Hey guys, I'm still relatively new to Infinity and am planning for an upcoming local event. We're going to be playing 3 rounds, and the missions are as follows: Capture & Protect Looting & Sabotage Quadrant Control I'm having a really hard time deciding between Bakunin and Vanilla for the event. I know I want Bran Do Castro in my Looting/Sabotage and Capture/Protect lists, but I'm not sure if there's enough value in the Bakunin link teams to overcome the lose of Intruders, Bandits, Hecklers and Morans that Vanilla would allow me to use. So, I'm reaching out to the community here. Why would you take Bakunin over Vanilla for these lists? Is there any reason that a Riot Grrl link would be worth using over the Vanilla choices? What do you guys think?
First, I think Zeroes have better utility than Bandits. Even in Vanilla, I typically choose Zeroes over Bandits, I think the link teams Bakunin offers are really strong. Specifically the Riot Grrls you mention, just taking even a Haris with a Spitfire and a Tinbot option is aggressive firepower for only 94 pts 2.5 SWC. Moderators are cheap Core teams as well and offer cheap SWC on spitfires. And Kusanagi is back, and that Haris with Custodier Healer can be a problem for your opponent with all the Mimetism/ODD. So Bakunin has great link options. Of course, you would lose your MSV 2, which means no smoke tricks, or ability to laugh at visibility mods. That is the only unit that can't be replaced. Morans you could take Lunokhods or a Taskmaster and use Zeroes to Forward Observe, and use a Transductor as a movable repeater. Its not pretty, but doable. And I wouldn't say the Heckler is a loss from not going vanilla, but rather the Puppeteer, because a 12 pt cheerleader with Counterintelligence seems good. Alternatively, if you do choose Vanilla, I would recommend a Puppetmaster with puppets, because it gives you a pseudo-Haris, which is great in a list that can't normally make link teams.
Both capture and looting benfit highly from morans, same with q control. Bandits also make great backups for bran in loot
i play bakunin, no experience in vanilla. I really like sectorial for their fireteam but as click2kill said, having a pseudo-haris in vanilla using the puppetmaster is an interesting avenue. also, you have 1 pure special operation (not even joint op) and 2 pure direct actions operations (not even joint op). That is what I was complaining in the past, forgot where, about TO that don't select missions that belong to the tournament's chosen Type Of Operation (because they skipped choosing one in the first place). Well, not the end of the world. You can end up with one C/P list and one L/S list, while quadrant control is easy to do with any lists, you can pick at the event based on table, opponent faction, and classified drawn.
The full Riot Grrl link is strong in both Quadrant Control and Capture & Protect. Both missions benefit from being able to efficiently put a whole bunch of wounds and armor in a single spot. You could use the same list for both missions and save your second for L&S ft. Splendid Monkey Man & Morlock Smoke LGL Vanilla Nomads would have a harder time with Capture & Protect. You're basically relying on something like a Kriza HMG to do the work. He's plenty strong, but he's just one guy and nowhere near as fat as the Grrls on the table.
