This is the Wartrader, rambling on about random Remotes and the Hackers who Hack them…

Following on from part one and part two, let's take a look at the interactions between Hackers and Remotes.

Hacking Buffs - Supportware

Amongst a large number of other changes to Hacking, there are a number of 'Supportware' Hacking Programs. These are buffing abilities give benefits to other units (and sometimes the Hacker). An important restriction on Supportware Programs is that each Hacker can only run one at a time, so multiple buffs will require multiple Hackers. The basic Hacking Device and the Hacking Device Plus have the two Programs we're interested in…

Hacking Buffs - Assisted Fire

The targeted Remote gains Marksmanship Level 2 for the current player turn and the next player turn. As with the Spetsnaz, this means that any BS Attacks that the Remote makes have Shock ammo in addition to any other ammo types and (maybe more importantly) the Remote can ignore the BS penalty for shooting a target in Partial Cover.

This is especially popular for Reactionbots with their HMGs as it makes them both nastier as active-turn hunters and as reactive turn sentry guns. Outside of the standard Remotes, the ALEPH Dakini with HMG benefits greatly from Assisted Fire, as do the Nomad Tsyklon with Spitfire, the Yu Jing Rui Shi with Spitfire and MSV2 and the Panoceania Peacemaker and Bulleteer Spitfire loadouts.

Hacking Buffs - Enhanced Reaction

The targeted Remote gets Burst 2 in reaction during the next player turn, rather than the usual Burst 1. Of the standard Remotes, the SMLbot gains the most out of this and becomes quite a vicious long-range reaction choice with it, although the cheap-as-chips Repeaterbot shouldn't be dismissed - a Burst 2 Flash Pulse in reaction can be highly amusing due to it's relatively good range bands combined the base WIP13 of the Remote give it WIP16 to hit from 8" to 24", before cover and camo. In one particular game a Repeaterbot back in my Deployment Zone blinded 3-4 enemy troopers in succession as they were trying to deal with a bunch of my infiltrators and Remotes up in the middle of the table and couldn't spare the Orders or shots to deal with an 8pt robot. He he he.

Outside the standard Remotes, the ALEPH Dakini with MULTI Sniper Rifle and Combined Army Unidron Batroid with Plasma Sniper Rifle are particularly good targets, although the Nomad Tsyklon with Feuerbach (AP plus DA ammo) gets an honourable mention, as does the Nomad Lunokhod as Burst 2 reactions with either it's Heavy Shotgun or Heavy Flamethrower is bleeping scary.

Hacking Buffs - Restrictions

• As mentioned above, each Hacker can only run one Supportware Program at once.
• Enhanced Reaction and Assisted Fire can't be run on the same Remote at the same time.
• Enhanced Reaction and Assisted Fire require the Remote to be within the Hacker's Hacking Area (within 8" of the Hacker or of any friendly Repeaters) when activated, although the Remote can move out of the Hacking Area after this. As Reactionbots lost their Repeaters and SMLbots never had them, this means you're going to need a Hacker or Repeater nearby.
• The Hacker needs to be active - take down the Hacker and the Supportware Program drops as well. So although it's tempting to load up on line trooper Hackers to buff your Remotes, you're going to need to protect those Hackers from enemy drop troopers, Impersonators, Infiltrators etc. becuase they become particularly juicy targets. The exceptions being some of the Heavy Infantry Hackers like Panoceania's De Fersen, the Yu Jing Shang Ji Hacker or the nastier Combined Army Hackers like the Charontid or Anathematic.

Other Remotes Updated

If you pore through the N3 unit update PDF some of the non-standard Remotes (for example the Dakinis) are almost entirely unchanged apart from the across-the-board weapon cost changes and slight PH bumps. Some of the other Remotes have changed more drastically.

• The Nomad Sputnik-class Remotes (Tsyklons and Lunokhods) have seen substantial drops in points and for the Tsyklon with Feuerbach also an SWC drop.
• The Lunokhod went down by around 3pt while going from a Boarding Shotgun to a Heavy Shotgun - but at the cost of their CC attribute going to to 3. Not by 3 but to 3.
• Likewise the Tsyklon Spitfire + Marker (a fireable Repeater) dropped from 1SWC/37pt to 1SWC/33pt and agin CC3, while the Feuerbach dropped from 1.5SWC/38pt to 1SWC/31pt which is good because the Spitfire loadout was almost always more useful!
• For PanOceania, the Armbot Bulleteer Heavy Shotgun dropped from 25pt to 19pt and the Spitfire from 29pt to 25pt. The Armbot Peacemaker saw similar drops.
• For Yu Jing the Lu Duan dropped from 25pt to 22pt even though it's Mk 12 gun appears to have increased in cost, while the Rui Shi with it's MSV2 dropped from 25pt to 21pt.

Almost all the non-standard Remotes other than the Dakinis or Pi-Well are now Silhouette S4 so are on 55mm bases so are less manoeuvrable.

Summary

Hackers + Remotes have a lot more synergy than in N2 - although the Repeaters in many Remotes increased the Hackers' coverage, there are now multiple ways for the Hackers to actively increase the effectiveness of the Remotes, but with the usual downside that it costs Orders to run the Programs and you're going to need a turn to actually run the programs - no programs will be in effect if you're going second…

Most of the non-humanoid Remotes have gone down in price, presumably due to the increased risks of being Hacked and from the base size increases, but the Sputnik-class Remotes actually got a slight rejig making them more specifically assault Remotes that are going to be in severe trouble if even a basic line trooper reaches combat.

So, what's your favourite Hacker + Remote combination?