Wednesday 7 January 2015

Infinity Escalation League - Round 1

In a couple of weeks time I'll be kicking off an escalation league at Bristol Vanguard. It's a really exciting time for Infinity in the area as the release of N3 has caused an explosion in the player base with communities rapidly expanding in clubs across Bristol and Bath.

We've got around ten people, including myself, at Vanguard who will be participating in the league and using it as a way of learning the game, getting armies painted or acquainting themselves with all the rule changes.

Personally I'm going to take this opportunity to really get to grips with my Haqqislam troops. They've been completely sidelined by Aleph for the last couple of years, but a new edition and tournament season is a great opportunity to try something fresh.

Our mascot - the Vanguard bear

Escalation League Format


The league itself will last for ten weeks and will consist of five rounds - two weeks per round. The league will start at 120 points, growing up to 300 points and then capping off with a tournament which will hopefully be held at Bristol Independent Gaming.

Each round there will be two missions published for the players to fight through. These missions will be modified from the back of the N3 book, the ITS system and from YAMS as well as creations from Darren over at Rise of Rlyeh. Darren is running a parallel league at the Bath Pigmar club with slightly different rules and I'll be liberally pilfering (with his permission) all of his best ideas.

I'll also be setting aside some of the additional rules until later rounds. So rounds 1 and 2 will not feature Hacking and round 1 will also not be using Command Tokens. This is similar to the suggestions for the old Escalation League from the Infinity website.

Escalation League Rules

Mercenaries: Mercenaries may only be used in the army lists in which they appear unless otherwise specified in the N3 rules - e.g. Bounty Hunters, Wardrivers and CSUs.

Proxies: Proxying models, using one model to represent another, is allowed as long as both models are of a comparable size. Please be considerate towards your opponent when choosing your proxies and try not to have models from the same unit representing multiple different things.

Be clear about the identity of any proxied models and do remember to remind your opponent of what everything is if it looks like they are getting confused.

Do I need to play each mission in order?: Not at all, you can play the missions in any order and as many times during that stage of the League. Just organise with your opponent which mission(s) you want to play.

Escalation League Round 1

Points: 120
SWC: 2

There are three special rules in place for round 1. These rules are aimed at lowering the knowledge threshold when playing initial games but players, by mutual agreement, may chose to waive these rules if they wish:

  • Models with Hacking Devices, of all kinds, are not allowed.
  • Remotes may be taken without the prerequisite of having a Hacking Device in the army.
  • Command tokens will not be in use.

Proof that I am in fact still getting stuff painted.

Mission 01 - Bounty Hunters


Mission Brief: You have been tasked with destroying high value enemy targets in the region. However this is just the start of the escalating conflict, so the enemy must be eliminated efficiently with minimal casualties.   

Game Length: This scenario has a limited time frame, so it will automatically finish at the end of the third Game Round. If one of the players starts his active turn in the Retreat! state, the game will end at the end of that player's turn instead.

Mission Special Rules:  If either player uses an Authorised Bounty Hunter (ABH), they may forgo the model's roll on the Booty level2 table and instead receive a +3 armour bonus.  


Victory Condition: Inflict Casualties
  • Kill between 20 and 40 enemy Army Points (2 Objective Points).
  • Kill between 41 and 80 enemy Army Points (3 Objective Points).
  • Kill more than 81 enemies Army Points (4 Objective Points).
Victory Condition: Maintain Your Combat Effectiveness  
  • Have between 20 and 40 surviving Army Points (2 Objective Points).
  • Have between 41 and 80 surviving Army Points (3 Objective Points).
  • Have more than 81 surviving Army Points (4 Objective Points).
Victory Condition: Collect the Bounty  
  • Place the most expensive enemy model into the Dead state (2 Objective Points).

Mission 02 - Data Transmission


Mission Brief: An emergency distress beacon from a crashed ship has been located in international territory. Your mission is to re-route this beacon so it transmits all of it's data to your satellites and to prevent other parties from doing the same. 

Game Length: This scenario has a limited time frame, so it will automatically finish at the end of the third Game Round. If one of the players starts his active turn in the Retreat! state, the game will end at the end of that player's turn instead.

Table Set Up: A Beacon is deployed in the middle of the table to represent the objective. This may be represented by a terrain feature of a mutually agreeable size (such as a crate or terminal) or a marker. 

Mission Special Rules: Troops may interact with the Beacon as a Short Skill by passing a Normal WIP roll while in base contact. This may be done as an ARO. The last player who successfully interacted with the Beacon is the one who is controlling it. Control of the beacon may change several times in a single game.


Victory Condition: Inflict Casualties  
  • Kill between 40 and 80 enemy Army Points (1 Objective Points).
  • Kill more than 81 enemies Army Points (2 Objective Points).
Victory Condition: Maintain Your Combat Effectiveness  
  • Have between 40 and 80 surviving Army Points (1 Objective Points).
  • Have more than 81 surviving Army Points (2 Objective Points).
Victory Condition: Control the Beacon
  • Control the Beacon at the end of each Game Turn (2 Objective Points per Game Turn).

Prizes

Tournament packs represent excellent value for their price. I need to order a few more really.

Along with the N3 book I also picked up an ITS tournament pack. Whilst I'm probably not going to use the tournament code from this one I wanted to use it as ready-made prize support for the league. The pack include the limited edition 2014 Bounty Hunter model as well as a few blisters, patches, badges and posters.

I know prizes can be a bit of a contentious issue for something as friendly as a league and I don't want to promote any kind of cut-throat play or discourage people who aren't Golden Daemon winning artists from painting up their forces. Therefore, the prizes will be distributed by two raffles at the end of the event.

The first raffle will be for the Bounty Hunter and each league member who has a fully painted 300 point army (minimum three colours + base) at the end of the league is eligible. The second raffle is for the remaining prizes and each player receives a ticket for each of the ten missions that will be posted up throughout the league.

The league will formally begin on January 19th, long enough away for the N3 profiles to be released and for everyone to have a couple of introductory games. I can't wait to get this started. :)

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