Monday, January 23, 2017

Nomad Listbuilding for CanCon

Here is the thinking I used to inform my list-building for Nomads at CanCon2017. I found that frontline, firefight and supremacy went together, so 1 list for them, and separate list for supplies and Antenna field. I found that firefight dictated list building among the first 3, whereas Antenna field absolutely dominated listbuilding among the second 2 missions. Later on I realised that the list that I had for frontline, firefight and supremacy was actually fantastic for supplies, so I ended making a list just for Antenna Field.

Psst...hey kid...want some white noise?


Frontline and supremacy are pretty straightforward missions for Nomads - stack the midfield with assymetric threats (i.e. mimetic boarding shotguns), bring an intruder HMG and Cassie, have a good time. You've got the spectr and a prowler for the classifieds (hacker and d-charges), and loads of infiltrating camouflage to grab the quarters that you need when you need them. You don't need to worry about Djanbazan so much because most QK player's bring Janissaries for this mission, who you can take with your Spektr and all those boarding shotguns, plus they don't see through smoke. If they do bring Djans, hopefully they aren't the best player and they come forward a bit where you can surround them with mines. You also have the option of inferior infiltrating a Moran with his koalas all the way to the edge of their DZ where the Koalas can potentially trash the Djans if they try to do anything.

Things become a little bit more complicated once firefight comes into the mix. There is a lot going on in firefight, and you need to build a list for it, I think. You need to kill points, kill specialists, kill lieutenants and score classifieds. In addition, AD troops get +3 to PH rolls, all parachutists are Van Zant (i.e. they can walk on in from your board edge) and all airborne infiltrators can walk on from a flank into your DZ! What are the implications of this?

1) Cassie is a specialist but can't score any classifieds, which sucks for firefight because every specialist you lose goes a long way to giving your opponent a victory point. But who is a more useful lt? Interventors aren't very killy, and you don't need them to make your Morans useful because you already have the spectr (surprise shot hacks through a repeater - so hot). A custodier is great, but her function still overlaps with your Spektr. You can't replace the Spektr because you need him for Frontline and supremacy, which are largely about keeping camo alive to contest quarters (though you could take a Hellcat, see below). Moiras are cool, but the HMG isn't the lt. Same goes for grenzers and intruders. The other thing is that as killing lieutenants is an objective in frontline and AD troops can get to you wherever you might hide, a squishy lieutenant gets nailed fast. This really just leaves only one option besides Cassie, the brand new Taskmaster, who actually appears tailor-made for this situation. He has 5ARM and 2 wounds to weather any chain rifle storms, BTS6 and a tinbot A so he can't be hacked, 2 crazy koalas so he is very hard to approach and assassinate with something like a speculo, PH14 for dodging, and a pulzar if you really want to put a hit on someone. He's expensive, but that's almost a bonus in these three missions because he can contest a zone really well and if he survives (which is the point) he's worth a lot of points in firefight. What's more, with high ARM, 2W and a B4 shock weapon with 8-24, he is good at killing Djanbazans and MSV2 snipers, which is the main thing you need the custodier's HD+ for (white noise).

2) To take AD or not to take AD, that is the question? I think most good players will prepare for AD - I certainly do. With TR bots, cheap chainrifle dudes and sixth sense link teams, AD troops lose a lot of effectiveness, especially when your opponent is expecting them (when was the last time Van Zant really wrecked you? I bet it was the first time you played against him). So as with Van Zant and M5, I would rather pretend I have AD, let my opponent disorder their deployment in response, and then attack without AD. This also means that I don't have to use sub-par (compared to TO camo) AD troops in Frontline and supremacy.

3) You still need to prepare for extremely reliable AD. Alongside having a tough lieutenant, I think this means having mines around, cheap chain rifles to guard corners, everyone under a camo marker or surrounded by koalas, and everyone else with an ODD in suppression. This actually makes listbuilding quite tricky, because while you might think you want orders, most cheerleaders get romped by AD troops coming in all over the place. Other than jaguars, there isn't much I trust to stay alive (certainly not baggage bots, who would otherwise be in all my frontline and supremacy lists). Notably, daktaris and moderator paramedics, my go-to cheerleaders, die and give my opponent the win on specialists.

4) note that baggage bots that aren't Ikadrons suck so hard in firefight because they get assassinated by AD without any trouble. This is good for the tournament I think because it means less lame baggage stuff in frontline and supremacy (factions without good cheerleaders get punished!).

I did a lot of playtesting and ended up going back to Cassandra as the lieutenant. Note that you have to play her a bit more conservatively than usual - no turn 1 ramboing to death. She usually spends turn 1 idle and then goes into suppression. She emerges on turn 2 for a bit of a spree before going into suppression again, and then really gets going to turn 3. The lists with Cassie could just fit more orders than any other, and none of those orders was redundant or ultra fragile to AD. I didn't like the 10 order taskmaster list - it just didn't have the power of 10 order link team lists. I experimented with a custodier for ages - the ODD gives her some toughness, and if you have turn 1 you can cybermask to make her assassination proof. But I felt like I didn't quite have enough orders. Cassie means using a specktr as an assault hacker, which means no HD+ and no white noise, but I didn't find it mattered all that much. White noise is only relevant against MSV2, which exists in Aleph (Atalanta), ISS and Qapu Khalki. QK runs Janissaries in most of these missions. ISS can't dodge for shit, so I've found that nomads can just take them with all their templates and what not. The Bao link, which is what I am really scared off, is also rarely used because of its limited offensive firepower. A Hsien in suppression is hard for me to handle, but my spektr can try to freeze him or I can throw shotguns at him. And he becomes much less powerful once you gut the cheerleaders, which I do really well. Atalanta usually dies to high burst (Intruder), and surprise shot still works.

Here is the list I ended up with. Note that it has 3 specialists. This was a little irritating for firefight, especially as Cassie is useless in that, frontline and supremacy, but it made the list effective for supplies where you only need about 3 specialists, especially if one of them is an infiltrator and another is a doctor - just let your opponent open the boxes. The Spektr, Daktari and the prowler's d-charges make me very good at scoring classifieds. All the units besides the Daktari and Cassandra are either dogged with chain rifles, under a camouflage marker, hidden, can smoke dodge or are surrounded by koalas, so I don't fear AD very much at all. Yuan Yuans are annoying but we will just trade most of the time. I have 14 orders plus the free Morlock smoke. I have the HMG intruder and Cassandra as principle attack pieces. And I've got a midfield full of death - 3 shotguns, 3 camouflage rifles for knocking over TR bots with surprise shot and 4 koalas and 2 mines. If I play on tables with buildings that have interiors I will be a nightmare.

In frontline and supremacy I have heaps of camouflage for grabbing quadrants, the intruder and Cassandra are my lame HMG attack pieces with big MOD stacks, the morans, prowlers (grenades), and boarding shotgun zero lay waste to link teams and TAGs with their shotguns, the Spektr can knock over snipers and TR bots with surprise shot and TO camo and can also break a link team with oblivion through the Morans. The jaguars are there to cheer and guard corners, while the Morlock is there to throw a free smoke and then flood through the midfield triggering mines and killing skirmishers or MI link teams.

In supplies you've got the midfield minefield of doom, so it's hard for your opponent to grab boxes, and you can leave them a nasty surprise when you retreat with them. If you go first, have your spektr open two crates and then have a Moran help out with walking off with them. The third crate will be too defended to get on turn 1. Let your opponent open that one, then kill him. You can focus on crushing your opponent in this mission and worry about the boxes later, at which point a Daktari can waltz over and open them. Just be careful of triggering retreat. If you go second, put the mines and koalas around the boxes to slow your opponent down, then pounce on the counterattack.

My fear is heavy stuff. My minefield doesn't really slow down TAGs or HI link teams who can just dodge them or take the hits and keep moving to my weak attack pieces. I want to take first turn almost always to prepare an appropriate response to such threats, like isolating a TAG using my Moran repeaters or occupying a lot of high ground that is hard for a TAG to reach. If I can lay a lot of extra mines and slow my opponent down then once he is in the midfield I'm fine to take him out with shotgun flanking maneauvres.


 FIREFIGHT, frontline, supremacy, supplies
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GROUP 1
 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
 ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
 MORAN Boarding Shotgun, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
 MORAN Boarding Shotgun, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
 KUSANAGI Lieutenant Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 43)
 PROWLER Boarding Shotgun, Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 31)
 SPEKTR Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 36)
 ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)

GROUP 2
 INTRUDER HMG, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 42)
 DAKTARI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 6)

 6 SWC | 300 Points

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Just as an aside before moving on - this list is not easy to play. In fact, besides maybe the Ariadna version of the camouflage mine-field and the Haqqislam irregular orders of death builds, it might be the hardest list in the game to play. Smoke shooting with an intruder is pretty straightforward, but the rest is complicated. Even the smoke requires you to place a Moran such that it can move 6" (always plan for getting 6-4" and super jump on meta-chemistry) without exposing itself to fire on turn 1 and then lob a smoke grenade to where the intruder wants to move into cover and blaze someone. It can be tricky. After that, you need to place mines such that they are effective (can't be engaged from >8") but aren't totally obviously mines, otherwise your opponent won't bother wasting discover roles on them. You also need to get your minefield set up so that your opponent can't efficiently move through it (i.e. punch a HI link team through 2 of them and then straight to your juicy cheerleaders) and so that it channels them into a nice long line of dominoes for you to then pick apart. Your Morans need to be placed so that it is hard to take both their koalas with a single dodge, but also so that they aren't easy to approach. You also need to consider how their repeaters will be able to get into position to hack. Your spektr and prowler need to be in positions where they will survive to counterattack, which is tricky because survival means being far from the action but efficient counterattacks require you to be close to it. In general, the Nomad game plan of getting kills where you can, wasting your opponent's time with mines and keeping your camouflage alive to score zones requires a lot of finesse and clutch decision making. You win through assymetric matchups (e.g. a prowler BS against a HI out of suppression), but these take effort to set up. Sometimes you snap like a bear trap on an exposed opponent, but more often that not you're skulking about with heart palpitations hoping your opponent doesn't realise that empty flank actually has a Spektr hiding in it ready to pounce. I think this list is extremely powerful, but it needs a lot of practice. It plays the way Eldar is supposed to play in 40K, except that the eldar codex is always just plain overpowered.

==

My thinking about Antenna field has gone through a very rapid evolution and probably still has a ways to go. A complicating factor is that your list for Antenna Field at Cancon is probably the one you take for supplies as well, and supplies has some clear requirements, namely being able to prevent your opponent from getting all the boxes on turn 1.

Here is what I think you want for supplies:
1. Minelayers to guard the boxes
2. Snipers to guard the boxes
3. 3 infiltrating specialists to open the boxes on turn 1 and haul them to your DZ if your opponent hides and you have top.
4. Attack pieces as usual

Here is what I think you want for Antenna Field; note that it is much more niche:
1. Specialists with some combination of MODs (mimetism/camo/ODD), high ARM, multiple W/STR and a weapon that can go into suppression here. Some units tick all these boxes - Dao Fei, Kusanagi, Hac Tao, Moira Hacker etc. These units can drop into suppression on a button and have more than a snowball's chance in hell of holding onto it over the course of your opponent's turn.
1.5. Other specialists to hold buttons, notably cheap paramedics and FOs to stand next to the button in your drop zone (you need 3 people for your DZ button because turn 1 and 2 person always dies).
2. Ways to displace your opponent from buttons (chain rifle warbands for example). Note that >=16" weapons like MULTI rifles are actually pretty solid for this because the buttons are all on the halfway line, so getting into your sweet spot is actually pretty straightforward.
3. Ways to defend the buttons - mines, snipers etc. Note that TR bots, sin-eaters and the like are in many ways superior here to pure snipers because your opponent has to come into their range band in order to win.
4. Ways to set-up a counterattack on turn 1:

Let me explain #4. Turn 2 is a huge advantage in Antenna Field, as it is in all the missions that score at the bottom of the turn. You can assess which buttons are easiest to approach and which ones are the easiest to move your opponent off and only commit resources there. Player 1 meanwhile has to constantly leave his units exposed next to buttons for a whole turn in order to have a chance of scoring. This is what makes Antenna Field savage compared to supremacy. In supremacy, you can at least hide while your opponent strategically contests. In Antenna Field you've got to stand out in the open. But note that turn 3 is worth 5 points - 2 for having more buttons, 1 for the central button, and 2 for the button in your opponent's DZ. That means that if you win turn 3 you can't lose, as your opponent can only score a maximum of 4 from buttons on turn 1 and 2 and 1 from his classified, and if you've scored your own classified you will definitely win (so make sure you can score classifieds!). This is the game plan for player 1 - bait player 2 into exposing themselves first, then counterattack and play for the win on the last turn. Be careful of the retreat condition. This approach necessitates having units that can counterattack well and soak your opponent's turn 1. The most obvious is camouflaged minelayers. They can litter the field around the central buttons before recamouflaging in an advantageous position from which to launch an attack. Warband type units are also effective. They can hide around the midfield ready to sweep forward and chain rifle your opponent's exposed units.

An alternative approach that I think is in many ways stronger but only open to a few factions is to run a big, powerful link team (Janissaries, Myrmidons, Hospitallers and Magisters etc) straight into your opponent's face on turn 1 and just try to cripple them before they have a chance to exploit turn 2. If you can kill some important stuff and then bunker in a strongpoint you can delay his advance enough to off-set the turn 2 advantage. This is especially true if you also have a sniper or two (that's why Phalanx is so brutal at this tactic).

Back to Nomads. After ticking off the list above, I think about addressing the primary Nomad weaknesses. The hard thing for Nomads is really standing up to the top tier factions - Nomads crush everyone else. Your midfield camouflage/mine game is better than Haqq's; your MSV and ODD beats Ariadna's snipers and extra camouflage tokens; a few HI here and there isn't enough to make YJ and Pan-O scary; and a single TAG dies to smoke shooting and your Moran's rocking oblivion. But the top-tier boys are different. QK just doesn't care much about your threats. Intruders can't smoke shoot a Djanbazan team and Kusanagi can't approach them until she gets close, and even then the odds aren't hugely in your favour. The units that are effective against Djans, namely HI link teams, don't exist in Nomads, and your TAGs aren't worth the cost because they either don't have the appropriate weapons (Geckoes) or the appropriate MOD stacks (everything else). QK alone almost necessitates having an Uberfallcommando, as she is good against both Djanbazans (eclipse grenades) and Janissaries (close combat monster with smoke cloud). But she is pretty useless against most other factions (bar perhaps combined/Onyx ML spam and Tohaa with all its snipers), and isn't a specialist, which she really needs to be for antenna field. She's a monster in Antenna Field though, because everyone comes towards her.

With these things in mind, I originally designed a list with 2 zeros FOs, 2 Moran FOs, a Moira hacker with MULTI rifle, Kusanagi with a spitfire and 2 moderator paramedics to stand on buttons, with four jaguars to guard the backfield and potentially sweep forward, plus 2 Krakots for general awesomeness. The problem with that list was that it struggles against HI. The combi rifles on the infiltrators just don't have the impact factor. I really need boarding shotguns. I thought about dropping either the zeros or the Morans to shotguns, but worry that I won't have enough specialists at that point, or the points for the chain rifle units. I also found that I actually had too many specialists. The Moira wasn't getting much use, but maybe I just wasn't spending the combined orders to get her forward like I should have been, or maybe it was the boards. She wants to hide near your DZ button and then pop out to menace units on the midfield buttons who are in her 16" band. I found instead that I had moderators standing on buttons and just dying. Not sure that the Moira would have fared much better. Kusanagi was amazing but risky as the lieutenant. The extra order is powerful, but if you play aggressively with her she will die and you'll spend a turn in Loss of Lt. Because she was always in the thick of it, I decided to drop a moderator for an LI lieutenant, which meant the Moira had to spend more time standing on that button, but she did a fine job of it.

Then I had two major breakthroughs, both related to the same unit. Instead of taking a Moira hacker, take a custodier hacker. You lose the MULTI rifle, but you gain a lieutenant that can use the lieutenant order (to cybermask, oblivion, carbonite or white noise) and doesn't need to expose herself to fire to be effective, unlike Kusanagi. More importantly, you gain white noise thanks to HD+ (along with a host of other useful stuff, like sucker punch, and you retain the important oblivion from the AHD) which allows Morans to kill Djanbazans with their combis and precludes the need for a kommando, freeing up a lot of points. Those points can be spent on a Hellcat paramedic, who benefits from the controlled jump program available to the custodier, can easily reach the button in your opponent's DZ for that late swing, and who can also wreck havoc behind enemy lines if your opponent doesn't prepare for him. White Noise turns Steel Phalanx (Atalanta and Agema ML) and Qapu Khalki (Djanbazan links) from one of your hardest match-ups into one of the easiest.

Anywayz, here is the list I ended up running:

 ANTENNA FIELD
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GROUP 1
 MODERATOR Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 11)
 ZERO Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
 ZERO Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
 MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
 MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
 KUSANAGI Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 43)
 REVEREND CUSTODIER Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 34)
 KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14)

GROUP 2
 DAKTARI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
 INTRUDER HMG, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 42)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14)
 HELLCAT Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW. (0 | 6)

 5 SWC | 300 Points

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Let's go through that list from above:

1) Units to hold the buttons: Cassandra and the Custodier have ODD, suppression guns, specialist and ARM3, while Cassie has an effective second wound with V:NWI. Then you've got the two Morans who have mimetism, suppression guns and BS12. I typically deploy their koalas behind a wall within 8" of a button and then go and secure that button. My Moran might die, but it's hard for my opponent to get that button with expending a lot of resources. The Hellcat can walk on to a button on a flank or AD with assisted jump from the Custodier to the backfield, then wreck havoc before capturing my opponent's DZ button on turn 3. Finally, you have the paramedic to hold my DZ button on turn 1 and the Daktari to hold it on turn 2 (after she has healed any intruders or Kusanagi's who have improbably fallen to face-to-face attacks) - the Custodier takes it on turn 3, by which stage her ODD+suppression set-up is likely unbeatable.
2) To displace my opponent I have 2 Krakots with double chain rifle, grenades and berserk DA CCWs to move skirmishers, Kusanagi and the Intruder to move heavy units and the two shotgun zeroes to harass link teams. I have found that I struggle against really heavy lists, like HI link teams (Military Orders) and TAGs, but these tend to be rare in such missions, and I do have shotguns and the Moran repeaters to get the job done. In the final stages of the game the Custodier can be very effective at removing skirmishers and the like from the buttons.
3. I am a little weaker than I would like when it comes to defending the buttons, but only from really heavy units. Against the rest I have the koalas, the zeroes can lay mines, almost everyone can go into suppression in a nice range-band of the buttons and the Krakots can act like mines. I tried TR bots a bit and didn't find them to be worth it. I thought the extra HMG would be important, but without an engineer they didn't seem to stick around long enough.
4. This is where this list comes alive. If you have turn 1, you can basically just deploy a bunch of mines over the buttons and then re-camo or go into suppression. Kill what you can and then retreat. With your opponent's slightly shrunken order pool they will be tempted to go for the buttons, stringing themselves out like dominoes, and then you can romp through with Cassandra, the zeroes (who will be in range of the middle buttons with a 4" move) and the Krakots. Very few opponent's will be smart enough to ignore the buttons, bypass the mines and just go for your guys. Give your opponent the 2 points for turn 1 but don't make it cheap, and then gut them on turn 2, just be careful of retreat. Remember that if you win turn 2 and 3 you get the full 5 points.

Some other things to note:

The Daktari has proven important for healing the Intruder and Kusanagi when they take an unlucky crit after stacking a massive MOD on someone, which I why I use her instead of a moderator paramedic (who would free ups points for more Morans). With their spreads they almost never take 2 wounds, but that one unlucky hit is devastating if you can't get back up. The Daktari's odds are 15-20% better than the paramedic's (13WIP vs. 9 or 10 PH on the intruder and Cassandra) and, critically, you can use the cubes for re-rolls.

The Jaguars are there to cheer and guard your DZ from AD units. Having only 2 is not ideal, but the Krakots and Morans can serve a similar function and are much more efficient and effective at moving people off buttons. If you have the chance, drop the paramedic, custodier and daktari into suppression at the end of turn 1 to make entering your DZ a tough proposition even for Durok.

Don't forget to fire the pitcher if you have some orders to burn. Having repeaters around the buttons and a hidden WIP14 hacker makes it tough for HI and TAGs, who are your principle nemesis. This process is an important part of setting up the bog on turn 1 (along with mines and koalas).

The combat group split is a tricky thing. This list rarely needs to or even can effectively rambo. Cassandra tends to do it on turn 2 to close the bear trap, but turn 1 and 3 are cagier, so the 7 and 7 split is, I think, better than my more conventional 9 and 5. The main 'cagey' thing of relevance here is that the Krakots often need orders to work with, especially if they speculative fire grenades. Usually my second group is just the intruder, doctor (who doesn't do anything turn 1) and 3 jaguars. You want 3 orders from that group on turn 1 to kill snipers. You have this even if your opponent uses a command token. Here you need 3 orders plus a few spare for the Krakots. As Cassie has no intention of charging off into an empty midfield, you don't need 9 orders in group 1, just enough to plonk some mines and then 1 left over to drop 4 people into suppression.

The reason why the zeroes aren't combi-rifle FOs (and why the Morlocks have E/M swords) is because I found I was a little weak against HI-heavy lists in early playtesting where I was running everything as an FO. HI could shrug off my chain rifle waves with high PH and ARM and I couldn't really punch through with my combis even when I stacked a MOD using surprise shot. The shotguns allow me to do that with D14 and AP. Their template option is also excellent against MI link teams and other skirmishers. Camouflage gives the zeros the cover to sneak up and smack someone. I chose the zeros to hold the shotguns instead of the Morans because the Morans need their combis to kill MSV2 units using white noise bubbles. My opponent will also keep a wide birth from the Moran because of his koalas, so he might need the extra range.

I don't know if there are quite enough downfield specialists in this list (4 - Cassie, Moran x2, Meteor), but I have found that if you have turn 2, you only really need 1 downfield specialist at a time (a Moran and a moderator for your DZ will do) and if you have first turn, you spend most of your time just putting one specialist out to make your opponent work for it and spring your traps, before the big push on turn 3, which is about quality not quantity. That push requires the shotguns rather than more cheap FOs. The custodier and medics are enough to hold the backfield.

==

Then I changed my mind again. I realised that everyone wants to go second in Antenna Field, so why not just build a list that goes first? What's the best thing going 1st? A TAG, that's what - enter this jank shit:


 Antenna Field with a TAG
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 DAKTARI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
 ZOE & PI-WELL . (0 | 47)
  ZOE (Hacking Device. UPGRADE: Stop!) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28)
  PI-WELL Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 19)
 ZONDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 INTRUDER (X-Visor) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 43)
 KUSANAGI Lieutenant Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 43)
 SZALAMANDRA Hyper-rapid Magnetic Cannon, Heavy Flamethrower / . (2 | 90)
  SZALAMANDRA PILOT Contender / Pistol, Knife. (0)
 MORAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
 ZERO (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19)
 JAGUAR Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 10)
 MODERATOR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)

 6 SWC | 300 Points

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Turn 1, blow all your orders on the TAG. Use Kusanagi's lt. order to put her into suppression. Don't even bother with the button, just try to kill as much shit as possible without going into loss of lieutenant. If they have someone with an ODD on ARO who will give your TAG grief, hit them with the intruder. Once you've decimated your opponent's main attack pieces with your BS14 B5 shock cannon, your intruder should have no trouble ruling the field with his sniper rifle, which gives you the space to lock down the board using your ODD and camo specialists - Kusanagi, Pi-well, the Moran and your zero. Zoe can hold the back button with the Daktari once you don't need to heal anymore. If you do go second you've the mine, the koalas and the intruder to hopefully slow your opponent down enough to let you make a big counterattack.

One of the main reasons why I realised this list actually works really well is that nobody expects you to focus on killing in Antenna Field, but the mission doesn't actually require that many specialists. If you are holding a button then it takes a lot of orders to take 2 more off you, and if you spend turn 1 rampaging with 10" moves, those orders might not exist.

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