Starting with Qapu Khalqi

This article is meant to take a look at the flexibility and the basics of list-buildings. For new players, Infinity and the building of lists can be a little bit daunting. So many options, units,special rules and equipment. That can be a bit much for most of us.

With the Starting with… series, we’ll take a look at two or three lists per army, showing some of the options you can choose.

To keep your budget in mind, we’ll start every list using the Starter Box of every army, which is an awesome deal for the amount of models you can get! We won’t keep in mind the need for specialists required in the I.T.S. missions! Specialists are certain units that can capture objectives. Those units aren’t a necessity right now because we’ll be focusing on the basics first. You’ll learn about them later on. You can get a solid grasp of the game mechanics and workings of Infinity with these lists!

The current Qapu Khalqi Starter Box brings you 6 models:

• Hafza, Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife, (16pts)
• Hafza, Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife, (16pts)
• Hafza, Spitfire / Pistol, Knife, (1 | 22pts)
• Odalisque, Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife (1 | 30)
• Djanbazan, Sniper Rifle, / Pistol, Knife (0.5 | 31)
• al’Hawwa (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife (0,5 | 26)

 Total: 141 points, 3 SWC.

Lieutenant options (since you have to appoint your Lt): any of the Hafza (including the Spitfire variant)

Roles, pros and cons on table:

• The Hafza are intended to  be your basic infantrymen in this set, and can be trusted with any typical task you’d want a Light Infantry to do. Thanks to their Light Shotguns, they are going to be very effective on close ranges (getting +6 to hit modifier at distances shorter than 8”). One of them carries a Spitfire (light machinegun, effective on shorter distances than typical HMG and with a bit less punch), making for effective firepower.

Hafza are a bit on the expensive side for basic infantrymen (though they are a bit better trained and equipped than Ghulam, who are also available for QK, just not included in this starter set). Their unique features are Holoprojector L1 (which allows them to masquerade as any other S2 model legally available to QK… but you won’t be really able to utilise this ability until you get some extra models) and the ability to form Link Teams with and Linkable model in QK.

Now, this last ability is a big deal – unless rules specifically allow it, only models from the same unit can form a Link Team (eg. only Odalisques, or only Djanbazan). Adding some Hafza to your Janissary or Odalisque allows you to boost the team’s size (and bonuses you get from that) quite cheap… provided you were able to master the Link Team rules.

• Odalisque is a No Wound Incapacipation light infantry, which effectively makes her into “pocket Heavy Infantry” of QK. She’s fast, resilient (unless hit with Shock ammo, which became dangerously popular in N3) and with Spitfire, she has good firepower. While not an expert in Close Combat, no one sane is going to be overtly enthusiastic about getting close & personal with her – she’s not ace, but thanks to I-Kohl L3 she can bring down all these martial artists to about her level of raw CC attribute. Can choose from either Sixth Sense L2 or 360-visor. A very user-friendly unit. Can form Link Teams or (unique to QK) Haris Teams (though for this you’d need more Odalisques).
• Djanbazan, with his  long-ranged, powerful Sniper Rifle (remember it has Shock ammo!) and Multi-Spectral Visor L2 (allowing him to see through smoke and ignore -6 to-hit modifiers from TO Camo or Optical Disruptor Device) is a consummate counter-terrorist sniper. Thanks to Regeneration, he can heal himself out of Unconsiousness (well, 55% success chance, far from what he would get with a Doctor, but still way better than nothing) – and this makes him Immune to Shock, too. Can form Link Teams.
• al’Hawwa is a Camo Infiltrating Assault Hacker. He’s not very good over long distances, but with his trusty Boarding Shotgun and Assault Hacking Device he can be a real headache for your opponent – and a rightful terror to his heavy units (get into range, Hack to Immobilize, get into Close combat to attach a D-Charge or three, boom! – definitely a nasty way of doing things!). He’s also a Specialist for scenario purposes.

Variants and proxies in the box:

The Hafza riflemen:

• could be made into Forward Observers (17pts), as no FO model exists as-such. This makes them into Specialists for scenario purposes, and also gives them Flash Pulse ability – pretty nasty thing in ARO, as being a Technical weapon, Flash Pulse uses the WIP instead of BS. And Hafza have high WIP as befits Haqqislamite troops.

al’Hawwa Hacker:

• A cheaper (21pts) variant exists, exchanging his Assault Hacking Device for  Forward Observer equipment. Basically, he forlorns the ability to pull Hacking tricks to save a few points. He’s still just as good for jumping folks with his shotgun, or grabbing objectives in scenarios. This is the natural proxy, as there is no dedicated FO model.
• A separate loadout: Sniper (0,5 | 27). She packs Sniper Rifle and Anti-Personnel Mines (actually, the only AP Mines in the entire QK). I wasn’t a fan of her back in 2ed (for a Camouflage Infiltrating Sniper, she wasn’t stellar), however she may be making some sense right now. Yes, there is a dedicated model.

The Odalisque Spitfire could be used as “same troop, different loadout” proxy, but it would be stretching it a bit. Keep in mind that all the profiles keep their Nanopulsers.

Same goes for the Djanbazan Sniper. He could – in a pinch – do as the favourite of many commanders, Djanbazan HMG, though.

Let’s grow our Men of the Gate force to 200pts: