The Qapu Khalki Sectorial for Haqqislam has a particular unit which has almost infinite potential for mind games - the Hafza. Hafzas are lead-from-the-front officers named after guardian angels an have some special but not all that obvious abilities.

By the way, if you're not an Infinity player, a Sectorial force is effectively a themed sub-list from that faction with tweaked unit availability and the ability to 'link' certain models together to act as a close-knit unit.

The Good Stuff

Cheapness

Your basic Ghulam trooper costs 13 points. For only four points over a Ghulam you're getting +1BS, +1ARM, Holoprojector 1 and the ability to join any Link Team.

Link Glue

One of the most powerful abilities of the Hafza is being able to join any Link Team.

As a quick overview, Link Teams let you join 3-5 models together, activate them all with a single order and also give them cumulative bonuses depending on the size of the Link. Three models and they get more shots per burst, four models and they can't be surpised by 'first strike' effects and get a bonus to discover rolls, five models and they get a +3 ballistic skill bonus. The AVA (or availability) of each unit type will then limit how big a Link Team you can build - if a linkable unit type is only AVA3 you can only take three of them and can't build a 'full' five model Link...

So, a model like the Hafza that can join any Link immediately 'lifts' that limit, so you can actually get all the bonuses for Azra'il powered armour infantry even though they're only AVA3 by joining a couple of Hafzas to he Link as well.

Even with AVA5 heavy infantry like the Janissaries can benefit - at 45-49 points each a full Link costs around 230 points in a game that typically has 250-300 point lists. A couple of Janissaries and three Hafzas will be closer to 150 points, leaving you some points for the rest of the army.

The next advantage is being able to keep a Link at full size even after casualties by feeding in Hafzas as need by spending your Lieutenant's Order to reform the Link with new models - something that is normally only possible with AVA 'total' Ghulams or their equivalent basic line grunts in other Sectorials.

For an extra three points, Hafzas have a Forward Observer loadout which comes with a Flash Pulse weapon. Flash Pulse does no damage other than temporarily blinding the target but using it counts as a ballistic skill attack so it gets the Link bonuses, +1 Burst and +3 BS. With it's long range band modifiers this makes it a very good reaction weapon against long-range attacks on the Link, especially as it runs off the Hafza's willpower of 14 rather than BS of 12!

You can also swap around your Link opportunistically, joining a bunch of Hafzas to whatever is the most appropriate model in the circumstances. For example you could have a Link of a Janissary plus four Hafzas but then realise that you're facing lots of camouflage models (-3 to -6 to discover and to shoot at) or models with optical disruption devices (-6 to hit them on a d20!). If you happen to have a Djanbazan around, whose visor ignores all those negative modifiers, you can reform the Hafzas around the Djanbazan so they're getting all the Link bonuses instead of the rather 'plain' Janissary.

Holoprojector 1

The next big ability. Holo 1 is a nifty bit of equipment that lets the model disguise itself as another unit. In theory you can redisguise during the game but the main thing is being able to put down a different model during deployment. So how's that useful?

First off, you can disguise how many points of models you have on the table, making some 'hidden' airborne deployment models less obvious.

Next, you usually want to try and hide your Lieutenant in Infinity as losing the LT usually results in missing a turn. As the LT's willpower or WIP is revealed when rolling off for deployment, this usually requires having multiple possible LT models on the table, all with the same WIP. Now imagine that your LT can pretend to be any other model, including units that can't normally be the LT. A good example is hiding the Hafza LT as a Sniper at the back of your deployment zone, covering a long fire corridor when there are easier approaches past other models - although obviously you need to swap around between games so that next time it really is a sniper!

The LT Spitfire loadout (Spitfires are roughly equivalent to a Squad Automatic Weapon) is not to be dismissed, especially when disguised as something less scary - pair it with another threat like a basic Janissary (that could also be the LT) going down the other flank and your opponent is likely to concentrate on the more obvious enemy, potentially letting you get the Spitfire into a better position to rambo with the LT Order.

Good Summary

I love Hafzas. The mind games aspect appeals to me, but even if they didn't have Holo1 I'd still take them for the price because of their ability to join any Link.

The Bad Stuff

Expense (points)

Yeah, know, I just said they were cheap! However if you're not getting much use out of Holo1 or their link glue ability then you're paying four points over a Ghulam and Ghulams aren't exactly cheap in the first place.

'Passive' Abilities

When you first approach the game, the extra abilities of the Hafza don't 'do' anything - their disguise doesn't give them a Combat Camo-like ability to shoot first or any kind of combat bonus, if someone's concentrating on killing a specific model it doesn't really matter if the target is heavy infantry or a Hafza, they're likely to go down. Also, being in a Link with some heavy infantry gives the Hafzas the Link bonuses but they're still a lot squisher.

Holo 1 v. Newer Opponents

Infinity has so many different similar-looking units that being able to disguise a model as another similar-looking unit is meaningless when playing against newer players. They'll just be going 'I can see that model, I'll attack it'. They also won't have a good enough idea of points costs to know whether the points on the table are short enough to be hiding AD troops etc.

Army Lists

Doing the 'public' version of your army list can be a pain. In Infinity, apart from knowing who the LT is, every skill and piece of equipment of models on the table and not hidden under a marker is public knowledge

Even the army builders like Army Infinity that can turn off camo/AD/LT when printing still require you to change the army list to show what the Holo1 model is pretending to be. Army builders where you can't save and reopen a list get even more of a pain.

Order Wastage

Being able to join any Link can also sidetrack you into burning Orders trying to form/reform a Link. If your main Link takes a casualty but the nearest spare Hafza is a few Orders of movement away, moving them up isn't likely to be a good use of Orders but can be very tempting.

Expense (money)

Being able to disguise a Hafza as another type of unit also has a cost consideration - you need another model to represent the disguise. Again, this is soething that affects newer players more, more experienced players are pretty much guaranteed to have a few spare models from their faction.

Bad Summary

In an environment of players new to Infinity, Hafzas don't do nearly as much as they do in a more mature group. The shell games are nearly meaningless and the Linking ability can be hard to use to it's best potential. This makes their 

Overall Summary

Hafzas are a great example of how 'deep' the gameplay is in Infinity - on first glance as a less experienced player they're not really appealing, but later on they add a whole new level of mind games and shenanigans to the faction. :-)

Ian