How do you use the overdron in vanilla

I've actually never used the HRMC version but both the 2x PSR and 2x HRL are excellent ARO pieces that are not at all bad in the active turn. 3 STR + 6 ARM means they will almost always take several orders to get rid of even under the best of circumstances. Just make sure you have some back up, as none of the profiles are that good at close range (though something can be said for the HRMC in suppressive).

 

well the overdron is not that good in ARO, is just 1 shot like any other tag in reactive turn and arm 6 isnt it?

 

Template weapons and albedo make it quite a bit more potent than many other TAGs, especially against MSV-heavy armies and links. ARM 6 makes it a "light" TAG, but 3 structure and G:RP give it a lot of staying power with engineer support.

 

I've used the Overdron in an Avatar list to clear the board of those pesky MSV snipers and any CQB specialists that poke their head out first turn. Other than that, i've found the HRL variant a bit underwhelming. That BS 13 while good, is not good enough for the big guns.

 

I find it more useful on active turn, regardless of which variation I'm taking. To me it's a pretty straightforward fire superiority piece, and fills that role just as well in vanilla CA as in Onyx.

 

The way I've always seen it, a defensive piece can do one of two things - it can actually attempt to kill enemies (i.e noctifer missile launcher obliterating link teams from TO camo) or it can act as a roadblock, forcing your opponent to waste many orders trying to kill it. The overdron is great at that second role.

Take, for example, Achilles shooting at it - both in cover, both in their +3 rangebands. According to the dice calculator, Achilles will only cause wounds 60% of the time, and that goes down to 20% if you're looking for multiple wounds - if you stick the overdron in a spot with good sightlanes, you can force your opponent to either waste valuable orders trying to disloge it, or going around.

 

The way I see it, the Overdron is the most powerful sniper in the game. The abilities of other high-end snipers, MSV and Shock ammo in particular, does very little against it, while its plasma ammo is utterly devastating to them. The Overdron might struggle a bit against foes with ODD/TO cammo, but it can risk a disadvantageous F2F roll due to its staying power, if necessary. What the Overdron does for you, then, is to try and claim long-range fire superiority, something it excels at.

If I went last, I'd stick the Overdron in a good ARO spot, trying to make my enemy waste as many orders as possible trying to deal with it. He'll need to do -6- wounds to bring the Overdron to dead, so that Dr Worm can't simply bring it back up again, and this against a model with ARM 6, presumably in cover, and Albedo, and a plasma sniper rifle.

If I went first, I'd try to place the Overdron in a position to scare my enemy so that he hides his troopers too much, giving space for a dedicated assault trooper (a Speculo killer, a Fractaa or a Zerat with Red Fury would be perfect for this) to move in and murder them. I'd place that assault trooper last, as that trooper you get to save, rather than the Overdron. If the opponent nevertheless leave troopers visible, I'd simply blast them with the Overdron.

 

Well, it sort of does the same thing as a linked unidron PSR in the active turn, but trades flexibility and sixth sense for more durability and a few less points (but 0,5 SWC more)

 

Also to force the enemy to lock some MSV troops out of that lane. Specially linked (Haris) or similar stuff, because either those won't do a thing in the enemy's active turn, or directly be deployed elsewhere.