VS O.S.S.

Though I am by no means a good player, I have found that the Guilang FO is an extremely useful counter to several of the O.S.S. tricks, especially Dakini links. In suppression fire, while in cover and up close, it confers a -9 penalty to Dakinis and ignores their mimetism. It can be used to Surprise Shot Forward Observe non-core link, non-Asura models for accurate speculative or guided fire templates, perfect for killing remotes with poor dodging abilities. Antipersonnel mines are bad news for Devas and other V:NWI units, and the deployable repeater can be used with Assault Hackers to give aggressive remotes a bad time. Watch out for killer hackers if you're using the repeaters, though, and an MSV unit in good range is a death sentence. Tiger Soldiers are also worth a try, a lot of players don't cover the back of their DZ and a lucky drop could allow you to gut their critical support units, though this strategy is risky due to AD:4 being used near a board edge.

 

I have no experience against OSS myself, but if rushing dakinis are a problem, use things that remotes hate like assault hackers (his list doesn't seem to have a killer hacker) and perimeter/template weapons such as mines and madtraps. Remotes can't dodge to save their lives and if you force him to continuously reset or go the long away around (hopefully through your traps), he's wasting orders.

 

Dakini Cores have a glaring weakness, like Unidron Cores in Onyx: they can't Dodge. I mean, they can, but they suck really bad at it. If you try to win a firefight with a Dakini Core with Assisted Fire and the Apsara buff you are gonna have a really bad time.

However, if you take any troop that can reliably hit with a template weapon from outside LoF, you can do some serious damage really fast. I often play ISS and field a Wu Ming Core with the LGL profile. That guy can throw Speculative Fire grenades on 13's for days.

If sectorials are not your cup of tea, you can always field Guilangs like @SpectralOwl said and try to place some corner-mines while forcing them to Reset with some kind of hacking attack or something like that (I mean, if the leader chooses to reset, they blow up, it chooses to dodge, you break the team appart).
Or maybe you can field some Shaolin Monks and go CC + smoke on them.

Hope it helps :)

 

Yeah, there's absolutely no point in fighting head-on with a strong, defensive link. Better to cripple it by taking out one or two Combi Rifle bots, then go for the snipers. Templates, either Impact or DTWs, are also a good choice. Flanking Tiger Soldier can seriously mess up Dakini fireteam's day. Blocking them with an Assault Hacker to slow them down is a sound tactic as well.

One of the biggest, glaring weaknesses of this list is Lieutenant that is both obvious and fragile - and no CoC. Taking him down with a sacrificial attack by warband or AD trooper can be very beneficial.

I'd also stock up on Shock ammo, this will make Deva and Posthuman operations quite risky.

 

Even if you're not doing a full link a Wu Ming LGL is spec firing on 10s in its good range band. Dakinis dodge on 7s. Odds are 29% on each Dakini you can get under the template to inflict a wound, it's not terrible odds.

 

Yes, the Wu Ming LGL has been my favorite profile for ever. So much so that I converted one as soon as the first Wu Ming model was released!

 

I don’t see anything our trusty old Rui Shi + Smoke + supportware wouldn’t fix..
great list though, I must admit. :)

 

Apply Rui Shi to face. There is no problem this bad boy cant fix.

 

I wouldn't be eager to try a rui shi against a sixth sense sniper with an effective BS16.

 

Well, first and foremost, base BS of 13 is uncommon for snipers. Second, you have to be desperate to attack this target, hunt their chaff instead ;)

 

Not that uncommon, not with TJC out. Grenzers can link with Securitate, and I'd use a Grenzer sniper any day of the week (MSV2+BS13, plus full link bonuses?!?).

Otherwise: Kamau and Bolts. Zuyong and all the rest of YJ HI (so probably any of their new supporting HI, we'll see about mixed links when IA drops).

So, OK, I guess not that common, but certainly becoming more common.

Fixed.

Will admit that about the last thing I'd want to pick a fight with is a linked sniper. ANY linked sniper, even a BS10 sniper. That's the kind of thing you'd send an Oniwaban after!

 

I was going to write "rare" but thought better of it.

I have in some situations been somewhat desperate and shot a 5-man sniper due to board layout and lack of Onis (or Ninjas) and a Yan Huo HRMC is greatly preferable with higher burst.

 

Smoke screen the firelane. Flank around the Dakini. Get within 16 inches. ~60% of inflicting a wound while only ~18,5% chance of getting a wound back. That's assuming you shoot the one with the Ghost Jumper Z. Dakinis cannot go prone, punish that fatal flaw and seperate the others.