Now, take this with a pinch of salt, please. I have always had a... checkered relationship with Daylami. Since back when I started with the game in HS-era N2. I see them primarily as speedbumps, giving Hassassin Bahram a cheap screen of skirmishers. They are Irregular, so they do not contribute to the Order Pool anyways. They (nowadays) sport a Ghulam's statline (with a notch better CC, and a notch worse WIP - but that's far from significant, as they can't be Specialists anyway). So, there's little point in pushing them to perform any offensive action (i.e. pump Orders into them). Obviously not talking about Code One (as, pretty surprisingly, they are Regular in C1, which makes them a very sensible choice for basic Light Infantry cheerleaders). There are several profiles. What could I use them for? Light Shotgun (5pts) - well, at that price range, she competes against the lower end Ghazi Muttawi'ah. On her own, she can be a Deployment Zone guard, but that's about it. If I'm to include a cheap Irregular into my list, Ghazi wins, hands down: has her Impetous Order to propel her downfield, and a good chance of actually doing some damage (and/or set up a smoke screen) and paying off her points cost. Ghazi are well-known to cause enemy a headache. How would I fix her: give her a Infiltration Limited Camouflage. Make her a budget version of the more expensive Daylami Infiltrator. Yes, probably costing 7pts, but she can form the crowd, pretending to be a more deadly variant. Effecively a human mine, waiting to jump from Camo yelling and blasting her LSG before someone kills her. Rifle, Grenade Launcher (10pts & 0,5 SWC). Somehow the GL Daylami keeps sticking around since times immemorial. I completely can't see any purpose in him. GLs were hit hard with the advent of N4 rules: Speculative Fire with these was always probnlematic, and Hassassins have better options if you want to actually do it. Yes, he can fire his GL speculatively with his Irregular order, and hope to hit something... at 2 or less, most on the time (5 or less within 16", if memory serves me). How would I fix him: give him Smoke ammo for the GL. Even if it means taking away the normal ammo. He can then set up smoke screens from a distance with his Irregular Order. Also, he doesn't need a Rifle, really. A LSG would do for close-in self-defense. Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun (6pts). I actually like this guy, I used him a lot back in N2 (as his Camo equivalent had this nasty mandatory Inferior Infiltration I had absolutely no luck with). A dirt-cheap disposable ARO model you put up in a position with a good field of view, and force your opponent to deal with. Yes, the Daylami will die. But killing him has a good chance of costing your opponent a few Orders. A Panzerfaust with a good field of view is simply not something he can afford to just ignore. And if you hit with it... well, that's gonna hurt. How would I fix him: if it ain't broken, it ain't need fixin'. Marksman rifle (10pts). In my eyes he does the same job as the Panzerfaust guy, except he has no Disposable weapon (which is of little advantge, as I don't expect a Daylami to live long enough to fire more than two shots out of his Panzerfaust anyway) and can be set up on Suppressive Fire (which has a limited range, so the utility is so-so). And at the same time costs 10pts... How would I fix him: no idea. I don't know why he's even a thing. If it was up to me, I'd drop the profile entirely. Well, maybe in C1 he's useful... Rifle, Light Shotgun, Camo Infiltration (9pts). A budget Camo Infiltrator, who can even fire a good burst from the rifle sometimes, for a limited, situational offensive capability. He's okay-ish in my eyes. Note how the non-camo version that once did existed got dropped. How would I fix him: I'd love to skim a point off him. Maybe even two. Though apparently, with the points formula, he can't be cheaper. So - let him be. Unless there could be something to add to him, maybe some form of a Deployable Weapon. Panzerfaust, LSG, Camo Infiltration (8pts). That's the one actually good Daylami profile worth of reserving points and Combat Group slots for. Does the same job as his non-Camo equivalent, but from the safety of Camo Marker and added utility of Infiltration, so he's less dependant on the specific table setup. How would I fix him: if it ain't broken, it ain't need fixin'. Thoughts...?
I actually think it's pretty normal for a unit to have a lot of useless profiles and only one or two good profiles. So I'm perfectly content that that word "Daylami" just means the staple Daylami camo infiltration panzerfaust LSG, and it doesn't matter that he has a bunch of gibberish text next to his name which, if we were to translate it, would describe a bunch of other phantom profiles.
If by "normal" you mean "that's how things are", then I can not disagree. But maybe - just maybe - things could be a little bit better if they were different...? :) Not a hill I intend to die on (note: I intend to live forever - or die trying ;) ), just an observation.
Daylami date from an era where the narrative was a factor. They are approximately armed with basic weaponry than can be maintained in a basic workshop. Nothing I would find out of line seeing in on television about an... independently... minded society. Now? Barely an introduction.
Ah Daylami… how I love thee, let me count the ways; … I think it’s just the one where I can use them as @Errhile has used them: a cheap speed bump to distract my opponent while other units do things. Unspeakable things. The panzerfaust one use camo is my favourite, though I am also fond of the rifle/light shotgun camo infiltration one too. I Must admit I’ve only tried them as proxies in N4 so far, and I haven’t tried all the profiles. In older infinity games they drew fire for me but didn’t really do that much as they died too quickly. The dice gods are fickle. I need to get my haqqi done and try them all properly in N4 but the real world and my 3D printer have had other plans for me.
A more current observation is Code One. Daylami are your basic troop there as ghulam are only doctors with rifle/shotguns. For more weapon variety you have to go back. Their profiles there are more... They have more variety that disappears in N4.
Oh, absolutely. Daylami in C1 are very, very different from the ones in N4. Including a Camo Infiltrator LSG + Mines variant, which would be a very interesting active use piece in N4. Even if he was Irregular. I mean, a nasty, sneaky, Mine-armed Infiltrator for about 10pts? Sowhat if he's Irregular - being able to lay some mines around a corner is not a bad reason to pump some extra Regular Orders into him! But the difference between N4 and C1 is, first of all, in their Regular status in C1. Sure, because there is no Irregular instruction in C1. On the other hand, If I had Regular Daylami LSG for 5-6pts, I'd be inclined to spam them. Because they'd be decent Order Monkeys: having 5 Regular Orders for 25-30pts, to power my Fiday, Bokhtar & Asawira...? However, we're talking Irregular N4 Daylami. So here we are.
I have usually used Daylami in the way most people use warbands, cheap units that often can hit above their weight. A favorite memory is when a Daylami infiltrator punched out a Devildog.
More towards Corvus Belli is attempting to not make Joan levels of Daylami. So sculpts have to serve in both. I fall closer Headchime's treatise on the use if irregular troops.
They deploy in locations the Muttawiah cannot, they have marker state, they have a more capable main gun, and they have a very capable secondary weapon that does jobs a Muttawiah cannot do. These units are both cheap, and they can both perform one particular role (defensive speedbump), but they are so very different that I consider it much better to take one of each than to double down on one. Daylami are less potent as close range defenders than Mutts, but their infiltration allows them to guard areas ahead of the deployment zone that the Mutt cannot guard until it moves there. This is useful for guarding areas that you cannot see from the deployment zone, or for making use of favorable terrain that is in the midfield, or for simply having your defenders be further away from your main force. They are better than a Mutt for hunting skirmishers, as they can deploy near them, overlooking them, or even directly next to them, while the Mutt has to run there. It is generally better to attack a skirmisher with a Daylami for less orders than it is to spend more orders getting a Muttawiah there. Daylami have the capability to roll and deploy past the center line. This is useful for countering skirmishers as mentioned above, but they can also be an annoying template anywhere up to the front of the deployment zone. A well positioned Daylami can just shut down an avenue of approach to the right kind of enemy. Their defensive tech is absolutely top tier for the role, making them a coin flip for even some of the best units in the game to eliminate for very few points. Compared to Dogged they are more all-or-nothing, avoiding the discover and being invincible or dying in one hit. Generally the stronger the enemy, the better it is to risk it on camouflage than to tank it on dogged and the smoke roll. Very crucically, unlike a Mutt they can contest large areas with a long range weapon. And the nature of that weapon makes them an unavoidable threat for any unit in the game - even Achilles has to respect that this shitty 8pt marker can hurt him badly if he ignores it. When a good shooter arrives the Daylami will die (or pass the coin flip!), but now you've forced a sweeper to spend orders and expose itself for 8 points.
In my last games with Hassassins I ran a completely irregular 2 combat group consisting of 3 infiltrating Daylami PF/LSG and a full loadout Muttawiah. Both did quite well, the Daylamis being massiv speedbumps and the Muttawiah throwing smoking to cover my movement. Multiple Panzerfaust AROs are really scary and some of my opponents try to run around them, burning orders on the way.
In my first post-Blackwind Hassassin game, my #2 group consisted of 3 Daylami (LSG / PZF Infiltrators) and a CoC Farzan (to give them his Regular Order if they needed an extra one). Plus a Ragik in the air (essentially hidden there, and my #1 group was full of models. Intention was to move him over before the actual drop). There was also a Daylami Rifleman in group #1. The Daylami performed so well (with 2 Panzerfaust crits), along with the F-13 turret backing them up, that my opponent lost an Asura and Achilles (Corinthian) to combined AROs on his first turn, and yielded the game...
Hello Haquisslam fellows, I put 3-4 daylamis on every list I made with hassasin, plus one ghazi (9 points one). Dalyamis are always the infiltrator+lsg+panzerfaust profile. The others I know they exists, but nothing more. Sometimes I narrowed that amount to 2 daylamis. But it isn't the ordinary thing to do. In the other hand, while I play vanilla, I have a tendency to include more ghazi and less daylamis. E/marat is how I deal with some big guys hard to hit (you know "avatar kind of"). The thing is in my local meta they are another haquisslam player who almost don't use daylamis. He is more a beasthunter+liberto person. This makes me to realize in what awesome moment haquisslam (vanilla) ist. Hassasin is too in a good spot, but i thing a step beyond vanilla. So, coming back to daylamis. You can place it in your lists or not, but if you do, most players probably will take the infiltrator+panzer+lgs. I had several times the conversation about how daylamis make the enemy really uncomfortable, but if we do the maths, almost never kill something, but they are an order siphon, and you remembered really well the time any of the little guys managed to kill something. Because usually isn't something cheap or unimportant :P
Terrain permitting, this is often my preferred placement for a Daylami: If an enemy tries to attack my DZ on the left flank, after spending a bunch of orders they have to contend with a Panzerfaust. This is on the principle that long-range AROs should usually not reach too close to the enemy DZ, especially weak AROs like a Daylami, because the enemy will be able to easily pick them off with their long-range attackers. You want long-range AROs to cover, from long range, points that units will have to spend orders to reach when they advance. If the enemy tries to attack on the right flank, they have to walk through a shotgun template. And if the Daylami doesn't get used up in defense, then it's nicely advanced to be used for an attack run with the shotgun. Ideally, another Daylami goes in a similar position on the other flank, so that an attacker on either flank has to deal with both a shotgun and a panzerfaust. It's true that Daylami are in a weird place because, although they're great, the Liberto is so much better. For the same points, the Liberto gets minelayer (which is so important for defending against camo which can just walk past a Daylami) and dogged (which makes it twice as good as the Daylami on shotgun defense and twice as good as the Daylami on shotgun attack). It also Dodges like a champ. It loses the Panzerfaust but gains so much more. The only real downside is the 1SWC cost. That said, it's not an entirely fair comparison since I'd say the Liberto is, by a wide margin, the best unit in the game. Nothing is going to look good in comparison, including Daylami. My vanilla lists generally had 1 Liberto, 1 Daylami, and 1 Mutt. Occasionally 1 Liberto, 2 Daylami. In both Vanilla and HB, the Daylami also competes with the Nadhir as a forward-deploying long-range ARO that doesn't fully contribute an order (Irregular and Hidden Deployment have similar effects on the order pool). I'm running an HB list right now with two Daylami and a Nadhir, but I'm thinking it may be too much and I should replace one of the Daylami with a Mutt. Not sure, though, since if I have more Daylami than I need for Panzerfaust AROs, I can just deploy the extras more aggressively as attack pieces. I agree with those above arguing that the Daylami is a better attack piece than the Mutt (the Mutt is quite a different beast though with its Jammer and somewhat different point costs to the Daylami).
