Hackers in N3 in Your Meta

Hackers are ever present within our meta. Most of my games will involve at least a little hacking. I haven't seen much in the way of very hacking focussed, but I don't think hacking has the utility against unhackable targets for that kind of skew.

Killer hackers are everywhere due to their cheap utility, being a cheap specialist and winning most hacking fights.

regular hackers /HD+ come a close second for applying supportware to REMs. Occasionally providing combat jump buff.

assault hackers occasionally turn up. Although their presence is a little to heavily countered by killer hackers that people often want to bring anyway, so a risky proposition. Almost always these are marker state assualt hackers.

EVO are rare. But I think their cost plus vulnerability to killer hackers being so pervasive makes them very risky takes. I'd rather have a regular hacker and spend the order for +3 combat jump in many cases.

 

vanilla aleph player, but danavas hd+ has become an auto include for me. as aleph i am very rem heavy so the support ware on a dakini is very strong. also white noise is stupid strong. I also think that spending a couple orders to shoot a pitcher near HI or Tags are well worth it, even if i don't plan to spend orders to hack them. so they have to spend orders on someone else to go save their HI/Tag.

also, did i mention marksmanship lvl 2 dakini hmg with white noise. yea, that is stupid good so i'll mention it again.

 

When I play Nomads at a minimum I field a HD+ and a KHD. Frequently I'll also include an assult hacking device. The khd and AHDs tend to be on infiltraitors. A FO upgrade costs 1 point the extra point for a KHD tends to be worth it for me, and the 5/.5 for a ahd doesn't break the bank.

I tend to run a massai and normally a few repeater cheer leaders. I rarely RUN them around to make use of their repeaters, but that doesn't mean I don't USE the repeaters. Having repeaters ALREADY in place to use support ware or drop white noise saves a lot of orders. They also serve as useful NO zones. A massai on a roof and repeaters in total cover on flanks serve to dissuade units like tags from taking certain routes. The tag can't flank without risking unopposed hacking aros, forcing him into close (bad) range with to deal with things like morlocks.

When I play Aleph the hacking coverage is similar, but the AHD is more common because of the post human hacker.

The only time I am regularly light (1 or none) on hacking devices is when I play steel. I too rarely take evos, because they are so expensive, and defenseless.

Edit to add, I am slightly heavier than I see in my meta, but I would keep in mind Nomads and Aleph Excel at hacking. I typically see 2 or more hackers in lists that could make good use of it, and 1 or none in places where they don't fit, like steel, ariadna or tohaa.

 

I play Corregidor. Typically, I'm the only person who fields a Hacker, and usually only a basic Hacking Device or (less common) EVO Hacking Device. My opponents tend to be Ariadna or Tohaa, so Hacking is largely worthless. I just buff my REMs or get that +3 MOD on my Hellcat's AD roll. We play the 20x20 Mission System, however, which rewards specific specialists. Sometimes I run a Bandit KHD and/or Hellcat AHD due to the mission benefiting Hackers (typically a +3 MOD on scoring the objective), but their specific devices offer nothing of value.

 

In the meta the most common is regular HD but also a lot of EVO and KHD. I play the most AHD because my faction gets it linked and has Moran but others play them too. I don't use any HD because I don't use any REM and my only KHD is Bandit. I'm mostly the only one that gets KHD kills though.

 

We see lots of them here, I tend to play with 2-3 per list but then I do play Combined Army so I have a lot of reasons to bring them. As such we've been seeing more and more hackers in games as our Ariadna players are playing other factions.

 

When playing Acontecimento or Neoterra, I try to field an EVO mulebot and 3 fugazzi for the Overclock hacking program. Otherwise, I tend to field almost always a KHD, as it is the most cost-effective hacker of them all, and has 0 SWC cost in almost every army. Other than that, I rarely see a HD or HD+ for remote buffing.

 

In my close meta is a tipical example of not hacking meta ( full of ariadna and haqquis) KHD are the most comon being a way to get a good specialist. The only two players with worth to buff remotes also pick normal or evo hacker devices.

 

My meta usually displays at least one hacker on table in some particular role, device type varies from faction to faction.

I play Nomads so I use a lot of different hacking devices. Current REM-heavy list for example use EVO+KHD combo, there were EVO+AHD, HD+KHD, AHD+KHD, HD++HD+KHD variants too. 10 order Riot pain train relies on tinbots+KHD combo.

I use Pitchers occasionally, usually when there is some tough target to be shoot and I don`t want to get ARO, like some TAG or Su Juan.

I don`t use 8pts bots as frontline repeaters, for these purposes there are combat bots with built-in repeaters. 8pts bots are great as B2 Flashpulse ARO and DZ repeater coverage.

Haven`t used deployable repeater yet, got enough regular ones.

 

I'm in a small meta but the Nomad players (me among them) are pretty dedicated hackers. Outside of Nomads it's here and there with support programs and killer hackers who have cool models.

Nomads have the advantage at the moment but I think more people are picking up tricks.

 

I field at least a KHD every single game, but that's also because I field at least 3-5 HI in every game and the KHD is my midfield specialist. Most players show up to tournaments with at least one list that has an AHD, since we have had some memey TAG stuff like 4 Geckos show up on the table before. Lots of HD for Fairy Dust or Marksmanship.

Pitchers are pretty popular. For OP, I think not seeing Deployable repeaters is more about not having local players who have infilitrators with them. If you play against vanilla YJ, you're very likely to see a Guilang with one.

 

I play with 2-3 in most of my lists (Haqqislam and DBS). This has been forcing my opponents to do likewise.

 

Not a lot of hacking in my meta

But KHDs as cheap specialists (Ninja KHD is 29 points for an infiltrating hidden-deployed specialist) makes me bring one every game, especially to protect my AHDs.

 

The Proxy Mk1 Hacker and a KHD-Naga are often found in my Lists. I need them to field my remotes and I like to "have options". I try to save some points by not-taking AHDs instead of KHDs - which I sometimes regret (when it is too late, of course).

When I get cocky, I take the two Lhameds (Mov 6-6, Repeaters) and I try to get some boardcontrol by hacking. It was possible, when I was facing Yu-Jing and their love of HI and TAGs and their evil KHD-Ninjas... Since they are busy with uprising, their commander has turned to Ariadna, who laugh at my hackers and my hackers' worried faces, when they did not get the slightest enemy-signal at all.

My meta is often fielding one hacker at best. Theoretically I seem to be vulnerable to them - in the end they learned, I am vulnerable to MSVs and shock-ammunition... and they save their hacker.

 

In our meta there are not many hackers. I sometimes bring one for Fairy Dust for my knights, if i my opponent plays a faction with hacking potential. Or i field one to get access to remotes.

 

Ours is a small Meta, so the use of hackers is very consistent. We use them sparingly and most of us "bring one, just in case"

I had a friend who wanted to make his whole Army Hackers; until he noticed that Hackers rarely carry anything more than basic weapons and compete for the SWC.

We don't have the "Proliferation of KHD" other Metas have. Mostly because we rarely use the Hackers we do bring.

 

We have an abundance of HD and HD+ or EVO paired with remotes for buffs, We at the moment have an unusually high tide of Tohaa players so the AHD is less useful but they do still come out with reasonable frequency. When possible people take KHD, I usually take them to defend my investment in other hackers, I've been spamming them of late but that's only because my primary faction picked up two this year.

 

I feel the meta I play in has a fairly decent hacker representation. Most armies have one or two killer hackers and it's not uncommon to see a normal hacker or assault hacker, but seldom more than three per list and most often only one or two.

Now, if I had started playing Nomads (which would match my preferred playstyle more) than Yu Jing (which matches my aesthetic sensibilities a lot more), that would shift drastically to self-nerfing levels of hackers, but Yu Jing really doesn't reward going crazy on hacking with their below average WIP for hackers and nearly-non-existant amount of dep-reps and pitchers.

 

Every Yu Jing player seems to bring an MSV2 spitfire bot. And the 360 HMG TR bot is a stable with supportware.

Personally I rarely use Supportware, as I often run 1 group lists.