



The only way to carry your dice.

If you’ve ever played Infinity, read about it (especially previously here, here, or here), or watched it, then you’ve definitely heard something or other about order pools. They’re a quintessential part of the game, so let’s take a deeper look into the idea and theory behind order pools and their types…

P.S. If you’ve read the order pool article I wrote on my own blog then I recommend you go straight to the “10 + Some” section, the rest will be almost entirely copy and pasted, but this section will be completely expanded:

Large Order Pools

Nothing feels better in the world than having a metric crap ton (yes, that’s an actual measurement used in…somewhere) of orders to get work done, either pushing buttons or wiping some hostiles out. I can tell you as an Ariadna player who sometimes plays with 20 orders at 300 points, it’s wonderful.

The main drawback here is that you have a lot of cheaper troops and very rarely do you have all 20 orders as regular orders. If you play your cards right, most of them will be regular, but rarely all 20 meaning that it might sound nice to have 20 orders, but the reality of it is that you won’t. On top of that, you have to spend more orders to get the same effects out of most of your troops than a more elite army would and the more orders you spend, the more likely that troop is to be shot to dickens; a troop who is already weak and fragile enough. Do note that it can be an absolute nightmare trying to remember who’s in which group, especially when you start taking multiples of the same profile (I recommend thinking about this problem and solutions BEFORE you try playing a 20 order list).

Strengths

Lots of orders to make sure you get done what you need done

More troops, more guns, the more chances you have to make it hurt

Larger margin of error (can try and try again if something doesn’t go right)

Trade a small increase in chance for repetition

Weaknesses

On average your troops are less effective and deadlier

Run the risk of having too many irregular and not enough regular troops

Lots of impetuous, so a good amount of your troops are running out into the fray or not receiving cover bonuses (aka, dead)

Much more susceptible to things like shock, viral, etc. that eat away at cheap, 1 wound models

Takes a lot of work and practice to remember who belongs to which Combat Group

Small Order Pools

Having a whole army composed of super butt-kicking heavy infantry and elite infantry is pretty freaking sweet too. Your troops are deadlier, more effective, and resilient compared to the large order pool list. You don’t fear for the lives of the individuals as much and you can rely on them to get the job done more often than not. As an Ariadna player who sometimes uses 10 orders at 300 points, it feels great having troops who can actually get stuff done on their own.

The really big drawback here is the smaller order pool. Once you do get overwhelmed and lose a troop you take a significant drop in effectiveness compared to the large order pool. It might be harder to drop you down an order, but it hurts a whole lot more. Not only that, but this play style is arguably more difficult to play and master, requiring you to master stacking mods and keeping your troops alive, which in Infinity is a difficult task. Lastly, you really miss out on the ability to use Command Tokens to switch around your troops if you only use one combat group. Strengths Deadly, efficient and resilient on a whole compared to the small order group

Takes less orders to get something done

Your orders are harder to kill off

More likely to include regular orders and no impetuous or irregular orders Weaknesses Less orders to do things – each one is critical

Greater pain when you lose a single order

Missing out on a key function of Command Tokens (if you’re playing Ariadna, what else are they good for besides coordinating orders?)

A much smaller margin of error compared to the large order pool

Much less board control

10 + Some Order Pools

Presented above are the two extreme cases for order pool types you can have (don’t even get me started on any list past 20 orders): One maximum pool at 10 or two maximum pools at 20, but let me introduce you to the sweet middle ground of the two types I mentioned.

Here you start with one full group and then you fill your second group based on your personal needs, preferences or mission. A lot of times this can be as simple as adding one or two additional troops just to switch back over to group 1 using Command Tokens once your first group starts taking casualties or it can be as complex as adding a vanguard force to make a significant sent in your opponent’s force while the bulk of your own army advances to take and hold the objective. Or you could build the second group with a mission in mind such as protecting your doctor as they try to make it up field to accomplish their objective. Another example would be the second group you put together using your fastest and deadliest troops to get as quickly as possible into your opponent’s side of the table and then cause as much damage as they can without expecting a return home.

A few types of the second combat group follow:

Defense

Hiding hidden troops

Berserker attacks

Order replenishment

Secondary objective team

Primary group 2

The really neat-o part about these secondary combat groups is that you can mix and match the above types to meet your needs or personal choices to create some truly strong secondary groups and order pools.

Defense

Throw in your snipers and total reaction bots here and prepare to defend your deployment zone! These troops valiantly stand around watching over your turf and occasionally moving to better vantage points or to eliminate a target who moves too close, on your active turn. These groups usually number from 1 -5 and are sometimes used in conjunction with the “Order replenishment,” “Hiding hidden troops,” or “Berserker attacks” types.

Hiding hidden troops

This type is typically used in conjunction with another type of group and again usually ranges from 1-5, or more. The key part here is to have a full 10 order group and then having the secondary group contain the TO or AD trooper in order to conceal their identity by analyzing pools. If you have one combat group with 9 orders and another one with 6 it looks extremely suspicious. One of my favorite ways of implementing this type is to have the full 10 order group, but then have one lonely AD troop in group 2. If your opponent doesn’t bother to count up points, then they won’t see it coming. Simply switch the trooper over once you lose someone from group 1 and then watch as your opponent starts to realize what’s about to unfold.

Berserker attacks

Probably the most straight forward and vicious use of a second combat group/order pool. Use your primary group to accomplish the mission or as the backbone of your assault force, but then use the second group to launch daring raids against your opponent in hopes of eliminating counters/threats to the primary group knowing full well that they may not return home. Irreulgars and Extremely Impetuous troops are the best kind for this type of assault, but they will more than likely need some backup from regular troops too. This type of group will usually require a few more troops than the above two to be fully effective, so it typically can average around 4 – 8 troops.

Order replenishment

Another group that’s usually used in conjunction with another type. Here you typically find troops sitting around with nothing better to do other than contribute orders and once the main group starts taking hits you switch them over to fill the gaps that bullets or swords have made. This type makes a great pair with the “Defense” and “Berserker attacks” types to fuel those first turn assaults or defenses and then, from turn 2 and on, are used to bring group 1 back to 10 orders.

Secondary objective team

Your primary group might have the mix of assault and specialists needed to accomplish the mission, but this group solely focuses on the specialists and delivering them to their destination. This group works best if you pair it with the “Order replenishment”, “Hiding hidden troop types” or “Defense” types. Put in your cheaper specialists or just other specialists who will do the late game runs to grab the objectives the enemy reclaimed, that the primary group failed to reach on its initial assault or classified objectives once the big threats and targets are down and out.

Primary group 2

A very popular choice for horde armies like Ariadna or Haqqislam. In this style you pretty much recreate your primary group in your secondary group. Now, sometimes this means that you limit each group to 8 or 9 orders, but essentially you have two groups that are now capable of doing exactly what you task your primary group to do. More or less you’re playing with two Infinity armies rather than one and that’s the point of this style.

TL;DR

Main point here is to realize that either extreme probably isn’t going to do you too much good. Instead, try the “10 + Some” type first and then adjust the size to what you like best from the large or small group types. If you don’t want to read it all, look over the weaknesses and strengths of the large and small order pools and then look at the different secondary group types in the “10 + Some” section to find a style that fits you the best. Try it out and adjust until you find the perfect fit for you and your faction.