Events
Infinity: Firestorm Spring Skirmish After Action Report
Hello everyone! This is an after-action report for the Firestorm Spring Skirmish, which will be the first in a series of tournament write ups. This report will cover rankings, faction breakdowns, the top 3 player army lists and my personal musings.
The Firestorm Spring Skirmish was my first hosted ITS event of 2018, taking place on the 10th of March. We had a bit of a rocky start to the event with it originally taking place on the 3rd, but having to have a last minute cancellation and reschedule due to the snow that blanketed the UK, leaving most of the country in a standstill.
Faction Breakdown.
On the day we had a 21 player showing (from a 25 registered on OTM), with a healthy breakdown of factions with a typical Welsh trend towards Nomads & Yu Jing.
A surprise with zero vanilla Ariadna, they tend to be very popular in the Cardiff meta. However, Nomads continue to show with a strong representation as always. The lack of ALEPH is surprising.
Ranking Report.
The tournament was set to 3 rounds, Direct Action Operations, with the missions being Acquisition, Supremacy and Firefight. There were no additional extras added onto the event, so no Limited Insertion, no Spec-Ops and no Soldiers of Fortune.
The tournament produced a clear winner via Tournament Points, with Vohlere’s Japanese Sectorial Army taking the win.
Top 3 Winners Army Lists.
1st Place – Vohlere (Japanese Sectorial Army).
Vohlere’s first army list comes rocking an aggressive Lieutenant, a double Missile Keitsotsu fireteam (ouch!) and a Karakrui Haris. A pretty versatile list with a lot of firepower and two aggressive Japanese bikers.
Vohlere’s second list feature is much more aggressive, featuring a full heavy infantry fireteam with three Haramarki and ‘Neko’ Oyama. Saito Togan makes a strong appearance along with a Rui-Shi for aggressive camouflage hunting.
2nd Place – Adra (Nomads).
Adra’s first list is a good example of a great balanced Nomad list, featuring some all-stars such as the Intruder HMG, Interventor Hacker Lt, Zero’s, Jaguars and a Gecko for some table anchoring. I’m a big fan of the sole light TAGs in lists, they can be fantastic for holding down sections of the table on a budget.
Adra’s second list is very similar to the first one, which is a good idea for keeping things memorable and knowing your troops inside out. The main change here is the addition of a Hellcat with a Spitfire for some aggressive plays.
3rd Place – Saintrangers (Tohaa).
Saint’s first list is a Tohaa list I’m a fan of, it’s got some strong Tohaa staples you’ll need to be prepared to deal with, such as double Sukuel, double Sakiel, double Kaeltar (SymbioMates) and the Kerail Preceptors.
Saint’s second list is a modification of the first for some more mid-field and defensive play, with the addition of double Clipsos Infiltrators and a Nikoul Sniper for some hard to remove troops. The list keeps the double SymbioMates and double Sukuel, making for a really difficult to dislodge army.
TO's Thoughts.
One thing that really drew my attention was how a 3 round tournament really drives home the importance of doing well in every game, on all aspects as there is everything to play for. Final standings can be volatile, with rankings 3-6 for example are decided purely on Objective Points and rankings 9-10 being decided entirely on Victory Points, bring those Baggage Bots people!
Another note is that we trend towards Joint Action Operations events here in Cardiff, so trying out a Direct Action Operations event really upped the amount of heavy infantry and TAGs which has been great to see.
As a TO, it’s been great to see our Infinity community grow over the years, with a continuous influx of new players creating more demand for ITS events. This has been helped by attracting players travelling from other regions in the country and them bringing their list building and meta trends to help diversify our own. It’s been a great pleasure to host these events and I plan to continue to do so in the future.
24 Mar 2018