Preventing Rambo?

[RogueJello]

So, newbie player, but vet of many other wargames. Been playing for a few weeks, PanO on my side, a variety of opponents on the other. We're currently playing low point level games, escalading to 300, so I've yet to play anything above 300 pts, and all games are kill them all, no objectives.

Right now it seems like the best strategy is a couple of good pieces, something with an HMG, and the rest cheap orders, and go Rambo with the good pieces.

For me that means somethings AD: Combat Drop Akalis, sometimes an Orc, sometimes a Nisse. This is usually devestatingly effective, particularly the AD troop from the side. Once a model or two goes down, it's all about ganking people from behind and moving on, using the whole order pool.

What prevents this approach? What slows this down in a "real" 300 pt game? FWIW, I've also seen few Total Reaction Droids/Sin Eaters.

Also, it seems like a more balanced approach, spend an order or two to move up, just results in getting closer to the enemy, and getting killed with fewer orders spent by him.

[Alphast]

If you are playing without scenario, it is indeed a common tactic. Be careful though that this is extremely predictable. Anything so predictable is also very easy to defeat. The choice of "rambo's" is not unlimited and your opponent will soon know which ones you field. He/she will adapt and bring the silver bullet to the table.

[JBRocky]

If you start using objectives where you need a Specialist the "Rambo" tactic will see less use. The reason for this you need to do other things besides kill your opponent which will eat up points and orders.

Lets look at Achilles who as a Lt used to be a specialist, when he had that ability he could Rambo around the board and achieve the objectives. Now that Lt's don't count anymore he can only do part of that, forcing an Aleph player to spend more points and orders into specialists. Note this does not mean there are no models that can Rambo who specialists out there, but there are less of them.

So if you want less games where Rambo wins play ITS. After all your opponent can beat you stupid and put you into retreat but if they didn't achieve the objectives and you did, you win. I havn't done it yet but winning the game because your opponent forced you into retreat makes you win has to be funny.

[Claudius Sol]

The best way to prevent getting rambo'd is to deploy very conservatively. This prevents it from happening to you.

The minelayer skill and template weapons are what you would ideally use.

Facing is also incredibly important. Make sure that everyone isn't defaulted to just face forward with their "eyes front". If you have varied facing, you can easily discourage more aggressive use of AD:3 or 2.

Dangerous AROs (contenders, Multi weapons, Nanopulsers, Smoke grenades, Missile/Rocket launchers) are good to use to discourage actively gaining LoF. Longer ranged AROs (Sniper Rifles, HMGs, Ojotniks) are also very good to place in the longer fire lanes.

[EvinW]

A nasty ARO unit like a remote with Total Reaction, 360° and a HMG is devastating to someone doing a Rambo.

The above mentioned template weapons work very well too. Another way is to get a good unit in combat with it and pinning it for the rest of the game while you hunt order monkeys and grab objectives.

Isolating units with EM works like a charm too.

Ones you learn the nuances of the game you will see ramboing isn't going to win you games.

[Harlekin]

In non-scenario games, rambo'ing just is the way to victory. It's a simple as that.
No matter what lists you and you opponent bring, you'll always "rambo".
What changes when you have more experience and thus get better at the game is the unit being your Rambo.
It might even be the humble Fussilier with Combi Rifle who does all the work but he still is a Rambo.

I'd recommend to use YAMS as a mission generator. As soon as winning is about tasks and not only gunning your opponent down, things start to get interesting again.
And YAMS is by far easier/less complicated than the scenarios in the Core Book.

[Section9]

Deployment, deployment, deployment.

Infinity is not like other games, where your back line or flanks are safe. You need to deploy with your models watching each other's backs.

With a single combat group on the table, only two to four models should be facing the far side of the table. You should have two models facing your left, two facing your right, and two facing your backfield. Ideally, you should be able to have two or more models with an ARO to anywhere in your backfield, so the AD trooper dropping in gets blown to hell before the troops

If you are using the rules, having a minelayer up in the midfield with a mine or two covering the best approach to your side of table is a good idea.

As mentioned, the Total Reaction REMs are pretty good at protecting your backfield, but are fast enough to lay waste to the midfield, too.

[Groundworks]

Both fundamental approaches have been mentioned here already.
1. Building protection into your list via skills and equipment
2. Positioning on the table to prevent/limit damage from this approach

Don't forget that AD deployment is a long skill, so keep LoF onto any areas where the deployment of an AD troop will cause you problems, its a massive deterrent.

And remember to take a couple of orders from your opponent with a command token if he like to alpha strike.

You can pay a heavy price for mistakes in this game, in early games that opening can come at the start of turn 1. You will see that as your skill and experience increases, the amount of cat and mouse (ie gameplay) before an opening appears and is brutally exploited will increase.

[Wirelizard]

I've been playing Inf almost exactly a year now, and it's been my experience that the single-unit Rambo BS is something newbie players can get away with against other newbies, but it simply stops being viable for a whole variety of reasons once everyone gets a bit more experienced.

That said, every so often someone screws up their deployment or has a run of terrible dice luck that lets Rambo happen against even a more experienced player. Our main PanO player locally has been having some Rambo-style games with his shiny new super-jumpin' TAG, mostly because TAGs have only recently (last few months) starting being a regular feature of our games locally.

Our YJ player had a brief Rambo-style run with his dual-missile-launcher super-HI dude. I've had Rambo runs with Fiday, when they were new to us, and while we figured out the AD rules and starting using them we all traded back and forth the occasional Rambo-AD run.

My most recent "Rambo" moment was against a PanO player who brought a TAG but no Hackers; I was running Hassassin with three Hackers, used Overlord repeatedly on his own TAG, and Rambo'd him into the ground with his own shiny war machine. He was new to both TAGs and hacking...

I'm rambling and other people upthread have already given better, more concrete advice on dealing with Rambo runs, but basically I'm saying that they're a problem of inexperience and tend to not become a feature once everyone gets a few more games under their belt and is gradually exposed to the huge variety of tactics this awesome game makes possible!