Why does vanilla Aleph seem more popular than Steel Phalanx?

Steel Phalanx was new in the original Campaign: Paradiso and was very strong for several years at the tail end of 2nd Edition. It's also a bit infamous for having gotten a disproportionately large number of sculpts and new profiles in the time between books. Human Sphere N3 tweaked SP down a little bit (and several other armies up) and so it's no longer as much of a stand-out army. HSN3 also added the first new non-SP Aleph units in a very long time, which has lead to a lot of excitement and speculation about what the rest of the army will look like.

But do not fear, SP is still a very good and very fun army, and people definitely still play it.

 

Given the plethora of missions, and mixes thereof, I doubt there will ever be a solved sectorial / faction :)

That being said, I personally find SP harder to play than vanilla, particularly if you are going second. The lack of hidden deployment and camo mind games makes SP feel very one dimensional to me.

 

They are definitely very good at killing things. Sometimes, too good - when you get killing, it's easy to lose objective points to retreat!

That being said, as you're almost invariably running a low order count army, losing pieces is particularly crippling. I find it really hard to set up for ARO with SP. I reaaaallly don't want to lose pieces, but I don't want to give free reign to opponents. The duty usually goes to Phoenix - burst 2 heavy rocket launcher with ODD and good BS, yes please :)

I do find, however, you don't often have a lot of specialists. If you lose your specialists, you can say goodbye to objective points on missions like tic-tac-toe. And when your opponent has, for example, a speculo killer and a hidden deployment noctifer missile launcher, you can lose specialists fast.

There's definitely something to be said for infiltrating camo token specialists.

 

All the excitement is pointed towards Vedic right now because they're gonna be given a sectorial sometime in the next year or so.

You also see a lot more discussion about Vanilla because post humans work for them and they are arguably on of the top 2 most powerful for the cost units in the game, in a lot of ways they are a primary appeal to Aleph both from a rules and fluff perspective.

Steel isn't exciting right now, so you don't see as many posts about them. That said I play Nomads and Aleph, and steel is my current favorite sectorial when I'm not playing a vanilla. (I suspect tunguska will soon over shadow them. I love the Tunguska fluff, and never cared for the Steel fluff, but man steel is fun to play).

If you're learning with other new players steel will probably feel OP at first. Linked myrmidons are very nasty, and take some less conventional tactics to counter.

Steel has some hard limits, but they really Excel at killing, and specialists like Macheon are nothing to scoff at.

 

Funny, when I started a year ago I was drowning in SP videos/batreps and few vanilla ones. The trend has shifted a bit in anticipation of Vedic, but they're still the hard to stop brute force sectorial that doesn't pay much in power compared to vanilla, just in camo/gear versatility.

 

Essentially, Steel Phalanx is a hammer: direct, easy to hit hard, hard to recover from that punch you just did. Like several builds of the Combined Army, it's a bully whose only tricks come from having two four man links (an advantage that was greatly diminished when almost every sectorial got at least a working Haris, which combined with their Core meant 8 models moving around like 2 enomotarchos).

Vanilla is more adaptable, with fast troops which are fragile but like to stay on the table (Dakinis), infiltrators, visors, the ONLY Tag in the whole faction (expensive as she is), the only HI that are not characters (even so, Vanilla can field atm up to four HI troops, and two of them cost 4 SWC, and the other two are the Asuras), the Deva Functionaries are like fast MI/fragile HI, etc...

So, Vanilla works like a scalpel, and you can play several "minigames" with it: repair to get orders back, hacking game, assault game, defensive game, camo spam... Infinitely more options than the Steel Phalanx, and, more importantly, absolutely zero dependency from heroes.

 

I didnt play SP yet. But played several times against it. MSV2 units can be a really nasty thing for SP since they all use ODD. Still its hard to play against SP - many things will die and with Machaon you got the one of the best (if not the best) specialist in the game.
With SP you got some units which are very powerful if played right. Maybe you have to try them a few times... (Atalanta, Achilles, Ajax, Phoenix, Penthasilia (I dont know how to play her properly) an so on)

I decided against SP because I dont like to field many named characters, SP is more common around here and I really like the Vedic fluff.

 

When I started out, I was drawn by two models : The Marut and Achilles.

Not knowing anything rules wise, I then proceeded by gut instinct to get a bunch of myrmidons – as they looked pretty cool too – so when I finally had them painted up and were ready to learn the game, I quickly realized, that my model collection were skewed towards Steel Phalanx.

The Phalanx had a bunch of great games in them – speed via multiple link teams, brute force in FtF from tons of ODD. Once you'd taken an opponents MSV2 out, you basically ruled the game via brute force.

Then after a handful of games, the fun turned into routine, my fantastic Marut was collecting dust, and everyone else seemed to have cool tricks up their sleeves, like marker states and infiltrators etc., and my little toy soldiers could just charge ahead on a wave of bullets. It didn't help either, that I'd bought into the idea of a skirmish game, where every models count, yet in actuality I played 3 models, while the rest just hung on for adding bonuses. Last but not least, I was losing out on all the cool cyberpunk stuff and instead played 'super soldiers in space'.

I then branched out into vanilla, and now I can enjoy every aspect of the game. If I want super soldiers, I get Achilles and Patroclus. If I want sneaky clandestine stuff, I load up on nagas and dasyu. If I want an army relying on synergy, I get a bunch of REM and hackers. And if I want to rape the inhabitants of Dawn, I drizzle a light cover of smoke on a magnificent four-armed lady and enjoy the sound of machine gun fire.

I do have a rather extensive model collection for the phalanx, and it has continuously been expanded in capability, since I made the switch – I can't help but like the models – so I'm thinking of going SP for my next tournament, as although it is a simple army, it can do some stuff, that no-one else can do.

Here's a couple of list concepts, I'm toying with :

SMOKE AND MSV (10 orders, simple and traditional)
Atalanta MSR
LINK1 : BSG CoC Officer, Eudoros, 2 Chain Myrmidons
Teucer MSV2
LINK2 : Mac Lt., Myrm Spitfire, Chain Myrm, BSG Myrm

Advance under smoke, while MSV2 snipers deal with ARO pieces. This is surgical strikes with a rocket powered scalpel.

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS (17 orders, very few guns)
LINK1 : Alké Lt., 3 Thora FO
LINK2 : Thrasymedes, 3 Thora FO
EVO Probot
2 Daleth
2 Lamedh
2 BSG CoC Officers
Samekh
Net rod

An insane amount of B2 Flash Pulses will make any advance problematic. There might only be one 'true gun'; a B5 spitfire, but there are 6 B3 FO, and 2 WIP19 Sat-lock'ers, that can call down the pain from a SML, so that basically amounts to 8 Missile Launchers on the active field. And with two CoC's it will be extremely hard to cut the head of the 'snake'.

HECTORS HOUNDS (11 Orders of lean, killy button pushing machines)
LINK1 : Hector Plasma Lt., Dactyl Engineer.
LINK2 : BSG CoC Officer, Spitfire Myrm.
LINK3 : BSG CoC Officer, Spitfire Myrm.
LINK4 : BSG CoC Officer, Spitfire Myrm.
2 Net rods.

Taking advantage of the best the Phalanx has to offer: Enomotarcos, redundancy and the ability of fire teams to move a specialist into position, while firing a big gun. There is no unnecessary chaff, everything is there for a reason. Officers provide cover, myrmidons firepower, while Hector poses coolly, bragging about his plasma rifle. Hector+Engineer could easily be substituted with Eudoros / Penthesilea (/ Ajax), that can provide some extra push and speed via their Impetuous orders.

 

Vanilla is definitely more adaptable and flexible, but I disagree that Phalanx has a shortage of specialists - even given their elite, low order count nature.

You can very easily field lists with two-three links, with very nice order efficiency and specialists durable/protected well enogh to make it a hard task for the enemy to deal with.

 

I think, that was more in the past. With the addition of Dactyls, and Thorakite getting special weapons and tools like Scylla, the Phalanx has gotten a more varied palette. Also folks have a tendency to overlooks REMs and such in the phalanx.

Although what would be really nice, would be to have a Thorakite Enomotarchos, that didn't tax SWC.

 

I remember somebody posting the idea of generic, non-character Thorakitai Officer with ENomotarchos. That would be nice.

 

Two links yeah. Three...You are down to "leader + 3 flunkies" or "Human triads", sadly.

Specialists in SP tend to come in one flavour: Thorakitai. A troop that lacks a proper non-character Enomotarchos, because right now Thrasimedes is autoinclude.

Me. Alke, no spitfire, Combi/Multi/Precision combi (one of the three), no SWC tax, AVA 2, an Lt profile and a non-LT profile, about 18-20 points. Dirt cheap, sure, but she would have no bells nor whistles (or give her Nº2 aswell, and place her at 22-24 pts).

 

Dactyls (great as a three-man team with Acmon and/or Hector). CoC Officer. Ekdromos hacker (Stealth often allows him to sneak past KHDs, and he's awesome as a backup assault troop). Scylla. Daleth. To a lesser extent Thamyris and Andromeda. Machaon, obviously.

Thorakitai specialists are cheap and good, but in my lists they're backups, not primary button pushers.

 

Considering they have the only engineer aside from the Dactyls... and how those are more expensive because of the Dogged, and tend to be grateful for Hector's presence... While the Thorakitai link with Thrasimedes, getting an ODD Light Missile Launcher protector for a third of the cost, then you can add a Paramedic and a Forward Observer, closing with another FO or an HMG/Fuerbach for extra range bands.

Hackers in the Phalanx there are 1 linked (Myrmidon AHD), and the others are Scylla (99% of the time as KHD, because of Barbecue), the Ekdromos (flexible, and can be there and fulfill a lot of Classifieds, granted), and Tamirys (Pitcher, heavy gun, and little else... he needs a rework even badly than Alke)... Point is, SP is not very Hacky. But Hector + Myrmidon Hacker can be a real pain... leaving aside that AHD don't have damage programs, just freeze/forget and TAG.

Baseline Troop in Steel Phalanx is the 16pts chain rifle Myrmidon... xD

Standard loadout starts with Phoenix (1 of 2 linkable circular template, plus Myrmidon), follows with Machaon (eternal partner of Phoenix, to raise him to keep fighting and capture classifieds while going around), and includes a Myrmidon Officer Chain of Command. Then, Ajax or Eudoros (whoever you have at hand, really), four myrmidons, and fill the 2 slots wiht an Agema and something like a Thorakitai or Diomedes, for a double Myrm.
Or go hero, with a single Myrm link and a Thorakitai one, Phoenix + Machaon + Officer + Mym, Thrasimedes + Eng Thora + OA Thora + Something Thora + Agema + Achilles

Essentially, the best way to go with SP is "go first, kill fast, then fulfill objectives once the enemy cannot reply".

 

The actual ‘flavor’ of specialists has become more or less irrelevant in the later ITS seasons. With fewer classifieds and less reliance on the actual skill. So I’d make do with specialist, that have the most ‘battleworthy’ skills; FO, CoC and Hackers if you’re using REMs. Doctors and engineers are often a ‘waste’ of orders.

 

I will comment that a doctor in a fireteam can be much more useful than a doctor sitting back in the deployment zone. Being able to spend a single order to stand your fireteam's heavy weapon back up is almost always worth it.

 

Classified Objectives still do require the right combination of specialists, and more importantly, D-Charges. I'll let you wonder who will have a better chance to cross the battlefield, a Dactyl Engineer you don't need to bring but for removing Imm2 and Isolated (which are a problem only for Achilles, Hector and Ajax, since all other troops are nearly as much vulnerable to Combi rifles than ADL), or an 18 pts Thorakitai with a combi, with Thrasimedes as team leader :p