Infinity N5 has been with us for five months now, and has definitely been improved by the first round of tweaks, which addressed some issues with Super-Jump, Climbing Plus and Speedball rules, as well as addressing turret spam. These articles are difficult to fairly call ‘first impressions’ any more, but we are still committed to bringing you overviews of how the factions sit in the new edition, without going into the full, exhaustive detail of a Faction Focus article.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Combined Army has consistently been the big boogeyman of the Human Sphere. That background is actually reflected on the tabletop – they have some unique rules and a swathe of super-elite units, the so-called Aspects of the EI. The least popular of those, the Skiavoros, disappeared with the new edition, but the others remain an iconic part of Generic CA (they aren’t in Sectorials). But even more than their impressive top end, the cheapest utility units in CA tend to be particularly good, and those are common across all sub-factions. The dynamic of generic/Sectorial seems to have worked well for CA in N5 – all the sub-factions have some common ground in their support units, but are well differentiated in what they use as main attack pieces. While a few units, like Taigha creatures, suffered nerfs from N4, CA remain the gold standard for variety of high-performance single models, there are just a lot of very powerful units to choose from. The actual new stuff (well, or stolen from Aleph), Team Achilles, is in vanilla only. Despite the salt/meme potential of nicking another faction’s iconic hero, not all of the new models are considered top tier competitive, but Teucer is pretty great and none of them are bad either.
We will try to follow up this article with overviews of the CA Sectorials – Onyx, Morats and Shasvaasti – which had to be cut for brevity. Today we are focussing on Generic CA, which honestly is big enough to occupy us!
Faction-Defining Cheap Units
As with many Infinity factions, the units you see in every competitive list are the cheap ones. For CA, their historic strengths here overall got better. Imetrons, being cheap Orders and nothing else, were so good they copped a nerf mid-N4 and are still usually taken. Ikadrons are the best Baggage providers in the game, while also making great speed bump AROs and DZ guards. With auto-reloading Baggage and the amount of clutch disposable equipment in CA and most Sectorials, that is obnoxiously good. Most factions are happy to take a Baggage bot and boy will you want baggage. Daturazi are very possibly the best Regular Warband in the game, benefitting enormously from Face to Face Berserk rolls, given they kept Martial Arts Level 4 for a full Burst 2 in melee. The cheaper Irregular Warbands suffered slightly, with Taighas severely nerfed, and Gakis/Pretas harmed by the restrictive Climbing Plus rules – but such cheap models still have a role in hunting out enemy skirmishers, ‘defusing’ mines etc. CA can also access the Libertos, which took a hit in N5 (going to Dodge+3, down from +6, and losing shotgun templates) but is still superb value, and a Warcor, which especially in the current ITS Season, when it is a disposable Specialist, continues to be popular.
Other Supporting Units
CA also have excellent hacking and pitcher projection, with Bit & Kiss and Dartoks both filling roles as efficient, versatile hackers. That’s before we get into the apex hacking available via the elite Aspects. Offensive hacking, particularly the scope for turn one pitcher bombing, with the associated Guided Missile capability, is definitely still a feature of many competitive CA lists. CA utility remotes are also just better than competing factions’ versions – TR bots with thunderbolts are very popular in the opening period of N5, and although they cost .5 SWC, the Mimetism-3 Q-Drones are better than everyone else’s. Another notable support piece, the Medtech Obsidon Medchanoid (had to look that up, it’s the artist universally known as Dr Worm) is a bit less popular since the turret nerf kicked in, but still features regularly as a dedicated, fast supporting specialist.
Faction-Defining Expensive Units
The unique draw of CA over all of its Sectorial armies remains access to the direct incarnations of the Evolved Intelligence, ‘Aspects’. The most expensive, the Avatar, is less oppressive than in its heyday of early N4. It lost a major strength – previously it was a ‘4-Order’ unit, with its Regular Order, 2 Lt Orders/Strategos, and TacAware. Now it only has the single Strategos Order, which is equalled by the other Aspect Lt options, and at 120pts, that seems to be making competitive players veer away. Our advice would be not to discount the Avatar entirely. It’s still one of the most fearsome gear checks in the game. The deployment advantages of a WIP17 Lt roll and Strategos Level 2 are significant. Unlike most Lts in the game with those advantages, the Avatar doesn’t really need protection, beyond the basic positioning needed for it to be able to Guts Roll into total cover, and be shielded from certain melee threats. It is extremely inefficient for most enemies to threaten with hacking or ranged attacks.
But the HI Aspects, the Anathematic and Charontid, remain the meta picks for top end, active Lts in CA. The former continues to be seen almost exclusively in its Hacker format, notable for +1B Trinity, which stacks with its high stats to make the deadliest active turn hacker-killer in the game. The Charontid got a real change with N5 from its own very attractive hacker Lt profile. This gets +1Lt Order – replacing the Avatar as the most Order-stacked active Lt in the faction – and unlike the Anathematic hacker, it retains the incredibly powerful Sepsitor template. That profile seems extremely popular, even over the classic Anathematic or the MSV3 HMG Charontid. Although it is an expensive hacker without Trinity, it’s an exception to the normal vulnerability of such models in the Reactive turn – with its WIP16 and ECM Hacker(-3), the Charontid is very slow for opponents to Trinity down, and engaging it with any other programs is a huge risk. Yes, playing this Lt may mean it gets Isolated sometimes and you go into Loss of Lieutenant. But that’s not trivial for opponents to achieve, and most CA lists will include a few Warhorse models to help mitigate the risk. Doubled-up lists with an Anathematic and Charontid remain options, but the extreme points squeeze on the rest of the list renders that less competitive. Remember the cheapest CA warbands got a bit worse, restricting the number of truly cheap models it’s a good idea to include.
The EI isn’t the only source of hyper-elite models in CA. They have three other TAG options, even after having lost the fairly popular Morat TAGs from their roster in the new edition. The Overdron Batroid is broadly considered the most obviously competitive meta pick. It’s just a stellar, efficient light TAG in any situation, able to suppress any ranged ARO. That’s before considering its Albedo(-6) skill, which means any hard stop enemy AROs with MSV/Marksman are dead meat. Since CA have great access to smoke to nullify any hard AROs without MSV, this is a strong and popular inclusion in lists. The Caskuda, while terrifying, has been a complete non-seller competitively since its re-introduction in N4 (it was in N2 previously) because serious players just don’t want to gamble on a PH14 Combat Jump roll to make their main gameplan work. But it did get a lot better in N5, with +1B on its rifle, which is now MULTI rather than just AP. Personally, I am shocked this isn’t more popular. An EVO remote is cheap and useful for CA, since it can also buff a Q-Drone, and I would definitely gamble on a 17 to deploy a close-range TAG right into the enemy DZ. The Caskuda might suffer against hacking-heavy armies, but the mere possibility of including it in a list demands respect.
The Sphinx was not really improved in N5, and that has led to it being seen as less competitive. I have heard some online commentators, notably in podcasts, confidently claim it is ‘a terrible unit’. Absolute poppycock. The Sphinx is one of only 2 Hidden Deployment/Mimetism-6 TAGs in the game. It is an astonishing capability, because it is completely safe from enemy hacking or other alpha strikes, and it can move 12” without suffering any shots in ARO. No, it doesn’t have AP ammunition, and it doesn’t reach out beyond 24”. So what? Can CA players not access other good tools when those things are needed? A pro listen is the WIP12 Podcast interviewing Brooke, a truly world-class player who recently won the highly competitive, 93-player satellite tournament, the Infinity Global League (IGL) hosted on Tabletop Simulator. He is a major Sphinx proponent and at the link you can hear him argue persuasively about the level of control such an expensive unit, hidden ‘off the table’ gives him in various missions and game states.
Powerful Offensive Units
Complementing the super expensive EI Aspects, CA has some particularly deadly elite units. The most notorious in N5 is Nourkias. He’s super mobile, he’s an apex melee threat and a superb hacker, especially in the active turn. What elevated him from a competitive staple in N4, to an auto-pick in N5, is gaining Immunity(ARM). You need a very specific set of ARO tools to stop Nourkias reaching your deployment zone, and if he finds models with VITA there, his Protheion skill will make him obnoxiously hard to kill. He has actually been slightly nerfed from N5 release, because by massaging his hacking device/programs, CB (aghast at what they had wrought) took away his ability to Cybermask. That had briefly made him capable of moving 12” as a marker, ignoring AROs completely while crossing from total cover to total cover. Now we just need to fear his 6” Cautious Move and ability to Jump+Dodge 8”+4” when uncontested. That’s a relief. Seriously, his only weakness is being held off by long ranged weapons, ideally those targeting BTS, and/or flash pulses. Those can be hard to use when there’s also an Overdron or similar excellent ranged threat.
Like Sheskin! This is a prestige aggressive unit. She rinses anything not very heavily armoured with BS15, B4 fire. Like Nourkias, when she reaches close quarters, Protheion is eminently abusable to keep her topped up with VITA. She continues to sit as one of the game’s best all-round solo attackers. Top tip – Nanoscreen works against template weapons.
Dukash is similar to Nourkias in that he’s a 2-wound, Immunity(ARM) unit who wants to bulldoze into the enemy DZ and kill all the supporting units. The methods are different, he relies more on being a BS13, Mimetism-3 multi rifle, with his adequate close combat skills serving as a back-up option. While not always better than a Rasyat, his resilience makes Parachutist (Deployment Zone) much easier to use and harder to defend against. Most single AROs, even heavy flamethrowers or panzerfausts, just won’t stop him entering the game where he wants. Like Nourkias, flash pulses (and some rarer tech like EM mines) seem vital for fending him off.
Ko Dali continues to be slightly neglected as a high-end striking unit, compared to the other CA models in this price tier. She has plenty of short ranged firepower against lightly armoured targets, but that is quite difficult to use on a 1VITA model – she has the classic problem that any chain rifle or boarding pistol can stop her in her tracks. Protheion does provide a get-out, but that is much less risky when used by a multi-wound model. Given her mid-30s pricing, she seems like a non-starter.
All of the above are more or less for assault, so this is as good a time as any to mention the longer ranged firepower which CA can use to support its most expensive stuff. Not everyone can afford an Overdron, once they’re done paying for Nourkias and Dukash! The Yaogat sniper, with its +1B, has traditionally been popular, but is less formidable than in pure Morats – if it wants +1SD it has to pay for another Yaogat (actually an ok option) or a pair of very unpopular Morat Vanguard Infantry. Its main MSV2 competition, until we talk about Team Achilles, is the Vector, a hyper mobile glass cannon spitfire. There’s no right answer in the meta right now, these pieces are generally taken in accordance with the choices on centrepiece models, to cover the targets and ranges they don’t like.
Potential for Surprises
One major strength that CA retained in N5, despite the trimming of chaff from generic faction rosters, is the breadth of weird-deployment units they can throw at enemies. Some of these units get crowded out as lists focus on cramming in 1-2 expensive prestige units, then filling their model cap with excellent-value chaff. But CA are in the rarefied strata of factions that can field Impersonators (Speculo Killers, who received a melee-combat buff shortly after the edition drop); Hidden Deployment units, including both infiltrating mission specialists and ambush firepower (Malignos and Noctifiers); Airborne Deployment, including Deployment Zone Parachutists (the aforementioned Dukash and the versatile Rasyats). This means that prior to deployment, and when they see <15 models in your list, opponents cannot firmly decide what angles threats may come from. It’s also a huge boon in missions with key requirements for certain specialists in the midfield, or multiple Classified objectives, or key capabilities like blowing up servers with melee attacks. CA can build into almost anything in a variety of ways, to keep their opponents wrong-footed.
Team Achilles
Controversially taken from Aleph/Steel Phalanx, CA has received five new profiles, mostly changed from their previous versions. These can all Duo with each other, but not with any tags to enable a Fireteam Level 2 bonus.
- Achilles continues to be the ultimate Silhouette 2 beatstick, combining the shooting abilities of a TAG with a top tier melee profile. He’s a hyper-aggressive unit; with Nanoscreen and ARM3/BTS6, he is basically ARM6 while being free of the constraints of partial cover, and activating Frenzy will be a straight bonus to him. Beware as he is definitely a unit favoured for alpha strikes and playing first – despite his formidable defences, he’ll be a priority target for enemies to neutralise with hacking, so will need engineer (or Speedball) support. The issue is, this all-round excellence comes at a cost, and at 72pts, Achilles simply hasn’t found favour in the competitive scene. It seems players would rather take a hyper-elite Lt that does more for their Order pool, a rampart-clearing shooter who costs a little less and has a bit more range, and assault troops that don’t expose a lot of points to counter-attack.
- Patroclus is reimagined as a sort of mid-weight HI model, which is actually a less crowded niche in CA’s roster in N5. His Holomask gives some shenanigans. He’s actually quite poor at pretending to be Achilles, since the FD+4” profiles also have Holoprojector. But you could deploy 4x Achilles across the table if you’re committed to the bit. This character isn’t at all bad – he’s a fast-moving Specialist with Stealth, like Achilles he is free from Partial Cover due to Nanoscreen, he has smoke grenades . . . but players just don’t seem to vibe with his role. It seems like there are gunfighter push-pieces with better shooting skills and weaponry, and far cheaper mission specialists or warbands to do the other stuff.
- Teucer is the team member with the biggest competitive impact so far. His active-turn profiles, with the feuerbach or plasma sniper, offer some real advantages over CA’s other long ranged MSV support (principally a second wound, making him less vulnerable to the vagaries of chance), but the Neurocinetics profile gives a whole new build to the faction. I personally don’t love such expensive defensive pieces, but there’s no doubt, on the right table and/or against a list which lacks the tools to deal with him, he can bully people in ARO for a whole game. The knack with Neuro-Teucer definitely seems to be deployment, and having sufficient knowledge of, and respect for, your opponent’s access to his counters. He really needs to be sheltered from Albedo, White Noise, and guided missile play, but man can he be a pain against direct shooting. Let’s all take a moment to admire the plasma sniper rifle. Best range bands in the game, inflicts 2 save rolls per hit while ignoring partial cover, works even against Immunity. Just gold.
- Drakios, by contrast, is the obvious dud. There is some potential there – BS Attack (Continuous Damage) is inherently very scary, as is a HFT peripheral, especially with a mine dispenser – but he’s BS12 with no gunfighting mods, and his weapons all have a restrained Burst value or low damage. He needs to find targets for his Albedo if he wants to do work. Consequently, for the price, he just doesn’t impress, even though, like Patroclus, he’s a decently fast Specialist. A big part of this is his fragility. Weirdly, despite being S5, the biggest team member, he’s also the most fragile at 1VITA and no NWI.
- Pandora was a huge loss to N4 Steel Phalanx, as a pitcher hacker who was annoying to get rid of. This makes it all the funnier that in CA, no one really cares about her. She’s still a pain to hack to death – Zero Pain and effective 2 Wounds means she’s tough to Trinity – but she simply can’t compete with the all-round programs of the Dartok or the pitcher-efficiency of Bit & Kiss. A good unit, but outclassed in her role.
Team Achilles, as a project, has really highlighted just how strong and varied the CA roster is, even with (mostly redundant) options trimmed from N4. Bluntly, Achilles and Pandora, while obviously strong units, simply haven’t been popular in N5 CA, because the existing alien equivalents are considered more competitive. Patroclus is strikingly lean and surprisingly mean, I think in many Sectorials he would be a common sight – in CA, there’s little interest. Drakios is overpriced given his defensive profile, with a skill combo which doesn’t quite come together. Teucer is the only member making a competitive scene entrance currently.
Fireteam Options
Limited access to Fireteams (one Haris and two Duo teams per list) break new ground for CA as a vanilla faction – none of them are particularly popular in competitive lists at the moment, but there are some uses.
- The basic CA Fireteam can be built on Unidrons (and/or Nexus Ops). This could offer an NCO specialist with a bonus from 1-2 cheap Unidrons, which are good speedbump defenders with Dogged. You can do a Nexus Hacker with a Firewall from a Unidron for example. But the other cheap utility troops in CA are so good that this just isn’t attractive.
- The other obvious build for a CA Fireteam is using the Exrah troops, taking a pair of either Void or Base Operators, to give +1SD to a Vector. That buffs up a valuable MSV2/Mimetism-3 gunfighter, and gives you a team that can all jump 8” as a short skill. It even includes NCO! Again, that hasn’t found competitive favour simply because of the strength of other, non-Fireteam models. But I think it could be useful in missions like Highly Classified or Countermeasures, paradoxically because of the Exrah rule (models go straight to Dead rather than falling Unconscious). You have options for a hacker, engineer, d-charges, NCO, a visor and an Elite Troop, and they are fast, and when they get taken out by counter-attack, they don’t leave any bodies for your opponent to score their own Classified Objectives from. Potentially a strong mission pick.
- The last use for this CA Fireteam is to buff Nourkias (or the Umbra Samaritan, but Nourkias has made that unit almost obsolete). Give him +1SD with Base/Void operators, or start him under a Firewall-3 from a Unidron, to hamper any Trinity strikes against him. This was previously a non-starter because players wanted to abuse Cybermask, but now Nourkias lacks that program, it might be a good way to run him. Probably still non-competitive because he’s such a missile, who wants to run straight into the enemy DZ. Any lesser units he drags along would just get killed – but if your gameplan is to launch Nourkias in Turn 1, there could be efficiency in dropping off an engineer/hacker at a midfield objective en route. Or you could solve Nourkias’ only weakness, mediocre gunfighting, by stapling a Vector spitfire to him, clearing away flash pulse bots and similar speedbump AROs to deliver him into the enemy lines.
- The Morat Fireteam could be used to get +1SD on a Yaogat sniper (with another Yaogat, or more rarely two Vanguards), and you could extend that to a Dartok’s pitcher. But 2 Yaogats and a Dartok are 71pts minimum, if you want the sniper. Most CA players will spread their gunfighting and hacking into separate units, but this isn’t actually a bad option.
- Team Achilles gets no mechanical benefit from Duos. The main beatstick himself could perhaps benefit from dragging Pandora around as a hacker specialist. But these are all quite expensive models to pair up, with little incentive.
- Overdron Fireteams, again cannot get any mechanical bonus, but you can staple an engineer to your Overdron, which is useful. It is also a great example of a Duo fireteam you can deploy in, but abandon early in the game – Overdron+Nourkias. These models want to go to different areas and do different things, but if you are playing second, it’s a free Firewall for Nourkias in his first Reactive turn.
Overall Faction Impressions
CA are inarguably one of the very best factions in the game. They have some capabilities on their high end units which no other faction can match. Time and again, writing up this article, I came across units or combinations which seemed really quite good – but not good enough to be competitive with the staple CA units. As well as points cuts for heavyweight and hackable units, N5 benefitted CA with the addition of Immunity (ARM) to Nourkias, and alternatively Dukash. This gives them an offensive punch which players need certain unconventional defences to have a chance of stopping. EM Mines will help against these dudes; flamethrowers not so much. The biggest list building strength of CA continues to be the efficiency of their cheap units (Ikadrons, Imetrons, Daturazi, Pretas) combined with the strength of their expensive ones (most notably the Charontid hacker and Overdron HRMC, but it’s a very crowded field). As a result of this, and to be fair their evil alien aesthetic, they seem to be one of the most popular factions in N5 tournaments so far, and one of the most successful at winning large Satellite tournaments, rivalled only by Hassassin Bahram. The standard caveat applies that players, not factions, win tournaments in Infinity, but serious players will pick the factions that give them the best tools, and for many of them, that seems to be CA.
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