Infinity N4 Military Orders Action Pack Preview

When your enemies have armored war suits and weapons high-tech weaponry, the church needs to be able to meet any threats in kind. Military Orders are the answer to those threats, they are the armed branch of the church under the leadership of PanOceania. With a brand new Action pack released for Infinity N4, we once again sit down with Andy Riker Roo to get his advice on how best to use the units in the action pack.

Infinity is Corvus Belli's anime/cyberpunk wargame. If you're brand new to Infinity, the best place to start is with Infinity CodeOne and you can read our guide on getting started here. If you've played Infinity before or are looking to upgrade from CodeOne then Infinity N4 is the latest edition of the Infinity rules.

When choosing an Infinity faction to play, players will refer to 2 different types of army. Vanilla and Sectorial.

• Vanilla - Vanilla armies are the core forces of Infinity. There are 8 of them including O-12. Playing a vanilla force gives you access to the full range of that faction's units.
• Sectorial - Sectorial forces are themed forces. They have limited troops choices, and generally include some interesting choices from outside the full faction options. They also have access to Fireteams, which allow you to link up units and move them with a single activation, and also gives them bonuses to attacks.

Military orders are a PanO sectorial and are available in their own action pack. To look at the Military Orders Action Pack in detail, we brought in our resident Infinity expert, Andy 'Riker' Roo, who is one of the UK's top Infinity players.

There’s just something about the thought of badass-religious-zealot-knights in space that appeals to a lot of hobbyists, and Infinity’s Military Orders capture the image of waging war across the galaxy with massive swords and pristine tabards exceptionally well.  When Corvus Belli announced that they were giving MO an overhaul, I felt a solid mix of excitement and fear. Excitement at the fact that there were going to be some awesome new minis and rules for a faction that had always appealed to me, and fear that an army that had been kept in check by being several years behind was about to get a new lick of paint. Needless to say though, CB did not disappoint. 

As with all PanOceania forces, Military Orders’ real strength lays in their shooting, a monstrous average of 13 (14 in some lists) means that you can go into gunfights with some assurances that, unless you’re stacking things against yourself, you’re likely to come out on top. To back it up, MO features a lot of heavy armor (as you’d expect in a list themed around knights), a great spread of weapons, and a multitude of units with multiple wounds. These factors combined mean that MO inherently has a very strong ARO game too, as they have a number of options which can stand up, take gunfire, and should they lose the face-to-face, stay in place, especially with Religious (which means you automatically pass your Guts roll when taking wounds, in fact, you have to pass a WIP to fall back). 

Military Orders are very much a mailed fist faction that are good at brute-forcing situations and applying pressure across the board. They’re great in CC, so can march forward, shooting targets that are present, and smashing the faces of anything they meet en route. They also have a good range of sneakier options, including drop troops, camouflage models, infiltrators, and hidden deployment. However, in this article I’m going to give an overview of the units in the recently released Military Orders Action Pack, what sort of role they each fill on the battlefield, and a list that I think would be good for anyone trying them for the first time.

The Military Orders Action Pack contains:

• Knight Commander - This model is your go-to Lieutenant, whilst the profile isn’t anything that’s a major threat, it comes with the option to take +1 Lieutenant Order, which plays really nicely with the NCO skill, which allows the NCO unity to spend Lt orders as if they were it's own. Also, the Knight Commander comes with a holomask, which allows it to deploy as a different profile of the same silhouette, so it can bravely hide itself. Finally, Knight Commanders can join Crozier Fireteam.
• Crosiers - Crosiers form the backbone of the MO list, the standard line infantry that you see in all armies throughout Infinity, except they have PanO-level of access to equipment and a fierce BS12. Whilst they don’t feature the usual spread of specialists you see in line infantry, they do get a paramedic, which is a great unit to have in a core link team, mainly as they can use their BS to try and revive unconscious allies; whilst they might not know which end of a syringe to use, they definitely know their way around a gun-shaped medkit. Another profile to call out is the Blitzen, E/M Mines profile, if you’re using the Crozier as a core link as my list has, then having a threat that can neuter units that are going on a rampage is a huge help. Due to points though, it’s usually either the Paramedic or the Blitzen. If you can fine-tune things to get both, please let me know.
• Crosier Spitfire - One option that is definitely worth calling out (as it even gets a model in the box) is the Spitfire toting Crosier. Not only does it have a great anti-infantry weapon, but it’s also equipped with MSV2, denying Mimetic units their bonus, and due to the 4+ person link bonus they will be ignoring any surprise shots from Albedo units, or through White Noise. 
• Black Friar - This is another stand-out profile for me, along with its MSV2, the Black Friar comes with a Heavy Rocket Launcher, which has a great range band and the terrifying combination of being an impact template, and continuous damage; any link team is going to be really mindful of engaging the Black Friar. It should be noted that the profile comes with a MULTI pistol (for short-range engagements) and also Sixth Sense, so even if the Black Friar is the last one standing, it won’t get caught out by White Noise, Albedo, or being shot in the back. To cap it off, the Black Friar FTO profiles can freely join Crosier's core links.
• Infirmarer - Whilst this unit is able to Wildcard into any link, keeping the Infirmarer back and solo means you can put points into a Blitzen Crosier, or double down on having medic options. Similarly, should the worst happen, and you lose a link member to a shock round, or multiple wounds, etc, you can reform the link to include the Infirmarer. Finally, its boarding shotgun gives great backfield defense from any pesky AD troops.

By now, you’ve probably worked out that the models above form a Core Link in my list. Their main role is to lock down fire lanes, or cover objectives, whilst providing orders to the aggressive units in my army. Speaking of which.

• Knight of Santiago - The Knight of Santiago (affectionately known as KoS) is an absolute beast. Every profile is a specialist, it’s got incredible BS-ARM-Weapon combinations, and a good spread of equipment to help with both killing things and completing objectives. The key piece for me, however, is the Killer Hacker Profile, as it comes with a Firewall(-3) Tinbot, and can Wildcard into links, giving your other Heavy Infantry some much-needed coverage from enemy hackers. 
• Knight of Justice - This might possibly be my favorite profile in the list. As with the KoS, the Knight of Justice (KoJ) has a variety of excellent profiles to choose from, depending on how you build your list, but the one that gets me is the Spitfire, +4” Forward Deployment. As with the Crosier, it starts in the good range band for its weapon and, for some reason, is 0.5 SWC cheaper. The KoJ also boasts huge ARM 5, and BS14, and is an infantry killing machine! Use it to mow down anything with ARM 3 or less.

The KoS and KoJ often form a pretty hellish Duo. The Tinbot bonus applies to both models in the link, meaning that the KoJ becomes BTS12 from hacking programs, so can ignore any hacking attempts on it, whilst the KoS responds with its Killer Hacker options. They are best used to sweep the midfield of anything that is looking to claim objectives, or that might interfere with the next unit on the list.

• Knight of the Holy Sepulchre - Oh man, did this profile get a complete overhaul. Not only does the Knight of the Holy Sepulchre boast one of the best models in the game right now (in my opinion), it also has a terrifying profile, being the equivalent to a TAG in threat, but featuring a couple of tricks. Whilst “only” BS14, the fact that it has a Holoprojector, allowing it to deploy 2 fake copies of itself, the KoHS gains the benefits of Surprise Shot on its first attack from Holoprojector state. The AP Machine Gun would normally be enough to make any TAG quiver in its 10-foot tall boots, but the Sepulchre boasts +1 damage to its BS and CC attacks, making it even more of a threat. Use this model to engage any heavy armor threats you can see, and make sure to save an order at the end of its rampage to drop into Suppressive Fire at the end of your turn, which should be easy, as the KoHS has NCO, allowing it to spend the Knight Commanders two Lt orders as its own. It’s worth noting that, as Holoprojector re-activates automatically at the end of both player’s turns now, you can use it to safely go into Suppressive in full cover, and then place one of the echoes peaking out, and “become” that one, or start your own turn in Holoechoe state to gain Surprise Shot, it’s truly horrible.

That about wraps it up for the contents of the box, but the more mathematically minded of you out there will realize that the list is only 9 models strong currently. To get around that, if you were savvy enough to pick up the other new unit, the Montessa Knight, then this will fill the hole for you nicely. 

• Knight of Montessa - Another unit that got a full rework, going from being a midfield deploying Heavy Infantry, to a motorbike riding, rapid responding Heavy Infantry badass. I really feel like this unit gets overlooked, which is a shame because it’s easily the best bike unit in the game (again, in my opinion). In my list, I’ve gone for the Paramedic option, as it can quickly and easily get over to any of the aggressive units that need patching up, or to a button for a last-minute grab. Similarly, its Boarding Shotgun means it can zoom over to any warbands that are getting uncomfortably close, and deal with them before they become a problem. 

Andy's Military orders List Straight Out Of The Action Pack (plus Knight of Montessa)

I hope this has given you a rough idea of how Military Orders can be used on the table and hopefully inspired you to pick up your sword and shield and take up the crusade through the Human Sphere. As with any army in Infinity though, you learn so much more from playing with them, so if you think that gunning your way up to the enemy so you can deliver righteous justice with a sword bigger than most Yu Jing units, then definitely give Military Orders a go.

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This article was put together with the help of our resident Infinity expert, Andy 'Riker' Roo, who is one of the UK's top Infinity players. Andy keeps his own Infinity blog if you want to see more of his thoughts and tactics.

The copy of the Infinity N4 Military Orders Action Pack used to produce this preview was provided by Corvus Belli.