I just got the pangguling box and am puzzling over how to fit it into my lists. The EVO hacker seems really intriguing. If anyone wants to share lists they like using with EVO panggulings and how you've been using them, I'd be interested to see them.
I'm sad to say that I think YJ is one of the weaker EVO factions out there. The unique EVO programs just don't mesh as well with our remotes as they do with PanO, CA, and Aleph's, and its drawbacks over a Zhanshi Hacker (more expensive, big fat silhouette, penalty to dodge, no weapon to defend itself with) make it a much weaker choice in my opinion. I think they can be worth it in ISS to put Team Pro on, say, a Kuang Shi link (and that is pretty terrifying if we're being honest), and it does make the Ninja Killer Hacker just that little bit more deadly with its rerolls, but most of the time you're probably better off just using the 8 point Baggage/Minesweeper, which is a very strong choice in certain ITS missions.
The evo hacker is an excelent tool to add to a heavy hacker and heavy drop lists. It also makes a stock lists viable.
EVO hackers are probably best taken for their native benefits, which would be better support for AD troops, and maybe better SAT LOCK. So, ISS does benefit, albeit in lists that are specifically designed to take advantage of these - Garudo, sniffers, and Weibing... However, if you arent claiming those benefits by specifically constructing your lists, I reckon you'd be better served elsewhere.
I usually use an EVO hacker to replace a basic hacker. It's a little more expensive than a Celestial guard, but you do get better supportware for the price. Something like this: Yu Jing ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10 ZÚYǑNG Lieutenant (AutomediKit) HMG / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (1 | 39) DÀOFĚI Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) MULTI Rifle / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0.5 | 59) GŬILÁNG MULTI Sniper Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 33) GŬILÁNG (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26) YĀN HUǑ Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 54) Zhanshi YĪSHĒNG Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) MECH-ENGINEER Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) PANGGULING Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25) WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) ZHANSHI (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army
Surely you meant to write Nomads instead of CA and Aleph? The latter two have barely any remotes that work with Overclock while Nomads not only have remotes that work well with Overclock, but Meteor can additionally gain benefit to AD. I'd give Yu Jing third place for EVO usage with a very strong honorary mention to CA for simply having a better EVO Hacker, even if they have worse average synergy. Now, personally I'm not convinced AD is worth the order to give up, I find it gimmicky rather than a good main strategy so I'm not sure an EVO Device is a good option (more like a gigantic red flag "I have AD troops, guard your flanks and backlines!!!")
Well, it's a debate you can have, sure. CA have Ikadrons, R Drones and KISS! as their Overclock spam (not to mention just how much better their actual EVO hacker is compared to everyone else's). Aleph has Daleth and Scylla's flamer bots (very juicy targets for Overclock, imo). Nomads have the Tsyklons, Lunokhods, and Pi-well alongside the usual flash pulse bot. Solid choices but not very cost-effective. Although Zoe & Pi-well alone synergise so well with an EVO that I agree they're probably better than Aleph overall. Still think CA is king of the hill. Acontecimento is a close second place. But that's just me.
Kahler, teampro on a team of kuang shi sounds hilarious, especially in something like Armory. Section9, what do you do with the EVO in a list like that? Do you just prefer it to the zhanshi hacker for the hacking reroll option? Seems like it would synergize well with tigers. Kaleidoscope or reboot plus tinbots sounds fun.
Sure, kahler, but I don't think you're giving the Lu Duan very much credit and the fact that given an EVO and a regular Hacker the Rui Shi can choose whether to shoot twice or to Marksman up during ARO. It's not on the level of a Tsyklon and ties in to Yu Jing having a traditionally poor ARO game (if not the worst ARO game of all factions), but as far as remotes go the Yu Jing REMs are definitely top-3 material for receiving Overclock.
Fair enough. I'll have to play around with the idea more... Lu Duan is just so hard to get onto the table, haha.
I didn't use one for YJ/ISS but so far I have used it for Ikari. For them it's a must have because of the special link teams that can't reform. So I need teampro to make sure the link never goes down. The +3 for combat Jump with Yuan Yuan is also needed. It can certainly help Tigers/Garuda. It also doesn't hurt to have a an extra specialist too.
For ISS I like the EVO: Bring a crane assault hacker(link it with some CGs too if you like), EVO pangulling, ninja killer, 8 kuang shi as possible repeaters, a garuda, a rui shi a wiebing, you now have a strong, if not exceptional hacking game with a lot of orders and you've got points to spare at 300 (enough to play sat lok guided missile shenanigans if you like; which is rare among infinity factions), I enjoy it, the trick with the EVO is squeezing in everything that the EVO buffs, the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts, dont use the EVO in a half hearted way to fill out points because you've got a 25pt hole, design the list around the EVO, it can be very good.
Mostly Fairy Dust, plus keeping the army down to one Combat Group. We're still rather low-hacking in the meta.
The bad thing I found on the EVO, if it's the only hacker you have, It can't hack other remotes! Meaning, it has only one attack program, Brain Blast, and that can only be used against Hackers. Nothing to hack REM, HI, or TAGs. So that kind of sucks.
I think the EVO is a key player in ISS hacking heavy missions. ISS can dominate against most factions apart from maybe Tunguska or Nomads in Transmission matrix. The weakness of ISS is poor repeater coverage, kuang shi and repeater remotes are really the only means of attacking through a repeater and both are susceptible to ARO blocking usage, unlike repeaters, koalas etc. The strengths come down to three units - ninja KHD, zhanying hackers and the EVO. Kanren are a token state backup if you need to bring more to the table, and I rarely use AHD crane but maybe they're worth a try. The zhanying hacker linked with a tinbot hsien is what does the trick in transmission matrix. In the active turn he can spotlight anything close to a repeater so you can drop grenades or son-bae missiles on them. In the reactive turn he has SSL2 to defer hacking ARO. The tinbot places The ninja can surprise attack to remove enemy hackers, putting them at -6 to respond with redrum and surprise attack. The EVO hacker's re-roll is key for taking both these units to the next level. As both your offensive hackers place quite large negative mods on the enemy, they stand a high chance of either rolling low and succeeding or rolling high and whiffing completely - that's when you spend your re-roll if you've also whiffed or been marginally beaten out on the first roll. It almost turns face to face rolls into normal rolls. Doesn't help if they crit though... sometimes it's worth bringing a sophotect. Kaleidoscope is a huge buff to keep your hackers alive long enough to start doing damage. You can also try to use the EVO to bait out enemy KHD hackers - if you move then breakwater a KHD ARO is unlikely to do enough damage to outright kill the EVO, so you can sophotect back up from unconscious 2 and then use your ninja KHD to strike back.
I'm a fan of the Hacker Zhanying with Wu Ming Tin Bot. The Hsien is great but can be expensive. Even just small core is good. Zhanying Hacker, Tinbot Boarding Shotgun, HMG and good to go. Another passive thing not to be forgotten is the +3 for the Garuda to jump in.
Garudas popping into repeater nets in transmission matrix is pure evil, if you've already nuked enemy hackers and can just drop supportware straight onto them...
Absolutely, but there are plenty of factions without hackers. If you suspect there are hidden assault hackers, it may even be worth dropping next to a repeater to flush one out, then you can murder it. You can still score a transmission matrix area with an immobilized 30 pt garuda! There aren't that many hidden deployment assault hackers in the game and people do tend to favor killer hackers over them... which fortunately can't touch the garuda.