The TLDR version is Securitate != volunteers or keisotsu. Similarly Tunguska != JSA/Ikarai/Caledonia. Securitate's BS starts nearly a whole step above those cheap filler options. A boarding shotgun watching a short approach can return fire with B2 on 15/18s in realistic scenarios, thats a much more significant roadblock than a volunteer/keisotsu returning fire on10/13/16. The repeater also gives the link significant versatility that those cheaper options lack... Being sticky to hackables ... blocking LoF to visors (in active and reactive). Its true that they suffer from attrition over the game, and indirect fire is a threat, but typically they murder so much and gum so many things up for me that their sacrifice was a significant net benefit. (related I typically go Kriza/Interventor for LT... and only go securitate LT if its a more defensive built link). I guess what I'm saying is that if what you want out of a link is a cheap order base than can pump up 1 dude, or just safeguard your d zone, yeah securitate are not cheap... in fact nothing in tunguska is really cheap. If you want a more elite group of units with tools to solve or ignore problems, then securiate's kit is at least notably more interesting than a cheap chain rifle. (though arguably not more effective depending on what you're facing...). Something else to remember is that Tunguska play significantly differently, you probably need a more aggressive ARO game, and also will likely have more access to firepower to throw down the board, a Kriza HMG being ~ a linked HMG. The pieces fit together differently so even just a straight cost comparison between links doesn't really show the nuanced difference on the board.
Cheers mate, yeah looking forward to the challenge, currently converting some puppetbots up in prep :-) Tunguska are gonna take some learning which is nice to see as I'd previously felt I'd mastered nomads (hence the long dalliance with other factions)
I don't really see how that first list is particularly more vulnerable to impersonators or superior infiltrators than many others. The CrazyKoalas are a nice zoning tool for that, and while I'd ideally like a dummy Lt, deploying the Interventor from reserve works a lot too, as do the DTWs etc. One of those pieces might trade (or they might fluff and die) but there's not nothing in that trade for the TJC player either (those pieces are all like 30+ pts). It's not an insta-lose played well IMHO. Securitate just don't click for me. WIP14 with no FO profile stings a bit, and then the veteran is ok but as soon as you start putting other things in that link they start to take it away, and if you take a securitate Lt his veteran doesn't exactly help you in loss of lt. Percy seems great, but he wants to close range and to me expensive line troops he links with don't. So I just find it hard to synergise unless I just pretend it's PanO and go for BS dominance. Then I end up with Hollowmen, but I can already do much of that schtick with my Riots with Bakunin. Not to say Tunguska are bad (they're not) just I have trouble making a list fit together in a way that makes me happy.
Tunguska has a secretly built in resistance to LoL. The remote variants, more sensor to get value out of transductors, and Veteran on our cheerleaders. If your kriza Lt dies, you probably have about 5 orders plus the personal order each of your attack pieces still give themselves. That's still a lot of pain and how I spend most my turns anyway. Assuming he died on suppression and 360 visor variant the order investment to kill him probably hurt your opponent more than it hurt you.
Played against a double Onibawan JSA 20 orders list once at a tournament. Survived because of luck (first Onibawan died to a crit after killing my Lizard) and bad decisions by my opponent (second died to a mine after shooting a Zero in the same order). Otherwise I think I would have lost.
