I have played through the Icestorm campaign, and I'm looking to jump into the game. From what I have gathered, Shasvastii isn't in the best place currently, but it is the army I'm most drawn to, with Morats in 2nd. I've picked up the starter box and would love some pointers on where to expand my army next, and maybe some guidelines of building some lists from 150 to 300 pts. Thank you in advance.
Uff this is a hard question. I started in October SEF and don't want to buy a lot becausebof the rework. But from what i can tell, shrouded. When I play I rarely play less than 3. Doc worm (medtech obsidian) he is your only doctor Noctifier are one of the best units in shasvasti. Sphinx is in my opinion the best tag in the game Maybe 2 ikadron packs (and keep the imetron just in case we can use it after the rework) And that is it from my view. I find it very hard to build a list with more than 10 orders
Standard "must have" miniatures on CA are: Support Pack (Med Tech + 2 servitor worms), only medic in the whole faction, also AVA 1. Ikadron + Imetron blister twice (AVA 2 each), too good to pass on. Remotes box (best EVO, best Total Reaction... Having two boxes won't hurt either). Sadly you cannot play "dress up" with other faction's remotes, so you are limited to several boxes of the same stuff. Shasvastii can deploy 2 total reaction, btw... Bit & Kiss will be out this month, and they bring too good a loadout to ignore having the miniatures. Only KHD on the faction, with minelayer, repeaters (so she starts with one already planted), repeaters you can shoot away, and a remote with adhesive launcher and repeater (so it uses cybermask when she does!). All Shasvastii troops present on Onyx Contact Force shouldn't be resculpted (Sphinx, Malignos, Noctifer). Consider yourself warned: everything else will be resculpted this year or the next, unless production problems crop up. Must have troops on Shasvastii: 1 Speculo Killer. Too good to pass on. Aswangs. Among the "must have" troops, and good Lt camo profile with ADL to hunt for heavy enemies... plus protheion to eat those IMM2 models. Red Fury Sheskin (there is only 1 model, however), and 4 supporting Gwailos. Any other Fireteam option means starting with seed-embryo... so you have to spend a command token later. Shrouded: Camo version of the Malignos, cheaper by about 11 points by losing 1 WP and 1 ARM, and the downgrade from TO to Camo. That's it. Frankly, it has little good options atm, and most people I've seen playing shasvastii either play "vanilla style" (no links, all camo) or us the Gwailos link.
Honestly - double Speculo is the only real reason to run SEF. Seeds are rubbish, so there's no point linking... And Shas strength is in it's Infiltrators, so I don't think Gwailo link is what I'd be going for if playing Shas. Better off just running Shas heavy Vanilla to get the option of taking 1 or 2 non Shas dudes.
Get both Noctifer models - according to Carlos, those two sculpts are going to remain current because they're happy with the design. The Haiduk is a pretty recent model too, and a good unit. Corax Haasht, the dire foe, can be a little hard to find for seperate sale these days, but is a pretty good unit on the table. Dr Worm and Slave Worms is a must get, same with the Ikadron/Immetron blisters.
I forgot the other gimmick for Shas - Sheskiin plus 4 Cadmus. Cadmus morpho-scan Sheskiin. You now have 5 models with Achilles stats.
Was this stated somewhere? I've been holding off on buying Malignos because I didn't like the sculpts that much and thought they would be part of the rework.
We have not had malignos confirmed as "staying" only sphinx, noctifers, haiduck and I believe gwailos, but I may be misrembering on that one. I strongly suspect malignos to be recut. They are beautiful models in my opinion but the look is going to be different and theu will need to match
Shas is an alluring army, that is on the "hard" end of the scale to play. Once you embrace this, you can be liberated while playing them. I'm getting back into them since N3 dropped and changed their racial ability. Calibans are pretty much worthless to me as they are nothing more than seed soldiers but almost twice as expensive for an automedkit on a shitty PH. (Because Shas has some weak PH). Unless you want MORE infiltrators and have maxed out your Shrouded and Malignos, Calibans are a pure aesthetic choice. Cadmus A decent drop troop but more situational. Folks will walk them on the table and Morpho-Scan their own Avatar to ensure high stats. They can drop to place a mine. Remember, the morpho scan can also take a weapon from an unconscious opponent. Haiduks Useless. Really only a cheap mimetism sniper with low stats. Unless you want the guided rounds, but otherwise pretty much junk. They were released in N2 when guided was more lethal. Seed-Soldiers there to flesh out your group and the 1st round camo is good to mask your other camos. Aswuangs Awesome and obvious Lts. But paired with a seed-soldier or two, safer. Get one for sure. Noctifer A decent TO sniper. I use all versions of this troop depending on mood and scenario. They will die, get used to it. Recommended. Corax Hasht Awesome specialist troop. He has always done well for me. Always. Highly recommended Gwailos They make a great fire team, and even a stand alone troop. The Nanoscreen is fun to use and makes deploying a breeze. Their stats aren't too bad. Recommended Sphynx I rarely use it, rarely, but its a pretty amazing TAG and it really strikes fear into players, especially fireteams. Malignos Get one, convert one, use them. Shrouded Get one or two, use them for objective scenarios. Speculos You've probably already dabbled enough with these. Sheskin Recommened, especially if you are going the Gwailo fire team route. She is an awesome CC troop also, which people tend to forget and getting her to 3 wounds via Protheion is fabulous.
I remember them saying that the profiles weren't changing, I don't remember them saying anything about the models.
just a point about the Cadmus: Anyone Morpho-Scanning their own avatar is cheating, you can't Morpho Scan anything with STR instead of Wounds. Swiping it from your Charonitds, however, is totally on the table.
Since we're talking about SEF, though, the ideal candidate would be Sheskiin for those sweet sweet stats.
Just renember that cadmus are not allowed to use any other lvl of ad;combat jump . See http://wiki.infinitythegame.com/en/Seed-Embryo It ii there well hidden In the text. Never played sef, would love to try Them out. Can however see the fun in pushing sheskin up the table and then drop 3 - 4 cadmus around her for swees mine support. Next turn a coordinated morfoscan order
I remember reading/talking about this, which is kinda logical. Anyway, Malignos has 2 models (a blister, and the one on the Shas sarter), and I really would take any statement coming from Crovus with a grain of salt when it comes to the resculpt of the Shasvastii models. Personally, I have a Malignos hacker I bought (because I will use him for certain, frankly... I also bought a Zerat hacker back in the day) and a Noctifer ML, it's like 15 bucks I don't think are hard to justify. The Sphinx I doubt they will resculpt, or if they do it should be something close to what we have today, because of the Raicho pilot blister with the Scindron, the Scindron was too neat and easy to locate on the Tag's model to just scrap that (on the other hand, the Aleph remote pilot and how I can't even imagine where does it come from suggest to me either that the Marut will get a resculpt, or that a second Tag will come to Vedic).
Sphinx won't be resculpted, it was namedropped beside the Noctifer (but not the Malignos) during the Onyx release as being a model they're happy with.
Shas main advantage is to not give their plan away. Sheeskin + link or droid army work, but are blunt and waste much of the upper hand. A typical strategy is to pick 2 offensive pieces, a line of inflitrators and something to anchor the defense. From there it's about personal preferences. Here´s an example of strategy I´ve used successfully. Anchor one flank with a HMG Q-Drone watched over by a Med Techs servant. The Med tech, preferably lying flat on a roof, covers the other end of the deployment zone with the help of a Seed Soldier or two. Aswang Lt and two Ikadrones also helps protecting the DZ. Three-four Shrouded or two-three Malignos spread out across the midline in cover, including an Minelayed mine. Spitfire Noctifer deploys across the most likely approach not covered by the Q-Drone. Missile Launcher Noctifer deploys in the same approach as the Spitfire, but with as much overview as possible. A single Speculo killer is held in reserve. Defensewise the plan is to funnel the enemy towards either avenue of approach and stagger the advance. Most opponents evade the Q-Drone at which point the Noctifer ML reacts in coordination with the line of infiltrators. On the offense the Speculo opens up trying to drain orders from the opponent by killing cheerleaders and dz troops followed by going into Supressive Fire. This is mainly to draw attention and split the enemy forces. Turn two and forward the Spitifire Noctifer becomes the offensive piece and counter attacks whatever offense the enemy has mounted. The deployment zone troops act to preserve themselves with the Aswang as reserve offensive asset. Finally the infiltrators are the main objective solvers. Everything else is most likely smoke and mirrors to keep the enemys attention away from the mission, but these guys wins the game. All these tools can be shifted into others, but the strategic overview would be the same. I´ve used Cadmus as T1 offensive tools, Gwailo or Caliban links as anchors and Spitfire Awsangs as follow up offensive troops. It´s all about what fits you.
Double Speculo Killer is what drew me to SEF. Why not also add the best TAG for extra terror? Shasvastii Expeditionary Force ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 NOCTIFER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 24) SPHINX Spitfire, 2 Heavy Flamethrowers / EXP CCW. (2 | 106) SCINDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0) SPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | 34) SPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | 34) SHROUDED (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) Bit Hacker (UPGRADE: Expel) Submachine Gun + Pitcher, Deployable Repeater + KISS! / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19) KISS! Adhesive Launcher / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) M-DRONE Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17) 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) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army
