Infomercial: Combined Army

Background: "Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." - Arthur C. Clarke

Well it seems Arthur Clarke was right about one thing in the Infinity universe. Not being alone is terrifying and that's all do to the Combined Army. The Story behind the Combined Army has to start with the Evolved Intelligence or the overlord of the CA. It was created by a race called the Ur Rationalists looking for a way to ascend to something greater aka transcendence. They created a very powerful AI at first but it turned out the AI was looking for ways to transcend itself and not the Ur. It finally transcended and left the Ur high and dry. The Ur tried again but this time installing some perimeters for the new AI to follow like looking for ways to make the Ur transcend and not itself. With this we get the EI. The EI has been a very long quest looking for ways for the Ur to transcend and it's started this by assimilating other species to help on it's long quest. Now the human's were introduced to the CA on Paradiso (a planet in the human sphere). Now it was only a scouting force though and the humans were tossed aside like kids in a NFL game. The CA didn't take over the whole planet though as it didn't have the forces to do so but it did take over a very big chunk of the planet and the scouting force is slowly gaining ground and losing ground to the humans.

This scouting force is made up of three alien races that the CA has assimilated into it's ranks. We have the warlike and shock troopers of the CA known as the Morats, the survivalists and guerrilla warfare experts known as the Shasvastii, the war contractors of the CA's navy called the Exrah. There's a fourth race but it would be hard to classify them as a race but they are basically the personal troops of the CA known a EI Constructs.

On the Table: These guys are just like Aleph being an elite army. A majority of the troops in the CA have above average stats and some equipment that isn't even found in the human armies. What sets them apart from Aleph though is that they are are a faction of specialists while Aleph is faction of well rounded units. This doesn't make the CA bad in anyway as you bring specialists of all the races and mix them into one unstoppable force. Each race can do the things the others can but some just do it better like the Morats being the shock troopers, Shas and there camo, the Exrah being the jack of all trades.

Now it's hard to talk about the CA without talking about each race as they bring something to the table like I listed above.

Morats: The Morats provide the CA with shock troopers par excellence. They do on thing and that's kill things. The Morats are the ones you look to if you want firepower giving you everything from HMGs, autocannons, HRLs, panzerfausts, feuerbachs, and mulit sniper rifles. There are also the only source of cheap smoke grenad units in the CA coming from two warband units. They also have the only other HI units outside of the EI Constructs. The Morats also come with a skill called Morat. What this does is that makes every Morat religious (not in the human sense but in the fact that they are a race of professional soldiers) and just having one Morat in a CA force bumps your retreat threshold from 60% to 75%. That is super big with a bunch of units costing over 30 points in the CA. Now what the Morats aren't good at is camo or any suitable tricks. The Morats are as suitable as a brick to the face on the battlefield.

Shasvastii: The Shasvastii provide the CA with a crap ton of camo troops and then some. The Shas are what strike fear into the enemies of the CA as they can attack out of no where at any time. They provide what the Morats can not and that's camo troops from regular camo to TO camo. Now the Shas can fight like the Morats with some of there troops but the Shas are the kings of playing mind games and making your opponent paranoid not the kings of brick to the face like the Morats. The Shas like the Morats come with a racial skill known as Shasvastii. What this does is when a Shas is killed it drops a seed embryo (so it goes unconscious, dead, seed embryo), this basically forces your opponent to kill the Shas troop three times over to make it count towards retreat.

Exrah: The jack of all trades for the CA. The Exrah don't have a lot of units in the CA but they do provide very versatile troops compared to the Morats or Shasvastii. The units that aren't a TAG are all MI and they are very good MI with 6-2, Super Jump, and ARM 3. Ones a camo hunting machine, another is a close quarters specialist (not in CCW but like in ship boarding actions), the other is drop trooper from hell (not the TAG), The Exrah have a racial trait named after there races name but it doesn't give them any benefits. What it does is if a Exrah receives a wound of fails a BTS it will outright die so no unconscious state for an Exrah. This basically allowed the Exrah to be very cheap for the good amount of equipment and good stats they have. Did I also mention the Exrah that have a TAG that has AD...

EI Constructs: The biggest baddies you can bring to the table in a CA force. There are 3 flavors of a EI Construct. You have a basic remote unit called a Ikadron that is a baggage bot but provides a great tool for a EI Construct (more on that in a second). You also get a MI unit know an a Skiavoro and is considered the best Lt out of the EI Constructs do to his Strategos Lvl2. Now when you take a EI Construst as a Lt he has this very awesome ability known as G: Mnemonica. What this does is if the EI Lt is ever killed his transfers himself into a friendly models cube. He can only take along his WIP and the Lt skill but that bascially means you never go into LoL as long as you have a model with a cube on the table or a unit with G: Autotool like a Ikadron. There's also a very nasty skill that a EI Construct can take as well known as a Sepsitor. So if you ever have a model with a cube in the model's ZoC that has a Sepsitor you can attempt to take it over. It all comes down to a FtF roll between the target and the Sepsitors models's WIP. If you win you the model joins your force (it doesn't grant a order though). Now the other two flavors are the HI or Charontid (one of the 3 models to have a MSV3 in the game), the ever rude Anathematic that's a TO camo HI. The last flavor the TAG that's the biggest and most expensive model (point wise) in the game. It's known as the Avatar.  It's a engine of death, destruction, and despair. These guys also get access to the plasma rifle... it's only found on EI Constructs (the Charontid, Anathematic, and Skiavoro to be exact).

Why play the Combined Army?: If you're looking for a alien faction in Infinity the CA might be for you. If you're looking for diverse group of minis that has a diverse group and a rule set the CA is here waiting for you. Looking for stuff the other factions don't have access to? Well the CA has that and they are ready for you to turn over your cube to be Sepsitorized.

I'll post up the Morat and Shasvastii sectorials sometime late this week or next as this post is already long enough with them.