Infinity/N3 Tactics/F.R.R. Merovingenne

The unit overview and tactica for F.R.R. Merovingenne.

Why play Merovingenne

Haqqislam got you down? Tired of people saying that Ariadna doesn't have individual units that are good, and that all you are good for is link-teams and high order pools? Would you rather paint your miniatures to look like they came from an urban combat zone? Well, maybe the F.R.R. is for you.

Operating the majority of the exports for planet dawn, the Merovingenne, troops notible for being French, are FAR better equipped than most other Ariadna troopers. X-Visors, leftover Viral Weapons, and TONS of special deployment are in store for the commander of an F.R.R. team. They are, for the most part, the least "Ariadna" troops in Ariadna, having many specialists that deploy mines and carry interesting weapons.

HSN3 update: Corvus Belli is phasing the Merovingians out of production as of June 7, 2018. The army will be squatted to "make way for new products"; insert French military surrender jokes here.

N4 update: According to Corvus Belli, they will be available in N4, albeit not at launch. Keep an eye out for what N4 will bring.

Faction features

Special Skills

• Infiltrators: Inferior and regular, most with either limited or regular camo.
• Camo: As above, limited or regular camo with either inferior or regular Infiltration.
• Forward Observer: Often with excellent WIP, light 'em up!

Weapons and Equipment

• D.E.P.: they're fucking everywhere in this list, absolutely hilarious for the camo infiltrator shell game.
• Rifle: Yeah, yeah; the other factions get combi-rifles for that sweet, sweet +3 at point blank but we don't. If you're concerned about hitting at point blank, you'll need to turn to your pistol or whatever other short range weapons your trooper has.
• AP Ammo: it's fairly common, as per the abundance of Tessium on Dawn.

Units

Light Infantry

The Merovingians are spoiled for choice with LI.

• 112, Emergency Service: They're your only doctors and they are frail as fuck. Good thing they're cheap!

• Troupes Metro: Arguably one of THE worst troopers in all of Infinity, they can't hit and they'll fold like cardboard in a firefight. They can either Inferior Infiltrate (which is pretty good and cost effective) or they can form a Core team.
  • Core: considering the other Core teams available to the FRRM, this is not a good idea with one notable exception...
  • Brigadier Jacques Bruant: if only other Metros were half as good as this guy! Sporting a Molotok with an X-Visor, D-Charges and limited camo, he can either inferior infiltrate on his own (which is pretty awesome) or he can lead a team of Metros. That fireteam will make his Molotok/X-Visor combo pretty fucking scary!

• Para-Commandos: Interesting little Parachutist with mimetism. You might be tempted to load this guy up with guns (boarding shotgun, HMG, sniper or LGL) but it's a far better idea to take the FO option to best exploit his WIP 14.

• Dozers: one of two engineers available to the FRRM, these ones are the squishy ones with either a Traktor control device or an Akrylat-Kanone. That's really the only reason to take a Dozer.

• Loup-Garou: One of two choices for dogfaces in this list, Merv players looooove these guys for good reason: courage, X-visors, flash grenades and your choice of viral rifles or boarding shotguns/adhesive launchers. These guys are a serious threat to pretty much anything and they only get better when put into a core team. Their only shortcoming is that they lack specialists and that their options are filler.
  • Core: Seriously awesome. They will break anything on the field or stop it in its tracks. Ideally you'll want to choose a mix of virifles and ADHLs that will ruin your opponent's day; the other weapon options are kinda meh.

• Alguacil Mercenary: One of two hackers available to you, cheaper than the wardriver with the basic hacking device. Take this one unless you want the defensive hacking device. They're still just here for ITS missions.

• Wardriver: The other mercenary haxor, sixth sense is pretty useful against any hacking sneak attacks, especially with the defensive hacking device and boarding shotgun. Definitely the one you want if you take an Anaconda.

• Knauf, Outlaw Sniper: Pretty kickass sniper (MSV1, Marks 1, Stealth, mimetism, multi-sniper) and can hold his own if he gets in CC. If your list is lacking a sniper and you have the space, he'll can easily hold it down on his own.

• Warcors: 3 pt. irregular flash pulse. Good way to blow that last bit and take more bodies for your list.

• Zouaves: Mech deployment, courage, D.E.P. and an assault pistol base. They will run up your SWC pretty quick if you take a bunch of them but they are a real pain in the ass to dig out - especially the HMG or Sniper sapper profiles. Do NOT take the Lieutenant profile unless you want to be in LoL by turn 2.

Medium Infantry

• Briscards: your only MI and another excellent trooper. Sporting Courage, MSV1s, and the kick-ass weapon combo of marksman rifles and assault pistols. Options are for an HRL replacing the marks-rifle, a sniper and pistol replacing both ranged weapons, forward observer, paramedic or Lieutenant. The only thing better than that is the fact that they can form a core team.
  • Core: You will be pressed to choose between a Lou-Garou core team or these guys. Either is a good choice and you can shore up deficiencies from other units in this list. The Briscard core team is straight-up awesome at ranged firefights and god help anyone that gets close to these guys in your active turn as they get peppered with assault pistol shots!

Heavy Infantry

• Moblots: Other armies would find these guys' claim as HI laughable and comparatively, they're weak. Granted they have some of the best armour in this army and they're not hackable; they also get shock immunity and light shotguns for their trouble. Moblots are something of a swiss army knife they can be your lieutenant, your engineer, a sapper with an HMG, infiltrators (with D.E.P. or E/Mauler), para-medic or can be taken in a core team.
  • Core: About the same price as Briscards and sturdier than either them or Lou-Garous, they aren't the one to take if you wanna run a lot of infiltrators. On the plus side, Moblots are LOADED with specialists.

• Margot Berthier, Equipe Mirage-5: Part one of two for Mirage Team 5, she's basically a better Moblot that gets Airborne Infiltration, a light grenade launcher and a fucking werewolf. BS14 is nothing to sneeze at, especially with an AP rifle and LGL, but remember how fragile Moblots are.

Tactical Armoured Gear

• Anaconda: The toughest fire support you can field in the army and a decent, cheap light TAG. ITS Season 9 decided to give TAGs a +1 to their damage so this thing's spitfire hits like an HMG, and its HMG profile hits even harder, not to mention the HFT and panzerfaust. Most of your guys are cheap and make great chearleaders for a TAG - worth considering.
  • ITS11 and some recent changes have added a few new items to this old workhorse. All TAGs now get Tactical Awarness by default in addition to their built-in Fatality 1. The Anaconda is still overpriced, but is better than it was. Consider the HMG profile over the spitfire to keep it away from mid-field threats - it's squishier than most TAGs and evaporates into an Operator at two wounds, denying your engineers a chance to repair it. The spitfire isn't a slouch, but just be aware of the risk.
  • Operator: Bad news is that she's not a Specialist; good news is that she's got a decent ARM and BTS (by Merovingian standards) and lands on the board with a spitfire when she bails from her TAG... which she might survive as well. Furthermore, being an Operator (and lacking the Pilot skill) means that she retains season 11's Tactial Awareness and continues generating orders in place of her TAG. Additionally, the operator holds all of a TAG's victory points, so until the operator is dead, she counts for the full points of her mech.

Remotes

• Traktor Mul: A dozer with a control device gets you one of these baggage bots, either with a minesweeper, Katyusha or Urugan w/ Total Reaction. The MRL profiles are the ones you take if you have a lot of FOs in your list and they are goddamn dangerous! Just don't always expect them to do work, as they're only BS10 missiles.

Skirmishers

• Chasseurs: Camo shellgame MASTERS! With Camo, infiltrate, sixth sense, LFT and anti-personnel mines, these guys are the nasty surprise your opponent doesn't want to discover. Can trade their guns for a sniper (why), the LFT and mines for an ADHL and D-Charges or take a minelayer or be an FO. The Minelayer is arguably the choice pick here for a camo shellgame.

Warband

• Sergeant Duroc, Equipe Mirage-5: Margot's other half, also said fucking werewolf. His likeness to Insanity Wolf is probably not an accident as this guy is a close-combat monster. 2 chain rifles, smoke and regular grenades, AP CC weapon, Total Immunity, Super Jump, MA2, Airborne infiltration - YOWZA! Then there's the statline: 2 wounds, CC20, PH16 and ARM 3. This guy is hard as fuck! Use his extreme impetuous order to throw smoke, dash into it and then come screaming out at some unlucky whatever. With a high PH and an AP CC weapon, he can even cut through TAGs.

Building Your Army

The basics to start with any army is to generally pick up the starter pack(s). There's the Ariadna starter pack from which you can scavenge and then there's the Merovingian starter pack which is more helpful. At the very least, the Merv pack has lots of Metros for your infiltrating shenanigans.

From there, choose a core team. The big choice will be between Loup-Garou or Briscards though Moblots is an okay choice too - do NOT pick Metros! From there, it's just a matter of shoring up that core's weaknesses. If you chose Garou, you're gonna need specialists; if you picked Brics, you're gonna need armour busting; if you took Moblots, you need bodies (if you took Metros, you need help heavy hitters).

Hints and Strategies

The big obvious duh of the FRRM is that they have absolutely shitty armour. You will be hugging cover playing this army or else you can expect to lose a lot of wounds and games. Also, be on the lookout for anything that hits against BTS as there are whole swathes of your army that lack it entirely; your opponent might EMP a bunch of your troopers to trim down your order pool too and you should be cognizant of this.

• The Lever: position your core team between and behind two camo infiltrators, one of them will be your bait (like a Metro) and the other is something nasty (like a chasseur). If your opponent takes the bait, pivot your core team around to waste the hapless sap in your active turn. If he picks the nasty, well he gets a nasty surprise; run down any survivors in your active turn.

• Rocket Spam: Needs lots of FOs, preferably that infiltrate maybe with camo and Dozer plus Traktor with MRL. Target and blast away! When shit's done dying, secure the objective.