I have retired from Infinity, and I've actually been really good about it and only checked army twice in like 3 months. It's working! Then O12 came out and I had a bit of a longer look. Eventually I felt the need to write some stuff down. Getting it out of my system will make it less likely that I look at Army again.
I don't think O12 is overpowered at all, but they are good. Everything has a MOD stack, always a sign of power. They also have good lieutenant options, and in many ways seem like Pan O with smoke and high WIP specialists. The main issue with O12 is that they don't have a lot in the way of cheerleaders, but you can still get to 15 orders pretty easily if you want. They also don't have great conventional board control (i.e. snipers) but they make up for it with excellent skirmisher board control, and arguably the deepest offensive line (as in they have like 8 units in each list that can fuck shit up) of any faction in the game.
Pretty much any list I build would start with 2 gangbuster KHDs and 2 Sirius Assault hackers. Having a lot of hackers can be bad when you're up against a lot of killer hackers (I could experiment with using FOs instead). However, because O12 relies on skirmishers for board control, and because riotstopper bots have repeaters, and because all the skirmishers come with support bot (madtraps and riotstoppers), and because gangbusters have KHDs, I think the multiple hacker set up works really well. The gangbusters defend the Sirius, and with good deployment, anyone coming for your riotstoppers will have to contend with hacking attacks on the way. My only grievance is that this lineup gives you all SMGs and boarding shotguns are my favourite. But this might lull your opponent into a false sense of impact template security, at which point your lynx busts out her plasma carbine and death intensifies. The next thing I put in is two flash bots for orders and repeaters. Now I'm 140 points in and I've got 7 orders and 5 specialists, all of whom can attack effectively (SMGs, plasma carbine+assault pistol). Not bad.
The next question is the lieutenant. There are several good options. Strategos 2 Alpha gives you 2 orders and a very good DZ guard, as well as counterintelligence. Feels expensive though because with 1 wound he is easy to assassinate. Then you have to bring a second one for CoC, and that's too expensive. 2 pleb Kappas, one of which is the lieutenant is fine, but I like to use the lieutenant order, especially in a faction that will struggle to go above 14 orders. So my preference is for either an Omega (ODD Orc) or a Gamma, and here I lean towards the Gamma. One of the first lessons of Infinity is that you need a reliable, crit-proof HMG to clear parapets or risk getting locked down. This lesson has only grown stronger with the advent of linked snipers, notably the Kamau (who laughs at the Omega). Sometimes this can be avoided if you have lots of smoke or some such, but then you want some really good spitfires, which is not what the Omega has. So I go Gamma HMG. He spends the lieutenant order well, can snipe late game thanks to his very high armour and multiple wounds, and will clear any parapet with B5.
If you do go Gamma, then I think you need a TR bot HMG, a kappa hacker (which is fine because they are only 15 points thanks to SMG) and an engineer, which is also fine because then you can take betatrooper (STR not W) with spitfire as your secondary attack piece alongside an Omega. Betatroopers are outstanding - resilient (dodge on PH15, tinbot for anti-hack, 2STR, ARM3), reliable (BS13, mimetic spitfire), highly (6-2 and climbing plus) mobile killers. You end up light on orders here though, which is bad. Perhaps you don't need the TR bot and can just rely on varangian smoke to get you forward. Woe is you face a Kamau though.
After the Gamma, I go for 4 Varangians to guard the DZ, supply orders, and bring fairly reliable smoke for the final turn of rushing to buttons. Light shotgun > SMG because you have BS10.
Now you've got 57 points and 3SWC left for toys. Some candidates:
* You might want another sweeper piece (though the skirmishers are all such murder machines that maybe not). You can take a betatrooper with spitfire, a lynx with shock marksman rifle (TO camo), an epsilon with shock marksman rifle (MSV2 + mimetism for only 26 points!), or a Deva with MSV2 and spitfire (note, NWI). My inclination is towards the Deva or betatrooper because they are crit-proof, which can be critical in a sweeper who is trying to heroically win you the late game. With a Deva you then have 24 points leftover for 2 kappa cheerleaders. With a betatrooper you only have enough for 1 more cheerleader (15 points), but it can be a kappa hacker with SMG, which gives you a savage hacking network. An epsilon leaves 31 points, which can bring in a Razor FO with shotgun for more TO skirmisher shenanigans. I don't know which way to play it. My initial instinct is to go with the Deva for more orders, but I would have to playtest it. Arguably the lynx with plasma carbine is just one of the options here, but I think I would pretty much always take that unit because it is such a versatile threat and is a specialist.
* You might want to take a sniper, in which case I think the lynx TO is the best option because it can avoid early death and then emerge to really lock the board down later once you have neutralised MSV2 pieces. Kind of expensive though for a 1W unit.
So I'm left with something like this, but with lots of options to play around with:
O-12 first cut
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GROUP 1 10 / 4
KYTTÄ Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
KYTTÄ Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
LYNX (Specialist Operative) Plasma Carbine, D-Charges / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30)
VARANGIAN Light Shotgun, Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
VARANGIAN Light Shotgun, Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
VARANGIAN Light Shotgun, Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
VARANGIAN Light Shotgun, Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
DEVA (Multispectral Visor L2) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 33)
KAPPA Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
KAPPA Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
GROUP 25
GAMMA Lieutenant HMG / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 57)
GANGBUSTER Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Submachine Gun, MadTrap / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
GANGBUSTER Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Submachine Gun, MadTrap / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
SIRIUS Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun + 1 SiriusBot / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)
SIRIUSBOT Heavy Riotstopper / Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
SIRIUS Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun + 1 SiriusBot / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)
SIRIUSBOT Heavy Riotstopper / Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
4 SWC | 300 Points
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I went with this group split because I wanted all the skirmishers with suppressive fire weapons in one group for a coordinated order. The gamma is a natural fit for them because if there is overwatch they can't move, in which case I want to spend orders on big boy to slaughter stuff. Orders in the main group to power the two sweepers - lynx and deva. Might be worth moving the Kappas into group 2, but I wanted the option to range very long with the lynx and alpha the order pool with plasma. This is almost certainly a bad split of order pools.
My first few games I would just try out the different attack pieces and then try something with the TR bot, beta, engineer, kappa hacker, Omega build. Then I would experiment with throwing a Razor (or two!) into the skirmisher game. And then I'd try the sniper/s. By then we will hopefully have a sectorial.
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