Theory Hammer: Aragoto Senkenbutai (JSA bikers)

I’ve noticed that a lot of JSA lists use the bikes (not Yojimbo mind you, usually just the regular dude with a spitfire). They can wreak havoc in a backfield if you’re not careful, but it seems to me that they should only be effective against someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. Let me explain.

First off, let’s just list out the bike’s key stats. MOV 8-6, BS 12, mimetism, spitfire, impetuous for 26 points and 1 SWC. That’s pretty bloody good. Assuming it deploys towards the front of your DZ the bike should get a +3 range bad and 4 dice when attacking, and will very quickly be able to reach any target. If it can get to a clump of cheerleaders the bike will eat them.

So what’s the problem?

My first concern is that a bike will often die to most of the game’s better snipers. I’m thinking of Nises, Atalanta, Daysus, Hexas, Intruder, Noctifer with a missile launcher. Hell even a Guilang will give it trouble. Why is that? Think about the face to face. The bike can’t get cover because it is impetuous and the sniper will definitely be in cover, but the bike has mimetism. Both will have good range bands. This means the bike is shooting, to start, at 12s on 4 dice while the sniper is shooting at 12+ on 1 dice (assuming it doesn’t have an MSV). So far so good. But then you stick the TO camouflage in there and all of sudden its 6 on 4 dice against against 12 on 1 dice. The spread is the same for MSV1/camo, but a touch better for the bike because the actual chance to hit improves. If the sniper happens to get range, which shouldn’t be hard if the bike is going first and the snipers could therefore be deployed to counter it, then you’re basically buggered. You drop to 3s on 4 dice against 12 on 1 dice. Even if the sniper misses there’s still no guarantee the bike will hit. Things are even worse against Atalanta because she will be on 20 to hit you pretty much no matter what, while you'll be 12 to hit her and 9 if she has range. She's got a 40% chance to beat you before you've even rolled!

When I think about attack pieces I typically consider how they go against Atalanta or an intruder sniper in cover. If it’s no-good then I don’t usually bother. There are some exceptions. AD troops and infiltrating TO camouflaged units can often go around a sniper or otherwise don’t become active until the sniper is long dead from your primary attack piece. But if the unit has to move out of your DZ and you really want it to be the spear-tip of your attack, it needs to go alright against a mad sniper, or have some other massive utility, like throwing smoke. Hence why Yojimbo is, I think, a better bike choice than the spitfire Arogato, even if he does just have a contender. This is the case largely because he makes the Rui Shi awesome because of smoke/MSV antics. As such, I would rather the Yojimbo/Rui Shi combo than the 2 Aragoto set-up (and I would rather an Oniwaban lt. than a 3rd bike).

Another thought experiment I do is to think how the piece would go against a total reaction bot. People love TR bots. I can’t believe how many of them I see in lists, even though they’re about as useful as a water pistol against smoke shooting or a proper attack piece like a TAG or Hac Tao. If your attack piece doesn’t go at least 75/25 against one then you’re going to get shut down by a 28 point model. Let’s look at the numbers. Assuming both have good range and the bot has cover you’ve got 12s on 4 dice for the bike against 12s on 4 dice for the bot. I think this shows that both the bot and the bike are shit. Spend a few more points and get a sniper if you want a defensive piece, and get something that synergises with smoke for your attack piece. Once again, Yojimbo and his mate the Rui Shi do a better job here (remember that the Rui Shi is 6-4, which is nearly as fast as the bike). A Rui Shi through smoke against a bot, assuming both are in cover, is 12s on 4 dice against 6s on 4 dice. We have a winner. As a general rule, when your to-hit goes below 10 you're in big trouble no matter how many dice you're rolling.   

My second concern is with ARO reception parties. The point of the Aragoto is to charge forward and take out some weak units. This should only occur if your opponent is bad at defensive set-ups. Defensive deployment (which you will always do against the kamikaze JSA), involves placing everyone behind thick cover (like behind a building). As such, the bike has to go quite far to reach a target. When it gets there it should have 4 targets waiting for it. 4 line-infantry with combi-rifles are actually pretty scary on ARO in this context because they have a good range band. 4 ARO shots on 11s is going to kill the bike with its 4 ARO shots on 15s. There will certainly be trades, but I don’t think it’s the best way to approach attacking in Infinity. This is also assuming that some TO camouflaged dickhead with a boarding shotgun doesn’t pop out behind the bike and smoke it. It is also assuming that the first thing the bike runs into isn’t a link team of shotguns.        

Bikes must shine against Ariadna because everyone is cheap and nobody is packing an MSV, but only if the Ariadna player hasn’t built their list properly. The top Ariadna lists typically have about 5 cheerleader units visible in a bunker on turn 1. Everything else is a camo marker or currently floating down on a parachute. With WIP13 I don’t expect the bike to be making many discover rolls. And having to discover-shoot reduces the speed that makes the bike really threatening. Camo markers also effectively have 360 visors, so if you drive past them hoping to reach the juicy cheerleaders you might just find yourself getting shot in the back. This can be a boon because it reveals markers that you can then pick off with the rest of your list (like that Oniwaban just waiting for a reveal), but it’s a costly trade. Mix in the fact that mines kill bikes real good (lol@ your mimetism) and I don’t think bikes are actually much chop against Ariadna. Again, Yojimbe with his smoke bullshit is more likely to wreak havoc because Ariadna can’t see through smoke.

Bikes, like many units in Infinity (e.g. most TAGs), seem to me to be exceptionally deadly against someone who hasn’t got a really good list and/or doesn’t really know what they’re doing, but otherwise become very lacklustre. Someone who tries to use their Hsien’s single HMG shot to beat the bike’s 4 is in for a bad time. Someone who reveals their camo tokens as the bike drives past is in for a bad time. Someone who doesn’t bunker down in deployment against bikes is in for a bad time. But anyone packing smoke defence, a good sniper and who deploys deep in cover is just going to knock it down on the way in, set up a welcoming party or obscure the bikes shots before destroying it on the active turn. Don’t get me wrong, the spitfire bike is pretty bloody nasty, but the Yojimbo/Rui Shi combo is deadlier, and gives you the MSV2 unit that you should never leave home without.   

Speaking of TAGs. I’ve played against 4 TAGs in my life—1 scarface, 1 Iguana, 1 Anaconda and 1 Avatar. None of them made it past my first turn and none of them killed anything. The first 3 got covered in smoke and then shot by my Hsien’s HMG. The last one got killed in a pincer move where my Ninja got behind it and starting shooting it in the back while a Rui Shi was within a move of its front. If he uses his ARO to turn I move the Rui Shi and start firing. If he doesn’t turn the boarding shotgun will get the job done eventually, cover or not. It took 6 orders but he lost half his points. That said, the Avatar is fucking scary because of ODD and AR10 (if you keep it at long range so it can’t be pincered). The TAGs without ODD or MSV2 though—leave them at home.