Imperial Service Sectorial List-Building at 300 points

It was going to cost me about $400 to buy all the stuff I needed to play the Warhammer army I wanted at the big convention, and the TO wanted me to do some modelling for WYSIWYG that I thought was stupid (like apparently my fusion pistols aren't kosher as combi-bolters on bikes, so I need to model combi-meltas onto their legs or some such), so I'm playing in the infinity tournament.

For some reason, the organiser of that tournament has also opted not to play the rules as written (even though the best thing about infinity is that it plays great straight out of the box). The mission selection is the five missions that favour killing your opponent rather than scoring objectives - annihilation, quadrant control, frontline, seize the antennas and supplies. Furthermore, everyone counts as a specialist except TAGs and skirmishers (though many skirmishers get specialist status by being one of the specialist classes) for the purpose of pressing buttons, they just need to spend a long skill to press a button whereas specialists only need to spend a short skill. Even furthermore, there is no roll for pushing buttons. To me, this seems to take the game straight back to when TAGs lieutenants (one in particular) just mowed everyone down and stepped over to the button to press it. Yes, the specialist heavy missions reward one faction (Ariadna camo spam) more than others, but going from one extreme to another is not a solution. The organiser claims that making primary objectives count for a bit less and classified objectives count for two each resolves this issue. He seems to forget that anyone can claim 'secure high value target'. I suspect every second list will be Combined Army with an Avatar, half of the rest will be Pan-O with a cutter and the rest will be a grab bag, including me.

Here is what I am play-testing at the moment:


IMPERIAL SERVICE SECTORIAL

Group 1

Lu Duan
Rui Shi
Sforza
Sophotect
Yudbot
Yudbot
Garuda Tacbot with HMG
Celestial Guard with Kuang Shi control device
Kuang Shi with chain rifle
Kuang Shi with chain rifle
Kuang Shi with chain rifle
Kuang Shi with chain rifle

Group 2

Lu Duan
Rui Shi
Miranda Ashcroft
Celestial Guard Hacker
Zhanying (lt.) with breaker rifle, Nimbus grenades
Husong

It's a threat spam list with a lot of bots. Nothing is particularly scary. No HQ heavy infantry. No TAG (there isn't one in ISS otherwise I might have run a Guijia with all those Kuang Shi cheerleaders). Nothing with ARM more than 2. However, I have 16 orders (plus 4 impetuous), and I have a lot of high damage, high burst guns - 2 HMGs, 2 Spitfires, 2 Mk12s, viral rifle and a tonne of big direct templates.

Moreover, I have MSV on nearly all my threat units i.e. the 4 bots, so camo (Ariadna) and ODD (Phalanx) can get lost. Sforza and the Lu Duans also have holo-echoes for mine clearing and surviving snipers on my active turn (hooray for x-visor!), Miranda has an ODD and the Garuda has stealth. There are no units here that will be exposed to fire that don't have either high burst (total reaction bot), holo-echoes, camo, ODD or MSV, or a combination of several of those. Makes for some good face-to-face rolls, though I will be weak on my reactive turn because of limited burst and no armour. The Husong is my sole defensive unit, and I'm really hoping for a lot of dense tables with limited height so I can ARO direct template weapons (2B from the Kuang Shi link!) and exploit my superiority in close range combat (my best range band is 8-16). I will try to use smoke to good effect on both turns. My Rui Shis can advance under its cover and on defence I can simply block myself off with smoke and maybe nimbus grenades, though I suspect my Zhanying will be away from LoF often. The Sophotect, hacker and Zhanying will likely hole up in my backfield with my Husong to spam support-ware and possession via the remotes and avoid loss of lieutenant. With sixth sense and total reaction I should be able to fend off drop troopers, but an Oniwaban could be a problem. The Sophotect can work through her bots until the late game when she can zoom out and claim the classified objectives. With just two units I can claim all the classifieds thanks to the dual status of the Sophotect and the spotlight program of the hacker.

I'm unsure how this will go against TAGs. I might get a possession off with enough orders and remotes, but it seems a stretch. On my active turn I can just charge them with holo-echo units, make them waste bursts on the fakes and hit them with powerful guns. This will be costly though, especially if they are in suppressive fire mode. Ideally, the Garuda will flank in and shoot them in the back. If they turn to face the Garuda as their ARO I should be able to get a bot into range with its 6" move and now I have a situation where whatever the TAG's ARO is I can get a normal roll of full burst off. Alternatively, I can use the Garuda to thin some orders out of the TAG's pool and shut it down that way. I might be able to combine this with a refused-flank to make the TAG go the long way round to targets, and then I can use my speed, echoes and smoke to charge forward on the other side and gut the order pool. If I can't get the TAG on my active turn, I will try to set a trap so that as it rounds a corner I hit it with a fat burst of chain rifle from the full KS link (8 templates), Husong and some other ARO action. We'll see how it goes.

Another unlikely option is Miranda with her monofilament. I think she'll see more use taking out much more expensive heavy infantry units that don't have MSV to get through her ODD, and killing LI link teams who similarly can't handle an ODD. I do, however, worry that she is very situational, and I imagine I will often prefer to just have more regular orders to spend on moving a Rui Shi or Sforza forward. If she doesn't prove to be much chop I have two main options. I can swap her and a single Yudbot for a Weibing and a fifth Kuang Shi. Or I can not even bother with the Weibing given that I really don't need an FO and instead take two more repeaters and two more regular orders in the form of a Chaiyi and Panguiling. This will give me the sniffer for my Zhanying and a minesweeper, but mostly it's just cheap orders. I am remiss to spend the money though. The Panguiling has its own box with two. I could use another box of Yaokongs because then I could do up another has a Husong so that one of my Lu Duans can deploy with holoprojector L1 and give my opponent something to think about regarding where he will press the attack. But another $80...

One thing this list is lacking is a hammer. What is a hammer? A hammer is a unit you can use to break open a firelane, especially firelanes guarded by snipers. Specifically, they are the kind of unit that can go into a 50-50 or a 60-40 and be backed to win in the long run because they have enough armour and wounds to survive a hit. Rambos sometimes can't break open a firelane but can go on a rampage if they are in a good spot with a lot of orders e.g. the Dao Fei and the Oniwaban. Some units are both rambos and hammers e.g. the Hac Tao. ISS doesn't have a lot of hammers. The three big ones are the Hsien, the Crane and the Su Jian. The only one of these that I like is the Hsien. Why? Because he is the only one that can't be dominated in face to face by a Sniper in cover with camoflage, and such snipers are abundant. You can only be a hammer if you have 50-50 against everything. Against an intruder the Crane and Su Jian aren't going to get anywhere near that. BS13 is nice until you are -6 for TO Camo, -3 for cover and -3 for range. The Hsien has the added bonus of being able to wade out in a fog of smoke to wreck havoc on occasion, which cane win games on its own (i.e. he can Rambo). The Crane seems utilitarian but ends up being only good at things that other units can do as effectively and cheaper e.g. the Lu Duan, Sforza or even Miranda Ashcroft.

Armour is expensive. You should only pay for armour if it allows the unit to function as a hammer, and being a hammer requires you to also be good at killing the main things that shut down fire lanes, namely camoflaged dickheads, mines (the armour takes care of that) and snipers or missile launchers with camoflage or ODD, like Armand, Raiden HRL and the Phalanx dude-bro. You need either a huge BS and a huge armour value (i.e. TAG stuff) or an MSV or your own cover (Hac Tao). I prefer MSV because a lot of snipers are packing their own MSV, so TO Camo doesn't necessarily help you in the face-to-face (this has happened to my Hac Tao a lot). To put a Hsien in this list I would really want to have a second Kuang Shi with smoke. But the main reason why I haven't used him is because he is so expensive - 61 points! I can get three small threats for that much! I will use holo echoes as my hammers. A sniper is only B1 and Sforza has an x-visor with viral ammo. If he picks the wrong echo I get at least 6 shots to land a hit and then I trade a 23 point model for something probably costing around 35 and 1.5SWC. Another possibility is some sneaky shit with my Garuda. Rui Shi can also work in a pinch because MSV2 and B4 makes for good face-to-face odds, even against an intruder. If I take a hit I'm dead, but it's only 21 points. Even the Lu Duan is okay because he hits at damage 15 and shouldn't need more than a 6 to make contact, with the holoechoes hopefully eating the snipers first burst. I just need to practice my mind games.