PART 3: Speculo Killer - Same terrifying thing with extra spice! The minelayer profile is extremely brutal but you pay for it in a few ways - points, swc, no shotgun. I think it's worth it, but these ladies are expensive and pretty soft if they get cornered and can be devastating or crumple in an order or 2. The minelayer profile should add a bit of a safety net and allow mine shenanigans in the enemy backfield. The overall army update is actually pretty helpful for Speculos overall since Shas will be able to project more threat across the board (Nox fireteams, upgraded haiduk, gwailo, Q drones) thereby encouraging more enemy turtleing and making it easier for these monsters to dig into the chewy center of the enemy battle line unhindered. Sphinx - Still scary, still expensive. There are a few things in the new army that will help out the Sphinx. FD2 Caliban engineers - Engineers closer to where the Sphinx is getting into trouble and these guys and new seed soldiers enable Sphinx powered camo spam. Upgraded firepower - see discussion about encouraging enemy to turtle above. MSV hate (gwailo, Victor M) - Man dealing with a fast TO tag is a pain, now do it after your MSV(s) are offline. Thats a bummer if you're not a space frog/spider/slug man... Support (Med-tech, drones, Ikadrons, E-drone) - Same old good stuff. Slot in where you need it, but we have other options now. Med-tech is more situational here because of automedikits, heavy midfield game, and Caliban engineer but he's still good. A few items of note: Q-drone: cheap support with low cost Nox hacker and good Victor M. HMG version is less tasty now with other HMG options (linkable Nox, Gwailo) so plasma version will be popular. But hey they're AV 2 in Shas so why not both?! M-drone FTO: Dude this guy is expensive but interesting. I want to try him solo and with gwailo in duo/haris to see what I think. A gwailo bruiser dragging around a sensor/specialist sounds good, but 23 points....that's another Shrouded or Haiduk. T-drone FTO: Adds more teeth to Nox link. I like it as long as I'm taking Dr. Worm to support a defensive Nox link anyway. Nox hacker or Victor provides a good buff here as well. Less interested in these guys solo. Sheskiin: She's a brutal attack helicopter that got swole and a little more scary (and tough). Sheskiin has always been in a wierd place for me in Shas. She has amazing stats and can murder things, but she's expensive and not that difficult to kill. She is definately worth taking now, but I think sticking her in a core fireteam is a trap. I can see it working out OK if she starts out there and then heads out solo or with 2 buddies, but anchoring her to 4 nox sitting in the deployment zone the whole game isn't where she's going to shine and she doesn't need the 5 man stat buff. I like her on her own or with 2 nox or cutt-throats running across the table out for blood. I'd like to try her buddied up with a Gwailo, but think that is too expensive and overkill. Running her as a LT actually makes sense now with a backup Caliban CoC waiting in the wings to take over and she can put that LT order to work. Hasht: Hasht is cool and through all of his tweaks has always been cool. He's a bit like a mini-Sheskiin and I think he works best in a 3 man hit team. He costs less than Sheskiin so throwing him in a Nox fireteam and then moving out once a few of those mooks are gone could be a good play. Going up to burst 5 is a pretty nice bonus for this guy and his big sister Sheskiin. The SWC has always been hard to swallow, but I think there are more low SWC options available now that should make this guy easier to add for some additional firepower. Aida Swanson: I mean she is pretty cool and her model is rad but there are other good options now. I think she has more support in the mid-field now and will be easier to keep alive. Viral and B4 SMGs are pretty cool... Nox: I'm pretty lukewarm on Nox...Sure they are cheapish line troops and are definately better than old seed soliders, but don't feel super Shas to me. They fill rolls though (Defensive fireteam, support hacker, cheap LT) and have some cool loadouts and the zappers are nice but nothing too exciting here. The LGL and cheap SMG hacker are the standout profiles to me. I appreciate them, but they're like the mortar holding the bricks together...not exciting.
Ok, this update is so good. No more Caliban and Gwailo links makes me a bit of a sad panda (played last game with old SEF today, Gwailo Core was crucial to my victory), but we finally got useful light Core. Nox have a lot of potential, and that's before even considering Wildcards. Tensho are nice, and bring a shotgun to the party. Aswangs are gone, but Mentors are actually better in the static DZ Lt. role, courtesy of better weapons, Ambush Camo and Counterintelligence. So no harm done, and besides, we finally have many other, useful Lt. options. Things that weren't broken still aren't - Noctifiers, Hasht, Sphinx, our infiltrators and Speculos are still as good as they were. The latter go boosted - KHDs were obvious, but Shrouded with Dazer and Speculo minelayers made me blink. They will be played. Dazer in particular strenghtens SEF's ability to deal with enemy fireteam AROs. Sheskiin got a surprise boost, with both W2 and Fatality L2 making her even more of a monster. I think she will be best when operating solo, as one of the vectors of a multi-pronged assault. Things that needed a boost got it. Cadmus are now harder to counter thanks to Decoy (it might allow some crazy shenanigans to help keep them safe after Dispersion), and it got a KHD option as well. Morpho-Scan is now easier to pull off, too. Haiduks are very nice now, a proper entrenched sniper. Our skirmish screen got seriously boosted with new Calibans and Seeds. First are a proper toolboxes now, Camo CoC with aggressive Lt options is particularly awesome. Seeds are cheap and cheerful. One thing to note is that they can be actually deployed Prone, which should help us keep our Camo identities hidden. @ijw, please correct me if I'm mistaken on that. Aside from skirmish screen we got a warband one. Taighas are crazy awesome. If their sculpt will be nice, I'm getting two boxes. New stuff is all of the good quality. Cutthroats are CQB monsters, with ODD and Red Fury helping them close the distance. Gwailos got changed so much they count as a new unit as well, with their main role being breaking through MSV AROs. I don't have to say how useful this will be in Camo sectorial. I don't think I will take two M-Drones with them, but one decent Specialist - and Sensor - dragged behind combat unit is a good deal. Messer is another toolbox as well, able to boost a link, combat hard on his own, and provide another tool to deal with MSV. In general there's great synergy between Camo/ODD heavy army and access to White Noise/Albedo, good speed bumps to protect our fragile units and hindering enemy's ability to maneuver, expensive units getting indirectly boosted by finally having access to decent cheap support and order monkeys, and our ability to both dominate the midfield and seed it with good hackers to further limit opponent's options. Another thing to note is the amount of MSV1/2 we got, after being completely MSV-less. And all these options have their use, from static defence like Haiduks, through active turn killers like Gwailo, to boosting our midfield firepower - Caliban, Jayth - in vismods-heavy enviroment. Aside from that we need to keep in mind, that this is a fragile army, composed mostly of LI - only 1 MI, 1 HI and 1 TAG here - with a single Doctor, some Bio- and Shock Immunity sprinkled here and there, and Automedikits on units that will operate behind enemy lines. This is why screening our units and actively limiting oponent's options will be crucial for SEF's success. Fortunately, we got tools to do just that, and then some. I don't know about you, but I'm expecting a very happy hunting.
@Stiopa Shas might be fragile but remember, 8 Taigha spam provides a nice screen of canon fodder to waste your opponents orders. :P (Though 4 is more practical)
PART 4: Mentor: Oh ya, Ambush camoflage. We've been waiting for this and it showed up on a pretty efficient LT option. I'd generally take an Aswang LT or cheap boarding shotgun Gwailo LT in Shas and this guy is the best of both worlds and then some. The Aswangs CC prowess has been moved to Caliban and Cutthroats, and the Camo LT option has been added to the Mentor. He's camoed with a camo decoy so pretty safe with a shotgun for defense, high WIP and BTS, and a Shock Marksman option which mimics the old Aswang Spitfire profile but does it better for no SWC, shock, and an ambush camo marker. The Hacker is pretty cool too with high WIP and BTS. These guys are good all around. Jayth Cutthroats: I freaked out when I saw these guys, they're so rad...They're like the special hot sauce in SEF. Shas has had a huge vulnerability to warbands and direct template weapons in the past and these guys, the Caliban to some extent, the MSV Haiduks, and the Taighas are some nice options to help mitigate this. ODD, MSV1, NBW, High CC, EM and Shock Weaponry!! Some profiles are a little pricy (Red Fury, Specialist), but they're still pretty good and the cheaper guys (chain rifle x2!, e-mauler!, em grenades! so hot! & SMG, chain rifle, em grenades) are very cool and very good and are perfect escorts/body guards for the Shas wildcards. The pit patrol is so flavorful and the synced taigha with mines looks super fun. These guys are great, maybe not as super optimized as some would like, but they look like super stylish brawlers and I have high hopes for some cool looking models and expect them to be a riot on the tabletop. Taigha Creatures: Remember I said Shas had issues with warbands. REVENGE!!! These guys are great additions and will help get some numbers on the board and keep folks busy while your other sneaky guys move into position to get work done. Will be able to function as a skirmish screen to keep warbands out of your base and watch the corners. Fast, dodgy, direct templates, annoying in CC. These guys are great. Victor Messer: Mayhem!! All around utility and decent fighter. White noise is going to be fun and he'll show up alot as just MSV hater. He has a complete toolbox though and can flip switches, is OK in a fight, and can drop templates all over the place. He'll be good in a team and solo. The boarding shotgun is probably good here, but multi-rifles are cool too and could help fill range gaps in fire/haris teams. Tensho Experts: hmm....It'll probably be a cool Civvie figure? I don't know he's a specialist with high WIP and a boarding shotgun for a Nox team and regular nox are already expensive. I guess he's a decent sidegrade for a Nox FO or paramedic.
Yeah, that's exactly what I think. Exact effectiveness depends on table setup, but I'm looking forward to letting such a pack go ;)
Malifaux void wretches are perfect. I know this because I've been using them as Hungries for a year or so now and the only issue is that they're sized like S1 models, which Taighas are anyway.
Man, this is so weird. Putting together something fun for Power Pack against Phalanx. After changes we can create something so different from the old SEF... Our Shasvastii be different now... ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 GWAILO Lieutenant (Multispectral Visor L2) Heavy Rocket Launcher / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (2 | 43) CALIBAN (Chain of Command) Submachine Gun, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (0 | 29) JAYTH CUTTHROATS Pit Patrol Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, E/M Grenades + 1 Taigha Sync / Pistol, DA CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 31) TAIGHA SYNC Antipersonnel Mines / DA CC Weapon. (0 | 6) CADMUS-SOLDIER Red Fury / Pistol, CCW. (1 | 27) NOX MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 21) NOX Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Submachine Gun, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17) NOX (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) NOX Combi Rifle, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) NOX Combi Rifle, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) GROUP 2 2 3 3 HAIDUK AP Marksman Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22) Q-DRONE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26) TAIGHA Chain-colt / AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 5) TAIGHA Chain-colt / AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 5) TAIGHA Chain-colt / AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 5) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army
Aside from Seed Soldiers every single troop has at least one Profile that serves a unique purpose and is worth running, wow. Gunners are a but of an issue, Sheskiin is just so, so good. Everything around her is open to taste, mission and flavour of the day though.
Fully doable, though with FD L2 and CoC Calibans are tailor-made for that mission, so I'm not losing them from the list Ye Olde Days ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 SPECULO KILLER (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 39) CALIBAN (Multispectral Visor L1) Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 40) CALIBAN (Chain of Command) Submachine Gun, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (0 | 29) CALIBAN (Chain of Command) Submachine Gun, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (0 | 29) TENSHO FTO Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) NOX MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 21) NOX (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) NOX Combi Rifle, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) NOX Combi Rifle, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) MENTOR Lieutenant Shock Marksman Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) GROUP 2 2 NOCTIFER Missile Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32) SHROUDED (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Dazer / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army
Now that the rules for the Taigha Creatures have dropped I am praying that their models don't have spindly little snap off arms jutting out everywhere. It would be really nice to have a cheap warband model that doesn't require constant re gluing.
Well, I was looking forward to to new Shasvastii and they didn't disappoint. You can make so many different lists now. This is something made for an up coming Escalation Tournament. The last mission is Annihilation. MINE ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 MALIGNOS Hacker (EI Killer Hacking Device) Submachine Gun, Dazer, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 33) MALIGNOS Lieutenant Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 34) SPECULO KILLER (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 39) SPECULO KILLER (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 39) SHROUDED (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25) SHROUDED (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25) SHROUDED (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Dazer / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24) CALIBAN Engineer Submachine Gun, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (0 | 28) CALIBAN Boarding Shotgun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 34) CALIBAN (Multispectral Visor L1) Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 40) GROUP 2 3 NOCTIFER Missile Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32) CADMUS-SOLDIER Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 21) CADMUS-SOLDIER Combi Rifle / Assault Pistol, CCW. (0 | 25) 7.5 SWC | 399 Points Open in Infinity Army I just wanted to see what I could do with a lot of mines and not having anything start in my own deployment zone, besides the Noctifer of course.
First game, first impressions.... Shasvastii Expeditionary Force ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 SHESKIIN Lieutenant MULTI Rifle, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 53) NOX (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) NOX (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) SEED-SOLDIER (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17) SEED-SOLDIER Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 19) GWAILO HMG / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (2 | 45) M-DRONE FTO (Nanoscreen) Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 23) M-DRONE FTO (Nanoscreen) Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 23) SHROUDED (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Dazer / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24) SHROUDED (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Dazer / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24) GROUP 2 1 2 2 MENTOR (EI Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 30) TAIGHA Chain-colt / AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 5) TAIGHA Chain-colt / AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 5) 3.5 SWC | 298 Points Open in Infinity Army Fireteam Core of Sheskiin + 2 Nox and Haris of Gwailo + 2 M-Drones Mission: Safe Area against the new Foreing Company Sheskiin is brutal. Even with only a Multi. First order, i lost a wound against an Orc HMG. Then i decided to go all in and risk again, luckily i crit-killed the Orc (yes, on 1s) but then she went hiding around for all of the second turn. In the third, she never had anything to approach, I'd have liked to use the Pulzer... Last order of the game, she get smashed by berserking Valkyrie (NBW so couldn't use Protheion) while on SupFire. I managed to kill her and she crit'ed. Luckily i get the 2 ARM rolls and survived as Spawn Embryo, thing that won me the game! Noxes are ok. They have zero chance of survival, if attacked, but a FO can at least do some missions. The Zapper is a good deterrent. Shrouded with Dazer. Just to try them, i placed one on a "refused side" of midfield and deployed his Dazer. Then tried to infiltrate the second one but failed. What i learned from this? NEVER, I REPEAT NEVER deploy them WITHOUT Infitration. NEVER. The Dazer need to be at the most advanced position, just to wreck the movements of the enemies. I even would go with him as Reserve model. Seed Soldiers are now finally usable. First of all, the Seed Embryo is now simply a State for the model, even if with altered stats. This mean that the Seed can go Prone. It has no effect at all, but at least he can be disguised. S0 Prones CAN be Seeds or not, S2 can be mines or not. Now we have back our mind games. Second point, the hatching. I went with the free hatch at the start of the second turn (FO was behind a container, LGL on a roof). I had nothing in range of the LGL, but this two guys surveyed an alley where lurked Massacre and Hannibal, preventing them to advance freely. Remember that the auto-hatching at the start of the second turn is no more mandatory! M-Drones FTO lose their Sniffer to get Nanoscreens. IT. IS. F-ING. AWESOME. ARM 3 in the open is a good bump in survival, and the Haris with the Gwailo is a good spearhead. They san scan with Sensor, they accomplish missions, they are order efficient. I get the HMG Gwailo, even if i had points to upgrade to AP Spitfire. I felt i needed a longer barrel. He brought down an Orc Feuerbach thanks to the Saturation area of the Dazer (it was a pain to move around the area, but at least it saved Gwailo's ass!) This Haris didn't see any more action due to an impavid Speculative E/M grenade from Massacre... Ouch... >_< I get a Mentor Hacker because i need a Hacker. Counterintelligence is Private Info. He is in Camo. I took first turn just to make my opponent "spend a CT to cancel two ord.. Wait, what? But... Buggers..." He did nothing more than that... Taigha have are far more thowaway than Hungries. S1 is more concealable, and maybe i got both of my Dodge rolls fucked up, but they didn't leave a good impression. One survived the first turn. Rushed to the back of the (survivor of the) Orc team (Avicenna, Orc BS Tinbot, Avicenna and Valkyrie) and put a Chain Colt on them, bringing down Avicenna. A Preta would have done the same for an order less... Not impressed so far... So, thumbs up for the update. The only bad thing is that my next game will be too far away, this April i won't be able to play at all...
I'm wary of a KHD on a WIP 12 platform for anything other that a suicide drop in the back lines to get an important hacker, but decoy should make sure that you get where you want no matter the roll.
Decoy is absolutely brutal, it's far closer to broken than Fat2. And KHD gives them access to marker state. Also, With Skillbuster they're at WIP 15, so not so bad. I'm also delighted to see that the old school style SEF is alive and better than well. Have fun studying that Courtesy List... ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 SPECULO KILLER (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 39) CALIBAN (Multispectral Visor L1) Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 40) CALIBAN (Chain of Command) Submachine Gun, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (0 | 29) MENTOR Lieutenant Shock Marksman Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) SEED-SOLDIER Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 19) SEED-SOLDIER Combi Rifle, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) SEED-SOLDIER Combi Rifle, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) SHROUDED (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25) SHROUDED (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Dazer / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24) MALIGNOS Hacker (EI Killer Hacking Device) Submachine Gun, Dazer, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 33) GROUP 2 1 NOCTIFER Missile Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army
