In Service of Others - Warcors and Rahman Rouhani in RTF

IN SERVICE OF OTHERS - Warcors and Rahman Rouhani 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! I unfortunately don't own the Defiance set from Corvus Belli, so I lack the actual model for Rahman Rouhani. I use my SMG Hakim as a proxy, because he to me seems the closest fit considering Rouhani's weapons, stats and abilities.)

 

Ramah Taskforce is the very tip of the spear when it comes to the armed forces of Haqqislam. They have the best equipment, all the logistic support they can hope for, and most importantly, the most elite soldiers of the nation at their disposal. When it comes to building an ITS list with RTF however, there are times when units chosen are defined not by what they are, but rather what they're not. Let's look at two support elements of the sectorial; Warcors, the War Correspondents and the Medical Specialist Rahman Rouhani - pieces that help ease the list building process by the virtue of not being expensive!

 

News From the Front! 

Warcor: Flashpulse, Stun Pistol, 360 Visor OR Sixth Sense - 3pts.

I believe that two things are true in the world of Infinity. One, frontline journalists have kickass insurance policies that cover unlimited resurrections. Two, 185 years from now, Pulitzers are only awarded posthumously! Without a doubt, all across the game of Infinity, Warcors have the highest mortality rate of any unit, period! Back in the day, when there was still fall damage in N3, my Tuareg Hacker found himself in a precarious situation; he'd killed an Ariadna Scout in a top storey duel, but his advesary had placed an E/M Mine as a farewell present, and I couldn't risk failing a Dodge and having my precious Hacker Isolated. Luckily, my trusty Warcor was stationed atop the next building... So the journalist valiantly jumped from the rooftop, triggered the Mine midflight, and ended up plastered all over the street below. The Tuareg had a moment of silence for his self sacrificing friend, and went on to be instrumental in my victory...

For mere 3 points (the price of a Nasmat!) you too can include a thrill seeking journalist in your (RTF) list. The only stats of his/hers that are of significance, are his/her PH 11 (for Dodging incoming shots), WIP 13 (for Flash Pulsing against incoming shots) and ARM/BTS 0 (for trying desperately to survive when hit by incoming shots). Most, if not all, players go for the profile with the 360 Visor for all around Flash Pulse coverage, but theoretically there's the possibility of choosing the Sixth Sense too.

So why would you want to include a totally non-lethal Warcor in your elite strike team? Oh boy, why wouldn't you?

The primary use for the Warcor is to simply stand tall atop a piece of scenery watching a large (or otherwise high priority) area of the battlefield, and contest it with their Flash Pulse ARO. In the worst case scenario, the Opponent has to spend an Order to remove a three point model of yours from the board, before proceeding with their plan. In the okay scenario, it takes your Opponent two or more Orders to get the job done, because you scored a high success on your Flash Pulse/Dodge roll, or Cover saved your journalist's life. The great scenario is, that the Warcor actually wins a face to face, and then Stuns the offending enemy piece, stopping it's attack run for the turn. In the least likely scenario (yet one that still occurs disturbingly often), the Pulitzer chasing photographer Stuns foe after foe, and destroys your Opponent's chances of making any meaningful headway, thus leaving your fellow player wondering whether they should flip the table, or buy you a drink. A win-win-win-win scenario, if there ever was one!

Some of the other uses for the Warcor include stepping on (aggressively placed) Mines, providing sacrificial Discover and Look Out! AROs, having their Irregular Order changed to a Regular Order by using a Command Token, or guarding your backline against Combat Jumpers and Deployment Zone entering Parachutists.

Most importantly, you get all of the above for only 3 points! Ramah Taskforce is a truly elite Sectorial, that has an embarassment of riches when it comes to picking exciting profiles. Then again, most of these units are quite costly, and by including a Warcor in pretty much all of my lists, I'm able to drive the average cost of the list's models down, and thus strike a truly difficult balance between including as many sweet supersoldiers and elite fighters as I can, and fiedling a full strike force of 15 Order generating troops.

Defiantly Loyal

Rahman Rouhani; Submachine Gun, Flashpulse, Medikit - 21pts

Medical Specialist Rahman Rouhani is the Wildcard Doctor of Ramah Taskforce. His statline is mostly that of a souped up Ghulam, with 4-4 MOV, CC 15, BS 11, PH 11 and ARM 1. He does, however benefit from slightly higher WIP of 15 and from the extraordianry BTS of 6.

 

As a WIP 15 Doctor (+3) Rouhani heals his comrades in arms on 18s, though when compared to the 17s that most of RTF's Doctors are aiming for, the difference isn't huge. The Medical Specialist also benefits from Courage (little wonder considering his adventures!), as well as No Wound Incapacitation. The latter does give him some survivability against traditional weapons, but he's still very vulnerable to Shock rounds!

When it comes to armanents, Rouhani comes off very much holding the short end of the stick when compared to his competitors within the Sectorial. While having a WIP 15 Flash Pulse is great in and off itself, it's way less valuable on a model you usually want to keep hunkered down waiting for a squadmade to require medical attention. If you're willing to leave out a 21 point Doctor to ARO things with a Flash Pulse for your reactive turn, your plan of action propably hasn't worked without a hitch - after all, you've got the option for the 18 points cheaper Warcor for Flash Pulse ARO duty! It's also very hard to look at the Submachine Gun as anything else than a downgrade here either, as Rahman Rouhani is the nearly only Doctor in RTF who doesn't have access to a +6 MOD and Direct Templates in the form of a Shotgun of some type (the SMG Hakim doesn't have a Shotgun either, but unlike Rouhani, he can Parachute into the good range of the SMG, and he still carries a Chain Colt). This means that I'd never use Rouhani as a pointman for a Fireteam under (almost) any circumstances, whereas my Khawarij, Zhayedan, and even the humble Ghulam Doctor have impressive amounts of kills under their belts!

With Rahman Rouhani being a subpar fighter, and more expensive an option than the standard Ghulam Doctor, you're probably not going to see him as a solo pick too often. Instead, he's a way of including a cost effective Specialist and Doctor in your more elite Fireteams of Khawarijs, Zhayedans, Mukhtars or Janissaries. By replacing the squad's own healer option with this Wildcard, you can save 12/8/10/17 points respectively, and thus reduce the overall cost of the Fireteam. Unfortunately Rouhani doesn't have any "counts as" tags when it comes to Fireteam constuction, so you're sacrificing the "pure" Fireteam Bonuses when fielding him. This effectively means that the Character Doctor should mostly stick to deploying with either Haris/Duo Fireteams or Cores that have already decided to forgo the full Bonuses for one reason or another.

When I'm building my lists, I never start off by including Rahman Rouhani, but rather if I end up having a list I like that requires some points shaving to be legal, I'll slot him in to replace another more elite Doctor. Just take into account, that whenever you decide to include Rahman Rouhani in your list, you are sacrificing offensive (and sometimes also defensive) performance to do so. On the other hand, that's exactly the place you want to have a unit like this occupy; Rouhani is not an auto-include to replace anyone, but rather the more economical option for when you need to cut some corners in the list making process.

 

There's Honor in Faithful Service

There you have it! Two options for when you want to save points and make sure you have enough to bring as many fancy supersoldiers and veteran operatives as you possibly can! As was the case with the Murafeq remotes, while some pieces get to be the heroes of the day, others' main job is to give the heroes their chance to shine! I don't think the units covered in this article would mind though - Rahman Rouhani would probably be happy to lay low and perform his duty humbly, while the Warcor would just be excited to get to cover an exclusive story live!

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

 

 

20/4/2021 Edit. Corrected some spelling mistakes and added links to the text.

3/5/2022 Edit. Updated the article to the post N4 Fireteam Update era.