Hi Guys, do you think it could be feasible/convenient to try a hacking based list against a high technology faction (PanO for instance)? I am not sure that we can outgun them in a direct confrontation. So I asked myself about a different way to face those HI and TAGs lists... but I never played hacking as a main offensive tool up to now. Any considerations or ideas?
Haqq can play a pretty solid infowar game due to their higher than average WIP. Barids are the obvious start, especially with their Pitchers. Hunzakuts bring Deployable Repeaters into the midfield. Al Hawwa make great assault hackers for targeting TAGs/HI and they can re-camo to protect themselves from KHDs. They also have a Boarding Shotgun and D-Charges which are excellent weapons to use against an Immobilised TAG/HI. Leila Sharif brings both a KHD to protect your own hackers and a good gun.
Is it worth? Many TAGS have WIP13 and BTS6... HI come with WIP14 and BTS6... Is it a difficult job with the dice ? Better to use different ways to attack the enemy?
Tuareg and Ragik Assault Hackers are quite strong due to WIP 15 and ways to get into hacking range easily. I especially rate the Tuareg because of Surprise Shot as well, but beware KHDs. They don't care at all about TO Camo, they'll just blow the Tuareg's brains out. A Hunzakut with a Deployable Repeater and a Barid or Leila Sharif with their KHDs can provide you some good coverage if that happens. It is worth it though, because you can seriously lock them down. If you Immobilise a TAG or HI, remember that on it's turn, if it Resets and you Hack in ARO, even if they beat you, it doesn't free them from immobilisation! They need to Reset on a Normal Roll, not a Face to Face roll. This means that if you are having trouble with a TAG, you can hack them and leave them alone, then focus on dealing with the rest of their forces. Or flank them with a Azra'il Feuerbach and put a couple of APDA rounds into them while they are trying to Reset, that will do the job!
Many of the AHD's programs give you 2-3 dice in the active turn or have DT ammunition, there's also no real penalty for failure when compared to shooting each other.
What? http://infinitythewiki.com/en/Immobilized-1 The affected trooper may cancel this state via a successful Reset. No mention of normal rolls, winning a Reset F2F will beat the enemy hacker and cancel IMM-1. It's even in the FAQ for Reset. http://infinitythewiki.com/en/Reset
By passing a Normal WIP Roll, the user cancels his own Immobilized-1 state. The key point being "Normal" A Normal WIP roll being one which is not a Face to Face Roll. The FAQ does state otherwise, I'll grant you. Which is strange as that directly contradicts the text...
Yeah but what defines a successful Reset isn't noted there at all, but is noted in the Reset page, and the Reset page says "Normal WIP roll to cancel IMM-1 state" I got it from your own links! So it specifies, a Normal Roll there. But then says a FtF below, so whatevs
Successful = Winning a face to face roll, that's part of the standard dice mechanics. It's odd that Reset has the different wording, but with the FAQ and the language in the IMM-1 state it's fairly cut-and-dry.
I guess I'm lost... My friend and I have encountered this issue several times. How exactly can one cancel the IMM-1 state? Is it only by passing a normal Reset, or by simply any successful reset?
CB is quite consistent with saying stuff about "normal" rolls specifically, then ignoring it for all intents and purposes. Not to mention that entire ruleset for hacking is written in a way that may suggest they specifically wanted to avoid us treating hacking programs as having Burst, being usable as AROs etc. (check program descriptions), but then proving that supposition wrong everywhere else. I'd say go by FAQ, but seriously, hacking rules writing should be streamlined.
yep we have very good hacking options with the Hawwa, Tuareg and Hunzakut. Sometimes Ragik too. The thing to remember is that hacking can't be the your only offensive tool against HI, or TAGs. Hacking in Haqq by itself isnt really that fantastic, but when you pair it with our other pieces like Ghazis, cheap ARO pieces, Fidays and the like, you get an overall answer to dealing with the much tougher units of other factions.
Speaking of electronic warfare, to fight top-heavy high-tech guys we can always bring our brand of EWar while staying the heck away from hacking game - I mean things like Jammers and EMP templates.
Place repeaters on the midfield and then let them come at you. Even normal hackers are a pain to deal with if you have sufficient numbers, not to mention having KHD to back them (and some AHD if needed, but those are best used on the active turn because of their being in a marker state). So the idea is to have more hackers than the enemy, something Haqquislam can be very good at because, while we lack Hacker+ devices, we have good weapons without SWC cost that work wonders against heavy enemies aswell (AP, viral...) and the Barid KHD (16pts pitcher WP14 BTS3) are insanely good, and Leyla is a 20pts Barid with D-Charges that can also shoot well... Then the Deployabe repeaters on the Hunzakuts (Coordinater Order: place deployable. Place 2-3 repeaters and 1-2 mines in a single order!), the repeaters on Saladin and the remotes, etc... The advantage is, essentially, in numbers. And while nomads have the advantage on repeater coverage, the other "technohackers" suffer from SWC starvation (Aleph comes to my mind really hard here, EC is a little better but is also starved for orders unless you go Onyx, which removes dangerous things like the Speculo..., and PanO loves big guns and has lower WP, so...). Yu Jing (vanilla and ISS) is the one that can give more trouble, with the Ninja KHD, the remotes, the fireteams ISS has... but is also more vulnerable to normal and AHD models.
I for one can attest that the Al-Hawwa is a hero. Last time I hacked some Imperial Service Crane Agent, went to blow him up with a Demo Charge, didn't realize he gets to reset, went on with it anyway and critted him with the charge in a FtF melee roll.
Do not treat hacking as your main tool, but as one of them. By restricting enemy choices and forcing him to deal with another set of threats you can get an edge in maneuverability, board control, and order efficiency. First thing to consider is the Repeater net. Pitchers, Deployable Repeaters, and Fanous Remotes are your friends. Fanous is additionally useful, as it works well with Rafiq remote in creating a good area denial for enemy Camo. Second thing is to consider your hacker choices. Good stats are important and useful, but it's the other things that decide about hacker's usefulness. Anything that can be used to surprise your opponent and turn change the tactical situation is good; Camo hackers like Al Hawwa' and - especially - Tuareg, AD one in form of Ragik. KHD to deal with enemy hackers. EVO is important as well, as it boosts multiple aspects of your list, especially in tandem with Rafiq and Fanous. All in all it's good to have 3-4 hackers on table - KHD, EVO, 1-2 AHDs. Then there's deployment. Placing hackers inside/on top of buildings gives them relative safety and creates area denial zones for enemy heavy units. Repeater placed or moved into good Total Cover positions increase that coverage. Combine this with your other units' placement, to force enemy to make difficult choices; when enemy TAG or HI moves into position to open fire on your sniper or TR Remote and in addition to defender's fire gets a sudden ARO from hidden Tuareg hacker he will have to allow one of them an unopposed roll. Use Spotlight and Oblivion a lot. Superior BS isn't so superior, when you're getting a +3 bonus from Targeted. Isolation can only be cancelled by an Engineer, and TAG with only 1 available order is much less of a threat. If you have SWC available consider taking Shaytaniyah Remote as well. With Rafiq on table and all that Spotlights flying around you might have a few occasions to fire those guided missiles. Supplement your forces with Jammers and E/M weapons. Ghazi are one of the most powerful units in the game for their price and make for hellishly effective area denial pieces. E/M LGL can be scary to bunched up fireteams, especially HI ones. E/Mitters make for a good ARO against heavy targets. E/Maulers are easy to obtain for Haqq, and work nicely as part of your area control and defense systems.
