Intro/disclaimer

All the reinforcements for the various armies have been leaked and now its time for hot takes, hyperbolic rants, and opinions that will surely age really well. It is important to know that we still don’t have all the details yet, and the biggest mystery for me is what models in each army will carry comlinks, and how the various levels of comlink work.

Below I have the releases listed in the order of power level. Again, just my opinion and nobody has played this yet so this could be totally off base but hey, leave a comment about how fucking dumb I am or that we dont know everything yet so we cant make opinions. Engagement is engagement after all. Overall I think most armies are getting some cool new additions and flavor added to them, with just a few duds. This is looking to be a really interesting release that will change a lot about how we play the game.

#1 Aleph

Aleph is a powerful faction that is generally pretty interested in maximizing the quality of its models. As such 250 points in group 1 and 100 points in group 2 should be very appealing. On top of that general concept, they got many new profiles that are very powerful and cover areas that may have been vulnerabilities previously.

Dawon tacbots are your new warband dakini. They specialize in close combat and nasty template weapons. Dogged total immune close combat oriented models are very dangerous, and these guys will often trade up or be a very dangerous roadblock to try and pass. Their CC skill is pretty remarkable, with burst 2 cc22 MA2 they actually have good odds against even the most skilled of enemy combatants

Riksha Tacbots are insane. This is an Arm 3 Dakini with ECM hacker 03 and some very good weapon options. a 0SWC red fury here is insane, and the specialist option is always nice. Boarding shotguns and rocket launchers are also very powerful midfield tools. These guys are AVA5 and can core fireteam, and its important to note that an evo hacker can drop marksmanship on them if a repeater is available.

Maximus is happy to exist in the midfield. A power CC tag with a good MMR with extra burst makes for a powerful addition to your reinforcements. Immune to possession is nice, but he does lack remote presence so he is a bit hard to heal, so why bother. Pop him out of his wrecked tag and continue fighting. 71 points will make him hard to fit into you reinforcements though.

The fireteams here are pretty varied, with most of your robots and the arjuna able to team up. We still dont know what the Artalis is, but even without that knowledege this selection i svery strong. Rudras getting into the midfield, along with sophotects and yudbots for on demand healing and engineering is very good. A huge winner here is the Arjuna unit, who combined with their kirin bots are the bane of most tags and HI in the game but struggle to get into the midfield effectively, now they get there in your reinforcements. Overall this is just a powerful toolkit of specialists, cc and template trading pieces, mid range gunfighters, and utility pieces that its hard to imagine wont round out any Aleph army. Turn one Achilles rampage never looked so good, because when he does finally die that turn, you just get first crack at 100 point points of pain coming in.

#2 Combined Army

Well, Corvus Belli’s consistent game design of Combined army having tons of powerful rules, profiles, and not really paying many points for them continues. Exrah have been designed with a rule that is pure upside in that when your guys lose their last wound they just die but get what must be a very large points discount. This is perfectly fine because who cares about healing things in turn 3 anyways.

The Base operators are a basic, but cheap, MI. They have pretty bad stats overall but are fast and have some good weapon options. The engineer specifically will make it into a lot of lists for a late game fast specialist.

Exrah Executive officers are arm and bts 3 M with slightly better stats. They come packed with either chain of command or xvisor and specialist operatives. The plasma carbine assault pistol xvisor specialist is particularly dangerous at 19 points. Solid profiles for right around that 20 point cost.

Vector operators are nuts. these are basically bs12 nisse with the reinforcement deployment scheme at well under 30 points. the spitfire at 26 points is insane value that punches well above its point cost. I have no idea what math happened here to make this profile 6 points cheaper than a yaogat with spitfire but I am sure it has nothing to do with having to internally compete with already bonkers combined army profiles.

Void Operatives are mostly eh except for the killer hacker SMG that can fight pretty well, hack pretty well, and set up some obnoxious suppressive fires when he is finished. NCO lets these guys spend your LTs orders on them or their fireteams. This guy tossed in a haris with a vector operator and a nexus is a really powerful little fireteam that appears at the exact rangeband it is interested in being at.

The Caskuda is a medium tag with short range weapons. Damage 15 AP Combi rifle is weird but slaps pretty hard, and the burst 2 chain rifle at damage 15 is also very dangerous. The main draw of the reinforcement Caskuda is that it is pretty inexpensive at 53 points. It is likely going to appear in good range for its combi rifle. It is pretty cool.

Some of the other options here are really important to mention. Umbra appearing in the midfield might make them a compelling choice where they previously weren’t really seen much. Nexus operatives joining both the haris mostly exists to bring their costs down but they also don’t mind being in the midfield. Ko Dali is a very dangerous midfield piece. Combined army also gets the exclusive rights to getting their TR bot as reinforcements which is a huge deal. The plasma gun TR bot appearing at its happy range bands is amazing and something that may drive your enemy crazy trying to deal with it. The FO bot is common to lost of armies reinforcements but is still a good addition. Time will tell if they keep marksmanship (they really shouldn’t) But a tacaware sensor repeater appearing in the midfield is great, and always something to consider.

In general, I think combined army will be happy to spend their first turn trading a speculo and some other 20 point thing to get the first crack at reinforcements on turn 2 while having many extremely high quality pieces in the main group.

Last lets talk about the new non-reinforcement profile, the caskuda again!

This guy jumps in on 14s (before evo bots) and explodes on his landing. This is going to be a real menace and one that you will now have to prepare for when playing combined army. Good luck, you have another nightmare to prepare for now when facing what is arguably the top army in the game.

#3 O12

O12 and especially starmada have gotten a lot of (needed)love this year and we arent stopping now!

Jackboots are a cool total immune arm 3 bts 3 medium infantry with good kit . They have good varied specialist options that can help round out the fireteams they may be interested in being a part of. NCO is always good, and SMGs in the midfield are very powerful. Try not to think about the cost of the new models from Aleph and Combined Army as you look at these though or your head will start to hurt a bit.

Ment agents are amazing utility pieces. All having chain of command and biovisor, there’s some really filthy options here. The burst 3 riotstopper with assault pistol for 15 points should terrify any tags or fireteams she comes near, and the hacking profile provides nice utility on a stealth body.

VIDOCQ (Vid-oh-cock?) are another NCO option with some sweet things going for them. Light infantry with mimetism and bs13, these guys and or gals provide boarding shotguns, doctors, or msv1 MMR to your reinforcements for a really budget package.

Nightshades are a mim-6 Ninja type guy without camo but with close range weapons, mines or dropbears, and access to dcharges and hacking devices This seems like a pesky midfield piece, but maybe one I am not super excited to field. That cool ass sword being a shock ccw feels a bit silly too.

Looking at O12 as a whole there’s some cool stuff here. Bronzes in the midfield are sweet, and Oko copperbots as ava 2 wildcards is sweet. Cassanova and Cuervo are nasty close range pieces. Bronze fireteams seem really fun to play around with, as their durability and new found deployment mobility may allow them to finally function as intended. Sarko is a weird but welcome addition here too. Don’t overlook the power of a dakini paramedic to fill things out here. its a fast specialist that gunfights well within 16. Overall the new pieces are good, and they synergize well with the old pieces.

#4 Yu Jing

I guess Yu Jing players cried enough about Military Orders or something because now we have Korean Teutons. Among other things, these reinforcements should slot well into all of the existing sectorial as well as vanilla. IA is happy to play limited insertion lists as it stands so this should work well for hem goign forward.

Hwarang are Yu Jing Teutons, vor a few points tax you get to trade impetuous for frenzy. You do have lower BS but in exchange you have Explosive CCW. These guys are terrifying and will fireteam effectively and eliminate anybody that encroached on the state empires territory.

Sulyong are pretty handly little msv1 gunfighters with some good specialist options. NCO should provide some good synergy with your daoying. The forward observers shotgun is especially scary in close.

Sulsa Are close combat specialists with good close range weapons to fight their way into combat. These are gonna be tricky to use but they do fill out a fireteam well adding some good close range punch to it.

Almost every unit on this list loves the midfield, with things like Bixie, so ra kown, rui shi, and jujaks really enjoying that environment they will exist in. The fireteam options here are fantastic, with plenty of heavy specialist options good at mid and close range fighting. It will be interesting to see what the dokkaebi does but if it is a good hacker it will be a great addition to the fireteams.

#5 Haqquislam

Haqquislam as a whole is less interested in playing limited insertion, and my totally untested opinion on this is that reinforcements will not be kind to armies who liked to rely on irregular and impetuous troopers. Daylami taking up 3 or 4 of your 10 unit slots is a big price, and one that will probably require significant workshopping to figure out.

Odalisques are an old fan favorite and a welcome addition here. They are really mean sudo 2-wound models with a specialty in close range combat. CC attack -9 is very funny, and their equipment allows them to get into close combat and bully people with their multi pistols.

The Burtuk is a premium near 2 wound heavy infantry engineer. it only has close range weapons but it is priced extremely aggressively and is a good wip 14 engineer. Think of this guy as a Haqquislam close range EVAder.

Koran is a weird close range pirate guy who has close range weapons and reasonable CC skills. Shock ccw and heavy pistol is not the most impressive thing but the burst 3 chain rifle is pretty funny and at a reasonable points cost.

Interesting firteam options combined with HAFZA wildcards make it really hard to unpack what is going on when these guys arrive. The Azrail is an interesting choice here with its long range weapons but maybe its a good way for this guy to appear and gun down a badly placed tag out of nowhere. If the Rafiq Red Fury makes it in and marksmanship stays around I would look out for that wildcard combined with the engineer to keep it up and fighting.

#6 Panoceania

Pano made out fairly well here. Tag reinforcements along with some mid range fighters and utility pieces will help round out many pano lists, without dramatically changing how they play. I am not sure it plugs any gaps in the army though so it has fallen far down the list.

Blade-Ops tacaware engineer SMG is fantastic SMG Mimetism Specialist that can repair your tags and remotes is fantastic, and at sub 30 points its a powerful option to support the rest of your reinforcements

Blockers have extra burst guns which actaully gives them very dangerous adhesive launchers, nanopulsars, and multipistols. Combined with sensor, biovisor, and xvisor these guys discover things super easily. The hacker profile adds great utility to the midfield and is actually a good hacker by pano standards.

Squalos MK2 has officially ended my ability to complain about Pano not getting bs15 models. This BS 15 light tag will likely be taking an AP spitfire to also end my bitching about Pano not having AP spitfires which I consider the best standard gun in the game. Cheap, Powerful, tought, and dont sleep on extra burst multi pistols for breaking boxes. I loce this addition to Pano and the blade op engineer and blocker hacker supporting it is a great addition.

Bolts, blockers and blade ops make a cool fireteam, and dont sleep on adding a tinbot firewall orc shotgun to your team. Shona, bulleteers add good midfield fighters that can really threaten anything tough that pushed up on you in earlier turns. Aquilla guard and swiss guard are a weird addition, and feel too expensive and bad at these range bands to really be all that appealing. Overall good additions but I worry about the lack of cheap trading pieces to deal with enemy midfield incursions.

#7 Nomads

Nomads seemingly got more of the same that they have already available to their army just in midfield deployment form.

Rounders are NCO Biovisor MSV 1 light infantry. Again try not to think about exrah too much but the NCO is valuable and the SMG Hacker with trinity is a super flexible option good most of the time. These will make a great little addition to a core or haris team you make to better fuel them with your LT order. Marksmanship pushes their gunfightijg ability up pretty high, making that red fury a fearsome piece.

Kulak are mimetism medium infantry with lots of close range options as well as a HRL option. The specialist options are pretty cool and a bs13 mimetism HRL is pretty dangerous. The real thing here is Chain of command, yet another new addition to nomads this year. These are solid bs13 mimetism troopers mostly equipped with close range weapons.

Marspiders are brutal close range specialists with extra burst flamethrowers and assault pistols to fight their way into combat. DA CCW and good cc stats make them very dangerous up close. Fireteaming with a Lizard is weird but really cool.

Lunokhod Appearing in the midfield should terrify anybody and in general I really like the remotes in Vipera Pursuit force. The infantry options here are okay, but I am not sure if they synergize well with nomads existing game plan. I am not sure how well you will be able to afford a Lizard if it doesn’t change significantly from its previous form but time will tell there.

#8 Ariadna (written by John)

MRRF returns to modern Infinity in style with this update, sporting a brand new vision of their classic “Mechanized Deployment” rule that veteran players might remember from old editions. In a lot of ways, these frogs were the harbingers of the new reinforcement mechanics that will be hitting the game in August.

Merovingian fans will be somewhat disappointed to learn that only one new unit, the Apaches, join the ranks of Ariadna with this expansion. That said, the roster of units available for selection are compelling in their own ways that set them apart from any other faction. While it’s hard to tell exactly how Equipe Argent will flesh out since complete point values and profiles are still unknown for most of the force, I believe certain patterns and details are already making themselves apparent. Let’s start by looking at the roster:

At first glance, Equipe Argent might seem a little underwhelming compared to the flashy new releases seen everywhere else in the Human Sphere. Nothing showcased in the Endsong Theme Week broke new ground for Ariadna, instead giving us a sneak peek at the profiles for Moblots, Loup Garous, and Apaches. However, of notable interest is the inclusion of Beasthunters, everyone’s favorite new warband from the TAG Raid Kickstarter campaign, and Wardriver mercenary hackers. Apart from that, nothing here is unique to Equipe Argent that you couldn’t replicate in a generic MRRF list.

Moblots: The new profiles shown off for Moblots are a mixed bag for me, and I’m still working through my own feelings on the unit as a whole. On one hand, the combination of Mimetism(-3) and Tactical Awareness on a BS13 gunfighter is poggers, especially with the new AP Spitfire(+1 dam) option available. On the other hand, paying 35 points for 1 wound heavy infantry without even NWI is a bit of a slap in the face to me, especially when you compare to any other faction’s new waves of “light” heavy infantry like Evaders, Kaitoks, or Cenobites. That said, due to Equipe Argent’s easy access to cheap and useful models to pad out your combat group, the price is less of an issue. While the HMG and paramedic profiles are decent, the AP Spitfire and engineer profiles are the ones that truly speak to me – the former for the gnarly gunfighting, the latter for the sheer variety of kit afforded between the weapons and gear available on a specialist unit. I honestly wish I could use these as the basis of a fireteam instead of a wildcardable addition, but oh well.

Loup-Garou: A cheap and effective fighter sporting an X-Visor on all profiles brings a welcome gunfighter that will form the basis of one of Equipe Argent’s two fireteam options, meaning you’ll either need one of these or a Briscard to get any fireteams rolling. This is far from a bad thing, considering that one of their basic weapons is a 0SWC, 20 point Viral Rifle delivered straight into your table half as needed. This ability alone solves one of my biggest problems with Loup-Garou, and allows a potent reactive strike to an unwary opponent. X-Visor also shines on this weapon by extending its +0 rangeband to 32”, allowing you to fight at relatively extreme distances in a pinch. A new and exciting update to the unit is the addition of a Viral Sniper Rifle for a pittance of 1 SWC and 21 points. If dropping an aggressive group of reinforcements isn’t your style, you could easily afford 2 Viral Snipers and a fireteam filler to set up a nasty ARO position after seeing your opponent’s deployment and initial movements. If you’re feeling more bloodthirsty, a pair of Apaches can join the Loup Garou and maintain fireteam composition bonuses. A 5-man core team of these guys is nothing to sneeze at!

Apaches: These half-cured dogfaces are the new darlings of Ariadna, featuring a warband profile backed up by a second wound. These cheap cruise missiles are fast and nasty, sporting extra burst in shooting if you pay for it, and a Burst 2 melee all the time. Personally I see these as more of a template machine than I do a melee powerhouse, but mileage will vary depending on the game state. A pair of Apaches dropped into the midfield is sure to be a headache your opponent won’t want to deal with, whether it be as a stubborn defensive template or a suicide attack piece.

Paracommandos: A lack of airborne deployment on these gorgeous spacemen leaves an interesting question as to whether or not these profiles will see a discount in reinforcement groups. As it stands, Paracommandos are an effective gunfighter and button-pusher with an impressive WIP 14 and Mimetism (-3) stapled to an “Ariadna-good” BS 12. Paracommandos are honestly so awesome that I wouldn’t hesitate to take them as reinforcements, if only to drop a beefy shotgun specialist or AP spitfire into a firing lane that needs a new apex predator.

Briscards: What started as a fairly average Medium Infantry got a second lease on life via Equipe Argent, allowing players that lack MSV1 (I’m looking at you, TAK) a chance at seeing through smoke if need be at a reasonable price. While I personally think the Heavy Rocket isn’t worth eating the lion’s share of your 2 SWC allowance, I do think Briscards make a solid flex piece if you have a particular plan in mind for them. That said, I do think Briscards suffer from being a little too expensive to be truly interesting for reinforcement teams.

Chasseurs: An all-star unit in their home faction, Chasseurs are famous as one of the best infiltrating camo skirmishers in the faction, if not the game. Since camouflage isn’t an option as reinforcement units, it’s incredibly difficult to say what these skirmishers will do once they hit the table. Unfortunately, I believe any speculation on this one will be useless without a look at the reinforcement profiles in full.

112: I swear to god, I’m not kidding when I say this is probably one of the best picks for your reinforcements team. AVA 2 of a cheap wildcard specialist is already a blessing in disguise, in addition to a light shotgun wherever you may need it. This is particularly spectacular in Ariadna, where a lot of your beastly assault units are likely to drop unconscious way up the table and far from any paramedic or doctor’s reach. By including 112’s in your reinforcement group, even an unconscious Bearpode or Dog Warrior presents an immense potential threat.

Beasthunters: Much like the 112, I think the dirt cheap price point of these pseudo-warbands is a major selling point for these models in a reinforcements group. This is doubly so if you’re playing Caledonia or Kosmoflot, where Wallace can turn their orders into Regular for use by anyone else in the group. Beasthunters were already great on their own, and taking two in a drop pod is almost certainly a great choice no matter the occasion.

Wardrivers: The best and only hacker you’re likely to get your hands on, Ariadna solves their lack of repeaters and pitchers by just having their hacky boys show up to the party late but on-target. Unless you can imbed your Wardriver into a fireteam, I’d recommend taking them here if you absolutely need a hacker.

Jacques Bruant: BRUANT IS BACK BABY! Although we don’t have a reinforcements profile for Bruant, this character is sure to be worth his weight in gold. I’m very excited for this, though it’s yet to be seen how he’ll compete against Moblots or Paracommando for your cherished SWC.

Wolfgang Amadeus Wolff: A character that I really wasn’t that stoked on until the Durgama campaign, where units with Terrain (0-G) were given the Parachutist special skill for laughs, and Wolfgang taught me how nasty he can be when delivered properly. I would consider Wolfgang as a hit piece for his 2 wounds, extra burst Multi-Rifle and fearsome CC ability.

Mirage 5: I don’t get it, maybe I’ll be surprised. Don’t take unless they’re steeply discounted.

NA2

NA2 Armies are hard to figure out and summarize in a broad strokes way, but overall there is very little new and interesting going on here outside of an exrah that is willing to work for human dollarydoos.

Samsa is the only new things here and it is pretty interesting. 30 point bs13 mimetism plasma rifle is really spooky. Honestly its a little spendy but I am not sure how its going to slot into these armies and their reinforcements.

Reinforcement anaconda is cute but a lot of this isn’t exactly exciting. CSU, Diggers, and Samsa are good mid/close range fighters that can help counter punch when needed, and a monstrucker is always handy. Honestly I have very little to say here because it’s pretty boring

Tohaa

Bruce: Fuck Tohaa! Keep ‘em ded

Back to Carl: Poor tohaa players. They continue to get no love. No new profiles, and not really interesting fireteams.

Mid field Igao are scary, and I guess a chaksa haris could be pretty good with access to flamethrowers, sensors, and mk12s. I do wonder how reinforcements works with symbiomates and symbiobombs but mostly I cant be bothered to care. There’s some good stuff here but nothing that changes Tohaa in a meaningful way. Tohaa continues its trend towards obscurity as it is clear that Corvus Belli has no plans on fixing the faction in a way to regrow its popularity.

Conclusion

Reinforcements seem to be very well thought out, with most factions getting really interesting and cool options to round out your force. I am looking forward to playing this new game format and testing the new units out! I do feel for Tohaa players but they honestly should just be happy to still exist. There are some armies that look like they have won more than others but these are just shitty hot takes that will likely age like milk.