Hi everyone! I started playing Infinity a couple of years ago with Combined. I struggled to make them work for me, and moved into Tohaa. I really enjoy Tohaa, but I'm now interested in exploring the parts of the game that Tohaa don't really interact with much, like strong hacking, 5-man links, and weapons like jammers, red Furies, and feuerbachs. Nomads seem like a pretty good fit, and I love all of the different toys they can bring to the table. When I play my Tohaa, it's all about triads, and their inherent order efficiency. When I think about playing vanilla nomads, I struggle to wrap my head around being able to get anything done without links. I could be wrong, and I'm open to hearing your opinions on this. When looking at the different sectorials, and StarCo for that matter, I come to the following: Corregidor - Decent mid-field presence, decent hacking, decent backfield shooting. Solid, but has the fewest toys and tricks. From an outsider's point of view, they seem like the 'meh' option. Bakunin - I love all the tricks and toys here, but I'm not sure I want to run a Moira link due to points-cost. Pupniks, Uberfalle, Zoe & Pi-Well all intrigue me, though I'm not sure any of them will ever earn their points. Tunguska - The new hotness with lots of fun toys, though I've really struggled to come up with a cohesive list that lets me take more than 1 or 2 at a time, while still covering all of the standard bases. StarCo - I really like these guys as well, though I can see myself getting somewhat pigeonholed into Emily + Algs for LgL spec-fire shenanigans, Raoul messing up my opponent's backfield, a Riot Grrl harris link, an Al Hawwa, and some Bandits. I'd love to hear some of your opinions and perspectives on vanilla nomads vs the different sectorial choices, as well as any other options you can come up with given the things I listed in the opening paragraph. I realize that I can eventually expand into all of them, but I paint slow, and don't play as much as I would like to, so I'd like to hit the group running with something competitive, tricksy, and fun. Thanks!
Run Pi-Well. He's pretty much the epitome of what you've been missing out on with Tohaa. He is an absolute nightmare with the right support.
Corrigedor isn't flashy but is a work horse. Tomcats, and bandits have good specialists and can fight. Jaguars are excellent cheer leaders and sources of smoke. Aguiceles and lupe, or wild cats are good but not flashy links. It's also the only nomad sectorial with smoke and visor 2. Intruders while not new, are as powerful as ever. Bakunin is very different, from what I gather they lean heavily on morlocks and moderators as chaff. @Tristan228 has a lot of success with Bakunin. I've never really got them to sing for me. There are many excellent bakunin profiles I like in vanilla such as zeros, red fury swast, morlocks, and some Moira. Tunguska is new and shiney. I think people are still working out how they fit together. They certainly are more elite than you see in the other ships, which can be a challenge list building, to fit in what you want. They have excellent hacking. Really the appeal of vanilla is you can pick and choose what you want. Vanilla is the only place Nomads can mix smoke, and white noise with a visor 2. In effect being able to -6 (or more) any one if they can leverage those abilities. Being able to pick and choose what you need is amazing, morlocks to act as corner guards and cheap smoke sources, with intruder backup for instance. You also get a pile of different camo skirmisher options, which can leave your opponent guessing. Oh you're 2 points over and wanted a TO MSR? Well you can downgrade the spektr to a Moria, and get nearly what you wanted. Vanilla is competitive because you can start with your specialists where you want them, and can fit in the other support (and fire support) pieces you need to solve problems.
Well Tunguska has all those things. They have a lot of basic stuff gimped to make up for all the special stuff they get. The more a sectorial has awesome and powerful unique stuff the more that needs to be balanced out. Corregidor is the extreme "basic but solid" option, with all their specialities coming from being the best at the benign. They have links but they are mostly basic options that become strong through their Fireteam. This makes it easier to make lists that don't have major weaknesses, but they don't have an overwhelming strength that you can wield. Tunguska is the extreme "counterbalanced crazy" option, with very flexible link options and powerful troops being linkable, and all sorts of power troops. But their lists are going to rely on using a strength to overcome their weakness. Tunguska is certainly more flashy. If you want to base your decision off having access to special equipment they are the way to go. Or Vanilla if you're willing to forget links.
I'm in the same position like you and I know, I will lose many games, befor I understand how to play other armies then Tohaa. In vanilla Nomad there are a few key elements. CH: CAMOUFLAGE infiltrating Units (Zero, Bandits) Hacker (Interventor) Intruder + Smoke (Jaguar or Morlock) One new centerpiece in many vanilla lists is the Kriza Boracs, which is good aktive and reaktive Unit.
Corregidor Was my first love, sadly now that I have a nice collection of factions, finding missions that would make Corrigador my first pick are pretty hard. Maybe frontline? Also most of Corrigadors best tricks can be done in Vanilla so that hurts it some as well. With that said the stand out units for me are 3: Senor Massacre. Honestly if it was not for the Core/Haris option I would not use him. With it however he is a wecolmed part of kit. 2: Jaguar. A warband that can link and that the rest of your kit can take advantage of is pretty sweet and is probably why you are playing Corregidor 1: McMurrough. This guy can flat out wins games by pure power and is Corrigadors clame to fame, good thing no one else has him.... HM: Gecko! I still don't know if this is a good or bad unit... I think bad but it has won me a fair amount of games so I like them but that is probably just my bias. HM: Paintrain! The MB link is honestly really nice, Tinbots, great weapons including Multi rifle's with flamers and I even like the hacker. Sadly other factions have better Paintrains so this really should not be the primary reson you have picked the Corregidor kit for your missions.
That is your Problem. If you play Nomads, it´s more about synnergies betweenn the different Units. Smoke + MSV2, HD+(White Noise) + Pi-well to counter MSV2 Units, Moran Repeaters mid-field hacking. After you cleared the path with youor Kriza/Taskmaster/Pi-Well, your Tomcats/Hellcats and Zeros/Spektrs come in for quick objectives. What i want to say, you are not limited to one Unit or Team doing your mission.
You make up for lack of links by, like @natetehaggresar said, having your specialist or other troops start where you want. It's also not so much about order efficiency with Vanilla as it is midfield control. Between Morans, Zeroes, Spektrs, Hecklers, Prowlers, and Bandits you get to deploy your roadblocks/tools basically wherever you want. Vanilla mostly is about having so many different tools that you can handle every single situation in front of you. One thing I would also suggest as you start Nomads is if you haven't already, read the hacking rules cover to cover and look at some of the Rules Forums questions regarding hacking. Knowing that aspect of the game inside and out will give you big advantages against those who don't know it or interact with it as much.
Yeah, I don't like running geckos, I like our more glass cannon options. But that's a play style difference. You have to play towards geckos stengths, durability and generally shorter ranges, but that's the same for any unit, a guy with a MSR wants to play towards long range, etc. Honestly I don't think there is a bad unit in Nomads, and across all Infinity bad units are few and far between. (There are profiles within units that have questionable weapon choices etc, but I'm hard pressed to think of a Nomad unit without virtuous profiles).
Have you seen the term Wins above replacement? https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/limited-information/wins-above-replacement-2011-08-09 Just because a unit has worked it is easy to assume it is a good unit. However maybe it's replacements would win me more games in the long run. Trying to figure that out can be very hard and like I said I am still not sure on the Gecko.
I like her in some scenarios, say hunting party. After I wrote that, I remembered I'm down on sin eaters ATM. But I'm not even sure would say that are bad. I also play aleph, over there I dislike Andromeda, and rarely see a use for penny, but otherwise think they're fine too.
