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What do they all bring?

Discussion in 'General' started by Ibn_Sina, Dec 23, 2019.

  1. Ibn_Sina

    Ibn_Sina New Member

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    Am a new Infinity player and played a few games as Ariadna Aleph Nomads and PanO don't know which to pick so I had an idea of why not using mercenaries that way I can use the ones I like and am not having to choose one faction. As the title goes though what do each of the companies brings with them that the others don't and which in your opinion has the steepest learning curve and which has the more forgiving?
     
  2. Janzerker

    Janzerker Well-Known Member

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    I'm not sure your idea will work as you initially though, specially given the fact you will just find a scramble of a few units from main factions in the NA2 armies, which you're not sure you will even like (miniature or gameplay wise). Also if your unit choices are between Ariadna, Aleph, Nomads and PanO you pretty much reduce your options to Starco and Foreign Company.

    That being said I will give you a short brief of the NA2 and then you decide.

    - Druze: They have a limited list and they base their strength in the fireteams of Druze and Brawlers. Additionally they have a few skirmishers from Haqqislam and PanO REMs. Their reason to be lies in the flexibility of Druze/Brawlers links due to these units options, which makes them quite toolboxes and also allows to refill casualties in the links. Their trademark is the fearsome E/M LGL in full core and the privilege of having the only Saito with specialist option. Due to their limited (in variety of units) nature people classify them as high step learning curve.

    - JSA: Former part of the YuJing faction/roster they keep part of YJ expertise in HI gameplay, therefore being able to pull lists full of HIs. However while doable in Limited Insertion formats, in the practice they tend to rely in their mediocre light infantry supporting their expensive skirmishers. JSA has the most formidable CC units in the game in competition with Aleph's ancient greek inspired monsters but in exchange they pay with a shortage of long range firepower. Very aggressive army but High step learning curve.

    - StarCo: Based mainly in Nomads they get also a few (very few) units from Haqqislam and Ariadna and a good bunch of merc units and characters. Quite flexible in composition they can play quite well links of LIs as well as HIs. Their trademark is fearful Emily with E/M LGL in full core, the presence of Raoul Spector and Riot Grll links. Quite powerful and easy to play.

    - Ikari: In a nutshell asian space corsairs which base most of their forces in JSA, a few YuJing and Haqqislam units and mercs. For some is a better and more funny version of JSA as you trade part of excessive JSA's supremacy in CC in exchange for the long range firepower they lacked. The drawback is the rigid composition of their fireteams makes them frail as they can't be reformed again if any of the required components is missing. They also suffer a lack of specialist options. Their trademark is one of the funniest units in the game: Yuan Yuan. Very playable neither easy nor difficult.

    - Spiral Corps: Tohaa 2.0 They lose some of the most powerful and faction defining Tohaa units such as Makaul and Sukeul in exchange of becoming more insidious and enjoying full core bonuses. They are Tohaa, so powerful army.

    - Foreign Company: A mix of Nomad and PanO units to make up as atrezzo for the supposed stars of the sectorial: the A team and their friends. The rigid composition of their links in the case you want to include the Aristeia characters has won them many detractors. In the end many people seem to find is better to play few characters and between the elite selection of units that compose this army it gives a nice feel of corporate mercenary ciberpunk army. Not many people play them so it's difficult to rate their power and learning step curve.

    - Dashat Company: Lore wise probably fits the definition of military mercenary force better than anyone else. gameplay wise, composed by a nice pick up of Haqqislam and YuJIng forces as well as some powerful merc characters; it's been rated as the most powerful NA2 army by many people, to the point some even say it's borderly OP. fact is it rips off half of the mechanics that make the soul of YJ's sectorial Invincible Army and then adds everything else IA is negated. Additionally it features the most OP merc character at current: Mc Murrough. Their only weakness is that they must rely on lots of order generating support REMs if they don't want to make short in regular orders, and REMs occupy a lot of table space. Their trademark fireteams filled with the cheap ABH SMG, Hunzakuts, Kums, TacAwar Zuyongs and McMurder.
     
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  3. Ibn_Sina

    Ibn_Sina New Member

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    Thank you for the detailed reply I didn't man to say I only wanted those four (sorry for the confusion) I was just saying that those we're the ones I have been playing in the few games I have played not because I was narrowing it down but because it was what I thought would be fun at the time as I said I have only played a few games but as I said before thank you for the detailed reply I may keep going with NAA or I may stay with one of the ones I have played again thank you.
     
  4. inane.imp

    inane.imp Well-Known Member

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    The other thing to note with NA2 is Infinity's Proxy rules mean that you can easily dip your toes into any of them.

    There's no reason you can't play Dashat with MB and Brawlers as proxies for ZY and ABHs. Or FoCo with MB and Algs as proxies for Orcs and Securitate.

    Nomads is the easiest faction to do this with (least proxying required), but there's no reason you can't do it with PanO, Haqq or YJ.
     
  5. Cthulhu363

    Cthulhu363 May his passage cleanse the world.

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    You might want to watch some battle reports with each of the NA2 factions to get a feel for them. Also, the White Noise podcast did an excellent episode on Foreign Company and Mayacast spent a month just talking about Dashat.
     
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  6. Space Ranger

    Space Ranger Well-Known Member

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    Just by having some Druze, you can play the Druze Bayram, Ikari, and QK. 3 different armies with a core of 4-5 Druze.
     
  7. TheDiceAbide

    TheDiceAbide Thank you for your compliance.
    Warcor

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    I have a write up here of all the factions you may be interested in:
    https://www.thediceabide.com/blog/2019/8/26/infinity-which-faction-is-for-you-updated

    Regarding this part, I'd say that JSA (if you count them) followed by Spiral, have the steepest learning curve. They both lack powerful active turn high-burst weaponry and instead rely on mid-short range equipment and generally lower burst, and instead rely on shenanigans (TO camo, impersonators, etc.) that get harder to take advantage of the more experience your opponents have. ForCo is also a bit more challenging, thanks to it's rigid link structure and expensive toys. All three of these NA2 armies have great minis, but I wouldn't say any of them are easy to play.

    Dahshat is probably the most forgiving of the merc companies, it has decent board control, super flexible links, and a good amount of variety, the only thing they're notably missing is a Killer Hacker, but you don't really need those. Ikari is also fairly straight forward, but it's lack of midfield units can hold it back in some missions, and they want to play more aggressively than some players are ready to do. Ikari also have hands down the worst lieutenant options in the game, and incredibly rigid link structure, which takes more practice to use, making them a bit more challenging than Dahshat.

    Druze is a very fun army, which I really love, it's low number of units means you can spend more time learning to use the tools you have. The downside to them is that Druze themselves are fairly expensive thanks to all the gear they bring, so to make them work well, you really need to get the most out of their chaincolts, viral pistols, etc.
     
    #7 TheDiceAbide, Jan 8, 2020
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2020
    Space Ranger and Florian Hanke like this.
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