Can you guys help our newcomer about Gecko

Is this for Vanilla or Correigidor, though?

 

Paging @loricus [emoji14]

 

Even a TAG needs support. What are his lists? Does he have hacking supoort (Exorcism)?
Does he use Suppression Fire? Are the tables suited for the Geckos? Building high enough for full cover?

How long is he playing infinity? There is a steep learning curve with a lot of frustration to the game. After that it gets better.
Do not let him win. Teach him how to play better. But that doesn´t mean crush him. Just teach him, what to to, when to do.

 

From my experience:

1. Learn to treat them like S5 HI
2. Don't rambo them, use them in tandem with link teams. They will shield the team advance because that's their job.
3. Smoke will give them massive support
4. Stick to cover whenever possible
5. They're dispossable, but an engineer and zondbot would help (And with their general toughness, it will give enemies quite a headache)
6. If you can, stick a baggage bot with them
7. Bring a bloody hacker, because we're not Ariadna (a regular hacker with reboot will boost their toughness against assault hackers greatly)
8. Their pilots are good specialist, use them as your backup specialist. But remember, don't let them stray too far from the suit.

 

Bandits take a little bit to get your head around, but once they click they're one of the best units around.

 

It's a surgical strike piece. That means it's really quite fragile and requires orders to set up. But, can remove an awful lot of problems in the game.

Anecdote:
My opponent had set up a Q-drone and Rodok ML (unlinked) set up on ARO.

I spent 4 orders to move through cover and get within 8" of the Q-drone and got the Rodok out of cover at 8-16".

I surprised shot both (splitting Shotgun burst). Hit with both, both passed armour saves.

I had Moved to get LOF, and then back into cover. This meant that I could recamo and do it again.

It meant that the Rodock was on 4s vs 9s to hit (-9 Camo, Cover, Surprise vs -3 Mimmetism) and I -12'd the Q-Drone.

Wasn't the greatest situation to be in, but by stacking mods I could limit the risk to the Bandit while having decent odds of stripping my opponent's AROs. This meant that in T2 I had the freedom of movement to do what I needed to. Took almost all of my main order pool T1 to do though.

The thing that needed to click for me was "Move + Move" across the LOF of an ARO piece. Chances are they hold their ARO and you get across the gap, without risk.

The other problem is that in Vanilla all Infiltrating Camo are Bandits. Which means that a smart opponent will reveal and then kill them. I almost always pair them with a Moran for this reason: you can use Koalas to protect them.

 

Think of Geckos as scoring based troops. They aren't a firepower troop. Additionally you cannot do everything with the same troop no matter how much you like them. Sometimes the best role for a Gecko is to protect the DZ and capture objectives on a later turn.

Geckos have specialist on their pilot and enough STR and firepower to act by themselves. This allows you to take objectives without needing to entirely clear them with other troops on objective grabbing missions.

Geckos can retire and/or get repaired when they get low on wounds. This allows you to take combat damage without actually losing points in missions that score by points killed.

Geckos are worth a good chunk of points and if they are positioned well can be difficult to kill in one turn, especially later turns when orders are low. This is helpful for missions where holding territory or antennas scores.

They are good at dealing with Camo troops, especially the Combis profile. They have a DTW to give a second chance to discover, and can take any lucky hits or even mines back pretty well. This helps you take objectives that are often protected by SK.

Sometimes the path gets cleared and if you don't rely on them as a specialist too much they can get in the enemy DZ and start wiping out weak troops. They're really good at killing a large volume of Combi or Rifle wielding troops. But you can't always expect that.


For Bandits the trick is learning how to use token state and your shotgun's template really well.

Remember that any two troops standing within 8" of each other can be hit with the same shotgun template from the right angle.

In an example where you have two troops to deal with, if they both choose to Wait you now have a guaranteed 12" movement before you can be shot at. You use your second half to move, they lose their ARO, and you can now guarantee another MOV-MOV.
Use this to isolate one enemy, or get back shots, or get them both under the shotgun template.

Bandits are early game surgical combat troops. They are NOT your typical SK specialist, use Moran for that.

 

It's important to manage your expectations. Geckos look cool, but all modern sculpted tags look cool. Geckos are 50 odd points. They're one of the cheapest tags in the game, cheaper than a fair number of heavy infantry. They are not avatars of death. That said they are useful.

Compare them to an intruder hmg which is slightly cheaper for 1 wound. The Intruders gain longer range, generally better range bands,and a lot of offensive potential with mod stacking. What the intruder losses is durability, 1 shock round can kill, and an aro crit can stop him.

Geckos are good in their good range bands on their main gun, 0-16 with combis, and 8-24 with the mk 12. Avoid getting into engagements not in those bands during active turn.

The blitzen/panzerfaust are secondary. There are 2 main uses for those guns.
1. In ARO if you get engaged from far away it can give you a decent long range option.
2. During active turn as part of a coordinated order. (I.e. 2 panzerfaust jags, and 2 geckos all shoot at an Avatar...).
3. In a pinch you can try them in active turn at long range, but it's risky and you should try to stick to 1 and 2 above.

The chain colts can be good if you can catch multiple guys under the template, or they are good point defense up close.

Lean on your wounds and armor up close, geckos can attract a lot of attention. It's worth it if they suck up a lot of orders, your primary offense threats are probably in your link or under a camo marker anyway.

 

Yeah the secondary weapons are mostly there so Geckos are never screwed in a rangeband from 0-32, probably there to replace a HI's dodge. However using them in Coordinated Orders is a good trick to keep under your hat, especially if you run the duo. Tomcats and Hellcats can also drop with OHKO weapons to take part in the coord order. Unfortunately Bandits are Irregular and cannot, I doubt that was an accident.

 

I've been playing around with using a Gecko (proxying), and I really like it so far.

What I like about it is getting 3STR for 50ish points on a platform that has enough armor to soak up a lot of attention if you're engaging from Cover.

I have especially liked using the Gecko in Suppressive Fire backed up with a Zondbot 6" away. I've found that if you park it in a spot that covers something important (or IS important as in the case of a Zone of Operations) a Gecko can be an intimidating nut to crack for its points, and it draws a lot of attention.

The Gecko is a (relatively) big, flashy model that people want to kill, so it works great in Suppressive Fire in a spot where its going to be operating in its favorable range bands, even if your fire lane is pretty restricted.

In my games, it has taken some attention away from my Hollow Men, who are there for doing the actual killing.

 

Always remember that there are 2 profiles. The twin combi gecko is actually really powerful at close ranges with what is effectively a 0-16 spitfire. The MK12 goes up to DAM 16 with fatality, so if he does hit it will hurt.
They are best used as defensive pieces, a MK12 gecko in cover and suppression will be a major roadblock.
In some situations you might want to pop the pilot out. Burst 5 at 8" is nothing to sneeze at.

 

I've considered it on the MK12 profile but I just can't justify the risk unless the Gecko is down to 1 wound anyways.

 

That would be a good time to do it, or if you're up against someone with a low-burst high damage weapon in close quarters, like a DEP

 

Interesting question:

Can you use an Engineer to repair a TAG when the pilot is on the table?

I would think so, as the suit is still on the table.

 

Yes. And this is a big boost to manned TAGs

 

Especially now that the Pilot definitely doesn't disappear if you fail you engineer roll on an unconscious TAG.