Where to go from the 300 point SP box?

Steel Phalanx basic layout:

• Thorakitai link: you need the Steel Phalanx starter, and the Dire Foes Aleph/Nomads box (for Trasymedes, forget Alke). You also get "the discount Achilles", AKA Eudoros, and another Myrmidon.
• Machaon Blister
• Specops blister (counts as basic Thorakitai)
• Remotes box: Rebots (total reaction/8points) and/or Probots (mount EVO and 8 points, you will use the 8 points 90% of the time).
• Diomedes (or proxy him with the HMG Ekdromoi, which I prefer for ease of transport).
• SP Support Pack box is... VERY optional. If you plan to expand to Vanilla Aleph in the future, save yourself money and time and get the Aleph Support box, for the antennas.
• Achilles or Hector, blondie is a guided missile while Hector is a team player. You can use Hector to link the 3 thorakites also, and escort them (paramedic, engineer, Forward Observer) in order to get objectives.

Assembly:
Double Myrmidon team, Myrmidon + thorakite team, or Myrmidon + Achilles. A linked Phoenix with Machaon and 2 chain rifle myrmidons tends to be the base.

 

Also note that there's a new Thorakitai box in the works, we've seen a render and it has SMG, Combi, Feueueurerebach, and HMG models.

 

my friend.
you will need firsty 2 netrods. before anything.
as much as thorakitais with chain rifles as possible.
daleth rem and a lamedh rebot.
then machaon blister.

 

Don't you mean myrmidons with chain rifles ?

And i'm not sold on netrods being mandatory. They are cheap, but unreliable and useless beyond giving one order. I never saw a netrod shoot someone or push a button. While netrods are a good way to use some remaining points, i would rather advise against the SP support pack as Xagroth said.

 

Also, the SP support pack does not include Netrods, only 2 Dactyls and 2 Yudbots ^^U

Medic -> Machaon will be on 90% of your lists, and within reach of the casualties, since he will be linked with the assaulting Myrmidons. Also, ODD + Eclipse Smoke + NWI.
Engineer -> In a pinch, you can pick a single Thorakitai engineer to repair and care for the Total Reaction remote (zayin), or have one in a thorakitai linked team to push buttons and plant D-Charges.
Yudbots -> Mostly useless on SP, since you want linked troops and those cannot have assigned servitors. Also, you can place Netrods, so the Generic Support Pack box gives you the Yudbots, the Sophotect (for when you go play generic) and the Netrods.

As for the Chain rifle spam, some people have become addicted to have 2-4 Thorakitai protecting the flanks. Me, I prefer other options.

 

Ho, my bad, thx, i dunno why but i was sure the SP support pack would mirror the Aleph one.

I think Dactyls are mostly useful when fielding Hector, since he can link with them. But a dactyl cost nearly as much as a standard myrmidon without the sheer power. So a team with CR myrm, a shooter and a specialist won't cost really more than a dactyl team, and will be as useful while being stronger. Even if dactyls have some shenanigans, i wouldn't advise a new player to take them.

I'm curious, what do you prefer vs chain rifle spam ?

 

Distance and, failing that, heavy plating xD (plus some mines)

 

Hm, so I recently picked up the Dactyls support box... was that a mistake?

 

It is not a mistake, dactyls are not bad at all. They are not mandatory in SP, you will mostly field myrmidons and thorakites.

They are more a niche pick, that's why i would advise against picking them for a starter. They are ok specialists who are faster than thorakites and who have unusual weapons for the Steel Phalanx: ADHL, disposable ARO weapons and nimbus grenades. They can link if you take either Acmon or Hector, or as a Duo option (Acmon has it too)

They can perform really well if well played, there are things only them can do, but they may be hard to use.

You can always proxy thorakite engineer with them through :)

 

I actually prefer alke for fireteams.

 

ODD enomotarcos with fire template (and SMG) Vs spitfire... If I want to spend the WSC, I'd just pick an HMG enomotarkos, so I don't also risk my only way of reforming the team.
Also, Infinity's Blackjack system points more towards reducing the enemy's chances than to really improve your own, meaning a -9 from cover with ODD with Burst 3 (and template, which negates the +3ARM from cover, and can affect more than one target) is way better than -3 in cover with burst 5.

Now, from experience, I only ever saw Alke being fielded in a youtube video. I've had her since I started playing, and Tamiris has seen more table use than her (campaign mode, and pitcher... and I was using Generic; nowadays with the Danavas maybe not even in a campaign).

 

In the undying words of Michael Jackson "That's just ignorant!" ;)

Have you ever seen any line trooper actually accomplish anything, beyond mere door stop duty? Net rods are by no means 'mandatory' but they're a really nice way to pad your order pool for the price of a thorakitai, you get three orders – meaning your opponent will need to 'waste' three orders on shooting 4pt. chaff, while not firing on the troops that actually matters.

The key to using net rods is to recognize their relative worthlessness, they are a force multiplier to your fireteams or lone troopers a myrmidon team will easily be a 30-40% of your army, but for the low price 1% of your army, you can up their potential by 20%. You can set them up as bait, or use them conservatively hidden in your table half. If you lose them, who cares, each bullet they take could have cost you the life of a much more expensive LHost.

I've stopped using them in 10 order lists (using Lamedh and Probots instead), but a couple of rods can do wonders for a second combat group.

 

Then you can go and read that post of mine, where i suggest to put some netrods into a second group:
https://forum.corvusbelli.com/threads/its9-extra-mercenaries-aleph.510/#post-5465

I don't say Netrods are bad, i say they are limited.

I've seen line troopers shoot down AD. But not often. Perhaps because since they are here, my opponent will just avoid sending an AD here ? We have better than average line troopers, but even a BS10 line trooper has 65% chances of hitting an AD and around 60% chances wounding him. That's enough of a threath for something costing around 10 pts don't you think ?
I've seen battles won by a 8 pts lamedh, that would have been lost by 2 netrods instead. Why ? Because the lamedh could simply move and score after the big guys went down. I've seen lamedh stun TAGs, and even warcors. I've seen heavies taken down by a (lucky) shoot from a single line trooper.

You can take 3 netrods for the price of a single thorakite. It's true. But your netrods wont protect you from anything. A thorakite is only worth one order, but he can force your opponent to spend more than that simply because he is here. Line troopers are speed bumps, they force to waste orders killing them or going around them. They can do plenty things like detect impersonation, move to a quadrant, go into suppressive fire and protect an area ... (and 360° vision shock-SMG thorakites are no joke at all in suppressive !!!) And when all your best buddies are down they will win the fight. The only thing a netrod can do beside giving an order is to weight 4 pts in the quadrant control she landed in.

Have you never see that situation ? "ho, i have only 2 orders left. If i can move-move, then move+activate, i can win the game". Guess what can happens if there is a line trooper here ? He can try to ARO during the first order, thus preventing the opponent to win. Guess what can a netrod do ? Nothing. It's true we call line troopers "order monkeys", but in reality they can do far more than that.

EDIT:
Just found the article i had in mind about cheerleaders:
http://www.critskillpeople.com/2015/09/infinity-unit-efficiency-theory-thursday.html/

 

Please do remember that, since AI Beacons (Netrods and Imetrons) are Equipment pieces/markers, they cannot be repaired, used to control quadrants, attract/lure Impetuous troops, used to fulfill secondary objectives (mark enemy troop, coup de grace...), or be moved from one combat group to another. So, making a second group with 3 netrods actually means you will lose 2 orders from your main group if you go first, and that you will have 3 useless orders in an empty group.

Also, Steel Phalanx can only deploy 2 Netrods, being also limited to a single probot (but being able to field 2 lamedh, or 2 specialist remotes, etc...)

 

Ho please ... in the post i linked, i suggested to put netrod into a second group to give cheap regular orders to said second group ... The purpose of me linking that post was to illustrate that i can consider using netrods, but only as disposable orders.

I'm perfectly aware that netrods can't be switched from a group to another ...

So i'll try to be more precise:
For me, netrods are good if you only need some very cheap orders and you don't rely on them, because it is quite likely they won't live 3 turns, they can even not survive the deployment ... You can't do anything with them appart from using their orders. So, it's fine if it's to boost a second group with some orders, but it's better to have real troops in your first group because they can do far more, and have more chances surviving the 3 turns and giving orders till the end as well as wasting the opponent's.

And what you said about netrods not counting is false, as far as i know. I quote the ITS9 rules for Quadrant Control (enphasis is mine):
DOMINATE ZO
A Zone of Operations (ZO) is considered Dominated by a player if he has more Army Points than the adversary inside the area. Only troops represented by miniatures or Markers (Camouflage, Spawn-Embryo, Seed-Embryo...) count, as well as AI Beacons, Proxies and G: Servant Troops
.

 

Ok, my bad about counting or not for quadrants. Please take into account, however, that this is a "new player thread", so it is important to be carefull with half-written statements.

 

You're right, sorry about that. I too was thinking about creating a separate topic about netrods, since it has not much to do with the original topic.

 

Better a cheerleader analysis for Aleph, I'd suggest ;)