Let's report how the new units/profiles faired in all contexts (not limited to tournaments). The pictures show the units we know were changed, but we also know that more units are present and (hopefully) more still are coming in the following months (make it an Aleph year!!!). I don't want to limit enthusiasm, but we need to find a way to keep it efficient. Questions are more than welcome. Keep it respectful!
My initial take. Apsara Now having hacker on all it’s great and it’s not a bad hacker. Sucks it’s only KHD but not horrible. Best thing is it’s cheap. Artalis SR-1 is big. You can catch a TAG in the open and they can only save on 6. I already liked it and still like it. I’m only sad it’s only AVA1 in OSS but great it’s 2 in vAleph. The next big thing is counting as Samarathan again and Dikpala. Dr. Clair Lashari The first of the “Wow Good. Wow Expensive”. Right now I can’t tell which one is better gravitating towards the +3 WIP Doc. Weird they made that one the FTO. I guess so you can bring back Asura easily. In the Optimates team she’s not limited to FTO and her friends are VIT2. Pilot X I’m thinking this is a play on the character Racer X from the manga/anime Speed Racer. Which I’m old enough to know and love. But this guy seems great! 21 or 23 pts for a good hacker with REM Racer. Why take an Apsara? Then the Racerbots are excellent too. I’m a bit irritated you need to take him to have Racerbots while some vanilla factions can just take the bots. At least the Mk3 is little better. I was going to use Sharvara as corner guards but now I think this is it. Proxy Small changes and nothing I’d say fantastic in OSS but maybe vAleph. Arjuna Ok these guys win the award for the makeover this year. I think a duo of the Tinbot and Asura is going to be a staple for a while. This turns her into hacking goddess. I’ll talk more about her below. The Kiran bot is a lot better with Deployable Repeater instead of Cybermines. But the new version might be better with Pulsar and Viral Mines. But all of them with bots are expensive! Deva I’m kind of glad there’s no changes. I already though they were pretty good. Father Sforza I don’t see using him in OSS but a sometimes in ISS. It’s…ok. +1SD is not bad at all with Viral. I’m a little disappointed he’s lost holomask so you can’t tell if its’ him or a regular bounty hunter. Johnny Kao Great troop but wow expensive. OSS now has 4 Engineers. An un-hackable heavy essentially. Great weapons and makes it hard to decide on what to take. I’ll need to try him to see but the cost see higher than I generally like. Optimate Agent Maximus Very expensive for a 1Vit+NWI. He really should be 2Vit. I’m not sure on him and need a think. Shakti Addition of Albedo is nice but she still a bit expensive for me. A good KHD but there’s other just as good less expensive ones. Thorakitai I’m not sure what the point is of them. Yadu Again, the Albedo is nice. I’m glad they are still MI. So again un-hackable heavies. But now with bigger selections for fireteams. They are still solid and Albedo is ok. Still a bit niche for me but I’ll take it. Asura I’ll be surprised if I don’t see her in duo with Arjuna Tibot. She’s a hacking goddess with that. First you are adding a TacAware to the team, then ECM+Tinbot -3, with WIP15. Wow. She’s expensive but she’s a mini TAG. Kyra Sharma Another expensive character but she gets a lot for it. Unfortunately I’m seeing it you are rarely going to see more than one of these characters at a time. Maximus TAG Going up in price but a AP HMG is no joke. He was already pretty good. And 0 SWC for a Lt.! Rudras I’m liking the changes so far. Like Artalis it has SR-1 K1. It can also be enhanced by an EVO then add to team to get +1 SD. Which it can easily do since it’s a wildcard. Yaksha I called it! “Heavy Remotes”. No NWI but ARM4. Man Aleph has upped their mid-field. Right now the specialist op with BSG looks good to me. Dart I’ve never used her because of cost. But I’d love to try out the one with the Houndbot to see how it goes. Unfortunately, is a Peripheral so it needs to take close to Dart. Tarkshya I was hoping it would suck because those are expensive figs! But no, it’s great. It’s strange it has Remote Presence but still has an operator. I’m really looking forward to see how it looks. Overall I'm liking the new troops.
I'm making a list for Provisioning and seeing OSS has SPEED! Dikpala were already pretty fast and ohters, but now we have fast troops with Forward Deployment and parachutist! Kinnara 6-2 (parachutist and Infiltrate, Climbing Plus) Yaksha 6-2 (Forward Deploy +8") Sharvara 6-6 (Forward Deploy +4", super jump) Racerbots 8-4 Johnny Kao 6-2 Kyra Sharma 6-4 (parachutist, combat jump, super jump) Tarkshya 8-2 (flyer) Arjuna 6-2 (added Forward Deploy +8")
I think Apsara Lt, Hacker and Remdriver is a tasty, tasty option. Can keep her in the back with a Shukra support and good luck finding the Lt. I agree on the name characters: a bit too expensive to field all 3, but still a very very fine addition to the roster. VH is... awesome on paper: MULT red fury is scary and the pilot himself is better than the VH. The Chainrifle +1B is a tasty alternative on the cheap side that becomes a very nasty problem in ARO. Thorakitai in OSS is a bit of a question mark for me as well, still I suppose that they can be cheap orders with the SMG or Chain rifle option, HQ ARO pieces. Yakshas are scary: +8" in camo on turn 1 can pair with a Naga or a Dasyu for lolz. Go figure who's the most dangerous. I'm of the opinion that Garuda without ECM is a typo (CB correct please ;)). A final consideration: Johnny Kao with Plasma carbine turret... *drops mike*
Now that I’ve had a bit more time to go over it and make a few lists. OSS looks fantastic. The only thing I’m concerned with having a lot of hackable things, but the ECM -3 helps. Not quite as good as Yu Jing tinbots but that’s one guy who if killed takes the whole thing away. I think vAleph made out very well. They got all of the new troops. Especially characters that are good even without a fireteam. On Fireteams, Aleph is one of the few vanilla to have Wildcards. This is big because there’s some great troop synergies. Here’s a few vanilla Aleph teams I’ve already used or going to use. Duos Arjuna FTO Tinbot and just about any hacker. Asura, Danavas, Yadu. Max with one of the Engineers, Artalis, Trisha, Pavarti. Again the Arjuna Tinbot with Max or Rudra. There’s a lot of synergy. The Arjuna Tinbot is either an APSMG or Spitfire too. Haris I was using a Sophie and 2 Dawon with some success before. But now you can have Pavarti with 2 Dawon. Riksha with Artalis, Arjuna tinbot.
Right now, the Pilot X seems like a “must take every time”. He’s just a good hacker for a great price. 23pts for a WIP14 BTS6 is good by itself but then in the Zero Pain, E/Mitter, and REM Driver, you got something fantastic. The REM seems limited at first because there’s already some with BS13. But I was thinking about shooting at first. The best thing might be the BTS6. Almost all the Remots are BTS3. The ones I’d like to use it on though are a Dayleth, Rudrah, and Kinnara. Sadly, it can’t be done with Garuda and Kinnara that start off-board. The Sharvara might be interesting too. It will dodge on 16 instead of 15 and a BS13 Adhesive launcher is no joke. The Apsara gives a 14 WIP, which would be good on Dayleth, Lamedh, with Flash Pulse, but another good one is the Kinnara infiltrator. It’s a specialist with Sensor and discovering on 16s. But then also BS13 Vulkan Shotgun. I’m not sure if the CC15 overrides the Kinnara CC23 though. But if you need to, you can drop the skill.
I have a question: what's the difference in the two loadouts and why do they cost differently? Probably it's too early on Sunday morning to be intelligent enough...
The point is to allow you to choose if you're spending SWC or points. Had me confused for a moment, too.
I played my first game with OSS and got trounced by a swiss guard missile and red eye. God they are no fun to play against. Swiss took out half of my force. Edit: adding that it was my first time playing OSS and I took a lot of things just to try them out. Sadly a lot I didn't get to try because they got blown to pieces by the Swiss.
Lmao, that rant at the end cought me off guard. Robert is the only Infinity youtuber I watch and yet again he proves to be insightfull and also manages to crack me up.
The PanO list Rob posted in the video is exactly that: Redeye and a Swiss guard. Problem is it can become a 1-trick pony if many play it. Unfortunately we don't have the Tarkshya model, otherwise the matchup with the Redeye wouldn't be such fun for PanO (Tarkshya has STR3) and the Tarkshya pilot is just as good as the flyer with STR3. The paradox is that if you immobilise them it's better than killing them. Keep an eye on the Engineer so the VH is not fixed, but an Imm VH can't do much. Whereas the pilot is an HI on a hype. Swiss Guard is food for Asura Lt/Hacker with Yadu NCO and Arjuna Tinbot Haris. You can force them out with a Kinnara Decoy paratrooper deployment and then it's game for the Lady. Otherwise Pilot-X with the 2 MKIII bots that have deployable repeater and you can sit back and relax while you Trinity him to death (in case of KHD/HD) or Oblivion till they decide to stop wishing for it to come back. The way I see it PanO becomes a problem with 4 Racerbots which I think was going to come (CB needed to find a way to give Netrods to PanO, but only MKIII has DR...): consider dealing with Pilot-X as an against Hacker good the way it is on the inside
No Asura for me. Unfortunately, the only MSV2-3 is the Asura, Deva spitfires, Marut, and the totally useless Satra with Marksman rifle. I only took it because the mission was Corpo Appropriations and there’s three secret objectives. I took the khd because it can do a lot of cards. But it was pretty much useless the whole game. Of the little bit I got to use, the Kinnara was cool. Sensor was good for finding a mine. But didn’t get to do more than that. Yaksha threw down some mines but they were easily taken out by Pano shooting. The Swiss killed a Riksha HRL, Daleth, Artalis, Shurka Lt., MBH and Yaksha. I was dumb with my Dasu and put down a repeater near his Peacemaker ,forgetting he had a Missile bot, and got targeted. Then not destroyed but missile. Red Eye killed my Kinnara. I had 3 troops left in turn 2. Funny thing was if he had just killed two points more, I would have been in retreat and possibly could have destroyed the thing on the way and would have won the game. But no, I had Dart, the Satrah, and Pilot X. I was at 27% of my force. It was cool having Dart with Shavara being able to put down 4 camo tokens. Her, Shavara, Mine, Decoy. Question, would there also be a decoy of the Shavara? I gotta say, it’s totally unfair that PanO not only has Pilot X, but also Racerbots. How is this ok? ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 Pilot-X Team (Hacker) E/Mitter, Flash Pulse / MULTI Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 21) RACERBOT Mk-III Light Riotstopper, Mine Dispenser(PARA) ( | Deployable Repeater) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 8) RACERBOT Mk-III Light Riotstopper, Mine Dispenser(PARA) ( | Deployable Repeater) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 8) RACERBOT Mk-I Adhesive Launcher Rifle, PARA Mine / PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 9) RACERBOT Mk-II Heavy Riotstopper, Mine Dispenser(PARA) / PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 9) 1 SWC | 55 Points Open in Infinity Army Sure, Yu Jing has Celestial and Kuang Shi. But none of them have near the utility of these guys. The Celestial is not a specialist, can hardly hit with his BS11 SMGL, and the Kuang Shi just makes faces at you and doge.
That would be interesting. I feel like that may not work like that but would be very interesting. on a separate note for Dart, weather or not it’s a bug, I think the doggo should get climbing plus as well so it can follow Dart up and down obstacles or send him up to attack stuff on rooftops. Since the regular hounds get superjump I feel like that would work.
Are you saying that PanO is unbalanced (and if it were balanced PanO players could not win, much like smurfs in a famous hammer game)? What is new? They could not have Aleph take the throne that was of PanO... I should add and thank you for the assist: PanO has 5 playable sectorials and Aleph 2, how is this OK? (Nomads unofficially 4 sectorials)
So, having taken a bit of time to mess around with the army builder, a few really nasty things surface: First, a Deva with a killer hacking device at 20 points is amazing. WIP 15 and immunity (isolated) means normal hackers cannot really use Oblivion - Carbonite will still work, but that is a much weaker program to go up against a KHD with. The Rudra, at 35, is a little bit on the pricy side, but with BS 13 (think it used to be 12?), BS attack -3 and SR -1, and a K1 marksman rifle, it should reliably delete pretty much whatever it aims at. Give it marksmanship while you're at it and stick it in a fireteam for +1 SD (and +1 BS if you want a full core team). The repeater is useful, too, especially considering it can link with the above-mentioned Deva KHD. But I suppose, if that was the main "get", you'd go for the Dikpala with a repeater on it anyway (that profile is amazing, too!). So, if you want a full core to build from, something like: Rudra with K1 marksman rifle Dikpala with MHG Deva KHD Sharvara - And then probably a dikpala paramedic or similar for an extra specialist. Clocks in just over 100 points, and is a real menace to most things. If you really really want an anti-camo response, you could reach for the deva with MSV2 and a spitfire, which is linkable. If you're worried about MSV-armed troops, bring a Danavas (probably not inside the link) for White Noise - The repeater means you can place it where it matters anyway. If you think marksmanship is fun on your gunbots (you should) an EVO hacking device is likely mandatory on these lists. The issue with this entire logic, of course, is that N5 may not really want 5-man teams. In which fine this who engine works as a Haris (with the Rudra and Deva) plus a duo. You do lose the higher link bonuses, of course. Apart from that, the mid-field games are pretty busy with this modification. Dart is, what, 3 camo tokens with a minelayer, 4 if she's taking the murder dog out to play? The Scoutbot is 4 models, though not all camo tokens. The Naga also gets minelayer trivially, and the Dasyu gets minelayer 2 on one profile (and hidden deployment itself, of course). So... our midfield game's turned outside down. None of it is terribly cheap per model, of course - But a lot of the tools are in the 20s, at least. Pilot-X and racerbots is a whole thing on its own - Others seem to be commenting here as-is.
Yeah I'm over acting a bit on the PanO. Got to remember a Arjuna tinbot can also go with a Deva too. ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 3 2 DEVA (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 25) ARJUNA FTO Spitfire, D-Charges ( | TinBot: Firewall [-3]) / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 30) ARJUNA FTO Boarding Shotgun(+1SD), Flash Pulse(PS=5), D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 21) 2 SWC | 76 Points Open in Infinity Army ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 3 1 DEVA (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 25) DIKPALA Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 21) ARJUNA FTO AP Submachine Gun, E/Mitter, D-Charges ( | TinBot: Firewall [-3]) / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 23) 1.5 SWC | 69 Points Open in Infinity Army ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 3 1 DEVA (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 25) DIKPALA Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 21) ARJUNA FTO AP Submachine Gun, E/Mitter, D-Charges ( | TinBot: Firewall [-3]) / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 23) 1.5 SWC | 69 Points Open in Infinity Army This is a team I might try out someday ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 1 CLAIRE LAZHARI FTO (Doctor [+3]) Breaker Combi Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B), Disco Baller ( | MediKit) / Viral Pistol(+1B), PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 33) Pilot-X Team (Hacker) E/Mitter, Flash Pulse / MULTI Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 23) ARJUNA FTO Spitfire, D-Charges ( | TinBot: Firewall [-3]) / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 30) RACERBOT Mk-III Light Riotstopper, Mine Dispenser(PARA) ( | Deployable Repeater) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 8) RACERBOT Mk-III Light Riotstopper, Mine Dispenser(PARA) ( | Deployable Repeater) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 8) 2 SWC | 102 Points Open in Infinity Army