First Strike List

Seems like you have the Coldfront and Beyond Coldfront, do you not have the Danavas Hacker included in the latter box? It is pretty useful and one of our best hackers.

 

Oh right, I got it mixed up, still, the Apsara makes for a good proxy, although with that many Daikinis it could be a decent use.

Anyway, the Daikinis are nice, since a core of them makes for a good, if you pardon the pun, core for a list. All the models you have are part of the OSS sectorial, so for the moment I see no reason for you to not play as that, as that gives you access to fireteams and some cheaper profiles.

For your first games (or any games for that matter) I would not feel ashamed for proxying some models, especially when you have similar looking ones and can make it clear which model is what (both to you and your opponent). At its most basic the Rudra only comes in the one form from Beyond Coldfront and don't have any specific models for the other profiles, so just play it as the profile you prefer.

A basic approach to list building in your case is probably to play with two groups, one containing five daikinis (the HMG, Sniper, a paramedic and two rifles), with the rest of your models in the other group. In this case I would form a Haris in that group consisting of Shakti, the Spitfire Deva and the Rudra, this gives you a main unit which should be able to deal with a number of different threats at medium range. If you have the Yadu with a multi rifle as well from the box you might want to swap out Shakti for him, since he provides better close range fire and is cheaper (but less resilient). Next is to add more of the models you have, the Naga sniper and Shukra Chain of Command are nice pieces to have. Then I would add a Danavas and use your Apsara model as a proxy, or if you want to avoid proxies you could use the Apsara as is, probably using its REMdriver ability on the HMG Daikini, as it is the one with the best use of it.

Now we're left with a combi Deva and one combi Daikini (and if you have it a Yadu). However, even at their cheapest they are 36pts together and we only have 31pts left. If we did the swap of Shakti for the Yadu we have enough points, but if we don't we can still squeeze in both of them by proxying the Daikini for a Devabot. By adding a Deva with a Devabot we get a handy duo with a flamethrower that we can use to guard a flank. If you don't want to use proxies again, you could instead have the Deva be a hacker, which can also be afforded.

At this point I've put Shakti as the Lt, since she is the most resilient of the models, but really it could be any of her or the Devas. You could also play the Shukra as having a Multi Rifle and have him be the LT with Strategos.


This leaves us with 4pts (3pts if you went for the hacker), which leads us to something that any ALEPH player wants, netrods, which are essentially an order for the cost of 4pts. You can get it in the ALEPH support pack, and it is something very nice to have access to. The Yudbots and the Sophotects are good tools to have in your listbuilding toolbox as well for later.

 

If you don't have a lot of physical models, it's not a problem to proxy models. I would use one of your Devas as a Proxy Mk1 Engineer and I would use your Naga sniper as a Proxy Mk2 sniper (this is exactly what I did when I first started and it wasn't an issue). The Proxy profiles are some of the best things in Aleph. I would also use one of your Dakinis as a Garuda. Finally, I would proxy 2 Netrods. You can use anything for these (e.g. I'd probably just use an upside down marker from the coldfront box), they don't do anything but generate cheap orders.

There are still some points that you can play around with. Getting up to 15 orders would help. If you have the apsara from beyond coldfront, you could add it or use it as a Proxy Mk5 FO

gr8Kb3BlcmF0aW9ucyBPcGVyYXRpb25zIFN1YnNlY3Rpb24gb2YgdGhlIFNTU4EsAgEJAIC3AQQAAIC3AQIAAIC3AQEAAIC3AQEAAIC3AQEAAIJVAQIAAIJVAgEAAIRoAQMAAG4BBQACBQBtAQkAAISnAQEAAIStAQMAAIJTAQEAAIJTAQEA


Edit: I figured out how to add a photo!

 

Just for specificity, here's the models as listed in Coldfront, Beyond, and the Deva SWC box you've gotten.
(Either Shakti or the Yadu can be the LT)


I think Axelius's suggestions are good to start, though I'd try to juggle things around to get a deva into the Dakini link, as the #2 is very useful to keep the link intact.
For proxies I've run starting from the same base, the Yadu multirifle has been the Shukra Strategos LT several times, which frees the shukra model to be a deva or CSU, and I've also done the Mk1/Mk2 as Methulsa mentions, with the Apsara also sometimes being a Mk5.

 

Wasn't there also a CSU in the Coldfront pack? I always put one in a Dakini link.

 

The preorder came with a LE wardriver, no CSU in it. Although, ahaon, that is something that can be proxied by the Deva I guess.

EDIT: Icestrom and Red Veil had CSU as preorder bonii