Theory Thursday - Sectorials vs Vanilla Factions

Some debate over which factions are more powerful - vanilla or sectorial.  People seem to be coming down on the side of vanilla factions, because command tokens "have changed everything".  Incoming contentious statement: I disagree.

The short story is that all the changes that buffed vanilla factions also apply to sectorial factions.  If sectorials were powerful before, then they're just as powerful (comparatively) now.  But that's just the short story, and you probably want a bit more than that to convince you.  So let's go.

The long story is long, so it needs to be broken up into parts.

Part A: all new advantages are shared.
Part B: selection limitations aren't as limiting as people think.
Part C: free bonuses are amazing.

So now that you have our trajectory, let's do this.

Part A
There is a fount of conventional Infinity wisdom that says Command Tokens have somehow balanced out vanilla factions and sectorials.  This generous flow of info says that Command Tokens decrease the order-efficiency disparity between vanilla and sectorial by allowing vanilla factions to make "mini-link-team moves": you spend one CT and a Regular order to move four models at once, and you can open fire with all of them - though admittedly at a lower Burst.  That's ok, though, because links can only open fire with their link leader, which opens up all of the other members to possible ARO and link dissolution.

Go link leader go!

Command Tokens are limited, though.  You only have four of them, and you'll probably be burning one for its Strategic Use (either to reduce your opponent's initial order pool or to keep him/her from using up CTs for enhanced mobility).  There's only so much you can do with these delicious tokens, and your link-using opponent is just going to be laughing the whole way as s/he spends orders on links.

Oh, and sectorials can use those Command Tokens just as well as vanilla factions.  Sure, they may need to use a CT or two to reform links, but a good player (a tactically able player) will minimize that.  Even so, s/he'll only need to use tokens to supplement the order efficiency of links, rather than merely weakly emulating them.  Everything vanillas gained, sectorials gained too.

Part B
There is yet more conventional wisdom that will say that vanilla factions have a lot more selection, and that selection - list creation - is key.  This is bogus for the following reason: once lists have been selected, both armies are subject to the same gameplay limitations.  If you have the option to choose from five different units that work similarly, and I have the option to choose from two, we both have to work with whatever we've chosen once the dice hit the table.  List creation affords you options, but once those options have been selected, you're both at the mercy of your tactical know-hows - not at the mercy of list design (unless your list design is uber-poor, which isn't exclusive to vanilla or sectorial).

Once you have the basics down, it's actually quite true...

Now, I'm willing to acknowledge and admit that some sectorials are more boned than others, and that there may be a situation where none of your potential options are good ones.  Maybe the Zerat your only possible choice for your middle line.  Maybe your only reasonable Specialist is an Impetuous bastard on a bike.  It happens, and not all factions are made equal.  That's just how it works.

This isn't, however, an argument for all sectorials getting the shaft, though.  Not by a long shot.  I think that most players would be willing to admit that they're not particularly starved for choice, even if they're not getting as much possible selection as their vanilla counterpart gets.  Maybe you don't get the exact unit you want, but you still get something useful.  And really, when you really play to your strengths, Infinity becomes all about making good use out of your units in the right place at the right time.

Part C
This brings me to my last point.  Sectorials may not have the selection you're looking for (maybe you don't get those Tankhunters or Intruders, for instance), but once a sectorial gets to the table, it's getting more than selection.  It's getting free bonuses.  That's right - free stats and free order efficiency.  As you know, Infinity uses a points formula to establish how units are balanced against each other: the pricier the unit, the more it is capable of.  So free stuff should, by extension, be very very good.

Link bonuses have the potential to give +1 Burst, Sixth Sense Level 2, and +3 BS.  However you want to slice it, this is a good 10-15 points worth of bonuses for absolutely nothing.  If you've already got a strong tactical command of your troops, and you're already in the land of "playing the game and unable to alter your list any further", you are getting free perks for nothing.  Vanilla factions don't get this, whatever their troop diversity.  I cannot stress this enough.  A vanilla player may have a few more options for their army composition, but once armies are chosen, players need to rely on the troops they have - and a huge handful of sectorial troops can get better for free.

A little while back, I had a conversation with a Corregidor player from another meta.  In that meta, Corregidor players almost exclusively used Wildcats as their link option, because they were seen as the "superior troop choice".  Alguacils were basically spat upon because they were crappy line troops.  Now, in a vanilla list, that kind of criticism might be valid - yes, I personally don't have anything against line troops, but I can see how some players might.  No, what I'm talking about here is a sectorial's ability to buff up their troops for zero cost.  You can take forty-five points worth of line troopers and turn them into B4 BS 14 badasses - and that's just with combi-rifles.  Try to find forty-five points worth of 5 Regular orders with those kind of stats in a vanilla sectorial.  Hint: you can't.

Listen to Willy Wonka here...

Oh yeah, and all five of those badasses move for the cost of one order - and that's without spending Command Tokens.

Conclusion
I'm not trying to tell you what faction to play.  I'm not even trying to tell you that sectorials are vastly superior to vanilla factions, because they're not.  My only real goal here is to tell you that the pendulum hasn't swung back in the other direction, and that vanilla factions are not the uncontested powerhouse that a lot of players think they are.  Once you get to the table, it's really all about making the best with what you've picked for your points - and when you're working with more points than your opponent, you definitely have a bit of an upper hand.