I can tell you the Fasid HRL looks to me like the mk4 HRL Posthuman, but with mines and a slower second movement. I use that as an ARO piece (with some support the Fasid can get thanks to the cheap Sniper Rifles Haqquislam has, instead of the flash pulse Aleph has to get by XD) either dodging or firing back, and she has given me incredible happiness (fire impacts are... terrifing!), just remember to have some cover that will totally cover the model while prone, and a medic close enough to reach the base in prone state to heal him up (if you can fork for an Akbar Janissary... much, much better).
I sometimes play both with an Akbar, but mostly use just the HRL nowadays. The cheaper price, my love HRLs and that sweet SMG for close up work aswell as "Multi Suppression Fire" are very convincing. But I have to admit, the HMG profile is often better, due to higher Burst and that LGL.
No SMG, no free mine, no mines, lesser stats... Discount version is discount version ^^. The Feuerbach is more dangerous in a remote, for that B2 EXP in ARO... mmmm :)~~~
Lowered cost and SWC is an ability of its own for an ARO troop. Plus extended range is especially useful in ARO. Then explosive rounds drop normal guys most of the time, even when compared to the HRL ignoring cover, another thing especially significant in ARO when it sucks to miss out on a lucky shot back wounding because of a single ARM made. Losing the mines, BTS and PH really sucks though. It is close because of how insanely undercosted HRL is. Playing sectorial tends to get you a lot of experience with a specific guy and I play Qapu so I'd hate to miss out on what I've come to rely on.
Azra'ils have their place in vanilla, although they are at their best in QK due to the lack of similar options. Their low cost is their strength. You get a no frills 5ARM HI with either an AP HMG (great if you're expecting to face a lot of HI/TAGs) or Feuerbach for long-range ARO duty/coordinated fire shenanigans. They have more specific roles compared to the more toolbox-y Al Fasid profiles. That said, the Al Fasid is pretty damn effective for its points, especially the HMG+LGL profile. Gives you a smoke dodge at 16 from range 8-16 or on a 13 for closer, which might save your troops during your opponent's turn (as long as they don't make use of your freshly created smoke curtain itself!)
ad HRL Fasid versus Feuerbach Azrail: I usualy prefer Azrail as ARO piece with my utility Fasid HMG (best superheavy haqq has)... especialy in limited format. Mainly because of two reasons: 1) its cheaper pionts and SWC wise, 2) have more deadly weapon in ARO. But Fasid HRL is IMHO better overall. I just always missing points to include him.
And here's me completely missing the point of expensive ARO pieces after running some dice calculator rounds, especially against beatstick sectorials (although templates tend to slow them down some extra). But that's topic for another discussion I guess.
The Feuerbach Azrail is better than the dice calculator might suggest. He can be a good order sink like Daylami with the added benefit, that he is much more resilient, has unlimited ammo and more burst in the active turn. Just set him up really far behind, so that all the high burst weapons are in their -3 rangeband, so he has to use way more orders to get rid of him. This also works against the Smoke+MSV combo, where you just dodge. Also in some missions he is useful for controlling a Zone or destroying scenery objectives. I can really recommend him like all his S5 comrades. My only problem with them is, that I never have enough points and SWC to use them all at once.
It depends on your local meta of course... also, maybe azrail is not as strong on paper, but feuerbach is a threat even to a pano TAG due to its amo types. it's not only physical, but psychical threat as well. His positioning dictates enemy movement and deployment almost like impersonaters or possibility of droptroops. Two wounds, with ARM 8 in cover is tough nut to crack. He can also dodge well and with doctor nearby he often cannot be easily removed drom the fight. its incredible how much orders of an enemy azrail often can eat...
The keyword being "expensive". Strongly depending on what you are trying to stop, 40-50 pts piece may last almost exactly as long as 7+0.5 chaff or cause less inconvenience (due to rangebands) than a sniper for a half of that price. Or a sniper for 1/3. Of course, these won't offer much in your active turn, and won't be this problematic to specialist pieces dispatched separately from opponent's main killing force. In that case yes, they will definitely warrant a lot of effort on enemy's part. Sooo... Probably it's a matter of not trying to shoehorn ARO pieces into trying to damage every type of opponent's sledgehammer, regardless of what it is. But even then, considering rangebands on our heavy duty guys, I would rather take a Shihab plus something to cover the latter before thinking of including one of the former (especially less toolboxy Azrail), even if it's not a Q-drone or something. In fact, the only thing that would stop me from doing so is my preconception that TR bots are obvious (which, admittedly, is a downside by itself) and boring. And, for that matter, not the cool models that finally pushed me towards actually collecting a wargame army :) It's pretty sad that I find myself typing that, but luckily I may be totally wrong.
@Barrogh With my Intruder I get a 75% chance of putting the REM unconcious ultimately removing it from the game. Against Azrail I have a 49% chance of not even doing one wound and only 20% to put him unconcious. Holding back my Intruder and using up both deployment advantage and Surprise Shot and not even depleting an order from my opponent is so painful. It's literally just a waste for me and my opponent pays nothing. The point of an ARO is that they need to position a counter to get their other guys past. The hard part is doing that without giving your opponent free kills, if I have a bunch of free targets for my Intruder I get the Alpha Strike without leaving my own DZ. Azrail gets to do the ARO game without giving a sacrifical lamb so your opponent gets nothing but wasted orders and maybe a wound.
@loricus Like I alluded to earlier, my problem is, perhaps, the fact that I was mostly pitting stuff against linked mimetic HMGs, linked cover-ignoring plasma etc. I.e. things that make you dead if they want you dead. Against those I feel littering board with markers and cheap kamikadze AROs is more efficient. I mean, I was once able to stop some paindozer for like 3 orders with a single piece, but rolling 13+ on a bucket of armor saves does that for anyone :D You folks are right that it's mostly meta- and table-dependent though. While I would rather hide from heavy and nasty stuff completely (and maybe litter thickets with camo markers on their side), holding other lanes with pieces more survivable and able to hide after taking some heat could be very well worth it. Tbh I'm waiting for RTF to have an excuse to try and run some expensive pieces and figure out just how do they work.
It is possible to be in a meta where armor is devalued because everyone is using tons of high power weapons, it was like that here for a while. F2F power is usually increased in value in that situation.
Yea, metas vary dramatically. I play almost exclusively against MO and Steel Phalanx, so I place next to no stock in F2F. For me, it is all about DTWs, mines, and cheap speedbumps to absorb orders.
