How do you use Agema units? (marksmen, Teucer and Atalanta)

Taking a unit that throws smoke, along with your long range msv2, (or any msv2), is a solid tactic and is used by many players/factions to secure advantageous face to face rolls. Taking MSV2 is also going to allow you to mitigate the effect of this trick when someone is using it against you. As you probably already know, MSV allows you to reduce or ignore things like mimetism/camo, which is really good.

I try not to leave home without at least one msv unit in my list, but one thing to note, is that you don't always have to take one instead of a unit with higher burst. Take both and watch your friends cry while you wreak havoc!

 

I agree, why take one when you can take both. Aside from that, i tend to use my own snipers as a deterent, the kind of piece that can hinder the enemy advance, making him spend order to either avoid it or kill it. You can also put it in prone position in reactive and use it to kill specific target in active turn, abusing a favorable range band. I like snipers, but they aren't straightforward pieces like hmg unit, packing a lot of dice in active. HMG are heavy duty lawn mower, snipers are precision tools. Except the dakini sniper in a fireteam, they are stupidly good at killing everything it can see while the enemies soil their breeches.

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Atalanta should be an attack piece only . Mixed with smoke she is a beast, but it isn't completely necessary. Use her to catch them in their bad range bands for the best odds. She is the best solo gun fighter in the game, but the definition of a glass cannon as she relies on teh smoke for mods.

Teucer is more mobile due to Climing Plus and more durable with his NWI. His MMLX is the equivalent of making his BS shots into CC from a martial artist. Excluding links he gets solids odds on everything (and even decent then too) due to the MMLX upgrade in 3rdOff really great against hard armor as his crit chance is solid. He works well in ARO with the Feuerbach as that's a weapon most don't want to face off against.

The Agema are weaker and it really depends on the weapon choice for their roles. Solid shooters, but not top tier. The MK12 is really nice right now due to the FD1 boost and it's range bands, but the ML and MSR are far from slouches.

 

Smoke is a nice-to-have addition, but the most important element is a servant parked next to her (linket to Machaon).
Due to her insanely high BS coupled with the +3 bonus granted by her bunny, she will be throwing a couple of dice on 17s (BS14, +3 for the bunny, +3 for the range and -3 for the cover - and That's all, folks!) or 20s (in case you catch the opponent off-guard - that means no cover!). Unless you are very unlucky, you will win the FtF roll and even if you fail, chances are pretty high your opponent is shooting back with only one die rolling (so no shooting at TR HMGs, keep away from T2 ammo and similar nastyness and just don't shoot at SF troopers within 24' whenever possible), that means the worst thing that can happen to her is dropping unconscious. Enter the WIP14 doctor... Seriously she dies several times every game I play, but will come back fighting pretty reliably. And that's the key factor in getting the most out of her. I use her mainly in my active turn, because I can doctor her back to life when things go tits up.
Actually she has quite a decent chance against TR HMGs but in this case using smoke (to get -6 for your opponent for shooting back through smoke) is a must. The same goes for Supressive Fire shenangians, but if you are not half as bad as estimating range as I am (I suck in this department like Oh my God!) her sniper rifle is pretty good at outranging SF troopers. Once you're out of their 24' SF range, only one die will be rolling in your opponent's hand. You roll two, and you roll on 17s (or 20s). You do the math.

 

Short answer: yes.
Long answer: Her pricetag (39 points, 1.5SWC) and amazing firefighting ability (Atalanta has a pretty good chance of winning a FtF and putting a wound in a very wide range of opponents!) makes her absolutely non-expendable. The doctoring looks like a back-up plan, but I shoot a lot with her. (And you will, too!) Losing the FtF roll is fairly unlikely. But if you shoot a LOT, that tiny little chance of her biting the bullet stacks and pretty quickly turns non-negligible.
Say there is a 10% chance Atalanta dies to a FtF roll.
If you shoot once, her chance of dying is 10%.
If you shoot twice, her chance of dying is 19%.
If you shoot thrice, her chance of dying is 27%.
If you shoot four times, her chance of dying is 34%.
If you shoot five times, her chance of dying is 41%.
(For the record because of the low burst of 2 the abovementioned 10% chance of Atalanta dying to return fire is NOT an exaggaration at all. That is the problem of burst 2 weapons in general, and the reason for my ever-growing love for high-burst (4) weapons (especially HMG) in particular.)
The point is Infinity is a dicy game. Sooner or later the bad outome will kick in. (And my dice just hate me. I have a roughly 50% chance failing a roll that has a 10% chance of failure.) And there is a well... 10% chance you will fail the first roll. (AKA bad luck.) The ability of her healing back multilies her use greatly.
And trust me: you will want Atalanta to shoot a LOT. If there is a doctor nearby you can shoot with her more or less irresponsibly, because the worst case scenario is doctoring her back (WIP14 with cube means 9% of failing the doctoring roll) that is essentially free if Macaon is your Lt. If you lack a doc nearby, there is a low (but decent) chance you will lose a capable gunfighter - and you better start weighting the odds carefully. If you have a doc nearby, you can start shooting irresponsibly. Losing the FtF: say 10% chance. Failing the doctoring roll: 9% chance. Failing the FtF roll and the subsequent doctoring roll: less than 1% chance. My dice hate me, but even their everburning hatred is not enough to beat odds that low...

 

You explained very well why i'm reluctant to bring expensive unit armed with low burst weapons. That's why i tend to use agema and proxi as snipers. They are cheap and expandable, which suits me prrdectly since i rather invest my points somewhere else.

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I don't like Agema and the Proxy sniper. They are not cheap enough to be expendable. For the added cost I get a sniper far more reliable in Atalanta. The Agema and the Posthuman are caught in the middle. They are way too expensive (especially SWC-wise) for ARO duties or opportunistic shots and too average of a gunfighter to use as a hunter-killer monster like Atalanta. My take: go big or don't bother.

 

I tend to go big with other profiles, achilles, patroclus and other maruts aren't cheap and i need every point i can get my hands on. But i understand your POV perfectly. It's just that i use my snipers as situationnal pieces.

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I would say if you are looking for an active unit to take out powerful units from afar Atalanta is your girl. If you want a bit more versatility in movement and decent ARO threat, Teucer. Personally I have only taken Atalanta twice, but Teucer gets put down a bit more often. Atalanta being a hair cheaper is nice though. As a note with bringing a G:servant for her, make sure it is outside of template range in case she takes one of those.

Teucer solo is better than 50% odds to wound a linked Kamau MSV2 MSR while using his MMLX.

 

I agree with everything you said. I just wanted to say a thing: if the opponent is so scared of Atalanta that he hides everything from her, and thus she doesn't have anything to shoot at, it's also very good for a mere 39 pts mini :) He just let you go freely on objectives