Infinity/N4 Tactics/F.R.R. Merovingenne

An overview for faction units and tactics in N4.

Why play Merovingians?

Because you like Ariadna and TAGs? That's right, This sectorial can field an Anaconda, baby! They also get a ton of total terrain and very good fireteam options making them compete with vanilla Ariadna. Unfortunately a lot of their range is out of print, but if you really want to run them still there's plenty of good proxying options.

Faction Features

TAGs, AD Dog Soldiers, a ton of Camo, and a few nasty fireteam options.

FRRM is built on force projection. All of your options are very budget, can be very redundant, and generally do their job well-enough. Compared to vanilla Ariadna, you have more technology than CHA and USARF, while being less elite than Tartary Army Korps. Paracommandos threaten the sides, Mirage-5 threatens the back, your Zouaves hold down the mid-field, and your metros can infiltrate to half-board.

They're composed of a lot of somewhat effective chaff that can have interesting war gear, but aren't individually powerful, and focus a lot on efficiency, numbers, and having what you need and only what you need. Unfortunately, this means they're not very durable, not very strong, not very fast, and not very well-equipped.

Special Skills

• Parachuting Dog Soldier Does a dog soldier that can appear in the enemy's deployment zone sound good to you?
• MSV1 on Medium Infantry: A rarity in Ariadna, Briscards pack useful MSV1 for dealing with smoke and warbands.
• Sapper: Want partial cover anywhere? Use the Sapper skill to enter the foxhole state. This grants you courage, mimetism-3, and partial cover from literally every angle. You have a couple troops with this, and they're good options.

Weapons and Equipment

• Ariadna's Only Viral Weapons: Mercenaries aside, Loup-Garou pack Ariadna's only viral weapons. These are potent weapons, especially against other Ariadnans due to the lack of faction BTS as well as the DA ammo trait. They hit hard and target often-weaker saves. These also put down Dogfaces, bypassing their Total Immunity.
• Efficient, Cheap Gear: Frenchies tend to have incredibly slim profiles, almost to a fault. Snipers are cheap, panzerfausts are cheap, HI are cheap. French toolboxes are efficient, often times almost too efficient.
• Ariadna's Only TAG: You heard it here folks. Prior to the release of the vanilla-exclusive Triphammer TAG, the frenchies were the only force in all of Ariadna to field a TAG, that being the mercenary Anaconda.

Units Overview

Unit Identifier F.R.R. Merovingenne

Light Infantry

• 112 Emergency Service: The Ariadna Doctor unit comes either on motorcycle or on foot. Either way it’s pretty cheap and with the motorized version getting to wherever you need it to be becomes pretty order-efficient.

• Dozers, Field Engineers: The generic Ariadna engineer, just as the 112 it comes quite affordable and with either D-Charges or an Acrylat-Cannon.

• Loup-Garous: Fireteam: Core and Haris, these guys come with an X-Visor. You got the choice between a BSG, a sniper or the dangerous viral rifle.

• Métros, Troupes Métropolitaines: Are the Merovingian Linetroopers with Fireteam: Core. They‘ve got multiple Infiltration profiles (which can’t link), aswell as LT, paramedic, HMG and a grenade launcher option.
  • Brigadier Jaques Bruant: The wildcard character Brigardier gets a X-Visor and an AP Spitfire plus D-Charges on top of being a specialist, making him quite versatile.

• Para-Commandos: Cheap parachutists with MIM (-3) and some solid loadout options, including specialists with D-Charges and an AP Spitfire profile.

• Zouaves: Forward Deplyment (+8“) and Panzerfauts on most loadouts make for dangerous ARO pieces, especially since dogged keeps them from dropping too quick. There’s also a version with Sapper for extra resilience, traing their loadout for either a sniper rifle or an HMG.

Mercenaries

• Corregidor Alguaciles: These are the most basic units in the game, and Merovingia only gets their hacker profile, which counts as Métro for linkteams. Pretty attractive choice when you really want to have one since it gets the Sixth Sense bonus from a full core. Yep, these get to be mercs in MRRF.

• Wardrivers, Mercenary Hackers: The name describes them pretty well. Both profiles are cheap hackers, although you gotta pay 1 SWC and two more points to let the Wardriver have an actual HD.

• Knauf, Outlaw Sniper: While MSV1 snipers weren't that attractive in N3 the Outrage poster boy turned a whole lot hotter. BS (+1B) and Shock is nasty, and MIM (-3) makes using him a bit safer. Besides that he's not doing much, but that trait also keeps him at an affordable price.

• 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

• Briscards, 8éme Régiment d'Infanterie de Montagne: Fireteam: Core and Haris, all loadouts get MSV1. You get to pick between marksman rifle, heavy rocket launcher and an AP sniper, awell as a LT, paramedic or FO. These are used best against mimetism or to have some defensive piece shooting through smoke.

Heavy Infantry

• Equipe Mirage-5: This duo is the bane of any poorly deployed backfield. Parachutist (Dep.Zone) is mean on a single unit, but Margot brings her Antipode friend Duroc with her! Margot herself doesn’t really feel like a real HI with only one wound, but with a BS 14 (shock) on an AP rifle, a grenade launcher and a light shotgun she definitely hits like one. Her squishy nature is best compromised by dropping Duroc first, who‘s basically a regular Antipode who doesn’t need to cross the table to monch on cheerleaders. If you pair them with a lot of camo the opponent might not expect them dropping, and drop something in his pants when they do hit the table.

• Moblots: These wildcard HI get only one wound without NWI or Dogged, so they act more like MI. They get shock on all guns, aswell as an array of solid weapon picks, and special loadouts with Infiltration or Sapper.

Tactical Armor Gear

• Anaconda, Mercenary TAG Squad: The toughest fire support you can field in the army and a decent, cheap light TAG. The +1 to their BS Attack damage makes their AP Spitfire hit as hard as a normal HMG, and the Anaconda still has a Panzerfaust for more hardened targets. They can also still take an actual HMG and chain colt which replaces the AP Spitfire and light flamethrower respectively. Merovingia get the only TAG in Ariadna!
  • N4 has been kind to the Anaconda Pilot. She is now a Specialist Operative; furthermore she has a decent BS and retains the spitfire (albeit not an AP one) after bailing out of her TAG... which she might actually do thanks to her Escape System. Overall a very dangerous button pusher if not dealt with.

Remotes

• Traktor Mul: The trusty Ariadna REM needs a Dozer to operate one or two of these things- on the battlefield the Dozer and the Muls operate completely autonomous of each other though. The cheapest version comes at 5 pts with only a Deactivator and a Para CC weapon, and there’s two other loadouts: the Uragan MRL acts as total reaction bot with either impact templates or one point of damage more (both modes fire AP+shock ammo), and then there’s the Katyusha MRL, firing DA shots but without total reaction. Worth pointing out is all versions of the Traktor Mul have BS(guided) making them pair well with a FO (or hacker, but Ariadna doesn’t need those).

Warband

• Wolfgang Amadeus Wolff, Wulver Bounty Hunter: 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 among the meanest combination of things you can bring into CC. To finish the enemy unit off for good he's also bringing a DA CC Weapon. As a wildcard in this sectorial, he can be used for a strong, durable, Burst 5 (after bonuses) pointman for your team.

Skirmishers

• Chasseurs: Camo infiltrators with a rifle and either a light flamethrower or an adhesive launcher. There’s the option of a FO or minelayer as specialist. Note that sixth sense makes for a great threat against stealth units, and they probably won’t see that skill coming on a camo‘ed unit!