joining Pan-o

You might enjoy the latest White Noise podcast, it's all about NeoTerra: http://benandmarty.libsyn.com/

What army did you play previously, by the way?

The good thing about NCA, in my opinion, is that you can strike aggressively with a lot of units in the list. My favorite thing about NCA (I discuss it a bit more in the podcast) is that there's a lot of redundancy for gunfighting threats. Whether you're taking a 68 point Swiss Guard HMG, a 14 point Auxilia or a 12 point CSU, all of your troops are lethal. Everything tends to be pretty slow though, so you probably won't be alpha striking so much as letting enemies walk into your kill zones. NCA generally doesn't win the game on the first throw, but rather plays methodical advancing attrition. If you do want to put a ton of points into a unit though, the Swiss Guard is obviously incredibly strong, and both the Uhlan and Aquila have their place depending on what scenario you're playing and what you hope to achieve.

If you do want to play very aggressively though, the trio of Locust Marksman Rifle, peacemaker and Garuda is fantastic. They can all start with very aggressive positioning.

For flank guards, hard to beat 2x Auxilia, 2x CSUs, 3x Fugazi. Not only does this provide you with a very cheap pool of Orders, but provides for great DZ defense. The Fusilier link is fantastic and popular also, and the Black Friar is a great defense specialist.

Hope that helps!

 

Very cool, this will be a fun transition for you then.

Framing NCA against the backdrop of those armies, that's helpful.

The major change I'd note is you won't have anything in the way of linked chain rifles/shotguns. I don't know exactly how you played either Tohaa or CHA, but certainly both of those armies have the option of clearing the lanes with a big HMG, then smoking their way up the field to deliver templates, shotguns and CC death in a pretty dramatic way.

NCA doesn't have that. You'll clear the lanes easily, but the coup de grace you deliver is a bit more of a gamble. Rather than a badass Triad, you need to rely more on very skilled solo units that all work in tandem together. That's where my comment about the Locust, Peacemaker, Garuda came from... Locust to help clear the way, Garuda to deliver either the boarding shotgun or Spitfire as necessary, and Peacemaker for the angry template death in the enemy DZ.

But that's kind of an extreme way to do NCA. Speaking from my own experience, my play tends to be much more about methodically removing threats with high-probability F2F AROs (usually coming from Swiss, Hexa, Fusiliers or Bulleteers as active turn pieces) and then locking areas of the table with dominant AROs.

 

Auxilia with HFT, Fugazi bots, ML Fusilier 5 man link team.

 

And to be controversial bolts, they are reliable, deadly up close and from afar and are veterans.

 

Swiss Guard HMG is the real MVP of NCA. If you want flank guards, then Auxilias FO will be your men.
Swiss, Auxilias and a fusilier fireteam for ARO are the skeleton of most NCA lists.

 

Alpha striking isn't exactly NCA's classic forte. Fire superiority describes them better. Barakiel mentioned most things already.
You'll miss something like a Wulver Link or Rasail Viral Combi in NCA to clean house at close range. Worry not there are substitutes and they get the job done quite well. Bulleteers or Garudas can do a lot of work done despite being expendable.
What NCA does very well is the ARO shell game. In between AVA 3 Fugazi, Linked Fusilier MSR/ML, and competent gunners with Suppressive Fire each of those could be backed up by a Hexa MSR or Swiss HMG/ML in Hidden Deployment.

Your resevere troops will mostly be those TO pieces. Be it reliably putting TR Bots at -12 (Range, TO, Cover), denying board areas or forcing Orders spent on Smoke/Cautious Movement.
My favourite part of NCA is having your opponent constantly look over his shoulder. Predicting from where a Fireteam is going to engage your Fusilier ML and flanking that Corner with a Swiss ML to make something roll FTF vs 3 Templates in ARO never stops being funny.

 

Big time, the hidden deployment ARO is a great thing to make your opponent stress over. I make sure I have it as a tool in all my NCA lists, even if it's just the Hexa Sniper instead of the full Swiss Missile investment.

 

To a degree, but NCA also lacks the easy access to mines that really lets you challenge Camo Infiltrators and such. If you turtle up too much, enemies with Smoke and Camo will just complete the mission without killing you. So having your aggressive pieces that can move forward to get work done is really important.

Aggressive gunfighters:
-Swiss
-Bulleteer
-Garuda
-Hexas

Aggressive Specialists:
-Swiss AHD
-Hexa KHD
-Pathfinder bot
-CSUs
-Auxilia

Finding the right balance of aggressive dominant ARO/defensive pieces, and units that can play forward, is very important. NCA needs to be able to shift from aggressive defense to attack.

An example of this rhythm would look like: absorbing the enemy attack at the start of the game, counter-attacking his forward pieces, putting him close to Retreat in Turn 2, then using a fast Pathfinder or Swiss/Hexa Hacker to push all your ITS buttons on Turn 3. For intensive button-pushing missions, NCA definitely likes taking the enemy apart with precision firepower, then picking up the pieces of the scenario once the opposition is done.

 

Yea, and they cost similar to Fusilier 5 man link team and Swiss Guard MultiRifle ;P

 

I always feel like Bagh-Mari are doing what bolts are trying to do but better. Heck, Bagh-Mari can even have a minelayer in their link.

 

I would wish Bagh Mari had veteran and bioimunity, the latter mostly because of the local meta but still.

 

CSUs

CSUs for DAYZ!!

 

I'd rather my 1W model not get hit in the first place so BS mods are more important to me. :P
But it goes beyond the link itself. I think SAA is better able to support a MI link moving up the board.

As for CSU, a DUO of 12 point specialists is pretty much a must have for all NCA lists now. So cheap for what they bring and SO good.

Despite people whinning about its cost and the N3 nerf, I still say the Aquila guard is worth taking vs camo heavy lists. Auto-discover is an underestimated ability.

 

Solid enough but could use some more "synergy" IE: look for units that support each other, that Locust is good for example, but if you got a Hexa KHD in there to cover him and clear out hacking threats they become a much more dangerous pair as they feed into each other.

You also need a bit more scoring, (Which a KHD would help with) and your link seems to be serving no purpose other than "defensive cheerleaders" there are more active and effective ways to build links.

My recommendation would be to,
1) decide what you want the link to be, either "active defense" or just "Cheerleader protection"

2) If you want active defence, ditch the bulleteer HS, Make the Hexa MSR a KHD and get an MSR into the fusilier link.
3) If you want Chearleader guards then drop the link to 3 Vanilla fusiliers (one the lt) and drop the bulleteer, use the points to grab a Hexa KHD

For example, Something like this

Assault team
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1 10
FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
AQUILA HMG / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 62)
SWISS GUARD HMG / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 68)
LOCUST Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Shock CCW, Knife. (0.5 | 38)
HEXA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 27)
CSU (Specialist Operative) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
CSU (Specialist Operative) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
TRAUMA-DOC Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
GROUP 2 1
HEXA MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 32)
6 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army


OR

Assault team
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1 10
FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15)
FUSILIER (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
FUSILIER (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
AQUILA HMG / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 62)
SWISS GUARD HMG / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 68)
HEXA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 27)
LOCUST Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Shock CCW, Knife. (0.5 | 38)
TRAUMA-DOC Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
GROUP 2 2
AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
6 SWC | 298 Points
Open in Infinity Army


In these lists everything works to support each other slightly better,

• The Hexa KHD works well with the Locust AHD
• The Auxilia FOs/ CSU Duo Are cheap scoring units that can rumble in the midfield and have the DTWs and WIP to hunt midfield Camo tokens
• The Link team either takes a more active defensive role with B2 BS15/12 ML or B2 WIP15/12 Flashpulses and can swap to late game scoring OR the link is all it needs to be at 3 man with B2 combis for defence and late game scoring

 

I'm going to throw a dissenting voice against the Aquila Guard love-in.

While they can be ok if you really want to run them, the MSV2 + Spitfire Deva is equally effective most of the time (because you don't have the orders to spend one discovering, and if your opponent left Camo out where you CAN discover-shoot then they are either too new to know better or luring you into a trap) and vastly less expensive.

And opponents aren't going to leave units out where you can HMG them for very long (you'll get one or two games where they try to meet NCA firepower at long range before giving up and going with alternate strategies), making the Spitfire the better weapon (as you have to get in to engage the enemy rather than using long range firepower).

Consider:


DEVA (Multispectral Visor L2) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 33)
DEVA (Multispectral Visor L2) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 33)

66pts and 2SWC

Vs:

AQUILA HMG / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 62)

That's a lot more flexibility, redundancy and (thanks to NWI) even toughness for only a few points more.

And, in the end, the argument is more one Deva and something else (heck, I'd go with the Shotgun Locust, or a Bulleteer) instead of the Aquila.

 

"And opponents aren't going to leave units out where you can HMG them for very long"

Yes, thats the whole point. If they hide their long range AROs, thats great news to me. Heck, even a Swiss Guard HMG + Aquila guard MR can be a good combo. Shock ammo is SO underrated. Think of all the annoying warbands with smoke and v:dogged. God, I hate warbands as Pano. I especially like taking an Aquila Guard as a guard for a TAG. Though Nisse snipers can work well in this role.

Though, as I said, the Aquila Guard is best vs camo heavy lists. Typically a Swiss Guard is better but it depends. Tables full of camo, mines, warbands, can see the Aquila do better. Even if its just making the enemy hide their ARO units.