No. Spitfire is not HMG, Specialist Operative is not a Doctor. ARM3 is not ARM4, and "no stealth" is not "stealth".
For me it is OSS - because I ve waited soooo long for that cool thing and there are awesome units in it, not only linkable Dakinis and PH. And: Because I don´t count IA, IA is a 2019 Sectorial. Yes we have the army profiles and the fluff, but we habe no starter in 2018. TAK - from all what I hear and read (I run only one game against them and that I lost, but more because of a game error, but I get the feel of power from the Vet.Kaz. link, fueled by cheap normal Kazaks while Dogs and Antipodes running around scout camomarkers and backfield cheap orde Kaz.) is the - so far - most powerful. Varuna also look very powerful with Orcs in 5-Links and the nice things, Pan O can´t have before ;-) Not saying that OSS or Tunguska is weak or something. I have a feeling, that the newer Sektorials are all a bit more fancy and flexible compared to old ones. CB could make a complete overhaul with the 3rd Off. Book. Why not Brigadas in Alguaciles, Janis in Ghulams and so on. Some small things in linkable flexibilty and a new rule here or there.
They should revamp all the sectorials to bring them up to date. Even MRRF which got retired for now got this treatment as a parting gift. Therefore, there is no reason why the rest of the sectorials shouldn't receive the same linkteam buffs. If a retired sectorial can have them so can a still supported one.
Eh... the Medical care comes from an Order Sergeant Paramedic ^^ It would be great, but considering the direction things go, I'd be less optimistic and assume a simple answer: those already sold what they should -.-
If switching from full Doctor to Paramedic is not a "steep downgrade in capabilities and power" for you then I don't even know how to comment more.
They definitely should, but doing that would mean less people buying all the new ones (and MRRF got it to encourage folks to buy the extra stock before it was all gone), so they probably won't. At least not without a 4-6 year mothball to re-invention cycle so they can justify a big splash release with a few profiles getting discontinued and replaced to encourage veterans to buy new models for the new sectorial. At this stage, it looks like CB are shifting toward a soft rotation system for armies, sort of like GW have been doing since around 3rd Edition when they started letting armies be backwards compatible. It means that you will always have a group of stagnating armies at the back of the pack, a group of armies that are all but discontinued but still have "current" rules even if models aren't produced anymore, and whatever the new bleeding edge hotness is. Kind of a waste of the whole living game thing they've been doing (at least in terms of potential to fix things on the fly), but a good way of getting your hardcore fan base to keep on buying new shiny stuff. But for folks who like only a handful of armies, this is going to be a massive interest killer over the long term if CB stick to their normal turnaround.
@Durandal I agree with all of this. It does seem to be the direction CB is taking Infinity into these days. I just hope they don't mess it up terribly. Uprising was nearly a disaster to many in the Yu Jing base. I certainly don't want something like that to happen again especially so soon after.
I've voted OSS for the Dakini Link and Post Humans. It just feels like a really strong, but balanced sectorial. I love the TO camo Post Human and Dasyus as well. My second choice is JSA. They are a reasonably powerful sectorial who can field a TAG with a good cheap link with CoC as a backup. Kuroshi Rider and Yojimbo are just excellent models which are fun to use. Ninjas, Oniwaban, Saito Togan.... if you can't tell, I have a thing for TO camo.
Erh... switching from a Vol13 50ish pts HI doctor to a 30+ pts cheaper Paramedic who will zap your dudes back with 11 or less (55%) looks to me close to what a Pano Trauma Doc is, so... And it's more a cheaper link, so sue CB for not having a doctor inside an armor on each Military Order! :p Look it this way: Aleph has one linkable Doctor, Machaon (yeah, dactils... I haven't ever saw one of those mythical creatures on the playing table XD) among its full range. Competing with Haqquislam is useless, enjoy doing so with StarCo!
I vote OSS due to their plethora of tricks, and good stats. they are solid and when played with finesse are real nasty.
LOL! I may have to paint my Druze with brass/bronze helmets, just because of that! (Thank you, BTW, I've been stuck on a color scheme for the Druze.) 12+ is "without even thinking about it" (LT2, NCO, TacA Tinbot, TacA HMG), 16 takes some compromising. Were you going to say something?
I agree pretty much with what you said, I was a little disappointed by JSA, also because I lost some interesting units that worked very well in YJ and I believe, especially now with IA, that the split has hurt the Japanese more than YJ, Tunguska is really interesting, for now I never play it but your analysis says almost everything. OSS is really an enigma for me, Yadu and other new units seem good but cost several points and I struggle to make lists that I like, agree about TAK, it's vanilla Ariadna with some new things.
I picked Varuna, it is both the most powerful and interesting to play IMO. It takes best from ASA and adds more unique options. OSS is also really good. Tunguska turned out dissapointing. They make nice addition to vanilla, but as sectorial they are at the bottom.
Spinking about Tunguska you underlined an intersting point, in my opinion every new sectorial armies brought to vanilla amazing units and, definitely, now the main factions have become even stronger than the sectorial ones. Obviously this is my opinion.
It’s a real shame that there’s been no improvement to Haqqislam, but I had a blast playing Druze. They’re easily one of the weaker factions, but playing them right is extremely rewarding. The fact IA can take so many orders in one group is pretty ridiculous, and playing LI against that is kinda lame, so I guess that’s “good” right? OP, what do you mean by best?
I'm only running about 13-14 orders in a single combat group in order to have all the other stuff you need for a game. LT2, NCO, and two TacA models.
Man, 5 points unit with smoke, dogged, chain rifle, jammer and E Marat, what are you complaining about? I too play Haqq and believe that 2019 will bring to us some interesting news, don't worry, I'm, also a YJ player and have waited a long time for IA, especially after Uprising and now I've an amazing army with many new cool units, patience brother, I just played Hassassin two days ago, they're still very strong.
