I will try to guide you in the concept of list building in Infinity, the concrete facts and the sneaky tricks in making a list, that been said this is a generic guide giving you the fundamentals in list building and does not dib in specific details for each faction, for that there are plenty of guides already available in the international Infinity forums in each Factions subforum.
You will hear me say many times, when I reply to list critique or list advice threads that “It’s not what you bring, but how you use the things you have available on the table” and if you have looked at the International Infinity forums, I will assume you will have already encounter a few banners proclaiming “It’s not your list its you” or something along these lines, I assure you this is true, in Infinity the most important thing is how you utilize your models in the ever flowing and evolving battlefield than what you brought on the table, with that in mind you may ask what is the point and purpose of this article!
While both are true, they are used to illustrate that there is no golden list, no perfect combos and no auto loss lists, not that list building in Infinity is totally irrelevant and it has not its own secrets, what is important to keep is that there are no must have models or units and that you may, within reason and army list restrictions (Points,
SWC and
AVA) create a list with just models you like and be reasonably effective on the table.
The Basics
Reading the army list
In infinity is relatively straight forward, but there are a few things to consider, a unit list entry looks like this.
A Is the units Statline that includes the Attributes, the Characteristics and the skills common to all models chosen from this unit entry.
B Of particular note is the
AVA that limits how many models from the particular unit may be in the generic list.
C If a particular unit entry has additional equipment or skills in addition to the unit’s statline it will be show here.
D If a unit has any particular notes regarding it they will be shown here.
There are a few exceptions in this format, some units are under the umbrella of a generic
AVA
A is the
AVA that is shared by all the units in the entry B, so only a single unit may be selected (because of
AVA 1).
In other cases the unit entry may include other units that are selected only if a specific unit option is chosen.
Unit B is only included as a bundle with unit A.
Finally, a unit may actually be a combo unit, including multiple different units in its
AVA and each unit may have different
AVA.
The
AVA A, is for the combined unit (Uberfallkommando) the unit actually consists of two different units C (Pupniks that have
AVA 3 and Chimera that has
AVA 1), the instructions on how to make the unit are listed in B, in other cases like for example Mirage 5, the
AVA and who is in the unit are fixed.
Points
A list is made from a preagreeable points total that is determined between the players and the scenario involved, while it is not unknown in friendly games to exceed the preagreed points, it should be avoided and in tournament and “pickup” games it should never happen even if it is just for a single point.
SWC (Support Weapon Cost)
For each 50 full points of agreed points for the battle you get 1
SWC, it doesn’t matter if your list fulfills the points or not, just the agreed points, so a list that is exactly 100 points and a list that is 98 points both have 2
SWC.
List Building
Lieutenant
The only necessary model your list must have is the Lieutenant, you may not skip this model although you are free to choose who he may be.
Lieutenants fall in four categories and these will dictate at least to some extent your list building, these are the fighting Lieutenant, the hidden lieutenant the obvious or revealed Lieutenant and the special cases.
Fighting Lieutenants are Lieutenants in which you depend on their extra order and their overall combat abilities to carry on at least some part of the fight, while the Lieutenant is hidden and your opponent does not know who he is, the front line duty the lieutenant has exposes him to risk and inevitably short lifespan, a list with a fighting lieutenant should take into consideration this and include doctors, or models with Chain of Command, Religious models or have the Lieutenant in a Link Team raising his chances of survival, a handy trick is to never use your fighting Lieutenant (or any lieutenant for that matter) with the last two orders of your order reserve, this will allow you to elect a new Lieutenant in your active turn should he fall in your active turn.
Examples of Fighting Lieutenants are,
TAG Lieutenants, Santiago Knight Lieutenant, Veteran Kazak Lieutenant with
AP HMG and so on.
Hidden Lieutenant is the usual Lieutenant option, a Lieutenant hidden in the anonymity of the list, to achieve this you may need to compromise, a Lieutenant must have a common
WIP with many of your troops and preferably also share profile with many troops of your list, this usually means selecting a Lieutenant from your Line Infantry or one that has similar
WIP this usually means the Lieutenant will have an average
WIP, that will inevitably bring you at a disadvantage in the Initiative roll and your list should be built around that assumption, although it is more a deployment issue, the hidden Lieutenant can be cheap and be accompanied with more cheap troops to hide in this allows you to get more expensive troops in, these should factor in that they may get to go second (going first is by far the most chosen option in winning the Initiative roll) and either be tough enough to weather the storm or be camouflage counters,
AD troops or similar out of reach models.
Examples of Hidden Lieutenants are, Fusilier Lieutenant, Shang Ji Invincibles Lieutenant, Alguaciles Lieutenant.
Obvious or Revealed Lieutenants, are Lieutenants that are either too obvious or by their very nature are revealed, Using a
WIP 15 Lieutenant when every other model in your list has lower
WIP is a sure way to expose him, likewise Saladin using his Strategos Special Skill, or a 300 pts Yu Jing list with seven
SWC and a Hsien in it are huge neon signs over the Lieutenant, there are few thing your list can do to protect them from assassination runs, having models with Holoprojector may help by creating multiples of the same Lieutenant in the field thus creating more targets, but not all lists can do that, following the same advice with a fighting Lieutenant helps a lot, but there is a twist, when your Lieutenant is obvious you can expect your opponent to at least attempt an assassination run, building a list and deploying with that in mind can take an advantage on such attempts.
Examples of Obvious or Revealed Lieutenants are, Hsien when the
SWC is filled over the allowed limit, Saladin, Van Zant using his Tactical Jump.
Special Cases Lieutenants, are Lieutenants that are odd, you can for example deploy a Lieutenant in Hidden Deployment if they have
TO camo, but that means your army list will start at loss of Lieutenant, you may of course build your list around this and select to go second, expecting to reveal her with an
ARO and start your first turn normally, this would make her almost impervious to damage for the entire first enemy turn, but is a gamble, Special cases are odd Lieutenants and more than the others have the list build around them, like Van Zant whose Tactical Jump will dictate the list, for the purpose of this article, I will leave the Special Cases with this small briefing, so that you know they exist and are out there.
8+ Regular orders per Combat Group.
You will hear me saying this every time, there is a deep logic and tactical advantage in this, the main purpose is redundancy and responsiveness, more than anything else in your list, the order reserve is the most important asset you have, it dictates the pace of your turn, the options available and the responsiveness you will have to unpredictable evolutions, having a starting order reserve of 8 regular orders means that if at first turn your force sustains, a conservative scenario, 2 casualties, you are still left with 6 regular orders, (8 if you had started with 10 regular orders) allowing you at least some maneuverability and options, if for example the list started with 6 regular orders and sustained 1 casualty the team would be left with 5 regular orders, this may not sound too severe, but when your opponent has close to twice your orders, he gains the initiative in maneuvers something that may not be a bad thing later in game, but could be disastrous when it happens in the first turn.
One or two Combat Groups?
This is a big fundamental decision, it means usually going from 8-10 models to 16-20 models and this is the decision that defines the list as quantity or quality dependent.
A single combat group list is a toolbox list the models consisting it have a variety of skills and can adapt to a variety of situations, cheap troops can and usually are in such a list, but on average a single Combat group list still has expensive skilled models.
Two combat group lists are a mass list, they may have one or two really heavy troops in it, on average the list consists of cheap troops with few skills, these lists are more single faced and predictable depending on numbers to weather attrition but the extra orders over a single combat group list gives the list the advantage in maneuvers.
There is a third option a two combat group list with 11 models, this list has been used in the past with success, essentially a normal combat group list of 10 models and a single model left in the second combat group, while this is usually not advices, some models EVO repeaters in particular can function without the need to be on the same combat group with everybody else, this can be handy if the combat group is filled and there are points left, but the single model in the second group is left with just its order and can be an easy kill for flanking units such as
AD Combat Jump troops.
Steering the masses
A mass list is Infinity has two major problems, first the mass of models itself makes the list vulnerable to blasts and
ARO and while the list has many orders, the models needing to move are so many that the Order reserves dry up sooner than the models needing to move, this makes the list surprisingly slow to advance and react on the evolving battlefield, the second problem is the dependence the list has on the few specialists troops to do the majority of the work, the vast bulk of the models consisting it are average to subpar models that will not react optimal to demanding situations.
Another thing a mass list needs to keep attention is attrition
id each combat group, each combat group has its own order reserve pool and do not share them, so while the list may have plenty of models left, both combat groups may be depleted and have 4-5 order each only.
Overspecialization
Any list can in a broad sense follow closely a theme, but some gravitate towards one particular aspect of the game, for example lists that are consist of all camouflaged models, or lists heavily invested on
AD combat jump troops, heavy Infantry lists,
REM lists, the notorious “Dirty Nomads Combo” and so on, These lists are overspecialized lists and while they are effective on one aspect of the game, they suffer in the other, this is because overspecialization limits the options available in the list to react in an unexpected situation or makes the list particularly vulnerable to specific threats, in some cases like the aforementioned “Dirty Nomads combo” (Guided missiles delivered to targets marked by Hacking Device +) are consisting from many delicate parts in order to function correctly and the orders investment needed forces the entire force to remain static.
It is advisable to keep this in mind when trying to make an overspecialized list, and try to either fit a backup plan in the list or at least be ready for the limitations when they show up.
Selecting the proper tools for the toolbox.
The majority of lists in Infinity are the single combat group lists that are not overspecialized, what I refer to as toolbox lists, in the same sense you put different tools in a toolbox to better be prepared and have a proper tool ready when you need to fix something, a non-specialized single combat group list in Infinity gathers specialists in order to have the proper skills ready when the situation comes, the relative ease in which people say any list can function and its more what you do with what you bring and not the list is because in infinity all troops, even the more basic ones, do have some skills and equipment and diversify the list by themselves, this does not mean no thought is needed, but people selecting a list from their favorite models have a high chance to have enough tools in their toolbox to stand a reasonable chance in any situation (assuming they keep the 8+ regular order per combat group)
Going forward and beyond relying on the units themselves, the toolbox list can be modified to better suit the list builder needs, once this happens there are several questions that must be answered but the answer is not always the same, for example how the list will deal with camouflage, will it rely on high
WIP models, on multispectral visors or template weapons like flamers or chainrifles? How will the list challenge the mid table? Will it ignore it? Use
AD troops or Infiltrators? Will it use
AD troops to strike deep in the enemy deployment and how does it plan on defending from such tactics total reaction units? Many troops deployed in such a way each covers the back of the others, camouflaged troops or mines?
A toolbox list should concern itself in the following subjects, Table dominance, Camouflage and Impersonation, Firepower, Close combat, Hacking and the so called “going Rambo” (single powerful unit using the majority of the orders to cause maximum damage) it does not mean it has to include everything or excel to everything, but have a plan on how to deal with each one of them, there is of course no correct answer on how to deal with each one subject, a list can equally well try to excel in a subject, or try to make it difficult for the enemy but not contest actively in it, for example while not having long ranged firepower itself, to have models that are deploying close to the enemy, or models with smoke,
ODD devises, mimetism and so on.
Support Weapon Cost Expenditure
This is a hot subject but with little to say really,
SWC limits special equipment such as heavy weapons, hackers, exotic lieutenants, some players feel they must use all the
SWC they are allowed others do not feel it is necessary, I believe this is really dependent on the list and a list that has spent 0
SWC can be viable, but as a rule of thumb if your list has filled at least half its
SWC and you do not feel it needs something more that needs
SWC you should be good to go.
This is my take on list building in Infinity, I hope you found it interesting and useful in understanding the concepts behind how to build a list, any comments and criticism about it are much appreciated.
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