Close Combat Tactica

I hope my cube works

CC in Infinity is more demanding and difficult process than shooting, closing to the enemy to make the kill is an art by itself, the question is not if it is difficult, it is beyond doubt, the question is if it is worthy and if it is, how it is.

The first question is simply answered by, saying, Yes close combat is worthwhile, the second answer, how close combat is worthwhile, is trickier to answer.

As with most things in Infinity CC is deadly, both to the attacker and to the victim, to get most of your CC specialists you must understand their role on the battlefield, their mission and above all prioritize their targets.

First of all is the role CC specialists have on the battlefield, for me there are three distinct roles a cc specialist fits and is strongly tied in his abilities, the specialist may not fit in two or more different roles, there are no jack of all trades specialists.

First of all are the chargers, these CC specialists must manage to reach their targets, hence they are either tough, or equipped with smoke ammunition or have some ability to survive excessive damage, make no mistake, these are the hardest hitters their an almost definite kill, but they first have to reach their target, Galwegians and monks are good examples of this category, really high CC stats and PH with smoke to cover their advance and skills to ensure their survivability, but they have to walk their way to their targets, not an easy task at all.

After the chargers are the defenders, resilient CC specialists, but with no real ability to traverse the battlefield alone or unaided, make no mistake a Hsien or a Knight Hospitaler are fearsome CC specialists but frankly they don’t have much of a chance to cross the battlefield unaided and their speed is quite low, instead they are there to defend their lines from chargers, their abilities and gear is centered around surviving the CC encounter because of their role.

Last but not least are the ambushers, Camouflaged, but better TO camouflaged CC specialists, their role on the battlefield is to loom their battlefield with heir presence, no one knows where they can hide ad if that perfect fire position is safe or a Ninja waits there for a few quick kills, they might not get into CC at all I the game but their major part is more of a psychological and denial rather than the actual combat, despite been quite good CC specialists.

What missions can or should the different CC specialists undertake is vastly dependant on their role, chargers must undertake missions that involve assaulting shooting firebases and generally everything that is not good in Close Combat, there is no point in using a charger to kill a CC specialist you waste his abilities against an equally matched opponent, since chargers get the difficult task of assaulting firebases, hence potentially be faced by HMG’s, remember that smoke ammunition creates zero visibility zones, ideal for assaulting your opponent without been shot.

Defenders missions on the other hand are to intercept chargers and protect potential charger’s targets, guarding doctors, heavy weapon users and other “soft” targets from chargers and sometimes ambushers.
Despite their mission looking like a reactionary one it shouldn’t be, their presence can be used to lead your opponent’s chargers where you want him to.

With no real surprise ambushers mission is exactly that, ambushing. Hidden in positions were your opponent is likely to deploy something valuable like snipers or where he cloud gain a vantage point against your army like a good firing position in the middle of the table, if deployed correctly an ambusher with either get victims soon or will force your opponent to avoid positions that would otherwise be advantageous to his force.

Finally the priorities of the different CC specialist are still dependant on their role.

Chargers should be seeking first of all models with superior firepower such as HMG equipped troops or troopers with other heavy weapons and then other specialists in order to damage your opponents firepower first and infrastructure later, if no suitable target is available top priority are targets that are unable to defend themselves in CC and only as a desperation measure any other CC specialists, remember that their offensive power is wasted against another CC specialist.

Defender targets are opponents CC specialists, intercepting and countering them before they manage to wipe out your firepower or infrastructure, sometimes a defender may have dual roles such as a Knight Hospitaler doctor or a Hsien HMG carrier (doctor and firebase respectively) for example, in this case they present a “hard” target and a defender at the same time, complicating your opponent’s chargers target prioritization.

Ambushers target priorities are out of their hand, since they lurk in a specific place on the battlefield waiting for opponents to come to their position, but usually the player expects what will come in their way by the nature of their ambushing position, hence a place that overlooks the battlefield will probably attract an opponents sniper while a labyrinth section of the battlefield with lots of cover may be the way a charger might pass, always keep in mind that missing the chance to assault the first opponent that passes an ambushers position might attract more and juicier targets is you manage to make your opponent feel the area is actually safe.

After the discussion of the roles of the different cc specialists their primary CC equipment must be selected.
There is actually a choice of three weapons for most CC specialists or even less, namely AP, shock and explosive close combat weapons, what you should select is vastly dependant on the targets you seek to kill with the said specialist.

AP weapons are best suited against heavy targets mainly HI and TAGs, they offer a good chance of making your opponent loose his armor save but since they deliver only a single hit per successful attack, they are more order draining than usual.

Shock CC weapons are really directed against infantry that you want absolutely dead, since 1 wound equals a dead model they are best suited if you know your opponent is using successfully lots of medics.

Explosive CC weapons are the weapons in between, each hit equals three armor saves, meaning that they have more chance of inflicting at least a wound against low armor to medium armor targets, but since they do not counter armor, have less chance of inflicting wounds on high armored targets, at the moment it is the “players choice” weapons exactly because it is in the middle and theoretically has can fit more than mission role.

Finally a hot debate is the MA skill actually the MA lvl3 skill, I find that players forget that if they want they may opt to not use this skill at all or not use a lvl of this skill, I find that when the possibilities to kill your opponent are good the use of MAlvl3 skill are beneficial, an almost auto hit and if opponent doesn’t save he can’t retaliate, usually lvl3 MA wit explosive CC weapons should opt to use this ability against models with one wound left, against equally matched opponents, like another CC specialists it is better to gamble and not use this skill, if you win the F2F roll, your CC specialist will hit as normal, but your opponent will not get to retaliate, of course there is always the possibility of loosing so judge wisely before deciding if you are going to use or not MA lvl3.