Irmandinhos – Unit Analysis

“An Irmandinho will buy or sell anything, that much is known: if it’s broken, he’ll fix it; if he can’t fix it, he’ll use it to bash someone’s head in.”

Ask any Ariadna/TAK player and they’ll tell you how much they love the Irmandinhos. They’re warbands, specialists, smoke support, harassers, and with the right booty roll they can really punish an opponent who ignores them.

StarCo is lucky enough to get access to these formidable troops, albeit at only AVA1. The Irmandinhos are the only true warband style unit available to StarCo (Jaguars being the next closest thing) and, like a number of units in the faction, can fill multiple roles beyond being an effective warband troop.

At CC20 and PH14, these guys are no slouch in melee, and with booty lvl1 offering a number of CCW possibilities, you could very well utilize it. The high PH score also means he’s going to be very reliable as a source of smoke. BS10 means that the chain rifle option is most often going to be the go to choice for profiles, with the shotgun potentially seeing some use even though it is double the cost. WIP13 means he’s an effective button pusher and can repair troops with average effectiveness.

Being Impetuous means he’s not going to stick around in your DZ to wait to repair that Reaktion Zond you’ve got protecting a firelane though. He’s going to be pushing upfield and getting in the thick of things, which means if having an engineer readily available to bring REMs back up is part of your plan, taking a clockmaker in addition to the Irmie is probably a good call. However, the Irmie makes a phenomenal counterpart to a Riot Grrl or Brigada fireteam that is advancing as it will be keeping up under its own power, providing close support, and then available to lend a hand if the HI fall victim to EM/Adhesive ammo or Isolation.

The one truly unique thing the Irmandinhos is capable of in StarCo though is the ability to attach G: Servants (which aren’t available in Ariadna), and this makes for a very interesting and effective combination. If the owner of a G: Servant is Impetuous, the servant also becomes Impetuous. At first glance that might seem like a huge downside, but if you start thinking about utilizing the servant as more of an offensive/defensive tool rather than a means to engineer things it starts to show it’s true colors.

Having a servant in btb with an enemy not only ties it up, but also gives a burst bonus to the Irmandhinos if he jumps in too. Leaving the servant(s) out in LoF of enemy camo markers means they can declare discover AROs. Running servants into mines, perimeter weapons, or holoechoes can nullify those threats with little to no risk. Or using them to surround an enemy impersonator in your DZ (I love holding the Irmandinho as my reserve for this purpose) so that he can’t move without entering btb with either a servant bot or the Irmandinhos.

Another interesting note about the combination of being a specialist and having Booty/Scavenger is the interaction with panoplies in missions like firefight or the armory. The Irmandinhos will auto activate the panoplies without a roll and get to roll twice on the booty chart and choose which item they’d like to take. Something to definitely keep in mind for the appropriate missions.

Finding the 8 points in your list to include one of these total toolbox troops should be a priority in your lists, and spending the time to understand their capabilities and find the best way to utilize them will reward you greatly.