@Koval Thanks for you comment! I think Fireteam constuction is both very subjective and very, very situational! Your post lists very valid Team loadouts, and I've run/considered running all of the above! I just chose to include my personal favorites (which do change from time to time) for the article, as listing more options would have bloated the text and could have been confusing for new players! I'm very much of the mind that there are no "right" or "wrong" Fireteam compositions, just like there aren't simple "good" or "bad" units in RTF!
I would say it's mostly about preference, both in terms of personal playstyle and what you want to fireteam to do. That being said, I think it would be helpful to have a compilation somewhere of a bunch of different suggestions for combinations from different players. That would give new players a starting place rather than feeling overwhelmed with options, while giving more experienced players new ideas to try out. I'll definitely be giving that Mukhtar doctor a serious try.
It feels like it's been aeons since I last posted an article! I've received several requests of take a stab at explaining My Personal List Building Process, so here we (finally) go! Like I say in the article itself, list building is an extremely subjective part of Infinity, so don't take the piece to be a manifesto on how one must build an RTF list - it's just a look at how I like to do it!
Another lieutenant option worth mentioning is to put both the Ghulam Lt and the decoy inside a defensive Core, if you're running one. Something like this: ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 GHULAM Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 11) GHULAM (Lieutenant [+1 Command Token]) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15) GHULAM (Hacker, Hacking Device) Rifle, Light Shotgun ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 16) GHULAM (NCO) Rifle, Grenade Launcher, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 15) GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 16) 2 SWC | 73 Points Open in Infinity Army You can still deploy the two lt possibilities far enough apart that your opponent can't go after both of them, similar to your proposal of hiding them on opposite sides of your deployment. But you get two benefits: (1) the lt and the decoy are both harder to kill due to fireteam bonuses; and (2) you don't use up any of your 15 slots, since your defensive core was going to be filled with cheerleaders anyway.
Also worth mentioning re list-building philosophy: a lot of Ramah players seem to treat Carmen+Batard as an auto-include, and with good reason. They're so good that you might want to go into why you would not include them in a given list :-)
Thanks for bringing up the subject! I was originally intending to cover my thoughts about including (Ghulam) Lieutenants in Fireteams in the article, but somewhere along the way I got carried away, and I never remembered to return to the subject! I've now added the paragraph to the text and noted your help in the editing notes! :) I must respectfully disagree with these Ramah players on the premise that there are "auto-include" active pieces in RTF - the importance of the Mission/Opponent/Table is so great that I personally feel no model is universally good enough to warrant inclusion every time. The way I personally play Ramah Taskforce sees me change tactical and even strategic approaches quite drastically depending on the particulars of the game I'm preparing for/playing at the moment, and no model, no matter how great, fits into my every plan and my every list. Then again, if one is happy to keep parts of their strategy same from game to game, the situation may be different... If I was forced at gunpoint to list reasons why I might not bring Carmen + Bâtard with me to a game, I would propably point at their weakness to traditional tower AROs (especially the ones with MSV), their Irregular Status, their large footprint (and thus the difficulty of maneuvering/hiding them on some tables), and the fact that unlike many of the fantastic aggressive supersoldier profiles, they're not Specialists... Edit. Some day I will be able to write an entire post without spelling mistakes, but that day is not today...
Use your phone's auto correct. It will happily replace all of your poorly spelled words with incorrect but properly spelled, words.
In a few weeks I'm going to bring RTF in a tournament, for the first time. As I scarcely played this sectorial even in casual context I admit I'm far less prepared than I wish. But your articles are so evocative and well written that I decided to jump in the fray, and see where it goes. Thank you!
May the inspiration provided by the articles lead to you fun games and many successes, please let us know how you did! Good luck, and feel free to blame yours truly if anything goes wrong! :D
Phew! This one took quite some time to complete, and it turned out somewhat more extensive than I originally intended! I'm (finally) ready to share my thoughts on Hacking in RTF!
So a question for the group: How many hackers are you using? Right now I have been making my lists with 1 HD and 1 KHD, but I wonder if I should be using more. How many would you take if you knew you were facing Nomads or Combined?
I feel like Grotnib is right, and trying to beat hackers at their own game is playing to their strengths, not yours. I usually run with either a ghulam hacker (in a 5-man, so mostly as a "may as well") and Leila, or a Taureg and Leila (if I'm thinking to hack some HI)...
That sounds about right. I usually take the Nahab KHD, so in my case it's 1HD (Mukhtar) and 2KHD (Leila and Nahab); but have never used the KHD functions. Granted, I'm still learning to use the Nahab (I'm new to parachutists in my lists and a neophyte when it comes to CC Specialists), so it may be more my inexperience. I have a list that has 2HD, but that's because it has a Shaytaniya Guided Missile Rem, and want to maximize the chances to Spotlight things.
I don't have a "standard" Hacker loadout, but I think my most used number of Hackers is 3 (a Ghulam HD, Nahab KHD or Leila and either Mukhtar or Tuareg HD) - I've also run the EVO quite a lot lately... When it comes to facing Nomads, I might just stick to a Parachuting Nahab KHD and call it a day... CA is a more nuanced question to me; with so many people (atleast in my personal experience) running the Avatar, many Combined lists aren't that heavy on Hacking themselves (due to the lack of points/squad slots), so going Hacking heavy (or mid-level) might not be a bad idea, though it definately is a risk... Edit. I also feel that Camo Hackers aren't as much of a problem to RTF as they are to many other factions, because of the stellar Rafiq Sensor bot - running forwards to Sensor suspicous Camoes isn't as much of a drain of resources when you're running a Light Shotgun (or even two!) at the enemy Skirmishers at same time...
This week's content falls more to the "light and fun" -category, so here are my thoughts on What to Expect from Playing RTF!
I just love this. Haqqislam was the Faction that got me into Infinity; and I have been playing QK since right before Operation: Flamestrike. When RTF came out, I was still enjoying QK too much; but some Ramah units were closer to what my characters were in my head, so when I first heard "No QK in N4" (a misinterpretation, I know), I gladly jumped into RTF; and your articles have been a welcomed road map on this journey.
Thank you for your continued interest, and it's great to hear I've been able to help you in my own small way! And good luck for the IGL tournament! :)
Wanted to say thanks for the great blog. I am just starting Infinity and these articles are super useful for understanding the game through the Haqq lens. I like the positivity when it comes to unit choices, since I come from 40k and a lot of online discussion there tends to focus on the extremes of "This unit is awful, never use it" and "this unit is OP" with little room for average models. I like that even the less popular choices like Naffatun and Hakims get a fair shake.
Thank you very much; comments like this make all the time invested in the articles feel more than worth their while! :) Welcome to Infinity, may the hobby treat you atleast as well as it has treated me!
Honestly, this just tends to happen when such a huge part of unit's identity revolves around simple dice-rolling statistics while each of them competes against limited number of choices available for this particular place. (Admittedly, something could have changed about that last one lately)
