ITS Season 9: Hassassin's Creed

As I have mentioned throughout this blog from time to time, I am on a journey to master all of the armies that belong to Haqqislam. In fact, when I first started playing Infinity, I vowed to only play my chosen faction of Haqqislam. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on who you talk to), I broke this vow when I started Caledonia. I have since renewed my commitment to Haqqislam and Caledonia has been consigned to sit on a shelf in my hobby room (Sorry Ariadna but Bourak and the Search for Knowledge comes first). I truly want to master Haqqislam and know the ins and outs of every unit in the faction. To do this, I had to re-focus on Haqqislam.

In the pursuit of this, I choose an army of Haqqislam for an ITS season and only play that the entire season. I began Infinity by making the terrible decision to buy everything in Haqqislam. I wanted to do everything, use all the cool units and I was quite scatter-brained. Using Vanilla one day and then going Hassassin the next, but then wanting to try out QK  I noticed I wasn’t really going anywhere or getting any better. This is when I made the decision to settle down and choose one aspect of Haqqislam on which to focus at time. I chose Qapu Khalqi because it was the one that came to me the quickest and that’s where I spent my first year really digging into Infinity. After playing casually for so long, I finally made the dive into ITS and my first ITS event was a farewell to QK as I moved onto Vanilla Haqqislam which is where I spent last year’s ITS season. I do want to give QK an ITS season eventually, but it depends on when Ramah Task Force is released.

What I want to do in this article is go over my closing thoughts on playing Vanilla Haqqislam during this past ITS season, and go over some of my expectations for Hassassin Bahram in this new season. I haven’t had a lot of time to play lately so this is the bridge between my experiences last year and my expectations for this year. I want to get some more games in with Hassassin Bahram, maybe a ITS event or two before really digging into tactics and strategy for the Sectorial.

 The Best Vanilla Army: Reflections on Playing Vanilla Haqqislam in ITS Season 8

It’s a bold claim but the past year of gameplay has really shown how strong Vanilla Haqqislam is. It’s no wonder when you look at CB’s numbers (ITS Season 8 Stats) for armies played in ITS Season 8 that Vanilla Haqqislam has such a strong showing compared to other Vanilla armies, and is vastly more popular than its own Sectorials. Compare this with a faction like PanOceania, where you see that PanOceania Sectorials are played more than Vanilla PanOceania. This isn’t to say that Haqqislam Sectorials are bad, on the contrary, Haqqislam Sectorials are really good (which I will get into later with my Hassassin expectations) but the synergy found in Vanilla is quite strong in Haqqislam. There are a lot of combinations of units that are hard to give up when going to the Sectorials, even with the prospect of fireteam bonuses and order efficiency. Vanilla Haqqislam is the strongest case, in my opinion (Ariadna might have some claim but that’s only because the Russians don’t have a Sectorial yet,) which may or may not be biased, as to why you would play Vanilla over a Sectorial.

Within Vanilla Haqqislam, there is an array of choices for creating a toolbox to face almost anything that another faction might throw at you. That’s not to say that Haqqislam doesn’t have any weaknesses, but Haqqislam can most certainly stand toe to toe with any faction. The asymmetrical stance of Haqqislam does provide a bit of a learning curve, one that I think is heightened when you go to the Sectorials, but does provide a lot of satisfaction once it all clicks. I had a lot of fun playing Vanilla Haqqislam. List building was definitely the highlight because no matter the mission or the faction, I felt that I had an answer to every challenge I faced. It was refreshing coming off of Qapu Khalqi and have all the options in Haqqislam at my disposal, which is a source of some hesitancy now that I face the prospect of going back to a Sectorial, albeit a different one.

An edge I felt I had was the unpredictability of Vanilla Haqqislam, which was helped by owning the entire range of Haqqislam models currently in production (Even some that are out of production like the Halqa I was able to track down…no…I don’t have a problem, I am just devoted to Haqqislam…). One thing that sometimes sucked when playing QK was after a while, people started to know what you would bring since you have such a limited selection of units in a Sectorial. By having a good grasp on what you bring, they more easily countered it. I turned this expectation on its head with Vanilla Haqqislam. There were several of times that someone told me that they thought I would bring something like a Fiday but forget about something like the Tuareg that would pop out of hidden deployment to cause havoc or dropping in a Bashi Bazouk from the board edge. I was able to keep people on edge about what I was bringing and that is more valuable than people give it credit for. Now, I was able to do this with the entire range of Haqqislam, but you don’t need to go hog wild like I did, owning a variety of units definitely achieves the same effect.

As you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed playing Vanilla Haqqislam. It helped me remember why I love this faction so much. If you are a Sectorial player and haven’t branched into Vanilla Haqqislam, I highly suggest it. There are a lot of fun and interesting units only available to Vanilla currently like Saladin and the Maghariba Guard (Until Ramah Taskforce comes out :D) that help really define Haqqislam as a faction.

Now, it might seem like I don’t like Sectorials and that I am dreading going back to one but that really isn’t the case. In fact, I am really excited to dive into Hassassin Bahram for this season. I have dabbled in them since HSN3 which was enough to wet my appetite for the shadowy organization hidden in the Shahnate of Bourak.

Joining The Hassassin Society

I have been actually looking forward to coming back to Hassassin Bahram for quite some time now. When I first started, it was before Human Sphere N3 (HSN3) and Hassassin Bahram had a huge learning curve to it. When I first started playing, I did go kind of nuts and I bought everything in a short amount of time, which in turn meant that I wasn't sticking to a particular army. I would play Vanilla then QK, maybe do HB a couple of times and then back to Vanilla before I recognized this wasn't helping me learn the game and I settled on playing QK full time. The reason I chose QK was because coming from the Space Marines of 40k, it lent itself better to a play style I was used to. Since then, and after learning the game, this has significantly changed but this didn't change the fact that before the release of HSN3, Hassassin Bahram had a huge learning curve to it that I didn't quite grasp at first. This is definitely no longer the case for the Sectorial of the Shahnate.

If there is any Sectorial that won HSN3, it was definitely Hassassin Bahram. I knew this just from reading about the changes that it brought to the Sectorial from the new link teams, the addition of Haris to some units, to the badass new unit in the Hassassin Ayyar, HSN3 did a lot for HB and I was excited to play it back then. It didn't eliminate the learning curve, out of the three Haqqislam armies, it is still the hardest to learn, since it relies on deception and tricks to gain the upper hand, but those tactics and strategies have become fleshed out and easier to execute with the changes of HSN3. How best to combo your troops and how to create lethal synergies have made the Hassassins a formidable force but they are still the least popular choice in ITS Season 8 for Haqqislam armies, something I hope changes eventually because it is a really awesome force.

There is a lot that I really like about this Sectorial, and there is a surprising amount of flexibility in it. It isn't as much flexibility as Qapu Khalqi (Really, does any Sectorial have as much flexibility as QK?) but there is a lot that can be done with this Sectorial. As much as I hate how much they really seem to overshadow the Sectorial, I can't help but be excited for probably the best link team in Infinity, and you probably already know which unit I am talking about. The Hassassin Muyibs live in both fame and infamy because they are the ultimate tool box, able to do pretty much anything you need them to do. I will eventually do a full article on how good they are but they offer a lot: two specialists in a Doctor and Forward Observer, they have the only access to viral mines in the entire game, every single one of them has Number 2 which makes it almost impossible for their link to be broken (Only the Combined Army Q-Drone has the ability to do so with the Program Exile), both of their heavy weapons have X Visors, they have tons of equipment on each and on top of all this they are Religious and Dogged. The best thing? They can form both a Core and Haris Fireteam. You know what's even better? Leila and Yasbir make it so that you can have both of those in the same list. They have a lot and I can go on about them so I will stop here. Look out for an article on them soon.

Another Unit I am looking forward to is the Govad. I really think Govads are an underrated Core and Haris team. Most of the time I hear people taking them it is as the Haris, mostly because they lack a Doctor, but really the Core is a great way to deal with visual modifiers if you know you are going to go up against an opponent that has a lot of camo or ODD because they have something the Muyibs don't: MSV1. Yeah, it doesn't totally get rid of negative modifiers for ODD or TO Camo but it still reduces it and in a 5 man link, it's almost like that ODD/TO isn't there. Plus, they have some weapons that Muyibs don't have in the HMG, Missile Launcher, and the Sniper Rifle. Yeah, they only have two Specialists and both of them are Hackers, but honestly, these are good units and I am looking forward to using them. They have some of my favorite lore in all of Infinity, plus their models look really awesome. Not only that but there is a mission you will want these guys over Muyibs because of Veteran L1 and that's Hunting Party. Veteran L1 prevents them from being Isolated and thus limits the choices your opponent has to be able to score Objective Points. Again, there is definitely going to be an article dedicated to the Govads (Right after this one in fact, it's been in the works for awhile).

Even though I have been using her for a while in Vanilla, I can't wait to really get the most out of Leila in Hassassin Bahram. On top of her awesome profile, which I've discussed before, she finally lets HB have a full 5 man link of Ghulams, providing a cheap link to take some of the more expensive units in HB like the awesome Asawira Haris that came with HSN3. The greatest thing about that Haris is it can be full of Asawira or you can have up to two Muyibs instead making the link cheaper and with the Asawira Haris already coming with a Spitfire, it's certainly a great way to go. I have already tried that Haris and I love how the Asawira performs in it. I am hoping they get a re-sculpt soon because I am going to use them a lot in HB. If the Asawira isn't your style, you can use the HI that everyone wants to use that came out in HSN3, with great model options including one in the new HB starter. That is the Hassassin Ayyar, which, again, I have experience using in Vanilla and it really is a great unit with the ability to press buttons, and also take out enemy units with relative ease, as well as 3 different load outs which are all useful in some way.

One unit that I have underrated unfortunately, is the Daylami. I have played a few games after I got my HB starter, however, and I have been using them a lot more because their new models are so good when compared to the old ones. I will fully admit that my reluctance to use them is because the models were horrid and I didn't want to use them and I wish I would have used them sooner because they are a fine unit. They may be Irregular, but they are cheap and that inferior infiltration helps to make them into a wonderful tar pit for your opponent to have to deal with. Used in conjunction with Mutts, you can really make it hard for your opponent to be able to Alpha Strike efficiently because they have to deal with all these cheap troops that will cost them to ignore. I will be writing an article about these guys too, because I know some people hesitate to use them because it can be hard to land their infiltration roll, but trust me, they are a good unit to have, even if they just sit in the back protecting your flank.

Yeah, I have Fidays and Lasiqs, they are great and all but I feel like I used them roughly in the same capacity that I did in Vanilla because you may have increased AVA for both but I rarely ever need to have their AVA increased from what it is in Vanilla. One unit I do want to use more that I didn't use enough in Vanilla is the Hassassin Ragik. It really is a great AD troop that I always forget and I don't know why because they are really great. I hope to correct this oversight with the Hassassins.

What The Future Holds

This ITS season is definitely going to be a fun one and I hope to inspire more people to give Hassassin Bahram a try. I know a lot of us get caught up in just how good Vanilla Haqqislam is and it’s bitter sweet leaving it behind but I am definitely excited for Hassassin Bahram. It is going to be my honor to serve the Old Man on the Mountain in a full capacity as I use tricks and deception to confound my foes until they know it's too late and that is when the killing blow comes. I welcome you to this journey because it will prove beneficial to the both of us. As always, my friend, continue to seek knowledge, mashallah. 

Leila Sharif, the dread Dire Foe Tool Box

If there is one thing that I love when it comes to the units I use, it is when they have multiple uses. It just makes list building easier and it also makes having redundancy in a list easier. This is exemplified in dual specialists that some factions have (I am quite envious of Doctor Worm, the Sophotect and Kumotail Bioengineers. Haqqislam needs access to a Spec Ops to get the same versatility) but can be found in other places especially in Haqqislam when you have non-specialist Muyibs bringing D-charges to complete Classified Objectives without being Specialists. Even rarer though is a Specialist that can complete multiple Classified Objectives and can also be a dangerous killing machine as well. Enter the newest Dire Foe given to Haqqislam: Leila Sharif. 

I can not express enough how much I love using Leila Sharif. She is a unit that can do so much for her 20 points and no SWC cost. I was actually quite surprised how much I liked her when I first used her. When she was first announced and we got a look at her stat line, I will admit it, I was hesitant about how much I would actually like her. This was before I have used the Shock Marksman Rifle (SMR) and before I got to really explore the uses of the Killer Hacking Device. I compared her to her Yu Jing counterpart and instantly thought that Yu Jing was the won who made it out with the better Dire Foe. After several games using her though, I actually think that Haqqislam made out like a bandit when it comes to the two Dire Foes. She is a diamond in the rough and she can do a lot if you know how to use her.

Leila's Stats

If you look at Leila's stats, at first she just seems like a standard Ghulam. She has one better BS skill than a Ghulam and actually has BTS 3 which is nice since she is a hacker and is under threat of hacking herself. Other than those to things though, she isn't much different than a standard Ghulam but that helps keep her cost at 20 points which puts her on par with the most expensive Ghulam. This makes it easy to fit her in a list whether in a vanilla or the Sectorials of Haqqislam. Since she is linkable in with both Ghulams and Muyibs, she helps to bring a lot to both links. For one thing, Hassassin Bahram players can rejoice because they can finally have a 5 man Core Link of Ghulams as well as cut costs in a Muyib link so it's a complete win for HB. Leila opens up a lot of possibilities within HB and might provide enough of a reason for HB players to maybe not always take Muyibs as their Core. Qapu Khalqi players still get an awesome unit to stick in their Ghulam links, something that will become clearer down below, but also, QK finally gets a named Haqqislam unit in their Sectorial (Scarface doesn't count! He's a merc and not a Haqqislam unit, despite QK being the original Sectorial that Scarface appeared in). One thing that I really love about Leila is that since she is a Ghulam, every army of Haqqislam benefited from her release. I like Yasbir, don't get me wrong but only vanilla Haqqislam and HB players get to use him. I am now really hoping that Ghulams show up in the Ramah Taskforce so I can continue to use her. The Halqa probably will prevent us from seeing Leila in the Khanate though since they are really the Ghulams of the Khanate. 

Leila's Weapons 

This is where Leila really distinguishes herself, her weapon selection. Her main weapon I have already sung praises for and it's part why she is so good. The Shock Marksman Rifle was a new weapon introduced in HSN3 and is a weapon only found in Haqqislam. It's actually such a unique weapon that only three units have one right now even in Haqqislam: Hassassin Ayyar, Djanbazan and Leila Sharif. It was a weapon I was skeptical of. You are basically trading in the 0 modifier from 0-8 inches for an extended +3 modifier allowing the rifle to have a +3 range band from 8 inches all the way out to 24 inches which is good but the damage is still 13 and even though it had shock ammo, I didn't think it would be that good. Yeah...I was proven wrong. First time I used it I was shocked, pun intended, about how good it was especially on the units that they gave it too. Each unit that has this weapon definitely can use it quite effectively and Leila is no exception to that. It gives her seriously killing power against other units especially when you consider the fact that a lot of other specialists are one wound models. She is able to assassinate other specialists while she is on her way to press buttons herself. I know a lot of Haqqislam players have a problem taking ALEPH, seriously, take Leila and a Djanbazan with SMR (for pesky ODD) to shut down ALEPH and their No Wound In-capitation. As much as I love the SMR, it isn't a universal solving problems weapon like a HMG is. It doesn't take on heavy armor that well and you lose the shock effect on multiple wound units, units with STR or stuff immune to shock so you don't want to be using Leila to just kill everything. Single out targets that it is useful against, and hunt them down. Smart use of the SMR will make your opponent hate the weapon. 

The SMR isn't the only thing available to Leila either. She doesn't have the standard shotgun like a lot of units in Haqqislam but what she does have instead is a Breaker Pistol which helps her deal with multiple problems. I love Breaker ammo because it can be used to kill something without BTS and if they have BTS, it's halved so Breaker ammo is a problem solver so you can use it to take care of things that the SMR can't or if they get into 0-8 inch range, it gives you a nice solution to deal with close threats. Now it is just a pistol so it has a short range but Leila has tricks that can put you into this range if you want to use it. I wouldn't go hunting with the Breaker Pistol like I do with the SMR but it is nice to have in case Leila finds herself in a close quarters fire fight or even has the threat of CC. 

The final weapon she has is D-charges. One complaint about the Killer Hacking Device, which Leila has as her hacking device, is that it takes away being able to do Telemetry and HVT: Designation and this takes away from the versatility that Hackers have. Besides being a specialist to press buttons their one purpose is to kill other hackers. Leila solves this by having D-charges and that may only replace one classified but let's be real, HVT: Designation is hard to complete with Spotlight. It's also useful to have on that off chance that you might get into close combat with someone, and even if the chance is low, it's fun to stick a D-charge on someone and blow it up in their face. When you finally get to do that and if it's on a close combat monster, like an Oniwaban, you will understand the satisfaction of it.

Leila's Killer Hacking Device (KHD) 

I wanted this to have it's own section because it's an important aspect that helps to make Leila as an attractive unit that she is because it's the final piece of her profile that when put together with everything else she has makes her the dreaded tool box. It does more than make her a specialist because killer hacker's have an important program that can put Leila's weapons and specialist nature to good use. Now, she is a fine hacker to be used to go and kill all of your opponent's hackers but what if you are facing an army like Ariadna who doesn't have hackers or your opponent just didn't bring hackers? Well, that's when you take advantage of Cybermask. I wasn't a big fan of the KHD in Haqqislam. The other KHD in Haqqislam don't bring much to the table besides the device so they suffer from the one trick pony that is the KHD...except for the Barid who gets the Lightening Upgrade which just wrecks enemy hackers. Leila, on the other hand, stands out among the rest because she has something the others don't: The Shock Marksman Rifle which makes all the difference. She can still go around and use all the advantages of the KHD and with BTS 3, she's on par with all the defensive capabilities of the other KHD but she can make the best use of the Cybermask program. You can use that program to move up the field with anyone but since Leila is packing a SMR, she can make long range Surprise Shots up to 24 inches. Cybermask does take a roll to get off but it is worth if there is a unit that Leila can take off the board with her set of skills and weapons. It was the combo of Cybermask and SMR that cemented her in my lists and why she is the one KHD unit I make sure to take.

Leila Sharif, Husam Spec Ops badass, is what I want in an ideal unit. She is a specialist that can complete multiple classifieds and can also hunt and kill things. It makes her useful in most if not all missions for this reason. Direct Action, Joint Ops or Spec Ops, Leila Sharif is built to take it all on and I am quite glad we got her. Doesn't matter what army you play within Haqqislam, she is worth taking in a list and for me has become an auto-include. If you play Haqqislam and you haven't got her yet, it's the one unit that I would implore you to pick up. Find a Yu Jing player to split the box if you must because you don't want to miss out on her. She won't make or break games and she is still just a light infantry so she isn't invincible but you get her to do her job, she will do it well. Until next time, my friend, continue to seek knowledge.