<yes, yet another "I wonder why PanO doesn't have....."> So at some point I've started wondering, why "full armory' isn't a PanO's "thing" ? Why there is no abudance of different armaments for every major LI/MI/HI in PanO ? Having capacity of production, assets, resources, money, technology could give a "quirk/niche/feeling/whatver" to PanO. An increased number of profiles with different main gun (Fusilier Feubarach, HRL, Spitfire, MMR, MK12), or additional equipment (ORCs with all options of L1 Tinbots etc., broad range of Breaker etc.) Yes I know we won't get any of those things, but how could PanO play if most of the units have had access to most of the "main" weapons in game (obviously I'm not talking about plasma, sepsitor, etc.)
What I suspect is PanO got more generic weapons because in bygone days PanO was expected to be putting more hits on target, leading to higher likelyhood of just failing ARM rolls based on number of hits vs quality of hits. Contrast that will Ariadna or Haqq who have lower BS on average so need to make those hits count, hence oodles of AP, T2, and Viral. Is that still needed now that we’re seeing more and more solid gun fighting platforms in previously less direct fire fight oriented armies? I dunno, but that what I always suspected.
Its for the same reason that Yu Jing, the supposed HI faction, doesn't have the best HI links in the game. Take all the fluff in the game and throw it out the window since its completely and utterly meaningless.
If limitations like that resulted in a decrease in points I'd be a happy taker. It's easier to mass produce just a few specific loadouts of high quality and high quantity. You could simply display that by handing out Fatality L1 or Marksmanship L1 to PanO troops like candy. Or by literally introducing a Skill "Mass Produced" that does nothing except for substracting points, but is only available to very limited troops like Orcs (could also be handy to have around for CA or YJ). There are a number of ways to go about it. It's a safe bet to say we'll see if we like it or hate it when Varuna touches Orcs.
If there were to be a PanO-unique SWC-free gun, like Tohaa's Viral Combi, Ariadna's Ojotnik and T2 Rifle, or Combined Army's Plasma Carbine, what would it be?
I am authoring a custom army builder with a few others, and it is nearly done; so no, not totally pointless, for those who are willing to play alternatives like 20x20, etc.
There is Multirifles and Multimarksmanrifles. Latter ones are still fairly new toys that got introduced in an era where PanO still didn't get the new exiting stuff, then the Locust came along. We don't have native K1 so far, but it exists in Aleph/SAA(Teucer), which might lead to Varuna getting it directly or indirectly. Not that I'm actually asking for K1 Sniperrifles (they're terribad) but K1 Combis would be worth considering. PanO being PanO I'm on board with the +1 SWC Lt train. Not to be mixed up with "Lt gets a cheaper SWC gun" as those Lts are pretty meh without proper CoC support. More frequent 0.5 SWC discounts would also go a long way. Vanilla, SAA and NCA are all notorious for hitting 6 SWC halfway through building a list. Last but not least - why the heck is the Regular FO still 0.5 SWC in his native Sectorial? I'm gonna need at least 3 normal Regulars to hide my Lt anyway, it's not like anyone would start spamming FOs anymore than people do with the CG ones.
see I see the +1SWC as a good way to let us take 6 SWC worht of HMG, MSR, ML, then 1 SWC worth of fun, without having to skew the formula with faction specific discounts (which may be a thing but i certainly hope arent)
Getting more +1 SWC Lt's is a great idea. But I'd like to see one more thing to show off that PanO is a regular army, not some kind of militia. More command and control abilities. EO's, NCO's, CoC, Strategos L1, No2.
With how punishing Loss of Lt is it shouldn't even be part of a balancing consideration. Everyone should have a better way around it than "take Lt X then hide him in the backfield because that is what your Faction does". Shouldn't suck as much for anyone (which are Nomads, CA, PanO, Ariadna or Haqq) to get the wrong guy killed, when the Tohaa next town over laugh at your problems with 2x21 CoC autopicks. Heck I'm not even okay with Isolation putting G:Mnemorica into LoL.
