Infinity/N4 Tactics/Imperial Service

An overview for faction units and tactics in N4. WIP

Why Play Imperial Service?

PROTECT YOUR HOME. SERVE YU JING. JOIN THE IMPERIAL SERVICE.

ISS is an aggressive, fast paced army with a major focus on kicking down doors and "arresting" the enemies of Yu Jing hiding inside. They're most deadly against lightly armored troops at mid-to-close range, but have to resort to indirect hacking to deal with high armor like superheavy infantry or TAGs.

The ideal ISS list forces your opponent into hiding and then blows the whole building, preferably while a few Kuang Shi are still in it. All are guilty under the eyes of the Imperial Judges and only death absolves their crimes.

Faction Features

• KUANG SHI CORE LINK: N3 ISS made good use of its Kuang Shi, and N4 is no exception. A full Core of Kuang Shi is 33 points of screaming template laying terror backed by core linked smoke grenades. If that wasn't good enough, ISS has access to true wildcards now, allowing you to fold in additional utility while keeping more Kuang to backfill the link once you start slinging blast collared criminals into enemy lines.
• CAMO CANNOT HIDE: ISS carries no less than seven troops with some form of MSV and six troopers with Sensor. Combined with templates on nearly every key trooper means your opponent's Camouflage and Mimetism will not save them.
• DEPLOYMENT ZONE HELL: Tired of your opponent ramming TAGs into your deployment zone? Fill it with MadTraps! These active defense bots will rush the first enemy that gets within 8" and attempt to immobilize it. Your DZ is also swarming with template weapons, making attempts to break in and scalpel out your expensive troopers a near impossibility. Impersonators and Infiltrators beware!

Special Skills

• Explode/Dogged: What are you gonna do with that big bat? Gonna hit me? Better make it count. Better make it hurt. Better kill me in one shot.

A Kuang Shi, upon taking damage that would render it unconscious, can choose to either remain active in Dogged state, allowing it to continue acting until it dies at end of turn, or Explode, erupting into a circular template. Remember the skill won't activate if a Kuang Shi is instantly killed, such as failing an armor save to Shock ammo, or if there are friendly models within the blast radius.

• Martial Arts: ISS has a higher than average number of martial artists in their army; Pheasants, Kanren, and Hsien Warriors all have enough CC to defend themselves in close combat, while Adil, Ninjas, and Cranes have the raw statistical power to make offensively closing to melee a viable option. You might wonder why Ninjas are available in an army specifically made up of Yu Jing troops when JSA is right there. It's a long story.

• Sensor: There are six troopers in ISS with Sensor; all of them are viable. In addition to adding a whopping +6 to your Discover rolls vs Camo markers, Sensor allows you to "ping" that trooper's Zone of Control, performing a WIP+6 normal roll that, upon a success, Discovers all enemy troopers or equipment in Camouflaged or Hidden Deployment states. This is the number one way to fuck up a JSA player's day. Remember that enemy troopers also can't return to Camo state while within the ZoC of a trooper with Sensor, and Sensor has no effect on Impersonation markers.

Weapons and Equipment

• Chain Rifles/Colts and Nanopulsers: Chain Rifles are scatter guns that use ammunition threaded into small chains that are ground up and fired at high velocity; Chain Colts are their handheld equivalent. They're bulky, loud, illegal, and incredibly deadly. While they're theoretically best used against lightly armored targets, all template weapons ignore cover, which means most troops with have, at best, a coin flip chance to avoid being wounded. Nanopulsers are the BTS-targeting equivalent of Chain Colts, but more compact, more dangerous, and far, far more illegal.

• Multispectral Visor: Predator Thermal Vision. Comes in two levels in ISS: MSV1 reduces Mimetism and visual penalties by 3, MSV2 removes all Mimetism and visual penalties. Both versions can draw line of fire through Smoke, although MSV1 takes a -6 penalty on all Attacks through it. Remember that nothing can draw line of fire through Eclipse Zones, and White Noise specifically blocks MSV from drawing line of fire through it.

• Holoprojector: You think this is the real Quaid? It is. Holoprojector allows you to deploy three Holoechoes; two false Echoes and the real trooper. These Echoes have identical stats and loadout of their originating trooper, and share all states such as Prone or Isolated. Each Echo must be within 8" of either another Echo or the real trooper, and you do not have to declare the trooper is in Holoecho state until you activate them with a regular order. Functionally, the Echoes are real troopers; they can trigger mines and deployables, provoke AROs, and be the target of Attacks; upon taking a hit that would force an armor or BTS save, or the real trooper reveals themselves, the Echo vanishes. Remember that Holoecho state is form of Marker state, which means your opponent can Delay their ARO until you reveal.

• Holomask allows you to deploy a trooper as though it were a completely different unit in your army list of the same Silhouette value; the trooper retains all of their own attributes, but to your opponent, they'll appear to be what they're masking as. Remember that Holomask can't replicate deployable equipment nor camouflage; a hackable troop does not suddenly become an invalid target for an enemy hacker, but the inverse is not true; a trooper masking as a heavy infantry, for example, appears to be hackable right up until your opponent declares a hacking attack on them.

• You can combine Holomask and Holoprojector, allowing you to deploy three Holoechoes of any trooper in your army. You decide how you want to engage with this fascinating tactical option.

Light Infantry

• Authorized Bounty Hunters: ISS puts up bounties, Authorized Bounty Hunters show up and claim them. Solid stats, and occasionally come up huge with Booty. The Submachine Gun/Akrylat-Kanone profile is a very cheap, expendable ARO trooper who can participate in Coordinated Orders. Don't sleep on them just because they're Mercs. All ABH in ISS can form a Duo, with both Miranda Ashcroft and Sforza FTO counting as Bounty Hunters.
  • Father Lucien Sforza: The AI-hunting legend himself, Sforza comes with two flavours; a Holoprojector solo and a linkable FTO without. Both profiles have Holomask, allowing him to take on the appearance of any Silhouette 2 trooper in your army. He's a crack shot, and his X-visor pushes the lethality of his weapons out to 32". An excellent option.
  • Miranda Ashcroft, Authorized Bounty Hunter: A former rich girl turned bounty hunting thrill-seeker, Miranda comes loaded with the best gear money can buy. Don't sleep on her Combi+E/Mitter profile: her Mim-6 and the bonus burst on that E/mitter tilts the combat math massively in her favour against heavy armor without MSV.
• Bao Troops: The leopard troopers got massively pruned down in N4, losing their X-visor and consolidating their profiles to down to three different loadouts. One of the Haris options in ISS, they're effective against camouflage and impersonators, and can team up with Pheasants to give them some more tactical flexibility.
• Celestial Guard: The regiment tasked with guarding the Imperial Palace grounds, Celestial Guards make excellent hackers, and the Monitor is required to deploy Kuang Shi. Celestial Guards can form a fireteam Core on their own, or a single CG is required to form a fireteam: Core of Kuang Shi. Note that the Monitor doesn't have to be part of the Kuang Shi Core.
  • Gui Feng Xi Zhuang: Xi Zhuang was good enough to take in N3, and he's back with a vengeance in N4. Now a true wildcard, Xi is absolutely loaded with gear and makes a compact, useful addition to any link team. Strongly recommended, as adding him to any list only makes it better.
• CSU, Corporate Security Unit: Corporate security representing the interests of Yu Jing state corporations. CSUs make cheap orders who occasionally come up big with Metachemistry, but ISS is flush with cheap orders.
• Deva Functionaries: New in N4, Deva Functionaries are auxiliary troops provided to the Imperial Service to keep the peace and foster goodwill towards Aleph. Outrageously high stats and enough profiles to solve any number of problems, Devas make both great backline Lts or frontline combatants. They also form the basis of ISS's second Haris option, able to mix with Dakini Tacbots.
• Imperial Agents, Pheasant Rank: ISS leans on its offensive Lts to get work done and provide SWC discounts, so it's important to have a good command structure in case the worst happens. Thankfully, Pheasants are more than capable of picking up the slack. Featuring Chain of Command at baseline, Pheasants fulfil an important backline specialist role, with a variety of support loadouts such as hackers or Madtrap minelayers. Notably, the Tactical Awareness Red Fury Pheasant is one of the few high burst specialists, making her ideal for a late turn 3 objective run. Pheasants can join a fireteam of Bao troops, but can only form a Duo on their own.
• Kuang Shi: Made up of dissenters, traitors, and criminals too heinous to be rehabilitated, Kuang Shi are how ISS can afford all of its high value troops. Aggressively costed, Dogged, and capable of forming a Core with a Celestial Guard, Kuang Shi are designed to scream across the table and trade life for life with enemy troops. Keep in mind a Celestial Guard Monitor allows you to deploy up to 4 Kuang Shi, and they must be in the same group.
• Major Lunah, ex-Aristeia! Sniper: A former bloodsport superstar who publicly renounced her Haqqislam citizenship to join Yu Jing, Lunah brings her expert marksmanship to ISS, where she uses it to great effect. Already quite good in N3, She was massively buffed in N4, and now demands attention on the battlefield. Bear in mind she's ISS's only standard Camouflage troop, so she's quite telegraphed to an informed opponent.
• Sophotects: Another auxiliary troop provided by Aleph, Sophotects maintain ISS's equipment and civilian facilities. A combination Doctor/Engineer, she's a one-troop-solves-all troubleshooter for non-combat related issues. Fast, massive WIP, and with NWI, she's an effective, if expensive, support trooper.
• Taowu, Mastermind and Schemer: Another former A! superstar, Taowu is if you gave the phrase "All according to plan" a profile. Holomask encourages misdirection, and his skills turn him into a walking time bomb that explodes into templates and viral ammo if anything gets close. Also, his model is fucking dope as hell.
• Warcors, War Correspondents: WarCors are embedded journalists looking to get the real story from the frontlines -- or in this case, bootlicking hacks spreading copaganda. Show them the respect they deserve and post them on a building to get shot. As an alternative, the 360 visor WarCor makes a nice defensive trooper who can keep watch for potential parachutists walking in on your DZ's back edge.
• Zhanying Imperial Agents: The first tier of Imperial Service Agents (Pheasants are the second), Zhanying are the beat cops and detectives that make up the majority of the ISS police force. Their years on the force have given them an uncanny knack for detecting trouble, giving them Sixth Sense on all profiles. Also they have Bioimmunity. Most Zhanying have Sensor, making them excellent at dealing with enemy camo, and Breaker Combi Rifles are effective against almost everything in the game. Any number of Zhanying can join a fireteam of Wu Ming, and they can include Hsien Warriors in their Haris.

Medium Infantry

• Imperial Agent Adil Mehmut, Special Division:
• Sun Tze v.2 (Marksman Leader):

Heavy Infantry

• Hsien Warriors:

• Imperial Agent Adil Mehmut (Crane Rank Armor):

• Sun Tze:

• Sù-Jiàn Immediate Action Unit:

• Wú Míng Assault Corps: Relatively cheap and simple HI, which can form a Fireteam: Core or Haris. They can bring Zhànjing Imperial Agents into their link. The TinBot (-6) profile gives you extra protection from hackers, and the MULTI Rifle comes with the nasty combination of E/M and regular Grenade Launcher.

Tactical Armor Gear

The ISS has no access to TAGs.

Remotes

• Yaokong: As per usual with S3 remotes they come in a bunch of variations.
  • Chaiyi: Is the trusty flashbot.
  • Husong: The TR-HMG bot.
  • Son-Bae: The guided-missile bot.
  • Weibing: The FO gunfighter bot.

• Yaopu Pangguling: The S4 baggage bots, come in the usual three varieties with EVO HD, TR bot with a combi rifle, or just a plain baggage bot.

• Yaoxie Lu Duan: Holomask and Holoprojector make this S4 remote particularly fun in JSA since it can be disguised as a Bike! It also got minelayer with deployable repeaters, which is pretty sweet. The MK12 and heavy flamethrower (+1B) are solid weapons, and it's got MSV1 to shoot better against those pesky MIM units.

• Yaoxie Rui Shi: Brings MSV2 and a spitfire, making it the S4 gunbot.

• Dakini Tacbots:

• Garuda Tacbots:

Warband

The ISS has no access to warbands.

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: