Quote: (Lion in the Stars @ 05 Mar. 2009, 22:34 )
Quote: (Lion in the Stars @ 05 Mar. 2009, 10:07 )
Except that 475-point unit is likely to be your BTS, if you're not taking a Manta, AND is probably costing you another activation just from points-cost alone.  I'd like a less-expensive option for getting 'Leader' into a FW formation, so that you can actually get 12 activations in 3000 points.
FW (200) + Devilfish
to get them someplace useful (100)  + Crisis (125) + Shas'El (50) = 475.  Or, 525 with an Orca instead of the DFish.
I'd much rather have a less-expensive leader, I'm struggling to keep
10 activations in 3000 points as it is.
I'm not objecting to the idea of a cheaper Leader option. I'm just saying your assumptions are wrong.
The plan for the formation is an Orca and putting them in an Orca doesn't make them 475 or the BTS. In fact, Orca deployment makes the most sense for that formation. Devilfish in a formation with Crisis suits is a waste. Crisis suits slow down the Devilfish a lot more than unmounted FW slow down the Crisis. However, the Crisis upgrade is fast and numerous enough to stop the formation from garrisoning. Slow no matter what and unable to garrison means Orca is definitely the best option.
I can't imagine why you can't get over 10 activations. I knocked out a FW-heavy list at lunch to start thinking about my game tomorrow and came up with 11 formations/9 activations (2 loaded Orcas) without even considering overall activation count. That includes the above formation, and 2 others at 400+ points. The only truly fragile formation in the list is a Recon group of 6 LVs. I could easily pad out the activations by deploying garrisons.