A Weapon to Surpass Metal Gear: A General Guide to Using the Avatar *Updated to ITS11: Stakeout*

Is an engineer really *mandatory* for an Avatar list? Its a solid chunk of points and only works both in the active turn *and* if you have enough orders to get to the Avatar. Those are two big 'ifs'. Yes its better than being isolated by an assault hacker and essentially GG, but I feel its *more* likely that big daddy is gonna go down to your opponents active attempts to destroy him rather than in ARO.

Don't have batreps, but I ran this Avatar list to a solid finish at an NZ tournament - even took down Vaulsc with it! So I figured I'd post it up and discuss what I took and why because... content for the thread I guess. It took down Haqqispam featuring maximum Mutts (on an indoor maze table no less) and order spam Imperial Service amongst other things, which I expected to be very poor matchups. But then I also managed some dumb losses due to either poor decisions or, critically for an Avatar list, forgetting what has repeaters on it.

Balls Deep
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10 1
AVATAR Lieutenant (Strategos L3) MULTI HMG, Sepsitor Plus / DA CCW. (3.5 | 137)
STALDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0)
SPECULO KILLER Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | 35)
MALIGNOS (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 36)
NOCTIFER Missile Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
UNIDRON (Forward Observer) Plasma Carbine / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)
KRAKOT RENEGADE Submachine Gun, Chest Mine / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
ÍMETRON . (0 | 4)
6 SWC | 300 Points
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My list consisted of an Avatar, three troubleshooters that deal with targets the Avatar struggles with, a strong ARO option for if I went second, and cheerleaders. Total opposite to what I normally run, but I felt that only having a handful of meaningful units meant I got really good with them in practice and could play them to a higher level of skill than I could with larger armies. The list earned its name, being something that had to be played well to succeed, and dying instantly to any mistake due to a lack of Engineers (I still stick to my argument that you have already pretty much lost if you need one) and a dedicated anti-assault hacker pick.

Unit Choices;

• I found that the Speculo Killer was often doing more work than the Avatar itself, especially when going first. But CA players don't need people to tell them how good a Speculo Killer is. The general plan was to take first, due to a number of missions that preferred second turn, and use this plus strategos to efficiently kill something important.
• The Krakot is a fast, efficient model which can trade up or trade specifically with models the Avatar struggles with. He's a beast against Mutts and can help rescue the Avatar if it gets stuck in CC. Personally I really dislike the Sepsitor enormously (I would trade for a HFT even with no points cut!), so it was good to be able to move a fast impetuous dude with templates around near the Avatar to help cover its weakness to certain things in CQB.
• The Malignos can push buttons and hidden deployment, mines and decent combat stats helps it to also deal with specific units that the Avatar doesn't smash. In particular its there to remove threats from high buildings the Avatar cannot see on to.
• The Noctifer was plan B. Going first I had Strategos and Speculo who are very strong in that situation, but going second neither of these are as good. So one of my flex picks was a high skew in the other direction. One interesting thing about the Noctifer is that often the things that kill it also kill the Avatar - yes this does mean two of your vital units (plus the Malignos I guess) die to the same answer, but it also means that if you Speculo that answer in your first turn, the Achilles of many of your units is taken out all at once.

What I didn't take and why;

• Datzurati Witch Soldier: I wanted the controllable impetuous of the Krakot more than I needed smoke or mimetism, and the potential to get vertical mobility is also very strong. For more button pushy missions (if you would run an Avatar in those?) the Datz is more appealing.
• Killer Hacker: Kerr Nau was my leading alternative contender for the Malignos slot, and if I had run a second list it would have essentially just been a swap for that. I don't like any of the profiles that pay SWC as SWC is tight in a list that wants a Noctifer. Main reason for no Killer hacker was that I felt it would be faster to run a Krakot or use a Malignos to kill the hacker instead. More well rounded lists probably shouldn't make that decision, but who plays an Avatar to be well rounded?
• Q Drone: Purely because no SWC, it was an alternative pick for the Noctifer and definitely has some arguments for its use. I like it as a way to get value from your Engineer if you take one. If for some reason you have a vanilla hacker, its a very nice replacement for a Noctifer.
• Zerat Red Fury/Mines: Didn't exist when I played it (mid 2018), or existed as Corvus Belli Stealth Edit™. Would be a contender as a troubleshooter if I played the list today.
• Engineer: I felt that due to the restrictions on when an Engineer is useful in an Avatar list (early in your own turn) that it wasn't worth it. If I was taking one it would be the cheap Kurgat.

Theres definitely other ways to run an Avatar list. I still stick with no engineer, but maybe downgrading the Malignos to a Shrouded and the Noctifer could possibly be a Q Drone, which frees up the SWC to potentially take that sweet Zerat.

 

Yeah theres definitely been some neat additions to CA since then.

I've been wondering if the Caliban CoC can interact positively with Memnomica - allowing the Avatar to KO without self destructing and not going into LoL. Likewise the Caliban Engineer is a combat option that can deploy along the Avatar's path and is capable of clearing obstructions. And the Malignos is just straight up stupid good.

 

Looks like it. If your Avatar get's isolated, you can choose to make your Caliban the new Lt. If/When the Avatar goes down, you can still use G:Mnemonica, but the Lt. skill won't be transferred because it wasn't the Lt. anymore.

If your Avatar goes unconscious, you can choose to activate both, it would seem, and it whatever order you want (with the use of CoC being private). So you can either make the Caliban your Lt. then transfer G:Mn to something else, or transfer G:Mn + Lt. to something without using CoC.

 

So something like this;

Combined Army
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10
AVATAR Lieutenant (Strategos L3) MULTI HMG, Sepsitor Plus / DA CCW. (3.5 | 137)
STALDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0)
CALIBAN (Chain of Command) Submachine Gun, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (0 | 29)
KURGAT Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
Q-DRONE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)
ZERAT Red Fury, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
ÍMETRON . (0 | 4)
SPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | 34)
R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
6 SWC | 300 Points
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We have a Zerat and Caliban troubleshooter, the Q Drone is another good piece if you are the second turn player, and an engineer with servant. Unfortunately could not fit the Malignos - to go all in on fixing the Avatar's achilles heels I think you have to resign yourself to a turn of LoL, which I wouldn't want to do. This set up is quite able to restore a disabled or KO Avatar if it is not finished off by the opponent.

 

Spoiler: List A

ARO deploy + White Noise
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10
AVATAR Lieutenant (Strategos L3) MULTI HMG, Sepsitor Plus / DA CCW. (3.5 | 137)
STALDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0)
SPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | 34)
Q-DRONE Plasma Rifle / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
CALIBAN Engineer Submachine Gun, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
VICTOR MESSER (Hacking Device Plus) Boarding Shotgun, 2 Nanopulser, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 28)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
NOX Combi Rifle, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
6 SWC | 300 Points
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Im glad to run the new calibans in vanilla, CoC or in that samples with the Avatar, as the Caliban Engineer in the midflied. Strong potential with him, even if you can deploy a sincro. g.servant in your deployzone and the Caliban positioned forward in the midfield, covering the Avatar's run, but without the g.servant, the Caliban can run as well in coordinated attack together with Q+Avatar+Speculo. And yeah... unique engineer carry with camo marker, strong CC stats, nice toolweapons set and possible 3wounds, perfect target to jump with Nmemonica. The adding with Victor had access the White Noise, some hacking programs anti-hacks/HI/TAGS/REMs, supportware and the most important here: assited fire over the Q-plasma and Cybermask.

The last one, the add of Nox, for 14pts as a regular order in a LI list, im pretty sure this addition have more chances as our line troops in terms of 14pts to keep the order and a bit and nice ARO tool on deployzone, even the unidron with plasma carabine with assited fire... no chances to put him in supressive fire. And yeah, bioinmunity+Zapper, nice toolkit on games with counting the army points.

Spoiler: List B

Midfield control
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10
AVATAR Lieutenant (Strategos L3) MULTI HMG, Sepsitor Plus / DA CCW. (3.5 | 137)
STALDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0)
SPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | 34)
Bit Hacker (UPGRADE: Expel) Submachine Gun + Pitcher, Deployable Repeater + KISS! / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
KISS! Adhesive Launcher / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
CALIBAN Engineer Submachine Gun, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
SHROUDED (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Dazer / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
AÏDA SWANSON 2 Submachine Gun, Viral Mines / Viral Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 24)
R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points
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Same and essential profiles to carry with the Avatar; some drones+speculo and Bit&Kiss. The new adds on the shoured Dazer minelayer and the Caliban, have a nice stuff to do against normal/especialised ARO fireteams core, you only need run the Avatar on the way over the Dazer and try to killing the ARO pieces, if at all you have any problems, the Caliban have your chances to backup the Avatar in 1 or 2 orders, better than a Dr.worm or Kurgat with the sync. servant. If you are don't sure to start with the Avatar or the speculo, Aida Swanson are the better choices in the midfield on the active turn or simply, generating a coverfield with the viral mines, just run the smoke from the speculo to start with Adia's run with b4 weapons + mimetism + stealth in CQC, works great and better than a Krakot or this new Zerat with red furys in a coordinated attacks (here, with the Avatar list, not on all vanilla list, i agree with Krakots and the new Zerats in terms of great ligth pieces, but with the Avatar's run im not bet so much with this profiles). Aida... she are nice and well rated to do this jobs on the same points; clear mid-zones or go to hunt the enemy deployzones, walking arround the corners and borders of the table. Well... she's are cheap option and strong to do this plays, even if she found Dart on her way :/

Spoiler: List C

Multitask-force
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10
AVATAR Lieutenant (Strategos L3) MULTI HMG, Sepsitor Plus / DA CCW. (3.5 | 137)
STALDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0)
HAIDUK AP Marksman Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
SPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | 34)
CALIBAN Engineer Submachine Gun, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
Bit Hacker (UPGRADE: Expel) Submachine Gun + Pitcher, Deployable Repeater + KISS! / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
KISS! Adhesive Launcher / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
SHROUDED (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Dazer / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
6 SWC | 298 Points
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I think, the most flexible list i made with the new look on vanilla. The addition of the Haiduk MVS2, cheap and quite dangerous, smoke access in forward run's, the initial deployment advantge with strategos3 and sapper skill, this is the "bet and cheap" MSV2 on CA starts, just only to clean the impetuous and smoke orders, if he survives the next rounds, this is a great troop to put in the middle zone without cover and sapper state in a supressive-fire with a nice weapon added in form of AP+shock (base skill from marskmanship1), with the Avatar presence, this 22pts with smoke, can starts very fine and ending the turn, again in sapper marker and supress fire with the Avatar together. As well, again... the shoruded Dazer minelayer profile... i love this need dirty tricks gained on vanilla. Im playing a few games with this 3 new additions: caliban (CoC/Engineer), shrouded Dazer and Haiduk, im getting very impressed with this cheap and dangerous profiles for now :) Bit&Kiss + Aida + Krakots and the fucking hell Libertos, too... working together in most of my list, but no when im playing LI or this samples, with the Avatar strongs, 11 regular orders starting.


Over my CA vanilla games, i run only a few games with the Avatar, bcs my local-meta, we playing most of the games without some large firelanes tables, or just im ignoring to play this game just put smoke barriers and looking the targets to hunt and disrrupt my rival player to advance and take positions. And my addition with a some CQC profiles and short/mid weapons are my preferences and works fine for me. This 3 samples list, are over my experiences, just only added the new stuffs + Avatar. Im glad to see the adition of Victor Messer on CA... really strong piece for the Avatar and Anathematic... and hell yeah, all active pieces in vanilla. Caliban CoC/Enigeer too, the same sample for run a Sphinx in vanilla and all TAGS.

 

Messer is definitely an interesting option I hadn't thought of. I'd mentioned Kerr Nau as a possibility, and Messer is in a similar role. Kerr hunts hackers better and is cheaper, and costs 0 SWC (the main reason I like him over Bit) while Messer is a better overall gunfighter (1.5W, Surprise attack option), buffs REMs, targets non-hackers and can play a good point defense role with nanopulsars and cybermines to protect at close quarters.

Kerr or Bit do the primary job better, but Messer can get it done to an extent (cybermask + sucker punch is pretty decent, but not as good as the killer) and provides flexibility.

 

Kerr Nau have the potential in Onyx with core option and the TinBot, in vanilla Bit works fine as the cheap and very strong antihack piece with repeaters for her price. Over 1p and 0,5SWC to get white noise, for now i bet on Messer to supporting the Avatar and drones, if you need to kill hackers, simply, get Bit and her cost you can add or buff other profiles. This 3 hackings options have nice synergies, but at all, they do specific roles. And yeah, 3 great specialist acces with Cybermask with the Avatar list, are fine ever, just one reason: marker state to jump the nemonica and push the final buttons, more expensive but effective than the FO unidron basic as the last keys to jump in a specialist, but now... you know, the Caliban is the great choice :)

 

Add the Caliban on your tactic guide mate, but first try him on the table ;)


Well, the Haiduk in vanilla are avaliable only 1 (get luck...) and only this marksman rifle, but in SEF this ridiculous profile gets 3 AVA and MULTI sniper rifle just only for 26p/1.5SWC, this is the shame on MVS2 in CA mate. I played 2 ITS games with him (ITS league) and im get very satisfied at all, all games he survived and killed more points than their cost, when im playing in to 400p games and adding the new Sheeskin and new Ko Dali profiles, the Haiduk makes to me more efficiency and luck over Sheeskin and Ko-Dali together. The addition of one or two daturazzis just only for the Haiduk can be very nice in other list, but if you want a cool active MSV2 in your list, just only play the Makreep HMG, oh wait... the new 36p Ko Dali version are awesome tool but for now i didn't get luck with her . But here, with the Avatar... i think this new Haiduk works very nice, if you add just 1 daturazzi on a LI game can be worth or not, you have alrready the smoke from the speculo just only used by "tactical smoke" in the midlane or... in enemy deployzone, only to do this purpose: ligth killer like Krakots, Aida, Libertos, Shroudeds, Zerats for the same price, with a MSV2 in a cool weapon and skills, the sapper for now with this Haiduk are very strong toolkit.
Then the Haiduk can go to get positions and be ready or just, start to killing more things, he gains AP+shock weapon on b3, isn't a joke, like the submachineguns but well... you gain more distance and a solid MSV2. I think, he for now is a great choice to kill and prevent the numerous warbands and smoke dodgers actually, like the most usuall Avatar's counters: Mutawi troops like all troops in the game or this Tunguskians jokes and varunas frogmans with camo+jammers. With the smoke trap blinding the enemy ARO pieces (isn't MSV2-3) you can play with the discover+shoot complete orders, don't need to stay forever in sapper mode for do this. Maybe most of the players when you playing with discover+shoot orders over their camo markers without cover, you force to their at response the action with firefigth or dodges ARO's, its a great deal, for 22pts and 0,5 SWC.
Also, the trick with the Avatar, you can pick the speculo+haiduk as the last deploy pieces and choose the best sides to defend/attack in their best range if you starts.

 

You want us to capture these things....



Alive?

 

One of the locals is running a 400 point limited insertion tournament in May. I figure I have to bring the Avatar to that, because if I don't take it to a 400 pt LI event, when will I ever take it anywhere?

Probably sticking with a Sphinx list for Biotechvore, though.

 

WE'VE ALREADY MET THAT THING DOCTOR

 

You know, I often find it that against TAGs, the closer you are to them, the more protected you are. Sure, that heavy flamer most MBTs tote is scary, and the Sepsitor is evern more scary if you have a cube. But Dodge is a normal roll.

I've had my Riot Grrls dance around a jotum flaming them for 4-5 orders and get 1 wound over all that mess. Come next turn the Jotum is now flanked by a very angry lady with a multi-rifle. And let's not talk about how many times I've had my hungries devour TAGs in melee (smoke+CC hurts even when you don't have any fancy martial arts tricks).

So yeah, close range is a good way to deal with a TAG. Which is why I love the Autoshotty on the Raicho even more now. Go ahead, get close to THAT.

 

I spent more time reading up on TAGs and this is what I also came up with too.

 

In honour of tactical awareness coming to TAGs this season I present to you, the single most obscene thing ever to grace 400 point games: THE DOUBLE TAG LIMITED INSERTION AVATAR LIST



400 POINT DOUBLE TAG AVATAR
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10 1
AVATAR Lieutenant (Strategos L3) MULTI HMG, Sepsitor Plus / DA CCW. (3.5 | 137)
STALDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0)
OVERDRON 2 Plasma Snipers / . (2 | 72)
STALDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0)
SPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | 34)
CALIBAN Engineer Submachine Gun, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
MALIGNOS Hacker (EI Killer Hacking Device) Submachine Gun, Dazer, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 33)
SHROUDED (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
SEED-SOLDIER (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)
Q-DRONE Plasma Rifle / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)

8 SWC | 400 Points

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This list asks a very simple question - does the model you want to destroy have MSV or not? If they don't, throw the Avatar at them and laugh as they shoot back on -6 in cover. If they do, throw the Overdron at them and laugh as they shoot back at -6 in cover. What's that? Your opponent is hiding their dudes? You stilll have a goddamn Speculo killer doing whatever the fuck it wants to their deployment zone.

On top of that you can put down 4 camo tokens in the midfield, one of which will eat you in CC, another that will put mines all over the place, another that is just a mine and another that can act as your O-12 Liason. Plus you have a hidden deployment killer hacker ready to maestro the faces off any hackers rushing your TAGS.

Defensively the Overdron is an absolute tank, able to sit at the back of the board with ARM 9 in cover, plasma snipers that can outrange basically anything, and 3 STR + 2 levels of unconsiousness to protect them, on top of the fact that the MSV attackers who do so well against the Avatar are going to get bodied by it. You've also got a Q-Drone plasma rifle, an Ikadron, and a Daturazi (which can be swapped out for a Krakot if you prefer, still not sure which one I like more) all providing close support.

Oh, and did I mention that this is a 13 ORDER LIST?