So I've got a tournament coming up in Jan. This year I've decided I'm going to play only Combined Army, which I'm coming back to after a long while. Ironically, the next event has Transmission Matrix which reaallllly makes me want to rock TAK. Supplies, Transmission Matrix, Power Pack, The Armoury. No special modifiers, pair of 300pt lists. Supplies and Power Pack are specialist heavy. The Armoury needs 1-2 to open the gate, or I can hack/punch it open. Or wait for my opponent. I haven't actually played it. Transmission Matrix is hacking heavy or hacking nil. I guess that's my pairing. Supplies/Power Pack vs. Armoury/Transmission Matrix. ... So Transmission Matrix. I need high mobility for scoring zones, a killy Datatracker and either go negative hacking or hacking heavy. The problem I bump into is list building when you're used to running a lot of remotes. I usually would take Ikadrons, R-Drones, E-Drones, Ikadrons.. etc. Stuff gets strangled out by hackers in the repeater web unless you manage to kill them. It's super hard to stay out of the repeater web. The question I have for you, as a Vanilla player (and SEF maybe)- how do you approach list building for Transmission Matrix? What's your strategy?
I don't play CA yet (miniatures still await assembly...), but I wouldn't want to miss out on playing Transmission Matrix hacking heavy. My first guess would be something like this: Also a Sphinx could work quite well in this mission, maybe in that case the Anathematic can be switched for a cheaper hacker.
Vanilla CA player here. With CA, the only army I fear in the infowar is obviously Nomads. That said, since in Transmission Matrix every hacker is reachable, our EIKHD shines even more. I tend to bring Bit&Kiss (that is one of my favorite pieces in general) and Kerr-Nau (you can lay down White Noise in an enormous amount of places here) to protect my Ikadrons (baggage and flamethrowers are amazing to hold the antennas). To negate your Ikadrons, your opponent needs to have an AHD, which is not really common, and go through your Maestro at every try... On top of this, depending on other missions/opponent, I like to bring myself a Shrouded AHD. For the attacking pieces, you can rely on Sheskiin for sure since she is not hackable, and then pick among the other great choices like Ko Dali, Caliban, etc. With SEF it's actually easier to list avoiding hacking since you have a lot more non hackable valid choices (other than the linked Sheskiin), like the Speculo Minelayer. The Sphinx could be a risky choice, but remember that since she has Stealth, the Hacker needs to also have LoF on her: being in a repeater area isn't enough.
I typically play Onyx if Transmission Matrix is coming up, as they can build one of the most fearsome hacking deathstars known to man. This link team (plus, preferrably, an E-drone) murders everything in their path in Transmission Matrix, due to the massive minuses they can inflict on enemy hackers through their Tinbot + Breakwater, Kaleidoscope, Maestro and Sucker Punch. They can also use Spotlight to let the T-drone megamurder everything. Remember that their link lets them ignore Surprise Shot from persky enemy cammo hackers, as well! Onyx Contact Force ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7 UMBRA LEGATE Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 43) KERR-NAU (UPGRADE: White Noise) Plasma Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) UNIDRON K1 Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 17) UNIDRON Plasma Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 24) UNIDRON Spitfire / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1 | 18) E-DRONE Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 28) T-DRONE Smart Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 18) 5.5 SWC | 175 Points Open in Infinity Army In vanilla, you can't do anything this awesome of course, but some of the ideas still apply. Combined can put up an awesome hacking game, and that would always be my approach to Transmission Matrix. E-drone and T-drone is a must, but the Nullifier that comes with the Nexus hacker could also serve you well, in the unlikely event that your bid for hacking superiority should fail.
