Infinity TTS: Battle Of The Bands

Colton wanted to do a full ITS game so we decided to do the Rescue mission. The liven things up, each Hyperpower has realized that a huge component to an operation’s success centers around inspiring music that their squad employs. Knowing this, Haqqislam and Invincible Army will square off trying to rescue members of a famous band from the classic 20th century (all faithfully recreated in Lhost bodies by Aleph).

Invincible Army is true to their motif and we’re found to perform best with metal blasting in the background. What better way to stomp your enemies than to secure Metallica and their genre-defining power ballad metal epics?

Haqqislam opted for the moody and caustic Nine Inch Nails to lead their heroes to the field. Each band member was customized by Colton and we imported their silhouettes into TTS.

To secure this most precious resource, I pulled together the Z-Team haris that enjoyed so much success last game and doubled it by adding a second Zuyong 3-team link with Chief Jeong joining the Group 2 team. A Daoying shotgunner will camo-hide while directing Krit Kokram and company across the field. Two Zanshi Hackers are back up specialists and defensive hackers while Flash bot can serve as a repeater point piece if needed. Rui Shi and EVO bot round out the rest of the team in case I need to hunt camo/mimetism troops.

This was Colton’s first foray into Haqqislam so he went with the generic army, pulling different pieces together. Coming from Nomads, he decided to put together a strong specialist outfit of hackers, repeaters, and doctors. Saladin was there to help with some of the irregular orders.

Colton won the roll off and chose to go first, leaving me with deployment. I don’t know why, but I wanted access to the building and with no infiltration, the open side had building access. I put Colton on the other side and had him deploy first. He deployed in an assault style formation with most of his team at the deployment line ready to march straight in and occupy the middle. He failed an infiltration roll so had to stick the Hunzakut in the back.

With not a lot of cover, I mainly stuck to the center and right flank, placing my main Z-team force in the center. The HMG was sticking out to catch that open corridor down the center while the bots hung out out of sight. My hackers and Daoying were tucked away and the other Z-team held the far right, intending to be a sweeping flanker.

Turn 1 – Haqqislam

Instead of marching everyone forward, Colton sends out a Mutt to throw smoke down and provide visual cover for a flash bot to roll in. He hates my Rui Shi and the smoke gets close enough to get the flash bot in repeater range of Rui Shi but I dodge back out of coverage range.

The gambit used a lot of orders so, feeling pot-committed, Colton forges ahead and sends the Fanous suiciding in to get everyone in repeater range and hoping to survive. I use the Rui Shi to try to hack the hell out of the little bot while my Zuyong slings his HMG and shoots with his breaker pistols. The hacking fails but the pistols bring the bot down. The turn ends with one of the impersonation markers taking a stroll down my left flank. The Rui Shi is able to discover the first state and Colton puts a few more units in play by pushing them forward.

Turn 1 – Invincible Army

Krit goes out and recovers the unconscious remains of the Fanous Bot (In Extremis Recovery – classified objective), then has the team maneuver to spot the impersonator. The team takes turns trying to discover until Krit nails it and the Zuyong HMG obliterates the sneaky Fiday off the board. I finish up that group by getting into high ground and cover both flanks and the central corridor.

The whole time we’ve been playing, I have Metallica softly playing in the background and as group 2 starts, I hear the familiar refrains of “Creeping Death” come over my headphones. I take it as my cue to start the murderin’.

My auxiliary Z-team heads out and takes down a Rafiq hiding behind a wall then spies a hacker across the map and wipes him out too.

I eventually make my way up to some crates to get a high vantage point. This is both very risky and critical to my plan. The resulting climb sees a repeater land at my HMG’s feet (pitched by a cowering Barid on the far building), and Al Djabeel and a Hunzakut open fire.

I get lucky that Al’s shot goes wide and I tank the Hunzakut’s shot, forcing me to hit the deck. I’m up and in one piece still so the Zuyong dust’s himself off, stands up, and gets to work. He splits his shots between the Barid and Al Djabeel (both out of cover) while taking another shot from the annoying Hunzakut. My dice are hot this entire run and they do not stop as the split shot takes both the Barid and Al Djabeel off the board. The Hunzakut hits me again but bounces once more, sending me to the deck. I get up one last time and throw all five shots into the Hunzakut and she melts. With a final order, the EVO bot gives Rui Shi assisted fire.

Turn 2 – Haqqislam

Night apparently falls on our map as the main board disappears after accidentally clicking on it. Haqqislam has been crippled but still has some extremely low chances to do something. A Ghulam hits some smoke out to block my Z-team’s defensive posture as Colton’s remaining contingent circles the round house. Leila takes shots at Rui Shi but ends up dropping in the exchange. The Asawira doctor picks her back up and she takes down the Rui Shi. Haqqislam achievement unlocked! For whatever good that will do now. The exchange took too many orders so Leila goes into suppressive fire.

Turn 2 – Invincible Army

Krit’s Z-team moves out, guns blazing the whole way. They end up chewing through Leila, then the Asawira.

Moving out farther, the team eliminates the remaining Mutt and Ghulam as well.

The Team finally moves up to the top of the Round House and takes down the last Mutt. This leaves a camo marker up on the highest building and a cowering Saladin.

With the board basically mine, I send out Chief Jeong to go pick up James Hetfield. I don’t have enough orders to get the whole band back but maybe Hetfield will be ok with a solo deal.

After some diplomatic conversations, we come to a deal and he signs on the line. Good boy. I have orders left but nothing to really do so I pass it back to Colton.

Turn 3 – Haqqislam

Colton starts in retreat and doesn’t have enough orders to do anything so he passes.

Yu Jing Wins! 5 – 0

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I really like the double Zuyong trio as they run around throwing 5 HMG shots everywhere. The double tactical awareness plus Krit Kokram’s NCO makes for a ton of extra order opportunities. My dice were hot all game getting almost any critical roll I needed and when you are throwing that many dice, there isn’t much you can do against it so Haqqislam was pretty much doomed to fail.