This was my favourite playstyle in N3. Not quite top tier, but very fierce and lots of fun to play because of the voluminous shenanigans. Only problem really was that I'd time out a lot of games because my opponents were so slow deciding what to do when confronted with a sea of camo tokens. How has it changed in N4? Not much...
Here's what I'd default to:
Bastaridna N4
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GROUP 1 (8 regular)
GRUNT (Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 11)
GRUNT (Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 11)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 6)
VOLUNTEER Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 6)
VASSILY (Chain of Command) T2 Marksman Rifle, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 40)
PAVEL McMANNUS Ohotnik, Chain-colt, Shock Mines / Pistol, T2 CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
ROKOT (Infiltration, Camouflage [1 Use]) Submachine Gun, Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
UXÍA McNEILL (Multispectral Visor L1) Boarding Shotgun, Grenades, Smoke Grenades ( ) / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 26)
GROUP 2 (5 regular, 2 irregular)
VETERAN KAZAK (Lieutenant) AP Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 46)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 20)
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 20)
CATERAN T2 Sniper Rifle / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (1 | 23)
STRELOK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 16)
SCOUT AP Sniper Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 25)
6 SWC | 300 Points
[url=https://infinitytheuniverse.com/army/list/gS0HYXJpYWRuYQ1CYXN0YXJpZG5hIE40gSwCAQgAgOYBBgAAgOYBBgAAhH4BAQAAhIABAQAAgPUBAgAAgPUBAgAAhe4BCQAAgQcBAQACBwCA6gEHAACE%2BwEEAACA%2FAEEAACA%2FAEEAACA%2BAEBAACEZgEDAACA7gEEAA%3D%3D]Open in Infinity Army
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The big change is the 15 order cap. I used to go to 16. Other big change is that Vassily is now 4-4. His 4-2 movement in N3 was a major handicap to his ability to sweep and press buttons towards the end of the game. First small change is that Grunts got regular infiltration instead of inferior, which is nice. It means that if there are no good places to attempt an inferior infiltration (you should very much still do it to put a flamer template over a link team, for example), then you can safely infiltrate into a scoring position or tactical "act like a mine" position, rather than having to attempt a bad inferior infiltrate and hope to be able to only deploy in your DZ. Second small change is that Rokots exist and they have a 10 point camo-infiltrator profile. Not the best loadout with SMG and grenades on BS10 and PH11 respectively, but they make a nice compliment to the camo shell game. Nothing else to report really. So you effectively cut a 112 to come in under the order count and then tweak some units around.
This list is very light on specialists - only Vassily and Pavel. They are excellent and reliable, but if the mission called for a bit more depth you might upgrade the Strelok to a foxtrok FO (+2 points), Uxia to the specialist/assault profile (+1 point - I strongly prefer the MSV: you need at least 1 unit with this piece of equipment), or reduce some units in intensity (e.g. the Veteran Kazak to a Mormaer or Blackjack) to upgrade the Rokot to the Foxtrot FO and the Strelok to an FO (boarding shotgun is marginally better than SMG on BS11, but you lose mines which sucks). Could also try the motorized 112, but I worry that it will just get assassinated. The Mormaer is really quite a good lieutenant option nowadays. Compared to the Veteran Kazak, you lose mimetism, sixth sense, and the basically useless Veteran rule and you swap NWI for dogged. That's pretty big. But you get +1ARM, DAM17 on the AP HMG (reliable!), critical immunity, and a chain colt for when someone comes to try and assassinate you close range. The Veteran Kazak has a bit more effectiveness as a dedicated attack piece, but the Mormaer is perfectly good at job #1, which is knocking over snipers. The 4 points you save allow you to fit extra specialists into the list.
Like my N3 lists, this beast is packing a very deep shell game and a huge number of mines. You start the game with 11 camo tokens in mid-field and another 3 in your deployment zone (my Nomad list has 7 all up by comparison). Within those midfield camo tokens there are 3 mines, 2 snipers (Pavel and Scout), 2 shotguns (liberto and Uxia), 2 CC monsters for taking out hard targets (Uxia and Pavel), and 2 sixth sense flamethrowers (the chasseurs). Many nasty surprises await the unwary. Your grunts are also hanging in midfield waiting to roadblock alpha strikes. I've found that the scout really adds a lot of depth. I used to run the Ohotnik profile as a lieutenant in N3 because he could use the order well to lay mines and pick off exposed units. The sniper is a bit cagier, but allows you to really the lock the table down hard in the late game, especially with the Cateran, which I would always trade for extra orders in N3. He can also do very reliable and unexpected cross table kills because of his range and the stopping power of the AP sniper rifle. It is typically unwise to reveal these snipers in the early game. They are not a speed bump: dedicated attack pieces will annihilate them. Take out those attack pieces first with units like Uxia, the Veteran Kazak, Pavel, and Vassily, or bait them into a useless corner, then reveal your snipers to pick off specialists, the back of link teams, and shut down the table. The exception is when your opponent does not seem to have a way to reliably discover them from across the table. If you can deploy them so that they can only be seen from far away, then you can force your opponent to move inefficiently towards you (that's the MO of this sort of 'tarpit' list), but not get close enough to reliably discover-kill you. A rare event, to be honest. You don't need snipers as a speedbump here, so don't risk it. If your opponent does get through the minefield, what is their target? Your cheerleaders all have direct template weapons and cost a pittance. The only worthwhile target is the Veteran Kazak, so be sure to use him as bait. If they want to hit your lieutenant, they will have to wade through the mines and expose themselves to (little do they know) to the advantageous range bands of the Ohotnik, snipers, and boarding shotguns on your turn. It can be worthwhile going on an attack run with the Veteran Kazak using the lieutenant order on turn 1 just to bait your opponent into coming after it. You can then fall back on chain of command, and Vassily is even better at using the lieutenant order.
As always, your gameplan is to be lame. Never expose units to direct attack. Always fight on your terms using your smoke to close into overwhelming close combat, your variety of weapons to manage the range bands, your T2 and AP weapons to efficiently bring down hard targets, and your templates to handle mobs. Avoid face to face rolls entirely if you can by pumping out mines on your turn and either recamoflaging or dropping into suppression. You want to maintain your order pool into turn 3, and it's not difficult if you stay lame. Your main attacking play is to send Uxia or the liberto into your opponent's DZ using camo and then light up their cheerleaders with shotgun templates. A second early attacking play is to charge with the Vet Kazak if there are exposed units or ways to get a decent range band for the SMG, just be mindful that once he's dead you might have trouble knocking off a sniper. Turn 3 is almost always Vassily efficiently mowing down stragglers while pressing buttons. He is a beast. Final common play is to pick off a straggler with Pavel, the scout, or the Cateran. This list struggles against a smart player with TAG/s or an abundance of HI because they can just eat mines all day you don't have particularly efficient ways to bring them down. Against weaker players, Uxia and Pavel's AP and T2 CCWs will mince hard targets, and you have sufficient tools for pincer manoeuvres (Uxia's AP shotgun or the Strelok's SMG in the back, Pavel/Scout/Vassily firing T2/AP from range into the front). Better players will often be able to counter the melee strategy with smart link teams placement, and the second strategy by hiding with their back to a wall. Your edge against most such lists is that they will have few orders and even fewer once you pick off their cheerleaders with a camo-assassination run. So focus on the mission and draw them out into exposed positions for Vassily to pick them off at end of the game. In my experience, nothing except hard mimetism-6/MSV2 targets like the Omega or Charontid survive him. He's quickly turned a suppression fire Hector into paste more than once.
One thing I want to try in this list is the new Jacques Bruant profile with AP spitfire and infiltration for 30 points and 1 SWC. He's also a good lieutenant with specialist operative for 2 points less. Seems a bit too expensive for a 1W model. You'd likely have to swap the Veteran Kazak to a blackjack to afford either option, but it's a big upgrade to the Rokot and gives you a lot of reliable attack vectors. A spanner is that the Blackjack is 1.5 SWC while the Veteran Kazak is only 1 (this is a problem for the Mormaer lieutenant as well).
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