It's that dominant ARO presence that makes tools like the Zulu Cobra Jammer and Helots more important. The more area denial tools you can put in place to guard the blind spots, short approaches, etc, the more supported and dominant the Kamau ARO can be.
Or for the few factions that have it, White Noise. Oh how I wish more factions got White noise, it's so deliciously devillish. Or even Albedo, so amusingly if you had the orders to waste you could run a black friar multirifle over to the opponents half on the first turn of the game, get inside of 16 inches and then shoot with your multirifle you have like a 55% chance to put down and the Kamau only has ~13% chance in ARO. But if you do that the VIRD player will be very happy you spent 6 to 8 orders running a MI the length of the table on turn one, and achieving nothing else.
Well, White Noise will be slightly less of a threat to most VIRD thanks to Helots. But it's certainly a great response. We have a Steel Phalanx player who uses a lot of Myrmidons, and likes to "last drop" Drakios and lol@panic.
Inside 16" is still fairly even actually. The only way I get 67% vs 13% for a BF MR vs Core Linked Kamau Sniper is inside 8" with cover vs the Kamau in the open. Any chance you forgot the Kamau ignores the -6 from Albedo/White Noise as long as he has SS L2?
Ding ding ding! Well spotted, I forgot that. What are the real numbers then, ignoring that? like a 30%attacker 30%reactive 40%nothing split?
37.92% vs 30.40% in favour of the BF tho http://inf-dice.ghostlords.com/n3/?...p=0&p2.coordinated=0&p2.cover=3&p2.misc_mod=0
So I've been reading this thread with interest and seen some good insights and advice. One thing I'm still unsure about with VIRD though is who we think our preferred datatrackers will be based on current knowledge. So many of our functional pieces are camo/AD which excludes them so the choice seems limited. Others will potentially be linked which can limit their flexibility (from my experience anyway). So what do you guys think? An ORC in a Harris? Maybe a Montesa?
well depending on the mission and the functionality of the data tracker, I would probably choose the Zulu and forgo camo and plop him on the roof of a building if its a mission where you want to protect him. If it's a mission where he wants to hunt the HVT and im going first, probably a crocman as my reserve drop, start as close as possible and make a bum rush. if it's a zone scoring type of data tracker id most likely select a Kamau or ORC while they are a member of my link team. The montessa is very easy to isolate and kill.
We get the Squalo too, and a Squalo heavy grenade launcher is a hell of a Datatracker for killing hidden targets.
Just a heads up, long post but I wanted to share my experience, TLDR summary at the bottom. So I played my first VIRD game today against an opponent playing Tunguska on Comm Centre. I only used known profiles and rules but made the assumption that Kamau would get wildcard. My list was as follows Group 1 ORC Multi Rifle + Tinbot Kamau HMG Kamau FO Kamau Sniper Fusilier Missile Launcher Fusilier Paramedic Fusilier Fusilier Zulu Cobra Sensor Lt Zulu Cobra KHD Group 2 Zulu Cobra Shock Marksman Rifle Crocman Minelayer Helot LRL+SMG Helot LRL+ SMG Whole list comes in at 300pt 6SWC exactly. I put the ORC, Kamau HMG and FO in to a Haris, the Kamau MSR and fusiliers in to a Core link. The plan was to use the Core link more defensively to hold back the opposition and cover the more aggressive Haris using the Kamau FO and the Zulu cobra KHD to score antennas. The second group was intending to test the Helots as ARO pieces, hide the crocman whos mine could be misinterpreted as a Zulu cobra and the Shock marksman Cobra held back within the DZ to be a backup assault piece with surprise shot and x-visor making it a viable long range attacker. Command tokens could bring the Crocman and Cobra in to the main pool as losses were received. Round 1 - Critical hit! I won the initiative and chose deployment. I deployed the core link to counter the Securitate link and deter a Kriza from coming in to the centre of the board. I deployed my ORC haris on the opposite side of the table to Mary problems (but same side as the Kriza). His holdback was the puppeter which he deployed with the puppets near Mary Problems which looked to be my weaker side so my Zulu Cobra Sensor was deployed to try and counter that threat. He opened up by running White noise over the link and then focused on the Fusilier ML with his Feuerbach both hitting on 15s, the Fusilier scored a crit and the securitate was gone! He tried again with his second big weapon in the link which was an MSR and the Fusilier scored a second crit! second securitate also gone! that was just lovely. Time for puppets, he moved them up knowing the Kamau sniper would get an ARO, I was 2 dice on 16, he was only hitting on 3's.... I rolled a 17 and 19, he rolls 2 Crits with shock ammo.... today was not a day to see how the Kamau behaved. With the opening on the flank he moved Mary problems up and WIP rolled an antenna then continued to move her up looking to bring her towards the antenna closest to my DZ on that side. As he got in range of the Zulu cobra though I attempted to Jam her, failed the first time but she's now stuck in my ZOC in the open so has to move again. the second time succeeded with another crit and she was now isolated. He brought up the puppets and picked a closer range fight with the fusilier ML with one hit on the ML who then made both his Armour and guts save, then the second one was cancelled out with us each rolling the same but a Mexican standoff ensuing. my first turn, I spent a command token to move the Cobra in to the main pool giving me 10. I pushed my Haris up to the first antenna to use the Kamau FO to WIP it.... 4 attempts! I didn't roll lower than 17 on the first 3 attempts. I'm low on orders and considered putting Camo back on my LT but decide he's just going to loose it anyway as soon as he tries to Jam the puppets if they come for him so leave him hunkered up behind his barricade and push the Haris on to the second antenna. Fortunately I get that antenna in one roll and have the link set up to try and resist the inevitable Kriza assault that will clearly come their way. Last order was to move my Cobra KHD up a bit to be ready to grab the centre antenna later on. Not a bad first round but I've gotten lucky with the crits. Round 2 - Kriza Pressure So he opens his second turn by moving Mary problems using her irregular order. I decide to test ou the Helot who has an ARO on h er but don't think it through properly and realise too late that the f2f is skewed heavily against me. Sure enough I loose the Helot but Mary has used her order. He now starts moving up a camo marker and the Kriza on the other side of the board with the Kriza managing to take down the ORC in cover. The Kriza then pressures the Kamau who looses the f2f but manages to save the single hit and chooses to fail his guts and go prone. I can't remember if it was the orc or Kamau but one of them did score a wound on the Kriza in those exchanges. The camo marker reveals to be a KHD who tries to tag an antenna while running past but fails. he opts not to try again and pushes on to the next one and fails there too but is still by the antenna. The Kriza moves up a little and I try my second Helot against it, again it's not an ideal f2f and I loose the helot. He also tries again on my fusilier ML with the puppet but this time takes a missile hit and looses the puppet. I move the hidden crocman in to the main pool and then bring him on with his own order to surprise shot that KHD at the antenna. The croc wins but the KHD survives and goes prone. I now try to use the Kamau FO to do the job at closer range but loose the F2F with a bad roll and also loose the FO, my first specialist is dead. I decide that theres not much I can do to gain an advantage there so focus on Mary problems and the puppets instead. I get my Cobra sensor and move him around the barricade protecting him from Mary in to position behind her LOF and outside of 8". I then tested out triangulated fire hitting her on 10's burst 4 which was much better than the combi could have done, 3 hits and she's now gone. I'm very conscious that my Cobra sensor is my LT. I've never really played with an aggressive Lt option before, usually hiding him as a fusilier or auxilia at the back in NCA. That changed tonight, I liked that I could move him on the other side of the building to the puppets giving them no ARO that threatened the cobra and he could attempt to jam them through the building. It's powerful. I made 3 attempts and missed one, succeeded in isolating the specialist bot and he saved against the next attempt on the final bot. I was aware that with equal specialists killed and me currently winning the antenna count he would have to push hard with the last turn to score so probably wouldn't push an attack on the cobra with so much work to do elsewhere, but to be safe I camo'd up. Round 3 - Charge! The Lt HD+ moved up and claimed that earlier missed antenna. The KHD who is now still prone by the objective WIPs that antenna, stealing it from me and so it's now 3 -1 to him in antennas. He uses the opportunity to coup de gras my orc and Kamau FO to score his harder objective card and I was silly to miss the ARO from the fusilier ML, the crocman tries to ARO but misses the shot. The Kriza moves up and takes on the ML winning the F2F and then stands in a dominant position defending the antennas on that side. he then uses a coordinated order with his last order to move what was left of his securitate link and Kriza to get LOF on some of the remaining antennas and attempts to discover a hidden Cobra revealing it to be the KHD who's now in the Krizas sights. He spends his last command token to reform the link to finish his turn. Only 6 orders and I need 3 antennas. First order is on the remaining Cobra who's yet to shot his hand. He surprise shots the Kriza with the marksman rifle and scores all 3 hits. The kriza goes down. I then coordinate an order moving the 3 cobras with the KHD starting and the Marksman finishing in LOF of his KHD. He targets my KHD and in the F2F I take a hit but make the armour save (phew). The marksman misses the unopposed shot though unfortunately. I move the KHD on to the very middle console and try to wip it needing 16's... I get a 17. so 3 orders and 3 antennas needed. I try again and succeed but now have a lot of ground to cover. I use my last command token to get my fusilier paramedic who was close enough to an antenna to charge the nearby antenna receiving an ARO from that pesky KHD and move my own KHD towards the far antenna. The paramedic makes the WIP roll and scores me the antenna. 3-3! 1 regular order left and the Cobra KHD can reach! but there's a lot of AROs, so I now use my LT to surprise shot a securitate who gets hit but makes both his armour and guts saves so he keeps his ARO. Last order, a great charge for the zulu cobra to the console and somehow he passes the WIP with a crit to score the antenna but sadly dies to the multiple AROs. In doing so he manages to score me 4 OP for the antennas, but in dying he grants 2 OP for killing more specialists to my opponent. My opponent got 1 classified and secured HVT. 4-4 Draw. THOUGHTS (TLDR) 1 - I like the cobras, they are flexible and have great profiles. I think my issue will be more on who I leave out rather than include. 2 - Crits made it hard to evaluate the Kamau MSR which looks to be such a great unit, but equally showed that the NCA tried and tested fusilier link ML is still a potent weapon at half the points cost(same SWC) as the Kamau. Further testing with the Kamau MSR needed. 3 - Helots can be a nuisance with neurocinetics but you still need to pick your fights. For their cost though they make great speedbumps. 4 - It's nice to have flexible Haris links that can be aggressive and push for objectives, something I've struggled to experience in NCA due to ORCs costs. 5 - Although running a lot of more vulnerable 1w models there is flexibility and capable redundancies to cope with losses during games in this sectorial.
Great report, thanks for sharing! Have you considered the ZC Sensor/Jammer as the regular option and sticking to the Fusilier Lt?
I did, but I wanted to see how the Lt did and how vulnerable or useful he might be as Lt. That Lt order did help in the end game but he did feel exposed once out of camo. I may fall back on the fusi Lt's after some more play testing though.
Nice write up, its really nice always having that LT order to re-camo. im interested to see what you thought of the Harris, seems expensive just to put an additional burst on the Kamau.
So the Haris here came to 90pts with a very hard hitting HMG, non hackable specialist and a 2 wound multi rifle for when you start getting closer in than the HMG would like or you want that AP/Shock ammo. a basic ORC haris would be a good 25 to 30+ odd points more which is a Zulu Cobra and I don't think would be as (or should that be more?) capable. I think it's something that has potential but that maybe I didn't get enough out of it this game because they lost so many orders trying to get that first antenna and couldn't be more aggressive. They did capture 2 antennas and really helped to slow down that Kriza advance thought and I would have struggled to have had that many units in place eating in to his orders if they hadn't moved up together. One advantage in future games / other missions though is you could have a good choice for an aggressive data tracker with built in support.
The sectorial chart also showed that Kamau haris was an option - would you consider that over the ORC? losing a wound and a multi weapon, but likely gaining another 20 points or so.
its interesting you assumed the Harris profile was on the ORC Multi and not the BSG, which is what it usually is on. imo I think id like the BSG better as a guy to drag along. Anyway, I think I would find more mileage out of a crocman FO as a button pusher and take either the Kamau HMG or ORC HMG solo and reform my Core link at 5 when the Kamau Sniper inevitably goes down. this way your button pusher can't get nuked before he leaves the DZ, can re-camo for safety, and can throw down mines after he's finished with his objective. I've been mulling Harris options over in my mind for Varuna and depending on what the character does, I may be more inclined to invest points in Zulus/crocmen.
In this mission the Exclusion zone limited the usability of crocmen's infiltration, I saved a third of the cost by going for the Kamau FO over him and getting the mimetism. I didn't know 2 things when selecting which ORC to use. The first is which would be the ORC haris leader. You're right it's probably the BSG but I was also thinking when I did it that it could also be in preparation for Patsy, she will be able to wildcard in to a Kamau link, and again we don't know which profile the kamau Haris will be but either so this was a way of getting to try different combinations I suppose. In the long term this particular link probably won't be legal, but it was good to feel the pros and cons of the mixed Haris. And at the end of the day the ORC is still hackable as a HI so I'd certainly look at saving the points and using a standard Kamau Haris which should still be capable but removing that risk.
