Been getting back into the wonderful flavor of Vanilla with Nomads and have been building far too many lists than I can actually play. The vanilla overview that's stickied is good, but a little out of date. However, in each of these lists I'm left wondering what's good to leave out for ARO. There are the obvious choices of the Reaktion Zond and the Sin Eater both with full burst in reactive turns, but due to either my placement or good counterplay they've been nullified rather easily with smoke. The intruder can counter smokes, but is better off as an active turn ARO remover. I've been leaning towards the Grenzer Sniper/ML due to my metas plentiful use of mimetism/camo. A good arm/bts and bs13 leaves him a good chance to hit his target and survive if he misses. In cases where the MSV1 isn't required or could be detrimental with White Noise, a Wildcat can fill the same role for some points and a loss of 1 arm. I also like the idea of a Multi-Rifle Moira in suppressive for a shorter lane due to ODD. I've looked at the Feuerbach Securitate and it seems very squishy at 1 arm, but is relatively cheap at bs12. A Riot Grrl would be a good one if you're 2nd turn because if it frenzies it gets the impetuous order and is 2w, and keeps that MSV1. This has a higher swc cost though. What do you guys use in vanilla to eat your opponent's orders?
Don't focus only in winning FtF only, but also in making them fear the midfield and waste orders. Add some mines thanks to the Zero minelayer, add a liberto with more mines or a D.E.P, the transductor zonds and the warcor help being also disposable. Well placed morans and Hecklers (jammer) can be also headache. If they have no MSV2 you can set up an intruder to ARO. Put them in CAMO with a Jaguar/Morlock covering the same firelane. First ARO you get with the warband you smoke the intruder; in future AROs you can fire with the intruder (but this one expose your intruder, so careful) If you like EVO, an overclock list may have some solid AROs. Or you can go even for double reaktion. Check the lists in this post: https://forum.corvusbelli.com/threads/new-player-here.34112/page-3#post-276993
For rooftop protection I'm a big fan of Sin-Eater HMG backed up by a doctor synched zondbot just outside of blast template range. Full burst HMG with mimetism and cover is just too good to ignore. For ground level firelane control I prefer to use disposables instead of ARO units. Things like Morans, Zero/Libertos Minelayer, Lunokhuds, etc. If you go first you get to set the koalas or lay more mines. If they go first they still need to deal with those threats before getting to the objective or your important pieces. When I do use a ground level ARO it's usually a template like Jaguars or Wildcats guarding a corner or key intersection. This is more about area denial as opposed to trying to actually kill things though.
First, nomad has acess to plenty of deployable : zero minelayer, libertos minelayer, moran, puppet master minelayer. It's very good to force opponent to waste order. Intruder sniper is also a good call. I use it with a morlock as a disposable smoke thrower (if necessary, throwing the smoke on the intruder and not itself so not to have an opposed roll) and not AROing before being under smoke Finally as you say, sin eater (HMG if you have SWC, MK12 if not) and reaktion zond. Selecting the good LoF for them is very important. There is two way to deploy sin eater : deploying it where you don't want your opponent to be (often he won't even fire a shot because your opponent will prefer wasting order going around it or even deploying away) or as a last mini when you know what kind of active piece your opponent has PS : if your opponents use a lot of smoke/msv2, remember anyone walking in a moran ZoC create an ARO your interventor can use to lay white noise
Beside the obvious choices, I'm a fan of the Hollowman ML. Good BS and very hard to break due to 4 ARM 2 W and thanks to remote presence with 2 unconscious states. He is not too shabby in active turn either. With super jump he can jump 6 inch strait upwards to get some surprise angles on max range. As he is paired with a Clockmaker/Bot, he works best in Drone heavy lists which brings me to the tsyklon Feuerbach. The obvious advantages of this little sucker are also 2 unconscious states and after he finished his ARO role, he can climb down from the building no problem. Gesendet von meinem Nokia 6.1 mit Tapatalk
Armand is a good choice. and Lunokhods are one of the best close range ARO/ area denial pieces we have access to. great for protecting obvious LT's and other popular things that get headhunted in the backline. I know the Sin Eater HMG got mentioned, but try the MK12 option it is real obnoxious to push past on a mid range firelane.
Hollow Man Missile Launcher has done great work for me. A ML just hits so hard that you can't treat it trivially, and for up close the Breaker Pistol and Chain Colt can work in a pinch. Super Jump lets you get some weird angles in for planting templates across the board too, so you can use it actively. ARM 4 and S 2 means it's not a light target but it's also not that expensive either. Nomads don't really have a lot of direct fire AROs these days that will do a great job, mind. That said, they do have Morans, Hecklers and Zero Minelayers and these things give you a lot of board control. Indirect AROs are the Nomad way. Especially with how many excellent hackable targets you see around.
13/.5 Jag panzerfausts are really solid, especially because they keep an ADHL if they somehow survive past the two panzerfaust shots, and they also generate a nice regular order. Dogged helps them remain a pain in the rear longer in ARO, too. Warcor and flash pulse bots are good too. Not so great against Total Immunity nowadays but useful still against everything else. Deployables like mines, emaulers, and crazy koalas are a Nomad specialty, too. Think of vanilla Nomads AROs as ways to waste the opponent’s time (orders), rather than as a way to kill the opponent’s troops. It’s often best to do that with cheap, disposable troops or with deployables, so your expensive 1W models can survive to fight at full effectiveness in your turn.
Puppets puppets puppets You get a 2W quasi fireteam to flashpulse anyone coming into your half of the table TR bot as an ever-reliable long range gear check for the enemy. Sin-Eater Mk12 got good with seasonal FD1 for MI (hope the rule stays for ITS11). Everything else shooting is not really worth it anymore since it is just food for Kamau/Baghmari/Dakini/VetKazak HMG. Otherwise your best bet is mines, koalas, Libertos, chain rifle fence of morlocks and jags and ARO hacking.
In the case of taking a Grenzer Sniper in vanilla, i recommend you just take Knauf instead. Same points, and Knauf has mimetism and Marksmanship Lv1.
