What would you say are the best anti link-team tools to vanilla nomads? Spektr with a BS looks like the best option to me to impose TO on whoever tries to shoot back, but there's also Tomcats with flamethrowers, Hellcats with AD and BS, Zeroes with BS, maybe Morans. Bandits seem too expensive when compared to a zero for essentially +1 BS, ARM and EMaulers I guess? What do you use in Vanilla to deal with links?
Spektr with boarding shotgun or Bandit with same loadout. I just launch them as a suicidal missile towards what ever I don't like. If I feel frisky, there's the SMART misile launcher or even a Rambo Iguana with the HF.
My main two are Bandit KHD and Tomcat. The Bandit can get autohits against secondary targets. Using Token State you can almost always position to target 2 at once. Links with DTW take you down but those are taken much less and you still get hits off which is usually worth the sacrifice. As a bonus you can drop the 5th guy if it is a hacker using the KHD, getting around their bonuses (other than SS2). Tomcat is simply sacrifical using the LFT. It sucks especially if you're just killing one guy and losing the Tomcat, but it can be worth it. Breaking a link is worth a lot more than the actual points killed. Best choice is to go for their heavy weapon to get pistols back at you (more likely to survive) and get a secondary target, which is possible decently often if they are using a roof. Finally, it's not ideal but the Intruder HMG can get way ahead in F2F against common links even without the use of Surprise Shot and Smoke. Intruder MSR can be way better if your opponent is using HMG ranged weapons but let's be honest most people are facing at least MSR if not Missile Launcher. If I can't get their heavy weapon with the Bandit I'll try to break at least one guy out then go for the Intruder when they lose the BS. Yesterday I used the KHD to get the Supportware Hacker out of the link and then started using the Intruder. The Intruder failed but at least it was to 1 ARM guys making multiple armor rolls, not dying. Eventually the Gecko Combis blasted them but failing to kill them really sealed my fate that match.
Morlocks. 6 points chain rifle irregular troop with smoke and E/M melee weapon, MA3 and an extremely Impetuous order? A dozen please! XD. Deployable repeaters. Tomcat or zero-delivered for maximum carnage over HI and TAG troops, properly backed up by a pair or H+ Zero E/Mauler... What will you do, faced with this baby and a zero coming out from the corner and shooting at you? Dodge? Reset? XD
Link teams have Sixth Sense 1 and can delay their order at close range, so you can't trick them. Also why would they reset?
Spektr BS is definitely a good tool. Zeroes with mine layer also help a lot. Moran's don't damage them all at once like some other units, but they do slow their advance across the board if you are dealing with WB links. On the note of warband links also, remember your intruder HMG loadout comes with grenades. It seems like you're more worried about links shooting from back further on the board? Honestly spektr or Brando are prob the best for those.
Bandit BSG does a similar role to the Spektr with the added bonus of CC options. It also works better as an anti-HI/TAG. I thoroughly dislike the Zero BSG in Vanila: I think the Minelayer, Dep Rep, FO and KHD are more generally useful and you have 4 other options for 'Marker BSG' (Bran, Bandit, Spektr, Prowler) that all do the job better (if not cheaper). What are you trying to do? Remove a single ARO to give you access to large part of the board? Or kill multiple models to gut the order pool? In the former Kriza, Intruder and Moira HMG do it best. And generally I find that's enough to let me get on with the mission. For the second, it's not something I necessarily build for: it's not often I find myself in a position going 'hmm I really need to kill that link but it's still buried in my opponents DZ'. I tend to play a 'shield and counter-attack' game, where I let my opponent push into the midfield and then hit them. It comes from playing Bakunin without many of the 'deep-strike' pieces as go-to toys (they exist in faction, I just don't tend to run them). So when I do need to fight a link usually it's because it's in the midfield. Then, generally I'll use whatever is at hand: which often is 'anything with mines'. But I've effectively used a MML2 Lunokhod for the job of taking apart a link on several occasions. Morlocks are another common option: they're often relatively cheap to get into position and can effectively pick off 1 or 2 members of a link to drop the +3 BS or SSL2 which allows me to fight them with something else. For 'lol' options: Uberfalls. They're seriously fun when you get to eat an entire link. But, yeah, it doesn't happen often.
The Krizpy Baçon is another option, the extra burst and unavoidable -3 in F2F rolls go some way to mitigating the Fireteam bonuses.
I missed mentioning it: but if your opponent favours MLs in links then Prowler Spitfire is a solid option. It's easy to get under 24" and Camo B4 is decent odds for success, particularly vs Tohaa threats. If you're will to spend the orders, you can also reliably push it into positions that can pick of 'weaker' members of the link. Vs actual cores, since you don't need Surprise Shot you don't lose anything by D-Charging a wall to gain the Sabotage classified on the way to your firing position.
Are you sure about that? http://infinitythewiki.com/en/Missile_Launcher_(ML) All ranges have been multiples of 8 since N3.
Name Range (inches) DAM B Ammo Traits Short Medium Long Maximum Missile Launcher (Blast Mode) 0-8" -3 8-24" 0 24-40" +3 40-96" -3 14 1 EXP Anti-materiel, Impact Template (Circular) Missile Launcher (Antitank Mode) 0-8" -3 8-24" 0 24-40" +3 40-96" -3 14 1 AP + EXP Anti-materiel
Thanks to everyone correcting me at once! I was mistaken on the odd upper limit to the range. edit: I now remember being corrected on exactly this at least twice before.
