I'm mostly a CA and Druze player, but I picked up SWF. I've played a few games and I'm just getting MAULED in the reactive turn. Now I've identified a few of my problems as deployment issues/oversights. But the fragility of the "good" units seems pretty high. I feel like if I ever lose a FtF roll, that's it. I lost the model. As an aside, I'm sad with inability to really do anything with the Nisse and the level of "crutch" in the Karhu FB. I've been looking to the HI a bit more to see if I can get anything going there. A link of Orcs doesn't seem all that bad. Anyone tried them with some success?
If your issue is the reactive, you are more likely to get mileage out of the Knight of Justice Missile Launcher or the ORC Feuerbach in a Fusilier Fireteam Core. Both are robust ARO units which are VERY tough to take out in a single order (the odds need to really run against you). While the Karhu Feuerbach is a solid ARO option, it's stronger still as an active turn shooter and you should probably consider if you really want it out to ARO (probably, but certainly not in an exposed position trying to hold a "primary lane").
Well, welcome to PanO I think. PanO units have to out themselves on the line in both active and reactive turn, since PanO typically had few tools for avoiding or sidestepping confrontation. Best suggestions I can make are max AVA peacemakers and a couple of fusiliers hackers. You can force the enemy to deal with them one way or another, using the auxbots, shotgun templates and repeaters to force the enemy to deal with you, and this will probably eat enough orders that the enemy can't get 10+ orders of rampaging against your force. Pieces like the Karhu Fuerbach become better late game, as the enemy had fewer troops to deal with them, so you want to gradually shift your defense from passive (templates at corners, hacking through repeaters) to active (linked Fuerbach, Suppressive fire.) As far as orcs go, I like that fuerbach a lot. 2 Wounds and decent ARM is a nice alternative. If I were going to go with a real HI approach though, it would have to be Hospitallers. Those guys are amazing, and truly tough to crack since they also being CC ability as well.
HI player here. This isn't SWF, but I played this list in Varuna and managed to wipe a Hassassin list: aQZ2YXJ1bmERSGVhdnkgRHV0eSBWYXJ1bmGBLAIBDACEyQEBAAAFAQ0AAAUBEQAABQEOAAAFARIAAA4BAQAAJQEBAAARAQEAABEBAQAADwEDAAAlAQEAABMBAQACAwCExgEEAACExgEEAACExgEBAA== Though, since your question concerned SWF, here's their list I'm running: agl3aW50ZXJmb3IkVGZ3IHRoZSBzbm93IHN0YXJ0cyBzcGVha2luZyBTd2VkaXNogSwCAQoAhdEBAQAABQEIAACFzwEBAAABAQkAAAEBCQAAAQEBAAAFAQ4AAIXNAQUAAIXNAQQAABEBAQACAQCF4wEBAA==
