In Search of Wisdom - My First Thoughts on RTF and ITS13

(Archived) IN SEARCH OF WISDOM - My First Thoughts on RTF and ITS13

Important Disclaimer! ITS Season 13 has passed; if you're looking for my first thoughts to the current ITS Season, go to here!

 

In this series I reflect on the game of Infinity, as well the place of Ramah Taskforce in it.

 

"Time time of turtle is over. The time of the bike has come."

Hey there everybody! I decided to try and be like the other cool kids on the block by blurting out my very not thought out first impressions on what the new ITS Season 13 could mean for Ramah Taskforce, so let's gets get a move on before I realise how bad an idea this is! I'm bound to miss some small and even some bigger details by doing this piece right away, but hey, that's why it's called "First Thoughts" instead of "Definate Analysis"!

The Winners

With no drastic changes in the Mission lineup incoming (the only "major" one seeing Safe Area being replaced with Frostbyte), I'd say RTF should (still) be very well positioned to play pretty much whatever groupings of Scenarios one finds themselves running into, so that's a positive thing as a whole! The Blizzard special rule (included in five of the Missions) replaces the Localized Decompression to little change beyond the thematic effect, so there's nothing new there for the soldiers in orange either!

 

The first big change is the Antarctic Territory (also found in five Missions), which effectively sees all the troops with either Terrain (Mountain), Terrain (Total) or Climbing Plus gain +1'' to their first MOV value. This addition primarily benefits Namurrs, Nahabs, Tuaregs, Monstuckers and Hakims - my hot take is that the extra inch is going to be more valuable for MOV 4-4 troops as opposed to the 6-2 ones, but we'll have to wait and see! All the units above are just great picks no matter what, so getting a free bonus in some Scenarios only serves to make them even stronger choices to include in our lists!

The second major thing is the addition of Fiddler to the RTF's roster of units (though not technically an ITS13 addition, she's still very much a thing that the season brought about). This gives Ramah players, for the first time, a (semi-)durable active Engineer choice that can advance up the board, all the while providing support to our excellent REMs through Nasmats! The ability to take up to two Jackbots also gives our Sectorial the ability to effectively both defend and attack in tight spaces without risking losing valuable Orders in the process! Fiddler and her Peripherals even benefit from the +1'' MOV provided by Antarctic Terrain in the Missions where the Special Rule is in use! This new Engineer choice (and her deadly robotic allies) can end up having a major impact on how RTF plays in the future, but again we'll have to wait and see!

Speaking of gaining +1'' MOV and then some... Bikes are clearly going to be the focus of this ITS season! Not only do all of them gain Terrain (Total) AND Mimetism (-3), bikers ALSO gain the ability to shed Impetuous at the beginning of the game in order to be able to benefit from Cover! These buffs turn our already great motorized duo of Carmen & Bâtard into a damn near autoinclude if one's aiming for competitive success! 17 points is a sickening points cost for these two, when they can claim both Mimetism and Cover! I personally forsee myself getting rid of Impetuous 10 times out of 10, because Cover offers such high value to aggressive troops with Dogged, and Carmen starts to look pretty okay as a short ranged face-to-face gunner with her Burst 3 Heavy Pistol after inflicting a -6 mod on her enemies... The first time I'm going to roll HMG on the Booty Chart I'm going to laugh so hard... While I gun down by hapless foes without mercy!

Back on the frontier of situational additions, we have two Mission spesific Special Rules that provide the fighting forces with free units (both also found in five of the Scenarios!): the Bike Recon and Defensive Turret F-13. Bike Recon might turn out to be quite influental to RTF, because our strike teams are usually quite light on disposable attack pieces. The ability to take a free Motorized Bounty Hunter (probably with Redfury, or possibly occasionally with SMG/Chain Colt (+1B)) can turn out to help Ramah execute deep early game offensives without committing it's best troops to the fray! Defensive Turret F-13 on the otherhand, can somewhat help organizing a competent Deployment Zone defence in Missions where it's included, but there's only so much that you can put on the back of a BS10 Combi Rifle...

With the (very very probable) increased frequency of facing aggressive models with Mimetism incoming, RTF's pieces capable of countering such threats will propably see their stocks go up on the market too. This means that especially the Multispectral Visor carrying units (Khawarij NCO, Mukhar Redfury, Yara Haddad, Hortlak Janissaries) will be in hight demand, and both Hackers and Tuaregs also deserve a more careful consideration for their potential ability to soft counter Bikes.

The Things to Look Be on the Lookout For

Defending against rushing enemies has always been something that Ramah Taskforce players have had to prepare for with special care, and the dawn of the potential Biker Gang Era* (as well as the increased mobility of troops that can take advantage of Antarctic Territory in the Missions where it's applicable) will probably exacerbate the problem. This means that even more thought than usual needs to be put into how an RTF strike teams covers itself against early aggressions, without sacrificing too many pieces on the altar of ARO duty. But despair not! Ramah still has plenty of tools to stop the attackers from running the show, and I'm currently working on a defensive strategy involving Active Defence, inspired in no small part my Friend's excellent performance at the IGL Season 2 Finals!

As a whole, the Infinity meta is probably about to face a shift - how small or gargantuan it ends up being will be defined by the following months - so players will need to be keep a close eye on the changing tactical landscape. Luckily, Ramah Taskforce is an incredibly deep sectorial that will undoubtedly offer all the tools that their Commander requires to face what ever challenges lie ahead! There's little to do at this point, but to don some extra warm clothing, pack out Bikes into the landing craft, and head out save Helheim - the future of the Human Sphere depends on it! See you on the Frozen Roads!

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

 

*Okey, to be totally honest, I don't see Bikes becoming THAT popular even with the changes included in ITS13. While their total number will surely go up rather remarkably, I find it unlikely that many forces will be willing and able to build entire Battle Groups out of these motorized pieces - the footprint of Motorbikes alone is a reason enough to include them sparingly in your lists - you do have to fit them all in your Deployment Zone afterall, and you also have to unpack them without getting shot to pieces (along with models deployed within Blast Template radius of them)! Feel free to wave this take on my face once all the Sons of Anarchy -style lists stomp all over the meta in the following months...

 

7/10/2021 Edit. Added Mukhtar Redfury to the list of MSV equipped troops, silly me.