Situation
Personally this is one of my favorite missions because the rules are simple. Simple rules allow the players to focus on
To dominate a zone you need to have more points than your opponent. This means models, markers, spawn seeds, and AI beacons all count… obviously unconscious/dead models do not, and neither do things like equipment markers, mines, and holoechos.
Baggage: Remember the baggage rule, it counts as an extra 20 points!
INTELCOM: This is another mission where INTELCOM exists, allowing you to either keep your Classified Objective or exchange it for the points listed on the card at the end of the game to use towards dominating a zone you have an active model in.
Mission
Dominate the zone closest to you – 1pt
Dominate the central zone – 3pts
Dominate the farthest zone from you -5pts
1 Classified Objective – 1pt
Told you this mission was simple! But keep one thing in mind: you get no points for finishing in the enemy deployment zone! So be mindful of where that is when they are setting up.
Also with your Classified Objective only being worth 10% of the total possible points you’re better off just skipping it and using it for the INTELCOM points. This is true pretty much 100% of the time since the closest you can come in this mission to a tie is with each player controls the zone closest (or furthest) to them and one controls the middle. IF you score your CO then that could raise your score to 3-2 or 5-1, not enough to win and not enough to turn a minor victory into a major one. Thus it’s logical to use the card for its extra points to ensure you can capture the middle and zone closest to you.
Granted, It’s possible to steamroll your way across the board, scattering your enemies before and listening to the lamentations of their women, and control all 3 zones giving you a 9-0 score and you might find yourself really wishing you had that Classified Objective to go for 10-0 – but you never know when/if that is going to happen and you decrease your chances of winning over all.
Execution
- You’re going to want to go second for no other reason than it gives you the last opportunity to place your points where you want them in turn 3 without allowing your opponent to respond. But what if you have to go first? You need to really be aggressive your first few turns to try and deplete their order pool and points, in your third turn you need to have everyone settled into their zones and into defensive positions. Your opponent is going to make a final push or bring in an AD troop or TO infiltrator, try to have people in suppressive fire, and total reaction remotes to try and mitigate this last turn push. Watch your flanks since all an AD trooper has to do is walk on and not die.
- Since deployment zones are worth no points, it doesn’t make since to have anyone left in them! Have a plan, either through link teams, or coordinated orders to get those cheerleaders forward into at least your closest zone. Every troop left in your deployment at the end of the game is wasted resource.
- Unlike some other missions, there is no reason to dominate zones until the last turn. I prefer the “rolling thunder” approach of taking your closest zone turn one, the middle turn two, and the furthest turn 3. This is so I can keep my troops supported and try to prevent counter attacks.
- As mentioned above, AD troops and TO infiltrators are great for turn 3 reveals.
- This is one of those missions where you don’t actually have to kill anyone- sure it will help, but order efficiency is going to be far more useful than raw firepower since you are going to be doing a lot of movement.
Sustainment
As I said, this is a favorite of mine since the rules are simple and encourages some interesting tactics. Killing isn’t nearly as important as defensive durability and speed. How do you play Frontline? As always, Frontline sells Infinity products at up to 25% off every day!