Which Infinity Army is for You? Part 8: O-12
The newest kids on the block and already O-12 is taking the Human Sphere by storm! The O-12 represents the governing body of the Human Sphere, guided by and working with, ALEPH, the vast AI which guides humanity’s quest for survival. On the table, each of their units is highly trained, well equipped, and capable of performing their duties to the highest degree.
This is a fantastic choice for players who want to feel the might of technological superiority and punishing firepower. To get the most out of the army though, you’ll need to learn to use your units efficiently, as many are too expensive to leave to a single task. While O-12 does have units capable of nearly every task on the table, and do a damn good job of it, most of these toys don’t come cheap, so you’re often going to have to pick and choose what you want your list to accomplish.
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.
O-12
Purpose Built. Every unit in the O-12 army is designed to perform a specific task, and they typically do a damn good job of it. This leads to an army where each individual unit is highly effective and efficient, at the job they’re meant to perform. The units in O-12 tend to be very lean on additional equipment, outside of what is necessary, which makes them very cost effective and easy to learn. The downside to this efficiency is that sometimes you’ll need a screw driver, but all you have are hammers.
As an army, they can fight effectively in basically every aspect of the game, but you do need specialized troops for most of it. You want to have some board control? They have a solid range of Infiltrators, Combat Jump and Forward Deploy troops. Need to shoot things down? Check out the Gamma or Zeta. Want some Camo? The Lynx and Razor have your back. One of the most interesting things about O-12 is their unique weapon, the Riot Stopper. These flame-thrower like weapons shoot off Judge Dredd style riot foam, immobilizing enemies, preventing them from doing anything while they’re bound up in glue. The most important part is that they work well on everything, you can lock down enemy TAGs, infantry, remotes, you name it… It just won’t kill them, so if you need to remove the model, you’ll have to put in some more work.
As a design philosophy, O-12 was meant to be an army that is great for beginners, and Corvus Belli really nailed it.
Starmada
You Can’t Run! There is no escaping the long arm of the law, and Starmada is here to prove it. Compared to vanilla O-12, they have a lot fewer tools for controlling the table… before they start moving around. As a sectorial, Starmada has unprecedented access to Climbing Plus. This is a very unique skill in Infinity, with how three-dimensional the game is played, the ability to swiftly climb up buildings and flush enemies out of their hiding places is deceptively powerful. While all of these units are available in vanilla O-12, the sectorial can put together a link of Nyoka, with a heavy duty Bronze Batman climbing up the side of a building. Your opponent has to think twice about how they use the table to their own advantage. There is nowhere that Starmada can’t come and get you, glue you, and send you to the iso-cubes.
As an army, they’re slightly more challenging than vanilla O-12. They have less blatant firepower pieces and have to learn to maneuver links, but they’re still pretty easy to pick up and learn.
Late Night Wargames
If you’re looking for some more discussion on O-12, be sure to check out our episode of Late Night Wargames where Jon and I are joined by Isaac to talk space cops!