This is meant to be a living document and hub for communication and guidance on how to use every CA player's favorite Big Daddy: The one, the only, the AVATAR. This may take some time to fully build/develop, but I intend to see this through... unlike other threads I've made. Even if it kills me. Also, although I've played this game for a couple years at this point (I started a bit after the release of onyx and before Wotan :D), I'm definitely not the best player so I'm open to comments, criticisms, and recommendations from our esteemed veterans on this forum :D Best case scenario this gets stickied and we have a new guide for our big boy! Worst case scenario, we can still use this to talk and we can all learn more advice from each other! TAGs are some of the most standout and eye-catching models in the entire iNfinity lineup. Usually around 2-2.5x the size of a standing infantry model, they dwarf all other models in stature, detail, and make fantastic centerpieces to your force. As such, it's only fitting that the Combined Army, the most advanced force in the human sphere, is blessed with one of, if not the, most powerful TAGs in both gameplay and fluff: the Avatar. Say you're a newer or lightly seasoned player and you want to try your hand at running the legendary beast itself. If so, you're in for a wild... wild ride because the Avatar is a TAG unlike any other and stands out so much in listbuilding, that I believe it deserves its own entry for the art of how to run this puppy... or full-sized mastiff... Many forum threads have offered advice on running TAGs and the Avatar, so I thought it a good idea to condense them and offer my own input. One standout would be the following video from VaulSC labeled "How to Play an Avatar": Now, I love Vaul (platonically... although he is definitely a handsome devil :D) and he's a genuinely masterful player. His breakdown videos go into a lot of detail and have helped numerous players get into and get better at the game. You may be surprised, then, that I consider this video to be quite unhelpful in terms of its title because for something labeled, "How to Play an Avatar" it mentions very little about generalized strategies and why you would play one in the first place outside of that particular game. This thread is aimed at fixing this and giving us a consolidated place to discuss tactics and listbuilding. You should still watch the video, though, because it has good advice on listbuilding and it's a great battle report for a case study! Other threads and other things you should read before running the Avatar are: https://forum.corvusbelli.com/threads/a-primer-on-tactical-armoured-gear-operations.805/ http://wiki.infinitythegame.com/en/Strategos http://wiki.infinitythegame.com/en/Ghost_(G)#Ghost:_Mnemonica http://infinitythewiki.com/en/Sepsitorized Those should cover the basics of generalized TAG gameplay and the most confusing rules involving the Avatar. With that, we shall start getting into what is the Avatar and the typical features of an Avatar list! ------
What Is the Avatar? Google's dictionary defines an "Avatar" as: noun 1) "an icon or figure representing a particular person in video games, Internet forums, etc." This is probably not the most badass or menacing codename for a giant engine of destruction so we'll be going by the second definition 2) "(In Hinduism) a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth; an incarnate divine teacher." In our context, this deity would be our most eminent Evolved Intelligence... and instead of Earth it's on whatever battleground you field the beast. Basically, the Combined Army has access to, so far, 4 EI Aspect units at its disposal (Skiavoro, Charontid, Anathematic, and Avatar) in ITS and the Avatar is the largest and heaviest of the 4. The man himself is THE most powerful TAG available to the Combined Army. No other single unit in the army matches it in sheer, destructive power which says a lot in a faction full of plasma-spamming robots, monkeys who spent their entire lives watching Rambo, and sneaky killers who put Solid Snake to shame. Gameplay-wise, A-man, Big A, A-B-C-1-2-3, Abe the Magnificent, or, of course, The Last A-irbender has the following profile Our very own movie involving blue aliens boasts a top-of-the-line profile and matches or beats out even the TAGs of PanOceania. Besides its high stats, He/She/They-Who-Wrecks-Shit also features additional technology in the form of ODD to give it an even larger edge in ranged combat, a sepsitor to mind control units with cubes, immunity to the possession status, and the Ghost:Mnemonica skill. Even further, the Avatar gets access to the remote Staldron unit to press buttons in a pinch with a boosted WIP13 while most other remote pilots must contend with WIP10. New with ITS season 11, we now officially have Fatality L1 for +1 damage (as if 4 dice at BS15 with ODD and DAM15 shock or AP wasn't enough) and tactical awareness for ANOTHER extra order that can only be spent on the Avatar. With this, A-man can rambo around with a new max of 12 ORDERS IN A SINGLE TURN (10 regulars + 1 extra regular from the Lt. order + 1 tactical awareness order). I love the smell of cheddar in the morning. These all combine into a single mass of walking PAIN, but, of course, any TAG, by itself, does not comprise an entire army list. What is an Avatar List? Simply, an Avatar list is a list that contains an Avatar. Done. End of story. You satisfied? Do I get paid...? No? Okay, fine. An Avatar List is what players will colloquially categorize as a Rambo List. This means the list relies disproportionately on a single unit or small group of units to do most to all of the heavy lifting. Heavy lifting in this case meaning combat, area domination, ARO presence, etc. Even in the wide category of Rambo Lists, though, the Avatar List is a particularly skewed one. More specifically, an Avatar List relies on the titular Avatar unit to Bully and Control the initiative of the battle in the controlling player's favor. The Avatar can do this through its combination of firepower, metagame impact, and even psychological impact on the opposing player. The goal/Win-Condition of the Avatar list is to dominate the battlefield and force your opponent to rebuild, deal with, or skirt the Big Daddy himself if he wants to achieve victory. By using the Avatar's high WIP and built-in deployment abilities to gain or sustain the initiative of the battle, its firepower to crush opposition, and efficient plays with other support elements in your list, your opponent will be forced to waste orders engaging in combat on your terms. The opposing army will either dash himself in unfavorable F2F rolls against A-man and other defensive troops or spend massive resources trying to avoid him. The Avatar List is particularly punishing against other limited insertion lists by killing their order efficiency, other TAG/Rambo lists if the man himself can eliminate the enemy rambos, or any list relying on heavy ballistic ARO presence. Conversely, Avatar Lists don't handle cheap and efficient order spam very well without careful defense and counter-listing. Ghazis, Galwegians, Varangians, and other cheap units can easily sacrifice themselves to trade upwards, bricking or seriously injuring your Avatar if you are not careful. The Avatar list also falls flat on its face against lists with really strong assassination pieces. Be wary against JSA (oniwaban and shinobu), Haqq/Hassassins (Fidays and Al-Djabel), O12 (Cuervo Goldstein), and mirror CA/Shasvastii (Speculo Killers) opponents as they can assassinate the Avatar within a couple of orders. 'Cause I'm a California hipster and gotta be different/edgy, I think I'll start with the cons of the Avatar. Why You Should NOT Run An Avatar and Stuff the Avatar Doesn't Like :( Expen$ive and Inflexible: Weighing in at 137 points and 3.5 SWC, Honest A-be is, so far, the most expensive single unit in the game in terms of listbuilding. By himself, he occupies around half your entire list in a 300 point game. As such, throwing one in heavily restricts rest of your list, even more so than other rambo/TAG lists. This limits your other heavy guns outside of the Avatar and, as mentioned before, even an Avatar cannot do the entire game by itself. Templates: Pretty self-explanatory since direct template weapons ignore your visual modifiers and cover. In addition, the PHY-6 penalty on TAGs means our big, hulking, PHY17 walking Deity of DESTRUCTION is only 5% better than a fusilier at dodging templates. Impact templates can also be deadly if you leave a unit exposed with the Avatar in blast radius. Fire templates will burn off your ODD and significantly hamper the Avatar's ranged combat abilities. WE'VE BEEN EMP'D. ELECTRONICS ARE DOWN: The absolute worst case scenario isn't your Avatar biting the dust. Mnemonica ensures you won't go into Loss of Lieutenant and you can still fight on. However, if your hulking beast gets isolated by a hacker or E/M weapon in the enemy's active turn, you're gonna be in LoL just like any other army. Being Frozen in Carbonite: Hand in hand with the previous isolation point is the fact that while immune to possession, the Avatar can be immobilized like any other TAG, HI, REM, and hacker out there. WIP 17 and BTS9 make it unlikely, but it can still happen and having to reset eats into your order efficiency. Nobody likes having a 137 point glorified paperweight stuck on the table. Nobody. No Place to Hide: Big A can't go prone and S7 means he's really big THICCC. While imposing, if you want to hide him multistory buildings are the best solution. If you can't eliminate the pieces that threaten him, it's very hard to prevent your opponent from using those pieces against the Avatar. CLOSE RANGE!?!?!?!?!?!?: Like most other TAGs, Big A is just as fearful of close combat as Central Officer Bradford. He's not a pushover when he needs to punch but you really need the dice gods to bless your rolls and take a large dump on your opponent's if he/she lands one or more quality CC specialists in your face. This vulnerability also extends to standard, close-range firefights. Most TAGs have flamethrowers and pulzars to hit people in their MULTI-HMG's bad rangebands, but the Avatar packs a sepsitor instead. If you happen to be facing an Ariadna troop, Hassassin, posthuman, remote presence unit, or, in general, anybody or anything without a cube, your sepsitor is useless and you're in trouble. You Can Only Be So Invincible: At ARM9 and with 3STR with two unconsciousness states, Korra is a tough nut to crack, but it can still be done. Even without E/M, Multispectral Visors with AP, DA, EXP, Viral, Breaker, T2, Adhesive, and ESPECIALLY MONOFILAMENT can make short work of the Avatar in the right circumstances. Sheer weight of dice can also take him down through crits since they bypass armor rolls and ignore your BS no matter how high it is... especially with Tarik or Sheskiin AKA He/She-Who-Crits-and-Smashes-and-Fucks. Not Fun On the Receiving End and May Reinforce Bad Habits: This is a more meta con, but any newer player who's been on the receiving end of a TAG or other rambo (i.e. Swiss Guard or Achilles) pushing their shit in can tell you it's really not that fun. If your opponent expresses frustration against your rambo'ing and you do it anyways, you're a dick. Also, rambo'ing is a trap many newer players tend to get stuck in. "I shoot your dude" may be fun at first, but it's not the entirety of the game and it eventually becomes a crutch and, once habits form, a constraint that can restrict a newer player's playstyle possibilities. It's for these reasons that I usually will not recommend an Avatar List in games for or against inexperienced players who are still figuring out their playstyles. If you want to expose them to rambo'ing, there are other lists that can do so. Sounds like it's a terrible idea to field him now, but it's really not so bad. With those limitations out of the way, let's now go into... Why You Definitely Should Run an Avatar List and What A-A-RON Brings! :D An Unstoppable Force: With 4 dice at BS15, ODD, and DAM16 AP or Shock rounds, you can damn-well be guaranteed that whatever's on the receiving end of a full burst of your MULTI-HMG will either be dead or dying. Even the dreaded linked Kamau MSV2 Sniper has a 35% chance of being blasted unconscious by the Avatar and only a 26% chance of dealing a wound back. A full burst against anything without an MSV, is out-ranged, and/or out of cover is basically a foregone conclusion. Any unit with a Cube in large teardrop template range will also be dodging for their life for fear of being mind controlled by the dreaded sepsitor at DAM17 (!). The Immovable Object: I know I said above that the Avatar is not invincible, but he's pretty damn close. ARM/BTS9 and a BS15 DAM16 explosive shot in the reactive turn mean you will have to roll a 3 or below to get wounded by the venerable HMG while in cover. Missiles and other armor piercing munitions may sneak a wound through, but you can just guts back into total cover assuming you positioned him properly... You thought about his cover, did you...? XTREEEEEEEEEEEEME REACH/Mobility: The Avatar is fast with 6-4 MOV, tactical awareness, S7 silhouette, and can vault over a lot of terrain that would force other units to waste movement going around. As an extension, A-B-C-1-2-3 can stand on roofs and other tall terrain pieces to see over short cover that may be hiding prone models. You'd be surprised how many unconventional angles the Avatar can draw on hiding enemies. Unparalleled Leadership: At WIP17 and with Strategos Level 3, the Avatar is probably the best lieutenant in the game. He's insanely tough, gives a combat group an extra order, and gives you a deployment advantage over your opponent letting you put two units exactly where you want to put them to counter your opponent's deployment. MAXIMUM... Aesthetic?: A meta thing, but look at this magnificent beast Whether you use the older, more psychedelic and sinister pose on the left or the newer, brutal, and imposing model on the right, the Avatar is an amazing model. He is almost guaranteed to attract a lot of attention on the table from both gamers and model hobbyists alike. Simple paint design? Works like a charm. Super detailed professional work? He's got the details necessary to bring out your skill. Any detail level makes the Avatar look awesome as long as you THIN YOUR PAINTS!!!! Fun Is FUN-damental To the Game (No, I'm not sorry for the pun): Sometimes you just need to have a giant stompy robot blast the bejeezus out of everything in sight. For anyone calling the list and playstyle simplistic, remember that proper TAG, and by extension A-man, play requires its own level of finesse to stay effective against other really good players. Also, at the end of the day, this is a warGAME. Emphasis mine on the GAME part. Figure out what you find fun and go for it whether it's pressing buttons, making cinematic narratives, having giant robots fight other giant robots, or any combination of the above. Thankfully, the Avatar is a fun and rewarding model for both players who need a fun beatstick and tournament-goers working hard to master their playstyle. *Edited to cut out some useless parts and reduce text density. I write too much :P*
Now that we've analyzed and understand WHY you would run an Avatar, it's important to consider how it impacts list building. While I generally agree with the "It's not your list it's you" mentality, the impact of a good list and proper, well-thought-out support and sound strategizing is undeniable. That and, to me, it's half the fun of the game! List Building With the Avatar So, as much as I stated how I don't like the Vaulsc video above, I am gonna start out agreeing with him and following his systematic methodology. As much as a Rambo our boy A-A-RON is, the rest of your list besides him is just as critical and should be chosen to complement and support him. There are a few models that I consider essentially mandatory for when you run an Avatar list and they are as follows (Red = Morats, Blue = Shas, Green = EI and all other currently minor races): Ikadron Batroid AKA Ikki the Ikadron - Burninator of Worlds Spoiler: Ikadron Batroid If you've played a decent amount of CA before, you know him and you love him. At 9 points, he's cheap, synergizes with out Big Boy, and is surprisingly lethal. The WIP13 flash pulse and twin flamethrowers defend our DZ, repeater makes supportware and hacking classifieds easier, Autotool helps us stay out of Loss of Lieutenant, and baggage helps in zone domination missions as well. I've used ikadrons to do everything from buff my own remotes, spotlight enemies/HVTs, flash pulse TR bots, pistol people to death, and even burn Tarik or blackjacks to a crisp. I always take 2 if I can. Some Kind of Engineer (Color coded purple 'cause there are a few options) As stated above, if the our Big Daddy gets isolated by a hacking program or E/M weapon, we will go into loss of lieutenant like any other list. This is particularly devastating to Rambo lists that usually funnel a bunch of orders into a few units and is ESPECIALLY crippling to an Avatar list. As such, never leave home without an engineer in some form or another. The most common choice will undoubtedly be... Med-tech Obsidon Medchanoid AKA Reporter Dr. Mr. Mrs. Worm Ph.D Esquire Spoiler: Med-tech Obsidon Medchanoid The most common engineering choice in our army and doubles as a doctor as well for those classifieds and emergency healing situations. His speed, high WIP, and winning personality make him the highest quality unit for our engineering and doctoring purposes. As of ITS Season 11, he now has a profile that trades his Combi Rifle for an SMG, Journalist, and a 1 point discount. Take this one. Always. ALWAYS. Journalist can get you an extra point in the new missions with concilium watch letting Dr. Worm participate in the mission and he brings MUCH more utility to the table than the tensho expert. The matter of SMGs being undercosted and overpowered is a whole other conversation, but he never wants to be in combat anyways so the more restrictive rangebands won't affect him and, if anything, the special ammo will help in case your opponent attacks him with a dogged or NWI unit. If these savings weren't enough, though... Kurgat Regiment of Assault Engineers (A Monkey with a Masters Degree) Spoiler: Kurgat Regiment of Assault Engineers a Kurgat makes a perfectly serviceable alternative. Compared to Dr. Worm, the Kurgat trades higher WIP, speed, and the Combi Rifle (or SMG) for higher PHY and AP mines. Of the profiles, I most often go for the boarding shotgun for the point discount and corner defense. The Autocannon costs valuable SWC which we really shouldn't waste on someone we don't want getting into firefights, but the Mk12 profile is nice if you want a longer range back-up gunner. Because A-man has the Ghost skill in the form of Mnemonica, you can re-roll your failed engineering rolls with a command token and rerollable WIP13 is fairly indistinguishable with rerollable WIP14. Lastly, while it may not come up often, enemies cannot isolate the Kurgat because of the morat skill in case your enemies attempt to isolate both the Avatar AND his engineer. Ultimately, either engineering option will do the job. Sabotage and Destruction Unit Caliban (An Engineer Who Eats You) Spoiler: Sabotage and Destruction Unit Caliban Hot off the grill from Daedalus' Fall, the Caliban is our most expensive engineering option. You pay for what you get, though, and what you get is a lot. Camo state to protect hims, forward deployment enhances deployment flexibility, and CC23 with protheion L3 make the Caliban an incredibly destructive unit packing both utility and killing power. He is pricey, though, so you'll have to make point concessions elsewhere. If you want, you can forego a krakot and just bring a caliban for your engineering AND CC bailout needs to save combat group space. Another angle would be to consider the Caliban as a slightly more expensive, shorter ranged shrouded since he has FD2 and camo state. Overall, an excellent engineer and/or mid-board attacker/specialist. Those are the only profiles that I consider mandatory to the current Avatar list. From here on, the rest of the list can be built according to personal taste and what we expect to face on the table. The best choices would be order-efficient units that cover up the downsides to the Avatar I stated above and help it go on a murderous RAMPAGE. With that, let's look at... Troops that Work Well With the Avatar! Since these are recommendations based on my experiences playing with Honest A-be, this is, by no means, an exhaustive list of the units that work with the Avatar. Feel free to message me with your own recommendations and we'll see if we can fit it into this list! Speculo Killers and Greif Operators AKA Bob from Accounting Spoiler: Speculo Killers and Greif Operators Of all units to combo with the Avatar, the Speculo Killer is on the top of peoples' lists 99% of the time. Combined with strategos L3, you can reserve the speculo and place her near whatever vital target you want deleted off the face of the planet. With Impersonation Plus, WIP14, smoke, monofilament weapons, and high CC she's insanely good at doing so. Use her to eliminate any large threats to the Avatar or just sow general chaos into the enemy ranks and hunt important targets like lieutenants. I normally take the boarding shotgun 'cause I can usually start within 8" of my target, but the combi rifle is better if you plan on going for longer, more sustained killing sprees in the enemy's deployment zone. If you're strapped for points, though, look no further than the Greif Operator with inferior impersonation. They're only got BS11, WIP13 and they can't do Impersonation-1, CC, or smoke grenades, but at a whopping 21 points the Greif Operator can cause just as much mayhem at a BARGAIN price. No boarding shotgun, but the Combi Rifle, twin Breaker Pistols, and MSV1 help it go on a sustained DZ rampage without having to fear people outranging him... usually... How's that for point efficiency!? Daturazi Witch Soldiers AKA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Spoiler: Daturazi Witch Soldiers Impetuous warbards are some of the more efficient units in the game right now because of the large point discount from their fury status and this crazy monkey is one of the best. With PHY14+3 smoke grenades, he excels at defending himself and your other units (Yes, this includes A-Money) from AROs they would rather not face. The chain rifle and grenades help the daturazi apply constant pressure to the opponent as well combined with the free impetuous movement orders. Any opponent ignoring a Dat will be punished hard with a crazy monkey throwing chain rifle templates and spec-firing grenades on an 11 in his backline. Just make sure to hide him from MSV2 units. One last bonus is that he can help bail the Avatar out if your opponent locks him in close combat. With the burst bonus from having multiple units in CC, you should be able to win the CC rolls unless it's someone like Achilles or Musashi in which case... Roses are red, Violets are blue, omae wa mo shinderu. Crackhead Rene-- *Ahem* Krakot Renegades Spoiler: Krakot Renegades May as well be a crackhead warband with his impetuous and metachemistry! What's that? Krakot's not a warband? Shut up, yes it is. Compared to the Dat, krakot trades smoke, mimetism, and higher PHY for higher burst weaponry combined with template weapons, forward deployment, and metachemistry making him a cheap, efficient attack piece. Like the daturazi, the krakot is great in CC with the chest mines giving a +3 bonus, but the krakot is better for trading up because he has berserk. Our crazy monkey certainly isn't leaving combat alive, but neither will your opponent. Against the aforementioned Musashi, a krakot can sacrifice himself to shock the duelist off the board at CC30. Achilles presents a larger problem with his 3 wounds so he will require at least 2 krakots to eliminate him, but ~30 points to eliminate a ~70+ point opponent is a very favorable trade. Vaulsc is a big proponent of the Krakot red fury and I agree he's a good choice if you've got the points and SWC, but the SMG is serviceable as well and brings AP ammo. Killer Hackers (Bit & Kiss, Nexus-7 Operative Kerr Nau, Rodok, Zerat, Malignos, and Shrouded) Spoiler: Killer Hackers There are WAY too many profiles to list here, so I just included the unit names. Sue me. If your opponent is starting to wise-up against your Avatar, chances are they will start fielding more hackers and repeater coverage in an attempt to immobilize, isolate, and lock down A-man. These guys are our answer to those key-junkies thinking they own the cyberspace. With the maestro upgrade on all our EI KHD, one of these guys should be all you need to zap any hacker's brains. Just be careful of enemy killer hackers in your reactive turn. Of them I prefer to run Bit & Kiss because they're the cheapest, but the others bring their own utility. Kerr Nau's got white noise and a plasma gun for some PLASMA FUN (HA HA I'M SO ALONE) while the rodok's got super jump with a boarding shotgun to re-enact whatever Mario-with-a-shotgun fantasies you have. The Zerat, Malignos, and Shrouded all can start halfway up the board letting you get in hacking range of their targets faster and the latter also have camo state for protection. Keep in mind these are ALL more expensive than Bit & Kiss, though, and B&K carry pitchers for extra range (so does Kerr Nau, btw). Figure out what kind of hackers your opponent is bringing and bring the right tool for the job. Q-Drone AKA "That @&%$ing TR Bot" Spoiler: Q-Drone Another classic unit for the CA. If your opponent's trying to avoid The Last A-irbender to attack our more vulnerable order/support units, it's a good idea to have a Q-drone around to help defend and watch the sides against assassins. He's cheap in both points and SWC and doubles as a terrifyingly fast and effective attack piece if buffed by a hacker because of its mimetism. Not 100% mandatory, but I try to cram the HMG version in if I can. Shrouded Pioneer Corps AKA SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE Spoiler: Shrouded Pioneer Corps Standard camo skirmisher with Shasvastii, automedikit, and slightly amped up BS. He's one of our best button pushers and makes an efficient attacker 'cause of his camo and infiltration. I almost always bring an FO for button pushing, laying mines, hunting nestled midfield hackers/disruption units, and surprise shot'ing ARO pieces if my Avatar is somewhere else. As of Daedalus' Fall, though, these sneaky buggers can now also be killer hackers! Another standout profile is the Dazer + minelayer combo allowing you to start the game with a 16" diameter very difficult terrain AND saturation zone in the middle of the table. With that saturation zone, the accursed linked Kamau MSV2 sniper is now at a 51% chance of getting knocked out with a 21% chance of getting pasted off the table with only a 14.5% chance of dealing a wound in return. This guy is excellent for whatever you need whether it's objectives, zapping hackers, or slowing the enemy's push. Unidron Batroids AKA Roger-Roger Spoiler: Unidron Batroids Another recommendation from Vaulsc and the bane of anyone playing against onyx. Like the ikadron, this little droid has autotool which enables him to receive our Big Daddy's Mnemonica ghost. Combined with dogged, though, the unidron's a bit tougher and makes a threatening DZ guard. He's not super order efficient, but he's cheap, provides orders, and doesn't even require a hacker in an Avatar list. The most common profile here is the FO for a cheap, dogged flash pulse sentry/button pusher who can be amped to WIP17 after our Avatar dies. The spitfire makes a really nice, cheap attack piece but I would really only consider it if you have a hacker to pop assisted fire on him, though. Zerat Special Missions Regiment AKA A Monkey With a Forester Degree... and a Flamethrower Spoiler: Zerat Special Missions Regiment Yes. Okay, fine. Honestly, if you're gonna go for the FO, assault hacker, or standard Combi-Rifle profile, you should probably go for the Shrouded since they have camo state to protect themselves, but the most important profiles here are the killer hacker and the red fury profiles. I've already talked about the utility of a KHD, but the red fury is a special kind of value where you don't need to be a broke-ass college student like me to see the value. 0.5SWC and 25 points for a BS11, mimetism red fury gunner with AP mines who starts halfway up the board is INSANELY cheap. Heck, it's even less SWC than even a Krakot. She's overall an amazing addition now that Daedalus Falls is here! Jayth Cutthroats, Shasvastii Independent Assault Group AKA SNAAAAAAKE On Crack NANOMACHINES Spoiler: Jayth Cutthroats, Shasvastii Independent Assault Group Yo dawg I heard you liked ODD so we put more ODD in your list so you can ODD while you ODD. The Jayth Cutthroat is friggin' LOADED with MSV1, ODD, CC23 with NBW and DA CCW, PHY13 EM grenades, shock immunity, and frenzy to cut down the price significantly. Most of the profiles are startlingly short ranged for someone without special deployment options, but the Red Fury is especially effective in an Avatar List as a slightly pricey, but SWC efficient back-up attacker. I might also sound like a broken record with all the red furies I'm recommending, but seriously these guns are really SWC/point efficient. Like the Caliban, Daturazi, and Krakot, but Jayth can also be a CC bailout unit for the Avatar, but is especially effective against other CC specialists because of how NBW can cancel out your opponent's CC special skills including the dreaded I-kohl. Just keep in mind it may not be AS point and order efficient with the Jayth 'cause he's only frenzy rather than impetuous so you don't get the move orders for free until you wound something. Those are all the units that I think work particularly well in an Avatar list and I thoroughly recommend each one. Here, though, we will also talk about units that may be more conditional/situation or may not work as well for our purposes. I hereby present: More Situational Units and Troops That You May Want to Avoid Imetrons Spoiler: Imetrons Imetrons are a very loved unit in a lot of CA lists, but I normally don't take them with the Avatar. Why? Because I usually run limited insertion Avatar lists (max 1 combat group i.e. 10 orders). In LI, the imetron saves points, but it's really fragile and easy to destroy since it will usually be dropped around the midfield to prevent it from scattering off the table. I prefer units who are harder to kill so I don't lose as many orders as easily. Even worse, an enemy minesweeper bot can steal the imetron's order thereby not only reducing your orders, but giving the opponent more orders. In a multi-group list, you can go ahead and run a couple imetrons, but it's just not my cup of tea. Maakrep Trackers, Yaogat Strike Infantry, Haiduks, and Ko Dali Spoiler: Maakrep Trackers, Yaogat Strike Infantry, Haiduks, and Ko Dali If your opponent is spamming ghazi, galwegians, and other smoke troops to get around/attack your Avatar, the Maakrep, Yaogat, and Haiduk are your most cost effective MSV2 snipers. I normally prefer the Maakrep because he's got an HMG profile as well and sixth sense to guard against assassinations, but a Yaogat spitfire can work too, it just won't be as effective over range. The Haiduk has a foxhole, but keep in mind that in vanilla he only has a marksman rifle, not an actual sniper. Remember to throw him in suppression if you bring him and keep him from being outranged by enemy HMGs and snipers. If you wanna go camo hunting, Ko Dali now has a profile that sacrifices AD for mimetism and forward deployment level 2. She's ridiculously good at what she does with BS14, MSV2, and a MULTI-rifle, but she's not invincible. Pair her with smoke, make sure you have her protheion an extra wound or two from some enemies (use AP ammo rather than shock), and throw her in suppression. With the right support, she can and WILL annihilate enemies. The only reason I stuck these guys as "situational" is that there are other ways to counter smoke spam like using a TR bot to contest their smoke rolls and these guys will eat up a lot of your SWC/points. If you find yourself losing a lot against smoke troops, though, throw one or two in and start making a montage. Malignos (Except the Killer Hacker profile) Spoiler: Malignos Deep Incursion Corps To put it simply, the shrouded can do roughly the same job for 11 points cheaper. You can throw him in, but I prefer to put those points somewhere else. The biggest advantage is hidden deployment, but that means hiding orders that will be really obvious in a LI list and will prevent you from using that order on another troop when it may be really needed. Umbra Legates Spoiler: Umbra Legates Specifically, the most sensible profile here is the hacking device plus because white noise will let the avatar have a -6 modifier even against MSV2+ units, but... he's just so expensive... An Avatar + Legate HD+ combo will set you back 180 points and 4 SWC while Kerr-Nau also has white noise and is cheaper... and he's got pitchers... and is better at zapping enemy hackers... and he's got a longer range gun with higher burst... If you REALLY want a HD+ for whatever reason, Victor Messer can bring one for a lot cheaper at 28 points, too. The only things the weeaboo sith lord has over Mr. Nexus-7 Tablet and Victor are mimetism and CC capability, but we already have dats and krakots for the latter and you can still easily lose gunfights with the umbra if you're outranged, even with mimetism. Not that you can't have success with him, but I'll pass. Noctifers AKA "Oh Sh!t" Spoiler: Noctifers I personally love these guys in my CA and Onyx lists. TO camo and dogged combine together for an insanely dangerous and hardy unit that can be used offensively with a spitire or defensively with a missile launcher. Only problem is they cost 1.5 SWC and if you throw him in hidden deployment, that order can't be spent on other troops. The missile launcher is the bane of link teams, though, so if you run into a lot of those, throw one in and watch the dread on your opponent's face once he's revealed. Morat Vanguard Hacker, Nexus Operative Hacker, Victor Messer, and E-Drone Spoiler: Morat Vanguard Hacker, Nexus Operative Hacker, Victor Messer, and E-Drone The morat and nexus are our cheapest regular hacking devices meaning they're our most cost effective ways to pop supportware. If you wanna splurge and grab an E-drone for its speed, passive bonuses, and EVO programs, you can do so as well. One last option is Victor Messer who has a Hacking Device Plus which gives access to programs like white noise and supportware functionality, too. Keep in mind he's not a killer hacker, though, so he's not great at eliminating other dug-in hackers that may be troubling The Last A-irbender and Kerr Nau brings white noise too... for a point cheaper. You don't always need them, but if you like running the Q-drone and/or wanna put assisted fire on a unidron to shoot things, you have my blessing. Supportware has other buffs too, but those are even more situational. They're just not mandatory and are more dependent than other troops on what you wanna put in. R-Drone and M-Drone Spoiler: R-Drone and M-Drone Some might question my placement of these guys under "situational", but please hear me out. Unlike the unidron and ikadron, these guys only have remote presence so they can't take our Avatar's Mnemonica ghost. Also, the R-drone may be a better flash pulse overwatch and 1 point cheaper than the ikadron, but he has absolutely no lethal weaponry. If faced with a warband in template range, the most the R-drone can do is flash pulse him and hope to tank the armor save which stalls the attacker, but doesn't eliminate him. You will still need to spend orders eliminating that warband in your turn. The M-drone is a good specialist bot, but I find myself running a bunch of remotes anyways and another robot just makes me more vulnerable to templates and hacking. He's not bad, I just don't use him as often 'cause of that and I don't have the room in my LI lists. AD Troops Spoiler: AD Troops CA has some of the better AD troops in the game, but I don't like running 'em with the Avatar. They don't synergize with strategos since you usually deploy them during the game and I find the speculo better for target assassination. Also, you may not be able to find a good opening for an AD troop turn 1 meaning that order is left off the table when it could be spent on other troops doing other things. They are made better by the E-drone and assisted jump from hacking devices, though, if you really want to bring one. Fraactas are better than the speculo at sustained rampages through the enemy lines by virtue of her 2 wounds. Cadmus now have a killer hacker options, a light grenade launcher profile, and can morpho-scan enemies for boosted stats. A rasyat using eclipse smoke to blind even MSV troops can work well, too. Again, they're not bad, they're just more situational and/or I prefer other troops to do their job. Irregular Troops Spoiler: Irregular Troops Again, these guys don't fit my style of play because in LI, I wanna go with 10 regular orders. I would rather spend the points to have all my troops regular and allow any unit the full order pool than restrict orders to specific troops, but in a non-LI list they can do well. Pretas, gakis, and Taigha could fill an entire other strategy thread on proper usage so I won't dive into them, but needless to say they are insanely cost efficient for the havoc they can cause. Anything costing 40-45+ points and/or 1.5+ SWC Spoiler: Anything More Expensive than 40 Points and 1.5 SWC Fairly self-explanatory. A-man is expensive and taking other troops means making concessions elsewhere points-wise. Don't expect to throw in a sogorat, charontid, anathematic, second TAG, or other really expensive troop without leaving the Avatar vulnerable to some method of attack whether it be hacking, smoke, or something else. Nox Troops Spoiler: Nox Troops New with Daedalus' Fall, the Nox troops are the new Shasvastii line troops. If you want an alternative to the Unidron, these guys are better than Morat Vanguard, imo, 'cause of their stealth, bioimmunity, shasvastii, and zapper rules/equipment. @Tickle Monster also makes a good point that the nimbus light grenade launcher profile synergizes well with the Avatar's sepsitor plus and any other templates you have because of the saturation zone and -6 penalty to shooting it provides. Combined with cover and the Avatar's ODD, your targets will probably be at a -12 to shoot back or -6 to dodge almost guaranteeing that they will get hit. I have a few problems with them, though: Taking one costs 1SWC (out of your remaining 2.5 after taking A-Money...), 17 points, and 1 combat group slot that isn't being put into a better attacker, ARO piece, or specialist even. You usually don't want to be pushing the Avatar close enough that you'll be able to use the sepsitor anyways because of the range bands on the MULTI-HMG. Lastly, the Nox can only deploy them at B1 on BS14 within 16". If your targets are further away, you will need to waste orders moving the Nox over BEFORE having a 70% chance to deploy it. I'll pass, but it definitely is a strong combination in the right situations Here's an example list I've run and had tons of fun with: Avatar ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10 1 AVATAR Lieutenant (Strategos L3) MULTI HMG, Sepsitor Plus / DA CCW. (3.5 | 137) STALDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0) IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9) IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9) SPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | 34) DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14) Q-DRONE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26) ÍMETRON . (0 | 4) SHROUDED (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) MORAT Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22) KURGAT (Operative Group) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17) SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army Features the quintessential ikadrons, speculo, shrouded, and a daturazi but forgoes Dr. Worm for a Kurgat and only 1 slave drone to save points. These are put into a Q-drone HMG for defense and back-up attack duty with help from the morat vanguard hacker. Uses an imetron, but I haven't had too many issues with it. Overall, a fun and deadly list.
So, you've built your list and are ready to throw down on the battlefield. Listbuilding is only half of the battle, though. Without proper tactics and tabletop strategy, you'll still probably get D-U-N-K-E-D if you don't know what you're doing. As stated above, the objective of the list is to leverage the crushing might of the Avatar with efficient plays from the rest of your list to control the board and complete the mission. How we do this is quite vague and comes down to player taste/playstyle, but here are some basic guidelines on NOT getting utterly annihilated. Here we have: 7 Commandments For How to NOT get DUNKED with the Avatar Commandment 1: Thou shalt not expose the Avatar to needless danger. Running around wrecking stuff with the A-money feels freaking awesome. Your gotta dominate the board, so you throw him down in midfield turn 1, right? You've got 4 dice at BS15 with ODD, so you should be fine running out and splitting burst against 2-3 units at the same time (Some with missile launchers, some with mimetism, possibly both), right? You're ARM/BTS9 so you can walk out and tank those mines, hacking attacks, crazykoalas, and jammers, right? You are tough, but remember that nothing in this game is THAT tough. As a player, you should be preparing for not just IF your Avatar goes down, but WHEN he goes down 'cause at some point he inevitably will. Remember, with Mnemonica you won't go into LoL but losing the Avatar means losing strategos, your most powerful active-turn attacker, a potent ARO piece, and you're giving your opponent 137 points in a kill point mission. DO NOT take this lightly. Properly defending The Last Airbender starts with deployment. Take note of what faction you're playing against and use strategos to identify the biggest threats to the Avatar your opponent is packing. Aim to eliminate these pieces as soon as possible before they can cause trouble. These include MSV and TO snipers/missile launchers, units with high burst AP/Breaker weapons, and close combat troops with AP, monofilament, exp, etc. Counter the snipers and assault pieces with a speculo to assassinate them or cover them with multiple simultaneous AROs and contest the warbands with MSV2 sniper AROs or a TR bot. Just don't let them run to the Avatar without AROs to slow them down. The Avatar should be spending most of the game at least 16" away from its opponents to stay in its good range. Putting him into the midfield means exposing him to more danger since it'll a lot easier for enemy templates, warbands, and other scary troops to attack the Avatar. If you MUST throw him into the midfield, make sure to reserve an order to throw him and other units into suppressive fire. Lastly, ALWAYS have at least one unit watching the Big-A's back. Wherever he is. The last thing you want is an enemy AD troop, infiltrator, or impersonator deploying behind your Avatar and assassinating or E/M'ing him. As @DaRedOne says, this is what ikadrons, krakots, daturazi, and the Q-drone are for. Commandment 2: Thou shalt force your opponent to face the Avatar. This is the main win-condition of the Avatar list. 99% of the time, your job is to make it so that your opponent HAS to face-to-face roll the Avatar with unfavorable odds or spend orders throwing smoke, cautious moving, or overall doing things they don't want to be doing. Think from the opposing player's perspective. Nobody wants to be facing a BS15 explosive shot with ODD. Even if he miraculously DOES win the F2F roll, he has to get through 3 wounds at ARM/BTS9 so he's either going to be going around or abusing camo, smoke, and other shenanigans to complete the mission. Cut these attempts off with elements from the rest of your list. Skirting an Avatar only to be in bad rangebands against a Q-drone or having to trudge through a dazer zone are still very unfavorable and waste precious orders and lives. Keep in mind commandment 1, but you should always have the Avatar watching over either the main mission objectives or the main avenues leading to said objectives in your reactive turn. The only exception to this would be if your avatar's already seriously damaged and you want to keep it alive... assuming it IS still alive. Commandment 3: Thou shalt defend thy cheerleaders. So you've spent the first turn pushing the Avatar forward, you've got your opponent on the defensive, and you've stalled a little to keep the Avatar in a more defensible position. He has to spend orders reviving and repairing crucial units, but also spends a few orders throwing down smoke and skirting the Avatar to go around. Your next turn starts and what do you do? Do you press the advantage, push the Avatar even deeper against your opponent, and start causing some serious damage or do you eliminate his forward troops? If you chose the former, you're making a very dangerous play. ASSUMING you get in, deal some good damage, kill his engineers/doctors, and start hurting his order base, he's still got a knife up to your neck in the form of a forward element that can start strangling your order base quite easily. All it takes, sometimes, is 5-6 orders of a camo infiltrator or AD troop shooting things before you're whittled down to 5-6 orders yourself thereby preventing the Avatar from doing much more. Your cheerleaders are the lifeblood to keep your Avatar running. If you choose to destroy his forward element, you may be denying him just as many orders AND you are eliminating the best tools for your opponent to maintain board control. Chances are, after that your opponent will be out of ammo and you may have already won. Commandment 4: Thou shalt not rely on the Avatar to do everything in the game. A lot of newer players fall into the trap of relying on rambos to do everything. Opponents who know how to counter rambo'ing, though, will know how to handle it. They'll throw mines and disposable units in the Avatar's way to slow down your advance and kill your order efficiency and punish you hard for thinking you can just ignore the chaff. This is still a rambo list at heart, so you'll probably be spending around half your orders every turn having the Avatar stomp around having a fun time, but even if he's not being slowed down it's impossible for him to do everything at once. Let's say you need to eliminate an enemy TR bot. You do some quick checks and since it's on the opposite corner of the table from A-man with a couple really tall buildings in the way, it'll take 3-4 orders to reposition and kill using the Avatar assuming your first dice roll goes well. At the same time, as a smart and savvy player, you infiltrated a shrouded halfway up the table on the other side and can get a surprise shot at the same TR bot in 1 order, 2-3 if he tanks the armor saves. It's not as glamorous, but in this case you should always go for the shrouded. Your role as commander of your forces isn't just to get the job done, it's to get the job done EFFICIENTLY. This also goes hand-in-hand with Commandment 1. If you can eliminate that TR bot or sniper efficiently without exposing the Avatar, you should be doing so. That way, if the enemy rolls that lucky crit or your dice just don't go your way, you lose a shrouded or daturazi rather than your Avatar. Sometimes, that infiltrating specialist may be more important than your big walking mass of destruction, especially if it's a button pressing mission, but you must make the call. Commandment 5: Thou shalt ALWAYS remember to do the mission. This is a basic rule of proper iNfinity play, but it bears repetition in rambo lists. It's fun to run around blasting things, but even in kill point missions you need to prioritize things. Always spare a few orders shoring up defenses, moving the Avatar to a safer position after your rampage, and pressing buttons. In kill point missions, pay special attention to threats to your Avatar and don't let him die. Have the Avatar focus on eliminating the tougher enemies you know the rest of your list will struggle against. Spending 3-4 orders killing that enemy TAG, Aquila Guard, or other really expensive unit will be more useful than spending that many orders stomping fusiliers or flash pulse bots (although the latter is still viable since it'll reduce your opponent's order pool). Commandment 6: Thou shalt take the chance to repair the Avatar... if you can. A lot of people don't know this, but mnemonica's an optional skill. If your Avatar gets crit down or isolated in your active turn, you don't HAVE to transfer mnemonica (which, keep in mind, removes your Avatar from the table). You can simply fall unconscious and spend a couple orders moving an engineer up to revive him. This doesn't apply if you're knocked unconscious/isolated in the enemy's active turn as you'll still be in LoL at the start of your turn if you don't transfer mnemonica, but it's something to keep in mind during your active turn. Commandment 7: Thou shalt do this whenever the Avatar mercilessly crushes an enemy or crits. 'nuff said. The rest of Avatar List play comes down to individual playstyle, the mission, and your meta/opponent. Feel free to experiment with lists and approaches and post about them in this thread! These commandments serve as a general guideline for Avatar gameplay in absence of better strategies. Up next, I'll discuss a batrep or two to showcase these guidelines in action!
Here, we will analyze some case study battle reports and how they exhibit me/other players following or blatantly ignoring the commandments of Avatar play. Case Study 1: Acquisition vs. Vanilla Haqqislam Our first batrep is against @havocfett , a fellow local player. I must confess: since the fight was a couple weeks ago and we didn't take pics, a lot of the fight is kinda blurry, but there are still many important points to analyze. Keep in mind, though, that I did not sleep at all the night before the fight so I make some genuinely stupid mistakes. I used the example list I put above. Here's a rough pic of the game table: Again, this is a really rough picture. There was definitely more terrain to the right and left of the midfield and my opponent probably had more orders, but the exact specifics escape me. Thankfully, though, neither of use really used those areas of the table. I won the WIP roll and chose table side and deployment order. In doing so, I force Havocfett into choosing whether to concede first turn and let me rampage or taking first turn in a mission that generally favors going second. Remember, always force your opponent between two bad decisions. He chose to go first in an attempt to cripple my offensive then we both declared Strategos L3. Havocfett deployed first with 4 "Saladins" on the left, so I knew that one was real and the other was probably an Ayyar shock marksman rifle since he really likes that profile (I can't blame him). From his deployment, I saw the immediate largest threats to my Avatar were the ghazi, lasiq sniper, the TR HMG, so I spread my units out to cover the objectives, ARO the ghazis, and avoid the sniper. My kurgat kept close to the Avatar, but behind a building such that any approaching enemy would be in shotgun range and also in chain rifle range of the daturazi who could see through a window. The Q-drone is positioned so the lasiq can't outrange him and, more importantly, my opponent has to get through him, the Avatar, and a flash pulse to get at my other cheerleaders. I stuck the Avatar such that he watched the central objective (Force your opponent to deal with the Avatar) and the ghazis, but my opponent would have to move around a decent bit to get clear shots at him. He can also guts back further behind the building and out of view. I reserved my speculo right behind the lasiq since I knew he was reserving a djanbazan HMG (he was using the same list as a previous game that same day) that I couldn't counter deploy against and because it was just closer to other units I could shotgun. The djanbazan HMG was reserve deployed prone behind a wall with some windows so he could tackle the Avatar. Datatrackers: Avatar for me and the djanbazan for Havocfett. Xenotechs: Morat Hacker for me, the 3 totally-not-Ayyar-Saladins to my left. *DING DING* TURN 1 The first ghazi to the right runs out in complete view of the TR bot AND the Avatar and rolls really low for his smoke roll. I don't think they ever found the body. The second ghazi to the left runs out and gets knocked to dogged, but throws a sacrificial smoke over the djanbazan before pistoling the scattered imetron to death. The liberto runs forward and shotguns my right ikadron to catch the Q-drone in the splash, but whiffs both shots and is burned to a crisp. The djanbazan stands up and goes back prone destroying my right ikadron (remember, protect your cheerleaders), then shooting at A-man. He wins a couple rolls but the shots bounce clean off the effective 12 armor. A hunzakut on the right then pushes forward behind the building to stay out of view of the Avatar and gets discovered, but not before he can get in cover and start shotgunning the Q-drone. The Q-man/bot proves himself to be invincible, though, as he dodges multiple shotgun blasts while sponging one hit. The left ikadron flash pulses the hunzakut in the meantime, though. Havocfett then moves the 3 Saladins on the ground at once (totally not an Ayyar) to be between the two buildings on my left. A couple of orders are spent proving the Xenotech's really, really bad at his job, but the multiscanner is eventually placed. The Ayyar finally pokes out, but realizes he has to see the Q-drone and ikadron at once who both shoot back with the HMG and flash pulse respectively. My hacker chances the range and attempts a gotcha. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, he chooses to dump all shots into the TR bot since it's pinning down the table. The Q-drone, once again, proves to be invincible and rolls a crit against the surprise shot while my flash pulse whiffs. I love my Q-drone. Did I ever say I love my Q-drone because I love my Q-drone <3. Gotcha also successfully goes off and immobilizes the wounded Ayyar who ends his turn in total cover. The daturazi runs to the left towards hunzakut, but stays out of view. The speculo butt-scoots into CC against the lasiq and deletes her off the table with a monofilament swing while the Avatar reduces the hostile TR bot to a pile of scrap. I then spend a couple of my orders moving A-money towards the center of my deployment zone and killing the hunzakut (no cube). Remember, pushing him to the center of the table turn 1 is exposing him to needless danger. Remembering to not have my Avatar do everything, I have the shrouded move up towards the left objective to intuitively place a mine in view of the camo'd hunzakut and ayyar. I forgot the enemy xenotech was there too and apparently war crimes BESIDES viral weaponry and mind-control are not allowed in the CA so it couldn't detonate. The shrouded then riddles the Ayyar with bullets (not a war crime) before discovering and eliminating the last hunzakut and, therefore, one of Havocfett's last specialists. My last orders are spent capturing the left console and re-camo'ing the shrouded. *DING DING* TURN 2 You know how I said to not expose the Avatar to needless danger? I exposed the Avatar to needless danger by forgetting the djanbazan could shoot him without cover. He kills the daturazi I forgot to put behind cover (again, protect your cheerleaders) and puts two wounds on my Avatar in a single burst before I fail guts to move the Avatar behind cover. Sleep is important. Havocfett's is getting starved for orders, though, and moves the remaining djanbazan and FO bot up between the buildings to my left but can't do much more. I coordinate the ikadron and Avatar to move them forward. Ikadron torches both the FO bot and djanbazan in a single order while I, once again, expose the Avatar to needless danger by forgetting about the mine in the midfield and letting it detonate on me. I thought I'd be fine, but I roll a 4 on my armor save and the Avatar gets blasted. I completely forgot Commandment 5, though, and realize that in hindsight, I could've let him fall unconscious and spent a couple orders having the kurgat's slave drone repair him. My last orders are spent having the speculo stand up and shotgun the ghulam hacker and leila in a single blast (definitely a war crime) and the hacker move towards the enemy HVT to securing it (MIGHT be a war crime... maybe...). At this point, Havocfett concedes the game... which is a war crime.
Added the What's an Avatar?, What Makes an Avatar List?, Pros, and Cons sections :D I'll add more either tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Gonna get an Avatar game in today!
I don't think lumping the Krakot and the Daturazi together is good. The daturazi is extremely impetuous, has smoke and is better at bullying low cc models, while the Krakot can actually trade with guys like Musashi and Achilles (Berzerk turns the FTF into a normal roll, and as far as I know Musashi can't survive 2 wounds and Achilles doesn't want to lose 2 wounds to a 14 point model. 2 Krakots vs Achilles is a net win for the combined army player even if both Krakots die, as they are very likely to take blondie down too.) Also, there are two points about the avatar and TAGs in general that I feel should be stressed: First is suppressive fire. At BS15 the avatar can feel comfortable even at max suppressive range because of his high BS value. And enemies firing at it will be either at -9 or even -12. It's a pretty high penalty even for a linked model. The second is watching the flanks. If you're in supressive the best and most sensate option is trying to flank the big monster. That's where I think guys like Krakots and Ikadrons really shine, as they can offer some dangerous tradeoffs, and are cheap enough to be thrown away if you need to sacrifice something to keep the big beastie alive.
Gotcha. I'll make sure to split those up and quote your advice when I start writing the gameplay recommendations section :D Thanks a bunch for the advice!
Added in my recommended listbuilding advice! Next, guidelines for when you bring the battle to the table!
It may be worth mentioning that the new Shasvastii Nox have an lgl profile that synergises well with the Avatar. Use him to lob a nimbus plus grenade nearby to something with a cube. Then use the Avatar to shoot it with his septisor. This puts a -6 mod onto their dodge rolls and really ups the odds of claiming their prized model for yourself. This trick can also help out some of the cheaper template wielding troops that like to hang with the Avatar such as Daturazi, Preta's or Ikadrones.
Gameplay guidance done! I'm not sure if I'm 100% satisfied with them, so please give me some advice if you can. Next, I'll analyze a batrep or two :D
I love everything about this write-up! From the prose, the language used, the creative pseudonyms, the tactical depth, the strengths and weaknesses, EVERYTHING. Great job!
I enjoy these overly dramatic writing styles too. And I like it that you take the chance and time to discuss mnemonica. Well done. I'd like to see some battle reports involving Avatars, specially difficult but successful ones. Most of the stories I see involving the big guy are usually with a curbstomp on either side.
I used to play Netrunner and by far the best deck ever conceived was the "Can o' Whupass" based solely on the write-up.
Finally done! I've attached a batrep so the thread is complete, but I'll definitely play more Avatar games and post them up here in the future! Two things though: Can I request this thread get stickied if you guys are okay with it? What's the process? It's time to update this with the new Shas :D
Daedalus Gate has fallen and we've been buffed. I love the smell of new units in the morning. Done with my DF updates :D
Nox hacker is the new "cheapest hacker" profile, but I think you're still better off taking a KHD if you only need one hacker for something.
The Nox SMG hacker is only available to SEF. In Vanilla CA he only can take the combi which brings him to 22 points, in line with the Vanguard.
