Infinity Newbie - Looking at Nomads with lots of bots or "Mo' Bots, Mo' Better"

I think you can put all of that in the same list with not much problem

zoe can bring zondbots with her because she is engineer, apart from piwell.
You will need tomcats for the zondcat, you can use doctor tomcat for that. Also there is carlota with moriarty, who is another zondcat.
You need interventor and/or heckler for the fastpanda. Interventors are a tipical lieutenant option, and hecklers are one nasty dude
you need moran or lunokhod for the crazykoalas, everyone of them brings 2 of this little guys, useful
taskmaster, zondnautica and pupetmaster are nice options

and you can fill all of them in the same list, with some extra points to spare in other troops, but would be a limited insertion list a bit strange: I have still to play something similar, but can be fun to. I would suggest you to try with proxies

 

Doing a bot-heavy list as Nomads? Boi, that's quite easily done. Especially since Nomads have some of the best/quirky REMs in the game, namely Tsyklons for active turn hunting, Lunokhods for a great area denial, Puppettactica for a cheap resilient fireteam that contains three great gunfighters (one of which is a specialist), Zondnautica for a fast offensive unit fit with tactical flexibility, Meteor for... Idk, it's just cool.

If you like the esthetic of the Hollowmen - go Tunguska. But if you want as much variety as possible - definitely go Vanilla with Moriarty, P-Well and Zondcats :D

 

Since the Puppetmaster is very busy controlling his puppets (From the wiki: The Controller may be activated in the regular manner only when he or she is deployed without G: Marionette troopers, or whenever all of them are in any Null or Isolated state.) its almost useless to take the hacker when taking puppetbots.

So I would downgrade him to the cheapest one, take an additional BSG bot to complete the Harris (and have a usefull specialist and template weapon). And then I would drop the BSG Interventor for a Jammer Heckler (he has a Fast Panda as well):

Nomads
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

5
PUPPET MASTERS Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
PUPPETBOT Red Fury / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 16)
PUPPETBOT (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Electric Pulse. (0 | 11)
PUPPETBOT (Marksmanship L1) AP Marksman Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 14)
INTERVENTOR Hacker Lieutenant (Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
ZOE & PI-WELL . (0 | 47)
ZOE (Hacking Device. UPGRADE: Stop!) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28)
PI-WELL Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 19)
HECKLER Combi Rifle, Jammer, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

2 SWC | 150 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Optionally you could drop the Heckler for two cheerleader (like Securitate or Transductor Zonds) if you want an additional order. Or more cheerleader if you change the Puppetbots (my favorite is 2xBSG + 1 AP Marksman Rifle). But then you'd have no SWC weapons. But it would be okay in the beginning, I think.

PS: Oh I forgot: Welcome to the game and welcome to the Nomads. Very good choice.

 

If you are going to run 2 interventors I would look at having the second be the KHD option to protect you from enemy hackers.

 

That's what I had in mind as well. Also with the Killer Hacker Interventor there's enough points left for the Minelayer Puppetmaster.

Nomads
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

5
INTERVENTOR Hacker Lieutenant (Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
INTERVENTOR Hacker (Killer Device Plus UPGRADE: Lightning) Boarding Shotgun, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
PUPPET MASTERS (Minelayer) Submachine Gun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 14)
PUPPETBOT Red Fury / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 16)
PUPPETBOT (Marksmanship L1) AP Marksman Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 14)
PUPPETBOT (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Electric Pulse. (0 | 11)
ZOE & PI-WELL undefined. (0 | 47)
ZOE (Hacking Device. UPGRADE: Stop!) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28)
PI-WELL Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 19)

2.5 SWC | 149 Points

Open in Infinity Army

@Tred totally forgot to explain my thought:
With the Puppetmaster Minelayer you're allowed to place a camouflage marker concealing an antipersonnel mine within 8" of your Puppetmaster. Such mines are a quite good deterrent for most troops who would nomally been a threat for that defenceless Puppetmaster.

 

I used Puppetbots today and they did excellently. I used one of each type and took a Puppet Master with Minelayer, was very impressed by their resilience.

 

Puppet bots are great, I've collapsed entire armies with them and last night had them take down a Maggie and a half. Best part is you don't care too much when they die (unless they are integral to your plan).

 

Only weakness is the Puppetmaster. One AD-Trooper behind your lines and it's over. That's why I haven't played them much since ITS10.

 

I tend to find directly airdropping troops are relatively rare these days, most people walk them in. But I do almost always deploy my Puppetmasters covered by a strong ARO to cover this, yes.

 

AD is almost never the problem (with a few exceptions, Looking at you VZ), what with mines, jaguars, crazy koalas, bots, and other things hanging around the back field. Normally enemy spec fire is what will ruin a puppet master's day, especially considering they can't dodge.

I've found that puppets really want to go first do a disproportionate amount of damage, then hang around some where mildly important and be annoying. At that point they've already gotten their value so If they die or the master dies you only lose one order.

 

I end having to put extra tools to deffend the pupetmaster, making me think that maybe, they are beign not so good. I end spending their 40-50 points plus another 40 to deffend the master. Thats a Kriza plus one of the previous "deffenders" (which would do more job than just deffend the pupetmaster) and mostly an orderbot. If you know the enemy doesn't have AD or good infiltrator troops, then the pupets are safe, but there are also troopers out there like the krakot, who will ignore jammers and can get near enough to speculate-fire and kill the poor pupetmaster from a safe zone

If he could at least do aro (but then pupets do nothing even if they could, just choosing who will aro), then all of the above wouln't be a thing, and the puppetmaster HD would even be played (as the cheapest hacker in the sectorial)

 

that 40 ish points you are using to defend the puppet master can also quite easily pull double duty (including the PM itself if its the minelayer) in protecting other High value support pieces and your LT.

It's definitely easier to defend and use in vanilla than it is in TJC.

 

not so sure about that. Bringing more high reward targets near is making the risk more appealing for the enemy to take. But yes, I agree with that is easier to deffend him in vainilla

 

Yes, I noticed the lack of directly airdropping troops as well, but I am surprised by it. Since ITS 10 I almost always have at least a BSG Hellcat in my lists and most often I drop them directly. Yes, 2 out of 10 fail, but the reward, when they hit, can be devastating.

Once I found a spot just the size of the base of the Hellcat where he could not be seen. There was no other comparable spot available. The Hellcat landed savely and was able to kill 4 units in the enemy Deployment Zone.

While I think about it ... might be the same with the Puppets: High Risk, High Reward

 

I've also been enjoying the Hellcat lately, but mostly the HMG and spitfire. mostly because the back edge of a DZ tends to be pretty barren meaning a good flanking piece can roll through the enemy's back line with absolute ease.