A couple of questions. Why exactly does each of the bigger factions fight? (Conquest, Wealth, Fame). Which one has the most bells and whistles (the most tricks to use). I've never really liked to go straight forward (like the Phalanx and the Morats) prefer to come from an angle (or multiple) where they don't see coming.
Why they fight? For the human factions, the same old story. Resources and ideology for the most part. PanO (the Hyperpower) and Aleph want only what is best for humanity (and PanO). YJ wants to be more cool than they are, always hiding in PanO's shadow (wannabe hyperpower). Nomads are a loose affiliation of anarchists and conspiracy theory believers crossed with furries and freaks, who also don't trust Aleph. Haqqislam want humanity to improve itself, and there's no surer way to make enemies. Ariadna is a mix of Americans, Russians, Scots and French. They are ornery just for the sake of it. They bonded together for mutual survival in a bid to start the first human extrasolar colony (Dawn). This colony was comprised of TWO ships, the Ariadna and the Aurora (The USA tried to use nanotech weapons against a very young PanO, only it backfired, and laid waste to the continental USA instead so they are pretty much gone on Earth. The scots will fight each other, let alone everything else. The French have an instinctive distaste of everything not French, but will get along with these other barbarians because for some reason, their methods work. Unfortunately for them, the wormhole to their system collapsed before the second colony ship (Aurora) could get to them (see *tohaa) isolating them from the rest of humanity and setting them back technologically. They still bear a grudge about "being left for dead". The combine? The EI (like an AI, but an organic, evolved intelligence that was created) is seeking to transcend. Its makers (the Ur race) transcended to a different plane after creating it, leaving it all alone. It desperately wants to rejoin them, and uses any and all means to achieve this goal. This is why it conquers races. If your race has something that can move it closer to that goal, it offers you a choice - join us or die. If you don't have anything, you get bulldozed and eradicated for the sin of being boring. It has created copies of itself and tried to emulate what its creators did, but most of them transcended, themselves, without TELLING it how they did it. There are alien devices called T'zechi digesters, that store the information about life on various planets (all life on those planets since they were built/created there) and humanity has ONE of them. The EI believes that they have the secrets it is lacking. This is why they fight humanity. They want that digester. Also, Aleph and transhumanity are seen as a step forwards for it (iirc) so there's also that. The Tohaa also seek digesters, but they seek to collect the knowledge and "shepherd it" - they bioengineer and "exalt" (force-evolve) lower alien life into their servant races. They stood briefly against the EI, but their race was mostly "assimilated" (they regard those who chose to fall in as "race traitors".). They are triplicitous (like duplicitous, but moreso, since they only do things in 3s). It's because of them screwing around with wormholes that the Dawn system wormhole collapsed. It's also because of them that the combine discovered humanity (they are using humanity as a "speedbump" to slow the combine down.) As for sneaky, sideways ambushy stuff. Shasvastii (from the combine). Not very crunchy, but surprise attacks by the bushel (there aren't many "tough" Shas units that can hit hard AND take a beating. Their whole thing, though, is "survival at any cost" - their home star went supernova (or their galaxy exploded) and they seeded their race as far as they could, so it wouldn't happen again). Same with certain Ariadnan forces.
As Chromedog put it, the humans fight each other for the same reasons they fight now. Nothing there has changed. Just to add what he said: The Tohaa that haven't been assimilated into the CA are responsible for putting humanity on the Evolved Intelligence's radar in the first place. They brought the CA into the Human Sphere for the purpose of creating a buffer to give them breathing room to regroup and re-equip to fight the CA. For the CA's part, they believe humanity can be worthy to ascend, unlike the Morats. For tricksey factions: Ariadna- tons of camo and smoke, infiltration and airborne deployment. Haqqislam- also lots of smoke, camo infiltration but also very good doctors, TAGs and some hacking. Shasvasti- same, but more elite units and more high tech.
I did read somehing. In the background about Bit (I think that's her name). It had said that she was a human and found something that the governments didn't want everyone else to know and that PanO tried to kill her before she was rescued by the CA and then she joined them?
So for the most part 175 years later and we basically are fighting for the same reasons we are now for humans. Does ALEPH want to subjugate (like almost every other AI movie lol) or help humanity? And as Cthulhu363 said: Tohaa aren't as benevolent and helpful to humanity as they appear, they just need CAs attention turned away from them and CA want to evolve others that are of worth and wants to transcend but the races it uses to fight give everyone else the idea that they are evil?
that is correct. She was part of an underground hacktivist group and found out something she wasn't supposed to know. the CA "rescued" her and "recruited" her to their side. Most likely the CA captured her, sepsitorized her and tore the information from her brain.
Annihilating societies it deeems "useless" does tend to make others a little wary. "You will serve or you will die" has never really been the philosophy of the good guys.
Also, CB did a TAGline Video series on their YouTube that featured #ALIVE (Hacktivist Group) and Bit getting captured by PanO. It is a great slice of history:
And humanity has never been good when given two choices that they don't agree with and one of them including the total annihilation of our species. The reason why I asked about why they fight is because while it may not be important to some, details have always been important to me and fighting for wealth, religion or power to name a few has never been a valid one to me. Fighting to help and protect others and to help others better protect themselves or for each other you know. I can see that Haqqislam have the best doctors, Nomads the best Hackers. And depending how you tool them Haqqislam, Shas and Ariadna can play the best shell game. Which ones in your opinion have the best overall specialists for objective games? Not just specialists but specialists that won't go unconscious when a stiff breeze blows at them?
The most resident specialists are Nagas with dogged and dasyus with no wound incapacitation. Both are skirmishers in the faction aleph, specifically the subfaction Operations. The shas caliban can get really resident when he eats enemy troopers. As it is almost every midfield specialist will die to templates pretty easily once revealed. Their survival or effectivness depends a lot on how they are supported by Other parts of your list and how you use them. In my experience nomads (corregidor and bakunin) shasvastii and hassassins, are very strong in this Departement. Nomads and Haqqislam troopers have a higher than everage WIP and there are a lot of deployables to play with. Almost wrvery vanilla daction is able to Projekt multiple threats and different was to attack or achieve objectives. My tip would be: Pick the faction that you think looks Best to you and give it a spin, and always remember you can add more factions later. :D
The CB official site has a great deal information about the motivations of the factions: https://infinitytheuniverse.com/human-sphere/factions The printed books (including the Official Infinity RPG by Modiphius) also has a lot of great background information. For me, I like Haqqislam because they fight for the Search of Knowledge. They are a great balance of spirituality, faith, and humanistic philosophy. That clicks for me. The Warlore YouTube has a great breakdown on their history and philosophy: If you are looking more information about the capabilities of each faction, @TheDiceAbide has a great series: https://www.thediceabide.com/blog/infinity-n4-which-infinity-army-is-for-you @Wizzy is doing a great job consolidating information about all the information that is available on strategies and background information. The question about best "specialist" is a hard one as it matters on how you plan to use them. Some people like combat specialists which can fight and push buttons. Examples include Asawira Doctor's, EVAder Engineers, Caliban Engineers, and Uxia. Others like super cost efficient specialists like Farzans, Zeros, Shrouded KHDs and Chasseurs. Combined Army and ALEPH have some of the toughest specialist, but they cost a lot. Nomads, Haqqislam, and Ariadna have some of the most cost-efficient forward deploying specialist.
I'd argue that Yu Jing/White Banner have one of the most durable specialists with the Dao Fei hacker, a full fledged 2W heavy infantry that has both Infiltration and Camouflage. Biker specialists like the Maverick FO and Knight of Montesa are also excellent for their ability to redeploy quickly with their extreme speed. My favourite specialist is probably the Irmandihos, dirt cheap engineers who have an Impetuous activation to advance for free, their own smoke landing on a 17, and just enough melee ability to be a threat to most midfield skirmishers.
