Qapu Khalqi is often referred to as a faction with “old design.” While I dislike the implied slight on QKs quality, it is true that the faction was first designed way back in N2, when the game was very different.
QK was, in fact, one of the very first sectorial armies and was the first to use the Haris fireteam rules. Many an Infinity grognard can regale you with tales of the potency of the Smoke Shooting Djanbazan in N2 and, to a lesser extent, N3. Since then, things have changed. The game has been through a number of iterations, hairlines have receded, waistlines have expanded, and babies have grown into children, teenagers, and maybe even young adults.
All that said, while you might not be able to eat as much dairy as you used to, without considerable bowel discomfort, that doesn’t mean QK has become similarly weakened. Yes, new and fresh factions may be rolling into your meta, but if you know what you’re doing The Men of the Gate can still show those whippersnappers a thing or two.
… But I digress. We are not here to talk about how great QK is, we are here to acknowledge that, while there are many wonderful facets to the factions, there is no such thing as perfection. Everything has its faults, and QK is no exception. Qapu Khalqi is old design and there are some hallmarks that are visible today that we will discuss.
If you look across the roster of Qapu Khalqi units you will note that, despite it being a Haqqislam Sectorial, there are some units from another faction. This is also the case for other similarly aged sectorials. Neoterran Capitaline Army, Shock Army of Acontecimento, Imperial Secret Service and Force de Réponse Rapide Mérovingienne all share that feature with Qapu Khalqi. QK and co are sort of like proto NA2 armies with all that that implies for force design and balance. It’s one of the ways you can tell they are as old as shit.
In the case of QK they have Nomad units to call upon, specifically those from the Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor.
“Cool!” You might say, like a naive fool. “CJC are a strong faction who are lending their might to the brave defenders of the Silk Routes.”
In this you would be wrong. Well, wrong at least about them lending their might. Remember how I said QK is old design? Well, that means we get old units from before cool stuff, like the Gator and the Vostok, were released.
“Enough of this old design waffle, Diomedes!” I hear you say. “Let’s get to the roastin – – I mean, let’s get to the unit breakdowns!”
By all means.
The first, and most useful, unit is the Mobile Brigada. Its stats look like this:
The Mobile Brigada is one of the iconic Infinity units. They are great models, they are part of one of the foundational, some say protagonist, factions and they crop up in key art all over the place. And you can take them in Qapu Khalqi. Well, you can take one, in Qapu Khalqi. Dafuq? C’mon CB, why?
Anyway, this is not a “how would I improve QK” article, so we can save the whining for another time. The Mobile Brigada sits in a category of unit many call “basic Heavy Infantry” because they have good stats, high points cost and a low amount of skills and equipment. Like Orcs in Panoceania, or Janissaries in Haqqislam, you pay what is, by the standards 5-years-in N4, a high points cost for what amounts to a blunt instrument. In sum, they run, they gun and they absorb hits, but not much else. There is real value in those attributes, but not real excitement, or a huge amount of flexibility.
In QK, in almost all contexts, you are pretty much better off with a Janissary than a Mobile Brigada. They shoot better, they have better WIP, better BTS and slightly better CC. They are slower and don’t have cubes, but importantly you can take more than one of them and they can form fireteams (I am not going to talk about the Janissary doctor here, but it will be addressed.)
But the Mobile Brigada models are cool so we look in vain down the list of profiles and see there are some with a tinbot (-6). Hmm… Maybe that’s where we can get value out of them?
And, indeed, so it has proven for this QK player.
The Multi Rifle/Light Flamethrower and Hacker profiles with a tinbot (-6) are, I believe, legitimate picks for a QK army list.
The Multi Rifle offers a useful and resilient solo hunter. He can roll into the midfield or up a flank and relatively easily march through whatever deployable is in his way spraying napalm and armour piercing/shock bullets at whoever crosses his path. He’s still expensive and short ranged, but there is a use case there. Certainly worth a try, certainly effective, but also requires a bit of list manipulation to fit, which won’t appeal to all players.
Somewhat more interesting is the hacker. Any hacker with access to tinbot (-6) automatically becomes worthy of inclusion, in my book. Add to that her 6-2 Mov, decent WIP, 2W, D-Charges and the Veteran Troop designation and you have a solo specialist that is able to competently rush objectives, score plenty of Classified Objectives, take a hit, keep going, and hit back if necessary. The only real downside to this profile, beyond the cost, is that she is packing only a lowly Combi rifle, but you’re not taking her to gunfight so much, so it’s a drawback you can bear. It’s an expensive piece, but it’s also the best hacker you can take in QK by some margin and worth consideration for those missions that really require hackers.
Next up is the Iguana Squadron TAG. Its stat block is thusly populated:
So what do we have? It’s a TAG, what more do you want?! Please ignore the bit that says “STR 2.”
Ok, so the Iguana is a curious unit. It’s a TAG (one of the cooler looking ones, I might add,) so it brings the usual good stuff that all TAGs get. Tac Aware and BS Attack (+1 Dam). but it only has 2 STR. But it also has Escape System and a 2W HI Operator, and it has a good anti hacking package and a Repeater.
Is it a 4STR TAG? No. It’s a 2+2 STR/W TAG and thus is pretty much unique in the game. The Anaconda is the only other TAG with Escape System, but its Operator has only 1 W and the TAG itself is worse in a number of ways. So, the Iguana is better than the Anaconda. That’s good, but it’s also not saying much. The Anaconda is the worst TAG in the game.
Here are the rules for Escape System:
So Escape System allows the Operator (not pilot, as in other TAGs) to automatically leave the TAG when it has lost its last STR point and deploy anywhere in silhouette contact with the TAG, inside an automatically deployed smoke template. That sounds pretty good?
Well, firstly, there are some drawbacks to this. Escape System is automatic, so you don’t get to choose to heal the TAG instead of ejecting the Operator. This can be relevant if you lose it towards the end of your reactive turn and you would otherwise be able to revive it in your active turn.
If the TAG loses 3 or more STR to an attack those hits above 2 STR move over to the Operator meaning it could outright die if you’re unlucky, or arrive on the table on just 1W. On the flip side of that, 2W on the Operator means that death is pretty unlikely, even against Missile Launchers and the like.
I’m not going to go through all of the Escape System rules for you, I trust you can read. What I want to ask is this: Given the information above, what do you think is the best application for the Iguana TAG?
If you answered disposable attack piece then congratulations! You agree with me! Bit of a weird spot for a TAG, but the Iguana is the game’s biggest and toughest regular Warband. Look at it like this: It’s fast, it’s cheap (for a TAG) it can lay down smoke and if it gets up in your face you’re in trouble in a number of ways.
Many players value very highly the ability to project a hacking network. QK are actually one of the best in the game for hacking projection, mostly thanks to Druze hackers with pitchers (who we will cover at a later date) but also because they have a 2W 6-4 repeater with ECM: hacker (-3) – which can be buffed further with Fairy Dust – with a Heavy Flamethrower and Dam 16 HMG! That’s great!
Of course the Iguana is not as tough as other TAGs, but it also has this great skill where, when it dies (and let’s be real, it will die) it drops a baby Iguana in a smoke cloud, ready for action. I have used the Iguana to great fun effect by leaving it in the midfield for my opponent to tackle, then, when it dies and the Operator pops out in smoke, somewhere useful if I’ve positioned myself well,* I still have the 2 orders it generates, an HMG, and an S2 model worth 65 points for the purpose of Victory Points and zone control missions.
*Please note, because the Operator ejects in silhouette contact you have the opportunity to, depending on the type of terrain you are playing on, drop him on a rooftop or other high piece of terrain and in 1 or 2 short moves be raining down more HMG shots, or be well out of the way of anything not equipped with climbing plus or super jump.
OK, so I’ve done my best to sell you on the Iguana, but I would be lying if I said it was all upside. Arm 6 on a TAG is very mid, just 1 more point of armour would make this QK player feel a lot better about pushing it into hard ARO targets. And as fun and effective as Escape System can be, having a 3 STR repairable TAG is just more reliable. What’s more, 65 points and 1.5 SWC, while cheap for a TAG, is not cheap in a 300 point army list. You have to want to take the Iguana and when the Azra’il is right there for more than 20 points less it’s easy to take a long hard look at the Iguana and turn away with a tingling sense of loss at what could have been.
Here it comes, the main event. The reason you read this far into the article. The third and final generic Nomads unit in Qapu Khalqi: Alguaciles.
The Alguaciles are a basic Nomads/Corregidor Line Infantry. Look at them here.
See what I mean. Basic. A. F. According to human-sphere.com they are the baseline unit for the entire game. The basic chassis from which every other unit is built. I don’t know how much truth is in that, what I do know is they majorly suck.
You don’t even want to take them in their home faction. Look at that Lieutenant profile. Look at it!
1 SWC for the most basic trooper in the game!
I understand that there is a fluff reason for this in Nomads. I understand that Corregidoreans are supposed to be so tough, so cool and anti authoritarian that having a leader in a spec ops military unit is just too much for the special, unique, independent spirits of Corregidor to stomach; consequently you, in your war dollies game, are taxed for it.
Nobody likes this, by the way. Nobody.
But in Qapu Khalqi, a Haqqislam Sectorial, even we have to pay the cool dudes tax. Nobody in QK is ever taking this profile, not to mention any of the others. Have you seen Ghulam? They’re like Alguaciles, but good! Why would I punish myself by owning or using Alguaciles?
There was a time, in the dim and distant past of 2022 when fireteams used to be different. For those of you too young to remember, any unit listed in a fireteam chart as belonging to that fireteam – and wildcards – gained what we now call “purity bonuses.” It was a magical time of super cheap Kamau fireteams and, in QK, Ghulam fireteams that could have a BS16 Sekban HRL for 21 points!
Then, as now, Alguaciles could join Ghulam fireteams and so if you really needed to save a point here or there, or you really, really, wanted a Multi Sniper Rifle, Alguaciles were there for you. On the very rare occasion that that happened.
Alas, nowadays such savings are not only extremely niche, but actively punishing to your fireteam. Why save a point over a Ghulam HMG (which you almost never take – but are fun btw) when you lose 2BS for the pleasure? It’s just not a good trade.
Add to this that you can’t form a fireteam with Alguaciles and they become increasingly irrelevant to anything that you might want to do with QK. You could maybe have one in a Ghulam Haris fireteam, but even then they could only be a makeweight. Ghulam have more and better unit options and are basically better at everything.
If you have read any of my other writing in this blog you will know I am a positive Infinity player. I want all profiles to be useful and enjoyable and economical to take. I like units that most competitive players think are trash, but even I cannot lower myself to appreciate the Alguaciles in Qapu Khalqi.
That’s it, folks. A somewhat lengthy run down of QK’s generic Nomads units, the good, the bad and the downright terrible. I hope this has been useful for you as you voyage the stars in service of the Sultan – and your own bank account!
May Allah the Great and Merciful guide your steps in (tabletop) battle.
Husam Operative Diomedes x
Islamic Space Pirates 
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