What do people think is the overall best faction for running Heavy Infantry en masse? I know this might be a relatively odd question to ask, but I feel curious about this now ( Especially since I make no effort to hide my liking for Heavy Infantry. ) and would find it interesting to know what others think and why. I do have a feeling PanOceania and Yu JIng are probably the most obvious guesses here, though it wouldn't surprise me if a wild Nomad barged in and claimed it's actually the Nomads. What faction(s) do you think make the best use of HI? Which faction(s) can get away with making use of HI the best? And what faction(s) do you think can get away with shoving a decent handful of HI onto the table? And since I suppose this might be of relevance too, what's your favorite HI unit? ( Mine's the Daofei ATM. It's like a combat Skirmisher... except it has 2W and a Spitfire! )
It's so obviously Yu Jing that it's barely worth discussing. "Welcome to the HI Emporium! We got camo HI, transforming HI, Ariadna HI, literally the good HI from PanO but more YJ-ified, beefy HI, beefy HI but with Mimetism, CC HI, CC HI but with a sensor, SK HI, LT Recreation HI, AD HI, and like three different flavors of vanilla HI! All the HI you could dream of!" No one does all of that or as well, even though there are some specific HI that are very good in other factions -- the Kriza is great, for example, but if you're looking to play HI, YJ is it. I think PanO HI in general are very average, or at least inferior to their YJ counterparts. Aquila has MSV3 but no smoke to shoot through, Hsien has MSV2 with a ton of smoke, for example. Most of the Knights are just unusable in Vanilla, or even unusable in MO. The Swiss is good, the Guarda is pretty solid, and the Santiago is great now with Wildcard, but I really can't see myself fielding them out of their respective sectorials. My ASA lists feature an occasional Orc, but only because it links.
Unhackable, Mimetic, Shock Immune, Veteran L2 (Sixth Sense, NWI), AP HMG Vet Kazak in a five-man link. Change my mind ;)
Definitely Yu Jing in my experience. Most factions have an option for just slugging it out with a HMG, often bringing along big modifiers, but none can match the versatility of YJ for every other category- even Nomads can't match YJ Infowar when only HI are taken into account, thanks to the sheer number of good options available. My personal favourite Heavy Infantry unit is the Hsien HMG. It never, ever has a bad fight unless Surprise or stacked AROs are involved, and makes a great LT choice that can usually survive a whole game if not over-extended while making best use of the LT order to clear out ARO threats, especially those that like to rely on visual mods and smoke instead of armour.
You know, I actually think Nomads edges out JSA and PanO for second best. While they don't get as much variety as PanO, nomads do get to link Riot Grrls and Hollow Men (in different sectorials), and those are probably two of the best, if not the two best HI links in the whole game, pound for pound. And then there's the fact the Kriza is probably the best model to win FTF shootouts in the game, and the Taskmaster is just an awesome toolbox model. However, Yu Jing has them beat in variety and efficiency of their HI for sure. Specially now that Invincible army has given them some unwieldy but strong link options. That's pretty great.
That's a rather amusing way to put it. The good old faithful Hsien. Can rarely ever go wrong with one. I honestly agree with this. I always found it rather interesting how Nomads have a surprisingly varied, if small, selection of HI. Got the regular vanilla HI, got the Frenzy Discount HI, also got the G:REMPRES HI, they also got the walking toolbox HI and the big bad brick you slam in your opponents face HI. That's some nice HI.
Nomads have excellent HI links and some very strong solo HI options too, so I'd say if you want to run HI you definitely can in Nomads, but if you really want a faction that'll let you fill any tactical role with HI? Yu Jing.
Want to run HI together with HI, and damned the consequences? Also HI? Yu Jing. Want a list where HI is the point and the rest of the list exists to support this point and finish the mission? Probably Nomads or Aleph.
Yeah, that's a decent point. I'm not playing either Riots or Hollowmen, so I'm not used to thinking of Nomads in those terms.
They both are crazy strong links. Riots probably slightly better shooters, Hollow Men are faster and more flexible, but if you want to play core HI fireteams Nomads will do it. Hell even CJC will have strong HI links after next week, with them being linkable with Alguaciles!
Probably Nomads. They do have 2 quite bonkers HI teams, on top of interesting and very powerfull solo HI options. Even poor Mobile Brigadas will have a mixed links, which should be quite good with an addition of cheap bodies and good specialists (Nomads style).
As if the temptation of ''Maxim, go grab Icestorm and Beyond and indulge your irrational single group list bias.'' Next thing you'll tell me is NCA is getting buffed too...
Hopefully not buffed. But mayby some options won't be an automatic "here I downgrade" things. Also: I'm not sure that you can actually fit anything powerfull into CSU's ... Ok, I'm wrong, CSU's could get SMG for total bonkers and costing 10 or below points xD
