That is actually an interesting thought. Lets say we have a Dakini HMG. BS 11 Mimetism as a base. The Apsara will bring the BS to 13. The Fireteam bonus takes that to 16 and takes its bust to 5. Now, a hacker to give it Marksmanship lv2. Now we have a BS16 Burst 5 shock weapon with mimetism that ignores BS modifiers from cover on a mobile 6-4 profile. That's INSANE. Now what would we have to invest in this? If the rumors of a Danavas and Dakini link team turns out to be true, then 21 and 1SWC for the HMG, 13 for each of two basic Dakini, 15 for a Paramedic, 25 and 0.5SWC for a Danavas HD+ and 22 for an Apsara. That's 86pts and 1.5SWC for 6 orders and a beast of a combo.
Which also potentially (depending on the exact rules for Jumper LZ) gives the Dakinis WIP 14 for that Paramedic to complete objectives with and possibly (probably not) allows them to Dodge without the standard REM -3. Thus making said link team better offensively, defensively, and at completing objectives. WIP14 Daleths could also be useful for targeting enemies for others, to say nothing of BS13 B2 Flash Pulses on Daleths, Lamedhs, and Repeater Probots when combined with an EVObot. And a BS13 TRbot has obvious applications. If the Apsara is not range-limited and said buffing is a passive or mostly-passive effect, it also gets you BS13 ADing Garudas - that'll make their Spitfires a fair bit nastier, to say nothing of the potential of BS19 Boarding Shotguns walking on from the table edge and flanking the hell out of some cheerleaders or themselves-flanking units, probably catching them out of cover, to boot. Some of this assumes the Apsara can buff them in the Reactive turn, of course, while other parts assume it does more than just BS. We'll have to wait until we see the actual rules, but this could be very good.
Yeah the second I heard about the Apsaras buffing Remotes the thing a Dakini Core could do was concerning. You're investing into a Hacker you have anyway, a fairly inexpensive Apsara and otherwise pretty cheap Dakini to get the currently best gunner in the game. 6-4 Mimetism Effective BS19 vs Cover, that's better than the Yuan Dun CBL Core Linked Hsien for a fairly low investment. So I'd actually question if that will happen, the Apsaras seem to have the same cybercollar as Shakti, which implies some sort of Hacking related stuff is involved. Wouldn't be surprised if they are only able to buff REMs with Repeaters and/or this only works for Active Turn.
Oddly enough, this is one of those rule cases where I actually 100% agree with you. That doesn't mean I want that rule to be played that way, just for it to be better written.
The wiki is pretty clear how MODs work. You add +/- stuff first and setting a stat to a fixed value applies last. It isn't +1 Burst it is "set Burst to 2 in Reactive". Thus wouldn't stack with any other MOD that doesn't say explicitly it does. And still requires a Repeater which Dakini don't have.
Well, I misread and meant Enhanced Reaction, but yeah. OTOH the difference between B2 Marksmanship and B3 is often small.
Sure if you want to be a tool and ignore the wiki refers to weapon Burst MODs all over the place. And RAI insist the cursive word "Attribute" mentioned under MODs is exclusive to troop Profile Attributes.
Well it's clear that MODs were never meant to apply to things like Burst. The fact that some other writer didn't read that when they wrote the rules is a problem. It's also not clear that what Enhanced Reaction does is a MOD. It doesn't use that terminology. Hard to reference right now, since the wiki seems to be down.
Is it? Clear? Really? Huh. Weird how everyone seems fine to cheat by playing with Burst MODs, despite that being so obvious. You might be on to something big. Following my logic (and applying MODs to Burst like the Wiki tells us to) it doesn't stack. Following your logic (MODs don't work for Burst at all but fixed value is fine) you'd still shoot yourself in the foot since you couldn't apply MODs to achieve B3. So would you please reiterate how you'd possibly could claim to get B3 AROs for Dakini, who still don't have Repeaters, or any other REM? I seem to be missing something. We need to sort this out so we can bring this gamebreaking flaw to CB's attention.
@Teslarod as I mentioned in my edit above. I'm talking about the Enhanced Reaction hacking program, not Overclock. The reason it stacks by RAW is that the reactive fireteam bonus is stated to not stack with any "bonuses or MODS." Enhanced Reaction is neither a bonus or MOD, as that language is not used anywhere in the description of the hacking program.
Could you be bothered to check the MOD rules? Whenever a rule mentions the value of an Attribute, consider it to mean the final value, obtained after applying all MODs. Setting a fixed value does not require it to be a MOD and still applies last. What you are looking for doesn't exist.
Ah Enhanced Reaction, no problem, give me a sec. 3 man Link Bonus is +1 bonus to the Burst (B) value of his BS Weapons that doesn't stack unless specifically stated otherwise Weapon Burst value in ARO is 1. Enhanced Reaction doesn't interact with weapon Burst value, but simply Burst value in general - not the same thing, so you don't get to add +1 to it. Notably different because a REM affected by Enhanced Reaction also has B2 in CC for AROs (not that that is actually very useful for anything). That is if you want to argue Enhanced Reaction isn't a Burst MOD and is excluded from stacking with the 3 man Bonus in the first place. Elegant? No. Complicated? Yes. B3 Dakini AROs? Nope. /edit: MODs only work on Attributes. If Burst isn't one for MOD purposes Full Auto L1 doesn't work. 3 man bonus is notably not a MOD (just doesn't stack with them) so no issues there.
@Teslarod with respect to your comment about FA L1, you're right, CB doesn't know their own rules too well. With respect to Enhanced Reaction and fireteams, the reactive fireteam burst bonus says it doesn't stack with other bonuses or MODs. Can you show me where in the Enhanced Reaction rules it is described as one of those?
