Ammo Tactica: Viral Ammo

Welcome to this week’s ammo article where we will cover Viral ammo, a devious and lethal tool which you’ll love to unleash upon your enemies.

First off, what does it do?. When hit your enemies will be forced to take  two BTS (Biotechnological Shielding) rolls per hit at the same damage of the weapon that inflicted the  damage. Also, the target passes to the Dead state immediately and will not go Unconscious. Viral ammo also negates the effect of Dogged and No Wound Incapacitation. Deadly, isn’t it? Currently the weapons using this ammo are the viral variants of rifles, combi rifles, sniper rifles, close combat weapons and mines.

What are the uses of Viral ammo?First,the ammo targets BTS not ARM (remember that Cover provides an extra -3 BTS) so most of the time you’ll be hitting models with less protection. Additionally, you are forcing two saves and potentially auto killing which makes it a great tool against Ariadna, Steel Phalanx, Shasvastii, Morats, Corregidor (save Wildcats). In fact it is usefulagainst the majority of the troop profiles that you’ll find in any army. Even TAGs tend to have a lower BTS than ARM, allowing saturation fire to be used quite effectively against big armoured targets. For example, a Loup Garou link team shooting and hitting all four bursts of their rifles would force eight BTS saves ensuring some decent damage if not a bloody mess. Armored or tough troops with  low BTS values (Geckos, Sogarats, Mobile Brigadas, Ajax, Asawiras) are your favored targets , as are Sogarats and other Heavy infantry,The fact that the targets will die instead of falling Unconscious makes many skills and models useless (Doctors, medkits, auto medkits, regeneration, etc.).

Another bonus you get from this ammo type is that it stops Dogfaces from turning into Dog Warriors when causing a single wound.They will be stuck in their less effective form for the rest of the game.

As everything in Infinity, there are counters. In this case it is a new skill (which is rumored to change, in the upcoming 3rd edition) called Bioimmunity, sported by the new Neoterra Bolts and Tarik Mansuri, which negates the special effects of Shock and Viral ammo.

You should take into account that BTS  increases in a larger progression than ARM.It goes up  by threes, -3, -6, -9, etc., so with as little as -3 BTS and Cover your weapon’s efficiency is dramatically reduced.

Who uses this in their arsenal? Haqqislam and Tohaa are the prime users while the Loup Garous in Ariadna and the Mercenary personality Father Lucien Sforza have access to it as well.Additionally, the Bakunin Ubërfallkommando has a Viral CCW. You’ll get the most use of these weapons via the Link Team bonus (Tohaa Triads with Viral combi rifle are very  dangerous) or making use of the big ordinance such as Viral Sniper rifles.

Hassassin Lasiqs and the brand new Tohaa Nikoul are the only models who currently have  the Viral Sniper rifle. With Dam 15 and two BTS saves per hit it is enough to kill anything that goes into your crosshairs.

So to recap:

– Most of the troops of the game have 0 BTS

– Ariadna, has only  two profiles with -3 BTS each.

– There are many expensive models that can be dealt with by two bursts of Viral ammo

– Going immediately to the Dead state negates many skills that would allow a model to keep fighting

I hope you found this article useful and don’t forget to leave a comment if you have any questions or feedback.