Targeted state is pretty neat - it gives you +3 to hit the affected trooper, lets you hammer them with guided missiles, allows to ignore Speculative Fire penalty. It also seems to be quite easy to inflict, with Nomads having good repeater coverage, awesome hackers and pretty good WIP on FOs. On the other hand, in practice I found out that in most cases it's impractical to try and spotlight that annoying sniper in the corner - those orders are more effective if used to straight up murder the target with Kriza HMG without any tricks. So I need an advice from more experienced players - when is it worth trying to Target enemies, and what's the most effective ways for doing it in our faction?
It´s great if you use sat-lock in combination with an evo hacking device. It´s also a good equalizer against TO camo, if you are not fitted with MSV2. In any other szenario, even for the classified, it´s better just to shoot and wait for the enemy to drop unconscious.
In my opinion: spotlight and hammeting with speculative fire is good agains ODD / TO:Camo or if you would hit more that one model under the template, extra points if the other models are remotes, tags or bikes.
When you have the highly callsified to FO an enemy model or HVT Sry for this joke, but if you haven't a SML I see no use of it.
Mostly when the targeting orders are free, such as a Lt. order or a secondary group you can't use for something else. Analyze the situation and see if it's your most realistic way forward; if getting the targeted state is reasonable and the results make a significant difference. Maybe a Moran can get back shots but throwing a Combi burst is unlikely to make a positive difference while allowing a free turn. It's a tool not a gameplay style.
1. Generally, don't. 2. If you have the classified then sometimes it's worthwhile to try for it. 3. When you've go a list designed for it. Sat-lock is the best way to do it, particularly vs Camo Markers. Spotlight got overly nerfed in N3.
The problem I see with it is that to do it well requires having a substantial part of your list dedicated to it. You’ve got an EVO Salyut, and a model with Sensor. That’s a Stempler, Meteor, Grenzer, or Pi-Well. Then you need something to spec fire or guided fire with. You can fold all of this into a list where the models are also serving other purposes, but it restrains list building. And then you’ve set a mental trap for yourself because you want to use that dirty trick you built into your list.
TBH I usually build it in as an option. Lizard + Z&P + EVO + Meteor. You don’t need to FO things, but boy is it fun when you do. The great support we get for the Lizard in Bakunin is its great feature: for straight up firepower the Squallo is better. Adding a vertigo as an option is easy: they’re cheap if you’re not using the SWC somewhere else. One of my favourite things (prior to the most recent FAQ) was the time my opponent deployed 2 linked Grunt Snipers overlooking a Low Vis / Sat Zone. I counter deployed with Pi-well, then split Burst Triangulated Fire FO vs both of them: B1 10s vs B1 5s. Then I dropped Guided Missiles on their heads. But more often I deploy the Vertigo watching a flank / the back of my deployment where it’s an ok ARO and great anti-AD defence. Fairly often I end up using it for direct fire (usually it’s in my second order group, so it’s low odds low risk play); and with a WIP15 Engineer nearby it forces people to put it down properly or gives you a solid repair option. The point about spec fire/guided is that it provides a threat vector that complicates your opponent’s gameplan even if you don’t end up using it. Once you get used to just seeing it as another tool in your lists tool box then it’s less of a mental trap. However I maintain my original advice: if in doubt about whether Targetting is a good idea or not, don’t. Edit: also Grenzer can’t Satlock. They have FO and Sensor but don’t have Satlock. You need all three: so Pi-well, Stempler and Meteor.
You mean, 'Guided Missiles' (now Smart Missiles) got nerfed. Those things were fucking broken in N2. Once marked, you were auto-hit, no roll required, unless you used a hacker to swat it (WIP-3 roll, so 50% chance for most people). I don't even remember if you could mark targets for grenades in N2.
No I meant Spotlight got overly nerfed. I think the nerf to Guided was necessary (not that I’ve played without it) but Spotlight is so ridiculously inefficient now. I’d change it to flat WIP or B3 ATK -6 (and give it ARO).
Targeted sounds good, but is rarely worth the trouble imo. I look at SMLs as good ARO pieces that have the sometimes useful Guided ability, and that tend to draw a disproportionate amount of attention. I think it is a mistake to make them a key part of your plan. Spotlight can be an order sink. A one on one roll with a -3 means that even an Interventor is at a disadvantage against most troops declaring reset. Forward Observing was better, but it just got nerfed in the last FAQ. Other than to get a classified I'm not sure I'd bother with it anymore. If it is something you can FO than it's probably something you can shoot. ECM pretty much negates Guided's utility against TAGs, so it isn't really useful against them. I think there are more reliable and order efficient ways of dealing with a hard target than Spotlight/FO On a side note, I think the FO nerf was aimed at Emily Speculative Fire, which I find annoying.
My actual preference would be to replace Guided by Spec Fire. It'd be a huge buff to U-turn and ECM* but would take a whole set of redundant interactions out of the game. You then want to make both FO and Spotlight to have about at least ~40-45% odds of success (Alg vs Alg). The requirement to get a Repeater down balances the risk of a BS Attack FTF (once you account for the ubiquity of KHDs). So I'd so Spotlight as B3 ATK-6, ARO and give FO the Flashpulse range bands. Basically make Targetted easier to achieve but make it possible to degrade Spec Fire. By doing so you buff WHDs, HDs and AHDs and give them a role in lists vs Non-hackable Armies. But this would be part of an N4 rework though. * One of the easiest ways to limit this buff is to only allow U-turn/ECM against attacks that target a point outside of the Attackers ZOC. Ie If the point is inside 8" U-turn doesn't work if it's outside 8" U-turn does work. Essentially this is the hacker screwing with the targetting network: whereas attacks against targets inside ZOC are executed based on the attackers own senses.
When I first got into Nomads I also wanted to explore ways to make use of Targeted. I experimented with a lot of lists and combinations of models, but I found there was one setup that greatly outperformed the others, both in terms of list-buliding and effectiveness in combat. Nomads ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 3 LIZARD MULTI HMG, Heavy Grenade Launcher / . (2.5 | 87) LIZARD PILOT Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. ZOE & PI-WELL (0 | 47) ZOE (Hacking Device. UPGRADE: Stop!) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28) PI-WELL Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 19) 2.5 SWC | 134 Points Open in Infinity Army That's it. You'll be tempted to add an EVO, you'll be tempted to take Meteor or Stempler Zonds, gaggles of FOs, and you'll try in vain to try to make them all work with the Vertigo Zond. Don't bother, these three are all you need. This works best because at its core, this module is a MULTI HMG TAG, an attendant Engineer, and an ODD utility toolbox. The Satlock/Spotlight/FO + Heavy Grenade Launcher combo is merely a tool in their wheelhouse, something you can bring to bear when the situation warrants it. It also works because Zoe & Pi-well are the undisputed heavyweight champions of inducing the Targeted state. They can accomplish it in pretty much every way that matters: Pi-well via FO with the option for Triangulated Fire protected by an ODD, Sat-lock, and Zoe via Spotlight. Most importantly, Zoe's WIP15 means she Spotlights on 12s, only 1 worse than the whole Meteor/Stempler + EVO Repeater combo, and without sucking up any extra SWC. If Zoe & Pi-well can't get something Targeted, it just wasn't meant to be. You'll invariably have games where Targeted just isn't the best option. I've had plenty of games where the HGL was never fired and the Lizard spent all its orders moving up the field and mowing down targets with its HMG. But I've also had a game where the HGL took out 8 enemy troops in the first turn, including an Intruder Lieutenant and a Moran Datatracker on the third story of a building in the middle of the board. The important part is that you're not locked into either of those two paths, you're free to mix-and-match whatever works best for the current situation. You can certainly supplement these two with extra sources of Targeted as you wish, but I would never make it your primary plan. Add a Zero FO in Bakunin because you need a cheap button-pusher in the midfield, or a Moran FO in Vanilla because Moran FOs are just plain awesome. As long as you keep your options open and don't commit to needing Targeted for your army to be effective, I think you'll have a much better time.
So very true. Back in N2 (crud, may have been N1!) the time I got GML-spammed was against Zoe&Pi-well. Pi-well is a Stempler zond with ODD(!) in a S2 chassis. New model is very nice, much better than the old Pi-well.
Truth here - this is about as much as you want to invest. Many games it won't even be worth the setup to kill two Ghulams or whatever. The advantage here is that you reserve the right to do so and that can really affect your opponent's movement and deployment.
Z&P + Vertigo is extremely similar if you have the SWC spare and don't want to go full TAG. The downside is that guided requires Targeted whereas Spec Fire it's an option.
I usually use same Lizard + Z&P combo and rarely use Targeting at all. Usually it`s a lot more effective to put few more grenades to target. Also I`ve tried McMurrogh grenades this week. Sweet speculative fire on 13 in 0-8 range)))
