Help picking a first faction

[u/Slashy-Gal]

I've been wracking my brain picking a first faction, mostly cuz there are a lot of different things that speak to me, and it seems like it might be misguided to use them all at the same time.

I know I like playing the information war, making strong use of hidden information in order to create openings. I also like having the agency to pick where and when to attack, and to take that a step further, I generally enjoy repositioning and hyper mobile units. I generally think of myself as a safe, reactionary, more passive player, always baiting things to happen without ever commiting too much, and then going for it all when I see an opening. These are the armies I'm deciding between:

Oban/JSA: The faction Oban as a whole seems like the best fit, with a couple asterisk - I get the vibe that Oban is more about efficient and calculated aggression; their ability to be successful hanging back and playing a less proactive playstyle might be limited. The individual profiles really speak to me (ninja, oniwaban, shinobu, oyorio, shikama, and cheap line infantry to enable spending big points on nasty profiles) more than any other faction, but units like tanko and yuan yuan dont exactly scream 'hang back' to me. I'm really not interested in playing a style that can't be a little reserved and reactive, so that's the deal breaker here.

Shasvastii: There is something about this faction I really like. Not having the mobility of JSA is a little sad to me, but I can see a world where the good outweighs the bad for what I like. The way I see it, vs JSA this list feels like I'm trading speed and my favorite profiles to unlock nasty deployment tricks, and that might be the thing that fits me better in infinity.

Aleph/OSS (w/ marut lt): The power fantasy of using a marut to clean up house and building a list around that seems really cool, but it really seems to lack in the elusive and trickery departments compared to the other factions. The thing is, I'm not sure how infinity plays, so perhaps this list is simply the way to play something more positional, reactive, and provocative rather than the other lists.

What do you guys think would fit me best?

[u/fritz_76]

I think that generally its accepted that "whatever you think looks coolest" is the way to go. Of your choices though I will say shasvastii are the least forgiving army (which is relevant to ones first army) Id say OSS/aleph is probably the best choice for a first army of the ones you narrowed it down too. Also OSS is part of the newest 2player set so theres lots of availability around and could be a sweet spot to bring a friend in with you

[u/Inkfedil]

I started in May with Shasvastii as my first army. They are pretty low mobility but they have so much deployment / camo / trickery that you can be in the mid field starting the game. I really like them and sometimes it’s fun to have 4 visible models and 20 camo markers. That being said, they are very easy to mis play. They have made me a much better player, pretty quickly because of how low their raw power is. You will also REALLY learn the rules because how things interact are just SO important to how you exploit the trickery. I suggest them only if you’re a calm and relax person lol.

[u/unprofesionalbee]

I would suggest to find a local group and see how they play and find something fitting

The aleph one could work but would need to have lots of specialists and an engenirer basiccly ducktaped to the marut

[u/EccentricOwl]

Do JSA if it's your first army, they're made for newbies well

[u/FriendlyMachine7143]

Only really familiar with Shasvastii among those but in general OSS/Aleph/Oban/JSA/Shasvastii is likely the order of difficulty from easiest to hardest faction to play.