I had an out of body experience when I realized a list might benefit from an assault hacker (forgive me for making fun of assault hackers, for those of you who make good use of them). My list had few high damage guns: Montesa Spitfire 2 SWC Montesa Combi + Light Grenade Launcher 1 SWC* Pathfinder Trauma Doc + Palbot 4 Regulars Regular Multi Sniper 1.5 SWC Regular Forward Observer .5 SWC* Naga AHD .5 SWC* Machinist EVO .5 SWC* 3 Fugazi I put asterisks next to the SWC where you might say "You complain about not having guns and you spent SWC on THOSE?" Ok, but I'm trying to develop a point about AHs in this context. - Two Montesa beginning at midfield with mechanized deployment. Cons of AH: 1. AH will be victimized by a KH. 2. AH of my own would kill enemy hackers trying to hack my HI. 3. The assault hacker will not help the Montesa much against an enemy AH or HD. Pros of AH: 4 . I'll use the Montesa to kill an enemy KH. 5. The point I'm most interested in: AH is being used to stop HI, REMs, TAGs. I can only use the Montesa to kill light targets. I need something to deal with big targets. Instead of taking big guns to fight powerful pieces, I am using a Hacker instead. 6. KH won't help the Montesa against large targets they can attacked while they're immobilized. Is this too much to ask of the Naga AH? I feel like the whole list concept hinges on whether this is a good choice. More generally, is an AH doing the work that a powerful gun can in stopping powerful threats? It may be part of the justification of why it costs SWC over the KHD. Thanks for reading.
what it boils down to is that the Naga KHD is just so much better than the AHD. It comes down to the theory that AHDs just don't have too much of a use, and cost too much. Even what they're supposed to be built to fight – HI – they're not even that great at. in addition to HI being not a terribly popular choice. The best they can do is IMM-1. and a Burst 1 isolation program. all this coupled with extreme vulnerability to KHDs themselves, they struggle to find their use. they virtually have no defense if a KHD gets on their case, especially if it's through a repeater.
I think the Naga is a really great candidate for AHD use. It's never expected, it doesn't lose out on any useful items of kit, and exists in a Sectorial with good Repeater coverage and KHD support. I don't know about using the AHD in conjunction with two Montessa. I feel like that's a really major concentration of points in midfield units that are generally pretty vulnerable. The upside though is that the Montessas will bear the brunt of of the enemy focus, which means you can keep the AHD back/hidden until later turns, where you've had the time to clear out enemy KHDs. From there, you can move the AHD directly into the fight, or make use of Fugazi to position repeaters wherever they'll have the most impact. I think a really nice situation is to field the AHD with Dart. Dart isn't hackable and can really hunt down those enemy Camo KHDs or Repeaters, helping to clear the way and provide an extra degree of protection for your AHD. I think you never really want to lead with an AHD early on, but rather keep that AHD up your sleeve until Turn 2 or Turn 3 when your opponent will be maneuvering powerful units/specialists to try and seal the game or disrupt your lead.
Montessa Duo is nice too, because Montessas basically get two Discover attempts each thanks to having a direct template weapon. That's not something that most PanO units can take advantage of.
If I wanted to do something nasty no one expects from SAA running DART/AHD Naga would be in the top 3. Pretty impressed with Dart tbh, the Naga AHD seems more like a list 2 thing though (to screw a HI/TAG Rambo).