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I have read the rules for Linked Teams. I have watched several BAT reps to see how they are played. I have tried to play a little myself by proxy. The idea though of moving around up to 5 units at the same time for as many orders as you have and also get to rotate the link team leader at will just seems a bit much. I understand how the teams work it just still seems a bit much compared to a vanilla list. I do see the weaknesses that link teams have. I have also read ways in with to deal with them, but to have to make a tailored list to fight off a 5 man heavy link team seems to counter the "Its not your list its you" mantra. The other thing that makes me also wonder is this. If Linked Teams weren't so powerful then why does it seem that more players play sectorial vs vanilla. I see no other reason to play a sectorial than to get the link team special rule. Now don't get me wrong. I do see the fluff and uniqueness of sectorials. However you could have more or less the same models in a vanilla. So you could keep more or less the fluff without the sectorial.

Links are pretty vulnerable to blasts and templates and once the special weapons are subdued it really cuts down on their effectiveness.

Maybe it's just because I play with a lot of camo infiltrators with mines and template weapons but I've never had a huge problem with them. My issues have always been with undercosted Aleph LI with gizmos out the wazoo.

As for reasons to play a sectorial there are also availability issues. MRRF get to run 4 Chasseurs for example...Willy Wallace and his role in Caledonians, etc.

5 man HI links are the extreme example. Not all sectorials have the option to even do it and only a few are able to do it viably. It's a tremendous points and typically swc investment leaving little else to go around.

A fair portion of infinity gamers do play what they play for thematic reasons. Them aside, the most common links are LI ones. Generally, whether sectorial or vanilla, armies contain some number of 'cheer leader' type models. Putting them in a link team is an easy way to defend and make use of these models you may otherwise not actively or reactively use in your games, for the drawback of limited unit options.

For myself I don't see any unbalanced advantage a player using a link team has over one who's not, and vis versa. I'm not talking about the specific advantages and disadvantages of a link team, but the overall benefit to an army it brings with all other things considered. I've played extensively with and without link teams and really all that boils down to it when making an army list, is whatever floats my boat at the time. Including a link team or not doesn't have any effect on the perceived grosse 'competitiveness' of an army for me.

A typical reason newer players (I had it as well) have issues with link teams is that it gives a very straightforward advantage to you F2F matchups, and reduces the effect of poor deployment and model placement with SSLvL2. Once you've played around a bit and found that you don't need to rely on SSLvl2 and can gain F2F advantages through other means, the benefits of link teams don't appear so substantial. And at the same time the drawbacks of them (primarily grouping and link leader shenanigans) seem bigger and overall the two balance out.

Now, I pretty much just run links when I feel like taking the cats out for a spin. I usually play corregidor, but don't always use link teams in it, and rarely make use of increased AVA either. What's nice are mercenaries (for some ). Although I should add that playing nomads can easily skew ones perceptions a bit. We've kinda got options to cover nearly all avenues so its far easier to patch holes when other armies really can't. Silly OP nomads