I have played quite a bit of PanO, ALEPH, and Yu Jing. In an effort to get out of my comfort zone, I've been trying Hassassins and a few NA2 armies. Next up, is the lovely Druze. In any case, one of the big challenges I see with Druze is the cost of the core fireteam. Between Fusiliers, Regulars, Celestial Guards, and Ghulams, I've gotten quite comfortable with cheap line infantry core teams. Before mixed fireteams, I had played a number of games with a Bagh Mari core, but they feel more capable than Druze (between mimetism and MSV1) for a similar cost. I see the value in some cheap 8 point bots and now cheap bounty hunters to add some orders. Hunzakuts and Saito are awesome. How do you approach the core team? What is your favorite team? Which non Druze models do you include? How do you use it? (When) do you advance with it?
Bagh Mari and Druze are a very different breed from each other: Bagh Mari are very much an offensive midfield team in my opinion, Druze are a tough defensive team that refuses to break. Druze will hold the line throughout anything short of being killed to a man: casualties, loss of lieutenant and even Retreat will mean nothing to them and they can't be isolated by E/M ammo. Veteran, an X-visor, Fatality 1 and ARM 3 is a combination a lot of people I play underestimate. I usually take the core team as a defensive team to cover my closest objectives hunting down infiltrators and my enemy's button pushers; Hunzakuts, a haris team or maybe the odd Bashi are a lot better suited to doing our own button pushing. I usually take 3 Druze in my core team: a HMG, a LGL, and a panzerfaust, then I will take a Clipper Dronbot and a sniper; either a Brawler or another Druze (I prefer the Druze with its ARM 3 and mimitism unless you know you are playing someone with a lot of smoke and need the Brawler’s MSV2). Being move 4-2 means that you shouldn't expect or even try to get them across the table, they can do their job without ever leaving their half. Fire E/M grenades over buildings (in the fire team it spec fires on 12s within 16" and 9s up to 24"), take out long range targets with the HMG, your hunzakuts and pathfinder dronbot with their fugazi friends spot for the clipper and the sniper and panzafaust are your ARO cover. I recommend having some backup in the form of a Brawler Dr with Nasmats, a killer hacker and a sneaky Druze or Brawler Lt hiding somewhere. Valerya Gromoz is a good backup member for any team if you aren't taking Scarface for her to hang around with. If you know you're facing someone with a lot of camo; take Arslan in a haris team with a killer hacker and the Druze Haris guy. Arslan has all those Druze perks along with MSV1 and a light shotgun and any camo trooper is going to hurt being hit with 3 shots from a damage 14 shotgun on a BS 13 platform.
@yoink101 I've only played a handful of game with Druze, back when NA2 was the new kid on the block. That being said, I found HMG, LGL, and Brawler MSV2 to be the staples of a good sized Core team. Remember that neither Brawlers nor Druze are Wildcard, so you have to bear in mind the rules for forming their Special FIreteam (3 Druze, 2 Brawlers, though you do get the Clipper and Valerya to help with that.) You basically create a big secure firebase, then you have your midfield units do their thing under that umbrella of firepower. I think it's fundamentally similar to how you've played Acon, just with fewer Orders, less mines, and some side-grades (Mimetism + MSV1 sniper trades for MSV2 sniper, DZ Minelayer trades for Chain Colts + Viral access, gain the LGL platform.) The 12 point ABH is a new addition compared to when I tried out DBS, so that does help them up their order pools a bit. The lack of link options means you're not doing too much with them, but putting them on Suppressive Fire to guard a table edge isn't too bad, and we both know how useful coordinated shooting vs big game can be these days...
The special fireteam: core Druze teams are: 2 Druze, up to 3 Brawlers or up to 4 Druze and/or 1 Brawler or Clipper then Valerya is a wildcard and Arslan counts as a Druze
I've been playing Druze exclusively for last few months and took them to the Salt Lake Showdown. My usual core is an HMG, LGL and Gromoz, then depending on the mission, i add a Clipper and marksman rifle (both of which did serious work at the Showdown) or brawler Dr or engineer for button pushy missions. I think from now on, i'll add a clipper to every Druze core link, even for button pushy missions just because it's so damn good.
I’m starting to get ready to do my own Druze too. I’ve used them a bit in Ikari and love them! When I first do a new faction I try to make an all comers list. This is the best I could come up with. I wanted to go with as many actual Druze as possible but found it a bit hard to do. So i did change out a few for Brawlers and Clipper. The Core is defensive with some longer ranged weapons. The Haris is for moving forward to objectives and whatnot. The two Brawlers are a Duo for various objectives, Pathfinders mainly because they are great all purpose bots and can be used with the Cipper. Druze Bayram Security ────────────────────────────────────────────────── Defense Team GROUP 1 5 VALERYA GROMOZ Hacker (Hacking Device UPGRADE: Expel) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21) DRUZE Lieutenant (X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, Panzerfaust / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28) CLIPPER DRONBOT Smart Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 18) Offense Team GROUP 2 8 2 DRUZE (Fireteam: Haris, X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Viral Pistol, CCW. (1 | 25) DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27) PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) BRAWLER Engineer Rifle + Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20) BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17) KAMEEL (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18) BASHI BAZOUK (Specialist Operative) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 17) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army
The alternative is that all Druze line infantry can form duos, so you can play with multiple small teams spread across the table, combining them together as required. A core of 3 (or 4, if you want a SSL2 AHD) is what I usually run, with a selection of duos, or even a Haris.
I actually love Duos! They are even better in Dahshat, due to wildcards, but can be put to good use in Druze as well.
I'm thinking to start play Druze and use Scarface but i wont new sculpt )) anyone have some info about new mini in Druze sectorial ?)
It wouldn’t be that hard to use a different Tag. One guy that does videos has used a Cutter with Druze coloring as his TAG and looks awesome.
