I don't think over-investing in Remotes is going to make the Cyberghost pull their weight more, but if you need alternative uses for them then this is the only Pitcher available in a faction with very limited access to Deployable Repeaters (none of which are on SK models). Personally, 26/0.5 isn't much investment on the fairly remove chance of facing someone where both Pitcher and White Noise does nothing.
of course – what I meant with my previous comment is that the main reason to take him over the Kappa hacker is the white noise. Realistically there isn't too much of a difference between the HD+ and the HD in this army because of the ease of access of KHDs. You're always going to be including remotes/HI/drop troop in some capacity so I would never really leave home without some type of regular or plus hacking device.
And as @Mahtamori points out, pitchers. Though I feel as though those are less important with the Sirius bot being a large mobile repeater. 26/0.5 isn't that much an investment either, just tough when it's competing with 15/0.5. Cyberghost is certainly useful though. Maybe not the KHD though – theres some tough competition there
The problem with trying to use White Noise to root out MSV Snipers in links is that they basically ignore the WN Cloud thanks to SSL2... so it’s a waste unless you can bring them down below 4 members.
Of course – shooting through it at them isn't necessarily always the answer. Sometimes it's worth it to blind them and then pick off other, valuable troops. Or just activate an objective and move on, or maybe it allows you to flank them and get at juicier, weaker link members. Sometimes it's just about throwing it down to only take 1 ARO at a time instead of 2.
This is why the Sirius kit is what works with the Cyberghost bring so well. Use the repeater on the glue bot to drop a white noise over the Sirius. Then activate the sirius and move the glue bot out of the cloud. MSV sniper either shoots your bot or dodges, either way they are eating a red fury they can't shoot against.
So I have been experimenting with O12 for abit over a month now. The shop talk in this thread has been great. My top units of the faction in no particular order are... Alpha: It's very hard to justify another LT, This one is basically an auto include for me. Team Sirius: Be it the cheap red fury, or the handy FO this is an auto include and I would be hard pressed not taking two. Varangian Guard: My new favorite cheerleader/Backline defender in Infinity. Gangbuster: You would think this would be to much overlap with Team Sirius but they have been complementing themselves very nicely in my lists. For my last unit I had to pick from the Beta, who can attack from odd directions, and gets added use out of the Monstrucker (another great unit) or the impressive Gamma (AKA Gunshow) unit. However I think the Beta is just a tiny bit more deadly as a Rambo unit thanks to the 6-2 movement and I value that just a bit more then the tankyness of the Gamma. However they are so close that I could see favoring the other depending on meta
I played a game last night and got stomped by Achilles, but out of that I came to a realization. Exclusion zone missions make the normal defense strategies less effective for O-12. Since everything ends up being condensed into that 16" band, it's easier for an opponent to punch through several things at once. You can also run into deployment zone cramping, which further exacerbate the problem. It's just something to keep in mind when setting up lists and deployment on these missions. The best part of O-12 defense is that it takes a while to chew through, so try to replicate that in your deployment zone if you are able.
Oh for sure – with exclusion zones, depending on mission, Gangbusters are almost not even worth taking. Those points are probably better invested in long range AROs like the TR bot or the Lynx MSR. I find that you have to take a very different approach to list building when considering Gangbuster defense may not be as effective.
You can use a coordinated Order to walk something cheap (like a bot, or even better, a Madtrap) into LoF of the sniper, while everyone else hides in white noise. The Sniper must shoot the cheap visible target (or Dodge,) which means your other three Coordinated Order participants can shoot with safety. If you use long-range hard-hitting weapons, like a Fuerbach or MULTI Sniper, you can generate very good odds this way.
I was just talking about exclusion zones at the end of my last game. I know this comment is going to be kind of inflammatory but I would probably debate reaching for a different army on such missions.
oof! I would argue that O-12 also has a lot of upsides in missions that include exclusions zones – O-12 sports a number a very capable combat specialists for missions like Countermeasures and Unmasking. In The Armory, Varangian Guard and Betas are extremely useful. One dishing out templates and CC and smoke and the other wielding deadly close range weapons while maintaining specialist status. and also dodging on 15s.
I don't know if just the fact that there will be a mission with exclusion zone in a tourney would be reason enough not to play O12, if all missions have it though it would be wonk It'd be like playing Ariadna in a tourney with 3 rounds of biotechvore
It's really just a different kind of puzzle to solve, the Lynx becomes more valuable, the Beta begins to really show its quality, and you can abuse some long range tools like the epsilon and gamma. Bots also look pretty solid in this format. Things that start to loose their luster are Team Sirius, gangbusters, and razors.
The Beta is a diamond in all formats! I will hear no more of this! On a more serious note – it's also interesting to mention that in a LI format the Beta is a really valuable piece – he can be your attacker, he can be your doctor, and he can be a pretty capable combat specialist (KHD/Special OP). and they're AVA 3! so fitting 2 or 3 in a list is pretty comfortable and very viable.
If a mechanic in a competitive rules packet incentivizes you taking a different army then that mechanic needs to be examined. In some missions it makes some sense (Unmasking) as it stops a specialist rush from winning out right. In others (Countermeasures) it make little to no sense. I'd like it a lot more if it was only applied during deployment so that way AD isn't completely shafted by it.
Do you play both with the red fury? Regarding the Betatrooper, can you explain how you use him... I see the profile but somehow can´t fit his concept into my list :( THX
