Which Infinity Army is for You? Part 5: Haqqislam
I’ve been pretty busy, but I’m back to the ratings! Today we’re talking about a faction with an unparalleled ability to control the knowledge of the game state. Subterfuge and stealth are their weapons (plus some horrific viral ammunition). Obviously I’m speaking of none other than Haqqislam! An army of lightly armored guerilla fighters, irregulars, and super-soldiers, backed up by advanced medical technology and a dash of zealous infiltrators makes for a powerful cocktail that can keep your opponent on their heels.
Rating System
Instead of comparing one army to another, I’m going to rate armies based on how good of a match they are for new players interested in that particular category. For example, just about any army can make a hacking heavy list, but it may take more effort for some than others. An army which effortlessly competes in hacking would be given a 5, armies take considerable effort (if at all possible) would be a 1 or 2, while armies which could be tailored either way would be a 3.
Army Metrics
Firepower. This is probably the easiest to understand, which is why it comes first! This is the sheer ability for this army to win ranged firefights. While it is a good metric for offensive power, it doesn’t mean they’re going to punch everyone off the table every time.
Resilience. Like firepower, this is a fairly straight forward metric which expresses how much punishment an army could take. If a typical list for this army has access to a lot of high armor or multi-wound troops, they’ll have a higher Resilience score.
Control. Tempo is incredibly important in Infinity, the ability to control the ebb and flow of the game, which engagements happen and so on. Armies with high control tend to have better access to infiltration, camouflage, and other deployment skills, as well as troops which can rapidly change position on the table.
E War. A huge draw of Infinity is Hacking, E War represents any particular army’s ability to compete in the hacking arena. Do they have enough to get by, or can they build out a punishing hacking network to shut down the enemy?
Accessibility. This represents the difficulty for new players to pick up the army, learn the basics, and play effectively on the table. Some armies are easy to figure out at the beginning, while others have a lot of unique rules or require more advanced techniques to win.
X-Factor. Every army has a little something special about them, and if you’re debating between two armies, this could be the deciding factor.
What’s missing? If you’re coming from other game systems, you might expect to see how good an army is in close combat. Infinity is not most games, this is a game where bullets are lethal, and you don’t want to bring a knife to a gun fight. Some armies however are exceptionally good in combat, which will be called out when discussing that particular army.
Haqqislam (Haqq)
Paging Dr. Doctor. Haqqislam is first and foremost a board control army, and a key pathway to success is controlling the knowledge of the game state. If your opponent can’t predict where the next attack will come from, or even rely on what they see on the table to be the truth, you can capitalize on their lack of information and force them to make mistakes. They have lighter fighters and lower BS than many of their counterparts, but they make up for that through guerilla tactics. Another notable feature of Haqqislam is their unrivaled Doctors. Many players often ignore healing their own troops, but in Haqq it can be very effective, and in missions which track killing enemies, every model of yours you bring back is denying them points.
Hassassin Bahram (HB)
Point Deletion. Perhaps a bit on the nose, Hassassin Bahram is really good at assassinating key targets, and maximize the subterfuge aspects of Haqqislam. Compared to vanilla Haqq, they’re going to be tougher to start with, since they lean even more heavily on their already amazing board control, and lack redundancy on their infantry, but they’re fantastic at scaring the pants off of your opponents. As a sectorial goes, HB contain the most classic Haqq units, and is often considered the most Haqq of the Haqq sectorials. Despite having lower than average firepower, and overall poor resilience, HB is still an incredibly terrifying force on the table, striking from the shadows and destroying key units. Since HB has a heavy reliance on understanding the nuance of their units, and how to control the board, they can be difficult to start with, with a much steeper leaning curve. Just know getting into it that you might take a beating before you pick up on their tricks.
Ramah Taskforce (Ramah, RTF)
Super Soldiers. In the future, mastery of medicine doesn’t only mean applying a fancy space-bandaid, it also means creating biologically engineered soldiers with superhuman capabilities! Good things come in small packages, their elite fighters might look like a lightly armored soldier, but they’re often much faster, tougher than Heavy Infantry, and armed to the teeth! Access to more effective elite fighters make Ramah one of the easiest ways to start playing Haqqislam, they rely less on asymmetric information and board control, instead fighting a bit more typically, with terrifyingly effective troops and proficient gunfighting. As the newest sectorial to be added to Haqqislam, they benefit greatly from gorgeous modern miniatures, and their more direct play-style makes them far more suitable for newer players.
LEGACY ARMIES
As the story of Infinity progresses through time, some armies fall to the wayside. They’re still supported by the game, and certainly competitive on the table, but many of the important miniatures may be out of production and difficult to source. If you’re able to get your hands on them, or unafraid of heavily converting pewter miniatures, then they’re definitely worth considering.
Qapu Khalqi (QK)
Space Pirates. If Hassassins embody the cunning aspects of Haqqislam, then QK embodies the irregular guerilla fighter side of things. They sacrifice a bit of the board control Haqq is known for, but in return are provided a bounty of mercenaries willing to fight for fist full of space-dollars. Units like Yuan Yuan have a fearsome reputation for dropping into combat and causing havoc, while heavily armed and trained Druze and Kaplan provide a bit of muscle. This creates a much more overall well-rounded army than other sectorial, which emphasize one virtue or another. All said, they’re still a Haqqislam army, which means they also have incredible doctors, and some tricks up their sleeves. Unfortunately, as they are one of the older sectorials, they may be trickier to start with as some of their miniatures are no longer in production.
Late Night Wargames
If you’re looking for some more discussion on Haqqislam, be sure to check out our episode of Late Night Wargames where Jon and I are joined by fellow warcor, Tony, a master of the sneaky arts, to talk all things Haqqislam in a post N4 world.
We continue our series of Infinity N4 updates covering Haqqislam, with one of our favorite players from Seattle, Tony (ITS: Zhukov2)! Masters of the medical arts, with some truly terrifying biomunitions and irregular guerilla fighters, if you’re into tricks and gimmicks, you’re going to love Haqqislam. We’re also going to lightly cover the Army updates, now complete with all the previously missing armies and sectorials