Paying for bs14 when bs13 +mimetism every other faction gets is better is kinda suboptimal. I feel like at the moment knights dont have a good solo fire superiority piece. The links are great but suffer from the eggs in one basket issue of HI links. High mobility joan feels like it should be this piece, but she lacks visual mods and due to having inspiring leadership it is super tempting to make her the Lt. At which point you cant use her as a safe solo piece. As a single 10 order combat group MO also suffers compared to IA. I really wish sepulcher had mimetism in addition to holo (hell they can drop holo 2 to 1) a fordward deploying knight with mimetism and decent cc disguised as a separete piece has a lot of potential. Id be comfortable with him dropping down to bs 13 as well if he saw a point drop
Well, I'm trying a new approach inspired from my experience while playing Magisters in Vanilla and for now, the success is better than expected. Here is the list I'm trying ATM but I think you could change things here and there or just use the idea of just play the Magisters unlinked: Pour Nostralia! ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 9 1 6 MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22) MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22) MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22) MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22) KNIGHT OF SANTIAGO Lieutenant (Specialist Operative) Spitfire, Nanopulser, E/M Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, DA CCW. (1 | 43) MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 23) MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 23) SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25) MULEBOT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) TECH-BEE (Remote Assistant Level 1, Specialist Operative) Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) GROUP 2 4 1 SPEC. SERGEANT Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21) PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) TRAUMA-DOC (Father-Doctor) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) MACHINIST (Father-Engineer) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25) WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3) 3.5 SWC | 299 Points Open in Infinity Army You have orders, you have a link, you have firepower, specialists, back up, good CC etc. Having your own WB is really helpful to deal with mines. 2W ARM3 WB are really effective and the shotguns can work sometimes as subpar Chain rifles. The panzerfausts also make specialists rushes harder once the Magister is in the backline of your opponent. The list needs some games to understand how to play it though. Breaking the link to let your Magisters have their free movement, then bringing them back in the link or not etc.
Maybe a little late to the party but that isn't too dissimilar to a list I had a lot of fun with recently. Berserker Barrage ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 4 KNIGHT OF SANTIAGO Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 38) MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22) MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22) MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 23) MAGISTER KNIGHT Missile Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 32) KNIGHT HOSPITALLER Lieutenant MULTI Rifle / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 35) MACHINIST (Father-Engineer) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) TRAUMA-DOC (Father-Doctor) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) ORDER SERGEANT Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13) GROUP 2 4 SPEC. SERGEANT Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21) SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25) PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) 3.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army Ran it against my friend's Shasvastii which all started in TO or Camo state. Neither of us are particularly great or experienced players but the magister link did some fantastic work. As I was going second he sprang a Sphinx across the board and managed to do a lot of damage to my support elements but the link was able to mulch everything else of value and the Sphinx (somewhat luckily) wound up locked down in CC against my lieutenant in my backfield so was not scoring. The missile launcher MK wound up scoring the game-ending blow with a missile shot in ARO that took out his Caliban and a couple of little camo tokens next to him. MO may not be super competitive but I still have a blast with them. :)
This seems very SWC light. Have you considered running the HRL Order sergeant with Auxbot in Group 2? I find them too SWC expensive for most lists, but they are a great backup piece and defensive tool when you can afford them (in terms of SWC).
That's an easy enough change; switch out the trauma doc and basic OS for that + mulebot. I wanted to have a doctor in there though... might give it a whirl next time.
I've had a couple of very fun games with this list lately: Team Tacticool ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 8 2 SPEC. SERGEANT (CH: TO Camouflage, Infiltration) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 33) SPEC. SERGEANT (CH: TO Camouflage, Infiltration) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 33) SPEC. SERGEANT (CH: TO Camouflage, Infiltration, Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) DART Submachine Gun, Viral Tactical Bow, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 34) BULLETEER Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 23) JOAN OF ARC Lieutenant MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW. (+1 | 49) PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) TECH-BEE (Remote Assistant Level 1, Specialist Operative) Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25) WARCOR (Sixth Sense L1) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3) GROUP 2 4 SPEC. SERGEANT Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21) MACHINIST (Father-Engineer) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) MULEBOT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army It isn't anything super special, but I've found that having two TO infiltrating multi-snipers in there is enough to give a huge amount of table coverage in most setups that I'm running across and they have performed impressively in both games so far. Joan's free coordinated order helps out a lot. I won against Vanilla Nomads fairly easily, mostly because my opponent deployed in positions which were quite exposed to my snipers, and then I barely lost to White Banner Army - a few misplays meant I gave away more than I needed to at a couple of points and wound up 1 order short of being able to kill my opponent's HVT with my data tracker in Transmission Matrix which meant I lost by a single point. The multi-snipers were particularly awesome in that game as he tried to push out with his Qiang Gao turn 1, and the first sniper took a wound off and forced him back into cover. He then pushed out with his Blue Wolf and managed to kill off the first sniper and a couple of bots I had left a bit more out in the open than I would have liked... but come my turn one, the second sniper killed off the Blue Wolf and did a bit more damage in return. It took a lot of orders, but I don't think there would have been any other tools I would have had available as MO to achieve the same goal without needing to push through the defenses he had covering the approaches to the TAG otherwise. I'm sure there are other sectorials who can run this playstyle better, but I'm enjoying it a lot regardless! I obviously haven't played it a massive amount yet but so far it has felt like I've got enough answers that I can find my way back in even if I lose a couple of pieces.
Just a small update, it seems we will be getting new Santiago models (courtesy of Starmada sectorial).
Well atm. we would only need 2 models (are double new blisters a thing in current release strategy?) so who knows... They could probably even get away with single blister and alternative head+arm. (hacker head vs Spitfire arm) Unless we see another shake-up in MO xD
MO are due for yet another redesign according to the Hot and Cold Facebook threat. I'd assume IA is as well. Although they both will massively benefit from HI getting significantly cheaper across the board.
Interesting, didn't know that. Well Magister might get into some silly points levels...... we will see if they get MOV 6-2 , or if Lt situation in MO will be somewhat addressed.
Im a big fan of this change. Having to deal with 15 orders is alot easier than 18-20 especially with 10 orders.
Can't be much worse than the last 2 attempts. With basic HI getting a rather chunky pricecut, as little as a decent Lt/CoC choice is missing to patch things together.
I think that if the rules changes will balance playstyles properly then artificial cap will be unnecessary. My guess is that it was introduced more to shorten the game time for tournaments' sake, than to balance things.