Trying to familiarize myself with Onyx and I've been looking for ways to control the battlefield. I haven't seen much in terms of battlefield control but I did notice the Dazer on the Malignos. I'm wondering how one safely moves link teams in onyx or if it's more of a glass cannon death squad gamble terrorizing the battlefield. Let me know your tips and trips :)
It depends on your opponent of course, but some ways to control the battlefield are: Albedo on Overdron and Pitchers with white noise for pesky MSV troops. Pair this up with a Rodok link with Kerr-Nau and the Rodoks can move forward to clear things out with -3 to enemy BS due to mimetism, while removing the weakness to MSV. Mines! The malignos and the rodoks have mines. Nothing unique to Onyx, but it's a good way to control the battlefield. If you have spare points it's not the worst idea to spend them on individual Rodoks (medic, KHD). With forward deployment in ITSX, they start further up and can be ready to clutter the midfield with mines as well as but their BSGs to use fairly quickly, without being too order intensive. Note: The Malignos has the option for Monofilament mines, if you know you'll be facing lots of HI links and the like. Expensive, costs 1 SWC and the profile isn't a specialist, so that should be taken into account. Dazers - Haven't used them myself, but these are obvious. While expensive on the Malignos, it can be a real pain for your opponent. Q-Drone - This boi rocks. It's a tad more durable than your average TR bot due to mimetism and with Marksmanship lvl2 he can be both a threat in the active and reactive turn. Clever positioning can force your opponent to waste orders or go for risky maneuvers. Unidron fireteam. While not directly control, a plasma sniper or ML is a threat to be reckoned with - especially when buffed. If it were just your standard fireteam with a sniper and ML I wouldn't be mentioning it, but they can go dogged (even when taking 2 wounds!), making them an even bigger pain to deal with. Noctifer! - You don't even need to bring this guy, just make your opponent THINK you have him. If your group 1 has 9 orders, you're either bringing a Fraacta, Malignos or Noctifer, none of which are fun to deal with. This can be a powerful psychological trick, provided your opponent of course knows how dangerous they are. Overclock + Remotes - Alright, we have a lot of repeaters and we have the E-drone. Having a list with: 2x Ikadrons, R-Drone, Bit & KISS, Unidron fireteam and Q-Drone means you can have insane amounts of firepower in your reactive turn. While it's never good to rely on getting actual kills in your reactive as part of you main plan, if you can combine it with an active list, it could be a real hassle for your opponent to deal with. Bit & KISS - Adhesive launcher. Ikadrons are movement 6-2 with flash pulse and template weapons, while only being s2. If you are doing coordinated orders, having these guys be a part of the move forward can really help you control the mid field. You have access to tons of repeaters and pitchers with Bit and Kerr-Nau. Some of the mentions perhaps aren't direct control or are a bit unorthodox when considered that way, but the important thing to consider is that it's how you put the list together that determines what amount of board control you will have. Sometimes Kerr-Nau in suppressive fire with that deadly plasma rifle can do more for control than all the smoke in the world and other times not. I think control means both limiting what your opponent can do or how they can do it. Sure, you might not be able to prevent him from killing your key piece, but if you can prevent him from doing it how he wants by having him expend more orders than he was planning to or activate and expose some of his key pieces, you are still kinda controlling the battlefield.
@Mustachio Furioso Thanks for all the info. That's a lot of food for thought. When I was going through Onyx on army builder and was unable to find any smoke I was wondering what some of the control tactics are. You've provided some great tactics, tips, and tricks that I'm excited to try and play around with on the battlefield. I'm attracted to the overclock idea, almost everything would have multiple bursts in the reactive turn. I'm not really familiar with Bit & Kiss so I'll have to check her out. But once again thanks for all the help.
As a new player that is learning how to play an objective based game, I think it's easy to tunnel on killing units. I heard smoke is a good way to manipulate the battlefield, but that's just one option out of many to control your opponent. My buddy that I play with never really fields an engineer. So after hearing about the Bit & Kiss suggestion, an adhesive launcher is sounding pretty damn good. Instead of killing/wounding the unit one could simply disable it.
With Kiss! having a BS of 10, it's probably more reliable to use the adhesive launcher in the reactive turn buffing the repeater/remote with overclock.
Onyx Contact Force ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 UNIDRON Plasma Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 24) UNIDRON Spitfire / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1 | 18) UNIDRON K1 Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 17) UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15) KERR-NAU (UPGRADE: White Noise) Plasma Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) NEXUS Lieutenant Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nullifier / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24) E-DRONE Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 28) Bit Hacker (UPGRADE: Expel) Submachine Gun + Pitcher, Deployable Repeater + KISS! / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19) KISS! Adhesive Launcher / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) KO DALI (CH: Mimetism, Forward Deployment L2) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges / 2 Assault Pistols, Knife. (0 | 36) R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) GROUP 2 6 IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9) IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9) NOCTIFER Missile Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32) MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) ÍMETRON . (0 | 4) ÍMETRON . (0 | 4) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army x2 HackersEI adding 2 marksmanship buff on 2 unidrons and 4 hackers to add a coordinated attack programs (even Bit lossing her rem or get disconected), very strong antihacking game, all repeaters rem buffed since 1st turn with command token and very well rated as solid ARO list team, just only the addition of the x2 m-drones are the excellent but not complete ARO list, you forgot the 2scnd ML noctifer, but this sample are the best way. The new Ko Dali, plasma sniper and the unidron Spitfire are enough to kill things, also the noctifer and Kerr Nau linked and this profiles are the best excuse to don't put more M-drone. You can try to quit Ko Dali for a Malignos KHD too, but you lack other primary and optimal attack piece as she are now if you starts the turn. Or just upgrade Ko Dali to AD jump profile for leave dr.worm without g.servant.
Thanks for the list! I'll have to check it out later tonight...I'm not very familiar with Kerr-Nau and Ki Dali. I'll also have to check out the coordinated attack program and see how that's used. But none the less, thanks for an awesome list. @InMac I swear I didn't copy your avatar!!!!! :D
After reviewing Kerr-Nau's profile, I might switch her out for just a nexus operative hacker 24pts vs 27. My buddy that I play against uses Tohaa, and he rarely fields a hacker(whichever one from the dire foe's box). He does use symbiobombs, but I'm not sure if they can be counter hacked or if the unit fielding them is considered a hacker...So because of my opponent, I don't really need a strong antic hacking game. But everything else on the list seems solid! Ko Dali has a very interesting profile with some really good stats, def going to have to try out that unit...the msv2 might not be that useful against his nimbus and nimbus plus grenades. Either way thanks for the list and the tactics that go with it. I'll be giving some a try this weekend when we get to play again.
...and a linkable plasma rifle. B4 impact template with two saves each on a BS12 platform is massive offensive capability. That said, the Nexus hacker is an amazing include if you really just need to buff remotes. If you aren't expecting to be assassinated by enemy KHDs, a Nexus hacker Lt. can do it without eating into your order pool.
My friend left his printed army sheet at my house. He fielded two Gao-Rael's, one with a sniper rifle and the other with a spitfire. He also ran Hatail Aelis Keesan with a KHD and a Kaeltar with two symbiobombs. I was using a Legates with the HD+ so I had access to white noise but I can definitely see Kerr-Nau being more a cheaper option for white noise but having the drawback of not being able to buff the rems. A question about symbiobombs. To use them as a hacking attack you would make a coms attack against the opponent, does that mean that user of the symbiobomb is considered a hacker. Is the only option against a coms attack to Reset or would I have other options in terms of aros if I was using a hacker, or the hacker was the target of the coms attack?
Making a Comms Attack does not make you a hacker, it just means that you need to use Reset rather than dodge to avoid it. A trooper is only counted as a hacker if it has a Hacking Device. Remember that it'll also be a FTF roll if you declare anything that can affect the enemy, so a BS Attack, Hacking vs a Hackable target (I.e. an HI/TAG), CC Attack, etc would all be face to face with a Symbiobomb.
In matchups or missions where you expect a lot of hacking, Transmission Matrix for example, I've played around with this "Hacking Deathstar" for a link team. Kerr-Nau can shoot pitchers all over the place, and the Umbra has both Breakwater and Sucker Punch, so he can either give enemy hackers -6, which becomes -9 due to the tinbot, or give them -6 (again, thanks to the tinbot) and sucker punch them in the face. He can also give the Unidrons Assisted Fire. The weapons loadout of this link also makes them able to handle every possible range band. Onyx Contact Force ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 UMBRA LEGATE Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 43) KERR-NAU (UPGRADE: White Noise) Plasma Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) UNIDRON K1 Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 17) UNIDRON Spitfire / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1 | 18) UNIDRON Plasma Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 24) 3.5 SWC | 129 Points Open in Infinity Army
I was about to write about how dangerous this would be in the active turn throwing pitchers all over the place, but then I remembered the recent FAQ ruling on stealth and mixed links. Still rough to sacrifice Kerr-Nau if you want that free hit, but if you use Kerr-Nau, your Legate gets to walk around just fine.
I spent the last two weekends taking a break from onyx and trying out just plain vanilla. Played two games of Quadrant Control and ran this list: Combined Army ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10 2 NEXUS Lieutenant (Nanoscreen) Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 26) CHARONTID (Multispectral Visor L3) HMG, Nanopulser / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 79) KORNAK Mk12, Light Flamethrower / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 41) DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14) DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14) SHROUDED Hacker (EI Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) MAAKREP TRACKER MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 33) MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) M-DRONE Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17) Q-DRONE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army Made the list to run the Chanrontid, smoke from Daturazi, Kornak with flame, mid-field control with Shrouded, Q drone for aro, and Makreep for long-range. I had alot of fun with these units and ended up winning both games but my buddy was taking a break from Tohaa and ran the new spiral core sectorial. He was unable to answer my smoke with the Chantoid MSV 3. Let me know what you guys thinks of the list and what you would change or add. Thanks, Refry
Try running the Chanrontid as the Lt. version, it gives him an extra order to spend and G:Mnemonica so you won't have to worry about loosing your LT as much.
In my opinion charontid LT is a must, you have 1 extra order to spend with ur alpha strike, and you dont have to worry about being in LoL, Makreep is in my opinion an active piece, and he is MI so he can start 4inches ahead, so you should go for the HMG Korkak is okay in morat sectorial, he has strategos so he gives 1 order extra if he is ur lieutenant, but in vanilla there are better choices more even so if you already have a charontid 2 daturazis for smoke are okay
I tried to run Onyx control heavy in supplies vs Tohaa yesterday. Dazers, mines, exile on two triads. At the end of the day I should have just shot them in the face. They are so order efficient the dazers only slowed them down a bit, the mines didn't do a thing and they just murdered me in their turn. It has gotten rather frustrating to play Onyx recently. I had a string of bad luck but the lack of board control is not helping. If you can't avoid face to face rolls you gotta win them after all.