N4 Tactica: Unpredictable is our Standard

Hello there! This is a work in progress tactica for the best damn merc company in NA2, Foreign Company. While I'm not a top competitive player I do play a lot of the game, and I've mained FoCo since N4 dropped, so I thought 'what the hell, let's give it a spin'. As such, please do chip in with your own advice, tips and corrections, and I'll update the tactica to reflect this as we go along.

Why read when you can listen?

If you want to hear my thoughts on my favourite faction in Infinity, you can tune in to hear Ray and me shoot the breeze about FoCo on the WIP12 podcast! Important to say that this was recorded after the Crimsonstone fireteam update, so it's pretty bang up to date in terms of fireteam compositions.

Who are Foreign Company?

“In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation.”
– Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle

Welcome to Foreign Company, where war and social media are indistinguishable. Pull up their profile on the War Market and you’ll see that FoCo are so much more than a mercenary company: they are a mayacast media colossus and each of the company’s star mercs are huge celebrities in their own right, with followers in their billions. Subscribe and you can get access to your favourite fighter’s training regime, early bird alerts when they’re deployed, and exclusive live feeds of their battle. Often when FoCo deploy they’re greeted at the spaceport by a zealous fanbase, already camped out, trying to catch a glimpse of their favourite aristo.
Foreign Company consistently rates high on The Scale, demonstrating a peerless combat victory record, with access to military equipment that normal free companies can only dream of.

Why should you play Foreign Company?

Because you love characters embedded in elite core fireteams, massive spike damage, Aristeia! crossovers, social media dystopian nihilist humour, and a combined arms approach to cracking a mission, where your exact choice from a wide-yet-shallow roster can lead to wildly different lists.
I'm happy to report that Foreign Company must rate as one of the most improved N4 sectorials in the game, with their fire-team composition becoming far more permissive, and their Bolts transforming into perhaps the best gunslinging core in the game. The sectorial still has restricted listbuilding options in some departments, however, making FoCo competitive but perhaps not S-tier.

Faction Strengths

Bolt fireteam core

With the advent of N4, FoCo’s loveable Bolts changed from an awkward forward-deploying haris pick to one of the premiere fireteams in Infinity. Our Bolt team’s flexibility, its overlap with Orcs, and our incredible wildcards make a core that is capable of both long-range domination and door-kicking brutality. Sectorials are first and foremost about fireteam composition and I’m happy to report that FoCo can mix it with the very best of them.

Superb characters

Señor Massacre, Laxmee, Valkyrie, Avicenna and Wild Bill all bring very potent tools to the roster, and all can join various link teams. (Oh yeah, and there’s they Hannibal guy too I suppose.)

Überfallkommando

It may seem a bit odd assigning one of a faction’s USPs to a single character, but I can assure you it’s no mistake. I can’t really imagine running FoCo without her in at least one of your lists, and she’s such a powerhouse that I’ll be dedicating a lot of time to her use in this tactica. Is she the most bleeding-edge efficiently pointed unit in the game? Yes I think she may be…

Strong (yet shallow) hacking net.

Laxmee is a terror and can nest safely in a core for sixth sense, tinbots and fireteam-fuelled pitchers. You can write lists to support her with a hidden deployment specialist packing dep-reps if you so desire, and we have access to six repeater units. However FoCo's other hackers aren't on her level, so if you invest in hacking you need to wrap Laxmee in cotton wool, lest your investment be for nought.

Eclipse & Control

Only Aleph has access to more sources of Eclipse grenades. We have two units both packing eclipse and here’s the kicker; both verge on must-takes, so you’ll have lots of opportunities to confound LoS; prudent use of eclipse will often swing a game your way, especially when there are buttons to be booped in a wide-open fire lane. We also sport E/M mines, Shock Mines, Drop Bears and Cybermines, with three minelayers in the lineup; not too shabby.

Resilience to LoL

You can happily run 4 Bolts and a few Securitate in a list, all of whom bring veteran. They ain’t quite Morats but should your Lt eat a bullet you’ll often have a small pool of regular orders to play with: veteran really can make all the difference, and it’s especially important when you draw Hassassins or Vanilla Combined Army as an opponent.

Close Combat Threat & Retaliation

We’re not JSA but we do have three extraordinary melee fighters, all of which come with NBW. Überfall, Señor and Valkyrie are all S-tier combatants, so should you choose to build for it, you can definitely get your bully on. Because they all sport NBW and top-tier CC weapons, one or two in your list can really give a CC-oriented opponent a headache.

Faction Weaknesses

Dusty ol’ TAG

It pains me to say it but our sole TAG, the Iguana, is just err... *checks notes* ... very not good. While it’s perfectly serviceable in friendly play, you should really conceive of running one as an active handicap. If you’re looking for a TAG faction FoCo ranks among the worst factions in the game by this metric. I know that's contentious to that haggard band of die-hard Iguana fans out there, and heck, I love the old girl too, but even her unique repeater loadout doesn't bring her up into being 'okay' as far as I can see. I'd love to be proved wrong.

Limited MSV

We have one msv1 and one msv2 visor in the sectorial. I won’t say too much bad about this, as our msv1 is on one of the most terrifying units in Infinity: the linked Bolt Sniper.

Limited leadership skills & order economy

No tactical awareness, NCO or counter-intelligence, and our Strategos Lvl1 is locked behind a very expensive profile, Hannibal. Clocking in at 38pts you will feel light on toys if you decide to bring him for his Strategos Lvl1 and his winning smile, especially when you consider that he costs the same as a Feurbach Orc.

Lack of resilience

Yes, we do have Orcs and a Kriza but they’re still expensive 2w models. FoCo units tend to drop fairly easy; we are a glass cannon sectorial.

You can’t have it all

While FoCo can build in some very interesting directions, their limited availability (21 out of 29 of our units are AVA1) on key units and high average points cost means you’re going to be making some tough decisions in your list building, and attrition will take chunks out of your list in sometimes painful and debilitating ways.

Outstanding units

Bolts

Let’s start at the top shall we? Bolts are a unit defined by their marksmanship, one of the most powerful abilities in Infinity. Assuming you opponent is using cover intelligently, the ability to ignore the -3 to BS afforded by cover effectively renders a marksman with +3BS. This is obviously a big deal on a core sniper, but its impact goes all the way down to a single Bolt. Because they’re so integral to FoCo I’ll spend the time to go through the key profiles:

MSR + MSV1 (31pts, 1.5swc): The profile most likely to draw forth salt from your opponent, and rightly so. Shooting in its preferred rangeband, a core bolt sniper will hit a target in cover with mimetism -6 on 16s. She throws terrifying dice and can’t be easily dislodged; Arm2, msv1, veteran (so E/M doesn’t phase her and she doesn’t guts unless you want her to) and sixth sense all combine to make her an incredible pain in the ass to deal with. A big decision you’ll have to make is whether to set her up on ARO if you’re going second. Like, a BIG decision. One of the two units in our roster that utterly skews our play style and just sits up and begs to be taken. If she’s not in your list, you better have a darn good reason.

Spitfire (27pts, 1.5swc): often my second pick for my core team, the spitfire bolt chucks out a punishing amount of accurate fire, and offers a great gun in a key rangeband. If you’re building a Swiss-army knife kinda coreteam, this Bolt should be high on your list, despite its tendency to bounce against heavy targets. BFF with Valk and Massacre.

Paramedic, combirifle, LSG (24pts): Yes she’s WIP12, and so you can expect some frustration pushing buttons with her, but her combirifle is no joke; I’ve often used her on point when closing range with the remains of a coreteam. Most importantly of all, burst 2 medkit hitting on 16s or 19s in good range can be clutch; FoCo units hit hard but drop easy to crits, templates, clever counters and mines, so bringing a paramedic in your core is a great idea. Don’t forget about her LSG, it can be clutch.

Killer Hacker, E/M mines, Boarding Shotgun (25pts): A close contender for best specialist Bolt, the KH Bolt just gets it right. Its poor WIP is mitigated by Trinity’s +3; its BTS6 is great; its veteran skill makes it immune to oblivion, the strongest response a lot of hackers have to a KHD; and it brings a shotty and 3 delicious E/M mines, giving you a nice Move+deploy order for the team’s movement through midfield, which is where it yearns to be.

Boarding shotgun, Drop Bears (22pts): a superb option for filler, and drop bears bring so many shenanigans to the team. In a core, the Drop Bolt can speculative-fire a bear on 13s, or throw two out to 8” on 19s. For this reason it’s a clutch unit for dealing with rooftops, camo and cheerleaders, and outright demands you bring a mulebot along for a reload. (Remember that drop bears deploy without camo, though.) Mr Drop Bolt loves to work alongside other close quarter profiles, where he can set up some classic ‘fork’ manoeuvres with a high burst BS attack; the drop bear’s range allows it to synchronise with the spitfire’s rangebands, and to threaten angles and distances that your opponent often won’t expect. This profile is, however, kind of in direct competition with the natural wildcard for the Bolts, Señor Massacre, and Mr M is serious news.

Missile Launcher (26pts, 1.5swc): your swap-out for the spitfire, if your bolt link is planning on staying at home and dominating firelanes. Has the frankly trollish combination of skill and weapon to allow it to entirely ignore cover, but is a little hard to justify as one of your four bolts.

Chain of Command, Combi Rifle, LSG (28pts): Too pricey for my tastes, but a key option for some branches of FoCo builds, especially if you favour the Kriza LT, or Hannibal. I don’t so he rarely sees play for me; he may for you though.

Lieutenant, Combi Rifle, LSG (23pts): Again, a strong option, especially if you’re settling for a defensive fireteam. I like to run and gun with my core, so consequently Lt Bolt is a dangerous choice. Defensive links with an MSV bolt, Laxmee, an Orc, etc., do well tucking an LT away, and being able to protect your LT in a team is, I suppose, a good argument for building in that direction.


Überfallkommando

We’ve covered the Bolts, the best unit in the roster; now let’s move onto the other best unit in the roster.

In this section I will be borrowing heavily from the excellent thread over on Nomads’ board, “How to yiff”, so special thanks to Bolshevik, Hachiman & Zakalwe.
What does 20pts buy you when you include the Chimera and her three pupniks? Firstly, the best active turn CC unit in the game. Burst 3 Viral NBW on 27s inflicting -6s is frankly absurd. Secondly an amazing delivery package! The whole team benefit from 6-4, climbing plus and eclipse to deny all LoS; but also total immunity to utterly disregard that oh-so-popular aro defence of flashpulses.
Thirdly, and most rewardingly, you’re buying a troop with 3 peripherals, which opens up a whole host of cunning plays to the experienced Uberfallkommander… In reactive turn your pups are dodgin on 19s, making them a pain to remove, a threat to advancing units, great for blocking and denying space, and generally an optional roadblock if you really need to bleed orders or protect an asset. They also throw out 3 discovers; yes they’re WIP10 but at close range the odds are good that one will sniff out a marker state for you. For these reasons this team makes a great reserve drop, allowing you to counter assassins pretty damn well.
On the active turn they offer superb midfield-clearance, dancing around deployables and tearing up skirmishers. In active CC you can split the pack and declare CCs on four different targets with one order, or throw everything at one high priority target. Pupniks make great sacrificial pawns, dodging round corners and through templates, tying up big guns in CC. One big decision you’ll have to make when deploying her is “do I want to cruise missile her at a priority target, deploy her to bog down a flank, bodyguard my other units, or climb her out of harms way in the midfield, ready for a turn 2 or 3 killing spree?” Another big question will occur later, when you’re hitting your opponent’s ZoCs - do I want to risk the Chimera to bring out the big CC guns, or can I hide her round a corner while her pups make a nuisance of themselves? All these options are valid, and your flexibility in using this key piece will have a big big impact on how well you do with FoCo.
Finally, Chimera herself has some excellent uses - she can eclipse to cover firelanes for others, she can template trade with her nanopulsar if CC aint viable, she can go into supressive fire with her Combirifle. But she also has a glaring weakness: her dodge, while a respectable 13, is the big weakspot in the team. If a pup dodges it’s on a 19, making a mockery of a lot of control, templates, etc. If it fails, who cares frankly? However if your Chimera gets caught making a dodge roll, you’re risking a whole lot - suddenly it’s 50/50 whether the entire team is taken out by a shock mine. I hope this gives you some ideas of how powerful, fun, and challenging this unit is to run.

Laxmee
Is there anything she can’t do? For 24pts we have a Hacking Device+ star with BTS6, and an available Orc Tinbot sidekick on the menu. She's armed with the wonderful pitcher, minelayer-cybermines, D-charges(!) and the ever reliable SMG. She gets mimetism -3 just for giggles, and she can duo, haris, or slot into an Orc core (and by that I mean own or two orcs plus bolts, naturally). She single handedly gives FoCo a very strong guided game, if that's your poison, she is built to give HI and TAGs panic attacks, and when put in a core for that sixth sense bonus, she becomes a really dominating presence on the field. Finally, she's a character hacker with Dcharges, so she ticks so many classified boxes it's untrue. Can you run FoCo lists without her? Of course you can. Should you? Well that used to be an easy answer: 'not really', however, with the fireteam changes her stock fell significantly, due to pure core composition restrictions. She breaks Bolt pure-core, so going in on her is gonna lose your bolts 2BS. That's 1BS off marksmanship; not a small loss on a unit like the Bolt.

Señor Massacre

My personal favourite character in FoCo for both style and substance. He adds so much to our Bolt team it’s untrue. Let’s talk about what his role is in a fireteam. Most importantly, and perhaps most pedestrian, he throws out two eclipse grenades on 16s, allowing your team to confound suppressive fire, avoid aros and move to where it needs to be; it also gives you the power to shroud a key objective in eclipse and then mash the button like hell, which really cannot be overstated in importance, especially if you’re relying on those goofy Bolt specialists to do the mashing.
Secondly he brings a boarding shotgun for great close quarters defence and room clearing; breaker-combi is a nice weapon too but he’s significantly worse at shooting than his Bolt or Orc team, so it makes sense to keep him cheap at 26pts with a shotty. Leading a Haris team I see much more use in the breaker, to diversify the tools at their disposal.
Thirdly his E/M grenades are just so good for countering the common TAG or HI team. E/M grenades are just top-dollar right now. Chuck them, spec fire them on 10s, enjoy the little rascals.
Fourthly, outrageously, Mr M packs an E/M CC weapon with martial arts level 3 and natural born warrior. What does that all add up to? Well, Massacre is genuinely a first-rate CC threat to any unit in the game. Warbands and assassin-type units need to be very careful zerging your team with him around. His 3” dodge means he can threaten CC pretty nicely.
Finally to top it off he gets regeneration. Don’t rely on it, but don’t forget it. 60% of the time it works every time.
Like Laxmee, he now knocks out pure core on Bolts, so it's more of a challenge to fit him in these days. Still a legend.

Zeros
With all the glitz and glamour of the other units in this category, it’s refreshing to come back to the Zero, the stripped-down minimalist infiltrating speciliast, par excellence. These beauties complement FoCo lists so well, as by their nature they offer a low-points counterweight to FoCo’s tendency to buy all the shinies. For only 40pts you can buy yourself some great specialists that demand very few orders to do their work, and for that reason I often tend towards putting two in my second group. While the celebs, furries and aristos are out there posing and vaulting over cargo containers, your Zeros are quietly and efficiently winning you the game. My top three picks are: FO, KH, and E/M mine + Dep Rep, but all are superb.

Beasthunter
"Why should this pretty generic unit feature in FoCo's 'good' section?", I hear you cry! Well simply put, it has great synergy with both our zero midfield and our kaplan haris.
Firstly, I do believe that most FoCo lists should be taking two zeros. For 40ish points you bring so much mission capacity to the table. Alongside them, the Beasthunter becomes the (significantly more violent) wildcard in your three-card deck. Now your opponent can no longer assume that those camo markers in the midfield pose an objective-oriented threat, but not a damage-oriented one. They can threaten with CC, large direct templates, surprise atack panzerfaust, and A/P mine drops, all for 15pts. Finally, I find the hunter works really well as an assist for your UFK, if she gets a bit stuck, so consider taking it in a different group to her. Most of my lists now start with two zeros and a hunter; give em a try, you won't be dissapointed.
Secondly, HRL Kaplan, Laxmee and a hunter makes a super cheap and super effective haris for only 56pts.

Valkyrie
We come to the last profile to make the cut into ‘outstanding’, and being honest with you, everytime I write a FoCo list, I feel a duty to see if I can cut some points to bring her into the game. Is there a more intimidating berserker in the game? Her unique combination of Total Immunity, Berserk, Exp CC, NWI, core linkable, and NBW means that she just projects threat. That’s her game, offering a zone of ‘oh shit, it’s Valkyrie’ control. Putting her in a core utterly changes its potential, and she just trades so damn well. Few units in the game can make such good use of Berserk as her, as there’s really nothing that can one-bang her, and with her ARM3, the return hit often just pings off. Finally, if you’re a risk taker, she loves to do the dirty on an enemy, then be brought back from NWI to full health by a core bolt paramedic: two dice hitting on 19s, combined with her PH14, makes this the safest paramedic role you’ll ever make. Sure she’s expensive, but if you’re facing a tournament with something like Armoury in it, accept no substitutes.
No she counts as (Bolt), she's in at least one of my two lists for most tournaments.

Good Units

Akalis
I used to be a bit 'meh' about the Akalis. No longer. I've been playing them a lot and I actually think that in FoCo they rate as a very strong pick, when you have the points for a 29pt spitfire. The extreme pressure that UFK + Core Bolts brings to bear can often leave very nice board edges to walk in on.Yes they're pretty no-frills, but frankly a BS13 spitfire walking on in turn 2 or 3 can flip a game on its head. Let's not forget he's an elite troop with WIP13, meaning he can pick you up a few classifieds to boot...

Orcs
Plain old Orcs have some very clear strengths and drawbacks, right there for all to see on their statline, but despite their vanilla style but they do have some very important roles to play in FoCo. Firstly, they offer Laxmee her only access to a core tinbot; she can do good work without an Orc wingman but be warned, she is much easier to punk. If you can afford him, the Winterfor Orc with multirifle, tinbot and Climbing+ is the pick of the bunch; not only does he sport a snazzy fur-trim jacket, he brings a lot of utility to your core. The multirifle is a solid firearm and he can scamper up verticals to get a bead on those deployables and skirmishers that would otherwise be a real pain to remove.
Next, the Orc with Feuerbach is a fearsome aro unit when given coreteam bonuses. Very opponent-sensitive, but in the right matchup he can dominate the table, and offers a big threat all the way out to 48”. Finally, Orc hands are the best hands to trust with an HMG in FoCo, so if you feel the need for some old fashioned HMG’ing, it’s a solid pick.
It’s also important to note that, compared to the (frankly better) Bolts, Orcs have a much more permissive set of units that can keep the pure bonus: Laxmee and Senor Massacre are both superb choices for an Orc core. I do think there's meat on them bones; worth considering. What I do think is that IF you want to run an Orc core, FoCo is the best place in Infinity to do so...

Avicenna
Do you want a doctor? Because we’ve got one helluva doctor on our roster. Expensive at 27pts but she does great work in keeping troops on their feet. She’s got some serious competition, however, in the Bolt Paramedic. That’s because the Bolt is a bit cheaper, is one of the best medkit users in the game, will often be aiming to rez a hight PH target, and keeps pure core. A other consideration is that in base-to-base Avicenna is the winner by miles, but that Bolt can put two rounds into a trooper with excellent accuracy out to 8". It also carries a combi and LSG with BS13 and marksmanship. It’s a tricky decision, and you'll have to make it.
So why wouldn’t you take Avicenna? Well, she messes up both Bolt and Orc links. Kaplans play nicly with her, but are strictly inferior to Bolt cores (I mean, who isn’t? Don’t feel bad Kaplans!) and the composition of a mixed Orc/Bolt team is a tricky thing. I will say that IF you're going with a mixed Bolt link, there's a strong case for her. Laxmee, Senor, Avicenna and two SWC Bolts is a really nice core.
To summarise: I’m not knocking Avicenna, she’s superb at what she does. But FoCo composition makes her a supplementary pick, not an essential one.

Kaplan
FoCo Kaplan are interesting. Quite a few of our characters like to hang with Kaplans, and Wild Bill’s inclusion in a Kaplan Haris is a nice proposition. They bring the cheap cheap option of HRL, a good doctor (who tends to get overlooked for Avicenna), and a superb engineer. The engineer and HRL are legit choices that bring something different to FoCo. If you’re not giving Laxmee a tinbot, she fits very nicely in with these toolkit troopers. Additionally, they can bring a cheap 9pt Beasthunter along to keep a haris super cheap. That makes them very tempting in some lists.

Wild Bill
In a sectorial without core Bolts, a core-linkable Bill would be big news. Here he’s still good, and fits in nicely with Kaplans, but his limited fireteam access means he’s not outstanding. Something like a HRL & Laxmee alongside Bill is a sweet little haris, however, in that it can interact with scenery, threaten at multiple rangebands, and is worthy of your consideration. However I'm afraid Bill is probably the loser in the FoCo list of superstars...

Warcor(s!)

You know all about those plucky war correspondents, so I won’t bore you with singing their praises. Being able to take two is twice as nice, but beware the dreaded Irregular Bloatitis.

Croc Men
If youre not running a Haris and are instead stacking into a core-plus-lone-threats kind of build, the Croc is a great pick for the role. The MSR brings some very pertinent options to the table; most importantly he can infiltrate to give you those highly dangerous cross-board shooting lanes that only the best opponents factor in to their decision making with the weight they deserve. As your reserve troop he can also often draw a bead on backfield units that your opponent thought safe, again due to a combination of sniper range bands and oblique fire lanes.
Honourable mention to the minelayer loadout too, which can introduce a little bit of shell game or misdirection to your Zero placement, and the FO who brings FO and Combirifle to the X-visor game, both of which benefit massivley. He can reach out and but 3 combirifle rounds into something 32" away without penalties. If you're goin in on GML, that long-range FO from the midfield can really catch your opponent out. Every other profile tends to be beaten out by the cheaper Zero, frankly, especially his otherwise fairly rare deprep loadout.

Pathfinder/Fugazi/Mulebot/Sierra/Clipper bots
Not much to say here except: Pathfinders are still pretty great; you’ll nearly always want that ava1 Fugazi; Mulebot EVOs are less relevant due to Laxmee’s Fairydust; Sierras seem like a waste when you can rock feuerbach Orcs and MSR Bolts; and Laxmee sure can make make a Clipper sing.

Peacemaker
We’re lucky to have access to the peacemaker, and this piece is very list- and style-dependent. It’s a great area control option, with FD+8”, templates and a repeater. However it’s also surprisingly vulnerable to skirmishers; their stealth can lead to the peacemaker being outmanoeuvred, and it hates 3” or 4” dodges round corners into CC. It can be difficult to repair due to FD, so is somewhat fragile. Still, a bargain and a great unit to have on the roster, and a particularly nice flanker: look for good trades and chokepoints for your auxbot, and be aware that the peacemaker is a very binary piece to defend with. It can easily degenerate from a nightmare to remove to trivial, through manoeuvre alone. If you're running one, remember Laxmee has fairydust, which can be clutch on a peacemaker in some matchups.

Context-dependent units

Securitate
Did you know FoCo contains precisely one wildcard: Hannibal himself? That single fact is what holds back Securitate for us; if you want to run them they’re either a very ‘okay’ defensive fireteam core or haris, or are scattered around your deployment zone, with one of them most likely functioning as your LT. They are a good line infantry, offering BS12, WIP14, some snazzy loadouts like Feuerbach or Repeater/BSG, and most importantly they’re our second veteran troop choice. FoCo has some pretty decent lone operators, so if you wanted to try your hand at a Securitate core to free up points for more toys, give it a shot, especially since FoCo can now take Securitate harises, and has two harises to play with! Even though they're context-dependent in my rating, I often take two or three for LT shell games.

Kriza Boracs
I love the fact that we get access to the Kriza. Back in N3 this thing used to give me the willies, and it’s such a great looking model. It is, however, largely irrelevant to FoCo’s better builds, to my mind. Its main virtue is that it provides a great active turn shooter that can rival the firepower of a Haris-linked HMG. What it can’t do, however, is defend like a Haris. It’s extremely susceptible to getting punked in your opponent’s active turn, especially if they can close the distance to inflict bad range bands and threaten CC. It’s priced at the same point as a Gamma or a Gecko yet it cracks a lot easier than those units. It’s a prime target for hacking, assassination, warbanding, Andromeda’ing, smoke n’shoot, surprise attack negative-stacking; you name it, it will work on the Kriza. It's also stuck with ye olde 4-4, which is a real shame for a unit that wants to run and gun. It just feels like a profile that’s been left behind the curve a little.
If you want to use it, remember it can’t look after itself, so wrap it in overlapping fields of fire and layered defence… and be ready to feel frustrated if it comes up against heavy armour or mimetism spam, where its BS13 HMG can feel a bit spongey.



Clockmaker/Daktari
They can’t link, and they have competition from engineers and healers that can. A hard sell but still viable, if you’d prefer to go down the traditional backfield-specialist+palbot route.

Hannibal
There’s nothing wrong with Hannibal... except his price. If you’re bringing him, you’re probably plumping for the LT option for Strategos Lvl1, and that’s an eye-watering 38pts. Poor Hannibal just suffers from bloat; he sports a MMR, discover tech, dodge bonus, NWI/Shock immune, etc, etc. The trouble is you don’t want to be shooting with Hannibal, he’s just outclassed. If the chap was just packing a chain rifle or SMG I would take him an awful lot but, as it is, the free company that he's boss of has some very efficient units that sit up and beg to be taken, and opting for Hannibal means you’ll be taking one or two less of them.
If you write a list with him in, you’re also making CoC Bolt close to a necessity, which in itself is the least efficient Bolt profile - a double tax totalling 66pts. Woof. Finally I can’t really think of a viable Hannibal list that doesn’t run double Wacor to try and re-add some lost efficiency - at which point you’re somewhat diluting the main benefit of Strategos lvl1. FoCo just doesn’t do order efficiency very well, outside of Chimera and fireteams, and Hannibal feels like he’s swimming against the build philosophy and the points spread of his sectorial.
HOWEVER... the fireteams update gave him a new lease of life: he now counts as (Bolt) for fireteam composition. All of the negatives I outline above still apply, but now either him or Valk will be needed to unlock a pure Bolt core in FoCo. That's a big damn deal. Take him, see if you can make him work, I'd be very happy to hear of your success.

Cube Jäger
I mean you could, right? I could see some niche cases to take a Jäger but to be frank he is a poor fit for this sectorial, unless that paramedic skill features in the mission.

Iguana
I tried, Iggy, I really did. I even took you to my last tournament god bless you, but let’s face facts here; you’re an ARM6 2S tag that costs 65pts. It’s verging on impossible to engineer an Iggy back up, as when it takes two damage it prematurely ejects its pilot, killing your tag and leaving you with an achingly average HI. That HI can’t even boop buttons (I think Iggy is the only tag in the game that can’t) as it’s not a specialist. Its one interesting facet is its repeater, but frankly if I want a repeater on a 55mm base I’ll save 45pts and pick up a Peacemaker.


Listbuilding
TBC

 

Thanks Taxites! Nice to know it'll be useful going forward, I'll crack on and finish my next entry over the weekend. Best of luck with the league.

 

Great premonition Tristan! It seems we differ in our opinion of Daktari and Orcs, but otherwise very similar. I decided to roll dependent and poor units into one class in the end.

 

Just a brief note to say I'm coming back to this tactica over the next week to finally complete the listbuilding section. For now, I've linked my WIP12 podcast at the top, and made a few edits to reflect where FoCo stand post-fireteam changes.

 

Agreed, that would be ace! I'll see if I can PM him on facebook.