X-Visors and You

X-Visors are a very effective pieces of equipment that don’t get enough love beyond being used in combination with suppression fire (which is a great use). They completely change the capability of the weapons alongside it in a way that is not immediately obvious, but when used intelligently can have drastic effect.

There are only two units that have X-Visors in StarCo, Emily Handelman and the Tsyklon. Both are great units and should see lots of play on the table, so its important to keep this piece of equipment in mind so you can utilize it to the fullest in the appropriate situations.

Emily has probably the most obvious use with her spec fire capabilities, but what truly makes the X-visor valuable is the other weapons in her arsenal. Her Combi rifle can now outrange Spitfires, Marksman Rifes, and basically every other mid range weapon that drops off after 24″. Coupled with her mimitism, high BS, and fireteam bonuses she can turn her otherwise short range rifle into a mid-long range precision tool, reaching out much further than people would expect. The other weapon that often gets forgotten is the flash pulse, which now is at +0 rangebands all the way out to 48″. With WIP14 (and probably fireteam bonuses!) that’s a really solid ARO for almost anywhere on the table.

The Tsyklon is going to be either rocking a Spitfire or a Fuerbach along with a pitcher. The Fuerbach only gains benefit from the X-Visor at 0-8″, bringing the rangeband back to +0, otherwise it’s +0 all the way out to 48″ anyways. The spitfire however changes it’s 24-32″ band to a +0 from a -3 and will be shooting at -3 out to 48″ instead of -6. You can utilize the spitfire in a similar manner to the Combi on Emily (and it’s a phenomenal suppression fire candidate with it’s 360 visor as well), out reaching weapons that normally drop off hard past 24″, but where the X-Visor comes into play the most on each profile is the pitcher.

With pitchers being disposable (2), every shot needs to count, and the +3 rangeband on them isn’t too forgiving at 8-16″. Bringing the 16-24″ band to +0 is a big deal and will likely save you orders and ammo for this valuable equipment. It also extends out the areas where you can realistically get your hacking area extended too, which can be huge for your order efficiency, and vital if you’re running a heavy hacking list like this.

Leveraging your former -3 range (or even your former -6) to push out past the good ranges of your opponent is key to leveraging X-Visors effectively, which feels odd and counter intuitive initially because we’ve all trained ourselves to stick to our positive ranges. Get used to getting outside your comfort zone with your X-Visors, and you will be rewarded.