I miss the infinity community so I'm thinking of getting back into the game in a very casual way. New edition seems good though I really don't like the 15 order cap. Not because I played many lists with order counts above 15, but because it just seems like a really lazy way to balance the game. It also makes link teams even more important, which was something I didn't like even before the new edition.
Anyway, some of the new Nomads units and changes means that nomad camo spam might finally, finally, be viable. I have been trying to make this list work since the end of N2. It feels like the way Nomads are supposed to be played, you could just never quite get all the pieces together under 300 points. Has that changed? Read on to find out.
Here are the lists I'm working with. I'll start with the one against hackable factions (e.g. Invincible army) or where hacking is relevant, e.g. Ikari or Neo Terra. This is the default list. Very similar to Ariadna camo spam but with hacking instead of ambush camo and CC.
Nomads camo spam
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GROUP 1
VOSTOK FTO (Mimetism [-6]) Mk12(+1 Dam) / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 44)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8)
TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
MORAN (Repeater) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse, Crazykoala ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 17)
MORAN (Repeater) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse, Crazykoala ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 17)
JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
HECKLER Combi Rifle, Jammer ( | FastPanda) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 23)
HECKLER Red Fury / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 24)
GROUP 2
KRIZA BORAC (Lieutenant) Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 54)
MARY PROBLEMS (Hacker) Submachine Gun, Zapper, Pitcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 28)
ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 20)
JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 20)
6 SWC | 299 Points
[url=https://infinitytheuniverse.com/army/list/gfUGbm9tYWRzESBOb21hZHMgY2FtbyBzcGFtgSwCAQoAhggBBAAAhPsBBAAAgZwBAQAAgZwBAQAAgaUBBAAAgaUBBAAAgZQBAQAAgZQBAQAAhEcBAwAAhEcBAQACBQCDugEFAACESwEBAACBkQEHAACBkQEHAACBlAEBAA%3D%3D]Open in Infinity Army
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The 14-15 orders with a hole in it always felt like a handicap compared to Ariadna, who could get everything they need and 16 orders, especially because hacking was so over-costed. But now there's no hole and 15 orders is the optimal line in N4.You might recognise the other basic design principles from earlier posts about Nomads and from my Ariadna camo spam list. These include:
Camo spam for the tarpit
Put every cheap camo/infiltrator into the list, starting with the minelayers. The effectiveness of camo increases exponentially the more of it there is on the table. In the Nomad case, this means the Liberto and Zeros go first, then the Hecklers, Morans, and Mary Problems. Ideally, I would like to have Krakots as well but I don't have the points to upgrade the Jaguars. It would also be ideal to have a close combat specialist in there, either Bran or a Bandit, but they are expensive. Nomad camo was weaker than Ariadna in N3 (fewer mines, no SMGs, no Uxia, no Pavel, no Scout snipers, no flamers with SSlvl1) but is now is almost on par on average and better if your opponent is hackable. Hacking is still situational but almost an auto win against some factions that are now quite popular e.g. HI links without stealth/martial arts (Yu Jing links, including in Ikari and Darshat, Hollow Men), and REM rushes (bulleteers, Q-drones, and Rui Shis). First big change was the heckler when Tunguska dropped. Red Fury on a mimetic infiltrator is big. This unit is equivalent to Ariadna sweepers like Vassily. Flimsier than them, but (was) faster at 4-4. Second big change was Morans in N4. They now have access to limited camo, which is massive. Huge improvement to the shell game and their survivability. They also have minelayer to deploy crazy koalas, which helps to prevent Morans dying turn 1 and their koalas never going off. Koalas now also go off in active turn, which is fantastic for the lame guerrilla style of camo spam - you always want to be shooting people with little to no chance of dying yourself. The boarding shotgun Morans are now also forward observers. Shotguns are typically better than combis. I am very tempted to take the shotgun Heckler, but I wanted one extra mid-field combi for suppression and the jammer heckler fit the bill better than the Morans. Morans like to hide in confined spaces so that people have to dig out their koala and then they can shotgun them from up close. Not having repeaters on the camo Morans is very annoying, but you can swap between versions depending on whether you are playing against a faction that is hackable. Third big change was the liberto, who brings a critical third minelayer for the shell game.
You spam camo infiltrators for three reasons:
- To have a deep and varied shell game they encourages your opponent to waste orders discovering mines and camo markers, dodging crazy koalas, digging shitty 20 points mimetic rifles out of suppression fire, and walking around hacking bubbles. Defence in factions without good snipers (i.e. almost all vanilla factions) is all about this sort of guerrilla warfare (which includes direct template weapons and shotguns). Your objective is not so much to kill your opponent in their turn as waste their time. This is the "tarpit". It is a second order optimal strategy and quite advanced to play, but very good.
- To have all your scoring units in place at the game start. In missions that require controlling territory, you already have your zones and can spend a mere order or two to push a lot of points into enemy territory. In missions that require pressing buttons, you start standing next to them. Mary having climbing plus is fantastic here.
- To have multiple, and multi-dimensional, attack vectors, and no obvious gooey centre. Most of infinity is about a Rambo unit like a big link or fast sweeper running down a flank and then rounding a corner to blow away the enemy cheerleaders. There is a single dimension to attack along - a straight line up the board. There is an obvious gooey centre to target - the link team of fusiliers and such like and their REM attendants. Guerrilla lists really subvert that approach. You can go for the Kriza if you want, but it's not a huge blob of orders and it's surrounded by dogged direct templates and a hacking bubble. There is also no obvious path of least resistance to get to it, because there is a sea of ambiguous camo tokens and hacking bubbles to get through everywhere. Your carefully laid, order-optimised sequence can easily be upended by a failed discover role or a mine that takes out your REM. If your link team gets stranded they'll be surrounded by mines in a flash. Meanwhile, the camo spam player can come at you from any direction with shotguns and red fury, laying mines along the way.
Hacking-enhanced tarpits
Put all the cheap repeaters into the list to give yourself orders and a hacking tarpit. The Morans and Mary start the tarpit. It is expanded by the transductors, who are great cheerleaders - fast, cheap, and mimetic with a nice ARO weapon (flash pulse has good range bands) - and the heckler with fastpanda. Once the heckler deploys the panda your hackable opponent will be facing 2 ftf rolls against isolation every time they move. Vostok is a bonus repeater, but can be very annoying if you end an alpha strike next to your opponent's hackable units, preventing them from moving, or letting you burn orders from pool 2 on Mary to oblivion them before your opponent has a turn.
What to look for in a hacker
Have efficient hackers. Mary is a godsend here. You used to need two hackers to reliably tarpit someone. With +1B on oblivion, Mary gets the job done, and she's no slouch in combat either with ODD and an SMG. Not having white noise sucks, but the Kriza can deal with MSV snipers. Not having assisted fire is a major burn (though a good balancing change in N4), but the Vostok can manage fine without it. Mary has every other program you care about, with bonuses to the two most important ones: oblivion and trinity. She roasts other hackers, and anything that can be isolated will be. TAGs beware. She makes the tarpit powerful and threatening. Having only one hacker makes your tarpit a little susceptible to a smooth KHD assassination run, but its hard for such units (e.g. Ninja KHD) to get past all your mines and koalas, and then they still have to win a ftf against Mary's trinity.
Don't leave home without an HMG
Make sure you have a multi-wound HMG to clear parapets. There are some units that will lock you out of the game if you can't reliably knock them over - Atalanta, linked Kamau snipers, Q-Drones. The Kriza is an upgrade over the Blackjack for this job, though obviously more expensive. Changing full auto to mimetism for simplicity is lame but it does make the Kriza even more of a death machine.
Tough Lieutenants
Be thoughtful about your lieutenant. Loss of lieutenant (LoL) is typically an auto loss in infinity unless your faction has heaps of irregular/impetuous or something like the Morat rule. Camo spam deals with it OK because many units can just lay mines and not waste a turn, but it's still really bad. LoL used to be particularly problematic for Nomads because they have no chain of command for fluff reasons, most of their lieutenant options were shit (Brigada with Multi rifle) or paper thin (moderator), they couldn't use the lieutenant order well, and the one good lieutenant, Kusanagi, wanted to go assault the opponent, which often got her killed. Kusanagi was also a sub-optimal sweeper because of her 4-2 movement. The Kriza solves a lot of these problems. It is chonky, so it dies hard. It can do useful things in the backline with its HMG (including sniping in a pinch). And it spends the lieutenant order well, if only to drop into suppression.
Cheerleaders that hit back
Take cheap cheerleaders with direct template weapons or at least shotguns. You touch me I touch you. the idea here is that if someone comes for your cheerleaders with a paratrooper or some such they will trade early and your order pool won't collapse. Cheerleaders with combis tend to get run over. Nomads is a little bit shallower in this department than Ariadna, but almost as good. Jaguars are more expensive than volunteers, but dogged. Transductors are more expensive than mulebots, but smaller, mimetic, and have flash pulses. The REM racer is equivalent to a 112 or Dozer with shotgun, plus it has a repeater to halt a TAG rush. Ariadna would have won out in N3 by getting to 16 orders, but that doesn't matter anymore.
Sweep 'em up
Have a good sweeper. This is a fast unit, preferably a specialist, with a MOD stack, a reliable gun, and the ability to take a crit and keep going, at least until the end of the turn. A sweeper is typically a crucial unit for turn 3 especially, when you need to knock a few losers over in the midfield with few orders so that you have enough resources left to score. Not such a big problem for camo spam because you already have guys in the midfield, but still significant. This was another major problem for Nomads in the past. My kingdom for a bulleteer. The big nomad REMs sucked - no MOD stacks, no specialist, bad guns, expensive. Kusanagi was good but slow at 4-2 and often your lieutenant. Intruders were slow, expensive, and not specialists. Spitfire Prowlers were slow, not specialists, 1 wound, and colossally expensive. I often ended up using a spitfire riot grrl, who was OK, but not a specialist and only 4-4. Now they are 6-2 and DAM15 with spitfire, which makes a world of difference to reliability. But they're still 1.5 SWC, which is very hard to find in a list full of minelayers. But never fear, there's the new kid on the block: the Vostok. The Vostok's combination of speed (6-4 and climbing plus), ODD, and DAM15 B3 MK12 makes it a huge threat for alpha strikes on turn 1/2 (hence why the order pools are 10-5). Its repeater also makes it complement the hacking tarpit. And it's got 2 STR, so no sneaky crit can take it down, unlike a Rui Shi. It costs a mint, but in 15 orders you can afford it.
Typical game plan
Your ideal scenario is something like this. Turn 1, the Kriza uses their lieutenant order to light up the parapets and clear any ARO pieces. The Vostok or liberto then bomb forward to kill any exposed units, especially cheerleaders and strategically significant pieces like lieutenants, doctors/engineers/hackers, and MSV/sensor units that will reduce the effectiveness of your camo game. Any remaining orders go on minelayers laying more mines before recamouflaging if possible, or Mary standing up to fire off pitchers before going prone again (Mary is almost always on a roof to keep her safe and take advantage of climbing plus). The purpose of turn 1 is to cripple your opponents ability to effectively wade through the tarpit. If you can bog them down for 2 turns you've most likely won because you will have full orders across 3 turns while they will be working at 75%, then 66%, then 33% capacity. Turn 2 is usually a skirmisher in group 1 (3/4 times the red fury heckler) and the other minelayer in group 2 coming out of camo to kill stuff before going into suppression down an important firelane to fortify the tarpit, and maybe a specialist pressing a button. The Kriza also drops into suppression to prevent assassinations. Sometimes on turn 2, and certainly on turn 3, the Kriza will instead take up a sniper position with his HMG. Mimetism, cover, and a good range bad, plus big ARM (8 in cover means even a crit from a combi is unlikely to hurt you), means that the Kriza can lockdown a fire lane against poorly equipped opposition. Turn 3 is a scramble with your specialists to mop up stragglers and press buttons. Typically, if you still have 12+ order on turn 3 you've won. This is an obvious thing to say for most factions because 12+ orders turn 3 means you alpha struck hard. That's less likely the case here. Camo spam rarely kills a lot of stuff, but 12+ orders means that your opponent was unable to dismantle your tarpit, and that means you got enormous order economy compared to them over the course of 3 turns.
Guided?
A different approach is to use guided missiles as part of your tarpit. The changes to spotlight (ARO, doesn't end automatically, harder to reset out of) make this strategy viable and very complementary to low BS skirmisher spam. A targetted unit has a substantially harder time winning a face to face against even a B1 shotgun within 8" on its reactive turn. Imagine a Tohaa Sakiel (BS12, no MODs) in a fireteam. They're +3 within 8", -6 for your cover and mimetism, leaving them at 9 on 4 dice. You are +9 for range and targeted and -3 for cover, leaving your Moran on 18s on 1 dice. Anything from 10-18 on that dice and you win, which is basically a 50-50% chance despite having low Burst. Forcing your opponent to reset in their active turn to avoid getting shot by guided missiles in their reactive turn is also great way to drain orders from them and in keeping with the lame style of camo-spam. Having guided is probably the preferred approach to building this list if the mission mix makes it unviable to have a 2nd list for unhackable factions like Tohaa and Ariadna. Against these guys, a guided bot makes spotlighting in reactive a genuine annoyance to your opponent rather than something to shrug off and keep going. So what's the list?
Nomads camo spam - guided
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GROUP 1
VOSTOK FTO (Mimetism [-6]) Mk12(+1 Dam) / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 44)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8)
HECKLER Boarding Shotgun, E/Marat / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
HECKLER Boarding Shotgun, E/Marat / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
MORAN (Repeater) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse, Crazykoala / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 17)
MORAN (Repeater) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse, Crazykoala / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 17)
JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
GROUP 2
KRIZA BORAC (Lieutenant) Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 54)
MARY PROBLEMS (Hacker) Submachine Gun, Zapper, Pitcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 28)
ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 20)
ZERO (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
VERTIGO ZOND Missile Launcher / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 17)
6 SWC | 299 Points
[url=https://infinitytheuniverse.com/army/list/gfUGbm9tYWRzESBOb21hZHMgY2FtbyBzcGFtgSwCAQoAhggBBAAAhPsBBAAAhEcBAgAAhEcBAgAAgaUBBAAAgaUBBAAAgZQBAQAAgZQBAQAAgZwBAQAAgZwBAQACBQCDugEFAACESwEBAACBkQEHAACBkQEIAACBmgEBAA%3D%3D]Open in Infinity Army
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You swap the heckler Red Fury to a shotgun and a zero minelayer to a forward observer to free up the SWC you need to buy a vertigo zond (guided missile bot). If the missions don't require specialists you can grab the deployable repeater and E/M mines loadout instead. Swapping the liberto to the non-minelayer profile would also work, but you have no use for the additional 0.5 SWC and you don't gain a specialist, which is actually really helpful (you have 4 in mid-field with the new FO Zero). You then change the 2nd Heckler from the jammer profile to the shotgun profile to get the last few points you need to upgrade the 3rd Jaguar to the missile bot. This limits your hacking field a little bit, but means that all your camo tokens are quite disposable. Camo boarding shotguns are also a menace. The alternative would be to downgrade another jaguar to a baggage bot, but I think that leaves your Kriza, Vertigo Zond, and cheerleaders (2 transductor zonds and the baggage bot) too exposed to assassins. Can playtest it. Most assassinations are done by alpha striking pieces rather than parachutists or impersonators, and alpha strikes are unlikely to get through your tarpit. But as losing the Kriza puts you in loss of lieutenant and losing the missile bot significantly hampers your offence, I think it's too much of a risk. This list only has 1 sweeper - the Vostok - so ideally you want to attack on turn 1 with the liberto or hecklers so that the Vostok can rampage later. Turn 2 you can hopefully spend some orders killing spotlighted targets rather than sweeping.
Think about the tarpit of this list for a minute. Assuming you go first, you have 2 Moran repeaters in mid field, 2 pitchers from Mary, and herself, plus potentially the Vostok and transductors sitting at strategic entrances to your deployment zone or, if you alpha struck with the Vostok, in the middle of your opponent's deployment zone exit in cover and suppression with mimetism -6. Nothing hackable is getting through that, and anything that isn't hackable will be spotlighted as it comes up the table (note that you are immune to your own poison because your skirmishers all move around with stealth). You then have, at minimum, 2 mines and 4 crazy koalas on the table, plus anything extra you dropped on your first turn. If you don't lay any extra, your opponent is looking at 7 camo markers. Just getting a discover roll off against one will probably require accepting an unopposed spotlight, which will then make the ftf roll against whatever they discover a coin flip. Link teams can handle the discovery and ftf rolls, but light links will die to mines and heavy links will be oblivioned as they head into the tarpit, breaking their link bonuses. Killing Mary is very hard without drop troops because she is prone on a roof with no way up (because she can climb down regardless), and packing mimetism -6. Your mines and koalas also have a tendency of congregating at the base of Mary's building. You have nothing that can be killed without going through the tarpit, and if your opponent does wade through whatever makes it to the other side will be killed via guided missile so that you don't reveal any new units for your opponent to kill. Every turn they walk around spending 7 orders to avoid a mine only to discover and kill a 20 point skirmisher and then get guided to pieces. If you're playing ground control you can sometimes win without even moving from your starting positions. Even my playtesting buddies with a lot of experience against this playstyle find it quite discombobulating to play against. Someone who is used to a link, a few ARO pieces, and a sweeper will have no idea how to approach you efficiently.
What about if there's nothing to hack?
Now obviously the list above has a lot of superfluous units if there's nothing for you to hack, notably Mary problems, the heckler with fastpanda, and the repeater Morans. How would I adjust things against a faction like Shasvastii, Haqq, or Ariadna? To be honest, I would probably have my second list tailored to a particular mission/s rather than particular matchups, but if that was unnecessary then something like this:
Nomads camo spam - unhackable
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GROUP 1
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8)
HECKLER Boarding Shotgun, E/Marat / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
MORAN (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage [1 Use]) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse, Crazykoala / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 18)
MORAN (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage [1 Use]) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse, Crazykoala / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 18)
ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 20)
ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 20)
STEMPLER ZOND Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 16)
RIOT GRRL Spitfire / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 33)
CHIMERA Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Viral CC Weapon, Pistol. (0 | 20)
3X PUPNIK DA CC Weapon. (0 | 3)
JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
GROUP 2
KRIZA BORAC (Lieutenant) Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 54)
BANDIT (Forward Observer) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher, Flash Pulse / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 23)
HECKLER Boarding Shotgun, E/Marat / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
6 SWC | 300 Points
[url=https://infinitytheuniverse.com/army/list/gfUGbm9tYWRzHiBOb21hZHMgY2FtbyBzcGFtIC0gdW5oYWNrYWJsZYEsAgEKAIT7AQQAAIRHAQIAAIGlAQIAAIGlAQIAAIGRAQcAAIGRAQcAAIGYAQEAAIGvAQYAAIGmAQQAAIGUAQEAAgUAg7oBBQAAgZABBwAAhEcBAgAAgZQBAQAAgZQBAQA%3D]Open in Infinity Army
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Same basic principles, but Mary is replaced by a bandit forward observer for some close combat in the midfield (nets you 0.5 SWC), the morans go under camo markers, and a transductor is upgraded to a stempler. Almost all the matchups where this list is relevant (Haqq, Ariadna, Shas, Tohaa/Spiral, perhaps the Nomad mirror to make their hackers redundant) involve camouflage tokens, so a stempler is helpful. The alternative would be to get a Krakot, but there's nothing to do with the extra 2 points. If I could find those 2 points and upgrade a jaguar to a second krakot, I would drop the stempler. It's lame that transductors lost sniffer. The Riot grrl with spitfire is a more efficient sweeper in these matchups than the Vostok. She sees through mimetism to make discovery easier, and her spitfire is more reliable in a ftf against skirmishers in suppression fire. In N3 I would have said this list would struggle mightily against a lot of warbands, but you rarely need to fear such things now with the 15 order cap. The Kriza has jaguar guards to ward off impersonators in the Haqq and Shas matchups. I think the Ariadna matchup is bad, especially if they bring dog squads with sensor, but the Chimera+pupniks help. Aside from sweeping mines really well with dodge on 19 and 4 simultaneous discover rolls, these guys make mince-meat out of all varieties of dog (and even Tariq, Uxia, and Pavel) in CC on active turn. Extra smoke in mid-field also helps against the snipers these factions are likely to bring.
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