Thanks Kotch. :)

I used "Yami" w/Kenshin Tadashi and Improved Targeting, along with the Crimson Hawk w/Lill Turner (my only light pilot atm) and pulse in the Semptember storyline today. Infantry filled up the rest of the points. All that I can say is that "Yami" is a beast. By himself he took out "Caber", two HL Paladines, and 2 HL Regulators all in one game! No one could touch him and he did not take any damage in any of my three games. :) I put him in an "H" shaped blocking terrain in the middle of the field and let him go to work. I planned on using the Crimson Hawk to sit behind "Yami" and support him if needed, but he could not. 2 of the 3 players I faced used artillery which kept him on the move. My only letdown was that the Crimsom Hawk ended up doing very little to contribute to the victories. I found that he was too much of a liability with his 21 def. Is this because I faced artillery, or is the Crimson Hawk just a weaker piece?

Anyone have thoughts on how to use the Crimson Hawk?
Thanks in advance. :)

Hello, new to the game and the forum, I have been reading up for the last few weeks and have played a few games here at home, but tomorrow I will be giving my first tournament a shot.
Ill list my army and what I hope to pull off with it.
we are playing with the story line rules for this month but retired units are still usable this time, so its all blocking terrain, 600 point, volcanoes are active, at least half the force has to be one faction or no faction.

1 hashira shiro (only shiro I have)
katsuro
AP

1 harpy havoc
graduate certificate
homing beacon

1 :^^: HK yasha

2 :^: SC hoverbike squad

2 :^^: SC shock troopers

1 :^^^: SC clan battle armor

1 :^^: HK oni battle armor


now the basic plan is to use the light mech with homing to to tag anything that I can’t get a line of site to and max the effect by using the double order ability of the shiro pilot. So is this just a pipe dream or do you think I will be able to put the huge 18 range to use with the homing getting me past all the blocking???


Thanks for any advice you may be willing to give.

Looks OK. I would suggest adding Improved Targeting instead of Armor Piercing to the Shiro though, better chance of hitting. You don`t see much armor on mechs nowadays anyways. Make sure you keep 1 or 2 infantry alive to take Active Volcano damage, it can be a killer. Otherwise good luck!

Harpy isn't the best choice for Homing. Range. Have you got a Hellion?

rip 'em up, the Crimson Hawk is a great piece. I love it. It's defense is pretty good and it retains its ranged damage value throughout its dial, unlike the Rokus. Any of the Roku pilots is a better fit than Lil. Try and get a Stephan Dirks or Wahab Fusili.

well, thats the best light mech I have if I want to stay within my faction(s)
I kinda liked the idea of playing within my alliances, but I do have a steiner hellion, hehe, but the harpy looks so cool next to the shiro... ;)
I do agree though, it might be better for what im trying to pull off.

what about my ground troops, I have other oni but they cost more then the SC units??

as far as the AP, well I dont have much in the way of A class gear, I have alpha, AP, grapple, elec camo, camo, thats it.. I could drop the AP and just add more units.

ooops. i said the wrong thing... i was thinking the shiro was A class, he is H. i have AP or vibro blade.... that all for that class...

Well, this may be late for your tournament, but I have a few recommendations for your army. First, I would use Streak Missles instead of Armor piercing on "Hashira," so you don't have to be so dependent on your second 'Mech to tag your target (especially if it is a 24 defense Nova Cat, Kodiak, Malice, etc.). Secondly, be careful with Katsuro's ability; though you can execute a second attack, it will cost the Shiro 2 damage and an extra click of heat. This ability is best used to flatten some real tough 'Mechs (like the aforementioned Nova Cats, Kodiak, Malice, and even the occasional Atlas or Yu Huang) or right at the end of the game to ensure a kill on a unit that is trying to get back to DZ.

For your second 'Mech, I would recommend swapping out "Harpy" for a DF Jaguar. Though it has a sightly shorter range than "Harpy," its speed makes up for that. And since your Shiro has streak misssles to deal with threats beyond LOS, I propose using the Jaguar as a harassing unit to pull your enemy toward your Shiro (i.e., forcing an assult 'Mech to use a AO on the Jaguar, but it falls into the Shiro's 18" range as a result). And to really make the enemy work for that Jaguar, add G-004 Decoy (Class L) and P-002 Albion Graduate (+1 attack, +1 defense). This will elevate your defense and force your enemy to roll twice every time it targets that (besides, since it is a DF unit, it doesn't need anything else to bolster speed).

Here's a revised army that I think will work (you'll get many chances to play an all blocking terain storyline, and this army will function better in the open.

"Hashira" Shiro -254 pts.
w/ Katsuro Sutoku -41 pts
w/ G-019 Streak Missles -38 pts

DF :^^: Jaguar -98 pts
w/ P-002 Albion Graduate -9pts
w/ G-004 Decoy -21 pts

DF :^^^: Tokugawa Hvy Tank -60 pts

SC :^: Gray Death BA x3 -42 pts

HK :^^: Raiden BA x1 -15 pts

SC :^^: Undine BA x1 -20 pts

Your grand total -598 pts

or replace the Undine with a Liao Sniper team for a perfect 600.

As you noticed, I replaced the HK Yasha with a DF Tokugawa. I did this because this is a fragile VTOL, and a lucky shot from AA fire (especially from the SH Aesir, SW MHI AA tank, or an assult 'Mech with AA targeting) will knock that VTOL out in 1 shot, despite its talents and range. Additionally, the Tokugawa adds SU homing beacon and IT into the mix to "tag" a target (and its more expendable than a 'Mech), which also makes it a solid combat unit. The infantry I suggest are best used to base and break or harass smaller units (especiall the Undine with its grapple), and they are relatively easy to acquire units. Just in case you see infanty, you can swap that Undine out for a Liao sniper team, which has a longer reach and can take on infantry better than the SC infantry (not to mentions the +1 damage to green units for now). Finally, all these units are active, and you can play this anywhere. I hope that you give this army a try at the next tournament. :)

Decoy isn't going to work much on a light mech with only 18-19 defense points. I would rather put Evade on the Jag to get that extra 2 defense points from ranged attacks and reduce heat from running. This gives you better use of the mech's potential on speed.

I like to team the HK Crimson Hawk with my Shiros, but I don't like to recommend pieces that people would have a hard or expensive time trying to acquire. For light mechs within the DF/HK faction, I believe the best one would be the DF Mongoose with its agility, TSEMP, and hardened armor. The Jaguars are a good choice if you personally prefer it.

What's a good transport for them Oni's? Been using a DF Garrot but it looks like I may have to use a DF R12 soon.

I like Merc Zahns. They are really hard to get though, so I think the DF R10 is a good choice, though expensive. It all depends on the situation too. Do you want survivability or speed?

Zahns like the Garrots are being retired soon. Was looking for something to take the game from 2006 and beyond when my DF Garrot gets retired. J12s are too expensive. Unrestricted at least I still got some DF Maxims to kick about.

Publicity on Merc Zahns makes them hard to get and I don't have them. In fact, it's hard to get any Zahn at all, most people prefer to hoard them or refuse to part with them. I only got a Steel Wolf Zahn and it looks weird to match it with my DF/Kurita formations.

I'm trying to be as alliance pure as possible with mercs as the only alternative outside of it. This leaves me with a Merc Cardinal, which I have; DF Cardinal which I don't have but looking for one; the Spirit Cat and the Dragon's Fury R12 which I have but expensive and I only have one of each.

[quote]Publicity on Merc Zahns makes them hard to get and I don't have them. In fact, it's hard to get any Zahn at all, most people prefer to hoard them or refuse to part with them.[quote]

This is very true, lol. I have 2 Merc Zahns and I wouldn`t trade em for the world. I really like the Merc Cardinal, it fears only armor-piercing artillery, and gets extremely fast (up to 16 speed). I like using it to drop TTL`s or Elementals when I play Falcon, and using them to drop Onis or Raidens seems like a good strategy for House Kurita. :) In a higher point games use the R10 , it will keep your infantry safer longer and give you the ability to drop a formation of em. I like the Spirit Cat R10 more because it has hardened armor, but it`s your choice. Im new to playing House Kurita so take everything I have said with a grain of salt. :nervous: Anyways hope this helps.

P.S.
I do have 2 Liao Zahns for trade, PM if you are interested. :)

The R10 is a risky unit to carry infantry in. There is just enough room in its rear arc to deploy three infantry - meaning that if the rear arc is even partially obscured by terrain or a unit that just charged you then if you're salvaged you have to eliminate infantry because there is no room to deploy.

So as well as being expensive it also lacks the deployment arc the Garrott enjoys.

Yami kenshin IT / 4 times onit BA vet / 2 oni BA elite / 2 hardur DF / 5 times DF atv total 600 pts the arty gave the Electro camo jump bunny and streakers fits and the yami at the support up if they did get close they became trohpies of the ba and the atvs ran inerferance / heat givers to screw dials even worse than arty dodgeing

well my first tournament went well i guess, I won one out of the four matches i played. but I ended up not playing the shiro army, I let a friend of mine play it and I used a DF infantry drop/mongoose army. the one win I had was VS my friend and the shiro army.
my blitz was able to take out the hellion too fast for it to be a pain, that made it so I could get way to close to the shiro with out it getting to use its wonderfull range.

by the end I had captured the shiro and in one more turn would of bypassed it.

I think it was an ok army, but with other gear it would of been better (streak).
I also think my friend made the mistake of getting to close with the hellion with out me being based. he got close enough that I could pull off a close ranged AO with blitz and use the pilots ability. I think I may keep working on getting more gear before i play this one again.

thanks all for your input though.