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Hello everyone. I used to play a lot of Warhammer and 40k but GW has lost its appeal to me over the years. I got really into malifuax and i love the game but i also wanted to try my hand at sci fi skirmish games. I tried the ever popular Warma-hodes but i really disliked the models and the fact that, for a skirmish game, i was having fielding a lot of models. So now i really want to try Infinity, from what I'm reading the game seems fantastic, albeit rather complicated.

Anyways, I need some help picking a faction. I'm really interested in the sci fi part of the game so i want a list that's full of high tech gizmos and fancy rules. I also am a huge fan of stealthy attacks and subterfuge as opposed to going in guns blazing. Currently I'm looking mostly at two factions, the new Tohaa and the Haqqislam.

For the Tohaa i was thinking about getting the starter pack, a gao sniper, and a jump infantry when it gets released

For the Haqqislam i wanted to do something of an assassin force.

Are these considered decent starting places? I have been lead to understand that most units in the game are viable and it comes down to play style, but i know that certain armies and units are very specialized and not for beginners.

Thank you for reading

The only faction that I would say is a little difficut to start with is Tohaa, just because a lot of their power comes from link teams and those are in depth rules. If you like sneakly and high tech then I would actually suggest either Pan'O or Combined army and more toward combined army. They both can field a lot of sneakiness and high tech.

Haqq can do a pile of sneakiness too, but they are more on the low tech side of the house. They rely more on illegal underhanded stuff like impersonators, viral weaponry, and shotguns.

When picking a faction my first and forthmost thing I suggest is.... looks. What do you think looks the coolest?

The basic guidelines for Infinity is any army is a decent starting place, because you're going to be just as lost with any of them, and you'll learn it as you go. So it's better off going with an army you want.

I can't speak much for Tohaa, as I haven't played them, but a Hassassin based Haqqislam force works - they even have their own sectorial (sub faction which puts emphasis on particular units - in this case, the Hassassin). The Hassassin make up the bulk of the killy light and medium infantry in Haqqislam forces, so it's actually hard to not have them even in a vanilla force.

Hassassin Bahram is the only force I've seen not recommended for beginners. It is a smaller (for Infinity), very elite army with some drawbacks you'll find it hard to overcome (like the lack of ability to see people in TO camo). But if you really like Hassassins, there's no reason to avoid starting with them.

A good starting place for either Thoaa, vanilla Haqq or the Hassassin Bahram sectorial are their starters. Grab one, start painting, and ask for some demo games at your FLGS.

As has been pointed out both tohaa and hassasins could be quite tricky armies to use to learn the game with as tohaa seem to rely on using lots of small link teams and have limited models available at the moment as a fairly new faction, and the hassasins have quite limited unit options available. But if you want sneaky and like the hassasins you could start with generic haqqislam. They can still take hassasin impersonators as well as having access to decent camo units and other units that can disguise their appearance so your opponent will never quite know which units are which. (can you tell i play haqq? )
And if you were planning to start with hassasins i wouldn't advise that you get the starter set. You can't make a legal list right out of the box and the units available will really restrict what you are able to do in the game due to a lack of available orders. Its not bad as a way to expand an existing army to include more hassassins but as a starter i think its really bad.

The Hassasssin Bahram starter actually works pretty fine for a Hassassin focused vanillar starter army as well - though you'll want to use the Daylami as Ghulam.

 -Loki- wrote:
The Hassasssin Bahram starter actually works pretty fine for a Hassassin focused vanillar starter army as well - though you'll want to use the Daylami as Ghulam.

Yeah, thats what i meant by 'out of the box', you could use it but you are proxying something straight away. Not a great start for a starter set IMO

 bantha_beast wrote:

 -Loki- wrote:
The Hassasssin Bahram starter actually works pretty fine for a Hassassin focused vanillar starter army as well - though you'll want to use the Daylami as Ghulam.

Yeah, thats what i meant by 'out of the box', you could use it but you are proxying something straight away. Not a great start for a starter set IMO

I don't see the problem. If he's interested in Hassassins, it's a great starter. It gives him a nice set of great Hassassin selections, and a couple of line infantry. The new Ghulam and Daylami look so similar that with the same paint scheme you wouldn't be able to tell the difference anyway. Not to mention, a lot of starters have models you'd prefer to proxy as a starter force. Even the standard Haqq starter - the Hunzakut sniper is generally recommended to be run as a Ghulam sniper instead, due to it not being a great idea to start with Impetuous/Irregular troops.

The only way out of proxying the odd model from a starter is to not go with a starter in the first place, in my experience.

Thanks for all the tips guys. I'm still not entirely sold on Haqqislam though. Ive been looking through the models and the rules and i like the biochemical warfare aspect that the Tohaa have, but maybe I'm mistaken. I know that the Haqqislam have a great understanding of biology but it seems that its mostly for doctors and medics.

Assuming that I am crazy enough to start Tohaa what do you recommend i buy/look for tactics? i know they're a new faction so there might not be too much on them yet. Note: I have no idea what firing teams are but are they really so complicated as to drive a noob off them?

Edit: Created a Tohaa list, not too hard since there arent too many models released yet but here it is, tell me what you think!

Ectros-Lt
Gao Tarsos-Medikit/paramdeic
3 Kamael-combi
Sakiel-swarm grenades
Clipsos-swarm grenades
Gao Rael- Combi
200 pts

Actually using tohaa probably isn't as bad as some other faction's sectorials as the tohaa link teams are limited to three models which are fairly straighforward to use compared to some of the more complex rules for bigger link teams.

And from a non-tohaa player that looks like a fairly decent list, although you may want to start at lower points just to get used to the basics. You've got two units that probably wouldn't start as part of a link team (the clipsos and gao tarsos) so that would leave you able to create two link teams of the other models. If you have a look on the official forum i think there is a thread on what the best units to take in link teams are. As i don't play them i can't really advise.

But the list has a decent mix of heavy units, camo/ infiltrators, visor and AD troop. If you wanted to expand beyond that you could include some makaul for a nice little assault unit.

bleedge wrote:
Thanks for all the tips guys. I'm still not entirely sold on Haqqislam though. Ive been looking through the models and the rules and i like the biochemical warfare aspect that the Tohaa have, but maybe I'm mistaken. I know that the Haqqislam have a great understanding of biology but it seems that its mostly for doctors and medics.

That's right - the O-12 has outlawed certain types of warfare, biological being one of them. That doesn't mean it doesn't get done, but it's a lot more restricted amongst human factions. Haqqislam do have a few 'viral' weapons though, the Hassassin Lasiqss carry viral rifles and viral sniper rifles (which along with it's other benefits like Mimetism make the Lasiq sniper one of the most feared in the game), and certain troops have access to viral mines.

Doctors, however, are their forte. Along with their unusually high WIP, they have the highest count of actual doctors in the game - no paramedics, but all full doctors.