Shattergrounds

Welcome back to our series of articles where we break down the contested locations and their accompanying missions for Phase 2 of the Infinity Shattergrounds Online Campaign. Things are really ramping up in Phase 2 now and we’re seeing some fantastic battle reports being submitted. 

We’ll continue our mission briefings with Location 3: Shimmering Sky Project Tracking Station  in the Bhai area.

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This is an important node and orbital link for communications and surveillance that operates as an auxiliary facility for the Shimmering Sky Project. Although this project’s primary operations are managed from its headquarters, the Tracking Station allows for global-scale assessment as well as monitoring the interaction of this cloud of nanobots with air and transorbital traffic. Easily recognizable due to its huge orbital beacon, this position is critical to maintaining air superiority in the southern part of the Mentor continent.

A communications surveillance tower part of the Shimmering Sky facility that provides for both planetary communications and defense. This large tower is critical to maintaining air superiority in the southern part of the Mentor continent.. 

This location is contested by Haqqialam and Combined Army. 

Haqqislam forces want to protect the Shimmering Sky facility since they are heavily involved with its research and ongoing development.

Combined Army forces know that controlling the facility would give them air superiority in the region.

Haqqislam start with control of the region with Combined Army 2nd and all other factions 3rd 

Mission Overview

The mission for this location is Uplink Centre on Page 9 of the Phase 2 PDF 

This is a fairly straightforward mission to capture and hold some objectives in the center of the table. 

Thai is a direct action mission so no HVT or Classified Deck is used.

The Deployment Zones in this mission are 16 inches instead of 12 so expect units to get into action earlier than normal. 

Scoring in this mission is all based on End Of Game conditions.

• You score 2 Objective Points for each Antenna you have Activated at the end of the game.
• You score 1 Objective Point for Controlling each Antenna at the end of the game. 
• You Score 3 Objective Points for Controlling the Tech Coffin at the end of the game. 
• One additional Objective point is available for having an Active Lieutenant at the end of the game.

To Score the maximum number of points in this mission you’ll need to; 

• Have Activated and be in Control of both Antennas. 
• Be in Control of the Tech Coffin.
• Have your Lieutenant in an Active state.

There are 2 Antennas along the center line on either side of the Tech Coffin. 

• To Activate an Antenna a Specialist Trooper must spend a Short Skill and pass a normal WIP roll.
• An Activated Antenna can be Activated by the other player meaning it changes control for scoring purposes.
• Units with the Engineer or Hacker Skill get a +3 WIP bonus to activate the Antennas and get two roll two dice on watch attempt. 

The Tech Coffin is in the center of the table between the two Communication Antennas . 

• To Control a Console at least one allied unit has to be in silhouette contact with it with no opponents units also in silhouette contact.

An Lieutenant is Active if they are not in any Null state (Unconscious, Dead, Sepsitorized…), Isolated State, or any Immobilized State.

General Mission Tips

It’s quite possible the Antennas will change hands between players several times during the course of the game, the important thing is to have them Activated by you and in your control at the end of the game so make your big play for them on your last turn. 

The Tech Coffin only needs to have one of your units in silhouette contact with it so holding it and defending it with template weapons, mines and repeaters is a good idea.

You only need to have an Active Lieutenant at the end of the game, however it doesn’t need to be the same Lieutenant you started the game with. 

• You can keep your Lieutenant hidden the whole game or have a unit with Chain of Command well hidden to ensure you  get that 1 Objective Point.
• Be wary of choosing a Lieutenant who can be Immobilized or Isolated, like a TAG, Remote, Hacker or Heavy Infantry who are all vulnerable to immobilizing hacking programs like Carbonite and Oblivion. 

Conversely if you are looking to deny your opponent that 1 Objective Point, look for ways to Immobilize or Isolate their Lieutenant so that they can’t make use of skills like Chain Of Command to get them out of Loss Of Lieutenant  by the end of the game.

• Using a weapon with the non-lethal and PARA traits like the Adhesive Launcher, Akrylat-kanone, Riotstoppers or MadTraps are great for this. 
• Weapons with the E/M trait like EM Grenades, Pulzars, Jammers etc can also Immobilize an opponent’s unit if they are a Heavy Infantry or TAG. 
  • Beware of making a Unit Isolated as well unless its the last turn otherwise Chain Of Command can kick in since Isolated is a Null state.
• If your playing Combined Army you can also make use of the Sepsitor to take possession of an opponent’s Lieutenant 
  • However the Possessed State is also a Null state so use this on the last turn if you can. 

There are no restrictions on infiltration or Airborne Deployment in this mission so make the most of infiltrating specialists and Combat Jump troops who can seize the objectives quickly and from unexpected angles.

Hackers and Bikes are great if you can take them in this scenario due to the Special Campaign Rules.

Special Campaign Rules

There are three Special Campaign Rules for this mission, AMPLIFIER, FAST LANE and KEEP ON TRUCKIN 

AMPLIFIER means that In this scenario, any declared Comms Attack will apply a MOD of +2 to its Attribute.

• A Comms Attack is an attack that can’t be dodged but can only be Reset against, they also ignore and modifiers from cover.
• All hacking programs are Comms Attacks so any of them that require a WIP roll will get a +2 WIP benefit to the unit using them.
• Note that the damage of a hacking program will not be boosted by AMPLIFIER.

FAST LANE  means all Troopers possessing Motorbike or AI Motorbike get a +1 inch Bonus to their first MOV value.

• BIKER HAQQ FROM MARS!
• Bikes are already fast, usually 8-6 MOV but sometimes 8-4 MOV and upping that first MOV to 9 inches doesn’t seem like a lot until you remember that the initial 16 inch deployment means a specialist biker can get to an objective in one short Movement skill with an inch to spare! 
• Taking a Specialist biker, or two, in this mission can get you either early or late game control of an Antenna and even if the biker does down after activating it you’ve still got an objective point that your opponent no longer has. 
  • JSA has an Aragato Hacker, ALEPH’s Penthesilea is a Specialist, the Ariadna  112 IS a Biker Doctor with an AXE! 
  • Even those factions who sadly don’t have native access to bikes, Combined Army, Yu-Jing and Tohaa, can still take a Motorised Bounty Hunter just for fun even though they have no Specialist profile.

KEEP ON TRUCKIN gives each player a free Monstrucker unit for their army without having to pay its cost of SWC and it doesn’t count for the order cap.

• Monstruckers are flat out amazing units. People who can take them already generally do.
• Decent Engineers with WIP 13 and Climbing Plus meaning that they can fix those Total Reaction Remotes up on buildings. 
• Even better in this mission with the +3 Mod to get the Antennas 
• Their 3 profiles are all useful with generally some access to a template weapon and your choice of E/M grenades & Adhesive launcher, Drop Bears and an SMG or the Akryli-kannon, Rifle & D-charges who also has 360 visor.  
• All three profiles are excellent dn it really comes down to individual taste and if they’ll act offensively or defensively as to which to take.

Faction Focus

Let’s take a look at the Haqqislam and Combined Army Units who can be most useful in this mission.

Combined Army 

All your Camouflaged Specialist Units will be good for this mission as they can Activate the Antennas early game and are just great all round units. There are many to choose from but lets focus on a few standouts.

• ‘The Shrouded’ are great Infiltrating Camo units who have the Regeneration skill which means there’s a 60% chance they can come back from the Unconscious state at the end of the turn they go down to cause your opponent more headaches.
  • They have some good Specialist profiles, particularly the cheap Forward Observer and Killer hacker profiles who also come with Shock Mines for 23 and 25 points respectively.
  • The Minelayer option with Boarding Shotgun and Dazer is an interesting profile as the deployed Dazer token creates an area of Difficult Terrain in its Zone Of Control that will severely hamper any units looking to advance towards the center of the table.
    • Remember that units without the Terrain (Total) skill will stop their moment as soon as they touch the Difficult Terrain area and while in the area suffer -1 to their MOV value. 
    • Many of your best units have the Terrain (Total) skill and can ignore this area which can be used to your advantage.  
• Malignos are like Shrouded but, uh just better? They cost about 10 points more on average but for those points you get Hidden Deployment, Mimetism (-6) instead of (-3), +1 WIP and +3 BTS.
  • Provided you are happy to play the extra points their Specialist options like the Hacker and Killer Hacker can put up a decent fight against opponents hacking units with their extra WIP and BTS.
  • Being able to keep these guys entirely hidden with Hidden Deployment means you can save them for just when needed late game and be fairly confident of getting an Antenna or Tech Console.
  • Their Killer Hacker has the Dazer here but without the Minelayer skill it’s not quite as useful.
  • The dark horse here is the unit with the rarely seen Monofilament Mines.
    • *Old Man Mode* Bank in N2 days Monofilament Mines were a persistent template that could really ruin someone’s day. However they are still a surprising weapon that can catch an opponent off guard by potentially killing tough milti-wound units like Heavy Infantry and TAGs through one bad save. 
    • You’ll never forget the first time an opponent’s big unit gets sliced to tiny chunks because they rolled 12 or less.  
• Calibans are like Shrouded but with the brakes off. You swap Infiltration for Forward Deployment +8 Inches, you get a bit tougher with +1 ARM +1 PH and Dodge +2 Inches, you get Martial Arts Lv3 and you swap Regeneration for its much more basic cousin Protheion.
  • In short Calibans eat people. Any wounds they make to an opponent in Close Combat they gain back up to two higher than their original value. This includes Unconscious units which means a Caliban can get up to 3 Wounds if they snack on a single unlucky unit. 
  • They’ve got some great Specialist profiles including an Engineer, Forward Observer and very handy Chain of Command unit.
  • They also have a very handy profile with a Spitfire and MSV LV1 for hunting opponents Camo units before chow time.
  • A Caliban on a murder spree is a sight to behold, I named mine Hannibal. 

The Combined Army get access to some of the nastiest hackers in the game who can make the most of the AMPLIFIER special rule. 

• The Carontids with their base WIP 16 and Hacking Device Plus are a terror in this mission as all their programs have +1 Damage as standard. 
  • Being able to enter an Impersonation state with Cybermask and then use a DAM 17 Oblivion or DAM 17 Total Control with WIP 18 and benefiting from Surprise Attack modifiers! 
• The Anithematic also has WIP 16 with a +1 Burst Trinity Program which can leverage its Hidden Deployment skill for Surprise Attacks that will probably fry the brains of a few of the opponents hackers. 
  • Not much survives a Burst 4 Trinity with an 18 WIP roll. 
• Bit and Kiss provide a cheap hacker option with pitchers to boost the available hacking area for programs.
• The Umbra Character Norkias in addition to being an all around nightmare, also has the option of a Killer Hacking Device with the Upgrade of Total Control +1 DAM.
  • His base WIP of 15 gets boosted to 17 on most of his hacking attacks and with his many, many additional skills there’s no unit on the table that is not vulnerable to him.   

Unfortunately Combined Army don’t have any access to Motorcycle units beyond Motorised Bounty Hunters which while good, aren’t standout units compared to some of the dedicated bikers other factions have. However what you get and they don’t, is the mighty Sphinx. 

Much like its mythical namesake the Sphinx poses a riddle to those who come into contact with it, namely “What are you going to do now the Sphinx is here except panic and maybe cry?”

• The Sphinx is a 6-6 Moving, Hidden Deploying, Mimetism (-6) and Climbing Plus having Silhouette Size 6 nightmare that changes the entire flow of a game as soon as it hits the table. 
• It has a Spitfire and Heavy Flamethrower +1 Burst which both benift from the +1 DAM bonus all TAGs get to their BS weapons.
• That means it can come out of literally nowhere, chew up units with Surprise Attack Burst 4  DAM 15 Spitfire rounds or just set a whole lot of your units on fire with two Continuous Damage DAM 15 Large Teardrop Templates that you’ll suffer a -3 Penalty to try and dodge away from.
• Because it has Climbing Plus there’s nowhere safe from it, in fact it can even start deployed half way up a wall just for that extra bit of nightmare fuel. 
• Good luck hacking it as well since it has BTS 6, oh and if you try to hit it with Guided weapons it has ECM: Guided(-6) just to make things more difficult. 
• Ity has a Specialist pilot you can deploy and with Remote Presence it hardly matters if it dies since the TAG can just make a Reset roll to be back up and running. 
• The Sphinx can do just about anything and in this mission it makes a perfect late game unit to take the Tech Coffin, eliminate the opponent’s Lieutenant and Activate an Antenna potentially all at the same time! 

Haqqislam 

Have you ever wanted to take an army of all Bike units? Well with Haqqislam this is almost possible! 

Haqqislam have access to the questionably named Kum bikers (it means Sand…apparently) who are AVA Total meaning you can take as many of them as you want. Is this advisable? Probably not. Would this be awesome? Absolutely.

• Kum riders are absolutely dirt cheap at between 6 and 12 points depending on the weapon loadouts. 
• They all have access to Smoke Grenades in addition to the Smoke Grenade Launcher that is on the bike and they are all Mimetism (-3) and Dogged meaning they just keep riding on to death and glory.
• The basic 6 point rider with Chain Rifle and Shock CC Weapon is really all you need but you might want to shell out some more points for a raged Rifle or Boarding Shotgun profile who also get nasty E/M Close Combat Weapons which can pose a real threat to Heavy Infantry and TAGs.
• They can act as fast moving units to screen the rest of your army with smoke grenades or just as mad dash shock troops.
• Take them in this mission for the novelty value of having a line of 9-6 moving lunatics drive almost straight across the table into the opponent’s Deployment Zone in one Coordinated Order.  

There are two Character Motorcycle units who are definitely worth your attention. The “Nazarova twins” Zamira and Zuleyka.

Zamira is the more balanced unit of the two who can operate well at medium and short range as well as make sudden dashes across the table to take out a single target with extreme prejudice.

• She has the same Smoke Grenades and Launcher as the Kum riders but brings a Light Shotgun with BS 12 which is respectable in a faction with an average BS of 11.
• She has the same Dogged and Mimetism (-3) skills which come in handy to get her in range for the real ace up her sleeve.
• Zamira has CC 22, CC Attack (+1 DAM) and Beserk on an 8-6 Movement (9-6 in this mission!), that means as long as she can see a unit within 14 inches she can smash right into it with a DAM 14 E/M Close Combat Weapon that she literally cannot miss with!
• This can at the very least force the unit to roll to avoid being Isolated and at best Immobilize and Isolate an expensive unit like a TAG in one hit.
• She’ll probably die in the attempt but with Dogged you might get a second hit in, just in case the first didn’t do enough damage. 
• Find the opponent’s biggest, nastiest, most expensive unit and send 11 point Zamira into it like a guided missile.  

Zuleyka has the distinction of possibly being the most unexpected and most lethal close combat unit in the game which is staggering when you consider she costs 11 points!

• She has the same statline as her sister but drops the BS 12 to BS 11 and raises her WIP from 13 to 14. She also loses Berserk and the CC Attack (+1 DAM) becomes CC Attack (+1 B). 
• She also drops the ranged ability of the Light Shotgun for a Light Flamethrower +1B meaning she can hit a wide area with continuous damage small templates.
• What she gains however is an Explosive Close Combat weapon and Breaker Pistols +2 Burst which are really +3 Burst due to her inherent CC Attack (+1 B).
• A Burst 2 Explosive Close Combat weapon on CC 22 is nothing to sniff at but it’s the Breaker Pistols in CC that really do the damage here.
• Using the Breaker Pistols in Close Combat lets you roll 4 dice at once with a Critical possible on an 18 or more! That’s well within probability and even then your opponent will probably only be rolling one dice in return so you have a statistically high chance of beating their single die with 4 of your own.
• In the quite likely event of you succeeding the attack the opponent has to make a  save against DAM 12 with only half their BTS. 
• Choose the right target for this attack which is really any until with BTS 3 or less and you’ll likely cause at least one wound in CC each time. 
• For 11 points Zuleyka comes with all the benefits of the standard Kum rider in this mission but with the ability to take out even the toughest Close Combat Specialist with ease. 

Unfortunately Haqqislam doesn’t have a biker Lieutenant anymore, RIP Kasym Beg you were too beautiful for this world, so you’ll have to take a regular non-biker unit as your Lieutenant for this mission.  

• Haqqislam have plenty of great Lieutenant options including the cheap Ghulam with +1 Command Token, the Holomasked Hafza and the tough as nails Asawira.
• There’s also Tarik Mansuri  who you can read more about in the Mission Briefing article for Phase 1: Terraforming Environmental Studies Campus.

In that article we mentioned the Hassassin Barid Killer Hacker as a good unit to make the most of the AMPLIFIER Rule for this mission but with Haqqislam’s almost universal WIP14 on units there are a range of units that can benefit from this rule.  

• Barid’s as stated have access to Pitchers and Trinity (-3), applied to the opponents roll remember, for 15 points and with effective WIP 16 in this mission meaning they can reliably eliminate opponents hackers in this mission at range.
• Hassassin Ragiks have a Combat Jumping WIP 17 in this mission hacker profile that can quickly deal with troublesome Remotes, Heavy Infantry and TAGs.
• Tuaregs are Infiltrating Hidden Deployment units with a Hacker profile that also has WIP 17 in this mission backed up with Surprise Attack and mines.  
• Leila Sharif is an excelent all around unit with a Killer Hacking Device who has the advantage of being able a Wildcard and able to be part of pure Ghulam Fireteams.
• Lastly there are the Nahab’s who are good at just about anything and can take on just about anyone with the range of skills they have.
  • They have Natural Born Warrior so they don’t fear Close Combat Specialists.
  • They have Berserk +3, Martial Arts Lv 2 and CC 23 with Viral CC Weapons so can dish out punishment in CC as well. 
  • They are immune to both Shock weapons and Criticals!
  • They have either Infiltrating or Parachuting specialists for extra versatility who’s KIller Hackers will be WIP 16 in this mission.
  • Why these units are only an average of 34 points is beyond me.  

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That’s all for this Mission Briefing article, have you any units that you think will do well in this mission? Can you come up with a Biker Gang list for this mission that will be actually effective at the mission objectives? If so feel free to posit them in the comments below. 

We’ll be back soon with another Mission Briefing article for Infinity Shattergrounds