Hi folks. I'm trying to put together a list (actually two) for upcoming tournament. I decided to play vanilla Aleph, but as for last few years I have been playing with Steel Phalanx, every time I end up with a SP list plus posthumans. Scenarios will be fairly simple: supremacy, acquisition, supplies, front line and capture & protect. Only one of them would heavily depend on infiltrators. Can your collective mind suggest any lists and possibly explain why?
I'm not going to write lists for the tournament for you... But I do think you're missing out on some tools, there are a lot of compelling profiles in operations that bring things steel doesn't have to a vanilla list. 1. Dakini HMGs are really cheap and effective swc troopers. With assisted fire they really put out above their class. (MSRs and paramedics are good too). 2. Deva spitfire is also a cheap msv option. It is a more aggressive profile than an Agema being quicker, and more durable. It can more easily press forward in scenarios like firefight. 3. Danavas HD+, msv can be the bane of a Myrmidons existence, turn it into a liability with white noise. 4. Dart, she's just phenomenal for bullying the midfield. 5. Nagas good infiltrating specialists, or mine layers or what have you. Start with points in the zone, or ready to grab a supply box. 6. Garuda are also excellent AD, with mimitism (and maybe generallya spitfire) they're better gun fighters than ekdromoi. Why do you feel you always omit non steel/post human options?
Well it's mostly because I feel comfortable with SP profiles and my list building usually looks like this : Machaon LT, because he's so good, a doctor (and a specialist) with ODD and eclipse, Phoenix, Atalanta, a couple of Myrmidons, add a Posthumans trio and suddenly I'm out of SWC and more than halfway through the points. And when it comes to Dakini - the burden of a normal hacker and order expenditure of support programs always put a lot of doubt on their value. Especially as I'm spoiled by high Arm of virtually every unit in Steel Phalanx. Try comparing a13 point Thorakitai FO (with flash pulse, SMG, 360 visor and ARM3) with Dakini bot, which at this point value has combi, higher move and mimetism. BS 11 and ARM 0 doesn't help.
@Mroowkojad I would start with either Achillies or and a Shukra coc or a Shukra Lt. The Dakini with 6-4 move, mimitsm and MM lv2 with a hacker is a murder machine even with a combi, the thorakitai will never compete. Dart is one of the best peices in the game if you give her EM grenades as she can take down pretty much anything. With three netrod and 2 flash pulse bots you should be able to get to 14-16 orders easy. All the mission above get much easy with infltators as they are points in zones you don't have to spend orders on, start closer to the beacon to capture, or to the supplies crates. I would play something like this for all of the missioins above. ALEPH ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 9 1 ACHILLES Lieutenant Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, EXP CCW. (2.5 | 75) SHUKRA (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) NETROD . (0 | 4) NETROD . (0 | 4) NETROD . (0 | 4) LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) PROXY Mk.2 Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21) PROXY Mk.1 Engineer Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) PROXY Mk.5 (Forward Observer) 2 Submachine Guns, Nanopulser, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) GARUDA Tacbot Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 28) LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10) GROUP 2 5 DART Submachine Gun, Viral Tactical Bow, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 34) MYRMIDON Chain Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 16) MYRMIDON Chain Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 16) PROBOT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) DALETH Rebot Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17) 5.5 SWC | 298 Points Open in Infinity Army
I'd take the Dakini most of the time personally. ;) Mimetism, and 6-4 are really really good at getting where they need to be and saving their butts in firefights. Dont need armour when I'm not getting hit. Put a few Dakini in Suppressive in the midfield and your opponent has major headaches for almost no investment on your part. It sounds like part of the problem you're having is you're going back to the tools you know. Do you have a sample list of what you were thinking about playing? It would be helpful for suggesting some alternative tools that are Vanilla Specific.
While i do agree with you, the FO thorakitai in suppressive are also a major headache. Depend on what the opponent has, but obviously they will do better vs MSV2 active troopers, and 360° vision can be really tricky to deal with.
Thoras just feel clunky to me. Where as FO makes them better for long range corridors and the 360 is good for AD Defensive definitely. But I really like the speed of the Dakini where 6-4 can make it feel like you're zipping around a race track weaving through the competition, getting into weird spots to go suppressive and fence your opponent in.
Thora FOs are great order monkeys to hold the backfield, while daikini Medics excel at swooping in and grabbing objectives while preserving orders. If I need to choose, I’ll go with the medic 9 out of 10 times. I prefer having pieces, that I can build a win on, when things go south.