General Speculo Killer Tips & Tricks

1. Most of the time trying to deploy in enemy DZ won't be worth it (unless it's a high risk-high reward situation). There will be plenty of opportunities to exploit without taking that risk.
2. If you're going first, you're almost guaranteed to get at least one shot or swing at something. Try to evaluate where you'll do the most damage. Don't fixate on getting into CC - taking out a TAG with a Mono CCW is very satisfying, but if you can dismantle a fireteam with a well placed shotgun blast, or kill a few valuable specialist and support units, go for those. It'll probably be easier, and lack of orders will hurt enemy more than the loss of a centerpiece unit. But this decision depends on many factors: the mission, opponent, deployment - so if you'll see a situation in which killing such unit will be the best thing to do, go for it. Then deploy in a way which will allow you to reach your targets as fast and easy as possible. Remember, that enemy will have his reserve and will react to your deployment. Use Impersonation, Stealth and/or Smoke Grenades to bypass anything you don't need to fight right now. Combined, they allow you to bypass most security; mines don't trigger at Impersonated unit (you're fair game once discovered, though!), you can risk an unopposed Discover to traverse area quickly, throw Smoke to obscure LoF of anything without MSV2+ - basically just focus on your priorities.
3. When going second, opponent will probably try to kill your Speculo as fast as possible, to eliminate a threat of such a raid on his DZ. Don't make it easy for him; deploy her in a hard to reach spot - and one when you'll have cover against any possible hunters - so he'll have to burn a lot of orders to reach the target. Don't reveal your Speculo as soon as he'll see you, he needs to discover you successfully first, and might always botch it. This means you'll probably want to react when your Impersonation is down a level; best course of action will probably be a shotgun blast or a smoke grenade under your feet, depending on the opposing unit. The goal here is to preserve your Speculo, not to kill the opponent. You can do it next turn. Additionally, the more orders opponent will burn trying to kill her, the better.
4. Regarding loadouts - as you've probably noticed, I'm a big fan of the shotgun. The ability to hurt multiple troopers is extremely useful on a unit such as this one, especially when combined with Surprise Shot. It'll also allow to bypass Camo, Mimetism, or ODD - if you can shoot a Fusilier and catch a Bulleteer under the template, the ODD unit will be out of luck. Minelayer is my second favorite loadout; you can deploy that mine to threaten any defensive unit - linked sniper, TR remote, etc - and shoot at the defender with another unit. There's a chance he'll choose to dodge instead of shooting back, unless he wants to take a mine blast to the face. Then you can use the Speculo to mine other sensitive spots - a fireteam deployed in a line (one of the biggest deployment mistakes, which can be ruthlessly exploited), enemy Remotes (they don't dodge so well), etc, then shoot at your targets to make them face both Combi shots and mine at the same time. If you're still alive at the end of your attack run, you can find a good hiding place - like in point 3 - and re-Impersonate. Or just find a good spot and leave Speculo in Suppressive Fire.
5. Whatever you do, accept that your Speculo is going down. She's a glass hammer, able to deal enormous amount of damage, but fragile. Sooner or later opponent will hunt her down. The goal is to make him lose a lot of troopers and/or orders before it happens. If you're going second, and opponent spends 2/3 of his order pool to kill your Speculo before she acts - it's still a win for you. You just bought entire turn for some 30-odd points. This is a bargain. Don't be afraid to use her this way, as a sacrificial pawn which buys you a strategic advantage
6. Also, don't forget about the rest of your list. Your other units can provide fire support to deal with enemy ARO units, clearing the way for Speculo (and new SEF is just as good at direct firepower as it is at sneaky tricks). They can form additional obstacles, making it harder for the enemy to reach her (deploy her safely, as in point 3. Then put a Q-Drone overlooking the approach - now opponent has to deal with the remote before he'll be able to reach your killer. Now deploy a Noctifier ML nearby, so when opponent tries to deal with the drone he gets an unexpected missile to the face and needs to react quickly. Quite often his new orders will be suboptimal. And you can use a Noctifier without Q-Drone, too. Bonus points if opponent enters your LoF with his second short skill, forcing him to just take that missile without any chance to react). And finally, you can double down and play two Speculos, using the first to influence his deployment, then deploying second one from reserve to exploit any openings.

Good hunting ;)

 

Don't forget she's the only source of smoke in the army. Sometimes you need that smoke turn 3 to cover a last-ditch objective run (which she is probably standing next to). This can be a lot more valuable overall than killing a few orders in turn 1. To me, this is why you can, and I often do, take two.

 

While I'm just starting to mess around with Shas, i've got a lot of experience with Hassassins and I suspect a lot of Fiday tricks will carry over. Something i'd like to add to the already great advice is "Don't feel like you need to reveal and be aggressive with your impersonator on your first turn." If you can do a lot of damage or make a critical play, by all means pull the trigger, but if things look kind of dicey, an impersonator loitering near your opponent's DZ can have a big psychological impact and choke some of their available options even if doesn't get used. Getting an opponent to spend orders inefficiently and/or dumping 3 or 4 orders just to kill your speculo can be almost as good as wracking up a high body count.

 

I usually play it safe and not rushing. Sounds weird ?

I never play it only as a sucidal unit/missil (too expensive for that) and loose it for nothing
But you need to accept you’ll loose it quickly ..what does matters is that the trad worth it.

when boarding shotgunning someone try to reach full cover at the end of the order in case (automedikit can be done in coordinate orders ^^ with malignos or shrouded for example) and do not hesitate to retake impersonation state before ennemy’s turn.
Speculoo is very sensible to direct template weapon and mine you have to pay attention to this kind of cheap and efficient ennemy. If it’s really impossible to bypass ennemy defense keep preciously your speculoo to generate major threat. Your opponent might or loose some orders to try to get it down or underestimate the threat and having some problems later ^^
Speculoo and cadmus might go very well together too ;) thank to the smoke

Speculoo is really mission, terrain, and ennemy’s faction dependent and may have very different roles to play

For example Playing against camofest TAK faction or against heavy armored pano faction will bring very different style of playing spec : opponent threat are widly different and speculoo is more suitable for big and compact threat. But it might go as well to kill pompom against TAK if the opponent make a deploiement mistake or just to wait him to have reveal several of his camo and play your spec during your second turn using it more to create psychologic impact for example ... versus pano you might have to choose which target is more interesting between a tag or a fireteam (objective dependant mission ? Some specialist in the ft ? Killing mission ?...)