Any good 'weird and wonderful' ISS Fireteams?

The way I've solved it personally, and that seems to be what others have clued in on locally in an unspoken way, is that Stealth is default off. One, because it avoids these gotchas, and two, because it's often very beneficial to have it off anyway.

 

I think as a player about to declare an ARO, checking if stealth is in play is a reasonable question that protects you from accidentally tipping hidden information. Done proactively, you could get your opponent to reveal if they're using Taowu by intimating you might have a hidden model nearby. They might elect to explicitly disable stealth to keep up the ruse or keep it going and give you a clue who is who.

This is an advanced set of rules interpretations and almost house rules though. As stealth is automatic, I would still assume it's on unless I declare it's off despite seeing the beauty of clearly declaring when I want to use it. When I was playing with ARO forcing, I got used to declaring that stealth was off when I needed it to be, but luckily ARO forcing isn't really part of the game so much for me now.

Also, as I have a fair bit of experience with ninjas, if I'm ever about to reveal my ninja in the reactive turn my internal clippy will be doing cartwheels:

 

So assuming Stealth is being used at all times unless you specifically declare that you are not using stealth that means every time you move Taowu whilst in Holomask you are using stealth.

So now I as the opponent (knowing that you have a masked Taowu because of Counterintelligence) ask whenever you move something if you are using stealth.

You have shifted the responsibility of open information away from yourself. It’s reasonably clear in these rules that each player is required to share ALL open information.
One could almost argue that because stealth isn't private information as son as you deploy Taowu you have to declare it has stealth however I thing that's too far.

 

Here is an ISS list I've been tweaking with some weird (in my opinion) Fireteams.
Even Split 2
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GROUP 1 7
DAKINI MULTI Sniper Rifle / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 20)
DAKINI MULTI Sniper Rifle / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 20)
PHEASANT IMPERIAL AGENT (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, E/Mitter, Madtraps / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 27)
YUDBOT PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
SOPHOTECT Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 31)
ZHÀNYING (Hacker, Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges ( ) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0.5 | 25)
HSIEN (Lieutenant) MULTI Marksman Rifle, Nanopulser ( | TinBot: Firewall [-6]) / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (+1 | 53)
CSU (Specialist Operative) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 11)

GROUP 2 7 2
DEVA (Multispectral Visor L2) Spitfire, Nanopulser ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 33)
TÁOWÙ E/Marat, Flash Pulse / Viral Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 21)
DAKINI (Paramedic) Combi Rifle ( | MediKit) / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
CELESTIAL GUARD (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 18)
CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)

5.5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Group 1 has a Defensive Haris of 2 Dakini Snipers with the CoC Pheasant and an Action Haris with the Lt Hsien Marksman, backed up by a Zhanying Hacker (with the tinbot he should be fairly fierce.

Group 2 has a Core that can be a Haris if it more convenient to move up and has several tools to support the Deva, Smoke Grenades, Paramedic, another Hacker and Taowo.

7 regular orders in each group so the 2 Link Teams that want orders aren't fighting for the orders.

 

I like but I think it would be good to find a point to make a Dakini a HMG but otherwise it's great. I think maybe make the Pheasant a Deva KHD. Then you also get +3 discover. Not sure if good over loosing CoC.

 

Everyone always assumes Taowu is outed by counterintelligence. It's important to note you only get first turn half the time. Taowu isn't a very good secret, as any Dakini/Celestial/Deva link moving towards you is a pretty obvious warning sign, but it's not quite as bad as people make out. For the super edge case where I move my haris past a completely hidden model in ZoC and not LoF and only holomasked Taowu crosses ZoC, I'd be perfectly fine granting my opponent an ARO. If I my opponent starts asking if every model is using stealth, I'll declare they're not, but it's a waste of breath otherwise. I realize I'm advocating for slightly sloppy play here, but it's such an edge case it isn't worth obsessing over.

Your list is solid iKON, definitely features some of my favourite haris options. I don't think you need the Dakini paramedic (taowu is already specialist operative and you have a sophotect) or celestial hacker (zhanying already has sixth sense in a core). I'd leave those guys out and try to squeeze in a Pangguling EVO to buff a Dakini Sniper and a Garuda to give a flanking option and mobile specialist option.

If you did want to bump a link to 4 man to get sixth sense on something, the place it makes more sense is with a Dakini sniper. I find it a little annoying that you can't put a pheasant in when you do that though, as the pheasant can only go in the Aleph Support Link rather than the Celestial Guard link.

 

It actually started out with a Dakini HMG and Sniper in that link but I needed that point, I'm almost tempted to drop the yudbot and upgrade the CSO to a ABH and but the HMG back in.
I feel like CoC is essential given that the Lt is going to be used fairly aggressively.

 

Dakini Paramedic is really there because there is great value in healing a NWI Deva.
I think I am likely to run that Deva in a Haris but having the two other troopers in the same team give me some options of which companions to take.
If it's going a long way from the Sophotect the maybe the Paramedic is worth taking, if smoke is essential to the plan then the CG is going, if there is a lot of infowar on the path the the hacker, if there is lots of space and not a ton of ARO maybe move up with the full core for the extra 1 BS.
The EVO have been in and out of this list but none of the versions that I made with an EVO have the Sophotect because its so damned expensive.

 

If stealth is open info its always on unless declared otherwise. If its hidden info then you have to say its on if you want it.

 

No, you always have to say if it is in use or not, because Holomask entire reason to exist is to be there to ruin well written Infinity rules.

 

Or you can use Taowu masked as Adil Memut he is 4-4 and has Stealth.
Even though he does have a nanopulsar the E/Marat can still be a surprise (just as the Tourchlight Brigade Full Core link that I faced Friday night)

 

What is this random list generator that I hear people talking about?

 

Yeah, but Holomask isn't a marker state, so this is an closely related precedent but not directly applicable.

We're in definite gotcha territory, where we have two rules with hidden information interacting with each other. @iKon - Adil is a great choice for a proxy because he has stealth, I'll try using him.