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.