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The idea for the scenario was based on an earlier thread -- can't remember from whom (BlueDagger maybe?). So the basic scenario -- steal a rogue AI -- isn't mine. That *is* just the MacGuffin for the scenario though. It didn't affect other stuff.

I'd fancied doing a split-level game for a while, so... this was it.

First up, a look at the surface buildings. The idea here was to represent the above-ground portions of a covert, semi-militarised, high security research base.



Er, along with some dice and other random junk, obviously. This was an in-game shot. Bit short of time last night so there weren't many of 'em.

I set this up so that the buildings on the surface corresponded with the "special" rooms on the old Space Crusade map tiles we were using for the underground bunker. There are 3 entry points to the underground level:

1) Helipad. This is the 5kg iron weight plate on the bottom right of the above pic, with the tankhunters getting cover behind it. Get to the centre hole, spend an order, and you're in the helipad room below, via a big cargo lift.

2) Power generator control room. The tall, 2-columned structure at the middle back of the above pic has a hatch in the far wall. Get inside, and spend an order, and you can get through the large hole in the floor, that had been blasted in before the battle started, and into the power room below.

3) Main entrance. The bunker-like building on the top left has another lift inside, nominally. Again, an order to go into the main entrance room of the underground complex below.

And here's the underground area, from the same side:

[/img]

As old Space Crusade players will know, there are four "feature rooms", one on each of the four map tiles. These each represented something special -- either a route to the surface, or the Computer Room that held the game's goal. Top left tile has the Main Entrance Room. Top right tile has the Power Room. Bottom left tile has the Computer Room (with all the inappropriate Space Marine icons on). Bottom right tile has the Cargo Lift Room.

We played it that other than where the corridor sections touched, the areas between the tiles were walls, along with all the actual white line walls marked on them. I was a bit worried that this would lead to too many bottlenecks, but given that the whole of the surface acted as an alternate route, it worked pretty well. In particular, players were somewhat discouraged from cramming too many troops into a small area due to the number of flamers, nanopulsers, and grenades around... so setting up some kind of invincible fire corridor was impossible.

We had 4 armies: Yu Jing (my son, Kyle), Combined Army (Ben), Aleph (NashVentress), and Ariadna (me). We diced for Initiative/Deployment, having agreed to treat this as a 4-way, ranked, Face-to-Face roll, winner going first and setting up first, 2nd place going 2nd & setting up 2nd, etc., but with the 4th player choosing deployment zone first, and so on in reverse order.

I lost and picked the helipad dep zone. This allowed me to deploy on the helipad, in the cargo lift room below, and "behind" the helipad as far as the table edge. Mechanised infantry or infiltrators could deploy anywhere on my underground tile, or anywhere within 6" of the helipad, before needing to roll PH. (The relatively confined nature of the table, with 4 players, meant that we had to curtail dep zones slightly; most people didn't bother sending their infiltrators TOO deep into enemy territory anyway.)

Next deployment was Aleph, who took the main entrance (similar kind of restrictions to mine, but focused on that building and room).

Next was Yu Jing, who elected to be the defenders, on the computer room and that entire tile. No entrance point on the map, here; Yu Jing were already assumed to control the complex. We'd agreed that whoever took the defender role was, fluff-wise, the backup security team, woken out of cryosleep from deeper in the complex once the alarm was sounded; the 3 attacking teams were assumed to have wiped out the initial defenders, leaving only the backup team. The defender had the advantage of being able to choose which doors of the complex were open or closed before the game began; also, they could open or close any door in the underground section with a Hacking roll at -3, rather than having to be within 8" of the target door. Any hacker within 8" of the computer room or of the target door could make that an FtF roll if they didn't want the relevant door being opened/closed. All doors would need either Hacking or damage (we agreed that AP, T2, DA, monofilament or EXP weapons could take a door out, and that EXP or mono could take a wall out).

Finally CA took the last available dep zone, around the power generator and power room.

Victory would come by one of the 3 attackers taking the MacGuffin off the map, on the surface level, or by Yu Jing holding onto it against all 3 attackers! We each had 250 pts, which I'll try to summarise as best I can:

Ariadna -- Vet Kazak Lt with AP rifle; Tankhunter with APHMG; basic Tankunter; Chasseur Minelayer; SAS with Rifle; Paracommando with HMG (this was my backstop, for if anyone was about to run off the table with the MacGuffin!); Wulver with T2; basic Zouave.

Aleph -- Deva Lt + Devabot; Netrod; Myrmidon Officer; Dakini w. LGL; basic Dakini; Garuda wi. HMG; Naga Hacker; Asura Hacker

Combined Army -- I don't really know these guys too well but it was a Morat-heavy list, with a TO camo sniper, some kind of super-being with loads of wounds and a Burst 3 grenade launcher that also had an EM effect, an Impersonator, a hacker, and a couple of remotes

Yu Jing -- Kuang Shi controller + 2 Kuang Shi; Musashi (we allowed mercs); Domaru with Boarding Shotgun; Oniwaban; 3 Zhanshis (one a lieutenant); 3 Keisotsus (one with LGL, one hacker); Invincible with Spitfire; Kempeitai. This was 2 order groups, with the Zhanshis and Keisotsus forming a 6-order group and the other 8 an 8-order group.

This was a bloody, exciting battle! I'm not going to go into blow-by-blow detail, but just try to give an overview.

Things started out rough and continued apace.

The Combined Army advanced down the main corridor in the northern half of the underground section, fighting a few Yu Jing around the corner but trying to set up good ARO opportunities against the oncoming Aleph too. A few headed south, mostly the hacker and remotes. The Impersonator took out one Kuang Shi and regular shooting took out another. They also had a TO camo marker right on top of one of the power generator towers, potentially dominating the whole of the surface area.

Yu Jing guys died in droves to start with, against Aleph and CA alike. They did kill the Impersonator, and they had good defensive forces around the Computer Room, but their first line of defence was beaten back in the first couple of turns.

Aleph ended up having to fight the CA a lot, just because their main routes to the computer room converged! This got bloody on both sides. The Myrmidon Officer was finally able to kill the main big scary CA unit (sorry, crap at CA names...) with repeated AP Boarding Shotgun bursts, trusting to her ODD and cover to save her, but only after said CA unit had taken out 2 or 3 clustered-together Remotes.

The battleground between Aleph and CA:

[/img]

My plan was to hang back a bit, only advancing quite cautiously through the complex. I had my Tankhunters on the surface, hoping to dominate the surface area and then move in on the underground one. So I spent my first turn Discovering and then HMGing the TO camo guy on the power complex. Next turn I snuck my Chasseur forward and laid a mine around the corner from the Computer Room, so it'd go off if anyone went out of or into said room, or if the two Yu Jing in the corridor did *anything* (Invincible and a Zhanshi).

My plan went pretty well till the Oniwaban showed up behind me:



He did for my Chasseur, my Zoauve, and my SAS, then legged it back past the now-detonated mine (which did damage the Invincible when it went off), cut a hole in the computer room wall (the Yu Jing hacker had had his brain melted by Aleph's superior hackers, so the door was no longer openable!) and joined the remaining 6 or so Yu Jing defenders.

My Veteran Kazak, who'd followed the CA down the power room hole, died finishing off the last of the CA. My Paracommando, who landed just outside the main entrance bunker and then headed down, killed a lot of Aleph guys but then was killed by the Garuda... it appeared I'd closed the trap too soon.

Aleph's remaining forces -- the Deva and the Asura -- were holed up in a room within hacking range of the Computer Room but wary of coming out.

I had the Wulver (now my Lieutenant!) and two Tankhunters left. The Wulver made a death-or-glory attempt to take out the last of the Yu Jing by lobbing grenades in to the room they were now clustered in, but only killed 2 of them before AROs finished him off. At this point I was in retreat.

We agreed to call the game as a Yu Jing victory; there was no way an Asura and Deva, both only with combi-rifles, were going to beat a Domaru, an Oniwaban, a Celestial Guard (with smoke grenade launcher!), and Musashi, in a close-quarters fight, but it might have taken another half-hour to find out, and it was already very late.

Lessons learned:
1) Close-range weapons and templates are the killers when you're underground. Maximise them in your army.
2) Bring a hacker. A good one -- or else expect his brains to be fried.
3) With 3 opponents, mistakes are even more costly than usual. Cover and good positioning are more important than ever; AROs may save you in one enemy turn, if you're lucky, but 3 enemy turns?!? Scary. Trying to do one thing, and do it well, is probably the best you can do in one turn.
4) It's fine to spend a whole turn just being defensive -- ducking back into a room somewhere, consolidating, making sure you have cover and good lines of fire.
5) Doctors. We all agreed that we should have brought at least one doctor each. There are so many times, brief breaks in the action, when you could just duck back and get healed up; and there's rarely time for your enemy to coup de grace you or take an extra shot, because he has 2 other opponents to worry about too. So doctors would have helped even more than usual in this kind of game.
6) This was epic fun. We all love Infinity, and agreed this was our favourite game of it so far. It's everything I always wanted stuff like Space Hulk and Space Crusade to be. Brilliant. More, please!

Thanks for sharing! Thoroughly enjoyed!

haha congrats on a great played game

When doing multiplayer I highly suggest doing teams because FFA can commonly get gang up style in Infinity. Try a match of 2 vs 2 when both players on the same team provoke only a single ARO (similar to G: Sync or corrdinated orders) from the opposing team. It makes the match go the speed of a standard match, but the simultaneous movement cools down the piles of AROs while opening up new tactics.

thanks for the report!

Good report looked like a really fun game to me.

This old thread might have been one of my Spring Challenge tournament missions which was written around using Space Crusade tiles.

The first time we tried using an SC board, everyone died in the same tile...