Maybe this is against the fluff or the army style. And I realize that I can get downfield pretty far with my camo/TO tokens. However, I would love to see some sort of AD drop troop. The flexibility and adaptability of a AD troop can help so much to catch opponents off guard. I feel like with my hidden deployment I have to make good guesswork out of enemy troop movement, but with an AD and can make a much better deployment at the bottom of turn 1 or top of 2. Thoughts? I know JSA has gotten a lot of love lately and any new profiles coming through the pipeline are unlikely.
Unlikely, already having Superior Infiltration on a TO trooper is covering a similar role, and the bikers are fast enough to redeploy to counter holes in the enemy line turn 2-3 like an AD trooper can.
True but, and I could be wrong, I feel neither of these can be as adaptive or effective as an AD trooper. Maybe I'm not giving enough weight to the PH roll they make to land the trooper.
A lot of JSA's hard restrictions date back to an era where Sectorials were actually limited. That design trend is mostly lifted now. People are now surprised when a Sectorial doesn't get something like MSV2 or smoke. When Sectorials were first created, they all had big gaps in what kinds of units, capabilities, weapons special rules, etc. were available to them. JSA has actually retained most of those hard limitations. No AD, few skilled long-range weapons, no cheap Chain Rifle + smoke tossers, etc. are all throwbacks to how JSA was originally designed. I'd be fine seeing JSA get more well-rounded. But JSA is always going to be hard to balance, simply because some of their units are immensely powerful in circumstantial conditions.
We're also starting to see some of those hard restrictions come back in, IA and OS are completely lacking in smoke.
Yeah, it's hard to argue that you need an AD troop for turn three after Shinobu ganks her way through an entire fire team...or Avatar.
Gutier, mentioned at a seminar that the JSA is like an old dog. They won't get new tricks. I'm very much paraphrasing, as I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was pretty much a no.. Would love some too..
Well, that depends on what you want your AD trooper to be. If you're looking for a bully who can eliminate lots of soft or moderately soft orders, Aragoto absolutely fit that bill. The methods of clearing a path for Aragoto differ from Airborne Deployment, but once you do, the bikers are terrors to enemy back lines, and transition between targets much faster than any AD troop could ever dream of.
I agree that an AD troop is not really needed within the JSA because of the Sup Infiltration options available, but I think it would be a fun idea. Maybe if it would be the much needed cheapish non Character Smoke Source. Something like this:
Well, I make the base profile to be 22 points before you add weapons, so you're being quite "optimistic" in your costs there. I've wanted a "Tengu" drop trooper for JSA since the get-go (who'd have AD/Holo 1) (and a Miko with tactical bow and Nullifier!)
Holo1? Isn't that just for 'common' yokai? But didn't their feathered fan/cloak allow them to become invisible? So maybe rather O.D.D.? And a KHD/AHD profile, so they can 'curse' people or change their shape (cybermask). And a nullifier is veeeery hightec, but what about a Miko with HD+? Helps to communnicate with the 'other world'...
as we got new minis for the JSA spec ops both with the box and now as a blister I would expect some revival of spec ops and their rules. you could build a drop troop based on the spec op. Already now you can and who knows what might come with the overhaul of those rules
Well, a lot of Japanese supernatural entities display a variety of abilities depending on what period the myth is being told from/in. Tengu being heavenly dogs transitioning to crow demons depending on the age of the myth being a good example. Regardless, the Holo 1 is to represent the myths of Tengu appearing in disguise to trick people. The Miko idea is to embody the "purity" and "protection" tropes of the role through hacking defence, and both the DHD and WHD are terrible (really, really terrible) at that while the Nullifier is actually useful. It also doubles as protection from posession (Sepsitor).
The only thing I would love to see in JSA would be some of the newer rules, like CoutnerIntelligence, NCO, or Tacticals Awareness. We have other options than AD that do just fine :]
Yeah, our AD troops have already landed and are well hidden when the battle begins... But I would still like some Tengus and a Miko!
I'm also in the tac bow nullifier warband gang. For an example of what 20 points gets you on a drop troop, look at an Akalis. Add frenzy orders and it might only need to go a few points up, though.
Akal are MOV 4-2 (2 points cheaper), CC 15 (3 points cheaper), PH 11 (3 points cheaper), while bringing BS 13 (3 points more) and ARM 2 (1 point), so are 4 points cheaper before you add in MA 3 and Multiterrain (~4 points). Compare Chain rifle (~1), smoke grenades (~1) two heavy pistols (at least 2), vs. a Combi (7) (E/M CCW and shock CCW basically cancel) meaning you're totalling at least 5 points over the Combi Akal, making the cheapest Fuujin at least 27 and the most expensive at least 35.
