Jargon

Late post today, sorry. I was up late diagnosing issues with the site, only to find out (around 4am my time, when Ash got up and helped out) I couldn’t actually do anything. Alas.

site-down

Searching for help in resolving a particular error was interesting, and paired with some other conversations I had earlier inspired today’s post. In searching for tips online, I had to filter through multiple pages giving tips like “repair the DB” and “try to resolve localhost”, without any indication whatsoever about what those actually mean. In my extremely-late-night mind fog, I was having trouble remembering how to do those things, and it got me thinking about how the language (and lack of details) was getting in my way.

A professor of mine once described jargon as “a shorthand language used to create haves and have-nots”, and separated it from professional shorthand while noting that the two look very similar. Jargon is useful when time-to-communicate is a valuable factor, but this is surprisingly rare. We’re in love with efficiency of communication, but I’ve commented before that we have a very reductive culture surrounding it, and I think that we often think we’re making communication faster and more efficient when what we’re actually doing is denying access to anyone who isn’t as in-the-loop as we are.

What I find interesting is what happens when two different types of jargon collide. I’ve spent a lot of time around highly technical people, and the idea of impenetrable technical jargon among engineers is pretty well known. What I’ve been discovering lately, as I delve deeper into business, is the jargon that exists in the business world, that’s every bit as complicated and detailed as the technical jargon.

3d18da9

If you’re reading this, you’re probably looking at the above image and alternately laughing or rolling your eyes. What’s really interesting to me is that every single one of these terms is functional, useful business shorthand that often gets used to exclude non-business types, in the exact same way technical jargon is. It’s used and misused in all of the same ways, and from the other side, the use of highly technical jargon gets the same not-always-so-gentle mockery as “business-speak” does.

What I wonder about is how the functionality of the two different types of jargon interact. One is operating on a (mostly) macro level, another is (mostly) operating on a micro level. An engineer can, after several minutes of someone being unable to process the language being used, just push their audience aside and say “look, let me just do it”. The same is not true in business, generally speaking– the jargon is used as shorthand for very large, slow processes and in many cases are more about applied psychology than technical skill– something that many people like to think they’re immune to and will resist as a matter of course if they see it in action.

One of the things I’ve been trying to do in my own communication is to be very precise with my choice of words, avoiding both technical and business jargon unless it’s precisely applicable and I know the person I’m talking to is aware of what I mean. It’s a surprisingly difficult thing to do, because the coded languages we use get very deeply ingrained.



Source: Digital Initiative
Jargon

Baltimore

I hope you’ll forgive me if I talk a bit about current events. I used to live in and around Baltimore, so seeing places I know and used to hang out at in the news is somewhat poignant. No pictures today, there is little I want to do less than look for context-appropriate images for this post.

I really, really wish Baltimore had been a surprise. I think the only uncertain thing is the specific location. The messaging has been around for, at the very least, about a year, since Ferguson, and it’s painfully apparent that lessons have not been learned. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and evaluating my feelings on the series of situations, and honestly my takeaway is that they’re complicated. This isn’t a shock to me– it’s a whole bunch of people and people are complicated.

What bothers me is that the conversations that are bubbling up are following the same trends as before. They make an attempt to simplify the situation into a word, a phrase, a tweet, or a one-liner, paired with a single, still image if possible. We have evolved a communications culture that values pithy lines and simple, straightforward messages delivered precisely and at high speed, and in that we struggle with issues that aren’t so easily boiled down.

I’m also put in mind of this article, which I thought was excellent. In essence, it points out that we conflate “happy” with “good”, such that if something makes us happy, it must follow that that thing is good, and if something makes us unhappy, it must not be good.

Games put this in stark relief, even the most cursory look at games forums will make that apparent, but games have no monopoly on the concept. People like to think of *themselves* as good, and therefore if they’re happy, things must be good, because if things weren’t good, then they wouldn’t be happy. If someone else is unhappy, they must be doing something incorrectly. This filters down to every level. I’ve heard myself wondering what I’m doing wrong so as not to be happy, and becoming uncertain about my own life choices — my own “goodness” — as a result. When I’m happy, and someone points out that things are wrong, my immediate instinct is to rationalize them– I’m happy, so things must be okay, somehow. My mind will flail at any thread to find that rationalization. Similarly, if I’m not happy, but my situation is objectively “good”, I find myself trying to rationalize to myself why I should be happy. Happy = good, and it’s really deeply ingrained.

We see both things in Baltimore. The quick, not-whole-picture snippets that make for one-liners and tweets and one-word descriptions of feelings reduce the situation into rationalizable chunks. I’ve seen a lot of people post the same pictures, latching onto one image or another as support for their viewpoint. Others try to take a middle ground between the two. The reality is that there is a lot going on, and that there are human beings involved at every point. Human beings are incredibly complicated; there’s not some line of Good People and Evil People, or even Mostly Good or Mostly Evil. We like to think of ourselves as good, but we all do or contribute to terrible things… but the terrible things we do don’t wipe away the good we do, either.

Further complicating things is that we all have different worldviews– often not just a little bit, either. I think of couples where one person likes, say, nachos and the other doesn’t, and the delicate struggles and occasional arguments that arise from just that one little difference in worldview. At the point at which one person looks at a thing and fears for their life, and another person does not, that gap is immense, but importantly, those two vastly different worldviews are no less valid. It’s cliché at this point (but no less true) to say that everyone involved is a human being, but more importantly, I think, is understanding that different people see the world in often extremely different ways, with sometimes no overlap.

We understand that at some level when we think about people far away from us– “it’s so different there, of course they’d see the world differently”, but it’s a lot harder when they’re walking the same streets and going into the same stores and living apparently very similar lives to ours. I’ve been trying to clearly understand my own worldview, understand how and why I think and feel things the way I do, and try not to take it all for granted. I think that if I can manage to grok my own perspective and recognize it as my own personal one and not the default, I’ll be better equipped to understand other people’s, including ones that are totally different from mine.

Maybe once I can do that I can get closer to figuring out how we can collectively stop clashes like Ferguson, or Baltimore, or Gamergate.



Source: Digital Initiative
Baltimore

First Infinity Tournament of 2015

This weekend I played in my first tournament in my new local scene, which was awesome and a great way to ring in the new edition of Infinity.

I’ve had some strong opinions about ITS listbuilding in the past (even wrote a tactica on it), as well as which factions/sectorials are competitive in the format. For my first ITS 2015 tournament, I wanted to intentionally break a number of my own rules, as well as bringing a sectorial that I’ve had some unkind things to say about in the past as far as ITS viability. New city, new season, new sectorial.

The tournament scenarios were Annihilation, Lifeblood, and Transmission Matrix, and I brought the Imperial Service. In N2, I felt like cheap, easy Kuang Shi wasn’t worth the lack of good specialists, expensive playmaking troops, and overall jankiness in listbuilding– vanilla YJ was more versatile and there was little reason to go for ISS. I also insisted on using models that I’d particularly disliked in N2, some of which are noticably different in N3– the Pheasant, the Crane, the Bao, and the Wu Ming.

 

Without further ado, my lists:

 

logo_22.png Imperial Service
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Group 1sep.gifsep.giforden_regular.png10 orden_irregular.png0 orden_impetuosa.png2
logo_6.png WÚ MÍNG HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 39)
logo_6.png WÚ MÍNG Combi Rifle, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 37)
logo_6.png WÚ MÍNG (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (31)
logo_6.png WÚ MÍNG (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (31)
logo_6.png WÚ MÍNG Boarding Shotgun + 1 TinBot B (Deflector L2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 33)
logo_22.png SUN TZE Lieutenant (Advanced Command) MULTI Rifle, 2 Nanopulsers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (65)
logo_10.png KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (5)
logo_10.png KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (5)
logo_9.png NINJA Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Shock CCW, Knife. (0.5 | 40)
logo_1.png CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 |13)
4.5 SWC | 299 Points
The new Wu Ming are exciting, and I wanted to run an HI link. I specifically included the LRL because I thought LRLs were awful in N2, and my plan was for this to be my primary list. It’s got hitting power, it’s got specialists, it’s got throwaway Kuang Shi, it’s got the ability to win initiative and give my deployment advantages.
My expectation was that the Ninja and Wu Ming link would do most of the work.
My second list:
logo_22.png Imperial Service
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Group 1sep.gifsep.giforden_regular.png10 orden_irregular.png0 orden_impetuosa.png1
logo_4.png IMPERIAL AGENT (Chain of Command, X Visor) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Monofilament CCW. (35)
logo_1.png CELESTIAL GUARD Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (13)
logo_1.png CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 |13)
logo_10.png KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (5)
logo_13.png SOPHOTECT Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (31)
logo_20.png YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (3)
logo_7.png HSIEN Lieutenant HMG, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 61)
logo_5.png IMPERIAL AGENT Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) MULTI Rifle, 2 Nanopulsers / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 51)
logo_3.png BÀO TROOP MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 30)
logo_3.png BÀO TROOP MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 30)
logo_3.png BÀO TROOP (X Visor) Boarding Shotgun, Contender / Pistol, Knife. (28)
6 SWC | 300 Points
Bao, Crane, Pheasant, it’s everything I expected not to like. The Hsien HMG Lt was there because I tend to play very defensive, hidden Lts and I wanted to force myself to play something a bit more aggressive.
Neither list is more than 10 orders, and I was very light on the Kuang Shi. Both lists are focused on bringing things that only ISS can bring. Here’s how it went.

 

Game 1: Annihilation

 

My opponent was JSA, something that concerned me somewhat right away. I put a lot of stock in JSA as a competitive ITS faction, and a Keisotsu link can seriously threaten anything I had.

 

Furthermore, the table was a (fantastically gorgeous) cityscape, with multiple highly accessible levels and catwalks everywhere connecting things.

 

I pulled Telemetry (succeed at a Forward Observer roll) and Data Scan (use a Hacker to tag an enemy model) as my classified objectives, opt into the Wu Ming/Sun Tze list, and won the initiative roll, choosing to take first turn. My opponent took a slightly more advantageous side of the table with better sight lines and I deployed first.

 

I placed the Wu Ming link front and center, putting half the team on the bottom level and the LRL and one of the Observers up top, prone. Sun Tze went way off to one side, away from the bulk of my forces, with a Kuang Shi nearby to watch the approaches to him. The Celestial Guard went prone on top of a building, blocked by a much taller building, leaving plenty of space for her to drop smoke. I held back one of the Kuang Shi and my Ninja.

 

He deployed a full Keisotsu link on a rooftop, mostly prone, with a Missile Launcher pointed directly at my Wu Ming — problematic. He also dropped multiple extra Keisotsu, making it easy to refresh that link. More problematic. He also dropped a trio of Karakuri– unlinked but easily linkable. An engineer, sensor bot, EVO Repeater, and cheap repeaterbot all drop next, in hugely inaccessible locations. Rounding everything out was a Smart Missile bot. All told, it looked roughly like this:

 

logo_23.png Japanese Sectorial Army
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Group 1sep.gifsep.giforden_regular.png9 orden_irregular.png0 orden_impetuosa.png0
logo_1.png KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (9)
logo_1.png KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (9)
logo_1.png KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (10)
logo_1.png KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (10)
logo_1.png KEISOTSU Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 14)
logo_1.png KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (9)
logo_5.png KARAKURI Combi Rifle, Chain Rifle, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (35)
logo_5.png KARAKURI Mk12, Chain Rifle, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (40)
logo_5.png KARAKURI Heavy Shotgun, Chain Rifle, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (35)
Group 2sep.gifsep.giforden_regular.png6 orden_irregular.png0 orden_impetuosa.png0
logo_1.png KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
logo_11.png TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (14)
logo_17.png CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (8)
logo_14.png WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (16)
logo_16.png SON-BAE Yaókòng Smart Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 18)
logo_19.png PANGGULING (EVO Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 13)
4 SWC | 257 Points
Lots of specialists, particularly FOs, a very problematic Keisotsu ML that would be a problem, some tough Karakuri, oh, and enough points left over for an Oniwaban. A PH roll for deployment confirmed my suspicions, and without much backup for Sun Tze, I was concerned.
For the rest of my deployment, I put a Kuang Shi way on the opposite side of the board as Sun Tze, and the Ninja forward, right on the center line. I needed her to be able to tag someone, and I figured she would be one of my best chances to handle the Keisotsu.
Round 1.
That Keisotsu ML is a problem for me. My Kuang Shi impetuously move up, both hugging the sides of their respective buildings. I want the Wu Ming in a better position, so I pop smoke with the Celestial Guard to block the Keisotsu line of sight, then move the Wu Ming up, carefully. I use a Coordinated Order to reposition the CG, move a Kuang Shi up, move the Ninja up, and move Sun Tze somewhere a bit safer, still concerned about the probably Oniwaban. The CG drops more smoke to cover the Kuang Shi and the Ninja’s advance.
I’m able to get the Ninja and the Kuang Shi pretty far forward, but the Ninja can’t get close enough to hack anyone without some trouble, and the Kuang Shi can’t get close enough to threaten anyone without worrying about AROs. I go for broke and push the Kuang Shi forward, provoking a shot I didn’t see from the MK12 Karakuri while he got closer to chain rifle position. Miraculously, he survives the hit, and proceeds to put a chain rifle shot in the ML Keisotsu’s face, provoking shots from the SML bot and the Karakuri. Somehow, magically, he makes two of the three ARM saves, though the Keisotsu ML dodges and holds position, worried about the Wu Ming. Dogged kicks in, and I move forward and chain again, catching the ML Keisotsu and another combi Keisotsu, and taking more shots. The MK12 hits, the SML misses, and the Keisotsu ML fails his dodge and goes down to the chain rifle. The other Keisotsu is fine. The Kuang Shi makes its arm roll and keeps trucking. I’ve removed the major threat from the board, and I want to use this Kuang Shi until it dies. It rolls around taking chain rifle shots at various things largely ineffectually, finally putting a wound on the MK12 Karakuri before dying to return fire. I’ve got good ARO positions, and one of the worst threats to me is off the board. I call this turn good, as I’m out of orders, and prepare for incoming fire.
On his turn, my opponent repositions the sensor bot and the repeater bot to threaten the Ninja if she moves forward at all. The Oniwaban appears in front of the Wu Ming link, but being unable to walk up straight into melee without provoking boarding shotgun hits, he opts to use the boarding shotgun to catch two of the Wu Ming, who both fire back. 17s from the Oniwaban vs 16s from the Wu Ming leaves a wound on one of the Wu Ming Observers and a very dead Oniwaban. Wanting to get a foothold, he uses the Keisotsu on the roof to try to FO the Wu Ming, provoking Flash Pulses and LRL shots in response. The LRL misses, the first Keisotsu FO fails to mark, and the Wu Ming FO blinds the Keisotsu. Second Keisotsu does the same, manages to mark the LRL and not get blinded. Incoming SML missiles. First one misses. Second one the LRL Wu Ming saves. Third deals a wound to the LRL. Fourth kills the LRL outright, two wounds, super dead.
He swaps the link to the Karakuri, who start moving up the table. He’s worried about Flash Pulses from the Observers, so plays it cagey, risking chain rifle hits from the remaining Kuang Shi rather than getting blinded. In a stark bit of luck, the Kuang Shi puts a second wound on the MK12 Karakuri before dying horribly, and the resulting explosion puts a wound on the Combi Karakuri. She presses forward, shooting at the pair of Boarding Shotgun Wu Ming, wounding one and dying herself. The remaining Heavy Shotgun Karakuri goes for broke and rolls forward, firing her shotgun but getting crit in response, standing within half an inch of the wounded Wu Ming. Without any remaining orders, she stays put, the link is reformed with the Keisotsu, and they resposition slightly.
Round 2.
I’m in an okay position, minus the Karakuri in my face. I’m going to eat some unfortunate damage either way, so I start by taking a shot at the Karakuri. Boarding Shotguns are nasty, but she explodes. My FO Wu Ming is a hero, though, and survives both her shotgun blast and her explosion. Now, time to get work done.
The Ninja madly dashes into my opponent’s DZ, getting Discovered along the way but ending in relative safety. She’s in sight of a Keisotsu, so shoots him and moves closer to the EVO Repeater, the only safe approach for her to Hack-tag a target. She moves into position and provokes a Brain Blast Hacking attack in ARO, from the Keisotsu Hacker. She fails, but makes her BTS save. I don’t like the risk, and I want the classified, so I go straight for hacking the EVO repeater. I succeed and the Keisotsu fails to Brain Blast me, lucky for me. My Wu Ming move up a bit to try to FO one of the fallen Keisotsu, succeeding and finishing off my other Classified. With some orders left and my Ninja Hacker doing pretty okay, she Brain Blasts the Keisotsu Hacker, dropping him, and steps to the side to shoot at some remotes, somewhat ineffectually. She goes down to a return crit from the sensor bot.
On his turn, the sensorbot and the repeater move forward towards my HVT. I manage to destroy the sensorbot with HMG fire as it approaches, but the Repeater is doing all right. At this point, time is called, and he finishes out his turn by moving forward to secure my HVT, who is undefended.
I’ve killed 210 points of his, and he’s killed 87 points of mine. I finish the game 9-5, a solid start to the day.
Game 2: Lifeblood
I have no Anti-Materiel in the Wu Ming list, but that’s okay, I brought the Bao list specifically for this. Two specialists who can blow up crates (Crane Hacker with MULTI Rifle, Sophotect with D-Charges), lots of Anti-Materiel from the Bao, good times.
I pull Sabotage and Data Scan, meaning my already-busy Sophotect and Crane are going to have even more work to do. There are only three specialists in this list, and one of them is kind of stuck with the Bao, so kind of a non-entity.
My opponent is also playing ISS, and we’re on a table with a really nice tower on one side. I win initiative, take the side of the table with the tower, and my opponent is immediately concerned. Guessing (correctly) that I have a powerful sniper team ready, he decides to force me to make the first move, opting for second turn. I’m okay with this.
He deploys extremely defensively, keeping almost everything covering each other and out of sight of most of the board. He drops a Celestial Guard link with a sniper, a hacker, and some shotguns. A Rui Shi, a Lu Duan, another unlinked Celestial Guard, and Sun Tze. His list looks something like this:
logo_22.png Imperial Service
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Group 1sep.gifsep.giforden_regular.png9 orden_irregular.png0 orden_impetuosa.png0
logo_1.png CELESTIAL GUARD MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 21)
logo_1.png CELESTIAL GUARD Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (12)
logo_1.png CELESTIAL GUARD Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (12)
logo_1.png CELESTIAL GUARD Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
logo_1.png CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 |13)
logo_15.png LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (22)
logo_14.png RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 21)
logo_22.png SUN TZE Lieutenant (Advanced Command) MULTI Rifle, 2 Nanopulsers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (65)
logo_1.png CELESTIAL GUARD Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (12)
3.5 SWC | 199 Points
I guess that with the 100 points remaining, there’s a Ninja Hacker and something beefy.
I deploy extremely aggressively. Crane on one side, Sophotect on the other, Bao Snipers in the tower, covering the entire board, spread out enough that one circular template can’t tag both. There’s also nothing that can see my troops, so I plan an extremely aggressive first turn.
My opponent drops a Hsien HMG, prone, on his side of the table. About as expected.
Round 1:
I get really aggro, really fast. The Kuang Shi moves forward, and I burn multiple coordinated orders pushing it, the Crane, the Sophotect, and the Celestial Guard w/Smoke up and towards boxes. I can move around with relative impunity, so I get as much done as possible– four boxes searched and Sabotage complete, with the Sophotect hanging out midfield near the last two boxes (that scattered next to one another), and the Crane and CG in cover watching the board. I’ve still got a handful of orders after doing all of this, so I push the Kuang Shi forward into the Celestial Guard link. I can’t quite get the angles I want, so instead of chain rifling I take a risk and jump into the middle of them, figuring that if I can Explode I’ll take out several at once. AROs straight up kill the Kuang Shi, no chance to explode, and this is a hint as to how the next turn is going to go.
My opponent looks at the board, disliking what he sees. Snipers are pinning him down badly, and they have MSV2, so he can’t use smoke to advance. He decides to get into some firefights. The Celestial Guard link repositions, and he spends an extra order moving while prone to ensure that he can get cover when shooting with the sniper. The sniper takes a shot at my Crane and drops him immediately, then repositions to shoot the Sophotect, killing her, the Celestial Guard, killing her as well, then both Bao, killing both of them. With his last orders, the Ninja Hacker I expected pops out and tags both center boxes near where the Sophotect died, and hunkers down.
Round 2:
Ouch. I’m down a LOT of orders, and I can’t complete Data Scan. This turn is about damage control, and I only have four orders to work with. I need to get lucky. It’s Contender time.
The X-Visor on the remaining Bao is ultra useful, as I use my four orders this turn to reposition the Bao and take shots at the boxes. Dice are absolutely on my side and I destroy four boxes scoring three crits in total and nullifying my opponent’s chance at a tie. The last shot leaves the Bao hanging out in the wind and he gets obliterated by the CG Sniper, but not before scoring that last vital crit. My Hsien spends his Lt Order and ineffectually sprays at the CG, who duck for cover, prone and out of sight.
My opponent is displeased that my turn went as well for me as it did, and spends orders covering the Hsien advance and blowing up the two boxes he’d marked, then moving the Ninja up to Data Scan my Hsien, then take several orders to eventually Immobilize him. He also leaves the ninja close enough to secure my HVT, knowing that I can’t really do anything about it. He finishes his turn by popping the Hsien up to cover the board. Ew.
Round 3:
Three orders, one immobilized Hsien, no way for me to get my other classified. I’ve won this, but I want to push for points. It’s not to be, though, as my Hsien can’t manage to break free of Immobilization and get far enough through the aggressive Ninja’s hacking to reach my opponent’s HVT and secure it. I flail for four orders and end turn. At this point, time is called.
My opponent looks at the board and considers that there’s nothing he can do on his turn to get more points than he had, so immediately ends turn.
Final score: 7-4. My first-turn push saved that game, and my dominant board position wasn’t. Still, a win is a win, and Lifeblood is rather hard to score points on.
Game 3: Transmission Matrix
Final game of the day, and I’m doing pretty well. I’d planned on using the Wu Ming list for this, and in fact had brought the Tinbot for precisely that reason, but the spate of hacking against the Hsien made me less than thrilled about exposing my HI link to constant hacking.
When I see the table, I note another tower, though one that’s blocked by a huge building in the middle. Still, it’s a good Bao sniper perch, so I decide it’s Bao time again. My opponent is playing Morats, so I’m not really concerned about surprise camo attacks.
I draw Sabotage and Data Scan again, perfectly all right with me. We roll initiative and I lose. My opponent takes first turn, I take deployment and choose the side with the tower. I’m perfectly okay going second in this mission.
My opponent drops a bunch of Morats. Something like this, overall:
logo_62.png Morat Aggression Force
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Group 1sep.gifsep.giforden_regular.png9 orden_irregular.png1 orden_impetuosa.png5
logo_1.png MORAT Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
logo_11.png DĀTURAZI Combi Rifle + Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0.5 | 21)
logo_11.png DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (14)
logo_11.png DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (14)
logo_11.png DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (14)
logo_10.png ZERAT Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (21)
logo_10.png ZERAT Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (21)
logo_18.png T-DRONE Smart Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 18)
logo_13.png GAKI AP CCW. (4)
logo_5.png RASYAT (Martial Arts L3) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Zero-V Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (28)
Group 2sep.gifsep.giforden_regular.png5 orden_irregular.png0 orden_impetuosa.png0
logo_1.png MORAT Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
logo_3.png RODOK HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 27)
logo_3.png RODOK HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 27)
logo_3.png RODOK Paramedic (MediKit) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (21)
logo_3.png RODOK Lieutenant Combi Rifle, 2 Light Shotguns / Pistol, Knife. (26)
6 SWC | 300 Points
I don’t really know Morats very well, so I see two potential links, the Daturazi starting in a link, and a pretty widely divided order pool.
I deploy very carefully, securing one antenna with the two Celestial Guard and putting the Sophotect in position to claim the other. The Hsien and Crane are carefully positioned in the thin strip between the two hacking areas of the antennae. There’s a huge wall as part of a building along the halfway point, with the antenna just inside. My plan is to get my troops to contest that middle one, hold my two, and keep things clear.
Round 1:
My opponent’s Gaki moves up, as one does, and he moves his Daturazi forward to get better positioning. I can see one with a Bao sniper, so shoot and drop it through the dodge. Next, he swaps the link to the Rodoks and jumps one up to get into an HMG battle with my Bao link. The Bao stay frosty and drop the Rodok with a well-placed shot. The Rodok paramedic starts jumping, however, to revive the fallen Rodok, succeeds on the second try, and a second sniper-vs-HMG battle ensues. This time, the Bao hits twice and puts one of the Rodok HMGs down for good, straight to dead.
A Zerat moves forward to threaten the Sophotect, and I completely miss that I have a shot at her with the Bao sniper through a window. However, as she opens fire with the Zerat, the Sophotect manages to answer with a crit on an 8, dropping the Zerat quite effectively. My opponent goes to move in with the second Zerat, but this time I’m paying attention and he can’t safely move forward without taking sniper fire, so he hangs tight. A number of models reposition, but I can’t see any of them. He reforms the link with the Daturazi.
On my turn, the Kuang Shi moves forward, then a coordinated order with the Crane, Hsien, and Sophotect puts them all further up the board, with the Sophotect contesting an antenna. I’m not careful enough with the Hsien, and he gets immobilized. I carefully scoot the Crane up to get in range to Data Scan a Rodok through the wall and manage to succeed. He then moves to within 4″ of the antenna and is promptly hacked and immobilized. I swing around with the Kuang Shi and start chain rifling Rodoks. A few dodges are attempted, but I’m able to drop the combi Rodok, leaving the center antenna uncontested. I score two points in the first round..
Round 2:

My opponent swings the Gaki around towards the Kuang Shi, and I chain rifle it on the way in. It dodges, but the HMG Rodok is caught in the blast and goes down. The Paramedic Rodok brings up the Combi Rodok. At this point, the Rasyat drops in right behind the Sophotect. He can’t get to her without being seen by the sniper, so he drops Zero-V Smoke, but can’t put it in a position where he can threaten the Sophotect without getting shot at by a Bao or CG, so he hangs tight, repositioning to a corner where he can get cover. The Gaki melees the Kuang Shi, who manages to successfully dodge out of melee. He repositions to ensure antenna coverage. He also Spotlights my Crane and drops smart missiles on it, leaving it unconscious, and drops a mine with a Rodok.

On my turn, I get squirrelly. The Kuang Shi has to move towards the Gaki, triggering the mine, but this is okay, and he manages to chain rifle the Gaki and HMG Rodok along the way.The HMG Rodok finally dies for real, but the Gaki is okay. I bring a Bao with a boarding shotgun around to threaten the Rasyat, using a boarding shotgun and getting outsmoked. I take a long shot with the CG and put my own smoke down, blocking sight to a building entirely on my opponent’s half of the board. I then go nuts with my Sophotect, moving forward and shooting the Gaki, who explodes but catches no one. While moving along with her Yudbot, the Sophotect manages to reach the building, place and detonate a D-Charge, and get back, healing the Crane along the way and retaining cover against the Rasyat. The Hsien, no longer immobilized, moves up to within 4″ of the antennae and declares Reset to avoid being Hacked, but fails and is Immobilized again. At the end of my turn, I control three antennae to my opponent’s two, and score two more points.

 

Round 3:

My opponent brings both Rodok forward to contest the antenna, one of whom shoots the Sophotect, causing a wound. Having made a save, she fails Guts and hops the wall, keeping cover from the Rodoks but not the Rasyat. The Rasyat shoots her. Alas. Hackers Spotlight my BSG Bao, succeeding on the second try and dropping smart missiles on him until he is severely dead, breaking my link.

On my turn, I pull the Pheasant out and spend my entire order pool bringing him around to shoot the Rasyat in the back with a boarding shotgun, then moving forward to contest the antenna. Nothing else matters here, I just needed that last one. I’ll pause here to point out that this was a textbook case in which the Pheasant could actually have used his monofilament CCW, and I STILL DIDN’T because the shotgun was a better option.

With two 55+ point HI contesting the center antenna, the Rodoks can’t compete, and I take 3 antenna in the final turn, for a maximum score of 10.

 

Results and Thoughts:

ISS performed really well. I was running 10-order lists with bare minimum specialists– three in one list and effectively two in the second (the CoC Pheasant doesn’t really count, since he’s tied down by the Bao).

Bao are damn good. They serve little purpose other than a sniper link, but on the right table that’s all you need; they provide deadly AROs while the rest of your list does work. I don’t know what I would drop to get to a full, scary 5-man link, but I don’t think it’s that necessary. I wish there were more Bao profiles, though.

The Crane is a serious workhorse, as is the Sophotect. I already knew that about the Sophie, but the Crane is surprisingly badass, despite getting ignominiously blown away by a Celestial Guard.

Wu Ming give opponents fits. They can’t get close, because boarding shotguns, but I also have HMGs to scare you with. I don’t know if I think the LRL is worthwhile, but I definitely feel like the Tinbot isn’t. Breaker ammo just doesn’t impress.

Overall, I had a great time, taking away first place with a total score of 26 OPs and several really good games.



Source: Digital Initiative
First Infinity Tournament of 2015

New Ultra Rapid Fire Mode!

urf_render_by_kyle_garland-d6rrb5aFor those of you out there that have played League of Legends, you may be familiar with the special game mode they released roughly a year ago called Ultra Rapid Fire or simply URF. For those that missed URF or don’t play a lot of League, it was essentially a “god” mode for the game where the normal balancing constructs like cooldown timers and resource-gating on spells were almost completely removed from the game. What ensued was a fast-paced spam-fest of of team fighting.

The game mode was an instant success, and tons of people jumped in to play. It got so competitive that Riot eventually just had to auto-ban certain champions from being picked because the player base deemed them too overpowered (see Sona, Soraka, Lux, Ezreal, and eventually Hecarim). The frenzy grew and grew until the game mode was phased out.

For the past year, the League forums and subreddit have been littered with desperate comments begging for Riot to bring URF back. It seems like the first couple comments on every patch notes announcement go something like “#NoURF #NotWorth.”

Conversely, there’s also been fairly vocal opposition from the rest of the community that got tired of URF and is sick of people constantly asking for it to come back. Nearly everywhere you find someone in favor of URF, you will soon find someone staunchly opposed to it.

I will admit that URF was a silly fun mode to play, but I only ever played it against bots. The number of horror stories I heard about PvP matches was enough to keep me from playing against other people (regardless of my natural aversion to playing against other people in anything).

N.U.R.F

namiteeSo when data-miners started seeing “URF” pop up in PBE patches, everyone started losing their minds with excitement. “URF IS COMING BACK WOO!” URF was originally last year’s April Fool’s joke, so everyone began anticipating its triumphant return this April along with the funsy skins that had been revealed (like Urf, the Namitee seen to the left).

However, Riot threw in a twist. This year’s URF, the New Ultra Rapid Fire mode, would take the same concepts of the old Ultra Rapid Fire mode but turn them 180 degrees. The new NURF mode will feature essentially doubles the cooldown time and cost of spells, halves auto-attack speed and damage, and greatly reduces your movement speed. Now instead of running around the map like ADHD kids hopped up on Monster and chocolate, the game will take a painfully slow pace.

There’s already a huge uproar from the URF fans who act as though they’ve been asking for ice cream and were instead given a handful of hot coals. Some are already calling it the most boring game mode to date. Some are excited to play. Some are still holding out that NURF is the actual April Fool’s joke, and that Riot will bring back normal URF afterwards.

But Why?

To me it seems like this kind of game mode would require flawless decision-making skills as every action has a much longer period of time for the consequences to play out. I feel like it is a huge opportunity for people who haven’t developed lightning-fast reaction speeds to learn how to analyze all the different aspects of LoL gameplay from positioning to attacking to learning greater map control. I’m actually looking forward to trying this out with some friends and seeing how it changes the dynamic of the game.

Riot is apparently running a developer contest while the NURF game mode is available. The idea seems to be that slowing down the pace of the game will allow more people to look at the data of a League match and come up with fascinating apps to examine and analyze various aspects of the game. I would love to participate in something like this if I weren’t already strapped for time 🙁

So it would seem that NURF mode isn’t a total troll mode from Riot, and that they actually have given some forethought. Similarly to the previous Nemesis Draft, which seemed to have mixed results, it looks like Riot is trying out different psychological tactics to stimulate the thinking process of its player base. There’s a lot of people who seem incredibly upset with their methods, but I definitely think Riot is onto something here.

As for myself, I would love to see URF come back, but maybe in an ARAM sort of venue where people aren’t always picking the most obnoxious “OP” champions they can think of. URFARAM. That’s a game mode I could get behind 😛