First try at a 300 point Shasvastii list

[Red Viper]

I've been thinking about a Shasvastii list for awhile and this is what I came up with:

Combined Army - Shasvastii Expeditionary Force | 10 models
________________________________________________________

Q-Drone HMG (29|1)
Q-Drone HMG (29|1)
Ikadron (9|0)
Noctifer Hacker (35|0.5)
Speculo Killer (39|1)
Aswuang Lieutenant (25|0)
Noctifer Missile (42|1.5)
Aswuang Spitfire (31|1)
Malignos Combi (37|0)
Shrouded Combi (24|0)
________________________________________________________

300/300 points | 6/6 swc
open with Aleph Toolbox : http://goo.gl/pojhvP

I'm a new player. This is what I came up with from looking at other forum advice and sprinkled in with my own preferences. I haven't bought anything yet, but I like this list.

So be honest... is it any good?

[Pierzasty]

If it's for firefights it's quite good, although I'd play with the loadouts a bit - Shrouded minelayers are awesome, so is a monomine Malignos. In exchange you can swap the Noctifer to a spitfire. But that's details, if you want to run it as-is it'll do well. Just remember not to run everything in HD, 1-2 max (the Noctifer ML is probably most important to have in HD as he relies on second-skill sniping, the hacker can pretend to be a normal camo marker)

Also, if you're absolutely fresh, wait with the Speculo, it's very easy to get too reliant on her and she dies very easily.

[Red Viper]

Thanks for the reply, I'm glad there's no glaring weaknesses.

Yes, I am brand new. I can't resist the Speculo though. She's one of the reasons I chose Shasvastii. I'm starting Tohaa and Shasvastii so I have 2 different playstyles and so that my friends can have a different faction to play as (Tohaa for them... seems more straight forward). I'm not going to jump into 300 point games though, so she will be one of the last models I start using.

There's no model for the Noctifer Hacker right now. Normally I would just use the Spec Op model as a proxy and feel great about myself, but all the other Noctifers models are on scenic bases. So would the Spitfire Noctifer be a better proxy than the Shasvastii Spec Op model?

[Severian]

I wouldn't worry about which model to use for the Noctifer Hacker. I've used the Malignos Hacker as a proxy, and nobody cared.

I think your list looks fine, but do consider adding a MedTech, partly to give yourself a chance of achieving three classified objectives (as it's a doctor, an engineer, and has D-charges), and partly because your opponent will prioritise the Q-Drones and patching them up with the engineer skill can be very helpful.

[Red Viper]

I wouldn't worry about which model to use for the Noctifer Hacker. I've used the Malignos Hacker as a proxy, and nobody cared.

I think your list looks fine, but do consider adding a MedTech, partly to give yourself a chance of achieving three classified objectives (as it's a doctor, an engineer, and has D-charges), and partly because your opponent will prioritise the Q-Drones and patching them up with the engineer skill can be very helpful.

Thanks for the reassurance and the suggestion. I still haven't played a game, so I'll see how things develop. I just wanted a list to build towards and didn't want to buy anything dumb. I will keep the medtech in mind as I play games.

[eypyeash]

Having not played yet, I'll say this: if you're playing the Tohaa and Shasvastii against each other, the former have a significant issue fighting camouflage. This is largely caused by their (arguable) reliance on triads, which group models together for camo markers to kill. In strict kill missions this can be pretty bad. I'd recommend doing a couple small games first, 150 points or so, to understand the mechanics on the table better, then jump to objective missions. Tohaa don't particularly shine at these either due to a very small number of infiltrating specialists, but their order economy helps greatly. The reason I say all this is, as you guys may be just starting, seeing something like Shasvastii can leave new players with a bad taste in their mouths. I used to think total reaction bots were overpowered, and Shas can pack two of them, WITH MIMETISM on top. They aren't bad once you understand how to deal with them, but make sure the Tohaa list is packing stuff to deal with it (Makauls to throw smoke and flamethrower the thing, Clipsos to combat camo it... an Ectros to outshoot it? Dangerous, but possible, especially suppressing fire through the smoke).

The list looks pretty solid, though my own preferences ditch several things for several others. The Speculo is pretty tricky to use effectively, unlike Fiday, who have the disgusting and utilitarian mine loadout.

I'm not a huge fan of drones, for example, minus the M Drone, which covers both an anti massed camo function and a specialist function. And I find my Noctifer ML dead more often than not after a failed shot, so I veer towards the Spitfire version. Aswuang adhesive launchers, especially when coordinated, are significantly more dangerous to a TAG than a missile because of the one-hit lockdown potential. Works great against HI as well. Not so good against link teams clustered together, but most people learn not to do that very quickly anyway.

Anyway, just make sure you're building a brutal Tohaa list as well, and you're set!

[McNamara]

On Shas vs. Tohaa:

Unless you bring a bring a Sphinx, there are almost no fire weapons with Shas*, so Tohaa can fair pretty save with all their pseudo HI. Also Chaksa are pretty evil against Shas, since they pack Sensor and Heavy Flamethrowers.

*Gwailos have a HRL option, but its not something you see often, and there are the Ikadrons, which are ok, but not tough. And both are visible for your opponent from the start too, so its rather easy to avoid them, with those troops.

[Lone_Pathfinder]

*Gwailos have a HRL option, but its not something you see often, and there are the Ikadrons, which are ok, but not tough. And both are visible for your opponent from the start too, so its rather easy to avoid them, with those troops.

3 man Gwailos link is awesome with HRL against Tohaa. As they have a miraculous BS of 13. You don't even need a 5 man link to boost their BS. So you have HRL with burst 3 in active and burst 2 ARO. X-Visor does not help that much, but damage 14 is great.

Nano screens means that you can use these to defend a flank with little cover.

The big cons of the Gwailos is their cost. I hope this will be resolved a little with N3 as I hope that MI will get their points reduced.