I'd expect nothing less from Inferno Squad

 Imperial Special Forces and Inferno Squad have been out for a but now and I want to do a deep dive on how to use them.

The basic squad is four strong one wound each all for 68pts with red defence. Rolling black dice at range 3 and in melee surging to hit with keywords Marksman, Reliable 1 and Infiltrate. Upgrades are heavy, two trainings, gear, comms and grenades.

The heavy options are T-21 Special Forces Trooper is 29pts and has four white dice Critical 2 range 3. Del Meeko is 38pts two black dice range 5 High Velocity, Lethal 1. Along with Repair 2: Capacity 1.  Gideon Hask is also 38pts two red dice range 3, Increase courage by one, coordinate corp trooper and Leader. Both of these heavies have two wounds.

Upgrades for the basic squad are an interesting dilemma, you don't want to put to many points into them as they start at 97pts with the T-21 Trooper. The unit needs aims so Offensive Push is an option for one of the training slots or maybe Hunter. In the gear slot Recon Intel or Ascension Cables if you have the points to spare. 

Infiltrate makes this unit very flexible, need a unit to grab a box, Imperial Special Forces. Need a unit to hunt snipers in the back line or threaten a 'safe' point. Imperial Special Forces can do but if left out hanging the wind they will melt to sustained fire so keep them hidden away until you want them to hit an enemy unit.

Del and Gideon don’t just go into the basic squad they can go into Inferno Squad or any Corp unit. Going into a Corp squad is their biggest strength. Being able to get a range 5 weapon into a Corp unit allowing you to leave a sniper strike team at home or increasing courage while adding coordinate to a trooper unit. 

One special way to use Del and Gideon is to place them into Inferno Squad. Everything is the same expect the base unit is one model and two wounds, Del and Gideon must be equipped, Totaling six wounds. Also gaining Retinue Iden Versio so at the start of the activation phase Inferno Squad gets an Aim or Dodge token if within range two of Iden. 110pts for this unit before any other upgrades seems interesting but I don't think alot of people will run it because of the opportunity cost of not being able to put Del and Gideon into corp units. I probably won't be.

Gideon's increase of courage and two red dice weapon I think fits into Snowtroopers. Finally that range 3 steady unit looks good. 86pts for six wounds, courage two, throwing four white, two red, surging to hit with steady and the heavy is the very last model to be removed. That means that you loss white dice as models drop not those solid red die. No other upgrades required.

Del fits into Shores or Storms better. Shores because he needs aims to activate Lethal or storms because they are cheaper. 

Iden and Veers are the best Commanders for Imperial Special Forces. Veers can hand out aims and Imperial Discipline three pip card allows for a free recover possibly for Offensive Push or Ascension Cables. Iden's Tactical Strike is pretty much made for Imperial Special Forces. Gaining Tactical 1 and steady for a turn when the unit has a face up order token. Tactical 1 gives an aim when doing a move action and steady an attack after moving all for the cost of reducing speed to one and having a faceup token. This means that you could either move gain and aim shoot and move back or double move have two aims then shoot. 

Here is an example of list with Imperial Special Forces, Del and Gideon. Let me know what you think.

Overall Imperial Special Forces are going to change up how Imperial players approach the game, more so because of Del and Gideon. Keep an eye out for the base unit because they can mess up your day if not respected.