Metachemistry's Training Incident: Mission One After Action

We’re going to try to compensate for missing two weeks with all of the things I should have posted about in that time! This one will be what I can remember of the first 2026 Training Incident mission, and will be a follow up to the plotting an scheming done in this post.

One of my most important objectives for this league in general is to help any new players I face get their feet under them. I’ve seen a few of the new players that signed up for the league try to get some games in ahead of time to get some practice in so they aren’t going in completely cold. Unfortunately, not everyone has the availability to make the usual Thursday gaming nights north Denver or the Wednesdays in southwest Denver, and are playing their very first games with this league.

That was the case for my opponent in this first mission, so I didn’t play as aggressively as I perhaps would have against one of the more experienced locals. I wanted to help him get his basics down, which conveniently helps me get mine refined, and let him start getting practical experience and some muscle memory for the game in. Fortunately, he was playing Vanilla Yu Jing. I really like Invincible Army and White Banner, and intend to start digging into Imperial Service eventually, so I was familiar with most of the models he brought for the game.

I also unfortunately was so focused on that part of things that the only pictures I took were for my hidden deployments. And with the game now several weeks in the past, my memory might be a little hazy, but I’ll do the best I can to summarize it. This post might just be a little shorter than previous ones.

I did decide to go with the second list with the Karakuri. Having the ability to score the bonus tenth point and a better ARO presence in this small game just felt better.

I seem to remember him winning the roll-off, and we talked though the choices he had available. I walked him through how second player in this mission would have an advantage in having the final say of the game, though defending at 150 points is always a challenge. I think we ended up with me deploying first and him going first.

I kept most of my units together for mutual support, and so that the Tanko and Karakuri could take advantage of the free Pangguling reloads. The only model I put in on a building in an isolated spot was the Robio flash-pulse bot, which was way off to my right. I put the Ninja near the center console (played in this game by a UN Peacemaker from BLKOUT since I neglected to bring actual objectives with me that day), of course, and as my reserve I tried to put the Oniwaban near the main concentration of his forces. Unfortunately, this was during the spree of failed Oniwaban infiltration rolls I had been making lately, so I did not have the Oniwaban in his back line as insurance.

My opponent had picked up a generic lot of Yu Jing, and his list featured quite a few Zuyong. I think the Hsien was playing the part of a Haidao Killer Hacker for the game, and my girl Tai Sheng was a paramedic for this game. His main gun was the Zuyong HMG which went on top of a building overlooking my main approach to the center console (though it deployed prone to keep it safe). A Zuyong and Weibing sensor bot were off to his left. I probably could have laid more, and even less subtle, hints that the sensor bot could be very useful in finding the model that I deployed in secret, but the sensor bot would be left just about where it deployed.

Round 1

A lot of my opponent’s first turn was spent getting some positioning in, and I think his thorough studying for the game really paid off. He said he had watched a lot of videos about the game, so he was moving his models well, and put up Cybermask on the Haidao unprompted. The Haidao and Paramedic Tai Sheng moved forward, ending prone behind cover, surrounding the console and ready to move up to it in the next two rounds. One of his Zuyong (pretty sure it was the TacAware/Combi Rifle/TinBot profile) went on an adventure and dueled the Robio from bad range. The Zuyong avoided being stunned, but also couldn’t put the Robio down in that turn. And that was about all the orders he had to work with.

I moved the Karakuri forward a bit once my engineer had sneaked forward to drop some Vitroferro Deployable Cover for the Karakuri to watch over the console herself. I think at that point I only had orders to re-camo the Oniwaban and move it forward once.

Round 2

In his second turn, he turned on the Zuyong HMG and dueled the Karakuri for a couple orders. My reply was the Karakuri’s E/Mitter. Again, that seemed like a (marginally) more forgiving option than the Panzerfaust for a new player. It would also be an educational experience on E/M weapons and the Isolated/Immobilized States.

I can’t remember if it was the Zuyong or someone else, but the Karakuri does end up taking a wound and I decided to fail guts out of line-of-sight and next to the Engineer so that I could heal it up on my next turn. The Zuyong does end up Isolated and Immobilized, unfortunately.

Once the Karakuri is out of the way, the cybermasked Haidao runs past the console, presses the button, and takes up position in the corner of two pieces of terrain. A suspicious camo marker (the Daoying) has also moved up behind the large building on my opponent’s side of the table just behind the console.

From there, the adventuring TinBot Zuyong from last round has jumped up onto a building and peeks around a corner to fight the Robio again. This time its odds are much better and the Robio does go down. It then jumps onto one of the new Sandtrap Scenery Expansion platforms to also set up for the next round.

On my second turn, I spend an order to get the Karakuri healed up to get that bonus point. Knowing my luck, it likely took two orders to get a wound actually healed, since this first round didn’t permit Command Tokens. From there, the Karakuri peeked out around the corner and started shooting Panzerfausts at the bricked Zuyong HMG. I think it took both shots to bring it down, and the Karakuri will remain at the corner to react to the rest of my opponent’s team if they come to control the console.

Once I’ve completed that, the Oniwaban gets closer to the middle of the table so that he can finally cause some mayhem on Round 3. I think he gets discovered, but does make it to just behind a building on the edge of the central courtyard and goes prone.

Round 3

In his last turn, my opponent moves the Daoying into contact with the console, the TinBot Zuyong to a spot that can see the console’s courtyard and goes into Suppressive Fire. The Haidao peeks around a corner and then tucks back, and tries to put down the Karakuri, but that doesn’t go great. I believe I’m close enough for the Chain Rifle template, so the bot does a wound to the Haidao. While still in No Wound Incapacitation, this gives my opponent a chance to try to also score the bonus objective. The paramedic stands up, somehow remaining safe from the Karakuri, and shoots the Haidao with her Medikit. The Haidao promptly fails another roll and dies.

With his last few orders, he does some more positioning and we end with the Paramedic in Suppressive Fire behind a barricade near the console to complete the crossfire that will let him keep control of the console.

At this point, my opponent has kept 95 points of his units alive and is sitting at 3 Objective Points for that. He’s activated the antenna for 2 points. And he’s controlling the antenna with his no-longer camouflaged (since the mission states you can’t control it with a marker) Daoying for 3 points. So he’s got 8 of the possible 10 points.

I’ve only lost the Robio, leaving me with 143 points of units remaining and giving me 4 Objective Points. I’ve also completed Combat Support for 1 point. But I don’t control the console, and I certainly haven’t activated it. Total points for me: 5 of 10.

So now it’s time to fulfill one of the sweetest wargamer dreams and completely up-end the game in the last few orders. I wish I could tell you that everything that’s about to happen is completely planned and that I know what I’m doing, but it was really a kind of inkling of an idea that I pursued until, with maybe more than a little luck, it worked out.

If I remember correctly, I start by using the Impetuous activation on the Yuan Yuan to walk her onto the table just behind his forward-most elements. Unfortunately, they’re the middle of the table, well beyond the range of a chain rifle.

So I go to work with the Karakuri in an attempt to get the Paramedic to sit down, or at least stop suppressing. I don’t think that works out, and I stop before I get the bot killed and shed a ton of points. Instead, I finally wake the Tanko up and he manages to land a Disco Ball to block line-of-sight between the suppressing TinBot Zuyong and the Oniwaban’s position. It also fortunately covers a lot of space around the console so that my Ninja would be covered by the Eclipse Zone when she reveals.

Under cover of the Eclipse Zone, the Oniwaban runs into the middle to fight the Daoying and take control of the console. It goes about as poorly for the Daoying as one would expect.

Once the Daoying is dealt with, I reveal the ninja and move the millimeters it takes to base the console and she boops the button on the first try. And I have one order to spare, so I think there would have been enough to Intuitive Attack the Daoying as a marker if need be to remove her.

In those last couple orders, with the Daoying dead my opponent falls to 67 Victory Points remaining and goes to 7 total Objective Points for that, and the Oniwaban is also touching the console so that brings my opponent to 4 Objective Points. Then the Ninja takes the console for another 2 point swing for a final score of 10-2 in my favor.

Final Thoughts

This was definitely a game where the final score does not do justice to the game. My opponent played very well in general, not just for his first game, and his list was pretty solid. I think fireteams would have helped his list quite a bit, or at least a couple coordinated orders. I think he was also a little more cautious with his models than he really needed to be, except in the case of the Haidao right at the end, but Infinity is a pretty deadly game, so I can’t blame him for that. I’m still working on when to be cautious and when to be aggressive myself.

And again, if a couple of rolls go differently the game looks very different, especially there at the end. I really didn’t have the orders to completely reload the Tanko if he failed his Disco Ball shots, and that was key to my plan to turn the game around.

I’m glad I ended up switching lists. I think the Karakuri worked well as an ARO piece at this points level. I did realize that counting on the Oniwaban to be one’s primary attack piece is a little risky. It likely would have been wiser to not over-Infiltrate, so that he could have been in the game sooner. I might have known that things would likely come down to a fight around the console for control of it, and that’s where he would have been most useful. I’ll have to keep that in mind for the future (unfortunately I’ll have come to this realization too late to use it in Game 2).

I think trying to figure out JSA Oban at these small points levels is going to be very good for my understanding of the game. I’ve been feeling like I haven’t been putting nearly enough Gun into my Shock Army lists, but these games with Oban have been helpful training for solving game states without a strong, high-burst, long-range gun in a relatively forgiving environment. I’ll talk more about that in my next post about the second round of the escalation league.

If you’ve read this far, thank you! And if you’ve found this helpful, entertaining, you can now follow and/or subscribe here directly or on Patreon (some construction is ongoing there). I’ve also set up a Ko-fi if you prefer to support these rambles that way, or just want to throw a couple bucks my way if I stumble upon something profound. I’m also open to accepting suggestions for things to talk about in the future, and will (generally) prioritize the topics that come from subscribers.

Regardless, thank you again for reading. Until next time!