Do you guys ever leave the Gwailos HRL out on ARO duty? That seems like the main advantage of the HRL over the HMG when fighting a sniper link (even over an opponent with Mimetism -3, given that the extra shots from the HMG will balance out the HRL's visor negating Mimetism). The HRL seems better for ARO duty, but I don't know if others even play Shas that way. I guess the Shas thing to do would be to have a Noctifer lurking just over the Gwailos' shoulder, to double-whammy whoever tries to shoot him?
I’ve done that before, basically using the Gwailo as ‘bait’ to lure out an enemy Fireteam with HMG and setting the Noctifer up with LoF to the corner before they would see the Gwailo, so when the HMG moved to shoot the Gwailo, the Noctifer shot the rest of the Fireteam...
That's nasty. I've done that with a Hac Tao before but it would be even better with a Noctifer. Setting the right bait (that does not look like bait because it's a marginally-decent ARO threat) would be key, especially after the first time I do it. Man oh man I love the terror-tactics that Shas can pull off! Thanks for the tip!
I would consider ARO duty only with a Noctifer overlooking him, as you suggest. Otherwise it's a complete waste of the model imo, as we are already struggling with having too many SWC-hungry options in Shas, and since everything dies on ARO duty, assigning the duty to a relatively expensive but frail HI that is needed for active turn snenanigans in that role doesn't seem like the best idea imo. In general though, I think Shasvastii's best ARO options are the Taigha, midfield units with mines, hidden Noctifers, well-placed Speculos and Q-drones in combination with Noctifers. If you must leave something out for the classic ARO approach, a Haiduk MSR (or Marksman rifle in suppressive fire) is a better option than the Gwailos. It depends on your meta of course, but in mine leaving a Gwailos out in plain sight would just result in a dead Gwailos.
And on match-up. In one N3 game against Corregidor, I’d already dismantled the Wildcat Fireteam, and then the Gwailo in a Haris held off an entire flank for most of the rest of the game, against McMurder, some Jaguars and an Intruder HMG.
I have to read albedo again. As I understood with albedo you are invisible any model with MSV in the first turn. How can the MSV model return fire when in a fireteam? Just because of sixth sense? That's not really logical. But otherwise the Haris might be too strong...
You're not invisible, you count as in White Noise, which works as a Zero Vis Zone against MSV, so it's treated like shooting through any other ZVZ like smoke (page 134)
Anyone is able to react to being shot at as long as you are in their front arc. There are penalties associated with that for shooting through a ZvZ (-6), but Sixth Sense reduces those penalties to 0. Therefore, all Albedo does to someone in a link team is make sure you don't get shot by multiple MSV models at the same time. It goes something like this: Step 1: Gwailo Moves out in view of MSV trooper. Step 2: MSV trooper doesn't have LoF to Gwailo, so doesn't have an ARO yet. Step 3: Gwailo fires at MSV trooper. Step 4: MSV trooper can now react at -6 to shoot back, or Dodge with no mods (or shoot with no mods if in a 4+ fireteam) However, with the baiting, it goes like this: Step 1: Gwailo and M-Drone move out in view of the MSV trooper. Step 2: MSV trooper cannot see Gwailo, but can see the M-Drone. Therefore, they have an ARO and must use it now or lose it for the order. Since they can't see the Gwailo, they must choose to shoot the M-Drone or Dodge. Step 3: Gwailo gets free shots on the MSV trooper or FtF against a Dodge (in which case the M-Drone is not turned into a smoldering heap). Step 4: No new AROs at this point.