Aleph - Totally Reactive

I just thought I'd share a list with you that I took to a recent tournament held at Pigmar. This isn't a tournament report because, frankly, my notes were shoddy and I didn't take many pictures. You can see shots of all the tables and the final rankings over here though.

I hadn't played vanilla much this year as I'd been leaning heavily on my Steel Phalanx, but for this tournament I wanted to try out something a bit different. In particular I wanted an army with lots of big guns and table presence, both things that Phalanx can easily lack.

Pigmar "All Grown Up" Tournament

So I realise this blog has been fairly quiet lately. In fact, I haven't written too many words on here since I binged out three articles in one day almost a month ago! Truth be told I've been feeling a little bit burned out for the past few weeks.

I've spent so much energy preparing for Infinity events, painting demo armies, organising tournaments and running the local league that I just haven't found the time to properly unwind and work on some other casual projects - and believe me when I say that there are plenty to work on!

It doesn't help that the last few models I tried painting I immediately stripped again because I wasn't happy with them. That was a real downer and is a substantial reason for my lack of enthusiasm currently.

But I found the time to go to an event that somebody else was hosting (Thanks Darren!) to try out some weird and wacky lists.

Teucer - Good this be the mini that will break my painting drought?

List of the Week - No SWC Aleph

Well, it seems like the N3 profiles are a little way off yet so rather than delay this series any further I thought it might be interesting to push some list creation boundaries.

A while back myself and some friends had a discussion about whether lists without any SWC (special weapons cost) were viable. It would have to be a list without any minelayers, hackers, HMGs, Spitfires, Sniper Rifles, Chain of Command, Rocket/Missile launchers and other neat toys that we would otherwise take for granted.

On the other hand you have things like Fidays, Multi Rifle HI, monofilament mines, link teams and most specialists still to work with.

This list has been on the back-burner for a little while, but with the N3 buffs to shotguns and combi rifles I think now might be the time to bust it out...

Artwork from Infinity: Human Sphere

List of the Week - Combined Army 'i0003 Style'

With Infinity 2nd edition getting the boot in the next week or so I thought I'd take the opportunity to write about one of the defining lists of the UK tournament scene.

Robin, i0003 to some, has blazed a trail across England this year and has posted excellent tournament results consistently. His force of choice? The Combined Army (...and Haqqislam ...and Yu Jing).

So now that ITS 2014 is all but over I thought I'd ask him to share with me a typical CA list from a recent event so I could try and break down the choices made and why the list works. Do note that this isn't a 'cookie cutter' force. I don't think the exact same list was ever played twice and tuning for the missions in a given tournament is important.

Ewww - weird hand-feet! - Image from Corvus Belli

List of the Week - Stuck in a (Ma)Rut

A while back on the Infinity forums I chimed in on a thread about getting the most out of the Marut in ITS at the 300 points level.

The Marut has always been tricky to fit into a list. It's expensive (122 points), is an obvious Lt (due to Strategos) and is part of an elite and expensive faction where you don't have cheap rifle-toting troops to provide orders. This can make supporting it properly, whilst still having sufficient specialists for ITS, a challenge. Needless to say it doesn't get much table time.

I was initially going to write up a 300pt Marut list for ITS, but my heart wasn't in it. You can read most of my thoughts about it in that thread anyway. Long story short, just use an Asura instead and save 50 points.

Then fate intervened and I received a PM from Urian on the forums asking for help building a 400 point Marut-lead Aleph army for an upcoming Spanish Spec-Ops tournament. The catch was that he really needed to submit it that day. After a lot of discussion, here is the list he used.

Look behind you! - Image from Corvus Belli

List of the Week - Two-TAG-Haqq

What's that I hear you cry? "But Haqqislam can only take one TAG!" Not if you are playing Qapu Khalqi!

Some sectorials armies offer substantially different options compared with their vanilla peers and when deciding to take a sectorial you always have to consider what you are gaining by giving up a lot of versatility. With this list I intend to gain a great deal indeed.

Few sectorials differ more from their counterparts than Qapu Khalqi. You gain access to a variety of mercenaries (Druze, Yuan-Yuan, Scarface) and a host of Nomad troops (Alguaciles, Mobile Brigada, Iguana) in exchange for a rather limited selection of basic Haqqislamite troops. You also have access to the Haris rule allowing you to field a 3-man secondary link ands the ability to bulk out your links cheaply using Hafza.

This is going to be a 300 point Spec Ops list that is designed to be able to take all-comers in all scenarios, i.e. the kind of list I'd happily take to a tournament.

Image property of Corvus Belli

List of the Week - Every Day I'm Fidayin'

Welcome back to another Infinity List of the Week which right on schedule is a mere two weeks since my last one....

This time I'll be looking at Haqqislam's suite of Impersonators and how to make them as unpleasant for your opponent as possible. I'm sure that many of you have heard of the Saladin, Fiday and Al-Djabel list before, it is fairly notorious after all, and I'll be using those models as the core of this list.

The idea is that with Saladins WP of 17 you are more likely to take the first turn and using Strategos you will also be able to deploy more favourably. Strategos allows you to keep two models in reserve (your Impersonators, ideally) and your opponent may not keep a reserve model at all. As an added bonus you may spend your Lieutenants order on whoever you like which makes your army just that little bit more efficient.

So, with this in mind, let's see what we can do.

Engaging in a bit of light-hearted stabbing. - Image from Corvus Belli

List of the Week - Hunting Bounties

" A lot of people won't change a plan, that's how they end up not winning." - Dog the Bounty Hunter

I'm trying out something new for the blog, a bit of an experiment I guess as I have no idea if this is something that people would be interested in. Each week (or two, or three...) I'll cook up an interesting looking list and talk about it in the context of the current ITS system.

Sometimes it'll be pure theory-crafting, sometimes it'll come with a battle report, either way I hope that these lists will cause some discussion.

This first list spawned in a car journey on the way back from a tournament in Exeter when Robin (i0003), Matt (Drastic), Stuart (Fathi Amirmoez) and I were plotting lists for an upcoming tournament. Frankly it's just too much fun not to share.

How could you say no? - Image from Corvus Belli