Not in my book. Special ammunition or not, in the end of the day it's still a rifle on a BS13 platform lacking visual mods. If he hits, the opponent will take a punishment, granted. But winning this FtF is no easy task. As @yoink101 put he has no problem outshooting mooks. He will destroy troopers with a single burst return fire rocking say a rifle. But let's face it: Who doesn't? A 12-ponts cheap Thora will do the trick. But tougher targets will make him sweat. To begin with, he will not outrange anybody save for 6-points warbands wielding a chain rifle (more often than not lobbing smoke grenades - and he lacks MSV2+). Let's say there is a Foxtrot in Suppressive Fire mode: burst of 3 - the same as Hector's, -3 for mimetism, -3 for SF - that nets a -3 assuming you are in the +3 range band of Hector. Now Hector is more likely to roll for ARM, than the lowly Foxtrot. In Infinity if you are rolling for ARM in your active turn, you are not doing it right. (And don't even start talking about dealing with TO camo troopers, TR HMGs and the likes...) The above assumes Hector is in the +3 range band - that is within 16' of the enemy. To get in range you need to waltz him up the field. 4-4 MOV is not bad but not (nearly) as impressive as 6-4 MOV (Big A or Patty). Unlike the fairest of all heroes (or his boyfriend), Hector will not start leaving the DZ with a MOV-shoot order killing his first target with the first order spent on him. Short range hurts. He will have to take a long march to start shooting - a waste of orders in my eyes. (And stealth or not, risks are involved...) Regarding the aforementioned fireteam consisting of Hector and two Dactyls: this setup is just insanely expensive clocking in at 117 points. That is a whopping 40% of your points total. (For the same pricetag you can take Patroclus (ODD with spitfire) and Alke escorted by a FO and a medic Thora.) Once you lose Hector, you wave good bye to (more than) half of your army's firepower. Killing Hector is no easy task (ARM5, effectively 3 wounds), but if your opponent does pull him down, you are in knee-deep trouble (losing a quarter of your army pointswise and entering LoL). Many player including @csjarrat and @Stiopa seems to be able to take more mileage out of Hector than I did. I tip my hat to those players. But relative to Patty, Achilleus and Eudoros (Heck, even Machaon!) I found him a subpar gunfighter especially taking into account his astronomic price-tag. We are here to help.
Also, for 117 points you can basically get a marut. Better strategos, does more damage at more range, more arm, still a specialist. I'd rather have a marut then a link where one grenade launcher can render the link bonuses moot.
Yeah, he has rifle or spitfire range bands, yeah a TO sniper will out range him. Yeah he has rifle or spitfire range bands, he can in range HMGs or sniper rifles, especially if he hauling up his own smoke. I like him best in a Myrmidon link. IMO the cost savings for a thorakiti or dac link is not worth the trade off of having weaker shooting and no smoke. Up close he is a terror, a link with an officer, macheon and a chain rifle is 160, and is super deadly to pretty much anything. (As it would be for that price.) Steel Phalanx ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 HECTOR Lieutenant Plasma Rifle, Nanopulser, Stun Grenades + 1 TinBot A / Heavy Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 71) MYRMIDON Chain Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 16) MYRMIDON OFFICER (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 35) MACHAON Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0.5 | 38) ALKÊ Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 25) THORAKITES (Forward Observer, 360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13) THORAKITES (360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) THORAKITES HMG, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 22) NETROD Electric Pulse. (0 | 4) NETROD Electric Pulse. (0 | 4) GROUP 2 4 SCYLLA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device UPGRADE: Maestro) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser + 1 Devabot Charybdis / Pistol, E/M CC Weapon. (0.5 | 27) DEVABOT CHARYBDIS Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (7) LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) DALETH Rebot Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17) 5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army
I'm brand new to this game, and bought into the steel phalanx. What is the advantage of taking an engineer with Hector?
Your combat monster is towing a specialist behind. This means that once Hector kills anyone in position to intervene your Engineer can go and push some buttons, connect some cables, plant a D-Charge - in general work towards securing scenario objectives. Once your opponent gets savvy - or lucky - and manages to Isolate Hector, glue him down, or successfully use an E/M weapon on him, it'll be useful to have an Engineer on hand. They're the only ones that can fix Isolation or IMM-2 states. Aside from that Dactyls (and Acmon) carry ADHLs, Panzerfaust, or Flammenspeer, and can be nasty ARO pieces in their own right.
