Infinity/N3 Tactics/Caledonia

The unit overview and tactica for Ariadna's drunk scotsmen, the sectorial Caledonia.

[Best waifus on Ariadna]

Why play Caledonia

Caledonia represents the Scottish, British, and Welsh that settled on Dawn. They brought with them a dear respect for the old ways of the Clans, congregating into expansive families within the northern reaches of Ariadna's realm. They also happened to primarily settle on the largest deposits of Teseum, a space-age metal that can be treated to become harder than diamond. Mining operations began and continue under their supervision, with the largest clans maintaining hefty coffers of Teseum ingots.

Caledonia isn't a sectorial for tricksters. It's not a sectorial for people that want to hulk around in power armor, or want to be "kawaii". Caledonia takes those core rules of Ariadna, huge camouflage, huge smoke, big guns, and presents it with Scottish flair. You play Caledonia because you want to paint your family's tartan. You play Caledonia because you want to face your problems head-on, and like to win, with tactics, over top of technologically advanced forces. You play to offer oh-so-many nomad players a chance to kiss the edge of your claymore.

Sectorial features

Technology Void

• What's hacking, again? The very same lack of technology that makes Ariadna, and there-by Caledonia, weak also gives them a stronger identity. After all, the game isn't won by bringing the fanciest toys to the table; you can't play with toys when you are dead. Unhackable HIs in a sectorial almost devoid of hackers are a good example of the strength and weakness compromise. Killer hacker? Bet you are a better shot than he is. T.A.G.s got you down? T2 ammo available in every gun platform except HMG will tie them up quick enough.

Spam orders and play aggressive

• Spam everything There are some specialists in Caledonia but there are some kind of hard to come-by. You basically have 1 Doc, 1 Engineer and 1 Hacker and some FO in a few units. Also volunteers can volunteer to have a medkit but thats it. Your Strength is your number and aggressiveness. Spam... a lot... Caledonia are very similar to Morat Aggression Force but instead of elite-ish troops they just have numbers and favor close combat. In other words unleash a bullethell with spam and throw your swords at the enemy.

Special Skills

• V: Dogged: After losing all their wounds, a trooper with this skill can keep on fighting while in the unconscious state and falls dead at the end of the current turn. Many of the troops in this army have this skill making them very hard to put down. Look out for Viral and Shock ammunition.
• Martial Arts: Many troopers in this sectorial has the Martial Arts skill as well as high CC values. Martial Arts also provides Stealth and V:Courage.
• Frenzy and Impetuous: Basically everything that wants to get in CC has this.

Weapons and Equipment

• T2: Caledonians have so much god-damn Teseum, that they put it in their cutlery. They put it in their jewelry. Its in everything, down to the bullets in their guns. Said bullets are jacketed with Teseum, which fragments off on impacts, and deals 2 wounds for a single failed armor roll. T2 rifles will have your opponents a bit annoyed, but just wait till they learn what T2 means in a sniper rifle. The one camo marker in your army using the Irregular order WILL be known, trust me.
• Smoke Grenades: In any army, Smoke coverage is very useful to advance up the board. Caledonia has so much access to smoke, they might as well rename it "Vape Nation". 6pts for a 45th Highlander, for a chain rifle and smoke grenades. Laugh when your opponent realizes half the board is smoked out and you haven't even used an order yet. Or cry.

Units

Light Infantry

• Caledonian Volunteers: Just regular line Infantry. Okay-ish in a fireteam but don't waste your core slot on them. With 6pt for a regular order they are a good filler. Their main use (which annoys your opponent into obnoxiousness) is their ability to be a incredible speedbump. Take a few of the buggers (like 4-6) with rifles and inferior infiltration and sprinkle them around the field. You could even take a shotgun or two if you have spare SWC (and you want that sweet +6 from close range shotguns and -3 for your enemy because of suprise shotgun to the face. If you don't have the first turn your opponent will have to deal with them or be annoyed. If they survive you get some extra orders but don't build a list on this as they'll probably die horribly but take away some orders from your enemy. If you have the first turn use a command token on all of them and put the rifle guys in suppressive fire to fuck with your opponent even more. If you fail the infiltration role use them for covering your backlines from protential AD-Jumpern. The females work particularly well for distracting the enemy, as they have miniskirts and wet singlets. And yes, the designers of that miniature probably wanted something to fap to at the time.

• • Volunteer Intel Isobel McGregor: Kind of a wierd and iffy model in general but ok-ish for the points. Basically only take her on missions with a lot of hacking required as she can handle it ok. E-Mauler is rediculious. If you take her, pay the 3 points for the T2-Rifle those things are always worth it.

• Highlander Caterans: Take the T2-Sniper every time. Always worth it! Irregular orders are no matter for this army anyway so take him. Did i already tell you he is worth every Tesseum-Bullet he fires?

• 112, Emergency Service: 12 Point Doctor, yes please.

• Dozers, Field Engineers: Cheap Engineer, as 112 take him. If you're thinking about taking the Mul-Device take that profile and use the Mules. More missiles are always a thing. Especially at the amount of FO Ariadna can take.

• Warcor: Cheap and Irregular 3pt WIP13 Flash Pulse dude. Take them if you got a few points left over. Don't underestimate how useful they are as an ARO piece, because they are amazing in ARO. Edit: Also take him because its a 3 point regular order most of the time anyway.

Medium Infantry

• The Scots Guards: Basically your TAG-Hunters. Kind of every profile has a AP on the weapon. Can be used in a Fireteam. Duos with AP-Marksmanrifles and Molotok are worth considering. Very order Efficient in Tag/HI-Hunting Duty. If you like camo take the 2nd Battalion profile to throw a lot more camo on the board (like u don't have enough of it anyway). 19 Point FO option with DEP is also a good pick if u use some traktor mules aswell. They just bump up the HI kill potential with smart missiles from the mules.

Heavy Infantry

• 3rd Highlander Greys: Your first non-hackable HI. In general a good choice. They have a good stat-line and shock-immunity (what they really need because hey lol 1 HP) but dogged is nice for going berserk on enemy units. Also they have smoke and regular grenades on ph 13 which is nice. Throwing around nades like a madman is always a thing against fireteams. 2 Light Shotguns take care of the rest if they stand in a line. They always stand in a line. Dogged and Shock-Immunity will bring u in line. They hunt down Fireteams effectivly. Even HI teams are good to bite the dust with the help of the AP-HMG but i wouldnt count on it to be the weapon for everything even though they can handle their shit. They can be in a Haris with Mormaers. Thats were the fun begins though as they put more holes into stuff with heavy armored buddies around them.

• Caledonian Mormaers: That's the real MVP. 2 of them in a Haris with a Highlander and they can go to town. Did you know the Haris stands for Harrasment? Thats what they are good at. Having Armor 5, shock-immunity and Dogged they can take a beating. Keep your 112 around to help them survive a little longer. Don't be illusional, they will die but they take alot with them on the way to freedom. T2 Rifle and X-Visor is good for suppressive fire and engaging enemies at longer ranges. AP-HMG speaks for itself.

TAGs

What is a TAG except for a Teseum Magnet?

Remotes

• Traktor Mul: You are spamming FO troops, correct? The humble Traktor Mul is an archaic tank system that is cheap to make and shoots tons of shots. While seemingly powerful, their optimized counter is a bit strange. While at first, they may seem like T.A.G. killers, their range bands and ammo suggest they are better for close/mid-range HI trades. Like I said, a bit strange. Remember that "Baggage" generates additional kill points. Also, if you are using a Traktor Mul in conjunction with FO, look up which T.A.G.s can stop your target lock. It does exist, and its on a LOT of the shiny T.A.G.s.

Skirmishers

• S.A.S.: Notable for being fans of mac-n-cheez, which they eat while camouflaged and waiting, the S.A.S. are AVA 4 British Ninjas that help form the backbone of Caledonia spamming camo tokens. Is it Uxia? Is it the S.A.S.? Is it that ole Cateran? While the rifle option isn't all that spectacular, other options can form some tricks for your opponent to deal with. Avoid the sniper option. He's not that great. Edit: Chain-Rifle + Grenade option is quite good for harrassing purposes after revealing. Before that they like to camp corners with their assault pistol and suprise shot people.

• • Uxia McNeill: You have two options with Uxia. There's 2 Assault pistols Uxia (Covert action), with only smoke grenades, or there's boarding shotgun Uxia with regular grenades (S.A.S. CP). Either way, she can be a little hard to bring, performing well sometimes and other times running right into a template. She's a mello rambo unit who could really use a bit more flavor in her gun selection. If you are playing a mission with room control, her PH 13 can combine well with grenades to clear out rooms. Edit: The SAS Cp option is your only option for MSV1. If you like doing stuff with camo and want a slight advantage over enemies hiding bring her. She is not much more expensive than a SAS, so why not bring her?

Warbands

• 9th Wulver Grenadiers: Another reliable Haris or Core Team. Those guys are just plain good and don't cost any SWC.

• 2nd Irregular Cameronians Reg.: The Power-Wuffs. Those guys are hard to manage well but powerful as hell. They are mobile and fast thanks to super jump but big. Try to cover them with smoke and get close to Chainrifle stuff dead. They like to hunt chearleader, fireteams of LI and MI. They don't like to many shots fired at them. Try to evade any TR HMGs but always run into everything explosive as they just ignore it thanks to total immunity. They don't cost much so you might take one and thanks to Wallace (which you are taking anyway) they could also be called 2nd Regular Cameronians.

• 45th Highlanders rifles: Home of the 6pt Extremely Impetuous smoke grenade, the 45th highlanders offer lots of cheap close range power. If they aren't killing things, they can always be throwing smoke grenades. If only there was a way to fix their irregular order, and make it regular... they are basically better Kuang-Shi with style

• • William Wallace: Ol' Willy is back, and is ready to once again marry his claymore with the necks of those brave enough to face him. On the table, William does more for Caledonia by standing by and not dying. As a lieutenant, he offers Inspiring Leadership to the many Irregular orders you could have brought. Additionally, if you aren't giving the fire team to a Grey, he has a really cheap fire-team that can join him. He moves at 6-4, so he screams up the board. In melee he's no slouch, allowing him to repel the Fiday and other attempts at assassination. That is, unfortunately, about where his praise ends. He doesn't have a particularly special gun, he's only got 1 wound, and he isn't packing high armor. With no chain of command available to Caledonia, you can't really play him too aggressively. He's much better at sitting back, and letting his IL make your order pools XBOX HUEG for very little points. Unless he gets a rework, it will probably stay that way. Edit: Lets face it: Bring him. Always. He is your lieutenant and everyone knows it. He makes all your guys regular and is a cheap-ish beast himself. He can lead a special Fireteam Core with the Calwegians. That is a solid fireteam choice. you should use it atleast the first 2 turns as order-generator for your harris and power-wuffs. End of turn 2 split the fireteam and let them go ham in a freedom rush with him leading the charge. If its your last turn don't even bother thinking about loss of lieutenant. I really cant stress that enough. The ability of having everything at regular order in your list is powerful. See warcors and the calwegians themselves for why.

• McMurrough, Merc. Dog-Warrior: In all of this, you are probably thinking to yourself, "Well shit, seems like there isn't really anyone that can tackle the tougher challenges that Infinity has to offer." Things like outshooting Usnagi when she has a 5-link. Things like killing the Avatar. Things like... Bitch-slapping Achilles in a melee fight. Here, I assure you, is your answer to that last one. The others, you are on your own. I did mention, we aren't that powerful. McMurrough is an S5 dog warrior with one heck of a punch. He's the kilt-wearing sonovabitch that got your girlfriend addicted to looking at dog dicks. Long range, he's not that great. In fact, he's shit at long range. But if you let him anywhere near your models, you better hang on. 2 Chain rifles, the usual for a Dog-warrior, higher armor, a better CCW, grenades. But is all that worth the extra 10 pts or so? That's up to you and how your list works. Edit: He isn't called McMurderface for no reason.

Building Your Army

Start with the Sectorial starter box. This will give you a good amount of kilts, T2 rifles (you'll be using them), and spans about 100 points. From there, you will want to do a few things.

1. Figure out how many volunteers you want to bring.

2. Figure out if you like having 4 SAS.

3. Have another pint (you'll need it).

First think about what Core Team you want to use. Bring Wallace. Stuff in some camo speedbumps and don't forget to bring ap weapons for Tags and HI. Get a few specialists depending on the mission. Fill the rest with stuff to punch your opponent into oblivion. Caledonia is very straight forward with a few tricks up its sleeve. If you keep in mind that u want to use Highlander-Greatswords and tesseum bullets to kill stuff you will be fine.

General Rules to think about:

- if you bring mules bring also some FO

- Bring something to hunt down HI/Tags and Fireteams from the list above

- Stick a 112 behind your haris

- take impetious troops and let your them either cover you with smoke or let them do a freedom rush and bash some heads in

Hints and Tactics

• Damned if you do. Damned if you don't

• MSV2 and Smoke Grenades: Unless you are willing to remember what everyone else's troops have, make sure to ask at the beginning of any game "Does anything have MSV 2?" If you aren't munching on their order pool, killing the units with MSV 2 is usually a safe priority. Granted, this is based on killing priorities, which always come second to taking objectives.

• Specialist spam: You are spamming specialists, right? Good. Take the objective. Pass the WIP test. Do all the things.

• Fireteam Compositions: Play around with the options. Generally, you should have a cornerstone unit with a high BS and high Burst, and at least a couple of specialists. See above for good choices.

If you need more hints on how to play Caledonia you should use more swords in your list.