Every new Infinity player is going to come across a TAG at some point and they will suffer from what we've come to call, "TAG shock".

TAG shock is when a new player feels blindsided by the powerful TAGs going "rambo" (receiving a lot of orders and mowing down your list). The player may loose the game because they haven't developed the tactical know-how to counter these things.

However, veteran players do and there is a long list of abilities, skills, and equipment a player can use to drop a TAG quickly and efficiently.

Going head-to-head with a TAG is rarely a good idea. It's like feeding your soldiers into a meat grinder. So you've got to employ some synergy, positional advantage and employ other subtle forms of board control to help mitigate a TAG's effectiveness.

It's also a good thing to keep in mind that TAG-hunting is a potent strategy. Not only are TAGs very big, very expensive targets, they will typically account for 30-50% of your opponent's force, when that TAGs goes down, yor opponent is a big step closer to the 60% retreat threshold. In some extreme cases, simply taking out a TAG and another low-point model, will be enough to force your opponent to retreat. It sometimes pays to take a minute to do the math.

Here are a few strategies that might help you to defeat an enemy TAG:

Use Coordinated Orders

These allow you to limit the number of AROs a TAG can level against your forces. You might increase the risk of loosing the one soldier, but the other guys will survive and more guns mean more chances of damaging that TAG.

Seize the Good Positions an Spread Out

If you can get one or two soldiers into the rear arc of the TAG, you can prevent it making an ARO against them, or at least your opponent has to change facing to allow the TAG to cover more of your troops. This has the potential to open the rear flank of the TAG to more of your forces.

Size Matters

Remember, TAGs are big and while their size makes it easier to hide and receive cover bonuses, it also prevents them from entering or maneuvering in certain areas. That's the place to retreat to when the TAG comes to get you.

Reduce the Order Pool

Many times, a player will simply ignore the TAG altogether and instead concentrate on removing the other models in the opponents force. This has the dual effect of limiting the orders that a TAG has access to and also eliminating those pesky additional (non-TAG) AROs that can whittle down your own forces.

Typically, when a TAG is present, players don't have a lot of models on the table and so aren't able to provide appropriate cover fire when you take the fight to their front line.

The solution that most players will resort to is to bring a TAG and then pack the rest of their list with cheap Light Infantry. However, this is risky as Light Infantry are reasonably easy to kill and vulnerable to template weapons. In most veteran players will try to identify and assassinate the opposing Leuitenant in the opening turns of the game. Without a Lieutenant, most opposing players will have limited orders severely impacting their effectiveness.

Adhesive Ammuntion

Nomad and Ariadna players rejoice! Adhesive may well be the single best weapon to counter a TAG. Most TAGs find it harder to pass the Physical (PH) roll needed to break the Immobilise effect, than passing BTS and Armor (ARM) rolls.

Once you've trapped your TAG, have fun sniping engineers (if your opponent brought y) and laugh as they fail to free their expensive, immobile order generator.

Hacking

Hacking is a great counter to a TAG assault as it doesn't require Line of Sight. If you use markers, REMs, and other repeaters to keep your hacker at a safe distance, you can create create a net of hackable zones, where a TAG risks an attack if enters.

Once a TAG receives an order and is either in your hacking zone or it passes through one, start hacking it. Better yet, bring an EVO repeater and during your active turn, use the Ice Breakerto reduce the TAG's BTS. Handy against the high BTS TAGs, like Szalamanders and Jotums.

Flamethrowers

Flame damage is highly underrated in this game. A model set on fire, continues to make ARM rolls until it passes. While most TAGs have a healthy ARM attribute, occasionally, you will see a TAG suffer a few structure (STR) points from a lucky flamethrower hit.

Flamethrowers are also very handy when combatting those sneaky TAGs, like the Cutter and the Avatar, as flamethrowers automatically hit and ignore any form of camouflage.

E/M weaponry

E/Maulers, E/M grenades, E/Mitters, Blitzens, Plasma, etc. A hit from any of them followed by a single failure on the E/M damage roll, shuts the TAG down. Then you can have fun sniping at incoming engineers!

Monofilament

I cannot explain the joy of having an Oniwaban pop out of TO camo and slash at the back of a TAG, then watch the TAG attempt an ARM roll with zero armor. Monofilament weapons are instant death. Cut those TAGs in half with ease. Goodnight!

Critcal Hits

Last but not least, critical results on your BS shots. Criticals deliver automatic structure damage. The more shots you fire the more chance of a critical hit. So get those high burst weapons trained on the TAG and pepper it with COMBI Rifle shots!

Author's note - the last 10 times I've faced TAGs, I've destroyed 8 of them. 7 of which, were simply with COMBI Rifle shots, in part due to critical hits.

That's all for now, but I think you'll agree that this is one of the beautiful things about the Infinity game and is, I think, a large part of  what makes the game balanced. There are always multiple ways to deal with a threat, you don't always need to have "the right unit" to counter a threat... although that can help too.

Guillermo Hernandez (alias Magno)