Infinity/N4 Tactics/Jurisdictional Command of Tunguska

Tunugska is one of the three motherships of the nomad nation. Controlled by bankers and mafias they're all about profit. And since they know how to make business their military is very well equipped.

Why Play the Jurisdictional Command of Tunguska?

TJC are all about the the money, and premium tech. They got some of the best hacking units, lots of high tech, and a lot of remote presence. Also their TAG carries the biggest guns of the whole model range, and everyone knows bigger is better. More directly speaking, Tunguska are a pretty straight-forward faction. They have some highly competent gunfighters, arguably the best hackers and even their linetroops form a highly potent backbone. The price for this is the overall high unit cost, making a full 15 unit list a very limited frame to work with. When writing a list for TJC you got to wager if bringing 15+ orders is actually what you need to win the game, because sometimes less can be more in this sectorial.

Faction Features

• Hackers: The best hackers in the best combinations in the game. Combined Army still has the EI devices, but Tunguska has a lot of repeaters, high WIP, and good options across the faction.
• Action Pieces: A heavy focus on active-turn pieces. TJC doesn't have weak ARO options by any means, but active turn is where they shine.
• Expensive toys: Much like the Combined Army, Tunguska has a lot of expensive units and limited ways to provide them orders. Your cheapest LI is 13pts, and you have limited AVA for cheap remotes.

Special Skills and Equipment

• Peripheral (Control): The models with this skill acts instead of the controller model activating. Risky, because the guy running the marionettes can get sniped; but powerful because it's a cheap quasi-HI haris.
• Counterintelligence: The main reason to take solo Puppetmaster besides him being the cheapest regular order. Cuts effectiveness of enemy Strategic Token strategic use in half - i.e. instead of taking two of your orders, they only take one.
• Hacking area: entire table: The combination of a lot of pitchers, deployable repeaters, crazykoalas and an abundance of decent hacker choices makes your opponents hackable units more of a pain to use than anything else. Also your best hacker profiles pack either a Hacking device plus, or even both a regular HD and a KHD.
• Veteran LI: Securitates are not affected by loss of lieutenant or retreat. While it's not a skill doing much in most of your games it is really nice to have.
• AI motorcycle: TJC's got a motorcycle turning into a Peripheral slinging a chainrifle. That's not just insanely cool, it is actually a really useful equipment.

Units Overview

Unit Identifier Tunguska

Light Infantry

• Clockmakers: TJC's only Engineer profile, at least until fiddler drops. A clockmaker is a premium engineer, able to use their WIP 15 and burst 2 gizmo kit to very easily fix models that have STR or have suffered the indignity of having states such as isolation applied to them.

• Daktaris: TJC's only Doctor. He is a very basic doctor, only taking the bare necessities. Which makes him pretty good if you want the choice to be able to revive key models and fight a war of attrition or sustain a bout of bad luck.

• Hecklers: Our only camoflage Unit. The most noteable profile is probably the one packing a Jammer and a Fastpanda, which can ruin your opponents plan if they don't expect him.

• Mary Problems, Tactical ÜberHacker: The named character that can't be an Überhacker in the one ITS mission with Überhackers. The Überhacker that doesn't bring a HD+ and has one less WP than the Interventor. But don't look away yet, MP is a very good unit! She has a HD with Oblivion (+1B) AND a KHD with Trinity (AP), Forward Deployment (+4"), MIM (-6) and climbing plus. She also dodges on a 13 and packs a Pitcher to drop your precious Repeaters wherever you need them. Trust me on this, she deserves to be called the Überhacker.

• Puppetactica Company: On his own, the puppet master is a 12 points counterintelligence- which is also our cheapest regular order that's not a REM (or the Authorized Bounty Hunter). If you got 2 points and 0.5 SWC left take the Minelayer profile, especially if you got something held back or a camoe'd Heckler. The Hacker profile is also nothing to sneeze at with WIP 14 at 17 pts/0.5 SWC. While it's not easy to fit 15 Units and three puppets into a list it is still worth it. The BSG FO is the choice of bots because it gives you a 2 wound WIP 14 specialist with a shotgun. For mid range firefight you take the 14 points AP Marksman rifle +1 burst and shock. The red fury is rarely picked due to coming in with 1.5 SWC but +1 burst red fury. Don't get your Puppetmaster killed when using puppets, it REALLY SUCKS.

• Securitates: TJC's Linetroopers, and they are expensive at 13 pts on the cheapest profile. You get what you pay for, since they've got BS12 and WIP14, which makes them quite versatile. They've got Fireteam: Core and can bring Perseus into the link. Also they've got Veteran! It's one of the skills you never want to be relevant and probably don't want to pay for, BUT whenever it gets relevant it's such a great thing to have. Having a few regular orders when losing your LT early can make the difference between losing and winning a game, or at least between a minor and a major victory. Typical for this kind of units they've got quite a few profiles:
  • Combi Rifle, Pistol, CC Weapon: Your linkfiller, also comes as LT. You'll bring a few more often than not. for two points more you can make them Paramedic, or pay 16 pts for a built in repeater (which also come with BSG option instead of the Combi for the same cost).
  • Hacker: A cheap hacker option overshadowed by the Interventor and basically any other Hacker in the Sectorial.
  • MULTI Sniper: It's cheap, but we at TJC HQ are thirsting for another sniper profile.
  • HMG: A nice choice for a more aggressive Core.
  • Feuerbach: Core-linked Feuerbach? Yes please. Of all the SWC profiles this is the one that actually doesn't compete with more reliable units (sorry Tsyklon Sputnik), and the Feuerbach is very useful in active turn and ARO.
    • Jelena Kovač: As the named Securitate Jelena brings a few extra gimmicks. First off, she's TJC's cheapest wildcard at 20 pts. She also brings sensor, which can be nice against certain matchups, and she is a specialist. Like most of the dire foes characters she's got her use, but is mostly useful in specific situations.

• Tunguska Cheerkillers: The cheapest profile comes at the same cost as the cheapest 'Tate. They got one WIP for a better PH and Dodge (+3), Superjump and MA L1, and they an form a Haris. While TJC got some very good offensive Haris options you might still want to consider running them as a cheap defensive Haris with the Grenzer ML.

• Tunguska Interventors: Russian hackers best in world! 24 pts for an HD+ WIP15 BTS9 hacker is just insane. With White Noise and Cybermask, supported by regular smoke, an Interventor could easily get where she needs to be safely. And then another one, a KHD for 22pts is a great hacking ARO piece, making sure the enemies think twice about using your repeaters against you. Interventors are auto-include against anything HI-based and a popular choice even when not. Throw at least one of them into your 'Tates-core for that sweet sixth sense bonus. They are a LT choice, but at WIP 15 they are an obvious one.

Mercenaries

• Authorized Bounty Hunters: They've got Booty (ReRoll) and Fireteam: Duo, and a 12pts profile which is appealing since it's cheap. Also stealth can be quite neat in certain situations, but mostly they are a niche unit who can be nice to have if you want to bring something specific to your list 'Tates or Cheerkillers don't have.
  • Miranda Ashcroft: As a Wildcard Character she's got a place as a linkfiller. Mimetism -6 makes her a tad more reliant in a gunfight. She is neither the cheapest nor the most versatile tool, but she got a few nice twists to her profiles to spice up your murder Haris from time to time.

• Raoul Spector: NWI, Martial Arts L2 plus Natural Born Warrior plus E/M and DA CC weapons, Mimetism -6, Courage and stealth. Oh yeah, AND he's a Specialist! He comes with two vastly different profiles; the Combat Jump/Parachutist option is irregular at 33 pts, which is expensive but he's quite the package. Drop him at the right spot and watch your opponent despair. The FTO profile trades the BSG for a MULTI Rifle and a Nanopulser and is way more versatile. It's a wildcard and part of the Superfriends Haris.

• Warcors: 3pts for an irregular Flashpulse ARO. Fit them into your list whenever you got the slot and points, they're well worth it.

Medium Infantry

• Grenzers, Grenz Security Team: The Grenzer is a wildcard with average stats besides their 6BTS, and they got MSV1 and Shock Immunity. They've got a bunch of profiles:
  • Combi Rifle, light Flamethrower (+1B) Discover (+3): Has a Biometric Visor, and can be your LT. one point more and they trade the Biometric Visor for Sensor, FO and NCO
  • Red Fury: Want a Red Fury but you need to save 0.5 SWC? Pass on the Puppetbot and have a Grenzer.
  • Missile Launcher: One of three Missile Launcher options in TCJ, the Hollow Men one is only 3pts more and brings a 2W profile. Only reason to run it is having a ML in any other link than Hollow Men. In that case they got you, if not- NEXT!
  • Multi Sniper: You always want the one with Marksmanship for 3 pts more. Throw them into a 'Tates core and laugh manically as you hit your opponents expensive toys on 19's more often than not.

• Zondnautica: Motorcycles that are also robots! As the name suggests they are fast and deadly and also surprisingly durable thanks to ARM3 and Mimetism (-3). Smoke Grenade Launcher and Chain Rifle make them Warband-like, but then they have a BS 12 Spitfire for just one SWC. When dismounted the bike acts like an oversized Auxbot, meaning you can attack from two directions with them. Just run them forward and raise hell. Notable is that you can create forked AROs with the Zondmate and hacker zondnaut, as you give the option to dodge the chain rifle or reset against the hack.

Heavy Infantry

• Kriza Boracs, Special Crisis Unit: The Tunguska beatstick, Kriza Borac is a mini-Szalamandra. ARM5, BS13 and +1Burst means he wants to get in and obliterate anything that's in its path with high Burst firepower. What's more, with the 360 visor on the Mk12 profile he becomes an absolute nightmare to deal with once in Suppressive Fire. He also brings a LT choice. You can build a Hollow Men Haris with a Kriza, Perseus and a Stempler Zond and laugh about not even having a Hollow Man in an actually legal (and viable) link. And more importantly, he can spray 6B HMG shots.

• The Hollow Men, Tactical Assault Team: TJC's S2 HI, and they are very nice. Linkable in Core, Haris and Duo, they can bring a Stempler Zond and/or Kriza Boracs into the link. They got Remote Presence, making them hard to take down for good, also they got Religious Troop and Superjump. Their PH at 10 is abyssmal, so avoid having to dodge or CC at all costs. Every profile's got a Chain-colt, which is great for protecting corners or the objective room, and they bring a bunch of profiles:
  • Combi Rifle: As per usual the cheapest option, can be upgraded with Specialist or a Tinbot (-3) for a point.
  • MULTI Rifle, Pitcher: Probably the most versatile profile, you want at least one pitcher in your list and more often than not this should be at least a consideration. Also having a MULTI Rifle means you got the right bullet for the target most of the time.
  • Missile Launcher: Probably the best option for a Missile Launcher besides the Vertigo Zond, which erves a whole other purpose.
  • Hacker: Comes with a Tinbot (-3) and a HD, which is nice to have every now and then.
  • Spitfire: Everyone loves having the Spitfire, right? Well, the Hollow Men are the perfect Plattform for that.

Tactical Armor Gear

• Szalamandra Squad: The very definition of a frontline Rambo unit, Szally is an ARM8 BS14 TAG with Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon and Heavy Flamethrower for 2SWC and 72pts. It's a peerless monster in the active turn, able to mulch the vast majority of long-range targets with five DMG16 AP/Shock dice from the HMC or simply set them on fire if they get too close. It also makes a great distraction unit, as it forces your opponent to strategize around killing it or risk having it lay waste to their entire army, potentially causing them to make mistakes in the process. Expensive and deadly, when Szally shows up, people take notice.

Remotes

• Zond Remotes: Standard issue S3 Remotes, but with a twist here and there.
  • Reaktion: The HMG Total Reaction Remote. A good ARO piece and cheerleader for your aggressive troops. Climbing plus lets you reposition it easier.
  • Stempler: The Forward Observer Remote. A fast and cheap specialist and a mobile Repeater. Sensor makes it good for Camo hunting. Also Climbing plus. It also can join the Hollow Men Link or the Super-Friends-Haris and gains Superjump for that profile. Yeah, you read it right, Perseus loses this ability to be able to link but that fricking remote can have it. WTF CB.
  • Transductor: The Repeater/Flash Pulse Remote. Very good to have in TJC for increasing your hacking area. An absolute bargain at 7 points- You'll often max out on these just to get more Orders.
  • Vertigo: This thing can be very strong in a list that utilizes the faction strengths in spreading repeaters and taking good hackers. By threatening a guided missile strike after spotlighting a enemy model that wonders through your repeater area you can discourage them from passing through that area, denying it to the enemy. Furthermore in the active turn you can get a repeater within range of a target, spotlight them and then destroy them with the missiles. The missile launcher in direct fire can be a good hard aro denying areas parallel with your table edge, or later in the game watching your opponents models.
  • Meteor: Unique to Nomads, a Forward Observer Remote like the Stempler, but with AD: Combat Jump. This is awesome and hilarious.

• Salyut Zonds: Standard issue S4 Baggage Remotes. Come with Deactivator, EVO Hacker and TR Combi profiles. EVO Hacker is nice if you run a lot of HI/REMS or just want to improve the odds of Spector landing where he's supposed to be.

• Lunokhod Sputniks: Nomad-specific, come with Heavy Shotguns, D-Charges and Crazy Koalas, as well as Minesweeper, with a Repeater on top. Lunokhods guard your Deployment Zone from enemy infiltrators, clear out mines and can make a good push to mid-field if needed thanks to their high speed. Unlike most remotes they have both high ARM and BTS values. Mostly a board control unit.

• Tsyklon Sputniks: Also Nomad-specific, these are long range combat Remotes for both offense and defense. The X-Visor is mostly useful at long bomb pitchers into the enemy. These have a spitfire for medium range gunfighting, or a feuerbach for long range. Unlike most remotes they have both high ARM and BTS. TJC gives them wildcard.

• Vostok Sputniks: A bit of a tank, these have two wounds and very heavy firepower. Most of the profiles have albedo, which prevents MSV units from seeing them on the first battle round. One of the MK12 profiles can choose to give up Albedo for Mimetism -6 AND FTO Wildcard, which makes it a fiendish gunner. The red fury is notable for having burst 5, and the missile is interesting being burst 2. As is the norm with Nomad remotes, they have climbing plus which makes them very mobile combined with their 6-4 mov.

Warband

• Perseus, Rogue Myrmidon: The easiest thing to write about him is: he's a standard Steel Phalanx character in the wrong army. To elaborate: Mimetism, NWI, high CC, Martial Arts lv 3, Smoke Grenades, good BS paired with a nice weapon and a Nanopulser... He's a one-man close range killing machine, easily overshadowed by the likes of Ajax or Achilles, which is probably why he's rolling with the Nomads instead. That or he was annoyed by Myrmidons not being able to keep up with his Super-Jumping. Speaking of Superjump, he loses that ability when joining a link for whatever nonsense of a reason - but he's got a FTO option, Counting as Securitate or Hollow Men. He's also part of the Super-Friends Haris.

• Wolfgang Amadeus Wolff, Wulver Bounty Hunter: One of TJC's wildcard options, but he's also very capable of going solo. He's got a MULTI Rifle (+1B) which is nice, but he really wants to get up close; Berserk (+3), MA L3 and a PARA CC Weapon (-6) are probably the meanest combination of things you can bring into CC in this sectorial. To finish the enemy unit off for good he's also bringing a DA CC Weapon.

Skirmishers

• Spektrs:The only Hidden Deployment-capable unit in TJC, the Spektr is a pretty basic one. Mines on nearly every profile, two specialist ones and decent stats, including WIP14. Very good at area denial or grabbing objectives, but they're pricey.

Building Your Army

What to buy first

Luckily CB runs a neat proxying policy, which is very helpful to start an army on a budget. This guide will include a few proxies.

• TJC Starter: gives you three Securitates, a Kriza, a Heckler and the MULTI Rifle Hollow Man. All of these (except maybe the Heckler but he's a good proxy for the puppetmaster) are staples.
• Mary problems: Since running both MB and an Interventor or even running two interventors will rarely happen you can save a bit of money and just get her blister.
• Zonds: S3 Remotes are a staple in any Nomad army, and TJC is no exception. You will definitely run these all the time.
• Salyut Zonts/Tsyklon Sputniks: Just pick one of the packs to have a general proxy.
• Securitates SWC Box: Comes with 3 extra 'Tates and a Grenzer.
• Hollow Men: To give you variety in the Hollow Men Link. Also it's not unlikely to run two.
• Perseus: He is a popular choice in a Link and generally very useful to have.
• Puppetactica: It's a staple to run the Puppetmaster, which can be proxied by the Heckler, but for the puppets you'd need S1 Models, and this box gives you three.

Luxury problems

TJC gets a lot of premium units for a premium price, and that's actually a big downside. It's hard to fit in all the toys you want to bring to the party, so better pick your essentials and build around them. The good thing is that you will figure out how to either use orders or army points more efficiently!

Fireteam composition

TJC has a lot of wildcards and special fireteam stuff going on, which gives you a good variety of options. To give some sort of orientation of what the described links are supposed to do this guide splits them into defensive and offensive links, but actually most of these can do multiple things at once, as they’re meant to be a toolbox more than a single tool.

Defensive Fireteams

Tunguskas defense often builds on a rather defensive link, which split into two types.

Defensive core link

This one's probably the fan-favorite among TJC players in N4. Throw in 3 Securitates, a Grenzer with marksmanship (never take the profile without it!) and MULTI sniper (hitting on 19s!) and a Interventor with HD+, who gets to use the Sixth Sense bonus all over your bazillion repeaters.

• Now an Interventor LT seems hot at WIP15 and can utilize the Lt order very well, but it’s obvious and therefore risky! One of the Securitates makes a safer choice, but isn’t as rewarding.
• Speaking of 'Tates, when you get to finishing your list these are a good point to spend some leftover points; consider investing in a paramedic or one of the profiles with the built-in repeater! I personally prefer the boarding shotgun just because it gives you an extra rangeband to protect your link a little bit more easy (although you’re probably fucked anyways if something gets that close to your core link). The SWC profiles are useful for a budget version of the core- the hacker can fill the role of the Interventor, for example when you’re running Mary Problems, and can’t get isolated which is very good on a hacker! The MULTI sniper can substitute the Grenzer (although comparably poorly), and the HMG has no place in this style of core. Then we get the Feuerbach, arguably the coolest weapon to have in a defensive link since it’s killing anything well and does it over almost all ranges and both in active aswell as ARO! If you don’t take the Grenzer sniper take this one instead, or even have both!
• The last point to speak about here is the Grenzer. Nine point nine out of ten scenarios the marksman Sniper loadout is the best choice for this link. That tiny chance of any other Grenzer profile being the better choice is purely worthless in praxis, don’t use another Grenzer loadout for a defensive core!
• Now where do you deploy this link? Ideally a rooftop or similarly inaccessible spots are the way to go since you need to keep your hacker and often enough LT as safe as possible, but want your gunners to have as much oversight on the map as possible. Make sure to use the Securitates to cover every possible angle, bonus points if you get to fire two AROs into a single direction! If you bring a paramedic-'Tate make sure to place it outside of template range and still as close as possible to your main gunner.
• Why we don’t use Cheerkillers? Because they’re more into getting up close, and pay for being a bit more mobility they‘d lose slugging around in a five-troop-link. And the worst thing about it is losing the chance of having a core-linked hacker!
• Don‘t hesitate to sling your 'Tates-core across the board if all your other options for scoring are spent- they still have their combis, and most likely a specialist left to do something!

Defensive Haris

This one's made of Cheerkillers, and maybe a Grenzer. Note that you could also do a defensive Securitate ‚lite‘ link, but you do lose a lot of the advantages of a Securitates core by doing so.

• Cheerkillers are mean threats in close-range, but the AP rifle and shock marksman rifle make the exception. The marksman rifle is best used whenever you expect a lot of camo or smoke because of MSV2. The AP rifle is great for scaring away more beefy targets. While you can pop the SMGs into suppression the LSG/Pulzar option saves you points for precious tools and is just as capable of holding angles- here it comes down to preference really. Remember that Cheerkillers dodge on a 15, so don’t be afraid to let them cover seemingly disadvantageous ARO-lanes! Spare points are well invested into the specialist profile to turn the Haris in a button-pressing taskforce if you’re low on specialists and need a backup plan.
• The Grenzer in this Haris is more of an optional pick in the Haris since it’s a bit more disposable than the defensive core, and more flexible in deployment. The LT/Discover (+3) options are worthy of being considered if you want to move the link up a bit and focus more on holding the midfield, and do a great job at holding angles with the extra burst on their flamethrower. The best option for this link is probably the Missile Launcher though, since it complements the Cheerkillers very well with their mostly close-range focus as a midrange weapon- the AP rifle or Marksman rifle Cheerkillers may compete for that role, but the ML wins in versatility.
• This link profits a lot from being mobile, so don’t waste that hiding it away in some corner. Having it at the edge of the deployment zone to move up and get into a defensive position around important objectives or angles makes way more sense. This link does well in your second battle group because it’s possible you want to adapt your positioning every turn.
• While we called it a defensive Haris it’s more a toolbox, especially if you swap the Ml Grenzer for the FO version, which prefers to get around to do stuff. It certainly is not worth it to use it actually as offensive tool, that’s what our next section of links is for!

Offensive Fireteams

While TJC has a bunch of great units for offensive use on their own there’s a bunch of possibilities on the more offensive side of link-constellations.

Offensive Haris

• The Super-Friends Haris: It was mentioned before a few times but not explained- but now it will be: It's the nickname for the special fireteam consisting of Perseus, Spector and a Stempler Zond. If you want a versatile (but mainly offensive) Haris or just run a bunch of characters look no further, it's pretty neat. It wants to be in the closer rangebands though, so make sure you get a safe passage first.

Tactics

• Shoot Enemy, Don't Die: Your most potent gunfighters are the Kriza Boracs and the Szally, but it's not like you'd need one of these to play a potent gunner-game. A lot of times even Securitates can outshoot basic opponents (or a TAG if you're using the Feuerbach), if you get the rangegame in your favor. Don't forget to get a decent repeater network running, a spotlighted target is way easier to hit!
• Don't Die: CC isn't your friend, at least not with most units. Having a capable CC units can help you dealing with scary melee pieces, but also make sure to cover all possible firelanes in your backfield.
• Play the Objective: That one's very doable, since there are good specialists all over the place. You might not always manage to max out on orders, but your pieces are premium and a lot of times hard to take down.