Editing Infinity/N4 Tactics/General (section)

==Beginner Advice==
*'''Pick a Faction''': Looks or play style. Unlike other war games, Infinity's "vanilla" factions (PanOceania, Yu Jing, Haqqislam, Nomads, Ariadna, Aleph, O-12, Combined Army, but NOT Tohaa) have a wide variety of options, so feel free to grab the guys you like the look of. Most vanilla armies can do most things (the notable exceptions being that Ariadna can barely hack at all) but have focuses and twists. If you start Vanilla, pick aesthetics first and just do a look-over of their tactics and playstyle before you buy. If you start with a sectorial (i.e. the Varuna Immediate Reaction Division, a 'sectorial' or subfaction of PanOceania) you will want to research their play style more specifically. In general, Sectorials are more specialized than their Vanilla equivalents. This leads us to the next point... 
*'''Start with the Army Builder''': Seriously. Listed here: https://infinitytheuniverse.com/army/infinity It's free, it's official, it's your one-stop source for profiles and army building. It even tells you if your list is valid. 
**'''What Makes A Valid Army?''' You need one (and only one) Lieutenant, may have up to two Combat Groups, and have a max of 15 order-generating troops (regular or irregular). You may have one SWC point ('special weapons cost') per 50pts of the game you are playing, regardless of how many points are actually in your list. E.G. If I'm playing a 150pt game, and my army list contains 149pts, I get (150/50 = 3) SWC to spend. SWC is listed in the army builder and is used for big guns and special devices like heavy machine guns.
*'''Buy a starter box''': The starter boxes are small (typically 6-model) boxes that are about 150 points.  That's enough to get a feel for a faction, and give you a feel for the core rules of the game.  Movement, Line of Sight, Shooting, and Camouflage will come into play without it being too big of an issue.  Picking up a package of cardboard terrain (~$15 or so, cheaper online) will give you plenty for a small game, and can be expanded to a 4'x4' board with one or two more packages. 
**The 2-player boxes are even better if you have someone to split it with. They include rules, terrain, and missions to get you up to speed on your own.
*'''Start at 150, then jump to 300''': When you decide to jump into the full game, go for 300 points.  It gives you a feel for the faction and will let you play with all the rules in the book.  You'll get some wrong, you'll get confused, but the rulebook and online wiki gives you the info you need to sort through it.  Other sizes of games (200 and 400) create wonky balance or gaps in factions that can be hard to spot right away.
*'''More Orders is easier...to a point''': When you jump up to 300 points, plan for 13-15 orders.  This will give you enough orders to accomplish things on the board, without starving you as your models get killed off. 
*'''10 order lists are hard mode''': At 300 points, 10 orders means that every lost order and every mistake is amplified.  You'll want to do this size a list because of all the fun toys, but don't fall into that trap (yet).
*'''Pick a couple stars, and support them''': Focus on one action piece (something fancy, or dangerous with an HMG), a couple mid-tier specialists, one or two reaction pieces (Sin Eater Observant, Total Reaction Bot with HMG) that can shoot well in your reaction turn, and order monkeys to pump actions into your action piece and specialists.
*'''Corners and Doors''': That's where they get you.  Peek out around corners enough to see a single target and shoot with as many bonuses and as many dice as possible.  Weight the odds in your favor instead of attempting risky shots that 'might' pay off.
*'''Paramedics are not as good as doctors''': In N4, doctors and paramedics both can revive unconscious troops. Doctors use their own (sometimes modified) WIP stat, and paramedics use their patient's unmodified PH skill - in both cases, success restores the patient to one wound from unconsciousness, while failure kills the patient for good. The only other difference is that the Paramedic skill provides a 'ranged' heal... but Doctors can heal through Peripheral helper bots like the Nasmat and the Palbot. Paramedics might be more flexible in range, but are often rolling worse PH compared to a doctor's WIP. Only Heavy Infantry consistently change this trade-off. And keep in mind, all doctors can Paramedic, but not all paramedics can Doctor. It's generally preferable to bring a doctor rather than a paramedic, but paramedics have their place as a budget alternative.

If you're looking for a 'beginner friendly' faction, most are a good idea.  The proliferation of 300 point boxes may make it feel like they would also be a good jumping-in point, but they're probably not something you want to get as an initial purchase. Likewise, just because you're losing with a new faction repeatedly doesn't mean they're "bad" per-se. They just might not match your play style, or have units that look super enticing but act as gameplay traps that you might not be aware of yet.

Instead, here's a good list of what to avoid as a new player:
* '''JSA''' - the Uprising folks are a dynamic and...unstable army to play as.  They can be a lot of fun, but use a lot of finesse and combos that may be hard to immediately wrap your head around.  They're still good, but they have a high skill floor and require foresight that most other armies don't.
*'''Spiral Corps''' - These bad boys (and girls) have a completely different power curve to everyone else that looks like it'll be super interesting, but also hard to teach.  Consider vanilla Tohaa, or Combined Army instead.
*'''Druze''' - While a super fluffy army, and with access to some interesting toys and combos, they're a bit of a high skill cap army. Consider Ramah or Dhashat. Many players dislike their extreme lack of list flexibility and find them samey. They're also fragile.
*'''Shasvastii''' - These guys are amazing, but their ebb-and-flow sacrificial play style can be tricky to get feeling right.  Instead, try out Vanilla Combined (with some Shas troops).
*'''Military Orders''': Space knights are cool, but they're points-heavy, tricky to build lists for, and lack shiny toys. Their use requires a very risky, very calculated playstyle that emphasizes aggression in a game where overextending is a death sentence.
*'''Non-Aligned Armies in general''': NA2 often has odd list-building options or highly specific weaknesses that most other Sectorials lack. Whether you're leaning absurdly hard on Impetuous with terrible Lieutenants (Ikari) or making the most of an interesting but expensive Medium Infantry option (Druze), you'll find that NA2 factions tend to be more limited or more gimmicky than their sectorial counterparts.