Caledonian handbook on how to fight TAGs

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.

Harlequins 4 - Deus Vult

I have to say that Harlequins is proving to be one of my favourite tournaments to go to. I'd even say the venue is the best one we go to; it has plenty of room, easy parking, snacks & drinks sold on premises and shops nearby. Also, in the last three years of going to ITS events the Harlequins 4 was the first tournaments after Norther Open to have all tables fully painted; I haven't seen any bare MDF terrain. That was really cool to see.

From our usual Leeds group it was only me this time, but Ed who organizes Northern Open also came to play. In the last round I was on 3rd or 4th place (the second top table) and played against Greg. It was a tough game to play Supplies with only 10 Orders. Greg won the game, taking 2nd place on the event.

The first place went to someone who came all the way from France, which was really cool. He was also playing Military Orders, as did I think two other people (so there were four of us I believe). Which was interesting to see but not as surprising since Limited Insertion is where  Military Orders can work really well. 

Overall I was happy with how I played, though I believe I should have approached the last mission differently. I am not decided yet if I will take Military  Orders again to Northern Open 10 next month, will try to get some more practice games to see if I can make Caledonia or Ariadna lists I'd be happy with.

My Army Lists

List A

List B

Both of my lists were similar in nature and how I was intending to play them. The main difference were the knights that would form a Fireteam with Joan. The List A was going to be used for two missions (2nd and 3rd round) as it was more offensive, at least on paper, but I ended up using it only in the last round. The List B was intended for the Transmission Matrix mission, with De Fersen and Switch to kill enemy Hackers if someone tried to play this mission with Smart Missile Launchers.

In hindsight Switch never got value during my games, either as Specialist or just as Killer Hacker. I also felt the same way about Konstantinos. He does look really good in theory but a Spec. Sergeant with TO did the same role better.

Otherwise the lists did work as I wanted them to. Joan and two knights hid at the back of the board, baiting my opponents to go after them so that my Spec. Sergeants were safe in the mid field to take Objectives. It worked perfectly in the first two rounds but not as well in the Supplies mission.

Game 1:  Transmission Matrix - Military Orders vs Steel Phalanx
Won 8 to 2 (3 TPs)

The first game was against new opponent for me, Chris. I believe I saw him on tournaments before but we never played as far as I can remember. His Steel Phalanx had Hector with three other models to follow him, then another Fireteam of four and two models on their own. I can't remember any of the names but there was no Achilles or Phoenix or other characters I often see. Chris won the Lt roll and decided to go first. I chose a side believing I had TO Sniper (I didn't) but even without using the high ground at least I denied it to Chris.

Chris' first round went as well as I could have hoped. Because I deployed only five models he was unsure where my TO might show up and kept expecting a Sniper. As such he used several Zero-V Smoke Grenades to get across the board which he didn't need to use at all. He took Hector with his Fireteam down my right flank and took defensive position around an objective (next to the plane on the photo above).  Chris also had troops within Zone of Control (ZoC) of the two objectives in front of his Deployment Zone (DZ). Nothing of mine died that turn but Chris did have control of three objectives.

In my first time I tried to kill some enemies with Joan as they were close but the dice weren't with me and Chris managed to put down Smoke around his units. This, however, allowed me to reveal a TO Marker without it being seen by enemies. It was a Spec. Sergeant who then placed a mine next to the objectives, threatening several enemy troops. With nothing else I could shoot at I started to reveal other TO Markers. I had one next to each objective near by DZ and then three around the middle. I had to send two of those to take control over objective near Chris' DZ, on my right side. 

At the end of the round I had control over lower left objective, middle objective and top right. The trooper that Chris had on the top right objective was few points cheaper than my Spec. Sergeant. Chris had the other two objectives.

The second turn was much deadlier. Chris had to waste an Order or two to get rid of the mine. Hector tried to tank it but took a Wound. The Fireteam then focused on killing the Spec. Sergeant near them, he died in CC. Chris then moved Hector with his men into my DZ to attack Joan with Hospitaller Knight and De Fersen. It was brutal, Hector's Plasma Rifle made me take lots of saves but I also passed a lot. It took Chris more Orders than he expected, he had 2-3 left and my troops took only one 1 Wound each. Hector did try to finish them and in his last round of shooting killed De Fersen (he took 4 ARM saves and 4 BTS saves), but Joan got my first and only Crit of the game and killed Hector! He did take some damage earlier from the shooting. 

My second turn wasn't as exciting. I knew I still held the three objectives and would score two points again, so I mainly just put my guys into defensive positions and might have killed one or two enemies with Joan. 

In his last turn Chris went all out to capture objectives. He broke his Fireteams and with help of Smoke he managed to move his troops around with relative ease. I am fairly certain that by the end of his round he had control over all objectives. More importantly for me, Chris did not appear to complete any of his Classified Objectives but I knew he had opportunity to secure my HVT.

With that in mind and the fact I was 4 objective points ahead, in my last turn I focused on doing my Classified Objectives. This would give me 4 more objective points so even if Chis held more objectives and did all his Classified, I'd still win. I did one Classified by Forward Observing an enemy. This I accomplished near the top right objective. My Spec. Sergeant revealed himself to FO one of the troops and once it was targeted I was able to kill them easily (not that I needed to but I had Orders spare).

For my second Classified I had to go for Secure HVT as my Hackers were dead so I couldn't do the card. I had to use Joan to kill enemy trooper near my own HVT and then I was able to secure enemy HVT by abandoning the middle objective and moving closer to the enemy HVT. In the end I won a major victory as Chris wasn't able to complete any of his Classified Objectives. 

Game 2:  Antenna Field - Military Orders vs Haqqislam
Won 7 to 2 (3 TPs)

The second game was against Joe, someone I played in Norther Open 9. I was intending to use my List A but I expected Joe to have at least one TAG as last time we played he used two TAGs and so I thought De Fersen might be a good unit to have against TAGs. The game played out similarly to the first game. I won the Lt roll this time and chose to go second as mission involved the same scoring at the end of each round. My deployment was similar also, TO hidden on each flank and three in the middle. I also deployed WarCor in a hidden place but in ZoC of my HVT. Joe did indeed place down two TAGs, Maghariba Guard and Scarface. 

Joe was was more aggressive in his first turn than my previous opponent. I suspect because the TAGs were not afraid of any potential snipers. Both TAGs climbed over buildings down my right flank, straight for Joan and her Fireteam. On their way they also killed my WarCor, he didn't hide very well. Scarface held back just in front of my DZ on top of a building, but the Maghariba Guard went all the way to the edge of the table to attack my Fireteam. Annoyingly it moved just outside of De Fersen's ZoC so I couldn't hack it. Before Joe run out of Orders, the TAG was able to use its Heavy Flamer twice. Hospitaller Knight and De Fersen both died to the flames, I had some bad rolls on them but Joan survived the turn and took only 1 Wound. Joe also had Specialists touching the objective in his DZ and in the middle.

My first turn was very straight forward. Joan loaded up AP ammo into her multi-rifle and went against the TAGs. The Maghariba Guard already took a Wound before and she was able to kill it without much trouble, her BS 15 (and +3 for good range) is insane. Scarface shared the same fate. He tried to Panzerfaust her but Joan was able to outroll him and killed him in two Orders. Shooting both TAGs at BS 18 with AP rounds proved to be quite deadly. I have revealed some TO Spec. Sergeants to kill two of Joe's troopers. Before end of the turn Joan also Coup de Graced the Maghariba Guard, completing my Classified Objective.

Joe had no TAGs but still enough Orders and units to threaten my revealed Spec. Sergeants. There was a really funny combat between Spec. Sergeant, Mutt and Nasmat Remote. The Mutt had +1 Burst thanks to the Remote but I managed to get a Crit with the Spec. Sergeant, however, as the Mutt had Dogged he then killed the Spec. Sergeant (realizing only now that my Spec. Sergeant has only Knife which should have Shocked the Mutt to death, oh well!). Joe did also try to get Cordelia to the unconscious Scarface but I had a TO Marker along the way that took an ARO and killed her. 

In my turn I was less focused on Joe's troops and went for objectives instead. I might have shot some troops but mainly I was moving remaining Spec. Sergeants into position to take objectives. I had three of them alive and Joan. By the end of the turn I had objective in my DZ and one on my right side (which was on a roof). I don't think I had the middle and nobody held the objective on my left, as Joe had only the one in his DZ I scored full points this round.

In the last turn Joe went all out, using his last two Specialists to hold the objective in his DZ and take the middle. He also had a trooper near the building with objective on its roof. So he climbed up and tried to shoot my Spec. Sergeant holding the objective. But I won the roll and killed Joe's trooper. Which turned out to have AutoMedkit and I failed the free shot. So the turn ended with the enemy trooper denying me that objective as it was base to base. 

I still could have lost if I didn't take the middle objective so that was the focus of my last turn. One Spec. Sergeant and Joan moved together in sort of a pincer move so I had two attacks against the enemy Specialists. Joan was enough to kill it though, giving my Spec. Sergeant free move to take the objective. I didn't want to risk him first as I was worried Joe would get a crit or something. I might have killed the guy on the roof again but not sure I did as I already controlled more objectives.I learned the value of preserving models in the past.

Game 3:  Supplies - Military Orders vs Tohaa
Lost 2 to 7 (0 TPs)

My last opponent of the day was Greg from The Plastic Crack Blog. We played several times before and he was worried I'd beat him but I know Greg can play with his Tohaa well. I won the Lt roll and wasn't quite sure if I should go first or second. Going second worked for me thus far and I wasn't confident about this mission going first with only 10 Orders. My deployment was almost the same as other games, Joan with Fireteam at the back and TO troops hidden at the objectives. The only difference was having a Sniper that infiltrated on high ground.

As I mentioned earlier, I should have switched my strategy for this mission because there was no need for Greg to take the bait and instead, just as he should have, he focused on objectives. He was able to take one on my left side back to his Deployment Zone and he also took the middle one but without enough Orders to fall back, he just held in the middle with troops on Suppressive Fire. 

I was able to take out two or three units with my HMG Knights, with BS 14 and Burst 5 they were deadly.  Unfortunately because Tohaa have extra Wounds and SymbioMate it took me too long to kill them, so my turn was over quickly. My mistake here was not taking any of the objectives and not even advancing with Joan and the Fireteam.

Greg was going to medic his two fallen troopers in his second turn and then run off with the second objective he had but one my Spec. Sergeants made it difficult for him by revealing and dropping a mine. The mine would have hit at least two troops regardless who'd active. To avoid dropping the objective Greg first activated a trooper that was too far from the objective carrier but my Spec. Sergeant responded by dropping another one. This killed one of the two troopers and the second mine killed the other one. The Spec. Sergeant also died but it tied up many of Greg's Orders and in the end Greg was back where he started. 

As Greg was moving away with the objective I made another mistake by revealing Spec. Sergeant on my right flank. I thought the shot was going to be worth it but the Tohaa unit survived and Greg then used last Orders to kill the revealed Spec. Sergeant. Which hurt me in the second turn as that Spec. Sergeant should have just focused on taking the last unopened Objective, which would have made my game easier.

Just like in my first turn, my HMGs were killing everything that they could see and at least this time moved up to the middle of the board. But again, thanks to silly Tohaa rules it took too many Orders to kill anything and I still had no objectives. Very bad place for me at the end of the second turn.

In his last turn Greg had only three units left but it was enough Orders to get even further away from me and hide the troops with Objectives. He also managed to bring back to life the AutoMedkit unit again. I revealed my last Spec. Sergeant to ARO it but failed the free shot. 

Even though Greg had two objectives and I had none, I still had a chance to win the game. All I had to do was to kill one Tohaa unit with a Missile Launcher. If it died I would have been able to kill one of Greg's troops with an objective, take it and then either kill the second trooper with an objective and/or do my Classified Objectives. Problem was the limited number of Orders and the fact that the unit I needed to kill still had a SymbioMate. My rolls did not help either and when I did hit, Greg just used the SymbioMate and then when I hit again he passed all ARM saves too. When it got to the point of not having enough Orders to kill the trooper with Objective and take it, I just did my two Classified Objectives for some Objective points.