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So, I was just curious if anyone have any ideas to what faction would be the simplest and easiest for a total newbie to learn?

Probably Pano, stand there and shoot stuff with your high as BS, ignore everything visors, large BS modifiers on your dudes and durable units. Sure you can play them all tricksy, but you certainly don't have to. Being able to easily get good FTF odds makes them a reasonably beginner friendly faction.

That does sound nice. And they have quite good looking models too.. And are avalable in the two player box..

Furthermore, PanO don't have to worry about any of their troops being Irregular (and so not contributing to the order pool), largely don't worry about rules or ranges for weird or esoteric weapons (although not having those weapons can be a disadvantage overall). There's also very little Impetuousness to deal with.

Merellin wrote:
So, I was just curious if anyone have any ideas to what faction would be the simplest and easiest for a total newbie to learn?

Any faction will do. I'd recommend picking one of the newer starters such as Nomads or PanOceania. No faction is really difficult, Aleph, Combined Army and Tohaa are probably the wonkiest to start with, but nothing few games wouldn't solve.

Was going to say, probably just stick clear of those three - perhaps Aleph in particular which has some quite funny special rules.

Otherwise, it's more about what 'types' of units you use. If you have something like the Operation: Icestorm starter ruleset for instance, you could start with some games just using light infantry, and then gradually introduce other unit types (Heavy Infantry, camo units, specialists etc.)

I dont realy know what types of models I want to use.. I realy like the looks of Yu Jing, But I also like Ariadna and PanOceania.. Tohaa looks cool too, As do some of the Combined Army stuff.. Those are probably the armies I like the looks of the most.. But I do like most of the factions by looks.. Nomads a bit less so, Dont like most of their models even if they have some cool stuff (Like the awesome Iguana Squad and Gecko Squadron.. They look amazing..) I think Nomads and Aleph are my least favorite over all..

Currently I got a Haqqislam starter box, Not because I particularly wanted them, But because I got them basicaly for free (Traded a couple of Magic the Gathering cards I was never gonna use for the models)

PanO is the most simplest do to the PanO units limited mix of skill and equipment. But, this doesn't make them easier to play, as it is the tactics used the matter most.

Now the important part of picking a army and starting the game. Proxy and learn the core rules first, then buy what you like the look/fluff of the best. Because once you learn the basic systems the concept of simplest goes out the window.

Merellin wrote:
I dont realy know what types of models I want to use.. I realy like the looks of Yu Jing, But I also like Ariadna and PanOceania.. Tohaa looks cool too, As do some of the Combined Army stuff.. Those are probably the armies I like the looks of the most.. But I do like most of the factions by looks.. Nomads a bit less so, Dont like most of their models even if they have some cool stuff (Like the awesome Iguana Squad and Gecko Squadron.. They look amazing..) I think Nomads and Aleph are my least favorite over all..

Currently I got a Haqqislam starter box, Not because I particularly wanted them, But because I got them basicaly for free (Traded a couple of Magic the Gathering cards I was never gonna use for the models)

An excellent choice, sir

Haqqislam have some really effective light, medium and specialist infantry. And of course some of the best doctors in the game.

Which starter set did you get?

I got the Hassassin Bahram starter box. I'm not realy intrested in them, But they where basicaly free.. xD

Oh dear. That sectorial starter has problems. It's really more for getting started on the collection than an army force.

You could always proxy other profiles. If you're determined on starting a new force, PanO is decent I guess. I don't like recommending it, as on long run you're hurting for not having other tools or even cheaper equivalent of others. It's playable and most of the choices are straightforward and plain. You can always start other armies, if you're going to feel the need to have something more synergistic.

The match I played with it I ran the Daylami as Ghulam, Since they seem a bit better as they arent irregular like Daylami are..

What faction would you recomend that isent PanO then? I like all factions a lot, Though ALEPH and Nomads not as much, And Haqqislam is somewhere towards the bottom aswell.. Though I'm basing all this on model looks.. xD

I'm not sure what kind of units i'd want.. So maybe a faction that has a good mix of all unit types..?

Yu-Jing has a bit of everything. The starter is a bit dated but otherwise they are more flexible than PanOceania with a specialization perk in heavy infantry.

Honestly, this game has so many rules around everything that picking a 'simple' faction to start is the absolute wrong way to go. You're going to be learning a lot of rules, so you might as well go with a faction that plays the way you want to play.

Since you've got Haqqislam, a brief description - they're the light infantry faction. Some of the best and most varies light infantry in the game for the price you pay, which isn't much. Other factions might have some better light infantry (Tohaa comes to mind), but they don't have the breadth of choices. Kaplan, Odalisques, Bashi Bazouk, Govads, Ghazi Muttawi'ah... They're also equipped with tech usually on medium infantry of other factions. Multispectral visors, holo projectors, No Wound Incapacitation, etc. This has the unfortunate side affect of making our available medium infantry feel a but redundant, since there's usually a light infantry that can do it cheaper and generally as well.

There's also some fantastic skirmishers and a devilishly effective warband. For skirmishers you've got Al Hawwa, Tuaregs and Hassassin Fiday. Al Hawwa are camo infiltrators that can also be specialists, which is a nasty combination. Tuaregs get the factions only access to TO camo, plus a super high WIP 15 for specialists which is absurd. And the Fiday. Ah, the Fiday. Not many units draw ire as much as the Fiday. Super sneaky brute force frontal attackers, if that makes sense. Very hard to discover, and tend to go down in a blaze of glory murdering something in plain sight of everything. Though they can be played sneakily as well, with smoke grenades and mines. A nightmarish unit in the right hands.

Then the Kum. They've gotten a lot of attention lately due to having a lot of releases - 3 characters and another standard box. They're worth learning to use though. Super fast, drop smoke everywhere to mask your advance, with some great close up weaponry to make use of that speed, for bargain basement prices.

We tend to lack in the heavy infantry, and as said, medium infantry areas. We have good stuff, but it tends to lack tricks other factions get in these areas.

But.. I dont know how I want to play.. xD The game seems awesome, I only played a single match but I realy liked it, Though it was a while ago, And I dont know what I wanna play or how I wanna play.. xD

Merellin wrote:
But.. I dont know how I want to play.. xD The game seems awesome, I only played a single match but I realy liked it, Though it was a while ago, And I dont know what I wanna play or how I wanna play.. xD

Grab a faction based on aesthetics. There are a few factions that will be better at one or the other sort of thing but PanO, Nomads and Yu Jing are probably the most complete tool sets. I'd also suggest going for a sectorial. Sure, learning link teams is harder (in a similar way that putting on socks before shoes is harder) but what a sectorial bring above all is a limited choice of miniatures.

I can heartily recommend Yu Jing, specifically the Japanese sectorial. Just keep in mind that even though you CAN field an army consisting of 9 TO models, keeping the limit to 2 ninjas and an Oniwaban is a good idea. Remember that Forward Observers get Flash Pulse which is a really good ARO weapon that shoots using WIP instead of BS.

I do quite like Yu Jing.. I love the looks of the Imperial Service Starter Pack.. Yu Jing has my least favorite TAG's, but they have awesome infantry guys.

Nomads I'm rather unsure of.. They have the most awesome TAG's, And some realy cool infantry, But also a bunch of models I dont like.. So while I genealy rate them rather low.. I also like them in part.. xD

Merellin wrote:
But.. I dont know how I want to play.. xD The game seems awesome, I only played a single match but I realy liked it, Though it was a while ago, And I dont know what I wanna play or how I wanna play.. xD

This is way I say proxy some game first. But, when it comes to how you wanna play IT DOESN'T MATTER as every faction can do any playstyle, unless you want a hacking game some time down the road. Then I would skip Tohaa and Ariadna as a first faction, unless your idea of a hacking game is lots of big guns and big swords then Ariadna could be for you. As Ariadna they normally pay less SWC for heavy weapons. While Nomads and Haqqislam can cover the board in repeater to hack from safely, but the Nomad hacker have a better range of HDs to choose from. Then while every faction has Doctors, Haqqislam has DOCTORS (yes they are that good the need big letters to show it). And on and on like that, this one does rush attack while this one does rush attack but can start closer or this one does rush attack but by dropping out of the sky. It all comes down to the models you pick to feild in a list form a faction as non have a set playstyle.

So again the one you like best is the one to pick, I know not very help full. So do what a lot dos stare at the pics until one faction wins.

PanO or Nomads are the easiest IMO, which is good as they're the two starters for Icestorm.

If a faction has a few models you don't like, you can easily counts-as something else. Infinity is chill in that regard. Conversions are great, but I've seen models simply painted in the colour scheme of their faction work perfectly well.

A mate of mine cut the hair and sword off of an Imperial Pheasant Agent, gave him a basic gun, and painted him as a Fusilier. Didn't notice for something like a year.

In the end, most of the units in the game are a "guy with a gun". If you make the armour type (light or heavy) and the gun (a rifle looking thing or something more iconic like a sniper or missile) nobody will care.

Also seconding the "choose with aesthetics" thing. Every faction can do most playstyles outside of a few specific units that each one has. Just pick the one you like models or fluff for and run with that. Someone mentioned ALEPH, CA and Tohaa as the hardest to figure out and that is true, however each of these armies can play a more 'vanilla' style and work much like any other army using a standard style list.

Merellin wrote:
I do quite like Yu Jing.. I love the looks of the Imperial Service Starter Pack.. Yu Jing has my least favorite TAG's, but they have awesome infantry guys.

Nomads I'm rather unsure of.. They have the most awesome TAG's, And some realy cool infantry, But also a bunch of models I dont like.. So while I genealy rate them rather low.. I also like them in part.. xD

If you choose for collecting I can see this as a problem. Guija is one of the oldest models and Yu Jing will soon get a Ghost Wolf TAG (soon as in 6-12 months or so). I also get a feeling that only JSA tend to use their TAG while vanilla tend to ignore the Guija. Put simply the Hac Tao or Yan Huo are way too good and you don't want multiple 60+ point models on the field.

Fluff-wise Yu Jing builds their own TAGs while everyone else buy theirs from Pan-O. Nomads get the really obsolete models (the relationship between Nomads and Pan-O is strained to say the least) and then upgrade them with their own Jury Rigs.

By the way, this is the reason why Yu Jing tends to ignore TAGs, imo: https://eternalrival.wordpress.com/category/yanhuo-invincible/
Just look at that imposing heavy infantry! Sure, it can't take as much punishment, but it can hide, go prone, dodge etc in a way a TAG can't. Hac Tao is similar in size and o-gak-not-in-the-face factor while the new sculpts for Tiger Soldiers are starting to show off what Corvus Belli can do. (I'm not a fan boy!)

Hmm... I think I want to skip Yu Jing.. They are cookl but a friend is buying them and said he'd prefer to play an army nobody else plays atleast at first. After looking more at Nomads I do like their models more now then when I started looking at them.. Hmm...

Could someone give me a rundown of Nomads, Tohaa and Combined Army? Like what are their strengths and weaknesses? Actualy, Give me the strangths and weaknesses of Haqqislam aswell since I got some of them already.

Sorry for all the questions and flopping back and forth, I'm just happy that people here are finaly getting into Infinity so I can get into it aswell.. xD I must say it is nice how it is a bit cheeper so it isent as much of a problem running two or three armies as it is in Warhammer 40k.. (So much more expensive to get 2-4 god sized armies there..)

Merellin wrote:
I do quite like Yu Jing.. I love the looks of the Imperial Service Starter Pack.. Yu Jing has my least favorite TAG's, but they have awesome infantry guys.

Nomads I'm rather unsure of.. They have the most awesome TAG's, And some realy cool infantry, But also a bunch of models I dont like.. So while I genealy rate them rather low.. I also like them in part.. xD

You can actually play your Haqqis with an Iguana (Nomad TAG), by using the Qaup Khalki sectorial. The problem is that the box you bought, very few of those models are available to that sectorial so you would have to proxy them.

The Iguana is the coolest TAG in the game.. If I continue with Haqqislam i'm thinking of either going basic Haqqislam or Qapu Khalqi.. I only got the Hassassin Bahram cus I could get them basicaly for free.. xD Was a good way to be able to try out the game ^_^


Oh! Is it worth buying the rule book to get the fluff and stuff?

How important is background and pretty pic to you? I own all of them but thats just me. Many don't as everything you need to player the game you can download for free except CB models.

The Iguana is a great TAG and because of the ES and repeater it easier then other TAGs.

Well, I do quite enjoy reading the fluff ^_^ And since I dont have any internet connected devices other them my desktop, And no printer, It would make it easier for me to brig the rules to the club for games too.. Plus I generaly prefer to have physical books.. xD

Merellin wrote:
Well, I do quite enjoy reading the fluff ^_^ And since I dont have any internet connected devices other them my desktop, And no printer, It would make it easier for me to brig the rules to the club for games too.. Plus I generaly prefer to have physical books.. xD

Then you will likely enjoy them, only get the N3 book for now. N3 Human Sphere will come out hopefully the end of the year early next year, this will have rewriting and expanded background like the N3 book. Plus, it will also have the non-campaign background and rules for the Paradiso book (ie. Tohaa and ALEPH's SP). It would be nice if the added the Spec-Op rules too, as some froms of ITS allow them and Army V doesn't help people understand them.

Hmm.. I'v been thinking and looking at the armies, I'm thinking I'l take two to start with (Since I just cant decide on just one..) And i'm thinking Haqqislam (Since I already have a start on them) And then either Tohaa or Combined Army.. What would be the best of the two alien factions for a newbie?

Good choice. Haqq is a fun faction. They all are really.

Tohaa may, and I stress that *may* part, see some minor changes with the updated Human Sphere rulebook. However, the best alien faction for a newcomer would be the one which has the minis said newcomer likes best. Not kidding here. Both factions have their idiosyncracies, but nothing difficult to learn, so pick the one you like the look of.

I'd go with Tohaa, you can mix various profiles in the triads. It gives you plenty of options to experiment and tailor to your taste. Few really cheap and powerful profiles in the army too. It's also an upside, since you're starting out and they don't have such large range to pick from.

Combined army plays more according to standard play, having access to a bit of everything with few unique and expensive abilities and profiles.

Well, After many days of looking at models, And pondering, And pondering more, And talking to friends, My friend who got Yu Jing (Running specificaly the Japanese Sectorial Army) said he dont mind me running Yu jing aswell, And I do like them best.. So I'm gonna be running Yu Jing (But not the japanese sectorial units). And a bit of Haqqislam since I already own them, So I'l be using them for learning the game while saving up for Yu Jing.