a newbie's ariadna progress blog

[mrhuettel]

i just wanted to drop in and say hi - i have recently started playing infinity (mostly the panO part of the op:is box) and decided to take ariadna as my main faction. while i am new to this beautiful game, i have been playing tabletop games since the early 1990s (warhammer fantasy 4th (orcs), necromunda(delaque)) and have been a rather active warmachine (cygnar, mercs, khador) and hordes (skorne, minions) player for the last 10 years.

the step into infinity was easy as i really needed something different from wm/h, and an active/reactive gaming system with lots of terrain and a focus on ranged attacks is a welcome change of pace.

i'd like to keep a blog of my first arrays into the game and into ariadna, so i'll try to post every now and then - as well as try to cover as many aspects of the gaming experience as possible. i've not seen a lot of beginner's post around here, so this might be a welcome thing for the future.

as always: feel free to c&c anything i post, feedback is what keeps good gaming forums alive and thriving.

[mrhuettel]

chapter 1: list building

my first two games (150 and 200 points) were played with vanilla ariadna lists, pone against haqqislam and one against nomads, both vanilla, too. keeping a balance between cheap models for order generation and more expensive ones with the ability to rambo through the field seemed more difficult than anticipated.

after those two games, it seems to me that there are three staple models that are versatile and dangerous enough to be in almost any list: the veteran kazak with APhmg, the chasseur minelayer and the highlander grey with two light shotguns. they performed incredibly well - the veteran took on 80% of my opponent's haqq list by himself, spreading hmg bursts and standing in cover, nigh-untouchable. he also performed fantastically as a piece of field denial, placed on top of a roof at the edge of my own deployment zone; those AROs can hurt, too. the minelayer is another piece of board denial. i managed to place a mine in close proximity to an AD nomad trooper (tomcat, i think), who did not feel the urge to walk into it and thus had to stay out of the rest of the game.
nonetheless, my highlander grey ouperformed the rest of the list by far. his impetuous orders were all followed by successfull ranged attacks, he cleared his half of the board in a combination of rifle bursts, shotgun madness and smoke grenade approaches. in addition, he can take some punishment before going down - and that's worth a lot.

for order generation, i took a mix of line kazaks (one of them being my lieutenant) and highlander volunteers with chain rifles (who were also pulling double duty guarding my deployment zone from unwanted AD nomads) - all they did was use one command token to move a bit up the field into better cover. i can imagine that there are several good uses for those troops, especially with different equipment, but not as long as other models really need the orders.

so, i went 2:0 in my first two games and was rather happy how it all turned out - go ariadna!

[mrhuettel]

btw, my lists were:

(150 points, 8 orders)
2x line kazak (rifle)
line kazak (lieutenant)
caledonian volunteer (CR)
chasseur (minelayer)
highlander SAS (CRAP)
highlander grey (double LS)
veteran kazak (aphmg)

(200 points, 8+1 orders)
line kazak (rifle)
line kazak (lieutenant)
caledonian volunteer (CR)
chasseur (minelayer)
highlander SAS (CRAP)
highlander grey (double LS)
wulver (mk12)
veteran kazak (aphmg)
highlander cateran (t2 sniper rifle)

[splayedpaintbrush]

i just wanted to drop in and say hi - i have recently started playing infinity (mostly the panO part of the op:is box) and decided to take ariadna as my main faction. while i am new to this beautiful game, i have been playing tabletop games since the early 1990s (warhammer fantasy 4th (orcs), necromunda(delaque)) and have been a rather active warmachine (cygnar, mercs, khador) and hordes (skorne, minions) player for the last 10 years.

the step into infinity was easy as i really needed something different from wm/h, and an active/reactive gaming system with lots of terrain and a focus on ranged attacks is a welcome change of pace.

I thought I recognised the forum name and avatar from the PP forums. Sounds like you have started Infinity for a similar reason to a friend of mine and myself. Although we have yet to progress past the Op:IS intro games really. That has wet my appetite for Infinity nicely, and I am excited about our first 'proper' games when we get round to it.

I look forward to seeing what you post up

[mrhuettel]

I thought I recognised the forum name and avatar from the PP forums. Sounds like you have started Infinity for a similar reason to a friend of mine and myself. Although we have yet to progress past the Op:IS intro games really. That has wet my appetite for Infinity nicely, and I am excited about our first 'proper' games when we get round to it.

I look forward to seeing what you post up

in all honesty, i loved (and still do) necromunda. the mix of list building and campaign play with a focus on ranged attacks was something rather unique. i had the same hopes for infinity. especially after wm/h, where melee attacks seem to be the preferred method of destruction, i felt that something completely different was needed. and i think i found it in infinity.

there are no opponent's turns that leave you with one option only: watch and lose. you do not have 40 banes charging your amy in infinity, the game is much more dependent on placement and reactions (and thus single dice rolls) and seems to have a much wider variety of viable choices - i'd even go so far to say that you can compose your lists of models that you like optically and still have a chance (in 200+ point games, smaller sizes do not seem to grant the same kind of balancing).

[mrhuettel]

chapter 2: the MRRF

on saturday, i had a nice 300 points game with a MRRF sectorial. it started out rather bad for me (lost a chasseur FO and a zouave sapper hmg in the first two attacks), but i was able to come back with a bang. the first turn, i had a linked team of metros with bruant as the link leader - that molotok on bruant becomes disgustingly scary in a full link team. as i wanted to retain some flexibility, i also put a hmg metro on the team - my nomad opponent (barakunin jurisdictional command) was very keen to get rid of those two and burnt quite a bit of orders to do so, successfully nonetheless.

fortunately, i had a second link team at the ready (switching by spending my lieutenant's order) - four loup garou, two shotguns, two viral rifles. they took out two riot grrrls and held the centre of the board all by themselves. very similar to my first few games, the chasseurs outperformed themselves. sitting there in camo, both the FO and the minelayer managed to block my opponent's lines across the field and bound enough orders and opponent's points to make up for their early deaths (round 1 and round 2, respectively). i had two zouaves around, which did not perform as i would have wanted them to. i'll give them another try next game and watch out that they are not both flanked and outgunned at the same time - stupid feuerbachs on remotes!

my own two flanks worked out pretty well - a para-commando and a moblot. the commando took out a moderator, a reverend moira (the nomad lieutenant) and kept a huge part of the field under suppressive fire. the moblot swept the other flank, blasted through a riot grrrl, a moderator and a moira herself while withstanding quite some punishment in return.

to me, the mrrf seems to be difficult to get the most out of. they are able to bring quite a bit of orders to the table but lack the shenanigans to deal with the toughest opponents - those moiras with their ODD, arm3 and cover were nigh-unkillable and ate up a lot of orders. between zouave sappers, chasseurs, para-commandos and moblots, they can manage to place themselves up the field and start to harass the opponent early, always at the cost of early losses. i might need to invest in an additional moblot or two (heavy infantry seems to be my thing) and feel like mirage-5 will see the field next time to have a really nasty harrassment option from turn one onwards. also, i'm not quite sure weather briscards would have been a good option here and there, especially as i did not manage to shrug off any damage apart from my immortal moblot and msv1 helps against nasty stuff like ODD. in addition, the 112 might be a viable option, especially for potentially keeping my metro link intact.


the list was:

Force de Réponse Rapide Merovingienne
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

Group 1 8 0 0
BRIGADIER BRUANT Molotok, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 28)
MÉTRO Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (8)
MÉTRO Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (8)
MÉTRO HMG / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
MÉTRO Lieutenant Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (8)
ZOUAVE (Sapper) HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 30)
ZOUAVE (Forward Observer) Rifle, D.E.P. / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
MOBLOT (Infiltration) AP Rifle, Light Shotgun, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (29)

Group 2 7 0 0
LOUP-GAROU Viral Rifle, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (21)
LOUP-GAROU Viral Rifle, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (21)
LOUP-GAROU Boarding Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (18)
LOUP-GAROU Boarding Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (18)
PARA-COMMANDO HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 31)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
CHASSEUR (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (20)

5 SWC | 300 Points

Open with Army 5

[TanKoL]

I want to like the Zouave, but apart from the Sapper one, I don't see them being useful until you hit the AVA4 of the awesome chasseurs

[mrhuettel]

the sapper with the hmg seems to be a great denial piece. he was munched quite early in the game, but i think i'll keep him in in future lists. sitting in his fox hole and spraying away at anything that moves from places that would usually be his certain death should be a viable option. also, it'd be great to see a sapper version with the standard zouave layout: assault pistol, rifle, DEP, knife and maybe an e/mauler.

i do not, however, know whether i would field him in a vanilla list at all. there are too many other / better options imho.

[Firmlog]

unfortunately I also have never gotten much use out of my Zouave. I don't know, I haven't used my FFRM in a while, but I'd say Biscards are probably the better choice, but I like the loup-garou better as a link and Para-commando's as single models.