My thoughts on Infinity list building and related strategy Hey everyone! I love list-building and I wanted to share my approach. I play pretty exclusively Haqqislam and its sectorials as they are the models I have, though I build lists for all other factions for fun. I am a reasonably competitive player with about three years experience. One opponent described my playstyle as "aggressive and brutal, but so nice to play against I can't hate you for it". I do tend to approach most missions with a "disable the opponent then complete the mission" attitude. "It's not your list, it's you" is true for the most part, you can pretty much take whatever you like unless you take a completely ridiculous list or are playing specialised missions (eg Biotechvore or the Grid). This advice is what I use for competitive 300pt two-list ITS tournaments, which is the vast majority of my Infinity experience. It's not a set of rules I strictly follow, but more of an observation of how I tend to build lists. My list building goes like this: 1. Read the mission(s). Visualise how to get a major victory, and how I would like the match to go. For a tournament I do this for each mission, and think about what commonalities there are between missions that I can use similar lists for. If possible I like to have lists that vary more about terrain/opponent faction than mission specific (eg open table list/closed table list or camo hunting list/horde handling lists) 2. Pick a style, theme, unit or idea you want to explore or think will be fun and successful - eg using a TAG, link-teams, drop troops etc. There's no point picking stuff you think will be good but isn't fun to play for you. If it's a tournament, make sure you can play the list fairly and in the time limit. I know I'm not experienced enough with horde lists to take them to tournaments, as I'd never finish my games on time (even though I generally think they've got some serious advantages) 3. Pick your faction/sectorial to suit your style and models available 4. Add your cool pieces. For me this is the fun stuff and the reason I run that list - Saladin + two Fidays, the Avatar, dual Pano Tags, Wu Ming link etc 5. Add support for your cool pieces which will enable or enhance them eg doctors, engineers, smoke for MSV, bodyguards, strategos etc 6. Mission winning pieces - this is usually specialists. How are they going to achieve the mission? For me this generally means infiltrating specialists so I can place and forget, but other factions need to walk their guys up the field so that leads to: 7. Mid-field control. Mid-field is usually where all the action happens. I love infiltrating camo minelayers for this, but TR drones, suppressive fire rifles, defensive links, cross-firing snipers, drop troops, and impetuous troops can all fill this role. 8. Attack pieces - You need to disable your opponent's key pieces (dangerous stuff and mission critical units). For me this comes in three forms: forward-deploying assassins (impersonators, camo infiltrators, drop troops), mobile assault pieces (Su-Jian, REMs with marksmanship, super-jump units like Tarik Mansuri) and big fat bullies (TAGs, link-teams). 9. Long range defensive pieces - Area denial in your opponent's deployment zones (including good drop points for airborne troops) and thereby stopping your opponent's attack pieces getting near your key pieces . My go to are TR REMs, snipers (preferably MSV 2 or TO), and defensive links. Remember that the threat of a defensive piece can be good enough - a prone missile launcher can keep a street empty without actually being in danger. 10. Deployment zone guards - Protecting your defensive/key pieces from assassins. Minelayers, template weapons, 360 visors, cheap fodder. Each list I run tends to have: 3-4 mission critical pieces 1-2 support pieces 2-3 good attack pieces 2-3 midfield control 1-2 defensive pieces 1-2 surprises Surprises are units that force your opponent to unexpectedly have to change their plan. TAGs deployed last, drop troops, TO units in Hidden Deployment, Holoprojector, Impersonators, unusual attack vectors with climbing plus or super-jump, and camo'd deployable repeaters/hackers are examples of this. Obviously to increase your list's robustness (and Infinity is all about being robust) you want to take pieces that fulfil multiple roles. Infiltrating camo specialists are a prime example - they are mission critical, they can be assassins, they help control the midfield and your opponent doesn't know if they're a mine which can be useful area denial. On the other hand, you want to be able to lose your attack and defensive pieces without losing the mission, as they are highly likely to die or become disabled. The next thing I do is think "can I handle important opponent strategies?". These include: - TAGs/High armor pieces. It's not fun losing your only unit that can remove an ARM 8 2/3W unit in suppressive fire/with dual missile launchers sitting on the main objective. - TO. One TO unit with a sniper rifle or supressive fire in the wrong spot should not ruin your match. - MSV 2 snipers. You can't rely on smoke for everything. - Warbands. Can you stop a Dog-warrior from eating your whole deployment zone in turn one? - Drop troops. There is ALWAYS a Yuan Yuan or mimetic Tiger Soldier with a spitfire about to drop in your deployment zone/come in from the side. - Link teams. (particularly HI) - Mines. You can't control the midfield if you can't clear midfield mines. - Midfield camo. Can you approach, disable, discover and/or destroy them? - Camo spam. Can you destroy, disable or successfully ignore 5-10+ camo markers? - Infiltrating hackers (if you run hackable things). A sensor bot (which has a repeater) + Killer Hacker is a nice defence/attack combo. It's ok to be weak to one or two styles, and have your other list be able to handle those things. I tend to run lists with 10-13 regular orders so the main pool can absorb some hits without actually losing orders (by transferring from the small pool). These days I like Limited Insertion, as it helps me play in a faster and more focused manner. I pick my lieutenant after I've seen what the rest of the list looks like. Can it be an aggressive piece that I've got back-up for (eg Chain of Command or Doctors/Engineers), or will only use turn 2/3 (eg a TAG/Tarik)? Do I have the points to get someone useful like Saladin/Sun Tze? If I'm out of points then a line trooper is fine. I don't tend to run any cheerleaders, but I think that's because in Haqqislam you just don't have to as there are cheap useful units. If forced to take them I want my cheerleaders to be good deployment zone defence and/or backup mission pieces. Here is a list I took to Australia Nationals 2018 and had a great time with: Taking Two To Tango ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 9 1 SALADIN Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 36) HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18) HAWWA' Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26) FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) AL-DJABEL Rifle + Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW, Knife. (0 | 35) TUAREG Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 33) TARIK MANSURI Spitfire, Nanopulser, Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (1.5 | 55) SHIHAB REMOTE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25) GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16) GHULAM (Forward Observer) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13) GROUP 2 4 4 MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) 3.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army I wanted to have fun with two pieces - Tarik and Al Djabel. Tarik is a beast with Fatality Lvl 2 granting crits on 1s, 6-4 super-jump, 2W non-hackable. Super-jumping spitfires are so much fun, and Tarik has grenades, a small template weapon and not terrible CC so can handle pretty much most combat situations. He can also drop prone, which I find very important for attack pieces. Backing him up is a Tuareg Doctor Plus (heals on 18s) who starts in Hidden Deployment wherever I think Tarik is going to charge. Saladin helps me keep Tarik and his Doctor in my hand until the opponent reveals his deployment. Al Djabel is a wonderful attack piece/midfield controller and is just really, really fun. Martial Arts 4 gives you B2 with a Viral CCW at CC 23 and I love it. Killing big units in CC is just the best feeling, I highly recommend you all try it. The three infiltrating camo specialists can handle most missions, and are reasonable fighters in their own right. A minelayer backs them up, putting a total of four camo markers midfield which makes life hard for the opponent to know what's going on there (plus the Tuareg or Fiday if required). The Ghulam FO is mission backup when things go bad. The TR bot and sniper are budget defensive pieces, which if used conservatively enough do a great job (Pro-tip: cover one or MAX two fire lanes, these guys will absolutely be killed too early if used too aggressively. This list does not have enough orders to lose many guys). Ghazis are ridiculous. They are the world's best deployment zone defence as they are 5 points, AVA 4 and have chain rifles, jammers and dogged (oh and now smoke grenades). If they don't need to hang back they are a great midfield control. I run them in their own pool because when I have regular orders as well it just uses up all my brain power planning on how to kill my opponent;s whole army with them. Even with just the four of them by themselves I ran one up first turn (spending all my Command Tokens to make the other Ghazi regular) to attack his Avatar in his deployment zone. I visualise most matches going like this (assuming I deploy and go first, which I somehow usually do): - I deploy leaving a nice spot for my opponent to deploy into which will hopefully leave them exposed to the unusual attack vectors of Tarik and Al Djabel (with the Tuareg in Hidden Deployment near the predicated Tarik Warpath or the centre) - I put Tarik and Al Djabel in spots with access to destroy their 1) key pieces, 2) attack pieces, 3) orders. - Turn 1 Tarik/Al Djabel go on a rampage. They finish dead, or in a defensive spot the Tuareg can reach them. Hopefully I've disabled the opponent enough that they won't be confident moving up into my camo/ghazi-laden midfield. - Turn 2 bully exposed pieces with the mobile Tarik, TR bot or camo pieces in order to hamstring the opponent's mission plans. Complete the mission as much as possible on the way. - Turn 3 complete the missions, destroy mission pieces of opponent So this list has : 3+1 mission pieces (Hunzakut, Hawwa, Tuareg, Ghulam as backup) 1+1 support pieces (Tuareg, Saladin) 2+1 attack pieces (Tarik, Al Djabel, TR bot as backup) 1+2+Ghazis midfield control (Farzan minelayer, Hunzakut has mines, Tuareg has mines) 2 defensive pieces (sniper, TR bot) 3 surprises (Tarik, Al Djabel and Tuareg) If running Limited Insertion I would just take out the Ghazis and upgrade the Ghulam Sniper into a Lasiq viral sniper and the Ghulam FO into Leila Sharif (KHD, shock marksman rifle). This is another list I like: Five Finger Death Punch ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 8 1 1 SEKBAN Heavy Rocket Launcher, Chain-colt / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 23) SEKBAN (Fireteam: Haris) AP Rifle, Chain-colt / Pistol, Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22) SEKBAN Doctor Plus (MediKit) Boarding Shotgun, Chain-colt / Pistol, Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24) ODALISQUE Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 30) ODALISQUE (Fireteam: Haris) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25) HAFZA (Forward Observer) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17) HAWWA' Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26) DJANBAZAN Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 31) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 9) GROUP 2 5 2 2 GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16) GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16) GHULAM (Forward Observer) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13) GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 9) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 9) 5 SWC | 298 Points Open in Infinity Army Here I started with the idea of "use Odalisques" which I don't use much and wanted to explore. I've never really used Odalisques much as there are so many great link opportunities in QK. They are relatively expensive for Haqq, and are not so robust as they don't have a doctor+ in the link. They are too fragile to be a full HI link, and too expensive to run if they're not HI. So I choose a Haris link. The spitfire is my favourite gun, the Haris option is necessary which leaves me with one spot. The submachine gun profile is great and cheap, but I really like having specialists in my links, so I have to choose the Hafza FO. This leaves a reasonable Haris which covers most roles - great attack (spitfire, rifles, shotguns, nanopulsers), no support as NWI should look after itself, 360 visors plus B2 for defence, with a Hafza surprise specialist for missions. To get the Odalisque Haris up-field I need strong long range support and midfield control. In QK that midfield control means Yuan Yuans, as they can throw smoke after walking on the board edge, and have chain rifles (and are cheap if I want to follow the Jade Emperor's advice and clear minefields with fodder units). To control centrefield I've chosen the Ghulam sniper link, as it is also self-sufficient with great area denial, doctor as support, backup specialist in FO and reasonably well defended lieutenant. If I'm taking Yuan Yuans I can't go past taking a Djanbazan MSV 2 sniper as a powerful combo. Next I need more mission pieces, which means an Al Hawwa AHD with D charges. I could take two, or an FO, but I really like the Sekban Doctor+ Haris link so I take that next. It also fills multiple roles - great attack with HRL, AP rifle, boarding shotgun and chain-colts. Doctor+ as support and mission success, 360 visors plus B2 for defence. The only let down is 4-2 movement, but luckily I have already got one infiltrating specialist, and a 4-4 Hafza FO who will be pulled up-field by the Odalisque Haris link. Considering the multi-role links I've taken I've already filled my list without trying too hard to fit things in: 3+2 mission pieces (Sekban, Hafza, Hawwa, 2xGhulams as backup) 2+3 support pieces (Sekban Doc, Ghulam Doc, Yuan Yuan smoke to allow link movement/Djan) 3+2 attack pieces (Sekban, Odalisques, Yuan Yuans, plus Djanbazan/Hawwa if appropriate. This is the 5 Finger Death Punch) 1-3 midfield control (Yuan Yuans, Djan, Ghulam link). Notice no direct midfield control. This list is weak in this respect. 4 defensive units (Ghulam link, Djan, Sekban, Odalisque) 2 surprises (Yuan Yuans and Hafza as a specialist - he is holoprojected as a non-specialist) The mission plan is: Ghulam sniper link controls 1-2 firelanes, Djan sniper + one Yuan Yuan controls the other. Sekban and Odalisque links cover either flank. Hawwa does his thing in the midfield. Turn one 0-2 Yuan Yuans drop to provide smoke to move the links up, and/or rambo into vulnerable pieces to trade up. As the game goes on and my long range pieces are taken out, the Haris links should be close enough to take on selected targets and defend reasonably well against counter-attack, all the while moving specialists to where they need to be for the mission. Maybe my Hafza holoprojector will lull my opponent into thinking the Odalisques are only attack pieces, so they don't expect the hidden specialist (but everyone should suspect Hafzas everywhere when fighting QK). So that's my general approach, I hope you enjoyed reading it! Do you find you do similar or something completely different? I'm keen to experiment with my list building and general strategies so I'd love to hear your thoughts.
