This is the Wartrader, triangulating on your position...

Sensor - Triangulated Fire

We've talked about Sensor before, when discussing changes to the standard Remotes, but now we're going to talk about one specific aspect of Sensor in more detail - Triangulated Fire.

What Does it Do?

Triangulated Fire replaces all other Ballistic Skill modifiers with a flat -3. For example a BS11 Sensorbot would be on a fixed BS8. This comes in handy at long ranges and when shooting enemy troopers with lots of negative penalties to hit, for example -3 for Camouflage, -6 for Thermo-Optic Camouflage or -6 for an Optical Disruption Device. As range, cover, camo and visibility zone modifiers all stack this can make a massive difference to the ability to hit - BS8 isn't amazing but it's a darn sight better than attempting to roll BS0 or less on a d20...

Requirements & Restrictions

The user must have the Sensor Special Skill - This one is easy, it's the Sensor skill that grants Triangulated Fire in the first place.

The user must also have LoF to the target - Again, pretty expected for a direct fire skill.

You can't exceed the normal range limits for the weapon used - Well, duh.

It's an Entire Order skill - Now things get more tricky. You can't move and use Triangulated Fire in the same Order, so unless you're incredibly lucky with positioning, at some point you're going to have to move your Sensor trooper into Line of Fire of the potential target(s) and the troops with Sensor tend to be pretty squishy.

If you're gunning down basic troops at long range/through low visibility etc then you're probably ok just moving and shooting to get into position.

It gets more tricky if you want to gun down something like a TO Camo Sniper who is likely to be at their optimum range and might not even be shootable under normal circumstances (see above). In that case you're into stuff like a Move-Dodge to get into position which isn't going to end too well for the Sensorbots with their modified PH7 or less to Dodge. You can also take advantage of Silhouettes blocking Line of Fire and have the Sensor trooper move up behind someone else and then have the blocking trooper move out of the way, but this can get very Order-intensive.

Obviously in same cases a Move-Dodge can do the job, as you might be facing a TO or Camo sniper who is still represented by a marker and all you're doing is getting them to reveal so that another closer trooper can then gun them down in which case a 16-17 point sacrificial Sensorbot is fine.

Sensor v. Multi-Spectral Visors

MSV has often been seen as a hard counter to enemy Camouflage and TO Camouflage but unless using a long-range gun a Sensor trooper will often be better off at long range as they're effectively ignoring cover and range band mods.

Notable Sensor Units

Almost all troops with the Sensor skill are squishy troops armed with basic Combi Rifles. There are some notable exceptions...

Pi-Well is a Nomad Remote who has an Optical Disruption Device to go with his Sensor, putting enemy fire on -6 to hit him before range and cover. This means that he can Move-Shoot to get into position much more safely than most Sensor troopers.

Aelis Keesan is a Tohaa character who has a choice of a K1 Combi or a Viral Combi, giving her Triangulated Fire attacks a lot more punch.

Imperial Agent, Crane Rank is a Yu Jing Heavy Infantry soldier so for starters he's got enough Armour, Wounds, and BS to survive doing a Move-Shoot into position, and on top of that he's armed with a MULTI Rifle so can fire full burst Armour Piercing or Shock ammo. This makes the Cranes exceptionally good toolbox units compared to their lacklustre N2 version, but you are still paying around 50pt for the trooper.

Firing into Close Combat

Now the big implication that a lot of people missed the first or second time through - when you shoot into a close combat, there is a -6 modifier and if your rolls fall into that -6 bracket then you shot your own trooper by mistake.

Triangulated Fire ignores all other modifiers and replaces them with it's own -3 mod.

By using Triangulated Fire shooting into combat leaves no chance of hitting your own trooper! This can lead to all sorts of tricksy nastiness like walking a camo marker up into the back of a powerful enemy trooper so they can't react but are locked in combat, then 'freely' moving up a Sensorbot etc and using Trianagulated Fire until they've been gunned down. He he he.

Spring Challenge Tournament

As an aside, my next Infinity tournament takes place in Exeter on Sunday April 12th - http://wargamingtrader.com/infinity/spring2015

So, what's your favourite experience of using Triangulated Fire?

Ian Wood aka @wartrader

If you would like to write for Beasts of War then please contact us at [email protected] for more information!