Shas exp force, two or more haiduks

Honestly, I barely run one. He's very solid area denial, but it's difficult to always find spots from where he can draw enough LoF to justify his cost (especially in terms of Multisniper SWC - as the Shock MMR lacks enough range to be a great defensive piece, and yet he has a very difficult time re-positioning to threaten it offensively without losing Sapper).

Taking more than one just doubles down on that. Maybe you will luck out and find two separate spots which, between them, cover ~66% of the board and completely lock down the opponent and force them to deal with the Haiduks. Or maybe you'll get a board where you struggle to get much more than 15-20%, and they have no issues just walking around.

It's a gamble on the table setup and terrain density and height. The question is: do you want to gamble half your SWC, on pretty fragile platforms, on the off-chance you end up getting a favourable board?

 

I'm even more negative on it. The Haiduk is a low (points) investment for a mediocre lock piece. Most quality sweepers will have an easy time taking it out, so its not likely to lock down the table without support to kill those pieces. Under that condition, one gives you most of the value that two will.

I really struggle to consider this unit compared with the Q Drone, especially since we can double down on that if we like. Q Drone can't see through smoke, but it is durable with an engineer and importantly able to take its weapon to the opponent offensively.

 

It seems to me like the Haiduk with Marksman rifle should be able to lay down some pretty impressive Supression fire, occasionally in very advantageous spots, thank to the Foxhole cover. It's also the cheapest MSV2 in Combined Army, and Marksman rifles have quite a good range band. I, for one, quite like this unit.

 

The Marksman rifle looks decent to me as a backup gun. 22 Points and 0 SWC (SWC discount in Sha) for a MSV2 backup gun seems pretty reasonable.

I don't think the Sniper Rifle brings anything that Shasvastii wants. SWC is a very important ressource for Shasvastii and I don't think a B1 sniper with no vis mods is something I'm interested in fielding.

 

While the represented profiles are not the ones you’re going to take most of the time (Caliban CoC and Malignos KHD are the more common ones) you can just proxy their loadout.

Sheskiin, Malignos and Caliban are some of the most important troopers in Sha and make Beyond a must-buy imo.

 

And Sheskiin is a really beautiful sculpt. Has to be one of my all-time favorites.

 

While in foxhole, he does have mimetism, just in case that was unclear.

 

Oops, oversight on my part! My bad!

 

If your opponent is CHA or ISS (smoke and chainrifles, greeeeeat) and you are able to tailor your list, would you guys find a single Haiduk sniper worthwhile?

 

ISS doesn't have impetuous smoke, so any ARO will do vs the Kuang Shi.

But yes, if your meta is heavy in impetuous smoke warbands, the value of a MSV2 sniper goes up.

But I personally prefer to keep my SWC for other pieces and tend to keep my lists extremely low on direct-ARO. Opting instead to saturate midfield with markers and using Taighas / Ikadron to trade with their warbands.

 

I've run two of the marksman haiduks for defensive missions, they're great for going second on stuff like Supplies or Loot & Sabotage etc because you can set them up to keep an eye on objectives and create a lot of headaches for your opponent, and they're cheap enough that you don't mind losing them.

 

Absolutely. I haven't used a Malignos since the Shas rework myself, but that's simply because we're spoilt for choice with great Camo specialists already. It's still a solid unit.
Caliban are bread and butter. I can't seem to write a list without at least one, probably two.
Sheskiin is very strong, but skews lists a bit and is pretty anti-fun to play against. YMMV, i'm mainly waiting for the Boarding Action sculpt in Defiance, even though it's a much worse profile.

So, yeah. Beyond box is definitely worth it, especially if you have someone to split the O12 with or just ebay them off.

 

I've tried the marksman in my last 3 games, and have been disappointed. I had him in an a spot overseeing 2 HVT (unmasking) and no ground level LoS over 16 inches, in suppressing fire. At which point my opponent climbed a building and sniped him.

I think I've given up on the marksman profile, but may try the sniper profile. The benefit of the sniper version is that you can put him in the back of your deployment zone for the extra range. You don't get suppressing fire, but the added range will help a lot.

 

Something to remember with them too is that it's AP marksman rifle with Marksmanship L1. So AP+Shock. He's not a bad gun fighter for the points.

I almost ignore the Sapper skill. Unless you have a really great position, once he moves, you'll never go back in.