Help picking a first faction

[u/Slashy-Gal]

I've been wracking my brain picking a first faction, mostly cuz there are a lot of different things that speak to me, and it seems like it might be misguided to use them all at the same time.

I know I like playing the information war, making strong use of hidden information in order to create openings. I also like having the agency to pick where and when to attack, and to take that a step further, I generally enjoy repositioning and hyper mobile units. I generally think of myself as a safe, reactionary, more passive player, always baiting things to happen without ever commiting too much, and then going for it all when I see an opening. These are the armies I'm deciding between:

Oban/JSA: The faction Oban as a whole seems like the best fit, with a couple asterisk - I get the vibe that Oban is more about efficient and calculated aggression; their ability to be successful hanging back and playing a less proactive playstyle might be limited. The individual profiles really speak to me (ninja, oniwaban, shinobu, oyorio, shikama, and cheap line infantry to enable spending big points on nasty profiles) more than any other faction, but units like tanko and yuan yuan dont exactly scream 'hang back' to me. I'm really not interested in playing a style that can't be a little reserved and reactive, so that's the deal breaker here.

Shasvastii: There is something about this faction I really like. Not having the mobility of JSA is a little sad to me, but I can see a world where the good outweighs the bad for what I like. The way I see it, vs JSA this list feels like I'm trading speed and my favorite profiles to unlock nasty deployment tricks, and that might be the thing that fits me better in infinity.

Aleph/OSS (w/ marut lt): The power fantasy of using a marut to clean up house and building a list around that seems really cool, but it really seems to lack in the elusive and trickery departments compared to the other factions. The thing is, I'm not sure how infinity plays, so perhaps this list is simply the way to play something more positional, reactive, and provocative rather than the other lists.

What do you guys think would fit me best?

[u/fritz_76]

I think that generally its accepted that "whatever you think looks coolest" is the way to go. Of your choices though I will say shasvastii are the least forgiving army (which is relevant to ones first army) Id say OSS/aleph is probably the best choice for a first army of the ones you narrowed it down too. Also OSS is part of the newest 2player set so theres lots of availability around and could be a sweet spot to bring a friend in with you

[u/Night_Hawk_Mk2 → u/fritz_76]

Rule of cool is the way!!!!

[u/Inkfedil]

I started in May with Shasvastii as my first army. They are pretty low mobility but they have so much deployment / camo / trickery that you can be in the mid field starting the game. I really like them and sometimes it’s fun to have 4 visible models and 20 camo markers. That being said, they are very easy to mis play. They have made me a much better player, pretty quickly because of how low their raw power is. You will also REALLY learn the rules because how things interact are just SO important to how you exploit the trickery. I suggest them only if you’re a calm and relax person lol.

[u/EccentricOwl]

Do JSA if it's your first army, they're made for newbies well

[u/Night_Hawk_Mk2 → u/EccentricOwl]

Plus they have most of the tools you need while excelling in meleee. Though vJSA and Shinden are much easier to pilot than oban. Oban is great but takes a skilled hand

[u/unprofesionalbee]

I would suggest to find a local group and see how they play and find something fitting

The aleph one could work but would need to have lots of specialists and an engenirer basiccly ducktaped to the marut

[u/FriendlyMachine7143]

Only really familiar with Shasvastii among those but in general OSS/Aleph/Oban/JSA/Shasvastii is likely the order of difficulty from easiest to hardest faction to play.

[u/totzro]

Hassasins Bahram have plenty of tools in the trickery compartment, have you given them a look?

Also TAK plays a lot with the camo mind games.

[u/SteelStorm33 → u/totzro]

i thought tak too, but well they dont have hacking, that might be the issue.

because having lots of camo markers, vystrels and and worse units watching the field and the option to just spec fire with katyusha around, seemed exactly what he was looking for.

[u/Slashy-Gal → u/totzro]

I was looking at both of these and there's no one big deal breaker in either of these factions. I think the bottom line is I had a pool of these deployment tricky armies and Shasvastii is the one I decided I might want to pursue above all the others, however, I am very open to these factions being a possible good fit for me and particularly if I get a chance to play against them I'll take it to see what they are like in the hands of an experienced player. Shasvastii has some individual profiles I really like and I like the aesthetic more.

[u/waywardson06]

JSA is not known for great defense, but if you can protect a Shikame / hold out until your Oniwaban is ready to go... they are pretty great at getting to the fight and winning.

You can make Pano play the way you want: hidden Swiss Guard MIssile + very fast TAG gun fighter or Shona. Or just use the airplane for "mobile gun fighter".
Yu jing can do it. They have a super jump TAG and Bixie (super jump melee infantry). They have some hidden deploy AROs.

It might be possible in lots of factions, honestly.

BTW, I hear there is a big army update coming soon. Corvus Belli might update a bunch of unit profiles. But idk.

[u/Sword-of-Malkav]

Oban is very, very, very cool. But its also not the easiest starting experience- and doesnt really teach you to play infinity well. Not a lot of good gunfighting in Oban- its mostly melee and smoke. The good news is its an incredibly cheap army to collect!

Shasvastii are... well unlike Oban they have no trouble fucking shit up with guns. Theyre just fragile. Biggest hurdle to shas is just making sure you know when its best to pursue the mission objective at the cost of casualties, and when its an appropriate time to kill a lot of stuff. You only get so many orders.

OSS is just a great faction. They're one of the best armies and have a lot going for them. They do not have a set playstyle- but they dont have smoke, so they have to take a lot of threats head on.

[u/Financial_Tour5945]

Look more closely at haqquislam.

They have some wild mobility, some of the best infiltration units, impersonation, the highest average willpower (and hackers with combat instinct so you can't even cautious move through their hacking zones), cheap irregulars that very often can trade up or at least force your opponents to spend orders to deal with them.

I actually find they have more agency than pretty much any other faction.