I've been incredibly fond of the Fuerbach Tsyklon, personally. Being able to either shoot AP+DA+Shock rounds while ignoring cover or getting burst 2 exp rounds in ARO has been pretty darn effective.
So today I played Annihilation against a vanilla CA force with a Charontid HMG and lots of Morats. Brawler Haris did great, the Sniper murdered a bunch of things (Rodok ML, Daturazi, Kerr-Nau, Batroid FO) and survived the Charontid for a bit until getting brought down eventually. The other two were pretty lucky in taking out a Rasyat that dropped next to them, but having LSgs on the other two Haris members turns out to be really useful. I was thinking Spector in Haris was obvious choice, but I think it holds him back. The Sniper wants to outrange and it's really a defensive Haris, whereas he wants to be getting stuck in. But Sniper, Rifle+LSg CSU and Haris Brawler seems very strong, the Sniper dominates at range and is low cost for an MSV2 MSR, the other guys use rifles, LSgs and in the CSU's case the Nanopulser to protect your DZ from sneaky and aggressive types. They do that way better than the Alguaciles, who are only BS 11 and have no shotguns, template weapons etc outside of Emily's presence in the team, but she wants to be moving up to the midfield to spec fire stuff, shoot up things with her combi etc. So yeah, rethinking my defensive strategy around the Brawler Haris, the Hardcase as a nice little shell game speedbump and potentially Jaguars too. Meanwhile, AD Spector took out the Charontid in CC with his EM2CCW. Very strong and capable in that role too, he works great as an assassin IMO, especially because he can open his own route to the target. Anything big and heavy is vulnerable to that CCW, and with a BSg and Drop Bears, he's a terror in CQB.
@Solar yeah I don't think investing in the MSV makes sense for linking him, I prefer to either have the Brawler Lt. to fill Lt. or CSU for the DTW. To link with Spector I would either use HRL or maybe Doctor and not even have a SWC weapon. I will probably only be using the AD Spector though.
Same. With the very limited link options he has, the benefits of AD seem to far outweigh his multi rifle profile.
Well I think there is a lot of strength in a linked MULTI Rifle with Mimetism and NWI, and he also adds a specialist to the link and a DTW. But the trouble is that he is too expensive and good not to spend orders on, and his role kind of clashes with the MSV2 Sniper who I really like in the Haris too. So I will do some experimentation but yeah AD Spector is nasty.
I think that's exactly the problem. The linkable Raoul can be effective some of the time, but in involves investing in a specific type of Haris team with a specofos purpose to get full use. The AD Raoul is useful pretty much all the time, and is much more flexible. I'll probably give him a shot in a Haris a few times, but I have a feeling that I'm not going to find him as compelling of a choice.
Hey Mercs! I have been playing StarCo since release and I think it is definitely one of the stronger factions. I took it to a tournamnesnt as well and faced a couple of different opponents and did well. Played Rescue and Transmission matrix. I think StarCo has all of the tools to handle any situation. They are surprisingly excellent at handling High Tech factions with a number of E/M options. Raoul and Emily allow for epic LT hunting like a boarding party going after a pirate captain. Having every important piece of LoF blocking tech (smoke, Eclipse, White Noise) means they can always move where they need to and not engender AROs. More importantly you can set up active and even reactive turn traps for the opponent pretty regularly. Two of my favorite lists right now: Girls and boys ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 9 1 ALGUACIL HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 18) ALGUACIL (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) ALGUACIL Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18) ALGUACIL Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10) EMILY (Chain of Command) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (Normal and E/M), Nanopulser / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 35) SALYUT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) STEMPLER ZOND Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17) SPECTOR (AD: Combat Jump) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser, Drop Bears / Pistol, E/M2 CC Weapon. (0 | 33) JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10) GROUP 2 6 1 1 IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8) JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10) JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10) JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10) RIOT GRRL (Fireteam: Haris) Combi Rifle, Blitzen, Stun Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 30) RIOT GRRL Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 34) AVICENNA Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) 5.5 SWC | 298 Points Open in Infinity Army 18 orders V2 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 8 2 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) STEMPLER ZOND Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17) JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10) JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10) JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10) JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10) SPECTOR (AD: Combat Jump) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser, Drop Bears / Pistol, E/M2 CC Weapon. (0 | 33) HARDCASE FRONTIERSMAN Tactical Bow, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) UHAHU Hacker (Hacking Device Plus. UPGRADE: Icebreaker) Pitcher, D-Charges / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25) CSU (Specialist Operative) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) GROUP 2 7 1 EMILY (Chain of Command) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (Normal and E/M), Nanopulser / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 35) ALGUACIL Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15) ALGUACIL Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10) ALGUACIL Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) ALGUACIL HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 18) ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28) BANDIT Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Light Shotgun, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 25) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army In this list, you can set up your Smoke shoot with the Jag+Brawler MSR (Which should be in every list), If you are facing a MSV2+ ARO, have Uhahu put up White Noise in front of your Aguacile HMG or ML and take out Gao Raels with general ease. This is just a really well rounded list. The 4 Jags provide point defense and Long Range ARO defense with smoke, and a really useful CC capability that makes engaging them in CC a bad proposition. With so many JSA players out there, your Stempler and Transductor should be in every list to feret out those pesky Oniwaban. I think the Aguacile + Emily link is easily the most cost effective. Getting her that 5 man bonus is mandatorily effective. Her toolbox makes her one of the best models in the game along with Raoul, and both will be in every list. Mimetism + high BS/WIP with Flash pulses and X-Visor she is a fantastic ARO piece. Raoul with his epic alpha strike toolbox is worth every point he costs. He is a post all on his own I think.
Going high order count with StarCo seems really easy if you don't take a HI link. They have a lot of great stuff that's in the low points cost range, and some very efficient and cheap troops. Hardcase, Jaguars, CSUs, Irmandihno are all there to jam up your opponent, slow them down, and they're all really low cost. Add an Alguacile link and a few more expensive (but still not that expensive) killers like Emily, MSV2 Brawler, Bandit, Spector etc and you've got a lot of orders to pump into very efficient killers.
Yeah it is odd that you've got a 10pt line trooper link and then a 30+pt pair of HI link options. I expected some sort of MI/LI link around 20pts. But then I mean, what troops would that even be? A CSU and Brawler core? Actually that'd be really mint...
Yeah that's what I usually want to play too so it's a bit weird. Using only 1 Brigada with Massacre and Dak plus Brawler Haris can hit a similar point range. But no clean core option for that.
It would, mostly because Emily lets you use an aggressive LT in StarCo. Which is a point actually, who's our best aggressive LT option? Mobile Brigada?
It's Brigada. Not actually a bad choice in two ways. One is like I mentioned in the Anaconda Duo. You can use the Lt. order without dropping link mods and it leaves Core open for Emily to be linked. In a reduced size Brigada Core that is designed to act a lot like a Jaguar Haris. It is pretty likely that turn 2 and/or 3 you will be using that Lt. order. This takes up your core though. In a full Brigada Core it is just to fulfill your Lt. requirement, although it could come in handy. By itself it is a decent way to counterattack but with a MULTI rifle only it is a bit situational.
StarCo is a lot less board control focused than Vanilla or CJC. There are no Sin Eaters or Morans, and Mines are also limited. A MB Lt (Multi) can go into SF for free every turn and will be difficult to dislodge if placed correctly. He is expensive to be sure, but being able to get a free order out of him a turn is attractive. Also, StarCo is not a tough faction. Brigadas are the only ARM 4 non-TAG profile and there is no ODD/TO. I think that will make the MB Lt an good choice in some missions.
Anaconda HMG and Mobile Brigada MR LT seems like a very strong, if expensive option. That said, StarCo has cheap shit. You can back that up with a full order pool, specialists and plenty of chaff.
I think a Spector Haris works best with either a specialist shotgun CSU or a brawler assault hacker - not so much for the hacking device, as for the SMG.
