OSS is a really interesting army in my limited experience. They do gunfighting as well as anyone else. They do high order counts extremely well. They do attrition well with proxies, remotes with two levels of unconscious, and nwi and dogged on a huge selection of profiles. One thing they don’t to well in my mind is chaff. Coming from ASA and even vanilla ALEPH, where there are cheap mines or amazing Myrmidons respectively, I feel like my lists usually have a solid crumple zone. Those speed bumps that get in the way and die, but cost my opponent orders to deal with, protecting the soft meat sacks at the center of my army. Where do you typically find your crumple zone? What are the models/profiles you tend to put forward as a sacrifice to the order gods to slow your opponent down? What are the models you hope your opponent will waste orders on and, dead or not, you’re happy those guys got shot instead of the pieces you really want on your active turn?
Proxy mk.2 both profiles are great speedbumps in different ways and you have the order protection built-in. Naga, dogged and mines are a great combination, but you're going to have to accept the trooper loss, it should be asymmetric though Get Dakini in position (they're 6-2, it's not exactly hard!) and put up to 4 of them in Sup Fire with a coordinated order; cover, mimetism and the -3 make them a beast to dislodge. If you know you're going up against HI, 2xDaleth + 2xLamedh plus a couple of AHD/HD troopers to really bog down movement.
Nagas can do decent mine defense if you want it, but between CSUs (seriously, the 12pt with Lt Shotgun and Nanopulser is invaluable in defense, as well as being a Specialist for offensive action) Lamedh and the Dakini Core you have a solid defensive setup. You can also use Proxies to help bolster your defense if you need.
I think that in the OS your defense is not found in sacrificial pieces of your force, as each model you take is likely essential to your force (either in generating an order or performing a crucial role). However, I think that the OS's defense come in the form of positioning tactics. Now, although positioning is a tactic available to all armies, and should be employed properly, I think OS has strong options available to it that encourage easy, and effective positioning. We have access to a handful of mines and area denying templates (nanopulsars, emarats). Consider the Rudra's Mine-dispenser, and one of your forward skirmishers with a significant template ability (Dart with mines or grenades, or an Arjuna's Kiranbots), and the amount of work your opponent is required in working around these. Notably, you can cause your opponent to do so while under oppressive ARO fire lines from your Dakini defensive link, TR Bot, or Mk2 Sniper, etc. Additionally, you can further employ superior tactics through your widely available infiltrating skirmishers (specialists or otherwise). OS has a plethora available, and they are top-notch: Mk5, Mk2, Dart, Nagas, Dasyus,etc. This gives you additional ability to control the board, and be propositioned against your opponent, or to take objectives. This strategy is, again, especially strong when it is supported by an oppressing ARO fireteam link. You will notice that a lot of what I wrote more closely falls under "offense" rather than defense. And I would remind you that the best defense is a good offense!
Dakini core with MSR under apsara buff, MK2 sniper and flashpulse bots - pretty good defense. But it depends on your meta. Vs camo, i use nagas with minelayers to protect areas, which are hidden from my Dakini or MK2. Mines are your best friends.
I agree with my fellow commanders. I like to add the Bounty Hunter with Sniper Rifle. He is just 0.5 SWC and can close a lane. My advice is to place him on ground level. He can not win the fight against Snipers with visual mods, but those are not the ones, that keep moving towards you in said lanes. The Naga Assault Hacker is also a valuable unit. He stops most of the big units. Even the big units accompanied by a Fireteam. Those units are best hidden in buildings or on top of them. The enemy has to move around them or reset every order to pass the hacking area.
I think most of the basics have been covered but I'll repeat just to reinforce. Suppressive fire Dakini Proxies Bounty Hunter snipers or SMG + Akrylat kanone Naga Minelayers Yadu Drop Bears Lamedh Warcor edit: Alot of the OSS troops are extra durable as well which helps. Stuff like Devas and Yadu can trade with some lighter troops without going out of the fight fully so be aware of where you troops are durable enough and where they arent!
While she's a very good attack piece, I've often found Dart to be an amazing speed bump first turn, and she can often survive too. With Camo state, viral bow + em grenades, NWI +bioimmunity, I've had opponents waste their entire order pool trying to unseccussfully root her out inorder to advance down a flank.
Dont forget devas and bot. Arjuna and bots. Typical protection units if starting second. Mk5 also with granades and nanopulsers. He is usefull for objectives or speedbump
I mentioned this to you in person @yoink101 , but I think OSS is a perfect army for a TR REM. The biggest problem I have using TR REMs is that I don't always want to pay for a standard hacker and an engineer... Those are not always convenient or useful purchases in other armies. For OSS though, you're pretty much always fielding one or both of those (the Engineer especially.) I see a lot of lists that have a hacker with some form of supportware capability too, particularly the Danavas since it's nice to have White Noise. So since you've already invested in those useful tools, I think the TR REM's easy to justify. When you combine TR, Dakini Link, surprise Posthuman Mk2 link, incidental nanopulsers and an antipersonnel mine or two, you get a pretty solid defense. Just watch out for oldschool warband armies with piles of Smoke and Chain Rifles.
Warbands are my biggest problem. A group of morlocks which have their own smoke can just get into my dz unharmed and murder all my stuff be it in melee or with chain rifles. Any advice on this?
Mines are still one of the best answers, Smoke doesn't hide troopers from them, and when properly positioned it's impossible to get into Chain Rifle range without getting a Claymore to the face. Layered defence, so that opponnent can't move his warband without throwing smoke with every other order. It makes his advance much slower. Units in Hidden Deployment overlooking predicted advance paths, and shooting in ARO at unsuspecting units. You'll either force the warband to drop smoke with equal odds to getting a DA round hit, or they'll walk into your view with their second short move, and you'll shoot them unopposed. Mk.2 sniper is the best one in this category, as it can deploy at safe range from template weapons, but it's not the only option. Widespread NWI means that you can risk getting shot if that means a good chance to kill the warband in question. Deva with MSV2 and Spitfire. Push him into a good position, enter Suppressive Fire, and opponent will have to bring in something heavier to clear that path. You can also hunt warbands in active turn with it. The above note about NWI applies here as well.
Proxies. Linked dakini MSR ( Just bring a extra ) WARCOR A couple camo tokens on the middle. Your dakini team can be really good at defending the area close to it, but it is much harder to defend long lanes. You shouldn't try to defend really long lanes anyway, you want to force the enemy to move before he gets to a shooting position. IE: Dont try to defend a lane that extends all the way to his deployment zone.
I'll try not to repeat what has already been said. Linked FO Deva. A bit expensive, but scary. A really nice 0 SWC addition to a dakini link which cover the 0-60 cm range band. Mk.4 HRL. Better when behind a barrier or a low scenery where she can go prone or unconscious. Any combi naga, the FO is the best and the cheapest. -9 to hit in suppressive fire is nothing to laugh at. This is the reason i don't really like the minelayer naga, he can't suppressive. The ever useful Sophotech. Not to defend, but to heal those who defend. Particularly good with Mk.4 and zayin ! Arjuna. No one want to take one of those E/M template, and she has 2 of them. Plus she's good in suppressive too.
Have you considered swapping to the Samekh FTO? Not quite the same but its a solid option for a temporary AROing piece in that link.
Not really. Mimetism is *way* too good to pass up, and the MSR has better ranges. On ARO, getting bonuses to win the FtF >>>> more damage, because usually the enemy will engage with the right tool to have a advantage in the first place.
By this logic we could say the Dakini is worse because the enemy will just bring MSV :P I like the Samekh because its cheaper and generally functions reasonably as an independent piece. It also brings a blast template on a nicely linkable platform.
Thats a pedantic argument. Mimetism is better than a sakmeh against more than 95% of the profiles in the game ( Although Mimetism + MSV models seems to be breeding like crazy right now) But yes, As a sacrificial plataform the Sakmeh might work exactly because it is cheaper. I just never feel like more damage + template is worth the trade off for mimetism on something that is there just to waste orders. Might have to consider it in the futur though.