Snakes in the Grass Love

JF Zeus/Hazen
Goshawk/Sakhara
Sylph
Saxon/Thunder
Saxon/Thunder
Shamash
2x Gnomes or EBA/Raiden

600 even.

Something about an assault mech keeping pace with a medium appeals to me. The 12 attack and ballistic love is just icing on the cake. The Saxons supply the pog dropping, the Shamash buys me a turn or two and the Gnomes or Raiden/EBA combo move with the Saxons in formation. The Goshawk is secondary (!) to the Zeus; 10 move DFA to help keep people based by the Zeus from feeling happy about it.

Looks pretty good - just curious, but with the mechs moving far forward, wouldn't having some more established Artillery be better support?

Try this...

Snake Alpha Talon
:^: Star Captain Myr, Zeus (ZEU-8R-A-L11) 274 points
Chassis ZEU-8R-A 249 points
Pilot L-011 (Malvina Hazen) 25 points
:^^: Mechwarrior Pace, Vapor Eagle (GHK-S2F-M-P18) 144 points
Chassis GHK-S2F-M 130 points
Pilot P-018 (Sakhara) 14 points
:^: Shamash Recon Vehicle 22 points
2 x :^^^: Sylph Battle Armor 30/60 points
2 x :^^^: Hadur Fast Support Vehicle 50/100 points
600 points

More Sylph-age, bigger pogs - the Shamash can formation move first turn with the Hadurs should you wish. Just a thought...

I was mulling over some potential combinations, gleaming things from the "meta" threads that one sees on MWRealms, when a potential dark horse trotted by and said "hello, I'd like to sign up to kill stuff for Clan Jade Falcon, please" - at which point I replied, "oka-aay...". :ermm:

Sigma Echo Talon
:^^: Star Captain Keira Pryde, Shrike (SHK-V2-A-P22G42) 288 points
Chassis SHK-V2-A 253 points
Pilot P-022 (Sanglamore) 13 points
Gear G-042 (Electronic Camouflage) 22 points
2 x :^^^: Raiden Battle Armor 16/32 points
2 x :^^^: Hadur Fast Support Vehicle 50/100 points
:^^^: Sylph Battle Armor 30 points
450 points

You might recognise one or two things, here - first, an incarnation of one of my fictional characters from the articles section, Keira Pryde. Since (as last we heard) she was recovering from a nasty episode involving neural feedback and reconstructive surgery, I reckon this makes for a good representation.

Second, this army is a straight swap from the "Splat" army I ran back a page or so - 2 Sakhara'ed GHKs for a Sanglamore'd and EC'ed SHK - WOOF! We have a Shiro killer. I can settle for Move 8 and AV 12, can't you? :devious:

I know the SHK loses the outstanding Perfect Reflexs pilot ability of Hazen, as well as a point of movement and attack, but the budget cuts allow a much more solid level of support.

Fact is, bounding from trees to trees, you can keep an effective DV of 24 going for quite a while, certainly long enough to keep direct threats away. You've still got an AV that has a huge chance of ripping Duke/Cuirass's throat out, command to keep the little people busy, EC to counter any Yami-ness or Streakability going round - thoughts and feelings, especially about the mech config, would be much appreciated. :)

@ white knight -

I tried out your idea of running Blitz/Froenhoefer/Concussion ammo, and its a really good combo for 600 point games as an only mech. It runs a bit low on support though for 450 - I ran it with a jag/Albion/AnP (my favourite!) and beat a rather nasty SC Declan devalis army mercilessly (nice pun, eh?)

thanks for the idea.... :)

D503

Problems with the Hadurs are no AP to start with and only one pog. Also, being able to sacrifice the Saxons as extra basers is a positive in this case.

We'll see one way or the other I suppose. I intend on giving something like this a shot.

Anyone have 1 or 2 of these? I have lots to trade for them( sorry no Firepower yet) or will buy them at the right price. Need them asap.
Thanks :)

I must say, I love the configuration on the SHK. It is still cheaper than both other Shrikes, and has superior stats.

Overall, I might be tempted to go with a slightly different setup myself.

"Black Rose" + Sanglamore + ECM = 288 points
:^^: Saxon APC = 24 points
> :^: TTL = 23 points
:^^^: Hadur Fast Support Vehicle = 50 points
:^^: Trackbikes x4 = 64 points

449

Setup of this army depends on the number of deep infiltrators you see. You can either put 2 Trackbikes with each hover vehicle for mobility, keep a group of 3 Trackbikes together and put a single Trackbike in formation with both the Saxon and Hadur, or put all 4 Trackbikes with the Saxon, and once it unloads and starts firing, you can throw Trackbikes at incoming enemies to slow them down and be destroyed by the Rose.

I like the force, Crash - and yeah, you've gotta love the fact that the SHK-V2-A-P22G42 is packing more power for less points - alot more power!

@Highdancer
I can see the advantage of using the TTL, cost-wise, but while the Hadur may not start with AP, the single pog covers a larger area than the two single ones - plus there isn't a heck of a lot out there with Hardened Armour. Those things that DO, well I'm happy for them to sit and wait - I'll get to them in turn... :devious:

In all honesty, and this is showing just a little scrubbiness, I'm not a big fan of the TTL as a miniature - it looks like a wheelie-bin with AAMs stuck on the top. I'll probably end up using it sooner or later, but how cool a piece looks to me is still a big part of army selection... :ermm:

@ white knight -

are you going to the UK nationals? If so, I might have to challenge you to a 600 point unrestricted side battle... :) (faction pure of course)

D503

Okay, this is to show some willing... :ermm:

Sigma Echo Talon (A)
:^^: Star Captain Keira Pryde, Shrike (SHK-V2-A-P22G42) 288 points
Chassis SHK-V2-A 253 points
Pilot P-022 (Sanglamore) 13 points
Gear G-042 (Electronic Camouflage) 22 points
:^^: Cardinal Transport 39 points
:^^: Saxon APC 24 points
3 x :^: Towed Thunder Launchers 23/69 points
:^^^: Sylph Battle Armor 30 points
450 points

OR

Sigma Echo Talon (B)
:^^: Star Captain Keira Pryde, Shrike (SHK-V2-A-P22G42) 288 points
Chassis SHK-V2-A 253 points
Pilot P-022 (Sanglamore) 13 points
Gear G-042 (Electronic Camouflage) 22 points
3 x :^: Shamash Recon Vehicle 22/66 points
2 x :^^: Saxon APC 24/48 points
2 x :^: Towed Thunder Launchers 23/46 points
448 points

But I really don't like the look of them... :ermm:

Yup, I'm there - see my Journal for initial thoughts!

Now this, I think is a tad crazy...

...and therefore, fun! :devious:

Sigma Echo Talon (C)
:^^: Star Captain Keira Pryde, Shrike (SHK-V2-A-P22G42) 288 points
Chassis SHK-V2-A 253 points
Pilot P-022 (Sanglamore) 13 points
Gear G-042 (Electronic Camouflage) 22 points
:^^: Saxon APC 24 points
:^^: Undine Battle Armor 20 points
4 x :^: Shamash Recon Vehicle 22/88 points
:^^^: Sylph Battle Armor 30 points
450 points

"Full speed ahead and [Fill in expletive here] the artillery!"

nah, you dont need artillery so long as you are fast enough :)

try putting a Hero grad in the shrike - the defence is high enough to hack it, and thats a very cheap 13 attack unit. I think its the only mech that can actually take a Hero grad at the moment, bar (perhaps) the malices.

Let me be the first to say: I love it. It swarms, smashes, and jumps on stuff.

It even has a bit of flexibility. The Undine can also become a Sniper Team if you want to shoot things, or an Elemental if you want to try for captures.

But still, the best thing about it, the absolute lack of subtlety. It says: "I am coming, get ready to die!"

Subtle-wha? :p