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I didn't mean for the title to come across as snobbish or aloof. Seriously, though, I'm curious to hear other players' opinions.

I want to get into the game (I got out of 40k years ago, and I'm deep into Warmachine) and I'm just not sure what faction to play - they've all got appealing minis and design!

If you had to try and sell someone on your faction, how would you do it?

Haqqislam.

Often called 'the army that won't stay down', they have the widest access to doctors. Where most factions have a specialised doctor (like the Trauma Doc for Pan Oceania or the Med Tech for Combined Army) with Paramedics, who are like doctors but worse, scattered throughout unit types, Haqqislam just has doctors. Everywhere. A lot of unit types will have a doctor profile. This, coupled with their universally higher WIP (the factions increased stat), their doctors are the best in the game.

This means you'll generally wind up with a doctor somewhere in your list, even if it's taken as an upgrade to fill your points out without using SWC. So bringing people back from Unconcious is a common thing with Haqqislam. They just won't stay down (unless, like me, you flub your rolls and kill your guys instead).

The faction has generally low tech compared to some factions. They're higher than Ariadna but lower than Nomads. This doesn't mean, however, they don't get fun toys. They get a single TAG in their vanilla list, but it's a nice, no frills TAG that gets the job done. Especially with a Heavy Grenade Launcher. Their heavy infantry is the same, frontline brawlers that are tough, kill things dead, but don't have too many tricks aside from the Asawira, which have Regeneration.

Light and Medium infantry and Skirmishers is where their variety is. Hafzas with Holoprojectors to confuse the gak out of your opponent, Hassassin Fidays with Impersonation to get turn 1 alpha strikes, viral weapons, light infantry that are tougher than medium, even bordering on heavy infantry toughness, cheap light infantry with heavy flamethrowers, and more.

When expanding to the sectorials (alternate lists that remove some options entirely, expand availability for other units, even add new units, to create themed lists), there's two very distinct choices.

Hassassin Bahram is, as the name implies, Hassassin based. You wind up with lists based around a core of badass Hassassin, and even possible to have a list entirely based around them. This can be described as 'a team of Sam Fishers crossed with Altairs'. Basically a small group of highly trained and specialised spec ops badasses. Most lists end up being a core of 5 Muyibs in a link, with 5 more Hassassin or other choices backing them up.

Qapu Khalki is the fleet based armed forces of Haqqislam, which augment their enlisted forces with mercenaries, but lose access to the Hassassin units of Haqqislam. You end up with a pretty rag tag looking force, with mercenaries, Haqqislam armed forces and some of the odder units like Al Hawwa and Odalisques, as well as some Nomad units from Corregidor. You also gain access to two TAGs, the mercenary team Scarface and Cordelia, and the Nomad Iguana.

Do you like the idea of Kilt-wearing, Sword-swinging Werewolves? Then the Caledonian Sectoral army may be the army for you! Part of Ariadna, the Caladonians are even lower tech than the Russians or French, but make up for it with the afformentioned Kilts, Claymores and Werewolves. Like the rest of Ariadna, they are low-tech (being about par with a modern military), and so lack TAGs, and have only one HI choice (the Mormaer).

They make up for this, however, with sheer numbers. Caledonia is probably the best faction in the game to run a swarm with. One of the big traits of the Caledonians is the "Crazy Train"- lots of Irregular, Impetuous, and frenzy means many of our troops a) don't play well with others, and b) are order-efficient, if rather uncontrollable. As such, a Caledonian player is quite happy to run more than 1 combat group. Also, the lack of the really high tech models, combined with some of the cheapest, means that our average point cost is lower, further helping us with the numbers.

However, do not think that you are limited to the crazy models only. Mormaers, the new Scots Guard, Volunteers and SAS, as well as a number of support models, are all regular, so we can play a normal army if we like. Also, while Caterans like to work solo, they are fine sitting back and sniping, so work fine if you prefer "regular army". Also, despite a lack of Thermal-optic camouflage, we can still do a sneaky gits force, with SAS, Scots Guard (2nd Battalion), Caterans, and even some of our cheerleaders having Camouflage or limited camouflage.

Finally, don't take our lack of Tech for a weakness! Any points our foes spend on information warfare are wasted against us, and while our accuracy may suffer, the sheer amount of Armour-piercing weapons we can put out is phenomenal!

FOOOOORRRR FRRREEEEDOOOMMMM!

Oh, and did I forget to mention the Werewolves? They are basically dual-wielding cannons that launch RED-HOT shrapnel at the enemy, and they are terrifying at close range. If you don't want the full dog, you can bring Wulvers, half-werewolves who specialize in close-quarters combat, but have a bit more range, and are a bit less crazy (just a bit). These guys form an important part of your typical Caledonian Crazy Train.

Sorry, we have two HI choices, Mormaer and the Greys (who are linkable and just really, really awesome). Apart from that good summary.

I don't really consider the Greys as "True" heavy Infantry- They are only Arm 3 W1, meaning while they are classified as Heavy Infantry, they are a lot lighter than the others (The Mormaers Arm 5, Orcs and the like have 2 W, Swiss Guard are Arm 5 and W 2), more along the lines of other armies Medium Infantry.

Still a great unit, though.

Why would you play my army? I play PanOceania and Acontecimento Shock Army but have plans for other Sectorials as well. What I love about my army is how wide array of styles and themes it can play.

Anti terrorist division “Blue Sea” composed out of diving specialists the Kamau, Acontecimento Regulars, the rough jungle fighters that can make a battlefield a living nightmare with setting mines all over the place. Auxilia and Aquila, the prime examples of technological superiority with Hexa Agents as our black ops that spread discord through the Human Sphere. Nisse and Jotum are the mountaineers that are locked in a struggle against the imperialist Yu Jing on a ice world of Svalarhaima. Last are the Knights that echo different military orders of the past. Each Knightly order having something unique and different that offers to the force. There certainly is variety and history presence in my force.

The main theme of the army is technology and you see it in a lot of ways. The models themselves often carry miniaturized version of other armies’ equivalent gear or robot, sometimes they've put the miniaturized gear on a little robot that follows its owner around.

If you’re interested in a specific style, please feel free to ask.

I play Combined Army because we get more weird and wonderful gak than anyone else.

One of our TAGs drops from orbit, exploding everyone around him. Another can crawl all over walls and is invisible. A third, the most expensive and powerful dude in the game, is brutally good at mind control. Meanwhile we have packs of space velociraptors running amok

Edit: *Exploding space velociraptors

Ariadna Camo Army:

90% of your army starts anywhere you want on your side in camo. Even if your opponent is first, he's still spending the first turn trying to figure out what's deployed where, and forced to spot you for before shooting.

"Oh, you spent a bunch of orders to move up, spot, and try to kill my 11 point line trooper? Well Mr. Tankhunter with an Autocannon is around the corner with a surprise."

Snipers, Chain rifles, mines, SAS close combat... the entire battlefield is a basically one giant deathtrap...

Unless they have MSV...

In addition to what Loki said about Haqqislam, will add my own comment of one of the coolest incidents to happen to me when playing that faction..

Picture the scene, my Ghulam (light infantry) and Djanbazan ('genetic' trooper) are trying to outflank my opponents Aleph force. However, an Aleph bike (picture Akira's machine) comes racing around the corner gunning down my light infantry, the Djanbazan puts up a bit more of a fight but goes down in a blaze of machine-gun fire to the biker too. Following her victory, the biker continues a short way and stops behind some cover. You can imagine that she's checking her scanner or re-loading her guns at this point. But, my opponent has forgotten one thing, that my downed 'Genetic infantry' Djanbazan has the special 'regenerate' skill..

The gene-labs of Haqqislam have created something more than human in the Djanbazan... now, Manga-movie style (with loud 'slurping' sound of bones and gristle moving and sliding back into place), his still distorted shape pulls itself to its feet. He raises his trusty Rifle in one arm... the biker sees something in the corner of her moving, turns round and just has time to register a look of surprise before a hail of machine gun fire rips her to shreds...

Stuff like that is why I love the faction.. one of the most evocative, characterful, and have got some really fun (and effective!) special rules

 Pacific wrote:
In addition to what Loki said about Haqqislam, will add my own comment of one of the coolest incidents to happen to me when playing that faction..

Picture the scene, my Ghulam (light infantry) and Djanbazan ('genetic' trooper) are trying to outflank my opponents Aleph force. However, an Aleph bike (picture Akira's machine) comes racing around the corner gunning down my light infantry, the Djanbazan puts up a bit more of a fight but goes down in a blaze of machine-gun fire to the biker too. Following her victory, the biker continues a short way and stops behind some cover. You can imagine that she's checking her scanner or re-loading her guns at this point. But, my opponent has forgotten one thing, that my downed 'Genetic infantry' Djanbazan has the special 'regenerate' skill..

The gene-labs of Haqqislam have created something more than human in the Djanbazan... now, Manga-movie style (with loud 'slurping' sound of bones and gristle moving and sliding back into place), his still distorted shape pulls itself to its feet. He raises his trusty Rifle in one arm... the biker sees something in the corner of her moving, turns round and just has time to register a look of surprise before a hail of machine gun fire rips her to shreds...

Stuff like that is why I love the faction.. one of the most evocative, characterful, and have got some really fun (and effective!) special rules

This alone makes me want to play Haqqislam now, but I'm not finished with my Anime and Cyber Ninja Force who beat up my other army, Werewolves clad in kilts. There is something about Katanas clashing against Claymores that's just truly epic.

It might have something to do with The Highlander.

Do you like the models?
(Repeat x4. I have 4 armies).


This is the only valid question.

Although my usual opponents don't like my QK so much anymore.

If it isn't the shellgame Hafzas (Holoprojector 1, pretending to be Djanbazans with HMGs) or the ACTUAL Djanbazans. it's the 4 man Ghulam link team that goes all crit-happy on their TAGs.

 Pound Puppy wrote:

This alone makes me want to play Haqqislam now, but I'm not finished with my Anime and Cyber Ninja Force who beat up my other army, Werewolves clad in kilts. There is something about Katanas clashing against Claymores that's just truly epic.

It might have something to do with The Highlander.

I love it when you get two 'big' characters taking each other on in close combat - doesn't seem to happen often, but that odd occasion when you get something like the Onobiwan taking on one of the Greek Heroes, or like you say even a Wulver taking on a Ninja or something always creates a palpable sense of atmosphere. Of course, those kind of fighters are so deadly that usually it only lasts for a round!

WARNING: Newbie player myself, giving my first impression and why I started to play YJ. Content may be incorrect and inappropriate for usage as whatever kind of guideline.

Yu Jing has a wide access to HI, many of them reaping the profits of HI while benefitting from tricks that cover their weaknesses. This ranges from the Shang Ji Invincibles having LI movement to Dao Fei being able to infiltrate while camoflaged. They're also very capable of pulling of all kinds of smoke shenanigans (MSV2 or samurais whith chain rifles) and have great exploitation units in the form of Aragoto bikers (who are the closest CB has gotten to being OP, IMHO), and the Su Jian Immediate Action Unit, which is basically a transformer. Those eploitation units enable you to strike a decisive blow when your opponent leaves a gap in his defenses. I really like that, and see other factions a little bit lacking that area. Another advantage is that a relatively big amount of our units is Impetuous, enabling us to press the attack without running out of orders. But what's really gotten me over is the fact that such mean big HI is still capable of pulling of little nasty tricks like TO camoflage.

I really like this 'why should I play you' concept, because it will get imput from many different viewpoints, and is going to make for a really comprehensive guide (if a bit disorganised)

Yu-jing. Why? You can have an army composed of samurais, ninjas, biker gangers AND transformers. How cool is that. I picked this army just for the WOW effect

You guys are extremely convincing. I feel so torn.

The great thing about Infinity?

It's cheap. Buy both. Or buy one, then when you feel like it, buy the other.

Personally, I have got roughly 500pts of Haqqislam, and nearly 300pts of Tohaa. I haven't spent even a quarter of what I've spent on my ~2000pts of Tyranids or ~3500pts of Vampire Counts.

I think i'm going to pick up a Yu Jing battlebox. I like the idea of a few super-elite troops mixed in with some crappy and expendable but numerous troops.

How does the Japanese Sectorial army play?

I'm also interested in the Haqqislam design; lots of troops with cool special abilities sounds like a lot of fun! A mix between the tricksy play that I see the Nomads have and the heavy duty play the other factions have.

How do the Haqqislam starter packs play?

(Oh, and I also really want to play PanOceania because their models are baller and their heavy troops are awesome. But that's in due time.

Sounds like you've got the Infinity Bug, mate! Good thing this games fairly cheap, eh?

My limited experience of the Japanese Yu Jing is that they are very short-range orientated. They've got some quite nasty, multi wound guys with good armour but seem to lack punch at longer ranges.

Very characterful though, and if you do get into CC they are pretty effective.

I've actually just picked up a box of the Haramaki just because they were very reasonably priced and I love the miniatures (especially the missile launcher guy) although no idea how effective they are on the tabletop!

Haramakis are able to rush forward ( impetuous) and n the reactive turn, lay down a hail of deadly ARO's . Or, in the sectorial, you can link them and have a cheap heavy weapon HI link