ITS Classified deck is the official way to get your Classified mission selection, but there's also a table you can roll dice on for the same purpose. Also I think there might be a free fan-made deck you can print out floating around. So primarily I use an ipad with Mayanet, because it's awesome. A quick reference on my phone to Wiki and ITS missions sums up all the resources I should need in a night. Other people may use Army to build a list, and print it out. When printing lists, you also have an option to print "Courtesy Lists" which are intended to give to your opponent upon completion of the deployment phase. Mostly Courtesy lists are only used at official tournament events, not casual games, in my experience. It screens out the private information automatically. Your opponent should ALWAYS give you a quick run-down of what model you are looking at, either as soon as they are done deploying, or as soon as it touches the table. And if you have questions/need reminders, answer them. This does not apply to Private Information, which is very specifically things like Point Cost, Lieutenant, what's under a Camo marker, or any other skill labelled as Private Information.
Specialist Operative is the "I can push buttons, and nothing else", and counts as a Specialist, like you've been answered. I will add that Specialists of the other kinds can do specificic things, depending on what they are: Doctors can heal, Engineers can remove statuses and repair (and usually carry D-Charges, AKA C-4, to blow thigns up), Forward Observers mark targets so you can shoot them better, etc... The ITS document lists it at the beginning, but for short, the Specialist Troops are: Specialist Operative (SO), Forward Observer (FO), Doctor, Paramedic, Engineer, Hackers of any kind (Killer, defensive, white, EVO...), etc... Being the right kind of specialist for the mission grants you a +3 to Willpower when it comes to the roll to see if you succeeded to "push the button". I suggest you to download and check the https://infinitythegame.com/resources/downloads section, the Profiles PDF has all the profiles and Fireteam options for all the units in the game, and is the official, highest in priority, document for such (you can also find the FAQ, the rulebook, the Human Sphere N3 expansion Rulebook, and the "non-ITS" missions, like Outrage, Halloween, etc...). The Infinity Army also provides reminders of what can form a Fireteam with whom. As of their use, they are great for economy when you want to move a lot of miniatures with little expenditure of orders, but you are limited in the variety of troops (since they are all, but for the Duo and Triad, exclusive to Sectorials, which are specifici subgroups of the main factions), which is critical in missions like Biotecvore (you need to leave a killing zone ASAP, and you need 2 movement options per troop to do so!), but at the same time it can be complicated to move 5 troops and not get them killed accidentally. The Fireteams are Core (2 to 5 members, you can only have 1 active at any given time), Haris (2-3 members, you can only have 1 active at any given time), Dúo (2 members, any number, available in vanilla thanks to a hacking program from the EVO), Triad (exclusive unlimited Haris the Tohaa have, but they don't have Core), and Enomotarchos (exclusive of the Greeks/Steel Phalanx, 2-4 members, can have as many as you want, but they are limited in variety and you need a troop with the skill to form a team). Essentially a ranking, like the one in League of Legends, Overwatch, etc... You will be asked for your ITS pin code when joining a tournament (if you don't have one, they will help you get it), that's it. Yes, it is a set of cards that gives you 1-2 random, secret objectives you need to perform to get 1 to 4 points in an ITS scenario. One of the scenarios, Highly Classified, depends entirely upon it, and others let you use the cards as +X points value to the miniature of your choice when claiming dominance on a section of the table. There are two versions of the Army list: public and private. The public contanis everything your opponent has a right to know, aside from Combat Groups (you have to tell him how many are you using, this is relevant because of an ITS rule, however, related to Command Tokens), while the Private has everything (essentially, troops "hidden" that you won't place in the table but have to note where are they, parachuting troops, etc...).The wiki has a section about what is open and private information, check it out. Practice, most things are mostly the same. You will have all weapons printed with your private list, with ranges and type of ammo. The rest, memory and practice... At the beginning you will be defeated a lot of times, because you will be learning how do your troops work, and once you do you will need to learn how the enemy's troops work. Fortunately, aside from Tohaa all factions have more similarities than diferencies, so a mine in your hands is the same in all factions, a hacker does the same in all factions (but Tohaa, who have its own "magic", and one hacker), etc... Best way to start, grab a scenery pack and play basic missions there, using the size of the mat and 150 pts basic armies, so you can learn to work with cover, ranges, etc...
It does, I forgot about that! http://www.captainspud.com/n3hacking/ Spud's a great help to the community.
Again, thanks for all the answers! Something that I'm wondering about: some REMs are Forward Observers. Do they counts as specialists? I mean... they are REMs. They don't even have hands..? And an unrelated question: are all Infinity games time-limited? Are there games where you play until, well, one side is all down?
Neither did R2D2 which didn't stop it accessing consoles :P yes they do count as specialists. All tournament ones are. Casual games tend to be turn-limited, I can't remember when I last played a game until total defeat.
Yes, those remotes with FO are specialists for missions. ITS games are turn limited (3 turns), some campaign games (in the old Paradiso book) only ended when a certain event is triggered and not from time or turn limits, though. We had one game go for 3 hours until that one trigger event that ended it (and without either side going into retreat which also would have ended the game). As for the "all of one side is down", it can happen, but Retreat will often kick in before wipe out (although retreat ONLY gets calculated at the START of your turns, so it's quite possible to start your turn not in LoL or retreat, but during your turn or the next player's turn, you get wiped off the table. It can happen, but usually you learn to mitigate it with deployments and experience.
There is actually one ITS mission where getting the other side down is the last thing you want to do if you intend to win, because mission objectives are to neutralise enemy lieutenant and specialists *without* killing them. Some of your dudes get free Adhesive Launchers for that purpose, while everyone else who has a Pistol gets a Stun version for free.
Ooookay, so I played my first game! :) And here's a question that came up during the game: if a trooper fires a flamethrower (or uses other weapon with a template area of effect) at the enemy and he fires over the location where a TO trooper is supposed to be located, then is the TO trooper hit? BTW. Do template weapons harm allied troopers who happen to be in harm's way, or just the enemy?
A TO trooper in Hidden Deployment is not on the table so would not be affected by a DTW. If a template hits a friendly the entire attack is cancelled.
A colbrook said, model in Hidden Deployment will never suffer from accidentally being in a template area. rule reference : Effects Until a trooper's Hidden Deployment state is canceled, that trooper is considered not to be on the game table at all. Consequently, such a trooper does not affect allied LoF, is not affected by Template Weapons, etc.
Thanks! :) Another questions, regarding the basics: the Order structure. From what I know, the Order can involve: - two Short Movement Skills, - one Short Movement Skill and one Short Skill, - one Entire Order Skill. My question: is there any rule that specifies that in the second possibility, the SMS must go first? I'm asking, because when I was playing my first game yesterday, I was instructed that I can't start an Order by declaring a BS Attack - and that if I simply want my trooper to hold the position and fire at the enemy, I need to declare an Idle first - and, only then, a BS Attack. But I checked the rulebook and I can't find a rule that actually states it..?
No you can declare SmS second, but, if you declare a BS attack first you must take the shot from the spot the model is in, not from the movement path it takes after the BS attack declaration. Edit that been said declaring idle has a tactical option of forcing the enemy to declare its ARO before you decide what to do, possibly revealing some hidden troop.
You were misinformed or misunderstood. You CAN start with a BS Attack. However, it's generally best practice to not do so. You want to provoke any AROs before you declare your attack, so as not to be surprised and caught out by an unexpected response.
Per the FAQ you determine where along a path of movement you shoot from during resolution, not on declaration.
I will have to check that answer with @ijw because it creates some issues for example what stops you declaring a BS attack from somebody who is not at the modes LoF when the BS attack is declared, you can move to LoF later.
You could end up declaring an illegal BS Attack that becomes an idle, I suppose. This is one more reason why moving first is PREFERABLE, but not mandatory. :)
you determine where you shoot during resolution, but you must still declare your target and choice of weapon during declaration. Therefore declaring a model you currently see.
True, but then you get into LoF and then the argument stands why can you get range from moving second and not LoF, ectr ectr.
