I almost never can work a fraacta into my lists. They seem like solid troops but with the other options for both AD and MOD swinging gunfighters they just never stick in a list. I’m coming from the OCF perspective where often a chunk of points ends up being sunk into a link but absolutely welcome vanilla perspectives here. The boarding shotgun profile is the one I usually flirt with but end up ditching for either points, orders, or needing something more specialized for the mission at hand. How do you all work fraacta into lists and do you feel they often serve their purpose?
The ML Noctifer and Spitfire Fraacta are close enough in points to where if there's a hole in your list they'll have to guess. So depending on the situation I use either, and your opponent should have to think about both.
I read the above and just for a split second I thought there was somehow an uncanny way of making a list with a 32-33 pts slot that could turn out to be either a ML Noctifer or a Spit Fraacta and I shuddered :D
Is that where you option select your army list without telling the TO or your opponent? Sounds like cheating XD
No, that's Strategos 6. On lvl 5 you can pick whether you're playing Vanilla or a Sectorial that round ;)
The real trick is to run both. But then it turns out it was an Anathematic in hidden deployment all along!
So, hear me out: Fraacta with a shotgun is a freakin great tool to have in a list, with all the grenzer snipers and the likes having a good delivery system for a direct template is often a lot better than trying to bruteforce ARO threat with an HMG. In vanilla and shas there's the speculo, which is more reliable at getting to the target and it comes with an ability to stab someone with a monofilament CCW, but Fractaa does the same job of giving your opponent a hard choice between dodge against two dice on 18's or two DAM14 templates to the face, and is whole five points cheaper, and with transmutation it is better at facetanking some ARO's while putting down the templates, so you have a decent chance to trade more efficiently. As for Fraacta delivery - dropping in at PH12 isn't great, but while playing OCF you are really likely to have an EVO hacker, so you can spend an order and drop in on 15's, or walk in from a table edge if an opportunity presents itself. I wouldn't always take Fractaa in either OCF or vanilla, but when I do I'd stick with a shotgun profile, because winning ftf rolls with a BS12 spitfire isn't as reliable as you probably want your gunfighters to be, and something like a spitfire noctifer or a Q-drone would be better most of the time.
Good comments. I hadn’t considered the “guessing game” of fraacta or noctifer so that’s a good incentive. Would you take AD KoDali and a Fraacta together? She is so often the MVP of my games I have a hard time leaving her out.
As the Fraacta is basically a heavy infantry airdrop, I think she can be an attractive option indeed. She has the unique ability to risk tanking an ARO as he drops in/walks onto the board.She can even fail a F2F roll and remain standing. This makes her really able to make full use of those situations where she gets great positioning. However, the Hacker profile is stymied by her (by Combined standards) low WIP, so I tend to go for the Combi rifle or Spitfire profiles. But Combined Army is spoiled with awesome airdrops. So what decides which one(s) I pick? Well, the missions, really. The Fraacta especially excels in Firefight, where she gets a +3 to landing. If you combine that with an E-drone, she can land on 18, which makes you able to get into some really good spots. I ran both a spitfire Fraacta, Ko Dali and the Dropsuit Taryot on Firefight last time, and won a great success against a player I don't normally beat. Unlike the Rasyat and Ko Dali, who are powerful but fragile and tricky, and the Dropsuit Taryot, who's a sacrifical piece, really...the Fraacta is there only to do serious damage. She's what amounts to an unhackable heavy infantry showing up behind the enemy lines. If that's what you want or need, she's awesome.
One more thing: I often face armies with perimeter weapons, like CrazyKoalas. The Fraacta is especially great against these, because she can risk to try and dodge them, or even to try and tank a hit from one when she lands, whereas other Combined airdrops must avoid them like the plague.
The Fraacta is actually the Combined airdrop that I like the most, and run the most often. Yes I know the Rasyat is great now, but resilience in a jump trooper is so insanely useful.
The Taryot is amazing too, but I just discovered that, so I haven't been running it in as many games. Could I only ever take one of them, I might still go for the Fraacta, due to her resilience. But thankfully, I can take both :D