Show me your TAK lists

Here's couple of lists. First some comments, however. The amount of games I have played can be counted with one hand. The past Covid year in terms of infinity has has been mostly reading stuff online, and painting models. It could be stated, that my gaming knowledge is limited to understanding the basic rules.
In terms of proxying, I try to have about correct gear and the model should look somewhat like its profile. I dislike the antipode models, so I don't have any.

Here's the first list I made, and provided foundation on what to first get back in N3. The line kazak core with frontovik sniper seems like a good deal. The spetnaz HMG alongside the vet kazak has been marketed as one of the better units in TAK and Ariadna in whole. My own very limited experience indicates that vet kazak is a standout, but the spetnaz HMG didn't quite live up to its reputation. The streloks with a sprinkling of scouts find their way in to all lists I tend to make. They provide board control and seem to be quite definitive TAK profiles. The lietunant Voronin and dozer package provide orders for the list, and maybe even shoot something.
gTEHdGFydGFyeQkgUmVndWxhcnOBLAIBBgCEZgEFAACEZgEGAACBAAEBAACBAQEBAACBAQECAACA7gEFAAIJAIRwAQgAAIDjAQYAAIDjAQYAAIDjAQYAAIDzAQEAAIDqAQgAAIDlAQEAAIMAAQQAAIDuAQMA

Second list with some of my own ideas for N4. I try to avoid explicitly going for 15 models, as I want to hide if I have a parachutists. This is further made more important, as I expect to have quite small circle of opponents.
I think there should be a good haris team somewhere in frontovik, vet kazak and voronin providing number of range bands and even some melee. If I had the model the frontovik would likely be be equipped with HRL.
I try to avoid having a single camo marker in my deployment zone to make it harder for my opponent to guess the profile. Thus to include autocannon tankhunter, I should have something else there, and the lieutenant tankhunter fits the bill fine. In case the lieutenant WIP is open information, with the current setup the tankhunter lieutenant can probably be deduced, as voronin will likely behave quite aggressively. So, some changes would be warranted in that territory.
Pavel is there with the streloks to provide more range bands in mid field. The line kazaks and irmandinhos are there to bring number of orders and model count up. I have been also led to believe that the irmandinhos are quite good, and the smokes are very valuable. Frontovik engineer tops the list being specialist and providing harder overwatch than the line kazaks.
gTEHdGFydGFyeQlIYXJpcyBUQUuBLAIBBgCA6gEEAACEcAECAACDAAEDAACEZgEFAACEZgEGAACA5wEFAAIIAISAAQEAAIDnAQMAAIDjAQEAAIDjAQEAAIDjAQYAAIRwAQUAAIDwAQIAAIDwAQIA

Third list, which has been build in having multiple attack routes and ranges in mind. It includes the parachutist spetnaz, dynamo, sniper spetnaz and spitfire frontovik. I feel that the parachutist spetnaz with rifle plays safer compared to the shotgun, and I think its better to try preserve the unit when it appears. The now standard streloks and scouts do their regular board control things. The kuryer katyusha feels interesting due to having the minelayer ability. I wish I could take an unarmed mule with the kuryer dozer team. The additional frontovik provides harder overwatch. The other kazaks are there to provide orders and hide the lieutenant.
I really couldn't fit the vet kazak in this list. The price of the dynamos make them very attractive in my eyes, but I am worried would I be able to meaningfully maneuver two of them in board.
As far as I understand a haris fireteam can't be made of the two frontoviks and 112, as 112 needs to join core fireteam of frontoviks.
gTEHdGFydGFyeRkgTXVsdGlwbGVBdHRhY2tSb3V0ZXMgVEFLgSwCAQkAhHABAgAAhHABBQAAgP8BAQAAgOMBCAAAgOMBAQAAgOUBBAAAgPABAgAAgO4BAwAAgO4BBAACBgCF9AIBAACF9AEBAACEbgGQVAAAgOUBAgAAhGYBBgAAhGYBBQA=

Generally all of these lists lack distinct ability to maneuver vertically, but maybe it isn't that big of a deal. In open tournament environment, I'd need to have a couple of lists prepared in advance, with different types of opponents or missions in mind. There appears to be some armies that have distinctive play style, which should be prepared for. One clear example would be another Ardianda/TAK list where Voronin's sensor would be a great asset. The super units such as, achilles, avatar, tough tags, are something I am bit concerned about, as its not clear to me would I be able, even in active turn, to win the FtF rolls against them with weapons that are capable of doing some damage. Should I be bringing AP HMG vet kazak or autocannon tankhunter every time? There are other distinctive archetypes, but I don't remember them now.
Moving forward with list building in general, I think I'd need to acquire the HMG vet kazak and some SWC weaponry for the line kazaks, such as missile launcher or sniper. I tend to fall quite short of the SWC maximum points, which of course is not a problem. Also, I'd think my preferred list would be something without cheerleaders, where the threats for my opposition could appear in multiple range bands with multiple models, instead of having one deadly profile where the orders would be channeled to. Then again, maybe I should play a few games before over analyzing these things :)

 

I have been having a lot of fun staring at this list on my computer:


──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 10 1 2
COLONEL VORONIN (Lieutenant [+1 Command Token], Strategos L1) T2 Boarding Shotgun / AP CC Weapon, Pistol. (0 | 26)
FRONTOVIK (Multispectral Visor L1) AP Sniper Rifle ( ) / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
LINE KAZAK Missile Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 17)
LINE KAZAK (Forward Observer) Rifle, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
KAZAK DOKTOR Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
HANDLER Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
3X ANTIPODE AP CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
DYNAMO AP Spitfire / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 24)
DYNAMO (Paramedic) Boarding Shotgun ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 19)
STRELOK (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20)

GROUP 2 3 2 2
STRELOK (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 21)
STRELOK (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 21)
TANKHUNTER Portable Autocannon, AP Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 38)
CARMEN Chain Rifle(+1B), Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol(+1B), DA CC Weapon. (0 | 17)
BÂTARD Trench-Hammer, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 8)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army


I know that this may not be optimally competitive, and of course it is not based around any one mission, however I think that this list would be a lot of fun to play.

Some of its strategies, strengths, and synergies:
- Defensive 5-man link with aggressive ARO options. Col. Voronin provides many things for this list, and for the Fireteam. He protects the 5-man link through Guard, and even sensor (though rarely). Furthermore he provides additional orders to the list through Strategos lv 1 and an additional Command Token to be used for many things. The link also contains the Frontovik MSV1 AP Sniper--and with the plethora of smoke in the list some weak shenanigans can be had in a desperate move. He is backed up by a Line Kazak ML, which of course is subpar but it exists. The first Combat Group has an extra Line Kazak, anticipating one of these troopers going down in ARO, and allowing the 5-man link to possibly reform and remain in operation during the second reactive turn of the game. The presence of a Doctor also reinforces this strategy, allowing unconscious troopers to occasionally stand back up when needed. This is an important redundancy to allow for the fireteam to accomplish its role in the list, which is really to provide covering fire for the advancing warbands and forward deployed specialists (along with the Tankhunter). Which neatly brings us to our other strategies, strengths, and synergies...

- Fire and Forget Units. There are a couple of Warband and Warband-esque units in this list; namely: Carmen Johns and Batard (Carmen), Antipodes, Dynamos, and Irmandhinos. You could argue that there is too much overlap in the list in this area, and I wouldn't fight you on that point. It's also a concern of mine, but I think the amount of impetuous or Tactical Awareness that these units possess mitigates the order-hungry nature that each of their roles needs to fill. But the problem is there. I think that another strategy for mitigating this issue would be to choose one unit each turn that you really want to make a run with, don't divide your orders between multiples in this category, saving other Fire and Forget units for later turns. The point that these serve in this list is really providing a Blitzkrieg style of play. Many of these units are Impetuous, or are Warbands (Irregular and Impetuous) allowing them to selfishly and aggressively advance up the table. Several over-watch units and minelaying, camouflaging control units allow for us to mitigate the ARO presence these Impetuous troopers will face. Using our control of the board and plethora of smoke, we can dictate what fire-lanes we leave open or close for our approach. These units should function like missiles, careening up the board and into one of our opponents most critical units in their list that they are relying on for the mission. These units are supposed to trade up, sacrificing themselves to win the scenario.

Some fun tactics to consider for these units are: 1.) Dynamos are Fireteam Duo, meaning you can move the Paramedic to the mid-field under cover of an AP Spitfire on an 8-4 platform. Pretty good, but it gets better. Depending on the mission you may want to decide to either form the Duo after moving up the field (thus utilizing Impetuous), or break it after moving up the field. The reason to consider this is for the opportunity to do a coordinated order to place 4 mines on the battlefield with the Dynamo's Double-Shot Mine Dispenser. That's crazy! With the other Strelok Minelayers in the list, this gives us incredible board presence. Not only are our Warbands striking up the battlefield, and thus advancing their presence, but our mid-field skirmishers and veritable mine-field are presenting roadblocks that are opponent must consider if placed properly. 2.) Carmen is a glass cannon, but a beautiful one at that. If you can get into CC, likely through utilizing smoke effectively (and that's a big "if"), she can do either a CC 25 NBW B3 attack, or CC 25 NBW B2 DA. She accomplishes this through placing Batard as a peripheral in silhouette contact with her CC target (+1 B), and using either her +1 B Pistol (which applies to CC) or her DA CC Weapon. This is an amazing CC attack, and especially against other Martial Arts specialists due to NBW. Critting on a 15+ with 3 dice is incredible for a 17 point warband.

- Midfield Presence. This list has an insane amount of midfield presence, via Streloks Minelayers and a Forward Observer, and the fact that after your first turn you will have loads of additional presence via your Impetuous bikes, Warbands, and possibly your Antipodes if you ran them as an attack unit. This midfield presence and gameboard control is critical to reinforcing our general strategy of having an ARO over-watch presence supporting our marauding warbands. It allows us to control where our opponent goes, funneling them to certain areas or else forcing them to spend additional orders to deal with our presence. It's also good for securing and obtaining mission objectives, and denying our opponents the same. I think that this piece of the list is especially important for the bikes, since they can be so easily manipulated by your opponents own ARO and board presence if you are also lacking in that area.

-----------------------------------------

Anyways, I know the list probably has its weaknesses, but I really like both the theme (Dogs and Bikes!) and the strategy and tactics it presents. I don't think it's awful, and look forward to seeing if it's at all effective when I field it, or if it falls apart completely. I think against an ARO heavy faction like Varuna it would really struggle.

 

In n4 we can rely on New units.

I like carmen very much.
Smokin around and sensoring plus nice cc.

Dynamos are very cool and try to take one oftenly.

 

Played this tonight for Frontline: gTEHdGFydGFyeQEggSwCAQgAgPMBAQAAgOMBAQAAgOMBCAAAgOMBAQAAhHABAwAAgPEBAQAAgPIBg0UAAIDnAQIAAgcAhIABAQAAhGYBBQAAhGYBBQAAgOUBAQAAhG4BkFYAAIDjAQEAAIDjAQYA


──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1 7 2 1
KAZAK DOKTOR Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
LINE KAZAK (Lieutenant) Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
FRONTOVIK Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 21)
HANDLER Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
3X ANTIPODE AP CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
DOG-WARRIOR Chain Rifle(+1B), Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CC Weapon. (0 | 24)
TANKHUNTER AP Heavy Machine Gun, AP Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 38)
GROUP 2 7 1
PAVEL McMANNUS Ohotnik, Chain-colt, Shock Mines / Pistol, T2 CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
STRELOK (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 21)
STRELOK (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 21)
SPETSNAZ (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage, Mimetism [-3], Decoy [1]) Heavy Machine Gun / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 38)
DYNAMO (Paramedic) Boarding Shotgun ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 19)
LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
LINE KAZAK (Forward Observer) Rifle, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
6 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army

General principles,

- You want to max out the 15 limit because a lot of your guys are BS11 W1 chumps.

- This list breaks that 15 into two equal combat groups, each of which has a job to do. Each contains a strong gunfighter (Tankhunter & Spetsnaz).

-The first combat group contains the blitzers - a core link fuels either a Dog Warrior or Antipodes depending on what you're dealing with. TAG? Antipodes. Opponent over-extends some LI? Dog Warrior.

- The second combat group generally holds ground. The Streloks are there for crowd control, and McManus is in the mix to CC strong opponents that get left alone / take opportunistic shots with his Ojotnik. The Dynamo Paramedic is a pretty good pocket flanker, but has good synergy with the Dog Warrior in case you want to try to pick him up.

 

You should definitely take at least 2 dog warriors, probably 3. 24pts for 3W total immunity model with auto-hitting direct template attacks? Probably the best defensive model in the entire game. Oddly enough, dog warriors aren't that good during active turn against single targets because enemy can always declare dodge against your direct template attacks or single die grenade attacks. Ideally, you should always spend orders in a way that allows you to attack two or more models because that way the odds of failing a dodge much higher. Obviously try to get into close combat is preferable against all targets.

Antipode assault pack are a mess because peripheral:control rule is a mess. You should try to get into melee with your target, but refrain from attacking it during active turn. Antipodes and Dog warrior close combat is also easily thwarted by going into places where their base can't fit or can fit but it exposes them to unwanted AROs.

The problem two with TAC is that we don't really have a good attack piece that can navigate terrain and engage enemy at favorable range bands and angles. I mean if we had Climbing+ or superjump spitfires or HMGs...

The problem number three is that there are a lof of MSV1 in defensive fireteams and in addition of countering all of our mimetism it can see through smoke. Good luck engaging that fullcore Suryat HRL. Whatever you are doing, it will shoot you with at least 2x16 and you probably have to win the faceoff multiple times to finish it off. If you lose the faceoff, your model likely dies. Our enemy probably knows that TAC is really good at defending but lacks the ability to mount an unblockable attack against his attack pieces. The best we can do is tie those attack pieces to melee with antipodes and dog warriors.

The problem number four is that there are a lof of burst two direct template weapons and smoke grenades in defensive fireteams. Losing against 2x19 pretty much ends any vet Kazak or spetsnaz rampage and any short ranged firefight against light shotguns may very well end badly.

 

I have found almost all of these points to be 100% true. I’ve had a MUCH better showing with both USARF and MRRF than I have with TAK. Though to be fair, I’m still learning TAK. I’ve also rolled hot garbage in my last 4-5 games.

That said, I have found the dog warriors to be absolutely amazing. In addition to your comments on the antipode pack, I also find them difficult to maneuver/deploy effectively, especially since Panic Room seems all the rage this season and the 8” deployment zone gets tight.

 

I have been thinking lately on how to best capitalize on 1st turn alpha strike and come up with the following:

Voronin + 3x Scout Minelayers
1. Use Cmd-token to deploy 3 models during last model step
2. Bait opponent to deploy multiple ARO models with Dog Warriors.
3. During Player One Last Trooper step of deployment, try to infiltrate at least one Scout minelayer next to enemy deployment zone by passing PH-3 roll (88% probability).
4. If everything goes as planned, you have 10 (full combat group) -2 (enemy strategic use of cmd-token) + 1(Stratagetos lvl1) = 9 regular orders to rambo enemy backline with Scout Minelayer, prioritizing on isolating enemy commanders, tags and heavy infantry.


Ghosts of Ariadna
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 9 2 1
SCOUT (Minelayer) Ohotnik, D-Charges, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
SCOUT (Minelayer) Ohotnik, D-Charges, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
SCOUT (Minelayer) Ohotnik, D-Charges, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
DOG-WARRIOR Chain Rifle(+1B), Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CC Weapon. (0 | 24)
VETERAN KAZAK (Paramedic) T2 Rifle, Light Flamethrower ( | MediKit) / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 39)
COLONEL VORONIN (Lieutenant [+1 Command Token], Strategos L1) Rifle / Assault Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 25)
LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
HANDLER Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
3X ANTIPODE AP CC Weapon. (0 | 15)

GROUP 2 2 3 1
DOG-WARRIOR Chain Rifle(+1B), Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CC Weapon. (0 | 24)
WARCOR (Sixth Sense) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
HANDLER Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
3X ANTIPODE AP CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
WARDRIVER (Hacker, Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 14)

2.5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army