A new box for them was released recently and I've been taking a very enjoyable bit of time with JSA to get some bikes back on the table. This is the list I've been running, played a few casual games and also used it once at a tournament yesterday. The missions it's played have been frostbyte and unmasking. Firestorm2 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10 4 O-YOROI Lieutenant AP HMG + Heavy Flamethrower, CrazyKoalas / EXP CCW. (3 | 86) KUROSHI RIDER Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Breaker Pistol, AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 33) KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9) ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 26) ARAGOTO (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) ARAGOTO Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 28) ONIWABAN Submachine Gun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Monofilament CCW. (0 | 37) TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) PANGGULING (Total Reaction, Repeater) Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21) LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21) 4.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army It's been a lot of fun to play. So many large bases does cause all kinds of problems on some boards due to terrain but it can attack from so many different angles and the bulk of it is so fast that the questions it asks seem to cover some of the weaknesses. The most impressive game I've had with it was the tournament game where I went second against TAK for unmasking. The table was an extremely cluttered industrial container area with towers, cranes and loads of cargo containers everywhere. This was the saving grace for me as it ended up providing a lot of safe approaches to the mid-field for the bikes who took no time at all to reach ideal range brackets and ultimately gut the bulk of his mid-line troops leaving only the link who hadn't the orders to reach my HVT. It's perhaps a little odd but I've found it very rare for the hackers to get to use their devices. It has happened, one game against another JSA player where we saw him lobbing E/M grenades speculatively at my O'Yoroi (thankfully without incident for me) and my first ever successful assault hacking attack to immobilise the domaru who'd been troubling me so that my TAG could run around the corner and beat him into the ground. I know the aragoto hackers aren't anything special as far as hackers go but in combination with the other pieces in there they definitely fill a role that I've been able to take good advantage of. Specialists that fast are just wonderful in scenarios where you have get models across the board. (I know ninjas are even better by starting in the right spot initially but they haven't the same ranged presence or flexibility. An unexpected consequence that turned out to work with the oniwaban is that, with so many fast large based models that want/need to get up the table, when going first and therefore deploying first my opponents are tempted to deploy in obvious positions to ambush them. That turned out to make them perfectly deployed prey for the oniwaban. Whether directly or indirectly my aragoto have been rewarding to play.
Aragoto are also much better if you need to reposition. A TO specialist can easily grab one objective by deploying next to it, but a bike can get to a second or third objective much faster.
Simple answer, I don't own the model (yet). Beyond that excuse it's also because, for that list, it would be taking the place of either the Lu Duan or the Pangguling who provide me some very useful support abilities. The Lu duan is a very useful option for clearing mines, gunning down enemy troopers with basic levels of camo' and blocking enemy advances to the O'yoroi. Similarly the pangguling offers up a nice ARO piece against shorter ranged threats and baggage means I can reload the O'yoroi with more koalas. No smoke is a weakness getting the bikes out of the deployment zone sometimes but so long as the oniwaban makes his infiltration roll I can mitigate it, if not punish the opponent with him for trying to ambush my bikes on the approach. If that fails then keeping approach paths separate and a co-ordinated order can usually achieve most of them getting up alive.
Yeah, I wasn't saying you should have him, btw - sometimes it's good to draw out the choices we don't make!
A hang-up from warmachine and GW games is a weakness to assume that there are auto-include choices. I appreciate that infinity puts far less peer pressure on people to design lists a certain way, although there is some fractious attitudes towards model evaluation but for the most part people can play what they like. Having a coherent plan for the models and list you've brought is more important (sometimes) than what models you take.
Absolutely. Neither are there models that are automatic disregards, even though there are unpopular choices.
Aragoto are pretty good, they are a bit fragile and they can be a bit awkward due to the large base and terrain penalties but they are great close to mid-range shooters. They are different from the majority of other bikers because they lack smoke. (Which is why Yojimbo who does is so commonly seen with lists that use them.) This forces them to bring support to help get them out of the deployment against opponents with strong long range ARO threats. (Linked missile launchers and rocket launchers are particularly nasty.) The profiles that exist offer themselves well, it doesn't take much effort to exploit them but there is also easier to use competition elsewhere for similar points. I'm fond of the spitfire as a cheap good gun and mimetism makes it a favourable option for attacking in a lot of situations. The hackers are pretty standard but they keep their standard armaments so are really just more flexible for a few more points. From experience I find that it is quite easy to over-depend on their performance, so when they are countered by opponents it can be deflating.
I don't know, in theory, they ought to be. I've only played biotechvore 4 times over the last 3 seasons of ITS and I hate the scenario with a passion. They can get out of the deployment zone quickly and order efficiently so long as you have some avenues to get up the table safely. However that's the issue, aragoto are typically very easy to ambush with ARO pieces so you usually need smoke to help cover their advance. My tactic of using an oniwaban to ambush the ambush models isn't very reliable in Biotechvore because of the deployment rules. That particular scenario probably works best if you've brought solid smoke options and conservatively deployed so it can safely go down ahead of the bikes. Yojimbo is one of the best options here but Saito or Shinobu work in a pinch (not using their infiltration this time) so you can be sure of the smoke going down where you want it.
I hate to just answer "it depends" but it really depends on how you set up tables locally. The 8 inch deployment zones means they're unlikely to have much in terms of ARO due to the fewer firelanes you can deploy to, but it's risky if you go second and they set up control in the midfield.
Thanks for your feed back, what would be a good roll for the bikes? I'm asking this as a new Jsa player.
They take a lot of practice to use, and the big bases restrict where you can put them. You need to not care about winning the game to get the practice in how to use them. But they can be a lot of fun.
I take the KHD pretty frequently. They're excellent specialists, especially in missions with exclusion zones, or where you need to hit a lot of stuff really fast (Comms Center, Tic-Tac-Toe.) I avoid most of the other profiles personally, but the Spitfire is a pretty decent choice as a missile to throw at a weaker ARO piece. BS12 and Mimetism on a bike means you're as hard to shoot at as anything in cover anywhere on the table, and you have 14 inches of movement per order, so you can afford to move around AROs in routes that would be too long for other models to take.
The hacker profiles are good specialists for scenarios, their speed can allow them to achieve objectives quickly for minimal order expenditure and their combi and light shotgun let them be quite aggressive gunning down softer targets of opportunity. (In my unmasking game the bikes were able to move up to a console and interact with it in one order, then move off and get into position to shoot his HVT and/or troops in a second order.) On those occasions when you can use their impetuous order the bikes can get an awful lot done. Generally speaking they also make quite decent fire-support and reaction pieces to lock down areas with suppressive fire from their combi-rifles, with mimetism they impose a -6 mod to the opponent unless they have a visor and their silhouette allows you to over-lap ARO fire-lanes with other S2 (or other) models to make it harder for opponents to attack. The fact they can't benefit from cover also makes decisions easier. (No point clinging to cover so just get to the best position for attacking the enemy or covering the approach.) Kuroshi rider deserves special mention because she offers a number of small changes compared to the regular bikes. With specialist operative she can push buttons but isn't vulnerable to enemy hack attacks (she's also WiP 14). Her light flamethrower is a direct template weapon giving some useful options. Intuitive attacks are powerful against camo troops and it also present a question for opponents when it comes to how they ARO. She's dogged so can afford to take some risks in the active turn, tanking a hit to push a button or template a foe. (Fire being very useful against camo troops and ODD.) Finally she's got a Lt option and good CC, no martial arts but she's competent in melee, so you can spend a lot of orders on her for mission objectives and have extra options for dealing with foes that are normally difficult to deal with at range. If she is the Lt though, bring chain of command because she will die. Yojimbo is the mercenary biker and a fantastic smoke and disruption piece. Crazy koalas provide very valuable perimeter weapons to defend your deployment zone and he's got both smoke grenades and a smoke light grenade launcher so can put smoke wherever you want. He's also a very, very potent CC combatant with MA4 and CC 24. No-wound incap means he takes a bit of effort to bring down. He's irregular and extreme impetuous though so is both harder to control and doesn't provide an order to the main pool. He doesn't have mimetism either and his main gun is a contender, which is a decent ARO but usually you're going to want to throw smoke. In JSA he is the cheapest source of smoke and is often taken just for that reason. He also comes with a nanopulser so another direct template option to remember.
