I'll start with a disclaimer: I've not played any games yet in N4, this is purely theory crafting at this point. My concerns might prove to be a bit unfounded in practice. So, my brief read-through of the rules finds that Burnt state no longer exists, TAGs seem to have gotten hefty cost reductions in N4 and we've all known about the crit changes for some time. This gives me a few concerns when it comes to dealing with high ARM models with Mimetism. In N3, I'd normally hope to deal with things like Avatars, Sphinxes, Cutters and TO/ODD HI with any or all of the following tactics: Burn off the ODD/TO Camo with Fire. High B, high DAM & AP weapons in favourable gunfights (*cough cough* Vet Kazak AP HMG in a Core *cough cough*) Dismantle my opponent's order base. Exploit my own larger order pool to bypass/ignore the threat The issue is that all of these tactics seem to have been fairly badly degraded. As pointed out above, Burnt no longer exists. High ARM units are more resilient to crits. TAGs especially are much cheaper, have kept Tac Aware and some have gained NCO options, allowing for larger order pools for their users. Standard 15 Trooper limit makes it harder to overwhelm opponent or bypass large threats with weight of numbers. Only upside I can see is that crits now have the potential to take 2 W/STR instead of just 1. At the moment the potential solutions I can see are: Utilising high burst AP weapons, especially in links. This isn't really a change from how I did things before though, and will be less effective as outlined above. Alternatively we might be looking more towards CC in future perhaps? That said a lot of TAGs aren't exactly slouches in CC... Using coordinated orders. I don't think this is a solution on its own per se, its more of a tool that you use to allow you to effectively use other tools you have. It doesn't solve the issue of actually being able to hit and damage the threat in the first place. Make use of the new MSV L1 + Smoke combo. We have a few high burst/high dam profiles with MSV1 (Unknown Ranger AP Spitfire, Kosmosoldat Autocannon) but I main TAK so I'm stuck with Frontovik AP Sniper Rifle which is low burst. Anyone got any ideas? EDIT: Especially interested in TAK-specific input as they're my main.
We have a lot of great flanking pieces with AP Spitfires now, the Maverick is fast enough to flank and deny cover, and brings their own Smoke. Airborne Ranger and Paracommando can now come on any table edge. Smoke+Poke always did me well in N3, with things like Antipodes that have gotten better in N4 as they don't panic when one dies, Berserk Gals or VarGuard, Dogwarriors of the various types, Bearpodes all carry high DAM AP CCWs, add a Irmandinho for tasty burst 2 D-Charges with no penalty now! The Tankhunter has gone up in points but has powerful weapons and can stack Mods, the AP Rifle version can now drop AP Mines around a corner before shooting to force bad choices.
Oh good sir, you're in for a treat, so get ready to discover one of the finest ways to annoy an enemy with an expensive, high ARM model (with or without Mimetism). Let me present the Antipode Assault Pack! Antipode Assault Pack will cost you 27 points for four models, and in that package you get two orders taking up only one of your 15 models quota, which is a rather limiting factor for us eastern folks in N4. 12 of these points give you a hot Kazak lady with a Smoke Grenade Launcher, and the three Antipodes cost you 5 points each. Please note that this unit has been vastly improved in N4 in many ways, included, but not limited to: One slot in your roster - two Orders! This is invaluable, we can get some Order advantage as if our list contained more than 15 models - which feels great. The controller activates together with the Antipodes now! Which means you can move your doggofriends at the same time as you move the hot Kazak lady. And, if your doggos are not in a dangerous spot you can just pop smoke and your Antipodes don't lose camo (they have to Idle). In other words your doggos get to move while you are setting up smoke for them. Also it's great to move your Controller to quadrants on some missions. The Antipodes have Stealth now. And this allows them to sneak upon the unsuspecting enemy They still have Sensor which lets you make three WIP 19 rolls to discover from outside of LoF all camo markers within 8" so that you can freely engage them Dodge lets you engage enemies without any ARO from their side if you started the Dodge move outside LoF. That means that even if your target has direct template weapons you can get into CC without giving the enemy the chance to use it in ARO! Close Combat with multiple enemies is rather favourable for Antipodes now. How it works is that when you fight you use 1 model which gets +1 Burst for each other model in CC. So if you are able to get 3 Antipodes into CC you get 3 Burst in CC. What is great is that now it works the same way when it is enemy's turn! They declare CC attack against one Antipodes and then you have a choice: either you chose the Antipode that got attacked to make it a FtF roll with the enemy (with Burst 3), or you chose another Antipode and enemy makes a Normal Roll, and you also make 3 Normal Rolls (due to Burst 3) resulting in 3 automatic hits! Last, but not least, the strategy is quite simple and not that order hungry: just move your Antipodes into the silhouette contact with enemy's toughest, biggest and baddest model and simply forget about these Antipodes at this point. The most annoying part for the enemy is that now he has to spend orders to combat your pesky doggos and he knows that they are nothing to sneeze at: they have CC 20 (so they hit automatically with Normal Rolls), they have rather reliable PH 15 and they are equipped with titanium claws of armor ripping (AP CCW). So either they completely abandon their best piece on the board or they have to spend many of their valuable orders to kill the Antipodes. And even if they do kill the poor doggos you are still left with a hot Kazak chic with extra irregular order for laying down some smoke. Just one small advice: avoid O-Yoroi, this guy you have to kill some other way... So I wish you happy hunting and I hope you will rip apart many TAGs and overrated expensive HIs with the happy doggo pack!
They lose camo since they declare BS attack which they cant perform so perform Idle. However the cancelation clause for Camuflaged is declaring which they would do: CANCELLATION The Camouflaged State is cancelled whenever: ► The Camouflaged Marker declares an Attack, Look Out!, or any Skill that requires a Roll. ► The Camouflaged Marker declares an Entire Order of any kind, other than Cautious Movement. They allways had Stealth it was just nested in the CH:Camuflage rule
D-charges have no negative when used in CC. The SAS FO, Uxia, Irmandinho can stick them on heavy units with no CC penalty. Time for some Kung Fu C-4!
Well, that's not how the wording goes. From the bullet point quoted below it seems that the Antipodes (or any other Peripherals for that matter) never declare any orders, their Controller does. Peripherals just execute the order/skill declared by the Controller. And if (for any reason) they can't they perform that order/ skill, they have to Idle instead. And that would mean they neither declare nor perform BS Attack in this case. ► Peripherals are always activated with the same Order as their Controller, executing the same Short Skills of the Order, or Entire Order, although they are not required to have the same target. Perhaps the rules are more clear in Spanish, but English wording is rather ambiguous, which only shows that Corvus Belli still has a lot to learn if it comes to writing / translating their ruleset... Fair enough, it just goes to show that unnesting is rather a good way to go.
Executing the same Order sequence, mean that they have to declare the same Order sequence. There is allways declaration -> check if can be performed -> done if possible / idle if not. It was like that in the N3 and the wording in this did not realy changed.
Carry on reading to the next bullet point... ;-) And in any case, this is what happens when you Idle because you failed to fulfil the Requirements of a Skill:
Well, I am not saing you're wrong, but N4 Rulebook kinda does. Below you have the Order Expenditure Sequence from page 21. It states clearly in point 6. that if requirments are not met, Trooper is considered to have declared an Idle. So if I am considered to have declared an Idle, I cannot be considered to have declared BS Attack at the same time, can I? Therefore, I should get to keep my Camo, right? After all I am considered to have declared an Move+Idle, and I have indeed perforem Move+Idle! 6. Resolution: Check that the declared Skills, Special Skills, and pieces of Equipment meet their respective Requirements, measure all distances and Zones of Control, determine MODs, and make Rolls. If any Skill, Special Skill, or piece of Equipment does not meet its Requirements, the Trooper is considered to have declared an Idle. Seriously, after waiting years for a new edition of Infinity I was hoping for at least a slightly better wording, a little bit of attention to detail, maybe even some clarity and cohesion. And yet again we are served with unclear rules, plethora of bugs and misprints, different synonyms used in different places for the same game mechanics and rules contradicting other rules, it's all left to interpretation. I am rather disappointed in N4 from that perspective so far.
Yeah, the quote from Idle you have posted provides a definite answer. But like I've mentioned before: it's not that I am arguing because I think I am right. Intention behind the rules is clear for some time now. It's rather to show how the rules contradict themselves, or at very least are very unclear. In one place you read that if you have not met requirments you are considered to have declared an Idle (Order Expenditure Sequence), in other place you read that if you have not met requirments you are considered to have declared original skill, but perform Idle and lose Marker state (Idle skill). Anyway, ending the offtopic: Antipodes are still epic, use them! Just don't lose Camo by accident by shooting with the hot Kazak lady ;)
While this is a massive buff to our attack dogs (seriously, you don't need a Rosetta stone to figure out how they work anymore) do keep in mind that with the way that peripheral works, if the hot lady drops smoke, the doggos proc an aro no matter where she is compared to them.
Dodge is a Movement Short Skill / ARO. Can't you just Shoot + Dodge with the whole lot of them? She places the smoke and moves the 2", the dogs Idle + Dodge and this way the dogs have a shot at avoiding the ARO and moving out of the fire lane 4" at the same time. Those dogs who were not under ARO do not provoke one, because that's how Dodge works now. They could even Dodge 4" into Engaged with whatever was firing at them if it was close.
With BS11 and no +3 range on the Grenade Launcher the Controller is usually my 4th or 5th choice to provide smoke for the 'podes.
Yeah, if Controller pops smoke doggos who have to Idle provoke ARO. But thankfully we have Dynamos and Dog-Warriors just to name the two units that can provide Smoke before moving the attack doggos.
Oh, OK, because it's a Short Skill, not a Short MOVEMENT Skill? A bit confusing, but got it. So then it'd be better to just Move + Dodge them out of the way. They have good PH, they should manage.
Damage 18 ap and damage 15 DA. Bear is still very good though. i have played a few days with them and the polaris bearpode is especially good. Arm 8 in cover is awesome, move hime up and hold a flank.
