Misunderstood Roles in Infinity

Ok, ok, I admit it.  This is a more selfish Wednesday Wishlist than most, because I'm getting a bit tired of some of the advice I'm reading on various forums.  As a new player to any game, it often feels like your job to figure out what's going on, and ideally to develop as a player.  I get that.  A lot of the time, though, all you're getting from more experienced players is their way of doing things.  This means that you're stuck believing the suggestions of veterans whether you know better or not, which doesn't leave you free to earn your own playstyle.  This leads the to pigeon-holing of units into particular roles; thinking the Bao, for example, is not useful because it doesn't outperform other units in the narrow role that's been assigned to it (a role, coincidentally, that people really seem to like).

Well, we're going to change all that.  And to all those people perpetuating this culture of "the one true way"...

And because this is Wishlist Wednesday, here are a list of roles I'd like players to understand a bit better:

1. The Mid-Range Engager

I do everything at close range...

I see a lot of excitement over toys like HMGs and Spitfires and now even Shotguns, which often leads newer players to believe that Rifles are sub-par weapons.  This is totally and completely untrue.

The catch is, we need to play strategically (thinking ahead a few moves) and tactically (where are my best modifiers?  where are his/her worst modifiers?) to appreciate the Mid-Range Engager.  It may not be as point-and-click as "spend order on HMG/Spitfire - move and shoot with HMG/Spitfire - repeat", but the results are still great.  Against a long-ranged weapon, your opponent can fail a Guts roll or Dodge out of LoF, and it's too bad for you.  Against a Mid-Range Engager, you can just spend the extra order or two to turn the corner and light them up again.

Fantastic Mid-Range Engagers include almost all Skirmishers (because they're already up there!), but they can also be models with +3 or high burst weapons that function well at short-medium ranges.  Models with Rifles + Shotguns, for example, are great at this role, because they present a threat when they're firing with their Rifle and when they turn the corner to hose the enemy down with a shotgun template.  When you want to win a face-to-face, these are the models you need to be using - not those indiscriminate high-burst swc-hog beasts.

And you know what?  Your opponent probably will kill this guy with some sort of vicious retaliation...but if you made it hard for them (Suppressive Fire, good positioning), that means they'll be spending a lot of orders to beat up on some 20-some point model and not on your Specialists.

2. The Time-Waster

Or so we hope...

In other games, this role is often called the "speed-bump", and that couldn't be a better choice of words.  In real life, speed bumps exist to make cars slow the eff down, not to stop them.  The Time-Waster role is often a speed-bump, making your opponents spend way too many orders to do what they need to.  In effect, you're paying army points to burn through your opponent's orders (trading currency for action economy), and the more orders burnt per point, the better the deal.  Some units aren't made to survive; they're there to waste your opponent's time.

Good Time-Wasters include any model capable of laying Mines or hiding in Camouflage, but they can also be models that force engagements outside of your opponent's optimal range.  A sniper in cover covering a lane from way outside any reasonable +3 range your opponent can grab is a fantastic Time-Waster, especially if it can't be bypassed with Cautious Movement.  Another good speed-bump is any model that can sequester itself in Cover and deny its opponent a good +3 shot.  Models with good close-range kits are ideal for this: if my Zouave doesn't get a single kill all game but forces my opponent to waste 4-5 orders dislodging it, I count that as a win.

I get it.  In a game you're just starting, you never want to see your units die.  In Infinity, though, units are always expendable - and the more time they make your opponent waste, the better.  And this noble sacrifice is exactly what the Time-Waster is made for.

3. The Airborne Support

You probably won't be using as many...

The ability to insert a model anywhere on the table is amazing, especially because it means that the model is effectively invincible until it lands.  Unfortunately, this lends itself to the dreaded RAMBO tactic: if you can just bring in a heavy weapon wherever you want, why wouldn't you use it to "maximum effect" to just annihilate the enemy?

Well, besides making you a bit of a poor sport (nobody likes losing before they get a turn, right?), it's only one way to use those AD troops.  The element of surprise doesn't exist just to say "surprise, time to panic!"; it's also there so that you can close gaps, reinforce flanks, and attack models that you just couldn't reach otherwise.  If I voluntarily collapse my own flank in a way that doesn't seem like I planned it, my opponent will move in to claim the ground - the perfect time to drop in some Airborne Support behind their over-committed models.  The idea is similar, but the application is so different: in the rambo example, your AD unit is now out there alone, at the mercy of crits or counter-attack.  In this example, though, you're using your Airborne Support to help close a gap instead of creating one.  And hey, you'll be less open to counter-attack, because you'll have caught your opponent out alone instead of putting your own model in that situation.

Good Airborne Support models include any AD troops (obviously), but the more versatile their guns, the better.  Since you can often drop these units in wherever you'd like, it pays to be able to follow up on your attack - and even though it's still great, a cumbersome weapon like the HMG often isn't the best solution for this.  Combis and Boarding Shotguns are a lot more flexible at close ranges, where is often where your AD units will end up.

And I know, ramboing is so enticing.  Slicing through your opponent's order pool on the very first turn is often bait that new players can't fail to take.  One or two unlucky crits will really ruin your day, though, leaving you with nothing.  Force yourself to think more flexibly about your Airborne Support and you'll soon be able to think more flexibly about the game as a whole.

4. The Cheerleader

Or something like that...

Orders are the lifeblood of Infinity.  Cheerleaders - models that provide a good point-to-order ratio - find their places in many lists, though many new players don't like that a handful of their models just don't do anything.    But hey, it gets harder and harder to resist the siren call of cheap orders, right?

Fortunately, models often designated as "merely cheerleaders" have a lot more than that to contribute to a battle.  Players who believe Cheerleaders just stand around providing orders don't see the potential locked within, and releasing it is often difficult for them to do.  I mean, superficially, Cheerleaders are almost always going to look like they're standing around.  That's their job.  The more important issue is, where are they standing?

Depending on where your "cheerleaders" are positioned, you can use them for a wide variety of things.  Their first major function is that of the corner guard, where they block an angle to prevent an enemy from getting easy access to your back line.  This might turn them into a miniature Time-Waster, and the one-two orders spent gunning them down might make all the difference between total destruction of your back line and only a few models lost.  Corner guards with template weapons are especially scary, because they force your opponent to engage from a further range or risk losing their attacker - and this gets twice as effective if your template-corner-guard can't be seen outside the maximum range of his/her template.

Cheerleaders are also fantastic at discovering.  This isn't because they're particularly good at it (they don't necessarily have high WIP, and almost certainly won't have MSVs), but rather because they're so cheap that a Discover check doesn't feel like a waste of an order or ARO if they die. In this respect, Cheerleaders are more than just the fuel for your army's action economy; they are the cheap glue that holds it together - or, at least, buys it some time - against back attacks and devious Camo tricks.

Obligatory picture of dice, because...roles?  Rolls?

I hope this article has given you something to think about with regard to unit roles, and how they're not as static as some people might have you believe.  Now go forth and give this stuff a try, because the best way to find your own paradigm is to try everything!