Infinity reinforcements and a British mispurchase

Well it seems that Infinity products are back in stock at Maelstrom, as my last two orders have been combined and shipped after a delay of three weeks.  I wasn't at all worried as I have plenty to do in the painting department, though it's always nice to have a reason to check the mail in the morning.  Damned addictive internet purchasing.

Djanbazan with Heavy Machinegun

So a fair few Haqqislam reinforcements are winging their way towards me as I speak.  Once this order has deployed I'll have the following miniatures:

• 3x Ghulam with Rifle and Light Shotgun;
• 1x Jannissaire with AP Rifle;
• 1x Naffatun with Rifle and Light Flamethrower;
• 1x Hunzakut with Sniper Rifle;
• 2x Naffatun with Rifle and Heavy Flamethrower;
• 1x Djanbazan with Sniper Rifle; and
• 1x Djanbazan with Heavy Machinegun.

Naffatun with Heavy Flamethrower

As a "WYSIWYG" list without any proxying, this comes to the following:

 HAQQISLAM

──────────────────

 GROUP 1 (Regs: 9/Irrs: 1):

  GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife (13)

    MOV:4-4  CC:13  BS:11  PH:10  WIP:14  ARM:1  BTS:0  W:1  

    Regular, Not Impetuous, No Cube

    Lieutenant

  2x GHULAM Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife (13)

    MOV:4-4  CC:13  BS:11  PH:10  WIP:14  ARM:1  BTS:0  W:1  

    Regular, Not Impetuous, No Cube

  NAFFATÛN Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife (10)

    MOV:4-4  CC:13  BS:11  PH:10  WIP:14  ARM:1  BTS:0  W:1  

    Regular, Not Impetuous, No Cube

  2x NAFFATÛN Rifle + Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife (12)

    MOV:4-4  CC:13  BS:11  PH:10  WIP:14  ARM:1  BTS:0  W:1  

    Regular, Not Impetuous, No Cube

  HUNZAKUT  Sniper Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife (25 | 0.5)

    MOV:4-4  CC:13  BS:11  PH:12  WIP:14  ARM:0  BTS:0  W:1  

    Irregular, Not Impetuous, No Cube

    CH: Camouflage, Infiltration, Deployable Repeater

  JANISSARY AP Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW (45)

    MOV:4-2  CC:15  BS:13  PH:14  WIP:14  ARM:4  BTS:-3  W:2  

    Regular, Not Impetuous, No Cube

    Religious Troop

  DJANBAZAN Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW (33 | 1)

    MOV:4-2  CC:14  BS:12  PH:11  WIP:14  ARM:2  BTS:0  W:1  

    Regular, Not Impetuous, Cube

    Multiterrain, Regeneration, Multispectral Visor L2

  DJANBAZAN HMG / Pistol, CCW (36 | 1.5)

    MOV:4-2  CC:14  BS:12  PH:11  WIP:14  ARM:2  BTS:0  W:1  

    Regular, Not Impetuous, Cube

    Multiterrain, Regeneration, Multispectral Visor L2

 212 Points | SWC: 3

ARMY CODE: eNozMVQ1VbNQM6wxVTOAk4ZQ0hBBWkIoE4iMoZoRhAJCAOWYDnw=

Army Infinity v.3.0. - http://www.devilteam.com

Hassassin Fiday

I'm unlikely to play a game at 212 points and I want a little more flexibility in my  options for 200 points, so I think the above will give me plenty of options to try out for 150 points, which is the limit that Garth and I are looking at starting with.  I'm not really interested in fielding a Hunzakut with Sniper Rifle as I'd much prefer to go with the Light Grenade Launcher option which will be a proxy.  I also have little interest in fielding a Naffatun with Light Flamethrower as I'm told they're much less effective than a Heavy Flamethrower at a small increase in points cost.  However, it is a 10 point miniature that I could slot in as an afterthought if I have 10 points leftover sometime.  Its also a nice model, and I'd be comfortable proxying it for a Heavy and using it.

Hassassin Lasiq

As for additions from here, I'd like to add a Muyib with Light Grenade Launcher (for a regular replacement for the Hunzakut, with higher BS), a Fiday for the brilliantly nonchalant pose and the potential for some close combat fun, and a Lasiq for the great sculpt and the supposedly deadly Viral Sniper Rifle.  I will also pick up the Khawarij miniature as I absolutely love it; I understand that it isn't particularly effective in the game at the moment, but I'm willing to give it a try purely because of the aesthetics and the fluff behind them.

It will be quite some time before Garth and I manage to get some Infinity on the table; I doubt we'll have had a full game by the end of February judging by the way I've been going with getting my Flames of War army painted (though I'd like to try out the rules mechanics with unpainted miniatures and slapped together terrain much sooner than that).  It's not just the painting though, it'll take me quite some time to get sufficient terrain together.  I'm also a little worried about the quality of my painting when applied to such lovely sculpts; I very much want to do them justice, so I'd like to get this 15mm Flames of War army under my belt, and hopefully some other 28mm figures, before I slap anything onto these miniatures.  I'd be grateful if anyone could point me towards some painting tutorial resources!  I'd like to carefully plan how I'm going to paint my Haqqislam miniatures.

As for the other half of the title, I fear that I may have made a bit of a misjudgement in my Flames of War purchases.  You see, I ordered the British Late War Rifle Company box and the Royal Artillery Battery box as the basis for my British Rifles force in the Italian theatre for Cassino or Fortress Europe.  However, the Rifle Company sculpts really are intended for Normandy/France rather than for Italy.  Indeed, Battlefront do produce British infantry for the Italian theatre in blister.  I was prepared to paint them in the Italy colour-scheme and just live with it; however, given that Battlefront has announced the release of the book "Burning Empires" covering the early to mid war periods in the Mediterranean, I think that this theatre will become the main focus for Garth and I in Flames of War, so I'd like for things to look right.  I will be patient, though.  On the off chance that Battlefront will release new sculpts in support of this book, I'll paint my British (Italy) MG Platoon next and hold off on making a decision on the late war company box.

The Games of War website has the following product for the Burning Empires book:

Burning Empires, The Battle for The Mediterranean, is a 184 page hardback book that includes:

• The history of the Early War battles in Greece, Crete and Syria;
• Italian Briefing: Fucileri, Blackshirt and Alpini forces;
• Greek Briefings: Mechanised Battalion and Infantry Company;
• German Briefings: SS, Gebirgsjager, Fallschirmjager and Luftlandesturm forces;
• French Briefing: Infantry force playable as either pro-Axis Vichy or pro-Allied Free French;
• Rules for Airbourne Assaults;
• British, Italian, French, German and American Raiding and Garrison Forces for Early and Mid War raiding battles;
• Four Raiding Missions and the Seize Outpost Mission, featuring the new Desert Fort; and
• Painting Guides and inspirational colour photographs.

I'm pretty excited!  I'll go into the reasons for my interest in this theatre in a future post, but suffice to say both Garth and I are very keen to take a look at this book, and fortunately it ought to pit my British/Commonwealth Infantry against his Fallschirmjager again!

In addition to this blog, I'm also considering starting up a google group for our gaming group so that we have somewhere that we can keep each other apprised of progress, have a yarn, and organise ourselves for games.    If anyone has experience with using google groups and has any comment as to whether this might be worthwhile, I'd appreciate a chat!

Lastly, you'll note that I've been a little bit more creative with the placement of pictures in this blog post.  With the consequence that some of the picture margins aren't quite right and are encroaching onto the text.  If anyone knows an easy way of fixing this, please let me know!  I'm new to blogging (indeed, I'm new to anything but reading webpages), so I'm willing to take all of the help that I can get!

Cheers!

The Infinity Aesthetic

The general consensus is that Infinity is heavily influenced by anime.  While I do agree with this I do think that it is an oversimplification or an overstatement.  

The art for Infinity is heavily influenced by anime; indeed most if not all of the illustrations in the core rulebook are in a heavy anime style.  Now personally I am not a huge fan of anime (or manga or however you wish to term it, I don't really understand the differences).  My appreciation hasn't gone further than Cowboy Bebop, which I love for the style, cinematography and the music rather than for the particular aesthetic of the animation.  I can comfortably say, then, that I would not really be interested in a game who's miniatures were wholly anime in style.

Infinity's anime art

In my opinion, anime is a subtle influence for the style of Infinity's miniatures.  The proportions are much more slender and lean than the "heroic scale" we are used to from other games, and it is perhaps arguable that some of the facial features are styled in a manner reminiscent of anime.  To me, the features and proportions of the miniatures have a "realistic" aesthetic rather than an anime one.  By this I mean that the forms are more directly proportional to real life than they are an abstraction of it.

Haqqislam Ghulam Infantry: realistic proportions and poses,
without an over-accentuation of the female form!

Ariadnan Zouave: fantastic pose with a gritty realism.

Haqqislam Naffatun: An example of Infinity's realistic proportions and dynamic poses.

I think that it is the technology in the game that shows its anime influences more apparently.  TAGs and Heavy Infantry from the Pan Oceania and Yu Jing factions are much more anime-inspired in appearance, for example (though obviously Yu Jing have an "asian" influence that is a part of and transcends anime!).  I think that it is for this reason that I don't hold a whole lot of affection for some of the miniatures for these factions; however, at the same time I love almost all of the miniatures in the Haqqislam range!  Certain miniatures also appear to me to be a bit more cartoon-ish than others, and I suspect that many of the earlier miniatures in the range might be slightly more abstracted in style.  These aren't really to my taste, but the position of the community seems to be that Infinity is a game where you aren't pigeon-holed into "must have" units.  This means that you can pick and choose your force based on the miniatures you like.  I can't think of any other game systems off the top of my head where this is viable!

Haqqislam Kum Motorised Troop:
A bit cheesy and not to my taste.

Nomad Daktari: Obviously anime-inspired,
but "taking the piss" a bit too!

Pan-Oceania Armoured Cavalry: I think that the technology of this faction
is heavily influenced by anime.

If you've dismissed Infinity outright for its "anime aesthetic", I challenge you to give it another look.  Take a look through the miniature range for each faction, you may be pleasantly surprised!

Ruleset Roulette

I have a habit of becoming intensely interested in new projects on an imaginative level; after all, one of the central attractions of wargaming to me is the visual way in which you can give life to those imaginings.  The problem is, I have an interest in so many different subjects that I tend to move from project to project very quickly with nothing overly tangible to show for it!  Suffice to say, the only thing I have from my first six months back wargaming is a pile of rule books and reference material.  I can spin this in a positive light, of course; I have been very deliberately trying not to buy more miniatures than I can realistically paint!

A history of digression

I had piles of unpainted miniatures in my teenage wargaming years from army and game system "false starts", and I currently have two boxes of Perry British Line Infantry sitting in my closet from Garth's and my "postponed" Napoleonic efforts of last summer.  I've since acquired 1500pts of Flames of War miniatures for my British Rifle Company, as well as the Haqqislam starter set, Djanbazan Sniper, Djanbazan Heavy Machine-gunner and the Naffatun blister for my Haqqislam force in Infinity.  Probably enough to keep me painting into 2012.  Garth's and my planning for a Italy-themed Flames of War terrain board in 15mm has already got me contemplating its use in 15mm Napoleonics using the General de Brigade ruleset.  As you can see, my "fear" of lead hasn't really stopped me so far.  To this end, I've come up with a couple of guiding principles for my re-entrance into wargaming:

1. Stop buying rulebooks (!); and
2. Get a painted army on the table as soon as possible so that I can actually start participating properly in the hobby.

I'm doing okay with #1 in that I haven't bought a rule book in a couple of months, though I have had a couple of close calls (I also don't count my future purchase of Corvus Belli's Infinity: The Human Sphere as I've already invested in this system and the only reason why I haven't bought it yet is that it seems to be out of stock everywhere - I'll convince myself of anything...).  The reasoning behind #1 is that I'm going to have to be realistic and honest in order to achieve #2: I don't need distractions!

Given the amount of painting required in order to field a reasonable army of Napoleonics in 28mm, I've strategically redeployed my British Line Infantry into reserve as a "long-term project" (hopefully by then the Perry brothers' 28mm plastic British cavalry will be out, if their French cavalry are anything to go by they will be gorgeous).  Instead, I've decided to focus on Flames of War for my first tabletop army and rule set.  Without delving too deeply into my desire to game World War II, my reasons for choosing Flames of War over my other options are:

• I've had a lifelong interest in the Second World War, an interest I have in common with Garth;
• The game is popular so there should be no dearth of opponents, and as Battlefront is a New Zealand company it is well stocked and supported here;
• It is the one game that retained my interest when I quit wargaming Games Workshop games 10 years ago; and
• It's in 15mm so my very rusty painting skills won't be overtaxed, and the painting time should be lower.

To be honest, bullet-point #4 is the fundamental reason why I chose to run with Flames of War first.  I really do want to get gaming as soon as possible, and 15mm should definitely be quicker than 28mm.  The decision to build Flames of War first might have been different had I discovered Infinity earlier - with 7 figures in my starting 150point list I think that I could have had them painted much more quickly than my Flames of War British.  On the other hand, I'm not sure that I would have been willing to inflict my very raw painting skills on Corvus Belli's beautiful miniatures!

Even with focusing on 15mm, I'm finding painting to be very slow going.  It's taking me a while to get back into the swing of things, having not painted in so long, and I'm finding that with work, football training and family during the week as well as football matches and commuting to spend time with my partner during weekends, I don't actually have a whole lot of time left for painting.  I suspect that starting this blog might not have been the brightest idea in terms of my painting progress!

Infinity: Terraforming Bourak

I've aligned myself with Haqqislam in the world of Infinity; a combination of the low-tech miniatures with less of an anime aesthetic (in my opinion) and the background story of a "new islam" reverting to its humanist roots really appealed to me.  The happy coincidence of this choice is that the Haqqislam planet, Bourak, is a desert planet much like our middle east.  I see this as an opportunity to create a playing board a little bit different to the urban landscapes I've seen throughout the Infinity community, with (hopefully) some cross-over into terrain for the modern skirmish wargame "Force on Force" by Ambush Alley Games.  A multi-purpose board will save on storage, time, and money!

I see the Haqqislam faction as having been influenced by the Fremen of Frank Herbert's Dune in addition to the obvious contemporary middle-eastern and islamic cultures.  I've also looked at Tatooine from Star Wars for inspiration; its another well-known science fiction desert setting after all.  I've collected samples of the following art to try and get a feel for how desert settlements can be portrayed in Sci-Fi:

"Dune" by thegryph.deviantart.com.
A mixture of high-tech and desert hovels.

A scene influenced by a middle-eastern bazaar with high-tech elements

Tatooine: Rough structures with high-tech fixtures.
The design of the buildings seems subtly different to contemporary culture,
giving the landscape its own flavour.

I think that the above images will be useful.  I'm not sure that they're exactly what I'm going for here but they've given me a few ideas:

• Subtly changing the shapes and designs of buildings can make them seem both traditional and futuristic at the same time;
• It may not be flavourful enough to just "strap on" a few token high-tech items to traditional style buildings - they may look out of place, and I suspect that the lines of traditional buildings may not be crisp enough for the Infinity aesthetic;
• Deserts are dusty and dirty places - while Haqqislam are supposedly the masters of terraforming, I doubt they keep their landscapes spotlessly dusted; and
• I could recreate the traditional middle-eastern bazaar with an Infinity high-tech theme.  For awnings, perhaps suspended sails with crisp lines, or awnings made out of coloured perspex similar to the terrain pieces made by Micro Art Studios. 

My intentions at this stage are to create a desert themed board with buildings made out of apparently natural material (modelled stone and clay) that blend in and function well with the environment.  This could work with pre-made terrain designed for a contemporary setting, such as the resin pieces pictured below.  In terms of having a multi-purpose board these models would be ideal as with removable/interchangeable parts they could be appropriate for both settings.  My concerns are with this is that they won't quite be unique enough for Infinity in that they don't really fit with the "flavour" or aesthetic of the world so well, and they may not necessary fit in with the background of Haqqislam.  They're the leaders in the fields of medicine and terraforming, so they're hardly likely to be residing in mud-brick hovels.

A resin middle-eastern themed hovel
from www.colonialsteamboat.co.uk

A two story building (converts to ruin)
from the Miniature Building Authority

My favourite: A two-story hovel
from www.crescent-root.com

A single-story resin hovel
from www.thewarstore.com

All of these terrain pieces are fine.  Some better than others, and some certainly more worth the price tag.  I think they'd all be passable with some modification for an Infinity table.  However, they're an expensive option, especially given that they'd need to be shipped to New Zealand; in light of this is "passable" good enough?  I don't really think they fit too well with the infinity aesthetic - there is a bit much damage to the walls of the hovels for my taste, and I'm not too sure how old buildings in Infinity should look.  Bourak hasn't been colonised for that long, after all.

The other idea is to scratch-build buildings using foamboard and other materials.  This would allow me to design the buildings to have clean though subtly traditional lines more in line with the Infinity aesthetic, and would be significantly cheaper, though more time consuming, than using pre-made resin terrain.  Unfortunately, this would probably mean that the terrain wouldn't be appropriate for use with Force on Force.  There is of course a third option - paper terrain.  I suspect that I may utilise this while I am in the process of building more resilient terrain.  I'm not particularly "crafty" or creative-minded (years of doing language based stuff at university probably forced all of that out of me), so I expect that I'd find making buildings slow going.

What do you think?  Does anyone have any relevant experiences with making terrain for Infinity?  Any hints, tips, or favourite products that you could comment on?  Any help would be appreciated!

Into the wormhole...

Even for a wargaming magpie such as myself, Infinity made an impression on me very, very fast.  I'd like to share what lead me to venture into the wormhole, never once considering how I was to get out again...

Earlier in the year Garth and I started looking into skirmish gaming; we'd realised that mass-battle wargaming was going to be a long-term investment, and decided to look for something with a significantly lower buy-in cost and figure number requirement so that we could get games on the table relatively quickly.  We'd played a lot of Mordheim "back in the day" so we started looking into picking it up again.  I soon "digressed" into looking at Necromunda, given a commonly-held opinion that it possessed a superior campaign system to Mordheim.  However, it didn't take us long to realise that there was little support for these games from GW other than an incomplete line of overpriced miniatures.  Given that none of the original rule-boxes were still in print and the original terrain was only available at huge prices on e-bay, we decided that there was no particular advantage to taking up GW games over any other systems, especially seeing as though they are essentially dead games from GW's perspective.

In the course of my search for a skirmish alternative I ventured onto various forums until I came to the Dakkadakka "Malifaux, Infinity and other skirmish games" (or some such) forum; it didn't take me long to find a link to the Infinity site.  I was thoroughly blown away; the Infinity website is incredibly professional, well designed and themed.  However, the website was a minor attraction compared to the impression left on me by the miniatures.  They were (are) beautiful, and very simply among the best miniature sculpts I have ever seen - and here a whole range of them.

I spent a week or two looking at the miniatures and reading reviews of the rules on the internet.  I sifted through the community forums and glanced through the free online rules.  Blown away by the miniature, I bought the Haqqislam Djanbazan sniper.  Not long after I bought the rules and really the rest is history.  It wasn't a flawless experience, but the rulebook did really cement my initial impression of the game and of Corvus Belli as a games company.

With my impulse purchases over the last six months I've read a lot of rules.  I have difficulty sitting down and reading rules books, I'm not entirely sure what the issue is!  It could be something to do with what I do for a living.  I read rules and other such dry material every day during my working week.  I also read and write a lot; my days are filled with letters, legislation, survey plans and planning documents.  It is perhaps because of this that I really struggle to read rules books; particularly if they're poorly laid out (sequentially and on each page), dry, overly complex with too many qualifications, or poorly illustrated.  Now, while the Infinity rules probably aren't perfect, for me they managed to largely avoid the above pitfalls, even with the obvious translation issues (which personally I think gives the language a unique style and isn't necessarily a flaw).

Unlike all of the other rules I've read recently, I really got the Infinity rules as I read through them.  Once the fundamental concepts of the opposed roles and ARO were established (both elegantly simplistic mechanisms in themselves and very well illustrated in the book) I could instantly see how other concepts fitted within that framework.  While I certainly haven't memorised the rules and I'm no where near having a full appreciation for their tactical nuances, I do feel as though I've got a grasp on how the game works after reading a little bit of the book every night.  This is much more than I can say for the other rules I've read, though to be fair they are of varying degrees of complexity given that they represent engagements between forces above the skirmish level.  I think that I can now conceptualise how most forseeable actions will work out within the rules mechanisms in a "cinematic" way; because of this the rules appear to me to be quite organic and logical, and I find this pretty valuable in a set of rules.

Not only has Corvus Belli produced a fine set of rules, but their approach to their product as a whole is well thought out and thorough (keeping in mind that I'm speaking five or so years after the rules' release, though they must have done something right to have survived this long).  Their production values across the board are top notch.  The website is well designed, the forums equally good looking and functional, and the rulebooks well bound in glossy hard back with good quality paper.  From what I've seen so far (on my one miniature in hand) the casting quality is high, though my sample was hardly comprehensive!

The key to it all, though, is the quality of the miniatures; they really sell themselves and the system.  I'm certain that Corvus Belli know this and have modelled their business appropriately.  They offer the basic rules for free, with the "extra" fluff to be obtained through purchase of the hard copies.  And once you've fallen in love with the miniatures you will want to have the fluff so as to place that beauty in context, trust me!  The added bonus is that because Corvus Belli have provided the basic rules and lists for free, they can provide a high quality, functional and free army building tool online.

Army Infinity v3.0 by Devil Team - and my Djanbazan sniper!

All of this goes to show that a company does not have to compromise its commercial viability in order to give the customer what they want, and it seems to me that a healthy business anticipates what the customer wants and evolves their business model accordingly.  The concessions made by Corvus Belli in making the rules available free really are an investment in the medium term I think - I've certainly bought the book and the miniatures!  Well done CB.

Haqqislam list building

It will be a while before I get my first Infinity game in, with Garth being the only one of the mates looking at starting it, and his being roughly 600km away (at least in the near future).  I have started to think about lists though, as its one of the things I enjoy most about wargaming and some thought will after all be necessary prior to buying miniatures!

As a first step I will have the following models, to go towards a 150 point force:

• 3x Ghulam with Rifle & Light Shotgun
• 1x Hunzakut with Sniper Rifle
• 1x Naffatun with Rifle & Light Flamethrower
• 1x Jannissary with AP rifle & Light Shotgun
• 1x Djanbazan with Sniper Rifle

I'm planning on running a vanilla Haqq list rather than a sectoral, and I'll only going to take miniatures that I like.  I'm prepared to compromise efficiency for the aesthetic, at least this early on in my Infinity career.  Despite this, I am willing to use proxies until I have the models I need!  Here is a starting list I'm thinking of running:

• Ghulam Lieutenant (R&LS) - 13pts 0swc
• Ghulam Doctor (R&LS) - 17pts 0swc
• Djanbazan (SR) - 33pts 1swc
• Djanbazan (HMG) - 36pts 1.5swc
• Hunzakut (Rifle, Light Grenade launcher, AP Mines) - 21pts 0.5swc
• Naffatun (Rifle, Heavy Flame Thrower) - 12pts 0swc
• Naffatun (Rifle, Heavy Flame Thrower) - 12pts 0swc

Obviously a wee bit of proxying there to begin with, though it may be I'll have plenty of time before I get my first real game in.

My thinking behind this list is that I wanted a fair number of bodies for the order pool (6 universal orders with 1 order limited to the Hunzakut as he is irregular).  I opted for the Djanbazan support weapons over using a Jannissary as the lower points and support weapon costs allowed me to get a few extra bodies and hopefully gain some flexibility.  I also love the Djanbazan models; I purchased the Sniper Rifle miniature before I was seriously considering getting into Infinity, and certainly before I purchased the starter set.

I really wanted a light grenade launcher in the list, as I like the thought of pinning my opponent in cover with the HMG and sniper rifle, allowing me to hopefully hit their static positions with the grenade launcher.  Another benefit will hopefully be to give me a means of fighting back in the event that I myself get pinned - offensive and defensive flexibility all in the same model!  The advanced deployment may also help with grenade range issues, and the antipersonnel mines will hopefully be useful in denying areas of the board and channelling the opposition into kill areas for my support weapons.  Obviously a proxy to begin with; I'll have to wait until my net is uncapped so that I can see whether a model is available for the LGL variant.

I plan on using the Naffatun with their large flame templates defensively.  I hear they are quite good in this role, but I definitely want to do some reading up on the Infinity forums for advice as to how to use them.  I'm thinking at this stage of using them to cover the flanks/rear of my support weapons.

I don't have much of a strategy in mind for selecting my lieutenant.  I figure a Ghulam is as good as anything as I'll have the model and I will have a reasonable sized lieutenant pool for him to hide in (2x Ghulam, 2x Naffatun as my understanding).  I also opted for a Ghulam doctor as I understand that so far as the fluff goes Doctors and medicine are Haqqislam's strength.  I'm happy to oblige the fluff, and hopefully the chap will come in handy.

I may make some changes to the list before my first game, though in theory I'm pretty happy with the composition.  Options are perhaps dropping out the Djanbazan Sniper and a Naffatun in favour of the Jannissary with APR & Light Shotgun.  It may be that I'll need some kind of anti-armour, something that I may not have covered off well in the above list.  Units that I'd like to try in the future are the Khawarijs and the Hassassin Lasiq with Viral Sniper Rifle.  I love both of the models, and while I hear that the Khawarij isn't necessarily effective I'm willing to give it a go purely for the beautiful sculpt.  I've only heard good things about the Lasiq, so I'd love to give it a go in the list; perhaps I could drop out the Djanbazan sniper and try the Lasiq instead.

I don't think that I've mentioned this yet, but Garth will be rolling with the Nomads.  He's found a way around his distaste for the Alguacile models (by selecting something else), and is quite smitten with the more recent Nomad releases.  I'm pretty impressed by the Lizard TAG (probably my favourite TAG in the game), and do wish that the Maghariba Guard sculpt was more inspiring.

Anyway, that's my preliminary take on Haqqislam and my theory behind my first attempt at list building.  I imagine that I'll learn the error of my ways soon enough :)  I'll try and write in the next couple of days about my plans for a Infinity table and a bit of a list of my favourite models.  If anyone (of my few page views so far) has any advice or comments in respect of the above, do please leave a note; I'd appreciate advice on list composition and things to watch out for with the Nomads, though I'll definitely be reading up on these topics over the next few weeks.  I'll also try and add some colour to the page with some pictures once my net is back at full capacity.  Cheers!