That is a freakin' huge piece of a model, and it'll take me a whole eternity to paint it? I mean, it already took me 3 months to assemble it to the point where it can stand on the base (tail / turret and mandibles not attached, as they would get in the way of painitng). Granted, half of the time I had no access to my workshop, and also I had to wait for CB sending me a replacement part due to miscast (note - they did fine there!), but still the sheer size of that thing... at least half a year till I'll have it done! ...but I assume it wasn't exactly the answer you were asking for. So, perhaps, a more precise question could let us know what do you want to know...?
She's a decent main combat TAG. Nothing special, almost so generic that she's boring, to be honest. It's nice that there's a specialist inside that can pop out, but otherwise she's extremely generic except for her funky silhouette. I field her now and then, but the terrain setup in my local meta is always quite dense, so her big size always becomes a liability. On the other hand, I've never ever seen her outflanked, so I'd never pay the extra points for the 360 degree visor. Always go for the flamethrower. You want to be able to do those intuitive attacks, and hit ODD/Cammo figures with a template.
Maghariba may be a bland "6-4, 8/6, MultiHMG" TAG, but it gets a little discount for its size* (I assume), heavyweight and manned. * - speaking of which, does anybody have a list of official silhouette sizes? I remember there was one on the old forums, but those are about to be nuked from orbit, so...
Pin her feet to the base; pin her tail to her body by drilling a hole up from the bottom - penetrate the ring the the tail mounts on. I'd also pin the gun and the missile launcher if I had it do to over. The rear legs have really solid attachment points, I don't recall whether I pinned the front legs to the body. I'd suggest painting arms, legs, tail and body separately and then assemble. I painted two Kameels and Maggie in one month, and normally paint 4-8 models per month. It doesn't take longer to paint Maggie than any other if you using an airbrush - same number of details, just bigger. However, I have a lot of experience with 1/56 scale armor (bolt action), and those skills definitely carried over. If you're haven't done armor before, you might want to investigate the use of pigments, chipping, enamel-based streaking mediums for rust or engine grime. In play, well, I've used her four times and lost her three times. (But I really suck at this game.) Armor 8 looks impressive, but tag can melt like anyone else and draw a lot of attention. I've never managed to pay the 20pts upcharge for 360 visor, and this was a factor in one of three times she was lost. I like to support her with a Kalpan engineer with Blitzen to protect her rear and a barid killer hacker. I use a lot of Ice Storm terrain, and that is all too short for tags -- tags can see/be seen right over it. We have to double-stack it or place it on foam hills. Also, recall she can vault over this ice storm terrain. She is taller and walks right over it.
I've seen her, not the new one but the old one. Really wierd mix of SAC's HAW 206, manga's "German Think Tank", and plane's cockpit. I can't comment on her ability since i've never had a chance to try TAGs but one of my local veteran play her several times. His plan is to cover her with hacker netwok of Barid and several remotes, run her throught smokes and have her parked somewhere in the middle and become 360 giant turrets. I think he's quite successfull at it, but he's always rant on the expensive 360 profile.
As a model it is impressive, the only downside being the money cost (it's in the same boat as the Avatar+Staldron or specially the Blackjack). As a profile for the game, the 360ยบ visor is so expensive because the Size goes into the Asset category there: you can plant the Tag in the middle of the table and reach almost everyhwere with Supressive Fire, or if you can cover its back cover almost all the front of the table with the cheapest Multi HMG in the game.
Call me old fashioned, but I fell in love with the Beetle Maghi (that model was the reason I started Haqqislam as my first army). I recently fielded her and she was a real headache for my opponent. She's just a big TAG, though. I had her once possessed by a PanO TO Hacker (can't remember if Hexa or Swiss Guard) and use her heavy Flamethrower against me. Not so fun for my poor ghilman.
That might be the case: I use regular brushes only (save for undercoating and varnishing, but it used to eat away hell of a lot of my enthusiasm all those years ago when I did that by brush too!).
She is a bland tag with the option of getting a 360 visor. Bland tags are still tags - they will wreck the game if the enemy is caught unprepared. Always pay for the flamethrower. It is just too good against thing trying to pin you in melee or intuitives against close by camo markers. The 360 visor is useful, but expensive. Very useful in missions that you need to capture stuff in the middle of the table ( that tech coffin? yeah, you need to move the maghariba if you want it ), but its definitely not a auto-pick
Could you elaborate on this? I take flamethrowers to burn off TO/ODD, but why is flamethrower better than heavy pistols to prevent maggie from being bumrushed? Is it simply the auto-hit of the flamethrower vs. needing to roll to hit?
Bland TAG? Just because she doesn't have some fancy camo or mimetism? The Maghariba Guard is far from bland because she is so damn cheap for the amount of firepower she brings. I absolutely love the Maghariba Guard, I own both the old one and the new one, I love both for different reasons. I love the old one because it looks like Tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell. I love the new one because it is one of the most badass looking TAGs in Infinity. Szalamandra definitely maybe took the title now but the Maghariba Guard will always be better in my eyes. I am a Haqqislam fanboy though. As far as tactics, I have brought her A LOT and she has always put in work, even against them fancy ass PanOceania TAGs. She has only been taken down once in all those times and that was only after she cleaned house. I turn her big size into an advantage instead of a disadvantage being able to get cover but still see over tons of stuff and allowing her to rule the battlefield. I absolutely love her, and my biggest sorrow about going to Hassassin for this ITS season is not being able to field her anymore.
Why is that? There has to be scenery that provides total cover and there has to be at least one route across the table, where a 70 mm base would fit.
Also, keep in mind that it can "vault" any obstacle that is not higher than the Silhouette. And S8 TAG has a pretty large Silhouette. As far as I can understeand the rules, you just can't end your movement "mid-vault" with an obstacle uner your model base. The same way you can get onto a terrain piece. If it is lower than your Silhouette, that's essentially the same as a human walking onto a footlocker. I've seen aplenty of TAGs using shipping containers for steps that way (the only problem with Maggie is ending with your base entirely supported, because it is the biggest base in-game after all). ...and if your table doesn't have spaces where a 70mm base can't fit unsupported, I'd say the table is way too tight.
Yup, it will be nice to finally have the Haqqislam TAG available in a Sectorial. I loved QK but we are reliant on a Merc and a hired Nomad to get TAGs, both which I love but none are like Maghariba Guard. I am eagerly waiting for the RTF, can't wait to see what is in that Sectorial. And yeah, as it is pointed out, the movement of the Maghariba Guard isn't as restrictive as people make it because it can vault over all those things that are smaller than it. I have vaulted over plenty of scenery items much to people's surprise and showed the Maggie can be quite agile than what people think it is.
Well, the multi-cannister launcher on the tail turret definitely suffers from being just a representation for the Enhanced ECM system (though it would be absolutely sensible as a depiction of a "hard kill" anti-missile system). Then again, never-ever I have seen a Guided (2ed) or Smart (N3) Missile Launcher being fired at a TAG so there might've been a chance to defend it with an ECM suite. Sure, my meta is rather on the small size, and GML / SML isn't a common sight on table (well, was somewhat more common back in 2ed), but still. I mean, I've seen TAGs being dispatched with EM weapons (ranged, Direct Template, CCWs), Missiles (& Panzerfausts, & I think even with a DEP), hacking by hackers, hacking (apart) by adequately competent Close Combat troops, glued down with ADHL, riddling with holes by AP rifles, Boarding Shotguns (with AP slugs), hailstorm of HMG fire, AP Sniper rifles, lucky Direct Template attacks (including one case when a Lizard burned like a match after a Tomcat getting to it with a LFT), and even a couple of cases when, out of desperation, regular Rifles / Combis / Light Shotguns were used to finish off a TAG, and actually did the job. I am, however, yet to see an ECM being used. Therefore, from my limited perspective, it is just a gimmick of no real application. Still, I believe there might be more Maghariba loadout variants showing up in the Ramah. It would, definitely, spice the things up...
