2 – Allahu Akbar! Why I chose Haqqislam as my first faction

So, after realising that Infinity was the game for me, it was time to set about the incredibly important decision of choosing a faction [this was before I realised that sticking to one faction was like trying not to chew a Fruit Pastille] . I think my categories at the time were;

1. Great models

2. A competitive faction [I had spent years being the whipping boy of 40K games by running a fluffy Slaanesh list with everything in multiples of 6 and Mark of Slaanesh].

3. Limited amounts of special rules.

The more I read the more I came to realise that number 2 wasn’t really relevant. There was no Eldar Seer Council 6 Wraithknight  power faction in Infinity – anything could be made to work, and there was no pattern to the factions at the top of tournament lists. I also increasingly began to realise that number 3 wasn’t really relevant either as there was no getting away from the complexity of the rules – you have to do your homework if you want to play this game. Therefore, mostly based upon the models, I slowly narrowed it down to three – Nomads, Pan:O, and Haqqislam.

I already had a Corregidor starter box, bought on a whim towards the end of N2. Along with the contents of O:I, I now had a pretty decent selection of Nomad models, so they were the obvious choice, especially considering that they had lots of sculpts that appealed to me, particularly the Bakunin ones. Of these Bran Do Castro, the Monkey Magic miniature, was my favourite [by the way, I tried to watch Monkey Magic as a grown-up after loving it as a kid. I think I got to episode 3 before my brain started to melt]. I actually think Corvus Belli should go the whole hog [literally] and produce a Piggsy half human half pig character, and a Sandy too [I think he was half fish or something?] and Tripitata with G:Servant Horse. However, I felt that as an O:I starter faction there would soon be loads of Nomads players, plus my mate Tom was thinking about taking them.

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Pan:O was also in the mix, despite my penchant for taking the evil side [For teh Horde! Free Steven Avery!] Actually, I suppose Pan:O are sort of evil as the dominant hyper-power. I don’t trust that A:I either; change one syllable and it’s E:I, the evil mastermind of the Combined Army – am I the only one to see this? I also had the contents of O:I painted up so that I could do demo games and spread the good word. This would be a good starting point for an army, especially as I had promised myself that, for once, I would have a fully painted force. This was only a skirmish game, with low model count, right? Fusiliers, Nisses and Knightly Orders appealed to me, although they had some pretty fugly models too – not Nagash fugly, but still pretty clunky.

 

In the end, it had to be Haqqislam. Without getting too political I really liked the positive spin on Islam, and, for some reason, I thought that they would be one of the lesser played factions [I was wrong about that one though as it turned out there were two other Haqq players at the club I would go on to join!] Plus, they had loads of amazing sculpts, in particular the Azra’il with Feurbach, which came out at roughly the same time that I started messing about with O:I. In fact, it was probably that model more than anything that finally convinced me to take the plunge. Kum bikers [snigger] also looked brilliant [the new ones anyway – The old ones reminded me of the chavs that used to ride up and down the road outside of my parent’s house back when the mini-moto was popular], along with the Lasiq with Viral Sniper Rifle. Decision made, Haqq it was, so starter set, Azra’il and Lasiq were soon on their way to me. Allahu Akbar!

Edit – I’m slowly getting through my Haqqislam, starting with the line troops. Below is the first batch – apologies for the picture quality.