Experiences with Ragiks...

Play them in Vanilla, and they've always worked well for me. I play the spitfire loadout and save until 3rd turn if I can, to come in and remove key pieces in ways the opponent is not prepared for. Tough HI, units with minor visual mods (camo/mimetism), anyone I'm afraid to face head on, I try and line up shots in the back! By turn 3 the board is clear enough for this, usually. Alternatively, in turn 2 Mr. spitfire drops (usually walks) in to help turn the tables if I'm really suffering after the first game round. A dogged b4 model is pretty good at Rambo-ing! Suffice to say I am almost always pumping orders into it until it's taken out. Sometimes take the hacker as I'm attracted by the WIP 15. In such lists it will be my insurance against scary HI or tags (as in, I expect those units to rip through some of my list, so good to have the counter off the table!). Never used the other profiles!

 

I love ragiks! In vanilla, I find myself often taking the Hakim instead. I usually don’t run with more than one AD troop, but it can be a lot of fun.

Ragik Profiles:
BSG - My favorite of the bunch, due to being cheap and efficient (dogged). I try to drop this guy as early as possible, (even turn one of my opponent made deployment mistakes). Makes good on Fiday-esque manuevers.

Spitfire - I love this guy too; really great if you’re also bringing a Fiday or two. Opponents typically spread out in preperation for an impersonator attack, so this guy can sweep in a pick off hot targets while tanking shots

AHD - Used to take this guy all the time. Generally pretty good specialist for objective grabbing, but I find that his hacking becomes more of an opportunity weapon than anything. Key here: drop this one in for objectives, and then go do whatever else you can. If you drop in for an attack vector, its a bit harder to squeeze into a good spot. (NOTE: with ITS X, this became easier, but I prefer the Hakim for a similar role). Remember that vanilla already has some pretty clutch hackers, and even the barid in HB is amazing. WIP 15 can edge them out depending on my mood.

R+LSG - I rarely take this guy. Use a Bashi or Hakim instead. Be’s Gotten use mainly when points allow and I’m feeling lazy when building the list.

Edit: When I say “drop” remember that you can just as easily walk these guys in, which is often a good option; especially with the Spitfire.

 

The real deal with Ragiks is Dogged, which means that for their cost they can do huge amounts of damage. Get a Ragik with a Shotgun into a backline and just kill until they are dragged down.

 

With the recent changes to AD in the current ITS season, I've been using Ragiks more and I have to say I really like them!
They work especially well in missions where AD troops get a bonus or where the restriction is lifted on where they can drop.
If you have the points and orders to spare, hacker or EVO hacker support is nice as well.

I like all profiles, but for different reasons:
Boarding shotgun is great for a turn 1 rampage in the backlines, taking out linkteams and heavy armor. Dogged means you can tank a nanopulser or chain rifle template and keep the rampage going.

I usually walk in the spitfire on turn two or on turn one if I'm going second and my opponents left a flank exposed.

The hacker depends on the scenario. Being able to walk in or drop near an objective on turn 2/3 is fantastic. Even better if you can get behind an enemy TAG or HI rambo piece. It's a nice alternative to the Tuareg. The Ragik lacks the mines, but makes up with flexibility on where you want to walk/drop in.

I don't use the rifle profile as much as the others, but I've had some success using them as a mobile roadblock. Cause some damage in the rear lines and then go in suppressive fire. Thanks to dogged and religious, you'll be incredible hard to dislodge. Remember that dogged also includes Courage, so you get to choose whether you want fail the guts check or not.
I prefer this profile compared to the Spitfire for roadblocking purposes because it allows me to spend the SWC on other troops.

 

When I started playing Infinity, a centuries ago ( ;) ) , Ragik was one of my favourite unit. Then I felt in love with Saladin, and his synergy with Djabel or other infiltrators made Ragik a bit unlucky - and that's why he landed on the shelf for some time.
But I like to take Ragik from time to time, or when I play lower pts games. He is really good and can win the game - I'm not exaggerating here ;) IMHO best two profiles are the plain rifle + light shotgun and the spitfire. Hacker is interesting, I used him few times, but I prefer our other hackers. And boarding shotgun... why use it, while you can take the set with rifle? There's no situation in which I would go for BS.

It's funny, because I played a 200pts YAMS game last monday and I took 1 Ragik rifle + lsg. I was playing against an old player who is now trying out JSA (and he proxied a lot).
My Hassassin Ragik was hidden from the enemy because of Farzan with minelayer (so I had 10 "units" on the table). In the first turn Ragik jumped onto the field - I usually walk onto battlefield from the edge, but the situation was looking really temptindg. Going behind the enemies and maneuvering Ragik limited the risk and started killing - he put down Yojimbo, Ryuken, Warcor, and then he even felt so tough that he went against two guys from a full link - killing Kempeitai and Keisotsu. So he wiped out the half of enemy army and even survived after ;)

The only loss is that his wing felt off, but Najjarun engineers are working on this already ;)


PozdRawiam / Greetings

 

I really like the spitfire and BS, I have had a lot of games where they did major damage. Also, a lot of people around here like to protect things by deploying them in total cover from your DZ, so they will be safe from long range guns like djanzaban. If they do this usually leaves big gaps for AD to land or walk on into putting the ragik in a good spot to do damage.

I think the spitfire and BS work very well together too as a one-two punch. The BS can walk on and clear out close models, then the spitfire can walk on and take out models in the middle of the enemies DZ. If they have too many AROs, the BS can drop in and try to clear some out to make it safe for the spitfire.

I also made a list with the max 4 Ragiks in HB with; BS, Spitfire, 2 hackers. Everyone was ready for the first ragik, some people for the second, but no one was ready for the third and fourth ;P

For missions, i think they are very good at any zone control missions like quadrant control or transmission matrix. More interesting is that Ragik, especially the hacker, can do a good chunk of the classifieds. They are very good in highly classified and other missions with multiple classifieds.


For general AD pointers: walk on is always safer, keep drop in mind but always ask yourself if its worth failing and scattering somewhere bad. walk on is almost always good enough, you save a lot of orders starting so far up the board, you can spend one or two of those walking from board edge to an ideal position.

Normally you would want to be very careful where you have an AD troop come on the board because of the free ARO, but dogged can change that math. It isnt the best idea but if it looks worth it a Ragik can walk/drop in front of an ARO, eat it, and keep trucking. This works best with the shotgun profiles; drop in, eat a bullet, put a template down on 3-4 models. That's still a decent trade, even if the Ragik is dieing for sure.

 

I almost always play a Spitfire Ragik in my Hassassins list. It has downright won me games coming in from a board edge, and I don't feel the SWC tax (because Hassassins don't use it), so it's good to have a solid rambo piece that starts up the board.
I always feel it's safer to my overall strategy if a Ragik dies on a run over a fiday.

 

I had good luck walking in a Ragik with AHD. He started by killed a Sin-eater with his light shotgun and then imm-1 a total reaction remote with a repeater and the V.Dogged kept him going to go into the backline.
Or when I dropped a Ragik down with a spifire on roof and made a whole fireteam core to turn towards him and then I walked my second Ragik this with boarding shotgun in from the side edges in they back arc.

So I mostly goes for the boarding shotgun or if I got the points and SWC for it. Then I gets the spitfire to go full Rambo or the AHD if I have a good feeling that there is gonna be a TAG or a HI fireteam. Since it allows me more flexibility to pick better fire fights at good ranges.

 

I have to say I don't use them too much in my hassasin list. I'am not a AD fan. Not even comming in game from one border, but in time to time I include some Ragik, and usually is the regular with Rifle+Shotgun or the Spitfire. He appears in the first turn if has some room, or in the second after the fiday had opened the doors. And most of the time do a really good job, still I preffer have all my orders at the beggning of the game. Probably as a response to loose orders if I go first. Because "hassasin" need a lot of orders in first turn.

Like the Fiday, Ragiks have better combinations in vainilla than in "hassasin".

 

Absolutely devestated my Tohaa opponent when I decided to field all 3 of mine Ragiks... 2 on the second turn and the last one on the third. Wiped him out clean.