All, I had a buddy buy me the Onyx 300pt Box army a bit back, and have finally started playing. So models wise, I have that box, plus I added the Dr. Worm set, I bought more Unidrons with plasma, and a TAG. I have now played 2 games, and while there are a few mechanics I am not a fan of, the game seems pretty good. In my limited experience, where I have placed an HMG Drone, and in the next game a Sniper on top of a tall building hoping for some overwatch action, both times were miserable failures. In both cases, the first action they both took ended with an ARO crit and them being taken out. First game I had no engineer, so the Drone was worthless, and in the second, my Rodok Paramedic killed my Sniper after she went down in the exact same way. Having said that, Unidrons with Plasma Carbines have been amazing. Doing a lot of work, in game 1, one of them killed I think 5 different Pan-O models on turn 3 to table my opponent. Game 2 was much closer, but those guys still did work. Right now I prefer to stick with the Onyx stuff and not spread out too much. The box I got was because I liked how they looked, but I hadn't really seen anything else. Having said that, if I start a 2nd army, it would be Yu Jing at this point. Though popular in my local meta, I kinda dig them as far as the theme and looks. I hear they are good as well. So, to cut this lovefest off, would you recommend any other purchases or upgrades I need to look at? Effective tournament level lists? Any and all advice is welcome and appreciated!
Things I would definitely recommend: - Unidron SWC box - x2 Ikadron+Imetron box - Obsidon Mechanoid box There are other awesome things you can get (Noctifiers, TAGs, Bit&KISS, Nexus so you don't have to proxy with Legate etc.), but these are pretty much a no-brainer. EditL
Immetron + ikadron are a must in Onix, apart if you want a tag i should recommend the sphinx. Very expensive but one of the funniest and strongest tags in game (pretty good for one group games)
So you have 3x basic unidrons, and no more, or those three and an extra 4 from the Unidron box with special weapons? You need: Rodok missile launcher blister (to complete the 5 man link), 2x Ikadron + Imetron blister (you won't use them all the time, but they are very nice and useful backup), a second Umbra (I suggest the Legate with Boarding Shotgun, and use the one in the army box as a Samaritan proxy if needed, since the Samaritan model requires heavy cutting to conform to S2, and it's very imbalanced, prone to topping over accidents), and the Nexus Hacker model. Once you have those, the infiltrator TO is a nice addition. And once it's out, bit+kiss is a must have. As for tactics: a 5 unidron fireteam (2x missile launcher, 2x FO, 1 basic or Tinbot+k1 who will remain out of sight at all times as fireteam leader) is a better ARO option than the Total Reaction and the Sniper. Place a Total Reaction as support ARO piece, and the enemy will be forced to use smoke or go home. Also, if you can manage to expose the Umbra H+ as ARO piece supporting the Unidrons, the enemy will be forced to choose, usually chosing the Missile Launcher as primary target... at which point you can (if you have LoS) use White Noise or Flash Pulse.
To me, it also depends on whether or not you accept to proxy. I proxy most of the time because I want to try new things, so I bought the Xeodron pack. With the Onyx pack you already have plenty of S2, a few S3, but all onyx TAGs are S6, and it is quite common to see TAGs in Onyx. I preferred them thanks to cost efficiency (in real money) and better sculpt (to me at least) when compared with the Sphinx or the Overdron. Then with the Xeodron, the normal thing to buy is the Umbra Samaritan.
I have drilled the back of my Xeodrons and placed there a small magnet. Then I took the HRL from the CA remotes (I mounted the EVO and the Total Reaction anyway), removed the arm piece, and glued it to another magnet, adding some cover. Paint, and voila: the xeodron can be turned into an overdron.
One point about snipers on rooftops: usually when you put them there you should either have them on ARO duty or have smoke thrown on top of them so they don't take multiple AROs themselves when activating. This little detail is often what makes the diference between an effective sniper or a very dead one. Usually, when you don't have smoke, you're better off putting your sniper on the ground where they can move around and try to minimize the number of shots they're taking back on active turn
That's an excellent point that I had not thought of. It did not occur to me to use my piece as the ARO piece, and not the instigator. Thank you for that.
Holy crap! How long have I been playing the Umbra HD+ and completely forgot about a WIP 14 Flashlight?!?!?!
I actually bought a starter set or something like that, so I will have 6 or 7 with Plasma Carbines in the end. Probably overboard.
Certainly so, I barely use the Maakrep at all (too fragile and expensive; in generic I use the Charontid, in Onyx there are no smokers, so no real use for her unless using the Mercs extra and some Yuan Yuan), so I shudder about finding use for two. The Fraacta are more interesting, but the boarding shotgun model is the one I love (and use best), and you won't be using 3 Umbra Legates (and the H+ one is so nice I cannot imagine leaving him aside). And for the Unidrons... you won't use five basic ones ever, I'm afraid, unless you play something like Campaign Paradiso (and I feel like it needs a lot of tweaking because some are broken, some are not so, but for some armies can be devastating, etc...) So, yeah. Overboard. I suggest you to find someone who wanna start EC and resell him the starter, then use the money to grab a 4 unidron special weapons box.
It's better to just buy the Boarding Shotgun Umbra Blister, and use the umbra from the starter directly as a samaritan (or use the Spitfire one, it has the same pose after all, but without the floating darkness that makes the Legate Samaritan such a pain to play with), and recoup the money from the starter (nobody will buy a starter without one of the central pieces... one less unidron is largely irrelevant, even the maakrep can be ignored, but the umbra cannot be here).
Onyx models that I'd recommend you add to your collection would be: Rodok Missile Launcher blister Nexus Operative Hacker blister Bit and KISS (They're a February release, you'll be able to order them soon) 2x Ikadron+imetron pack Noctifer blister, whichever sculpt you prefer. And that's it for now. You have a legate from the Onyx box which you can also proxy as a samaritan if you want, you have all the unidrons you'll ever need and then some, you've got your drones box and regardless of which TAG you have, you can use it to proxy the others until you decide which you like most. As for tactics, you mention that your total reaction bot died first turn to crits both times. That's unfortunate but it will happens sometimes. What happens more often is your opponent will spend 3-5 orders taking it out, at which point it's done its job. People in my meta usually only run 10-order lists, so if I can get my opponent to spend half of his first turn avoiding objectives and focusing on my 26 point drone, that's worth it. If it takes anything down with it, even better. People forget that just TR bots have a lot of weaknesses just because they get their full burst in ARO so allow me to list a few. 0 armor, low BS, dodges at a -3 (7 overall) if shot at through smoke, vulnerable to hacking, 1 STR, can't fall prone, depending on the loadout its rangeband can be easy to get around. Remember: it cost 26 points, it's not going to singlehandedly hold down the fort. As for snipers, I almost never use them in the reactive turn. 1 burst, I can't cover it with smoke, if its a camo sniper I don't get my surprise shot modifier... too many modifiers I can't stack in my favour. Snipers are much better in the active turn. As for unidron links, you mentioned being a fan so I'll show you the link I tend to prefer. Onyx Contact Force ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 NEXUS Lieutenant Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nullifier / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24) UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15) UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15) UNIDRON K1 Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 17) UNIDRON Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20) 2.5 SWC | 91 Points Open in Infinity Army 91 points and 2.5 SWC leaves plenty of room for other tricks in your list, 3 specialists and all range bands covered and the tinbot helps against hackers. For 19 points more you can also swap in a Legate HD+. If you have the points though, I prefer rodok links. Super jumping around for unexpected angles of attack is fun, mimetism helps keep attack mods in your favour and I love the models.
I prefer this for barebones ARO link: Onyx Contact Force ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15) UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15) UNIDRON K1 Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 17) UNIDRON Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20) UNIDRON Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20) 3.5 SWC | 87 Points Open in Infinity Army Then I add a Nexus outside the link so the link won't generate ARO when being Supportware'd and because it can cover the first casualty keeping the fireteam at 5 members... add a Legate H+ outside aswell, and if the fireteam suffers the missile launcher casualties you go from ARO fireteam to assault Fireteam (the plasma carbines going for point with B3, the Legate another option with a mimetic boarding shotgun B3 BS21... and two hackers inside a fireteam with a tinbot, plus the K1 combi for heavy enemies).