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How to play Merovingienne?

Discussion in 'Ariadna' started by Drayton, Jan 21, 2018.

  1. Drayton

    Drayton Well-Known Member

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    How should I play Merovingienne? Tactics, tips? Thank you
     
  2. Stiopa

    Stiopa Trust The Fuckhead

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  3. cazboab

    cazboab Definitely not Cazboaz.

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    The long term answer is that until the redone rules are out, we don't really know what the best way is. All this might change and a lot of it is likely to when the next book lands, but having said that :

    The short term answer is that you're probably going to have a fireteam do the heavy lifting with cheerleaders as ARO pieces, and the tag is nice but even with the HMG upgrade it's not going to be winning the game for you on it's own. The lack of a Harris can tempt you into bringing enough troops for a backup fireteam once the primary is made ineffective by combat losses, that's an option but consider throwing the metros you were using as cheerleaders into a fireteam at that point, if nothing else you can turtle up and limit the damage you take in turn 3.

    The 112 is still the only way to get a doctor for healing in the basic list(soldier of fortune can get you avicenna) , but the Dozer is relegated to a mul controler, since the moblots bring their own engineers. If you can spare the extra points and you're not bringing muls, having the engineer in the fireteam that clears the way to the objective saves you 2 or 3 orders getting the dozer into position. The extra points when you compare the dozer to the moblot engy seems significant, but don't think of it as 12 points more than the dozer, think of it as 4 points more than the basic moblot that you were already using to bulk out the fireteam.

    Past that metro spam is viable, but nothing like optimal, though that's par for the course with orderspam outside the grunts('Murica!) and if you place them right and maybe throw a few into suppression you can start doing a lot of damage in the reactive turn whilst your opponent is forced to deal with 8 points at a time, bleeding through his orders all the way.

    Soldiers of fortune gives FRRM a very limited ability to out hack opponents who won't be expecting you to bring anything but an alguacile as a cover all the bases specialist, this is particularly of use against tags since you can boot the pilot out with expel from Valerya Gromoz then either trash the tag from outside the pilot's line of fire, or if you think you can kill the pilot without them remounting as part of their ARO then that should be your goal. Valerya also comes with a pitcher, which combined with the alguacile, wardriver and her own hacking can really cause heavy infantry some problems. Add in a couple of druze killer hackers with their own pitchers and you can set up a pretty terrifying little network. The main reason to do this is imo psychological, since your opponent saw they were playing ariadna and probably thought "oh good I don't need to worry about hackers", finding out that's not the case will be disconcerting. Plus what else were you going to do with those 75 points of mercs? Run 2 tags maybe? Fun, but way more people will be set up to manage that.
     
    #3 cazboab, Jan 21, 2018
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2018
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  4. saint

    saint Charming, but irrational

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    So they knowledge of an impending update plus no actual information regarding whats going on is leaving myself and probably alot of other FRRM players (there are dozens of us, DOZENS!) in a place where we don't know how long any advice we'd give will remain useful. that said i'll do my best to help you along.

    you're heavy lifting is going to get done primarily by light infantry, Loup-Garou, Zouave, Para-Commando's, Briscards (yes they're technically MI but ARM2 shifts them down to LI in my book) and the venerable Chasseur. so survivablity is a serious concern in a Merovingian list (or it would be if years of playing Imperial Guard hadn't inured me to heavy casualties) fortunately you can easily fill a list with not only a large number of bodies but well trained bodies at that. with most of the units listed above being around 20 points and having a BS of 12 and a decent PH. so you should hopefully be able to trade up in engagements a fair amount of the time.

    I personally put very little stock in "cheerleaders" so I don't take Metro's very often, let alone a link of them. a typical list for me would look something like this:
    [​IMG] Force de Réponse Rapide Merovingienne
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────

    GROUP 1[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]10
    [​IMG] CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
    [​IMG] CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
    [​IMG] CHASSEUR (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
    [​IMG] CHASSEUR (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
    [​IMG] LOUP-GAROU Viral Rifle, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
    [​IMG] LOUP-GAROU Viral Rifle, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
    [​IMG] LOUP-GAROU Boarding Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
    [​IMG] LOUP-GAROU Boarding Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
    [​IMG] LOUP-GAROU Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
    [​IMG] 112 Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 12)

    GROUP 2[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]5
    [​IMG] ZOUAVE Rifle, D.E.P. / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
    [​IMG] ZOUAVE Rifle, D.E.P. / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
    [​IMG] MOBLOT Lieutenant Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
    [​IMG] MOBLOT Paramedic (MediKit) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
    [​IMG] ZOUAVE (Sapper) Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)

    3 SWC | 300 Points

    Open in Infinity Army

    As you can see this makes use of the two Merovingian strengths, the aforementioned cheap well trained troops, and the absurd preponderance of forward deploy units that Merovingia can take. the main tactic with this type of list is to have the Loup-Garou murderize anything foolish enough to look halfway like a threat before attrition knocks them past offensive usefulness. The Zouaves and Chasseurs fill similar roles, both are intended to fulfill objectives and hunt down isolated enemy models or provide sticking points with narrow corridors in suppression fire or mines. this does lack in heavy weapons but FRRM also doesn't have a terribly large amount of those and used well the rifle can still be plenty dangerous.

    any questions do let me know and we'll all try our best to help you with them.
     
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  5. prefAct

    prefAct Active Member

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    [​IMG] Fraternité
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────

    GROUP 1[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]9 [​IMG]1 [​IMG]1
    [​IMG] EQUIPE MIRAGE-5 . (2 | 69)
    [​IMG] [​IMG] MARGOT AP Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (37)
    [​IMG] [​IMG] DUROC 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CC Weapon. (32)
    [​IMG] LOUP-GAROU Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
    [​IMG] LOUP-GAROU Boarding Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
    [​IMG] LOUP-GAROU Boarding Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
    [​IMG] LOUP-GAROU Viral Rifle, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
    [​IMG] LOUP-GAROU Viral Rifle, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
    [​IMG] 112 Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 12)
    [​IMG] CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
    [​IMG] ZOUAVE (Sapper) Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)

    GROUP 2[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]5
    [​IMG] CHASSEUR (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
    [​IMG] ZOUAVE (Sapper) HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 30)
    [​IMG] MÉTRO Lieutenant Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 8)
    [​IMG] MÉTRO Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 8)
    [​IMG] MÉTRO Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 8)

    5 SWC | 299 Points

    Open in Infinity Army

    As saint said, advice is relative and maybe/hopefully shortlived. So my 2cents i put in the above example list i use for missions not overly reliant on specialists.

    All flavors at reasonable order count, as far as i enjoyed them myself.
    - opponent leaves some wiggle room in deployment?: Mirage
    - Mirage succumbs? Your main offensive becomes a Loup-Garou link
    - 112 because doc.
    - Three dirt cheap métro's for hiding the Lt and orders for the Chasseur FO in second pool.
    - Zouave HMG for a sweet sapper spot and probably suppresive fire if you go first, and a sniper to cover him from the DZ.
    - An extra Chasseur minelayer as roadblock and all the other stuff they do so well.
     
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  6. sorniak

    sorniak Well-Known Member

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    Played some tourney games with them and can share some of my experience. Some observations. For me FRRM is an army of moblots, metros and chasseurs, and sometimes zouves.

    LINKS:


    LOUP-GAROU and Briscards are very strange links. Squishy, small damage and expensive. In my opinion most interesting are briscards HRL because of impact template which can punish some tight deployment (our onliest long range impact template :( ...ok there is traktors uragan\katyusha, but guided which is order consuming and too gamble for my taste).

    In my local league I usually play with moblots link or metros link (first have some punch and versality, second is just cheap).

    Moblots
    : because they have HMG with bs 16 (link bonus). Classical problem solver. They have paramedic and engineer specialists.
    My link usually looks like this: 2xboarding+panzerfaust, 1x HMG(sometimes sapper), 1x engineer\paramedic,1x mimitism\ap rifle. Their panzerfaust can performe ARO duty pretty well. In this army making a good ARO is a problem. :( Some classical pusher like Tikbalang\swiss guard\Krizi burac with HMG probably will crush most of defences in a no-time so it's good not to leave too much models on ARO.

    Metros: because they have cheap HMG (19 pts + 0.5 swc) which can be used to push or ARO. Give us a bunch of cheap orders. And Bruant can join to link which would make him stronger


    SINGLES:


    112....only for mission. Lots of your french soldier shall die. But don't waste orders on resurrecting them, in most cases that would only slow you down from achieving mission goals.
    You can live with out them

    Dozers and muls... one dozer is 14 pts, two mules are 5 pks*2 = 24 pts for 3 regular orders. You can take 3x ususal metros (3*8=24) for same "cheap orders" effect. Worth it? again, only for mission like quad control where pkt in quaters may bring your a victory.
    You can live with out them.

    Mirage-5:

    Well....it can fly...or fall. A very gamble stuff. You might not to have any good places to go AD, or your opponent shall pass all his dodges vs chain rifles, you might miss with you bs 14 lgl on speculative....so much things can go wrong.... Last time i played them, Margo died on aro from shrouded combi and Duroc was immobilised from electric pulse form kiss&bit hacker. I'd rather take smth more reliable.
    You can live with out them.

    Chasseurs.... those bring you victories. So much problems can be solved with their help. Those dirty enemy ODD and TO? Mines and flameres from Chasseurs. Start as camo, might reach enemy deployment and make some killing. And of course - that nice sixth sense l1, if deployed well your aro always will be most unpleasant for your enemy. I like the most minelayers and AP sniper. FO theoreticaly solve your missions. But I might have for those paracommando FO and Zouave FO.
    Minelayer gives you an excellent board control. And AP sniper is the most reliable way in this army to kill total reaction bots by doing -12 from outrange of HMG. Also AP sniper might perform some ARO duty. I think, he does it better then sapper zouave, because of camo state.
    Always maxed them... If not maxed, regret it :(


    Paracommando - great flankers, nice specialist (14 wip on FO!!!), have template weapon (boarding shoutgun). Should always have one.


    Zouaves - situational. Zouave HMG have nice chanses vs linked missle launcher, because can be deployed in Zero range of the missle launcher. With his sapper mimitism he might take out some AROes and then go into suppresion to paralize whole enemy board half. Sounds very nice but never managed to execute. :( Either table didnt allow me to do that (were no nice places in the middle), either got some ARO from hidden deployment, either enemy infiltrators with mines and close range shotguns managed to kill my poor zouave....
    Zouave sniper might performe some ARO... squishy and unrelible. But still....
    Zouave FO can make missions. Lets assume you 've got 4x chasseurs with minelayer and you don't have any other infiltration specialists. then Zouve FO or paracommand FO are your choices.

    Well in my opinion...
    You can still live with out them. Ok...maybe one or two, because our chasseurs are occupied with minelaying and ap sniping things. Also, Zouaves with D.E.P, Moblot with Panzerfaust and Chasseurs with AP sniper are my most common targets in coordinate attacks. Enemy put some nasty TAG in a middlefield in open? Make a coordinate attack with ap+exp or ap ammunition to whip it out!


    Lieutenant:

    Whom do I usually take as my Lieutenant?
    Bruant - start as camo. And camo LT is usually a nice secured LT. On last turn swap with metro hmg(who is probably dead already) -> join metros ling to go for killing. Can also make some sabotauge missions with his d-charges.
    Metros - three usual metros in different corners so enemy never know for sure which one is a true LT. Classical Ariadna LT :)
     
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  7. Káosz Brigodéros

    Káosz Brigodéros Vanguard, Inc.

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    Second most everything Sorniak wrote (Especially maxing on Chasseurs - they are just awesome!), 'cept for Mirage-5.
    I had (most always) great success with Lil' Red Riding Hood and her Big Bad Wolf. Both of them can (and should) engage very different targets. (CC monsters should be gunned down by Margot, gunfighters should be stalked and murdered by Duroc. Not to mention the werewolf is the only source of smoke.) Granted, their effectiveness depends hugely on the terrain and deployment. Never ever regretted bringing them.
    I hope this helps.
     
    #7 Káosz Brigodéros, Jan 22, 2018
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2018
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  8. Kreslack

    Kreslack Unknown Ranger lead the way!

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    XD I personally see the Briscards 4-4 move making them light infantry more than the 2 armor. I think PanO has quite a few ARM 2 medium infantry. (though the combination of the two cemented it for sure)

    Most luck I've had with the French has been built around maximizing momentum and forward deployment. Getting to start the majority of your army halfway up the board and possibly supported by a field of mines can get your opponent on the back foot really hard. Unfortunately to really shine it needs that first turn to set up. And then push.
     
  9. Barrogh

    Barrogh Well-Known Member

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    TBH all labels that aren't REM, TAG or HI are assigned rather arbitrarily.
     
  10. Mahtamori

    Mahtamori Well-Known Member

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    To be fair, though, Briscard, Raktorak and Kornak are the only MI in game that aren't 4-2, so Briscard and two alien characters, that's hardly arbitrary and the chances of Briscard remaining 4-4 and MI once MRRF is re-invented I'd say is kind of low. I think the SK, WB and LI labels as well as Ariadnan HI (who are actually MI the whole bunch of them) are mostly concerning gameplay expectations, and here I agree it's basically arbitrary.
     
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  11. Barrogh

    Barrogh Well-Known Member

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    Well, the thing is that it's "MOV 4-2" that matters, and not a MI label.
    Besides, like I said on previous forum, I consider Odas/Muibs much closer to what I expect something called "medium infantry" to be (average statline, a ton of toys, "1.5 wounds", ~25 pts price range), some midpoint in LI -> HI progression in terms of "beefiness" and price rather than MI being defined by slower movement, especially considering that once we enter HI territory we are fast again.

    HI is actually pretty straightforward because it has actual in-game effects. Even Ariadna's HI dudes, while being non-hackable, are still susceptible to being Imm-2'd by EMP. All those kilts must be secretly hi-tech with miniature servos built into them to ensure trooper doesn't collapse under the weight of sheer awesomeness.

    I also guess that having HI, TAG and maybe REM labels may or may not actually be a ground for pts discount.

    But all right, I think it was discussed at length before. Let's move on until someone makes a thread on the topic :)
     
    #11 Barrogh, Jan 26, 2018
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2018
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  12. Jumara

    Jumara Well-Known Member

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    Going to ask here what is better 5 rifle Metros or 4 and one with HMG for general usage in Mrrf. I try to decide if I'm gonna convert the HMG one into a rifle metro (BS10 HMG does not look too good in links under 5men and the pts are more then double 8vs19+0,5swc).
     
  13. Contaminator

    Contaminator Brigadier of Baguette Brigade

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    So a couple things. I take a link of metros. I don't necesarily make them my primary link but I have them as a back up. I usally take an HMG because suppression fire is very useful (when not in a link) and in cover the metro becomes a reasonable tick to have to dig out. I also usually take an LGL for some indirect fire utility. Pair the LGL with a FO Chasseur or two and you can pump indirect fire on some targets reasonably accuratly and for very low points investment. Typically I use the metro with a Briscard, Loup, or Moblot as primary link. If your primary gets lost or you think it tactically viable form the metro link and have a suprisingly competent group of troopers. Nothing special but sufficient in a pinch. I would also recommend taking one of them as a paramedic. I think its worth the couple points to be able to have a chance of picking up a fellow trooper if you get into a tight spot.
     
  14. Marduck

    Marduck Well-Known Member

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    As I started to play méro this year this topic is very interesting.

    From my experience so far you have two main ways to play méro : with or without one the expensive 3 link (loup garou, moblots or briscard).

    I understand that going for one of these link is appealing but so far I abstain from playing them. Reason is that the moblots or briscard is around 125 pts. In pano for 20 more points I get the 5 knights pain train. If I am to try to crush my opponent with heavy link I would rather do it with real heavy infantry.

    a loup garou link is around 100 pts so that is a different story ... You could had KNAUF and for 130 pts get a decent assault team and a decent active sniper.

    Still so far my main focus with this faction has been to identify the mission objectives and try to focus on them as much as possible, which is possible thanks to all the chasseurs and para commandosor zouaves FO.

    To this end, the use of Duroc and it's smoke is crucial. It's a shame that he is the only smoke provider of the army. The best thing that could happen to méro would be to have a smoke grenade launcher on metros for example.

    For killing the opponent, I believe that the use of speculative fire, which is possible thanks to the huge amount of orders metro provide is more safe and in the end reliable than going face to face. We have the mirage team, the para grenade launcher and the zouave grenade launcher for this.

    What do you think ? Is that approach a waste of potential ?
     
  15. sorniak

    sorniak Well-Known Member

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    Sorry for taking it so long :)....
    Definitely, this is an absolutely different way of playing, comparing to mine. Using Big Attacking Wolf to cover mission objectives? I guess, why not... But sometimes you have a mission to kill someone...though in that case mirage-7 is good too...
    Knauf - never had a big success with him. In my opinion, he is worse comparing to chasseur sniper, because of lacking camo. But that is game meta, I suppose, or I just do not know how to use him properly :) In my games he either had no-one to shoot at, or had to stay in ARO, but died quickly from enemy spitfire\HMG.
    Loup garou - what are you going to do with this link? Attack? Defend? I guess 4 dice on their viral rifles can make some punch...They are cheaper then moblots or briscards, but they lack specialists. In my opinion they are better for defence, but hey...didn't play with them much.
    Speculative s - can be very-very-very situational. I had a game, where guy was dodging on 10 vs my speculative on 9. Couldn't hurt that one-wound creep through 6 orders.

    Let us know, how it went? Maybe some impressions, experience or mini reports, with loup-garou + knauf + mirage-7 ?
     
  16. Marduck

    Marduck Well-Known Member

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    Well my favorite link so far has been the metro link with just on paramedic and an hmg. I don't plan much for them. The hmg is just a threat to prevent my opponent from letting some mini in the open to aggressively aro. À bs 13 burst 5 hmg is more than enough to take down an opponent mini in the open.

    And when talking about speculative I was referring to Margot and Duroc. They can speculate fire on 11 and 13. If you can catch let's say two fusilier in a link in the blast, it's worth a try. Or against total réac remote.
     
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