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Hey all,

So I recently acquired a major expansion to my Haqq force, focusing on the Silk Road sectorial and the Druze Shock Team in particular. I found the Druze to be pretty rock, but I also found that my opponent instantly identified my lieutenant and was able to focus on him with his big scary Morat dudes almost from the get-go. My list is:

Hafza Lt w/ Spitfire
Druze Shock w/ combi rifles x3
Druze Shock w/ LGL x1
Odalisque w/ SMG
Ghulam w/ Rifle
Ghulam Doctor w/ Rifle
Djanbazan w/ Sniper

200pts/3.5 SWC

So what I'm doing is using the Druze and Hafza to form a 5-man team, which is the QK 'thing'. But this has a few problems:
1) The Hafza seems terribly obvious as the Lt, being the model standing in a cool 'look at me' pose and all
2) The Hafza is at the same moment carrying the best gun and wearing the worst ARM in the link team, making him the obvious target within the team to start with.
3) The Hafza has holoprojector lvl1, so theoretically I could proxy him with a Druze model, but Druze only have AVA 4 (and I don't have any other Druze models, obviously) so that would be illegal by my understanding of the rules. Plus it wouldn't last more than a moment since the link team likes to roll dice.

Opinions? I've only played one game, so obviously it is early days yet, but should I be concerned at how obvious this is? Should I try switching to a Ghulam Lt from time to time to keep my opponents guessing? Or should I take this weakness and use it as an advantage, since it means that my opponents are dared to try and take on a full 5-man team, leaving the sniper and Odalisque to operate relatively unopposed? I throw the question open to you fine gentlemen, ladies, and cockroach AD troops.

Switch Lts out to one of the other options.

If your Lt is too obvious, he's a dead man (and you are restricted in orders as a result). So make him the NOT obvious choice. If it's a ghulam, then use two of them armed identically (Lt+grunt) to further hide him.

How did he identify the LT instantly when he should have been disguised as someone else using his Holoprojector?

I've run a Hafza w/ spitfire as my LT, too. I actually won that game, but I found that having the most aggressive weapon in the hands of the one model I really needed to protect was a bit stupid.

I'd be inclined to drop the Odalisque for another Djan with a rifle to act as another potential LT. Given that he and the sniper also have Regen, it allows you to focus your Doctor's efforts on sustaining the Druze link team that makes up your primary aggression effort. You can either run the Hafza as a fifth Druze for the extra linked team bonus or as a second Ghulam grunt to further muddy the waters of who your LT might be (plus providing a nasty surprise for that HI or TAG who pushes too deep).

R.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just occurred to me that the AVA of Druze in the QK list is 4, so if you put him in the linked team, you'll be highlighting where the Hafza is to the attentive opponent.

Not that this is a bad idea. Could be an interesting game of bait and switch!

R.

Link your 4 Druze and the Hafza. Let your Hafza disguise as a Druze. That's 5 Druze, so what? He doesn't know which one is the Hafza, right? Or do you reveal him when you do anything with your link team?
Also, don't have the Hafza as the team leader, at least not at first. Let another Druze lead until you find it beneficial to let the Hafza lead.

The Link team always counts as performing the same order/ARO, even if not all members are rolling dice. The Hafza is therefore revealed by any die roll made in order or ARO by the link-team.

Hence, a Hafza in a link-team will usually be revealed PDQ.

I never had the Hafza lead the team - the LGL had that honour, in part so that I could test his weapon out. As MarcoSkoll says, the moment that the link team shoots or AROs, the holoprojector disengages, meaning that it is essentially useless for the purpose of hiding the Hafza (I didn't actually bother using the skill). My thoughts when including the Hafza spitfire lt was:

1) Cool model (always the case, eh)
2) Need a LT somewhere, and the Hafza LT with Spitfire costs the same as the Hafza Private with Spitfire.
3) The Druze needed a fifth man, and are only AVA 4.
4) The Spitfire on the Hafza is dirt cheap for the weapon and the BS 12, compared to the Odalisque with the same gun.

Thus get the one model, who is a LT, has a great gun and can fill the link team void. But unfortunately he is so great I suspect that he won't live long.

I've had it pointed out that the Ghulam LT is also no points increase over the basic goon, and is the same WIP I think, so I can switch to him if wanted. He is also mega obvious, but then my opponent has two mega obvious possibilities to go after...

Can you just use rules for four-man link and the Hafza just happens to be disguised as one and hanging out separate?

Yep, that is a possibility (meaning that I can get full on into the mindgames carnage) but does mean that I miss out on the delicious +3BS shenanigans that I desire. I'm strongly tempted to pick up the two riflemen Hafza to allow more useful and cheaper linkteam games like this.

 CDK wrote:
Can you just use rules for four-man link and the Hafza just happens to be disguised as one and hanging out separate?

"Oh, you've activated the team... I shoot at this Druze here then."
"No, he's not part of the team."
"Really. So he's a Hafza then."
"I never said that."
"Hmm. Easy way to find out. I'll shoot at the rest of the team, any skill will reveal the impostor if he's one of those four."

... in short, it doesn't sound like an effective tactic. They'll know there's a fake Druze (over AVA), and he'll be conspicuous for not being part of the team (and you have to be clear who is part of the team), with suspicions confirmed the moment he would have been revealed, were he in the team, but wasn't - it doesn't sound a good idea to me.