What are your thoughts on the Aleph Mid-field troops? Thyreos Proxies 2 and 5 Naga Dasyus Dart Samsa The Thyreos is a lot better than it used to be. Fairly cheap and can go kill stuff after hitting a button. At first, I thought Proxies were cheap but soon realized you need to take at least two. The Proxy 2 is great but the 5 is not. The Naga and Dasyus are a bit expensive for me. Dart is now a specialist, but I still don’t like her. She’s expensive, she has a good BS but has meh weapons, bad CC with bad CC weapons. If I’m going to spend that much, I think a Dasyus FO would be better. It at least has D-Charges.
I used Thyreos in SP back when she has no 1 x camo. Now she is also useful, when you have 2nd turn. Minelayer for disturbance or the specialist options for early mission game. Proxie MK2 with Infiltration and mime-6 are nice, of course, but MK5 FO is one of the best options in the whole game (only downside is the 0,5 SWC). Specialst, decent gun with B4, 24" ARO, FD 8", with ARM/BTS 3, BS 13 and backed up by NWI where in the Infinity World is that not good? MK12 is a bit behind, mostly skipped for the Specialst Version because the FO is super versatile and MK12 is more a specialised gun. Naga are the bread and butter infiltrators. High WIP, Dogged. Minelayer, Hacker, FO only the sniper sees not much action, if you want an infiltrating camo sniper, take a MK2 - someday a friend of my tricked me hard with Dasyu sniper out of HD and MK2 for pure annoyance. So yes Dasyu is premium. To bad CB ripped their WYSIWIG and forgot to provide fresh miniatures. Sometime I used them, mostly to go deep into the enemy zone and kill stuff. Dart is good midfield camo hunter - but I also rarley use her, mostly because my list run out of points. Samsa - zero experience here. I assum its good, because "Plasma".
Why is the Mk5 so good? It only has Forward Deploy +4, no camo, short range weapons. The only thing i see good is it's cheap.
Dasyu unfortunately is only BS12, but otherwise the hidden deployment is great Naga good Dasyu alternative Proxys are very good for the task any day, any flavor. Maybe not all flavors are exceptional, but the cost makes them a good include Dart - overrated still Didn't consider Samsa before, but I think he's good on paper
Ok, so first proxies: it's a shame (ish) but you can't take a mk3+mk4+ any other for armored brutality (they were cheap in wounds/pts, but horribly expensive in SWC). Mk1 is REALLY solid as a doctor (self-heal, cheap, great BS, superb WP), or engineer (can do more objectives), or hacker (14pts Wip15 BTS3!!), so it's a matter of what can you cover otherwise; mk2 is more a matter of SWC cost and the sniper being (rightly) expensive, however it's a BTS0 hacker with a BSG (meaning bad to zero range past ZoC) and also the only Mim-6 without Hidden Deployment, so obvious. Mk3 is gone, and my OCD screams for the number skip and the model I can't use (she was a menace with that AP Spitfire in its last version); mk4 is a good heavy assault unit (BTS6 and WIP 15 means very few models can reset this good... none for 25pts) but I love it as an ARO turret, dodging whatever it cannot shoot, using the SMG and nanopulser for close defense and the HRL is Continous Damage with a template, so Too Dangerous to Ignore. Mk5 was a no brainer as the FO (EM grenades, double SMG, FO with WIP15 and one Move away from the center of the table... great for rush), but that MK12 with triangulated fire on a BS13 NWI platform? Great Hunter, for Long Skills, but still... So, Mk2 hacker? Cheap, good unless the other player has good (not necessarily great, just good) hacking. Mine has never survived any opposed hacking in more than a decade (the HRL mk4, however, has burned to a crisp too many TAGs to count... the magic of the dice). Also, since Posthumans count as a single Troop, you can reserve up to 5 models! (mk1 engineer or doctor + 2 servants + 2 other bodies). Dart... too wide, too expensive. She's a midfield cleaner & opportunistic scorer, always go with the EM Grenades in case of Big Game at hand, the MSV1 + Mimetism-3 is the dead ringer... Nevertheless, she needs to lose weight, not more skills while remaining in the 32-38 pts range (drop the surprise attack, drop the Terrain skill, drop the Shock Mine profile for a Specialist Operative one, drop Climbing Plus maybe and let her go at 28-29pts, then it would be good). Thyreos has the cheap part down to rights, specially now with limited camo. I would remove the Hacker profile and the Minelayer should be another different mine OR a second additional set of mines (0.5 SWC and +1pt is usually too much for VAleph for an extra Shock Mine, not so if it were an AP mine, Glue mine or even a Monofilament mine); that said, they are 3pts cheaper than a Minelayer naga (but the naga can recamo!). In the end you will use the KHD or the 3pts cheaper BSG (the SMG is no longer the auto-best since it lost the Shock/AP), since the BSG gets the shock mines for templates, and the KHD can use the EM mines and/or the Cybermask to get close and gut with the Monofilament CC easily. Also, a Thyreos starts the game as a Mim-3 camo marker, so it can be that, a Naga, Dart, or a Mine. Nagas are the baseline standard on Aleph's camo infiltrators. AVA2 is quite good (you won't usually have the points to get more), Wip14 Dogged BS12 Mim-3 Infiltrators (PH12 means you won't gamble the infiltration most of the time, however), they have 3 great profiles: cheapest BSG 24pts (filler), UNIQUE Monofilament Combi rifle naga for 29pts and FO Combi Rifle with D-charges and mines for 28pts, ideal for "prone camo marker moves 2 inches, touches target and rolls for objective". As hackers, regular one may work if you know you will face TAGs, but the KHD is better to go Thyreos (they can't recamo anyways, and while being WIP12 they get BTS3, if you face another KHD the Dogged won't help much anyways). Dasyus have the niche of being Hidden Deployment, for the sniper profile it's very likely you will prefer the Agema sniper anyways, in all other regards they are essentially Nagas with extra mimetism and Hidden Deployment that upgrade Dogged to full NWI (not that you will have them close to your doctors anyway), so aside from the FO for a last turn hail mary I see them too expensive (even if fairly priced) and situational. They got NCO as compensation, but meh. Samsa is a fire & forget missile, while it's PH11 (so infiltrates at 8) and has no Unconscious state, it's a Plasma Rifle with BS13, has D-Charges and SuperJump, and Mimetism-3, so it's great to burn a few orders killing enemy cheerleaders before attempting Big Hunts. I'd say the midfield for VAleph is both bloated and with great flexibility, but aside from very specific pieces (too cheap like Mk5 FO, or too specific like the Monofilament Naga), the two Thyreos with a Mk5 or Mk2 do most of the heavy lifting.
A 13 point WIP 15 specialist with ARM 3, NWI, Forward deploy is excellent. They don’t need to gunfight. The fact they got Burst 4 with BS 13 is icing on the cake.
Yeah but it's not really 13pts. it's at minimum 26 for two. And after using many ARM3 NWI troops and going down to combi fire easily, I don't see that as fantastic. However, I will try it sometime. You never really know until you field it.
