Tournament Lists in Theory

Luckily for me the new Hobby Store “Stone Monkey” in my hometown of Darwin, Australia, has offered to run a monthly tournament and that is great for our local infinity scene.  So a big shout out to all the guys at the “Stone Monkey”, for being all round legends.  An Infinity tournament is a great way to socialise, have fun and practise the game.  

I was lucky enough to win the first tournament that was held with my Corregidor Gecko list, but the next tournament is this week and even though it is a casual day I am thinking of things that I can control to improve my outcome.  The first couple of things are not even game related: I want to have a good night’s sleep, a packed lunch and a small water bottle.  After that I want to have a strong list that has the answers to whatever my opponents’ put down on the table.     

When I build a list for a tournament I often group the missions that have similar requirements.  Missions with the same specialist bonus go together, like Supplies and Cryogenic, or missions without specialists at all.  If there is a bonus in the mission then I try to take advantage of it, for example parachutist in Firefight or even a 16 inch deployment zone.  Then I build my lists to each cover a small group of missions.  If all the missions have similar requirements I will separate my lists by the threats that they are able to deal with.   One list might be built to take down TAGs while the other could be heavy on camouflage to stop Tohaa Pheroware.

The lists must have a good balance of defence and offence because I will not always be able to choose the turn order.  I often find it difficult to get many kills if I have ‘first turn’ so my alternative is taking units with deployables to place in the midfield.  Units with forward  deployment and minelayer double as a defensive and offensive, giving a list good flexibility. 

If there is an important role in a group of missions then I will take more than one unit to fill that role. This is called redundancy. If your list is for Supplies and Cryogenic, then you want to have redundancy with your paramedic and doctor units.  Also if a unit is particularly good in a specific mission then I will take more than one.  This can be extended to fireteam Harris in most factions, but if you take two of the same Harris beware of losing your flexibility.  If all your units fill the same role then you will not be able to deal with any unforeseen problems.  

Another important point in list building is being able to answer common threats.  I never know who my opponents are going to be on the day, but I do know that units with abilities like Mimitisim -6 or impersonation or heavy armour, exist and it is important to have a counter strategy for these types of units.  I like to have redundancy in my counter strategies, including very general solutions like Chain Rifles and MSV1 to counter Mimitisim, or AP ammunition, E/M mines and a hacker to counter heavy armour.