Sensor and Sniffer Tactics

I haven't used them myself, but my CA buddy uses his equivalent. He rams them into the closest grouping of regular camo markers, drops a Sniffer and Sensors. He doesn't use them much to shoot with, but I guess they can put up some supression fire in areas where you might need it. Just be wary of mines in Camo, as they will blow up if you are in sensor range, unless you can put some tall cover between you and them.

In regards to TO; I use the MK2 Posthuman quite alot, so I have gotten used to where I myself would place it, in either profile, so if you look at the opponent side of the board, you might guess where he has hidden his, if you suspect there is one. Beyond that, I find mines to be a bigger deterrent to TO camo.

 

TO camo units will rarely be on your table side, unless you face the japanese, and even then. Very few troops have superior infiltration, and since TO infiltrators are rather expensive, few(no) opponents will dare to roll for infiltration - the chance of failure is too high, and the bare roll reveals that infiltrating sheananigans are going on.

The key is to get your Lamedh into position, and avoid putting your daleth on the line. A wellcoordinated move-move order will do this, along with a couple of nice support - like daikini medics. Then get the individual daleth into position. Preferably staying out of sight, but as playing a sniffer does not cause a FtF, you can do a suicide run if needed. Now Sensor away.

But sensoring TO markers isn’t the only trick in the book (or even the most useful). Revealing ordinairy camo is just as nice (and camo spam is otherwise a very annoying opposing strategy), and if you are starting down some scary pain train HI Fireteam or a TAG, it opens up some options.

Synergies of course comes with the Samekh, as you can use Sat-lock and start bombing away (although this does require a lot of orders, but the power of guided ammunition is underestimated. If you go this route, consider the EVO bot for more support.

Since you’re using the Phalanx, try take a look at this list, taking the concept to extreme :

Steel Phalanx - Very Silly Guided List (300/300 | 5/6)

Group #1 | 10 Models | 10 0 0

Lamedh Rebot Repeater | Flash Pulse / Electric Pulse (8)
Lamedh Rebot Repeater | Flash Pulse / Electric Pulse (8)
Probot EVO | EVO Hacking Device, Electric Pulse (25)
Daleth Rebot Combi | Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse (17)
Thorakites Observer | Forward Observer, 360° Visor, Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Pistol / Knife (13)
Thorakites Observer | Forward Observer, 360° Visor, Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Pistol / Knife (13)
Thorakites Observer | Forward Observer, 360° Visor, Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Pistol / Knife (13)
Thorakites Observer | Forward Observer, 360° Visor, Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Pistol / Knife (13)
Scylla KHD (2 Devabots) | Killer Hacking Device: UPGRADE: Maestro, Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser, Pistol / E/M CCW (34)
Devabot Charybdis | Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse
Devabot Charybdis | Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse
Netrod AI Beacon | (4)

Group #2 | 7 Models | 7 0 0

Thorakites Observer | Forward Observer, 360° Visor, Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Pistol / Knife (13)
Thorakites Observer | Forward Observer, 360° Visor, Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Pistol / Knife (13)
Samekh Rebot Smart Missile Launcher | Smart Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse (18)
Netrod AI Beacon | (4)
Machaon Lieutenant | Lieutenant, Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades, Pistol / DA CCW (38)
Myrmidon Officer BSG Chain of Command | Chain of Command, Nanopulser, Boarding Shotgun, Eclipse Grenades, Pistol / AP CCW (35)
Myrmidon Spitfire | Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades, Spitfire, Pistol / AP CCW (31)

Tons of orders should allow you to outmaneuver your opponent. Then Press the Samekh trigger. You’ve got a hardy little myrmidon Fireteam to drop smoke and make sure the remotes won’t get shot in the advance. And you’ve got the EVO giving scylla B2 heavy flamer bots to dissuade anyone from hitting her flank. And you’ve got a horde of 360’ visor SMGs to cover your midfield in suppressive fire.

Try it out.

 

I don't use them much nowadays (cause shinier toys), but i like them. I find them to be very good as reserve specialists for special operation missions. When all the others are dead and you have only a few orders left, you'll enjoy the mobility of this little rem.

As for your questions.
Sensor has several uses. All of them are situational but can answer to different situations:
_ the most obvious. you have several enemy markers in a area and you can discover them all in a single order
_ this use of sensor can also detect hidden troops. Want to be absolutely sure there is no oniwaban threatening near that objective ? You can do it. Highly situational.
_ sensor also gives a +6 WIP to standard, long range detection. Better than nothing if you don't want to get close, and don't have any MSV left. Don't forget that one
_ sensor gives triangulated fire. BS 11 may not be much, but it means BS8 on anything, at any range (till 120 cm anyway). It can get rid of a pesky CH:TO sniper. It is also the best way to remove a scary CC monster engaged to one of your troopers. Don't try to fight back in CC, just shoot it, you have no penalty for shooting in melee and you can't hit your own troop with triangulated fire.
_ while highly situational, satlock on a camo marker may be better than running discover. The marker can't reset without revealing, and satlock will reveal and mark if you pass the roll (which is the tricky part).

As for sniffers, you would usually use lamedhs for that (if your daleth is in range to place a sniffer, it can outright detect). But, sniffers have also a second use: your opponent cannot recamo in range of a sniffer as long as your daleth (or deva) is alive.

A last point about daleth. Since it has a repeater, it can do the usual things for your hackers, but it can also benefit from overclock (or enhanced reaction) for its flash pulse.

 

OMG! Sat-lock works through Sniffers! I didn't realize until I read your post! That's hilarious, I HAVE to pull that off one day!

 

But it's as he said, be ready to use a lot of orders :)

 

One advantage of the simple Sensor bot is that it's an incredibly order-efficient Specialist, if you manage to sweep the table clear. Assuming no opposition, it's great for simply sprinting the table and achieving objectives very quickly.

For Sensor + Sniffer, one overlooked interaction is that a Camo unit cannot re-camo near a Sniffer, as long as you have a Sensor unit on the table too. If there's a Camo unit that's threatening you, but you can't quite reach it in your turn, dropping a Sniffer close by and Revealing that Camo trooper can make life very difficult for it. You can force it to stay visible, effectively "pinning it down" and stopping it from escaping to safety, or advancing toward you. It's especially good vs short-range Camo opponents with rifles or shotguns, who you can pin down with a Mk2 Sniper or other strong long-range ARO piece.

 

What dependencies? Dasyu FO is great unit anyway. So is Posthuman FO.

I use it, although rarely for launching missiles at targetted units. Instead, I use it in vanilla Aleph as a scary but cheap ARO piece. AP+DA template is a very scary thing on BS12 unit. Especially when upgraded to B2 or Marksmanship L2.

 

the other advantage is sat-lock, particularly in certain builds, sat-locking on WIP13 vs a target and raining speculative or guided death on the vicinity can ruin the opponents day

 

Don’t underestimate the ability of triangulated fire. You’ve got a 48” range gun, that never hits below a 9. This is quite annoying for those pesky TO/ODD/Camo types.

 

Dont forget that you can't satlock on 13- unless you have also an EVO probot. Which is good in its own way, but not exactly cheap. So while the lone daleth may be a cheap yet useful multipurpose bot, the whole setup is less than cheap for some situational gimlick:
ALEPH
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

3
DALETH Rebot Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17)
SAMEKH Rebot Smart Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 18)
PROBOT Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)

2 SWC | 60 Points

Open in Infinity Army

For roughly the same price, we can have a naga FO, which can also FO (obviously), but has other uses (mines, assassination, -9 to hit speedbump ...). I think that the EVO is only useful if we plan to fight many hackers (transmision matrix vs nomads anyone ? :p) since it can give a massive edge vs other hackers.

 

You want to have EVO useful? Add some Garudas to your army.

Anyway, Daleth is a gimmick troop. It sounds to be so useful but only sensor is truly useful on it. Don't stick it in every list just because. I add it if I'm missing FOs and have a 17 points leftover.

If you really want to use Guided missiles, put in Dasyu FOs. Best way to FO the enemy is to give him a bunch of penalties to his roll, such as TO Camo, Surprise Shot, and in general close range. Dasyu starts midfield (usually in 0 range of enemy ARO pieces), gives penalties to enemy, and has WIP14 to give a half-decent chance at FOing. Also useful would be maneuvering around to FO from enemy back, when they cannot respond.

It also carries Mines and Nanopulser, making it extremely useful.

 

We may not agree on everything (yadus ^^), but i do agree on this one :) That's why i used a dasyu FO in the samekh challenge list
For the love of the Samekh - Challenge
I often use nagas instead, because they are cheaper, but the dasyu has some nice advantages too. Hidden deployment, NWI ...
Daleth is more than just a sensor through. It can also be a backup specialist and a fast one. For 17 pts, i think it's worth having one of them in most lists, even without samekh.

On the other hand, i personnaly rarely use FO for marking target. Unless for classified of course (and then, its often on a weak target that wouldnt be worth targeting otherwise). Easier to just shoot the target in most cases.

 

Good point. Then again, there are cases, where its more beneficial - ie. hitting a fireteam with the template, or when facing HI/TAGs in cover, where your combi-rifle have poor odds. Not to mention range bands.

Another point of the Daleth is, that you can avoid the return fire completely with Sat-lock. Although this is of course only marginally better than Spotlight.

 

Situation where this is true is quite rare honestly.

Sure, and Sat-lock can discover markers and Target them in the same order. However, it is so limited and order intensive that it's rare to do it.

Personally, I would love if they gave these abilities to more troops (like giving us a Dakini with FO, Sensor, Satlock) but hey, I'm not CB.

 

I use Sensor as a crutch to deal with unanticipated camo hijinks, from camo minefields to likely TO lurkers near objectives. It's especially useful when you haven't an opportunity for a visor trooper in your list... even moreso now that there is a Classified Objective that Sensor can achieve when you don't have a visor. For the small cost I consider a Sensor/FO bot always worth it.

 

I dream of the day my dasyo FO would target something for a samekh to rain down missiles on a fireteam :) But honestly, most of the times, i just use a mine then move+shoot with combi - the fireteam eat a template too, and must choose between dodging and shooting back.

On a dakini, it would be roughly the same as a daleth, a fast, low WIP platform. Only S2 instead of S3. It could be nice on a deva, or why not, on an arjuna. More expensive and agressive troops.

Sensor is very good by itself, it's more the satlock/guided missile that is both order intensive and expensive (points and SWC), and thus, situationnal. The deva Lt + sensor is still a good pick even with the shukra.