Infinity Tournament Recap: Assault on Svalarheima ITS
I've survived my first ITS tournament! It was a pretty fun event at a local game shop, with about 12 people, playing 3 rounds. The scenarios were Beaconland, Frontline, then Supplies, in that order. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take any pictures at all of my games, but I do remember the games fairly well, so wanted to quickly share what I learned.
Game 1: Beaconland
My first game was against Obi, of Sisters of Battle fame, with his Tohaa army. He is probably the player I've single person the most against, so nothing about his army was a surprise for me, likewise though, nothing about my army was new to him. I deployed my Speculo Killer right outside his deployment zone, and on the first turn she unsurprisingly turned a corner and blasted apart two members of a link team. I was able to get my Q-Drone into a position covering much of the field, though his equivalent was also in a good position, meaning both of us were doing a good job pinning the other. Perhaps unwittingly, the whole game he had units covering where I could walk on from the table edge to get my beacon into his deployment zone, and with that being the most important zone for me to control, it was challenging to score points. By the end of the game, we managed a low scoring 4 point draw, with both of us capable of stopping the opponents units, but not really great at deploying a lot of our own beacons.
Game 2: Frontline
My second game was against something totally new for me, Haqqislam, played by a nice guy named Forest. The table we were playing on was SUPER dense, far more dense than any table I've ever played on, which meant my choice of going for HMG's and Sniper Rifles, over medium-short ranged weapons like Plasma Rifles and Spitfires, was going to cause me some serious issues. Ko Dali came on my first turn and put him immediately into Loss of Lieutenant, which was a devastating start to the game, though on my own turns, I spent a ton of orders trying to stop Scarface so that I could safely advance with the rest of my army. He had a model with Panzerfaust in a really strong ARO position, which kind of made me put my Charontid on the other side of the board, not wanting to get him blasted with that disgusting gun, only to discover it was a damn Hologram! Ooooh Haqqislam, you sneaky rat. I think I probably put too much on one side of the board that couldn't help the other side (due to a long train effectively making a wall down the middle of the board). So after killing his sniper and a couple other models with my Charontid and Ko Dali, I wasn't in a position to support my weaker troops. Forest took apart my army pretty well, despite me delivering a nasty initial attack. At the end of the game we tallied up victory points and it was brutal with both of us losing well over 200 points of models, but he won since he was able to move up while I was mostly pinned far back on the board.
Game 3: Supplies
My final game of the tournament was against Joe with his USAriadna. I've always wanted to see this faction on the board and Joe did not disappoint. He had a good selection of units from the army, and I even got to see a Paratrooper in action, as it stealthily came on from the board edge and shivved my Unidron with ease. This was a particularly bloody game though, with their lack of MSV, I was really able to get ugly throwing smoke with my Daturazi and firing through it with my Charontid and Makreep sniper. I was quickly able to do some heavy damage to his key ARO pieces, while keeping two of the three supply crates clear, and having the third captured by my Obsidon Mechanoid. I had a bit of an advantage, since I was playing on the same board as my first game, on the same side, so I knew where the pressure points were on the map, as well as the key high ground to capture. It was an enjoyable game though, giving me my first victory of the tournament.
Debriefing
For the whole event, I came in 6th place, with a record of 1-1-1, you really can't possibly get more middle of the road than that! I was hoping to finish 2-1, but since I'm still very new to the game, I wasn't expecting it. I learned a lot from my three opponents, especially since I don't normally get to fight against humans! After the event we had a few beers and from talking to Forest, it really does sound like Haqqislam can pull off a hell of a shell game, between a fair amount of impersonators and holoprojectors, the opponent you're facing could be drastically different than what you see on the board! I'm still having an amazing time with the game, and for tournaments, I'm loving it. Carrying only a briefcase size bag with my entire Combined collection, and two-hour games means we got started at noon, finished in time for dinner, and didn't break my back carrying my space dolls.0