Evenin' Online Community, Been working on some Aleph recently, and I'm loving the models that were released with O:CF. Solid sculpts and fun profiles. HOWEVER! I've had a Szalamandra sitting in a box for almost a year now, and I really want to make sure I don't hit the 12 month mark with him unbuilt and unpainted - it's such a cool model. I pulled all the lovely pieces out of the box this past weekend and started cleaning the model. My goal is to have him fully cleaned, built and puttied by the end of this coming weekend. My main hobby aspect is actually painting, and not gaming... but I love models that also work well should I want to throw down. With this model being my main focus for the rest of this year (it seems), it poses a very serious question: How does one Szalamadra? I've always leaned towards vanilla nomads, but I am also not opposed to running some TJC. How do you all run your Szally? How do you support him/her properly? How does taking one affect your list building as 1/3 of your SWC goes POOF! and we still have awesome models like Intruders and SEO's fighting for some SWC? I'd really appreciate your input and help!
I run it regularly, and it actually does pretty well. Mind, it still has all the problems any other TAG has (i.e. be careful of any E/M, don't let CC dudes to close in on it, and so on), but it usually can be circumvented. The best time I had with Szally lately was with this Tunguska list: Jurisdictional Command of Tunguska ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10 SZALAMANDRA Hyper-rapid Magnetic Cannon, Heavy Flamethrower / . (2 | 90) SZALAMANDRA PILOT Contender / Pistol, Knife. () PUPPET MASTERS (Minelayer) Submachine Gun, Antipersonnel Mines / PistolKnife. (0.5 | 14) PUPPETBOT (Marksmanship L1) AP Marksman Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 14) PUPPETBOT (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Electric Pulse. (0 | 11) PUPPETBOT (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Electric Pulse. (0 | 11) SECURITATE Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13) SECURITATE Feuerbach / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22) SECURITATE Feuerbach / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22) SECURITATE Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21) SECURITATE Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13) DAKTARI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) HECKLER Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Cybermines / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24) TSYKLON Spitfire, Pitcher / Electric Pulse. (1 | 31) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army Re "1/3 of your SWC goes POOF!" - first time I ran with this list, I played against Haqq. I was going second, and on turn one al Jabel came and rekt Szally (mostly due to me being a bit sloppy with deployment). But due to the list having a lot of good ARO pieces (and szally having bts 9 vs his PH13 Viral), he wasted most of his turn on this, and next turn I managed to seize control of the board with my other attack pieces. When it doesn't go down like that, on its active turn Szally can hold its own against pretty much everything that's not a ML Swiss or an Avatar.
Awesome, thanks! I know this is a bit of a side rant: Have you thought about taking the Minelayer Puppetmaster without any bots? Looking at the profile, I wouldnt mind spending the 14pts on a Minelayer with CI and leaving it at that. Have you used the Szally in any vanilla lists? Do you have a favourite second attack piece to run with it?
That's the only way I've ever run it, both Tunguska and Vanilla. It's one of Tunguska's cheapest units and I love having a mine in the DZ for the extra defense and camo mind games. CI also makes 12-14 order lists a lot more reasonable which helps alleviate how flippin' expensive everything is in Tunguska. In Vanilla I take it slightly less often but it's still valuable for Lt/Decoy Lt protection, coordinated order minelaying, and of course CI. Can't speak to Szally's use, I've never fielded an S7 unit. Hell, I don't like using anything over 30pts unless I have a clear plan for it.
Oh, yes. In fact, I try to squeeze a Puppetmaster in any vanilla lists that go over one combat group. The barebones 12pts profile will do in a pinch, too. Favourite attack piece... probably Tsyklon. It is cheap, mobile, can provide good ARO in Suppressive Fire, and has a Repeater. Second choice would go to Intruder - he complements Szally nicely by taking out high-MOD things. You could also try to squeeze a Kriza or Taskmaster in, but that means he is likely the only attacker in the list after Szally, and feels like I'm putting a lot of eggs in an uncomfortably small number of baskets =) There's also the "I-don't-even-have-points-for-a-Tsyklon" option to take the Red Fury Heckler.
I love the Intruders with the Sally. I've even ran with two intruder snipers leveraging their forward deployment for MI this season to really nasty effect. Granted that's too large of a points investment to be competitive IMO, it is really fun. A single Intruder/jaguar is the minimum though, and that will probably also include a warcor/dak or zondbot Also seconding Tsyklon. With the Kriza I usually find myself in a situation of Sally OR Kriza, not both, since they can fill similar roles and have similar weaknesses. But the Tsyklons or a Lunokhod buffed with assisted fire, packing shotgun or spitfire is real dangerous to many targets mid-close while I like to advance my Sally up more slowly. You CAN turn the S7 into an advantage for you though with the heavy flamethrower. Considering that you can attach the teardrop template to any part of the S7 silhouette marker including the top, you can really line up some nice shots up to the top of and over some cover elements that shorter models would never have the height to take
This is awesome, thanks. So if I ran something like the list below, how would you fill it out knowing I'd need 5 more models, only have access to 1 SWC, and I currently only have 1 spec: 5 PUPPET MASTERS (Minelayer) Submachine Gun, Antipersonnel Mines / PistolKnife. (0.5 | 14) INTRUDER HMG, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 42) JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10) SZALAMANDRA Hyper-rapid Magnetic Cannon, Heavy Flamethrower / . (2 | 90) SZALAMANDRA PILOT Contender / Pistol, Knife. () TSYKLON Spitfire, Pitcher / Electric Pulse. (1 | 31) 5 SWC | 187 Points Is it worth it to take the Tysk and the Intruder? Am I soaking too many points into attack pieces? My group (in any game we play) are super open to using whatever is available, so I would easily be able to run a spec-ops as well (+1WIP, Doc, Eng, Hacker, Mimetism)... but I don't want to use that as a crutch.
Don't know why you should take the Puppetmaster without puppets in a LI list. If you take the Tsyklon you have to take a hacker to buff it. That's a list I would try to play, but it depends allways on the preferences of the player Nomads ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10 SZALAMANDRA Hyper-rapid Magnetic Cannon, Heavy Flamethrower / . (2 | 90) SZALAMANDRA PILOT Contender / Pistol, Knife. () INTRUDER HMG, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 42) JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10) ZOE & PI-WELL undefined. (0 | 47) ZOE (Hacking Device. UPGRADE: Stop!) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28) PI-WELL Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 19) ZONDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) INTERVENTOR Hacker Lieutenant (Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25) ZERO Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21) ZERO (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19) MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22) MORAN Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21) 5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army Zoe and Pi-Well are workhorses. Zoe is the engineer you want for your TAG and with the Zondbot, you can reach him even midfield. Pi-Well is your specialist who can fulfill many roles. The Moran are your midfield blocker, who hinder your opponent. The Zeros are also for accomplishing your targets. Edit: Zoe or the Interventor can buff Pi-Well through his repeater
