Ok. So, I have a match coming up in my league and my opponent is running Steel Phalanx. The mission is Cutthroat. Any advice would be most welcomed. I know he runs Atalanta, Phoenix, and Ajax. I can't remember if he uses Hector, but the other 3 I'm almost positive he will bring. I like the Senor/JAGUAR to smoke cover the Invader, but Atalanta will have that covered most likely. I'm pretty sure I can deal with Ajax with hacking, but Atalanta and Phoenix are going to be a problem. Anyone with some experience dealing with Steel Phalanx has input I would love to here it.
The most reliable yet least fun way of dealing with them is guided missiles. Corregidor have plenty of repeater coverage to make that strategy work. Remember you have white noise on jazz so you can cover yourself off against Atalanta. You can paste Atalanta through white noise with a non msv piece and then go after his core squad with smoke +msv2. Just be mindful not to let the eclipse smoke get an aro until you've picked off other team members
Ok. So maybe run something with a Gecko and Senor Harris, or would a Sombra with a Multi-Rifle be enough? I was already thinking of taking Vertigo Zond with some reporter/Hacker spam.
Yeah. I was planning on using the HMG Intruder to deal with Ajax and Phoenix with the help of thr JAGUAR smoke Grenades. But if I white noise to block Atalanta he's going to be blind to.
Right. But I feel a face to face role with the Intruder and Atalana would favor her right? So, you think taking the Gecko in a Harris with say a Vostok would be a bad idea? I was thinking white nosing the Vostok and hammering Atalana with it. That way she can't return fire on the Vostok. I might be giving Atalana to much credit though. I've never played up against her, but a BS of 15 plus MSV2 seems really good.
You are not going to face Atalanta with an Intruder, he is going to die, Atalanta is not a BS 15 MSV 2 unit, she has marksmanship and total reaction, so for most situations she is a BS 18 unit with B2 ARO. Intruders are suited to deal with the smoke mimetism -3/-6 units for Atalanta as you mentioned cover her in white noise and hammer her with a good burst weapon, ideally in a range band she cannot get advantage of her sniper rifle.
Yeah. I didnt even see she had Marksman. That's pretty sick. I was thinking the Vostok or a Gecko with a MK12 under white noise. But between Gecko/Vostok/wildcat engineer Harris and a HMG Intruder that's half the points in the list between the 4. That don't leave much for a proper hacking network. I'm not the best at list building yet, so if I'm over thinking it let me know. If there is a unit that would turn her into paste let me know. I might have gotten myself stuck on that Harris and can't see a better option.
If she has white noise over her, Carlota coming from the back shooting her, an Assisted fire Tsyklone, there are ways to deal with her, even a bandit can theoretically cybermask and walk to her.
A little more Order-intensive, but effective way of dealing with threats like Atalanta might be sending a Camo Infiltrator after her (most likely a Bandit, though a Camo Moran should work as well). A shotgun to the face (or better, to the back. Going with a template attack might be suicidal, but still effective) from a Surprise Attack has a good chance of taking her down. A Bandit can just as well go for a Close Combat - Bandits are good at that, while Atalanta is not a CC expert. Dropping a Hellcat to take care of her isn't a bad idea either. Now, Atalanta has very high BS, but she has no range bonus between 8 and 16" (optimum ranges for her pistol and her sniper rifle). That can be exploited if you are coming in with a Combi. It would be advisable to have someone to finish her once she's down - Atalanta has Shock Immunity, but no NWI. So make sure she's not coming back - either kill her while she's Unconscious, or try going after the doctors / paramedics (at least those who have a chance of reaching her position). Now, tasking a close-range trooper with taking out Atalanta is potentially resource-intensive, depending on where is she located. It is also possibly suicidal - the trooper might not make it, or be forced to stay in a hard-to-reach place for the rest of the game, not really achieving anything. But that's still a model in the 20-30pts range taking out a model worth 44pts, and a major part of the enemy defensive setup. It can work, and it can be worth the risk.
Awesome. I was pretty worried about her, but you guys gave me some good ideas for mucking around with lists now. I was stuck on trying to come up with ways in dealing with all 3 of them. On paper they feel pretty insane, but you guys gave me some good ideas on having a game plan on dealing with them.
If you choose a hellcat, remember a Salyut evo hacker adds a +3 making a drop quite reliable at 18's plus can give assisted fire to long range remotes like Tsyklons.
Remember you've got Moran's with repeaters plus whatever other repeaters/pitchers you can chuck down. You can control where the white noise zones go down easily so you can drop Atalanta and not screw the intruder over. Be worth keeping the intruder as your reserve drop so you can respond to where his main assault group deploys and stay away from counter threats like Atalanta
All in all, I'd suggest having a couple of the tools mentioned in this topic at hand. After all, you are writing a list without knowing what the opponent will bring to the table, nor how will the table itself look like. A tool perfect in one situation might turn to be barely usable in another one. Flexibility, adaptability and the ability to imporivise on the spot are going to be very important.
Yeah. I need to make sure my thinking was on the right track, and make sure I wasn't forgetting something in the tool box. There are a lot of resources in Corregidor. It's picking the right ones for the job that's difficult.
Coordinated orders can also work. Atalanta can only ARO one model at a time, so three of the four attacks will go uncontested and likely take her down with 0 defensive MODs and 11 PH. IIRC, if one of your units uses surprise attack during the coordinated order, Atalanta will be at -3 against all shots if she decides to dodge, too.
Honestly I didn't think about that. This is only the second time I whent up against Steel Phalanx. I know that Atalanta, Ajax, and Phoenix can be beasts, so being prepared to deal with them is going to (hopefully) give me some sort of edge. I'm assuming he's going to have a 5 unit Myrmidon core link with Ajax and Phoenix in it. Probably Hector as well. Atalanta, some sort of Hacker, and the rest I'm not sure. At least, I feel like that would be a good list for Cutthroat anyway. If my thinking is way off let me know.
Yeah, it's just one strategy to keep in mind against these overbearing ARO threats in general. It might not always be feasible, because you need to have all your pieces in position and ready to move and engage the target in a single order. So if you are playing on an open table, this is going to be easier than on a crowded table, where said ARO piece really only covers one or two firing lines.
