Infinity/N4 Tactics/Shasvastii Expeditionary Force

An overview for faction units and tactics in N4. WIP

Why Play Shasvastii?

The Shasvastii Expeditionary Force specialize in keeping your opponent on edge, impeded, misdirected and controlled. They are easily capable of fielding all or mostly camo lists, and have amazing midfield control with multiple Forward Deploy and Infiltration units, Minelayers, the extremely efficient Taighas, and arguably the deadliest Impersonator in the game, the Speculo Killer. With all the Marker states and Hidden Deploy options, Shasvastii are able to play mind games with the opponent and force uneven trades through asymmetric warfare. They are also one of the best factions for actually scoring on objectives. Their special Shasvastii rule is amazing for Zone of Operation missions, and all of these Infiltrators and Forward Deployers save you orders on actually walking up to the buttons you need to press.

That being said, Shasvastii can be unforgiving to pick up. Most of their troops rely on not being hit as their defense, with some combination of Stealth, Mimetism, and marker states. There is also a notable lack of high burst AP ranged options, so you may have trouble cracking into your opponent's HI or TAGs without getting danger close with melee troopers.

Definitely consider playing Shasvastii if you enjoy the feeling of handing your opponent a blank sheet of paper for a courtesy list, watching them squirm knowing that a Noctifer could be watching any corner, burning their precious orders discovering mines and double tapping unconscious troops, or if you just can't get enough of those sneaky lizardmen.

Faction Features

• Marker States and Superior Deployment: Arguably the biggest draw of the Sectorial is the amount of powerful deployment skills available. Shasvastii can take up so much board space with Forward Deploy and Infiltrators. Why walk up to push a button or grab supplies when you can start the game already there? Throw in some Minelayers and watch your opponents struggle to figure out how to even engage you. Be aware of Exclusion Zone missions, as you can lose a lot of value from units that are paying a premium to start outside your DZ.
• Taighas: These puppies deserve special mention here for their uniqueness utility. They're extremely cheap, and flexible as both offense and defense, and unique as the only Impetuous option available. You'll usually see at least 1-2, but often 4 and a Noctifer for Group 2.
• The Noctifer Missile Launcher and the Speculo Minelayer: Generally always consider running at least one of these guys, if not both or multiple. These are your Faction-defining units, and you should have a good reason for their absence. Shasvastii thrive on causing disruption, and these are possibly he most disruptive Troops in the game

Special Skills

• Shasvastii: The Sectorial's Eponymous ability. With the exceptions of Taighas, REMs and the Sphinx, everyone gets this. This Skill lets troopers enter the special Shasvastii-Embryo state instead of the normal Unconscious. In Embryo State, they count as their FULL VP even though they are in a Null-State. This is HUGE for controlling zones- If you're elevated or behind cover, your opponent might lose LOF when they become S0, so be mindful when deploying. Worst case scenario, your opponent burns another order to fully kill the model, but you weren't going to get an order anyway so not a huge deal.
• Stealth, Camouflage, Mimetism: Lumping these all together since so much of the Sectorial has at least one, if not all three of these. Your units have very little beef so these are your core defenses. Cautious moves and/or stacking Mods to dissuade BS Attack AROs/ encourage enemy Dodges help you get in the perfect position on your active turns. Keep your opponent's template weapons and MSVs in mind, because they really level the playing field, and Shasvastii never want to fight fair.
• Skills 3:

Weapons and Equipment

• Equipment 1:
• Equipment 2:
• Equipment 3:

Units Overview

• Overview 1:
• Overview 2:
• Overview 3:

Remember to keep Unit blurbs short and succinct. This is 'what they do and why they're good' not 'here's how you use them'.

Light Infantry

• Light Infantry 1:
• Nox Troops: The Shasvastii Basic Line Troops. They have fairly basic stats but also Immunity(Shock), Stealth and your only option for Fireteam: Core. Notably most profiles carry a Zapper.
  • Special Fireteam T Drone FTO vs Nox Guided Multi Sniper: Unique option to have the Guided Missile Drone available. Usually outperforms the BS Attack (Guided) Nox Multi Sniper if you're only considering Guided attacks, (BS 12 Damage 14 AP+EXP Template is usually better than a BS 11 Damage 15 DA/AP/Shock Template) but the Nox would be more versatile with the higher Burst and better range bands.
• Caliban, Sabotage and Destruction Unit: Absolute Unit. A heavy lifter with 4 good profiles. FD+8" and Camo on a CC23 MA3 Melee Monster with D-Charges and PROTHEION. All 3 Specialist options (Chain of Command, Engineer, Forward Observer) are great, and the MSV1 Spitfire, though a tad expensive, can still do work with BS12 MIM-3 Body holding them. You can easily justify running 2, with solid arguments for 3 or even 4. Never underestimate this man's ability to Rambo.

Medium Infantry

• Corax Hasht: The only MI in the Sectorial, and he's a Unique Character. He's a Wildcard with a Spitfire, and Nanoscreen. Corax is functionally 2 Wounds, but his NWI and Shasvastii skills are are a bit anti-synergistic. Stealth, Shock Immune and Specialist Operative, are neat but otherwise not a lot of excitement here. Check out the unofficial resculpt Spec Ops in the Nox Trooper Box if you don't want to use the Dire Foes version.

Heavy Infantry

• Gwailos: Unique to SEF, not available to Vanilla with good reason. The Gwailo is a 2W HI with Stealth, a Nanoscreen, Albedo, ARM 3, and a whopping BTS 9?! With AVA 1 he needs to take FTO M-Drones or wildcards if he wants to be in a Haris. The Gwailo can serve a couple of interesting roles in your list. The AP Spitfire can hunt MSV units that the rest of your list might struggle with, as well as being the highest possible burst with AP and respectable range bands available to the faction, making him an active turn powerhouse. On the other hand, the Heavy Rocket Launcher not only has the added utility of MSV2, but it can also combo with a Speculo's Smoke to become completely invisible to everything in the game. Fearlessly take on anything that doesn't have Sixth Sense. Like a 4-5 Man Fireteam Core... :/
• Heavy Infantry 2:

Tactical Armor Gear

• Shasvastii Special Armoured Corp SPHINX: Everyone's favorite giant invisible robot. While he is often considered better in Vanilla or Onyx due to cheaper cheerleaders, the Sphinx is, nevertheless, still the Sphinx. With the Hidden Deployment, Mim-6 and Camouflage, when the Sphinx shows up, he becomes a huge threat. That coupled with a blisteringly fast MOV 6-6 with Terrain Total and Climbing Plus means that if there exists any weakness in your opponent's deployment, the Sphinx CAN get there, and he WILL exploit it with either Spitfire or +1B Heavy Flamethrower. A relatively low ARM/BTS 6 means the Sphinx can be fragile for his cost, so look out for MSV and Hackers. The real weakness of the Sphinx, however, is tunnel vision. Save your Orders to retreat and re-camo.
  • Scindron Ancillary Remote Unit: Special mention here for the Pilot(Remote) ability. He may not be a great Specialist at WIP 11, but with a small S1, he can still dismount and hide behind the giant S6 Soda Can profile of the sphinx to push buttons.

Remotes

• Remotes:

Warband

• Taigha Creatures: Very nearly auto-include, extremely cheap and efficient warband. A Bastardized hybrid of the best parts of both Gakis and Pretas with extra abilities on top. Fast (Mov 6-6!) and Impetuous, they always Dodge on 16s thanks to Sixth Sense, and go 4" when they succeed. They also have a Chain Colt for some reason (Don't ask about the lack of apparent projectile weapons on the model), so they typically always have something good to do in the reactive turn. Did I mention they have Berserk? and CC 21? Optional DA CC Weapon? Only 5-6 pts??. Very uniquely also S1, so they can hide behind a lot of short cover and windows. These guys are great at Deployment Zone Babysitting, Grabbing space in the Midfield, Turning off enemy mines with their face, and Trading way up in value with thanks to Berserk. Take a couple. Fill out your group 2 with them. Maybe don't go for the full AVA 8???

Skirmishers

• Skirmishers:

Building Your Army

One to two short paragraphs on list building.

Tactics

• Shoot Enemy, Don't Die:
• Don't Die:
• Play the Objective: