Guest Writer: Ayyar You Ready For Some Tactics?!

Welcome, friends and Comrades! I know I have been silent these past couple of weeks but I promise I have something special in the works, it's just taking some time to get everything right. In the mean time though, our wonderful Comrade in Arms over at Pride of Rodina  has graciously helped out by guest writing for the Sword of Haqqislam! This is what I hope to be as furthering diplomatic ties between Haqqislam and Ariadna! It seems that there are a few Russians operatives for the Hassassin as Pride of Rodina has written about the awesome, the mysterious Hassassin Ayyar! Without further delay, my friends! 

Ayyar You Ready For Some Tactics?!

Ayyars are one of those criminally underrated troops that perform exceptionally well in both their respective sectorial and in Vanilla. They are master killers, while still possessing the ability to dupe your opponent, and claim objectives.

General Tactics

We'll break down the skills first, before we get too carried away:

• Specialist Operative - Always counts as a specialist, for mission purposes. 
• Religious Troops -  Never runs away from the fight or cowers (actually requires a Guts check to even duck in cover).
• Free Agent - Does not require a Command Token to switch Order Pools.

The one thing that REALLY makes the Ayyar shine is their Holoprojector Lv. 2. This piece of tech is superb and has a wide range of uses. The absolutely key part about the Holoprojector is its ability to throw up Holoechoes and regenerate them in the Reactive Turn. These Holoechoes give you a few things; the ability to hide your Ayyar (which one is the real one), a way to protect them (can't kill what you can't find, plus 'echoes can preliminary destroy mines) allows them to benefit from Surprise Shot (sometimes even Lv. 2, depending on which loadout you're using), and, sometimes, even extra movement.

I won't go into the full semantics of the Ayyar's Holoprojector (like the shenenagins of mixing Lv. 2 and Lv. 1, I'll leave these for another article), but the best way to play with the 'echoes is to fool your opponent to shoot at the wrong one. There's a few different ways you can get this done, but usually keeping your 'echoes in a triangle is the best way. It allows you to split up them up without creating a 'head', and avoids having all three hit by most template weapons (should still be concerned with big template weapons, like heavy flamethrowers). This also makes it a bit harder to figure out which is the real one, since it helps create the illusion of not having preference of one 'echo over the others. Having an indifference towards all of them is critical to maintaining the illusion, but, of course, don't willy nilly throw the actual Ayyar into trouble. That's just silly.

The other perk of the Ayyar is the fact that they're a HI with BS 13, WIP 14, ARM 3, and BTS 3. They can easily outgun opponents, cap objectives, and they're somewhat resilient (especially with 2 wounds). They are excellent harassers, assassins, and objective-grabbers. They're the kind of troops you send out on a flank by themselves and take that side of the table on, by themselves. You will rarely need to support them, as they contain almost all of the tools they'll need to support themselves. They have the ability to easily stack mods, allow for unopposed shots, clear mines, can engage targets at varying ranges (thanks to their twin viral pistols), eliminate most targets with ease, secure and objective, and hold it. Even the ability to switch groups easily, to maximize the use of your Orders between groups, helps accent their 'lone wolf' role. Their only weakness is being hacked. Try to avoid those hacking nets, as much as possible!

Rifle + E/Mitter (37, 0)

This rascal packs a bit of a diverse package. It's got a rifle, E/Mitter, and D.E.P. to engage a wide range of targets. The rifle helps give it a reliable, short-ranged weapon, the E/Mitter for all of the fun of completely shutting down any electronic targets, and the D.E.P. to help it crack any armored targets it comes across. While most of the weapons are pretty close-ranged and low burst, the Surprise Shot Lv. 2 and BS 13 of the Ayyar will help it hit any targets. Plus, if you use your Holoechoes correctly, you could even get an unopposed shot off. The real advantage is the twin viral pistols. Since this Ayyar already wants to get up close and person, those pistols will really shine as a counter-measure and backup offensive choice, when the rest of the kit fails. Burst 3 viral with a +3 for range and a -6 on the opponent for Surprise Shot Lv. 2 is DEADLY. 

If you just want a versatile HI Specialist to take an objective and hold it, this loadout is for you. Its specialty isn't killing targets, but scaring them away and holding zones, especially with Suppressive Fire, while your bigger, scarier pieces take out the threats.

Shock Marksman Rifle (39, 0)

The Shock marksman rifle turns your Ayyar into a tricky, Houdini-esque, HI, into a deadly threat to most MI and LI. The marksman rifle allows them to out-range most common weapons, and stacking a -6 from Surprise Shot Lv. 2, like the Rifle+E/Mitter loadout. It also allows this Ayyar to tackle most heavy weapons and take them out with ease, except for TAGs and HI. This loadout prefers to go hunting and flanking enemy positions and take objectives, especially those protected by any light targets that aren't immune to Shock. It easily works as another front line aggressor/pusher without using any SWC and can sit on an objective when the time comes, in Suppressive Fire too!

This loadout is an excellent killer/hunter and objective grabber, since it can hold most objectives with ease and can deter most other Specialists, besides HI. Worse case scenario, get up close and use those twin viral pistols!

Sniper Rifle (39, 0.5)

I'd argue that this is probably the least impressive of the loadouts, since Hassassins and Vanilla Haqqislam have a lot of better snipers, but it's definitely an interesting choice. The ability to use Holoprojector Lv. 1 and Lv. 2 is really an interesting choice on this loadout. It's arguably useful on the other two, as they're already aggressive and moving about, but since this loadout is more likely to lay low for a bit, you can get the most out of the little ruse. Also, it makes for an excellent late turn objective grabber, it excels at securing objectives near your Delpoyment Zone, and it also works well at securing your DZ, too, thanks to the twin viral pistols. The most disappointing thing is the lack of Surprise Shot Lv. 2 on this loadout, like the others, it only has Surprise Shot Lv. 1 (granted by Holoprojector).

Thanks again to the Pride of Rodina for sharing his knowledge with the Sword of Haqqislam! As always, my friends, continue to seek knowledge!