Infinity Unit Review: USAriadna Mavericks (N4)

While it’s easy to think of USAriadna as a slow, well armored force, they have great fast well armored units as well! Mavericks deliver an effective firing platform, with a strong blend of speed and maneuverability.

Profile

The base Maverick profile is pretty solid. BS12 is quite respectable in Ariadna, while Arm 3 gives it the classic USARF survivability. The combination of MSV1 and Mimetism is quite deadly, able to both skew face to face engagements in their favor, while removing or lowering the benefit of the opponent’s Mimetism. Perhaps one of the most interesting features of the Maverick is being one of the only (if not the only) unit in the game with both smoke and a visor, so you could fire more smoke through your own smoke, or shoot at an enemy after deploying smoke, though at a pretty big penalty.

AP Spitfire. The big gun of the group, I love a good AP Spitfire. With the equipment I mentioned previously affecting your ability to win face to face rolls, this gun can pack a serious punch. For under 30 points and a single SWC cost, it’s quite affordable, and even worth considering in a haris for extra firepower.

Boarding Shotgun. Despite only being a single weapon, the boarding shotgun is a big toolkit of a profile. The choice of Direct Template, or +6 to hit within 8”, with the high speed of the maverick forces your opponent into a position where they’re going to have a bad day no matter what they do. Since the Maverick has smoke, you can even throw a smoke grenade and fire the burst 2 direct templates imposing a -3 to dodge on the opponent.

Light Rocket Launcher, Submachine Gun. My absolute favorite Maverick profile, the light rocket/SMG profile comes with a myriad of options. This profile can go suppressive fire with AP/shock ammo, backed up by that MSV1, or blast people with an impact template of fire ammo. Between the two weapons, you have +3 to hit from 0” to 24". It does come at the cost of 0.5 SWC, but in USARF that’s hardly an issue.

Forward Observer, Rifle. When you absolutely have to get objectives as quickly as possible, the Maverick forward observer is a great choice. A fast specialist who can cover their advance with smoke is a very desirable option in any army. This is the cheapest profile at 19 points, and oddly the only profile with a rifle. Being a fast forward observer with smoke is going to be helpful in ITS missions, and take some pressure off of your Foxtrots doing all the specialist work for the missions.

Overall, I absolutely love the Maverick, and the more I use it, the more uses I find for them. Their equipment is incredibly diverse and they can fill many roles. Their speed meshes nicely with the otherwise frequently slow USAriadna advance. Use them to tie up your enemy with quicker threats that are up in their face, while your other units are able to move up and claim the objectives.