Bostria’s Challenge: Shock Army of Acontecimento

This Bostria's Challenge entry is brought to you by Stiopa, a PanOceania player from Szczecin. Treat it as an introductory article to the SAA.

Some of you might’ve already heard about Bostria’s Challenge. For those who didn’t, here it is:

I would like to read about 300pts army lists, ITS effective, with existing good looking miniatures, no proxies and no model from a box left over.

The kind of list you can recommend to a newcomer.

I wanted to take a shot at this, and Acontecimento was a natural choice. It’s my very first Infinity army, and it’s also infamous for being a bit handicapped when it comes to ITS – so it’s even more satisfying to put together something that works well. Welcome to the Jungle.

First, some basics. Even though it’s a PanOceania sectorial, SAA is less about shiny toys and more about useful skills and fieldcraft. It excels in “Hammer&Anvil” strategies, with good defensive units – snipers, minelayers, defensive fireteam – and great assault troops to act as a hammer – good TAGs, one of the best assault Heavy Infantry in the game, nice paratroopers and ability to deploy a lot of dangerous units in the middle of the board.

Let us look at the starter:

A good start

– The centerpiece, Knight of Montesa. It’s a decent HI, which can be deployed anywhere on its half of the table thanks to the Mechanized Deployment skill. He’s a good shot, even if armed only with Combi Rifle. When backed by more units, either with MechDep or Infiltration, it turns into a proper roadblock. And in active turn it’s already halfway up the field, ready to strike. That’s the hammer I’ll aim to put together for this list

– Bagh-Mari. Often called poor man’s Nisse, this guy sports Mimetism, Multispectral Visor L1, and Combi Rifle+Light Shotgun combo. Bagh-Mari are a nice defensive fireteam, and when properly positioned they can be a serious nuisance even on their own. With Assault Hacker and Paramedic options they can double as Specialists, and that’s exactly what he’ll be here.

– Akal Commando. Our paratroopers are well rounded, if not exceptional combat troops. Very good BS 13, standard assortment of weapons, E/M CCW that can help against a TAG or HI in some cases, and he’s a proper Sikh, Religious and all. His Boarding Shotgun can severely spoil any enemy’s day, especially when it enters the table unexpected.

– Acontecimento Regulars. Fusiliers that survived the initial Paradiso gauntlet, and got more experienced in the process. They have no armor (ARM 1 wasn’t any help most of the time, anyway), and do without heavy weaponry – Spitfire and Multi Sniper Rifle is the best they can have. They have some unique skills and equipment, though – there’s a Sensor/Minelayer loadout, and their sniper is a Sapper. Long story short, these guys won’t go for a TAG hunt, but make a great, flexible fireteam. They’re also the reason for many a SAA player’s frustration, because their hacker and FO profiles are expensive SWC-wise. Yes, we are all waiting for HSN3 to fix this.

If we are to use a complete starter we’re primed for using a fireteam of Regulars combined with strong forward deployment group. We’ll use the fireteam as part of our anvil, restricting enemy mobility, while units in the midfield will act as a bait in reactive turn (no sane enemy can leave such a strong force there), and assault component when active.

If we want to field a strong fireteam we’ll need some heavy weapons. Regulars are still old-style releases, with troopers split amongst blisters. We’ll need two of them, one with MSR, and one with Spitfire and another Combi Rifle. That will give us six Regulars; they can be initially deployed with a sniper, and later reconfigured to leave him as a guard and move forward, Spitfire blazing.

Lost, anyone?

Now, let’s get some backup for that Knight of Montesa. He must be getting lonely all by himself in the middle of the table. First of all, we can field Peacemaker combat remotes with Mechanized Deployment to match that of the Montesa. Peacemakers can make peace with either Heavy Shotgun or Spitfire and they come with a Heavy Flamethrower-equipped Auxbot in tow. Heavy Shotgun is often the best way to go, but since we already have the shotgun on a mobile unit, and could use another assault weapon, let’s take the Spitfire. Auxbot can be placed to act as a defender and a speed bump – hackers will have to deal with it, spending precious orders to get rid of something that doesn’t even cost you an order when it goes down, all other units will have to risk a Flamethrower in their face for pretty much no reward. Just remember to deploy it somewhere it can’t be attacked from beyond template’s range. In active turn Peacemaker can act as a flanker, while using Auxbot to simultaneously attack some other target, preferably a bunched up fireteam. Peacemaker is also equipped with a Repeater, extending the range of our hacker. So let’s field that hacker…

SAA has no access to PanOceania’s own infiltrating troops, but can instead field Naga infiltrators leased from ALEPH . They have decent stats, a bit fewer options than other infiltrators, but come with V:Dogged. This helps them get the job done, even if it costs them their artificial lives. We can take two Nagas, and that’s exactly what I’d do. One of them will be a hacker, because infiltrating Specialists are obviously a thing, and because Montesa and Peacemaker could use hacker support. Second Naga will be a sniper, because it further bolsters our defences, and the model looks cool as hell.

Stop right there

With all those units we have the last 35 pts to round up the list. Since our snipers could use some medic support, and playing in N3 enviroment without an Engineer is not a wise move, I’d go for  the PanO Support Pack. It costs exactly 35 pts, gives us two more Specialists with their own G:Servant bots, and allows us to field a small support combat group.

Here’s the final result:

Shock Army of Acontecimento

──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Group 1 10 0 0
KNIGHT OF MONTESA Combi Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW. (45)
NAGA Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 32)
PEACEMAKER Spitfire + AUXBOT_1 / Electric Pulse. (1 | 29)
AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (4)
BAGH-MARI Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (24)
REGULAR (Sapper) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 22)
REGULAR Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 16)
REGULAR Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (12)
REGULAR Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (10)
REGULAR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (10)
REGULAR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (10)
Group 2 4 0 0
AKAL COMMANDO Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, E/M CCW. (21)
NAGA MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 34)
MACHINIST Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (15)
PALBOT Electric Pulse. (3)
TRAUMA-DOC Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (14)
PALBOT Electric Pulse. (3)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points
Open with Army 5

We have two snipers, two Spitfires, five specialists with some variety amongst them, a visor, a template weapon, and mobile unit with a shotgun. I’d love to upgrade one of the Regulars with Sensor/Minelayer combo, but the points and challenge restrictions make that hard. All this goodness requires only three boxes and four blisters, with no leftovers.

So, to sum it up: Regulars and Naga sniper slow enemy down, while Montesa, Naga hacker and Peacemaker force him to focus on combat instead of going safely after objectives. Montesa and Peacemaker can be used as flankers or frontline combat units. Akal Commando is a dedicated flanker, and with 10-man first combat group his attack can come as a complete surprise, unless your opponent knows SAA unit point costs perfectly. Regulars can double as a full assault squad, leaving sniper in his nest.

Poor man’s Nisse? Say that again

I hope you’ve had as much pleasure reading this, as I had with writing – Bostria’s Challenge isn’t that easy, but can be really satysfying. Please post a comment, if you have any different ideas about than this one!