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Alright, while hovering between various ideas for second armies, I keep coming back to Combined Army. They never really sold me before, but I think that's because I was concentrating on the Morats and they just weren't clicking with me. They weren't alien enough, I guess - they're red apes with better technology than humans. Lately I've been eyeing the Shasvastii, but going sectorial removes my single favorite ever model from my list - the Caskuda. It also helps that my friend is going Aleph - so it would be nice to get some EI vs AI fights going.

So, I'm looking at making a 300pt list around the Caskuda and some Shasvastii. My problem comes from not really understanding who the grunts of the Shasvastii, or even general Combined Army, are. And I want to avoid Morats if possible, and I don't particularly want to go full Shasvastii. There's other fun units in the CA.

So, anyone got any advice?

My advice would be to get yourself two Batroids and two Imetrons for orders. Then you don't have to worry about the Shasvastii grunts (who are the Seed-Soldiers with AVA2 in general CA).
After that, get yourself some real Shasvastii like Noctifiers, Shrouded, Malignos, Gwailos, an Aswuand lieutenant or whatever tickles your fancy together with the Caskuda, some drones and perhaps an Exrah.
If I were to do an army list it'd be something like...

Caskuda - 111 / 3
Batroid - 9
Batroid - 9
Imetron - 4
Vector-Operator HMG - 35 / 1,5
Noctifier Lt - 23 / 1
Aswuang - 25
Med-Tech Obsidanoid - 23
+ 2 Drones - 6
Malignos - 37
Seed-Soldier FO - 17
299 pts / 5,5 SWC

Feel free to change any and everything. Particularily the Aswuang could be switched to a Shrouded Minelayer.

Yeah I was fiddling with something similar, but with a Speculo Killer instead of the Vector Operator and a gwailo hacker to defend the Caskuda instead of the malignos.

I do CA but heavy on the Shasvastii. No Morats at all. I love them. I can't wait to try them with Batroids.

The nice thing about Shas is they can be almost all Camo. But watch out for the MSV. It can be murder.

I really like the Exrah. Especially one with an HMG! Remember they have a 6-2 Move with Super Jump. They can literally jump higher than a building, shoot, and fall back down out of sight.

Of the EI, I think Skiavoros and Anathematic compliment Shasvastii because they have Mimetisim and TO Camo.

Once I've built it around the Caskuda, an Anathematic will be next on the list.

Are Iskallers (I think, the thinks that look like small Caskudas) any good?

Small Caskuda? Really? He's one of the most hated figs. I don't mind him myself. But of course good is realtive. Like the others he's MOV 6-2, ARM3, Super Jump but he gets Combat Jump. Great for getting behind anyone and once he's there he can do a lot of dmg. The difference with others is that he doesn't have the nifty visors.

Pity I can't fit one in my list, but I'm already struggling to get 10 orders at 300 points with the Caskuda in there.

So I finally took the plunge. Picked up the Speculo Killer and Noctifier Spitfire models last night. I don't actually have a Noctifier Spitfire in my army, but I do have a Noctifier Lt, and I liked the Spitfire model. Looks more menacing, so if I'm only going to have one, and it's my Lt, it's going to look badass.

The Speculo Killer - holy gak the monofilament CCW is small. Also, I can't figure out where two of the three gubbins it came with go.

The Noctifier... is it meant to sit somewhere specific on that ruined stairway? Because I can't get it to properly fit anywhere. Is it just a case of build the Noctifier and then find somewhere for it to sit on that base?

Any case, can't wait to get cracking on painting them. Already got ideas swimming around in my head. But they're going to have to wait for me to finish my 200pt Haqqislam list. I really do like the official Speculo colours though, so I might try those. Turquoise up to a pallid green looks really good.

Regarding the monofilament weapon - well, what did you expect from a mono-weapon? and regarding the bits, I think I know which you mean, and if I'm right it's the ones that're supposed to go on her back. Don't worry though, she looks fine without them if you leave them off.
Regarding the Noctifier - the best thing you can do is look att pictures from CB and try to replicate that pose... with liberal use of pinning and greenstuff. Mine took forever to get right. When one leg's right, the arm's wrong and when the leg is right the other arm's wrong. It was a nightmare to get him up there.

The Shas spec op makes a great stand in for both the Noctifer and I think the Speculo.

That's a good point about the Shasvastii spec ops. If this Noctifier keeps giving me trouble, I might shelve it for the time being and grab the Spec op.

I'm the in the same boat actually Loki - really like the idea of doing CA, but definitely prefer the Shasvastii style to the Morat (and their 'ugly baboon faces' as I believe someone once said, sums it up quite nicely ). Although that being said, since the Raicho and a couple of other quite nice models (the dude with the autocannon etc.) have made that of an obvious choice for me than it was before.

Look forward to see what your observations are on using them - the idea of a mostly stealthed army sounds great. Also if you can get to use the Caskuda (that guy is big.. I think a worthy inheritor for the 'put in sock and use for home defense crown' role previously held by the old metal dreadnought )

What kind of colours are you going to go for? Similar to the official ones or something different?

Depends on the mini. The Speculo Killer will be close to the official colours - I rather like them. The other Shasvastii and the Caskuda will be dark brown highlighted up to snakebite leather, to give them a sort of cockroach colouring. Armour and fabrics will be tan coloured, since I'll be desert basing them like my Haqqislam.

Ha i too am going combined soon, but only Vanilla and only applying the rule of cool. I picked up a half price CA starter box from our LGS (now gone - Pacific would know it; Cut 'n' Thrust) that i split with a mate. I got the Daturazi, Charnoid and a Morat. The shopping list is:

Anathematic
Zerat Sniper
Rasyat Combi
Batroid and Imetron

That makes 300pts, then eventually add a Skiavoros, an Imetron from Chokonit and a Daturazi blister for some variety.

This is going to be a paint and play project rather than anything serious and winnable. Anathematics are just so damn cool!

Once I'm done with my Caskuda based list, random models will be added. An Anathematic will be first, because it's just so awesome.

Alright, more fiddling with the list has resulted in me dropping the Noctifier in order to fit in more Exrah based stuff.

Vector Operator Lt (30/1.5) (using the Vector Operator HMG model)
Void Operator Hacker (41/0.5) (using the Void Operator HMG model)
Caskuda (111/3)
Speculo Killer (39/1)
Aswuang Boarding Shotgun (25/0)
Imetron (4/0)
Ikadron Batroid (9/0)
Ikadron Batroid (9/0)
Med-Tech (23/0)
Slave Drone (3/0)
Slave Drone (3/0)

300/5.5

My main concern is lack of effective models. I've got 4 aside from the Caskuda, one of which is my Lt who I don't particularly want out and about, and the 2 Ikadrons. I suppose that's why I've got the Med Tech in there, but still. And the Caskudas going to be doing a lot of killing. I'm pretty much not dropping the Speculo Killer. Like the Al Hawwa sniper, it's just one of those models I'm going to use as often as possible.

One thing to keep in mind about your two Exrah is that they skip unconscious and just go straight to dead.

One of my local players goes full Shasvastii sectorial and has a lot of fun and success with it - its quite common for him to field nothing but camo tokens and have 3-4 guys in hidden deployment. He's at the top of our local campaign.

I'm avoiding full Shasvastii sectorial because I want to use Exrah units - in particular the Caskuda. They're kind of not options for Shasvastii Sectorials.

That's a good point about the Exrah going straight to dead. Looking at what's available, I can drop the Med Tech and Slave Drones and add in an Iskaller. That gives me 9 models, 3 are cheerleaders, at 300pts.

Vector Operator Lt (30/1.5) (using the Vector Operator HMG model)
Void Operator Hacker (41/0.5) (using the Void Operator HMG model)
Caskuda (111/3)
Speculo Killer (39/1)
Aswuang Boarding Shotgun (25/0)
Iskaller Combi Rifle (31/0)
Imetron (4/0)
Ikadron Batroid (9/0)
Ikadron Batroid (9/0)

299/6

My concern then is the Speculo Killer and Aswuang being units under fire, but lacking a doctor for them, and an engineer for the Caskuda. The up side is it fits an Iskaller in my list, which I absolutely want. Though dropping the Aswuang would fit a Med Tech and a Slave Drone. I'd then be down to a single Shasvastii - the Speculo Killer, which I'm 100% fine with.

I can see that you'd struggle to fit the Vector Sniper and Void HMG into your list - those two offer some incredible ranged firepower and a lot of heavy weapon mobility into your list. But that'd be pretty tough to field around the Caskuda and Speculo.

This would be a pretty good YAMS or TAC list

I actually fiddled some more, because I was uncomfortable without the Med Tech. Investing in a Caskuda but without the means to keep it up under fire seemed like a poor choice. I ended up with:

Vector Operator Lt (30/1.5)
Void Operator Hacker (41/0.5)
Caskuda (111/3)
Speculo Killer (39/1)
Med-Tech (23/0)
Slave Drone (3/0)
Iskaller Combi Rifle (31/0)
Imetron (4/0)
Ikadron Batroid (9/0)
Ikadron Batroid (9/0)

300/6

Basically just dropped the Aswuang for a Med Tech and Slave Drone. I do realize that the only models that can be affected are the Caskuda and the Speculo Killer, but when 111/3 points are invested in a single model, it feels dirty not investing a little in making sure it stays alive.

Overall I'm really just disappointed that the Exrah seem to have been abandoned by CB. While I am to understand they simply don't sell well, I have a feeling it's largely due to the age of the models and the support that isn't given to them. A few new models, maybe a link team, could really turn them around.

As it is, this is going to really be a slow burn army. Buying a model here and there and painting it between Haqqislam models.

I say just play it. What looks good on computer screen doesn't always translate on table.

Heh, the Speculo Killer has an automedikit if you didn't see that. So it heals fine, even without the Med-tech.

I noticed, but it didn't occur to me.

However, the Med Tech is basically there is babysit the 111pt investment of the Caskuda. The fact that it's a doctor as well doesn't matter - I just need it as an Engineer.

Having an Engineer/Doctor with a slave drone can also help in objective missions, so it's not a bad investment.

Was going to suggest you could drop the medtech for a Caliban engineer (who also has an automedkit) so that you could stay more 'in theme' with your force, but you'd have to lose the slave drone to do that and i think the slave drone is more valuble than being able to set up in limited camo.

I definitely value the slave drone more. The ability to have my Engineer in two places at once, as well as approach objectives without putting itself in harms way, is not something I want to lose. I wish I could find another 3 points for a second slave drone, but I'm already running 9 orders at 300pts.