I have to agree. Their price tag is yet another reason why I think the design team plans on moving us to 600 point games for standard Constructed, even if Kelly said "No" during the chat.

The House Steiner varient is quite nice (w/ Reactive, 25 Defense in Hindering, and a decent speed value), but all things considered, there isn't much we can really use to repair it with (in a Faction Pure game, at least), save the Jaguar (which I don't really care for) or a recruited "Chikako". I gave it a 4, because at the very least, it could be a pain in the butt to kill, and against an opponent who isn't fielding ArP artillery, it can keep "Chikako" going for a long time.

Do the star ratings really work? No more than the public ratings for movies on Yahoo's website. If it'll make you guys feel any better, the only ratings I typically trust are those given by the people who frequent this thread.

Cheers.

Firstly sorry about the late/tardy answer as I am more and more bizy at work leaving me little time to do the review work.

Errrr you want me to built an army around the TTL/Anat component. With Mechs.

At the moment in 450 No Mech for me qualifies. Or maybe the Black Rose as a viable 1 Mech army.

that leaves little else. Some ATV's.

A 13 attack allows you to attack anything you want on the field with Fernali a 24 Defense you dont need extra gear.

I woudnt play a 23/24 Decoy Mech as they tend to be static in nature. While the Shiro's good as they are in my opinion need IT making them expensive.

plenty of options pick one and ill built the rest for you.

If I find the time.

Regards
E130

I just thought of this army and decided to post it here. Tell me what you think and how/if I can make it better. (I`m sure I can)

LI/RoTS Situational Alliance

"Duke" with Consuela Dagmar and Decoy...Total=284 pts.
-HL Snipers x4=96 pts.
-Liao Snipers x2=44 pts.
-Liao Arrow IV Arty Tank x2...Total=94 pts.
-RoTS Trackbike x3...Total=42 pts.
LI/RoTS Situational Alliance (40 pts.)

Total=600 pts. on the dot.

I think it may need more basers, but I don`t know how to fit them in...I know that Liao ATV`s are better but the Trackbikes made it 600 even.

Thanks in advance! :)

A couple suggestions:

1.) Your long-range infantry will be infinitely more effective in a drop. A BR or LI Anat dropping a couple Sniper Teams or TGRs is way better than 6 untransported Sniper Teams.

2.) Your artillery does little-to-nothing to help out the SA. The LI A4s are decent, yes, but 8" range means they can't help protect your DZ if your opponent pulls off an end-around. Now, a LI Paladin or Long Tom, that's another story. :devious:

3.) LI ATVs are better. Way better. So much better than the ROTS Tracks, it's not even funny. Especially with your big ROTS pointsink, it's definitely wiser to invest more points in LI figs, so as not to have your SA stolen from you.

4.) I'd also suggest ditching Decoy. It's a nice option to have, yes, but you already have a 24 defense, so you're already freaking hard to hit. Decoy doesn't help protect Duke from enemy artillery, and that 38 pts. could go toward more offense a lot easier.

Hope that helps.

-Trev

Hi guys, here is a 600 point Storyline B army. There are no special rules for this event listed at my venue so here go's:

Blackrose+Enrico+EC=338
x2 HS TTL's=52
x1 SSw MHI Amphibious APC=46
x1 SW A4=49
x1 HL Hadur=48
x2 CJF Sniper Teams=40
x1 SH ATV=8
x1 CJF Fenrir=19
Total=600

Blackrose is the main hammer unit with Enrico instead of Blackrose to give me a solid 24 defense, and EC to not worry about Chikako or Yami armies. The 2 HS TTLs will be in the transport, or move in formation with the SH ATV. The Sniper Teams will move in formation with the Fenrir or be transported by the APC. The SW A4 and HL Hadur will lay down heavy arty fire backed up by the HS TTL's.

Ok, Thanks Trev. :) Do you have any suggestions on an army? I have been mixing things up but can`t seem to get it to fit.

Thanks in advance. :)

This is an attempt to create an army for after the 2006 retirements (assuming LI and CA go). I think it is going to get harder and harder to build a tankdrop army in 450 games, but here goes:

2 SH R10
> Merc Kelswa
> 3 SH TGR
HS Morningstar
(completes the formation, and adds command and some protection)

2 JF Hadur

3 Merc PAL Suits


450 points exactly. It's obvious that 450 points will not go as far as they used to with the new equipment. I know that we still have Annihilation, Domination, and at least one more set before US Nationals to add, but I just wanted to check some things. Any thoughts?

Okay, one more try before I "drop" this idea:

Kurita/Steiner Alliance Card

Kurita Morningstar
2 DF R10
> DF Tokugawa
> 3 HS Centaur

DF Cardinal
> 2 Veteran Kurita Oni

HS Shamash
HS Zibler


I took the Zibler because I had 54 points left. Maybe another Morningstar would be more useful, despite the loss of a few points?

I don't think there's really any point to looking at the "Tankdrop of the future", just because, like you said, we still have two expansions worth of "future" to receive. I'm betting we'll see some cap-3s that are a bit cheaper than the R10 between now and then. Then again, maybe K-Bo is trying to kill tankdrop via attrition. Who knows? We don't, until Domination gets here. :)

K-b0? Is that some funky new excercise regimen?

No man, it's her rapper name. Mine's "Fat T".

Here's something that I've been wondering at since I got back to having a venue to play at.

How do you counter unconventional forces with a conventional force?

IE, someone at the venue brought in 450pts of ROTS Shamash, or someone brought a massive infantry swarm.

I'm assuming 'conventional' to be 1-2 mechs with support and whatnot; the sort of thing you'd generally find either faction-pure with pride or rainbow with what folks can field.

I dont know I always play unconventional armies.........

Just stick to the tactics you know work for your army as such. the trick towards unconventional armies is not to cave into them.

Example f you use a 2mech armie keep them within 6 inch of each other and dont feel tempted to attack an enemy piece if it means splitting them up.

It is hard to give advice if i dont know what your army look like though.

Against silly armies swarms etc, you should be able to handle them by just following sound tactical doctrine, not splitting up the army destoy pieces make sure you have support pieces availeable etc.

good luck.

But to answer your question, using superior tactics will do it. I know that this is essentially a catch-all phrase, but this will more often than not work for you. I think, in using your examples, destroying the formations would be the key. Your opponent would run out of orders pretty quick. RoTS Shamash's would be on you pretty quick, but are fragile; I would keep your mechs in place and just start shooting. As for your support, shoot or capture. Infantry need some time to get into the fight, unless you go to them. For this scenario, I'd turtle and when they get in range start breaking up the formations, especially, since it's more likely you'd outrange them.
These are just a couple of the many situational tactics that dominate the game, because you won't really know what you're up against until the armies are deployed. One aspect of using superior tactics, is knowing your army and it's limitations. Another is knowing what's out there that you can possibly go up against. A key to that is knowing as much as you can about the combat dials of the pieces in our areas metagame....

Good luck,
Ixnaydude

The key to taking down an infantry swarm is patience. You want to achieve two things. Break up formations and degrade the whole blasted lot. At one and the same time. So a mixture of lots of targets and concentration of shots is needed. Of course many infantry swarms come in the infamous 3-2 or 2-3 formation, requiring two be eliminated to break it. Nevertheless the principle is sound. If you can't break the formation that turn, degrade as many infantry as you can. Every infantry adds +2 to a formation, irrespective of how badly hurt they are but get their attack down to 0 and they can't participate in a ranged formation. Killing 1 out of a 5 unit formation doesn't help reduce their capture capability but giving all 5 1-2 clicks will.

Range helps. That allows you to get a lot of shots off. Hardened armor and Reflective armor help against the 2dmg energy attacks. Hardened and reactive help against non-ArP infantry. Caustic Atmosphere and Sub-Zero Temperatures are your friend!! Swamp slows down the fast stuff without hurting your own speed (provided your base speed before pilot is 8 or less). You'll need water because you'll be firing most turns.

You'll be wanting to use the mobility of your 'Mechs. If you can get your opponent to move in one direction, using your 'Mechs as a lure because they can change their location faster than your opponent can react to the change.

It helps if you have artillery because that achieves many of the above. When the infantry are concentrated you can degrade whole groups of the infantry. These then tend to lag behind so when the more intact formations get close to your DZ you can run right past them and kill the ones at the back.

Note, be warned the silly new rules allow you to CC formation capture with the restriction of foot speed mode applying only to the Primary captor. In the UK Nationals, I captured Persuader using the LE Merc Purifier infantry unit assisted by ... Arnis Drummond!! The only thing that can't help you is a vehicle. 'Mechs, ATVs, Trackbikes - all can assist in a capture attempt.

A swarm is a war of attrition. They can afford to die, you have to stay alive. It's like Aliens2. You can kill a dozen but if they kill off your Ripley that's it!! :)


All Shamash? That must have been interesting. That must have been about 10 22-point units and 10 23-point units? Well they can't capture but I guess they can ram. Or try and shoot. I guess they have to base you first. Armor should ruin their day against ranged. And they can't do that in formation nor out of base contact so it should be easy enough to counter.