After a year or so of my buddy trying to recruit me into Infinity, I have decided to taken the plunge. I will be starting my 150pt games name week, and start to prepar for a PreKrug tourney at month's end. I know I'll have barely scratched the surface about knowing what I'm doing, but the best way to learn is to play. We have a very friendly meta here, so I'm pretty excited about it. Japanese culture has long fascinated me, so the JSA was a no brainer, extra bonus that the models are so cool, especially the bikes. I have the JSA Army box on the way, a Yojimbo, Shinobu Kitsune, and my buddy is letting me have the Yuriko Oda from his Dire Foes Pack. What are the glaring holes that I should fill on the way to 300pts? I look forward to scouring these forums for information on how to build lists, and tactics. Thanks again
I would buy the Keisotsu SWC box when it comes in a month or two. Also buy the Domaru box if you can find it - it's sold out everywhere form what I can tell. Tanko would also be a good buy. You can also pick up the O-Yoroi at some point. TAGs aren't great, but some missions reward extra OBJ points for taking them - so you don't want to be left in the dust if those are missions for a tournament or something. It's also a very fun model.
I don't think I can overstate how useful the remote boxes are. At the very least i'd recommend picking up the Lu Duan/Rui Shi box. The yao-kong box is also great. While the Pannguling box is great for Vanilla YJ, I don't often take those profiles in JSA. Snagging a ninja is also a good use of your cash. If you can find the old single model hacker blister anywhere that'd be more cost effective than the two model blister, but I don't know how likely that will be these days.
I second the Remotes boxes. I hardly ever leave home without them. although since the change they have seen less play from me. Ninja is a great buy as well - although I end up using my oniwaban as a ninja quite often.
Just a few thoughts: -JSA lists can be developed in a lot of different ways. You can go badass elite, focusing on building towards a 10-order list with a heavy Samurai Core team. In that case, Domaru and Tanko are great, and eventually Karakuri for their flexibility and ability to grab objectives. -I've been going with more of a 15-16 Order approach, using inexpensive Keisotsu and REMs to fill out ~10 or so Orders in my list, giving me plenty of remaining points for elite single choices like Saito, Oniwaban, Ryuken-9 or an elite Haris like Daiyokai/Domaru. Either approach is totally valid, it's just preference. I would advocate finding a model to stand-in as Saito, either by buying the official Saito model or finding a suitable Ninja-esque proxy that you like. Saito is possibly the best single purchase in JSA right now, in my mind: he has a good Burst 3 weapon, he's a top-notch CC killer against either soft or hard targets thanks to that EXP CCW, he brings those critical and rare Smoke Grenades, and now he can be a Specialist for when you start playing ITS missions too. Top-notch choice. Try to get your hands on the Tactical Bow ninja from Operation: Red Veil. That might be a tough order since most Yu Jing players are likely to keep their Ninja, but ask around. I third the REM box too, because I think a Sensor bot and a Flash Pulse bot are both critical purchases for anyone playing a game of Infinity. Rui Shi/Lu Duan box to help you actually shoot things. Keisotsu, Domaru, Shikami, Ninja, for all their value, are basically worst-in-category when it comes to Ballistic Skill.
I strongly recommend starting slowly. Infinity is a complex game, and even having played the game from the beginning, I still screw up rules, nevermind tactics. Another fun thing my friends and I did when the new edition came out was to play some focus games. They were 300pts, but we played all models with Close Combat skills, or all models with hacking or repeaters. Those were eye-opening. Japanese versus Greeks/Assault Subsection was quite a blast, fighting against Ajax and Achilles in CC (Domaru EM CCWs for the win!) ===== If you don't like the looks of the Yu Jing remotes, you can use just about any other faction's REMs with an appropriate paint job. I don't like the looks of the Yu Jing combat remotes (Rui Shi and Lu Duan), so I bought the Nomad combat REMs instead because the statlines are awesome. I don't really like the looks of the Yu Jing baggagebots, either, so I bought the Haqq Kameels. This is actually rather appropriate now that the Japanese have Seceded from YJ, so are buying gear from everyone.
Yeah, I got a kameel from shae's split box deal with my 2 domaru, specifically to be my rui-shi/lu duan.
Thank you. I have set up some learning games next week, at 150 pts, and will more than likely treat it as my own escalation/grow league, going up incrementally from there. I am currently working on making a few lists that will be different enough for me to play each model, to see what I like. I'm a calvary player in WM, Kraye and his calvary jacks, so the bikes really sing to me. From what I've heard our Infinity group here in my city are really great guys, so I'm pretty excited about getting started. The rule book is the most intimidating part of the game so far, and I'm hoping that actually playing games will help out the most. Doing is learning, right?
I'm not sure about you, but I'm very much a visual learner. actually playing the game and doing moves/actions makes everything SO much easier. It's a whole lot smoother when you're actually putting the rules on the table.
I usually recommend playing 3-5 games at each points level, trying different things. Bikes are challenging to learn, because they never get (partial) cover. They're either completely out of Line of Fire, or completely exposed. But all 6 bikes are only ~160 points: Japanese Secessionist Army ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 1 6 KUROSHI RIDER Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Breaker Pistol, AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 33) ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 26) ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 26) ARAGOTO (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) ARAGOTO Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 28) YOJIMBO Contender, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 21) 2.5 SWC | 159 Points Open in Infinity Army
i can't believe that all six bikes total out at 160. I just picture them as hornets/kamikazes, zipping in, surgically removing crucial pieces, and zipping out. That looks filthy fast. I can just picture this wreaking havoc, and when the enemy tries to engage, rooftop shooting them when they emerge from cover. I have Yojimbo on the way, but read to hold off on the Aragoto's, plus I can't find them anywhere. It seems like the bikes would have to have an inclusion of some rooftop fire support. Or a monstrous O-Yorio, and some rooftop cover, and then used as a flanking device. My first games will be this week, and I'm pretty excited. My list for Tuesday: Tyro List ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7 1 KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9) KEISOTSU Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11) KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9) KEMPEI (Chain of Command) Combi Rifle / Pistol, CCW, Electric Pulse. (0 | 22) DAIYŌKAI MULTI Marksman Rifle, Panzerfaust / Pistol, DA CC Weapon, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 52) KUROSHI RIDER Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Breaker Pistol, AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 33) TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) 0 SWC | 150 Points Open in Infinity Army
Any reason you're not taking any SWC? You could fit a Red Fury Daiyokai and a Keisotsu missile in there with some minor changes.
My Ryuken with HRL will probably be a keisotsu missile most days. :P So out of the starter box, that's certainly possible. I'm actually not sure if the MMR or the RF is the better loadout on the Daiyokai. >.<