Cross Gaming Club Forums

Chris’ guide to choosing an infinity faction:

First up this game is very nicely balanced, there are no broken or underpowered factions. So don’t be loosing sleep over this point.
The main thing to consider is what is your primary concern, Playstyle or Aesthetics? Do you want your force to play a certain way or do you want to master playing with the minis you love the look of most? Both approaches are equally viable.

Aesthetics.
If you are like me there will be models you simply love in all the factions.
If you are choosing on looks and having a hard time deciding all I can recommend is go for the faction with the Light Infantry/Line troops you like the most. These will be the core of a balanced squad and will generate your orders. With these units being integral to most lists its good to have basic LI you love the look of.
Bear in mind the aesthetic themes from these will then carry through to all those gorgeously sculpted specialists so really its win/win this way. (I love my 9pt Keisotsu models!!)
Obviously a browse of the gallery on the infinity website is the thing to do here.
And remember there are rules for Mercenary lists so you can always pick up models you love from other factions in addition to your main army and mix and match these together.

Playstyle
While it is the case that skills and equipment are largely generic across factions each does have its own flavour and strongpoints/limitations
If you want your force to play a certain way then here is a quick rundown of the factions.
This has become a little more diverse since the release of the sectorials so I’ll cover the generic factions first and edit the sectorials in shortly

PanO
Higher than average Ballistic skill
High tech, Lots of TO cammo, Lots of visors, The best Tags, Lots of remotes.

These chaps have the best shooting capabilities and are very well equipped
Can be expensive so may find themselves outnumbered and have weaker than average Docs, Engineers and hackers due to a lower Willpower

Yu Jing
Higher than average close combat
Heavy infantry,

If you like power armour, fighting up close and personal and ninjas then these are for you

Haqqislam
Higher than average Willpower
Good doctors, regeneration, climbing, impersonators, fairly cheap troops

These are the guys that keep on coming, cheap so good numbers of troops that can get back up after injury and won’t run away easily

Nomads
Info war specialists
Great hackers, lots of repeaters/markers, remotes, TO cammo and visors

These are the guys to run if you fancy High tech tricks and combos and shutting down the opponent’s tech

Ariadna
Higher than average Physique
Low tech, cheap troops, immune to EM ammo and hackers, lots of basic cammo,
Auto cannon, kilts, werewolves

This is the list if you like simple reliable tech and the ability to include cheap varied specialists

Combined army
Good all round stats
Well equipped with the most unique skills and equipment. Sepsitor/plasma etc
Very well focused specialists but high points costs/low model count

This is the Faction if you like aliens and small elite lists


I’ll try and add more detail over time plus a breakdown of the sectorials
And would love to get more info on the factions from the guys that play them

Nice breakdown Chris
Ariadna becomes so much more appealing once you know about that werewolf character lol

What about ALEPH? they have few minis though i see?

Aye ariadna, infact all factions, have some great individual features/units.

Yu Jing just got the first "Remote presence" Heavy infantry. The thing can F@*cking transform! From a super quick, climbing plus, mobility mode into combat mode bristling with wepons and a droolworthy statline.

As to Aleph I don know them as well as the others as they were released with the expansion.
So they will have to be added along with the sectorials

Main features are the Line troops being REMs so a terrible dodge but offset with Ch Lvl1 Mimetism.
Achilles/Patroclus and the Myrmidons looking like a ferocious Warband and charaters.
And very tough units like the post humans and an AI that can jump from one body to another
I'll add them in once I get more of a feel for them/do a little more research/have the book infront of me.

Chris has pretty much nailed it down in his post. The system is very balanced, more than any other game system I know. It is really a lot more about order management and tactics than having some UBEROMG!!!111 unit dishing out the hurt. Everything has a counter, and the wait of normal fire can take almost anything down.

The forces are pretty small, as £££ investment is low. I think I spent £60 (I got a good deal for some stuff from Vish) and I now have 20 models. I haven't yet felt the need to by more (though they are tempting me). It is cheap to get into and running a second fraction would be very easy.

The models are very detailed, though you can do a basic paint job and they look really good. It does not require amazing painting skills like some systems (WM/H figures are so detailed it always takes me AGES to paint a couple of guys).

Aleph are pretty good at techno war, have LOTS of remotes, some of which are cheap. Chris - Anything else?

Ariadna

Hardly any EM vunerability and cant be hacked, so can be good against some forces. The weapons are not uber amazing, but there are a couple of nasty ones. Has access to lots of AP weaponry. There are a couple of good CC troops, though Haqq and Yu Jing get access to better. The key is that the more specialist troops are really good at certain things. Using them in conjuction with each other is the key. And Vet Kazaks are hard as nails and can do some damage. The Autocannon is just amazing. He is the reason I started the force (the model is just sublime), and he is so good I normally try and work him into most forces.

Ariadna Sectorials

Caledonian - lots of CC specialists, tough and and can run quite a few guys as well.
Merovingian - Has a lot of infiltration for sneaking

I will see if I can put a bit more info down on these sectorials.

Woah, just what I was looking for! Thumbs up Chris & Marcus.