Looking for advice on my first army

[DaPino]

Currently I am a 40K player looking to get into infinity.

The first choice I'd like to make is the army because, you know, it's the most important one.
Over time, I have learned some things playing 40K.

- Good on paper doesn't equal good on the table.
- Most of the time, either shooting or close combat is the way to go.

Now I'm not going to ask you: "What is the best army so I can buy that" because I like a visually pleasing army in the first place.

The armies that struck me as good-looking were:
- Combined army, particularly the starter pack.
- Nomads, mostly because of the mechsuits and (what looks to be) nano-suits
- Tohaa. They're the only army I really love across the board, from an aesthetic point of view.
- Panoceania. Exoskeletons.

So what I'm really asking is: what style of gameplay does the current ruleset favor and how would these 4 armies perform in that particular style?

[Errhile]

As an Infinity player (and never a 40K player, but I have a plenty of these around. some having moved to Infinity) I'd say - forget your 40K-related experience. It does not transfer to Infinity.

Infinity is a different game.

First, most armies can pull most playstyles. Some do it better, others fare worse in a given playstyle, but each of them can be successful in any of these.
Second, keep in mind that each "faction" you listed (save for the Tohaa... so far) is actually composed of a number of different sub-factions ("Sectroial Armies" or "sectroials") as well as the general ("vanilla") armu of that faction.

Combined Army consists of vanilla Combined, Morat Aggression Force and Shasvasti Expeditionary Force. likely, one or two (EI and - I guess - either Fractaa or Umbra) more are to come out in a future supplement.
Nomads are made up of vanilla nomads, Corragidor Jurisdictional Command and Bakunin Jurisdictional Command, with at least one more (Tunguska JC) to get there in the future.
Tohaa are only vanilla so far, but there are rumours about at least Chaksa making out a separate entry (and CB only knows what else, may be other "servant races" out there!).
PanOceania has the wides array - vanilla, Shock Army of Acontaciemento, Military Orders and Neoterran Capitaline Army...

As for ruleset - it, just as before, favours shooting. Infinity was a shooty game from the very begining.
Dont get me wrong - if you manage to get a close combat specialist into hand-to-hand combat, it will most likely be fast and deadly. But the game mechanics like ARO make it pretty difficult to get into close combat alive.
The current ruleset - N3 - made close combat a way more viable option than the previous one, but still - it is risky, and you should be well-prepared for that.
There's the entire metagame of Hacking (and Nomads traditionally excell at this!) - but again, most armies can pull their weight on thatfield just as well...

PanOceania tends to be pretty straightforward - the are better shots (on average) than any other army, and usually don't take too much extra gear, which keeps their costs down to a manageable level.
Nomads rely on tons of tricks and synergy effects between their units.

Still - PanO can field light and pretty sneaky.
Nomads can field TAGs (armored suits) and teams of power-armor heavy infantry.

My advice?
Take your models (yes, the 40K ones) and use them to proxy all 4 of the armies you like aesthetically. Then find which playstyle fits you most.
We tend to be pretty proxy-friendly in Infinity

[Claudius Sol]

Welcome to the game! I'm an ex-WH40k player, so hopefully my insights can help you out.

I played 40k in 5th edition, primarily, with Tau and Inquisition (mixed sisters/knights) forces.

For picking an army, the advice I will always give is this: "Pick what looks best to you."
Most of the time, prospective gamers will see their instant favorite and know that they like that model a lot, but sacrifice that choice to pick a faction they thing better fits overall. Some gamers find that their favorite model(s) also happen to be in their favorite overall factions.

Coming from 40k, that might seem very strange to just pick based on aesthetics, since there were "good" and "bad" models in 40k. In Infinity, every model has a use. Every model can potentially kill any other model. Certain models find the task to be more easily attainable, but often these are dependent on other variables beyond the unit profile. Range, Cover, facing, equipment, and support can all affect your ability to harm or hinder your opponent's models. Not to mention that the game is largely scenario focused and the stat used to obtain these objectives is most often unrelated to killing ability.

You mention "Good on paper doesn't equal good on the table." This can hold true for any model in Infinity since the player decisions made in the game are some of the biggest deciding factors in any given situation. Most of the onus for winning lies with the dice. The second biggest onus for winning lies in player decisions.

There's shooting, dodging, close combat, hacking, engaging, and all sorts of other actions a model can take. The winning option is not always to simply shoot or slash. Remember the mission and why your models are there to begin with.

As for: "what style of gameplay does the current ruleset favor and how would these 4 armies perform in that particular style?"

The current ruleset is the recently released N3. Note: N1 to N2 wasn't a very large change, at all. N2 to N3 is fairly big change, but nothing akin to a 40k edition change. Models that were very useful in N2 are still very useful in N3. The ruleset doesn't favor anything in particular, with regards to specific armies. Some might argue that Haqqislam is strong or that Ariadna is strong or etc. That said, it's never a bad idea to go for higher WIP and more specialists, since these tend to be the keys to victory since they're the ones that can obtain objectives in the missions that have objectives to grab, on top of being able to perform various classified objectives.

With specialists in mind, all the factions you listed are capable.
PanOceania has superior technology to assist them in getting to and maintaining control of the objectives. Though, they have typically a point or lower WIP on equivalent models, having 5-10% less chance per die roll to capture a given objective.
Nomads have plenty of specialists with good amounts of support and trickery. There aren't many real downsides to them, but their pros aren't as pronounced, either. They're a good baseline.
Tohaa are very synergistic in their composition, being very mobile thanks to fireteam rules. They're also on the more complicated side to use and have very pronounced weaknesses to Fire, which can often be encountered in the current meta.
Combined Army are elite soldiers capable of performing most things with less effort than the other armies. That said, they're also quite expensive, points-wise, and can feel a touch stifled in army composition due to the large point costs and will feel the loss of every trooper more prominently.

I hope this was helpful.

As Errhile said, feel free to proxy when trying the game out to find what fits you best.

[Section9]

Lemme just quote what I wrote in a similar thread on the official forum:

Infinity is really different from Warmahordes or 40k. Every faction can do every build.

There's also a limited amount of model-to-model synergies like you see in Warmahordes. Multi-Spectral Visors plus Smoke-throwers is the big/obvious synergy.

My best recommendation? Go look at the storefront, see which faction has the most models that look cool. Buy those. Problem solved.

As far as what to buy? Starter pack plus Support Pack from whatever faction has the most cool models, and whatever other models you think look cool from that faction.

[DaPino]

The thing is I'm a CSM player in 40K and I'm quite sick of being the underdog that has to try harder and play better in order to achieve.

I want to make sure that the army I'm buying is at least decent.

[Claudius Sol]

That issue isn't very prevalent, if at all, in Infinity. Objectively, Infinity is VERY well balanced.

I recommend you try out a few proxy games with each of the armies you're interested in. Find a friend who plays the game and point out which models excite you (profile or aesthetic) from that army. This will help your friend build up a little "try-out" list for each army.

Try these out and have fun with it. Explore what you can do and get a feel for the game.

[Errhile]

No faction is an underdog in Infinity.

Some are distinctly different from others (Ariadna, with their almost lack of hacking... but then again, they got Wardrivers recently). Some sectorials are considered difficult to master (like "glass hammer" Hassassin Bahram - since you're new here, the Hassassins are a sectorial within the Haqqislam army).

I would, personally, not chose Tohaa as the starting army, solely because of their complex rules that are difficult to master. Note however I'm an experienced player, I was playing my favourite sectorial last time I was facing Tohaa, and a relatively inexperienced Tohaa player handed my butt to me on a silver plate

Really, first things first, grab your CSM models and have a couple of games of Infinity with proxies

[raymon]

The strength of infinity is that any model can shine. Mostly through experience you can master it and see what works for you. So buy the once you like. It's how I started out with Ariadna and I still feel the strongest with that faction because I know it the best.

[smog]

The thing is I'm a CSM player in 40K and I'm quite sick of being the underdog that has to try harder and play better in order to achieve.

I want to make sure that the army I'm buying is at least decent.

This says a lot about 40k and is probably the reason why so many ex 40k players have moved to Infinity.

[smog]

Like other people have said, this isn't the unbalanced mess that is 40k. Just choose what you like the look of best and try it out! Be aware that you have to unlearn a lot of "bad habits from 40k"):
"why isn't it a good idea to move all my dudes each round?"
-Because orders are a precious resource that you need to manage well
"why are my dudes dying in my turn?"
-Because AROs. Learn how it works.

Edit: sorry for double post, I thought the first post was lost.

[Icchan]

Fluffwise the underdogs in Infinity are Ariadna and Nomads. Consequently they're also good buddies. Luckily this has little effect on the gaming table as Nomads are probably the most versatile faction in the game with no apparent weaknesses. Ariadna have a few weaknesses in the high tech equipment department, but they make up for with lower prices or better skills and statlines. They manage to have something unique of their own as well (Traktor Muls, Dog Warriors, Antipodes, Tactical Jump, etc..).