It's not so much trouble as the main(not only, but main) advantage of the army is taken away before you even start, forcing you to play in a way that I find less optimal(but then I'm the guy that'll defend the minuteman core so what the hell do i know about optimal?). Imagine you see a sign in a store window "50% off Coke" then you go in and the Coke shelf is filled with Pepsi. You ask the guy that stacks the shelf why and he says he prefers Pepsi. That level of mild frustration is what LI does.
I'm the guy that plays single combat group Ariadna on a fairly regular basis even when I don't have to, so... I think I might be your Pepsi guy. Sorry.
In point of fact I actually prefer Pepsi, but most folks prefer Coke so that's how I ran it in the analogy.Choice is a good thing, and restricting it arbitrarily is not.
Wrapping this back around to the original discussion, I felt like the temporary rule that added Scarface to the most factions was an excellent compromise on this issue. It was definitely fun to play around with Scarface in vanilla ariadna lists, and it was a really nice touch that they used the Anaconda instead of Scarface for Caledonia.
In the coke v pepsi battle, I'm the guy over there drinking *beer* instead. (Cola drinks give me indigestion - I've never been able to drink either without serious reflux afterwards, so I pass on all of those. Other sodas it's not a thing.)
Back on topic, I think the Blackjack should have the TAG designation. Same stats, so certainly low tech. It would make more sense with the model. As it is, are we supposed to believe that thing can go prone and dodge, and get patched up by doctors? That would provide an option (in vanilla) for TAG missions, and make a clearer distinction from other Ariadna AP HMG HI.
Been in the game since N1 (where's my "old-man/get-off-my-lawn" emoji on this forum?!?) There's a little more to it than that. It weighs in at about 4 tons (pg19 of N1, when the PanO Squalo is 2 tons, about the weight of a modern car), and because it's computer control systems are not cybernetic, it's not hackable (pg179 of N1). We have assumed that the picture at the top of pg107 of N1 (and pg107 of N2, coincidentally) of that chicken-legged walked that looks like a refugee from DUST is the RM100. But that's all there is. That's literally what the RM100 was/is, an Archaic TAG. Not sure if/when CB is going to get around to sculpting the RM100. I mean, Dogwarriors are S6, the size of light TAGs (and I think the Blackjack should be S6 as well), so it'd be one hell of a big beast to put in the game. Probably S8 (or even a hypothetical S9), and it'd need something to represent it's lesser maneuverability as compared to a cybernetically-controlled TAG. At the very least, it'd be Heavyweight, but I'd like to make an Archaic TAG unable to Combat Parkour (ie, be unable to freely go over any terrain it's height or less).
I submit that, just like how the Ariadnan Hacking Device is the Autocannon, our TAG is actually just two Dog Warriors in a box (6 Total Immunity Wounds with Arm 3 is about equal to Str 3 and Arm 8, right?). ...Go on, open the box.
Though I think I'd want a little more ARM on the Dogwarriors before I called them equal to ARM8. Besides, the RM-100 has been a thing since the beginning. I'd like it to finally exist.
