Teach me the basics of OSS Rambo-ing.

My mistake then. Then mk12 mk5 serves to be a pretty model in your collection.

Yeah, her range is the only thing that is bad on her. Other than that, she is fantastic all around

Arjuna is good enough on the active.

Her bots are very good, especially if you get to put someone in the situation of getting shot by her AND the bot at the same time. ESPECIALLY if you give Supportware to the bod, giving his template Shock + E/M.

But yes, she is squishy. But it is more due to you being spoiled by ALEPH always having virtual 2 wounds than anything else.

 

One more vote for the Garuda. AD Combat Jump with a 6-4 MOV means this wobot will shoot your enemies in the back by the truckload! Mimetism is a nice tweak, and the BS loadout is relatively inexpensive giving you a pretty good chance winning FtF rolls thanks to being in the +6 range band and most likely ignoring cover due to proper positioning of your own trooper. Effective against not only cheerleaders but also the big guys: AP rounds for the heavy armour guys, template for the fireteam! The only draw-back is the lack of Supressive Fire, but I would not expect this guy to exist long anyway after wreaking havoc in the enemy DZ. The wobot will slaughter and will do it in a very order-effective way due to arriving instantly where you want - most likely in the enemy DZ. Then the wobot will disintegrate.
When going full house, I would waste 2 points investing in a proper high-range weapon in the HMG. For a measly 2 points you get an un-outrangable (is that a word?) active turn drop trooper who can do some really serious ass-kicking cross the table. Just spare an order to put this guy in SF after the mass killing.
Although I like Dart, she will consume your order pool like Oh, my God! What she does up close is amazing but she is the secound most order-hungry unit in the whole game! (Not even close to Mirage-5, not even close!)
We are here to help.

 

I'm also interested in the rudras haris thing. I prefer the lone rudras for its mobility.

For the e/marats things, yes it's the same thing. Shock means ARM roll while the weapon is BTS roll. It's quite a strange and unintuitive rule to say the least.

As for garudas, i'm not sure the HMG is the best profile because of it's range. Since it's an AD, we can expect it to be closer to the enemy, so BSG/combi/spitfire are probably better choices.
The best feature of AD is the ability to be at the best position for you - and the worst for the opponent. You can expect to shoot an opponent in his rear side, and without him having cover. So you don't really need powerful SWC weapons to perform really well. Keep your SWC for your dakinis, and give it a try with bsg or combi garudas :)

 

Yep.

E/M ammo is not non-lethal. So marksmanship gives it shock.

E/M is not non-lethal because of some artifact from the fact that it was lethal to a specific sub-faction within infinity in N2...

So I am pretty confident that it is not RAI, but for all effects and purposes it *is* RAW. And as such, that is how it needs to be played.

Also - makes Arjuna even more threathening. Her bots can carry what is basically N2 plasma Direct Template Weapons...

 

But they can "just" inflict one wound, right?

 

One wound plus E/M, meaning what has only one wound is screwed (either unconscious or isolated), what has several wounds is screwed too (IMM + isolated)

 

You're welcome!
Let's make it clear: I think the best loadout for the Garuda is the BS one. It's cheap enough to sacrifice and will do the close quarter shooting. This tactic is fairly order-intensive, and will probably result in the loss of the Garuda but will put your opponent in a very difficult position due to losses accrued.
Fielding a Spitfire/HMG Garuda is a whole different thing. As you mentioned, you are spending 1/4 of your SWC on this trooper, hence you just can't afford losing this guy easily. And for this high price (1.5SWC) I would want a proper high-range weapon instead of the Spitfire. I admit I have a soft spot when it comes to HMGs - I consider this beauty the best weapon in the game. Indeed the Spitfire is better fit for close-up fighting, but I firmly believe that's not how you are supposed to use this guy. Instead of a rambo unit (skulking around in the enemy backfield shooting guys up point blanc) you drop this guy in a spot where he can do long-range firefighting instead, and you can send reinforcements upfields to protect him during your reactive turn. The huge advantage of this guy (versus a standard HMG camping in your DZ) is the unforeseeable deployment place granting you attack vectors your opponent is unable to cover properly.
The longevity of the HMG/Spitfire Garuda IS a problem for me. (That's the reason I prefer the BS loadout.) Keeping this guy alive is not a mission impossible, because he has already done a killing spree himself and after the first turn (when both sides take casualities en masse) your opponent's resources (troopers&orders) are seriously depleted (like your own), hence dislodging a HMG in SF with mimetism and preferably in cover is no easy task. Not impossible, but expensive enough to put your opponent in a bad position.
Wrap-up: I prefer the BS because I don't like the idea of spending 1.5SWC on a drop troop, but if I do spend the SWC, I want a proper long-range weapon in the HMG instead of a Spitfire that can be outranged by a HMG.
We are here to help.

 

While i too prefer the BSG garuda over the SWC ones, i see 2 problems in what you are saying.

The first problem is: the HMG is not a better weapon than the spitfire. They have different purpose. The HMG may have a better range (and damage) than the spitfire, but it also have a far worse short range. The HMG is not suit to be on a mobile gunfighter able to deploy in the enemy board, because of that 0-40 bad range. Since the garuda does not have superjump, it has to get around the sceneries. It's quite often that you have to shoot under 40cm when doing so. With the spitfire, it is easy to shoot in the 20-40 cm, and even if you have to shoot in the 0-20, it's not that bad. The HMG would be only worth if you can have a long range lateral firelane, without ARO (or else your garuda would have been shot on landing). It can happens and can be a big surprise for the opponent, but i find it too expensive for such a special case.

The second problem is: if you want to take a mobile shooter with a long range SWC weapon, since this is OSS, you have 2 choices that are each far better than the HMG garuda. The first is the dakini HMG/MSR, because it is cheaper, nearly as strong, as mobile (once the garuda landed, that is), and can link for an extra power. Especially since your garuda is unlikely to have any form of hacking support, contrary to the dakini. The second choice is the rudras, which is indeed more expensive than the garuda, but more sturdy, carry it's own repeater, and more mobile. And has template weapons.

EDIT:
I would like to add a thing about SWC garudas. I've used the spitfire several times already, with mixed results (mostly because of some mistakes from my side). A B4 BS12 heavy weapon coming from the rear of your enemy is nothing to laugh at. It may be because the opponent did a mistake in his deployment or because you were able to clean a safe path for the AD to come, but in any case, the opponent is in big trouble. But one should not expect it to happens in each game, and in that regard, i find the SWC garudas to be a bit expensive for that.
On the other hands, while i'm saying that 1.5 SWC 30 pts garuda is expensive, one of my favorite attack piece in vanilla is Mk.12 Diomedes, who is a 0 SWC 43 pts AD4. So if you have SWC to spare, why not.

 

And that works for Ariadna with plenty cheap throwaway skirmishers. For Aleph with a minimum points @27, it is just too inefficient, risking to deploy 10% by chance.

 

Never played OSSSS specifically, but here's a list I'm interested in trying:

16 O Daki Dart KHD Proxies Etc.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1 8
DEVA (Multispectral Visor L2) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 33)
CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
DAKINI Tacbot HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 21)
DAKINI Tacbot MULTI Sniper Rifle / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 21)
DAKINI Tacbot Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 13)
DAKINI Tacbot Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 13)
PROBOT (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
DART Submachine Gun, Viral Tactical Bow, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 34)
GROUP 2 7 1
DEVA Lieutenant (Sensor) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
SHUKRA (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
NAGA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30)
PROXY Mk.2 Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
PROXY Mk.5 (Forward Observer) 2 Submachine Guns, Nanopulser, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
PROXY Mk.1 Engineer Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
NETROD . (0 | 4)
4 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army

I have no idea how to fit "more Dakka" yet retain the number of orders. I feel I need a KHD, Assault Hacker, and Sensor Lt, plus CoC/Counterintelligence just because, but maybe I'm wrong?

I play mostly PanOceania (all) and Steel Phalanx.

 

... you have so many Dakinis and yet no Hacker to upgrade them.

 

So you're taking Yadu NCO because you plan to have Asura sitting pretty doing nothing?

There is always something to use those Lt orders on Asura herself. If nothing else, Marksmanship on some bot and then Suppression.

Do yourself favour, drop that garbage and get something good. You can exchange her for Rudra Red Fury, or Dakini MULTI Sniper (put in link to ARO, then when it dies you reform into full 5) + 20 more points to spend on goodies, or an infiltrator + more point for another 8 point bot or upgrading one of the Dakinis to MULTI Sniper.

Also, consider this; if you plan to have Dakinis be defensive, why not use MULTI Sniper instead of HMG?

Finally, Breaker Combi Rifle is nice, but if you downgrade to Boarding Shotgun you can upgrade 2 Dakinis to Paramedics. Sure, you lose Breaker Combi, but you get a better close-in-defence with the Boarding Shotgun, and Dakinis make a much better specialist than CSU (better move, Mimetism, better WIP).

 

Okay, first to get done with Yadu: try it if you will but you misunderstood my point. I'm not even discussing Yadu per-se, just the NCO part. You have Dakinis. Even if you do not advance with Asura first turn, she will still put on Marksmanship on those Dakinis or putting Cybermask on herself, and either repositioning or going into suppressive fire. at the minimum. Hence, in majority of games you will gain nothing with NCO.

Now, onto Dakini MULTI Sniper. Here's the thing: if it is a defensive link, you only have B2 anyway. And MULTI Sniper comes with better rangebands and significantly better ammo.
So if you plan to take your Dakini link and attack with it, HMG is better. But for ARO duties, MULTI Sniper is better.
And here's another point; if you don't take Yadu NCO, you have points not to upgrade, but to get a whole additional Dakini with MULTI sniper. You start the game with MULTI Sniper linked; once its your turn, you reform with HMG and go hunting. See what I mean?

And Dakini MULTI Sniper, upgraded with Marksmanship and thanks to Mimetism, can be a pretty decent piece by itself if you can catch enemy ARO pieces outside their good range. I especially love catching Heavy Rocket Launchers, which have HMG rangebands, outside 80cm.

 

No problem.

Also, remember that Cybermask and Assisted Fire are both Supportware, so you cannot have both active at the same time.

 

Or just walk the Garuda in? :)