SST Tactics

Hi everyone I am new to SST, just got the starter. I was on a site reading a post on this game, and it convinced me I really need to get into this game. So is there any site someone can point me to so I can learn the basic tactics of the game. I really want to learn more on exosuits as I am doing an exosuits army. My brother is doing power armor & pathfinders. Then I plan on doing bugs after exosuits.
From what I have read exosuits are every strong but very fragile in that every loss hurts because of there low numbers. I am use to playing small forces in most table top games I play. I like to play very elite units, and I just love those exosuits especially those grizzlies. Thank you for any help.
 
Welcome to the forum and the hobby! MI stands for Mobile Infantry, so don't forget to jump( which requires a ready action but you can fire at any point in the jump). There's a saying in the MI: "On The Bounce!". Meaning make use of your mobility; to move to terrain, to get a line of sight, to encircle the enemy, etc. There are more stategy articles in Mongoose's online e-zine Strategy&Portents available from this website. Heck, it's free!
 
Yeah, the principal tenet of the (non light) MI is KEEP MOVING - you can't beat the bugs in a straight up fight

My usual Exo layout is 4-man Grizzly squads. 1 Sarge, 1 Corp, 1 trooper with sixguns and one with firestorms. I usually give the Sarge armourer as the volume of dice they roll in reactions can easily come up with enough 1s to knock them all out of ammo. Officers go in Cougars armed with sixguns.

I prefer to take as low a priority as possible, this guarantees better victory conditions, allows you to go first and your troops begin readied, so they can jump+shoot and ready again on your turn, allowing for a jump away as a reaction if things go bad.
 
Richgo22 said:
If you want to play elites. . . play bugs! A warrior or tanker only army is truly elite. . . .
I am planning on doing a big bug army after I do MI. This brings me to a question I had. What is a better way to take out King Tankers & Tankers in an exosuit platoon, the use of thermo lances or nukes? Another one is what would be the best way of taking out plasma bugs fast.
 
I'd go for firestorms and thermo lances over nukes for killing tankers. for the most part Tankers can't react, so you can close with them for the thermic killination. The most likely targets for direct fire nuke fun are plasmas or brains, as they have the largest long range strike capability.
 
Lorcan Nagle said:
Yeah, the principal tenet of the (non light) MI is KEEP MOVING - you can't beat the bugs in a straight up fight

Yep. They will be all over before you have got to shoot them AND top of that if you stubbornly stay in one place they bring tunneling assets top of you without you having chance to shoot at them...Fun fun fun when unit of warriors emerge straight among your troops :D

Move, keep moving, shoot, move and shoot some more :lol: Only good bug is dead bug.
 
The_King_of_Ashes said:
Hi everyone I am new to SST, just got the starter. I was on a site reading a post on this game, and it convinced me I really need to get into this game. So is there any site someone can point me to so I can learn the basic tactics of the game. I really want to learn more on exosuits as I am doing an exosuits army. My brother is doing power armor & pathfinders. Then I plan on doing bugs after exosuits.

Hey King, I'm glad I could convince you to start playing!

If you look back on these forums you'll find some tactics threads early on, but most of them are very basic and they're all probably hard to find right now. Sadly, there isn't really a SST Miniatures game site like 40konline yet to have a long list of tactics articles.

I've actually been writing some tactics articles (though mostly from a Bug/Skinnie perspective because there are so many MI players to give advice to other MI players) and I've been thinking of starting a website with a more diversified forum for SST, but I'm really just intimidated by the whole process of making a website with a forum. (If someone would like to pm me some pointers though, I could make it ASAP, don't hijack this post with advice for me). I've made simple websites, but not for years.

Anyway, I have a lot of experience playing against all forms of MI, so if you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me. The basic tactics that the above posters have pointed out are pretty good (Take a PL1 force with a few firestorms scattered in. Grizzlies should be your troops, Cougars should be your officers. Stay Mobile and out of sight whenever possible. Remember that you can move 15" and shoot every turn, so stay out of harm's way as long as possible, no need to take risks).

Good Luck!
 
It's always worth submitting ideas for tactics articles to S&P - the recent series for ACTA was very good and it'd be nice to see something similar for SST.

Plus you get paid :)
 
One thing to help keep your PL down is SICON military intelligence training - 50 points for your LT, but it means you can take support options 1 PL above what you could normally take, it also fulfills the Atomic Protocols requirement for taking nukes. So you can grab a nuke for use in a PL1 unit :D
 
Voracioustigger said:
mthomason said:
Plus you get paid :)

I didn't :(

If it's been published already you probably need to drop an email in to clonghurst@mongoosepublishing.com for RPG articles or ibarstow@mongoosepublishing.com for Wargaming articles (quoting the article in question) to get your word count - you'll also need to send them an invoice once you know how much it needs to be for (they used to have a ready-to-fill one, and probably still send it out if needed).
 
Lorcan Nagle said:
Yeah, the principal tenet of the (non light) MI is KEEP MOVING - you can't beat the bugs in a straight up fight
Actually this is true even to LAMIs. Just requires a little more efford to stay mobile and not get overrunned ^^
 
Richgo22 said:
If you want to play elites. . . play bugs! A warrior or tanker only army is truly elite. . . .

All warriors would be a problem for anything but Exos. The carrion bugs would be a nightmare.
I could take a 3000 point tanker bug army, which is 7 tanks I believe with just PAMI, no ships no nukes. Just a butt load of wasp troops and Javelins.
 
The_King_of_Ashes said:
So I have been reading "Signs & Portents", and came across "Target Exosuits!". Are exosuits really not that viable of an army list?

Oh they are, that's why the article came out. MI had a winning hand with the Exo Suits and a lot of bug players were up in arms apparently. I personally would like to see an article titled "Target Bugs". And the first person to say "Stay Mobile, remember it's MOBILE Infantry" gets a frozen salmon upside the head.
 
The_King_of_Ashes said:
So I have been reading "Signs & Portents", and came across "Target Exosuits!". Are exosuits really not that viable of an army list?

Target Exosuits was written because ARACHNID players were having troubles with Exosuits, not because the exosuits aren't a viable list. It wouldn't be a very good article if they already sucked!

As an Arachnid player who virtually never loses, I can tell you that Exosuits are definitely my most difficult opponents.
 
Still the exos are demanding opponent (or an excellent weapon) only if adequately (sp?) supported by other troops, all alone they aren't all that fazing. Just another example that SST is a balanced system requiring true combined arms approach ^^
 
Voracioustigger said:
The_King_of_Ashes said:
So I have been reading "Signs & Portents", and came across "Target Exosuits!". Are exosuits really not that viable of an army list?

Target Exosuits was written because ARACHNID players were having troubles with Exosuits, not because the exosuits aren't a viable list. It wouldn't be a very good article if they already sucked!

As an Arachnid player who virtually never loses, I can tell you that Exosuits are definitely my most difficult opponents.

What makes the article good is that it also shows Exo players exactly what to look for to keep their troops alive.

Exos are very tough, but they're not unbeatable. You've got an impressive amount of firepower, but it's concentrated on a small number of troopers. there's enough enemy units (Bug, MI and Skiny) that can either roll D6 with a hefty bonus or D10s, and it's not that hard to get a kill result on an exo or two with mass fire.
 
Also, Exosuits are in trouble if they lose their mobility. If you can completly surround them, and prevent them from jumping, you pretty much win, as all the charges and heavy fire at them will kill them quickly.
 
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