Army is now updated with new Spec-Ops skills and points! I'm doing NA2 for our campaign but if I were to do YJ. This is what I'd go with for a standard tournament. ZHANSHI (Infinity Spec-Ops) (12 XP) (CC:19, Martial Arts L4, Hyper-Dynamics L2) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 12) I dare to be different!
Just as soon as we get Bolts Spec-Ops with built in Drop bears and Galwegian Spec-Ops (they're AVA Total Line troops after all)
Would be nice. Especially now that each faction has it's own weapons and skill trees, it'd be trivial to make a Zuyong SpecOps that can't get NWI. Not all Bolts have Drop Bears. If you look at Aleph SpecOps, the Thorakites profile is not the SMG, but the combi. So I'd expect a Bolt SpecOps to only be the 20pt Combi+LSG version. And the Caledonian SpecOps is the Volunteer. If you're saying that anything that is a Line Troop should be a SpecOps, well, you should probably look at what all that would allow: PanO - Acon Regulars, Fusiliers, and Kamau. YJ - Celestial Guard, Kuang Shi, Zanshi, Shang Ji Invincibles, Wu Ming, Yan Huo (2W specops with a MultiHMG? Yes please!), Zuyong, and Shaolin Ariadna - Line Kazaks, Galwegians, Wulvers, and Irmandinhos. Haqq - Ghazi Mutts, Ghulam, Halqa, Naffatum, and Kum bikers. Nomads - Aguaciles, Securitate, Jaguars, and Morlocks. Combined - Vanguards, Seed Soldiers, Nox troops, Unidrons, Daturazi, Oznat, Gakis, and Pretas. Aleph - Danavas, Thorakites, and Dakinis. Tohaa - Kamael NA2 - Druze - No Line Troops. JSA - Keisotsu, Domaru, and Tanko. Ikari - Keisotsu, Domaru, Wu Ming. StarCo - Aguaciles, Jaguars, and Irmandinhos Spiral - No Line Troops Foreign Company - Securitate Dahshat - Ghulam, Zuyong, Kum
AVA T isn't the requirement for a Spec-Ops, seems to be the most "basic" profile for the army's cheapest "standard" trooper. 45th fall outside of this, but Bolts do not and having the 20-point Bolt with Combi as spec ops would make a lot of sense. Bolt with Drop-Bears makes as little sense as a Celestial Guard FO as Spec Ops or a Taagma Tri-Core. By the by, let me just voice how insane both the Taagma and Hafza spec ops are!
When I hear the word spec-ops bog standard grunt doesn't come to mind, I'm thinking more SAS or royal marine commandos. The fact that apparently Infinity's spec ops are mostly grunts is pretty weird.
I think this is more a concession to gameplay of progression that sense. These spec ops are not fully trained, but rather recently promoted. The trooper may not be already so well trained that progression would go out of whack, instead it's the XP of this "player character" which determines how far along in their training they have come. Everyone starts as a no-name murder hobo in the local tavern, after all.
Um Muyib and Deva say hi! This is why I think they should have made a new troop just for the spec-ops. Start them off plain with their own point cost and even make them in line with their force. Like WIP 14 for Haqq for example. Then add from ther.
Those two ARE the most basic troops accessible to SSS and Hassassin. Danavas and Barid are all Hackers and don't have a basic profile while Dakini are Remotes. Hassassin have Ghulam, though, even if they don't have Ghulam spec ops, which to me together with the fact that they didn't make a basic troop up for SSS to circumvent the problem suggests that Haidao are perfectly reasonable spec ops candidates. (Ghulam being to HB what Zhanshi are to IA) The basic idea of spec ops isn't unreasonable and kind of neat, but what's going to break spec ops games now that they have addressed the issue of each and every one of those spec ops being a super-specialist is those fucking jammers. Having them in game is a bad idea, but handing them out to units that can get both Sixth Sense and Holo1 at sky high WIP and good dodging? Insanity. Devas aren't going to break it, IMO, but it's a shame it caters to the Dakini-spam style so much.
Devas are already broken from the moment designers were so careless to add Bioinmunity for +2xp and option for AD3 +8xp. Here you have an unhackable Liu Xing for Aleph for 24 pts. I would really like to know who was the integral idiot that thought that was fair (or better said didn't spend time thinking, my ass Spec Ops rules have been tested! )
...with worse gun, lower BS, that's given up the opportunity of a Dakini-supporting spec ops, and is competing with a Garuda on basically the same premises as Tiger vs Louie.
I agree but then they shouldn't be allowed in competitive things like tournaments. Paradiso is fine because it's all casual missions. But even non-competitive it gives the feeling of being unfair.
If the TO wants to run a spec ops tournament then that's on them acknowledging the event isn't going to be particularly competitive, and it's up to the players to decide if they want to go to that. Limited Insertion is also not particularly good as a competitive event but people also enjoy playing in those enough that they go.
Navy Seals and all that. But seriously, Zuyong doesn't precisely fit the bill. BS is too high, W is too high... basically all stats but PH are a bit high.
Both of which have 1 lower BS, 1 lower PH, 1 lower ARM and 1 lower wound - i.e. 3 of the 3 major stats. Deva WIP is through the roof, but they need to purchase a skill for 2 to get immune to Shock and Muyib has strangely high CC for a non JSA/YJ spec ops but I blame that more for CB to not stick to their guns with CC skill on Zhanshi/CG. Haidao would make for a new Deva level Spec Op, not as extreme WIP and trading Hackable to not have to buy Bioimmunity and to gain higher BS while a Zuyong Spec Op would make for a new extreme.
