Hi guys, Puto again here. Started Ikari last week, trying to understand, after 5 games, what is this faction focusing on. I come from Ariadna, mostly USARF and TAK: the first is focused on camo and infiltrators and some warbands to wreak havoc in the opponent DZ, while having some cheap AROs to keep up defense; the second is all around shell game, but VetKaz FT or Dogs are pieces you've to be ready for or they're gonna kick your ass. Even CHA can count on cheap BS 13 FT or a lot of infiltrators and regular warbands. I then moved to SP: strong ODD presence, good CC, a lot of templates. It didn't click me, but I can understand that's a hammer so if you attack it's gonna be a blast, if you defend you just need to take some hits and keep moving forward, 'cause you've some strong FT and Achilles to punish your opponent. So, what is the Ikari Company style? What is focused on? Strengths and downsides? Is it all around ADs and Warbands? 'Cause Yojimbo is good, Desperados are not bad, YYs are super cool and I love BBs, but this doesn't seem enough for a real faction identity. Puto.
AVA4 Yuan Yuan are enough to carry an entire sectorials by themselves, but Ikari has plenty of other tricks up its sleeve. I want to preface this by noting that "play styles" in Infinity are determined far more by player preference than faction selection; it's quite possible to play both balls-to-the wall or defensive bunker Ikari if you so choose, and nearly everywhere in between. So take my following comments as broad generalizations. Ikari is an aggressive sectorial. Between the numerous Yuan Yuan, bikes, Krakots, and doorkicker HI Haris teams, Ikari wants to take the fight to the enemy and blast away. Backed by numerous cheap linkable line infantry and chunky centerpieces like the Karakuri, Daiyokai, and Al Fasid, you have the option to go heavy or wide, sometimes both at the same time. Unlike a sectorial such as JSA, you have reliable long-range firepower to back all this up. On the downside you are largely confined to your deployment zone, as the only infiltrating troop available is an AVA1 Ninja. While you have plenty of ways to break into the enemy's half of the table, your initial presence in the midfield is going to be very limited. Perhaps the biggest point of frustration is that Ikari has, bar none, the worst Lieutenant options in the whole of Infinity: the WIP12 Brawler or the WIP12 Keisotsu, the latter of which you are charged 1 SWC for the "privilege" of fielding. Get used to your LT sitting prone in a corner and doing absolutely nothing all game. Ikari is what you make of it, but I'd say the "marquee" units are the Yuan Yuan, Tanko + Brawler + Keisotsu Core, Tanko/Wu Ming Haris, Yojimbo, and the Yaoxie Rui Shi. Best of luck with your Ikari journey!
To expand on @KestrelM1 's excellent rundown, a few minor added notes: 1. Ikari can give many different looks, but most of them are going to be best when going 1st. This can be a bit of a disadvantage with crummy Lts. and some ITS missions which favor 2nd for end-of-game/round scoring, but usually you'll be able to dish out enough alpha strike punishment to hold your ground when it comes to scoring. 2. While you don't have much in the midfield to start, it's easy to get guys there. You have fast attack pieces and droppers all over that are cheap, cheap, cheap. Lots of smoke means walking on a board edge is pretty straightforward, as is moving up big links of HI. 3. The druze link options are legit, too. The haris/hmg/lgl group is my favorite, and offers a lot of scary for a reasonably cheap price. 4. As mentioned, your LT options are crap. Using holoprojector to decoy deploy BBs in your deployment zone is an option to help protect them if you're worried about assassins. YYs can also start deployed to smoke to protect pieces. 5. If you wanna clog your deployment or midfield, remember that your EVO remote (which you might have for YY drops) can refill Yojimbo's koalas. 6. It's easy to overcommit to S4 units in Ikari, and then find there's no room for them in your deployment zone. Plan for that in your list making. 7. Karakuri is a monster button pusher. Desp with dual assault pistols is terrifying. The BB holoprojector suppression trick is nasty. 8. Krakots, Druze, and Al Fazid all are vet lvl 1 for a reason. If your meta has a lot of lt. hunters, running these will give you durability.
For the midfield, you can still deploy a Krakot, Kendrat and a Liberto, even Armand (he's expensive though). But I get your point. What could be a defensive bunker with Ikari? Anyway, thanks for the super useful digression, now I feel I can actually do stuff with this sectorial. Surely, I need to become better with YYs, both in deployment and attack phases, as they seem the real threat here.
Refilling Yojimbo's Koalas seems orders intensive, but the rest of your tips are absolutely useful to help me both in play and in list building. Isn't Al Fasid a bit too expensive, especially for the 2 SWC? Thanks man!
The Tanko + Brawler + Keisotsu Core specializes in defensive bunkering. There's also the option for Wu Ming Cores, Tanko Haris teams, Armand, Karakuri, Daiyokai, and Al Fasid HRLs, all of which can hold off inordinate amounts of aggression. A lot of my Ikari lists bank on the stability of the Tanko Missile Launcher + Brawler LT + 3xKeisotsu FO Core fireteam to anchor my other aggressive pieces. And at only 78/1.5 points, there is still tons of room for other stuff.
Here is a list I absolutely love. It has a very unique play style where you start with 8 Rui shis on the table. 2 are real, 2 are Holo-projected Lu Duans, the last 4 are fake Holo-echos. It absolutely confuses your opponent with ARO overloads, some real some fake.. I would not say its the best list, but it's fun. Spoiler: List How many RuiShi ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21) LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21) RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20) RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20) NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29) KARAKURI Mk12, Chain Rifle, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 43) BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) BRAWLER (Special Fireteam: Haris) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17) BRAWLER Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 18) TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) GROUP 2 3 5 4 BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 8) LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) 6 SWC | 299 Points Open in Infinity Army I haven't played Ikari in a little while, but Yuan Yuans & ninja KHD are auto includes. The haris of brawlers is a cheap HRL which is often over looked and usually underestimated. The ABH Akrylat-Kanone is a very nice ARO piece, in Haqq the daylami (7pt .5 SWC Panzerfauset irregular) is considered a disposable ARO piece which people need to deal with. The ABH while not as as cheap, but its not that expensive. They make ARO\Chearleaders which your opponent can't risk giving a free shot with. Most of the other points have already been mentioned above.
The yojimbo move is pretty edge case, as is the Al fazid. They are both tools that you have available, is my point, in an army that people usually look at with some concern as being narrowly defined. If you have a mission like armory where you know where your opponent is going to want to be, you can layer in a to few koalas to tarpit them while advancing your fast attack piece. Similarly, I like to run Al fazid in my decapitation lists. Sometimes speccing grenades at 16 inches on 10s is a pretty good thing to do. And when it's not, a free deployment zone mine and an HMG do work.
I forgot one thing. Ikari has a lot of repeaters, so don't overloook EVO remotes since they boos AD & give 2B in ARO for remotes with repeaters.
I'd suggest checking out my Ikari articles here: https://www.thediceabide.com/blog/2018/9/20/ikari-company-compendium In short, Ikari is a rag tag group of Ronin, fighting for profit, and play as such. They have plenty of expendable troops, which are able to swing well above their weight, as well as some extremely devastating solo pieces (Karakuri, Daiyokai, Al Fasid). They're built for aggression and redundancy. Personally, I think more than 2 Yuan Yuan is a bit of a trap, they're just not reliable enough, and start filling your army quickly with more irregular orders than you probably want. They do have a serious lack of mid-field specialists, pretty much relying on a single ninja to do the job. While the KHD is the cheapest ninja option, I generally advise people to go for the FO or AHD, so that you have the combi for when hacking isn't relevant (and a TO combi is always relevant). Unless I'm taking a lot of expensive and powerful units (wu ming, druze, or multiple big solo HI), I don't generally go for doctors, all the cheap chaff in Ikari isn't usually worth the orders to bring back. You can get clever though relying on Karakuri for the heavy lifting, then use an engineer to keep them, plus a TR bot and/or Rui Shi in the game. For ARO duty, I tend to rely on linked tanko/keisotsu, maybe a fugazi or sierra. I tend to save points there, and instead focus on having more direct offense.
