Introduction – N5 Release Delayed to December

Well, we would have liked to have been covering the N5 rules for Infinity this week, but six days before the planned date of 18 November, Corvus Belli announced that it would be delayed ‘a few weeks’. The new date has not been specified but is promised ‘before the Christmas holidays’, which at our best guess will probably hold true – delaying it further would mean giving up on any holiday gift-buying sales, and no doubt CB wants to get this cracked before going on holiday themselves! 

Obviously this is pretty disappointing for those of us who were eagerly anticipating the high-octane endorphin rush of reading updated wargaming material (we live on the wild side) but we are also understanding of the decision. N5 is known to have been brought forward from the rules team’s original timeline as a marketing decision, to October, and then pushed already once to the November date. If they need a (very short) amount of extra time before release, then in our opinion that is better than dealing with teething issues, online wailing and gnashing of teeth, unresolved rules questions in initial games, then a hefty FAQ. 

• Robert: For clarity, we still expect to deal with some online wailing and gnashing of teeth on release. But anything that keeps that down to a more reasonable level makes sense to us.
• Genghis Cohen: Well true, an internet without a teeny bit of wailing and gnashing would seem eerily quiet. 

We should also note that it’s not clear if CB are using this delay window to make minor or substantial changes to the core N5 rules, or if the delay is more to deal with the technical aspects of release – proofreading the PDFs, checking translation, entering and checking information in the Army builder or making sure its software functions correctly. Even if the rules are all written, there is plenty that could still be added to a rulebook in terms of explanatory examples and notes on resolving niche interactions, and all that would need to be edited. Similarly, we don’t know for sure if any of the teased rules so far will be subject to change. Our best guess is that released info is mostly safe, but could change in the details. Another possibility is that the Core rules are entirely, or 99% done, but CB wants more time to refine the new and updated profiles before releasing the Army update. Nobody knows. It’s also worth noting that Spain suffered some severe floods in the last month. This didn’t directly affect CB, they are in a different region, but there were national days of mourning, it was a big deal. Under those circumstances it seems rather petty to complain about our favourite toy soldiers game being delayed an update.

Every cloud has a silver lining, and with this delay comes an expanded trickle of new preview information from CB. So to tide you over in this rump of the N4 era, here’s a rough summary of the new information we’ve had since our last article. Rules tidbits and individual profiles are being released daily, and distributed via Discord and Facebook, so this doesn’t aim to be comprehensive, check those socials if you are desperate to hoover up every last scrap of context.

Generic Faction Rosters

CB have steadily released the faction rosters for all the ‘generic’, aka vanilla, Factions in the game, via their YouTube channel. These were mostly spoiled by people who’d bought the N5 rulebook last month at the Spiel Essen gaming convention, but some (Aleph, Haqqislam and Tohaa) were news to the community. The generic factions all got changed much more than we expect most Sectorials to change. Their options have been drastically trimmed down, to get them to manageable size and further differentiate their Sectorials. This partly manifests in a mass purge of the wide-availability mercenaries from the game – most factions lost access to things like Libertos, Diggers, Motorised Bounty Hunters, and certain characters like Knauf. We will go through the details below by Faction, but should note that these rosters are missing the AVA of the units (so for instance we know that vanilla Nomads can still take Moran Masai, but not how many) and the Fireteam options. We know that vanilla factions will all likely get one Haris team and two Duo teams as their available Fireteams (with some variation between factions), but we don’t know which troops will be eligible and which generic factions will have larger or smaller fireteam counts. 

In most cases, the primary determinants of which units made it through to N5 in their generic faction seems to have been the tournament pick rate. What does that mean? CB collects data on what units are selected in registered Infinity Tournament System (ITS) events via players (optionally) submitting their lists in the online tournament manager. With all the caveats about relatively small sample size, and incomplete data from unregistered events and players who simply don’t submit lists, this is a fairly reliable guidepost to which units are competitively popular. Looking at most of the rosters below, if a unit was considered competitive and commonly taken in the vanilla Faction in N4, it has made it through to N5. But some factions did not follow that rule at all (Aleph) and there are variations. There are also some instances where fluff appears to have played a role, as did the inclusion of models in recent box sets. The inclusion/exclusion of certain units, including characters, may also be intended to give their home Sectorials more of an exclusive niche. Let’s dig into the details.

PanOceania

Not only did they lose three Sectorials, and therefore many units, but PanO also gained a Sectorial and a full set, so they are one of the most altered generic factions (ending up with 47 units, 13 of which are new to the game, albeit some may be older units reborn). Despite this huge game of musical chairs, they seem to have replaced many of the lost capabilities. Some Varuna and Acontecimento units disappeared, but new Kestrel ones seem likely to fill their niches; most of the iconic NeoTerra units are still available. PanOceania have lost most of their ‘ordinary’ heavy TAG options. Now they have one heavy apex predator in the Cutter, a more mobile, lighter attack piece in the Tikbalang, and lighter, more close-quarters options in the Squalos Mk2 or Maximus. As with all generic factions they lost a sweep of mercenaries. That includes some cheap Irregular units which were commonly seen in tandem with Joan of Arc as the Lt. She stays, but her Inspiring Presence rule (even if it stays the same in N5) won’t be as leveraged without as many cheap Irregulars available. Overall, new Kestrel units form a very large part of the roster, while Military Orders (MO) are almost absent. There are only two knightly units (three, including Joan) in generic PanO now, and those are the only overlap besides Remotes, and potentially the Tikbalang, although that had a different profile in MO. That near-complete separation is a really interesting new design space and we are watching with keen interest to see how different Military Orders end up to the other PanO Sectorials. 

Yu Jing

Not losing too much (it kept 51 units), Yu Jing broadly followed the lines of its competitive unit selection, with a few new units added, likely split between White Banner and Imperial Service Sectorials. The most notable departures were characters, some of the Invincible Army crew and almost all of the White Banner and Imperial Service characters are now restricted to their own Sectorials. Yu Jing did keep arguably the best of them, in Bixie and Krit Kokram, as well as the iconic but overcosted/underplayed Sun Tzu (only one unit; the fate of his marksman version is unknown). As well as the very handy reinforcement units they received last year, N5 will see another TAG added to the faction, the accidentally double entendred Longwang. But generic Yu Jing retains its availability of very cheap models (Kuang Shi, Shaolin Monks), dedicated Lts (Daoying) and likely good NCOs, with multiple highly capable Heavy Infantry – overall the faction should be able to play as before. It even retained its combat jump and hidden deployment options – about the only really unique capability it lost was Holomask, with the departure of Tian Gous. 

Nomads

Nomads lost quite a lot of profiles (going down to 47 units, smaller than some other generic factions) but some of that was redundant capability, since all three of their Sectorials are well-rounded and cover some of the same bases. For example, they kept the Szalamandra and Gator heavy TAGs, and lost the Lizard, which was regarded as a worse pick. They kept Grenzers and lost Wildcats, because there’s not real need for two MSV1 medium infantry options. An exception is they kept all 3 types of line infantry despite them being the living example of redundancy – this is a good example of what appears to be a fluff-centred decision. Generic Nomads have to be able to represent all three motherships, we guess. They retained access to all of the great utility pieces, hackers and hacking-network-spreaders which supported their ‘meta’ build in N4. The standard caveats apply to whether those pieces will work together in the exact same way. They did lose some iconic characters which have been in the game since its inception (Bran do Castro, Kusanagi). Overall Nomads seem to have kept the signature units which were considered most competitive in N4, but lost quite a lot of unique pieces. The Stigmaton (hacker TAG) and Zondnautica (transmuting AI motorcycle) are both relegated to their Sectorials, for example, and they lost reliable forward infiltration with Bran, and parachutist (deployment zone) with Carlota Kowalsky. Nomads will be fine, there is still plenty of variety and a spread of distinctive units across the generic faction. But it’s not quite as wide as before. The two new units (beyond the vehicle and TAG pilots) are bound for Tunguska. 

Haqqislam

Haqqislam came through cleanly, keeping access to all their characteristic cheap irregular troops, their infiltrators and their gunfighters (54 units in all). They did lose two characters who were iconic for their respective Sectorials and usable in generic (Al-Djabel and Tarik Mansuri), but they kept the biker characters, which were more competitive. Most units removed were rare picks (like the Al Fasid or Hortlak Jannissaries). Haqqislam in N5 has also been cemented as something of a ‘mercenary’ faction; while they lost some mercenary troops that will likely remain part of their Qapu Khalki Sectorial (Kaplans, Druze), they kept Fiddler, Knauf and the Triphammer TAGs (all of which are good capabilities in the context of the faction, especially Knauf). On top of that, they gained access to units not previously available to vanilla Haqqislam in the form of Scarface and Cordelia, and Yuan Yuan drop troops. While Yuan Yuan aren’t especially competitive in N4, some of the early spoilers make it look like the costs of drop troops is decreasing, which might be significant for the game’s cheapest non-netrod combat jump troopers. Haqqislam is also shaping up as something of a vehicle faction, with 4 TAG options, a suite of motorcycles, and two profiles referred to as ‘Aero-Units’ (certainly Haqqislam’s new vehicles), where most factions would only get one. Watch this space.  

Ariadna

Having lost a couple Sectorials, you’d expect Ariadna to be gutted, but they didn’t lose that much (finishing with 49 units). Almost all the Merovingian Sectorial units pulled through, since they were resculpted as a Reinforcements box. Others from Caledonia survived, mostly those which were included in Kosmoflot. Despite these survivors, USAriadna has mostly been confined to its own Sectorial, with only 5 units left in generic, so Tartary Army Korps themed units do make up nearly half the roster. We’re especially confused by the omission of Grunts, since most factions with multiple themes of line infantry kept them all. Perhaps CB wanted the more unusual, infiltrating flamethrower Grunts to be kept exclusive to USAriadna, but if that were the case, they could have simply made the profiles exclusive and kept the units in. Ariadna did keep plenty of their characteristic Camouflage units and cheap Warbands, but the dog soldier types have been trimmed down – Dog Warriors and only one type of Bearpode are left, while Devil Dogs, Cameronians and the other Bear vanish. The new Kibervolk (see below) is more like an Antipode than a Dog-Warrior. While Ariadna kept Veteran Kazaks, most of its other heavy infantry types (Mormaers, Minutemen, Highlander Greys, Blackjacks) have gone back to their home Sectorial or into the ether. Overall this seems like a vanilla faction which will still function as before – they kept all their good characters for example – but has a bit less freedom of choice in certain unit roles. 

Combined Army

Arguably the deepest and broadest roster of any faction in the game (56 units), CA kept pretty much all their N4 good stuff. Morats compose the bulk of the removed units, maybe because they were more likely to be Fireteam-suitable things without a marker state, while the sneakier aliens were more attractive in a vanilla context – few of the removed Morats were common picks in generic CA, although their TAGs will be missed. The really useful Morats: Daturazi, Rasyats, Yaogats, Rindaks and Dartoks all stayed, along with their line infantry. While all the super-elite EI ‘aspects’ (the Avatar, Anathematics and Charontids) remained, which is understandable since they weren’t available in any Sectorials, their poor cousin the Skiavoros has been removed from the game. This is more than made up for by the addition of Team Achilles, five formerly-Aleph characters (who will join Onyx Contact Force as well). Barring unseen profile balance changes, CA have come out of this change apparently unscathed as far as competitive play goes. They kept their command pieces, primary gunfighters, their excellent warbands, their strong and efficient hackers, their array of cheap options and broad range of infiltrators, impersonators, hidden deployment and parachutist (deployment zone). They lost a couple characters who were cool but not competitive picks in generic (Victor Messer, Kornak), but they even kept the Libertos! With the wild card of gaining a suite of new characters, which we don’t know will be good or bad, but are certain to be very extreme units, and CA are looking strong. 

Aleph

Oof, this was a rough change. Not only is generic Aleph a markedly smaller roster than most factions (38 units), there has been a great purge of almost all Steel Phalanx units, beyond even those already announced as defecting to the Combined Army, including some which were important options for generic Aleph (Atalanta, Ajax, Machaon). There are literally 4 ordinary SP units and 2 characters left in generic Aleph, this roster is almost exclusively Operations Subsection, which raises some questions about how well it will compare to that Sectorial, with what will probably be tempting Core Fireteam options. Admittedly the remaining SP characters, Penthesilea and Hippolyta, are both excellent, and the remaining units provide important capabilities like smoke grenades (Myrmidons), combat jump (Ekdromoi) and hidden deployment firepower (Agema). There are a couple new units, which will be joining Operations Subsection as well, plus a couple cool mercenaries stay available. Outside of SP stuff, generic Aleph retained access to signature competitive units like the Marut and Posthumans. But the big hope for Aleph is that they will receive a further expansion and bundle of new units at some point early in the edition. This has been heavily hinted at by their spokesman, essentially saying the focus is on other factions now, but Aleph (and Haqqislam) will be due their time in the sun later on. We hope so – currently they don’t even seem to be in line to receive a Vehicle unit. 

O-12

Not much change here as O-12 are a newer (and therefore less broad) faction (47 units), and one of their Sectorials, Torchlight Brigade, was already designed N5-fashion to be partially exclusive. But they did lose some faction units shared with Starmada (Bronzes, Betatroopers, Nyoka) and a slew of characters, some of whom, like Hector or Liang Kai, were pretty sweet. They kept access to all their good Lt and Chain of Command options, and all their primary attack pieces. Perhaps because of their relatively small roster, they kept more mercenary units (Diggers, Beasthunters, Monstruckers) than other generic human factions. Their only new unit due to appear is the Firebat, an Aerial Vehicle (see below). 

Tohaa 

Having miraculously survived the edition change, Tohaa basically made it through without any cuts to their roster, being already rather smaller than other factions (39 units). They lost one Tohaa unit, Kiiutan Imposters, probably on the basis that they were never taken instead of their character version, Jaan Staar, who shared their AVA (and remains available). While they lost some mercenary characters and units (notably beasthunters), they retained most others, including the Libertos and Motorised Bounty Hunters, and even gained access to War Correspondents. It remains to be seen whether they get the unique profiles for regiments like Taagma Schemers and Kriigel Agents that were previously reserved for the vanished Spiral Corps. 

Japanese Secessionist Army

Infinity’s newest ‘full’ faction comes in swinging with 43 units. We know that one Sectorial, JSA Oban, will be essentially the same as old JSA (when it was an NA2 Sectorial), so this generic faction is a mash-up of that and the new Shindenbutai Sectorial. Maybe because the rosters weren’t as broad as bigger Sectorials from older factions, generic JSA does seem to have most of the units of both its Sectorials. It gets both TAGs, all the iconic samurai heavy infantry, what seems to be four types of ninja (Ninjas, Kurayami Ninjas, Oniwaban and Kyoshin Killers, which are as yet unknown), both hidden/camouflage ARO types (Ryuken and the new Raiden). The only things missing seem to be a couple characters. The iconic Shinobu Kitsune is missing, as is Yojimbo, and even the other biker character, Kuroshi Rider, although there are rumours one of the new units is a replacement. Overall this seems a roster which builds significantly on what players expected from the old JSA. More options for similar capabilities, and some new ones, like access to Combat Jump. One area that seems lacking is cheap warband types, although the new Yamabushi are pretty efficient close assault pieces, and the only evident smoke is on an expensive character (Saito Togan). There is a lot still to see here (at time of writing we don’t even have profiles for the Beyond Sandtrap models) so it’s hard to draw many conclusions. 

New Rules Revealed

Albedo

This rather odd and often-dismissed N4 skill has changed, it’s no longer a Round 1 only ability, and it no longer acts as zero visibility to MSV. Instead, it confers a negative modifier to shooting at the bearer, but only from MSV or Marksmanship models. (the only example we have seen so far is Albedo(-6)). This is situational but definitely injects a certain rock-paper-scissors mechanic to so-called ‘gunfighting mods’ rather than a visor being a positive or neutral thing in almost all situations. The acid test will be whether Albedo is given to more units across the game, as it is currently exceedingly rare. In any case the impact will be most apparent on powerful shooting units like the Overdron. If enough factions can access equivalents, it could be a real threat to the popularity of tough MSV pieces as ‘hard stop’ AROs. We are also curious to see if Albedo ends up on any models alongside other gunfighting mods. Pairing it with Mimetism seems like it would be poor and frustrating design, but the space is now open for Albedo combined with MSV or Marksmanship. 

Veteran Renamed to Warhorse (and Expanded)

First, in a clarity/quality of life change, CB have decided to rename the Veteran skill to Warhorse, to avoid confusion with the ‘Veteran Troop’ descriptor, which is used for some Classified Objectives. That’s fine and a workable change. CB’s sometimes eccentric naming conventions can be divisive, but we think the name is fine. 

What’s more interesting for the game is that Warhorse has picked up a powerful, if situational, additional benefit – it allows the bearer to ignore negative modifiers from the BS Attack (-X) skill. That skill was previously very rare, only on Torchlight Brigade’s Silverstar Prime, but it is clearly being handed out to more models in N5 (we have seen the Hetkari Shooters and Longwang TAG with it already, see below) and those will often be apex shooting units. It was previously an unanswerable skill, and now Warhorse gives it some counterplay. 

Discoballer

This is a Disposable(2) piece of equipment which basically shoots Eclipse smoke templates, with the same rangebands as a pitcher or combi-rifle. The twist is that you are actually placing the Discoballer at the centre of that Eclipse template. The smoke vanishes at the end of the player turn as normal, but a friendly model with a Deactivator can bring it back, centred on the Discoballer, by spending a Short Skill. Access to Eclipse smoke is a game-changing capability. While Disposable(2) is a heavy downside, and it won’t always be worthwhile or practical to buy that out with Baggage models, the range bands are much more forgiving than a thrown grenade, and the re-usability will be situationally an extension to that Disposable trait. Like other smoke, and pitchers etc, this will also be much more reliable if used in a Fireteam. 

We have seen a few profiles which will get this equipment already, and Koni, CB’s rules spokesman, has also teased some others as having it: Fennec Fusiliers, Aquila Guard, Vargar and Boyg (from PanO), Dokkaebi and Adil Mehmut (from Yu Jing), Khawarij, Asawira, Hassassin Ayyar, Hortlak Janissaries, and Ap Arslan (from Haqqislam). That is a lot of Eclipse being added to the game, given it’s only a few of the factions, and we might reasonably expect most if not all factions to get some access to it. Huge change for PanOceania, for example. This is proving divisive online because of how powerful Eclipse smoke is. Some players feel anxious because sufficiently flexible access to Eclipse lets a player opt out of interacting with their opponent during certain missions. They can drop Eclipse blocking a central objective, walk up to it, do the thing, and walk back if needed, without any way of being stopped in ARO. Here at Goonhammer we are withholding judgement. 

Those non-interactivity issues depend a lot on the mission, the match-up, the table, before they become problems. Also, players might have to plan extensively to mitigate the Disposable(2) limitation to use Discoballers in that way; if they do, or if the opportunity arises naturally to win a game that way, is that a bad thing? Is blocking the objective and activating it without fighting somehow invalid compared to shooting your way through the enemy models? In our opinion no, it will only be a problem if it becomes the same gameplan in every game, and we don’t see that happening. 

• Robert: I made fun of PanOceanian players for saying this edition, finally, would be the edition PanOceania gets smoke outside of a singular, niche, BS10-with-no-good-range-band profile. Well, here you go. I am personally an extreme Eclipse enjoyer and I’m totally fine with it being added to the game in more and varied forms. 
• Thanqol: No, no, no. This isn’t smoke. If this was smoke our immortal souls would be damned to hell for using the weapons of the enemy. The Discoball, instead, leverages natural PanOceanian Ballistic Skill to fire laser beams directly into the enemy’s eyes. Entirely different, and morally superior.

Bangbomb

OK, maybe this is a weird name too far. Perhaps “flashbang” would have been better, CB. Just a suggestion. This is a special way to increase a model’s Dodge stat. We have only seen it on one unit (Hassassin Ayyar) as “Bangbomb(+4)”, which means they Dodge at PH+4, but that doesn’t work against direct templates, and it only works in response to an attack. So if the model moved, didn’t provoke any AROs, and decided to declare Dodge (in order to move further without risking provoking any) it would roll without the bonus. Fun, flavourful, arguably unnecessary when Dodge(-X) already exists. But it does allow CB to design units which can Dodge very well to win FtF rolls, without being near-immune to templates, or abusing Dodge movement shenanigans. 

• Robert: this is the first rule change or new piece of equipment that I personally dislike. This skill is almost entirely undifferentiated from Dodge (-3) and should not exist. I assume the name sounds cooler in Spanish – it would almost have to, given I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a dorkier name for a piece of equipment.
• Genghis Cohen: yeah, this is . . . not good, and likely to cause a lot of snorting and sniggering over my game tables.

Immunity (BTS) and Immunity (ARM)

This is a big one. While it’s not confirmed that Immunity (Total) is actually disappearing, we have seen units with Immunity (ARM) and Immunity (BTS), and Koni has confirmed that the most famous and fearsome Total Immunity units, Bearpodes, will be changing to Immunity (ARM). What does this mean? Immunity works as before, the bearer treats all hits as Normal ammunition, and totally ignores all states inflicted by those hits. It also still seems to make the bearer totally ignore non-lethal effects. Immunity (ARM) and (BTS) still don’t work against Comms Attacks like hacking. The change is this: if a unit previously had Immunity (Total) but now has Immunity (ARM) that means any weapon, including non-lethal weapons, which key off BTS instead, will be fully functional against them. That will make Bearpodes and similar units able to actually be contested by flash pulses, E/M weapons or mines, etc. They will still be great assault units due to their other strengths, and Immunity (ARM) is still a very valuable skill, but they don’t no-sell quite as many common defensive tools. Immunity (BTS) has only been seen on one unit so far (Nomad Switchers) and will likely be more situational, just because there are fewer BTS-attacking weapons in the game. It will be very interesting to see which current Immunity (Total) units get either skill, if anything keeps the full package, and any other wrinkles CB choose to play with in this design space.

Peripheral (Ancillary)

Seen as part of the Longwang TAG, the long and short here is that TAGs (some, at least) can split off a little remote to go do Specialist things. That has to happen during the game, they can’t simply deploy separately, but there is no required coherency distance between the two models once that happens. This appears to be a straight upgrade from the remote pilots available to Remote Presence TAGs in N4 – it provides the ability for the TAG to do mission objectives, and doesn’t introduce any weird vulnerabilities, risk the remote being killed somehow and thus disabling the TAG, any of that weirdness. There are a lot of unanswered questions about which TAGs get this. It does seem analogous to those previous remote pilots, but the Longwang does not have Remote Presence, it’s a manned TAG. In many ways this just makes us more curious to see how TAG pilots (which are clearly being introduced to all factions with manned TAGs, as separate unit entries) will work. Without having the whole picture, we are excited but almost apprehensive here. TAGs might be net winners of this edition; if all of them have a clean and efficient way to perform as mission Specialists, on top of their other strengths, they could become even more prevalent. 

New or Revised Units and Profiles Revealed

Beyond Sandtrap (PanOceania)

Blink Teams

These are a very focussed unit, ambush predators focussed on attacking from hidden deployment with very powerful weapons. That was already quite a valued archetype, particularly for ARO reveals with impact templates, which has usually been the best way going to punish enemies using Fireteams. Blink teams are objectively better than Yu Jing’s Hundun units, which were probably the best known example in N4. They have better Mimetism and assault pistols for an almost imperceptible increase in cost. These will be a real long range threat for Kestrel and PanOceania armies to leverage – even once they are revealed, opponents will need MSV and/or extremely strong shooting units to dig them out of the right position.

Fireflies

More of a supporting and utility unit, Fireflies mostly have specialist profiles with SMGs and panzerfausts. This keeps them cheap while still giving them a way to leverage Albedo(-6) – this revamped skill will make them situationally very useful. Combining that ace in the hole capability with NCO and simply being a specialist will make them a key part of Fireteams in Kestrel armies. We are most drawn to the non-specialist, Minelayer profile. That’s because it comes with a marksman rifle turret. See the new equipment section below, but the common assumption is that’s similar to the ITS F-13 turret, in which case it’s potentially far more useful than a mine. Those are gone in one Order, whether they end up harming the enemy or not, while a turret can last multiple Orders with a bit of luck and careful placement. At 21pts, those might be too expensive to spam, but folded into other roles in Kestrel they can really contribute to a spread out defence. 

Hetkari Shooters

Now this is a focussed shooting unit. Absolutely an apex hunter, with no extra fat on the bones. Just rich, juicy meat. Marksmanship on BS14 means they will be rolling to hit on 17s against most targets, BS Attack(-3) will inhibit almost all return shots (bar those from Warhorse units) and they have the ammunition to convert hits into damage with the resilience to lose an unlucky FtF and try again. No notes, these dudes are expensive but an excellent candidate for a list’s primary gunfighter. Clearly they will have some extra ‘oomph’ in Kestrel as part of Haris teams, most likely supported by Fireflies. 

Aerial Vehicle

We have seen our first profile of the new unit type – Vehicle (VH) – in O-12’s Firebat (see below). This has the Aerial rule, as will most vehicles we know are being introduced. Indeed, Ariadna is the only faction we know is getting a vehicle which isn’t Aerial. 

So besides the obvious benefit of being immune to melee combat, and the countering disadvantage of being unable to interact with objectives, there are a couple consequences to being disbarred from Silhouette contact with other models. If you want to repair an Aerial VH, you must shoot a Gizmokit, no engineering. This means you cannot ever use an engineer to remove serious negative States like Isolated or Immobilised – extra important as these will all certainly be Hackable models. A savvy opponent going first would be technically able to fully disable an Aerial vehicle just with hacking, e.g. by using a Pitcher to attack it in its DZ. The big draw of these types of unit isn’t in the Aerial rule itself, so much as the big movement value, Super-Jump (Jet Propulsion) and Silhouette 7 which seem to accompany it as standard. We’ll describe their Active turn uses along with the Firebat profile below, but the flip side in Reactive turn is that these models, like TAGs, need a big building or other terrain to hide behind. S7 and unable to go Prone means they are very vulnerable to being caught out and destroyed by shooting if caught out.

Firebat

Available to O-12 and Torchlight Brigade, but apparently not to Starmada, this is our first example of CB’s profile design of an Aerial Vehicle. So we shouldn’t assume that others’ loadouts or stats will be overwhelmingly similar, but there is sure to be at least some overlap. First of all, the movement and Super-Jump (Jet Propulsion) on top of that Silhouette mean it can move freely over and around pretty much any table. We’re not sure, but one reading of Super-Jump and Jump(8”) on the same profile is that it can use a full Order to Jump 16”? Which would be very thematic but also potentially terrifying. Even if that remains unclear, having a big Silhouette which can easily get on top of any terrain, then use Jet Propulsion to move 4” up and then back down, or diagonally into open air or whatever, basically means unrestricted LoF to whatever you want. That gives the Firebat a pretty clear unique capability – gun down models that are trying to hide outside of LoF, e.g. Prone on rooftops. Adjusting to that threat will potentially force real changes in how the wider game is played.

Do the weapons and skills on the Firebat support that mission? At BS12, Mimetism-6 but No Cover, it can engage most units at a relative advantage, but will fall off hard against MSV. It has an OK weapon for outranging most models with the Thunderbolt+1B (the ordinary Thunderbolt on the more expensive LRL profile will probably struggle). The Firebolt seems more likely to want to be paired with an apex shooter which can remove hard AROs. Then it is free to hunt down more vulnerable prey. It might be better with a 16” range weapon though – that SMG+1B will put damage through within 8”, but that means risking hacking and template AROs if it wants to attack at full effect.

• Genghis Cohen: I am certainly interested in this sort of unit as a cool, different way to attack null deployments. I am a bit worried about the effect on the game, and negative play experiences. Infinity is notoriously dependent on having enough terrain, and can be frustrating for the Reactive player if they can’t hide anything from Active turn attack. Having something like this will allow imaginative players a LOT of scope to get LoF on models which (in the current game) only really function because they can hide from direct attack, and it costs the enemy a few Orders to dig them out. But I’ll reserve judgement until we see them in play a bit. 

Other Units

Long Wang – Imperial Service TAG

Praise the Emperor (is this the right game?) it’s a TAG for Imperial Service. Pretty heavily armoured for a Silhouette 6 TAG, the main limitation seems to be that it doesn’t have any AP on its primary gun. But it does have what’s effectively a Burst 3 adhesive launcher, albeit with rifle ranges, which might be handy against heavier targets. Although the shorter-ranged Mk12 profile is interesting, we predict the NCO profile will predominate; that’s a great skill on a powerful model, and a steal at 2pts, especially if Yu Jing keep their excellent Lt+1 Order options. While the lack of a lethal template is also a bit of a bummer, we’re most intrigued by the note about fireteams. Duo-ing this with a Su Jian would be a very cool idea in Imperial Service.

Adil Mehmut (Crane Armour) – Imperial Service HI Character

We knew Imperial Service were in for some glow-ups and this certainly qualifies. Adil Mehmut was a decent utility piece before, but hardly considered that powerful. He fell into the classic character tropes of utility, lots of abilities, but with bloated cost and no big firepower. This version blows those limitations apart, he’s got Burst 4 AP firepower with Continuous Damage on top. As units like the Azra’il has shown, that is a heady brew, and Adil will no doubt have plenty of Fireteams he can join in his Sectorial. Beyond that strong mid-range firepower, he’s a close combat beast, a Specialist, he’s immune to Isolation and to BS Attack(-X)…things like Sensor and Stealth are great but seem insignificant next to the usefulness of a Discoballer. What an all-rounder. As a highly resilient model who can’t be Isolated (assuming that benefit remains part of Veteran/Warhorse) he is also a very secure Lt option. No notes, he seems likely to fully justify his cost. We wonder what ordinary Crane Agents will look like in comparison and how they can possibly compete with this dude. 

• Robert: the comparison to the Crane personally frustrates me, because we haven’t seen the N5 Crane profile. This obviously makes prediction difficult, but we should probably at least assume that it will receive similar treatment to Adil.

Switchers Gruppe – Tunguska Weirdos

Crazy rules time! This unit has one milquetoast profile and one rather elite one, and has Transmutation (WIP). That means, to use the better profile, it needs to make a successful WIP roll. That happens every time it declares an Order or ARO, and you can make that roll before resolving the Order. At the end of a turn, in the States phase, the model reverts to its lesser profile. So, if you are activating this model and doing an attack run, it will be helpful to have at least one run-up Order before actually FtF-ing enemy models, to see if it transforms into its better self. If the model is attacked in the Reactive turn (and didn’t get any AROs immediately prior, e.g. for enemies activating in its ZoC) then it has a 35% chance to take incoming fire without the benefit of its better profile.

That explanation out of the way, does the Switcher look any good? Its weird Transmutation mechanic certainly keeps it cheap relative to the amount of stats and special kit it gets. There’s certainly some scope to do damage as a fast-moving CC model with Berserk and Dogged. It can combine that with either being a specialist, or having some much more useful weapons, with the 24pt profile boasting a Burst 3 long-range, and Burst 3 E/M weapon. With BS13 those are worth using in a Fireteam. Overall this seems like a toolbox unit, but not straightforward to get maximum value out of. It’s OK at gunfighting in some circumstances; it’s dangerous in melee but is quite expensive to trade with Berserk, and won’t beat a more skilled Martial Arts model. 

Patroclus, Shadow of Team Achilles

Patroclus, back when he was an Aleph unit (he was written out of the fluff in N4) always struggled to find a space. He always had to be second fiddle to Achilles, without bringing anything too different or complementary to the table. Holomask is super cute, but an expensive unit (can’t make a hero into just a cheap scrub) finds it difficult to get much value from it. Here, he is reinvented as a fast, aggressive piece who combines low ARM (for a HI) with Nanoscreen and No Cover to keep his points relatively low and effectively being free to move around without any concern for staying in partial cover from the terrain. That’s an attractive sort of unit, and as well as Holomask, to at least confuse opponents slightly during deployment, he’s always a Specialist with smoke grenades, as well as a high quality melee model. This guy does a lot. We would wait to see the other units he can Fireteam with (likely anyone from Team Achilles, at least in Onyx Contact Force, and possibly in generic CA) but the Holoprojector/Forward Deployment version seems like an aggressive piece that can do a lot of different things fairly well.

Hassassin Ayyar

Another unusual unit which has been reworked a few times while never quite breaking through into a competitive niche. We’re not sure this qualifies as a rework or glow-up. CB have kept the odd anti-synergy of a unit with Holoprojector and Hidden Deployment, at least on some profiles. Those offer some quite nice weapon loadouts, but the Ayyar will have to slog up from your Deployment Zone to make full use of them; frustratingly, the hidden deployment option with the high-utility Discoballer is also the one with the least directly powerful weapons. The non-hidden, Forward Deployment profiles are better able to leverage Holoprojector and the Ayyar’s unique Surprise Attack(-6). But their weaponry isn’t too impressive, and they received drop bears, which are normally quite good equipment, but can’t be used without breaking the Holoprojector marker state. Look, they don’t seem flat out bad, it could be an unexpected ARO or utility attacker – it has some nice ammunition weapons while being a Specialist – but unlikely to be a real power piece. 

• Robert: if there’s an Ayyar profile that’s good, it’s that Thunderbolt profile. Being able to actual reveal and shoot in a single from a meaningful position in the deployment zone might actually have some legs. The Ayyar is still a very expensive, mediocre statblock profile, and it seems like that it will be out-competed by other models that also receive attention moving into N5, but there’s something there now.

Hatail Aelis Keesan

A Tohaa hacker, and now one which might have a purpose beyond letting them perform classified objectives. This is a pretty good version of a utility profile. Good killer hacker, useful weapons in rifle range bands, Regeneration and Sensor are both handy, price doesn’t break the bank. Assuming Tohaa’s Triad Fireteam paradigm remains similar, this piece could well see play, especially if their better-known competitive auto-takes get toned down in comparison. Linked up with a dedicated gunfighter to get her within range, Keesan could take down most hackers, and any hard target with either E/M or K1 ammo. She can also still do around half the classified objectives in the deck.

• Robert: for clarity, Aelis is almost entirely unchanged apart from being a bit cheaper, getting access to the also-slightly-discounted AP rifle profile, and getting Shock Immunity. She’ll remain taken in Highly Classified and Countermeasures.

Kibervolk and Dozers

Not what we expected from the horrorshow cybernetic wolf unit which grabbed everyone’s attention in the N5 lore book! This is not a big tough warband unit like Dog Warriors and Bearpodes, it is more akin to existing Antipode type units. You have to take one Kibervolk and one accompanying Dozer. Let’s discuss the Dozer first as it’s much simpler. It is a very ordinary support trooper engineer. Probably something a list could use if it has a TAG or other big heavy models that might get hacked/EM’d or have STR. But since we don’t expect it to join Fireteams (that would be unusual for a dual-model unit like this) it’s hardly a very powerful model. For that reason, many players might be drawn to the profile with the turret; although it’s the most expensive it does bring something extra to its trooper slot. The Kibervolk itself is a sort of Regular warband, lacking smoke but exceptionally fast, Dogged, with Mimetism-3, and it can make use of partial cover. A better corner guard than many warbands, and although it doesn’t have Berserk it can move 6” into an enemy and swing Burst 2 melee at it. The Kibervolk has ‘crazy koala’, which would normally be plural since they are Disposable(2), but it doesn’t have Minelayer, so RAW this profile doesn’t start with one koala deployed. That isn’t the end of the world, they are still great kit for setting up Active Turn forks, but it is certainly better for a cheap, DZ-deploying unit like this to have Minelayer. Hopefully that’s just an editing issue, since the Dozer with turret also doesn’t have Minelayer. 

Father Lucien Sforza

Sforza, well known as a useful-but-not-competitively-common profile, was always a good example of a common character archetype, a middleweight unit with some cool situational abilities, handy with a rifle but not a real gunfighting choice. His core loadout changed slightly but meaningfully, gaining Immunity (ARM), which is useful on a Dogged model, as well as Combat Instinct, and effectively gaining Burst 3 Adhesive ammunition by swapping the old style adhesive launcher for the new rifle version. These are all little nudges that make him a bit more attractive while filling a similar role. What we like as design is his split into two profiles – an FTO version (he is confirmed as being in Tunguska, Dashat, Operations Subsection and Imperial Service) for 25pts and a Holoprojector version with Forward Deployment +4” for 28pts. This is neat because those rules give a valid way to use him even if you can’t incorporate him usefully into a Fireteam. Overall, a cool unit which nudges upward slightly in power, hopefully into a competitive slot. 

• Thanqol: This is an optimistic take. Sforza is the avatar of the Dreaded 30 Point Zone, a BS13 gunfighter with an expensive weapon, no visual modifiers, no game changing kit – he fills the exotic niche of ‘I need a someone that can sort of fight at HMG rangebands while costing 0 SWC’.
• Genghis Cohen: look man, I bought the Defiance model secondhand, and it looks really cool. Don’t tell me what to do!

K2 Auxiliars

These seem like great defensive chaff and Fireteam filler for Steel Phalanx (and Aleph, but they are only AVA1 there). A very unusual unit, the nearest comparison might be O-12’s fairly recent Sekudroids. They have no lethal weapons besides pistols, being more focussed on threatening non-lethal effect, which kind of tends them to AROs and Reactive play, although they can certainly swing into an Active turn move sometimes, especially as part of a Fireteam. The real kicker to this profile is NWI with only 1STR, but Remote Presence. That means they can take 2 wounds at once and stay up, which makes them a real pain to clear out. Be careful of Shock ammunition though, because unless there’s some rules change we aren’t getting, that will drop them with a single wound. Overall this seems like a unit with a limited, but clear and very effective role. A big factor for them in Steel Phalanx will be whether they count as any more lethal unit for calculating Fireteam bonuses. Even if they don’t get, e.g. (Myrmidon), players could staple one good Wildcard to two of these and get a lot of value from them. 

• Robert: I’ve seen a few people down on the K2, but they’re cheap and an ideal “oh I have an order spare” trooper, which is especially nice to have in a small support combat group. The PARA Mine Dispenser is a great way of translating a spare order now into problems for your opponent later and I can see taking one of these in a second combat group for that purpose often.
• Genghis Cohen: agreed. I think these are a great example of how in Infinity’s construct, cheap units without obvious combat power can be some of the best.

New Weapons Revealed

EM Carbine

This is a Burst 2 weapon with combi rifle rangebands. Should be a substantially better weapon than the old E/Mitter (which does still exist), especially in Fireteams or where the model has +1B. That makes it reliable enough in the Active turn to realistically threaten heavy targets – E/M is one of the most punishing ammunition types in the game, all but bricking most TAGs/HI/REMs on a failed save.

ADHL Rifle

Similarly, this is a Burst 2 adhesive launcher, which again makes the weapon usable where there’s some other bonus to help win a FtF roll. PARA ammo isn’t quite as good as E/M but it does have a wider target set.

Multi Red Fury

We’re stretching the definition of ‘new weapon’ here but this does raise the possibility of Multi ammo profiles being extended to more weapon types than previously. We haven’t actually seen the stats, so there is some uncertainty. Red Fury is normally shock, so we couldn’t guess if this gives an alternative B4 AP profile, or just makes it AP+Shock. Our best guess is that there will be a B1 DA profile for use in ARO, rather than the B1 EXP that Multi-HMGs get, that would be a bridge too far.

Conclusion

Well, loads of fun stuff there, with potentially transformative new skills, equipment and troop types. Plenty of the new profiles we have seen are pushing into new design space, and the reworked profiles of existing units range from minor tweaks, to interesting sidegrades, to major glow-ups. A major hope of ours is that pretty much every unit gets some level of personalised adjustment, but we appreciate how large that task is for CB’s team. There are some outstanding questions about how some of these rules will interact with niche situations, so our anticipation for the full N5 release remains at fever pitch. See you then.

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.