Operations Room - Biotechvore

 OPERATIONS ROOM - Biotechvore

The Operations Room series sees me focus on ITS Scenarios from the viewpoint of Ramah Taskforce. Once I'm done discussing the mission, I'll build a list for it, and tell you how the list faired in an actual game. You can, and should, refer to the whole mission in the ITS12 Document found at Infinitythegame.com before reading further. All the screen grabs of rules and maps are taken from the ITS12 Document, courtesy of the ever so stellar Corvus Belli.

Player1: "Hey, want to have quick game of Infinity later?"

Player2: "Sure, but let's play something simple and relaxed that I don't have build a new list for... Like Biotechvore?"

 

- A discussion never ever had between two Infinity players

 

I'm partaking in yet another small TTS league with my Infinity buddies, and this time the league organizer chose Biotechvore as the first Mission to be played. At first I thought of the idea of playing this Mission to be about as pleasant as crawling over broken glass just watch someone kick puppies, but I couldn't judge the Mission bad without playing it first. Let's dive a bit deeper into the Biotechvore, shall we?

The Scoring

Will you look at that, a Mission scoring that has a very even spread between firefighting (pun intended) and Classified Objective hunting! I wonder why I was so down on this mission to begin with...

Half the points are tied to killing more Army Points than your Opponent and having your troops survive. The surviving part may be a problem though, as this is a Mission that forces you to close in on the enemy and the Biotechvore Area itself will wipe out stragglers not getting up close and personal with the enemy! If you score 3 Objective Points from units left alive, without putting your Opponent in to the Loss of Lieutenant on the first turn, I'll be the first to take any notes you may have on playing the game!

The Classifieds part of the scoring is very interesting. Having a potential 3 points to score by completing your cards and a further 2 points if you outperform your Opponent, means that you really have to put some thought into your listbuilding, as the game will probably hinge on the Classifieds completed at the end of the day!

This Mission scoring clearly lends itself to tight games where both players have the potential to score several points and thus accumulate Defensive and Offensive Tournament Point Bonuses by keeping their heads cool under pressure; I actually really like it!

Mission Special Rules and Deployment

Remember the broken glass and the puppies from before? Well, here we go... Confused Deployment makes it very, very difficult to try and use any of the advanced deployment rules, such as Infiltration, Parachutist, Forward Deployment or Combat Jump (all but the last of which Ramah has access to!). This means that you have to take your chances on succeeding at PH -3 rolls, or face the long walk to get out of your Deployment Zone to escape the Biotechvore plague... Which in itself is going to be extra hard, as the DZ is only 8'' deep!

Speaking of the Biotechvore Area! 16'' zone from both players table edges is infected with an aggressive disease that forces a damage 14 hit (or two hits if you've got STR instead of wounds!) against BTS every time a model ends it's turn there... This means that you will be wanting to exit your DZ with all the possible haste, lest you suffer free hits without your Opponent having to lift a finger! Any troops left in the danger area will be killed at the end of the game, ouch...

No Quarter means that Retreat is not a factor in this scenario, and Intelcom Card (Counter Espionage) means that the classified cards Capture, HVT Kidnapping, Net-Undermine and Mapping are more valuable as they can cancel the cards Experimental Drug, HVT Inoculation, In Extremis Recovery and Nanoespionage, which as a result suffer an inflation in their value.

Enviromental Disaster Scenario Imminent, Ramah Taskforce Responding

Biotechvore is a Mission that requires your force to be able to cover ground quickly, fight effectively at closer than normal ranges, and to complete a wide range of Classified Objectives. Lucky for us, Ramah Taskforce can accomplish all of the above! Some of the things that I thought of including in my list were:

• High PH Infiltrators who can contest the midfield by passing their Confused Deployment rolls and thus lying in wait for enemies struggling to clear the Biotechvore Area. Nahabs can be absolutely brutal, as their enemies are forced to actually come to them, and face them at close ranges, while Tuaregs should have ample chance to engage targets of opportunity with Mines and small arms fire.
  
• Fireteams that can exit the danger area in an Order economic way and fight off any ARO pieces that might be trying to stop them. My first instinct is to go for a Core of Ghulams, who could deploy Smoke for the entire force to use as needed. Some form of a Haris (Khawarijs or Zhayedans maybe?) and even a Duo or two could really help save Orders when fleeing the Biotechvore Area!
  
• Fast moving troops that can leverage high mobility to move and engage enemy targets at the same time with a 6-2 or 6-4 MOV. Namurrs, Mukhtars, Tarik, Khawarijs or Rafiqs could fit the bill, and they can all also form Fireteams of some type!
  
• Tough models that can resist the effects of the Biotechvore Area for a turn if neccessary, or risk fire from enemy ARO pieces to avoid such a fate. Our Heavy Infrantry and No Wound Incapacitation supersoldiers can take a wound and keep going, while the Zhayedans and the Hakims have a decent chance of either passing their BTS save or their Regeneration roll if the worst comes to pass!
  
• ARO pieces that can pin the opposing force in place, as they try to move out of their Deployment Zone. RTF has access to several decent Snipers, and a Shihab can be worth taking, even though it's really unlikely to survive a hit from the Biotechvore Area.
  
• Models that can accomplish a multitude of Classified Objectives, especially Veteran/Elite/Chain of Command ones, as they can be used to counter some of the Classifieds the Opponent may have drawn. As such, Nahabs and Mukhtars are very desirable; particularly the Hacker profiles!
  
  

I feel that all in all RTF is rather well poised to go into this Mission. We have a strong selection of capable Specialists with whom to complete the various kinds of Classifieds, good close combat pieces, a lot of mobile troops, excellent Infiltrators who can risk rolling for Confused Deployment, several NWI and two wound units than can take a hit from the Biotechvore Area if they must, cheap Fireteam options full of Shotguns, and a decent access to Smoke. I'm starting to feel better about the Mission already!

We'll Lure Them Close, Close Enough for a Sword

As this was a TTS League game, I knew my opponent (PandaBeastMode), his faction (Dashat Company), and the table layout beforehand. I knew that I was facing a player more skilled than me, so I chose to take risks while building the list to try and even the field. I also took note that the table was somewhat lacking in long, easy to guard firelanes, and thus I chose to leave long range ARO pieces at home (a pity, I had originally though that this would just the mission to break out the Zhayedan Sniper).

I ended up going for two identical Ghulam Core Fireteams (not that I can have more than one formed at any given time). The idea was that I'd save points for my Infiltrators, hide the identity of my +1 CMD Token Ghulam Lieutenant (a piece I chose to include for the sake of additional Coordinated Orders and reforming of Fireteams), and I could easily move ten models away  from my DZ covered by Smoke. If I'd turn out to have any Orders to spare at end of my turn, I could Speculative Attack Grenades at my opponents potential LTs and hope for the best.

The fighting power of the list comes from three Nahabs and two Tuaregs. The Nahabs have a 50% and the Tuaregs 45% chance to Infiltrate to the midfield, and even if (and when) most of them would fail their rolls, they would still be models that would be at their best engaging their chosen targets at close ranges, once they cleared my Deployment Zone. Hopefully I could force my Opponent to rush his troops out of the Biotechvore Area and into the waiting blades, guns and Mines of my advance element!

So, How Did it Go?

I lost the Lieutenant Roll, and my Opponent chose to Keep Deployment, leaving me to go first. I managed to land two of my Nahabs in the midfield, and attempted to get my reserved Tuaregs up to my opponents Deployment Zone's edge. I had a 60% chance of atleast one of them succeeding, which would have given me a Mine that would have hit no less than four models once it was activated, and a first Order chance to Shotgun an obvious Lieutenant, but alas, neither of them made it!

My first turn saw me use Smoke to move every model away from the Biotechvore Area, shift my two Infiltrating Nahabs to defendable positions, and render some of my opponents ARO elemets unconcious with a Speculative Grenade Launcher shot. My Opponent's first turn saw him drive his (mostly) Zhuyong Core Fireteam and a few fast elements forward to take out a number of my Ghulams (one of which was unfortanately my Lieutenant), even despite the heroic delaying action by my Boarding Shotgun Nahab. He also managed to complete the Telemetry Classified. All this activity came at a cost though - my Opponent had to abandon a number of fire support elements to be ravaged by the Biotechvore plague.

On my second turn I was in the Loss of Lieutenant, so mostly I just dug in and braced for the storm. I was able to complete the Extreme Prejudice and Predator Classifieds though, thanks to my Killer Hacker Nahab first taking out none other than McMurrought in melee, before chopping up a hapless enemy Ghulam. My Opponent then continued to prune my Order Pool by gunning down more Ghulams and asserting his dominance over the centre of the table, and he managed to complete the Follow Up Classified on his last Order.

My third turn saw me finally take out the troublesome Zhuyong HMG for good, knock my opponent's Shihab unconcious and gun down a wounded Zhencha. I had no chance of completing my last Classified Objective (HVT Kidnapping), so I just had to dig in for another turn. My Opponent used his final turn to repair his Total Reaction Bot, and used his Fireteam to achieve the Predator Classified on the last Order of the game. I was able to however use a Tuareg to gun down his Valerya Gromaz in ARO.

 

When everything was said and done, I had 130 army points remaining to my Opponent's 119, which meant that I had scored 2 Objective Points for more army points destroyed, 1 Point for surviving troops and 2 Points for Classifieds completed, while my Opponent had scored 1 Point for army points left, 3 Points for the Classifieds completed and an additional 2 Points for completing more Classified Objectives than me, which meant that I had lost the tigh game 5-6!

 

We talked about the game afterwards, and while my Opponent was asking what my last Classified Objective had been, I realised I had actually completed the optional Secure the HVT Classified with my Red Fury Nahab, which would have seen me actually win the game 6-4! Oh well, can't get everything right all the time... Thanks to PandaBeastMode for an awesome game!

So, Biotechvore?

Me playing Biotechvore was an excellent example of why you should always try out new Missions (and units for that matter), even if you'd at first be opposed to them. The mission provided me with a brand new list creation challenge, and I'd love to play the Mission again soon and try some of the units and tactics that I was unable to include in this game!

The Mission's scoring felt terrific - both of us had to balance between completing Classifieds, moving away from the Biotechvore Area, and fighting our Opponent's troops, which created a tense, and dare I even say cinematic, atmosphere for the game. I never felt truly safe nor truly out of the game at any point! Out of the three pairs of players playing the scenario in our league,  two ended the game 6-5 and the last pair 5-3, which is a testament to how nail biting a Mission Biotechvore can be! I highly encourage you to give it a try if you haven't done so already!

Until the next time - I wish you the very best in leading the Swift and Deadly Spear of the Haqqislamite Army to Victory!

 

 

28/4/2021 Edit. Corrected some spelling mistakes and rewrote some badly worded lines, also added links to the text.

26/4/2022 Edit. Updated the Article's language a tad.