How to start PanOceania?

Best thing I would recommend based on the fact that you like so much:

Proxy the ever-loving shit out of everything else until you find what you like to use and then from there start looking at how you want to play the game.

Some like ITS, some like 20x20, some like YAMS (They're grrrrrrreat!) which can affect how you build and army list.

But find what works for you out of what you like.

 

Welcome to the hyper-power!

As a personal preference, I feel as though our sectorials are much stronger than vanilla. They allow us to leverage our already high BS and usually take some units outside of vanilla that offer much needed support. That being said, Vanilla is probably a fine starting point. I would suggest you buy The "Beyond Icestorm" box for access to the powerful Swiss Guard and the Kamau HMG. I would also suggest you buy the recently released Zulu Cobra, as he is a strong unit choice vanilla or Varuna.

Whether you go Sectorial or Vanilla, Icestorm is a really good starting point as Fusiliers are in 2 of our 4 sectorials and can easily be proxied for the other 2 line troops.

Keep us updated with whatever direction you choose to head in and don't be afraid to ask questions!

 

Do you like knights? Jungle fighters? Professional army? Special Forces?

If you're drawn to the theme of a sectorial, and you like the miniatures in that sectorial, that's a good reason to play a sectorial. It's important to love the army that you play, and PanOceania sectorials recently received a lot of rules attention. It's a very good time to start one.

But Vanilla PanO is a good place to start for learning. As mentioned though, you should feel free to proxy miniatures until you find out what you like.

 

If you love Panoceania enough just start with generic and end up playing all its sectorials. Except for Acontecimento. I mean, come on, they are just poor jungle dwellers. Low class.

But seriously now, generic is great to start. If after that you want a sectorial that it's similar and where you can use most of the miniatures, get into Neoterra.

If you prefer something with different playstyle get into Varuna. You can use a lot of the miniatures like the fusiliers, crocman and remotes, and this sectorial is probably one of the best in the game.

If you like IP troops, flowing cloth and want to play the absolutely coolest thing in Infinity then go for the Military Orders. I think with the new rules they got they are more difficult to play than the other sectorials, and you'd need entirely different miniatures from the ones used in generic... But elite space Knights is some good shit to play.

Being a bit more specific, here are some few ideas on what to buy:

- Great for generic and Neoterra: Swiss Guard, Auxilias, Hexas, Bulleteers (they are great in any sectorial, but I'd play them more here), Dronbots (same).

- Great for generic and Varuna: Crocman, Helot, Zulu Cobra.

- Useful in generic and all sectorials: Support pack, and all remotes (including the mentioned before).

Also consider the Beyond Icestorm. It has the Swiss Guard miniature that aside from being awesome it's a great troop for generic and Neoterra. It has a Kamau HMG and you will definitely want it for Varuna. And it also has a Bolt paramedic... And well... Not sure you will use it but it's there. Get some friend who plays Yu Jing and split the box.

 

Sounds like you're leaning towards MO! I would suggest proxying the Fusiliers as Order Seargants for the time being.
As for a buy list – I would shoot for the 300 point box and work from there. Neoterra is also a good choice, although their starter box isn't too great to be honest

 

NCA is awesome, but you probably won't run more than 1 or 2 heavy armor guys in a list. If you want that style, go MO. They are very strong in that regard.

 

Bolts are controversial. They aren't bad, in fact they are great, it's just that they are expensive so in NCA it becomes difficult to find a role or a place for them as a core link. They just don't do dramatically better than the fusilier link for defense. As an attack link they struggle with speed, though in this ITS season the FD L1 helps.

 

I think for a beginner Fusiliers are the way to go. Bolts are expensive and aren't point and click by any means. The NCA starter is not worth it IMO. Too many unoptimized choices and outdated miniatures.

 

If Bolts were in any other army, they wouldn't be so maligned. But in PanO, Bolts are an unusual setup. Most PanO units are very obvious in how to use, have one role and that's what they do. Bolts have a bit more flexibility than usual for PanO, but some of their gear overlaps (Combi rifles are good from 0-16", light shotguns are for 0-8", for example).

They definitely take a lot of practice to figure out how to use, which means you're going to lose a lot of games until you figure them out. If that frustrates you (or you're in a slow-grow tournament with prizes on the line), skip the Bolts and stick with easier-to-use troops.

 

Military Orders is my favourite sectorial and I just love to play with it.

But I thing anyone new to this game should be warned that MO is not that easy to play and its options are much more constrained than most of the other sectorials in the game.

 

Just to toss my 5 eurocents in: starting with a sectoial instead of vanilla is strongly recommended for new players precisly because of lack of variability. (And the raw firepower and order efficiency granted by fireteams.) Vanilla can be overwhelming for a new player recisly because of the vast amount of available troopers.
Although I admit winning with MO is not an easy task, playing MO properly is RELATIVELY easy to learn. (Notice the emphasis on 'relatively'!) No smoke and no warbands is a hinderance tactically, but exploiting them takes practice and experience. You just take knights in spesh with big guns, and tough armour, equipped with high tech stuff (Yes, I'm looking at you, tofoos!) and shoot the sh1t out of your opponent.
Regarding OP: if you like the idea of spesh marines, I warmly recommend to take a look at Joan of Arc!
I hope, this helps.

 

Well, you could play a Joan heavy armoured list in generic and would have fun with your five HIs wrecking your opponent. You can take this way knights and NCA HIs. Plus those kind of lists have enough must have to give you a base to build around to let you discover PanO safely.

 

I've answered this question enough times now that I thought a template answer would be useful:

http://heartofthehyperpower.blogspot.com/2018/09/starting-with-hyperpower-guide-to.html

I hope it's of some use!

 

Well, you've got some basic mooks, one defensive piece, one mediocre Lieutenant HI, one basic drop trooper and a good heavy hitter. You can basically go anywhere from here.
What I would add:
- another heavy hitter; Nisse HMG would be the obvious choice, but you already have Aquila and they do similar things. So maybe ORC HMG or Holy Sepulchre instead
- an Infiltrator or two. Croc Men or Zulu Cobras are both great options. Locust is a bit mediocre.
- Black Friar, because everyone loves Black Friar
- use one Fusilier as a Hacker and add some Dronbots and Armbots. Sierra dronbot is a good defensive piece that can act as an offensive one as well, Bulleteers are golden, Fugazi are cheap orders
- Auxilia for cheap specialists/Auxbots
- Upcoming Echo Bravo paramedic
- Mercs: one cannot go wrong with Authorized Bounty Hunter sniper or Krakot.