Infinity faction tiers 1-4

Edit (17/07/2021): I have updated this for N4 in a new post (there aren't many changes) - see here: https://emperorsghost.blogspot.com/2021/07/infinity-tier-list-for-n4.html

It is often said in Infinity "it's not your list, it's you". This is somewhat correct, but mostly horseshit. Some units in the game are simply inferior to others, like the Yan Huo with Missiles is strictly worse than a Hac Tao with missile launcher. Let me list some other units that are just bad: bolts (they are now passable with CoC and the changes to bioimmunity), Aida Swanson, Cube Jaegers, Taskmasters, Guijia, Takael (the symbiobug guy). You never see these units in winning lists, and I would almost say that you don't see them period. The same can be said of some factions: they just suck. Inversely, some units and factions are simply outstanding. I won't write a list of the best units, because that would take forever, but I do think it is helpful to have an idea of the faction tiers so that newbs stop playing Morats because "it's easy". MAF is actually infinity on hard mode. Yes, there are fewer rules. There's also no hope of winning unless you are very skilful in melee. I will explain my picks.

Note that some factions in tier 2 become tier 1 when the mission mix/meta is right. For example, Hassassins is nigh-on unbeatable in ground control missions when piloted by a good player on tall terrain. I would also say that the difference is only really noticeable between tier 1 and 3/4. Tier 2 against 3 is totally fair. Tier 1 against 2 is also barely noticeable. Tier 4 is always noticeably hard to win with.

Playtesting Vanilla Ariadna

I make no secret of a few opinions that I hold:

• I want to be able to play a finesse faction - something that relies on things like melee, hacking, stealth, smoke shenanigans and jank like sat-lock to win games rather than just pounding my opponent with first-order optimal strategies (e.g. link teams) and units (e.g. Rui Shi). 
• I think link teams are a bit broken (make BS only work on active and B only work on reactive) and I don't really see any reason to play vanilla these days. As such, playing Vanilla is basically a handicap. I like the idea of playing with a handicap and still winning
• I've been trying for ages to make a camo-spam Nomads list work but it just doesn't because hacking is over-costed (compare it to a 5 point Mutt that does the same thing) and under-powered (mostly because everything you want to hack has stealth...<cough> knight <cough>...)
• I'm bored with infinity because second-order optimal strategies are so tough to make work.

Well I have an announcement: vanilla Ariadna may save Infinity for me.