Judge, Jury and Executioner - Hortlak Janissaries in RTF

JUDGE, JURY AND EXECUTIONER - Hortlak Janissaries in RTF

In the Unit Focus series I take a look at the different units that make up the Ramah Taskforce, and try to answer why, not if, you should include them in your lists.

 

Disclaimer! As of writing of this article, there is no Corvus Belli released model for the Sniper armed Hortlak Janissary. I use the venerable Djanbazan Sniper as a stand in, as the two models have several similarities, and the latter can't be part of a RTF strike team. Thus in this article's photos you will see the Djanbazan act as a proxy Hortlak Sniper.

 

Ramah Taskforce may not be traditionally known for it's Heavy Infantry units, but it is actually home to several. The lightest and most independent of which is the Janissary Corps' Investigations Department - a unit staffed by the Hortlak ("Ghost") Janissaries. This special group of clandestine soldiers investigates, pursues and eradicates slavers from the lawless areas of the Human Sphere, and hence they must be effective solo operatives, as well as capable strike team members within RTF.

Heavy Infantry Trained by the Hassassins

The Hortlak Janissaries are a fascinating version of the nowadays rather common "super light Heavy Infantry" chassis - they are characterized by their moderate ARM and BTS of 3, and the fact that they have a single wound, No Wound Incapacitation and Immunity (Shock), rather than actual two wounds. The resulting trooper is quite not as sturdy as your more traditional S2 and S5 heavy soldiers, but mimics their tactical qualities at a cheaper pricepoint.

The rest of these Ghosts' statlines are mostly what you'd expect for this special type of unit; a (for Haqqislam) excellent BS of 13, PH of 12, light infantryish MOV of 4-4, please-don't-hit-me CC of 15, and above average WIP of 14. The last stat is actually pretty important even for the non-Specialist profiles, as the Hortlaks are Religious Troops, and thus they may require some convincing to get to duck into cover when facing overwhelming enemy firepower.

 

As befits their backstory as Hassassin trained undercover investigators, the Hortlak Janissaries benefit from Stealth. This somewhat migitates their innate weakness to Hacking, as enemy Hackers can't react to an advancing Hortlak unless they can see him, the Haqqislamite takes a non-stealthed action, or the Hacker has Sixth Sense! These deadly Ghosts also have Mimetism (-3), which makes them quite dangerous advesaries in a gunfight. Their deadliness is further enhanced by their BS Attack (+1 Dam), which while always nice, is especially valuable in this instance, as all the Hortlak profiles come with the ability to force several saves per hit (atleast at Pistol ranges).

An Arsenal Disguised as Luggage

All the Hortlak Janissary profiles come equipped with the Multispectral Visor L1 piece of gear. This makes these investigators naturally adept at hunting enemy Skirmishers and other Mimetism employing troops, and even allows for them to shoot through Smoke (albeit at a -6 penalty) and deny Warbands their Smoke face to face roll. All the Ghosts also carry Viral Pistols for close range encounters; these weapons are especially deadly against low BTS foes, and there are few enemies who can trivially shrug off two saves against DMG 13 (thanks to BS Attack (+1 Dam)) per hit!

Submachine Gun, Blitzen - 27pts

A damage 14 primary weapon with both AP and Shock rounds available ins't half bad a tool for handing out justice in the name of the downtrodden, though the lackluster rangebands do hurt somewhat - especially as the Hortlak Janissary has no advanced deployment abilities. If you do manage to get to medium to close range however, there are few enemies who can stare the vengeful Ghost down with inpuny (don't forget that at times it's better to take two shots with the Viral Pistol than three with the Submachine Gun!). If you can spare the Order, you should propably go into Suppressive Fire at the end of your turn, as digging a -9 mod (in Cover) imposing pseudo two wound model is a tough task for most foes - especially when they can't rely on Smoke to get you in melee! The Blitzen is an exotic (ARO) weapon, that can be catastrophical to enemy rambo pieces - most of them have little chance of making two DMG 15 saves against half BTS, and Isolated (if not Isolated and Immobilized) attackers often end up more or less neutralized. To me this profile is cheap enough to bring as a dedicated anti-Skirmisher, and don't forget that as Hortlaks are both Veteran Troops (though not actual Veterans) and Heavy Infantry as well as equipped with MSV L1, they can achieve a  good number of Classified Cards!

Submachine Gun, Blitzen, Chain of Command - 32pts

For a 5 point increase in price your Hortlak Janissary becomes a Specialist as well as an insurance policy against Loss of Lieutenant. He's my primary go to guy when I use an aggressive Lieutenant choice (I'm looking at you Khawarij Spitfire and Zhayedan HMG), or when I'm fearing for my Ghulam commander's safety. If the Hortlak ends up assuming command, there are far worse models to spend an extra Order on! Then again, if I'm running out of unit slots in my strike team and I need to fill an RTFFT Core or Haris, I'll turn to the point more expensive(!) Khawarij Chain of Command instead.

AP Sniper - 35pts/0,5SWC

The premier RTF Sniper ticks most of the magical boxes for a good (if not truly elite) high end marksman; he's somewhat tough, he imposes a Mimetism (-3) modifier on his opponents, he gets to utilize MSV L1, and he has respectable stopping power with DMG 16 AP rounds... He's even dangerous up close thanks to the Viral Pistol! You do pay for everything you get though, and he will go down if left atop a Sniper Tower to face the world - you can't even bank on surviving a hit and dropping prone because of Religous Troop! In my experience, even at Burst 2, Ramah Snipers can be deadly active turn threats if they can leverage their range advantage, so don't discout this guy as a potential attack piece of opportunity!

Sniper - 35pts/0,5SWC

I'm afraid this is a very niche pick for when you want to bring a Hortlak Sniper and expect to face several Dogged or NWI troops without Immunity (Shock). The tradeoff in armor penetration is steep though!

 

Hortlak Operative Requesing Ramah Taskforce Strike Support, Standing By

Hortlak Janissaries count as Janissaries for Fireteam Composition, which means they end up featuring in (real) Janissary squads when teamed up - I'll get into those in more detail in the appropriate Unit Focus article. As Heavy Infantry Fireteams tend to be expensive no matter how you build them, it's not that uncommon to spot Hortlaks as solo pieces, which is as well - I can picture the undercover investigator calling for backup when the opposition is too strong for a one man or woman strike to succeed!

As single soldier assets, Hortlak Janissaries slot right into the myriad mix of other strong single model choices that RTF has access to. To me, their main role is to bolster one of the great strenghts of Ramah Taskforce - redundancy. If I'm expecting several enemies with Mimetism (or a board/scenario with Low Visibility Zones), Hortlak is a solid secondary source of MSV. If I'm fearful for my Lieutenant's safety, bringing a sturdy Chain of Command model in addition to other safety measures helps me not to over focus on safeguarding my LT. If the Mission puts a heavy emphasis on completing Classified Objectives (such as ITS13 Countermeasures, Highly Classified or Biotechvore), bringing a model that can competently (if not easily) accomplish half a dozen Cards is nice. If I feel that my ARO presence is lacking, adding a pseudo two wound model with ARM 3, Mimetism (-3) and either an (AP) Sniper or Blitzen can help me shore up my reactive turn.

In my list building process the Hortlak Janissary most often ends up as the secondary Battle Group's secondary power piece. If the Nahab or the Mukhtar spearheading this six or seven order group gets pinned down or killed, usually there's a way for this light Heavy Infantry operative to develop their position, angle for an attack, or try and pressure the Mission, and thus make good use of the Orders available.

 

Locate, Pursue, Eradicate

If you're looking for a competent ARO piece or an aggressive Skirmisher hunter/Specialist, the Hortlak Janissary might be the unit for you! While not the first pick for most of my lists, he's a solid soft counter to many opposing strategies, and thus always worth a consideration. It's a testament to the dizzying richness of Ramah Taskforce that I'd characterize this stealthy Heavy Infantry soldier as one of the more straight shooting choices in the Sectorial! To me he's been a ton of fun to play, and I know my regular Tartary Army Corps Opponent hates every Viral weapon I can cram into my list! Just set your sights on the worst people that the Human Sphere has to offer, and unleash the Hortlak Janissary to hound their steps!

Until the next time - I wish you the very best in leading the Swift and Deadly Spear of the Haqqislamite Army to Victory!

 

The Veteran's Word

In The Veteran's Word I write down experiences and tactics that I did not include when I released the article originally. I will separate these additions into a subpart of their own, instead of adding them to the main text, as to make it easier for readers who've already read the article to find the new additions!

• 
  Hunting Season. The Hortlak Janissaries' Viral Pistols have turned out to be amazing tools in my games when it comes to shutting down the various types of Bearpodes and Dog Warriors that the different Ariadnan Factions love to use these days! Because of Vulnerability (Viral), these beasts not only have to take two saves per hit (at BTS 0 against DMG 13!), but the Bearpodes can't even trigger Dogged if they get knocked to 0 Wounds, as the Viral Pistol's built-in Shock will just take them cleanly off the board! The Hortlak Janissaries are especially deadly against these types of foes because of their excellent BS, their ability to form diverse Fireteams with Janissaries, and their Multispectral Visor L1s (that can partially bypass Smoke)! Down bear, down!
  

 

7/2/2021 Edit. Corrected the fact that Hortlak Janissaries can form Core Fireteams, as doing so does not require a skill, but rather their "counts as Janissary status" is enough. Thanks to Corvus Belli forum user Koval for outing the error and helping me fix it! This part of the article was removed after the N4 Fireteam Update as the way Fireteams are constructed was overhauled, but I chose to leave this editing note in place in honor of Koval!
23/4/2021 Edit. Ironed out some spelling mistakes and added links to the text.

2/3/2022 Edit. Added The Veteran's Word Hunting Season.

2/8/2022 Edit. Updated the piece to reflect the changes brought about by the N4 Fireteam Update.