So, this came up in a game recently and I'm afraid I may have played it wrong. I was playing my USARF against a buddy's Aleph force. He had moved his Proxy Mk.5 up from his deployment zone on my right flank behind a barricade about 4" from the right table edge. I was trying to keep from rubbing my hands with glee as it was the section I had designated my Airborne Ranger to enter from and the Mk.5 was facing toward the center of the board - diagonally away from the table edge. When it came to my turn, I spent an order and deployed the Airborne on the board edge behind the Mk.5. In response, my friend (who's also fairly new to the game) said he would change facing as an ARO as the Airborne was within the Mk.5's ZOC. I pointed him to the Stealth rule: A trooper with Stealth that declares a Short Movement Skill or Cautious Movement within the Zone of Control of one or more enemies but outside their LoF does not grant AROs to those enemies, even if he reaches base contact with them. My buddy gained a newfound respect for Stealth and I spent another order on a short move toward the Mk.5 before slitting the Mk.5's throat with his knife so as not to Alert the Mk.2 on the rooftop nearby, also in the Mk.5's ZOC. Did I play this correctly? We didn't argue about it, but after the game, I took another look at the AD rules: By spending one Entire Order, the user of this Special Skill may deploy anywhere on the segment of the play area's edge secretly chosen during the Deployment Phase. Because Stealth specifies that only Short Movement Skills or Cautious Movements in the enemy ZOC don't grant AROs, because I spent an Entire Order to deploy him there, should the Mk.5 have had a chance to ARO? Or is Deployment different? Any clarifications are appreciated!
Your post game conclusion is correct, using AD Parachutist is an entire order skill, it lacks the movement label, it is definitely not one of the things covered by stealth. You can never benefit from stealth when using any level of AD.
Unless you want to get close to an enemy, say covered in smoke, to hit him in the head without giving him any ARO while you move...
In addition to the remark of @xagroth I would like to add that stealth makes skulking behind enemy troopers in a fairly crowded field your enemy DZ tend to be, that it is well worth the (meager) cost.
I don't get this one. Foxtrots have no smoke or CC abilities. Foxtrots cannot turn the light off and poke someone from behind.
The fact that rangers can sneak around behind enemies' LOF and assasinate some of them is pretty darn useful
I love taking 4 foxtrots and try to fit them in any list I take. Granted I cant get my FOs to push a button to save my life. Being able to get markers up the board to lay mines, and be a headache to my opp is always worth taking 4
Because ITS is based on pressing buttons? Because mines? Because BS11 combat camo rifle is a perfectly respectable weapon, given that the enemy is at -9 before range mods?
Still can't follow you. Foxtrots are pretty damn good, but that is an irrelavant information. We were talking of the 6th Ranger's ability to use stealth to get BtB in smoke without provoking ARO and kill the opponent with CC. The Ranger can do this, the Foxtrot can't do this.
Sure. And a martial arts unit is better in melee than a non-MA unit. That doesnt mean that going for the melee is always the right or even preferable answer. I assume you want to melee to KILL something, correct? Or are you hoping for style points for shanking someone? :D I see what you're getting at, but the airborne ranger is not even a good CC piece....
Airborne are par for par one of the best bang per buck ad units in ariadna. With ma the fo smg is the best ad specialist in the faction. As a pure gunfighter they get outfought by the likes of paracommandos and spetznas due to their more streamlined profiles. But the paracommando FO is limited to just a rifle and the spetsnaz cannot score. Making the smg FO airborne a good choice in vanilla when you want a specialist that can fight its way to an objective and then push the button itself. And they are damn good at it. The ma itself lets them do a real number on heavy units that arent combat specialists like tags and HI. It also helps them move behind enemy troops into ideal engagement ranges and choose when to fight any models not looking at them on their own terms as opposed to getting cauhht in the open by a poorly timed change facing
To add on to what Daboarder said, his reliable ability to deploy near rear lets him basically run up and murder all the cheer leaders without allowing them to use alert. Or kill one then suppressive fire in the back. You don't always need smoke to even get him out there, but we have enough smoke launchers to do the job. He can also team with Van Zant very well to do a sandwiching move where you shoot someone in the back then activate another model to shoot in the back again.
The van Zant sandwich I wholeheartedly agree with, as it makes it more viable to compensate for the inherent downside of AD:1 that is picking your zone before deployment is completed.