What are the average factions in Infinity?

You'll want to read part 1 (what makes a good faction) and part 2 (which factions suck) if you haven't already, before reading this article. 

1. Most Vanilla lists. With all that variety you can usually throw together enough of the good stuff to make a solid list - some infiltrating, camouflaged specialists, a good sniper with MSV2 and BS13+ or camo, a good primary attack piece with MSV, a good secondary attack piece with ODD and a few other bits and pieces, like smoke or a ninja. For the most part though, Vanilla lists lose out to the sectorials that don't sacrifice one of the priority items for link teams.

2. Knightly Orders. Same problems as Pan-Oceania generally in terms of infiltrating specialists, but some other strong items to make up for it. Hopitallers make for a good 5-man link team with BS and PH 14 (they dodge all the templates), a doctor for super durability in control missions, a HMG and lieutenant, but they are very expensive. Konstantinos is an auto-include—specialist, infiltration, mimetism, great stats, MSV2 and d-charges for classified objectives at a great price. I am then inclined towards a spec sergeant sniper with TO: Camo to cover whatever flank the knights don't go down or an objective if you go second in missions that are all about charging the buttons (like Nimbus zone). This leaves you with just enough points for a pathfinder drone (FO, sensor), a fusilier hacker (necessary for fairy dust) and a fusilier FO. 10 orders with 5 specialists, at least 2 of which (knight doctor and Konstantinos) can be expected to get downfield early and hit buttons. Konstantinos counts for 3 specialists because he is such a boss and has all the tools to kill other skirmishers. This list is great for middle-ground missions like supplies and outstanding in control missions, but you are going to struggle in specialist spam missions.

3. Shasvasti. The Gwailos make for a decent link team (nanoscreen can’t be countered, but they also aren’t cumulative with cover, BS13+3, WP14 for the hacker, non-hackable) with Sheskin, whose base 15 BS makes up for the fact that you don’t have an MSV2 anywhere, and who is a great lieutenant. Multi-rifle, shotgun, spitfire and heavy rocket launcher round out some nice range bands, and you have a specialist. In control missions you then sprinkle in 2 speculo killers (perhaps the game’s best unit for provoking mistakes from your opponent), some shrouded minelayers, TO camo, infiltrating, boarding shotguns and some cheap baggage drones as cheerleaders to make for a decent sword and dagger combo. With automedkits everywhere, baggage and the Shasvasti rule this is pushing top tier in annihilation.  

In specialist spam you are weaker. You need to drop the Gwailos link down to 3 (Sheskin lt., launcher and hacker – you need Sheskin for her d-charges for classifieds and as a poor-man’s MSV2 thanks to her BS15) and cut a speculo, then pull in more shrouded and Malignos forward observers and hackers. You can get to 7 specialists (sensor bot, malignos hacker, malignos FO, 3 shrouded FOs and Gwailos hacker) and still pack a punch with the link, speculo and TO camo infiltrators, but your attack is weak relative to other armies that perform in specialist spam missions. You don’t have many support weapons, so you have to rely on camouflage antics to solve problems, but you shouldn’t have too many problems to solve in specialist spam missions. Mid-ground missions like supplies and seize the antennas will be more difficult.

If Shasvasti had some cheap cheerleaders and a quality sniper with MSV2 they would jump to borderline. Once Sheskin gets in range with BS18 and a B4 multi-rifle she is a wrecking ball, and speculo killers are an enormous headache. These guys are good, just a little unwieldy and too easily shut down with smoke defence.