Infinity/N4 Tactics/Military Orders

An overview for faction units and tactics in N4. WIP

Why Play Military Orders?

Deus Vult!

Military Orders offers a fairly unique HI army that enjoys getting up close and personal. They trade away most of the longer ranged options from Vanilla PanO (and most of their already limited bag of tricks), but in return gain access to a strong hidden deployment specialist, high availability access to heavy infantry, and several unique profiles of standard PanO units. Pick Military Orders if you enjoy the idea of having an elite heavy infantry army with an array of powerful list defining attack pieces that make other factions jealous.

Faction Features

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Special Skills

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• Skills 2:
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Weapons and Equipment

• Equipment 1:
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Units Overview

Unit Identifier Military Order

Light Infantry

• Coadjutor Crosiers, Military Order Infantry: Basic guys, nothing to write home about. They are your non-HI fireteam option, forming the cheapest base for the very flexible Military Orders fireteam chart, which lets in at least one of almost every linkable choice except for the Hospitallers, who only hang with Prom Queen Joan, and the Armbot Bulleteers, because fun is a scare resource.

• Knight Commander: Goes into Crosier or Teuton fireteams, but oddly not Order Sergent fireteams. Has a +1 Order LT option. A very obvious LT, mitigated by the fact that he has a Holomask . Can hide him off by himself somewhere on the board, or hide him in a fireteam. You will want to take the NCO Teuton or NCO Sepulchre alongside him to feed the big boy 2 LT orders.

• Curator: The new sectorial-specific regular Engineer. Functionally identical to the old MO Machinist, his WIP 12 is nothing to write home about, but everything he'd want to repair is Remote Presence so he'll usually get the job done if you save your command tokens. 20 points with a Palbot will keep your opponent guessing where your TAG will come down if you deploy first, and also maybe clear a mine or something; if you only want him to stand up a TR Bot or something, he can also fill out a Crosier core, but moving him to heal a damage TAG deployed int the midfield will consume a fair number of orders. If you spring for a TAG, he's often worthwhile.

• Order Sergeants and Specialist Sergeants: MO Line Infantry, but Crosiers are cheaper. However, the Order Sergeants stole a fair few of the basic line infantry profiles and haven't returned them, so if you want line troop hackers you don't get a choice. They also bring Escort Sergeant versions of their standard linkable profiles for a 4-point surcharge, who pack a Heavy Flamethrower-equipped synchronized peripheral at the cost of not being able to join fireteams.

• • Indigo Brother Konstantinos: An Infiltrating buffed up Order Sergeant. Specialist Operative, D-Charges, Assault Pistol, MSV2 and Mimetism make him a great Camo Hunter as well as objective grabber. Don't be fooled by his pose though, you should keep him out of melee. He's pretty expensive, but can work wonders.
  • Firetems: Konstantinos is a wildcard (but doesn't get to infiltrate that way), Order Sergeants can form a Haris. They also can join Crosiers in a link (that's their new purpose now), and one can join Knight Hospitallers or Teuton Knights. Except for Crusade Fireteams (it's getting confusing now).

• Tech-Bees, Maintenance Battalions: An odd Irregular trooper, the Tech-Bee is a 5pts specialist (WIP12, but for that cost it's still a bargain) armed with a pistol and a Flash Pulse. Lacking its old 'Remote Assistant' option, it's no longer the Engineer buff, but they're still a decent ARO option and can do objectives. Take or leave.

• Trauma-Doc: The cheap Doctor option. Unlike the Curator, she cannot be a link filler, and the meatbags she can heal don't have a second Unconscious level giving them a buffer against becoming unrecoverable.

• WarCor: He's a 3pts Regular Order if you play Joan. The Flash Pulse is good enough to occasionally be annoying on ARO, and placing him with the same lines of sight as a real ARO piece can force your opponent to split burst and maybe get splattered by a Justice Rocket Launcher or something. Just remember he's 3 points and lower your expectations accordingly.

Medium Infantry

• Crusader Brethren: This parachuting/combat jump troop has one purpose: to deliver righteous fury from an unexpected angle. They have good ARM and BTS, but average Phys, so supportware their jumps. A MULTI Rifle + Light Flamethrower is going to be a pain for anything mid-board. Death from above.

• Infirmarers of Saint Lazarus: Has a monoweapon, but in true PanO Doctor fashion, it's mostly for use on friendlies. CC 20 but no Martial Arts or MODs is enough to be expensive, but not enough to be a useful offensive tool. The threat of a 60% chance of instant death on a monofilament hit might zone pricy models out of his dodge range and deter CC attacks, but the real monsters (UFK, etc) won't be deterred.

• Black Friars: You may not be expecting the Inquisition, but it certainly expects you. A rare source of MSV 2, The Black Friar is a defensive staple of Military Orders. It has with two distinct profiles: an MSV2 MULTI Sniper, making him a Nisse substitute, and an Heavy Rocket Launcher profile. The latter benefits from Sixth Sense on the off-chance that her core fireteam looses two members who aren't her. As this profile is slanted towards ARO work, that's often going to be bloat, but maybe it opens some lines of play in a Harris fireteam. Rumors persists of an anti-shenanigans MULTI Rifle profile. This trooper would have MSV2, Biometric Visor and Albedo, aiming to cut short any fancy movements from Camouflaged, Holoprojector and Impersonation units without fearing retribution from MSV ARO pieces, along with Drop Bears let him mine the minelayers. However, such a cryptid would have numerous downsides, including squishiness and slow movement, on top of costing 28 points for a multirifle and a pile of highly situational rules.
  • Fireteams: The FTO profiles can join Crosiers.

Heavy Infantry

• Joan of Arc/2.0: PanO’s Recreation and obvious Lieutenant. Joan comes in two flavors, a heavier, more support one, with +1 SWC, and a lighter, faster Spitfire option (which also has +1 SWC, albeit eats 2, so it becomes 1 SWC spent). Inspiring Leadership gives her the ability to make the few Irregular units (remember WarCors and Tech-Bees?) into cheap extra Orders. Can equally well shoot or cut down her opposition.
  • Fireteams: Joan of Arc can join Knights Hospitallers in a Core (Crusader Link) with wildcards, and is a wildcard herself for Duo-purposes.

• Knight of Justice: The replacements for Father-Knights. Heavily armored beatsticks/fireteam leads. Bost a variety of profiles, including but not limited to a surprisingly potent BTS 9 hacker, a BS 14 missile launcher, and a (slightly) forward deployed missile launcher.

• Knights Hospitaller: The biggest Military Order and one of the most versatile PanO HI, at least in the fluff. Hospitallers are ORCs with better CC, WIP, and BTS, offset by a frenzy discount. Unlike ORCs, they don't play with the other kids, and suffer from something of a death of useful profiles with which to actually fill out a fireteam. A full Hospitaller core is quite expensive and has no skills to boost order efficiency, so it may behoove you to consider running them as solo pieces, or in a Duo to suppress their Frenzy skill. Or just take Teutons.

• • Father-Officer Gabriele De Fersen: The last Templar, De Fersen is a very valid multiple-purpose HI character. Armed with a Spitfire and a Hacking Device with the coveted Trinity (read 'murder') upgrade, this guy is ready to inflict pain and grab objectives. Still one of the best PanO hackers. The downside is he costs and arm and a leg and is vulnerable to KHD. In-sectorial, he also feels the lack of a decent option to extend a repeater network. While he has the mojo to walk up the board and fry script kiddies hiding behind walls, you'll have to work in order to make him the defensive asset a strong hacker usually is.
  • Fireteams: Core, Duo and Haris. They can take one Order Sergeant with them, and form the Crosader Core with Joan.

• Knights of Santiago: The 360 visor knights. 1 SWC Spitfire on a BS 14 troop with 360 visor makes for a scary mid-field unit. Stealth lets him creep up the board between repeater, as long as he's not doing it under fire. Frenzy can be a boon for him, since it gives him an extra move once it triggers to become Impetuous, and Santiago wants to be up close. Don't forget, these guys come with Nanopulsers and E/M grenades. The former is a nice close range deterrent and the latter a great tool when faced with HI or REMs. They are also all Specialists for good measure, with the KHD equipped with a TinBot for protection. This unit really shines in MO though. A fun new profile is the Hacker with Combat Jump, who trades the nanopulsar and grenades for a Boarding Shotgun, D-charges, and Shock mines, plus the ability to combat jump. Still only PH 13, but it takes two wounds to stop his rampage if he makes it to ground.
  • Fireteams: These guys are wildcards, except the Combat Jump profile.

• Knights of the Holy Sepulchre: The Holoprojector knight. Holy Sepulchre makes for a decent solo rambo. However there's another use for him: Chain of Command! Less useful in the age of holomasked backfield Knight Commanders, but remember that CoC is a Specialist profile, which makes good use of his high WIP. The Holoprojector is an incredibly potent technical piece, giving him the ability to play deception games that are rare in Military orders (and even all of PanO), gain surprise attack mods, safely walk through hacking areas in a Marker State, eek out a tiny bit of free movement in the States Phase if unobserved, and more. Stealth and Veteran combine to make him extraordinarily resistant to conventional hackers - he is immune to Oblivion thanks to Veteran negating the Isolated state, and BTS 9 makes him extremely resistant to the Damage 13 carbonite. However, a Sepulchre is only slightly cheaper than a TAG, lacks the Tactical Awareness skill, and is only marginally more durable than most heavy infantry.

• Motorized Knights of Montesa: The first biker HI, making Yu Jing forever salty. Montesa are fast, durable and killy, though they have "low" BS 13 and only pack Multi Rifles or BSG, making them feel a little undergunned. Mimetism outsets their inability to take Cover.

Practically auto-include in ITS 13: You can now deploy him without Impetuous in return for giving him the ability to benefit from cover, even while on a bike!

• Padre-Inquisitor Mendoza:

• Teutonic Knights: The quick and the dead. Perhaps the definitive unit for current Military Orders, and the sole reason most MO lists still have at least some Heavy Infantry. Impetuous discounts and cheap weapons like shotguns and submachine guns mean every profile is dirt cheap for a Heavy Infantry, with exactly what is required to do the job and little else. Usually that job is violence within 8". Notably, the Spitfire NCO profile gives a Teuton fireteam a bit more reach, and provides a potent outlet for the LT orders from a Knight Commander. This is a vital piece of order efficiency in military orders, where you will often struggle to reach the 15-trooper cap. A Fireteam with an NCO, a specialist, and one other Teuton of your choice is a very efficient assault piece, which is also capable of scoring. They lack cubes, meaning your abysmal doctors are slightly more likely to kill them, but they can close into melee range with an Avatar without fearing anything (except the MULTI HMG). Their major downside is being AVA 3, most likely because we live in a fallen world. This is the fly in the ointment of what is otherwise a surprisingly effective ARO setup - their panzerfausts can reach out and touch you at least once, which is often all it takes with AP + EXP ammo - as they loose the +1 B bonus as soon as any one of them goes down.
  • Fireteams: They can form a Military Orders fireteam, or join one with Crosiers. Given their speed, they will usually be in a pure three-man Haris fireteam.

Tactical Armor Gear

• Seraph Armoured Cavalry: Seraph is a jumping TAG with great BS and ARM. Now comes in two flavors: mid-range one with an Auxbot buddy (thankfully updated to bounce with the Seraph, so you will no longer lose it) or a more conservative HMG with 2 Nanopulsers, better suited for jumping from behind a building in or near DZ and spraying all over the table. Note that CC 20 without any CC skills doesn't really make it good at swordfighting other TAGs; most have CC at 17-18, so it's a crapshoot either way (thought the Auxbot can give it extra Burst).

• Tikbalangs, Armoured Chasseurs of Acontecimento: Tikbalang is a mobile TAG designed for fighting at all ranges. Cheap and light, but not weak at all, with Mimetism and BS 15 it will win firefights and the mines allow it to secure itself from warbands or have his back covered when in Suppressive Fire. Climbing Plus lets him attack from unexpected angles and traverse terrain most units see as nothing more than LoF blockers. If you want you can have him hanging from a wall and shooting down, how cool is that? His buff was paid with Toni’s life, call your Tik ‘Eduardo’ in her honor.

Remotes

• Dronbots: Standard issue S3 Remotes, PanOceanian ones are not special in any way.
  • Clipper: The Guided Missile Launcher Remote. Unfortunately PanO does not have good Repeaters, so it's often a waste to take one in-Sectorial.
  • Fugazi: The Repeater/Flash Pulse Remote. Cheap Regular Order and a mobile Repeater. MO is limited to AVA 1 flashbots, so you should usually take one of these for the order and then swap it out if you need the points to upgrade it to something else later, like a Pathfinder. Mimetism (-3) can make it surprisingly annoying to remove, but that tends to be highly dependent on the attacker in question.
  • Pathfinder: The Sensor/Triangulated Fire & Forward Observer Remote. Mobile Repeater, armed, specialist, for 15 pts. Fast movement makes it a sound specialist choice, but it has no options to link, so you can't be moving up a team of gunfighters with the same orders. ITS Season 14 has gifted them Marksmanship and a free irregular order from Tactical Awareness, making them vastly more appealing as flexible scoring pieces that shore up your match into camo.
  • Sierra: The HMG Total Reaction Remote. Just park it where it can cause your opponent the most trouble moving around.

• Mulebots: Standard issue S4 Baggage Remotes. Come with a naked, EVO Hacker and TR Combi profiles. EVO Hacker is good if you have a consistent plan for using the supportware, such as Fairy Dusting your Heavy Infantry, providing Marksmanship or Enhanced Reaction to an ARO bot, or giving a Knight of Santiago better chances of touching down. Vanilla baggage is a standard cheap Order and a way to dominate a quadrant.

• Armbots: PanO-specific combat Remotes, come in two flavors:
  • Bulleteer: MIM (-6), BS 12, Spitfire or Heavy Shotgun, Repeater, 17-23 pts. Bulleteers are known cheap killers. With Marksmanship supportware a Bulleteer is a sure way to clear out enemy TR Remote and other ARO pieces in a straight up gunfight. After you’ve paid premium for your awesome HI trooper, a Bulleteer is a good way to cover his flank. Definitely better with a Spitfire than a Shotgun, if you can spare the SWC.
  • Peacemaker: Just like Bulleteer, comes with a Repeater and a Heavy Shotgun and Spitfire options. Loses Mimetism (-6) in favor of Forward Deployment and an Auxbot, making it a less straight-up aggressive bot, fit more for clearing out infiltrators. Much like Bulleteer, can be used to fill a blind spot, arguably better due to its two-in-one nature. For this role the Shotgun is preferable.

• Palbots: PanOceanian G: Servants. If you take Machinist or any of the Doctors they will usually need one.

Warband

This is not the way of the holy order!

Skirmishers

• Dart, Optimate Huntress:

• Trinitarian Tertiaries:

Building Your Army

One to two short paragraphs on list building.

Tactics

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