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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Factions of Infinity: Pan-Oceana

Today on Guest Writer Wednesday, MadBobby returns with his first in a series of articles looking  t the various factions playable in Infinity.

Some time ago I wrote an article for LXG preaching the virtues of Infinity with the promise of another article sooner than later, I have to apologize that life took over as it has a way of doing and later wound up coming much faster than I had anticipated.  While I wanted to write the be all end all article to give a brief synopsis of all of Infinity’s various factions and sects, all of which play differently on the table with access to troops and toys that make each one of them unique and distinct from the rest. When I wrote this behemoth of analytical prose it dwarfed some research papers I’d written in college, so for the sake of your sanity, and the hope that you, dear reader will actually process all I’m offering, I’m dividing the meat into several more easily digestible pieces, one article to cover each major faction and each of its sectorial forces. Today you will be treated to Pan-Oceana.

It makes the most sense to begin with a synopsis of the time and place in which the conflicts of Infinity are played out. It is the future; with the resources of earth at their breaking point humanity has reached out for the stars and found great success in colonizing the void, and exploiting the oases to be found within it. The technology of terraforming has allowed mankind to find homes in all but the darkest corners of space. The nations of humanity find themselves beset on all sides by their neighbors in the fight for power, information, trade routes, technology, and exotic resources. There’s also the 800 pound gorilla in the room that is the aliens space faring humans have encountered and found themselves at war with, some of which just so happen to be angry Klingonesque space gorillas, who we’ll get into in a later piece.

Every faction within infinity has a number of subcultures that can be represented with what are known in the community as sectorial factions, specializing in a particular strength of their parent nation. I will do my best to describe what each sectorial is and how they play on the table to give you an idea what to expect from each. Sectorial lists also feature the option to include “Link-Teams” which are fireteams composed of similar models that allow several models to activate together to economize movement actions as well as providing deadly covering fire in AROs, the soldiers being made more brazen by the notion that they have a few friends watching their backs.

We will start with the perennial favorite, the high tech, clean and shiny powerhouse super-nation that is Pan-Oceana. Pan-O was formed primarily by the nations of northern Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the bits of South America thought worthy of joining the greatest nation humanity has ever built. Pan-O boasts some of the game’s best technology, high quality power armor and finely tuned weapons in the hands of expertly drilled soldiers are absolutely their bread and butter, not to mention they have access to some of the scariest TAGs (giant, killy, robots) to be found in Infinity. However their reliance on technological toys leaves them susceptible and vulnerable to attacks that target their equipment rather than the soldiers carrying it, a talented hacker or a well-placed EMP can ruin any Pan-O player’s day with relative ease, but in a straight up firefight, you can reasonably expect the superior weapons, armor, and gadgetry Pan-O can bring to bear to win the day, thankfully for the other factions, games of Infinity, when played properly, are very rarely straight up firefights.

Pan-O currently has access to 3 sectorials while most factions have two, in my opinion the sect that
 most exemplifies Pan-O is the Neoterran Capitaline Army. Neoterra is essentially earth reborn. A metropolitan Eden based on the ideals of having built the perfect world for the perfect society. They are the best equipped, best funded traditional military humanity has ever assembled. They are the best and brightest of a world belonging to a nation that considers itself the best and brightest humanity has to offer. While capable of taking a large group of Fusiliers, the finest equipped and trained basic infantry in the human sphere, they really come into their own when you have a look at their devastating heavy infantry options. Power armored soldiers are scary, power armored soldiers with the most
dangerous weapons a man can carry are even scarier, if I told you that the Neoterrans could bring such troops to bear who also happen to be invisible you’d think I was kidding, but that’s how the Neoterran Swiss Guard roll. Invisible man sized tanks aren’t your thing? Try the Aquilla Guard, heavy infantry that ignore camouflage and look good doing it with their long coats billowing out behind their armor, you’ve got two flavors of fantastic beat-stick. As if that weren’t enough, they can call on limited support from Aleph, the artificial intelligence that serves as intermediary to nearly the entire human sphere, but again, we’ll get to them another day.


Next is the Shock Army of Acontecimento. These guys take a different tack in the application of
Pan-O’s technology and resources, the inhabitants of a valuable industrial world. While they don’t have access to as much variety in their power armor, the men and women of Acontecimento show what a hardworking people can do with the very best manufacturing facilities in the human sphere. Their Akali commandos are second to none, being able to get themselves exactly where they need to be to exploit any errors in your opponent’s deployment. Their DragõesTAGs are nothing short of terrifying boasting what is, in this man’s opinion the most frightening anti-infantry
weapon at the highest ballistic skill it’s available at in the game. Additionally, they have access to even more toys from Aleph than the Neoterrans. The Shock army is not without power armored infantry support either, their Guardade Assaultoare perfectly tooled one man armies to wade into dense cover under the cover of smoke grenades provided by their loyal robot companions and dislodge entrenched troops with their heavy flamethrowers.

Last is the Military Orders, the fighting arm of the Neo-Chistian faith of this greatest of human nations. The primary reason to play the Knightly Orders is very simple, power armored knights,
more specifically link teams of power armored knights. No faction in Infinity has access to higher quality power armored link teams. If a power armored death squad isn’t your thing, the Military Orders can bring the Cutter to the field, a heavily armored TAG that’s functionally invisible until it’s ready to start murdering, it’s a scary thing to face off against. Also, people like knights in power armor with the finest technology afforded to humanity, there’s a big miniatures gaming company pretty much built on this exact concept if you follow my meaning, only the Military Orders have good enough taste not to decorate every inch of everything they touch in skull motifs.

Now it should go without saying that the troops and TAGs I’ve described are not the be all, end all extent of what each of these factions bring to the table, they are just a few of my personal favorites that I think best capture the spirit of their sectorial. I hope this information helps you navigate the information overload that is the Pan-O range, keep an eye out for my next article on the fighting forces of the tyrannical Yu Jing Empire.

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