Meanwhile in the Design Department at Corvus Belli... "Hmm Zulu Cobra with Jammer in Vanilla PanO, how should we balance this?" *Runs it through the super computer* Calculations Complete: 2 SWC
Is it happening? Is Pano gettting nice things? O.o Jammer on a unit with similar costs to the heckler would be really good in our glorious and smokeless faction.
Without smoke/camo/infiltration jammer itself is not that strong (if you cannot easily advance, start in some hard to access point).
Even if it just had some sort of visual mod, it would be remarkable for area denial, like defending objectives. Even if it's stuck in the deployment zone, depending on the cost it could be really useful for crippling that rambo unit before it rampages in your deployment zone.
Even if it has no forward deployment abilities, it'll be useful as long as it's not 30+ points. We don't have many templates or mines yet, and the ones we have aren't cheap. We need something to keep the enemy out of the DZ, and Jammer's pretty good at that.
I don't want my Jammer in the middle of the table to be taken out quickly. I want it defending my deployment zone and then latter maybe defending an objective.
Holy shit! I am very excited for this box! The models looks totally awesome as well as me being a PanO fanboy. My initial thoughts on the Zulu Cobra: I really hope this guy isn't the "PanO version of the Heckler", although, he very well might be. I'm almost certain this guy isn't starting in our Deployment Zone, which is really nice. While I really hope for a marker state, I'm afraid he'll just get TO and be really expensive. so we'll see. I have a feeling Varuna is going to be "Visual MOD – the army", I fully expect a very slim force full of expensive units.
I have a feeling he won't be both infiltration and TO because I bet that the designers reckon that will step on the Crocs toes too much (though i'd happily be proven wrong on this) I'm expecting either: Non infiltrating TO (The 'Totally not a Hexas' route) Forward Deployment TO (just nerf their infiltration capacity) Limited TO Infiltration (Starts in hidden deployment but can't ReCamo and goes down to ODD once revealed) I can't see him being not TO, because of the modelled in Hexes on the tactical poncho. Though really even if they go the Hexas route, it's still a nasty as hell surprise to stumble into a Jamming zulu cobra. Especially when the opponent might have extended their whole first turn getting a model into that position. And of course his effectiveness might be entirely limited behind a PanO wip of 12. Which would be the ultimate punishment for our most grievous sin of asking for nice things.
The hexes on the poncho aren't a surefire TO thing, since Knauf has them as well, and is Mimetism. Regarding the WIP, it's well within reason for him to be on 13s, since of the released troops that we know will be in the Snake Eaters there are a couple of 13s (Kamau and Croc Men). I also think FD will likely be the choice over Infiltration, to avoid fitting the same place as the Croc Men.
Hmm, Varuna doesn't strike me as the Low WIP havers of PanO (after all, the Kamau hacker is technically our best hacker). I fully expect 13 on this guy. no more no less. It's either this or ODD. TBH I'm not too crazy about either, unless they give this guy frenzy or something to really push his points cost down. I really hope he doesn't end up being like the Locust. A costly but extremely fragile piece. FD would be nice, and it seems like a skill they've realized they under utilized recently.
I expect a decent number of troops to clog up the midfield. Lots of visual MODs, on quasi-fragile troops.
yeah but Varuna is going to be cool and not played by people who try and do a cringey accent because they think its funny and original
