Ambush Camo and Projecting Threat?

Thanks for the input, all. That's a fun notion from @Hachiman Taro about the use (or non-use) of Ambush Camo.

I do like the notion of the Tankhunter, I just find it has fierce competition from other TAK units that can be purchased for the same points, and is operating with less decisive active/reactive turn agency than most units I can buy for similar points. I have a pretty comfortable set of units at the Core of all my TAK lists so far, so now I'm just plugging-and-playing 3 or 4 different units, to change the capabilities of those lists. The Tankhunter's one of those units, along with Dog Warriors, Frontovik SWC weapons, etc.

I had a practice game over the week, pretty standard mission of Frontline vs OSS. OSS strikes me as one of the matchups that can potentially pin and challenge the active-turn strength of the Vet Kazak, so I had that in mind during deployment. And while I still brought a Vet Kazak, I also brought double Spetsnaz HMG. Two Spetsnaz was mostly for the experimentation of it... In all my practice games thus far, my single Spetsnaz has been crit in its opening exchange, and thus I haven't gotten much opportunity to use it. As a precaution, I brought two. Sure enough, one did die in its opening exchange, but the redundancy was nice since #2 got to have some fun.

The reason I mention this is because the double Spetsnaz had the unexpected side effect of making my opponent wonder where the missing 1.5 SWC was. He, very naturally, assumed it was a tankhunter sitting somewhere, which influenced deployment and Turn One quite a bit I don't imagine I'll run double Spetsnaz again, but it was fun to see the impact that it generated. Hopefully I've also broken the curse of my Spets getting Crit right away, and having one will be enough in future games

Also related to the topic, I sure do like that Strelok Minelayer. Minelayer in general is a skill I rate very, very highly. I consider mines the third "best" piece of equipment in the game after Camo and smoke, and I rate it that highly specifically because mines are such a good way to challenge Camo and smoke. Being able to play heavily with mines again is excellent, and making an opponent respect your mines is a great way to leverage that Ambush Camo.

Thanks again for the comments.

 

Sure. No real surprises here I think... Typically something like the following, with the Assault Pack and an SWC platform (tank hunter or frontovik) to fill up group 1, and/or the 4th Strelok and more Irmandinhos for group 2. It typically gives me a Primary group of 9 Regular, 1 Irregular, and a 2nd of group 5-6 Regular, 2-3 Irregular.


Been using this:

Tartary Army Corps
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 7
STRELOK K-9 Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines + 1 K-9 Antipode / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
K-9 ANTIPODE Trench-hammer, AP CC Weapon. (8)
STRELOK (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
VETERAN KAZAK AP HMG / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 47)
LINE KAZAK (Forward Observer) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
LINE KAZAK Lieutenant Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)

GROUP 2 5 2 2
STRELOK (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
SPETSNAZ (CH: Ambush Camouflage) HMG / Pistol, CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 38)
DOZER (Traktor Mul Control Device) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

4.5 SWC | 228 Points

Open in Infinity Army

For your second question, "Why Tak," I'm probably not qualified to speak, having played 5 games of TAK, and 20-30 games using Vanilla Ariadna, 20-30 games using USAriadna, and 50-60 games using MRRF (all ITS scenarios, but only MRRF in ITS events.)

Speaking to my personal appeal though:
I like link team firepower, and I like the coherency and high AVA redundancy that sectorials bring. I'm not a particularly great Vanilla player, and while I think Vanilla Ariadna is brilliant, I find sectorials help me organize my thoughts and tactics as a player more cohesively.

I think you're right that Vanilla is offering the broadest range of tools, as it should be with Vanilla, and is the "strongest" way to play Ariadna (maybe CHA in there too... CHA gets a prize for being really unique in its capabilities as a sectorial.)

But I also think that sectorials, particularly with link teams, provide you with reliable, aggressive, redundant tools to fall back on if things go poorly. From a meta standpoint, I also think that the focused theme of Sectorials is a real asset in a 5-game ITS structure. In isolated games, Vanilla is a dominant tool, but I think it's hard to be consistent and organized with so many disparate tools. With sectorials, and their lower unit variety, it's easy for me to keep focus and momentum in a competitive weekend. I can fly five hours, drive for 10, be sick from the plane, be jet lagged, hung over, eat bad food, feel like crap, stumble and trip my way through the gaming bags and chairs of a 100 person ITS, and still be highly organized and disciplined in how I play, because the sectorial narrows my focus of tools for deployment, listbuilding, etc.

Besides, I think you play best when you love your force, and feel thoroughly engaged with it. I often see good players struggle when they jump ship from new faction to new faction to new faction, not just in their tactics, but in their enjoyment of the game and their engagement with the community. When you play a force you like, where you love the theme, are drawn to the minis, and feel attuned to the playstyle offerings of the force in question, you're going to have fun, and you're going to generate better competitive results than you would playing something you don't really care about.

Boiling it down a bit more too, you trade a lot of Ariadna's exceptional solo pieces for the ability to have excellent linked firepower. I think that's a fairly reasonable trade. I think the Vanilla's versatility is, strictly speaking, better... But you're certainly not going to be unhappy with AVA4 Streloks backed up by a linked Vet Kazak HMG.

 

There's two important points for the Chasseur. The first is the flamethrower, which is a threat to every unit in the game for its ability to force multiple wounds with a single hit, as well as imposing the Burnt state on Camo, TO Camo, ODD, etc. Even TAGs and Heavy Infantry need to respect the flamethrower, while they can often ignore or risk the hit of a simple mine or Chain Colt.

The second point is Sixth Sense Level 1: if an enemy is within your Zone of Control, you can delay your ARO until your enemy has declared both his short skills. This makes it easy for the Chasseur to always pick the best ARO interaction possible, very easily remaining hidden or scoring unopposed flamethrower hits, since you can always pick an ARO that exploits your opponent's decision. So while the Strelok is still a great unit with its Ambush Camouflage, shotgun, access to SMG and Chain Colt, etc., it lacks the ability to exploit an opponent's decisions via SS L1.

 

I love that profile. Getting trenchhammer kills is absurd and excellent.

 

I guess one considerable advantage of TAK isn't just linked gunfighting, but linked gunfighting with some truly nasty ammunition types. Frontoviks and Vet Kazak can put AP, T2 and Fire on target better than pretty much anything out there, so that's definitely a plus. Line Kazaks aren't brilliant, but the troops you can embed in their links are amazing. Frontoviks are an all-rounder I don't mind paying for, since they cover the 0-8 and 8-16 rangebands with some truly excellent weapon choices, and the Vet Kazak is obviously very comfortable in its home sectorial. I like having those diverse and lethal gunfighting tools, compared to the Vanilla Ariadna grab-bag.