I'm curious if I'm the only one playing vanilla CA who stuck with the same N3 ways of Anathematic hacker Lt, Charontid MSV3 HMG Lt, other profiles and skiavoro might as well not exist? Like, I just can't see good enough reasons to take other profiles of these. If someone had any success with other profiles I'd like to know how you use them. First - Anathematic, I basically got int infinity because the model is absolutely gorgeous, But with the rules there always was this problem for me that it's 99,9% of the time a hacker Lt if you play any mission with specialists, or in general, andI feel the same way with N4, I don't care that sepsitor is now 0,5 SWC instead of 2, itstill cant' be Lt, and sacrificing all the hacking button pushing goodness just for two shots at sepsitorizing something even with the new surprise attack working with direct templates is still meh. Spitfire seems like a good gun platform, but with marker state getting into 16" for plasma rifle isn't such a big problem, and it is better at getting wounds through. it might be a nice discount Sphinx at 23 points cheaper, but I till would have to take the Lt somewhere else which would most likely be a Mentor, it's better now than it was in N3 but the hacker still wins out for me. Second - Charontids, just give them MSV3 already on all the profiles, they even gave us the +1 order Lt on a Sepsitor version, which is probably our best delivery system for this weapon aside from the Avatar, but they just HAD to have a separate profile with firewall -3. And the hacker got a biiit better with now automatic cybermask, but I'd still take Anathematic basically always just because camo and -6 mimetism are so much better than the situational white noise and a cybermask, at a cost of just a bit less than a Daturazi. So in the end we have like 10 profiles for this one, but only one of those is usually good, and even an MSV3 HMG doesn't seem as good with all the fireteam AROs and lack of AP to deal with TAGs and HIs more efficiently. And the last one - Skiavoro, which got the most improvements of them all, but still fels like it doesn't make the cut being pretty squishy for its point cost, the spitfire LT as a relatively cheap source of strategos and fifth command token is pretty good, and can even be a decent backup gunfighter, but I'm real sad that the hacker profile can't be Lt, and even HD+ with B3 Oblivion doesn't save it in my eyes, I'd still prefer to take a more tanky Charontid, but instead of it I'd just take the Anathematic because it's so much better.
I've been running the Charontid hacker both for much of N3 and also recently in N4. I've never especially liked the MSV3 HMG profile except for specific matchups but the hacker is a very well-rounded and versatile piece provided you can arrange for fire support from elsewhere in the list (which I'm increasingly likely to do because a base HMG alone is a serviceable gun but not what I want for my expensive big weapon platform when I've got crank enemy TAGs).
I would seriously consider taking the Skiavoro if it had a hacker lieutenant option, but the current loadouts don’t quite work for me. It was also an often-overlooked beneficiary of the MI forward deployment rule in the latter half of N3.
The Anathematic hacker with +1 Burst Trinity is indeed hard to pass up on. I don't think I would ever even consider another profile for it. I mean, people love sticking camouflaged hackers in the midfield, and the Anathematic can just utterly murder them. It's basically TAG cryptonite as well, if it manages to get into the TAG's Zone of Control. For the Charontid, however, there's something to be said for the Hacker profile. White Noise and Cybermask are great on such a resilient trooper with his excellent BS 14 and his brutal plasma rifle, and his +1 damage to all his hacking programs isn't bad, either. Sure, he loses out on the Anathematic's Mimetism-6, but he gets +1 BS instead, and costs 13 points less - that's a whole Daturazi, basically. He also has the somewhat subtle benefit of having a smaller silouette than the Anathematic, which can be pretty useful. He can be a great choice on missions such as Highly Classified, where he's able to complete all hacking objectives + all heavy infantry ones, as well as Panic Room, where he gets bonus points for being a headquarters trooper, and most action happens on plasma rifle range bands anyhow. In metas like mine, where people love ARO pieces with MSV, his White Noise can be extremely handy as well. I've run him with some success, especially on Highly Classified. The Skiávoro desperately needs a lieutenant hacker option. It's basically a pointless trooper as it now stands. I wish they could make it just a wee bit better, because the Charontid and Anathematic are such intimidatingly hefty points investments, it'd be amazing if the Skiávoro became a worthwhile alternative.
I started playing vanilla CA at the beginning of N4 and pretty much never left home without an Anathematic hacker - he is a great lt and specialist and a good rambo as well. I agree that other profiles are a relic by now and are pretty much never played. Same goes for the Charontid, he seems to be a bit of a relic, still good, but not as good as before. I have zero experience with the Skiavoro, but I the fact that people rarely choose him also means a lot. In general, I feel like the aspects (minus the Avatar) are good, but they are a relics, to a certain degree. In an armor-matters edition not having AP on your main 70 point HMG platform hurts. What I would like to see is a revision of these units and slight adjustments - I think that both Ana and Charo could get their movement updated to be 6-2. I'd love for the Anathematic to lose hidden dep. and get a FD +4" instead, to show that he really is the vanguard. BS 14 on Ana would be neat, cause they technically are the same model. Also, I agree that Charontid could get MSV3 on all of his profiles. Skiavoro - no ideas here lol In general I feel like the aspects should be absolutely top notch, cause they are meant to be the pinnacles of CA tech, and right now they feel a tiny bit off
Every time I see that comment about MSV3 on all Charontid profiles I'm like 'please my lieutenant is already expensive I don't want to pay like 12pts more to become a chonkier Asura'.
I actually feel like a lot of people actually want charontid to be a chonkier Asura, at least I'd definitely prefer that to "just" a S5 HI with good stats, but that's my personal bias in list building that basically needs everything to have either visual mods or a way to ignore them, or be really, really good for its points, and with a non MSV3 HMG I didn't get that, certainly in N3, maybe less so in N4, but I'll actually try Lt+1 order sepsitor and a HD+ Lt this week, maybe that'll change my mind, though as of now I'd gladly take an MSV3 HD+ charontid for 73-76 points, the spitfire Anathematic and MSV3 HMG charontid are the same 70 points, so it'd probably cost around the same as Anathematic hacker, maybe having an MSV3 sepsitor would be a bit over the top, but it's arguably better without an MSV because you can use intuitive attack through smoke on 16's, but for me it's more that against less cube-dense armies like Ariadna a sepsitor Charontid is basically just an elite HI, but then again we have 2 lists for a tournament so this isn't as much of a problem.
Honestly, I wouldn't mind the Charontid to be a chonkier Asura - he basically is (imo) a slightly weaker Asura atm. To me, Asura's stand-out profile is the hacker lt. one, as she brings so much utility to the table - white noise, marker state, trinity, all of the nasty hacking programs, competent gun fighter, good lt, msv3 for 69 points and 0 swc. Meanhwile, the Charontid hacker lt brings white noise, marker state and nasty hacking stuff, but he can't really deal with other hackers (lack of trinity hurts here), is a decently good gunfighter (no msv3 hurts tho), is a very good lt, is harder to hide (S5 can be beneficial in certain cases tho), for 63 points and 0.5 swc. Also, if I'm already paying 60sth points for a big boi, I'd gladly pay more for him to a proper one-man-army, rather than "good at dealing with a limited number of things," cause we have other units that are able to do the same thing he aims to do - but better
I have a list I'm eager to try out ina couple weeks once my vaccines are done taking effect and I can start playing in person. It basically uses ko dali and a speculo to clear the way for the anathematic hacker lt to move into the mid field and start plasma gunning/brain hmg'ing anything that moves. I'm bringing a t drone as well to spotlight/missile anything the anathematic doesn't want to directly fight on his own. This will be an alternate list with an avatar if I feel like I'm going to be fighting hackers. glkNY29tYmluZWQtYXJteQtBbmF0aGVtYXRpY4EsAgEKAYIUAQEAAoH/AQEAA4IPAQEABIIPAQEABYXsAQEABoH3AQIAB4H1AQQACIIQAQQACYILAQYACoIEAQMAAgUBhRABAQAChRABAQADhRABAQAEghQBAQAFgf4BAQA=
Bringing this back because I'm starting to get back into CA now that we can meet in person. I'm surprised no one mentioned the Cybermask being available for the Skiavoro as well. That's really powerful for a guy with a Plasma Rifle hacker, Oblivion +1 burst and WIP 16.
Edit: I confused Anathematic and Skiavoros, ignore the below. Though I'll point out that Cybermask doesn't provide Surprise Shot. I think it often gets overlooked because Camouflage is generally better unless you're against mines or MSV3, especially as Cybermask deactivates Mimetism due to NFB.
I am also always disappointed when I look at the hacker profile since it can't be the LT. So, I feel like you lose some of the benefits for taking a skiavoros.
I get that. The Lt. is very good but I think that hacker is not bad on it's own. I think Kerr-Nau might be a little better as far as using Cybermask goes. He doesn't get the surprise shot but it's still helpful for getting behind the enemy to shoot them in the back with plasma.
I love the Ana hacker Lt. Hard to assasinate machine gun brain or wip16 surprise spotlight, and great late game Rambo with Lt order, good wounds, BS & ARM, plasma, and great visual mod. The only slight annoyance is 4-4 move which can be especially frustrating with an awkward big base - even more so in difficult terrain like annoyingly placed blizzards. I do agree the aspect profiles suffer from outdated profile design where most have just exclusively 1 good thing about them rather than a coherently compelling package with an appealing role. The ana Hacker Lt being a notable exception.
Again bringing this back. I used the Skiavoro Lt. a few weeks ago and it was fantastic using the combo of +1 Command Token an Stratego 1. I was able to set aside 3 figures during deployment and it helped a lot. Of course, I’d love it if it could also be a hacker but the Lt. worked out well.
Consider using it offensively while you have other hackers in your list. Having it die and transfer WIP 16 to Bit or a Dartok isn’t te.
I've had some mileage out of the MSV3 plasma rifle Charontid in the past. It can be a bit board/situation dependent but it can definitely be hard to dig out from a good position. I did once run the sepsitor Anathematic at a tournament to quite good effect but I think part of that was that it was unexpected.
