As the topic says, this is my first shot at a 450/3 RotS army. I have several pieces I can use to substitute with, though; about all I really can't get access to is the Balac VTOL and a few Uniques. Nearly everything else? I have ready access to it. This includes stuff like Clyde, Jonah, Po IIs, DI Towed Artillery, Zahn Transport, Fa Shih armor, etc.

This army will be, regardless of potential revisions, Faction Pure.

Yuri Mashnovska - Black Knight - 185 Points
Skariah Paragon - Valiant - 161 Points
Regulator II - 54 Points
Achilleus - 18 Points
Longinus - 18 Points
Free Legion Company - 13 Points

Total: 449 points vs. 450 allowed maximum.

My intent for each unit's inclusion is as follows:

Yuri - Main battle unit; a little slow, and average range, but wonderful in every other regard.

Skariah - Anti-Charging unit due to its Agility, various other purposes.

Regulator II - High speed "plinking" unit.

Longinus, Free Legion, Achilleus - Infantry screening for Yuri, I suppose. Plus the Achilleus can Bypass, that's a nice extra tool to have.

Thoughts?

Personally, I'd take out Skariah and the Regulator and put in 2x Di Towed Field artys (40 pts) and 2x Balac Strike VTOL (48 pts), drop the infantry and put in Fa Shihs.

Yuri-185
2x Di Towed-80
2x Balac-96
3x Fa Shih BA-78

Unfortunately this leaves you 11 points short, and if you're playing faction pure, you can't fill that gap (of course you could put in a merc SRM battery, but that's not "technically" faction pure). Otherwise I suggest 1x DF and 1x HL Peasant Company to screen your artillery.

I have no idea if you have any of these units, but this is what I would use if I played RotS (which I don't).

Shiskabob2: I completely lack Balacs, and have only one DI Towed. Closest substitute I could get would be to use a Lamprey, a Danai, and a DI Towed, to match the config you listed, and even a new guy like me knows that's not going to quite work out the same way.

I like the basic concept of your army. However, I think it needs to
be balanced out some more. I'd recommend removing one of the
mechs, in favor of some artillery support and more infantry. I was
thinking something along these lines:


Yuri Mashnovska - 185
:^^^: Po II Heavy Tank - 41
:^^: DI Towed Field Artillery - 40
:^: Lamprey Transport Helicopter - 35
:^^^: Free Legion Company - 13
:^^^: Cavalier Battle Armor x3 - 54
:^^: Longinus Battle Armor x3 - 54
:^^: Infiltrator Mk II Battle Armor - 16 (In the Lamprey)
:^^: Guila Suit - 12


450 on the dot!


I went with the Po II over the Regulator because of the latter's
2" minimum range. The Po has a 0" minimum range, improved
targeting and camo (which, in hindering terrain, gives it a +3 to
defense). Other than that, they match up - same firing arc and
same damage. The Lamprey, although it's not the Balac (get one
ASAP - a friend of mine plays Republic and swears by them), will
give you the ability to interdict enemy artillery and provide air
support services. I added the DI Towed piece because artillery is
practically a must and, with the rules changes, is one of the best
in the game. Now, you have a couple of viable infantry formations
for your opponent to worry about plus a couple (the Guila and
Free Legion) to stay at home with your artillery. The Lamprey, the
Po II, and Yuri can act as a triad in support of one another. ;)

I created this just to give you a basic framework.

Please LMK what you think. :)



David

David: Not a bad team. Amazingly...I'm a bit short on the specific infantry side. Got plenty of Fa Shih, got tons of Free Legion, even plenty of Guila and Infiltrator. Even have the Lamprey. I fall short on the Longinus units, sadly.

Getting a Balac in the immediate future seems unlikely. Only so much figure availability, despite the fact I do have a fair deal of rare stuff.

As a point of curiousity: Why have the Infiltrator in the Lamprey? It seems to me that having a Longinus in there would do better? Sure, this breaks formation cohesion, but a Longinus-drop seems useful to me.

I also felt a bit odd about not playing a second Mech, as it's my understanding that the 450 rule was meant to encourage more use of Mechs? Oh well; I did a few alterations and came up with the following:

1x Yuri's Black Knight - 185
1x Cougar - 122
1x Po II - 41
1x DI Towed - 40
1x Longinus - 18 (Only have 1 in collection)
1x Achilleus - 18
1x Guila - 12
1x Free Legion - 13

Total: 449 points.

I figured the Achilleus and Longinus could work together, while Guila and Free Legion shield my DI Towed.

I could, of course, remove the Cougar for the Lamprey and several other infantry pieces as per your suggestion, but I can't match the 3x Longinus for obvious reasons.

Unless...is fielding a second Mech really such a poor idea? It strikes me as odd, but...

IMHO, Feilding Yuri and Skariah together is a great idea (allthough i have yet to try it...)

Here's what I think:

Yuri 185
Skariah 161
Lamprey 35
Infiltrator MK II 16
DI Towed Arty 40
Guilia/Free Legion (I'd go Guilia) 12/13

Of course you can swap the DI Towed and the Free Legion/Gulia for a Merc balac and upgrade the InMKII to a Fa Shih...

Good Luck!

Mid :)

The 450 build was created more to allow the higher end mechs
(Atlas, Jupiter, Cygnus, etc.) to be played, and still have
adequate support units, than to allow for fielding 2 mechs. It's
not that a second mech is necessarily a bad idea. I usually
will run two in a 600 point game. I like to have, at least, two
viable infantry formations for attacks/capture attempts. Plus,
a good number of infantry can be a chargemonkey's worst
nightmare, next to a agility mech. ;) I chose the Infiltrator over
the Longinus because the Infiltrator starts out with jump and
a 2" movement advantage. That means two things. First, the
Infiltrator can be hot dropped from the Lamprey, allowing you to
keep the helicopter at cruising altitude. With the Longinus,
because it doesn't gain jump until it's 2nd click, you'd have to land
the chopper, thus rendering it vulnerable to charges. Second,
the extra 2" move means the Infiltrator will get to enemy artillery
quicker after being dropped and the Lamprey can be right behind
it, providing fire support. ;)

Basically, in 450, I can have a good, balanced mix of units. In 600,
I can have the same, plus an extra mech. ;)

Midvalley: I arrived at an alternate team similar to that one. I'll give it a try soon.

David: Ah, yes. I forgot that in CBT, Longinus don't jump by default, and that's reflected in MWDA. Silly me. Your proposed revisions also seem good...so if fielding a second Mech doesn't work out, I'll definitely give a shot with your revisions.

Thanks for the quick responses, both of you.

No prob! :) Good luck!

hey,
I jsut wanted to say hi to David Wilson. I am pretty sure we have done some ebaying( I'm kirbot78 on ebay). It is nice to see a familiar name on the posts!

Cybuster,
I think the two 'Mech combination can be deadly. You will need to bring some shallow water to the table, so those 'Mechs can move around a lot and avoid AP artillery, particularly since they are not very fast. I like the Regulator, but I think, "With two 'Mechs, who needs a tank?" You've already got a lot of firepower, and ROTS 'Mechs have great attack values.
I would add a transport to give the infantry a jump start, so they won't get left behind, and fill the rest of the army with infantry. As for tactics, get across the board as soon as possible to negate your opponent's range/artillery advantage.
Something like this:
Yuri Mashnovska - Black Knight - 185 Points
Skariah Paragon - Valiant - 161 Points
(Option 1)
Jaquelin Pejiko 47
3 Clan Battle Armor (3x19) = 57
(Option 2)
Zahn Heavy Transport 34
2 Clan Battle Armor (2x19) = 38
2 Infiltrator Mk II Battle Armor (2x16) = 32
(Option 3)
Zahn Heavy Transport 34
3 Cavalier Battle Armor (3x18) =54
1 Infiltrator Mk II Battle Armor 16
The advantage to Jaquelin Pejiko is you can get most of your army to the middle of the board on the first turn (plus she has point defense and repair). On turn 2 you can push Pejiko to drop your infantry on key units, while pushing the 'Mechs to get into firing range. Then bring the pain!
The Zahn is tougher and can carry more infantry, however, with either option you end up leaving one poor infantry to slog across the field by itself.
Remember, Skariah is immune to Charges and close combat attacks, so, if you can, move into base contact with units that have long minimum ranges. And, Yuri is practically unhittable, although, you should avoid formations.
This army will have trouble, if your opponent has a lot of infantry, since neither 'Mech has a ballistic attack, although the new rules will help somewhat. In that case, keep your 'Mechs in water, use Pejiko to protect your flanks, and keep an infantry shield, but since the 'Mech's defenses are high, you can let the infantry base you a few at a time. On the plus side, your infantry are probably tougher than theirs. Any way you look at it, you are in for a long game full of 1 damage energy attacks.

As a die hard Republic player I must say one thing.

CLYDE JOYCE!!!!

OK...got that out of my system. Look, I know he is expensive but...HE IS A BEAST!!!

As an example I used him in a 600/4 last night (missed ya Dave) where Clyde DOMINATED about 50% of the board.

I had Catalina Trujillo in her 246 point Shen Yi running scared the whole game. So much so that she shut down and allowed my arty to rain on her parade. (she ended the game on her last click...lucky little Cap-Scum!)

Some of the goodness the Clyde oozes includes his 14" range with 5 damage energy, charge for 7 clicks, and an 11 AV.

The best thing? 22 DV w/Hardened armor...not THAT great right? How about Camo? Yeah...jungle hop him and he maintains a 25DV. Yeah...bring it baby!

Po II's are GREAT unless you foe brings arty to the table...then they are arty bait.

Our Danai's BLOW so stick to Padilla's or DI Towed (I like the towed myself). And Balacs...balacs...balacs...They are some bad arse VTOLs. Reactive armor makes them immune to most infantry and AA.

If you want to run Po's you might want to grab a sprint or two to tie up enemy arty on round two.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)

Sadly, I lack Balacs, and I also lack Pejiko. The closest substitute I get for her is a Lamprey transport.

However, options 2 and 3 proposed by Seanwalsh got me to thinking, and I /do/ have the pieces for something like that. I may give it a shot. Alternatively, if no Ballistic attack on my Mechs is an issue, I can substitute in a Cougar or Uller for Skariah...but that makes the "chargemonkey" problem return -- Skariah's in to deal with the chargers and such, or at LEAST keep them busy, since most of the chargers I know (Arnis, etc) have Agility as well.

Terman8er: I'm also assembling a Clyde army, to see how that works. It's a toss-up between him and Jonah Levin for me, though. If I do use him, I'd toss in a Regulator or DI Towed to go with it, and the rest would likely be split between a Po II and some infantry.

I may not have everything an RotS player should need (No Balacs, only one Longinus, etc.), but I think I've got a fair variety.