Starting Ramah Task Force In this article we’ll go through the first few purchases needed to assemble and field a Ramah Task Force army in N4. To give the reader some context, this article has been written during ITS season 15 after the rules update 2.1. With Infinity rules allowing proxies and with proxying being strictly necessary, we are going field a fair number of models as something other than they really are in order to save money and make it easier to collect the models needed for your first Ramah list. We are going to start with a 200 point list and then expand it to 300 points. It should be noted that the lists presented here are hardly ‘optimal’ since a given list is only really optimal if its pilot feels comfortable with it. I am including profiles that I am comfortable playing with and that I feel that a good RTF list needs. Your experiences may vary in the long term. This article is merely meant as a starting point and not as a definitive word on how to play Ramah. The list and how it works Fireteam - The RTF Swiss Army Knife Four Ghulams and Zhayedan with a sniper rifle are going to form a core fireteam. This allows everyone in the team to gain +3 to their BS, allowing them to fire at +1 Burst and giving them 6th sense. Your Ghulams are going to deploy in cover, well out of sight. However the NCO model should be deployed in such a fashion that it can reach a good firing position with 2” of move, allowing it to use your lieutenant's order to shoot two smoke templates down the field and get back to cover. You will use smoke to allow your Mukhtar to attack through the smoke with his MSV 2 that allows him to ignore the effects of the smoke, while the enemy wanting to shoot back will usually suffer the -6 penalty for shooting through smoke. Do note that if the enemy model has 6th Sense ability, e.g. because they belong to a 4-5 man fireteam, this trick is less effective. Against targets that do not go into fireteams such as flash pulse bots, total reaction bots and such this attack vector can be crippling. Smoke can be also used to cover objectives, allowing you Rafiq to play the mission without having to worry about getting shot at - as long as the enemy does not have a multispectral visor (MSV). The best f2f roll in Infinity is the roll you never need to make. Mukhtar - The Unseen Killer As noted above, Mukhtar with Red Fury (and MSV 2) is your prime attack vector. He has good movement (6-2), has mimetism on his own and can engage the enemy through smoke laid down by Ghulam NCO or Al Fasid. His MSV 2 also allows him to ignore mimetism on enemy models - an ability that often spells death on models which rely on mimetism to stay safe during reactive turn. Mukhtar also has No Wound Incapacitation skill, meaning that he won’t go down with the first hit he takes. The only downside is that the Red Fury has relatively middling range (24”) and low damage of 13. As Infinity heavily punishes you for attacking outside your optimal range (instead of getting +3 to your rolls, you often get -3, meaning that your odds to hit suffer dramatically) you should try to avoid engaging targets outside 24” unless you are sure that you are engaging your enemy outside their good range. Al Fasid - The Sinner For the targets that you cannot reach with Mukhtar’s Red Fury, you should engage with Al Fasid. Well armored and heavily armed Al Fasid can engage most targets comfortably, though you should take care with ARO pieces sporting high mimetism. Al Fasid also sports a smoke grenade launcher which can be used to cover Mukhtar’s advance and to allow Rafiq to interact with mission objectives with impunity. Al Fasid also has Minelayer skill, allowing him to play a single Shock Mine in his ZoC during deployment. This mine should be used to either cover the Ghulam core or Mukhtar depending on your opponent and whether you are going first or not. If you are going first, the mine is best used to protect your core fireteam. Beast Hunter The humble Beast Hunter can be considered one of the best midfield pieces in the game. For mere 15 points you get a Forward Deploying piece protected by camouflage and mimetism, armed to teeth with heavy flamer and panzerfaust. No enemy can easily ignore Beast Hunter - panzerfaust ARO is inherently risky. Should you get the first turn, Beast Hunter makes an excellent attack piece thanks to his super jump, camouflage and heavy flamer. An enemy that rolls to Discover as an ARO to Beashunter’s first move will get shot with panzerfaust. No-one really wants to get hit by panzerfaust, so you can sometimes sneak into the enemy deployment zone, where your heavy flamer will allow you to seek value trades. Rafiq Rafiq is a fast moving (6-4) Forward Observer remote that can accomplish mission objectives, reveal opposing models with Sensor, extend your hacking range and even take Triangulated potshots at hard to hit enemies. Our example list does not include a hacker, so Rafiq’s ability to function as a repeater is not particularly relevant for the time being. However, its ability to get around fast and press buttons (covered by smoke from Ghulam NCO) is invaluable. Remember that you can move your Rafiq to a corner just out of Line of Fire of a hard to hit target, then try and Dodge into its LoF to then perform Triangulated Fire attack. This should be considered as a last resort. Your Mukhtar, al Fasid and Zhayedan are far better suited at engaging enemies during active turn. Warcor The primary use for the Warcor is to simply stand tall atop a piece of scenery watching a large (or otherwise high priority) area of the battlefield, and contest it with their Flash Pulse ARO. In the worst case scenario, the Opponent has to spend an Order to remove a three point model of yours from the board, before proceeding with their plan. In the okay scenario, it takes your Opponent two or more Orders to get the job done, because you scored a high success on your Flash Pulse/Dodge roll, or Cover saved your journalist's life. In the best scenario, your opponent gets hit by the Flash Pulse, ends stunned and can’t continue their attack. Considering how depressingly often Warcor ends dead on turn 1, It's good to think that a Warcor that takes two orders to remove has more than paid itself back. What you need to buy Haqqislam Action Pack Mukthar, Active Response Unit (Hacker) Haqqislam Remotes Pack Warcors, War Correspondents You will end up with extra models, some of which we will use when we expand this list into 300 points. Proxies Infinity is a proxy friendly game and indeed, some profiles do not have official models. Mukhtar with red fury is one such profile. There is also no official Ghulam NCO model. With this in mind, your initial purchases will be proxied in the following manner. Tuareg Sniper from Haqqislam Action Pack will be our Zhayedan sniper. Fiday from Haqqislam Action Pack will be our Beast Hunter Khawarij from Haqqislam Action Pack will be our Ghulam NCO Mukthar, Active Response Unit (Hacker) will be our Mukhtar red fury. Expanding to 300 points What you need to buy Zhayedan Intervention Troops Namurr Active Response Unit (Heavy Pistol, E/M CCW) Haqqislam Support Pack Carmen Johns & Bâtard Shakush Light Armored Unit Proxies Najarrun Engineer from Haqqislam Support Pack will be your Monstrucker. Ghulam Doctor from Haqqislam Support Pack will be Ghulam Hacker. Fireteam - Update We start by upgrading the Zhayedan sniper to Zhayedan missile launcher. In full core, this brave warrior rolls 2 x 18 in ARO against most targets and thanks to his weapon dealing explosive damage (and forcing three saves on the enemy). This means that very models in the game are able and dare to challenge linked Zhayedan. Shakush - The Hammer Shakush is a light TAG armed with a heavy machine gun and a heavy flamer. The light in its name is somewhat a misnomer - Shakush boasts ARM and BTS score of 6, allowing it to act much like Al Fasid. Shakush is the model that you will use to remove most hard ARO's that you cannot circumvent. At good range, he can engage targets such as Atalanta and Armand. He might not be the best piece in the game for this purpose, but it's the best 'hammer' Ramah gets. It should be noted that besides being better armored, Shakush is also faster than Al-Fasid (6-2 move) has higher BS (14 v.s. 13) and its pilot is a Specialist, allowing the unit to accomplish mission objectives if necessary. This makes Shakush a superior pick. Ghulam Hacker It is true that Ramah does not have the strongest of infowar capabilities, but the WIP 14 of a humble ghulam should not be overlooked. Your second group contains Rafiq and Fanous which both can extend your hacking network and thus can be used to deny parts of the table from hackable units. No-one wants to walk into repeater coverage if they can avoid it, even if the unit is protected by a tinbot. This is particularly great as Rafiq often wants to meander into the midfield thanks to being a disposable specialist with a template weapon. Carmen and Bâtard All good Ramah lists include Carmen and Bâtard. End of story. Not only is Carmen mounted on a bike for that sweet 8-4 move, but she is also a Natural Born Warrior with Martial Arts lvl 2 meaning that even on her own, she can punk most enemies in close combat. Add to this her Heavy Pistol (+1B) which means that she rolls 2 dice in melee (three if Bâtard is helping her) meaning that she can threaten most pieces on the battlefield. This includes even most TAGs, though killing one might take a few orders. Besides being an absolute unit in melee, Carmen has a Chain Rifle (+1B) meaning that she can threaten fireteams and enemies clumped up together. Because Carmen and her Antipode friend are Dogged, they won’t go down to the first wound either. The only issue is that Carmen does not have Shock Immunity meaning that she is particularly vulnerable to mines. Luckily, assuming some clever positioning, Bâtard can take mine hits meant for Carmen. As Bâtard dodges mines on 12’s, he might even survive the encounter with a hostile source of shrapnel. As a biker, Carmen has a Mimetism -3 which makes her hard to hit. For some reason, Bâtard also gets Mimetism. How on earth a 8 foot tall antipode is hard to see escapes me, but I am not complaining. Speaking of Bâtard, our trusty doggy friend is also a Sensor, allowing him to suss out enemy models in camouflage state within ZoC without having a LoF and getting +6 to all his discover rolls against camouflaged opponents. On top of all this, Carmen has both Smoke Grenades and Smoke Grenade Launcher making her a match made in heaven for Mukhtar Red Fury. More often she will use the smoke to cover her own advance, though. She also gets Booty, because why not. All this is an excellent deal for 18 points. Carmen rewards a skilled player that can read the board and knows when to commit her and when to keep her back. Knowing how to play Carmen is part of the core skill set needed to play Ramah. Namur You will learn to love Namurr. There is no other piece like her in the game. Namur are excellent shots with their BS 13, and surprisingly dangerous melee combatants with their CC 21 and CC Attack (+1). These abilities mean that this eel-like piece can bully weaker prey as they wish, but at the same time they should be careful when dancing with dedicated gunfighters and/or deadly Martial Artists. Because of her immunity (total) she is utterly immune to flash pulse and other immobilizing weapons. This also means that she’ll take at most one wound from weapons that force more than one armor save (unless the opponent rolls a critical hit). Be careful of jammers though - immunity (total) does not grant you immunity against comms attacks. On top of this, she carries an em ccw along with d-charges meaning that if given a chance, she can really ruin a TAG’s day. While a breaker rifle and light shotgun are not the deadliest of weapons, they both excel within the 0-16” ranger where Namurr prefers to fight. Lastly Namurr carries a Heavy Pistol. This weapon has the decent DMG value of 14, and it also packs Shock ammunition, which makes it excellent for taking out pesky dogged models that might otherwise slow her down. She is a specialist operative, allowing her to play the mission really well. Crucially for our list, Namur can form a duo with Shakush. This means that you can use your gunfighter to drag your specialist into the midfield and then either use Namurr’s tactical awareness order to withdraw them back to your deployment zone or you can unleash Namurr and send her hunting for prey. You just need to be careful to avoid engaging the ‘best stuff’ enemy has on the board. Luckily, 6-2 move along with tactical awareness and climbing plus means that Namurr goes exactly where she wants. In addition, dodge (+3) and dodge (+1”) skills allow her to be extremely slippery if and when needed. It takes a while to learn to play Namurr, but once you master her, you feel bad playing a game without her at your side. Monstrucker Armed with smg, chain rifle and drop bears Monstrucker is here to keep Shakush up and running as well as serving as defending your deployment zone. If you are unsure what to do with your group 2, you can always use Monstrucker to deploy / throw some drop bears to protect any particularly vulnerable spot. Having a chain rifle allows him also to trade with one wound attack pieces in a pinch. Another good use for Monstrucker’s own order is to place him in suppressive fire, overlooking some short diagonal firelane. A properly deployed 12 point model in suppressive fire might well slow down the enemy aggression - or at least force them to use smoke to cover their advance. Fanous The dreaded "Flash Pulse Bot" is available in Ramah with a plentiful AVA of 3. Many RTF players seem to like taking the maxium availability of these Remotes to either just provide cheap Regular Orders, or to also form a soft ARO net. I have never brought more than two and I know that Grotnib tends to agree that three Fanous is ‘too many’. Your points are often better spent on corner guards with shotguns. The problem with Fanous as an ARO piece is that it can get gunned down with a little risk to the attacking model. Even in the worst case, the enemy attack is delayed by a single turn. That said, Fanous are excellent backlike guards overlooking your deployment zone against opportunistic parachutists as well as expand your hacking network. Final words Ramah Task Force is hardly the most competitive option available to Haqqislam players. That mantle would likely fall on either Hassasin Bahram (HB) or vanilla. However, Ramah has an access to synergies neither of these factions can match. No other Haqq piece can match the withering ARO from linked Zhayedan and while HB can play with linked ghulams, they rarely bring as many shotguns as RTF does, meaning that RTF can defend far better than most give it credit. You also get access to Carmen and Bâtard - possibly the best sub 20 point warband in the game. To master Ramah, you must master its pieces (Ghulam core, Namurr, Carmen, Mukhtar) and how they play. The list above gives you plenty of tools to ask your opponent awkward questions as well as answer any questions they might pose. The only way to fully unlock the power of this factions requires you to play several games to develop situational awareness and good understanding of the pieces you field.
Thanks for your work. I´m really agree. Ramah is not Hassasin, neither Vainilla, which is a really good thing. You can choose what do you want to play, so go for the "right" army. While Ramah doesn´t looks as strong, maybe because isn´t so flexible, but it is more capable of one could think. For me, while Khawarijh aren´t in best place right now, the mk12 MVS2 is an amazing piece which brings less durability than Mukhtar, but offers better order efficiency thanks to NCO).
