Just as the question asks - how do you brave generals of Nippon deal with enemy tags? Is your go to an oniwaban / shinobu / Saito? Or do you prefer to attack indirectly - shutting down, or outright stealing your enemy's toys? I know that every time my O'Yoroi hits the field it ends up possessed. I also know that CC is far more decisive than a hacking attack through a wall - but its also generally much riskier and usually results in trading pieces unless you're prepared to spend a bunch of orders dancing around the tag to gain its back arc, avoiding any DTW's it may have.
In general you have the largest numbers advantage in CC. If a TAG has to die, your order of attack should probably be CC, followed by shooting if you can, then maybe hacking. Ninja assualt hackers don't really want to be revealing in ARO. Also remember that that if you get unlucky and the TAG doesn't die, you are still in CC with a TAG, before other modifiers they are at -12 to hit you. The most POINTS effective way to deal with one is probably a Berserking domaru with an E/M cc weapon.
CC for me, all day. Mainly because all my JSA lists contain units that can reliably take out a tag that way, and rarely units that can do it better in other ways. Also, I play JSA so that I can chop expensive things up with dudes wearing sandals.
Oniwaban every time for TAGs. I think the Ninja AHD can be pretty good if you know in advance you're playing against an HI link that will want to run up the table (Santiagos, Wu Ming, Riot Girls) and you can just park it on a roof somewhere to halt their advance (even if they reveal it, they'll waste time climbing and risk getting dodge-engaged if they come for it). Also don't forget the Blitzen! The unsung hero of the JSA. A 5-man BS16 B2 Blitzen is going to wreck most TAGs.
EM weapons. DoTanko link if you want to really kick someone's teeth in. Missile Launcher, 2x Blitzen, a Spitfire, EM Grenades, and finally EM CCWs that Crit on an 8+. OK, there's also an AP+EXP CCW in there from Oyama.
And the Tanko all have monofilament anyway. Considering our options, hacking is always a distant third for me behind e/m and mono.
I'd probably dare say the best balance between safety and effectiveness for anti-TAG work is the JSAs rather pleasant abundance of E/M and E/M2 ammo. I mean, if worst comes to worst, Domarus can toss their E/M grenades in Speculative fire rather reliably, given their rather high PH ( I believe if you spec. fire in the 8'' distance with them, you're going for an 11. Which is rather solid, as the TAG will only be able to react with a dodge with sizeable negative mods. ). It won't ''kill'' the TAG, but Isolating and putting it into an Immobilized-2 state is the next best thing. Not to mention Tanko link Blitzens. Also, speaking of linked E/M... you can get Yuriko into a Keisotsu link, and she can take an E/Mitter. Which does total out to 59 points if you don't add anything else to the Keisotsu link ( Which you should add more stuff to, at least IMO. )
Parroting what others have said - CC is absolutely the way to go. between E/M on Domaru, Mono on Tanko and onis, hell, even a ninja can essential deal with a TAG in CC. It may not kill it but it will certainly tie it up for a bit. Our hackers are pretty weak IMO, and assault doesn't have a ton of utility outside of dealing with TAGs slightly better than a normal hacking device.
Blitzen is good and on a tanko that can fill a link. An oniwanban should probably prioritize the tag and he will get his points back. There's a lot of easy to find em in jsa. The benefit of an assault hacking device would be for the possession and then shooting their people in the back.
