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Hey ya'll ISS and Hassassin player here looking for some advice.

First off, my main opponent plays JSA and uses the (maybe underpriced/overpowered) Haramaki Linked Team. It's usually 3-5 guys with Blitzens and Contenders and a guy with a ML. 2 Burst on a ML is bad news especially with it's decent range. The Contenders are scary on the ARO: you could be gettting like 6 DA ammo shots your way. Then the Haramakis are reasonably well armoured and tough in CC. With ISS it usually boils down to my Celestial Guard Linked Team and friends having a shootout sometimes with a hacker for good measure (so far most of my ISS strategies seem to be move-shoot-move-shoot :/), but when I use Hassassins I might have more options but I'm not sure how well they work.

Lasiqs are good at killing just about everybody so there's that, then maybe an E/Marat or Hacker could disable them all, problem is getting anyone close enough. I think laying down a suppressive fire lane on them (they bunch up a bit) with a Lasiq might do the trick. Anyway generally speaking how do you deal with Haramaki teams? They're tough to putdown, hardy CC fighters, all linked, deadly in ARO with the extra Misslies and DA ammo. On the active turn it's usually a double missile. Speaking of missiles does the template always get placed even if the initial target passes ARM? Or in other words the template only dissappears if the shooter loses his BS roll, and the template can't scatter either right?

My second question is more open ended, I plan on getting a Farzan and I was wondering if people had any thoughts on him, like strategies, stories, tactics, etc. I'm not entirely sure how to use a model like him (maybe like a Fiday?) but it seems like he could be quite good. So general thoughts and opinions on the Farzan?

Thanks for reading!

The general approach to fighting link teams is:

- Take out the link leader in your turn
No more link team, no more bonuses. The team can't be reformed or the link leader changed in your turn.

- In your opponent's turn, focus on the rest of the team.
Only the link leader can shoot, and all the team have to declare the same order. If you shoot at the rest of the team, the team leader either has to shoot and accept that the rest of his team will be hit on Normal rolls, or he has to forgo shooting in order to let the rest of his team dodge.

And yes, the missile template is only ever not placed if the shooter is beaten on his BS roll. If he wins, it's placed; if both fail, then it disperses.

~~~~~

As for the Farzan, he's nothing like the Fiday. He comes in either Chain of Command or Forward Observer varieties. Forward observer gets used much the same as any other - sneak around, mark targets, then drop grenades or missiles on them. Not my first choice of Haqqislam FO, but the only one in the Bahram. Chain of Command of course means keeping him safe so that he's still around if your Lt gets killed.

While a Fiday should be getting stuck in, a Farzan is a support troop. Can't give much advice though, not having much experience of them.

Only parabolic weapons like grenade launchers disperse. The ML template is placed if the firer wins the roll-off, otherwise it does nothing.

As far as the Farzan goes I think I prefer the CoC one. FO doesn't help me out much since I think maybe the Muyib with GL can make use of his ability but thats it. Also I think the CoC has better weapons.

When I meant "use as a Fiday" I meant play him like most markers: get around sneaky-like then surprise someone with a round of normal roll shooting.

@IJW: Shows how much attention I've been paying. Well, another error of mine corrected.

@asimo77: I know the Farzan is the only normal Camo model in the Bahram, but in CoC variant, you're paying quite heavily for a skill that's too valuable to risk like that.

And as far as weapons, the Contender is less use than a Rifle for a Camo troop using the "pop-up" attack. The pop-up can only be used in the active turn, when the Rifle's B3 will beat the Contender's DA ammo
The boarding shotgun is of course unarguably better than the light shotgun (with +1 DAM and the option for AP), but is it 7 points better? The CoC is an expensive skill and you want to be keeping that away from the enemy, not charging it in on an ARM 0 model. (Particularly as your opponent will know as soon as it appears that it's the CoC variant).

If you want it for "pop-up", I'd go FO. If you buy CoC, keep it out of trouble.

FO is actually more use than just marking grenades (although that itself is good), because the Flash Pulse that comes with the skill can be a total spanner in the works in ARO.
It's decently ranged, gets to "hit" on WIP rather than BS (which is a good thing for Haqqislam), goes up against BTS (which is normally lower than ARM) and while non fatal, can temporarily incapacitate multi-wound troops quite efficiently. It's always funny when your opponent's murderdeathkill troop can't do anything that needs LoF for the entire turn.

Hurm I think you've convinced me to go FO Farzan, the Haramakis have made me see the worth of Contenders but it might not be worth it in this case. I've never had Lt. problems so I don't think I need CoC that bad. I also do want him for regular pop-out Camo purposes, a trick which I also lack in ISS lists. After playing many games with friends and having to suffer through markers lighting my dudes up it's time to return the favour! He also looks cool which is a factor in my purchase.

Just out of curoiusity is there any reason to use the CoC one? I guess keep him hidden and safe as a Lt. backup? But he'll be the only marker and if you play safely with him it's obvious you've gone for the CoC option.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Another idea popped into my head: I'd like to try an Asawira Lt. sometimes and play aggressively with him seeing as he's a genetically enhanced super soldier. So would it be wise to get a CoC Farzan as backup in this case?

asimo77 wrote:I've never had Lt. problems so I don't think I need CoC that bad.

You must have suffered LoL at some point! But if you do want to run an aggressive Asawira Lt. like that, that's a good move (particularly as the Asawira tends to be a bit vulnerable anyway, as his WIP 15 tends to be a bit of a give-away at the Initiative roll).

Of course, CoC is a bit less useful in a force made up heavily of Religious Troops, as losing the Lt isn't that bad. Re-elect an Lt, have your Religious Troops use the orders they retained, back to normal next turn.

Just out of curoiusity is there any reason to use the CoC one? I guess keep him hidden and safe as a Lt. backup? But he'll be the only marker and if you play safely with him it's obvious you've gone for the CoC option.

If you've got Muyib minelayers, he can be hidden quite well. Have them lay some mines during deployment.

Deploy the Farzan as if he were one of their mines - in a place where it looks like it's trying to block movement, but where getting LoF to discover it is tricky or dangerous. Your opponent will hopefully avoid it, thinking that it's a viral mine. Of course, if he does risk getting smallpox exploded at him and discovers the Farzan, shoot him in the middle of his face and run away. (That's the model, not your opponent - although I do recommend bringing a NERF gun to any gaming table.)

Alternatively, rather than trying to pretend there is no Farzan, just lay as many mines as possible, and force your opponent to have to play a shell game to work out which is the "extra" one. Put them all in awkward places that force your opponent to have to work to discover them - exposing themselves in poor positions, burning through orders, finding out that that really was a viral mine and it's just gone off in their face.

But even if you've not got Muyib Minelayers, if he's placed right, you can make it hard for your opponent to get to him. And of questionable value, given the above observation about how much it would actually inconvenience you to do it.

I've gotten LoL but it's surprisingly rare for me, I do a good job of protecting/hiding him. The times I do lose him is when we decide to a do "kill 'em all" scenario and toss out retreat for maximum violence and even then he's always the last one to go.

Anyway, thanks for all the tips, some interesting tactics for me to go through now. I will say that anytime I use mines they simply get ignored and the game goes on like they were never there to begin with. I suppose I am passively denying/controlling movement but truth be told I don't think I'm very smart with them yet.