Which Infinity Army is for You? Part 6: Combined army
I’m glad to hear that these articles have been helpful, it was just the kind of thing I needed to motivate me to keep them coming!
The saviors of humanity, the protagonists of the human sphere seeking universal enlightenment for all creatures of the human sphere. That’s right, we’re talking about the Combined Army! An alien force with god-like technology that to the poor ape descendants of the Human Sphere might even appear to be magic. They are watching from oblivion, testing humanity for its worth. The EI will not be stopped on their quest for universal conquest, the Human Sphere is just next in line for subjugation or extermination.
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.
Combined Army (CA)
Power Overwhelming. Without a doubt, the Combined Army is one of the most aggressive factions in the game. Combining the best forces from their galactic empire, the variety of alien monstrosities they can bring is incredible. The Avatar is hands down, the undisputed most powerful unit in the game, a terrifying combination of flesh and exotic metals, powered by voodoo tech. When you play vanilla combined army, before your put the first model on the table, you have an advantage, there is no telling what you may deploy. The main draw of Vanilla Combined over the sectorials is their access to the Aspects: the Avatar, Charontid, Anathematic, and Skiavoros. Unavailable to any of the CA sectorials, these are some of the most capable fighters in the game. When it comes to feeling like a super-tech god, it’s important to mention Plasma weapons, which are far more common in Vanilla than it’s sectorials. These weapons hit both armor and BTS of the target, not only meaning it can cause two wounds, but it means if the target has any weakness in it’s defense (either low BTS or low Armor), it’ll find it. The downside to the sheer variety of options available to CA is that mastery of them can take some time, as a new player there is a LOT to choose from, and it’s all great.
Shasvastii Expeditionary Force (Shas)
Master of Subterfuge. Shas is a fierce rival for vanilla Ariadna and Hassassin Bahram when it comes to knowledge power and board control. It is trivially easy to deploy a Shas army entirely in camo state, and it’s not even a bad or skew list to do so. A Shasvastii army is an army about control, and while they do have a couple excellent gun platforms, their brutality comes through deception and surprise. Inherently this is a difficult tool to assert direct power with, but when your goal is to accomplish missions efficiently and steal the prize, how many HMGs you pack in a list doesn’t matter much. While most Shas units have limited availability in vanilla, they still make up an important part of a CA list, making Shas a solid jumping off point if you wish to go deeper into Combined Army.
Morat Aggression Force (MAF)
Back to Basics. MAF is easily one of the armies in the game with the least amount of hidden information, often spending little effort in even concealing who the lieutenant is. In many ways, they’re the polar opposite of the Shas. They make up for this shortcoming by playing an incredible, tight game, around the basic core concepts of Infinity. MAF has the most reliable soldiers in the game, generally able to ignore loss of lieutenant and retreat, and rarely ducking from enemy fire (whether you want them to or not). Their inherent lack of hidden information means you’re playing with your cards on the table, winning the game is about making the right tactical decisions at the right time, and suffering the consequences when you don’t. They may look like brutes, but they’re not berserker running into the fray, you must be cold, cunning, and calculating. This can make them very difficult for new players, and even veterans, to win with. Coming to grips with playing MAF means you will have a mastery of the basic elements of what makes Infinity a great game.
Onyx Contact Force (Onyx)
Elite Vanguard. The “diplomatic” arm of the combined army, the Onyx Contact force is a testimony to the might of the Combined Army. Enigmatic Umbra lead body guards of some of the most elite forces the Combined can muster. When you play Onyx, your options are only the upper echelon of the Combined, the units which look good on posters and for PR photo shoots. This is an army which goes for the throat, trying to smash the opponents before they’re able to muster a defense. Onyx can often be characterized by what it doesn’t bring though… all of these expensive and powerful units are also high in cost. Onyx doesn’t have access to the mindless Taigha and Hungries, or many of the other inexpensive units used to fill out an order pool. If you like Vanilla Combined with it’s variety of alien races, but feel like vanilla is a bit too much to chew off at once, this is not a bad option, even if you are missing some of the tricks.
Late Night Wargames
If you’re looking for some more discussion on Combined, be sure to check out our episode of Late Night Wargames where Jon and I are joined by Than, a nefarious agent of the Evolved Intelligence, to talk all things Combined Army in N4.
Jon, Adam, and Than (zagdag) talk about how everything is better in the sheltering arms of the Evolved Intelligence.