I’m considering getting the spiral core starter. 1. How used are the pieces in it? 2. what would be good next purchases? (I suspect the upcoming helix) 3. what are the weaknesses of spiral core?
Welcome to Spiral Corps! Regarding your first question: all the minis are used, the starter is a great buy. Next good purchase I recommend Rasail Boarding Team (two Chaksas), Neema Saatar and the Kumotail box (two more Chaksas). The weakness I think would be lack of cheap cheerleaders (in the point range 5-6 like Caledonian Volunteers or Kuang Shis) and lack of a good platform for HMG.
Several players were complaining having difficulities assembling that mini. But indeed the profile is very useful and if You want to play WYSIWYG yup, You gotta buy that figure.
1) I play almost everything in the starter except the Kiel-San and Spitfire Reex regularly. 2) Taagma sniper, Chaksa Auxiliars, Kauuri Sentinels, and Helot Militia are good next steps. 3) The biggest weakness is the inflexible/not completely self-sufficient triads compared to vanilla Tohaa. For example, a vanilla Triad can have a shooter, specialist, cornerguard, template, and eclipse smoker because one piece does three of those jobs. In Spiral, one piece is both the shooter/cornerguard and specialist (Draal depending on the profile) and relies on a one-off mechanic that can't be reloaded (Stratuscloud), and the triad options for the rest of the things triads should do are not excellent. Secondary weakness because of this is never having enough command tokens. Spiral is a fantastic faction though, just be aware that you're relying on Kriigel triads, Draal triads, and Clipsos to do almost all of the working.
Yes, but it has trick, because the metal is so maleable, in other words, once Glued, force the position without fear to break it Good miniature, better profile, recomended for sure The other things you should do it is split a Healots box with a friend, you will ply that lizards, chaksas always usefull, kaeltar too, etc etc
you probably want Neema, Aelis and a kaeltar box (the kaeltar is only AVA 1 but it is auto include) also you will probably need a second sniper at some point (nikoul, gao rael ?) Draals are the best profile of infinity you can do everything with them but you don't have a lot of cheap triads options to go with them Spiral starve with SWC, with the taagma tri-core auto include and snipers/helots/kiuutan you will have to chose also you lack heavy guns: you have only 3 assault options to kill ARO pieces: Neema, Draal MR (only one turn) or kiel-saan so you will need those fancy viral sniper in active turn to clear stuff (bring smoke)
1) I find all the pieces have been getting use, I proxy the Reex as Helots for now, but once the Helots come out I doubt Reex will see the table very often. Maybe one as a Kauuri in highly classified / countermeasures. 2) I'll echo what others have already stated: Chaksa box, Rasail Boarding Team box, Kaeltar box, Kerail Preceptor box, Igao blister, Taagma sniper blister, Nema blister definitely the Helot box once it is released ~I like the idea of having two "full fireteam:Core" on the table but have yet to experiment with it. That play requires brawlers but they're definitely only going to be a staple in your Spiral Corps if you really want them to be. 3) Weaknesses? a) SC lack the ability to get good quality high burst, long range weaponry - HMG's are only available on the Anaconda and Chaksa (with neurocinetics). This is offset by a great ability to play both the active and reactive turns at less than 24" b) I run out of command tokens fast. Almost always in my first turn. I'm either converting irregular orders or reforming triads or coordinating. I spend them all as quickly as I can. I've found myself stuck with primarily irregular orders going into turn 3 and no command tokens left to power up anything for more than a single order or two. c) Difficulty including tailored specialists into lists - there are great specialist options. They are unfortunately almost all just generic specialist operatives or chain of command models. Doctor, Hacker, Engineer and to a lesser extent FO profiles don't really synergise with the other profiles you're really going to want to take. And Draal are just so damned good at everything you're taking them as specialists in addition to the rest of their kit. d) Spiral attacks BTS like nobodys business - some match ups, like Neoterra, can pose problematic when everything has high BTS and is immune to your exotic ammo. 4) You didn't ask but I'll comment on what I've found them to be really effective at after a dozen or so games: a) Spiral attacks BTS like nobody's businesses - everything is Viral, or Breaker, or EM, or Stun b) Defense in ablative layers - once your opponent gets past a kuitan with emaulers they stumble across the table into your helots. If they get past your lobotomized deep ones they have to get past burst two flame throwers and Eraser before they actually get access to anything that isn't chaff. c) The Kriigel LSGL is the hero we need - this guy more than makes up for the lack of long range firepower by providing all the tools to get your Tricore team into the right position and to provide amazing defense with his Pherowere in the reactive turn. d) the ability to get right up in your face - with AP marksman rifles starting at the 20 and great impersonator options really push the threat on the first turn. e) zone control - with arguably the best baggage option in the game able to power up your MSV2 sniper and hide your Lieutenant, the ability to drop over 100 points just outside the opponents deployment zone (prone on a roof, in marker state) without a roll, some of the best midfield specialists out there deploying up to your 20, Helots, and access to Eraser make it very easy for Spiral to take and hold ground.
I can answer using my personal experience, I bought the box, one of my better purchases, then I found a little Tohaa army, composed by kaauri, Kerail, some blister models, Kaeltar and Pokemon, chaksa and Rasail, so all usable things, I believe this is one of the cheapest army and many players are selling the main army, don't know why 'cause Tohaa and Spiral are both wonderful and very competitive. About new releases, Taagma sniper is excellent ( I use it also as a Gao Rael), next year helots will be available, so I would buy these two...
Just have fun. Make a list, that looks fun when you're done with it buy some other interesting unit and put it into the list.