Let’s talk about Aleph’s situation in N5.

While you don’t get a +1 SD for a Marut, I can’t really say it NEEDS it. It can do fine without. The real advantage is having a specialist with your TAG who can put it back together with a re-roll if needed. And can use a command token yet to re-roll again due to Rem Presence. (I think you can, not sure).

But the better one might be Max anyway. Marut is great but Max just has a bit more to offer with the Immunity, better CC, smaller is better too.

 

Don't be so negative on the TAG on heels. It is still one of the best around. Obviously a little Hacker -3 couldn't have hurt, but then again the Arjuna FTO is a wildcard that can work nicely (granted: you don't get the ENG in the same DUO to patch it up... depends on missions and opposing forces, also considering that the lady comes with a Gizmokit PH13...). One thing I could see useful would be something to counter Martial Arts... she's a bit exposed to that even with +1B and CC18. An Oniwaban can be terrifying.

Max compensates that being NBW and ImmunityARM...

 

Like most TAGs you build the list around them. Marut is a premium TAG and when we look only for a good duo partner the Arunja brings tinbot support and the Artalis is an engineer with a better range weapon then the Arunja but lacks mimetism, both are 23 pts, both offer a "free" move order (NCO or TA). Personaly I would go for the Engineer and get the firewall by EVO Support.

The choice between Marut and Max has some main-questions: Do I want Strategos? Do I want to negate any optical mods against shooting? Or do I want a TAG that can push deeply into the enemy table side without beeing afriad of cc-capable troopers?

In shooting and pure arm and bts the Marut is superior. While max can take on ML and MSR AROs without beeing killed by a lucky crit. He also brings immunity POS.

 

I agree with it. Looking at it specifically it's a K1 Combi vs an AP SMG. I am not so much expecting to face somebody at medium to high range with the "sidekick". For that the Marut is more than enough (choice of 2 large teardrop and a MULTI HMG). The decisive point here is ARM=0 vs ARM/2. The former is good all-around, can threaten a Hatamoto too (just to exemplify a unit with nanoscreen), while an AP SMG is a close quarter ARM/2 weapon that still has its usage. Bottom line I would agree on the firewall from an EVO (that requires an order to achieve), but I wouldn't discard outright an Artalis with Yudbot supporting a Marut/Arjuna combination. It depends on the rest of the list more so than a "this is better, period" kind of argument.

 

A tinbot is nice but with an ENG, even if the TAG is hacked, the ENG can fix it. Also if hit by E/M.

One of the nice things about the Arjuna is, not the AP SMG, but the E/Mitter.

Both are good. I think it might just depend on the mission. For ones that need points on the board, I’d do ENG. For others the Arjuna.

For me, the Marut, is target priority #1 in area control missions.

 

And the winner is...

Pretty cool indeed. One detail: why Aleph would need a robot to pilot something, but apart from that a darn cool miniature! With a profile to boot

Actually I forgot to mention Max Agent:

Of which I am not super impressed to be honest. Highly dynamic, much needed, but he looks like an actor from a toothpaste commercial LOL

 

The grill on the front of the Tarkshya reminds me of a Mercedes or similar luxury car. The Remote pilot makes some sense to me and kinda reminds me of Clone Wars.

I think the painting of Max is a problem rather than the figure but we will see. Not sure why they didn't just use the head from the TAG.

Thamryis showed up at my store finally but it's hard to justify $30 for a single figure. I will be proxying for a while I think.

 

What kind of a rip off shop do you have near your place? I believe Warsenal is better still...

 

As I said:

Almost 10$ less... make a good order and you get to door delivery for free

 

I like to support my game shop. But even so, it's too much for a single figure. In the US there might be those stupid tariffs. My government has gone and going to hell because they are idiots. So it's a proxy for me for a while. Which I don't mind because I already have plent of figures that just don't get used.

 

To paraphrase Mac Lane: come to Europe, you'll have fun ... everybody deserves a holiday ;)

 

I would like to attract your attention to the updated ITS table for N5. Back in the days OSS was way behind with respect to SP because of evident imbalance of the Vedic sectorial. Now the situation changed quite substantially:



Only 5 matches separate the two (win rate is here reported, but for me has a limited relevance). The increase in OSS matches reveals a general increased feeling of "a chance" at a balanced game when playing OSS and that is exactly what I was trying to report as a balancement issue. vAleph is still quote behind at 52 matches.

When we look at the top 5 factions we observe that the main issue has not been addressed:



NW and vCA still have more than double the matches played by Aleph sectorials and in a way I don't feel like attributing this to the novelty of NW (OSS is newer in that regard and only recovered a few positions). I haven't followed Corregidor in this (please help me) so I cannot draw a parallel between OSS and Corregidor that came with the same box.

My interpretation is that NW and CA give a stronger feeling of "a chance at a balanced game" than all the other factions (already in the top 5 there is a substantial discrepancy between the 1st and the 5th of 73 matches). This is not connected to the boxes that came out AFAIK. The Kestrel/JSA box was the very first and yet Oban is at 190 matches... 166 matches behind NW.

In my opinion this is the core balancement issue that CB needs to face in order to bring back Infinity to the levels of N3, tailored to each faction depending on matches played (in the hypothesis that a balanced game will produce an equal number of matches because people will just try different options for the fun of it instead of looking for the win rate as an inspiration when buying a faction).

 

I find it’s interesting that “New” is not necessarily better. Haqqislam has had some buffs but it’s hot had a meaningful update in a while. MO has gotten some. Haqq is doing very well with less games played.

 

What? Haqq has had some of the biggest buffs recently. Saladin went from solid to auto include with n5 due to inspiring leadership. Both Haqq fliers went from meh to great, and Haqq is the only faction with 2 fliers. On top of that both of them sort of combo together, you want msv aro for Haytham, but then Zeybek shits on your face. Coupled with Saladin's strategos you can hold both of them in reserve, plus a Fiday or whatever else for a command token (the extra one...). And the new doctor optimate is like Asawira discoballer and doctor prifiles in 1 amazing character.

 

Ok true. I've got to agree Saladin is so much better. Who's stupid idea was it to give Haqq Inspiring Leadership?! I haven't played against Haqq in a long time so that makes me a bit biased. But i think it still applies in a way. They had a few changes. the ones mentioned and that's about it. Suddenly it's in the top 5. It show's how small changes can have big impact.

 

Why would we want to go back to the balance of N3??? N5 is so much better. MI, TAGs, and most HI were overpriced. The meta was much more static than now.

Edit: Ruleswize Haqqislam is in a good place. I just want new models.

 

Because going back to the balance of N3 does not mean to go back to N3 (in N3 Aleph did not have OSS for example, so why would I want to go back to that). It's clear that N5 is not so balanced in that regard, otherwise the spread of matches would be much narrower.

Factions have been introduced along the way (the NA2 section for example) that is not growing: Starco is the very last faction with 13 games (Druze 28...). Somebody wondered what was the impact of a specific faction in Dedalus Fall and the result we all know. A pinnacle of the lore of Infinity was removed and in my opinion that was a mistake to repair which the NA2 were introduced (maybe this was not the reason behind the introduction of NA2, but I believe that NA2 revolving in part around Tohaa was a way of saying "your miniatures still have a value... just not in the same faction").

To follow those that say "no more new sectorials" I'd say that the introduction of a grand total of 8 sectorials (including JSA) did not increase game playability, but in conjunction with the evident lack of manpower at CB, resulting in a strategy of delayed release of faction rules/models that may have a positive monetary impact, the game-wise balancement suffers like proven time and time again by other games out there (we all know which).

Right now, what I am seeing, is that the focus of the "story" is limited to a selected few factions. Kestrel/JSA box came out in OCT 2024, we needed to wait JUL 2026 to see the next one and while Mazebreaker introduced much needed new mechanics, the spread of matches played is a yawning gap at best. This I suppose indicates that the care dedicated to some factions/sectorials is not mirrored throughout the game system.

Next Wave came in a context in which Onyx needed much help. Onyx is at 30 matches played with one (bit more) order of magnitude difference with NW. Does it feel balanced? Maybe they could have thought of bringing this shift much later in the timeline and take care of more evident situations because at this level, trying to recover the factions left behind is a very tough job especially when one does not want to lose the momentum generated previously (Drakios release).

These are the challenges CB is facing in my opinion. The risk is to have yet another game with 1st tier factions, 2nd tier factions and the chaff and that would definitely be a loss...

 

I feel the view that N3 was more balanced between factions than N5 is not a common take. IMO, N5 has decreased the level differences between the factions. A greater portion of the armies have basic tools, such as MSV and vision denial, than they had in N3. The delta in shooting is significantly closer than it was in N3 when BS 13 + Mimitism -3 belonged solely to a few factions. Hacking could be completely ignored in N3, now you can splash it in.

While I started when N3 was released, I cannot look back and feel that it had better faction balance. To me on the whole, while the factions are less distinct than before, we are all in a better place. Tohaa being the obvious exception (Please update Tohaa CB!).

I do agree that story elements in N5 are more faction specific than in previous editions, though. But I am also happy with the reintroduction of the "Cold War" narrative without any hot conflicts going on as it fits the narrative better.