz; and we both know it's crap"

"It really is crap, Gretz. But here we are."

Col Gretizky quickly looks back at his data-pad as the Vystrel opens up with it's autocannon. "Guess it's time to see what these new bots can do."

### ### ###

### Turn 1 ###

Turn 1: Military Orders

Vystrel Line of Fire

First Order was spent on the Seraph, targeting my MSV Frontovik, who eliminated that poor sniper as
he fumbled with his visor. Next order saw the Seraph move over to the larger "flipped over" objective room, where it and the Vystrel traded multiple shots over multiple orders. After something like 3 or 4 orders spent, the Vystrel went to Unconscious Lv2 (thanks remote presence); meaning that this gap here could be safely traversed by the Teutonic fireteam, which the would proceed to go do.

Orders would be spent and the Teutonic fireteam would progress forward, while the Strelok would wait until Joan moved forward after them to reveal and attempt to take her out. We traded shots, where the Strelok would go on to hit, Joan would make her save, and back out of Line of Sight. The Strelok, however, would get the attention of the Seraph, that would take an order or two and the Strelok would join the Frontovik in the "dead" pile.

The Teutonic knights would continue there approach on the left flank, and I would make an oopsie.

Teutonic Knights move up

Remember the Strelok that died? Yea, he is not a minelayer. When he revealed, I removed the wrong token as his decoy, as his decoy SHOULD have been at the pylons, but i grabbed the one off the tower stairs. This sorta matters as the mine would take a wound off of one of the Teutonic Knights as they approach the tech-coffin.

Last few orders in Group 1 see Joan scoot around, and the Seraph re-position in preparation for the reactive turn. The tech bee uses the orders in Group 2 to crawl around and reposition in case she needs to be useful on the ground.

Turn 1: Tartary Army Corp

First thing I want to do is to get the Vystrel back online. But you know what's unfortunate? My only gizmokit is across the table on the Dozer.

Impetuous phase is waived, as I am looking down the barrel of a TR bot and a Seraph in the main corridor, and the Albedo Black-friar on the right flank. Speedballs come down, one Vita-pack and one Switch-On, thanks chart. Vita-pack lands next to the Veteran Kazak, Switch-On next to the Center Dynamo. First regular order is on the dynamo, to pop smoke which thankfully lands. Having a smoke grenade launcher is cool! This lets me spend the next approximately 4 or 5 orders getting my Frontovik engineer around the building and to crawl up to the Vystrel to turn it back on. The first order in that group, however is for the entire veteran team and lets the Veteran Kazak get the Vita-pack. There's an order for the Dynamo in the center to fling some mines, to which one lands and one does not. Final order from group 1 sees the Frontovik engineer revive the Vystrel while lying down prone.

Group 2 saw the dozer toss down the Armed Turret, then the entire team moved away from the approaching Teutonic Knight fireteam.

### ### ###

Col Gretizky watched closely as the strike team acted on first contact with the PanOceanian defenders. The Vystrel, for what it was worth as a remote, needed immediate fixing. The command team came under immediate assault, losing a fighter immediately.

The Dozer got to use his new toy Turret, which immediately started shooting as soon as he put it down.

But the Seraph began advancing at an alarming speed for something its size...

### ### ###

### Turn 2 ###

Turn 2: Military Orders

The turn begins with a speedball coming down, both were Nanoshield. One landed right next to the Teutonic fireteam, and the next one failed the WIP 14 Combat Jump and ended up on the deployment line. The Teutonic Fireteam did some fancy footwork to clear out the turret and the mine, while advancing forward, with the turret being a simple speedbump to go over. The Teutonic fireteam would advance on the Kazak fireteam, first eliminating the paramedic, and then the LT Kazak and lastly the Dozer. It would have taken less orders, but the Vystrel was still alive and could draw the 3mm line through a gap to see the Knights if they did not dodge/cautious move through the gap.

Line Kazaks vs Teutonic Knights

Best part for this part of the turn was the Dozer, in ARO, shooting a Teutonic Knight with a pistol, rolls a Crit, and kills a Teutonic knight outright with it failing both save with rolls meant for N4 armor rolls and not "The Price is Right" N5 armor rolls.

More Group 1 orders see Joan scoot a little further forward, and the Seraph and Vystrel trade shots, seeing the Vystrel go back down again.

Group 2 orders are not spent on anything useful this time around.

Turn 2: Tartary Army Corps

I start the turn off in Loss of Lieutenant, phenomenal. Thankfully the Veteran Kazak and Frontoviks have Warhorse, so 3 of my 8 remaining orders in Group 1 are regular orders. Would have been 9,.but, ya know, I forgot to deploy someone, womp womp. I would end up transferring 3 irregular orders (from 1 Dynamo, the Strelok and Konduktor) into regular orders. 

Group 2 is essentially gone, just the Vystrel.

Group 1 orders translate to the Vystrel coming back online. The Veteran Kazak break the Duo team and moves up to engage and eventually kill off the Black Friar. This allows the Tank-hunter to scoot up to get to the barricade by the Tech-coffin, but that's about it. The Strelok stays still on the walkway.

A very dull turn 2 for me. The Seraph's high-ground is hard to arguable approach, considering (what I will learn about later on) the Explosive ammo on the Multi-HMG it has.

End of Turn 2 Board State

### ### ###

The drone flew into a low-lying cloud, clouding his view of the relay site, but he could still get audio from the strike teams comms. He heard the last stand of the command team as the PanOceanian forces got to them. 

"This is painful Kraz." Gretizky said. Col Kraznitsky had his headset on, talking into it. Something important he supposed.

Gretizky stood up, and beckoned to the Quartermaster. "Your going to need to get the stretchers and the medic vehicles ready. Relay site ain't going too well."

"Yes, Colonel."

Gretizky went back to the data-pad, sipping his drink and wincing at the taste of whatever Kraznitsky put in it.

### ### ###

### Turn 3 ###

Turn 3: Military Orders

And here is where we get ballsy. Out the gate, the Vystrel and Seraph trade shots for an order or two, seeing the Vystrel go down again. Remote presence being what it is and all that. Then the Seraph gets silly, jumps down from his perch, and pushes forward. It ends the second part of a regular order  in front of the Strelok and his decoy on the rooftop, where the Strelok, central Dynamo, and the Tank-hunter all reveal/ARO as the ending of the move triggers them all. The Seraph would be dropped hit by the Strelok's Boarding Shotgun and then the Tank-hunters AP SMG, to which both would actually do wounds. The Dynamo would fling out a Panzerfaust and miss.

I will note i goofed the Line of Sight of the Strelok, looking directly at the Seraph.

Joan then springs up and walks around and up the building to sneak up an tag the Strelok. Teasing me, Joan dodges at the end of that turn, and by Strelok fails his CC attack and the Dyanmo fails the SMG shot as she walks in.

With the Strelok now locked into CC, the Seraph looks down on the Tank-hunter. The Seraph activates and idles, Tank-hunter (trigger happy as ever) declares a BS Attack ARO with the AP SMG, and the Seraph responds with a 2 burst Pulzar. Although the Tank-hunter goes unconscious, she knocks the Seraph down as well! But with Remote Presence, we'll see how that goes. The Strelok would attempt a dodge and fail.

The tech-bee will then use all 4 orders in Group 2 to do her job. She climbs down from her building, runs over, and then shoots the Seraph with a Gizmokit and gets it back to 1 wound. The Seraph would then super-jump away, dodging a final panzerfaust from the Dynamo as it moved back behind the Tech-Coffin in the center to control it. The Strelok would attempt to dodge out of combat, which it does.

The Strelok then gets shot to death by Joan, failing it's own shot against her in +6 range. Low rolls do be low rolls after all.

The Crosier team on the MO left flank would move up to get someone with a Combi-rifle to have some Line of Sight to shoot in ARO.

Turn 3: Tartary Army Corps

New Lieutenant is the Konduktor. My options are very limited, and best I could do is get a few measly objective/scenario points left. I waive Impetuous phase activations again.

Veteran Kazak shoots down whichever shooter is in the Crosier team watching over my approach. Joan drops prone as an ARO here. Next I send the paramedic dynamo up using smoke to cover the advance and eventually block off shoots from the WarCor with it's laser pointer. The paramedic moves up to try and poke the Antenna console, but inevitably get shot and downed by the explosive ammunition from the Multi-HMG to explode the Dynamo and the motorcycle he rode in on.

At this point, I conceded. I had 2 orders left, and neither of the Frontovik specialists would be able to get close enough to play with the tech coffin.

Board State at the point of concession

### End of Game ###

Military Orders victory over Tartary Army Corps 7 to 1.

Military Orders Has 1 Activated Communication antenna (2 Points), Control the Tech Coffin (3 Points), and have an Active LT (1 Point)

Tartary Army Corps only had an Active LT (1 Point).

### ### ###

The drone came out of the cloud-cover after a few moments. And the battlefield had shifted. The Seraph looks to had taken a significant amount of damage somehow, the Frontovik fireteam scuttled the Vystrel around them as they started to retreat. The lone Dynamo took off quicker, carrying the two kazaks from the command team back with them. The Konduktor grabbed the Dozer, and the other Konduktor looked to have gotten lost and somehow got the Tank-hunter out of the combat zone.

Gretizky stood up again from the camp chair he was at. "Greiovny. Gonna need a few bags and stretchers. Got about a half dozen wounded incoming.

Gretizky pulled out a cigarette and lit up in the bunker. It was a comfort for him when missions go sideways, especially when there isn't anything he could do. He started to think about the report, submitting it, and having to explain what happened without command losing their complete shit over the loss of the Vystrel. SOP demanded it be scuttled if it wasnt recoverable, so at least that went according to plan.

Besides, they'll need the space the Vystrel took up for the wounded.

### ### ###

### Post Game ###

Some significant screw ups for me today between forgetting a Konduktor, pulling the wrong camo token with the Strelok, and then just poor positioning or being too reserved with the Dynamos even. Unlike other missions and games, I did not have a second list prepared I could have tried. I also messed up the Foxhole state, forgetting it cancels the state when the remove goes unconscious; not like it really mattered after it went down the first time.

I had considered trying out Kosmoflot for this game as that's what I used in the last game Carlonius and I played, but I want to get used to running TAK for a bit before swapping to a different sectorial.

### Coming Up ###

This was Game 1 of 2 played on December 31st. The second game is played also at 300 points using the Supplies Mission from the N5 Core Rulebook. That one will be up in a few days as I finish off a painting commission for a friend, possibly a building commission for another friend, and then play a "Operation Series" of games with Connor from this bat-rep to learn N5 better.

As I'm confident in the rules relating to my models and sectorial, with that confidence in the rules growing over time and as I play them. However, I am not 100% on other rules, and having only a N5 pdf on my phone to scroll/search through makes things, well, annoying. Just something else to get back into for learning/getting used to the rules as the edition goes on. This will come up in the second battle report.