So in a recent time PanO actually got several nice things. So lets us list things we like. VIRD Well VIRD is whole bunch of nice things. From great execution of PanO's "firepower is answer" theme, through interesting spins on classic units (interesting AD), through community requested options (anti WB turrets), up to "side fix" of questionable units (ORCs). Zulu Cobra being a nice intrusion into Nomads level of cheating and effectiveness. The whole sectorials is really looking like CB did put a lot of thought (and even actual love) into it's design. It's strong (for some too strong), thematic and has it's own set of weak spots (even if not that many). 100% vanillia, no vanillin! That mean old-new Squalos in VIRD. New options for ORCs (both stealth&terrain and Feubarach option). And PanO vanilla got so many new options (double CoC, camo, KHDs, sensors) that its really in very interesting spot. "You! You go with us now!" While PanO didn't get new engineer option (or it's AVA increased). CB was able to make quite funny and really immersive. They are also very thematic in terms of "professional army". ASA/VIRD/NCA being able to integrate humble Machinist into their core forces/teams. "You know Ockham also used it to shave?" It's not about the power level. It's about the fact that HI oriented (at least in theory) sectorial finally got an option to fight enemy hackers. Also it's done in PanO's way. While Santiagos do not have excellent WIP or BTS the presence of Tinbot makes it that he has a good fighting chance against all but most elite infowar hackers. Technology&equipment over skills is PanO's way. (we won't dicuss here how he overlaps and overshadows Fersen) Unshackled Seraph lost his anchor. He can rejoice his brethren singing anthems. Bolted to action! Bolts finally received their share of small fixes which should make them relevant choice! PanO's most released models are finally show up on tables and throw their tokens of love around every corner. "Hoi Hombre, can I borrow this?" Dart joining ASA is really strong and thematic addition. While working within sectorial limits in gives it a bit of soft "unknown" and unaccountable aspect, which previously ASA did not have at all. It's all about the angle & technique PanO has been one of the biggest winner when it comes to CB's improvement in miniature design. Finally PanO hobbyst do not have to struggle with those (at least that often) damn antennas getting everywhere but the right places. Models parts are getting together much easier, and 3 point connections are much easier to glue together, and form robust connection. I hate WBs too! BFF <3 PanO got quite interesting and unique anti WB option (hi Helots). It's very unorthodox (for PanO) yet fitting addition. "No, it's you who want to be a friend with me!" Well apparently now everyone wants to be friends with shining Black Friar. Poor second Black Friar brother must learn how to shine properly. Obviously this is probably not a complete list please add your point. Obviously there are some "targets missed" (oh boy I have a long list of those) but this is not a thread about them. P.S. Whatever titles might suggest I'm not drunk (but boy I wish I was :P).
I really like the idea behind this thread. We have enough and then some of those about things we don't like ;) My few points (I'm skipping those that were mentioned already): ASA mixed Regular links. Regulars were always a decent unit, but beforehand their main role was a strong sniper team, maybe with the additional Spitfire to use later in the game With the ability of throwing in an ORC and some Bagh-Mari they can form actual assault team from the get go, and their defence ability was strongly boosted with the ability of using MSV or ORC Feuerbach as the main ARO piece. Hacker merging with LGL profile and getting Fast Panda is a very unique take on basic LI hacking. ORCs. Varuna is obviously the biggest winner, but Haris can be useful in every sectorial, and I love the fact that we got Feuerbach. I was a fan of this weapon for a really long time. Montesa bikers. HI bike is a new and radical design. (yeah Penthesilea has ODD and NWI, but Montesa is tougher still). 12" movement range, decent weapon choices and Specialist option, very reasonable cost. I'm yet to test it more extensively, but it looks like a prime alpha strike choice, opportunist, or a fast backup specialist. Linkable Father-Knights. The ability to throw them into OS links gave them some space, and enables some pretty cheap yet dead assault Core. ML is my particular favourite - with fireteam bonuses high BS and long range means that even low Burst is often enough to hit, and most things that get hit change into fine red mist or a debris field. Sepulchre changes. FD2 largely replaces most useful Montesa profiles, and CoC option - while expensive - opens up some additional tactics. HMGs on MO TAGs. While I prefer the Auxbot Seraph for its sheer fun factor, getting a proper HMG TAG is welcome. In general. While I also have my list of missed opportunities and questionable unit design choices, VIRD construction and the nature of changes trickling to other sectorials clearly shows that CB did overcome their creative block when it comes to PanO. I don't like few of the recent changes, but most of them are good or very good, what's most important - they make the faction more interesting when it comes to playstyle, and since fun factor was my main problem with PanO I'm a happy Hyperpower drone now.
Great thread idea. Oh man, where do I even start... Kamau. Whoa. The envy of others. Medium Infantry performance on a 4-4 light infantry chassis. Great loadouts, great Ballistic Skill, Mimetism, Wildcard... These are the elite of the elite. Perhaps my favorite rule, one that comes up a lot for me, is Shock Immunity. Echo Bravo. What a creative set of profiles, on a complete ass-kicker of a unit. At the same time, the skill curve for getting use out of these guys is steep. They can solve a lot of problems, but their job is a risky one, and I love that about them. Plus, I have a personal connection to these guys and gals, so what's not to love? Croc Man. Technically not a new unit. But one that got better, because of the role it plays compared to other VIRD units. When your opponent is eyeing ever Camo token as a Neurocinetic or Jammer threat, that hidden deployment guy gets overlooked. Full Infiltrate, push those buttons, lay those mines. Awesome. Patsy. So Joan gets all the attention as the ultimate team player. She's coordinating Orders all over the place, she's making Warcors join the cause with Regular Orders. But Patsy is the Joan of link teams. Use that NCO to drag them around. Form Haris teams that are so flexible, noone quite believes they're legal. Spray those Shock Rounds, toss that Nimbus Plus, and I've even seen her punch an alien or two in the face when she has to. Great design on her. Bolts. What!? Yesterday, after the news dropped, I was about to head out the door to work. I detoured over to my WIP cabinet (i.e. shelf for things I haven't painted, and probably never will) and pulled the Bolts out, putting them on my desk. Time for some paint, team. I'm such a fan of antipersonnel mines... They rank as Top 3 Best Rules in the Game for me. So seeing Bolts as cheap, mean, Drop Bear/EM mine dispensers is so promising. CSUs. Does anyone even remember that these were originally an NCA unit? These girls (and their John Wick sculpt buddy) have come home to their proper place, with so many linkable options. Bagh Mari. I was fielding solo Bagh Mari HMGs for years, because they're just a great stand-alone unit. Now I can just put them in a Core team of Regulars, one of my other favorite Acon units? Yeah alright. That's just a net gain. The only thing I hate about VIRD is that it was released so close to Acon's redesign. There's not enough time in the day to play it all. Hyperpower? I hardly know her. The love for the Team in Blue has really made 2018-2019 a great time to be PanO. While I know some challenges remain, it's wonderful to see the faction in a better place than it's ever been. Glad for the community too. I continue to enjoy our discussions, and I learn new things from you all continuously.
I'll toss some servos in here too ( And surprisingly enough, not ALL related to HI, I promise. ): 1. The new Montesas. Who ever said PanO cannot have creative and unique stuff? You can all now claim to fame that you are the only ones to own a Heavy Infantry Biker. That actually looks rather useful as mobile combat piece... and can add a lot of flavor to HI lists too, so yay. Though I am sort of sad about the loss of a BS14 LGL tht deploys within range of the enemies deployment zone... 2. ...but you did get an FD2 BS14 LGL that can do surprise shots, so I'm not going to exactly complain here. KotHS get CoC profiles instead of FD2 ones as well, so yay for variety. 3. Teutons are... still rather basic, but hey, a specialist profile and an NCO Spitfire profile has to count for something. 4. Santiago knights are pretty cool. You either get a Spitfire and E/M grenades or you can grab a KHD... that has a TinBot A, so yay. 5. Echo-Bravos ( SEE! I said I wasn't going to be 100% talking about HI here. ) seem to be a very interesting AD option, PARTICULARLY due to that WildParrot. Drop in, and march it right up behind the corner from an Avatar and watch it squirm. 6. Zulu-Cobras, AKA Blue Hecklers, seem very interesting. AND they are the closest thing PanO now has to an infiltrating regular camo specialist! :D 7. Bolts. Bolts are getting better. This is great. This is exceedingly great. And they get CoC. This makes it even greater. 8. Seraph HMG. It's neat. 9. An HI sectorial, MO, got new fireteam options. And a Dart. And HI sectorial... got cool stuff. People would accuse me of being an impersonator if I said that was not a REALLY good thing. 10. Aquilas + Fusiliers in NCA. That is a good, even if it's just the MULTI-Rifle, that is still now an utter nightmare to Ariadna, as NCA now as BS15 full-linked auto-discover camo-ignoring shock-ammo tossing monstrosity. And since my meta is SATURATED with Ariadna... this is nice. TL;DR I really need to finally save up on Icestorm and Beyond and delve into both the Nomads and PanO to indulge my unreasonable HI/Limited Insertion needs.
I just painted up a second (converted) Aquila MR too. Going to be a joy to throw that in a Bolt Core/Haris and cruise up the midfield.
yeah all new varuna stuff is super great most profiles are just min maxed: _Zulu jammer _Zulu KHD _echo redfury is a must have _kamau MSR & HMG Patsy is cool (even if I don't get the usefulness of the grenade ?) helot & Zulu can do some shellgame and facing a surprise neurocinetic redfury is no joke
I’m including some oldies in my list, because I like playing pano. There, I said it. I like pano. Bagh Mari. I know they haven’t changed much, but I still love them. MSV1 and mimetism in a linkable unit with BS12. I’ve had a solo hmg take on a fuller missile launcher and the Swiss guard that popped out of hidden deployment and survive. That dude went on to wreck some other models. Dart. I know she’s technically ALEPH, but good lord is she amazing. Aggressive and awesome. Again with the msv1 and camo. Also mines or e/m grenades, because why not? Acontecimento Regulars and Fusiliers. I lump them together because regulars are fusiliers who’ve been stationed on Acon. Bs12 for a 10 point line infantry is amazing. Do you know what happens when a Fiday surprise shots your linked 10 point guy? It’s about 50/50 that either one wins the gunfight. My opponent got a Naga into my deployment zone a while back and then couldn’t really accomplish anything. I think I tanked a mine and eventually killed the Naga. I have to give a special shout out to the regular mine layer. That profile is the best. Swiss Guard. What’s not to love? Arguably the best gunfighter in the game. That hmg going to town just makes me happy. The Aquila is linkable now! Maybe I’ll actually get to use that multi rifle conversion I made for some reason. Honestly, the machinist and trauma doc. I know that they only have wip 12, but everything in the army (except the cannon fodder helots now) is either remote presence or has a cube. I’ve never had a problem getting stuff back onto it’s feet and I can’t remember ever having to rely on a paramedic. Helots. What a great concept and a way to give pano some interesting defensive pieces. Plus, fire is such a fantastic deterrent.
Phone formatting here we go! 1. Shock Army of Acontecimento Its hard to tell what the bigger boon to Acon is, the new units in the bike and Dart or the change up of mix links. Bagh mari joining regulars' linkteams has made them a lot more attractive and orcs can join in the fun too for a different style defensive link. The addition of the fueurbach to the base orc profile really helps emphasize the link as you can toss out several minelayers, have a mimetism/msv sniper and a HI with a big gun. Alternatively you can build the link to support an HMG at an aggressive price point with sensor/mine models in tow. 2. Varuna Snake Eaters What's not to love about this sectorial? All of it's medium infantry are actually light troops. Tons of excellent profiles. Zulu Cobras alone are worth the sectorial. Link teams are pretty much a free for all or fusiliers, kamau, orcs and characters flying everywhere. You can take a link team and a cutter! That's a big deal. 3. Neoterra Capitaline Army An already solid army got solider? Sufficient link versatility to allow for some interesting combinations but not nearly on the same level as Acon or Varuna. Bolts now may provide an alternative play style to the sit and shoot fusiliers. A couple odd wildcards to toss msv into links makes for some extra spice. The deva upgrades were a blessing and Aida is an odd ball but nice to have. 4. Vanilla Vanilla Pano has certainly gotten a lot of improvements from its children. It's heavy infantry became far more varied when MO was redone allowing breathing room with a bike, FD holoprojector and the Santiagos are super at being multitaskers even without a fireteam. The new Varuna units have been very welcome especially the helot for the Joan sectorial. The bolts changes may make them attractive to vanilla as specialist hackers with e/mthingys. Best of all, is there are now more CoC models than ever. 5. Infowars Possibly one of the most improved areas for PanO is its hacking. Pano has scrapped by in the infowars section of the game. It's still lagging behind Nomads, Aleph and CA with their HD+ and multiple upgrade programs, but it's got much better standing than where it was. Previously the only source of a KHD was the hexa or Scyla and Nagas for Acon. This meant Acon has a strong claim to being our infowars division. Now Neoterra has probably wrest that title from them back to itself. The Deva AHD with Lightning is ridiculously good at defending itself from other hackers and now there are two sources of KHD in the sectorial at either 27 for a TO hacker or the new Bolt for the very reasonable price of 21 and has some bts to boot. Combined with the ease at which they take rems means that Neoterra can blanket the table against hackers, HI and TAGs. The Zulu Cobra combines the KHD with a powerful gun in the breaker combi albeit a hard choice to take with its limited AVA outside of Varuna. The Santiago with KHD brings it's own tinbot making its regular programs extra hard to defend against as if they were upgrades. Vanilla benefits greatly from all of the extra options and gets to combine and pick and choose at will. 6. The Fully Modern Army Pano is the first on the line to have completed its transformation into a fully.realized N3 army (yeah I know you tied us, shutup Haqq) and much of what CB did shows a strong step forward for addressing concerns and showing others what to expect from attention they will receive.
Although my heart is with Acontecimento right now, I do look enviously over at Varuna from time to time and wonder if I shouldn't have ignored all the unreleased profiles and jumped in for this season. But the biggest thing for me? I'm actually looking forward to rebuilding my NCA again.
Gosh it's nice to see the PanO forum full of sugar rather than salt. VIRD feels really strong, but for me I really just like the Bolt changes. It's a good example of CB listening and taking action in a good but not simply pandering way.
TBH, I don't think we have that much to still complain on. In Vanilla, I even think that De Fersen is now playable for more players than he used to be as the Bolt CoC is now available for a price that not every army can laugh at because this profile is really combat capable in addition to be the specialist and prevent LoL. So, our entire range of TAG, HI and REM is perfectly fine. Our MI still have some slots which are in lack of love (our two characters) but the rest is from OK to really good so, why complain? Even Bolts are insteresting in Vanilla now. We can't win in every spot, we are already making a lot of armies envious of what we have in this category. I won't speak about our LI as I think pretty everyone love what we have here. Sectorial wise now, I think we will have to wait some times to see if VIRD hype survive through the different ITS seasons. It is a nice army but it hardly fits my playstyle. From all PanO sectorials and Vanilla, it's the sectorial I have the most difficult to make work, so I leave lovers play it until I find out how to be consistently play it by the good way. And to me, I have a lot of fun with all our sectorials, really. And I think that fun is the first step to play good. If you dislike what you're playing, you'll be prone to make more mistakes. So, IMO, PanO is really nice now and I think that those who can be salty now are the other amies, not us.
Honestly, after all these changes that are being tossed and have been tossed at PanO... PanOceania is now firmly planted as one of the three factions I like in their entirety, vanilla and sectorials and models ( Alongside Nomads and Yu Jing. ). Between the overall solid LI selection ( Yes, even Order Sergeants. Even they with AVA 1 at least bring one or two profiles that I can see myself using outside MO, even with those ludicrous SWC taxes. ), the HI ( This is the best part, you guys have great HI. Stuff's great. HI is great. So this is great. ) and solid stuff everywhere else... you guys got cool stuff. Maybe not the best stuff, but cool stuff is neat too.
Thanks to Varuna's SWC friendly Profiles in Vanilla I frequently find myself looking at the TO OS in Vanilla. Having the option to run EB and ZC really does wonders for your economy. Bolt CoC is a gamechanger, can't wait to pull the Jotum out of its sock and rambo the Lt up the field. The cheap Varuna pieces are a godsend to build a list around our TAGs, something that I'm very pleased with.
the bolt CoC and all varuna additions may bring back from the dead Vanilla PanO for now I'm focused with VIRD and winning everything with this powerhouse but I can't wait try out Vanilla again !
That they do. And the Auxbot one is decent for when you max out your Auxilia AVA but still want an extra HFT Auxbot. De Fersen strikes me as the stand out LT for this, personally. I think it'll have a similar effect to what IA has had for Vanilla YJ: it was solid and playable already, buuuuuut... these extra options and new opportunities have kicked things into next gear, for sure. I honestly really want to jump into PanO myself... so many things one desires, so little money ( Great thing the starter boxes are pretty great for bulk expanding from the two player boxes though. ). Might actually be able to save up for Icestorm+Beyond by the end of summer though. Might opt for that if the recent local Infinity recession ends by then.
I wanted another Nomad starter for bits and conversions, but now I'm planning on getting Icestorm and picking PanO back up as a second faction. I started with ASA and MO way back in the day, but VIRD is calling me. I like PanO's professional military feel, and their flavor really seems to fit the way I want to play.
