It’s very easy to say “I would like this powerful unit that’s on my side to have tons of orders and be very difficult to stop.” It’s probably wiser to think “What allowance of orders seems fair for this unit to have if my opponent is using it? Is a TAG unstoppably appearing at my midline with 7+ orders balanced? What about 6? 5? 4?”. Personally I think 4-6 is the right range. 7+ is a full backline gutting, seems overpowered. 3 is too few to attack and then set up to endure a counterattack. 4 allows 1 maneuver order, 2-3 attacks, and an order to retreat or drop into Supp Fire etc. if you’re First Player, or an extra reply if you’re Second Player. 5 is about good to high, 6 is potentially overpowered but maaaaaybe allowable if reactive player has some nasty hacking that can’t be reached in a single move.
Currently Maximus only has 3 certain orders, 4 only if the commlink model remains alive until the reinforcements arrive. To make the tag playable in my opinion it should have at least one more, as already mentioned. Starting from a base of 4 orders, Maximus would be playable even if the commlink model died before entering. So I think like you, 4 base + 1 of the commlink would be right, but 3 base are too few, because if the commlink model is killed before the enter of reinf. we practically make the whole group of reinforcements useless, too risky. With the Tactical Awarness of the ITS 14 Rem in duo was right for me, but CB removed it because some factions, such as nomads, abused it; and in doing so they made other models unplayable.
I would prefer Max to be linkable with another engineer (Artalis, for example) and adding the Netrods to Reinforcements (1-2 tops) instead. Frankly, I'm convinced the only reason the Sophotect links with Max (and in a reduced capacity of engineer only, lest she stays able to heal herself... instead of giving her an SMG, for example) is to sell the model, since the only demand for sophotects nowadays stays in ISS, Parvati being so much better compared to the upper cost. Adding Trisha to the reinforcements as widlcard instead of the cheap artalis profile may give her some life too.
Maximus in duo with Artalis would be perfect; he would have an extra order for Artalis NCO and excellent support for the engineer.
I would say around 5-6 orders, because you always have to bear in mind, that this particular TAG appears in T3 and have only one turn to spend his precious orders. But this is more a question you should ask CB. Maybe its not the best idea to allow TAGs in RF - if they are so beasty killamachines (I did not have a chance to try it out and my opponent to go had a RF Anaconda in his first RF game, which came late had only one order until it runs out of targets). The Lizard gets 5 orders (one only for moving) if your pair it with Jelena and add the 13 pts Stempler. You can swap Jelena with a Rounder wich brings NCO with a nearly identical effect. Adding Comlink you get 6, 7 if you also make use of the O-12 rule. CB was very generous with Nomads RF, two units with TA (not counting the TAG), NCO and lots of cheaper troops. Yu Jing for example has not a single TA units, now that Takimocho is gone. Okay Haetaetae unis has one ... for over 50 pts so its more or less the TAG replacment. Squalo gets three orders of his own thanks to NCO, coupled with a TA Blade he gets solid 4+1. Add Comlink and O-12 for #5 and #6. Funny thing, you waste points in this configuration. You can buy Pathfinder and Blocker for real 5 order start but will loose the TA on the duo and the engineer skill... Caskuda is on four orders (many variations, but her link partner and the wildcards do not offer any extra orders, as far as I glimpsed over it). So six in best case. Anaconda with Miranda gets 3+1 in duo and can add a monstrucker to get 4+1 adding the usual and you land on 6+1.
