Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Baiyuan wrote:
Sorry, if I don't read through the wall of text.
The best/only advice for someone planning to start playing Infinity is in my opinion:
Pick what you like. Look at the miniatures, read some of the fluff on the official homepage, maybe watch the BoW fluff videos.
Then just choose.
Infinity has excellent balancing between all of the factions and there are no bad decisions gaming wise.

It is a fair point, and a good one. Although one can be undecided on which one he/she might want or wants to see the playstyle between each faction to see if they will like that playstyle as well.
Also, I would argue that the BoW fluff videos are better as an introduction into it (I do not mind CB's fluff video, but they seem a bit short and does not does it justice. At least in my opinion, I could be wrong).


On the topic of this thread though, I have been taking a look at Ariadna at a faction for the most part. This is some first impressions looking at it..,.

There is a sure lack of Technology, and they do not exist in the information warfare department at all with no hackers, no T.A.Gs, and only one remote. But, it seems that they mitigate this problem to a good degree with some heavy gear for taking out armor and so on. Another things is that a common theme of this army as well is a good amount of the Valor skill in their units, as well with some having camouflage and Inflitration even if it is Limited camo or Inferior Infiltration. Also, they seem to have a good amount of units with Forward Observer to spot units they can take as well.

How does this seem? Anything I overlooked or that can be added or removed? I know it is not more in detail, but I want to make sure I can make it right by people who know it better than me and do not screw up big time like the first two.

Another way that they don't exist in the information warfare department is that their HI can't be hacked, which is a pretty good thing.

A lot of impetuous as well, and also irregular. I'd rate them as having some of the most flexible deployment, with all the mech/airdrop/Van Zaant airdrop (I reckon that deserves its own classification)/camo that they have available.

 Tanakosyke22 wrote:
How does this seem? Anything I overlooked or that can be added or removed? I know it is not more in detail, but I want to make sure I can make it right by people who know it better than me and do not screw up big time like the first two.

Here you have some highlights

Faction Strenghts:
- Lots of camo units.
- Lots of Warbands, which means lots of smoke, some of them pure furry brutality. I mean 14 feet werewolves, you can't go wrong with them.
- Enough antitank fire to stop a train convoy on its tracks.
- Inmune to info-war. (watch out with guided missiles, however due to the great number of camo units and how cheap many units are, they don't necesarily suffer this tactic as hard as the other factions.)
- Inmune to the CA's evil Sepsitor. (nobody likes the opponent stealing his/her units!)
- They usually have numerical superiority. Fielding two combat groups is quite usual.

Faction Weaknesses:
- The lack of high tech stuff such as MSV2 means they usually have a hard time against units equipped with high tech camouflage devices such as TO and ODD.
- No high tech shenanigans to play with. That means they give up on some playing styles and tactical options (hacking, AD3: combat drop, TO's hidden deployment, Ghost syncr. helper bots for medics and engineers, ... , etc) in order to improve their combat power and stealth abilities.
- No TAGs (instead they have 14 feet werewolves)
- No units with BTS, I mean the BTS attribute is zero for Ariadna units. That makes them quite vulnerable to weapons that roll damage against BTS instead of ARM. Specially, Viral weapons become their Nemesis. Fortunately we're talking about quite exotic weapons.

Faction Overview:

Aimed at player's that like nowadays modern military forces, as well as those that enjoy being the underdog. They laught at other high tech factions costly high tech TAGs as usually they can put big holes in them with ease. The faction is spiced with a little fantasy touch in the form of werewolves and other furry warbands and kilt lovers, which increase the Ariadna's player power when things become too close and personal.

Janzerker wrote:

 Tanakosyke22 wrote:
How does this seem? Anything I overlooked or that can be added or removed? I know it is not more in detail, but I want to make sure I can make it right by people who know it better than me and do not screw up big time like the first two.

Here you have some highlights

Faction Strenghts:
- Lots of camo units.
- Lots of Warbands, which means lots of smoke, some of them pure furry brutality. I mean 14 feet werewolves, you can't go wrong with them.
- Enough antitank fire to stop a train convoy on its tracks.
- Inmune to info-war. (watch out with guided missiles, however due to the great number of camo units and how cheap many units are, they don't necesarily suffer this tactic as hard as the other factions.)
- Inmune to the CA's evil Sepsitor. (nobody likes the opponent stealing his/her units!)
- They usually have numerical superiority. Fielding two combat groups is quite usual.

Faction Weaknesses:
- The lack of high tech stuff such as MSV2 means they usually have a hard time against units equipped with high tech camouflage devices such as TO and ODD.
- No high tech shenanigans to play with. That means they give up on some playing styles and tactical options (hacking, AD3: combat drop, TO's hidden deployment, Ghost syncr. helper bots for medics and engineers, ... , etc) in order to improve their combat power and stealth abilities.
- No TAGs (instead they have 14 feet werewolves)

Faction Overview:

Aimed at player's that like nowadays modern military forces, as well as those that enjoy being the underdog. They laught at other high tech factions costly high tech TAGs as usually they can put big holes in them with ease. The faction is spiced with a little fantasy touch in the form of werewolves and other furry warbands and kilt lovers, which increase the Ariadna's player power when things become too close and personal.

That is what I had pretty close in mind when looking at Ariadna with their tactics and so on. Although, who can go wrong with Futuristic Scottish Highlanders and werewolves?

I'd like to point out that MRRF will get a mercenary TAG.

 Knight wrote:
I'd like to point out that MRRF will get a mercenary TAG.

I think he's doing vanilla factions, not sectorials.

No TAG in general, yes in sectorial MRRF? I find it rather important detail. Up to now only Qapu Khalqi, Nomads and Imperial Service got to play with mercenaries. However those mercenaries didn't offer something that wasn't available in the general army, unless we're being very strict. Haqqislam had a TAG before Iguana was added to the sectorial, Nomads had warband with smoke. Bounty hunters are fun element but do they radically change how the force is composed or acts? Not to that extend.

Add a TAG to someone like Ariadna, that's big. You can say Mirage-05 acts like a TAG but your experience with the real deal will be totally different. Now it can get hacked and you too get to know the joy of cube infection. The force composition also diverts, with a link team of MI, TAG and few others you get to resemble to more hi-tech force.

 Knight wrote:
No TAG in general, yes in sectorial MRRF? I find it rather important detail. Up to now only Qapu Khalqi, Nomads and Imperial Service got to play with mercenaries.

Once again, OP is making a generic overview of the factions. We don't want to bother potential new players with sectorials yet.
As it stands, Ariadna doesn't have TAGs, period. Actually you said it best, the Merovingian Rapid Response Force gets/will get a "mercenary" TAG. It's a pure mercenary unit, there're not Ariadna TAG units.

Regarding the mercenaries included in sectorials. Many sectorials, with exception of the PanO, CA and current Aleph ones as well as Hassasin Barhan, get access to a few selected mercenary units, more concretely JSA, ISS, CHA, MRRF, BJC, CJC and QK. Hmm... better said, half the sectorials.

I do not think I will ever understand people's need to focus on general force, many started with Sectorial rather than generic. Generally Sectorials wont divert from the main theme of the army. Yes, we can leave the MRRF privilege out, we could also leave many other things out.

I think its just that Tanak wanted to focus on the vanilla versions, you could make a companion thread for sectorials if you wanted to? Ask him/her to link to the posts about the sectorials under their respective faction?

 motyak wrote:
I think its just that Tanak wanted to focus on the vanilla versions, you could make a companion thread for sectorials if you wanted to? Ask him/her to link to the posts about the sectorials under their respective faction?

I was mostly focusing on the vanilla versions of each factions. Although I might think about doing something with the sectorials later on, but my main focus is to deal with the vanilla factions first and foremost. If someone makes a companion thread about the sectorials, I would be glad to link it to this one!

I am tossing up between either Ariadna or Haqqislam for a force. A friend has said that having a sectorial force has a lot of benefits, especially where it comes to link teams. That will be easy for Haqqislam as I would go Hassassin's. For Ariadna though, I am looking to go more for the Kazak style forces (will likely proxy Statuesque's female rebels for Line Kazak's as they're a lot better than the early sculpts), but that means having a generalist force. What are the benefits/drawbacks of doing so? Just wondering if it's a good idea to use a mostly themed Kazak list, even though it doesn't gain me anything. I could be flexible and add in other units since a general list would allow that. What's the general consensus?

The Russians get some of the best ariadnan units (tankhunters, vet Kazaks), and will probably get a sectorial somewhere down the road. I'd say they are definitely worth looking at.

 Fenriswulf wrote:
I am tossing up between either Ariadna or Haqqislam for a force. A friend has said that having a sectorial force has a lot of benefits, especially where it comes to link teams.

That's a bit misleading. Sectorials are a give/take type of list building. You get increased availability to some units and decreased or outright removed access to others. The addition of Link Teams is a benefit they get for losing so much. Hassassin Bahram, for example, can take lots more Hassassin units, and can link some. They lose access to the majority of the Haqqislam list, including some very good units like Odalisques, Hafzas and even the factions only TAG, the Maghariba Guard. Qapu Khalki cannot take any Hassassin units at all, and loses access again to the Maghariba as well as some other units, but gains Mercenary forces (including 2 TAGs in the Iguana and Scarface) and a few different link types.

Vanilla Haqqislam gets some units available to neither - the aforementioned Maghariba Guard, Naffatun (flamer wielding light infantry) and a few others, plus keeps the ability to mix units from both sectorials, like Hassassin and Hafzas and Odalisques. Vanilla is its own type of list building. You've got a much less specialised force but with a much greater breadth of options.

Don't write off vanilla forces, not having access to link teams doesn't mean they're automatically on the backfoot against a sectorial.

Ahhh cool. Well I might just go for some Kazaks then.

The other thing that can be done of course is to have an all Kazak 'themed' force using units from different sectors but using Russian looking miniatures for them instead. Works just as well and will mean I can use the new Ariadna hacker, but with a Russian type miniature.

Thanks for your help guys!

IIRC, if you go that route, the next book is potentially adding a Kazak sectorial, so it might transition well from Kazak heavy vanilla force for learning into a Kazak sectorial later on.

The best thing about Infinity in Australia is cost. Compared to other games on the market, it's downright cheap making a 300pt list. I've put together a 300pt Tohaa list that's come to about $110au, all retail without discounts.

So even starting with a vanilla list to learn doesn't mean you have to stick with it later on. Purchasing 5-6 new models can turn your vanilla list into a sectorial. That's exactly how my Hassassin Bahram came about - I started with vanilla Haqqislam with 4 different Hassassin models, then just bought the other 6 for my Bahram list.

The Kazak Sectorial, along with the USAriadna Sectorial is confirmed rather than rumored.

Oh hot damn. This is going to be awesome. Also, yeah Infinity is a lot cheaper to get into than any GW games (short of Bloodbowl, but they don't support that anymore so *shrug*).

I am likely to clear out all my GW stuff and make the switch. I am over them, and the games aren't competing with the new ones on offer. Will likely also go for Haqqislam as I do like the models a whole lot, and they'll tie in nicely to the vehicles I have as well.

 Fenriswulf wrote:
Oh hot damn. This is going to be awesome. Also, yeah Infinity is a lot cheaper to get into than any GW games (short of Bloodbowl, but they don't support that anymore so *shrug*).

I am likely to clear out all my GW stuff and make the switch. I am over them, and the games aren't competing with the new ones on offer. Will likely also go for Haqqislam as I do like the models a whole lot, and they'll tie in nicely to the vehicles I have as well.

Heh, I am in the same boat as well with clearing out all my GW stuff and converting to Non-GW so to speak. And the good thing is you can have two decently sized armies for Infinity, and it still would be a lot less cheaper than one army for the Warhammer systems.

While I wouldn't ditch 40k - it scratches a different itch to Infinity, and it's still the number one game in my group - I've definitely stopped buying it. A mix of being bored with the current codex and annoyed at current prices. But I still love my Tyranids, and one day plan to eventually finish that Heirophant.

But for now, I'll stick with expanding my Infinity.

 -Loki- wrote:
While I wouldn't ditch 40k - it scratches a different itch to Infinity, and it's still the number one game in my group - I've definitely stopped buying it. A mix of being bored with the current codex and annoyed at current prices. But I still love my Tyranids, and one day plan to eventually finish that Heirophant.

But for now, I'll stick with expanding my Infinity.

I have actually gotten rid of a good majority of my 40k stuff, and planning to do so with my Fantasy as well, since the store I go to now as a balance of players (well, mostly, Infinity is still having not enough players, but I am having a group slowly start up). Otherwise I have gone to other games like Infinity and Warmahordes that I am expanding, since both GW games made me stop buying and playing because of the prices and the rules to a high degree.

The problem I have is all of my friends are still huge into 40k. Infinity is making a little headway, but 40k is still 'the game'.

Also, I do still like my Tyranids and Vampire Counts, so I'll keep them around. but I'm really considering selling my Salamanders and Chaos.

This is extremely helpful. I would really like to see more about the other factions' playstyles!

Alright, let me first off apologize for a lack of work on this thread and getting to it, as I am currently in the final stretch of the Semester so homework is in a crunch to the end (as well as focusing on my backlog of items of needing of being painted and working on a cosplay as well). Hopefully I can get a start on Haqq tomorrow during my little break before my night class depending how my homework is and how much I tackled, then I might finish it up during the course of the week. During Thanksgiving (dependent on Homework as well) and/or after finals, I am going to finish up the rest of the factions in a rather quick time as well.

Sorry for not much of an update guys, but I thought I keep you informed.

Alright, with finals done now, and having my truck totalled from being in an accident (which is a shame, but it cannot be helped), I have some more time to tackle this finally again, with trying to dedicate more to actually finishing this up and having it completed. I am still finishing up Haqqislam (sorry for not having it done yet), so I was wondering if anyone can give me feedback on it so I can be correct on it?

Again, thank you! ^_^

 -Loki- wrote:
The problem I have is all of my friends are still huge into 40k. Infinity is making a little headway, but 40k is still 'the game'.

Also, I do still like my Tyranids and Vampire Counts, so I'll keep them around. but I'm really considering selling my Salamanders and Chaos.

In my area it's FoW and WHFB that are the drawcards (and mordheim having a resurgence).

Infinity is for the rest of us who want a smaller skirmish level game that isn't fantasy OR WW2.

Also, I still have my eldar and GK 40k armies. I started them because I liked the models, not because the army rules were particularly good (and the eldar were started in RT, when they weren't - then in 2nd ed they good really good but ironically, I didn't play more than about 4 games of it due to lack of time) and they will still work with other rules even if I never return to 40k.

 chromedog wrote:

 -Loki- wrote:
The problem I have is all of my friends are still huge into 40k. Infinity is making a little headway, but 40k is still 'the game'.

Also, I do still like my Tyranids and Vampire Counts, so I'll keep them around. but I'm really considering selling my Salamanders and Chaos.

In my area it's FoW and WHFB that are the drawcards (and mordheim having a resurgence).

Infinity is for the rest of us who want a smaller skirmish level game that isn't fantasy OR WW2.

For my area, it is mostly Warmachine and X-wing, with 40k being next, and then Infinity having a bit of a slow start up and token presence. Well good thing is I got two new people into it at the store I go to, but it is mostly to have a bit a change from Warmahordes and kind of wait until a main group that comes in once of month on a Saturday shows up.

Other than bumping this out the recesses of the thread vaults, could we get a link chucked on the community guide for this. Would be a shame for it to slip away

Nomads low tech???

What madness is this! They are one of the highest tech in the entire universe! They invented and have the most access to MULTI weapons, they have the best hacking equipment PERIOD with access to Hacking Device Plus abd Marker guns, they are one of like two factions with the Hyper Rapid Magnetic Cannon, they have actively bioengineered themselves for both home and military use, they use a ton of specialty hitech equipment and really good bts across most of their models. There are only a tiny amount of "hitech" equipment they don't have access to yet. Within lore they have even designed an AI capable of rivaling Aleph.

Their whole gameplay basis it to take advantage of your hitech equipmen and intelligence to subvert the enemy. Since their statlines are pretty terrible since their specialized stat is WIP

 Talamare wrote:
Nomads low tech???

What madness is this! They are one of the highest tech in the entire universe! They invented and have the most access to MULTI weapons, they have the best hacking equipment PERIOD with access to Hacking Device Plus abd Marker guns, they are one of like two factions with the Hyper Rapid Magnetic Cannon, they have actively bioengineered themselves for both home and military use, they use a ton of specialty hitech equipment and really good bts across most of their models. There are only a tiny amount of "hitech" equipment they don't have access to yet. Within lore they have even designed an AI capable of rivaling Aleph.

Their whole gameplay basis it to take advantage of your hitech equipmen and intelligence to subvert the enemy. Since their statlines are pretty terrible since their specialized stat is WIP

What I mean by Hightech in the sense of having a good amount of access of Remotes, TAGS and Heavy Infantry at the time I wrote the entry for them. Although you do make a great point as well, as Nomads need pull out tricks with hackers and that other things you said since their Statline is pretty terrible as you pointed out. So in that sense, it does make them quite hi-tech as well.

Also, I thought they did not design an AI that is capable of what ALEPH has,but rather a network that was as large as Maya but off the grid?