The Sophotect Challenge - Unit Spotlight
I know that haven't posted much about my Sophotect challenge in the last while, but that's a problem that's about to be fixed! After finishing up my Sophotect's paintjob (shown below), I managed to squeeze in about 6-7 games with the Aleph operative. This article is the product of the lessons I learned during those games, but keep in mind that I'll be discussing the Sophotect specifically in the context of the ISS. Aleph lackies need not apply!
My personal challenge was to play the Sophotect in every game for a month, so trust me when I say that four weeks of Sophotect madness will drive anyone to think like a totally rational computer. As I played game after game with the Sophotect, my new robotic mindset revealed a few trends in behaviour (both mine and Sophie's) that I found interesting and worth a second look.
First, the Sophotect is a very capable counter-strike unit. I don't mean that she can lay waste to enemies that poke out at a distance, but rather that she is good at punishing models that get too close. She's fast, well-armoured, carries a Combi-Rifle (hey, it's a big deal...I play Ariadna), and has "2" wounds, making her good at popping off a few shots at a unit that just happened to get a bit too far into your territory. More than that, her durability gives me counter-strike confidence I might not have with another doctor unit: another doctor might die if it takes a stray shot, but the Sophotect can take that wild shot and press her positional advantage, if necessary. In many ways, she can act as an angel of vengeance as much as she acts as an angel of mercy.
Speaking of angel of mercy, the Sophotect has an impressive WIP of 15, which gives her a 75% chance to succeed on any given Doctor/Engineer roll. This is just plain fantastic. In all my games with Sophie, she only ever botched one such attempt. Every other time, her patient stood up and rejoined the fight, making her an invaluable contribution to almost every battle she was in. Combine this kind of success rate with the fact that she can heal any model on the board and remove a number of negative effects, and you've got yourself a model that is a lot more than just a regular doctor or engineer. Hell, I don't usually field many remotes, but Sophie's ability to bring them back to fighting status made them a lot more enticing, despite their hacker premium.
After all this talk about Sophie, I think it would be useful to discuss the Yaozao for a bit, if only because the ISS gives the already-fast Sophotect a super-speedy helperbot. First thing: I found that fitting the Yaozao into lists was generally easy (and it was easy enough to cut from lists, too). It was also really enticing to do, letting Sophie "be" on both sides of the board at once, which in turn removed positioning issues altogether. In fact, the one or two games in which I didn't take a Yaozao, I found myself gnashing my teeth because Sophie was on the wrong side of the board. That's not to say that the Yaozao is necessary - Sophie is fast enough and durable enough to keep pace with the action - but I still found myself wanting one when I didn't have one. If you absolutely need to cut 3 points to make room for something else, the Yaozao is a good place to start...but remember, you don't have to like it.
31-34 points is a scary investment to make in a doctor model. Designing a list and devising a play style around the Sophotect helped to ease my fear, though. I avoided minis with NWI, and I moved my troops with a mind to healing, having Sophie and her Yaozao keep pace with the rest of my models. I seldom ramboed a model up the board, because that would have put it out of range of the healing goodness of the Sophotect. I also tended to grab frontal cover a lot (as opposed to peeking around corners), because if my model took a hit, I wanted it to go Prone behind something that would give it total cover. Things were even better if the Yaozao could hide completely behind the obstacle.
Overall, I find the Sophotect to be far more powerful than a regular Doctor or Engineer. She is great at healing, she can strike back at models that get too close, and she is quite tough for a support model. You do pay for the privilege of all this goodness in one package, though. I found that she forced me to get comfortable with an unfamiliar playstyle, but I think it was a good thing for my Infinity game. Hopefully she can do the same for you, too.
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| Glossy finishes don't work well for the camera... |
First, the Sophotect is a very capable counter-strike unit. I don't mean that she can lay waste to enemies that poke out at a distance, but rather that she is good at punishing models that get too close. She's fast, well-armoured, carries a Combi-Rifle (hey, it's a big deal...I play Ariadna), and has "2" wounds, making her good at popping off a few shots at a unit that just happened to get a bit too far into your territory. More than that, her durability gives me counter-strike confidence I might not have with another doctor unit: another doctor might die if it takes a stray shot, but the Sophotect can take that wild shot and press her positional advantage, if necessary. In many ways, she can act as an angel of vengeance as much as she acts as an angel of mercy.
Speaking of angel of mercy, the Sophotect has an impressive WIP of 15, which gives her a 75% chance to succeed on any given Doctor/Engineer roll. This is just plain fantastic. In all my games with Sophie, she only ever botched one such attempt. Every other time, her patient stood up and rejoined the fight, making her an invaluable contribution to almost every battle she was in. Combine this kind of success rate with the fact that she can heal any model on the board and remove a number of negative effects, and you've got yourself a model that is a lot more than just a regular doctor or engineer. Hell, I don't usually field many remotes, but Sophie's ability to bring them back to fighting status made them a lot more enticing, despite their hacker premium.
After all this talk about Sophie, I think it would be useful to discuss the Yaozao for a bit, if only because the ISS gives the already-fast Sophotect a super-speedy helperbot. First thing: I found that fitting the Yaozao into lists was generally easy (and it was easy enough to cut from lists, too). It was also really enticing to do, letting Sophie "be" on both sides of the board at once, which in turn removed positioning issues altogether. In fact, the one or two games in which I didn't take a Yaozao, I found myself gnashing my teeth because Sophie was on the wrong side of the board. That's not to say that the Yaozao is necessary - Sophie is fast enough and durable enough to keep pace with the action - but I still found myself wanting one when I didn't have one. If you absolutely need to cut 3 points to make room for something else, the Yaozao is a good place to start...but remember, you don't have to like it.
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| Don't throw me in the garbage heap with all those JSA robots... |
31-34 points is a scary investment to make in a doctor model. Designing a list and devising a play style around the Sophotect helped to ease my fear, though. I avoided minis with NWI, and I moved my troops with a mind to healing, having Sophie and her Yaozao keep pace with the rest of my models. I seldom ramboed a model up the board, because that would have put it out of range of the healing goodness of the Sophotect. I also tended to grab frontal cover a lot (as opposed to peeking around corners), because if my model took a hit, I wanted it to go Prone behind something that would give it total cover. Things were even better if the Yaozao could hide completely behind the obstacle.
Overall, I find the Sophotect to be far more powerful than a regular Doctor or Engineer. She is great at healing, she can strike back at models that get too close, and she is quite tough for a support model. You do pay for the privilege of all this goodness in one package, though. I found that she forced me to get comfortable with an unfamiliar playstyle, but I think it was a good thing for my Infinity game. Hopefully she can do the same for you, too.
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