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Kosmoflot: Rokots Vs Varangians

Discussion in 'Ariadna' started by Steineriksen, Apr 5, 2022.

  1. Steineriksen

    Steineriksen Member

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    So with the new fire team changes, what are you taking with your Kosmoflot; Rokots or Varangians?

    Both can link with Volkolaks, Patchers, Stranniks, Unknown Ranger and Cadin.

    Rokots can additionally link with Mekhaniks, Kazak Doctors, Wardrivers and Wolfgang, all the while gaining pure fireteam bonuses.

    While Varangians can only link with Wallace an be pure.

    I love the flexibility of Varangians, between berserking down targets, having smoke, and the ability to cancel the link and gain use of impetuous orders; but you do loose the new core bonuses.

    Is the flexibility worth it in your eyes?
     
  2. Death By Monkeys

    Death By Monkeys Well-Known Member
    Warcor

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    Great discussion to have here, I think.

    Before this, I've been entirely reliant on the UKR/Volkalak/Varangian core to do a lot of the heavy lifting in my lists. With the new fireteam rules, I'm going to be switching up my core fireteam to Rokots as I really don't want to degrade the capabilities of my Volkalak. He already struggles in some match-ups and it's only his Total Immunity and NWI that keep him from getting cacked.

    Also, it's worth nothing that while you can have Rokot links with all of those profiles you listed, they'll only get the pure fireteam bonus with Mekhaniks, Volkalaks, and Patchers - none of those others have (Rokot) next to their listing in the Fireteam table.

    With these changes, I've downgraded UKR to the Mk12 profile and dumped my Warcor, 2 of my 3 Varangians and 1 of my 3 Irmandinhos and replaced them with 4 Rokots. With this, I've got a pure full Rokot fireteam with the Volkolak and then a haris of UKR, Varangian, and Wallace as an aggressive unit.
     
  3. csjarrat

    csjarrat Well-Known Member

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    Rokots with volk HMG and specialists popped in seems best option to me. Varangians don't really need to be a core to be useful, a smoke equipped bodyguard to deliver a hard hitter like UKR/Wallace seems sensible to me
     
  4. colbrook

    colbrook Grenade Delivery Specialist

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    Yup, the new Fireteam rules completely change the Calculus on this choice.

    If you're looking to fuel a Volkolak, either HMG or ML, then Rokots are the way to go, one of the few Wildcards that can still get full Fireteam bonuses.

    Anything else you're probably better off with a Haris or 3 man Core, the only thing stopping me from doing Rokot Core + Varangian Haris in every list is I really like the look of the Kosmosoldat Haris
     
  5. Steineriksen

    Steineriksen Member

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    Do you find you get to leverage Wallace's free coordinated order often with that set up?

    Agreed

    I hadn't really given the Kosmosoldat Harris a chance. Though something like Kosmosoldat HMG with a Patcher HFT and a Frontovik paramedic sounds fun. Is that similar to what you play?
     
  6. Death By Monkeys

    Death By Monkeys Well-Known Member
    Warcor

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    Oof. That's a good point. I haven't actually tried it yet. First go with it will be a 3x game tournament on Sunday. That's a good point, though. I was using Wallace's Coordinated Order FREQUENTLY to help Duroc and Margot get around.
     
  7. Kreslack

    Kreslack Unknown Ranger lead the way!

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    The Kosmosoldat really went from Zero to Hero in this update. Not being able to haris was the thing holding him back the most. He just didn't have enough oomph to justify investing so many points for when other linkable units did his job so much better.
    I see a use for each of his profiles now. The T2 rifle is still unlikely to see a lot of use but I think if you were to take two Kosmo's the T2 Rifle and the AP HMG cover each others weaknesses well.
    With the ability to B2 or 3 with the MSV1 autocannon, I'm looking firmly at the cannon kosmosoldat. This guy packs such a mean swing defensively now. I want to experiment bit with who he might be ideal to team up with. A pair of Stranicks might be best.

    I'm sad the Unknown Ranger took such a hit. Being USARF's only contributing unit to Kosmo. But he's definitely more encouraged to join a offensive haris now.

    Frontoviks and Scots Guard are still largely where they and just about every MI were before. Very well equipped, but extremely unattractive and vulnerable for their expense in the template heavy meta that is N4. Which is a shame cause visually both of these units are beautiful.


    And now to the main topic
    Rokots vs Varangians.

    Varangians pretty much took a nose dive with the changes to link teams. I think they are still great as a haris member for the wildcards. But otherwise there are much better uses for your link team now. The ones that benefited the most from a Varangian link, The Unknown Ranger, Wallace, Cadin are now better paired into a haris with them instead. Chiefly because Rokots got such a huge boost.. or at least got to keep all the old bonuses, have a goo selection of weapon options, and have two excellent heavy infantry that can join their link with full bonuses. The Volkolak is doing much the same he did before, great mid range heavy gunner with solid CC defense, and excellent staying power.
    The Patcher is the other unit that adds massive close range clearing to the units tool box and pushes buttons too. The high burst flame attacks on a multi wound profile takes everything the base Minuteman in USARF does but actually usable. I love both his options. B3-4 flame templates is truly horrifying. Anything that doesn't dodge is almost assuredly dead. Even TAG's should be worried (if you can get that close) but clearing a tough unit from a mid field objective or a fortified room is much easier with him around. And flame grenades sound like a blast to toss around with full bonuses. I think he is gonna be a must take in every rokot link.
     
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  8. burlesford

    burlesford Sheet guy

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    How would you get B4? The HFT is B1 +1B, fireteam another +1B = B3. Where would the fourth one come from?
     
  9. Kreslack

    Kreslack Unknown Ranger lead the way!

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    Vulkan Shotgun (+1B) profile can hit B4 flame templates in a link team.

    The mass fire is available to both profiles and flame templates at B 3+ is practically deletion to anything in range.
     
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  10. burlesford

    burlesford Sheet guy

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    Ah, hadn't looked at that profile. Gotta remember that Vulkan Shotgun has continuous damage in template mode :D
     
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  11. Kreslack

    Kreslack Unknown Ranger lead the way!

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    The AP marksman rifle is another big recommendation for Rokots. With full bonuses it's not a bad back up weapon and your not breaking the bank taking one either.



    Another thing I just noticed and I don't know when it happened, but Pavel seems to have lost frenzy. OwO He's looking way more bright as a midfield fighter now. He can actually leverage his gun way better now. (Guess I was wrong on this twas just a teasing app bug)
     
    #11 Kreslack, Apr 7, 2022
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2022
  12. colbrook

    colbrook Grenade Delivery Specialist

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    That was a bug, if you reset game data he has Frenzy again :(
     
  13. Kreslack

    Kreslack Unknown Ranger lead the way!

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    What a frustrating bug. I was excited to actually have a reason to take him. Oh well... -_-
     
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  14. csjarrat

    csjarrat Well-Known Member

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    Damn shame, frenzy absolutely kills that models utility
     
  15. burlesford

    burlesford Sheet guy

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    A different question: Does anyone play Frontoviks in KF, and if yes, which profiles? I don't really see their use.
     
  16. Kreslack

    Kreslack Unknown Ranger lead the way!

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    I touched on it a bit above. But Frontoviks and by extension Scots Guard can be hard to take in a lot of lists. At least as linked attack pieces since they are kinda expensive and very vulnerable to the mass template scourge of N4. Barring local metals, if you have a lot more open terrain and fire lanes they are better offensive pieces.

    The engineer Frontoviks are both very useful as a backup to Kosmosoldat. Able to patch up any immobilization or disconnects, and push buttons. The LRL one can even help with mid range attacks fairly decently as well as any demo charge use you might need.

    With the link team changes Frontoviks in Kosmo too a huge hit as a full link is just not very good to take. And that has hurt the two reactive ones quite a bit. The HRL is still quite solid value and his assault pistol does help him some at the shorter ranges. The poor sniper Frontovik who still is a hero in TAK. But comes up much more lackluster in Kosmoflot, since both the Unknown Ranger and Kosmosoldat are much better MSV units.

    If your local meta has a lot of EM and Jammers then I'd make a bit stronger argument or them.
    Their basic guys punch quite a bit above their weight class with such easy access to T2. Which is still great I'd you got a lot of 2 wound and NWI in your OpFor.
    I looooove that they all get assault pistols, but since practically everything has a template attack now they rarely get a chance to leverage that weapon as close ranges. But if you know the area is template free (by some miracle) these guys will murder everything in their path.


    Scots Guard are much easier to justify taking, because they have access to camo state and NCO.
    NCO is the more important of the two because it makes them a fantastic base for a 3 man offensive haris team. Giving them an extra order to play with. This is especially great for pairing up with the Unknown Ranger. Even in a 5 man combat group you could get them up to 7 orders.
     
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  17. csjarrat

    csjarrat Well-Known Member

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    I've run a core of them and they're solid gunfighters. Mimetism, sixth sense and core bonuses on an AP sniper is fairly solid as a big game hunter or secondary lane aro.
    Their price might hurt a bit in some regards but there are plenty of missions that want you to dominate a ZO where price becomes useful instead of a liability.
    They're veteran, so they count for a lot of classified objectives and don't care about LOL.
    They're a solid pick for certain missions but not the go-to link
     
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  18. burlesford

    burlesford Sheet guy

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    Good replies. Thanks. Next question (still not talking about Varangians or Rokots, if you don't mind): What about the new Strannik? It looks extremely... bland to me. 19pt spec ops with not great stats and not great gear – What exactly is his niche? Is the T2 BSG anything special? The Zero-G? I don't know what to do with this profile.
     
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  19. csjarrat

    csjarrat Well-Known Member

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    It's the template mode on the shotgun that is t2 ammo that's the draw. In a link it can drop a lot of templates and one failed save causes 2 wounds. Potentially devastating but on a bland platform.
    Technique looks to be to ram it in the opponents face and make them roll dodge AROs, hope they fail and then fail saves. Trading pieces like shaolin don't care about t2 ammo and will just chain rifle you back so make sure you target clumped up models, link teams etc for maximum carnage.
    It'll shine in missions like panic room, the armoury etc

    The strannik doctor is also a cheap, linkable specialist to bed into a varangian link to support one of the cubed characters like Wallace for easy heals and objective capturing. Some missions give medics +3 wip or x2 rolls to complete objectives so they're useful wildcards for those missions.
     
    #19 csjarrat, Apr 8, 2022
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2022
  20. Kreslack

    Kreslack Unknown Ranger lead the way!

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    Frontoviks are Veteran Troops and have the Veteran skill. But the two aren't the same. Veteran Troops are used for objectives, Veteran skill gives you the isolated and LoL immunity.

    Also T2 Boarding shotguns on get T2 on hit mode. They are just ordinary shotguns using blast mode. This pretty much makes them worthless, as I would rather have AP on the hit mode. They really should have made them like Vulkan Shothuns in that they retain the AP hit mode and a T2 template attack. At the extremely sparse level they had been handing them out you think this would have been the case. :(

    Stranniks are pretty solid. Nothing extraordinary, but a very useful 3rd man in a lot of haris units. Especially if those units are already a bit pricey. Like the UR or a Kosmosoldat.
    They push buttons pretty solidly and have a useful doctor profile.
    The +1 B adhesive launcher is pretty nice too. Gives him a bit of midrange teeth and a potential solution to some stronger units.
     
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