Infinity/N4 Tactics/Nomads

The unit overview and tactica for Nomads.

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Why play Nomads

Because everyone else does!

Nomads are by far the most popular faction in Infinity and their inclusion in Operation: Icestorm solidified this position. It's not because they are OP or anything, quite the opposite – Nomads are the most "middle ground" or jack-of-all-trades faction, with good stats across the board, Medium Infantry focus and access to most tools in the Human Sphere. Sure, they're expert Hackers, but hacking has quite limited applications.

Simply speaking Nomads can do everything quite well without deviating too much in one direction (aside from sexually deviating that is).

Faction features

Special Skills

Hacking area: entire table: Nomad hacking capabilities are one of the reasons Ariadna became popular. Nomads have access to HD+ on WIP 14 and 15 profiles for low points and an absurd number of repeaters. Basically if it's hackable, Nomads will find it. While KHD units could use this to get at Nomad hackers, they may find themselves in a situation not unlike trying to outshoot PanOceania.

Courage and Religious Troop: Courage being a signature of Corregidor and Religious Troop of Bakunin Reverend Agents. Nomads usually have medium armour, which is enough to survive most shootouts and having your guys stay where you want them is a useful skill.

Toolbox units: A lot of Nomad units can perform several jobs at once. No, not just having different loadouts – all on one model. It is especially true of Corregidor units.

Engineer: Being meteorheads, Nomads have quite a few Engineers. Standard issue Clockmakers are better than other factions equivalents, while all the other ones are engis in addition to having other skills.

Weapons and Equipment

Medium armour: The classical unit focus of Nomads is Medium Infantry, like Heavy Infantry are to Yu Jing. This means the guys tend to have one wound only, making them susceptible to Shock ammo. Doctors can help them out a lot. Keep faster support in mind.

Adhesive Launchers: Nomads have as many as 6 units with ADHL and one Akrylat-Kanone. Basically if you have trouble hacking it, glue it.

Underslung Light Flamethrower: Nomad units favour Rifle + Light Flamethrower over Rifle + Light Shotgun combo. Good for reacting to enemy that gets too close or for Intuitive Fire. Position your dudes accordingly, since you can't flame over your own troops.

Smoke grenades: Great way to cover your advance, available in spades.

Units

Light Infantry

• Alguacil - These are the most basic units in the game, they are in fact the bare chassis that all other profiles and units are derived from. They fill the line troop slot, but generally don't get taken in competitive lists as to take the LT costs 1 SWC and you have more efficient options for Oder monkeys and specialists.
• Moderators - excellent LT and decoy. Hacker is interesting for having bts3 and being very cheap
• Sercuitates- premium line infantry LT.
• Clockmakers 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. The clockmaker only really engineers though, so you may find the other engineers in faction more interesting for your list. She is also a devil waifu, so.
• Daktari 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.
• Puppetactica Company On his own, the puppet master is a 12 points counterintelligence. Add 2 more you get the mine layer profile for that DZ defense and for 17 points you get a hacker profile.He also comes in with 3 puppets of your choice forming a mini fire team with them.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.Overall a very good order efficient units, for vanilla they are a disposable ARO piece that you can just deploy to check corners. In active turn they can also face check a mine since they have 2 wounds. Just be careful not to get the puppet master killed.
• Jazz and Billie - Jazz is for her points the best hacker in the game. The only things you could possibly want is a BTS stat of 9 or Wip 15. She has a hacking device plus with trinity +1 damage as a bonus program. This enables her to credibly threaten other hackers, support the rest of the army with white noise and hide in cybermask during the reactive turn if the opponent has killer hacking.
• Billie- He is optionally purchased as a bundle with jazz. He is excellent by providing an additional repeater to defend the DZ or to push forward into the table to project hacking control. His EM-mines are excellent at threatening almost every troop type and his flashpluse is useful. He is also a extremely cheap regular order.
• Tomcats- excellent selection of parachutist profiles. Doubles as a climbing plus assault piece and supporting specialist for a very attractive price in the form of the doctor and engineer profiles. You can repair models they have gone unconscious by the side of the table or score objectives. Profiles with shock mines or repeaters can bully the opponent well. Multi rifle+lsg engineer is super interesting, being unable to take a zondcat is a shame but the guns might make up for it.
• Carlotta Kowalsky- She is a greatly improved tomcat engineer. One of four units that can walk in from the opponents deployment zone table sides.She is well armed with a breaker combi rifle, +1 burst adhesive launcher and light flame thrower. She can very quickly put on the hurt on any target by catching them out of cover whilst scoring objectives and classified cards.

Medium Infantry

• Intruders, Corregidor Assault Commandos: The former king, the one that veterans remember calling a auto take. Times have changed, but they are still strong, just not against everything.First off: BS 13, ARM 3, Camo and MSV2. Second: can take an MSR or an HMG. Third: Jaguars and Morlocks give you cheap smoke. Intruder can easily snipe off enemy killer units and ARO pieces from a distance and safety of smoke screen and Camo lets you abuse Surprise Shot. Unfortunately the modern trend of powerfull hard AROs in core fire teams such as the Kamau have made his job of enemy suppression much harder. Furthermore the lack of AP on the HMG can make it difficult to quickly tackle enemy armour with him. One wound means it’s easy to lose him to a Djanbazan sniper or a similar unit.

• Grenzers, Grenz Security Team: Some people discount Grenzers for not being Intruders or Nisses. Unlike those chumps however Grenzers can pack Missile Launchers. The FO+NCO+Sensor profile is very interesting as its very easy for him to discover enemy camo and also complete objectives in the midfield, on top of benefiting from using the LT order with NCO. The sniper with marksmanship may have a place as he will generally be shooting on 16. They gain a lot more value in a Tunguska sectorial, but they are not all bad in vanilla either. Shock immunity makes them easier to doctor back up.

• Hellcats: ARM 2, BTS 3, Courage and Combat Jump +3. Can be taken as a either a short or medium gun fighter.Due to the +3 mod they get to combat jump they're the best unit at hot dropping in the game , if you use support ware you get to drop on a 18. On the off chance that you do fail, having a Spitfire or hacker profile, landing in your Deployment Zone is not as bad. The depoyable repeater profile is worth mentioning as you can very easily get repeaters in position in your opponents DZ to cause massive issues. Even though they have AVA 4, you should not be taking more than 2, as they can be order hungry.

• Reverend Agents: The main Bakunin combat force, the Observants are all Medium Infantry with ARM3 and ODD or Mimetism, designed to fit specific combat roles, but all of them aggressive. Slow and 1-wound, but effective. Variants include:
  • Reverend Custodiers: An alternative choice to Interventors, Custodiers trade a point of WIP for a lot more survivability. It is a good idea to take and as Lieutenant, to use that order for faster movement. So what if you reveal her? Cybermask, White Noise and ODD on top of ARM3 makes her quite safe. Also comes with her own Pitcher.
  • Reverend Healer: Or Healer-Killer as fluff would have it, Healers are the ones with Mimetism and high CC skill. Without ability to put one in a Moira or Custodier link her usability is dubious, but hey, WIP14 Doctor.
  • Reverend Moiras: Moiras are the multi-purpose MI unit whose main strength is being linked in Bakunin sectorial. However with ODD they can still make for good killer units at low points.
  • Reverend Superior Cassandra Kusanagi: The head nun is a little package of hurt. BS14 Spitfire paired with ODD lets her win most firefights and V: NWI is there for those she loses. With a Specialist Operative skill on top Cassandra is a valid choice even outside Bakunin.

Heavy Infantry

• Mobile Brigada The basic Heavy Infantry option. What sets these apart from other factions basic HI is that they have arm 5 and Courage which is an important perk, since Heavy Infantry are likely to roll Guts a lot. Can take both long and medium range weaponry and the basic MULTI Rifle option also has the ever present Light Flamethrower. These are your cheapest durable LT.

• Riot Grrls: The bane of shitlords everywhere, the Grrls are a cheap Frenzy HI unit with some cracking close range guns and the spicy missile launcher. What makes them is that MSV1 is very useful at wiping enemy skirmishers and warbands out of existence. They have +1 damage on all their weapons which makes them just that bit more likely to terminate whatever they're shooting at. The missile launcher is a interesting ARO piece due to its low cost, durability and the ability of MSV1 to see through smoke and it can be used well in coordinated orders to break especially difficult hard aros.

• The Hollow Men, Tactical Assault Team: Highly Mobile unit, well poised to make use of their super jump and 6-2 move value to root out dug in opponents. All of them have chain colts, which is lovely on a durable unit like this. The spitfire is a good medium range gunner in vanilla, but the Multi rifle+pitcher profile is most interesting in that it combines a short range gun fighter with a model that supports your hacking game. This unit is extremely durable due to having 2 STR and Remote Presence. Engineering support can really help these go the extra mile.

• Evaders, EVA Tactical Group:

TAGs

• Lizard Squad Lizard is a no-nonsense frontline TAG: BS14, ARM8, armed with a MULTI HMG and a choice of Heavy Flamethrower or a Heavy Grenade Launcher. Speculative shot anyone? With the amount of engineers and hackers to keep it alive and cheap cheerleaders in form of Moderators it is easy to build a list around this thing. Not to mention it has the single sexiest pilot model in the range.
  • The Lizard Pilot now carries a Submachine Gun on her supple ass, making her a lot more dangerous than before, especially with the ability to use Suppressive Fire. And is also a Specialist Operative.

• 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. Compared to the Lizard, it's marginally less dangerous in ARO due to DA instead of EXP ammo, but 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.
  • With Contender the Szalamandra Pilot can defend herself at medium range quite well. And because she's Tunguska, she's also a Killer Hacker. Nothing like blasting a hacker blocking your path with trinity. Also very usefull at scoring in ITS missions
  • Once had the dubious honour of being arguably the ugliest TAG model in the range, but with the new sculpt it now looks like the terrifying killing machine it was always supposed to be.

• Iguana Squadron: Larger than Gecko, but still a light TAG. Iguana’s claim to fame is the Ejection system and the 2 wound HI Operator. Basically Iguana is not designed to last, but to take at least one more shot than a regular TAG before going down. Mounted Repeater means it carries around it's own Hacker support. Comes with a vanilla HMG and a Heavy Flamethrower.
  • The Operator, unlike most TAG pilots, is not a Specialist Operative but does carry a HMG.

Remotes

• Vertigo zond: 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 disincentivize them 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.

Warbands

• Morlocks: An old classic. These will rip apart enemy armour with their EM CCW.Furthermore they're very good at destroying enemy skirmishers in the middle of the table by using their WIP 14 to discover, or attempt intuitive attacks with their chain rifle. The smoke they provide is invaluable and they pad the list out very well when your taking heavy infantry, remotes and tags. The morlock with DA ccw is a good choice in missions where anti material is relevant. The Assault pistol morlock is great fun at putting burst 4 into targets. But the EM CCW is generally preferred due to the ease in which it annihilates amour.
• Uberfall Kommando: Best read about here but, the long and short of it is you get a very powerfull, very mobile close combat specialist in the form of a chimera and she brings along three pupniks that have a long list of plays associated with them. Very powerfull unit.