Which Infinity Army is for You? Part 4: Ariadna
Some factions have all the high tech goodies, incredible powered armor, hacking domination, or other technological marvels to bring to the battle. Ariadna is not one of those factions. The lowest tech fighters in the galaxy rely on hardened veterans who win because they must, defending the planet their grandparents were marooned upon, from the hyper powers who have become interested in their mineral wealth. Using camouflage, guerilla tactics, and grit, Ariadna creates an insurmountable defense, keeping their homelands secure. They’ve used what limited resources they have to build rugged equipment, and have recruited the apex predators of Dawn itself, the Antipodes, to enhance their numbers and add vicious fighters to their ranks.
Many players describe Infinity as having two types of games: when you’re playing against Ariadna, and when playing against anything else.
Rating System
Instead of comparing one army to another, I’m going to rate armies based on how good of a match they are for new players interested in that particular category. For example, just about any army can make a hacking heavy list, but it may take more effort for some than others. An army which effortlessly competes in hacking would be given a 5, armies take considerable effort (if at all possible) would be a 1 or 2, while armies which could be tailored either way would be a 3.
Army Metrics
Firepower. This is probably the easiest to understand, which is why it comes first! This is the sheer ability for this army to win ranged firefights. While it is a good metric for offensive power, it doesn’t mean they’re going to punch everyone off the table every time.
Resilience. Like firepower, this is a fairly straight forward metric which expresses how much punishment an army could take. If a typical list for this army has access to a lot of high armor or multi-wound troops, they’ll have a higher Resilience score.
Control. Tempo is incredibly important in Infinity, the ability to control the ebb and flow of the game, which engagements happen and so on. Armies with high control tend to have better access to infiltration, camouflage, and other deployment skills, as well as troops which can rapidly change position on the table.
E War. A huge draw of Infinity is Hacking, E War represents any particular army’s ability to compete in the hacking arena. Do they have enough to get by, or can they build out a punishing hacking network to shut down the enemy?
Accessibility. This represents the difficulty for new players to pick up the army, learn the basics, and play effectively on the table. Some armies are easy to figure out at the beginning, while others have a lot of unique rules or require more advanced techniques to win.
X-Factor. Every army has a little something special about them, and if you’re debating between two armies, this could be the deciding factor.
What’s missing? If you’re coming from other game systems, you might expect to see how good an army is in close combat. Infinity is not most games, this is a game where bullets are lethal, and you don’t want to bring a knife to a gun fight. Some armies however are exceptionally good in combat, which will be called out when discussing that particular army.
Ariadna
Three Card Monte. The level of mind game that Ariadna brings to the table puts stress on the opponent from the minute they begin deployment. Under the multitudes of camouflage markers Ariadna can bring could be deadly mines, highly capable gunfighters, brutal melee specialists, or nothing at all. Their own deployment zone doesn’t provide safe bastion as Van Zant, or Margot and Duroc, could show up in the rear of their army, wreaking havoc. When they set up, they have to consider that Uxia McNeil could be held in reserve and be set up to attack immediately, or a lucky Grunt Infiltrator. Your opponent must deploy as if all these threats are real and may happen, because Ariadna could easily put every single one into a list. While they may not bring the biggest guns, heaviest armor, and have no hacking to speak of, no army controls the board the way Ariadna does. Most Ariadna armies have plenty of these tools, but vanilla Ariadna has access to ALL of them at once.
USAriadna Ranger Force (USARF)
Fire ‘em up! Possibly the least traditional way to play Ariadna, what they lack in devastating camouflaged troopers, they make up in heavy armor and napalm. Sometimes called the ARM 3 Sectorial, there is a ton of armor available in the army, which means even your meager 10-point troops can take a surprising amount of punishment to take down. Even though they don’t have as many camouflaged options as other Ariadna armies, they still exert tremendous board control through rapid moving bikes, and signature Antipode, the Devil Dog. An interesting aspect to the USAriadna army is the insane amount of Continuous Damage weapons (flamethrowers and rocket launchers) they can put on the table. These weapons are important because they allow even a super inexpensive troop to be a serious threat to tough, multi-wound enemies. This is a pretty easy army to get into, with modern designs, the Desperado has been discontinued but can be easily proxied by Haqqislam Kum Bikers or the Nazarova twins. The only downside is that many of the USARF units aren’t common choices in Vanilla, so might be a harder jumping off place into Ariadna if you plan on doing Vanilla as well.
Tartary Army Corps (TAK)
Ruthless Efficiency. Kind of the opposite of USARF, TAK is probably the most like vanilla Ariadna, though also comes with the benefits of playing a Sectorial. One of the big takeaway’s of TAK is that they play with many of the most powerful tools available to Ariadna, but lack a lot of their inexpensive options. Every one of their soldiers (save the Line Kazak) is well armed and well trained, usually capable of providing threats on multiple vectors and at a variety of ranges. TAK represents the best of the best of Ariadna, but also pays for it. Given that the Russians run the show on Ariadna, it should be no surprise that this army brings the most direct firepower in Ariadna, saving the best guns for themselves. If you want to start an Ariadna army, but don’t want to jump feet-first into vanilla, then TAK is probably your best option. They’re a little tricky to learn (most Ariadna is), but TAK definitely provides the feel of playing the best parts of Ariadna, and has tons of units that you’ll happily use in Vanilla as well.
Kosmoflot
Ariadna All Stars. After only 175 years of being marooned in space, Ariadna has gone back to the stars with Kosmoflot. At first glance, this army can seem like a bit of a hodgepodge mixture of different troops, but on the table they combine to create a very unique army. They have very few infiltrating options (by comparison), but bring some awesome firepower, and surprising resilience. Most importantly, the selection of characters is incredible, bringing the cream of the crop when it comes to top talent. Uxia, one of the best infiltrators, Mirage-5 allowing two incredible troops to deploy in the enemy zone, along with the Unknown Ranger bringing the big guns, Pavel and Cadin are both brutally effective in combat, and Wallace is there to lead the whole bunch to victory. Backing them up are tough gunfighting Volkolak or Kosmosoldat, and the terrifying Bearpode (it’s exactly what it sounds like), you can really make a hard-hitting force. While the minis aren’t out for most of their units (right now), they’ll be coming out soon, and when they do, this will probably be one of easiest ways to get started with Ariadna, with a lower learning curve, and lots of fun toys.
LEGACY ARMIES
As the story of Infinity progresses through time, some armies fall to the wayside. They’re still supported by the game, and certainly competitive on the table, but many of the important miniatures may be out of production and difficult to source. If you’re able to get your hands on them, or unafraid of heavily converting pewter miniatures, then they’re definitely worth considering.
Caledonia Highlander Army (CHA)
What’s not to love about a bunch of angry scots in space?! If you like painting tartan (then there’s something wrong with you) and imagining what Braveheart would be like with werewolves and machine guns, then this is a great place to look. Caledonia controls much of the Teseum on Dawn, which gives them unnerving levels of T2 ammunition (which causes 2 wounds per hit), plenty of a armor piercing rounds, and a few troops covered head to toe in armor plates. On the table, they have a mix of inexpensive support troops, backing up heavily armed and armored elite soldiers. Unfortunately the miniatures are discontinued, but if you can get your hands on them, they’re a very rewarding army to play, and not too hard to learn with.
Force de Réponse Rapide Merovingienne (MRRF or FRRM)
Of all Ariadna armies, MRRF has some of the most interesting combinations of equipment available. Since the French control the trading routes across Dawn, and with the rest of the Human Sphere, they get access to gear found nowhere else in Ariadna, and use their wealth to create self sufficient fighters who can effectively strike at a surprising variety of targets. Since the miniatures went out of production quite a while ago, they often catch people off guard simply by not knowing what they’re fighting. Even veteran opponents can be surprised by how well armed MRRF is though, units like Briscards where each troop has a high burst pistol, long range rifle, and multispectral visor… everything about that is fantastic, but unusual to find on a single model. These unique tools take a bit of extra work to learn, but leads to a gratifying gaming experience.
Late Night Wargames
If you’re looking for some more discussion on Ariadna, be sure to check out our episode of Late Night Wargames where Jon and I are joined by our good friend PJ. We ramble quite a bit about Ariadna here in our super-packed 3.5 hour long episode, but really there’s so much to talk about with Ariadna that I couldn’t fit in this article. If you’re even kinda curious about playing Ariadna, I’d be sure to give it a listen (you can also find it on most Podcast apps).