Hi guys, Trying out different ideas with the Spiral, the last test was for the dazer. It was Armory, and I dropped a dazer in the room on the first turn of the game hoping to hinder my opponents advance, but it didn't go quite as I expected! The main issue was the saturation zone, which mitigated ARO burst link bonuses effectively across the whole table. On active turn it shined, but on reactive my opponent lost only a couple of orders when entering the dif. terrain zone, partly because he just dodged or lost courage rolls into it after my extremely unlucky shooting, and only once he was unable to declare second move: all other times he had other things to do with the second part of an order. And boy, those 1B AROs really hurt! I hadn't thought about this issue beforehand and I'm not sure how and when to actually use dazers. The cover they provide to anything B4 or higher in Spiral's reactive turn against our linked ARO is so huge I can't find any justification to use it, and, unlike Stratuscloud, it covers such a large area you can't keep your triads protected from ARO burst reduction. Has anybody got better luck with dazers?
I can see that it does not under troops with MOV 4-4 that much, but 4-2 MI or 6-2 superhumans will be pretty annoyed. The Draal already has FD2, so it is important to place it far up in the field to use it against AROing enemies while you are in your active. I think it is a little like a weaker second Stratuscloud. Rasail, Kerail, Kiel-Saan, Kiiutan, Greif, Cube Jäger, Clipsos or Igao: Any non-Triad trooper (preferable with burst 4, not those with burst 2) might like it as well to weaken enemy AROs while they move in, and they have no reactive burst anyway (if they survive their attack run). In the reactive turn, a Helot with Red Fury might be still have more dice than the opponent, thus increasing its chance of success. So you have to plan which side/vector of the table you want to 'daze', to support those troops that can benefit from it, and were it will annoy your enemy the most. So maybe not to good in missions with central objectives, and better for those with quadrants. Can you attack your own equipment to shut it down at the end of your turn?
I’m still trying to get the hang of it myself. But it seems like it would be great for AROs with things like Missile Launchers. Weapons that are already low burst.
I was constantly boning myself with it while trying to drop it with a linked Draal. The success I've had has come from an unlinked Draal in a second combat group speeding up and tossing them along the most obvious routes my opponents want to take. I'm still not sure if that is a better use then having that same Draal or similarly priced solo piece just using orders to attack.
Deploy them on your own half of the table to use them to pick off defensive link teams like a nimbus grenade. Then move past them.
I have used a similar strategy. A solo draal to move up the table and block their egress. I don't use them for their saturation bonus so much as the making leaving the deployment zone a pain. It's also a mission dependent tool, where zone control missions are my favorite use for it.
The group 2 Draal is kind of awkward, imo. The big problem I have is justifying it over a Clipso FO. The Clipso can push buttons too, has the protection of Hidden Deployment and marker state, and also starts 4 inches up the table. I like the Dazer conceptually but I struggle finding a place for it in my lists.
I think that the best use of Draal is to try to block enemy T1 Rambo. You place him near something you want to keep alive, place a mine and active stratuscloud in the deploy phase. After that in the active turn you have BS13 submachine gun to kill enemy model that have come to close to you.
I got a game in last night that has put me slightly off the Dazer train. Transmission matrix vs Hassassins, my Draal was able to march up a flank and interconnect Dazers all the way to my opponents deployment zone. Between impetuous and regular orders my opponent was still able to shove a mutt down my throat just running and smoking through the Dazer and the sat zone hurt my AROs against the Mutt. I'm sure there are better players then me out there but the Dazer Draal is going on the backburner in favor of mines Draal.
One Dazer is unrealible IMHO especially considering that with Stratuscloud you already have half it's effect on the Draal by default. Creating very Difficult terrain is really good, but there are a lot of factor that can make the enemy ignore it or shooting it. I like the Draal minelayer more for the IGAO. You place camo on the table and the enemy have to guess if it's a mine behind the corner or a CC specialist ready to jump on him.
