One big group or...?

I have several factions, but I prefer to play vanilla Nomads the "cheap, spammy" way: the cheap Zeroes, the Morlocks, some Jaguars, an Intruder, the two Krakots, etc... all give me access to a good mix between shock "cannon fodder", cheap "cheerleader flank protectors" and two or three "hitters", while at the same time I keep some control on the table with access to good, fast and cheap specialists.

Tunguska I see it wanting to go Limited Insertion, while Bakunin feels (to me) right on both spammy and LI. Corregidor, in the end, is too narrow for my taste, but is mostly a "send Jaguars+Massacre to melee things to death" and "Wildcats Core/Haris".

 

I (Corregidor) do both. I usually have a Wildcat Core if I'm only 10 orders to make order drain a lot harder.

I think 13-15 is roughly average in the game. For sure it is here, especially for me. Probably 4/5 lists are in that range. I find a small group to use up order intensive actions like smoke and long ranged combat really stretches the first one.

 

Most of my Nomad lists wind up in the 13-15 order range.

It sure is easy to take 10 bad hombres and still find 20 points for Morlocks or Jaguars.

I like having lots of Specialists, and I like the cheap bots for lots of missions. Transducers are excellent, and baggage bots are very useful in many missions.

Once you’ve got a couple of cheap bots and cheap smoke units it’s hard to make a Limited Insertion list, lol.

And the Puppet Master is fantastic for taking the pressure off this kind of list building. You get 4 models in 2 slots and Counterintelligence to protect your order pool. You can easily hit the table with 15-16 orders and nearly 20 models without feeling too spammy.

 

It's really play style preference.

In vanilla I most often have one main group with 10 orders, and a secondary group with support and morlocks.

Typically 10 orders (9 or 10 regular) in group 1 and 0-5 orders (0-3 regular) in group 2.

When I build Corrigedor I float more around 14-16 orders and a higher average.

In Tunguska I find myself frequently lower in the 10 -12 order range (but occasionally find myself higher there too).

Flame bait opinion time. In my experience I typically see newer players play with on average higher order count lists. In some respects those lists are more forgiving to casualties, and easier to pilot. Cheerleaders cheer, Rambo rambos.

I personally tend to prefer lower order count lists. In some ways they degrade better. It you only have 1 or 2 adequate fighters, when they die you don't have tools you need. Lower order count lists retain a degree or redundancy that high order count lists lack. I do think they take more experience to pilot, a key is knowing how to set up to survive an order spam first turn Rambo if you go second.

 

Speaking from the perspective of Bakunin, it's very difficult to make a ten order list that couldn't be done better in vanilla. The moderator core link is not good enough (or expensive enough) to anchor the list.

Compare Tunguska, where Securitate links rule. LI is very reasonable there.

 

Usually my builds come out with 15 orders in total. Some special builds can even bring 16 regular orders accompanied by 3 to 4 irregular orders and the inevitable 3 impetuous orders from the Morlocks.
These lists use mainly a Moderator link + 1 as their backbone. The other variant comes with five Riot Grrls.

So far the only build with just 10 orders I regular play is the list with a Moira link in Hunting Party. So far I don't count my games for and at the Interplanetario since there were always Mercs present but even without Le Muet and Uhahu the Nuns could be successful in other Missions as well.

 

Personal opinion. There's 3 types of lists in Infinity:

LI = 10 (and very occasionally less)
Average = 11-15 (usually 13-14).
Large = 15+ (usually 16-17)

N.B. 14-15 is kinda the inflection point but it depends on how the list is built where it actually belongs.

I think Nomads fits most easily into the average group: a main combat group with a secondary order pool that can only really do 1 thing. The feel is core + support.

Spammy lists tend to be able to fuel multiple things out of either pool. The feel tends to be a left / right combination: either can win you the fight but they probably have different roles.

However we're the 'flexible' faction and can easily push into large lists or play 'elite' in LI.

My 'standard' build is 10 orders + 1 or 2 regular and 2-3 Morlocks. This comes from mainly playing Bakunin and Vanilla. Most of the Tunguskan lists I've built work similarly (although I'd seriously consider 11 order lists with them).

I find that I run Corregidor slightly large (usually to account for AD / Bandits and to enable my Intruder to be in my second group... although that's less good these days). Although when running Wildcats I probably tend to sit at about 13/14.

My favourite StarCo list is spammy at 18 orders (Alg Haris + soloists, Brawler Haris + specialists): albeit that's including 5 irregular orders. My MB list runs to 14 orders (Paintrain + support, AROs/Sniper). The first list can attack or score out of either pool, whereas the second I'm reliant on the first pool to win while the second group supports.

 

I rarely ever make lists with more than 16 orders, and I play Ariadna. 10 order lists are focused and brutal, because you usually get what you pay for in some truly scary and tough models.