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 Tangent wrote:
Wow, thanks a ton for the responses, guys!

All of my questions were answered, but I've got a follow-up question regarding playstyles.

Basically, what I'm wondering is... if every faction can essentially do everything, what differentiates them on the table other than how they look? If the answer is, "nothing," I'm alright with that - that gives me more freedom to pick the models that I like the looks of.

All factions can play every play style, in their own unique way.

It has more depth than this one liner, but essentially all factions can play successfully every playstyle, that does not mean they do it in the same way.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:

All factions can play every play style, in their own unique way.

I particularly like Ariadna's TAG rush. That's a formidable list.

/just being difficult for the sake of it

No, but their Cameronian rush is quite formidable.

A playstyle is not equal to units fielded.

A typical "TAG rush", or better mobile heavy hard hitter playstyle does not mean it has to be TAGs just heavy hard hitters, Ariadna's Dog warriors can easily fill this niche.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
All factions can play every play style, in their own unique way.

This is the best way I've seen it put.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
No, but their Cameronian rush is quite formidable.

A playstyle is not equal to units fielded.

A typical "TAG rush", or better mobile heavy hard hitter playstyle does not mean it has to be TAGs just heavy hard hitters, Ariadna's Dog warriors can easily fill this niche.

Curse you and your good answers. I do want to try a wulver/wallace and cameronian heavy list. It'd be great fun.

 avantgarde wrote:

 heartserenade wrote:
About the "evil" factions: there almost aren't any. I would even consider the Combined Army not evil since we still don't know fully their objectives.

Aren't they trying to ascend to another dimension or non-corporeal existence but they're too stupid to figure out how? So they're outsourcing the work to other species by conquering them first.

They sound like a more violent incompetent mash up of Geth and the Culture.

Yes that's correct. They've tried previously and failed, but have now earmarked humanity (and in particular the Aleph AI) as potentially a step to help them forward.

There are quite a few interesting sub-text though; read recently about the Morat only following the EI because of it's strength, and their code of honour dictating they should follow that which defeated them. The moment they become stronger themselves though, and they will strike off on their own again!

Personally I think the Tohaa have the capacity to be the most 'evil' in the way they seem to be playing everyone off against each other, and that we really don't know what their motivations are. Will definitely be interesting to see how that narrative develops in the future books..

Aleph it is, then!

 Pacific wrote:

 avantgarde wrote:

 heartserenade wrote:
About the "evil" factions: there almost aren't any. I would even consider the Combined Army not evil since we still don't know fully their objectives.

Aren't they trying to ascend to another dimension or non-corporeal existence but they're too stupid to figure out how? So they're outsourcing the work to other species by conquering them first.

They sound like a more violent incompetent mash up of Geth and the Culture.

Yes that's correct. They've tried previously and failed, but have now earmarked humanity (and in particular the Aleph AI) as potentially a step to help them forward.

There are quite a few interesting sub-text though; read recently about the Morat only following the EI because of it's strength, and their code of honour dictating they should follow that which defeated them. The moment they become stronger themselves though, and they will strike off on their own again!

Personally I think the Tohaa have the capacity to be the most 'evil' in the way they seem to be playing everyone off against each other, and that we really don't know what their motivations are. Will definitely be interesting to see how that narrative develops in the future books..

The Tohaa splinter cell caused all that. The Tohaa main force see us as Hunter (that the bad one right, don't the book at hand), and likely plan to wipe us out when the chance come. But, the need us to fight the CA for now. We might be better of if the CA wins as the EI at least will keep us around. ALEPH means the EI see as possible transcending race, and at worse a warrior race.

I ordered my Aleph stuff yesterday - the starter pack, the support pack, and Penthesilea. Motorcycles for the win!

Pft, you have given up your humanity to become nothing more than a cog in the machine!

 SilverMK2 wrote:
Pft, you have given up your humanity to become nothing more than a cog in the machine!

Bah, fight all the outside powers, join the clans of the Caledonian Highlands! I know its too late but hey

My Nomads fight side by side with their brothers and sisters against the consumerist and invasive dictates of the AI and its human puppets.

Wow, there seems to be... actual fluff for this game? All I find is those faction intro videos which are vague at best.

I've always put a huge emphasis on how a faction feels with regards to their fluff, and that lack of backstory is whats kept me out of this game so far.

Can anyone point me in the direction of finding out more about this setting?

The only real fluff is in the rulebooks - there is a little bit on the wiki. There was a thread ages ago where people posted some fluff about their forces but I don't think it has been updated in a long time.

However, by all means bring it back to life if you have a good bit of fluff for your force(s)

people wrote their own fluff, or did they copy the rulebook?
I really need to get those btw :c

Speaking of books...

What information is contained within each one? The main rulebook, the campaign book... I've also seen one called Human Sphere I think?

Where are the rules for each army and unit (other than online)?

The rules for the "main" forces are in the main rulebook.
"Human Sphere" added the Sectorials and "Campaign Paradiso" added the Tohaa and ALEPH's "Steel Phalanx" Sectorial, along with a slew of new units for the game.

 soulcow wrote:
people wrote their own fluff, or did they copy the rulebook?
I really need to get those btw :c

Wrote their own based on the broader background in the books.

 Dakkamite wrote:
Wow, there seems to be... actual fluff for this game? All I find is those faction intro videos which are vague at best.

I've always put a huge emphasis on how a faction feels with regards to their fluff, and that lack of backstory is whats kept me out of this game so far.

Can anyone point me in the direction of finding out more about this setting?

For fluff other then unit fluff (unit fluff is online when the unit's model is released) you need the books. CB plan is here is are rules for free you want fluff you have to buy are book. I veiw of the book, so worth the money, I'm even getting the Art Book that has no new fluff, the art in the books is that nice.

So the rules for the Aleph faction are all found in the 2nd edition of the main rulebook?

How does it work when they release new models without releasing an accompanying book? Are the rules to be found online for those?

ALEPH's main faction rules are in "Human Sphere", I should have mentioned that.

Generally the new releases come after the book, not before.

 Tangent wrote:
So the rules for the Aleph faction are all found in the 2nd edition of the main rulebook?

How does it work when they release new models without releasing an accompanying book? Are the rules to be found online for those?

When units not in a book get model (this can happen up to a year before the book, like with Human Sphere) the profile will be put online the month the model hits stores.

I've considered buying the books. They're nice looking and I want the fluff, but I can't really justify spending $50/book when I'm already getting the most important part for free.

I actually bought the books before I committed to the game and long before I bought any miniatures. They are so pretty and such a good read that I just had to have them whether I was going to play the game or not. I recommend people buy them even if they aren't into the hobby. Who doesn't love a good book with good art?

Well, I come down very strong on the "anti-cheesecake" side of that debate, so the art holds a little less value to me, personally.

 tomjoad wrote:
Well, I come down very strong on the "anti-cheesecake" side of that debate, so the art holds a little less value to me, personally.

There is actually very little cheesecake art in the books.

It's almost CB policy that the sculptors add at least 2 cup sizes when translating any female concept art to the model.

Hmm...$50 is still a bit steep, but that's very interesting. Maybe I'll pick up the books after I've bought 300pts to paint and I need something else to blow cash on.

When I listen to the Faction Focuses on O-12 it really makes me think I should buy the books, because the background seems to add a lot to the game (and because only fluff and aesthetics seem to differentiate the human factions).

 tomjoad wrote:
Hmm...$50 is still a bit steep, but that's very interesting. Maybe I'll pick up the books after I've bought 300pts to paint and I need something else to blow cash on.

When I listen to the Faction Focuses on O-12 it really makes me think I should buy the books, because the background seems to add a lot to the game (and because only fluff and aesthetics seem to differentiate the human factions).

If you want just the fluff?
Start with 'The Human Sphere'. It fleshes out quite a bit of the fluff from the first book and also adds the 'end result' fluff for ALEPH.

Look guys, can we not do the Warmachine etc thing where we keep claiming that everyone can do everything? It actually makes the game look less fun, not more, like the fans would like.

There ARE very specific threads in the factions, even in Infinity, which is somewhat more homogenized compared to other wargames, due to the nature of the system. While you can stretch them to fit most niches, a PanO hacking list will never be as good as a Nomad one, for example, and good luck fielding efficient hordes with ALEPH :

PanO is the straight up shooting faction. Pretty much all their troops have +1 shooting skill or more compared to everyone else, possibly more. This makes them propably the easiest faction to use, since their strength is very easy to exploilt. Shooting is the main interaction of the game. Their other significant caracteristist is a much higher number of avaliable TAGS. If you like big expensive death machines, only CA can compete. The Cutter remains possibly the most powerful single model in the game, along with the Avatar. Finally, PanO has a lot of simple but really effective tech. They have a plethora of TO camo, which makes you invisible and allows for a lot of suprise tactics, and also they have some really powerful MSV units, that counter camo. Unfortunately most PanO units tend to be pretty expensive, and lack really fancy toys and rules. Generally, they shoot really well from hiding, or they shoot really well into hiding. There is no real subtly with PanO, as it's a faction that lacks stuff like smoke grenades, imposters etc. This also tends to mean that PanO likes to play more defensively, since most PanO models are better at long range shootouts.

ALEPH is the elite of the elite faction. It has all the tricks of PanO, except the tags, but it's soldeirs are even more individually powerful, with all the best tech. Even their base troopers have either really insane speed, high armor, or ODD, which makes them extremely hard to hit. This trend is expanded by the vast abundance of special characters in the faction, with all the Greek heroes. Achillies in particular is terrifying, as is the Asuras. ALEPH's issue is again, the lack of cheap units. They kinda make up to it with really cheap AI relays that just give you orders, but you will find yourself struggling to get full squads, what with all the cool badasses you can hire. The various heroes and their weird gadgets tend to make ALEPH and interesting and very aggressive faction to play.

Yu Jing is a difficult faction. The main thing with them is that many of their troopers are expensive because they are good at melee... but melee is a really risky and seldom used tactic in infinity. As such, YuJing tends to be difficult to get going. As satisfying as it is to get your Onibawan ninja to slice that super powerful TAG in half, you have a rather high risk that it will simply flamethrower you on the way in, or you'll just roll badly and it will squash you with it's fist... and you just wasted a turn getting into position. However, other than that diffculty, Yu Jing has the capability to run hordes of cheap units, or loads of powerful heavy infantry. In addition they have some incredibly fast assault forces with the bikers, and a lot of infiltrating invisible units with the various ninjas, which tends to make opponents nervous. Not a beginner friendly faction really.

The Nomads I have less expirience with, but they tend to focus on all the weirder more interesting tech. Crazy little detonating robots, amazing hackers, and the best sniper in the game, they are all about doing interesting things to unbalance and take out the more conventional armies in the game. If you love hackers, and unconventional tactics, consider Nomads.

The Haquislam is interesting, but unfortunately I dont have too much playtime with them. They do have the best doctors, and an abudance of Viral weapons, which means thatever they shoot tends to die. However they lack some of the high end toys of PanO or ALEPH. They also posses some interesting assasination specialists, which can give you some fun options.

Adriana is the faction for medium infantry and rush tactics. Their werewolves are extremely aggresive shock troops, and the rest of their army tends to be badly equipped but cheaper than equivelents. This means that if you want to play overwealming hordes of troops, this is your army. However, no hacking and total lack of advanced tech makes them both susceptable and immune to certain tricks. The main drawback I hear about them is that they tend to lack some variety. Still, werewolves. They murder things.

CA is the main bad guys for a reason. The are a generally elite army, who's main thing is that they basically have a lot of technology that is exclusive to them. Being able to mind control enemy units is evil. They also completely lack some typcial weaknesses of other army, by for example making it impossible to really kill their Lt. Their elites are extremely elite, and their base models tend to have weird fluffy rules to match their alien nature, like the pod soldiers that need to be "born" to act etc.

Finally the Tohaa kinda break the rules completely by being able to have liked teams in the normal army. That means they are hugely order efficent, and very versatile in their squads of three... however when the oppoent manages to break them, their efficiency drops dramatically. This, coupled with their exoskeleton technology makes them play completely different than the other factions. If you like playing with multiple squads instead of individual units, they are your best best.

Linked teams make the choice even more complicated, but I would generally advise against starting with one unless you really want to. Their rules tend to be a bit mind boggling at first.