Hi Guys, Looking for some advice on how to expand my force as I get to grips with the game again. I played last edition and early into this one as Ariadna but have long admired Aleph so thought I would finally take the jump, but this time do it properly (nice bases, proper terrain, get everything painted etc....) I grabbed the Steel Phalanx starter cheap second hand to get going and my plan at the moment is to ficus on SP and the below: Grab Machaon Grab Thamirys Then the 300 point box. Then Atalanta? Then Draikos and Scylla? I want to do it in bits as I am hoping this will help me keep on top of painting and starting with smaller games wont do my knowledge of the game any harm as i relearn. So other than the above is there any must haves that im missing out or anything I should pick up as priority?
Drop Thamirys, he's by no way an interesting option... Go and grab, by all means necessary, Thrasimedes (Dire Foes Vs Nomads) to make your Thorakitai link. Atalanta is not *that* needed, her problem is that she's a hunter (too fragile in ARO duty), and needs a healer close by, I tend to prefer Teucer. I would grab the Aleph Support Pack and make some conversion to the Sophotect to act as a Dactyl doctor (there is literally no need to grab the engineer if you just want an engineer: 18 pts Thorakitai are more than enough). This is because you need those 2 antennas every now and then. Finally, the Ekdromoi are really great, but you will mostly use the 20pts chain rifle option and/or Diomedes (I prefer the Ek models to Diomedes due to model transport issues). The "it can wait" box is the remotes one (Rebots, and then the Probots, but I prefer the non-wheeled Khameel from Haqquislam).
Et tu, mi filii, UrbanRedneck! After playing Ariadna you will just LOVE Atalanta. She is just amazing. MSV2 and and her out-of-charts BS with an excellent weapon made her an autoinclude in a pinch. The sole reason she is not my favourite trooper is my undying love for Uxia. A couple of Thoras are also highly recommended because they make awesome ARO pieces, not to mention you can link them with Alke or Thrasymedes. (SMGs in Suppressive Fire are more than nasty.) PS Welcome on board, mate!
I won't talk about the times she rolls really low and the enemy succeeds and "steps over" her roll... I will mention the unforgettable time Pi Well dodge critted with 7 against Atalanta's rolls (she was on Active, it on reactive...). Twice in a row XD Remember that Sup Fire will break the fireteam (you need to take them out of range first)! Also, Alke tends to not be a good Enomotarcos option because her SWC cost is simply too high, for that cost you can fit an HMG AND Thrasymedes, so you can risk a troop as an active hunter that is not your only Enomotarcos for Thorakitai.
Cheers Uxia was by far my favorite in our escalation league. She was great for a rampage and always died a hero.
I actually really liked her! In SP I have never been short of SWC thanks mainly to the awesomeness called Eurdoros. (Hands down: the best zero SWC firefighter in the whole game!) I just tossed two Thoras next to her and sent her rampaging. If she died, I put the Thoras in SP or sent them squishy trooper hunting in the endgame. They are pretty good against cheerleaders and equivalently uncapable specialists.
My condolences for making your life harder giving you rather contradictory advice. I am afraid you really have to play a few games to get the taste of it first hand! You will like it! ;-)
Yeh I properly fell in love with the game a few years back but between declining local player base and gaming ADHD whereby I keep jumping between games it makes it hard to keep with it. Trying to avoid falling into the trap of buying a whole bunch of stuff then not having time to build or paint any of it (as evidenced by a drawer full of half baked Ariadna somewhere in my house)
I have to disagree here. He’s definitely not the most effective option. But, steel phalanx showing up with a buffed TR bot can throw your opponent for a loop. It also gives phalanx and significantly different threat than they usually put on the table, and a nice speed bump to keep pesky mine toting skirmishers at bay.
Macheon is IMO the number one best thing about steel phalanx, he may be the most versitle model in the game, he is simply amazing. After that its a lot of what you like. Thrasemedes is also an excellent pick to link those thorakitis. The 300 box is nice, and the only questionable unit in it is IMO penny. The myrmidons are pretty much the feature of steel, so the box that features them heavily is a good option. I really like atalanta, but she isn't an auto include. Within 32 inches her ARO is comparable to a TR bot, but a lot more expensive. If you can leverage her around extreme ranges, ie outside 32 inches, or terrain, especially saturation/zero/low viz zones she can be a terror in ARO. Shes also a very good active turn shooter too. She is fragile, and lacks mobility, so it certainly takes some practice to leverage her to the fullest, she certainly isn't point and click BS 20 LoL like you would expect from her stats. Teucer is a good choice too, but there are a lot of trade offs between him and atalanta. The Fuerbach has worse ranges, and he has a lower BS, so he doesn't have the same potential to dominate certain board situations. What you trade for in raw BS is some durability in the form of NW, and raw hitting power with AP+DA on the gun instead of AP or DA on the gun. I actually really love Scylla, specifically her KHD profiles. Her, and her flamer bots can all enter into impersonation state using the cybermask program, which is a rude surprise. The fact the the bots also have repeaters allows her to pull some really mean tricks against enemy hackers, forcing them to either hack her through her repeater (suffering fire wall mods, she can hack way above her wieght class with mastro and firewall mods) or take normal rolls/eat unopposed flamers etc. She is really under appreciated. The regular and AHD profiles are pretty much dead weight IMO. Draikos is a good profile, but he just doesn't have any of the flashy tricks Scylla has. The support pack isn't a bad choice even if just for netrods, you want them less in steel than vanilla, but 4 point orders come in handy. Thorakitis SWC box is nice. I really like hector, but hes not a must have. Both achillies are fun. Pats under rated, I think hes good too, though hes probably better in vanilla.