Coordinated Command - PandaBeastMode's IGL Season 2 Report (Part 1/2)

COORDINATED COMMAND - PandaBeastMode's IGL Season 2 Report (1/2)

In this article series I turn to other members of the vibrant Infinity community to offer my blog as platform for them to showcase their thoughts - whether those thoughts be about Ramah Taskforce or something entirely else!

 

Disclaimer! At the time of the writing of this article, PandaBeastMode doesn't own a sufficient painted Yu Jing collection to illustrate the piece, so I'm using pictures taken from the Corvus Belli's websites instead!

 

On PandaBeastMode

For a while now I've felt that one way to evolve The Good Guys Wear Orange further would be to include other members of the community more in it's articles. The first After Action Report saw the first instance of words not penned by yours truly being part of the blog, and I'm both happy and honored that my good friend Tanan got to be the first to break the ice!

The piece you're about to read is the first one on TGGWO entirely written by someone who isn't me, and it's also the first one that strictly speaking isn't about Ramah Taskforce. If we as players (and RTF Commanders) are to grow and evolve our game, we need to listen to other voices and take to heart the lessons they can impart upon us... But even more importantly, Infinity is a game to be enjoyed to together with your friends - both old and new, local and online - so I would really be doing the world a disservice if I wasn't doing my part in helping some of the other voices in the community get heard!

PandaBeastMode is one of the best (if not the best) Infinity player active in my contemporary domestic online meta, and his guidance (not the mention the frequent trashings he's delivered upon me!) have been instrumental on my growth as a player. PandBeastMode has also garnered some great international success to his name - he captained our team to the second place in the Remote Access League's Human Edge Team Tournament, he was the winner of the Vaulsc's TTS Tournament Season 3, and his latest exploit was conquering the Infinity Global League's Season 2! I asked this brilliant commander (and great friend) to be the first guest author to write a piece on The Good Guys Wear Orange, and to my excitement he immediately said yes! So strap yourselves in for this two parter, and let's see what we can learn in order to become even better as (RTF) striketeam commanders! If you're interested to hear PBM's thoughts about Yu Jing in N4 in more detail, check out his apperiance on the WIP12 Podcast!

 

One last note! I've edited the text PandaBeastMode wrote to fit the visual style of the blog, but I've tried to remain as loyal to the original layout as I could! I've done as little as possible when it comes to editing the text itself, as I want the readers to get to experience the thoughts and the style of the guest writer in it's undiluted form! Any mistakes you'll find in the text are by yours truly, have a great read!

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

 

-Grotnib

 

 

Part 1 - Tournament Preparation (List Building) - by PandaBeastMode

I participated in and won the IGL (Infinity Global League) Season 2 Tournament a couple of months ago. It was a 5 Round ITS12 Tournament played on TTS with 53 players. Grotnib kindly asked me to write a report of my battles for his blog. I will divide my report into two parts: 1. Tournament Preparation (mainly list building) and 2. the Actual Games.

Here's the list of Missions for IGL 2:
1. Supplies
2. Supremacy
3. Rescue

4. Power Pack
5. Firefight

Why Yu Jing?

First a quick word on why I chose to play Vanilla Yu Jing. I’m mostly a Tohaa player, but I like to try other Factions whenever I think I can bring something new to them. In N3 many strong players played Yu Jing and it was definitely one of the top tier Factions. But in N4 Vanilla Yu Jing seems almost forgotten. It could be because the 15 unit cap hurt the typical N3 YJ lists or because they didn’t get any shiny new stuff like many other factions. But many of the things that were good in N3 got even better and cheaper in N4. I had a feeling that Yu Jing has been overlooked and it’s still a very strong Faction. So I wanted to see whether my hypothesis was true.

List Building for ITS Tournaments

When I build lists for an ITS tournament, I usually start by thinking which Missions can be played with the same list. The first thing that pops into my mind when I look at the set Missions is that Supplies, Supremacy and Power Pack all require at least a few reliable Specialists. On the other hand, in Firefight I want to limit the number of Specialists as much as possible, because killing more Specialists gives me 2 Objective Points. Ideally I want zero Specialists to instantly deny 2 OPs from my Opponent. So it’s quite clear to me that I need a different list for Firefight than for the other 3.

Rescue doesn’t require Specialists, but it benefits troopers that share the same kinds of qualities as good midfield Specialists often have: Camouflage, some form of advanced Deployment (although Rescue has an Exclusion Zone), quickness, strong WIP etc.; Troopers that can get to the HVTs fast and unnoticed. In all Missions except Firefight I also want troopers that can defend Objectives. In Firefight I only need protection for my own troops. So I think I will have no problem playing Rescue with the same list.

In TTS tournaments we can usually see the Maps beforehand and this time Firefight happens to also have a pretty weird Map (more about that later). That means it would be very useful to be able to optimize my lists for the Map as well.

There are of course other ways to approach List Building for ITS Tournaments. Sometimes you can build lists that can play all the Missions well. Then you can for example make one list for open tables and one list for dense tables. Or you can make one main list and another list that can effectively deal with certain Factions that your main list is not good against.

Building My 1st List

I will first build the list that can handle Supplies, Supremacy, Rescue and Power Pack. There are many ways to approach List Building. This time I begin by adding all the great and cool profiles that I really want in my list. Then I will see what I have and what I need in addition to make it a functional list.

The Kuang Shi

These are probably the best cheerleaders in the game. For 33 points and 0,5SWC (I have to include the Celestial Guard with the Control Device) I get 5 Regular Orders and 4 Dogged Chain Rifles to defend my Deployment Zone. Without a +3 Rangeband the Celestial Guard’s Smoke Grenade Launcher is a bit too unreliable for my taste, but still okay as a backup source of Smoke if I really need that.

Daoying Lieutenant (+1 Order)

When I want a Lieutenant whose only job is to be a Lieutenant and stay alive, Daoying is one of the best in the game. It’s going to be an obvious LT, but it's really hard to attack when it stays in a good hiding spot in Camouflaged State. And I can also have up to 4 Kuang Shis protecting it. +1 LT Order is great when I have access to good NCOs like Yu Jing has. This only costs 22 pts. (In comparison, just think about the poor Knight Commander of the Military Orders, who is basically the same, but costs 6 points more and has a Holomask instead of the far superior Camouflage.)

Hac Tao (NCO)

Now that I have an extra Lieutenant Order I need an NCO and the Hac Tao might be the best that YJ has to offer. I like to use it as a fire support piece in my second Combat Group. The idea is that it can clear most visible AROs and open up the field for my attack pieces in Group 1. With NCO it can have up to 7 Orders to spend. 65 points is expensive, but BS14, Mimetism (-6), HMG with 6-2 Movement and Hidden Deployment (HD), makes it a very effective gunfighter. 

Here the 6-2 MOV and HD are important. HD allows me to deploy it more boldly (especially when going 1st) and that combined with 6-2 MOV I don’t need to spend many Orders to move into shooting positions. The problem with many other good active turn solo shooters (like the Kriza Borac) is that they have to spend too many Orders just moving. Ideally I want to end every Order spent on the Hac Tao by shooting at the enemy.

Hidden Deployment also makes it impossible to kill it until I decide to reveal it (No need to worry about my Opponent’s Alpha Strike) and I can re-Camouflage it at the end of my turn for extra protection if necessary. In general Hac Tao is one the best fire support pieces there is.

Sù Jiàn (Heavy Shotgun)

Sù-Jiàn is going to be my main attack piece. It’s fast (8-2 MOV with an 8” Cautious Movement), deadly and durable (2 wounds, No Wound Incapacitation and Remote Presence). The Spitfire version is probably the more popular profile, but I like the Heavy Shogun more (it also saves me 4 points and 1,5 SWC). The Spitfire works against lighter targets, but I like my main attacker to be able to kill a wide variety of targets and Burst 3 DMG 16 Heavy Shotgun will LITERALLY kill anything (TAGs, Bears, Fire Teams etc.) Sù-Jiàn is good at getting close to the enemy so the limited rangeband of a Shotgun doesn't hurt too much. And I have the Hac Tao for longer range shooting.

Guilàngs

I need some Specialists and Gŭilángs are perhaps one the best Infiltrating Specialists in the game (see how this is starting to become a theme with Yu Jing). Camouflage, Mimetism (-3), Terrain (Total) and WIP14 makes them good at their job. In addition they have Multispectral Visor L1 which makes them also great against enemy midfield Infiltrators (that they will usually inevitably encounter). The best profiles are the Hacker, the Minelayer and the Forward Observer. The Minelayer is not a Specialist and I’m not going to have much Hacking (he has a Deployable Repeater), so I’m not going to take that one.

For now, I’m going to take one Hacker and one FO (they’re only AVA 2). I might upgrade the FO to a Hacker later if I have the points to spare. But I like the combination of a Camouflaged Hacker and a Camouflaged FO since my Opponent won’t know which one is which. They might unnecessarily avoid the FO because they think it’s a Hacker (or go too close to the Hacker if they don’t think it’s a Hacker). I can also freely move in front of their heavy ARO pieces with my Camouflaged FO and if they Discover I can freely target them with Forward Observer (Burst 2 with WIP14). On the other hand, if they don’t Discover, it could be the Hacker that can easily get close to their TAG or another valuable piece.

Shaolin Monk(s)

I normally like to include (at least) one Irregular Trooper to my army list because of the discount that comes from being Irregular and I can usually afford to transform one Irregular to Regular per turn. Irregular Troopers are also often great and good at spending their own Orders. Shaolin Monk is a 5 point Chain Rifle that throws Smoke and does well in Close Combat. What’s not to like? I’ll take one Monk for now.

Hùndùn (Heavy Rocket Launcher)

The way most Sectorials in current meta defend is with a Fireteam Core of cheap line troops and one strong ARO Trooper (like Kamau Sniper, Riot Grrl Missile Launcher etc.). That’s of course not enough for a good defence, but it's a good starting point. With vanilla armies you have to be a bit more creative. Currently I have no long range defensive pieces so I take a Hùndùn with HRL.
A Hidden Deployment Trooper with an Impact Template weapon is always nice. What’s great about HD on an ARO Trooper (besides sometimes getting that sweet Template shot at an unsuspecting Fireteam) is that I can decide which enemy I engage and when I engage them. It’s really nice to have some initiative on the reactive turn too.

I feel that many players reveal their HD ARO models too early, at the first opportunity to take a shot. They should be revealed at the last opportunity to take that shot.

BS13, Mimetism (-3) and Surprise Attack with HRL makes it an okay active turn shooter as well in certain situations. An additional benefit with Hùndùn (and with HD troops in general) is that my Opponent won’t know whether I have a Hùndùn or an Combat Jump/Parachutist Toop (like Tiger Soldier) and they have to prepare for both. It’s always beneficial if the opponent has to spend their resources and cognitive capacity on non-existent threats.

So currently my list looks like this:

I have already used 258 points, 4 SWC and 12 Troop slots. I put the Shaolin into the 2nd Group. If my Hac Tao doesn’t have things to shoot, the Monk can move forward and attack or provide Smoke support.

The next step in my list making process is to check whether I have everything I need. I will go through every role that I think is necessary for a good list and see if I have them covered:

 

Long Range Shooting:

This is quite obvious, but you should have at least one good long range (>24”) shooter in your list (or a really good reason why you don’t have one). Shooting from a long range is usually the most Order efficient (and sometimes the only) way to deal with enemies. You’re severely handicapping yourself if you don’t have any long range guns.

What I have:

• Hac Tao.
• As situational backup Hùndùn.

Assessment:

• A bit thin, but Hac Tao is great and good at keeping itself alive. 

Assault Unit (Short Ranged Shooting):

By assault unit I mean a model that can quickly get to the enemy Deployment Zone and cause damage there. It can either be a fast unit starting from my DZ (like a Bike) or a unit with Forward Deployment/Infiltration. If my opponent Null Deploys or I’m able to shoot down every visible target, I feel that it’s really useful to have a unit that can get to my enemy’s Deployment Zone fast and have plenty of Orders to wreak havoc there. For this role I need weapons that are good within 16”. An “Assault Unit” can also be a slower unit with shorter range weapons that starts in my DZ, that can be used in later turns when the enemy has moved closer or the unit itself has moved to midfield to complete Objectives etc.

What I have:

• Sù-Jiàn
• 2 Gŭilángs

Assessment:

• The Sù-Jiàn is an absolute beast of an assault unit! It has some weaknesses though, e.g. Hacking with a good Repeater network, well placed diagonal AROs protecting enemy’s DZ, or long range AROs that the Hac Tao fails to deal with. For those times I have the 2 Gŭilángs who are not nearly as deadly as the Sù-Jiàn, but more versatile and can often get something useful done. Ideally I would also like to have a Liberto to have more options, so I’ll see if I can include that in my list.

 

Indirect Attacking 

By indirect attacking I mean every kind of non-conventional way to attack the opponent. This includes Hacking, Guided attacks, Airborne Deployment etc. I think it’s very helpful to have different ways to attack the Opponent or many so-called “Attack Vectors”. If my Opponent has a strong long range ARO game or they defend the midfield or their DZ too well, it will be hard for me to attack them with just shooting and assault.

What I have:

• Gŭiláng Hacker

Assessment:

• I can cause some nuisance with the Gŭiláng, but without a Guided Missile platform the harm is going to be quite limited. Other than that, I have nothing. I should really look into this. 

 

Short Range AROs / Deployment Zone Defence

No matter how good my long range AROs are, the Opponent will almost always find a way to get close to my Deployment Zone. When they get there, they need to be met with appropriate resistance that protects my valuable targets. For this, cheap troops with Template Weapons hiding behind corners are great. Also Mines, Repeaters and other Deployables are great for defending the DZ. The idea is to make it as costly and as hard as possible for the enemy to reach my valuable targets without suffering many losses.

I also really like Flash Pulse Bots. I think a common mistake is to deploy them on a rooftop watching most of the table. That just provides easy kills for the opponent. I rather try to deploy them on one side of the table in a way that they have a diagonal firelane to the area in front of my DZ. The enemy’s assault units usually have shorter range weapons and will find it hard to deal with Flash Pulses coming from the other side of the table.

It is also important to defend the DZ against possible Combat Jump/Parachutist Troops and Template Weapons are great for that too.

What I have:

• 4 Kuang Shi
• A Shaolin Monk

Assessment:

• For only 25 pts in total I have 5 Chain Rifles (4 of them Dogged, 1 with Smoke) to defend my DZ. I think I'm doing good here. It’s going to be hard for my Opponent to deal any significant damage (except to my Order Pool). To defend my Order Pool, the Kuang Shi and the Monk should be well spread out.

 

Specialists

¾ of the Missions for this list require Specialists. I need enough Specialists that I can reliably complete the Objectives.

What I have:

• 2 Gŭilángs

Assessment:

• This was the 4th time I’ve listed Gŭilángs down for a role. I think I might be asking a bit too much from them. Technically 2 Specialists is enough, but a good opponent will realize that I only have 2 and they will become pretty big targets. Also having only 2 Specialists will force me to play very conservatively with them, which is something I don’t want to do with units as great as Gŭilángs. I definitely want a backup Specialist. 

 

Smoke Support

If you’re a PanO player you can skip this part. It is not necessary to have Smoke in the list, but I find it can often make life easier. So I always try to include Smoke capabilities in my lists if there’s a reasonable way to achieve that.

What I have:

• A Shaolin Monk
• Celestial Guard as a backup

Assessment:

• Not much, but it’s something. I’m okay with it.

 

Finishing the List

As the next step I want to go over my list and see if there is anything that is not totally necessary or that would have a better alternative. At the moment there really isn’t in my opinion. Removing any of the units would remove one role from the list and I can’t think of better alternatives to my current units.

Then, I will need to fill the 3 remaining slots on my roster. I need at least 1 Specialist and some  kind of indirect attack threat. I don’t want to bring any Parachutist or Combat Jump Troops because I already have 2 models that start out of the table. Since I already have the 2 Gŭilángs that provide ways to target enemies and 2 SWC left, I will pick a Guided Missile Bot.

Guided Missiles are one of the best indirect attack methods. GML Bot can also be used as a long range ARO later in the game. It also kind of weirdly works as a great target. I’ve noticed that opponents sometimes sacrifice their Impersonators or off-table Troopers to get rid of it instead of a more valuable target. It costs 16 pts, so I will have 26 points and 0,5 SWC left.

Next I need a Specialist that can move up the field to complete Objectives. I have a couple of options for under 26 points:

• Weibing the FO Bot. Good movement, Sensor brings additional value and only 15 pts. I’m not sure if I want another S3 model to take space from my DZ.
• Xi Zhuang. Mad Traps bring additional value, good WIP, another Template Weapon to my DZ. He isn’t great though and 21 pts isn’t that cheap.
• Tian Gou KHD. Being a KHD brings additional value, but makes it also vulnerable against enemy KHDs. Good WIP, another Template Weapon and Holomask is nice. Relatively expensive at 23 points.
• Zhanshi Paramedic. Could potentially revive the Hac Tao, cheap at 13 points. Not very good as a Specialist who should complete Objectives.

All of them are reasonable, but none of them are great. I think the decision will come down to what I can afford as the last model with them:

• Weibing and maybe a Liberto (with SMG). I would still have 3 pts left, but not sure what I could upgrade with that.
• Xi Zhuang and another Shaolin Monk.
• Tian Gou and a WarCor.
• Zhanshi Paramedic and I don’t even know what.

From these Xi Zhuang and the Monk looks like the best combo to me, so I end up selecting them. Although I think Weibing and a Liberto would be great as well.

So eventually my list looks like this:

I put one Shaolin into each group. The Hac Tao is probably going to need Orders on my first turn if I go 1st, so I put the Hundun into the 1st Group (I don’t get its Order because of Hidden Deployment.) Gŭilángs can stay in the 1st Group because they might need the Orders (it also helps to conceal the identity of the Hacker). Xi Zhuang will go to the 2nd Group so I have one Specialist there. That leaves Son-Bae and Daoying to go into the 2nd group as well, which works great.

 

There are many other ways to make lists of course. For example you can reverse the process and start from the above mentioned roles (or the roles that you prefer) and pick the best units to fill them. The method I used here doesn’t suit every Faction and may not work so well for Sectorials where Fireteam composition plays an important role. On the other hand, you can treat Fireteams as single units (that can fill multiple purposes). But I like this method whenever there are certain models I want to use and build my list around them. As a last disclaimer: it’s not necessary to fill every role mentioned above. Some Factions just don’t have good units to fill all the roles. But I believe that if you don’t have a unit for one of the roles above in your list, you should have a plan how you play around that. (The list of roles is not set in stone either and you can easily use other roles if you prefer.)

Final Thoughts

In general I’m really happy with my list. I feel it can attack really well and in a few different ways. I think it also defends quite well and flexibly. I really like the fact that there are not going to be many targets left for the opponent when the Hac Tao and the Hundun are hidden and the Gŭilángs and the Daoying are in Camouflage).

It has some weaknesses too though. I only have one good long range shooter, one good assault unit and only 3 Specialists, so I really lack redundancy. Losing the Hac Tao, the Sù-Jiàn or the Gŭilángs is going to hurt a lot. I have to be careful how I play with them. Also if my Opponent finds a safe way to attack my Kuang Shis they can severely erode my Order Pool.

Second List for Firefight

I already went over my list building process quite thoroughly so I’m going to be quick here. First of all, let’s look at the map:

The Map consists of 4 almost identical blocks. Each block is connected to the block on the opposite side with a bridge. It means that, with 16” Deployment Zones, it’s very easy to attack the opposite block through the bridge, but very hard to attack the block that is the diagonal opposite. Also, with one long range ARO trooper I can only stop my opponent from advancing to one of the blocks on my side (red arrows). This got me thinking that I want two long range AROs, so I can cover both bridges.

When building a list for one specific Mission and Map combination, I have to resist the temptation to “overfit” my list. By “overfitting” I mean optimising the list too much only for the particular Mission and Map and ignoring general playability. An overfitted list has several risks or drawbacks:

• I don’t know how to play the list
• When the game doesn’t go how I envisioned it or something unexpected happens (which happens basically in every game), the list isn’t flexible enough to respond.
• Even in an optimal situation, the list might not do any better than a generally optimized list.

Instead of starting from scratch, I like to take an already well working list and tweak it. I like my first list so I’m going to use it as a starting point and edit it to be suitable for Firefight and the map. First I will remove all the Specialists, so both Gŭilángs and Xi Zhuang will have to go. I don’t want any specialists that can be killed even relatively easily. Since I don’t have a way to Spotlight or Forward Observe my Opponent anymore, the GML Bot can go as well. I now have 93 points, 2,5 SWC and 4 Troop slots left.

Firefight awards 2 OPs for killing the Lieutenant. Loss of lieutenant would also be a pretty severe handicap since I have no Veterans in my list. Currently I have an obvious LT so I think I need a decoy. Fortunately my LT is in Camouflage so basically any Camo Marker will do.

I think the best option is a Long Ya Minelayer for 17 pts and 0,5 SWC. The only drawback is that I can’t deploy my Daoying Prone (because Mines can’t be prone) and the Mine is unlikely to be very useful as a Mine, only as a decoy. But I think that’s a very cheap price and a small sacrifice for a quite decent decoy. My opponent might guess which one is the real LT, but the idea is to introduce some amount of uncertainty to discourage them from going after it. How much effort would you put into going after a marker that you feel has a 75% chance of being the LT (versus being 100% sure it was the LT)?

The Long Ya itself is a decent ARO unit. It’s often unlikely to win any shootouts, but it will slow the opponent down and once in a while I might get lucky with it.

Next I want that other long range ARO unit to cover the other bridge where my opponent could approach. Hundun is probably the best for that role, but I want to avoid having 3 units in Hidden Deployment. That would reduce my Order Pool a bit too much and I still have to consider taking an airborne unit, since Firefight offers good benefits for Combat Jump and Parachutist units. I don’t consider Long Ya for this role, because I want a unit that can potentially win firefights and stop the enemy from advancing.

Yu Jing has basically two options for this role besides the Hundun: Yan Huo and Major Lunah. I like Yan Huo, but I think it's a bit too expensive for this situation. At 45 - 48 points, it doesn't quite fit into this list and it would also be a juicy target for army kills. On the other hand, Lunah seems like an attractive option. She brings a Multispectral Visor that my list currently lacks and a powerful Viral weapon if I end up facing Bearpodes etc. She’s also a Character which is great for scoring Classifieds. I’ll take her, which leaves me with 2 slots and 47 points left.

Because Yu Jing doesn’t have any really good 20 pts models (actually they have Liang Kai, but I forgot him), I’m thinking about taking one expensive model and one cheap cheerleader. The cheerleader shall be the good old Flash Pulse bot that provides a cheap Order and an additional ARO. Before picking my last model I want to look at the classified situation - how many can I complete? 

I have 1 Veteran and 1 Elite Troop, 2 HIs and 1 MSV model. So I can currently complete 9/20. That’s not great. I would be taking a risk that I get too many Classifieds I can’t complete, especially when Lunah (Veteran and MSV) is likely to die before getting a chance to complete any.

Fortunately Yu Jing has a perfect solution to this, and in the form of an airborne Trooper. Liu Xing and Tigers Soldiers are HI/MI, Veteran/Elite and both have Hacker profiles. It means that they can enter the table from anywhere they want and complete 9 Classifieds just by themselves. I can also decide when they enter the game and choose a time (and place) when my opponent can’t kill them and get the Specialist kill. Can a unit get any better for Firefight?

Since I have 40 points left, I’m going to take the Liu Xing Hacker. The better Combat Jump abilities (PH14 and Explosion) give it more versatility as it can also hunt down enemy Lieutenants if necessary. Now I can complete 14/20 classifieds which should be enough.

I’m starting to like my list, but I still have 3 points left. I could swap a Monk to a Liberto with the SMG. When thinking about the Liberto I came up with a cool idea. Liberto is the only Camoulfaged model without Mimetism in YJ, so the Camo will be an obvious Liberto. But everyone always takes the Minelayer Liberto (for which I sadly don’t have the SWC for) and my opponent will probably expect me to do the same, as long as there’s Camouflage marker nearby. And that gives me a great way to hide Major Lunah as Liberto’s Mine and hopefully really surprise my opponent!

My list is ready and looks like this:

Onwards, to the Tournament!

Thank you for making it all the way here. I hope you learned something or this gave you something to think about. And thanks to Grotnib for letting me share my thoughts in his blog. Next time I will talk about how the games went.

 

-PandaBeastMode