I figured it's time Ikari had it's own consolidated tactics thread, so lets get to it! I've decided to expand my Druze force by building out into Ikari Company, and I'm quite excited to bust some heads on the table. Ikari function very differently so by breaking down the units by two basic tasks, killing things, and scoring objectives, it helps me start to wrap my head around how I can get them to the table and accomplish the missions. Throat Punching As I mentioned before, Ikari excel at busting heads. There are obvious choices, like Wu Ming Links, Al Fasid, and Daiyokai for getting the job done, though with how much smoke the army gets, the Rui Shi is well worth looking at. I've been drawn a lot to the Tanko + 2 Brawler Haris though, letting you get a B2 missile launcher, doctor, and haris together for a mini death-star, able to get the Tanko back in the fight should he go down. Similarly, adding a Tank Missile Launcher to 3 Keisotsu and a Brawler gets you a very inexpensive 5-man link bonus for a B2 BS16 missile launcher, potentially backed up by a MSV2 Brawler MULTI Sniper. Flipping the Tanko Haris on it's head, you could take the Tanko with Haris, plus the MSV2 Sniper and a Doctor or Hacker for support. The Tanko really adds a lot of flexibility to your link choices. Druze Shock Teams are still scary in Ikari, though they are considerably more expensive. The only way to get a 5-man link is to take a Tanko, which can be nice for the missile launcher, but generally I find them cost prohibitive in Ikari Company compared to Druze Bayram, you could be spending those points on Wu Ming! Despite a 5-man Wu Ming link being very tempting, it is a lot of points, and is required to have all 4 Wu Ming and the Clipper alive to form a link, so it is surprisingly fragile in-game. Instead, consider that Wu Ming have a zero-tax haris option, which is just amazing. For not many points you can take the HMG, Haris, and a FO, giving you a mobile firebase that can also accomplish objectives. Finally, if you're looking to kill the enemy without links, you can't go wrong with either of the Al Fasid, or the Daiyokai. Both are giving you a tough platform with some serious firepower, of the options though, the Daiyokai with MULTI Marksman Rifle is my favorite. It doesn't take up any SWC, gives you damage 14 AP or Shock to play with, and is tough as nails with ARM5 and NWI. The Daiyokai has the added bonus of carrying a Panzerfaust for longer range engagements, and great anti-materiel close combat for taking out objectives. He's really a stellar tool kit of a killing machine. Favorites like the Bashi, ABH, Yuan Yuan, Krakot, and Desperadoes are great budget pieces for doing a bit of damage. I wouldn't say any of the cheaper choices are outright better than the others, a lot will have to do with the rest of the list and mission, but I think I'd always take at least a pair of Yuan Yuan. Units to look at for scoring objectives: Basically everything, that's why you play Ikari Company! Objective Scoring Wow, so what can't Ikari do? Push buttons, that's what. When it comes to infiltrating specialists, the army is restricted to a single Ninja, so take it every time. Cube Jägers and Bashi can also help with objectives, though with Parachutist, it will get tricky if there are exclusion zones. The humble Pathfinder is your only fast moving specialist, so again, I'd rarely leave home without one when you're fighting over objectives. With those being all the sneaky tricks to get specialists around, you're basically left with Karakuri, and link members. Generally, you shouldn't run any link without a specialist if possible, the order efficiency will be critical to get your specialists into place while you're beating the enemy back. Karakuri are not able to link, but are very, very resilient, forward observers and can move 4-4, which doesn't make them terribly slow, but not super fast either. I could see taking one or two in a mission with a lot of specialists, but I think they'll be tricky to run solo. Units to look at for scoring objectives: Ninja, Bashi Bazouk, Cube Jägers, Pathfinder. After these, any specialists you can get in a link will be your next most reliable. LETS MAKE A LIST! Just toying around with Army to see what I come up with, I'd play this list in a scenario like Supremacy, or Supplies, which are the bench marks of an "average" ITS scenario. So here's an idea. You've got a Ninja KHD, Peacemaker, Jäger, an Bashi to go for objectives. The Tanko + Brawler Sniper + Keisotsu Forward Observers make your Core fireteam, giving you a brutal firebase that can see through the smoke provided by the Yuan Yuan. Your second order group is powered by a Wu Ming Haris team, toting a B5 HMG, and bringing their own doctor along to push buttons and keep the Wu Ming in the fight. Finally a Krakot Renegade is an awesome piece which can provide some ugly combat options, and toss the occasional grenade. Ikari Company Compendium Here is the total collection of all the Ikari Company articles I’ve written over the last few months. At first, I really didn’t see the appeal in The Company, but now, after getting some experience with them, I really do love how they play. If you want an interesting, heavy infantry focused army, with raw hitting power, then the Ikari Company really is for you. GENERAL IKARI COMPANY INFORMATION Ikari and So Can You, Ikari Company First Impressions Ikari Company Fire Teams LIGHT INFANTRY Authorized Bounty Hunters Bashi Bazouks Brawlers Cube Jäger, Mercenary Recoverers Keisotsu Butai Krakrot Renegades Tokusetsu Butai Warcors Wardrivers MEDIUM INFANTRY Armand Le Muet, Freelance Killer Druze Shock Teams HEAVY INFANTRY Al Fasid Regiment Daiyokai Dengekitai Karakuri Special Project Tanko Zensenbutai Wu Ming Assault Corps REMOTES Yaoxie Remotes EVO/Baggage Remotes Standard Remotes TAGS Scarface and Cordelia SKIRMISHERS Ninjas WARBANDS Desperadoes Yojimbo, Sword for Hire Yuan Yuan
Ikari are very interesting. I think one of the hardest things to do with them is balancing all the irregular orders.
Hahaha... That's certainly the common wisdom, isn't it? I pretty much never max them out. They're really damn good, but I find their utility has diminishing returns after 2-3, not to mention you start bloating your list with lots of irregular orders before you know it. :)
Hope you don't mind me pitching in with my thoughts having run Ikari for a number of games now. Tanko- Don’t be afraid to skip the missile launcher. The flamenspeer is still a respectable aro threat and the shotgun can do some real work in the midgame where the Brawler sniper falls off or falls over. Ninja- I’ve seen a number of places suggest the hacker variant is near mandatory. Given the current state of missions I disagree. Last turn objective stealing has fallen off, certainly in the UK scene and cb stats suggest the US has really embraced direct action. Personally I have been skipping the ninjas as I don’t think they have great synergy with the rest of the force but concede that a number of missions might make me reach for one. Yuan Yuans- 4 every time. One normally starts next to a brawler sniper to drop smoke either in aro or active. These guys are the mvps of many of my games, Ikari aren’t the most resilient of factions so even if these hooligans don’t inflict much damage turn 1 just being able to force your opponent to deal with them gives your backline a bit of extra time to work. Yojimbo- The volume of smoke in the faction makes this chap an awful lot scarier than in JSA, the koalas can also give a degree of defence for your likely fairly obvious LT. Do bear in mind the Yuan Yuans can’t protect him with smoke turn1. Whilst desperados might appear to cover a similar role for half the points do be wary of over relying on chainrifles and lacking the decisive killing power found here. Brawlers- The glue that binds a lot of the list together, unfortunately they are a tad bloated. It’s a bit of a shame that bounty hunters weren’t expanded out to fill this role to make use of all the models out there. Whilst the variants that drop the rifle light shotgun combo are more competitively priced, the Lt option compares favourably to the Druze, that shotgun provides a reasonable level of protection. Wardrivers- Skip them. Hopefully they get reviewed when the Dhd is retired, a white noise upgrade might go a long way to shaking things up but for now you have flat out better options. Panguling- Ikari are the first faction that have me regularly reaching for an Evo. Yuan Yuans of all shapes love the assisted drop, whilst the high volume of smoke means you might also be including Rui Shi who will be thankful for the assisted fire. Note that you can only start with an Evo hacking program in play via cmd token so no assisted fire before the game starts. It’s a shame Fugazi are only ava1 here to really flesh out the combo. You might also get mileage out of teampro given the fragile special fireteams. Keisotsu – I will be surprised when I see an Ikari list without 3 of these guys in for that brilliant mixed core link. If you have the space in your combat group consider having the full ava 5 to form up lategame, even armed purely with combi rifles link bonuses can make your 50 points get to work. Wu Ming- The harris of Hmg, Harris and brawler hacker has been working well but do be wary of having an irritating range gap between 8-16. Overall I think they are a fun force to play who need to hit hard and fast in an attempt to limit the opponents button pushing and counterattack.
Any good tips for including Armand Le Muet (or some of the other mercenaries?). I just had my first game with him as a bit of a show-off of my freshly/well painted units like the Bashi Bazouk and four Yuan Yuan (calling it the "Company Mixer" as my opponent had the first game with StarCo). With the available linkable Brawler sniper it seems a bit harder to include him as a reactive piece, but he still seems like a good active piece. I just haven't experimented enough I guess as I wanted to experiment more with the Haris options. I definitely feel like there's a place for Yojimbo and am kind of iffy on the Cube Jaeger.
I actually wrote about that as well, haha. https://www.thediceabide.com/blog/2018/4/2/infinity-unit-review-armand-le-muet Overall, I think he's a solid active-turn piece, but he isn't cheap, I probably wouldn't leave him out for as much ARO duty, unless I know my enemy was playing a vanilla faction without MSV2. I love the Cube Jaeger though, it lets me bring in a specialist on the other side from my Bashi, or just in general not having to commit to a side to deploy on during deployment.
@TheDiceAbide @spears What Druze link loadouts you think are the best? I'm trying to come up with a few list ideas with a Druze+Tanko core but I wanted to ask you two on what your opinions on this. Can you give me a few examples if possible?
@TheDiceAbide @spears What Druze link loadouts you think are the best? I'm trying to come up with a few list ideas with a Druze+Tanko core but I wanted to ask you two on what your opinions on this. Can you give me a few examples if possible?
I haven't actually played the Druze yet, I do love the models but I think Mi in general are in a bit of an odd spot still. Cb seem to be diversifying the Mi profiles but on paper I haven't been able to choose Druze over the other options.
@Golem2God I'm not a huge fan of Druze in Ikari, but if I were to take them, it would always have a Tanko ML, from there an HMG, and E/M LGL, Killer Hacker (or AHD), and Panzerfaust. That seems to get you the most bang for your buck, at the end of the day Druze still want to be very offense oriented.
@TheDiceAbide @spears Thank you for replying to my question. Spears, if you do try out a Druze+Tanko link in the future I'd like to hear how it went and what were your thoughts on them.
I think part of the issue is that once you throw in a Hmg, Missile and a specialist you end up with a link like the below: Ikari Company ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 1 DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29) DRUZE Lieutenant (X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) TANKŌ Missile Launcher / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 32) DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) 3 SWC | 132 Points Open in Infinity Army Which is okay but it really competes with stuff like this. Ikari Company ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 WÚ MÍNG HMG / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 39) WÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Haris) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) WÚ MÍNG (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31) CLIPPER DRONBOT Smart Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 18) WÚ MÍNG (Fireteam: Haris) Chain Rifle, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) 3.5 SWC | 138 Points Open in Infinity Army And I think the mixed keisotsu link is preferable to either.
I don't see any use of the Al Fasid, or the Daiyokai in Ikari the first is really too expenssive and the second ... is just bad really bad: 2 wu ming cost the same got more W and can be specialist !!!
Al'Fasid with HMG is an amazing DataTracker when you're killing enemy designated targets (or anything else for that matter). Similarly, Daiyokai is great for killing the AC2 in Looting and Sabotaging. Aside from that, they're still brutal fighters, and I love how the Daiyokai has 3 effective wounds and can get healed out of NWI, which is huge. If you go NWI, getting healed means you can still be in a place where the enemy needs to deal two wounds to stop it. Personally, I take one or the other in the majority of my lists.
Mind sharing any interesting knowledge about the Cube Jagers BTW? Recently won myself one, and he sort of dragged me down this Ikari Company rabid rabbit hole, so... I'd like to know what's the cool stuff about him, if that's not too much to ask about.
It can revive Yuan Yuans on 11s. What else do you need? An AD2 Specialist that can sorta kill a TAG and throw EM beams around and also has an SMG?
And can drop some Impact Templates in your enemies backside too, if you take the Boarding Shotgun. That 0.5 SWC cost is rather inconvenient though. Hmmm... well, I was planning on getting a Krakot eventually anyways... and Bashis and Fasids are a few of the few Haqq units I actually like... and Scarface seems like a fun TAG... Yeah, probs gonna slowly startup Ikari on the side, now that I think about it.
I've run one twice for tic tac toe and he got the job done. I don't think its an amazing profile but given Ikari's dearth of great specialists he earns a spot in lists where I don't want to drop the points for a ninja.
Personally I like them, Ikari lacks infiltrating specialists, so getting an AD one that isn’t a parachutist is quite handy. The SWC tax is annoying, but oh well.
