Hassassin Escalation

Ok, so after some brainstorming I've got 3 rough lists:

Spoiler: List A

Round 5 A
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GROUP 1 10
GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16)
GHULAM Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 17)
GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
LEILA SHARIF Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Shock Marksman Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
FIDAY Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)
FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
MUYIB (Fireteam: Haris) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)
MUYIB (X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)
HUSAM Spec-Ops (12 XP) (BS:13, CH: Mimetism) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust, Spitfire / D-Charges, Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)

GROUP 2 2 3 3
BARID Hacker (Assault Hacking Device UPGRADE: Icebreaker) Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

4 SWC | 248 Points

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List A has a ghulam core and muyib haris as its main features.

Spoiler: List B

Round 5 B
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GROUP 1 10
FIDAY Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
FIDAY Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)
FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
GHULAM HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 20)
GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
HUSAM Spec-Ops (12 XP) (BS:12, CH: Mimetism) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Viral Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
GHULAM Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 17)
LEILA SHARIF Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Shock Marksman Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)

GROUP 2 2 4 4
BARID Hacker (Assault Hacking Device UPGRADE: Icebreaker) Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

3 SWC | 250 Points

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List B has Ghulam core and double Fiday double Farzan.

Spoiler: List C

round 5 C
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GROUP 1 10
ASAWIRA (Fireteam: Haris) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 44)
MUYIB (Minelayer) Rifle + Light Shotgun, D.E.P. Viral Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
MUYIB (X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)
FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
FIDAY Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
GHULAM Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 17)
GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
HUSAM Spec-Ops (12 XP) (BS:12, CH: Mimetism) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Viral Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
GHULAM Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)

GROUP 2 2 2 2
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
BARID Hacker (Assault Hacking Device UPGRADE: Icebreaker) Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

5 SWC | 249 Points

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List C has tries to fit a Ghulam Core and Asawira haris, but I'm not sure it does it well, since there's only one Asawira in the link. I could shave off some points by cutting stuff, but I'm not sure extra Asawira are worth bringing a single combat group to frontline against ISS.

Is there anything about any of these lists that jump out to any of you?

 

Fair point. I've noticed that with the spec ops option I can make a rather silly Asawira Haris and full defensive muyib core link and still get to 10 orders in 250 point list.

Spoiler: Super Silly

Hassassin Bahram
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10
MUYIB Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
MUYIB (X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)
MUYIB (X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)
MUYIB Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
HUSAM Spec-Ops (12 XP) (CH: Mimetism, Hacking Device) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust, Viral Sniper / D-Charges, Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
ASAWIRA (Fireteam: Haris) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 44)
MUYIB (Minelayer) Rifle + Light Shotgun, D.E.P. Viral Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
MUYIB (Minelayer) Rifle + Light Shotgun, D.E.P. Viral Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
FIDAY Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

4 SWC | 250 Points

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I doubt that's really the optimal choice here but it amuses me none the less. I do like @Balewolf 's idea of the viral sniper muyib., but I wonder if i'd be wasting the haris as a defensive link. Something like, haris, HRL, sniper. I wonder if there's merit in running the Asawira haris as a midfield attack piece and keeping a 3 man muyib core for defense. Something like this:

Spoiler: Still probably bad

Hassassin Bahram
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GROUP 1 10
ASAWIRA (Fireteam: Haris) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 44)
MUYIB (Minelayer) Rifle + Light Shotgun, D.E.P. Viral Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
MUYIB (Minelayer) Rifle + Light Shotgun, D.E.P. Antipersonnel Mines, E/Mauler / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
FIDAY Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
MUYIB Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
MUYIB (X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)
HUSAM Spec-Ops (12 XP) (BS:13, CH: Mimetism) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust, Viral Sniper / D-Charges, Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
BARID Hacker (Assault Hacking Device UPGRADE: Icebreaker) Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)

GROUP 2 3 3
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

3.5 SWC | 249 Points

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Ultimately I think some version of A or C is going to be best depending on how many mutts I want to bring.

 

Yeah, it was a typo. i've corrected it for posterity.

For ultimate comfort vs ISS in frontline, I ultimately want to build around this base:
Hassassin Bahram
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4 2 2
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
FIDAY Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)
BARID Hacker (Assault Hacking Device UPGRADE: Icebreaker) Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

0.5 SWC | 91 Points

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That gets me at least 1 model starting in the middle and far bands, plus a pair of mutts to slow down rambos and a barid to give me an alternative to dealing with the plentiful hackable attack pieces in the faction.

Despite its success in the last mission, generally speaking I feel like a ghulam link isn't at its happiest when its running up the board. So if i take a ghulam defensive core, who is taking my zones? If don't take a aggressive haris, do I have decent choices for lone operators? Bahram doesn't really strike me as having ridiculous rambo options like some other factions have. So what to do? Ayyar? More Farzan? Rifle Lasiq?

That gets me something like this:

Spoiler: No Haris

round 5 d
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GROUP 1 10
FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
FIDAY Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)
LASIQ Viral Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
GHULAM Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 17)
GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16)
GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
HUSAM Spec-Ops (12 XP) (BS:12, CH: Mimetism) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Viral Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
ÁYYĀR (Surprise Shot L2) Rifle + E/Mitter, D.E.P. / 2 Viral Pistols, CCW, Knife. (0 | 37)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2 2 2 2
FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
BARID Hacker (Assault Hacking Device UPGRADE: Icebreaker) Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)

2.5 SWC | 249 Points

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But at this point do I have too many pieces competing for orders? Probably not, but then it doesn't feel like a very aggressive list. The lasiq is slow and the ayaar is a short range fighter. We have the room to turn the ayyar into a ragik which gives me another unexpected attack vector. Maybe I'm overthinking things now that I've got a lot of points to play with and the decision paralysis is stronger.

 

Round 5 is completed with a win for Bahram, 10-1. After a silly amount of vacillation I eventually settled on the list with the Muyib Haris.

Spoiler: Round 5

Whiz Escalation 5
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GROUP 1 10
GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16)
GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16)
GHULAM Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 17)
LEILA SHARIF Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Shock Marksman Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
FIDAY Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
MUYIB (Minelayer) Rifle + Light Shotgun, D.E.P. Viral Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
MUYIB (Fireteam: Haris) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)
HUSAM Spec-Ops (12 XP) (BS:13, CH: Mimetism) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust, Spitfire / D-Charges, Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)

GROUP 2 2 3 3
BARID Hacker (Assault Hacking Device UPGRADE: Icebreaker) Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

3.5 SWC | 249 Points

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This was my opponent's list as best as I can recreate it:

Spoiler: ISS

Imperial Service
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GROUP 1 6
BÀO TROOP (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
BÀO TROOP (Multispectral Visor L2, Biometric Visor L2) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
PHEASANT IMPERIAL AGENT (Chain of Command, Fireteam: Haris) Red Fury / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (1.5 | 36)
CRANE IMPERIAL AGENT Lieutenant (Sensor, X Visor) MULTI Rifle, 2 Nanopulsers / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 52)
CELESTIAL GUARD Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
SOPHOTECT Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31)

GROUP 2 7 5
RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20)
CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)

5 SWC | 250 Points

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As a reminder, the mission was frontline (w/ 12xp spec ops) instead of the standard escalation round 5. My general strategy was: Mutts as usual to slow down opponent and take kills of opportunity. Barid and Fanous to threaten hackable attack pieces. Ghulam link to camp out and lock down fire lanes. Fiday will harass, take down cheerleaders and maybe contribute to furthest zone. Farzan to harass in midfield and maybe help contribute to middle zone. Muyib haris had the data tracker and would push up the field to fight and dominate where needed. And generally speaking, that's how it worked out. Usually for a mission like frontline I'd take initiative on the start of game roll off, but I decided to go for deployment this time around. Since I was relying on a lot of area denial style threats, I thought the advantage of counter deployment would serve me best. What I found interesting about this round was that I didn't really have an 'mvp' per se. Since my strategy revolved around zone control and area denial the whole army really worked in tandem this time around with no one unit eating up the majority of my orders on any given turn.

Mutts: Middle of the road performance for these guys. Got some asymmetric trades. but my opponent didn't go out of his away to eliminate them. This might have left me the potential to get aggressive with them, but I didn't have any in the main group, and that may have been an oversight. I wonder if it's always worth while to keep at least one is group that can feed it a few regular orders to exploit an opportunity for aggression.

Barid and Remote: Barid scored me my classified (scan an enemy troop) but my opponent wasn't aggressive in the right areas for these two to do much and the threats I brought them to deal with got taken out by other troops. . Barid was convenient to grab the close zone at the end of the match and fanous ended up in the far zone thanks to its speed.

Farzan: His mine was a good deterrent but he himself didn't accomplish much, and that's largely because I misplayed him. I wasted some orders farting around on a roof that wasn't really in shotgun range of anything and then I moved him to a spot, drew an unexpected ARO discover and that just left him exposed and easily removed on my opponent's turn. The way I used him he'd have been better if he'd been the rifle profile, but I really wanted the mines.

Fiday: My direction of the fiday this match was even worse than the Farzan. For reasons I cannot explain I deployed him over by the Kuang Shi, and he basically got caged in by the threat of chain rifles and exploding prisoners. I inflicted maybe two wounds despite getting some nice template coverage with the initial shotgun blast, and then eventually lost him to a pistol on round 2 when he flubbed his smoke. This was another situation where the rifle profile would have been superior, but I didn't have the points for it. I have not lost faith in you noble Fiday, I just need to treat you with the respect you deserve.

Ghulam: They did exactly what I needed them to. When I saw my opponent didn't have any long range templates, I deployed them aggressively in the open in an area that was hard to pie slice and they were a terror that locked down a 3rd of the board. My opponent did the right thing and went after them with the rui-shi and some smoke, but bad dice for him led to a disastrous love affair between his remote and a missile even after the Sophotect gave him a second chance at romance.

Muyibs: These were my new guys to try out. I was prepared to be hyper aggressive with them, but the rest of the army did the brunt of shell cracking, leaving them largely to clean up. I made a terrible error in underestimating a large volume of burst 2 pistol fire from the kuang shi because I wasn't diligent in checking lines of fire. Fortunately, low pistol damage and my dice saved me. After the initial disastrous move, the two non active members were out of sight and the spitfire was able to clean up and put the rest of the kuang shi in dogged. Beyond that I was pretty inefficient with them.After pushing them forward to fight and almost losing them, I didn't really have a good place to entrench them and I feared templates from the crane, so I pulled them back, and did so further than was necessary because I forgot to take into account how few orders my opponent had remaining. I feel like I got the most value out of the minelayer, because those viral mines were a great deterrent in rounds 1 and 2. Had I read the table a little better, I think I probably could have gotten more out of the spitfire, but it was a good learning experience. I can definitely see the appeal of the profiles and look forward to getting more use out of them.

All in all I think it was a good and very fulfilling match. My opponent was on the newer side again (the main point of this particular league is to get some of the newer folks in the meta some experience and to force us veterans to try out new armies) and we had the luxury to play nice and slow and discuss tactics and options as we went, so I think he learned a lot despite the loss. His tactics were good and if his list had been a bit better suited to the mission and the dice a little less harsh I think he definitely had the potential to crack a hole in my list and make it a close game.

 

well, our journey is approaching its end; round 6 is on the horizon. 300 points vs JSA in the default round 6 league match. It's a simple antenna grab with one classified. There are 3 antennas on the midline, a b2b specialist can gain control with a WIP check. Scoring is checked at the end of the game, 3 points per antenna you control.

Objective wise, it's going to be a midfield control party. Since antenna control can be stolen, blitzing them first turn and taking them isn't a crucial strategy, but I will eventually want to hold them and make the area around them dangerous. JSA means I could be up against a lot of TO and ODD and I feel that on a scenario like this my opponent is almost certain to take forward deployed Ryuken and at the very least one specialist Ninja or Saito.

Once again, we're looking at a fair number of hackable attack pieces, so I think a Barid and some Mutts are a good idea. The Rafiq is my only sensor option, so while it's not the most efficient tool for flushing out HD it might not be bad to include. But I'm not sure what else to do beyond this. What advice do you guys have for bringing Bahram against what could be a major amount of visual mods and HD?

 

@Errhile I think I've heard of the tactic before. I think if you can take multiple sniffer bots, you coordinate them up the table and drop the sniffers then have your sensor ping all of them, or in this case since we can have more rafiqs than fanous, it'd likely be run the fanous up and drop a sniffer or two, then coordinate the rafiqs up and do a coordinated sensor. For the Govads are you thinking something like "Haris, Sniper, Sniper?"

@oldGregg Is there a reason you prefer the standard hacker over AHD for the Barid? Or the antipersonnel over the viral on the muyib mine layer? So that first list looks like its built around delivering the Asawira haris to the midfield to push buttons and fight while the Ghulam lock down some fire lanes. I imagine those regular orders in the second group are to feed the mutts. If I'm reading the second list right, that's another Asawira delivery vehicle with some more advanced deployment pressure from the farzans and a surprise ragik to hopefully exploit a flank.



In general, I can see the appeal of a few long range options. As a JSA player I know that can be a weakness of the faction. What are people's thoughts on the AHD Ragik as an AD specialist? Generally not worth it compared to the aggressive spitfire profile?

Thanks for the quick responses it's some good stuff to thing about.