Infinity: Building an Army - Achilles and his Myrmidons

The Myrmidons...

I cant help it.
I just love to flit between projects.
A lot of the time this means that I do not get stuff finished…but hey ho.
My latest crush is on Infinity. Great game, incredible model range.
I started out with the Yu Jing – a great Asian mush, specialising in heavy infantry. I will still finish a force of them..but I have my eye on another race already.
Aleph.
AI and Myths.
Achilles and his Myrmidons are what truly dragged me over here, that and the cool link between AI and man..sort of blade runner crossed with …that game with the Norse techno-gods theme… I loved that…from a fluff perspective.
So anyway.. how do I go about building the Greeks?
This is the first Sons’ army building process with Infinity and hopefully will provide insights into the game system….

You can read the first 3 Infinity posts here:
Test Mini’s – DaoFei
What are Orders?
How does the D20 Mechanic work?

So we need a lieutenant, thematically this can only be Achilles.

The Man. Nuff said.

As a Lieutenant, there are several options available to Achilles, but I think it is probably best to keep him at his cheapest cost. This also includes minimises his spend on SWC (Special Weapons Cost, of which you only get 1 point to spend per 50 points spent on the army. In a 300 points army, you can only spend 6 SWC points then). So for Achilles this is the Heavy Shotgun option.
Even this option however costs 77 points! Almost a quarter of all total points!

Achilles would be nowhere without his crack veterans, the Myrmidons.
Your basic Myrmidon clocks in at 25 points with a Combi Rifle – this being the typical weapon of line infantrymen, but this is where the comparison ends. The Myrmidons have 2 points higher BS than most other basic troopers, double the armour (ARM2 as opposed to ARM 1) and a whopping CC value of 17! Combined with their AP CCW (Armour Penetrating Close Combat Weapon) which halves the value of the opponent’s armour…then through in that the Myrmidons have Martial Arts Level 3…we can see that these boys are on a par with Yu Jing Ninja’s in there CC lethality.

Not only do these guys have some great stats, but they also have 2 very useful pieces of equipment. Firstly is the Smoke Grenades. They can throw these things in front of them and use the cover to push forward without getting gunned down, Smoke in Infinity blocks LOF (think TLOS 40k’ers) and unless you have some rare equipment like MultiSpectral Visors then you aren’t shooting through smoke.

Next up we have Optical Disruptors. These are crazy. They make the enemy shooter -6BS…so the necessary roll on a D20 goes from, on an average line infantry dude from equal to or under 11…to rolling under a 5. Typically with only 1 or 2 shots, depending on weapon.

Combine Smoke, Optical Disruptors and ARM 2 then we have an excellent ranged defence.

It does get better as well. All Myrmidons are armed with a Nanopulsar as well, a small flamer template based weapon that requires the target to roll under their BTS characteristic or take a wound. BTS is Bio Tech Shield, the models resistance to chemical, viral, biological and nuclear weaponry…Heavy Infantry tend to have a very low BTS stat (the lower the better), whereas normal dudemen will have no BTS due to the open nature of their armour compared to the sealed environment of the Heavy Infantry suits.

OK, just from writing this I am so sold on these boys…so I look over the army list and discover…I can take a Myrmidon with a Chain Rifle (short range/flamer template automatic weapon) for just 16 points! Combine the anti-BS protection that we just discussed and the short ranged nature of the Chain Rifle…and I think that can work.
So lets add 4 Mymidons with Chain Rifles… they’ll be using Combined Orders to run upfield, only generating 1 ARO against them as they move and throw Smoke Grenades.

This sets us back 64 points.
Plus Achilles 77 and we are 141 points…from 300 we have 159 left!
I’d like to get in some Doctors or MediKit’s but screw it..lets just get in some big guns!!
I’ve not used any of my SWC as yet, so I have 6 points to spend..

If I pick up 3 Myrmidons with Spitfires I can pump out a massive amount of firepower, have more orders available and more smoke…CC threat too.
Each Spitfire pumps out 4 shots at Damage 14, the second highest amount of damage next to 15.. but at a shorter range than the HMG, which is its big brother…the close range nature of the Myrmidons and the use of their smoke should counteract this..
These 3 Spitfire Myrmidons are only 32 points each with SWC:1..so I still have enough to buy 2 more if I really wanted to spam Spitfires..

But I think I want to play around a bit with Achilles…I’ve not spent a lot of SWC so lets upgrade our lieutenant Achilles to wielding a Spitfire too..capitalise on his BS15.
This leaves us 59/1 to spend…

If I grab another Myrmidon with Chain Rifle (as above) and a Myrmidon Hacker…that leaves me with 6/0.5 to spend…so I’ll leave the list as it is..primarily because I want to keep the army in ONE Combat Group, so that, if needed, every model has access to maximum Order Reserve to escape or exploit any situation they find themselves in.

Achilles – Lieutenant, Spitfire

5 x Myrmidons with Chain Rifles

3 x Myrmidons with Spitfires

Myrmidon Hacker with CombiRifle

294/5.5

The idea is that with Cover, Smoke and Optical Disruption the boys will close the distance swiftly and then overrun the enemy models, either using the wrecking ball that is Achilles or to use the excellent CC potential of the Myrmidons to wreck face.

However, how do I take on entrenched snipers? If the enemy has left a good killing ground around his sniper position, then I would need to swamp the sniper will all the boys, otherwise they’d get gunned down as they cross killing grounds individually..

OK, so any thoughts from Aleph players? Infinity players that are familiar with taking on the crack Greeks?
Spam tastic?
Not enough mixed range? The plan of cover/smoke/ODD not viable?