Starting Infinity with Haqqislam, or What I Should Have Done

Infinity is an awesome game. I love how dynamic it is and the minis are brilliant. I hate how overwhelming it is for new players, which stems from:

• Having many, many, special rules and equipment choices despite the elegance of the core rules.
• There are no bad unit choices, so it's hard to narrow things down.
• Starter boxes contain a good mix of units but these are not necessarily beginner friendly - Haqq box I am looking at you!

When I started I bought as much Haqq as I could, mainly through bulk sales on FaceBook, and a few new pieces that I wanted because they were cool or because people on the internet recommended them.  Looking at my 7-800 points of unpainted Haqq and still having things I want, I can't help thinking that - especially as a casual player - I should have taken a different approach...

Coming to Infinity - as any faction - I would recommend prioritising a usable and easy-to-learn 150pt force for playing Recon or Recon+ games.  Recon is a great format requiring minimal startup investment, as it's low points, and minimal terrain as it's designed to be played on a single terrain pack.  The limits on HI and Irregular troops will also help us keep things simple in terms of rules and narrow down our choices.

In the context of models that are available in blisters, or where a whole box can be used without waste, we're looking for:

1. Some specialists - preferably ones that can move up quickly - and a Lieutenant.
2. A solid mid-range (somewhere between 8-24 inch sweet spot) assault piece.
3. Some not-long-range general purpose or utility units to make up to 5+ orders.
4. Ideally some plan to deal with armour or camo, and nothing too complex.

It doesn't have to be perfect or even particularly optimal! The aim is to learn the game and have fun without too much expense or learning curve.  Looking at the releases at the time of writing, the following stand out:

• The Naffatun box is the only box where all models could be used, and they can also field a Lieutenant (1) and have flamethrowers which can deal with camo and armour (4) to some extent.
• The Ghulam Support box has two specialists (1), but would we use the Nasmats?
• The Namurr (as Spitfire), Odalisque (Spitfire), Asawira (Spitfire), Ayyar (as Shock Marksman Rifle), KTS (Spitfire) blisters all meet the criteria for (2), and the Namurr and Ayyar count as Specialists too...
• The Barid (Hacker), Farzan (Chain of Command), Hunzakut (Forward Observer), and Tuareg (Hacker) blisters all look usable for (1) - especially the Tuareg and Hunzakut who can deploy forward using Infiltration.  Also the Tuareg could proxy as a Doctor Plus.
• The Fiday (Boarding Shotgun), Farzan (Minelayer), Bashi Bazouk (either), and Hunzakut (Rifle+LGL) blisters all look good for (3) depending how much complexity you want to add.
• The Hassassin Ragiks pack has a Hacker who can deploy forward (1) AND a Spitfire (2) but also add some complexity, but it could be fun...

A few minutes playing with army.infinitythegame.com gives me this:

 NAFFATÛN Lieutenant Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
 NAFFATÛN Rifle + Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 NAFFATÛN Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
 NAFFATÛN Rifle + Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 NAMURR Spitfire, E/Marat, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, E/M CC Weapon, Knife. (1 | 44)
 TUAREG Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 33)
 FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

1 SWC | 150 Points

A secondary goal might be to expand this to around 250pts of mix-and-match-able units to start building 200pt armies on our first forays onto a full size table.  Here I'd expand the context to include boxes for lower AVA troops; if we're mixing and matching we can expect not to use all of them at the same time. What do you think? Comments welcome!