I have to say the Locust is quite a nice edition to NCA after all. I prefer to use it purely as an attacker. It opens up the possibility for quick strikes in the mid field. Paired them with the peacemaker and NCA can hit hard far quicker than it could before. The peacemakers and their auxbots can clear out mines and other obstacles for your Locust. I find that is their best use. Heres just an amusing list I came up with: Neoterran Capitaline Army ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 LOCUST Breaker Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 33) PEACEMAKER Heavy Shotgun + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21) AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) PEACEMAKER Heavy Shotgun + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21) AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) FUSILIER HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 18) FUSILIER Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15) FUSILIER Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18) FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) HEXA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 27) GARUDA Tacbot Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 28) GROUP 2 6 MACHINIST Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) HEXA MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 32) 6 SWC | 299 Points Open in Infinity Army Sure, its squishy but you have 16 orders and some hightech. Don't underestimate the Locust's CC ability. If you can manage to use stealth to get into melee, that Locust with DA CC can do some damage and theres the option to use D-charges in melee. Played right and the Locust can blow up HI or even TAGs in melee. Anyone else using the Locust to get into CC or are people not even giving CC a try? Even with the lack of martial arts, I find the Locust about as deadly as airborne rangers. A little less safe in CC but with the potential for far greater damage.
I love using the Locust as a general harassment unit. Infiltrating across the board, he's usually in a good position to cause some damage. I've found that my opponents get really distracted trying to root him out, which protects some of my other units like my TAG. A memorable moment would be when I took the Assault Hacker and infiltrated all the way to the other side of the board right outside my enemy's deployment zone. Locked down a Guijia and Rui Shi before getting surprise attacked by a Hac Tao on the same rooftop. The look on my opponent's face when I told him he had CC 20 was priceless. Honestly, the Locust totally won me that game.
Ive only used the Locust in a handful of games so far. Initially I used him as a back up attack piece with the Mkmn rifle at low points, and as a standard alpha strike infiltrator with the BS profile. However, at high points I believe where the locust really shines is as a flanking fire scalpel that is used to cut of units that attempt to ignore him and fight past his position. Keeping him prone on a roof in the midfield during reactive I found him a good answer to attacking players who have advanced into the midfield and then turtled up to hide from teh superior firepower of NCA. usually shooting them from out of cover in addition to the ODD mods meant that he would drop the opponent fairly readily. Im keen to expand on the use of the Locust in this role and to expand the concept into the use of troops in my other armies.
I love the Locust, I use him the same way as daboarder, I put him up on a rooftop in the prone position and I have the Peacemaker with it's Auxbot covering him or supporting him as a rear guard when using him to make an attack. I find the Locust is a turn two attacking unit, after the Swiss guard or Aquila has cleared the way for him, and some time he is a great data tracker.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Crockmen, Naga, ninjas etc. are better than Locust, but in NCA is the only option . .
Hard alpha works really well in NCA, just some observations if i may. Pacemaker is not infiltrating, is Mec Deploying, so if you put more than one in one list you have to deploy them close together and with their fat bases is not that good. I used to take them all the time and found that the spidfire one can give you much much more mileage than the shotgun, with its own repeater its really easy to assist fire it and clean a lane wile the auxbot already handles the close range. Locust is not a CC animal, sorry to disappoint, if you manage to get the back arc on something your chances are going to be always better just shooting ( 2 or 3 times higher rate of fire plus -3 for out of LOF are strong, CC is just a one dice toss in the best of cases). Is one of the best Shotgun users in the game, it can get close without risk of hacking shenanigans, dropbear from a corner and then come around to shoot, hiring always multiple targets, or just speculative dropbears on to a roof to neutralize a sniper/doc/whatever. (im going to stop there on that because this was our characteristical tech and they gave the same kit to Raul Spector for no reason, and he is really the optimal profile for it, it makes me kind of angry) The other thing that is different in an alpha list from a nomal list is that one you make a hole you want to keep twisting the knife as deep as you can, which is a problem if all the attack units are on the same group. In your list for example, if you start with the Hexa in token for the extra order, and the opponent strips you of 2 more orders, you only have 6 orders for 3 short range and one mid range units, plus buffing. This list example will give you a much more deep strike, you look for optimal ranges and hit there with group one and then follow up with the Garuda. Or if you are pined you bring the garuda to free the other to units. In the same scenario as before you have 8 orders in group one plus 5 more to use on the Garuda one he lands (with his speed if plenty). Neoterran Capitaline Army ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 LOCUST Boarding Shotgun, Grenades, Drop Bears / Pistol, Shock CCW, Knife. (0 | 30) PEACEMAKER Spitfire + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (1 | 27) AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) FUSILIER HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 18) FUSILIER Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18) FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) HEXA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 27) GROUP 2 7 MACHINIST Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) HEXA MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 32) GARUDA Tacbot Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 28) 5.5 SWC | 299 Points Open in Infinity Army You are right man, alpha NCA is strong AND fun you can pay Saito with SoF, i did it for a small ITS this weekend and he pay himself killing 3 Hospitalers in Link, then stealing the beacon in the second game and cutting the board LOS with smoke for the grid..... so not the ONLY option
@Make PanO Great Again :P As I said, I find the locust about as good at CC as airborne rangers. Its easy to dismiss the locust CC ability but you'll change your mind the first time your able to sneak up on an HI and plant a D-charge on it. Though I like your changes to the list. I still like dual peacemakers because its funny when you can pull it off. I still prefer the breaker locust with DA weapon. I like the extra range of the breaker rifle and the CC comes in surprisingly handy.
Locust with Peacemaker and Garuda is a good way to apply pressure immediately. The Marksman can clear a path very effectively so that you can walk the Garuda on, or start shotgunning/HFTing in the enemy DZ. If you use the Locust as a reserve drop, it's a nice solution to enemy AROs that are hiding from your big guns but are still watching the approaches to the DZ.
The distance between the edge of the bases has to be 8", so big fat bases mean they can be further away than with smaller bases. Still you have to pack everything in a circle with 8" + Rbase radius.
Sure dude, if thats your thing just downgrade the FO Auxila for the new Sexy 12pt CSU and you are there. The Breaker is nice, i just love infiltrating dropbears so much. @Zsolt i like to be able to attack from the weakest spot, im a bully like that, thats why for my style that radius is a big thing, its a flaw in me game probably.
The Drop Bears is the selling point of the Locust. CC is very, very risky with troopers without very, very good (MA3+ AND a CC well above 20!) stats. One bad roll and your nice little 30+ points trooper is mincemeat in progress. Seriously, dude, the BS+DB loadout is the cheapest and scariest by far. (Been on the recieving end of this beating stick. Did not enjoy it...)
This is how I used him in a recent tournie game. Its also worth noting that pushing with the locust rarely loses you anything. You dont lose marker state and with ODD and 4-4 movement being placed in Base contact with an edge on your DZ is rarely an issue as well, you just use him to then push a flank instead of the initial idea.
I disagree, as ive said above sticking him somewhere in the midfield where he is hard to get at and using him to cut people down at long range from a flanking position is where it is at IMO
I do like the peacemaker, its Pano's equivalent of the Moran. More fragile but that auxbot is SO useful. While I suppose its table dependent, its not that hard to use two peacemakers and its certainly not something most people expect.
Drop Bears and Grenades make the Boarding Shotgun my personal favorite. It's useful as a midfield combat unit, as @daboarder advocates, and as an aggressive strike piece. But you can also use it as part of an effective layered defense (it's not like NCA gets much else in the way of mines). I've taken a lot of pleasure in using a Locust to draw enemy attack pieces into an ambush by Hexa Sniper or Swiss Missile, and the Hacker works best for that particular role. My opponents seem pretty determined to take those ones out in particular, but they are also vulnerable to Killer Hackers.
they can go down together to the same Locust doing that DB+BSG trick, for me that's small. If i need stuff to attack from opposite ends then thats where i want them, 20cm is the same lane or closing to the next one, but not much more
how? I mean, jeeze mate, firelanes, overlap and scatter.....? And where did you put the B2 HFT screens?
