Friday 26 June 2015

Questions from Google

One of the interesting parts about having my own blog is seeing what routes people have taken to get here.

Most readers are either regulars or follow links from Facebook or the Infinity forums but some chance on here via Google while on a quest for answers. One nice feature is that I can see what these people were searching for when they clicked on one of my links.

So I've gone back through the blog history a bit and picked a few questions to answer from among those that people have searched for. Hopefully this will help out the next lot of intrepid Internet explorers!

At your service. Image is property of Corvus Belli.

Dodging Guided Weapons in N3?


Guided weaponry has seen a substantial overhaul in N3. Guided Missiles in particular are much easier to field because they and their required Hackers are substantially cheaper. They are also easier to use now because Hackers can Spotlight prospective targets and Forward Observers are more reliable due to their increased Burst. This means that many people are going to be using and encountering them for the first time.

All weapons (even the Smart MULTI Sniper Rifle) use Impact Templates when firing in Guided mode. A model affected by a template attack that originates from out of its Line of Fire may Dodge in ARO at a -3 penalty to their PH. This is a face-to-face roll against impact templates, including those from Guided weapons. Each affected model must ARO (e.g. Dodge) separately and each will be a face-to-face roll against the attacker with the models' success or failure having no impact on any other model affected.

There are three other ways to affect Guided ammunition besides, or in addition to, Dodging.

ECM: ECM (commonly found on TAGs) can be used instead of Dodging and outright negates the +6 that Guided ammo normally has to hit. Advanced ECM also modifies the attack roll by -3. Be aware that the model with ECM doesn't need to be the main target to use this ARO, it just needs to be affected by the blast.

U-Turn: There is also the U-Turn hacking program (available to all but the Assault Hacking Device) which can be used as an ARO without needing to be affected by the attack or needing line of fire. The program causes the Guided attack to have a cumulative -3 modifier. Be aware that a model cannot both use U-Turn and Dodge at the same time.

Sixth Sense: Sixth Sense L2 negates the -3 penalty to PH when dodging a template attack from out of LoF. It is quite a common skill as it applies to all Fireteams with four or more members. Sixth Sense L1 does the same, but only if the attack originates from within the Zone of Control of the model - pretty unlikely for a Guided attack!


Assault and Martial Arts in N3?


Assault is a new skill in N3 that allows a model to 'charge' by double-moving and attacking in combat in the same Order at the cost of a negative to-hit modifier.

If a model has both Martial Arts and Assault then it can combine the modifiers from them freely. For instance they can negate the -3 modifier from Assault by using Martial Arts L3. A model may not however combine Assault and Berserk in this way as they are different levels of the same skill.

Do note that the Assault skill, unlike Martial Arts, does not grant Stealth, Courage or Surprise Attack.


Do Aleph Netrods Generate Orders?

*sigh*

Aleph's Netrods (and the Combined Army's Imetrons) have always been a contentious issue due to their weird half-equipment, half-trooper profile. Fortunately there was a recent FAQ about them on the forums so we can finally shed life on these strange models.

Netrods are officially Equipment and not Troopers. They do not generate an Order in their own right, but do still take up a slot in a combat group. The AI Beacon equipment that they carry does generate a Regular Order each turn (although is still affected by Loss of Lieutenant and Retreat).


Unfortunately some aspects of the troop are still mired in mystery, but here is the current 'best guess' as to how other things affect them...

They can not spend Orders and do not receive AROs, although it is reasonable to assume that Electric Pulse kicks in automatically without needing to spend an ARO for them.

Because they are not Troopers (or Scenery) they are not considered when checking for Impetuous movement and they are not repairable by Engineers. They cease to provide their order when they take a point of damage. They are not valid targets for the various Classified Objectives in ITS.

As all other Equipment is considered 'destroyed' once it has suffered a point of damage, it is probably fair to say that this applies to Netrods also.


Breaker Pistols?


Breaker Pistols are a new piece of kit and are wielded by some of the troops in Operation Icestorm, but there is no clue in Icestorm as to what they do.

The statistics for a Breaker Pistol.

They have the same range brackets as regular Pistols, higher damage (12 instead of 11) and work against BTS instead of ARM. They also halve the targets BTS, before cover, in the same way as AP works against ARM. They are excellent against Ariadna in particular due to their general lack of of BTS.

Note that Breaker ammo is not affected by the Bioimmunity skill.


Combined Army or Tohaa?


What a strange question, the obvious answer is 'both', right? I really wish I knew what the searcher was actually looking for, but in lieu of more information I'll try and answer this question in as many different ways as I can.

From a collecting standpoint, I'd have to say Tohaa. As the newest faction in the game all their sculpts are recent and consistent. They still have a small enough pool of models that buying and painting one of everything will not seem like an insurmountable task and there aren't any old models that are guaranteed to be re-sculpted in the immediate future.

As a new player I'd be inclined to lean towards Combined Army. The Tohaa army is full of weird rules such as Triads and Symbiont Armour whereas the Combined Army is more straight forward at its core and has more in common with the other factions in the game. A new player could completely ignore the Shasvastii for now knowing that new rules and models are likely coming with the updated Human Sphere book. This means they can 'start small' and focus on the Morats and Sygmaa before branching out later.

Competitively speaking I'd call it a wash. Tohaa have powerful triads and some really excellent specialists, but the Combined Army have got much more versatility with their larger pool of available profiles. Faction balance is really good in Infinity so just play whatever you like the look of the most!

2 comments:

  1. I really like this idea of a post, I'm pretty sure I googled myself here looking for Aleph info. Great blog mate.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you very much. I hope to keep doing posts like this one as and when enough odd queries show up!

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