I'm currently puzzling out lists for an upcoming tourney, and weighing up whether to take a TAG - specifically, a Dragoe in Shock Army. I've had a few people mention to me that there's value to taking a TAG to lay into those opponents who bring lists that can't fight a TAG. The questions therefore are: how common do people find lists that can't engage into a main battle TAG to be? And more importantly, how do you recognise those lists just from the information you have before list selection (i.e. opposing faction and scenario).
use it will and you will be able to fight anyone with it. it is afterall the biggest nastiest gun in the game
To paraphrase Sun Tzu: know the enemy and know yourself ;) Some armies have either less anti-TAG options, or have them on less popular units. You'll be able to learn the first part, but the second varies between metas. Every good player will try to include at least some tools against heavy units; at least an Assault Hacking Device, often on infiltrating camo unit. That being said properly ran Dragao is a beast, there are very few units that can reliably best it in active turn.
Every list should have something to deal with a TAG, the question isn't whether or not they will have it, the question is can the rest of your list adequately support it. Do you have a killer hacker to deal with assault hacking? Do you have ways to deal with infiltrating CC specialists who can tie your TAG down?
An AD: unit that can help eliminate troops that would be effective against the TAG helps greatly as well. I keep re-reading Daboarders Tag thread and I am looking forward to trying to put it into practice with the nomad version of the Dragoes. Make sure you watch out for close combat capable fire teams especially if they have smoke or even worse eclipse smoke access. They can rip a TAG apart with a handful of orders.
If you want to support the Tag with a light grenade launcher the Knight of Montessa is fantastic. The mechanized deployment and 4-4 move can get your into the +3 range meaning he is dropping pie plates that hit on 11s after range and the -6 mod for spec fire. Vs remote heavy lists you can set up some awesome little gambles if you are willing to spend the orders.
If you want you can create a whole defensive forward deployment setup for the TAG to hide behind: Shock Army of Acontecimento ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 DRÃGAO Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon, Heavy Flamethrower / . (2.5 | 94) CRABBOT Flash Pulse / Knife. () KNIGHT OF MONTESA Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher, Chain-colt / Breaker Pistol, Shock CCW. (1 | 48) NAGA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30) PEACEMAKER Heavy Shotgun + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21) AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) REGULAR (Sapper) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 22) REGULAR (Minelayer, Sensor) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 14) REGULAR (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11) REGULAR Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) REGULAR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) MACHINIST Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) GROUP 2 1 2 TRAUMA-DOC Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) TECH-BEE (Remote Assistant Level 1, Specialist Operative) Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army Taking Tikbalang instead of Dragao allows to squeeze in Naga Minelayer instead of Doc and Tech-Bee, for even stronger forward defence.
As mentioned, each list should have something to take on TAGs. So with a TAG list your priority should be eliminating those threats. Dragons has the biggest gun in the game, so as long as it can see something from a distance it should be able to take it down. I've found the biggest threats to him are hackers, but ACA have the tools to mitigate them to some extent. TAGs are very much a risk / reward gamble and take skill to get the most from their investment IMO.
The Dragoe might be the best "bully" unit out there. In SAA, he also has a huge advantage with the built in efficiency of fire teams backing him up. I don't know that you can look at any particular list build and say that it can't manage a TAG. I'd look more to the deployment. There are almost no AROs that I fear in a fair Dragoe fight, but I need to watch to make sure I don't get forced into a crappy split burst.
As long as the opponent isn’t shooting Nasty ammo like e/m, ap + exp/DA ammo at you you can probably just ignore them if you have cover. Say your opponent has 4 combi rifles and a missile launcher all pointing at where you need to be to efficiently take out the Missile launcher. Just let the combis shoot you with cover + arm = 11 you pass the check on a 3+ so those shooters don’t really matter.
I thought so too, but in my last game the Dragao got damaged by a Thorakites with Marksman rifle. I've rolled between 17-20 to hit, and then 1 and 2 for ARM test :P Shit happens. He survived, though, and it was a double TAG list. My Tikbalang dismantled the Thorakitai and later Myrmidons, while Dragao took care of Atalanta.
That is why TAGs come with 3 structure and machinists are asked to risk their lives to support them in the field. :)
