I think Irmandhinos are awesome. When I build lists for ITS, if the mission has classifieds, I usually make sure that I can cover most of them. If there are buttons to be pushed, I try to bring 3-5 specialists. Usually there is overlap in these two goals. I hear a lot of other people build lists similarly. Irmandhinos are is a weird spot though. I don’t like banking on them as engineers or specialists, because they frequently die quickly. But they do pull off missions for me. Missions like hunting party though, punish specialists. Do you plan on Irmandhinos completing missions? Do you plan on specialists doing more than the mission?
Depends on the mission mate, if you're playing one where you've got objectives in dead zones or your own table half, it's a fair shout they're gonna do their job turn one. If not, it gets a bit dicey but the engineer and booty skills are like a 2pt upgrade on a galwegian so you're not loosing anything really
In Ariadna, I plan on Foxtrot/Chasseur/Strelok completing the mission, irhmandino is a bonus If I want it to be more likely to survive, I will often pair him with an highlander (to smoke the way for him)
To throw out my opinion on it so far, I usually don’t think of engineer on Irmandhinos when list building. It’s just an extra skill. I think they are awesome without it even. I was just playing a game of Hunting Party the other day though, and realized that they could hurt me. Usually when I include foxtrots or other FO infiltrators, I don’t expect them to do much more than the mission objectives. I’ll use them if there’s a need, but it’s rarely Plan A. Just wondering what other’s thoughts are. Especially with the new Frontovik engineer.
Irmies are just fantastic. Never leave home without a couple of them. For MSV2+ ARO pieces you bring a couple of Murderbots (HMG Spetsnaz) and kill them off. For the rest of the enemy army lobbing smoke nades on 17s is more than viable to keep them alive. Thanks to being impetuous they are heading in the direction you actually want them to go (upfields). The only thing to look for is deploy them behind huge cover so that their first impetuous move will not get them out in the open ground to be killed by strong ARO pieces. Yup BS is abysmal, but you will never ever use that attribute: who cares?!? They cost 8 points. Eight. Designers at CB were either high or drunk (maybe both) when designing these crazy little f***ers… Love 'em. They won me games singlehandedly.
The tactics vs a linked MSV2 Sniper are various, from linked high B weapons to coordinated shots to mine + attack to even CC, but surely Spetsnaz is not one of our options. A Spetsnaz HMG vs a linked Kamau, for example, will get killed more times than he will succeed, so it won't be something I would rely on. If you're talking about going against a generic MSV2, the story is different.
Ah my favourite pirate skirmishers. They are a strange one. In Ariadna they are excellent. In a faction with MSV bots or TAGs they would be obscenely good. They are great, just game winners. To answer your question; I have no thoughts of them surviving past turn 2. Generally they throw smoke, push buttons then hopefully kill more than their points worth in troops. They can be great against heavy/elite infantry who sometimes forget they are CC20 Phys 14 with AP! If you get a good booty roll they can suddenly become armour 5. That's hilarious. They have some synergy with tank hunters and Vassily. Adhesive launcher on a HI/TAG then your swashbuckling engineer D-Charges. What makes them so good is their versatility. Happy as a specialist. Happy as an assault piece and happy hunting Camo with smoke and speculative. Just don't get to attached to them.
Specifically on Irmandinhos as Specialists: If an opponent hides to avoid your active turn gunfighters, it's really nice to have the order-efficiency of Irmandinhos for unopposed button pushing. Using them for your early console pushes lets you keep your Camo Specialists in Camo, which means more time with Ambush Camo, more time that your opponent is guessing, etc. And generally just being a good platform for Classifieds is really helpful: D-Charges, Engineer, CC, smoke to assist other specialists, and they even have good stats for Casevac. It helps offset Ariadna's general weakness on things like Hacking or Doctoring.
Also there is a new miniature with a boarding shotgun that i will definitely get... PSYCH! I already have four chain rifles and a healthy sense of how cheap pirate life is. CHARGE!!!