Infinity/N4 Tactics/Ikari Company

Ikari Company is a private military company. Its warmonger and leader is Genzo Ikari, a former military leader who went rogue after personal tragedy and took many troops with him. According to Alper Cibilli with the Bahram, the name was chosen by Genzo because Ikari means Anger. They have no cultural touchstones like the Druze, no sense of honor like Foreign Company, and no national ties like StarCo. All they have is an edgy, dark hatred and a talent for violence. From their bases in the Human Edge system, they serve corporate security to the wealthy and brutal piracy to the unlucky. They don’t care, as long as they’re getting paid.

Why Play Ikari Company?

Ikari is the throat-punchiest faction, containing many irregular troops and a highly aggressive, straightforward profile. A lot of their units are impetuous, meaning they're not interested in watching each others back but prefer to get down with the murdering business. They lost a bit of appeal with the transition into N4 since having 20 units available made their asymmetric trading game way more potent- more points-hefty HI choices got more popular, but that also means the uptrade potential of your warbands got a lot better. Ikari's the faction for you when you want every trooper in your list to have the potential to punch up against any threat, to move pieces everywhere, quickly, every turn. Your deployment might be anemic with no skirmishers or midboard control... But every threat in your army has the capacity to either appear exactly where needed or use high MOV values to exploit a weak point in 2 to 3 orders, graciously provided by their irregular and impetuous order. Ton of smoke and high PH all around.

In return, your defense relies somewhat in that muddy target priority. You have a lot of aggressive dangerous troopers, but they're also cheap irregulars. So your opponent will most likely spend multiple of their orders to take out 3 to 4 troopers that ultimately didn't really modify your order pool and cost you 30 points total.

Faction Features

• JSA but without honor: A lot of profiles are shared with JSA, and the biggest difference is Ikari trading a lot of versatility for even more aggressive potential. Ikari is for players who approach a mission by taking out the opponents forces first and push buttons later.
• Irregular suicide squads: The selection of cheap irregular profiles makes Ikari excell in clearing hard to reach angles and trade up against threats your HI can't deal with.
• Terrible LT-choices: You've got Keisotsu and Brawlers to pick from, both bring WIP 12 and their specific LT profiles won't do much else. The leadership of this band of mercenaries isn't the strongest.
• Warbands: Yeah, that's basically point two all over again, but their warband selection is amazing. These disposable bodies are quick in taking out midfield threats for your HI-units to occupy it for good.

Units Overview

Unit Identifier Ikari

Light Infantry

• Keisotsu: The plain, listfilling LI. They aren't really good at anything but generating orders, but they're cheap, can form a core link and have a few specialist an SW profiles if you're in desperate need of something specific on a budget. They can bring one Tankō and one Brawler into their link, which is a cheap way to get a 5-link bonus on some big scary gun.

• Tokusetsu Butai: These are the faction-generic doctor and engineer. One-purpose profiles, but cheap and reliable.

• Warcors: 3pts for an irregular Flashpulse ARO. Fit him into your list whenever you got the slot and points, they're well worth it.

• Bashi Bazouks:Bashi Bazouks have Holoprojector, Holomask, and Parachutist, which make for an incredible combination. They can be a great disruption unit, if you have some leftover points. However, they do requires some foresight since they are dirt cheap irregulars. - troopers that are a low investment that have the added bonus that losing them does not hurt your order pool. Popular profiles include the SMG+Chain Colt, Combi+E/M Mines, and the Specialist Operative with an AP-Rifle and Light Shotgun.

• Cube Jäger: The most expensive irregular parachutist in Ikari. Both profiles bring Paramedic, which seems to be their whole schtick. With WIP 13 they can do the button pressing quite well though and having a SMG and an e/mitter can be very useful to scare away the opponents units after a button is pushed. They combo well with a Wu Ming core link as having the option to both assassinate IMM Tags and HI rambos or come revive your HI wherever they fell, depending on what's important right now.

• Authorized Bounty Hunter: They've got Booty (ReRoll) and Fireteam: Duo. They also bring a few extra weapon options into the roster for extra variety.

• 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.

• Krakot Renegades: Forward Deployment let's them find the right spot to deploy more easily, MetaChemistry (reroll) can give a very nice boost if the RNG-gods are in your favor. The veteran skill makes them immune to Isolated. Besides that they're bringing a bit of variety into the roster with their Chest Mines and a Red Fury option. Impetuous makes them both more vulnerable and efficient in taking the midfield- it's a double-edged sword really. They've got special Fireteam: Duo with Kendrad.

Medium Infantry

• Brawlers:These guys and gals fill a variety of roles in your army lists because up to 1 of them can join a link of Keisotsus, Tankō and Wú Míng. They are decent shots with decent armor in cover, and you can trade their Rifle and Light Shotgun for the ever popular MULTI Sniper Rifle and MSV2 or a submachine gun equipped hacker. They also have access to a profile with a Heavy Rocket Launcher and an assault pistol. They also can be an engineer, a doctor, or even your Lieutenant if you do not mind a rather lackluster WIP of 12.

• Armand 'Le Muet,' Freelance Killer: Armand is "Ikari mentality condensed in a single trooper" - Dude is a relentlessly aggressive trooper that beats down any enemy at any range and even has an extra wound to do. While poor old Armand cannot remember which side he's truly on; he still is an irritating ARO piece because of his -6 Mimetism. He also comes with the option of either a shock minelayer to protect himself, or a MSV1 though the MSV2 Brawler might be the more cost-effective sniper due to how costly Armand is. But that aside, if you're not planning on having a core-linkes sniper for that sweet +3BS Armand is great for an aggressive area-denying troop who does well in both active turn and ARO. Ikaris warband options are great for laying smoke in his favor aswell as taking out MSV2 troops which might threaten him.

• Druze Shock Teams: Your standard Druze packs a combi-rifle, chain colt, an X Visor, and a viral pistol with Veteran and BS Attack (+1 Dam). Druze options include a paramedic, a lieutenant, a panzerfaust, a normal hacker, or a killer hacker. They can also take a HMG or a MULTI-sniper with -3 mimetism, but the spiciest profile adds a normal grenade launcher as well as an E/M grenade launcher. The EM/Regular Grenade launcher when combined with the X Visor allows you to roll the dice and potentially cause your opponent to have a very bad time (tm). Druze Shock Teams have a dizzying array of options, but they carry a heavy price due to the amount of weapons they bring with them. In Ikari they can form a Haris or Duo and can bring one Clipper Dronbot into the link.

Heavy Infantry

• Daiyōkai Dengekitai: 2,5 wounds, NCO, an actually decent BS and two nice weapon options make the Dayokai nice to include as the main gunfighter in a Tankō Haris, but they can also do pretty well on their own.

• Tankō Zensenbutai: The cheapest HI in the faction, and maybe even in the whole game. One Tanko can join the Keisotsu, and they can bring up to one Brawler and Dayokai into their Haris for some more flexibility. Their main guns are scary ARO pieces, they shine in CC and the ML option is just really, really scary.

• Karakuri Special Project: Robot waifu HI, with 3 wounds and remote presence- aka really hard to take down. Every profile is a FO and carries a panzerfaust, chainrifle and flash pulse. Their main gun options aren't too fancy, but they are good- con't complain and use your SWC elsewhere.

• Al Fasid Regiment: The versatile S5 gunfighter from Haqqislam has got a two very nice profiles, with Minelayer and Veteran on both of them.

• Wú Míng Assault Corps: Relatively cheap and simple HI, which can form a Fireteam: Core or Haris. They can bring a Clipper Dronbot and a Brawler 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

• Scarface & Cordelia: They're still around and in Ikari they are doing what they do best, kicking asses. Scarface's TAG throws down with 2 Mk12's, an HRL and an AP CCW with assault. Alternatively you could run him with two AP Spitfires or an AP HMG. Not bad considering his high CC, PH and MOV. When he bails, he gets a BSG and becomes a Spec Op. His sister is a well equipped specialist with -3 mimetism, WIP 13, a combi rifle, and a chaincolt and d-charges. Together these two are very good value for their points since you get an option of three good weapon profiles as well as a mimetism equipped engineer for a -relatively- cheap price. While they can't link in Ikari it's still worth it to take both, but a solo Scarface can do a lot too if you're on a budget.

Remotes

• Dronbots: Standard issue S3 Remotes, PanOceanian ones are not special in any way.
  • Clipper: The Smart Missile Launcher Remote.
  • Fugazi: The Repeater/Flash Pulse Remote. Cheap Regular Order and a mobile Repeater. Nice filler or Flash Pulse ARO.
  • Pathfinder: The Forward Observer Remote. Mobile Repeater, armed, specialist, for 16 pts.
  • Sierra: The HMG Total Reaction Remote. Just park it where it can cause your opponent the most trouble moving around.

• Yáopú 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.

• Yáoxiè Lù Duān: 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.

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

Warbands

• Yojimbo, Sword for Hire: A motorcycling warband with smoke grenade launcher and regular smoke grenades. Minelayer with CrazyKoalas makes your deployment zone a tad more safe. He's immune to Crits and has NWI, but since he's impetuous you still need to be careful. Lastly he is a very competent CC fighter.

• Desperadoes: Very cheap motorized units with Smoke Grenade Launchers, regular smoke grenades and Sixth Sense. There's really not a lot more to them, but at 6 pts for their cheapest loadout you really don't need much else.

• Kendrat, Krakot Renegade: He's the named Krakot Renegade. The increased cost pays for Dogged, total Immunity, Berserk (+3), MA L1 and Natural Born Warrior, but he loses MetaChemistry. That's a very acceptable loss given the fact he's wielding a Vulkan Shotgun and can risk taking a hit every now and then and still stand for at least the end of the turn.

• Yuan Yuan: Very cheap impetuous space pirates with combat jump on PH=11- what's not to love here? They have Booty for reasons of flavor, and come at 8 pts for their cheapest loadouts. Using them is a gamble, but since they're pretty cheap and a ton of fun there is still a point in fielding them. You will never forget successfully trading your Yuan Yuan against some expensive active turn gunner that one game.

Skirmishers

• Ninjas: Hidden deployment infiltrators with MIM (-6). They've got hackers with either HD or KHD, or a FO option as specialists. The tactical bow allows precise assassinations within close range without drawing AROs- you shouldn't rely on it though since their BS isn't great.

Building Your Army

Listbuilding in Ikari is tricky, they're not exactly an easy sectorial to start out with. Their LT coices are trash, and units like the Karakuri or Druze suffer from not having a link to join. They're not weak by any means though, just make sure to pick the right tools. Having a Karakuri fight on his own isn't a terrible choice, just make sure to protect it with a defensive core or a threat like Armand and the opponent will have a hard time taking them out.

Tactics

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