I think most of us didn't actually expect a super soldier equal to Achilles, just like we don't expect the Asawira to beat 15 CC masters in H2H or whatever the fluff says. Hyperbole is expected, especially with Bostria and CB. That said, I would like to see more "supersoldier" types. It's not that the Khawarij isn't great (he's amazing!). It's that Haqqislam is, in the fluff, the masters of biotech. This shows up in our doctors, in the Khawarij, and Lasiqs. I think that's it? RTF is supposed to be the sectorial where that shines. It's our most elite sectorial, allowing variety from the usual Haqqislam "trading up" playstyle and we'd like to see that reflected in additional supersoldiers. This is part of the frustration with Carmen. It's not that she's bad, but that she doesn't fit in with the professional / elite image of RTF that many already have. Other super soldiers don't even need high PH. They could have 6-2 MOV, NWI, Neurokinetics etc... Just something to make them play a little different and elite.
Yeah well, the problem is I have been primed by Bostria in that Video where he was talking about them. That primer is hard to shake of although I know that those were crazy ideas of the earlier days. The 30% increase to Khawarij is a lot of course...and maybe the Khawarij are the template for all the others in RTF. One derivate could be a Camo Infiltrator with BS 12 for example. Another one is more heavily armored but looses Superjump. You get the idea. That would be one way to do RTF...
I would love Djanbazan in any sectorial, as they are near auto-include in QK or Vanilla. Common consensus, however, appears to agree they won’t show up in RTF. (Though CB loves their surprises).
I hope Djanbazans stay in QK: it's a secotorial that have been losing it's theme since HSN3. They nerfed the inclusion of hafzas in each link and restricted their use to non-mercenaries fireteam. Also, everybody have Haris now. Then Uprising dropped and it delivered several mercenary companies which was a pure QK theme. So if they allow Djanbazans into RTF, even if makes sense lore wise (they have background similarities with the Al Fassid), I'd be very sad. Regardless of that, I believe CB will deliver a very cohesive force as they have been doing with every new sectorial so far (even if the sectorial itself isn't very competitive).
Even if Djanbazan gets included in RTF I'm not too worried. I think we're all in agreement that QK will get the long kiss goodnight when RTF drops. AFAIK the farewell update for ASA was received very well. I have faith that CB would give QK a good hard tweak before putting it on the bus. This may not necessarily return completely unique features (only Haris having sectorial for e.g.) but I'm sure it'll provide some distinctive changes with the new currency of mixed fireteams. Something like QK with its variety in merc companies could end up being the definitive merc experience allowing you to mix and match the 3-4 different merc companies, possibly with ghulams and other Haqq units. Now having said this, not only do I not play ateks but I actually quite dislike them being in the game so I haven't even looked at how well the MRRF farewell update was received. If it was received poorly then I guess it'll be 50/50 on whether QK gets some proper respect returned to it before it goes Bye.
Well, I was just commenting on what testaments to Haqq's biotechnological prowess we can put on a table. I've never implied we have to see them as a part of RTF, which I expected to be sufficiently clear from the context :P Speaking of new units in general, I wouldn't expect RTF folks to be individually stronger than, say, those in IA.
Define stronger I guess. I don't expect better statlines but I'd expect interesting skills, possibly new ones such as automedkit, super jump, hyper dynamics etc. Unfortunately the implication is the units are likely to be perceived poorly as these things are hard to gauge the value of on paper by themselves.
@Barrogh I think the implication may have been coming from me. Sorry for any confusion. More (and lots) of super soldiers in RTF would be my ideal realization of the faction. (And buddy for Maggy would be sweet too).
I had a thought. We have seen feral beasts and bioengineered beasts in the Outrage novel on Bourak...do you think we could get something like a Bioengineered Antipode assault pack? WB cheap metachemistry troops like what Nomads have? What about Metachemistry units in general?
I've always thought Metachemistry runs counter to Haqq's humanist focus, reproducible enhancements and tweaks like the Djanbazan, Khawarij, etc, alongside minor genegeneering improvements to help make life on a desert planet less hellish feel more the Haqq way than "let's shoot this guy up with drugs and see what happens".
Like someone said some time ago, Haqq biotech is about making humans better, whereas Praxis is about making them something else entirely. @Shoitaan I agree with this vision, I was just alluding to some requests being about statlines.
I hope not. More seriously though, I think others have hit the nail on the head; Haqq Biotech should focus on humanistic enhancement.
Honestly with Tuaregs, Hakims, Ghulam links and basic REMs I feel I could make a pretty nice list for objective grabbing and such. Orders and operators are there for sure. What RTF needs are active shooters. If the HMG Zhaydan had MML2 then it'd fulfill that role perfectly but right now they're a little light apart from arguably the Al Fasid and the Khawarij Spitfire.
I don’t think we will get another heavy active shooter, considering a linked Tarik is already a great spin on an active shooter that has to rely on manueverability more than anything else as compared to premium active shooters from the other factions.
My main worry for RTF is that it's going to be Tarik: The Sectorial. I hope there will be decent builds that don't revolve around him.
I hope, that's not true because it would mean for me that RTF does not worth bothering about but some minor addition to vanilla. Exactly due to
Assuming the Khawarij costs stay the same when RTF drops then I'm thinking a Haris will be the way forward with them (assuming they get that option). I don't think I fancy sinking 150pts+ into a unit of ARM1 1W troops.