The Joy of Invading Savage Planets: A Guide to the Onyx Contact Force

Ported from the old forum, the following is courtesy of Nalim...

Hello fellow alien commanders,

so you looked at a couple of Corvus Belli’s excellent Onyx miniatures and want to get started? You enjoy playing with miniatures so big that they barely fit on their base? Or are you an experienced player looking for a place to discuss advanced tactics? Well, this thread is for you.

I will shamelessly copy the tried and true structure of the various excellent tactics threads in this and other sub forums and use the following structure:

• Faction overview
• Unit discussion
• List building
• General strategies (WIP)
• Sample lists (WIP)
• Faction-specific strategies (coming soon or “mañana”)
• Mission-specific strategies (coming soon or “mañana”)

This guide is aimed primarily at ITS play. While most of the things I will write here may be true for other mission systems please keep in mind that I use the ITS lens for my unit assessments. Usability of units and profiles will vary greatly on how specialist-dependent your mission system is.

I will try to keep this thread up to date with profile changes and FAQs and I look forward to your, perhaps differing, thoughts on the matters I present.



Faction overview

Introduced with HSN3, the Onyx Contact Force is Infinity’s latest faction. The Onyx Contact Force is a task-specific sectorial, meaning it doesn’t limit you to one of the CA’s races but presents you with select options from all the races in the EIs repertoire. The Onyx Contact Force’s main strategy is crushing enemy resistance through sheer force - most tricks we have are ultimately aimed at killing stuff. Onyx’ style of play can be compared to PanOceania’s.

Strengths

• Perhaps the best active turn shooting capabilities in Infinity. While Onyx’ BS ratings aren’t stellar, the vast amount of Assisted-Fire capable REMs, including lots of special weapons and even specialist options, secures them a top spot in this category.
• Great reactive turn shooting capabilities: With our excellent link teams, Q-Drone, Overdron and Noctifer ML, Onyx can form an impressive gun line. Just keep in mind that some of our units need to be buffed in order to operate at full capability, meaning they are at serious risk when your enemy gets the first turn.
• Excellent hacking.
• Specialist and Hacker Lieutenant options.
• The only Evo Hacking Device which can shoot.
• Cheap TAGs.
• Drop troops with more than 1W.
• Effective high order count lists are possible.
• One of the most optimised KHD profiles in Infinity

Weaknesses

• Only one Doc option…
• and only one Engineer option…
• and only one D-Charge option…
• all on the same profile.
• Many good choices are vulnerable to hacking.
• No Smoke.
• No cheap infiltrating camo troops.
• No Mnemonica Lieutenant options and no dirt-cheap (10 points) Lieutenant profiles.

Unit discussion

Imetron



Imetrons are AI beacons. At just four points, they provide Onyx with a regular order. However, they need to drop using combat jump and they can’t do anything by themselves (not even dodging).

If Imetrons fail on their combat jump roll (40% chance) they suffer dispersion. If they disperse out of the game table, they are lost to you: Something you should avoid at all costs.

This is why I would advise you to deploy your Imetrons in the center 16*16 area of the game table. This way, they can’t be lost due to dispersion. I’d advise to put them in places where enemy troopers will need two or three orders to reach them and away from mission objectives. This will make going for them an unattractive task for your adversary. Another interesting strategy is using Imetrons as traps: Put an Imetron at a rather easy-to-reach place, let enemy Infiltrators come near and then shoot them in the back with your Malignos in Hidden Deployment. You have a Malignos in hidden deployment, right?

Imetrons are a good way to bring a solid list to 14-16 orders and if I use such a list, I will always have used two of them. If you go for a 10-11 order list, it’s better to leave them at home. With a rather low model count, having two models that can’t do anything won’t do you any good.

BIT & KISS!



BIT & KISS! bring the long awaited EI-KHD to the Combined Army and each sectorial and boy are they welcome..! 19 points and 0.5SWC gives you mostly average stats for both units, with a notable exception for BIT's BTS 6 which is very useful for her primary role of hacker hunter-killer.

Only one profile exists but that's all we need to make this work. KISS' Repeater, Minelayer and Deployable Repeaters mean that once deployment is over, you've already got a Repeater Net up and running. A Pitcher means that you've got options to reliably extend the repeater net further up the board without exposing BIT too much.

There's nothing too exotic to find here in regards to weaponry, but BIT's SMG and KISS' Adhesive Launcher make this soft target slightly less desirable to run at in short range.

Back to that KHD. This may not be an expensive profile, but that's not going to stop someone dedicating orders to removing it from the game.

• Cybermask is your friend, giving both BIT & KISS a marker state that can be used for active turn hunting or to give you some assurance that it will last the reactive turn.
• Maestro is the king of KHD programs. -3 to the opponent? Yup. +3 to you? Check. Breaker Ammo? You got it! The icing on the cake here is the effect of putting your target Unconscious upon a failed save, extremely useful should you find yourself looking at a multi-wound hacker.

Fraacta Drop Unit



Fraactas are awesome for one reason: Transmutation. If they lose their first wound, they don’t go unconscious but get a profile change - and the new profile has better defenses. As an added bonus, their Transmutation skill makes them immune to Shock Ammunition.

So, why is this great? Fraactas are drop troops. An experienced enemy player will more often than not have all interesting drop spots covered with at least one ARO. Since Advanced Deployment is a full order skill, you won’t be able to shoot or dodge this ARO, meaning you are at serious risk to lose 1W. The Fraacta, though, can risk this free shot: One shot with normal or shock ammunition won’t take it out. Keep in mind, though, that the Fraacta’s second profile moves at 4-2: Snail speed.

The Fraacta's second profile also works exceptionally well with her Nanopulser: It greatly increases her chances of surviving an ARO or active turn shot when using her template weapon. This creates a difficult situation for your opponent: Should he just dodge (and wait for you to repear your trick 10secs later) or should he shoot you? However, if he shoots, his chances of actually killing you are way slimmer than in most similar cases, while his chances of getting butchered by little nano robots are high as usual.

Most players will be on the lookout for AD troops on turn one, but forget keeping them in mind from turn two onwards. If you are in doubt whether you should land your Fraacta or not, I advise you to wait for the next turn. If you have command tokens to spare, you could start with your Fraacta in your second combat group and move it to the first one the turn you land it: Most opponents will not expect this and it gives you a lot of orders to kill when she drops without limiting your main order pool in turn one.

Let’s take a look at the available profiles then:

For 29 points, we get a Combi Rifle and a Nanopulser. This profile has two things going for it: It’s an all-purpose profile and you don’t pay SWC tax. You can either use your Nanopulser to get cuddling troops into real trouble (you’ll most likely die in the process though, so it’s a one-hit-wonder) or use your Combi Rifle to attack from unexpected angles, perhaps even going into suppressive fire afterwards. If dropped at the right spot, a suppressing Fraacta can cover objectives reasonably well.

For one point less (28) points the Fraacta Drops his Combi Rifle in favor of a Boarding Shotgun. With this equipment, she is perfectly suited to go on a killing spree behind enemy lines: If your enemy didn’t expect a drop troop, it’s quite possible that she’ll be able to kill 4-6 enemy models with a small amount of orders. However, if your opponent managed to cover his DZ very well (especially with direct template weapons), she’ll be next to useless.

At 35 points and 1.5 SWC you get a Spitfire as your main weapon. This profile basically plays like the Combi Rifle one on steroids. Sadly, most of the time we will not have the spare SWC for this: Due to the nature of our army, our SWC are generally better invested in long range weaponry and hacking.

For 35 points and 0.5 SWC, we get a Combi Rifle and Assault Hacking Device. This profile can be interesting when you need to drop a specialist fast (in Beaconland, for example), but in most cases I find myself choosing a Malignos instead.



Med-Tech Obsidon Medchanoids



The legendary Doctor Worm. With 6-4, he is moving quite fast. However, he’s got a big silhouette value which may limit his movement options depending on your table layout. He’s a doctor and an engineer on the same profile which can help you do classified objectives efficiently. Additionally, he is our only option with doctor skill, engineer skill and D-Charges.

If you take a Q-Drone (which you should, by the way) he’s a mandatory choice in my opinion. If your main link is Rodoks, I’d use him. If your main link is Unidrons, he’s not needed as much: In most cases, Unidrons are better off using Dogged, meaning they can’t be healed.

Just like the M-Drone, his fast movement speed will save you crucial orders in many objective based missions. You should, however, use your long range weapons to clear the way for him first: He is an average gunfighter and losing him early could become quite a problem for you.

I generally use the Med-Tech to put my Q-Drone back up (yes, even a buffed Q-Drone loses gunfights and you should be prepared for it). Once I achieved long range dominancy, I put him on objective duty.

The Med-Tech becomes much less important if you are allowed to use Spec Ops. Since our current Spec Ops options (Treitak and Corax) are not linkable in Onyx, the classic Chain of Command + Doctor + Engineer layout becomes very tempting. If you use this layout, you’ll generally leave Doc Worm at home.

Nexus Operatives



Slightly-above average LI with interesting profiles. Also linkable with all our links as an added benefit. Most Onyx list will contain at least one of these guys for a good reason: Every profile comes with a Lieutenant option. All of them have PH11 and Hyper-Dynamics L1 which will make them quite good at dodging.

For 16 points you get a basic Specialist Operative profile with a Combi Rifle. This is a quite good (and cheap) Lieutenant profile, but keep in mind it’s also plain obvious and very vulnerable to enemy AD troops and speculative fire. It is, however, quite efficient to link this profile with Unidrons: You’ll keep the 5-man link bonus, have your Lieutenant covered and don’t pay much more than for a basic Unidron.

For 24 points and 0.5 SWC you get Onyx’ cheapest hacker, equipped with a Combi Rifle and a Nullifier. In a Unidron Link with Tinbot A he’ll be quite a thread to enemy hackers. His Nullifier will allow the Unidron Link to move freely in your active turn, eliminating the thread of these pesky Nomad repeater nets. A solid option. If you take him as Lieutenant, you’ll basically get a free order (if you don’t link him), since you’ll most likely use the Assisted Fire program on someone every turn, especially if Unidrons are your main link. Despite his Sucker Punch upgrade program he’ll be at serious risk from enemy killer hackers, though. I would only take him as Lieutenant if I also fielded a Chain of Command Spec Ops. The hacker also brings a Nullifier which can guard your key pieces from hacking interference should you feel that you are in the process if losing the hacker battle.

For 26 points and 1 SWC, you’ll get the Nanoscreen layout equipped with Spitfire. This profile is very useful on open tables: The Nanoscreen will provide you with cover no matter what. He is also a very good choice if you need to hold objectives which are represented by markers (and therefore provide no cover). You shouldn’t forget to put him in suppressive fire in this case.

Shasvastii Tactical Dominance Special Wing Noctifers



Slightly-above average TO camo LI. Additionally, these guys have dogged which makes them both great aggressive and defensive pieces.

The Combi Rifle profile (24 points) is cheap and can catch your enemy off guard. For an aggressive piece starting in my Deployment Zone, it doesn’t have to much punch to it, though.

The Spitfire loadout (30 points, 1.5 SWC) is a reasonably priced murder-machine, though. However, as I will point out farther below, Onyx is always on a tight SWC budget, so this loadout also doesn’t see too much playtime for me.

Let’s get to the star of the crew: The 32 points, 1.5 SWC Missile Launcher loadout. The bane of link teams. This one’s a winner: its main strength doesn’t lie in even long range gun fights, though. Since it starts in Hidden Deployment, your opponent will not know where it’s positioned. The best use for this guy is to wait until your opponent moves his link team into LoF and then shoot at someone who isn’t the link leader: Chances are high this move will be devastating to your opponents plans.

The Hacking Device option (32 points, 0.5 SWC) isn’t too interesting though: If you want a TO Camo specialist, you’ll be better off with the 36 points Malignos FO option most of the time. If you want a Standard Hacking Device, the Nexus Operative will get the job done for 8 points less.

The lieutenant option is quite interesting: Yes, it cost 1 SWC, and you’ll have to deploy the Noctifer as a marker if you don’t want to start in LoL, which will, in turn, make it quite obvious who is your Lieutenant to your opponent. Since markers can’t be targeted by Speculative Fire, it is in turn the safest lieutenant option we can get. Deploy him prone on a rooftop or in a building and it won’t be easy for your opponent to kill him. Perhaps our best Lieutenant choice for Decapitation.



Umbra Legates



Fast CC murder machines with Mimetism for added mid-ranged combat prowess and NWI. Also our only source of Hacking Device Plus. Just avoid shock ammunition at all costs. Forward Deployment L1 for added Deployment choices. If you go second, you shouldn’t deploy him too aggressively though: He is a priority target for your opponent. Mimetism, Flash Pulse and PH13 and WIP14 (remember, Technical Weapons like the flash pulse use WIP), will make him in ARO thread up to 24 inches. However, your active turn is when he’ll really shine. Oh - and he’s linkable with both Unidrons and Rodoks, but in my opinion, he’s better suited to a lone wolf role. Keep in mind that his 6-2 MOV value will prove a problem when facing difficult terrain . When playing missions involving lots of difficult terrain (for example Rescue), you should give your Umbra a break.

At 40 points and 0 SWC, the K1 Combi Rifle loadout is your cheapest option. Unless you expect TAGs, leave the guy at home. He’s not bad, but there are better options.

For 41 points and 1.5 SWC you get the Spitfire profile. This one’s very interesting, mostly because Forward Deployment L1 compliments the Spitfire very well. Especially on tenser tables, this guy will most likely be in +3 range starting with his first order and still in cover. A very interesting strike unit that competes with the Noctifer Spitfire for a similar role. Just like with his main competitor his main drawback is the opportunity cost of lost long range or hacking SWC. The Lieutenant option brings the highest WIP value of all Onyx Lieutenants, so may be quite useful in missions where winning the Lieutenant roll can be crucial. Since is main role is an offensive one, you should think about including a Chain of Command Spec Ops when going this route.

For 43 points and 0.5 SWC, you get Onyx’ best hacker and also Onyx’ only Hacking Device Plus, giving you access to White Noise and Impersonation. You trade your mid-range weaponry for a Boarding Shotgun, though. I like this profile a lot and use it in most of my lists. Impersonation makes it quite easy for him to get into +6 Shotgun range. White Noise helps a lot to get long range dominance: Many of our opponents will have a MSV unit (or even MSV link) in overwatch position. Apart from shifting rolls in our favor, we can also make them unable to ARO if we attack other targets. A quite effective tactic is to drop White Noise to block LoF for one of two troopers in sight of your buffed TR Remote, kill the enemy without MSV first and then move on to the unsuspecting MSV trooper(s). Apart from that, this guy is a specialist and Impersonation is a great way of transportation. This profile is a jack-of-all-trades toolbox, a unit other factions look at with envy.



Umbra Samaritans



The Legate’s ugly (profile-wise, the model is stunning in my opinion) brother. He trades Forward Deployment L1 and Mimetism for even better CC capabilities, the ability to eat your enemies for extra wounds and Super-Jump. Looks devastating, doesn’t it? His main problem is that he doesn’t have reliable means to get into CC range, though. I’d describe him as a situational choice.

For 40 points and 0 SWC, we get the Breaker Combi Rifle loadout. A nice low-to-mid-range offensive troop with a little bit more punch to it then the Legate with K1 Combi Rifle. He could prove a nice addition to a Rodok link.

The Spitfire loadout (44 points and 1 SWC) fills a role similar to both the Legate and Noctifer with Spitfire. Since both of them generate more negative modifiers (TO Camo, Mimetism) for your opponents, I’d prefer these in most situations. However, if you only have 1 SWC left and want to include a lone wolf Spitfire, it’s a half-solid option. With 24 inches effective range and Super-Jump he is able to attack at angles your enemies don’t suspect. Just keep in mind you can’t profit from cover when jumping, so winning that FTF roll may prove quite hard.

For 43 points and 0.5 SWC we get a Plasma Carbine and EI Assault Hacking Device. In most situations, I would rather choose the Legate HD+, but this options shines when forming a Xeodron Haris. It’s the only way to include a specialist into your TAG Haris. If you decide to play a list including a Xeodron Haris (which can be a good idea on killy missions or Biotechvore), I’d recommend using this profile.

Both non-hacker profiles have Lieutenant options but since the Samaritan is even more fragile than the Legate I’d advise against it.

Maakrep Trackers Unit



Our second Sygmaa option and another excellent one. He’s our only source of MSV 2 and Sixth Sense helps against those pesky infiltrators who want to knife us from behind. He also has an Auto-Medikit which can prove to be pure gold for his role. If he is on ARO duty and suffers 1W from a non-shock weapon, he’ll drop prone and you still have a 55% chance to get him going again.

For 29 points and 0 SWC, we get a Combi Rifle and Light Shotgun. This one is suited very well as a low to mid-range camo hunter. In this range band, he is quite likely to step into your opponent’s mines. If you want to have the modifiers on your side in short to mid-range camo fights, you are better off with Onyx other options (Legate; Noctifer; Buffed Drones; Malignos; Mines) though. He’s also a Lieutenant option, but I doubt this one will get much use.

For 33 points and 1.5 SWC, we get the HMG option, an aggressive and dangerous active tool to achieve long range dominance. You shouldn’t get overconfident, though: MSV 2 just evens the modifier field in long range battles so if you leave this guy in the open while the enemy still has long range weaponry in LoF, you will most likely die in your reactive turn. It’s a good idea to keep him in Total Cover when you deploy, then take out your enemies long range units and then have him on ARO duty to limit your opponent’s smoke options.

For 26 points and 0 SWC you get a Boarding Shotgun. Keep moving and look elsewhere.

The Multi-Sniper option is identical to the HMG option. It’s a more defensive option, but a dangerous one. Your Auto-Medikit doesn’t help against shock ammunition (which is prominent in long range battles). In most situations, I would rather take a Noctifer Missile Launcher. If your table has a good ARO spot way back in your DZ at the edge of the table and enemy HMG are farther away than 32 inches, he becomes a very good option.

For 34 points and 0.5 SWC we get a regular hacking device and a Boarding Shotgun. MSV + Hacking + Short Range Weaponry is an odd combination and just like his Nisse cousin, he won’t make it into too much lists.



Rodok, Morat Armed Imposition Detachment



Our more expensive and also more aggressive Core Link option. Being Morats, they won’t be affected by LoL, which is huge since we don’t have Mnenonica. BS12, Mimetism and the 5-man link bonus will mean these guys will have the modifiers on their side most of the time. Super-Jump means they can start in a very defensive position and just jump down afterwards. It also opens up surprising attack angles. Boarding Shotgun profiles (even specialists) mean you can fill your link with cheap orders once you got the bases covered. PH12 means they can deal reasonably well with mine fields, Koalas and MadTraps.

Their downsides are 4-2 movement (leave them at home when expecting difficult terrain) and the way Super-Jump works in links: If you declare Super-Jump as a short skill in a link, the Models without Super-Jump will idle. So if you link them (which you should), you’d be better off taking a pure link or including a Samaritan.

The 26 points base profile comes with a Combi Rifle and 2 Light Shotguns. This one can also be your Lieutenant (with a 1 SWC tax), which can be a good choice since most opponents won’t suspect it. If you can spare these guys, you should put at least one of this guys (or a Breaker Samaritan) in your Rodok link. In turn 2 and turn 3, many firefights take place in 8-16 inch range and he’s the only Rodok that gets a +3 modifier there. The 2 Light Shotguns are interesting (linked B4 shotguns, yeah), but in most cases, the Boarding Shotgun profiles will be able to achieve similar results. They are, in essence, a tax.

For 27 points (only one more) and 1.5 SWC, you get a HMG. B5, Mimetism and Super-Jump? This guy is probably Onyx’ most dangerous offensive piece. Every Rodok link should include one.

For 19 points you get a Boarding Shotgun and Antipersonnel Mines. This one’s the cheap filler profile, so once you get long range weaponry and specialists covered (and don’t have the two points for the paramedic to spare), bring these guys. Since the Rodoks’ second MOV value is 2, you can use him to cover the field with mines while moving at low opportunity cost.

For 28 points and 1.5 SWC, you get a Missile Launcher and Light Shotgun. If your plan is to use the Rodoks defensively, this profile is golden. I generally try to include both Missile Launcher and HMG in my Rodok link.

The Rodoks’ best specialist option is the Paramedic which is based on the Shotgun profile and comes dirt-cheap at 21 points. If you play missions that need specialists, include at least one of them (two if you have two spare points) in your link.

For 25 points and 1.5 SWC, you get an Assault Hacker. I’d advise against taking this guy. Taking him will mean your link will have to avoid enemy repeaters and eliminate one of the main reasons you take these guys instead of Unidrons.
Suryat Assault Heavy Infantry



Solid and reasonably priced heavy infantry with Jungle Terrain (helps in the new “Rescue” mission) and a Duo option. They have a multitude of interesting profiles but sadly no specialist options. They are versatile active-turn killing units, but not much more. Since you can take two and move them efficiently, they start to shine in area control missions. Singles are outclassed by our LI and TAG options, though.

For 37 points, we get a very impressive weapon: The Vulkan Shotgun. A shotgun firing friggin’ fire ammunition! If you manage to get this guy in close range, he will destroy. Your main problem is that it takes a lot of orders doing so. You could duo him with the HMG or HRL, but you’ll have no weapon with a +3 modifier between 8 and 16 inches then. You could duo him with one of the Rifle Loadouts, but then you don’t have a weapon to shot your way out of your DZ. I prefer versatility in links and taking him will result in your duo being seriously disadvantaged in one of two very common situations, so he won’t see much play despite his impressive weapon. Especially because…

..you can get a Combi Rifle and Light Flamethrower for the same price. Hi with flamethrowers are fearsome, because some shooting instead of dodging will most likely have to face a second attack anyway. A nice profile that compliments the HMG and HRL options very well. I think it will be a common sight in Duo links on a budget.

If you feel like spending four points more, you can get a Multi Rifle instead of your Combi Rifle. This becomes interesting in objective room scenarios, since this guy will be able to open the doors through sheer force and provide template or DA AROs to anyone entering. These kind of scenarios is where this profile shines.

For 39 points and 2 SWC, you get a Heavy Rocket Launcher and Light Shotgun. A nice and versatile loadout In my opinion, combining this with the Multi Rifle Loadout for a Duo link is a very good use of Suryats for objective room scenarios. This duo can:

• deal with long range threats on the way to the objective room
• blow open the doors with Multi ammunition
• Hold the objective room very well thanks to Multi Rifle, Flamethrower and Shotgun.

The HMG one comes at 44 points. A rather good option, but if you have one point to spare, invest 45 points to get a Tinbot A (Deflector L1) on top. It’s a solid long range HI option that works well with the Multi/Combi-Rifle and Flamethrower loadouts for area dominance missions.

Both the Multi Rifle and HMG loadouts can also be taken as lieutenant, but if you use the Multi Rifle, you pay 1 SWC tax. I don’t think these options are particularly appealing: In most cases, you want to bring your Suryat in pairs and you can’t profit from the lieutenant order then. Also, they will most likely die at some point in the game, so better bring a Chain of Command Spec Ops if you do it anyway.



Overdron Batroids



Hello sexy! One of Onyx’ three tag options and it comes with interesting loadouts. Apart from the usual ECM, you get a Tinbot A (Deflector) and Tinbot B (Albedo). Albedo is huge, because it’s basically a free personal White Noise zone for the first game round. Since many opponents will bring MSV troops, this is a great advantage. Also, these guys can stand safely in LoF even when your opponent is able to do the nasty MSV2+HMG+Smoke combo. All of them come with long range weaponry and their ARM and BTS 6 makes them interesting (yet pricey) overwatch units. Just keep in mind that with BS13 and no MSV or Camo themselves, they will have a hard time hitting enemy camo or ODD troops. Also, none of them have any CC weapons so you shouldn’t let your enemies come close.

For 2 SWC and 74 points, you get a B5 HRMC. This profile is, in my opinion, a niche choice for area dominance missions. Why is that? While active turn B5 sounds great, in most cases less powerful (and also way less costly) units will do the trick better. But the HRMC profile has one thing going for it: It can go in suppressive fire and therefore still be a thread at lower ranges. When playing an area control mission, you can get use your active turn B5 to get into a good middle ground position and then go into suppressive fire. The Overdron will be quite hard to remove then.

At 69 points and 2 SWC, the two Plasma Sniper Rifles (oh yeah) loadout is somewhat cheaper. This one is a fearsome ARO piece. If you have a table with a good sniper post that can see a lot of routes, put this guy there - with ARM 9 and BTS 9 in cover this will give your opponent a real headache. On a table without an excellent sniper spot, this profile is too much of an investment though.

Thankfully you can get something with a similar role a lot cheaper: 2 Heavy Rocket Launchers for 57 points and 2 SWC. I predict this loadout will get a lot of mileage. With this price tag, you can still make a quite diverse 15 order list. This loadout’s role is the cover an important route that your enemy plans to use with his link team(s). Thanks due to the HRLs template, your enemy will have to take the Overdron out before he can advance or find another way. In both cases, he’ll lose a lot of orders. This profile is one of the seldom cases where a TAG can be part of a non-situational, reasonable tournament list and a clear winner in my eyes.

Shasvastii Special Armored Corp Sphinx



The Sphinx is, in my humble opinion, the best murder-machine of all TAGs in Infinity. There’s only one loadout available: TO Camo, Multiterrain, Climbing Plus, Spitfire and two Heavy Flamethrowers. Thanks to cheap 5-man links and other cheap yet efficient specialists, the Sphinx shines in Onyx. With Onyx, it’s completely possible to have 15 orders including a 102 points TAG.

This TAG can completely devastate your opponent turn one. It is especially dangerous to sectorials, especially to those relying on Haris links. It starts in TO Camo, so your opponent doesn’t know from where it is coming. It has friggin’ 6-6 movement, so even in optimal cases, it will be in the middle of the board until your opponent can react to it - this will also be in good Spitfire range. If it doesn’t get discovered in its first order, it will have reached the enemy DZ after the first short skill of its third order. Just think about it: If you get turn one, you have 8 orders in your Sphinx combat group. You are able to spend 5 of them to go on a rampage in the enemy DZ with a Spitfire or two Heavy Flamethrowers. The Sphinx can decide whole games on your first turn. If you play on a table with quite open deployment zones, choose a list including a Sphinx and see the terror in your opponent’s eyes.



Xeodron Batroids



The Overdron’s smaller brother. It faces a similar problem to the Umbra Samaritan: The models are excellent, but the profiles are somewhat niche. All profiles come with BS13, ARM 5, BTS 6, Bioimmunity and Super-Jump. While Super-Jump can open up interesting offensive angles, its usefulness is highly dependent on table layout. Two of them can Haris with a Samaritan which is, in my opinion, the best way to use them. All of them come with a Blitzen for a chance to win long range AROs, but it is a disposable weapon and only has B1 (see where I’m going with that Haris). I would advise on putting an Ikadron near these guys in order to refill their ammunition.

For 1 SWC and 59 points, you get a Red Fury as your main weapon. It’s the Xeodron’s longest range (+3 up to 24 inches) base weapon option and arguably the best one. If you really want to take lone Xeodron, take this one. If used solo, its role is somewhat similar to the role of the Overdron HRMC: Try to get it midfield and then put it in Suppressive Fire. Could be useful for area control missions. In the Haris link, it’s the primary aggressive piece (B5, excellent range bands).

For 0.5 SWC and 59 points, you get a K1 Combi Rifle. If you expect a TAG shootout, taking this guy is a good idea. For everything else, with all of its templates, Onyx has enough ways to deal with high ARM targets, so leave it at home because…

you can get a Multi Rifle for 0.5 SWC and 58 points. This is, in my opinion, the natural third member for the Xeodron Haris.

With this guy, the Red Fury and the Assault Hacker Samaritan you got every base (specialist, template, high burst, +3 at ranges up to 32 inches) covered. You also pay a lot of points for it and limit yourself to 10-12 order lists. In most situation, I would advise against taking a list like this (2 links and not much else), but it can perform reasonably well in area control missions and I think it will shine in Biotechvore.



E-Drones



The E-Drone is the only EVO repeater in Infinity that comes with a combi rifle. You pay 3 points more than other factions do, but these points are well-invested: Apart from the great EVO Hacking programs and the Exile (Goodnight is not that interesting) upgrade programs, you can also use it as an offensive specialist when you buff it with Marksmanship Level 2. So, what makes the E-Drone great and how do you use it?

First of all, the E-Drone works very well together with Sucker Punch (which is on all of our Hacking Devices and HD+) in guarding us from enemy killer hackers. If you have Kaleidoscope up (remember you can spend one command token to use it if your opponent has turn one and you expect KHD), enemy killer hackers will be at a base -6 (-3 from Sucker Punch, -3 from Kaleidoscope) for their attacks. Even at -9 if they are bold enough to take on a Nexus Hacker in a Unidron link with Tinbot A. It also enables us to spend a Command Token to reroll a failed hacking roll, making going after our hackers even less rewarding for enemy Killer Hackers. This alone would be enough to make it worthwhile, but we still aren’t done.

TeamPro basically means Number 2 for the members of all of your link teams. It’s a great way the save a command token if your Unidron fireteam leader used Dogged or to keep your link teams up after you’ve spent all of your command tokens.

If you however, still have command tokens, it enables coordinated hacking (even if it itself isn’t involved). In order to make full use of this option, you should have a repeater drone in the same combat group as one of your hackers. The most important use if this option is disabling enemy repeaters: You can declare Move + Blackout, disabling the hacker, most likely using your repeater drone in the process. Enemy hackers will not be able to react to your hacker, though. If, at some time in the future, Onyx will receive an EI KHD, I will need to add an additional paragraph here - I’m looking forward to this day ;).

We still aren’t done though: The E-Drone can also use exile to break enemy link teams - all of them, not just HI. If you have some fast repeater drones (M-Drone, Ikadron- R-Drone) you can put them midfield, perhaps using a coordinated order) and severely limit the movement options of enemy link teams. Their dreaded smoke won’t help them a thing in this case. You can also use it offensively: If there is a way to get into 8 inches of an enemy link team on overwatch duty without being seen, use your E-Drone and repeater drones to dissolve the link and increase your chances in later FTF rolls.

Additionally, you can use the Overclock supportware program to give your repeater REMs B2 in ARO. This works very well with Ikadrons, M-Drones and R-Drones because all of them have a Flash Pulse and a good WIP value. Their Flash Pulse can prove to be a real ARO thread up to 24 inches. Depending on table layout and how much of these robots you bring, you can seriously increase your ARO coverage with this.

The E-Drone also provides your drop troops with a +3 to their PH roll. This one is rather meh, because in most cases, it will save you one order in the whole game and only if your drop troop isn’t downgrading their jump anyway. Nice, but by itself rarely a reason to take the E-Drone.

From what I’ve seen so far, EVO hacking devices aren’t used very much in other factions: Most likely because for 25 points, they don’t even pack a weapon. Our option, though, is a clear winner and I try to include one in every list (except for the Xeodron Haris one, you are very short on points there). Did I mention the model is awesome? It is.

Ikadron Batroid



Autotool. Repeater. 6-2 Movement. WIP 13 Flash Pulse. 2 Light Flamethrowers. 9 Points. Bam.

These guys barely fit on the base because they are so proud of themselves and I can understand it. They are useful, versatile and dirt cheap. They also provide you with a regular order for 9 points. Other factions would be happy to take a 9 point regular order, hide it in the backfield and be done with it. We get more than an order here: These guys can be match-winners.

Even if you don’t spend an order on them the whole game, they provide two important roles: Firstly, you use them to generate your repeater net, ensuring that your Unidrons and your Q-Drone can receive Assisted Fire when needed. Secondly, they are excellent deployment zone defenders up to 24 inches thanks to their Light Flamethrowers and Flash Pulse.

They are more than that, though: Together with the E-Drone you can use them to implement advanced hacking tactics (Exile net and Coordinated Blackout).

And they kill whole link teams. 6-2 movement and two small teardrop fire templates are pure horror to overconfident opponents who think they can safely deploy their links midfield. Yes, your Ikadron will most likely die in the process, but it’s worth it.

In my opinion, the Ikadron is, just like the Imetron, as close to an auto-include in Onyx as it gets. I always take one, two if possible.



M-Drones



The M-Drone is CA’s variant of the widely available “Forward Observer REM”. For a 1 point price increase over the standard profile, it gets Multiterrain, which I consider a good thing because in the last months we have seen a tendency to include difficult terrain in official missions (Flamestrike and ITS).

The M-Drone is more valuable to Onyx than Forward Observer REMs to other factions because it synergizes well with our needs: It provides additional repeater coverage in order to establish an Exile net and in order to keep our dedicated combat REMs (Q-Drone and Unidron) in repeater range.

Apart from that, it offers the same advantages as similar profiles in other factions: First and foremost, its 6-4 MOV makes it a fast specialist. Flash Pulse and WIP 13 makes it a good ARO piece and since it can be buffed with Assisted Fire for Marksmanship L2 it has good offensive capabilities. Its Sensor ability makes it (especially combined with the R-Drone) a good way to deal with camo markers and more importantly, discover models in hidden deployment. If you expect your opponent to use TO infiltrators, you can get a serious advantage by moving your M-Drone forward and discovering them.

Its Triangulated Fire skill is situational: If you have an enemy model in LoF at the beginning of your orders, it can turn a hopeless effort into a balanced gunfight. It’s an Entire Order Skill, though, so most of the time, your main problem will be to get into this spot without getting killed by AROs. If you, however, have White Noise available, you can use your M-Drone to deal with enemy MSV troops if you don’t have anything more suitable available. The -6 to your opponent’s shot, combined with cover on your side, will ensure that you have statistics on your side.

Due to their versatility and low cost, I generally take at least one of them with me in most of my lists.



Q-Drones



Total reaction REMs are awesome. For a 1 point increase, the CA one gets Mimetism which makes it hands down the best total reaction REM available in this game. You have two options available: A HMG for 26 points and 1 SWC and a Plasma Rifle for 25 points and 1 SWC.

The HMG is the option you’ll going to use a lot. It provides excellent ARO coverage. Most enemies will bring some way to deal with it, though, so you should keep a repeater (for Marksmanship L2) and a Slave Drone (to get it back up - it will ARO very often and is destined to loss rolls every now and then) near. Even if you’re only hitting at 2s, it still has a 19,25% chance of rolling a crit which will mean that most enemies try to avoid it all costs. It is, however, extremely endangered by attacks which don’t leave a chance to hit (combined modifiers of -12 or more). Most enemy factions can achieve -12 rather easily using cover:

• Camo troop Surprise Shot from cover in ranges below 8 inches
• TO Camo troop Surprise Shot from cover in ranges below 16 inches
• Camo troop with MSV 2 Surprise Shot from cover, covered in smoke, at all ranges

Having Marksmanship L2 up will severely limit these options for your enemies, though. The Q-Drone should, in my opinion, have Assisted Fire on it all times. It is most endangered on turn one when your enemy starts since you can’t have Assisted Fire activated at that point of the game. If you see suspect your enemy to the dreaded MSV2+Smoke combo, better keep it out of sight.

Thanks to its 360 visor, it has a secondary use of guarding your DZ from drop troops.

With Marksmanship L2 it is a valuable active turn asset, too. Thanks to Ghost: Remote Presence, it can deal with the occasional lost roll very well (if you have a Slave Drone in sight). Keep in mind the Q-Drone doesn’t lose Assisted Fire when it goes unconscious.

The plasma rifle version is something which can prove useful in area control missions: Bring it midfield in cover and watch your enemies die in hordes trying to get rid of it. Apart from that, you’ll most likely bring the HMG variant instead (you have to choose since Q-Drones are AVA 1).

The Q-Drone is one the best deals in points compared to firepower Onyx gets. I try to cram one of them in most of my lists.

R-Drones



Your basic repeater drone with Flash Pulse, Mimetism and 6-4 MOV. It synergizes well with the M-Drone (thanks to Sniffer) and our hacking units (thanks to providing repeater coverage). At 8 points, it also is one of the cheapest regular orders we can get. Thanks to Mimetism, WIP 13 and Flash Pulse, it also is a good ARO piece.

Its main drawback is that it has to compete with the Ikadron which trades mid-range ARO power and M-Drone synergy for increased versatility. I find myself using Ikadrons more often, unless I really need that one point. If you are playing missions with difficult terrain though, the R-Drone becomes way more interesting thanks to its 6-6 MOV.



Slave Drones



These Drones provide additional board coverage for your Med-Tech or Doctor/Engineer Spec Ops. When I use a Q-Drone, I try to place one of them near it (but out of template range) most of the time. You can also use them to accomplish several classified objectives. In most cases, having one of them will suffice: Your Unidrons will in most cases be better off going Dogged, so repairing them is not an issue.



T-Drones



Another stable of most factions: For 18 points and 1.5 SWC, you get a Smart Missile Launcher. It’s a reasonable and cheap ARO piece but its main selling point is that it can use Guided Fire the hit targeted (Spotlight or Forward Observer) enemies no matter where they are hiding. Setting this up is very order-consuming, though and rarely worth it. While the T-Drone can be stellar in the right circumstances, these occur only in about roughly 1 out of 10 games from my experience. In general, I would advise on spending your SWC elsewhere.

Unidron Batroides



The Unidron Batroides are Onyx’ cheap link option and one of the main selling points of this faction. Compared to other basic links, they have two distinct advantages: They are REMs so they can profit from Assisted Fire and they can go into Dogged state, which combines well with Ghost: Autotool. Their base profile costs 14 points which is, in my opinion, a fair price point.

Additionally, they are not limited to pure links: Up to one Nexus Operative and up to one Umbra Legate can join the link team. I’m no fan of Legates in Unidron links: The link is more of a hindrance to the hacker profile and aggressive Legate profiles are not too much better than buffed Unidrons, but cost more. They do, however, seriously increase the CC capabilties of your link. If you expect heavy brawling. they might be a good choice. The Nexus Operative, however, is another case: A Nexus Hacker in a link with Tinbot A does have the modifiers on his side when battling other hackers. The Nexus’ nullifier can also be used to clear the way from hacking AROs if your route traverses an enemy hacker or repeater net. Also, if you are short in points and don’t have a Lieutenant yet, you can put the Nexus Specialist Operative in the link for only one point more than the Unidron Forward Observer. Depending on table layout, the Nexus Spitfire can also prove to be a rather good choice. While it costs more than the Spitfire Unidron for comparable attack power, its Nanoscreen will allow it to advance safely: On the one side, this means you have a wider range of potential targets available and on the other side, it can sometimes reach the magical +3 range in cover while the Spitfire Unidron cannot.

Dogged is huge for Unidrons: You can activate Dogged when you go in the first or in the second unconscious state. This means, if Unidrons receive two wounds at once (fire, DA ammunition, you name it), they can still use Dogged and stay up until the end of the round. When this happens in your active turn, it also saves the link from breaking: Just spend another order on the link to name a new leader, or, even better, use your E-Drone to put up TeamPro since you know you’ll need it.

Assisted Fire makes Unidrons both a fearsome aggressive and defensive asset. A Marksmanship L2 Unidron in a 5-man-link can compete with the most elite (and most expensive) units in the game for a discount price.

Additionally, their Electric Pulse actually gives them an edge in CC compared to your average CC12-14 LI. Its use decreases greatly when your opponent's CC value exceeds 20, though.

Let’s have a look at the profiles, shall we?

Your basic Unidron with Plasma Carbine costs 14 points. The Plasma Carbine is a weapon with Combi Rifle range bands and Plasma ammunition, which means it uses a template (effectively increasing damage by 3 in most gunfights, since templates ignore cover bonus for armor rolls) and forces your opponent to make both an ARM and a BTS roll. Its downside is Burst 2, but thanks to the +1 burst link team bonus, that’s not too much of an issue. Just keep in mind you can’t get into suppressive fire with it, so better keep your Unidrons linked. It’s a useful loadout, but…

..since you can get the same profile with Forward Observer (granting a Flash Pulse for ARO capabilities up to 24 inches and a specialist) for just a one point increase (15 points), you’ll use this one most of the time.

For 16 points and 0.5 SWC, you get a K1 Combi Rifle. This is a situational weapon, but it will prove useful against heavily armored opponents. This is a another profile that won’t see much use…

…because you can get a Tinbot A (Deflector L1) for only point more (17 points) on top. This profile will guard your link from hacking reasonably well (Unidrons also have an excellent BTS of 6, meaning your opponent will have to spend some orders in order to damage your Unidron link by hacking) and it is especially useful if you put a Nexus Hacker in the link. If you expect enemy hacking, you should use this profile. If your opponent is, for example, Ariadna or Tohaa, you can save the points and SWC for something else.

For 24 points and 1.5 SWC, you get a Plasma Sniper Rifle. In my opinion, you should always include at least one long-range weapon in a 5-man-link. If you can only spare the SWC for one long range weapon in your Unidron link, take this one. Active turn burst 2 (3 linked) means you can use it as a reliable active asset. Additionally, if your link breaks for some reason but the Sniper is still up, he can still be quite threating when buffed with Assisted Fire.

For 20 points and 1 SWC, you get a Missile Launcher. I normally try to get both the Plasma Rifle (active turn capabilities) and Missile Launcher (ARO capabilities) in my Unidron links. Marksmanship L2 really helps a low burst (2 including the link team bonus) weapon like the missile launcher, since you’ll most likely won’t miss a roll against enemies without camo. Thanks to its explosive ammunition, it’s a very good way to deal with, for example, an Ektros triad.

The Spitfire costs 18 points and 1 SWC. In most cases, Plasma Carbines and the Sniper Rifle will be enough to clear the way for your link, but if you have 1 SWC left, by any means include the Spitfire in your link. A buffed B5 spitfire ignoring cover and with shock ammunition? Yes please.

Malignos Shasvastii Deep Incursion Corps



Malignos or Onyx’ only infiltrating camo (specialist) units. They are quite expensive, but they are worth it. This is because the main pieces responsible for their high point cost compared to other TO infiltrators (PH12, WIP 14, AutoMedikit) compliment their job really well. I generally place them in the middle of the board, near objectives and reveal them on turn 2 or later for the surprise factor. They are also a good way to deal with enemy TR drones, since it’s rather easy for the Malignos to put a -12 or more modifier on them.

Thanks to BS12 and TO Camo, Malignos can also perform a mid-field defense role when put into suppression fire. Just make sure there are not too much enemy direct templates nearby.

Their mines make them a serious threat to enemy link teams. In most situations, the Malignos can hug a wall, staying just out of sight from its enemies and lay down a mine that has LoF to the enemy. You then use your next order to move and establish LoF. Your opponent will either have to take the shot or try to dodge or shoot back, which in turn activates the mine.

For 35 points, you get the base profile with Combi Rifle and Antipersonnel mines. It’s a nice and versatile profile, but in most cases you’ll need specialists and should take the Forward Observer profile instead. The base profile also has a 2 SWC Lieutenant variant, but why on earth would you want to that?

For 38 points and 1 SWC, the Malignos trades its Antipersonnel Mines for Monofilament mines. These things are really useful if you expect resilient enemies (HI, Symbiont Armor, TAGs). As pointed out before, Onyx doesn’t have too much problems with resilient enemies though, so I’d generally advise on using another profile instead. The main reason is the 1SWC you pay for the Monofilament mines, in most cases, they are better spent elsewhere.

For 34 points you trade your Combi Rifle for a Boarding Shotgun. In my opinion, this profile isn’t particularly interesting. You can use the mines + Combi Rifle combo I mentioned earlier to deal with groups of enemies, so you don’t need the boarding shotgun too much. With the boarding shotgun, you lose a lot of effectiveness above 8 inches and removing enemy TR drones will be harder on you.

For 42 points and 1.5 SWC, you get a Multi (wait, no Plasma?) loadout. This one is quite situational: On tables where there are good Sniper spots out of your deployment zone, it can be stellar. If this isn’t the case, you’ll be better off with the Noctifer Missile launcher which performs a similar role, but has less active turn capabilities.

For 41 points and 0.5 SWC, you get an Assault Hacking Device. This one is quite interesting thanks to the Malignos WIP 14, but it competes with the way more useful Umbra Legate HD+ option and therefore won’t see too much use. If you, however, play against hacking heavy armies like Nomads, you could give it a try.

For 36 points you get the Forward Observer profile. This profile is - for good reasons - the most commonly used Malignos profile in Onyx. Forward Observer grants flash pulse and combined with TO Camo and WIP 14, makes the Malignos a serious ARO thread up to 24 inches. Since it can start mid-board this will mean most of the time. Apart from that he’s a WIP 14 specialist starting in hidden deployment in the middle of the board. This is a variable multi-purpose profile that is able to capture objectives and deal with lots of threads (except for very resilient troops) by itself. If something goes wrong, its AutoMedikit will give it a 60% chance of recovering. It is easy to forget this until you need it, so I’ll point it out here: Always try to end the Malignos’ movement out of your opponent’s line of fire so you can’t be ARO’d using your AutoMedikit when something goes wrong. Many players forget about this and unnecessarily leave their Malignos in the open after attacking; you shouldn’t. In my opinion, a balanced, all-missions and all-purpose list should always include a Malignos Forward Observer.

Spec Ops



Onyx has two Spec Ops options, both priced at 14 points: The Corax and the Treitak. Both are priced at 14 points, but since the Corax’ Seed-Embryo skill is more of a hindrance than an asset, you should always take the Treitak option. The Treitak is (just like the Corax) not linkable with any of your troops which somehow limits the roles it can perform on the battlefield. Spec Ops can be equipped in a multitude of ways, so I’ll just concentrate in the 12xp loadouts I find most useful:

• Chain of Command, Doctor, Engineer: This one enables you to take an aggressive Lieutenant or Hacker Lieutenant if you expect enemy KHDs, essentially increasing your order pool by 1 (since you can safely spend that Lieutenant Order). It also makes the Med-Tech obsolete (unless you play Highly Classified, the only mission where having D-Charges can make or break your game).
• Chain of Command, Hacker, Engineer: Using this profile will give you the more important benefit of your Med-Tech, allowing you to leave him at home. It also enables your Lieutenant to be active without risking a LoL situation. Take this profile if you don’t have the SWC or points to spare to cram enough hackers in your list.
• HMG, Holoprojector L1, Specialist Operative: Disguise him as your classical CoC Spec Ops and watch the terror in your enemies eyes' when an unexpected HMG specialist goes for the objectives.
• Multi Sniper, Mimetism, Minelayer: Additional ARO power and DZ defensive if you feel you don’t have enough long range firepower.
• Chain of Command, Hacker, Minelayer: A good profile if you want to include both the Med-Tech and an aggressive Lieutenant in your list. It provides you with an additional hacker and mines to guard your DZ. Works quite well in Highly Classified, for example.

List building

Introduction

Now that we know our options, let's talk about competitive list building. In order to win an ITS game, you need to score as much objecitive points as possible while keeping your opponent's points lower than yours. So how do we do that:

• We need to spend orders in order to score points, so having more orders helps.
• Choosing troops that can score points more efficiently (with less orders) also helps.
• Killing enemy troops helps, but only if we do it efficiently (low unit cost, low order cost)

One of many approaches to list building is first dividing your troop options into classes. There are many different categorizations flowing around, but most of them of certain things in common. Here's mine:

• Specialists: Troops that can score objective points.
• Killers: Troops that disable or kill enemy troops.
• ARO pieces: Troops that make your enemy spend more orders in his active turn or even kill his troops in your reactive turn.
• Toolboxes: Troops that increase the efficiency of your other troops.

A good list should contain Specialists, Killers and Toolboxes. In missions that rely on specialists for most objective points gained, I would advise on taking at least five of them. With killers and ARO pieces, keep in mind that everything dies in Infinity, so you need redundancy. Take at least two of each of those. Toolboxes are not a must for a competitive list, but I would at least bring two of them when playing an Unidron link or one of them when playing a Rodok link.

Core Links

Before I go into the details of our class options, I want to talk about links first: The ability to take a 5-man-link is the main selling point of playing a sectorial: If you go for maximum competiveness you should bring one every time. The 5-man link heightens the fighting capabilities of its members by a lot while keeping the cost as low as in CA vanilla. Additionally, the link team rules mean that you can move several troopers of different classes with only one order. A 5-man link is efficient, so always take one.

Our two core link options are Unidrons and Rodoks. Both are, as pointed out above, excellent units. I will not go into detail about them again, but when it comes down to list building, their key differences are:

• Unidrons allow for the highest order count in Onyx lists, but they are vulnerable to hacking, making them a risky choice in objective room scenarios.
• Rodoks are more expansive, taking them will most likely reduce your order count or the quality of your non-link options. Thanks to their HMG option and Super-Jump, their offensive long range capabilities are better than those of Unidrons. They are not vulnerable to hacking, but they move slower. Their 4-2 movement makes them next to useless when there's difficult terrain.

A Rodok link can be absolutely dominating when played right. However, for beginners, I would strongly advise on taking Unidrons instead; it makes list building somewhat easier because you got more points to spare.

Orders and Combat Groups

One of the central choices in list building is how many orders and combat groups you want to include. This is common knowledge and most readers should know it by now, but I'm going to repeat it nevertheless: Never bring less than 10 orders. From my experience, there are four categories that will result in competitive lists:

• 10 orders, 1 combat group: This allows you to bring a lot of quality choices, but results in high risks, because every loss hurts a lot. In missions like Biotechvore, where efficient order use (Core Link and Haris) is crucial, 10 order lists can be very beneficial.
• 11-12 orders, 2 combat groups: 10 orders in Group 1, 1-2 orders in Group 2. Group 2 consists exclusively of ARO pieces. Using a distribution like that, losing your ARO pieces won't hurt your main order pool. For most missions (except Biotechvore), this is a better choice than the classic 10 order list.
• 14-16 orders, 2 combat groups. 10 orders in Group 1, 4-6 orders in Group 2. Group 1 will include most of your active assets - your core link, a toolbox, several specialists and killers. Group 3 will include your ARO pieces, one or more efficient specialists (Malignos FO is a good choice), at least one killer, ideally one toolbox. You will rely on Group 1 to get most things done and Group 2 is a variable asset: In turn one, you can use its orders to get rid of enemy ARO pieces without hurting your main order pool. In turn two and three, you'll use your orders on "safe bets" to achieve uncontested objectives with your specialists.
• 17+ orders, 2 combat groups. Both combat groups are balanced and you rely on both of them to get things done. You'll concentrate on cheap, buffable REMs and use Assisted Fire to succeed. With Onyx, these lists can work, but keep in mind that, for example, Vanilla Ariadna can do these kind of lists better.

I personally achieve the best results with 14-16 orders lists, but this is more a question of playstyle and meta than a hard rule.

Details on categories

Specialists

Specialist are troops that fall under one of the following categories: Forward Observers, Specialist Operatives, Paramedics, Doctors, Engineers, Chain of Command, Hackers. Apart from the use that comes from these skills / their equipment themselves, only these troop types can achieve ITS objectives. As pointed out above, you should have a lot of these, because when the last of the is dead, your chances of winning an ITS game decrease drastically. Some specialists double up as Killers (highly useful because they can clear their path by themselves) or Toolboxes (Hackers, mostly).

You should always have some specialists starting in your Deployment Zone. Your most valuable specialists, though, are those that start out of your deployment zone, because they can achieve objectives with less orders (more efficiently) - Infiltration (Malignos), AD: Combat Jump (Fraacta) and Forward Deployment (Umbra Legate) are extremely useful on specialists.

Sometimes, objectives are contested and because of bad range bands or not enough orders at your disposal, you can't shoot the enemy trooper that has ARO coverage. In these cases, multi-wound profiles or similar (NWI, Transmutation) are king. Keep in mind that an Umbra Legate or Fraacta can take 1W and still do his job.

Other valuable skills on specialists are those that grant marker state (Camo, HD+ Cybermask program). Marker state means that you can at least take your full movement (8 inches) without being shot at. The Noctifer, Umbra Legate and Malignos have these options. Additionally, hidden deployment on both the Malignos and the Noctifer means the opponent won't know where they start.

You should bring a healthy mix of "normal" specialists and some efficient (as pointed out above) specialists. I try to have two efficient specialists and 3+ "normal specialists" in most lists.

Killers

Killers are troopers you use to eliminate enemy threads in your active turn. It is very easy to get into battle rage with them, so keep the following tip in mind: Only attack / kill enemy troopers if you absolutely have too. Firefights in Infinity are unpredictable and no matter how good your chances are, there's always a good chance you'll burn 3+ orders killing an enemy.

You'll use long range killers (HMG, Sniper) to remove enemy ARO pieces and mid-range killers (Spitfire) to remove troops on ground level. Pure killer pieces are positioned best in hiding; you don't want to provoke multiple AROs with them. TO Camo (and, of course, Hidden Deployment) are highly valuable on Killers because they help with modifiers and mean the enemy can't brace himself for what is coming.

It is quite common to not have any dedicated killers at all, just ARO pieces doubling up as killers. Just keep in mind you should make sure they survive your enemy's first turn when playing a list like that.

ARO pieces

"Do objectives in your turn, kill enemies in theirs." is a Mantra that helps a lot in Infinity. ARO pieces enable you to achieve the latter. The most valuable ARO pieces are long range weapons like HMG, Multi / Plasma Sniper and Missile Launcher. The Sniper and HMG profiles can also double up as offensive pieces.

When deploying ARO pieces, keep in mind that most of the time, they will still have a less than 50% chance to win a FtF roll. This doesn't mean they are useless, though: Attacking them will cost the enemy orders he can't use to do objectives. When positioning your ARO pieces, you should try to make it impossible for a single enemy to take out all of them from a single position: You'll regret positioning like this when facing the likes of Intruder HMGs and Spetsnaz HMGs.

The most valuable skills on ARO pieces are Total Reaction (full burst in reactive turn, yeah) and 5-man link bonus (+1 burst, +1 BS). If you can spare the orders, you should buff your REM specialists with Assisted Fire which will make them real ARO powerhouses.

The role of "normal" ARO pieces is to hinder enemy movement. There is, however, another kind of ARO piece: The surprise ARO piece: An ARO piece with TO camo in hidden deployment can catch a whole fireteam (Missile Launcher...) unprotected, ideally in the second short skill of a Move+Move action. These things work extremely well against link-intensive (Core+Haris, Enomotarchos, Triads) opponents. Just don't reveal them too early in your reactive turn or you'll find out they drop like flies.

Toolboxes

Toolboxes increase the efficiency of our other troops. Since we don't have Smoke, our toolboxes are Hackers (EI Hacking Device, Hacking Device Plus, EI EVO Hacking Device).

All of them can be used to buff both offensive and defensive capabilities of our many REMs. The Hacking Device Plus' White Noise program can be used to block the sight lines of MSV troopers and make the job for your long range Killers easier. The EVO Hacking Device can be used to guard other hackers from enemy attacks, enable coordinated hacking (which is great for disabling enemy repeaters btw) and dissolve enemy link teams (even in ARO).

I find myself bringing at least two of them in every list. Quite often, one of them is the Umbra Legate Hacker, because achieving long range dominance is crucial to Onyx and White Noise (+ Assisted Fire from another source) helps a lot with that. Sucker Punch combined with the EVO Hacking Device's Caleidoscope program will guard your own hackers from enemy Killer Hacking Device users reasonably well. It's not enough to keep them completely safe, but it will make attacking your hackers highly unrewarding (orders invested vs. chance of success) for your enemy.

Notable troops by class

Profile

Specialist

Killer

ARO piece

Toolbox

Fraacta Combi Rifle



X





Fraacta Boarding Shotgun



X





Fraacta Spitfire



X





Fractaa Assault Hacker

X

X





Med-Tech Obsidon Medchanoid

X







Nexus Specialist Operative

X







Nexus Hacker

X





X

Nexus Spitfire with Nanoscreen



X





Noctifer Spitfire



X





Noctifer Missile Launcher





X



Noctifer Hacker

X





X

Umbra Legate Spitfire



X





Umbra Legate Hacker

X





X

Umbra Samaritan Spitfire



X





Umbra Samaritan Assault Hacker

X







Maakrep Tracker HMG



X

X



Maakrep Tracker Multi Sniper Rifle





X



Rodok HMG (linked)



X

X



Rodok Missile Launcher (linked)





X



Rodok Paramedic

X







Suryat HMG



X

X



Suryat Heavy Rocket Launcher



X

X



Overdron HRMC



X

X



Overdron 2 Plasma Snipers



X

X



Overdron 2 HRLs



X

X



Sphinx



X





Xeodron Red Fury



X





E-Drone

X





X

M-Drone

X







Q-Drone HMG



X

X



Unidron Plasma Sniper Rifle (linked)



X

X



Unidron Missile Launcher (linked)





X



Unidron Forward Observer

X







Malignos Multi Sniper





X



Malignos Forward Observer

X









General strategies (WIP)

Onyx' main schtick:

Before I go into details about how to approach certain things, I want to talk about what Onyx' main schtick is. So, what defines Onyx gameplay-wise? In my opinion, it's the combination of:

• lots of cheap, buffable (specialist) REMs
• extremely cost-efficient link teams that can be used both offensively and defensively
• cost-efficient top-notch solo centerpieces

A typical Onyx strategy tries to get these strenghts into play. You play a sectorial, so you generally take a five-man link: Both Unidrons and Rodoks are excellent choices that put the options most other sectorials have to shame. You beef this up with (sometimes fast) REM specialists who can, thanks to Assisted Fire, clear the way by themselves if needed. And then you include some centerpieces, like the Umbra Legate Hacker, Sphinx, Malignos Forward Observer or Noctifer Missile Launcher to keep your opponent thinking.

The key to winning games with Onyx

Onyx doesn't have smoke. This means the most important thing an Onyx player has to do is to eliminate his enemy's long range pieces. Once you've achieved long range dominance, your fast specialists and (in most cases) big order pool will win you the game. Therefore, in most cases, the thing you should concentrate on first is how to achieve long range dominance.

This means your reserve should always be a long range piece and you should deploy your troops in a way that makes it possible for at least one long range troop to attack without provoking multiple AROs. White Noise can by the way help a lot with that. You then finish his ARO pieces one by one and profit.

Keep in mind that sometimes luck is on your opponent's side: Always keep means to heal your offensive pieces ready - for example, a slave drone nearby.

How to deal with...

Winning a game in Infinity is not about having an uber battle plan and a list that is specifically tailored to it. It's about responding to the threats your opponents bring accordingly. Therefore, in my little strategy guide, I will concentrate on how to deal with certain problems that can and will arise during games.

How to deal with...Total Reaction remotes

Two good options to go with here, either a linked and buffed Unidron Batroid with a Plasma Sniper or Missile Launcher above 32" should give you the difference in numbers that you should win the F2F, just beware of the luck critical hits if they're rolling on 2.

The other option, a Noctifer Missile Launcher, is a worthy candidate. Between 32" and 48", in cover and surprise shot should give the opposing TR a -12 that they won't be able to surpass. You may not have multiple dice to roll but you won't be shot in return.

How to deal with...Camo

M-Drones are your friend for discovering Camo markers thanks to the +6 given by sensor. With the Maakrep being our only MSV unit however it's possible that you'll be left doing things the hard way against a camo heavy list. Consider AP mines from Rodoks as useful deterrents.

How to deal with...TO Camo / ODD

Again, M-Drones and Maakrep are your best option against any form of camo, with mines as a useful second option. Against both TO and ODD, however, the humble Ikadron makes an appearance here; those two light flamethrowers will ruin ODD and TO (to a lesser extent)

How to deal with...Mines

coming soon

How to deal with...Crazy Koalas and MadTraps

coming soon

How to deal with...killer hackers

coming soon

How to deal with...enemy hackers

coming soon

How to deal with...enemy repeater nets

coming soon

How to deal with...infiltrators

coming soon

How to deal with...jump troops

coming soon

How to deal with...heavily armored targets

coming soon

How to deal with...smoke

coming soon

 

The links will only ever be as the player's finesse in using them. Unidron links provide pretty dangerous long range weaponry with the ability to have supportware added to them. Additionally, Dogged makes them a pretty good ARO team. Rodok links are great offensively too. Sure they may only have one wound, but stacking mods in your favour with Mimetism is good, and Super Jump allows you to use attack vectors that your opponent won't be guarding against: Often I have shot troops in total cover simply by jumping 4" vertically. As for Harris options, a TAG harris isn't everyone's cup of tea, but you can use the points elsewhere.

Lt options are obvious, but if you're concerned about careful deployment should mitigate the risk most of the time.
Points wise we're certainly not the cheapest sectorial out there, but rather than viewing them as expensive, look at what you've got for the price. Our basic link team comes with supportware capable, Dogged units that have Plasma weaponry as a minimum. Advancing them up and templating an Arm and BTS save is nothing to be sniffed at. Additionally we get access to 'budget' TAGs and AVA3 two wound drop troops. Finally, we have one of the most optimised units in the game with Bit & KISS.

As for not competitive? That's down to the player. I've certainly not had any complaints playing them.

 

I played @Marduck with his MO at Vigo last year and he played the same way that you would expect from a competent player. He knew his army's weaknesses, and played to their strengths.

Also, I recall @ijw saying that one of his lists last year only had one unit with normal ammunition. Or am I mistaken?