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Hey guys, so me and a local buddy want to start a new system (I used to run 40k, he played fantasy). We decided to get some infinity and also just proxy them as MERCS from time to time, we like to be nice on our wallets.

My buddy wants to get Ariadna because, you know, scots and wolves. Me? I have no clue. I like the look of all of them, but I kinda wanna know how to play on the field (specifically Yu Jing, Nomads, and Haqqislam. Anyone wanna help a buddy out and give me a general run down of these three, or also any of the other factions that are super fun?

I personally can't speak to Yu Jing and Nomads. However I do regularly play Haqqislam as my main force and I really enjoy them.
They have really cheap line infantry, some of the best Willpower stats in the game (Used for hacking, healing, using devices, etc), quite a few of the heavier weapons like HMG's and Missile Launchers are cheaper than other factions, and they use a lot of dirty tricks like disguising themselves as other models.
The one big gripe that some people have with them is that they for the most part don't have any TAGs, or in 40k terms, tank, mech, giant guys.

If your starting out I would recommend ignoring the Sectorial armies to start, they have a few more rules to them and for the most part restrict your selection of units down to those that belong to that subfaction. For now, just worry about getting a core set and experiment, experiment, experiment.

Personally, I love Haqqislam for all their dirty tricks, and personally I couldn't say no to a model that was ripped directly from Ghost in the Shell. (See Maghariba Guard)

Regarding Haqqislam lacking TAGs or equivalents, this will be addressed in Acheron Falls, the next expansion book. We won't get more TAGs, but the alternative we are getting is more super soldiers. Think along the lines of the super jumping Khawarij, the regenerating Asawira and Djanbazan, and Captain Islam himself, Tarik Mansuri.

One of the rumoured (or maybe confirmed at some point) is that Tarik will be able to link with Khawarij. A super jumping link team.

Nomads do whatever you want them to do.

Yu-Jing. Mixing more sophisticated elements with cheaper ones. Technically you could play all camouflage-infiltration army, however considering scenario requirements I think of it as rather impractical approach. Some neat CC, HI (Karakuri, Dao Fei, Hsien and Hac Tao), motorcycles and their airborne troopers - Tigers are amazing.

Haqqislam. Durable light infantry, incredible specialists (really fun too), decent mobility. Not a lot of heavy infantry or other mechanical machinery (not a meaningful drawback), however lots of doctors, regeneration, super jump skill (game winning when used right), high willpower (easier objective capping and first aid checks), viral ammunition and motorcycles.

Haqqislam are pretty much the Fremen from Dune in terms of their fluff, as I learned. That alone made me choose them. I like the fact that haqqislam doctors can actually be some BAMFing assassins (hassassins, but still) the Muyib dr for example comes with a single shot anti-tank missile, a rifle, & a shotgun plus high willpower so he's more likely to not kill the fallen (though my Janissary dr loves to kill wounded, the jerk).

While we don't have but the one TAG of our own, in friendly games we can take two mercenary TAGs: the anaconda & Scarface. And these are remarkably cheap compared to many other TAGs, though they aren't super powerful they are still a good fire magnet & with cheap, high WiP engineers & their servant drones we can keep them running.

'really cheap line infantry' is perhaps a bit misleading - Ghulams are good, but they're the third most expensive basic line infantry in the game after Morat Vanguard and Seed Soldiers. :(

Mainly due to carrying Light Shotguns which are a bit average in second edition but getting a decent bump in N3.

Nomads have two Sectorials available at the moment.
Corregidor, a former prisonship/refugee camp now EVA workers and Mercs for hire by the highest bidder.
I haven't played that sectorial. So I can't speak to much about the playstyle there.

Then we have Bakunin.
The place where all the best and weirdest tech in the entire infinity verse excists. This is where you will find the weirdest most disturbing units in the Human Sphere.
From the genetically engineered Überfall Kommandos. Basically undercover agents running a team of combat/sex toy furries.
To the Morlock Gruppen. Where all the troublemakers are sent. In combat they are boosted by Metachemistry.
Then we have the religious orders.
Masochistic nuns and monks with guns.
Gaming wise as a Bakunin your list can be anything you want it to be. Flexibility is key.
We lack the true HI of Pan-O. But we bring more tricks to he table. Although we have the Riot Grrls. Think heavily armed and armoured FEMEN.
As for TAGS. We have ONE. And its an average TAG. But its still a TAG.
As for REMs we havethe usual bag of tricks.

If you decide to go the way of the Nomad yu will find a wealth of choices are avilable to you.
We have the best hacker in game barring special characters.
We have the hardest hitting units in the reactive phase in the entire game.

Picking the army is probably the hardest thing in the game! I disagree about not doing sectoral armies though. Because you don't necessarily need to use the rules for link teams and such. Just use the rules for the Availability (AVA) that the free Army Creators show. By doing this you can focus on the things you want and then branch out into the greater army if you like.

The good thing is that a full army is relatively cheap. I have more armies than games played (PanO, Nomads & Haqqislam)...

Nomads are a lot of fun. Uberfallkomandos are my favorite.
Lots of TAGs to choose from. No heavy infantry, but Geckos are cheap enough to cover that.
Zodcat. A robot cat girl with a jetpack. Nuf said.



Adriana are the low-tech guys. British SAS, Spetznas, not expensive toys, just years of butt kicking under their belt. No TAGs but they don't really need them. They're a collection of survivors from different countries that fight amongst themselves when they're not fighting off invasions. Drunk Scottish werewolves. And check out those sculpts!



Aleph, think Google if Google invaded every aspect of your life and government and then started running things. (Not a stretch) Also think 'replicants' from Blade Runner. They look human but their bodies are state of the art semi-organic machines. Minds are downloaded and uploaded at will of if the body dies the mind goes back to Facebook page and get's downloaded into a new body. Lots of toys to play with including some of the toughest infantry in the game. The asuras are as tough as a Nomad Tag. Think Major Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell.

Tohaa...they're shady as crap. Here comes the big bad Combined army and then comes Tohaa offering to help. They're like used car salesmen at best and are probably looking to earn a few bucks from Humans before they get conquered. But no one really knows. Different aliens with bio-TAGs. They don't have a lot right now so I hope they get expanded soon.

I choose Haqqislam to start because I like the look of lots of there models. I also have some nomads because I wanted something a bit more techy and weird than the Haqq.

From what I hear about Haqqislam they tend to use higher number of lower armoured troops than some other factions.

If you head over to the infinity official forums each faction specific subforum will have threads about how certain factions and sectorials play. May be worth reading through them or just do what I did and pick what looks fun to paint.

 Space Ranger wrote:
Picking the army is probably the hardest thing in the game! I disagree about not doing sectoral armies though. Because you don't necessarily need to use the rules for link teams and such. Just use the rules for the Availability (AVA) that the free Army Creators show. By doing this you can focus on the things you want and then branch out into the greater army if you like.

I usually don't recommend starting with a sectorial for a reason, and it's not just 'link teams are hard'. If you are going with a sectorial, while you are gaining AVA on some units, you are losing availability of a lot of units to gain that link team and a few other units with bumped up availability. So if you're not going to use those link team rules for a while, you're losing out on experimenting with different units.

If a Haqqislam player starts with Qapu Khalki, they're losing out on Muyibs, Asawira, Lasiqs, Fidays, Barids and more really good units. If they start with Hassassin Bahram, they're losing Hafza, Al Hawwa, Odalisques, Kaplan, Djanbazan and more really good units. If they go either, they're losing Saladin, Kum riders, Naffatun and the Maghariba Guard.

If they go vanilla, they can take all of that. They can experiment with different units and see which sectorials play style and unit selection appeals to them most, and what's more, when they're in the store looking at the rack of Haqqislam units, they don't see something awesome and think 'crap, can't use it'.

Starting a new game is a time of exploration and experimenting to find what works for you. You're going to want to buy new things to try. Sectorials limit that experimentation. People can theme all they want once they have a handle on the game and, after reading the fluff, an idea of how they want to theme.

While I used to agree with that 100%, not every new players wants to be faced with 50-odd units to learn and choose from, so in some cases a Sectorial is an easier starting point.

Which is a good reason it's just a recommendation. If they don't agree with me, they don't have to do it that way. But I feel it's good to give reasoning beyond 'links are hard, yo'.

Aye!

Ariadna. I love the concept of British SAS, Spetznaz and US Army Rangers fighting replicants and aliens. No powered armour, no mecha, just pure skills and guts. HOOAH!

Here's a link to an article on BoLS that brief describes each army.

I know what you mean. It's difficult to choose a single faction as there are so many great models among different ranges, personally I quite like the lower tech guys like haqqislam and ariadna.

Its very easy to fall down the 'just one more faction' rabbit hole. I have purposely stopped myself at two - Haqqislam and Tohaa. Even at that I've got a pile of metal I haven't painted.

I was gonna stick to nomads and haqqislam but I saw a adriana starter with the SAS guy for less than half price on ebay so I was tempted.

I own several bits and parts of every faction, but my love is the Morats which is by far my largest single collection that their new aesthetic keeps me with them.

So really just buy want you

Well yeah, buying a few models here and there for Infinity is inevitable. You're going to see sculpts you like so much you just have to own them.

However, in my experience, buying the odd model has led to wanting to expand it with other models in the range that you like into a 300pt list. Then that other model because it's also cool. And that box over there because why not.

Personally, I paint at a snails pace, so it's sort of a waste for me to buy all these different models. So I limited myself to 2 factions, plus civvies. I'll happily try to get different civvie models because they're fun additions to my collection and great objective markers.

On that note, I should have a loot at what Shae has at the moment...