Continuing this little series of threads, I figured we should look at the remaining Heavy Infantry of our faction. The Betatroopers seem like quite a unique model. With a Movement attribute of 6-2, the Betatroopers are our virtual fastest attack pieces. Being able to move 6 inches and then shot really let them advance up the board while shooting. Overall though, he's not any faster than an Omega Unit, whilst being a lot more susceptible to terrain rules and Dazers. His other stats are also pretty good, however they're definitely the lowest of the HI models in O-12, which is to be expected due to them being our cheapest Heavy Infantry units. However, unlike the Gamma and Omega, the Betatrooper is a G: Remote Presence HI troop, giving him access to a second level of unconsciousness that the Gamma and Omega lack. In conjuction with an Engineer, this can give you a very durable attack vector that unlike the Gamma and Omega units has access to Climbing Plus - really allowing him to get to shoot from some very unexpected and weird angles. Speaking of skills, we can also find Hyper-Dynamics L1 amongst their repertoire, making them the best dodging HI in O-12 as of today. This and Climbing Plus probably excuse the lower ARM and BTS we find on our dear Betatrooper. On top of this we do also have CH: Mimetism available and this really adds to their attractiveness as a unit to field either one or two of. I think it goes without saying how invaluable this skill can be for a durable gunfighter. Weapons Before talking about each weapon option for the Betatroopers, I'd like to say how great the double nanopulser available to each profile is. A B2 nanotec small teardrop template can hurt so many profiles in Infinity. In my playtesting of the Betatrooper, they've been insanely good versus armies with little to no BTS, specifically Ariadna. A pretty decent WIP attribute also allows them to intuitive attack quite reliably without much worry about an ARO. Mutli Rifle, 2 Nanopulser + 1TinBot A ( + D-Charges & Specialist Operative) The Multi Rifle is probably one of my favorite weapons in the game. Giving you access to AP, Shock, DA, or Stun ammunation really gives you a lot of tools to choose from. The DA round being especially good for ARO duty if not using the Suppresive Fire available to you. The shorter range bands haven't been much of an issue for me, however I can see them being problematic if a linked Kamau or something of the sort is just waiting for little old Chappie to peak around a corner as they make their way up the board. The two different profiles with the MR are also quite interesting and give you two option: 1. Bringing a TinBot A (Deflector L1) to apply some defensive mods against having them hacked can be quite a useful piece of kit, especially when you might be engaging models in close quarters due the previously mentioned shorter range band provided by the MR. 2. The Specialist Operative with D-Charges really gives the army a solid option for a quick, durable, and reliable specialist capable of completeing any ITS mission as well as some Classified Objectives (on top of meeting the requirement for any HI Classfieds). Which ever version of the MR you bring is ultimately mission dependent. However I believe the discounted cost on the Specialist Operative profile might make that choice a bit easier for some players. Spitfire ( + TinBot A) Once again we're met with two similar options, one just lacking the TinBot A available to the other. Whether or not you bring a TinBot A alongside the Betatrooper is up to whether or not you can fit in an extra point in your army list. I don't typically rush to include the TinBot variant when that one point can probably be better used elsewhere. The Spitfire is definitely a tried and tested gun. A solid B4 option with Dam 14 on a BS 13 platform can safely assure that most threats will be taken care of. This is also the Betatrooper's longest range gun and because of that it tends to be the variant that I choose when fielding the Betatrooper. (A sidenote: I've fielded two Spitfire Betatroopers to great effect. In this kind of list I was also fielding more REMs than normal to have the Lambda Engineer be the better choice over the Doctor.) Submachine Gun + Killer Hacking Device This profile has be a really fun one to play with. It being the cheapest version of the Betatroopers whilst also being not only a specialist but a Killer Hacker can really work in his favor when facing enemies with a large hacking presence. However, he is very good at dealing with Assault Hackers that would normally pose a much bigger threat to any of the non-hacker Betatrooper profiles. The SMG is lacking in a good range band, but if you're bringing this profile his role isn't that of your main attack piece. He is a great support troop if you're fielding either the Omega or Gamma and has some great synergy with the SiriusBots from Team Sirius due to their repeaters. Boarding Shotgun + Doctor (Medikit) The Doctor profile could probably do some work when paired with a solid alpha strike unit in order to bring them back up. This profile also makes for a solid Specialists that is capable of dealing with any model that dares come too close to it. He's definitely competing with the much cheaper SMG KHD previously discussed for a durable and quick specialist. There's the option of bringing along a YudBot with this model, giving you a Specialist team for 40 points. I don't know how feasible this is when a Lambda Doctor with Yudbot only sets you back 19 points whilst also having a higher WIP of 14. But hey if you're looking for a fast and durable BSG platform, this is your Chappie. Overall, the Betatrooper is definitely a solid HI option for O-12. If anything is going agaisnt it is the fact that O-12 is probably oversaturated with B4 weapons platform (Omega, Betatrooper, Team Sirius, Dakini, Peeler, Deva, Kappa, and Delta) with some of the options doing a similar job for cheaper, in the case of the HMG Dakini Tacbot, or splurging a few extra points for an HMG Omega Unit. What the Betatrooper has over these other options though is being an extremely agile and quick unit that can either serve the role of an attack piece or an exceptionally durable specialist. This definitely reflects in how I play them, tending to bring either two Spitfire Betatroopers, or one Spitfire and one KHD, either option bringing a Lambda Engineer with Yudbot to keep them going during combat. That's my take on them. I definitely need to play with them more often and I'll hopefully be taking them to a tournament in February. What does the wider community think of our little Chappie?
I'd honestly rate the Betatroopers as one of, if not the best HI unit in the entire game, and this is almost purely down to the fact my playstyle can be summarised by a post on the PanO ( https://forum.corvusbelli.com/threads/a-primer-on-massed-armour-tactics.804/ ). It's no secret that I have a liking for HI beyond any semblance of sanity and tactical subtlety, and the O-12 Betas personify a type of HI whose presence can make or break the viability of my favorite strategy of ''It's either 4 HI at a minimum in my list, or it's no list of mine.'' They are affordable and combat-capable HI specialists. And they're fast to boot. Closest pre-existing comparison to them I can draw would be the Nomad Hollow-Men, seeing as both are similarly mobile, priced and competent as far as specialists go. I'd call them so good for this purpose, that there have so far been only two cases I can find where I could justify not taking the full availability of them ( Those two being ''I replaced the SpecOperative Beta with a SpecOperative Omega OR I want that TAG. In both cases, there's still a minimum of two Betas. ). That doctor profile, in particular, is very useful for the purposes of such lists, acting as a sort of equivalent to the PanO Hospitaller, in this case. They tend to already be closer by your front-line skull-crackers than your usual Doctor+BotBuddy combinations, so they end up being more order efficient in a weird sense too and, should the enemy set up a barrier to prevent you from easily reaching their patients, can force their way to them in a manner cheaper than having one unit clear the way for a med-bot to safely get over to them. The other two specialist profiles are similarly useful for consolidating several roles into one platform. And the spitfire seems like a nice alternative to the Omega HMG when you're expecting some shorter than usual sightlines.
Ran the Spitfire Beta over the weekend. In two games, he MVPed in both, killing way more than his own points worth of enemy troops, both with the spitfire and the nanopulsers. However, overall i think the SpecOp Beta is my favorite profile. He's even more deadly in suppression fire than the spitfire, threatens a wide variety of targets, and can easily get to hard to reach objectives.
I totally agree with you on this. They're incredible! And with their cost to value ratio they could probably easily claim the title of being the best HI in O-12 (as it stands now). I also agree with @Leviathan that the SpecOp profile is my favorite of all of them. 39 points feels like cheating for what you get to bring.
The Killer Hacker is consistently a very strong profile for me. I don't often see it survive a game but typically it does a lot beforehand and also is very efficient, mobile and a comprehensive threat in CQB. Inexpensive too, considering. Very much a fan. Would like to try the Spitfire soon tho.
