As I wrote in the topics about QK and AzRa'ils themselves, I'm rather happy with the update. Djanbazans are nice, especially the AP Shock Sniper is a great surprise, better regeneration is also quite a buff. Hafzas and Sekbans have their roles. My biggest concern were AzRa'ils and I'm glad they got something unique. In N3 my go-to HMG unit was Djanbazan. Now there's a bit more variety, with interesting Zhayedan, or a bit more expensive, but also tougher HI HMGs - Janissaire has high BS, good stats, but AzRa'il has higher damage potential for example. As a lower burst higher damage weapon - AzRa'il FB is great against tough targets, but for 1 pt more we can have Fasid HRL, who also has it's perks and gets many good skills. So I think it will be interesting to create armylists now. PozdRawiam / Greetings
Last Saturday I had the pleasure to play my first games in N4 in our illegal, "hassasin style hidden deployment tournament" ;) Drawing conclusions after just 3 games isn't good, but still I want to share with you some of my thoughts ;) (And sorry, this post is rather long - I think it's because of the whole lack of tournaments and normal playing, that few games can give so much enjoyment and also so much food for thought ;) So my apologies...) It was 200 pts games with scenarios from the rulebook: Annihilation, Supplies and Domination. I took 2 armylists, wanting to test some new or refreshed profiles - one rooster was made rather for Annihilation, with Zhayedan HMG, Knauf, Shihab, Fiday Mines, Nadhir et cetera, and that's the code for this army: gZEABzIwMFNwYW2AyAIBCgGGCQEDAAKBLQELAAOBLQEBAASDqwEBAAWBMQECAAaBPAEBAAeBOAEDAAiBPgEBAAmBVAECAAqBQgGEcgACAwGBQwEGAAKBQwEGAAMyAQIA The second one was for next two scenarios and I wanted to try out AzRa'il Vulcan AP HMG ;) With Djan sniper, Nadhir et cetera: gZEJaGFxcWlzbGFtEDIwMCBBelJhJ2lsIERqYWKAyAEBCgGBUQEFAAKBUQEBAAOBMgEDAASBSgEBAAWBPAEBAAaGCQEDAAeBTAEDAAiBQgGEcgAJgT4BAQAKgVQBBAA= And - spoiler - my tested units didn't had a good day ;) In the first battle I played against Szabrownik's ONYX (link of Unidrons with some other guy, two Ikadrons, Evo hacker, Nourkias and Fraacta). I felt a bit sad with only 5 regular orders in the first active turn (because of 2 irregulars in the group and hidden Nadhir). Still wanted to try Zhay HMG. Kept him and Fiday in reserve and in first regular order attacked with him against a distant linked Unidron with Spit. I had 4 dices on 9, he had 2 dices on 5. Zhay got critted and failed both ARM rolls - yay! I planned to make something good with Fiday in that game, but his mine wasn't effective, in the end he managed to shot one Unidron and died when shooting EVO bot thanks to a poorly dice roll. Zuleyka did rather good, burning two Unidrons, but died in the same time. My second funny group with 2 camo Daylamis and Warcor did a nice job, scaring some enemies, and Warcor as always helped to defend with his Flash Pulse. And I have to say that new Knaud is nice. As good as he was in ARO, but definitely more devastating in active turn - he killed Unidron with ML and Fraacta. I was also happy with Nadhir - he didn't had a chance to surprise anyone in ARO, but worked well in second active turn, when I revealed him. In the end I destroyed almost all enemy's army, it was 7:1 in OP and 114 to 16 in VP. The second battle, Supplies, was very quick. I was facing Avatar with some order bots et cetera, and lost initiative, so I was rather sure it will be a defeat. Thought about chances of hiding in the first turn, but decided to do what I prefer - aggressive ARO. So I put AzRa'il AP HMG with Djan AP Sniper close together, hidden in the middle of the board Nadhir to help them, Shihab also, but Avatar just went through my defences. I didn't hit a single time, and while AzRa'il and Djan survived few orders, they were destroyed- Djan unconsciouss. I also had a bad luck with Farzan, trying to take out running Gaki - I rolled 19 on shotgun and then lost him and in next order lost Nadhir to the same Gaki. And that was the moment, when I realized that there's a way to not loose the game. My adversary, Perzan, plays also Haqq, so he was surprised that my Ghazi, being shot at by Avatar, is not using Smoke Grenade to dodge the bullets. I acted surprised, that I forgot that Ghazi has smoke. And decided to dodge to get closer to Avatat. He attacked Ghazi and Fanous, and in that order I was "lucky" (but not really) - Ghazi critted on a dodge, Fanous survived hits. I thought that maybe Perzan will know what I'm doing, but he used the last order to attack both guys again. Ghazi dodged, Fanous used Flash Pulse, but this time they both died and that secured my the beautiful (not really) tie 0:0 OP :P I was in Retreat!, which became clear to my adversary when I said with a smile, that I don't want to regenerate Djanbazan ;) I was left with Barid HD, Barid FO and Zuleyka - tried to ride with her to Avatar and try to burn him, but there was no chance. I only killed Gaki in that game, but to be honest I really didn't see a way to score a better result than a tie. I think that it would be very different if I got the initiative. Still I'm bit worried that my concerns about big drops in points for such a beast like Avatars wasn't a good thing. The same with Achilles, Sphinx et cetera. Especially with Fire not damaging camouflage or mimetism -6. Don't see a way to survive first turn against some types of armies, especially for low points, like 200. The last game was against Seba_stian's Ariadna with Dog Warrior, some camos (Specnaz HMG, Tankhunter ML, Uxia, Strelok), Irmandinho, Grunt infiltrator, 1 combat group. The enemy chose deployment, I decided to go first. In that game Djanbazan did most of the job - killed with pistol Uxia, which was discovered by Ghazi, then Djan discovered Tankhunter, using smoke screen from Zuleyka, but didn't manage to kill him in active. Still Djan showed his prowess in ARO - putting down the same Tankhunter, hitting and killing Dog Warrior with a crit (Nadhir helped hitting with Flammenspeer), and even when Specnaz hit Djan, he only felt on the ground for some time, regenerating in the states phase. My other units also did rather good, but sadly AzRa'il didn't got a chance to shine - he controlled one of the quadrants with Nadhir in first turn, but died in second - rather poorly. Strelok attacked him with 2 templates from Boarding. AzRa'il shot with Heavy Pistol, no score, and lost a wound. Then Strelok did it again, and again AzRa'il missed with his pistol and died. In the end Strelok was shot with Barid FO, my LT. Nadhir clicked one antennea, Farzan killed Specnaz and some Kazak, Shihab also did a bit and I won 6:1. After all I finished 2nd in 8 players game, 1st was Perzan and his dreaded Avatar. It's really hard and misjuding to evaluate the new units and rules after just one tournament, but still I have to say, that the new Regeneration is great, and new Djan Sniper is an easy pick - AP plus Shock is nice. Nadhir also did good, as a specialist, as a shooter - not once did he surprise enemy with ARO from hidden deployment, but still I'm happy with him. I had a bigger expectations from Zuleyka, but sometimes it's like that. The same with AzRa'il and Zhayedan, who were really unlucky - I will definitely use them in some future games to try them more. PozdRawiam / Greetings
My most recent game being a Frostbyte vs Steel Phalanx, using a "well, what it...?" list - made mro for funsies than with any serious plan. Spoiler: The "what if...?" list ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10 TUAREG (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30) TUAREG (Doctor [+3]) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Shock Mines ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 33) NADHIR (Forward Observer) Submachine Gun, Flammenspeer / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 24) ÁYYĀR (Hidden Deployment) Rifle(+1B), E/Mitter, Panzerfaust / Viral Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 41) HAWWA' (Hacker, Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 26) FARZAN (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse, Shock Mines, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 23) FIDAY Rifle, Light Shotgun, Shock Mines, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 27) SALADIN (Lieutenant [+1 Command Token]) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 36) AZRA'IL AP Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 40) HAFZA Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 17) NASMAT PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3) 4 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army Note: everyone who could Hidden Deploy, did so. I had 4 models and 3 Camo Markers on table: Saladin 2nd Saladin (Holomasked Hafza HRL) Azra'il Nasmat REM (in Disconnected state, as it's Touareg controller was in Hidden Deployment). al'Hawwa in Camo Hassassin Farzan in Camo Shock Mine (Touareg's). The game was a 9-0 win for the Haqq, despite the Exclusion Zone preventing me from using Infiltration to full potential, being Order Starved due to copious amounts of Hidden Delpoyment, and going 2nd). I think I need to note down some observations about Saladin: Having 5 Command Tokens is nice, but the number of things to use them for in Vanilla I found limited (Doctor / Engineer rerolls, Coordinated Orders, making Irregular Orders into Regular). As there are few Duo Fireteams (none in my list) and no other Fireteams to re-link. His Strategos L2 allows him to keep extra model in Reserve and move models between Combat Groups without spending Command Tokens. Especially point #2 seems to indicate he'd be better off commanding a more numerous force than a single Combat Group one. A small, single-Group force simply doesn't allow him to use his full potential.
I like these lists, and found them surprisingly effective due to the lack of automated responses / habits from the opponent. No one really knows what you are doing, and this can cost more orders than a strong ARO piece. Really healthy for local metas. 10/10 Fantastic list building and playful spirit, I love to play against these.
Yup, not even myself :D I have to note, however, that Decompression zones placed to limit the most likely enemy vantage position, stacked ARO from Hafza & Azra'il (Continous Damage FTW!) and a lot of luck in ARO helped a lot when it came to surviving enemy 1st turn.
