I'm slowly getting into the game and figuring out which faction I would pick to play as. I'm not at the moment yet, but this got me thinking how other people felt in this situation. The reason why I asked about the Combined Army is that it is a faction that I'm interest in playing with the most out of the ones available so far. So, why did everyone choose this faction over the others? Was it the background about them, the models, or how they play in the game?
Welcome Welcome! I may not be the best person for this but I want to chime in as someone who, for the first time since getting involved with the miniatures in 2007, is interested in painting/playing a CA force. Before I get into my rant, I should state that I am a hobbyist first and gamer second. As someone who always plays humans/human options in games (RPGs, Tabletop, Crawlers, Video Games et al) I absolutely love the new SEF models that are coming in the Operation: Coldfront box, and they really have my attention. They offer a very different vibe from any of the other factions available in Infinity, and with that comes painting and conversion possibilities. In game terms, they have some great options with the ability to pull of some of the standard "gotcha"s you'd see in other factions, while having some fun options that are all their own? You mentioned that they are a faction that you're interested in playing - what about them has caught your attention? How far into Infinity or other miniature gaming have you gone?
I haven't got into Infinity that deep, since the player base where I am is small or not really active, so I have no gotten that far yet. Still working on that. For why I'm interested in the Combined Army, I think it is them being aliens that you can play as that made me like them the most. The look is also a big factor too once I saw the models they came out with in the last couple of years, which made me buy the Third Offensive book.
Of all CA options I'm playing SEF, and it's not my first army. At a time I've had PanO (my first faction), and some Aleph (started with Nagas in SAA and expanded from there), and I was looking for something that played completely different than those two. Shasvastii filled the bill perfectly, back there it didn't do direct firepower so well as it does now, but it could deploy multiple Camo tokens, keep some more troops in hidden deployment, and all my opponent saw was a blank Courtesy List. It's a very distinct and very satisfying playstyle.
For me it was the cool looking unidrones and the avatar :) . I'd played jsa before and wanted a more shoot them in the face army and linked ,assisted fire plasma sniper delivered just that . Oynx was the army that got me to really appreciate hacking too .
I read a post on "which army is right for you" looked at all the options and picked them because they're the bad guys and they look badass. I had no real knowledge of the game and its mechanics, I simply picked them based on looks. :D
I liked their aesthetic, especially the Anathematic. Once N3 came out, I started playing Onyx off and on, and ended up really liking their playstyle that relies a lot on the hacking game and buffs and synergies - many of their pieces interact with each other in fun ways. In the end it makes playing the game fairly mentally rewarding.
In short: In long: whole empire with several different factions. Several game styles (vanilla, Morat, Shas, even Onyx all play differently). Also, alien "Artificial Intelligence" opposed to humanity's one. The models are great for other games, too.
Combined army if for the Bad Kids! the aestetics are very halo covenant with Xcom style and some gears of wars really like that army... but to fight against it But usually they are the same type of players. Bad Kids XD
Absolutely loved the look and style after the release of Onyx. It may be "classic" even aliens in an anime/video game sense but in Wargaming it was a refreshing change of pace to have them not be undead or demons or space egyptians or something weird like that. They just have such a slick and deadly vibe and I wish I could get terrain and vehicles in a style to match.
I was given a CA starter (the original one) in N2. But then I saw the Raicho (original sculpt) and painted it like megatron. And now I'm here with basically the third offensive main battlegroup. I have plenty of factions but CA will always be my home faction as it were, the rules are extremely well fluff tied, morats relentlessly stand and fight, unidrons are supreme terror line troops for an alien vanguard which keep going until they're utterly destroyed while displaying absolute technological superiority. It's really easy to see why they are the antagonist faction. But yeah plasma.
Sooner or later - I always play the remorseless evil, bastards of a game. But, eventually I needed a break from PanO so I switched to Combined as a change of pace. Never looked back.
I'm playing 1 faction per season. Faction 1/season 8 was Ariadna (love the design, less rules to learn) Faction 2/season 9 was Aleph (opposite of Ariadna : high tech, elite, all the toys) Faction 3/season 10 is Nomads (mix of Ariadna and Aleph : can play elite or numbers, most of the toys, good midfield...) And Faction 4/season 11 will be vanilla CA because : - playing evil is good for once - good TAG faction - access to plenty of trick - nice psychological game (TO TAG, TO missile, strategos, impersonnation, camo with people eating abilities...) - some good mid-cost unit (caliban, ko dali...) - really fun choice of warband (taigha + preta/gacki + daturazi => fun) - the new Shasvasti look very nice
I almost always play the most "alien" faction in any game I can. And for Infinity, the Onyx Box came out right when my friend got me into it, so it was a very easy choice for me. They were actually a bit more "humanoid" than I would usually play, but man do those Umbra look sinister. Nearly every TAG is just menacing. They have an incredible variety of playstyles. But let's also not forget that the EI is simply trying to show other races their role in reaching ascension... they just don't take "no" for an answer.
It was the "Rule of Cool" for me, the Anathematics was just so bad-ass looking I knew my faction right away. It's also how I became Santathematics and got this from Mayacast.
I wanted to play Morats for the lore and as a brick in the face faction without much special tricks like markers, impersonaters etc.
I got into CA as my first army, mainly because I preferred the aesthetic (original drones and Anathematic, oh boi), it was one of the few armies unrepresented in our little developing meta, and it had a starter box on the shelf lol. Naturally, the next day or so someone else bought into them, collected every fucking model they had, and I became "the other CA player" so I switched to Tohaa and 'mained' them for years. As a new player, the advice you'll get is "pick what looks cool". I would hugely second that advice. Many people I see start with a cool army and move to a playstyle army afterwards, but frankly, in this game you don't know what you'll like on the table until you do it. Its hard to characterize factions as the "melee army" or the "tricks army" outside of a few examples (*cough* Ariadna *cough*). Pick what looks sweet, make a light investment in the game, and then when you know wtf is going on when you sit down to play you'll have an idea of the abilities and style of play you want and people can give more accurate advice.
