Who wants to push buttons or shuffle beacons around when you could be killing stuff instead?! Today we dive into the new ITS mission Decapitation.
Situation
It’s time to cut the head off the snake, hunt down the enemy Lt. and kill them! As the name implies this missions revolves around killing, lucky three special rules are in play:
Reinforced Tactical Link – Loss of Lieutenant does not apply, and your Lt. is public information.
No Quarter– Retreat! Rules are not in effect
Killing– A model is considered killed when they are in a null state, or not on the board, at the end of the game.
Because this mission is all about putting warheads on foreheads, there are no objectives that need placing (Making this a mission of choice for terrain strapped TOs!). Deployment zones are configured as normal except they are 16” deep instead of the usual 12”. As usual this mission is only 3 rounds long so get to work!
Mission
Kill the same amount of points = 2 pts
Kill more points than the enemy = 3 pts
Kill the same amount of Lieutenants = 2 points
Kill more Lieutenants = 3 pts
Classified Objectives = 4 pts (2 objectives worth 2 pts apiece)
Up front the most interesting thing you will note is that for a mission all about killing, your classified objectives are worth 40% of your max possible score. Oddly enough getting both of these are worth more than any other single task in the mission.
However there are still a lot of points to be gained for those who choose the way of the gun- but they have to commit to it. Because you can only kill one Lt. per turn the most you will ever get is 3, and based off some early play tests getting all 3 will be difficult. (Protecting Lt’s and running low on order by the end of the game both come into play) So then it falls to whomever can kill the most…
But here’s the kicker. If you tie on Lt’s, AND kill more points, you can still be edged out if the other person scores both their classifieds and you don’t (They get points for a tie too!). So getting your classifieds done NEEDS to be a part of your game plan. This means you are going to need specialists, and considering the carnage going on you probably want to bring a couple of each type.
It will be highly unusual for players to kill the exact number of points, so don’t ever expect to score this one.
Execution
- Always go first in this mission. Always. Your opponent is going to be coming after you turn one so starting second is a guaranteed way to begin with fewer orders than planned. Sure they can spend a Command token to reduce your order pool by 2, but in process of Lt. hunting you are going to reduce their pool (and killing ability) by much more.
- With 33% deeper deployment zones you aren’t going to be able to get your infiltrators as close to their target as you would like. Keep your Lt. towards the back of the board edge as much as possible to force them to burn a minimum of 2 orders to try to get to you.
- Speaking of placing your Lt. keep them up off the ground and prone to stay out of sight and easy reach. A mine-laying body guard (who typically will have a direct template weapon) who can seed the path to the Lt. will make life much harder for infiltrators and Impersonators.
- Plan on losing your first Lt. and keep a unit in an out of the way place as your next nominee. An Impersonator placed on the opposite side of your deployment zone from your first Lt. will give your opponent headaches.
- Don’t spend too many points on a super killy Lt. (I’m looking at you Aleph) you are going to want your Lt. hiding in your backfield and it will just be a waste of points. Some dedicated killing units are going to be required though- be it cheap suicide troops or elite operatives depending on your army.
Sustainment
Once again Infinity provides a surprisingly nuanced mission where it could have gotten away with a simple hack and slash. Sure you can try killing everything on the board to carry the game for you, but a mix of hunter/killers and specialists for classifieds will net many more points overall. So bring your specialists, have a plan on who your second Lt. will be, and focus on playing the mission smart- not blood thirsty. Have you played this mission? Tell us your thoughts below in the comments!
As always don’t forget that frontline sell Infinity products at up to 25% off every day!
Quick question: what’s stopping me from putting my malignos in TO camo and just wing it from there. Are there any rules that forbid me from doing it, as stated above there is no Lt. Loss so if my Lt is in hidden deployment basically he is no gonna be easily found.