Let's recap what the Fireteam bonuses do for the Govads as a Fireteam.
3 Man Link - Active Turn - Adds 1 Burst to the Link Leader's weapon; Reactive - Add 1 Burst to all members of the team.
4 Man Link - Active Turn - Grants the unit Sixth Sense L2 and +3 to WIP for Discover Rolls; Reactive - All member of the team Gain Sixth Sense L2 and gain +3 to WIP for Discover Rolls.
5 Man Link - Active Turn - Add +3 to BS for BS attacks or to PH when using a Thrown Weapon to the Link Leader; Reactive - All Members of the team receive +3 to BS for BS attacks or to PH when using a Thrown Weapon
I’ve gone over the benefits of 4 Fireteams in my previous post, so I’ll direct you to that post and not go into the details on this discussion. (Link to 4-Legged Zoo). With the Govad being able to field the magic number of 5 in a Fireteam, they can receive the much coveted +3 BS. Now, let’s look at weapon profile first. I am not going to Include the Lieutenant as a Govad Lieutenant is not a good option and I’ll get to that later.
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GOVAD Rifle + Light Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (21) GOVAD HMG / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29) GOVAD Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (20) GOVAD Sniper Rifle / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25) GOVAD Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 30) GOVAD Hacker (Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 28)The three profiles that stand out as the core of the fire time are the Missile Launcher, Sniper Rifle and Hacking Device profiles. The Missile Launcher at B2 on the reactive turn can handle Fireteams and armies the field a lot of models. This profile forces them to spread out and think carefully about how and where they move up the board. The Sniper Rifle at B2 DAM 15 Shock ammo can remove the tougher targets in ARO and B3 during the active turn is powerful. Both of these Profile and cover a lot of the board if place correctly and put in some heavy work on the active or reactive turn
The Hacker… the only specialist in the list. When the profiles for the Govad were revealed, a lot of people did not like the hacker with this team. Having the hacker in a link team means you lose out of the ability to use some of the hacking programs and supportware that makes the hacker unique to infinity. That being said, the hacker in this Fireteams provides two purposes. A back-line, late game specialist and Total board control.
The first purpose, having the hacker as a back-line is pretty obvious. Since the Govad are being defensive link and after your army has taken some costly causalities, you can use the team to move up the board to get to that late game objective to either tie the game or win it. The Second purpose is what makes this unit such a strong defensive unit. The Board control ability can be broken into two categories I like to call “Out of Sight” and Out of Mind”.
Out of Sight
Hassassin Bahran unit have a higher than normal cost for each unit. The common way for HB lists to have additional order is the field the Fanous Remote and the Kameel Baggage remote, sometimes 2 Kameel. Both units need a hacker to be fielded in order to be used. In addition to the Govad hacker allowing to take remotes is what the remote does for the Hacker. REPEATERS. both the 8 point Fanous and 8 point Kameel come equipped with repeater. This greatly enhances the Govad Hacker's ability to perform AROs without breaking the link in the inactive turn.
The Barid is one of Hassassin's cheap Specialist and they also come equipped with Marker. this allow the Barid to shot a deployable repeater further up the field, increasing the Govad Hacker's area to perform ARO. This forces the enemy to put his HI, Attack Remotes and TAG further away from your deployment zone. This also puts them in a lose-lose situation, since the enemy HI, Remotes and TAG don't want to get hit with AROs from the Sniper and MIssile Launcher but with well placed Repeaters, their HI and Remotes with get hit with GOTCHA' Program, while the TAG can get hit with GOTCHA or OVERLORD Programs!! this can also effect hackers that try to move to an objective. If they come into the repeater's Area of Control, BOOM! Brainblast.
also, If you happen to be fielding the Shaytaniyah, you can use the program spotlight to target the models and use the Smart Missiles to get attacks from behind cover. The Program BLACKOUT can also effect models with COMMS equipment. the ARO is a damage 15 attack that forces the enemy to make a BTS roll. If they fail, they become disabled. this mean the hacker has a way to deal with models that are usually unhackable. Amazing!!!
Out of Mind
OoM applies to the powerful non-direct hacking program. The U-turn program may only be used in response to the opponent declaring an Attack with a weapon with the Guided Trait but this applies a -3 MOD to the attacker's BS. this is cumulative and an ARO you can use every time the enemy fires those missiles.
The other program is Hack Transport Aircraft. This allows the hacker to perform a Face-to-Face roll with a model that is attempting to use AD: Combat Jump (Hacker's WIP vs Enemy model's PH). The program applies a -6 to the hacker's WIP but the Govad has the nice WIP stat of 14. even with the negative MOD, against a Gao-Tarsos the Face-to-Face with 8 vs 12. Which isn't bad at all.
What about the HMG?
Yeah. that profile. although having a Burst 5, BS 15 HMG on the active turn can put in some serious work but in the inactive turn only has Burst 2. in addition, it is 0.5 SWC and 4 point more than the Shihab, which has a 6-4 move, total reaction and 360 Visor. It can also be programmed with ASSISTED FIRE, which grants the Shihab Marksmanship L2. this removes the cover bonus from the enemy. This is my personal feeling and I do think the HMG profile can do some work when the Govad link moves up the field to get the hacker to get an objective.
The filler profiles
now to fill the team you have two choices. you have the Boarding Shotgun or the Rifle + Light Shotgun. The two profiles actually differ quite a bit. for 20 points you get the Boarding Shotgun that has a +6 MOD from 0-8 inches, damage 14 at burst 2 (Burst 3 when in the link that has a teardrop template when it hits. For an additional point you get the Light Shotgun with the same Range MOD and Burst as the Boarding Shotgun but with 1 less damage AND a Rifle that offer a weapon that is slightly longer range. Which ever one you choice is a personal choice. I prefer the Rifle + Light Shotgun as I have never been able to get real use of the +6 Range MOD from the boarding and light shotgun.
The Good Stuff
MSV1
Yesssssss, Hassassin with equipment. MSV1 give the govad additional support as a defensive platform. It reduces the negative MOD of CH:Camo, CH:Mimetism, TO:Camo, ODD, Low Visibility and Poor Visibility Zone. Which means the Govad are shooting at a much better rate
Veteran L1
To clarify, Veteran L1 makes the unit's user a regular order during Retreat and Loss of Lieutenant. Most of the Hassassin Bahram models are Religious Troops and are not effect by Retreat. During Loss of Lieutenant, all regular order become irregular, Religious Troops are effect by loss of lieutenant. With the Govad, you are securing Regular Orders during the painful turn. The Hassassin Bahram has some pretty obvious Lieutenant too. This is the reason I do not like the Govad Lieutenant Profile. you if you loss the Govad, not only are you in LoL, and Loss the 5 man bonus for the fireteam but you also loss the benefit of of Veteran L1.
These extra Order can be amazing in the late game. It can allow you to get that specialist to the objective or HVT. Allow you to kill off a few more of the enemy models to force them into retreat. The big up side, is it allows you to run an aggressive Lieutenant. The Asawira Lieutenant can become a much more aggressive model. in additional, this alleviates the need to run the Chain of Command Farzan, this means you can run the "affordable" Farzan Forward Observer.
All being said, I feel the Govad Fireteam is an amazing Defensive Fireteam that can bring a new look to the Hassassin Bahram army list. Again, these are just my thoughts and if you see anything incorrect with the rules interaction I wrote, grammar or if you have any suggestion, let me know.
