The DIRT – Minesweepers – Start Using Them!
This article continues the DIRT Trilogy… reviewing rules that are under utilized. This time, it comes as gear on a model that I have never seen taken in Infinty….The Minesweeper. You’ll typically find it on those remotes that could be taken as an evo repeater, so you might actually see the miniature on the table. But I never see the Minesweeper profile taken.
The News – Minesweeper, what is it?
First off, minesweeper is actually a piece of special equipment (as oppose to a skill). The minesweeper gear allows a model to approach identified or camouflaged deployable weapons (mines, e/Maulers, CrazyKoalas) and invert the Identify Friend or Foe signal. If the attempt is successful, not only does the weapon not explode in the model’s face, the deployable weapon is now owned by the Minesweeper’s army and can be detonated against troops of its former owner. Minesweeper can not be used on deployable repeaters and the minesweeper gear cannot be stolen with the booty skill.
The Skinny – Sweeping Mines Illustrated
To demonstrate Minesweeper, let’s pretend that we’re watching an Infinity battle in progress between Haqqislam and Yu Jing. During Haqqislam’s deployment, a Muyib minelayer was placed at the window of a building. To protect his flank, he places a mine on the other side of the building (the yellow line is the end of Haqqislam’s Deployment zone). Remember that a minelayer can place a mine within 8 inches of where they deployed, but it does not have to be inside the deployment zone.
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During the Yu Jing turn, the minesweeper Pangguling is sent up the left hand side of the board. The Pangguling spends an order and moves within the detonation zone of the camo marker.
The camo marker declares the ARO of exploding (because it’s a mine). The Pangguling’s second short skill is using Minesweeper. When using the Minesweeper gear, the model makes a normal WIP (Willpower) roll. The Pangguling has a WIP of 13, so it’s looking for a 13 or less.
In this instance the Pangguling roles a 4 which is a success. So what happens? First, the mine never did go off. Second, the mine is now owned by Yu Jing. Lastly, if any Haqqislam model is in the mine’s blast range, it will now attack Haqqislam models.
If the Pangguling had failed the WIP roll, the mine does go off, and the Pangguling must make an appropriate armor or bts save (depending on the type of mine).
The DiRT – Minesweeper is a Must Have
“But wait”, you say, “What if my opponent doesn’t bring models with mines?”
What your opponent takes doesn’t matter. It’s still a must have model. First, Minesweepers acts like sepsitors to your opponent’s deployable weapons. How awesome would it be to convert CrazyKoalas to your team? For those of you who do not know what a CrazyKoala is, it’s a little robot that can leap great distances to run up and hug your opponent’s leg before detonating itself (taking your opponent’s model’s knee with it). That alone has to make this model pretty expensive…..
Wait a minute! It’s a repeater (which means hackers can use it to hack other opponent models through it) with Baggage (+20 points to your retreat threshold) and again it’s only 8 points and 0 SWC. Well that’s not totally true. If you’re Ariadna, it’s only 5 points, because you don’t get to use it as a repeater, it’s a little slower and without BTS (cause Ariadna does not have advanced technology).
This becomes a viable alternative for Aleph (with their fairly expensive units) to get more orders. Sure Minesweepers cost more than netrods, but they also won’t scatter off the table at the start of the game.
I will admit that before I wrote this article, I never fielded them either. But the Kameel Minesweeper Remote is being added to my Haqqislam slow-grow army for the next month.
Infinity Images……
This is a photo of an O-Yoroi and CrazyKoalas painted by Dennis Gates for a charity event. If you would like to see more Infinity themed photos, help add to my Infinity stockpile of photos by sending some to [email protected]
So that’s the news, the skinny, and The DIRT on Minesweepers. Want to keep the articles focused on under utilized Infinity rules? Leave me a note in the comment section below. As always find me here, my YouTube Channel, or drop me a line with Infinity photos at my new email address [email protected] .
