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Hey all, I am really new to the game and have been trying to get my first army/painted and ready while I caught up on the rules. I am currently doing Yu Jing, mostly because I liked their models the best.

Been reading a lot here and I keep seeing references to 'Linked' units and link teams, but I have no idea what that is. I checked the Main rulebook a few times and I haven't seen anything about this or how it works. It is possible I am just missing it. Is this in one of the expansion rule-sets? Where can I find this? I went ahead and bought the BRB and the Human Sphere book, and have all of the books in the pdf forms.

Also, I see a good amount of lists that do not include the specialists - Is this common? I would have expected the Doctor to be particularly good since so many of the units have only 1 HP, but that does not really seem to be the case.

REMS - these need a TAG or a hacker to field is that correct? Are they worth it (generally speaking)? I really like the look of a lot of the vehicles/heavier units, but this caveat makes me wonder if they are worth it.

Finally, How important is having units that can deploy anywhere? 4x4 seems rather large for only around 10ish models, is it problematic if you have to move each piece without having some sort of advanced deploy? or is this pretty common?

Thanks in advance!

Which books do you have?

Also here is a direct link to the rule
http://infinitythegame.wikispot.org/Fireteams:_Link_Troops?action=show&redirect=Linked+Team

Short explanation if you play a sectorial army or the Tohaa they can have link teams of units. Vanilla armies can't do this (except the Tohaa)


Also don't worry about it to much till you get a grasp of the game (not that I am one to talk, but I hear this said a lot around the boards)

I have the 2nd Edition Rulebook and the Human Sphere expansion book. I will admit I have not read the Human Sphere much yet. I am glad I asked, since I had bought the JSA starter first since I liked the aesthetic.

I will likely buy the Paradiso one as well. I like having the books handy.

Excellent questions chief.

Yes, the rules for Link Teams were added in the second rulebook, 'Human Sphere'. If you want to check it out now, go to Infinity's Wiki and search Link Teams, and they'll walk you through it. To explain it quickly though... a Link Team is a group of 3-5 models. They (almost always) have to be the same kind of unit. You can give the Link Team orders, and they move as one group... so you can spend one of your orders to move a whole 5 guys. The more models you have in the unit, you also get benefits to shooting and spotting. Whichever model is designated the Leader of the link team is the one who shoots on your turn (and you can move who the leader is around), but the whole team can respond in ARO if someone crosses their Line of Sight (LOS). But they all need to be always within 8 inches of the Leader. The only people that can use Link Teams are Sectorial Armies (Armies with more specialized and limited troop choices) and the Tohaa. The Sectorial Armies can be found in the back of the Human Sphere book, and there is an updated one in the Campaign Paradisio book. They are also listed in the Army Builder on Infinity's website.

They are very useful, but a little complicated at first. Just takes some practice.

A lot of the lists you see that lack specialists? Well they probably aren't made for playing the actual missions, instead likely just based on killing people. Or maybe they don't like the looks of the specialist models. I usually try and have a hacker, engineer, or doc somewhere, just out of habit.

Yes, in order to use Remotes, you need to field either a Hacker or a TAG. I love to use Remotes, particularly the ones that are Total Reaction with HMGs. They are excellent at corralling your opponents where you want them. And other drones are cheap, fast, interesting units for all sorts of things. If you're playing Yu Jing, you have one of the most badass Remotes of all time, the SuJian Immediate Action Unit. That thing is scary.

So about deployment. 4X4 seems rather large, but when you have a pool of 10 orders, you can pump orders into a unit and have them move rather far distances. Remember, if all you do is move with an order, you take two moves. So if a unit is 4-4 (most light infantry) you move 8 inches in one order. Two full moves is 16... it adds up fast.

Not all of your units are going to be moving forward on the attack. Some will be in strategic locations overlooking objectives, so they can fire down at anyone who crosses their line of sight. Others might be holding flanks, or waiting for the heavy to clear out the bad guys so they can make a rush for an objective. Or maybe you have a group of guys in the back with your Lieutenant, protecting him and making your opponent guess which one it is.

Welcome to the game! Feel free to ask away, there's a lot of helpful people here. Have any pictures of what you're working on? Its always cool to see other people's projects.

Link team rules are in the Human Sphere Source Book, the 2nd book. There are also called Link troops. You can only have them when you use sectorial armies, which are a sub-sets of the main factions. Don't worry about them right away. Learn the basic rules first. Get all the stuff as PDFs from the downloads section of the Infinity site, including scenarios-- under the Infinity Tournament System, and the Scenarios. You can get a mission system here http://wargamingtrader.com/yams. There is a fan re-edit of the rules, I think it is up to version 2.3, somewhere. Can't recall where the link is though. Poke around for it.

REMs and TAGs can be fun and useful to play. So yes, they are worth it.

People make their lists based on a lot of things. There are no 'perfect lists' like you see in other gaming systems. Specialists are useful, and necessary for the tournament scenarios

Finally, How important is having units that can deploy anywhere? 4x4 seems rather large for only around 10ish models, is it problematic if you have to move each piece without having some sort of advanced deploy? or is this pretty common?

Units with Camo of some sort are very useful. But you do not need to move very unit. You can spend all of your orders moving one unit in a turn. The rest just hold positions to guard areas -- ie they are set up to get AROs against the opponent. 4x4 will seem very small when somebody moves a bike across the table in 2 orders, BTW.

Best advice is start with a simple 150 point army and play a simple or simplified mission. Use basic rules. Then as you learn, add in more rules. I would start with camo though. It is very important to get that down right away.

A lot of lists I've seen here are just casual stuff to get a hang on order pools and how things can work together, not so much specialist focused. The official forums have a lot of its list threads in the faction sections that relate really well and are worth reading through to understand your factions options for objective cappers / holders via other people's experience.

Haegr77 wrote:
Also, I see a good amount of lists that do not include the specialists - Is this common? I would have expected the Doctor to be particularly good since so many of the units have only 1 HP, but that does not really seem to be the case.

Most doctors only have about a two thirds chance of success, with the remainder being a dead patient - it often eats several orders to get over to a model and try to heal it, so it's often not worth it for restoring orders (particularly in games with a turn limit) and is only normally useful for models that would make a big difference to have back.

I did end up doing quite a lot of healing at a recent event, but it was mostly through a G:Servant remote (attached to a Doctor who has other things to get on with, like objectives or kicking people's butts, it can be activated as part of the same order and thus move to a patient for free) or via Regeneration (which is generally less reliable than a doctor, but doesn't require orders to get a doc over there).

This reduced order spend makes a big difference, but it's still very much about how much having that model back is necessary.
That said, healing is awesome when it works. My Djanbazan Sniper's regeneration pulled at least one game back from the brink that weekend.

Wow, so I've played like one real game. But, I have been reading the rules and the wiki like a fiend. I just got finished running a small (110-120) solo game skirmish using my 2 forces of Yu Jing and Military Orders. Nothing too complicated. Had 1 camo guy with mines and the other side had a 3 man link and there were 2 spitfires. I was running through the rules myself to see how thing go. This game is brutal. By turn 3, I had the Yu Jing down to 2 models and they had already gone through LoL. It was truly amazing to see how deadly the weapons are. Mistakes are anything but forgiving. And I love Spitfires now. I'm sure HMGs will hold a similar place in my heart too. Everything I've read tells me HRLs will be the same

Yeah, the biggest aspect of the game you need to get used to is the lethality. This is why cover is so super important. That -3 to hit and +3 ARM are invaluable.

Cerrik wrote:
It was truly amazing to see how deadly the weapons are.

Try facing off against a TAG and then see how much damage you feel like you can do...

There is quite a sense of impotence... right up until you remember you were supposed to be trying out an Asra'il in this list, and maybe you should see what she can do. And then, two orders later, you then decide you want her in EVERY list.

 MarcoSkoll wrote:

Cerrik wrote:
It was truly amazing to see how deadly the weapons are.

Try facing off against a TAG and then see how much damage you feel like you can do...

There is quite a sense of impotence... right up until you remember you were supposed to be trying out an Asra'il in this list, and maybe you should see what she can do. And then, two orders later, you then decide you want her in EVERY list.

No kidding. Or an Autocannon. Or Ariadna's vicious AP HMG's. Suddenly the walking tanks seem incredibly squishy.

Rule #1 of Infinity: Stuff dies

Rule #2 of Infinity: Your plans will get jacked, get use to moving to plan B, C, D, E, F

Rule #3 of Infinity: Just when you think something is tough, a crit will show you otherwise and just when you think swarm is awesome, something tough will show you otherwise.


PS: Hi all, yes I'm still alive

 BlueDagger wrote:
Rule #1 of Infinity: Stuff dies

Rule #2 of Infinity: Your plans will get jacked, get use to moving to plan B, C, D, E, F

Rule #3 of Infinity: Just when you think something is tough, a crit will show you otherwise and just when you think swarm is awesome, something tough will show you otherwise.


PS: Hi all, yes I'm still alive

Oh

Heya Blue!

And yeah... Rule#2 happens to me... pretty much every single game.

... but sometimes, just sometimes, you will pass a stupid number of saves in a row.

There's been a few games I've been in where line infantry survived more damage than the TAGs. A few games back, my 17pt Ghulam Doctor shrugged off more saves than the 110pt Sphinx that was trying to murderise her.
It's a shame she didn't get one more good roll in, because her saves were that close to statistically out-fluking even the shooting of the Aquila Guard a few tables away - and he'd just critted every member of a 4-man link team simultaneously.

 Chemical Cutthroat wrote:
No kidding. Or an Autocannon. Or Ariadna's vicious AP HMG's. Suddenly the walking tanks seem incredibly squishy.

Yeah, those are the real kings of anti-TAG work, but only a few factions are blessed with such things in their armouries.

However, I have no real complaint to make. The Asra'il doesn't bring any truly spectacular stats or weapons to the table, but that just means its cheap! The Panzerfaust version particularly so.

Exactly! And they look cool. And their fluff is really interesting. And they can rock the Feurbach... which is a pretty neat toy.