Before we start, I'd like to thank my friend Joe (aka Rappletek) for having two TAGs in his army each time we played on events thus far, allowing me to smash them for research purposes!
Chances are that the first time you faced a TAG (Tactical Armored Gear) on the battlefield your army was dead before you knew it and all hopes of victory were crushed under their giant robot feet. Whether you are new or experienced, when your opponent places a TAG on the battlefield it can be a bit
intimidating because they are large, have big guns, high stats and
plenty of armour. Some TAGs are scarier than others but they can all be
hard to deal with if you are not prepared for it.
One of the recent tournaments that I have attended (before writing this) had a TAG specific ITS mission and it made me think about how to deal with TAGs in some kind of reliable way, or at least try to anyway. Of course you won't always know if your opponent will play a TAG but it never hurts to think during army building if you have a way to deal with TAGs.
This article won't be exhaustive, every game requires a different approach and adapting to whatever is happening, but I hope that my thoughts and experiences in the following sections will give you some ideas about how to deal with TAGs in your games. At the bottom you will find my recommendations for Caledonian units to fight TAGs.
Positioning
Personally I find that TAGs are deadliest in their Active turn (as most units are). There is no way to sugarcoat it, if it is your Reactive turn and you left units exposed to the TAG's Line of Fire there is a good chance that they will die. I believe it is always a good idea to either deploy or end your turn mostly hidden and force the TAG to spend Orders moving into position. Preferably you want the TAG to end up in bad range bands for whatever weapon it has but if nothing else, you will make your opponent spend extra Orders and their army is not likely big if it has a TAG.
Most TAGs have some sort of long range weapon (like HMG or Spitfire) as their main weapon so if it can see your units from its Deployment Zone, you are just making it easy for the TAG. Hiding your units might throw off your opponent's plan because they can't just rampage with their big shiny robot. They might move forward with other units, making it easier for you to starve the TAG of Orders (more on that later).
The trick really is to end your turn with no exposed units but not giving up the board control entirely. It is sure easier said than done but once you get good at it (or like sorta good, I still struggle too) it will make your games better in general.
The only units I would recommend to have on long range AROs are those that are hard to hit (units with Camouflage or ODD) or have high Burst in their Reactive Turn (like Total Reaction Remotes) or are equipped with weapons dangerous to TAGs. Just watch out for TAGs with Multispectral Visor if Camouflage is what you rely on; nothing wrong with checking with your opponent what equipment the TAG has if you are not familiar with it.
Never leave a TAG in null state
I believe this point warrants its own section because I think it is the biggest mistake you can make when fighting a TAG. I can't stress it enough. No matter how Orders it takes to do it, either shoot the unconscious TAG dead or get close to Coup de Grace it. Taking it down to null state (unconscious) likely took some effort so don't give your opponent the chance to repair them with an Engineer.
You might think that a TAG coming back from null state with 1 Structure point is not a big deal but keep in mind that Engineers can repair all Structure points. It is different to healing units with a Doctor/Paramedic as the target of the Engineer skill doesn't need to be unconscious. It happened to me before and it is very frustrating to realize your hard work of killing a TAG and crippling your opponent's army was a waste of a turn.
So yeah, always finish off an unconscious TAGs. Even if there is no Engineer on the board; there are enough Engineer units in the game that can appear later (such as through Airborne Deployment).
TAG weaknesses
Facing TAGs is not all doom and gloom though, they do have weaknesses you can exploit. First the obvious, most TAGs are pretty big and tend to be hard to hide or even get partial cover (all really depends on the sort of terrain you have). Often enough you should be able to find an angle to get the TAG out of cover when you shoot it. Once you find this angle, make sure to use the right weapon.
My favourites are weapons with AP ammo (AP Marksman Rifle, AP HMG, Molotok, SMG, etc). Even a basic Damage 13 Rifle with AP ammo can kill a TAG in your active turn, especially if you can shoot it out of cover. I do think people underestimate how useful these weapons can be. TAGs might have 3 Wounds (Structure Points) but if you keep shooting with Burst 3 or more it is only matter of time before it dies.
It should go without saying that Missile Launchers and Autocannons are the best at killing TAGs. AP+EXP combo is enough to take out TAGs with 1 shot. Template weapons like Boarding Shotguns can also work as they can deny Cover but preferably you want to use the AP mode. I see templates as more of a last resort. Same goes for T2 ammo weapons. It is a threat to the TAG to take 2 Wounds with one failed ARM save but without AP they have a good chance of passing that ARM save.
Also should go without saying that using very basic Rifles without special ammo is almost always waste of time, it is a Hail Mary if there is literally nothing else you can do.
Another thing I found good to keep in mind is that TAGs are not designed for Close Combat (CC). Sure, the models might have big ass swords and they might have a high CC stat (all their stats are high though) but currently there is only one TAG in the game with Martial Arts (or any CC skills); the O-Yoroi from JSA has Martial Arts Lv1. This might not be a relevant tactics to some armies, but especially Ariadna has access to some great CC units with high Physical and AP Close Combat Weapons (CCW). I find the CC tactic to be useful especially if the TAG is in Suppressive Fire and/or has TO Camo.
The last point I would like to make about TAG weaknesses is that due to their Points Cost, the rest of your opponent's army is likely designed to support the TAG and it is not big. Thus it is a viable tactics to ignore the TAG and take out their Orders instead. No matter how good the TAG is, if your opponent has only few Orders left it can become virtually useless. I would definitely recommend this if you don't have any good units to attack the TAG with. Get pass the TAG fear, keep your head in the game and starve it of Orders. It might not always work but it might give you a better chance of winning the game than shooting the TAG and hoping for miracles.
Caledonia unit recommendations
If you play the Caledonian Highlander Army then I have some great news for you. The Scots are great at killing TAGs! There are so many units that can deal with them. You have access to variety of weapons with AP, from close range to long range and also plenty of units great in CC that come with AP CCW.
Lets start with the shooting. The best I think are the Scots Guard, especially in a Fireteam. All of them come with a weapon that can shoot AP rounds. They have SMG, D.E.P., AP Marksman Rifle, Molotok and Missile Launcher. And the best part? They all can have Camouflage. It is very satisfying when your opponent is thinking that they shooting at a sniper and then boom, its a Guard with Missile Launcher.
Then you also have Grey Rifles and Moarmaers, both Heavy Infantry units with good BS 13 and option for AP HMG. They can also form Fireteams for that sweet Burst 5 HMG; it is often enough to shred a TAG in one round of shooting.
Now the fun part, Close Combat. The best unit for the job in my opinion are the Highlanders. For mere 6pts these bad boys will almost guarantee you to cause at least 2 Wounds on any TAG. They have beautiful combination of skills and stats to get them to CC 27 and even if you do not crit, the TAG still has to take Damage 14 hit with AP. They are cheap, expendable, fast and have Smoke Grenades. Getting to CC with a TAG is not a problem for them. And you can have as many of them as you want! Few things are as satisfying as having your cheapest unit kill your opponent's the most expensive unit.
Another great unit for killing TAGs in CC I found is McMurrough (aka McMurder). This guy is even faster than Highlanders and also has Smoke Grenades. Once you get him to CC he has Martial Arts Lv3 so he can be up to CC 26 and he has DA+AP CCW, so that is two ARM saves for the TAG at DMG 16 with AP. To top it off, McMurrough has Total Immunity and ARM 4, so he can take a punch if you don't win the CC roll. The downside is that he is expensive on Points. Cameronians are a good cheaper alternative but they lack the Martial Arts and Double Action weapon.
For more brute force CC you can also use William Wallace and Wulvers. The downside with these guys is that they are not expendable, so if you go Berserk or lose the CC roll they can die as some TAGs do have EXP CCW. That said, even if it takes one or two Wulvers to kill the TAG, they are still killing something more expensive so it can be worth it. Less so with Wallace as you don't want to risk your Lt needlessly.
The last CC unit I'd like to point out are the SAS (and in extension Uxia). It might not be as obvious as the previous units why they are good for CC kills but they do come with Martial Arts Lv2 and AP CCW. This way you can get to DMG 16 if you want to and you have a very good chance of winning the first roll because if you attack out of Camo, you give the TAG -6 modifier. Then you can also use Martial Arts Lv1 to give them extra -3 and you will be at DMG 14. Overall you'll be at CC 19 with an SAS and the TAG will have a -9 CC modifier.
The problem with the SAS is the follow up though, after you are out of Camo you can't rely on the Surprise Attack (the -6 modifier) anymore. For this reason I think they are best suited for finishing wounded TAGs. In my experience the SAS work very well in twos. If you can get one into CC, cause a Wound and then follow it up with another SAS, you will have a decent chance at killing the TAG because the second SAS will have Burst 2.
The units mentioned thus far were more or less standalone, as in they can deal with a TAG in some way on their own (Fireteams only improve their ability to do so). There is, however, one more unit that I found useful to deal with TAGs. The unit is the good old Traktor Mul. There are two ways that I have used and found effective.
The first way is using the Guided Missiles. I do prefer Uragan because of AP but Katyusha can also work because of Double Action, it might take more Orders though. For this to work you will of course need a Forward Observer (FO) to Target the TAG. My choice of FO were the SAS. Thanks to WIP 13 and Camo you have a pretty decent chance of being able to Target anything in your Action Turn. After that it is just matter of spending Orders on the Mul to send missiles. You do have to watch out for enemy Hackers but your opponent might not have any since they are generally useless against Ariadna armies.
For the second combo you will need a Wardriver Hacker with a regular Hacking Device and an Uragan Mul; mainly because this is less effective on Katyusha with Burst 1. Simply give the Uragan Marksmanship Lv2 with the Hacker, get close to the TAG and blast it with AP missiles. This is something most armies do all the time if they have Remotes and Hackers, and it works so why not use it. If the TAG is in cover you can deny ARM bonus with Template Mode or if they not in cover, just use Hit Mode for extra DMG. If the TAG is not in cover you might think not to use the Hacker for Marksmanship, but it will help you in your following reactive turn so I'd do it anyway. The Uragan does have Total Reaction and Marksmanship Lv2 which will make anyone think twice about attacking it.
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