Imperial Service is the newest and, for my money, best designed sectorial in Infinity’s history.
That’s a big claim – Infinity has been through dozens of sectorial armies in its time, and for a long time they’ve been trapped in a stagnant design space. Many current sectorials are very heavily sitting under the weight of a design legacy that renders them either imperfect reflections of the Vanilla faction or lacking critical tools that they need. Recently while writing Invincible Army, upon designing a list I was happy with I experimentally flipped over to Vanilla and recreated the exact same list, and then made a few trivial switches that improved it enormously. That felt bad – and I don’t think that could ever happen with Imperial Service.
What You Lose from Vanilla
These are the capability sacrifices you make when choosing IS instead of a vanilla faction:
- Hidden Deployment Missiles
- Diaoying Operative Control Unit/Excellent NCO options
- Cheap doctors and engineers
- Shaolin Monks and the Libertos
What You Gain
And what you get instead:
- Flexible and dangerous link teams
- Very adaptable and dangerous midfield presence
- A range of unique Remotes, including some Aleph loan units
- Extremely good access to Immobilization and E/M ammunition types
Unique Profiles
Years ago, Corvus Belli experimented with the idea of Sectorial-unique profiles, starting with the Shasvastii-only Gwailos. IS feels like the ultimate extension of that thought with a full 22 entire unit types, and well over 50 individual profiles that are unavailable elsewhere in Yu Jing. Invincible Army feels like a cut-down version of Vanilla, IS feels like a whole new faction. I’m very optimistic if this is the standard for N5 sectorials.
Bayara Palace Guard
It is tragic that a sculpt this cool is destined to live her life as a Motorized Bounty Hunter proxy.
The Bayara pay a lot of points to perform the same basic function as a Kuang Shi – fire a single chain rifle shot and then die in the gutter. The biggest culprit is their enormous S4 base – it can be extremely difficult to find a place to park that enormous silhouette, and even harder to move it around. Other than that it’s an extremely bloated profile, loaded up on irrelevant things – a MSV1 when you’re probably never going to fire that shotgun, a Biometric Visor in the hopes that those Speculo Killers re-enter the meta, and Guard with kind of mid CC stats.
It’s a very flavourful profile, I’ll give it that – it’s exactly what an expensive civilian building cop should have. There’s a cheap discoballer which I interpret as one of those hologram lightshows they project onto the sides of buildings for special events. But in the end, the Dragon Lord does the same job for 5 points.
Bao Troops
These kind of specialist Light Infantry have been in a long term points drop freefall as people continued to not take them, and they’ve finally gotten to the point where they’re becoming interesting. A duo of the Thunderbolt/Light Shotgun profiles runs 39 points and gets you a MSV2 Albedo-3 HMG for ten points cheaper than the Hsien.
Dragon Lords
This is a wonderful little profile, a must-take anytime the five points can be spared. The nanopulsar means it’ll threaten to take a wound off anyone who comes for him, there’s just enough CC skills attached to a monofilament weapon to make Achilles hesitate, and he’s a specialist operative so his irregular order will never be wasted – he can just slowly and placidly walk up the table at his own pace and boop buttons of opportunity.
Koga Ninjas
Now we’re talking – these are phenomenal profiles, absolutely transformative and gives IS a midfield presence comparable to vanilla. My eyes immediately go to the Minelayer profile, dropping three camo markers – two of which are extremely deadly. The Decoy can also be cast back into an elevated position in your own deployment zone to make it look like Major Lunah is present, or obscure her position if she actually is present.
In addition, the Koga all have Specialist Operative baseline which is such a wonderful little sweetener. Everywhere else you need to decide between minelayers and forward observer/hacker profiles. The mass amounts of E/M these guys carry give you a natural answer to TAGs or heavy infantry and their presence means your opponent can’t easily decide to just try and dodge through potential minefields. Getting hit by a shock mine is a whatever to most heavy infantry who might try that, but getting hit by an EM mine can end an entire attack run.
Taowu
Never has a man had more rules to accomplish less than Taowu. His big trick is that if your opponent runs into CC with him he can pull off his mask, reveal that it is I, Taowu, and then die immediately because his CC skills are awful. There’s just nothing going on here, though I must admit that losing a Hac Tao to a random Contender shot forces me to point out that is a T2 gun he’s carrying.
Imperial Vanguard Qianfeng
These are delightful – an in-faction answer to Tiger Soldiers. BS13, Mimetism -3 and +1B makes these extremely good gunfighters for a price tag that starts at 24 points, they’re a way to put D-charges or hacking devices where they need to be in scenarios like Highly Classified, they’re specialists and have stealth and a B3 EM carbine is like a combi rifle that ends the day of heavy armour. And hey, if you brick a TAG with E/M first then you don’t actually need to worry about the Improvised penalty on D-Charges – just walk up and finish it off!
Shenji Ying, Divine Machine Battalion
Here’s the catch to playing IS: your engineer costs 4 points extra, in exchange for basically nothing – unless you reach all the way for the top shelf E/Mitter turret. And while that may seem like an interesting option in the land of turret spam, I am quietly of the belief that reloading turrets is an interaction that is not long for this world and so don’t want to build a long term gameplan around that.
There’s no way around it; this sucks, these guys suck, this is just the price you pay for all the cool stuff elsewhere in the faction and at least it’s not the Sophotect. Four points is a tolerable price to play to support things like multiple Total Reaction remotes and a Su Jian in a remote-heavy list, so might as well just suck it up.
Honestly I kind of miss the Sophotect. I was just starting to come around to her, but being able to take one of these instead is probably better for the faction overall. They’re also decent following around a Hsien as objective pusher and safeguard against getting E/Med, or even desperately sprinting behind a Su Jian as it boosts across the table.
Jinwei the Forbidden Troops
These are interesting little utility pieces. Armed with nonlethal weaponry, the Jinwei have Sensor to help them sweep the midfield, two wounds and template weapons and can link with Shenji who can repair them. Having one such pair cross the midfield, blundering into mines and baiting out AROs before being repaired/accomplishing objectives isn’t a terrible way to spend 36 points. The tinbot profile also can be linked with a cheap celestial guard hacker or two which is a completely reasonable defensive module.
Wu Ming
Absolutely fantastic dirt-cheap profiles. 19 points for 2 wounds and a large E/M template is baseline a better corner guard than the Bayara will ever be. You’ve got everything you need here – armour 4, a tinbot -6, an E/M grenade launcher guy, a HRL option for 23 points who can stand on overwatch and cause problems, and if you need a Specialist then just include a Zhanying. You can go to a full pure 5-man team of Wu Ming like it’s N4 and it’s legit good. Spec fire E/M grenades all day long, who can stop you?
Longwang
The thing about IS is that there are a lot of very cheap profiles to choose from, so much so that if you want to take a TAG you don’t need to reach that far beyond yourself to do so. It’s a pretty basic TAG, shoots the mans to a serviceable level. Pairs nicely with a LT2 Hsien to put NCO orders through.
Jinyao Drop Unit
These are cute little guys, replacing the Garuda to an entirely satisfactory level. Assisted Jumping in on 16’s and carrying a deployable repeater is my personal favourite interaction, especially if paired with a couple of cheap Celestial Guard hackers, but the PARA mine guy is also an awful little ball of problems.
Kunai Ninjas
The last time I looked at these I was quite down on them; they’re either wasting their CC skills or their long ranged gunfighting skills. That calculation has changed with the addition of the T2 thunderbolt and the synergy with a midfield filled with Koga and Kanren. Just wait until they engage some of your other midfield clutter pieces and then reveal with a shot that cannot be ignored.
Kanren Counterinsurgency Group
The Kanren have lost their famous holoprojectors in exchange for Mimetism -6 and Decoy. Alone it’d be a nerf, but paired with the Koga and Kunai ninjas this actually works out great for them. They are now one part of an interlocking nightmare of a midfield – you can realistically put so much stuff into the midfield that it overwhelms an opponent’s ability to approach it all cautiously and methodically, and much of those hidden assets will be carrying legitimately scary E/M weaponry. As ever, I favour the Madtraps minelayer profile just to really double down on filling the midfield with scary bad things.
Shared Profiles
These profiles appear in other factions or Vanilla Yu Jing, so they’re not as unique selling points for IS.
Authorized Bounty Hunters/CSU
These both fit into the same category of 12 point corner guards who might Get Lucky. They’re not particularly interesting profiles outside of the 11 point Specialist Operative CSU who has a template and might become a useful button pusher with a good metachemistry roll.
Celestial Guard
The 14 point WIP14 hacker is worth serious consideration, especially as a pair. Cannot imagine ever taking another profile for any reason unless you absolutely need a backup smoke launcher.
Kuang Shi
They’ve fallen far from their glory days but considering that other factions have to pay six points for a netrod instead of a functional corner guard they’re best in cost. More discussion of these is below.
Gui Feng/Miranda Ashcroft/Lucien Sforza
A cluster of overpriced and dubiously useful characters who can collectively be skipped. They’re all utterly overshadowed by nearby profiles. The closest to good is Ashcroft with a Multi-rifle, who can be a particular pain to get past in suppressive fire.
My colleagues have pushed me to talk about Ashcroft’s E/Mitter profile, but I don’t see it. There are better options to deal with hard AROs at her price point. I would prefer to contest a TAG by advancing a Koga ninja rather than trying to awkwardly maneuver Ashcroft into a good rangeband. I think nonlethal weaponry is at its worst when dealing with AROs because a light infantry sniper can still snipe when Isolated and a big gun TAG can be repaired in a single order if you can’t push past it to kill its engineer.
Major Lunah
Her problem historically was that she was the only camo marker in the entire faction, making it extremely obvious where she was at all times. Nowadays, with the presence of the Koga Ninja, I think she’s great. It is very easy to backcast a Decoy into your deployment zone meaning you can have multiple standing ARO camo markers to conceal her location – or just threaten her presence. Added to that, a MSV1 on a camo ARO sniper is a delicious edge that lets you gun down advances that rely on smoke – after they have committed to the advance.
Motorized Bounty Hunter
The classic cruise missile for when you can’t afford a Su-Jian, or want to crash spectacularly into an enemy line to clear a critical hacker/repeater to open the door for a follow up offensive – perhaps by a Su-Jian. The only issue with them is that there’s a lot of competition in their price bracket.
Warcor
It’s three points. And a specialist!
Longwang Pilot
Despite being one of the least of the TAG pilots in terms of skill loadout, she offers something invaluable: A gizmokit for 8 points cheaper than a Shenji. IS has a lot of very valuable Remotes and TAGs and if you really want engineer functionality on the cheap this is your way in. Also a neat little side effect to those otherwise not particularly useful CC stats is that she’ll kick her Longwang’s ass with her PARA CCW, meaning if she starts standing in base to base contact with it she can stop it from getting hacked and going on a rampage.
Zhanying Imperial Agents
These guys are nothing, the platonic ideal of overpriced mid-20 point troopers. The only marginally relevant profile is the Hacker, who carries a Pitcher and plugs into a Wu Ming link behind a Tinbot -6. That profile travels with the link team and does objectives and sniffs out Stealth people in your repeater zones, otherwise skip.
Deva Functionaries
I don’t think there’s a use case for these. Everything they do is done elsewhere cheaper. 25 points for a WIP15 hacker just doesn’t stack up against the 14 points for a WIP14 Celestial Guard hacker, and the 29 point MSV2 spitfire is just six extra points for a Ru Shi. The 20pt KHD can be a nice add if you have built a good repeater network.
Pheasant Agent
They’d be more interesting if their fireteam options weren’t so stingy. They only really link with Bao troops, who don’t really want to link with them, they’re mediocre hackers compared to the Celestial Guards and bad gunfighters. They are the only doctor/chain of command in faction, but 27 points is just too much for that role. Just embrace the paramedic lifestyle.
Hsien Warriors
Classic Big Numbers profile, Hsien agents have got a glow-up in their ability to form a cheap little duo with a Jinwei who can act as bodyguard. They’re a solid LT option but I find it’s so easy to pay those extra few points to get Sun Tze or Mehmut. With no Impetuous smoke in the faction it can be a little hard to set up their ideal shooting situations compared to vanilla.
Adil Mehmut
An extra two points on top of the Crane Spitfire gets you a showbag of useful skills and abilities – continuous damage, Sensor, Specialist, Warhorse, a Disco Baller and monofilament CCW. This is an absolute do-everything profile. Can even drag around a cheap Bounty Hunter for an extra SD and sacrificial body if necessary. Absolute hit.
Crane Agents
There is so much competition for the role of BS13 gunfighter in IS and someone has to come out at the bottom of that fight. They’re not as fast as a Su Jian, not as useful as Mehmut, not as durable as Sun Tze, not as cheap as a Wu Ming or Jinwei. Without doctor support they come out like Knights Hospitaller with a 15 point surcharge. My colleagues would like to add that if you like the Crane Agent, you are incorrect, morally deficient and have inferior facial hair, which I thought was a little harsh of them.
Sun Tze
The LT2 profile is a showstopper. A command token is whatever, but two extra regular orders every turn is solid, especially when attached to such a durable profile. Sun Tze may only be BS12 but with three wounds, Decoy 2 and Immunity (Enhanced) he can realistically absorb an entire dedicated assassination strike, and he is the king of the Decapitation scenario. As a nice little benefit he’s also 6-2 now, meaning he can realistically go on an attack run or reposition as a roadblock if you need him to. With how cheap everything in IS can be, it is very easy to fit him in.
Su Jian
46 points is not a lot of points for a pseudo-TAG.
The Su Jian, above all else, is a piece for preying upon the weak. She will savage cheap cheerleaders, EVO hackers, baggage bots and units that are relying on distance to protect them. Armour 5 and 3 wounds is enough to confidently facetank chain rifles, and the ability to either duo with a second Su Jian or link in a cheap bounty hunter as a breacher can make this an absolute door kicker profile. Only thing to watch out for is that the combat form loses Climbing+ which can complicate some attacks.
Their biggest weakness in this faction is that they’re reliant on an expensive engineer, but those four points aren’t the end of the world.
Dakini Tacbots
A duo of a HMG and Paramedic is one of the most cost-effective little modules in the game. Add in an EVO hacker and you’ve got a genuinely intimidating primary gun that can move extremely quickly around doing objectives and taking gunfights. You can add a Deva KHD, but the appeal to these guys for me lies a lot in their 6/4 movement and she’d slow them down.
Ninjas
The classic Ninja is the Killer Hacking Device for a reason – steps out of Hidden deployment on turn three, stabs someone holding an Antennae or tech-coffin, then boops the button and wins the game. Being able to do this is a core strength of the faction and should never be underestimated.
While the Koga ninja is probably overall the stronger ninja, the regular ninja has an irreplaceable role.
Feiquan
IS has a lot of E/M and Adhesive ammo. If you notice you’re going deep on non-lethal ammo types, consider bringing the Feiquan. I see the role of the Multirifle profile specifically as an executioner, zipping up to incapacitated targets and finishing them off. She’s not ideal as a midfield sweeper – she’s too likely to take wounds to mines – but with Sensor she can spook camoflague ARO pieces like Helots. After that then she does well parked in midfield in Suppressive Fire.
The E/M carbine profile feels like a dedicated TAG hunter, but I don’t think that’s a good role. That’ll just get engineered out the next turn and she has no way to capitalize on it. Its not like Isolating the engineer solves that problem.
How This All Comes Together
There are two extremes to playing IS, tricksy and brute force, which I’ve termed Mirrors and Metal respectively. It’s a great joy of the sectorial that you can write a viable build at any point along that spectrum, including at the extreme ends of both.
See, the old Ariadna problem is that was while you could play the heavy-camoflague shell game, eventually people got wise to the fact that there wasn’t ever really anything dangerous under any of those camo tokens – excepting maybe the odd Tankhunter, and those were easy to predict. I think in N5, and especially here in IS, Yu Jing has emerged as the kings of the information denial space. Take a look at this nightmare clown list I wrote as an act of violence:
- Sun Tze +1 Order
- Koga Ninja Minelayer
- Koga Ninja Minelayer
- Major Lunah
- Ninja KHD
- Kunai Ninja Thunderbolt
- Kanren Minelayer
- Lu Duan Flamethrower
- Lu Duan Flamethrower
- Feiquan Multirifle
Group 2:
- Dragon Lord
- Warcor
So let’s count that up:
3 Sun Tze markers
7 Mim -3 camo tokens
6 Kanren markers
1 MadTrap
2 Hidden Deployment troopers
6 Lu Duan markers
2 irregular nobodies
That’s 25 models on the table, two hidden models, of which the only confirmed real things are a journalist, a jetbike and a judge. When relevant, a co-ordinated order will put the jetbike, a Lu Duan and two Kanren into Suppressive Fire, jamming up a midfield with -12 gunfights. I think this is somehow even more hostile than the blank courtesy list of yesteryear.
And even though this is a gimmick list – it’ll have a hard time with a basic sniper rifle ARO in the wrong spot – it’s got legs for a gimmick list. From there it’s very easy to start switching things out to move towards the Metal end of the spectrum – changing out the Lu Duans and one of the ninjas for a Wu Ming team or a pack of Kuang Shi as order batteries.
Speaking of Kuang Shi, one of the big decisions you’ll make with IS is if you’re going to take a Kuang Shi team or not. The team has a lot of advantages – it gives you Smoke, it’s 37 points for five regular orders, they have chain rifles and explode and they can form a big link team for some nice to have bonuses. Kuang Shi are also very handy to have in quadrant control scenarios where they can easily Impetuous forwards into scoring-relevant positions. The biggest reason not to include them is combat group structure – IS has a lot of very cheap models, having five models immediately occupying your main combat group does warp list design around it somewhat.
Their presence does, for example, make it harder to fit in modules like a pair of Celestial Guard hackers and a flash pulse bot, or a Dakini haris team with an EVO hacker. Both of those modules together with the Kuang Shi are effective, useful, 12 orders and only 135 points. At that point you won’t hit 300 without taking a TAG and your entire list becomes extremely top heavy. IS would be delighted to play with twenty models on the table, but with the 15 model cap the Kuang Shi unit is a choice and not one you’ll reach for every time.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
