So yesterday we wrapped up Intelcom, a 38 player satellite tournament in New Zealand that I believe is the first N4 satellite to occur. I typed up my thoughts first to help myself keep track of them, then as a post for the Avatar thread, but finally it got so large that I decided it should be its own thread. I took two Avatar lists to a 2nd place finish in the event. All five games were against some of New Zealand's best players, though I never got to face the guy who came first. Next time! ARMY 7 is being enormously uncooperative at the moment, so I will post up what were functioning army codes at the time of submission and some handwritten lists. List A: "Alpha Strike" glkNY29tYmluZWQtYXJteQZMaXN0IEGBLAIBCgCB9AECAACB9wECAACB9QEFAACB9QEIAACCEAEEAACB+AEEAACE+wEEAACB/wEBAACB/wEBAACB7QEHAAIEAIIPAQEAAIIPAQEAAIIUAQEAAIUQAQIA Group 1: Avatar: LTL2 profile (the only profile) Speculo: Boarding Shotgun Shrouded x2: Forward Observer & Killer Hacker Caliban: Engineer Datz: Basic 2x chain Liberto: Minelayer R-Drone x2: Cheerleader Unidron FO: Cheerleader, crappy hedge against Bearpode Group 2: Imetron x2: Cheerleader Ikadron: Cheerleader Taiga: DACCW Blank Space List B: "Normal List" glkNY29tYmluZWQtYXJteTRCYWxscyBEZWVwIDQuNiAtIFdoYXQgZGlkIHlvdSB0aGluayBJIHdhcyBnb25uYSBydW4/gSwCAQoAgfQBAgAAgfUBBQAAgfUBCAAAghABBAAAgfgBBAAAhPsBBAAAgf8BAQAAgf8BAQAAghQBAQAAghQBAQACBQCCDwEBAACCDwEBAACFEAEBAACCBAEDAACB+gEBAA== Group 1: Avatar: LTL2 profile (the only profile) Shrouded x2: Forward Observer & Killer Hacker Caliban: Engineer Datz: Basic 2x chain Liberto: Minelayer R-Drone x2: Cheerleader Ikadron x2: Cheerleader Group 2: Imetron x2: Cheerleader Ikadron: Cheerleader Taiga: DACCW Preta: APCCW Noctifier: Missile Launcher ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ List Philosophy ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Firstly, the missions were pretty simple. We had a roster of terrible options which got changed after N4 thank god. The line up was Unmasking, Decapitation, Supremacy, Acquisition, Supplies. I essentially just built one list, which was list B. List A only really got thrown together at the last minute just in case I wanted a more aggressive option. I played List B in 3 games and List A in 2 games. My old Avatar lists were limited insertion and based on the strategos 3 + Speculo Killer combo, with a Noctifier for defense or for going second and some skirmishers in the midfield. I would never run any engineers and maybe one shrouded killer hacker. Anti-TAG measures typically amounted to "shoot it in the face" or against some players "punch it really hard", so dedicated hacking defense was less important. This list is similar to that philosophy in many ways. I used the points saved to take more skirmishers, with particular note going to the Caliban Engineer which gives you some game with repairing damage to the Avatar or negating Isolate. I recommend against going deep on Chain of Command and Engineer and such to be able to revive it - spend those points instead on the new host for LTL2 after the Avatar pops. From rough order of importance; Avatar: Part order battery, part turret, and moonlighting as an unstoppable killing machine in between those roles. Obviously the core of the list, with much of the rest dedicated to countering his predators and pushing buttons. I have never been an aggressive Avatar player. As an attacker he is obviously very dominant, but this often means coming into the midfield to face potential hidden hackers, or ending in the midfield and giving the opportunity to attack with an AP Spitfire, hacker or melee troop. Instead, he generates me a whopping four orders per turn plus more over the game by transferring, and is a solid defensive piece that also forces the opponent to warp their deployment and later positioning around the potential of his coming forwards to attack and potentially clear an entire army if board permits. His big boi stats let him lock down areas against most threats in the game, and with three wounds and ARM 9, if he faces Cutters and other high end sweepers typically he will take chip damage over time and recoil to total cover rather than imploding in one go. That said, it is a dice game, so this strategy does contain some risk. Rather than trying to fix a fallen Avatar I focused on giving him new hosts for his orders after he goes boom, and have the low investment repair strategy of a Caliban Engineer which is a desirable piece with or without any actual repairs. Noctifier: Deterrence mainly. Sometimes an emergency sweeper or sweeping with group twos orders, but man he sucks at this and manages to fail his 12 or 15 to-hit shots on a regular basis. But if used well he can absolutely blow out the opponent, or have a draining effect on their order pool and strategic actions by means of his existence. Good enough that I ran G2 with a Noctifier hole in my other list just to try and pick up on the draining effect. Caliban Engineer: Possibly the MVP of the event, essentially a Ninja with some crappy shooting, a Pulzar for suicide trades when cornered, and the absurdity that is D-Charges without a penalty. Supposedly he can gain wounds from this too but I took him hunting for more metallic game instead. Libertos: Yeah fuck the Shroudeds, hackers, and other support, this stupid thing is still amazing and its addition is one of the single biggest changes to the list. There were multiple times in the event where I said "fuck the 118 point TAG or even the 28 point assassin, send the 8 point libertos instead". If the target has one wound, its totally fair game for a Libertos, and the piece is utterly expendible in fulfilling that role. Really played into the running theme of the event which was "the cheapest piece always punches up". Shrouded Killer Hacker and Forward Observer: Two midfield scoring units under the still impregnable defense that is camouflage. The Killer Hacker is obviously useful for protecting the Avatar, but the Forward Observer I've got a little sour on. Its good, but between Caliban, Shrouded and Libertos I have plenty of midfield coverage and this guy was mostly unnecessary. That said, having the 'spare' button pusher is good to replace casualties. I am seriously considering replacing it with Bit and Kiss, trading camo, infiltrate and coordinated orders for pitchers, gluegun and oblivion for fighting TAGs, hacker defense and a disposal ARO piece to get in the way of things.. Taiga: Fast and punches up. Spends orders from group two. Didn't do all that much but was nice to have around. Great in supplies to pick up a box or chase down a midfielder with a box and try to carry it away. Absolutely flexes on the Preta in every regard except dogged, which is quite unreliable at the moment. Datz: Was mostly there for smoke and to peel away CC stuff from the Avatar. Most games he either wasn't relevant or would have been relevant but was out of position. Still like it in the list. Preta: Ran it because I only had one Taiga proxy. I just seem to keep running into mines and shock which makes the Dogged useless, and the climbing plus has not been useful for me. Chain rifles have not been good offensively for a long time, and it lacks a decent melee attack especially since most units got some CC and most MA2 units are now "old MA3" and really style on it. Cheerleaders: They do what you expect. Shout out to the new and busted Imetron in particular. Speculo Killer: Almost a straight swap for the Noctifier. Has gone from an absolute core element of my Avatar lists to a sideshow. Loss of strat3, dodge-ARO in ZoC, shotgun impact templates disappearing and most of all most stuff getting some bonus CC really impacted it. Mostly the monosword is only really worth it against TAGs, and while favored, the combat is a slapfight and the save is a coin toss which can combine to make an expensive investment that ultimately is not reliable. Had some potential in Decap, but dice and decisions conspired against it and it was probably the worst performing, non-cheerleader piece in the event. Will always remain a contender for the list but is by no means an autoinclude any longer. My list ran five active pieces and a strong warband in group one, with two warbands in group two and an important reactive piece or another active piece in group one. This is similar to the number of quality pieces I faced in other lists, even ones that did not sink 118 points into one dude. I have kept names redacted, some people don't like being posted on the internet or even their forum handle or ITS name without asking which is fair enough because I'm the same. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Game 1 - Unmasking vs Varuna ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My first game is against a very experienced player who is the warcor in charge of my local meta. We play on a muddy table with a number of purple buildings and good lines of fire. He runs something like this; Core Fireteam: Kamau, Orc Feubach, Fusiliers Jammer Zulu-Cobra LT KHD Zulu-Cobra 2x Flash Pulse Bots Patsy Helots The opponent hides the Kamau+fusilier blob in a massive building, with the Kamau watching the board. A camo LT on the building, probably the jammer, which I deduce from the critical LT roll but then promptly forget. A camo near center but close to DZ. A camo on each side - Helots. Some flash pulse bots. Patsy is datatracker and reserve. My important pieces are an Avatar that sets up in position to sweep the building and defend two HVTs, a Noctifier in a dominant position on the far right with a long firelane towards the top left, and several camo dudes skulking about. The bunker Patsy walks into noctifier order one, gets missiled into unconsciousness. He brings out doctor, heals it, hides behind crates essentially where it started the game. Orc linked Feurbach fights noctifier, rolls shit and suffers 1W then kills it. Moves up helots to be annoying. The Avatar starts its attack. Discovers and kills a Helot. Knocks out the Orc and Kamau but does not kill them. Hacker Shrouded advances and reveals a fake HVT. Gets flash pulsed on way to second button, which is the natural and only possible outcome of being seen at any point by a 7 point flash bot. Champion Libertos goes on his typical suicide mission - he advances to the doctor and the revealed target and trades with them to eliminate the Kamau and the Orc from the game. I believe he had a paramedic but it could not get LoF to the Kamau and would take a lot of orders to achieve anything. The opponent reckons the game is over but I know that this mission will have its way with me. Patsy pushes a button. As expected, instantly finds the datatracker. Manages to kill it through a small gap between its hiding place and the wall. From defeat to 5 points. Ok, time to retake the advantage. My gigantic TAG advances. It dismounts a pilot bot to push several buttons, and has to push all the buttons to find the target. I really suck at that. Now, to simply destroy that flash pulse bot and move on to the target... As expected, Avatar loses and is stunned. Grrrr. But luckily, Caliban is nearby, and can engineer stun state away. I fix the Avatar and kill the HVT. I then pull it back. My opponent moves up the flash bot. Right near the Avatar. Oh, its on. I spend my first order on T3 dropping my weapon to the ground. I don't give a shit that its not a legal declaration. Then I charge to the corner near the bot. I charge the fucking bot. As expected, the damn thing hits the Avatar, but it fails to stun. Then I swing again, and we literally tie - fist of fury being paralysed mid flight and failing to connect. Then I smash it again and KO it, and then step on the bastard. For great justice Result: 10-5 Major Win Takeaways The random flash pulse ARO will always win. Noctifier strong and can just utterly swing matches Caliban was useful to engineer the stunned Avatar, and hang out near the avatar as an engineer and CC remover. Three skirmishers seems like a lot and a little redundant, could swap one for something else. Avatar doesn't care about linked ARO, even good ones. Unmasking is not a bad mission for Avatar. I still find it annoying but its ok You will always take three tries to find target, opponent will always take one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Game 2 - Avatar Speculo vs Avatar Speculo on Decapitation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is it, the N4 meta I haven't faced this player for a long time, but he has beaten players that I struggle with and typically placed well. I also know that he is CA and that probably means Avatar. Its totally on. He runs something like this, though I don't remember the list all that well. Avatar LTL2 Speculo (Unsure what weapon) Bit & Kiss Doctor Worm + Slave Plasma Q Drone Taryot (Shotgun, specialist?) Random Cheerleaders 3x Taiga I lose the LT roll and clench, because honestly this looks like a "go first, win" sorta situation. But hey, at least neither of us are running the new Avatar - old school models FTW OG Avatar himself, so sweet Caskuda, now upgraded with incredible Avatar powers. Also part of my Speculo screen. I chaff his speculo routes hard with warbands, flash pulses, etc and hide my Avatar way in the bottom left, opposite his Avatar in the top right. I place my Speculo by his Avatar on a roof, his appears sorta centrally but with three routes (two less defended but inefficient, one very well defended or at least so I thought). I deployed my HVT in the top right, in a little inverted corner of a building, in a position where either his Avatar will have to come close to attack, or be moving across the exposed midfield and likely end out of position. Essentially, a mixture of "theres no way I can actually defend it" and bait to get the Avatar into an inefficient position to attack it. The opponent did kind of the same thing, with his HVT in the same little nook but hiding from my table edge instead. I don't know if this was just as planned or just because this was kind of the only place where it would cost more than one order to achieve. He spends some orders trying to attack my HVT with the Avatar, but it fails. Seems nuts, but running the Avatar over the years I've been flexed on by goddamn civilians so much that I knew I could leverage it a little here. He calls off that attack and goes for the important T1 play - trying to just end the game right on the first turn. Trying to get LoS after a few ZoC dodges. A Taryot walks on to try and clear a path for the Speculo. He attacks a flash bot in cover, within 8 but without cover, and fails - cheap shit punches up again! In group two, one of his Taiga discovers and engages my Speculo, but fails to kill it. I also fail to kill him. Don't recall who saved what. He just sorta says fuck it and runs his speculo up through my screen. I rub my hands greedily and prepare to thwart the attack. Then I fail a lot of discovers and he waltzes on past! A mixture of bad luck but also the sheer power of double layer marker state. Get that shit outta this game please CB. It gets into melee and hits but I survive. The attack itself was favored to him, but really surviving that hit was pretty lucky. He has one order left but does not risk another attack, instead leaving me to waste orders on it. At the time I felt this was a bad call, despite the pretty chancy odds it would have essentially won him the game. But I changed my mind after my turn. Get 'em boys My Speculo stabs at the Taiga and dies. I spend a whole turn solving the problem of his speculo. I have to bring crappy units around to engage the Taryot, so that other crappy units can base contact the speculo and block it in the corner. This gives my Avatar B3. I attack with Avatar and fucking lose, but I survive again. I hit it and kill it. He sends up Bit+Kiss. He goes into cybermask to pass a LoF of a flash bot. These little bastards just keep being great and wasting orders. He walks into camo hacker range and I hold. He shoots a pitcher and I ARO trinity her to death. He shoots my HVT with the Avatar but it takes multiple turns as I expected it might. I was ok with this, as its positioning allowed me to increase the cost of his achieving something I ultimately cannot stop. Gotta get that free value. I send Avatar through the midfield to kill his plasma Q Drone. I kill his HVT in one order. I retreat my Avatar to watch part of the board. His Avatar comes for mine. We exchange fire and it goes badly. He manages to 2W it in one turn, but fails to finish it. It guts, then takes another hit and guts again into total cover. The other Avatar takes up position on the left center of the table and readies for my Avatar to come and fight him. But that was way too risky. Instead I have the midfield Caliban move across map and D Charge the Avatar to death. Tokens being base-sized is great for contentious or really precise movements. Result: 10-0 Major Win Takeaways Speculo Avatar vs Speculo Avatar in decap is a pretty stressful and kind of shitty play experience lol I won this on experience and luck, specifically with Avatars and with Avatar/civilian interaction (and how civilians often dunk on the big boy) and luck for the monofiliment attacks. He spent part of T1 attacking the HVT. I chaffed the Speculo well IMO, but got unlucky. He should have been able to push that advantage to swing at Avatar more, but could not or would not with his last order. Bit and Kiss is fantastic. A cheap Killer Hacker with disposable bot, pitcher and Oblivion. Really looks like an asset for these lists in N4 Caliban is a god. It will continue to be one of my favorite pieces for the duration of the event. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Game 3 - Supremacy vs PanOceania ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The killing ground This was against a player who has typically been my most regular opponent, but who seems to have dropped off a bit recently in playing the game. I know he's good and I lose to him regularly, but I also typically know his style and have faced it before. I love the build and know that its strong but I've also beat it frequently. I went into this match with the most confidence of any match in the event in regards to generally knowing what to expect. He ran something like; Joan of Arc (MULTI Rifle profile) De Fersen Tikbalang Jotum Helot Other cheap or irregular guys that become cheap orders (x5) I took list A. We played on a forested board, and I miscalculated the terrain enormously, assuming that the central area with no trees on it was part of the other areas that did have trees. I opted for deployment and took the side that I felt could take advantage of this. Typically these Joan shenanigans have included a Cutter and Seraph, and I was not confident in the Speculo's ability to blitz the other TAG without a surprise Cutter appearing to blast it. My opponent took first turn. He set up the Jotum on high terrain on the left and the Tikbalang hidden on the right. Joan and De Fersen were kind of near by but hidden, to move into anti-Speculo positions with coordinated orders. Everything else pretty much hid. I deployed my Avatar in partial cover watching through the 'central trees'. The aim was to make the Jotum B3 when attacking me, and for the Jotum to be forced to attack at long range, then essentially be invulnerable. I didn't care about the Tikbalang but it would be borderline useless in a frontal attack through those trees. Absorb T1, be most likely to win because T2 advantage, Speculo etc. But, alas, there were no trees. I like to think that all the missed shots at long distance blew them away. But the reality is that the trees are simply out to get me, and always have been. Essentially, the Jotum advanced to cover at long distance and wasted orders attacking me. Then it advanced through the open, took multiple explosive AROs with ease, reached cover and attacked again. For six orders I chipped off one wound and he chipped off one. Then suddenly, one crit, I fail both saves, GG. I'm not particularly salty that the Jotum killed the Avatar eventually but the way that it all ended up with all the no-cover saves and the double crit would did feel pretty bad. He does not have orders to escape the Speculo but he overlaps fields of fire and puts dropbears around it.I use skirmishers to take out the bear in the way, and smoke to the Jotum. This was expensive and I have two orders to attack. I hit it, it saves. I hit it, it saves. Games definitely over. He kills the Speculo. Advanced TAGs to my quarters, heavies to one quarter and a tech bee to the other. I know the game is lost, but try to do what I can - calling bad situations as GG too early is a big thing for me that I am trying to work on. So I counterattack with a LTL2 Caliban, and eat the Tikbalang. Then I get into CC with the Jotum, hit it with a D charge and this happens. The DACCW barely even scratches its paint. It might have been worth using one D charge and one DA attack on the Tikbalang to save two for the Jotum, but I was kind of like "fuck it, I punch!" at this point. Trees make all the charging about more expensive. Honestly, always hated trees, but seriously I'm way in the "fuck trees" camp now lol. De Fersen pistols into melee to try and kill the Caliban, which can only hurt the Jotum on 1s which is hilarious. I dodge out because obviously this will eventually get me so I have to take risks. He then pastes the Caliban as expected. My T3 is a bunch of nothing but I take one zone for the glorious EI and lose terribly. Result: 0-8 Major Defeat. Opponent went on to take third place. Takeaways I genuinely was not impressed with my Speculo. I mean, statistically it was like 80+% to get that damn Jotum, but I needed that to work to have a chance and there were some spiked rolls and bam, games pretty much over. That said, I had pretty much the exact same thing save my ass too, so dice are dice and Speculo are kinda shitty I guess. Jotum is very tough, fighting it in cover from the front is a waste of time without AP. Crits are simultaneusly less devastating and more devastating for TAGs, you gotta take that possibility of spontaneous destruction in mind when using them. AP shots are premium against a Jotum in cover. I feel explosive is still the best in the open, despite its performance in this instance. Sometimes you just honestly, truly, are not going to win a particular game. Just accept it and laugh. I really felt the lack of hacking. A pitcher and oblivion would have locked the Jotum in place so that it at least could not be 90+ points in a local quarter of the board. Great stuff if you have an Avatar to take advantage of it, but still useful without it. Caliban is a genuinely amazing piece, with a ton of flexibility and really gives good anti-TAG in the list. Problem is, D-charge melee should probably not be plan A. But it is a great plan B. Helot is a major pain in the ass as always. With how the board was, between TAGs watching the ground and Helot watching the rooftops I was pretty locked out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Game 4 vs TAK on Acquisition. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I think this was post impetuous as that Taiga is rather far up I've played this opponent a fair bit and he always gives me a run for my money. He's also had wins over players that I face regularly and struggle against. But on the other hand, I also got in solid practice against TAK in the lead up to the event and honestly felt this was one of the better matchups for me. So I went in pretty confident but definitely cautious. He played something like this; Fireteam Core: 4 Line Kazak (FO, Medic etc), 1 Vet Kazak APHMG, reserved Frontovik MSV1 AP Sniper 2x Dog Warrior 2x Bike Paramedic Strelok Mine Strelok Forward Obs 2x Loose Line kazak I took list B. Put the Noctifier on a bridge with wide lanes of fire. Avatar was reserved and eventually placed right flank, as that part of his DZ was wide open for an Avatar to come forward and purge. Scattered Skirmishers about the place but crucially placed the Caliban on the right flank to support the Avatar or crack the interior building on that side, and the libertos was placed front and center as far as possible to dig stuff out of the denser left hand flank. His reserve was an AP Sniper MSV1 Frontovik that jumped into the link. I'd faced these before in practice for the event so I barrelled right into it. Four dice on 12 vs two on twelve. Took about six orders and two wounds to actually hit him, which totally wrecked my first turn. I moved the Avatar over, fixed it to 3 STR, and retreated all the way back to deter and hide from Dog Warriors. I sent a Taiga up to clear a strelok and it failed with its ass out in the wind and dumb facing. Definitely a deliberate trap and not pure stupidity. On his turn, he moved his link around inside the structure to bring a Vet Kazak to bear on my Taiga. Noctifier appeared, fired its missile at a line trooper to avoid the mimetism penalty. That ended up irrelevant to the result but I was happy that I had... uh... engineered that setup and remembered that it was a thing. The Noctifier beat the Vet Kazak and blew him and a line kazak to kingdom come. He brought a Spetz up to easily clear the Noctifier and called turn. I advanced my Avatar to the right flank, took multiple shotgun crits from the damn strelok before I could finally kill it, purged various things either out of cover or with impetuous, then pulled back to the extreme right side of his DZ with a fire zone over most of the DZ. I sent a Preta to attack the Spetznaz but it was outclassed, he hit it and it went unconcious. I opted not to go dogged as its useless ass would impair the true alien hero from getting the job done. I waltz the 8 point Libertos up and killed the Spetz with it. On his turn, he advanced his remaining Dog Warrior. The libertos chipped a wound off of it and pissed it off by dodging its attacks. Such a busted unit. The Dog dug itself in near the left objective and blew away the hiding Shrouded. I spent T3 extricating that dog warrior with a Datz, Shrouded, Avatar, and Ikadron. It made a ton of PH 16 dodges but didn't get a smoke off. I don't think it was particularly lucky or I unlucky, its just in its element flexing on half-assed attack pieces at close quarters. In the end it was the damn Ikadron pistol into the back that was the only reason I was able to take it out. Up close the Avatar was no match and without B2 the Datz definitely not great at CC as well. Then I parked on all of the objectives and surrounded them with mines and stuff. The opponent could not get past with what was left of his army and the game was over. Result: 10-0 Takeaways Tilting has always been a thing for me, but I looked past the 20something point guy flexing on my Avatar and concentrated on what I could actually affect. Really, if you go the Avatar route, be ready for the "cheaper dude always punches up" rule to really kick you in the nuts on a regular basis. New crits are swingier but typically safer for TAGs. Two shotgun crits would have just nerfed the Avatar into the ground, but instead it just bounced them off. It also could have died. When the board allows for it, the Avatar can be unbelievably dominant Avatar has particularly good game against Ariadna as the midfield is hacker free. Yeah there are other problems but they are generally less immediately game ending as an ARO-oblivion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Game 5 vs Yu Jing on Supplies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mid-game photo, got a bit useless by this point. I faced against a solid player who has beaten me in the past and I believe won a one-dayer I attended last year, so knew I had to perform well or get rolled over again. He played something like this; Hsien HMG LT Lord of Thunder CoC Guilang Mines Guilang FO Reaction Bot Rui Shi 2x Long Ya Mines 4x Kuang Shi Monstrukker + Bot Misc cheerleaders I took List B, deployed second on what was honestly probably the worse side (I can be pretty poor at working that out). The board did not permit sweeping ARO over the objectives but I placed the Noctifier watching one and the Avatar watching the center. My strategy was "stay alive, take any random box or easy kills I can get, take his boxes on T3". My opponent did not have a fantastic first turn. In his words he "did not commit enough to buttons or to attacking". The Hsien attacked the Avatar in cover with HMG and did not phase it, and ended in a vulnerable position counting on Long-Ya ARO to deter the Avatar. The CoC guy kind of had his ass out in the wind with a box in the midfield. He smoked the box watched by the Noctifier (good call) and a Guilang took that box way back to his DZ. On my turn, the Avatar advanced and ate the Lord of Thunder, who kept dodging out of fear of the Sepsitor. In honesty, I was terrified of his Blitzen and was happen he was not firing that. Then it vaulted and fought a Long-Ya and Hsien at the same time, killing neither. I attempted to sweep the Long-Ya with my Noctifier and he failed multiple times... not great at that job. Avatar then did the business again, ate the Long-Ya, ate the LT and fell back. Turn two was LoL and not much happened. In my turn, I picked up the fallen box on the left flank with the Taiga and retreated, and took the central box with a Shrouded FO, retreating to my DZ. The last turn the opponent took some risky plays to get classifieds and similar, but they did not pay off. The Avatar stormed his DZ, vaulting a small wall to kill the box holder and take it away. Result: 10-0 Victory Takeaways; This list felt somewhat grounded in the old paradim of N3. Yeah, Long-Ya can hurt a TAG, but not consistently. Rui Shi can crush light dudes, which was the old meta, but what can it do to armor? Same for Hsien. Same for TR Bot. I expected a camo to be a hacker or a Tiger Soldier with some TAG removal to walk on and played cautiously around that, but there was a minelayer and FO - great options in N3 but tempered a little with how TAGs are such a force in N4. This really shows the difference in the two metas and how previously stellar profiles now need to be complimented with new ones. My strategy worked out well, but I was also not put under any pressure outside of the order cost of advancing across the table. Attempting this strategy with no Avatar or a damaged Avatar on T3 would be a different proposition. You definitely need to pick a plan and commit to it. Going partially into boxes or attacking leads to failing in both strategies. I felt the lack of a drop troop for the T3 swoop. The Avatar is great for this, but it will be targeted and sometimes die. Everything else was either slow or weak. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Final Thoughts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avatar is a monster now, but the list is all about what support you run. In this case, running more but weaker guys and having that second group was a big deal. This let me stay at above ten orders for most of tournament. Thats a game-changer! But more important than Avatar specifics were meta specifics. It's TAG time and HI time. You need weapons that cut armour, and infowar is incredibly important. And Ariadna and Tohaa, lacking the Infowar game, are really set up to be dunked on by random spotlights and the like in the midfield. CC is super, duper unreliable due to models losing MA4 and so many models either gaining CC or their MA2 becoming strong - you really cannot count on smashing things with a sword any more. I used to rely on this as my anti-armour in Tohaa, and that will definitely need to change. While I didn't see it myself, the guided missile menace is back, and it was kind of fucking up games all around me. As far as I know there isn't any counterplay to it at the moment, so we need to kind of figure that out as well.
Oooh, oooh! Round 1 was against me! It was ME who was rofflstomped by the Avatar! Here's what I was running: https://infinitytheuniverse.com/arm...BAQACBQANAQMAABMBAQAAEwEBAACExgEHAACExgEFAA== And while it is true that I picked up 5 OP, there was literally nothing to stop you getting 10 OP after your first turn. Forgetting to drop the Croc Man into the firefight with the ORC Feuerbach (and the ORC instantly dying) didn't help, but it was all done bar the screaming after your Liberto bullshit did it's bullshit bullshittingly.
Hoping that some players use this to help them understand the game, or understand the Avatar. Or honestly, understand how to beat it. Because the Avatar is an absolute unit now and I reckon its gonna shake up the 'meta' a bit with how hugely strong it is. Lol honestly, the list is a bit of a liberto delivery system sometimes. It was nearly as bullshit as your flash bot.
Cool reports and great takeaways. The 'avatar as an army commander' is an aspect of the model I love. Well written and well played :)
Interesting report and observations, especially about things like the speculo and shrouded fo. You already mentioned Bit & Kiss as a replacement for the latter; do you think something like a grief operator (allowing you to add points elsewhere) or a rasyat might be a more effective partner to the avatar than the speculo now? Also, congrats on 2nd place! Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
I just cant seem to have a meaningful impact using a grief - it's essentially a line trooper and doesn't hit hard enough. If I'm attacking I want to do it with a stronger piece. Rasyat I'm investigating when I jump back into Avatar lists. That eclipse smoke with either scoring or a spitfire is solid. He has great synergy with lists that fake a noctifier *and* let you capitalize on impersonator impacts on deployment without taking either of them. I think if I go for noctifier and no noc lists again the latter will definitely be tested with a rasyat over a speculo
I had a game with a Rasyat + Avatar yesterday. The idea has potential but feels like it will be a little meta-dependent; in the game I had, the presence of an Avatar (telegraphed by a WIP17 lieutenant roll) immediately caused my opponent to build a highly turtled null-deployment, which meant he was well positioned to defend against the Rasyat even though he didn't know it was coming. If your opponents are typically willing to contest an Avatar's active turn gunfighting, the Rasyat is probably higher value. In the game I had, most likely I'd have gotten better value by holding the Rasyat for a turn and going in with old faithful Libertos and the gakis I was spewing out of my deployment zone, rather than doing what I did, which was storm the rasyat in first order and get kills on a netrod and lamedh before I ran out of good approaches and targets of opportunity and started just going after his midfield pieces with my warbands anyway.
Whats your approach for warbands with the Avatar? I like one datz, one Taiga, and currently one Preta but only because I have one Taiga model. Libertos is an honorary warband with how it gets played. Without an order cap the Gaki feels like it could give a Preta a run for its money due to getting two for one, but with 15 models its hard to justify
Right now I'm going with the libertos and usually two irregular 6-6 gribblies depending on what I have points for. I'm using gakis presently just because I want to try them and I've had serious value out of climbing plus recently going after things like morans on rooftops, but all three of the 4-7pt options have value. The absolute most I've taken is libertos + three gakis but I think the sweet spot is either libertos + 2 gaki-equivalents or libertos + 1 gaki-equivalent + oznat sync. That last one is very experimental and I wish she was just a few points cheaper but I hypothesise that she rounds out an avatar list well. Need to test to see - only had one game with her and she was sweet but not sure if that's because she's natively good or because I spent enough orders forcing it to validate her inclusion and she could have just been more daturazi instead. Edit: oh and I take as many daturazi as I can concievably fit before I run out of group slots and points. My lists usually begin with two imetrons, two ikadrons and then daturazi for the order pool.
The Crit changes for CC were also a significant drop in lethality against anything with high ARM, or in your case any model at all with the Speculo because of Monofilament going from a crit being Instant Death to only 60% Death.
Unless I'm mistaken, a crit with mono is 84% death. Need to roll 13+ twice. In order to pass both saves, it's 40% * 40% = 16% and passing both saves is required to survive.
No, thats correct. I know it because that was the number I got for % chance to kill the Jotum =( I've been preferring the R-Drone, those extra 2 points are great and the mimetism+Flash ARO has been more useful than the non-mimetism flash and light flamer. And when I one day do get on the hacker train, that 6-6 repeater is legit. Not surprising to see Datz, but surprising to see the Ikadron be prioritized. Oznat is up there on my test list. TO hackers and the like are one of the biggest threats to an Avatar list, but I just don't get enough practice against them due to mostly playing against Ariadna. I was thinking that the event would see them kicking my shit in, but I think people hadn't fully grasped the prevalence of TAGs yet and started taking anti-TAG stuff more often. When I start seeing my Avatar hacked in the midfield, or those missions with the mandatory midfield TO guy that appears and wins on turn three, I will slam that Oznat into the list. In the meantime, can't justify it compared to two Datz, seems wild to pay full price for a Preta without getting an irregular order for it and I'm not at the stage where I need the 'free body' so much for AROs and stuff. Everyone seems to be talking up the Gaki, I guess I really need to give it a try. I haven't been majorly concerned with midfield camo but then again, a hacker saturated meta with Morans is also not something I've had to engage with yet. Thats the only midfield skirmisher where I feel a Gaki meaningfully matters - the rest of the time I'll aim to killer hack it, have the caliban on the same rooftop or nearby, or just go past or around it and not care.
To be perfectly honest, I'm taking Ikadrons over R-Drones because I painted the Ikadrons recently. The things about the oznat that are making me want to try it a little more are that: it's one of Combined's few ways to cheat the unit cap in terms of additional models (frankly this is the main reason) it's a 6-4 / 6-6 attack element that got a bit more kill to it than any of our other warbands elements sensor (circumstantial but hey) plus climbing plus on at least half the package for rooting around on rooftops Overall I think it's too expensive to regularly take in a list (8pts for that preta is insane) but I feel like it might be a candidate for a bunch of orders spent on in in a smaller group two over several turns while the taigha(s) runs around doing taigha things.
