Infinity N5 - Initial Plans and Vibes

 

The new edition of Infinity, N5, released earlier this week. There's a lot to absorb as a player, and its going to take a while before I think I've got there. Now, I own quite a lot of factions, so I had a bit of a think about what I'm going to do first...

Our club has an escalation league starting up, and after writing one test list, I've decided to start N5 with my Shasvastii. There's not a huge amount of changes, but one of the more powerful profiles, the Speculo, has had some of its rules made a little less powerful, while half a dozen less used profiles have all had an overhaul. Seeing how a familiar faction has changed will be a good way for me to get a handle on the new edition.

I do want to shuffle into vanilla Combined Army in the future too. I'll have more models to paint up for that faction so it'll be Shasvastii first. However, we're still in the first few days and there may be some errors - the fireteams in particular look a bit odd, so I'm waiting to hear back if they can take a Haris team or not.

So, the Combined Army will likely be a bit of a painting project coming up. I've got some half finished bits to finish up first, and will likely get some Shasvastii profiles done to round them out after that. So it's probably a next year thing, but it shouldn't be too hard to get the basics knocked out pretty quickly.

I had a test game of N4 Druze and they seemed pretty good. I don't think much has got worse for them. They'd be fun to run out for six months or so at some point, and I don't need anything painted for them. A few profiles have changed or got a nudge up, which is a bit of a theme, really. I miss Druze, it'd be good to get back to them. There's a bunch of their N4 upgrades I've not gotten to trying out properly yet.

A lot of the Dahshat staples have suffered a bit in the new edition. Their loss of Ghulam snipers hurts a core part of the N4 build I was using for them, and fireteams getting downgraded on top of that is rough. McMurrough isn't as tough, either. There's only a Cateran sniper to be added model wise, and that's not really going to hold me up from giving them a go.

Ikari are sitting in the "some time in the future" box right now. I basically have them due to a big crossover of the models from Druze, and some discounted models. I ran them on a whim once at an N3 tournament without any practice and got absolutely ruined, and they do deserve better.

Qapu Khalqi also need a few bits before I can get them going, but I think they're ahead of Ikari in my brain. I like Haqqislam as a faction, and "QK" have picked up a few new and interesting profiles. Another future project, but one I think I could really put some time into and have fun with.

I've been playing my White Company for a good bit at the end of N4. There's a bunch of new character models that have been added to the faction, which I'll need to get painted up. I'm going to take a break from them, but I expect I'll start to miss them in a bit and want to come back to them soon.

Nomads are the faction I really want to get back to at some point. I want to get them painted first and that's been the real blocker so far. I think they're pretty much queued up after I get vanilla Combined Army done, but that might be a while. So, one for the future...

Druze Bayram Security N4 Update - In Time for N5...

 

I commissioned Thunderbrush Studio to get my neon Druze updated for N4. A mix of me focusing on other factions and scheduling meant that I only got them back after N4 had been announced.

First up, we have a Triphammer. This a large mining suit repurposed to an improvised military TAG. This Ariadnan Triphammer came from the TAG Raid Kickstarter.

The other part of the mining contingent are these two Diggers. Miner's in Exo suits, these are heavy infantry with short ranged weapons. In Druze, they can join the Druze fireteams and provide some defensive resilience.

Next up is Fiddler, a special character engineer who is canonically trans. She's got a history in Aristeia, before moving into mercenary work, allowing her to be hired by the Druze faction.

The next group are Denma Connelly and some Zellenkriegers. These fighters who take part in illegal underground Aristeia rings often get involved in other illegal activities, meaning it makes sense that they might end up involved in some Druze Bayram Security black op.

Finally, a new Bounty Hunter, a Beasthunter, and a CSU. The first two are pretty standard mercenary types, while the latter can't normally be taken in Druze. I've picked her up for Reinforcement games and the extra where you get a free CSU.

I'm absolutely adoring the vibes that the Druze force is giving off now. You've got some notorious mercenaries, pirates, criminals, miners and independent contractors. Every background text you read for the eclectic profiles in the list really hangs together as part of a coherent whole. I still have a lot of affection for the Druze faction so will definitely be returning to them in N5...

Infinity NA2 New Forces

 

I sent off a couple of batches of Infinity figures to Thunderbrush to get various bits and pieces I've been picking up for my NA2 factions painted up. Unfortunately, my original NA2 miniatures are on Antenocitis Workshop bases, who are now very sadly no longer trading. Fortunately, Monstrous Makings are now making some base toppers with similar designs.

On the left we have the slightly daftly named "Wolfgang Amadeus Wolff", a mercenary who can fight for the Druze. He's a punchy, tough character, which is really useful for the somewhat fragile Druze. On the right is an old 2nd edition Ghulam sniper I won at a tournament at some point. I think I already have one somewhere but I will often run a multiple sniper defensive link in Dahshat, so it was worth getting him painted up.

Both Dahshat and Druze use Monstruckers, and they also turn up as reinforcements for all the NA2 factions. I grabbed several copies of these as so many of my factions use them and they were going out of production!

Originally, just Ikari Company and Qapu Khalqi had access to Yuan Yuan, but they've been expanded out to Druze as well at some point in N4. I have the old sculpts, but the new ones are really pretty, so I got them an update...

And finally, Dahshat company gets the new Hulang. This is a bit of an indulgence as Dahshat only get one, but it was a flimsy excuse to get the new Crazy Koala models...

Druze Bayram Security Expansion Painted

Alongside the Dahshat Company models I sent to Thunderbrush Studios was a pretty extensive update to my Druze Bayram Security. Druze were my first commission painted army and I played them very extensively a couple of seasons ago. Unfortunately, their limited unit selection and unforgiving playstyle meant I eventually gave up to avoid falling out of love with the game and moved over to Dahshat Company.

With the new edition, Druze have had a bit of an overhaul, and a whole bunch of new units to try out. First up are Kunai Solutions Ninjas. These masters of close combat are armed with long range rifles they're mediocre with. In keeping with Druze Bayram Security's high quality vetting and hiring processes, you can even take two. I picked these up for completionist reasons, and am not exactly expecting them to shine.

Next up is Aida Swanson, a smuggler and secret alien infiltrator. I suspect Druze Bayram Security don't so much have an HR department but rather a creepy guy in a dive bar picking up anyone who's willing to kill people for money and is good at it. The vetting is more "are you a narc?" than checking for war crimes...

Aida is a profile I'm really rather curious about. She forward deploys with submachine guns and viral mines, so is quite capable of messing people up. Lacking a market state, she's not well placed to defend and is more a short ranged attack piece who will kill lightly armoured targets super dead and disrupt the midfield.

Taowu, Mastermind and Schemer is a criminal mastermind who has a side hustle as a futuristic sports star. As you do. With the ability to disguise himself as another model, some nasty close combat tricks and brutal short ranged loadout options, I think he's probably a back-field sweeper model who waits for attackers to get close, then leads an unexpected counter attack.

Security Chief Arslan was available in N3, but the model came out pretty late in the edition and I hadn't gotten around to picking him up. He's a character from the Outrage graphic novel that Corvus Belli published, which is well worth a look if you haven't picked it up.

He's in a weird place as a unit profile. He's got across the board good MI stats with a solid middle of the road weapon load out - MULTI Rifle, Light Shotgun and Viral Pistol gives you solid options for killing most targets, especially with +1 Dam on his shooting. Dodge +3 and No Wound Incapacitation ups his survivability, but the lack of Shock Immunity means he's not as tough has he could be - he's well placed to survive a lucky shot back but shouldn't be trying to defend in the Reactive Turn. The Multispectral Visor L1 rounds him out, meaning he's got gear for pretty much every circumstance.

I kind of love Arslan in N4 because he's such a good example of a character's rules exemplifying a faction's theme. Druze are a criminal organisation with a paramilitary arm, not professional soldiers. They're well equipped veterans despite that, and have a wide range of gear. But they lack some of the top end military options that full armies can deploy.

Mechanically, the biggest deal in terms of new units for Druze Bayram Security is the ability to take Bulleteers. Pan Oceania has clearly decided to sell more of their higher end tech to mercenary companies, probably because they like money. These cheap and cheerful Mimetism -6 gun platforms are super hard to hit, meaning that they can get into a whole bunch of gun fights quite happily.

I have also had an Anaconda painted, but photos will have to wait as she took a small ding in the post and needs some repairs. Once that's done I'll get her up on the blog.

The post shouldn't be taken as a commentary on the overall changes to the faction. The increased fireteam flexibility around Brawlers and Bounty Hunters is in many ways far more of a boost, I suspect. Limiting armies to fifteen models will also help the Druze avoid getting swarmed, which was historically a risk for them. They've also gained the Wulver mercenary Wolfgang and the trans icon engineer Fiddler, but their models are only just coming out now and I've not got them painted just yet.

I'm not planning on diving back into Druze immediately. I've been focussing on the Shasvastii as I get them painted up, although my Defiance Pledge not having turned up means that my first few in person games are going to be Dahshat Company. Still, they're basically a ready to go army and I remain deeply fond of them, so I will certainly get back to them in time . . .

Infinity League - Druze vs JSA: Supremacy (Season X)

At the end of Season X, I managed to get in my last game for the HATE Infinity League. Unfortunately, I wasn't 100% paying attention when we set the game up, and I thought my opponent was playing his usual Morats, and hadn't realised he was playing JSA in the League. This meant I had a force that was really not well suited to JSA's usual tricks, and I was rather worried about how it was going to go.

I breathed a sigh of relief that there weren't any Ryuken Unit 9, as I hadn't brought any MSV. The main threat was a link of Keisotsu Missile Launchers covering the main approaches. I managed to push my Druze link up the left and dismantled the Missile Launchers, killing one and freeing up the advance.

I set the link up to cover the advance of the HI Haris link, and switched onto the second group. I decided I wanted to use the Hunzakut to try and deal with the second Missile Launcher before it could do anything inventive.

Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed a long fire lane across the board and got spotted on the run into position. Fortunately, I managed to put a couple of shots in that direction while I fled for cover, and didn't die.

My Hunzakut then took out the second Missile Launcher with a shotgun blast. I ran out of orders before I could take on the link further, but I think you can see from this angle why my opponent was rather worried . . . The link was not well placed for a shotgun wielding thug to be just around the corner.

The JSA counter attack didn't do a huge amount, but it did manage to take out my Warcor, who had inconveniently not had the Xenotech place the important Multiscanner. Bother.

I dropped a Bashi Bazouk in and messed up the HI to clear the flank of threats.

The flank ended up a graveyard, though. The Bashi managed to run around, sync the Xenotech and get the Multiscanner down, before getting taken out in return. In the intervening period the Peacemaker had gotten taken out as part of a firefight with the JSA.

There was a last attempt to try and take out the main link, but it wasn't enough and I got a solid 10-0 win to finish the League. Results aren't up yet, but I'm hoping I did OK.

And now, on to a new season, and Dahshat Company rather than Druze Bayram Security.

Infinity League: Druze vs Yu Jing - Comms Centre

So, back down to HATE for the last but one League game with my Druze. This time, it was Comms Centre against Yu Jing. I lost the Lieutenant roll and my opponent chose to go second. I made them deploy first to make them suffer as much as possible for that decision...

Saito hid by the centre console just outside my deployment zone  (because of an exclusion zone in the centre preventing him infiltrating there), waiting to ruin they day of anyone who got too close. My opponent placed a Total Reaction HMG covering right down the middle of the board, and it was going to be a pain to get rid of.

I pushed up the right hand side of the board with my main link, getting set up to Sabotage the delivery van (one of my Classified) the following turn. I left the Brawler Heavy Rocket Launcher out to cause some pain.

With the other order group I ran a Fugazi up to find all the camo tokens. I was just not quite able to get all the camo tokens, but got a happy bonus as I found a TO Hacker instead.

I then got counter attacked by a blasted Shaolin Monk with a chain rifle and hadn't got enough ARO pieces out to stop it putting templates all over my lovely link team. The HRL had left a couple as nothing but ash and smoking boots before someone put and end to him.

An AROing E/M grenade launcher made one of a Kanren trying to sneak up and cause them more woe exceptionally sad.

My Brawler Doctor then had to run along and pick everyone up. It cost a couple of command tokens but I have a 4 person link again. I detonated a demo charge on the truck, and also had the E/M Grenade Launcher complete Net-Undermine . . . oh, and I had Experimental Drug...

With all three of the Classifieds scored, I was feeling a bit better about how the game was going.

On the other flank, Yu Jing skirmishers quickly took control of as many consoles as possible.

The Brawler Assault Hacker did some serious work and gained a couple of consoles for me.

Mid game, it was anyone's game to play for - but what's that on my right flank?

The Tiger Soldier is threatening a dangerous run up the flank, but the grenade launcher Druze again does sterling work and fills him full of holes.

With as many consoles flipped as possible, I set up as many defences as I can over the consoles for my opponent's last turn...

But while Saito manages to Engage his Lieutenant as he runs past, he gets a single roll to flip the centre console to him - succeeds, and swings the game to an 8-4 win for Yu Jing.

Infinity League: Druze vs US Ariadna - The Grid

With only a few games to go, I had another game for the HATE Infinity League a while back. This time it was "The Grid" against US Ariadna.

For those who don't know the mission - there are nine antennae on the field. You want to scan them - either by having any specialist get into base to base and pass a roll, or by having a Forward Observer complete a scan on them at range.

If you scan one your opponent has scanned, it flips to you.

From the second turn onwards, you can blow the antennae up, but only if you've already scanned them and they're currently flipped to you. Destroyed ones still count as scanned. 4 points for having scanned more, 4 points for having destroyed more of the three next to your opponent's deployment zone than they have destroyed your three (I know, I know) and 2 points for killing a "Designated Target" non com deployed by your opponent.

US Ariadna have lacked an update for a while now, so my main worry was their infamous "Inferior Infiltrating Grunts" trick, where there's a small chance one of their well armoured scrubs with a heavy flamethrower ends up right up your nose by your deployment zone and will set everyone on fire if you so much as sneeze.

Here, we can see Saito Togan's hidden deployment, off to the right of the board to try and snag a box in the mid game.

Here you can see my "terrified of flamethrowers" deployment. My link is scattered off to the left, a few models cower in the shadow of the centre buildings, and a couple more are over by the right hand shipping containers.

In the hope of trying to minimise what the US can do in their first turn, I put a linked missile launcher remote up on the roof of a building with a reasonable sight line down that side of the field.

For reference, both of the scary flamethrowers fail their infiltration roll and end up back in the deployment zone.

The deployment is a bit of a refused flank, with the bulk of the US Ariadna on his left flank and the bulk of my firepower on my left flank.

A couple of angry werewolves use smoke to get up to my designated target who proceeds to dodge like anything and avoid being mauled to death...

He runs a bike up to try and take down the designated target - they too fail.

I manage to take out the bike and injure one of the werewolves, and push a bunch of buttons on my side of the table and in the centre.

One of my Forward Observers makes a run to his designated target and takes it out...

But then it all goes a bit wrong. Thinking smart, the US player blows up two of the three antennae on his side of the field. I can observe and blow up the one remaining one - and do so, but all he needs now is to get two destroyed on my side of the field and I can't catch him up.

I'm on the back foot and can't really defend my right flank and centre at all well because my main shooting has pushed up the left flank already.

I make a last valiant effort to push up and get as many antennae flipped as possible...

But he manages to destroy two on my side, then casually flips more than I can get back, and finish off that pesky civilian, leaving the final score a 10-2 defeat for me.

I was thoroughly outplayed here. The fear of the flamethrowers meant I hadn't left enough defence out to do much about his push down my right flank. The denial plan worked excellently and I hadn't got anything in place to try anything as clever.

I've not played the Grid in a while, and it's been heavily FAQed since I last played it, meaning I really hadn't got the hang of the mission. It's a weird little puzzler, and I'm still trying to work out the best strategy to get it done.