Infinity General: Purpose Built Edition

On the subject of Tohaa, how much is the proper Trinomial government even aware of what the Triumvirate is even doing? Reading some of the lore in the RPG makes it seem like they have no idea what the Trinomial is up to.

Hacking. Hacking like no fucking other.

As an MO and general PanO player, my biggest fear is hackers. I'll out gun you any day of the weak, and I'm not even really concerned about camo or smoke, but fuck me if you start hacking my fking TAGs or my MO list that's 80% hackable HI.

Aside from that, bait your opponent in to over committing their pieces. The problem people find with TAGs is that like everything but Jotums and Avatar needs to be played a little more cautiously than what we expect. They're /Tactical/ armoured gears, not Knight Titans. Unlike 40k, you actually have to be somewhat smart to play this game and win.

How is it even possible for non-Nomads to fight ALEPH force when their communication and everything depend on ALEPH?

Tohaa aren't really bad guys so much as they just don't give a fuck about humanity. The "I got mine, fuck everybody else" attitude is hardly unique to them, it's just on a larger scale than the human factions.

And Aleph does a bunch of shifty shit with its secret assassins. Anyone who threatens Aleph's control is removed, through lethal force if necessary. Nomads are kept around because their illegal tech development can be useful and because killing them without causing a massive shitstorm would be very complicated and difficult.

TAGs are easy. Assault hackers, E/M (especially grenades), AP weapons (flank, smoke combo or hack if you're not confident in the FtF roll), warband swarms, flanking CC, adhesive flanking, etc.

HI pain trains are a more difficult issue because SSL2 fucks with a lot of counters. I've found the best method is often just to MOD stack and pumping them full of shots with high burst and high BS while they're at -6, or assault hacking the ones that don't pull some BTS12 firewall bullshit on you.
Direct templates are good stuff, as are E/M grenades. Defensive templates like missile and rocket launchers are fantastic for making them waste time on their active turn, though most won't be stupid enough to actually shoot your ML turret with a link.

>communications depend on ALEPH

You should come to Dawn, son.

>Direct templates
last game I had a steel phalanx hero team dodge two heavy flamethrower templates from my triad while 3 of their 4 dudes were in eclipse smoke
hector's plasma rifle crit'ed my makaul and the BTS check killed it. I didn't even burn any DDOs
in another game I had a Hellcat jump in sight of my total reaction chaksa, save 4 fucking ARM rolls crit my chaksa, kill my chain of command, and then eventually died from a viral rifle ARO
in another game my gorgos rolled low for all his shots against a krisa borak (-3 for his full auto, -3 for cover, +3 for HMG range) who rolled a fucking 5.
i did this 3 times and my gorgos just fucking died

are dice by corvus belli cursed or something?
the only time i have not been cucked by those plastic turds was when one of my kamael crit'ed van zant before he could get his murderous rampage going

>+3 for HMG range
little correction here, +3 for AP spitfire range

ALEPH troops are reasonably autonomous from the local ALEPH node, and putting in requests (even if they're internal ALEPH requests) to shut down communications in X area at the time a bunch of PanO soldiers get killed leaves more of a trail than it's worth.

Alternately, they do, and that's how they prevent reports of their activities getting out. It's just that local (i.e. in-squad) military comms is unable to be taken out like that because it runs on its own internal network that doesn't need service from the wider world to work.

>It's just that local (i.e. in-squad) military comms is unable to be taken out like that because it runs on its own internal network that doesn't need service from the wider world to work.

That's probably the case because you can't exactly leave ALEPH nodes open when you're engaging Charlie Alpha. So they have their own tactical network that, if invaded by hostile AI, won't corrupt the entire Human Sphere.

And the Jinks can't turn off your Lt.'s radio through Maya from a net cafe, they have to break into your tacnet before they can start trying that shit.

Also there's the cases of PanO/YJ black ops being taken against Aleph. Infinity games are mostly about secret clandestine missions, and nobody on a secret clandestine mission is going to rely on the local Aleph comms node.

Everyone outside PanO and YJ (and O-12, but they're not playable) doesn't rely that much on Aleph anyway so it's a non-issue for them.

Well, there was this one time they teamed up with Nomads to blow up a luxury cruiser, killing a bunch of civilians in the process. And it was all ALEPH initiative.

Fuck rich people

Pic reminds me, who has the best 'dat ass'? I remember one of the hassassins had good one.

...

Either Hassassin Fiday or Lizard Pilot. Lizard Pilot probably has the widest ass.

Both of the Asura models have pretty good asses. Same for both Proxy 1 models.

Planning on getting into infinity as a former Warhammer fantasy dark elf player and dark eldar player in 40k.
I was thinking of starting on collecting US Ariadna with an army based around infiltration and with lots of bikers.
What advice do you have in regards to tactics and starting my collection.
I was also considering haquislam but am uncertain if they are as effective in the same game style I intend to use.

40k/FaBa play styles don't transfer that well in Infinity, basically most armies are glass cannons compared to them and most full factions can do most things to some degree, sectorials are more limited.

Go what you like aesthetically the most, Japanese also have good access to bikes and while ninja spamming rarely pays off, a couple is good.

Well, the Mavericks are a bit tougher than most bikers, but Aragoto are even tougher. But USARF is better at infiltration game thanks to Hardcase, Foxtrot and Grunts being all cheap in contrast to JSA's expensive Ninja and Oniwaban. That said, the latter can slice a TAG in two and a Foxtrot can't.
Both Grunts and Keisotsu offer good Order bases, so I guess the question is if you want a tough, low-tech army with many capable troops and paratroopers (USARF) or a more high-tech army with cyber-samurai and cyber-ninjas, but shitty basic troops and some rather old sculpts (JSA).

>Pheasant Imperial Agent (Marksmanship L2, Multispectral Visor L1): MULTI Sniper Rifle, Pistol, CCW - C36 SWC1.5
>Pheasant Imperial Agent Hacker (Killer Hacking Device, X Visor): Combi Rifle+E/Mitter, Pistol, DA CCW - C32 SWC0

I just dedicated far too much time to trying to fix the Pheasant sniper and hacker. Calculated costs as well as I was able. How did I do? Would you use these profiles?

So would Haquislam be a suitable choice or not? I like the look of the Hashashin and the Kum motorized troops.
I ike the Haquislam models alot. The JSA models and USARF are nice as well and appeal to me but I am wondering what the pros and cons of each are before making any investments.

The Kum are suicide troops designed to trade favorably with stuff more expensive than them and to provide smoke screen cover for your other guys. They have a different purpose from Aragoto and Mavericks (though USARF Desperadoes play a bit like Kum).
Trading efficiently is in general Haqqislam style. A lot of Haqq best troops are light infantry, so you're likely to be at an order advantage, especially when you add that a few of Haqq troops are Impetuous.
Haqq has quite a few good infiltrators, including special type called Impersonation (on Hassassin Fiday). Basically it allows you to place a guy in your opponent's Deployment Zone, pretending to be one of their buddies. Haqq also has more Holoprojectors than any other faction, so even if you play a Saladin, your opponent may have a hard time guessing which of the 5 is the real one.

Haqq is tricks. If you want to be an annoying tricky motherfucker, they're the best you'll get in a vanilla faction. Kum are warbands, which exist to throw smoke grenades and die, preferably taking at least one enemy with them. Trading cheap shit units for the opponent's more expensive units is a favourite tactic of Haqq, and Kum are one example of that.

USARF is cheap, tough, quicker than you'd expect and full of camo, but like all Ariadna they lack in a lot of tech. Honestly I don't know much about their playstyle since I don't face them much.

JSA is aggressive. That's pretty much their whole deal, from the bikes to the samurai to the Oniwaban (regular ninjas can afford to lie in wait a bit more but usually end up being aggressive anyway).

Also, is it possible to include Kum bikers in the same army as lots of hassassin? I am unfamiliar with the rules for sectorial armies and if what says is true then I am leaning towards haqqislam considering how much they remind me of the fremen in Dune. Still torn between them and US Ariadna as I like their models as well but not quite as much.
So can I pull off the army and play style I have in mind? What are the pros and cons of each faction?

Than you very much, I am leaning more towards Haqq now, I like the tricky play style and if the bikers they use offer board control I am happy to use them as such, that is how I use my faster units in other games.
Still slightly torn because the high troop count guerrilla style of USARF appeals to me as well but I suppose that Haqq fits my preferences slightly more.
Still bit confused by the nature of sectorial armies and was wondering what advice you might have in that regard.

Everyone except CA is secretly bad guys. They are all corrupt governments working to keep their citizens from the joy of serv- living in the galaxies best civilisation.

Direct templates are surprisingly bad against HI because they are all around 14-15 PH, and always get to dodge. This is why those troops are so cheap.

Old Neema has fantastic ass

Sectorial armies are more focused sub-armies with their own rules. Think of them as Farsight Enclave to generic T'au.

The basic idea is that if you play a sectorial you lose access to some units, but get more access to other units and link teams. For example in generic Haqq you can only field two Muyibs and they act as independent agents, but in Hassassin Bahram you can field up to 6 Muyibs and you can make a Core fireteam (5-man) or a Haris one (3-man) with them that activates with a single Order and gains bonuses depending on their size. But you lose access to Kum bikers in return.

It's actually pretty easy for Haqq to switch between vanilla and any of the sectorials, as all of them use Ghulam as basic troops (and those are only in generic starter) and there's quite a few units that are good in both sectorials and vanilla (Hafza, Fiday, Ayyar, Djanbazan, Azra'il etc) as well as some good generic-Haqq unique units (Saladin, Maghariba Guard, Al Fasid, Tuareg).

god bless Spanish Weebs.

Kum bikers are pretty hard to use due to having a rule called "impetuous", it means that they must make a short order move towards the nearest enemy model on the board and since the move fast that can really put them out into a bad spot, fortunately they're cheap and are very capable of hitting above their points at close range.
Haqqislam also gets access to Ghazi Muttawi'ah's, which are the best 5 points of utter bullshit you can possibly bring. In the vanilla faction you've got both of those solid suicide units as well as the capacity to bring a lot of hassassin units that can play mindgames with your opponents, Holoprojectors to disguise units/hide a lieutenant. You can bring the Al Fasid and the Azra'il who are incredibly solid Heavy infantry.

Haqq doesn't have a ton of camo units but they're usually able to make up for it in other ways. Haqq also has the best doctors in the game so you can, in theory, get your heavy hitters back up and into the fight even if they've been knocked out.

Haqqislam is also the only faction that can realistically compete/beat Ariadna in pure number of troops on the field, so if it's the number of troops they can bring to bear holding you back it shouldn't be too much of a concern.

Quote from a local Haqq player
>man, I dislike fielding Maghariba, it forces me to go down to 16 Orders

First one still falls into Knauf territory a bit too much - it's just a bad idea for that unit, especially when they're linkable with an MSV2 Sniper. KHD/EMitter would be awesome though, might even be a chance to leave a fancy CCW on it for flavour

Are there any male models with really cool asses?

There are a number of male models in that collage.

ISS doesn't get Knauf though, only Lunah.

And there's not much worth in either linked sniper anyway, considering core Bao links are as rare as they come and the haris comes with a mandatory red fury.

>it's just a bad idea for that unit
A Pheasant sniper was never a good idea desu. But then they made a model of it for some mysterious and insane reason. Any way you think the profile could be salvaged? If shock+DA ammo that ignores cover and mimetism can't do it, I'm not sure there's much that can.

Off the top of my head there's Mobile Brigada, Achilles, some Morats, Phoenix, Diomedes (it's a theme of Steel Phalanx) and quite a few PanO light troops (combi Akali, box Bagh Mari, Kamau HMG and especially Croc Man sniper come to mind).

>Do not believe the EI's lies. Any intelligent force that would bring back the umbra cannot have any valid reason or morality behind its actions.

...

>Source: some random alien's intensely masturbatory book that is literally titled "A Cynical Gaze Upon The Universe" and seems to mostly consist of the author waxing poetic and ranting about space politics

true.

Is there any 'supernatural' elements in this setting? Like magic, psioinic, etc.

Nothing that's explained as such. It's just soft sci fi, no fantastical stuff.

USAriadna is one of the factions that does quite well as a spam army: you want to try and get close to two full order groups if possible (17-20 models). You'll want as many Grunts as you can: they're easily one of the better line troopers in the game, with relatively cheap access to Sniper Rifles and good armour.

USAriadna doesn't have the best infiltrators, but don't let that dissuade you, because they are very cheap. Two Hardcases and two Foxtrots will give you six camo tokens at the start of the game, and will be good enough for your purposes.

Regarding bikers, Mavericks are okay, but are too expensive to ever take more than one or two. Desperadoes are very cheap though, so you can spam the heck out of them if you like.

All those sweet asses and no Anaconda tag pilot. I'd say she has my vote.

Old Neema a has my second.

A friend gave me Seiba-san and a swiss guard. Any chance I can use both of them at the same time?

I don't think it needs 17-20 and I feel the sweet is 15-16 orders especially with the large amount of impetuous they have. While grunts are a great link, I don't really see why you would spam them unless you are going for the inferior infiltration spam.

Mavericks are pretty nasty, anyone who doesn't have MSV2 will hate you, the FO bike is the best of the bunch and while expensive, the Molotok bike is pretty great too. The Light Rocket Launcher is also pretty nifty profile.

If you want the fast paced, hard hitting troops, with USARF you should also look into the DD. He's fast, has super jump for insane mobility, 2W and total immunity makes him good at clearing mines, passes smoke rolls on a 19, and with the heavy shotgun can destroy most things in the good rangeband.

Just use Ghazi Muttawi'ah. LOL

>DD
Don't forget lil friend. Sensor is a big deal, and if you position them properly burst 2 CC attacks can fuck up a lot of things.

Could you guys give a newbie some pointers for composing a decent 200 pts Imperial Service army?
I'm trying to balance synergies putting units in fireteams and end up simply fucking around overshooting on SWC. Further down the road I'd like to field 300 pts with a focus on REMs with a Su-Jian for heavy lifting and a Sophotect in the background.

What should I get with this endgame in mind without spending too much on various packs?

Kuang Shi and Celestial Guards for orders and smoke are a given, but where do I go from there? Base it off the current starter pack with a Crane Rank for heavy duty combined with Celestials? Or a Hsien HMG with 2 Zhanying? For specialist and board control stuff Kanren? A Xi Zhuang thrown in there for some defensive padding? Should one go mercenary to cover the sniping?

Is there no Noctifer Combi Rifle model?

Sure! Especially if you go for ML Swiss and abuse Coordinated Orders with him. Or just use him as main beatstick and Joan as secondary + extra cheap Orders from Warcor and Tech-Bee.

Hacking is supposed to be the magic analogue. Other than that, religion is still a thriving thing in this setting. Also other than that, high technology that humans cannot understand like "voodoo tech" from CA.

in vanilla PanO.

Beyond Kuang Shi and CG, you should absolutely find a way to get a sophotect. Either hunt on ebay/resellers for the single model, or perhaps use the Aleph or YJ Spec-Ops models to clearly proxy. You definitely need a source of heals, and a very decent button pusher which the sophotect does both.

Other than that, you'll want a decent forward operator/button pusher like the ninja KHD or Kanren.

Then you need a Lt, and a heavy hitter. A Lt can be a mere Celestial Guard, or combine the two with a Crane Agent or Hsien Spitfire or HMG.

After that it's whatever you want, usually a remote or two, and another button pusher.

Like, I'd personally go for something like

CG (KSCD)
4 Kuang Shi
Sophotect
(Yud Bot)
Ninja KHD
Weibing Yaokong
Hsien Lt
Kanren FO.

Or replace the last three with a Crane Agent Spitfire
Rui Shi
and Kanren KHD

Thanks for all the advice, I think I will go for haqqislam, I like their aesthetics more and both armies seem to work fit well for my desired playstyle, they also seem better for my limited budget, planning on using a lot of assassin so would the Haqqislam Bahram Hassassin Starter pack and a Assassin Fidays be good starting purchases? Any further advice for tactics and wether to go sectorial or not would be appreciated.

The tough part about the HB starter is it does not come with regular line infantry. While the daylami are nice, they are irregular, so you will probably have to pick up some ghulam for cheap order batteries.

I have not seen an Ariadna list without a grunt link with 1-2 infiltating flamer grunts, 4 foxtrots , 2 hardasses, and a maruder harris. and that is 16-17 orders of just core stuff. there is still left over points

Monofilament is your best friend. 60% to take out any troop or tag in the game (excluding TAG pilots who pop out). Monomines are quite cheap in some troops as well (for example the Naga, where upgrading from normal mines to monomines costs one point)

>the Naga, where upgrading from normal mines to monomines costs one point
That's super wrong though. They cost 3 more points than regular mines for both the units that can take them. Nagas still get them relatively cheap, but that's for SWC reasons rather than point cost.

That just sounds dull desu. Not even the occasional Marauder core to mix things up?

USARF can do some biker spam lists too with some success. I got so bored of running Grunt Core/Marauder Haris that I experimented with more offensive and fast lists with pretty good results.

Working on anything? I put some early, messy work on a few Order Sergeants to use as Auxilia or in those not-Svalarheima lists. I really need to restore and replace some of my brushes and work on control a lot. I should probably do the former before attempting cleanup.

As mentioned, the main appeal to sectorial is the ability to make a Link team. In these fireteams, you spend one order to move that team. There's several other benefits (such as +1 burst for the leader and +3BS) for max sizes, but just as many cons. Still extremely worth it.

Also do your best to watch a lot of batreps. I loved playing against cocky GW fanboys in my area who treat everything like stehl rehn. In infinity, getting shot actually fking hurts. The odds may seem strange but don't forget that, in most cases, it only takes one hit to get a model out of the game. Thankfully, Haqq has the best doctors in the game. Don't rely on that though.

Cover is extremely important in this game. You have to actually be touching cover to get the bonus, not just line of sight. Getting caught out almost always means you're fucked if the enemy catches you out. On that note, getting used to AROs can also take some time but is the single most important aspect of the game I think.

>blue
>head antennae
>PanO are ALEPH constructs confirmed

What I'm working on isn't infinity related, so no, but I do have some base coats on a RV Daofei at least.

>Infinity is my best friend
Infinity is best girl

>Unlike 40k, you actually have to be somewhat smart to play this game and win.

>Haqq is tricks. If you want to be an annoying tricky motherfucker, they're the best you'll get in a vanilla faction.
Nomads are techy tricks, Haqq is everything else tricks.

>Ghazi Muttawi'ah's
Dont tell new players about Mutts.

Its much harder than something like Star Wars or Trek. I would compare it to the Expanse, Red Rising, etc.

Marauder Core is my jam.

95% finished, aside the base. Going to choose a model I won't be using in a while because it's cool (Crusader Brethren instead of some SAA starter models).

I feel as though every new player should experience the pure joy of chaingunning an entire 5 man marauder link team to death with a 5 point motherfucking Ghazi, and who are you to deprive them of that experience.

Why not? What makes them so good? I would rather play with an army that requires skill and good tactics to win the game not some OP bullshit. Should I avoid these or what?

In that case avoid them or don't use their smoke grenades.

Ghazi are the strongest outlier in an already very strong class of chain-smoker warband. They've got dogged for the suicide strikes, smoke nades for super-dodge, standard chain rifle against basic mooks, E/M chain rifle against HIs and TAGs, and a Jammer that can isolate you from behind a wall. Essentially the perfect "fuck you" unit, all at the cost of a whole 5 points.

Ghazi were stupid good and then they were buffed.
They're 5pts a piece, they chuck smoke, they have Dogged and they are equipped with weapons that disable HI and TAGs. And then there's Jammers.
Just look at this shit wiki.infinitythegame.com/en/Jammer

Noted, I will not get them then, just had a look and the models don't appeal to me much either.
Just out of curiosity, what level of OP are they in Warhammer terms? 7e Tau riptide tier?
Also what are the pros and cons of using the hassassin sectorial, someone mentioned chain links but after looking at the 1d4chan tactics it says that only the more basic infantry like the Ghulam have access to the chain links, unless I am reading it wrong.

Ghazi do not win games by themselves if that's what your asking. They have a very specific purpose. They are just exceptionally good at that purpose.
They also have a tendency to run into mines, Crazy Koalas or Nisses, so it's not like they're unbeatable. But they can be a real thorn in your side, especially on overly dense tables.

It's possible that the tactica is outdated, list of fireteams is here infinitythewiki.com/en/List_of_Fireteams#Hassassin_Bahram

The best Hassassin fireteam is IMO Muyibs. There's one Muyib in the starter and a 4-man box just recently came out. But I'd advise to start with generic Haqq with units from the Hassassin starter mixed in to get a feeling for the game and the playstyle and then switch to Hassassin Bahram.

You are reading it wrong. Chain rifle units in links are only points filler and usually lack good pointmen to take advantage of bonuses.

What they meant was that since chain rifles have a huge template you can sometimes force the whole enemy link to dodge or make ARM rolls, and it's as disgusting as it's satisfying.

Well, the thing is that Ghazi Muttawi'ah are very similar to just about any "Warband" type unit, in that they're designed for uneven trades as their extreme impetuousness and irregular order makes them very suicidal. The trade-off for warband type units is that the forced suicidal moves to the closest enemy unit is balanced by how well they can kill up close: Shaolin monks, Morlocks, all very good if they can get into B2B, and smoke protects them somewhat (although not to MSV2 units). CC 22+ with Martial Arts and DA or AP is guaranteed to do heavy damage to most heavy units. The thing with Ghazi Muttawi'ah is that they too can do uneven trades like warbands while not contributing the team with their irregular order, except the uneven trades is caused by making isolation, thus unable to take more orders, or against HI and REM, Electromagnetism from the E/Marat causes isolation and immobilization. A lot of people forget to take engineers so they can't fix these, and it makes their expensive troops only use one order at a time so those people cry. They're about one of the very few ""OP"" units, which is to say they're rather optimized, as unlike most Warbands with whom to compare to, getting into range of a template weapon or ZoC is easier than the payoff of getting into B2B. But in the end they're just another warband type unit, they have their counters like long distance MSV shooting, shock weaponry, perimeter weapons, surprise shots/attacks, etc. Personally, I love their fluff and looks so I field them pretty often, but they never feel too OP in my hands, but then again I'm afraid to field a

l 4 I can, usually taking up to 3.

Jammers is over-hyped. It's pseudo-hacking better than a lot of hacking programs, but it doesn't actually incapacitate any troop, just messes with plans. Stealth is an easy work around it. At burst 1 they're still likely to fail in most F2F rolls as long as you're careful, and solid BTS against Damage 13 helps.

No, closest you get is genetic splicing scifi werewolves.

>Article about AI
>Images of Robots

Every fucking time.

Well yeah, your not going to find a lot of push back on this in an Infinity thread.

OK so I was thinking of getting a set the Hassassin starter set, a Hassassin Fidays and set of Ghulam infantry to start out. Is this a good base or should I get the Haqqislam starter set instead of the Ghulam?

Maybe a bit of an overview of what you'd be getting if taking both generic Haqq starter and HB one:

- 3x Ghulam: basic linemen, good Doctors and Forward observers, mediocre fighters. Most commonly used just as cheerleaders. Basic troops for all flavors of Haqq.

- Zhayedan w/ Breaker Rifle: glass cannon guy that has a slight chance to go back from unconsciousness on his own; very good against 1 Wound troops, especially Ariadna. Ignores enemy cover when shooting.

- Khawarij: a fast attack unit that can jump over most obstacles.

- Tuareg w/ Sniper Rifle: remember Marbo? Here's Marbo with a Sniper Rifle. Marbo's signature trick (appearing out of nowhere in the middle of a table) is actually pretty pedestrian in Infinity.

- (Red Veil exclusive) Al Fasid: a giant Heavy Infantry with a mean machine gun and a grenade launcher that includes smoke. So he's both a beatstick and a tool for your less durable units to get in range.

- 3x Daylami: irregular speed bumps. Putting a panzerfaust in someone's way is sure to make them reconsider their advancement options. But they don't do much on their own.

- Hassassin Ayyar: a medium range Heavy Infantry that creates holographic images of himself, forcing your opponent to guess which one is the real one. Can also pretend to be other units (fun fact: one Ayyar costs as much as 3 Naffatun, so you can easily disguise him as them during deployment). A really strong unit.

- Hassassin Muyib: a guy with a grenade launcher, that like Al Fasid also has Smoke Grenades. Base for Muyibs Core.

- Hassassin Farzan (Forward Observer): an infiltrating Specialist with camo cloak and ability to Target or Stun enemy.

Taken mostly as is (with Al Fasid) that adds up to almost 300pts, though probably it has too many Irregular troops for 13 Orders.

That is not a bad plan. Note that for a full Ghulam link you'd need Leia Sharif, I guess you could proxy her with something at first.

Unless all the other races it met up to that point were the kind of huge assholes that only respect a bigger asshole.

Uh, you know that AIs can be but into robots, right?

So would it be better to get the ghulam or should I get red veil and split the cost with someone, then purchase the assassin set and Fidays?

If you plan on playing generic Haqqislam and Hassassins then I would just get the starter, but if you planing of just going pure Hassassins then not really, since you wont be able to field 3 of the 6 models it comes with. However the Ghulam box of 4 is focused on the special weapon options instead of the generic rifle profiles your more likely to be fielding. That said you'll want those if you plan on running a link team and you can just proxy the others as rifles anyway.

Them being OP is a meme. They are just really really really annoying and are pretty reliable at being annoying.

Personally I don't run them because I don't like the model.

I don't see what's wrong with the irregular orders.

You get one group of 10 with Regular Orders and then the poopy Daylami in their own group.

Yeah, but the people who develop AIs aren't also developing robotics. People always make dumb skynet comments when they see Boston Dynamics videos as if they're developing conscious AIs to go with them.

Robotics always gets shit on from fear of AI development that they have nothing to do with.