You say that like it's a statement I might disagree with. I really, really hope N4 can fix some internal balance issues.
My problem is that its a merc. So its not a merc that gets taken to fill a needed roll but a merc that should be taken because its stronger/more effective than nearly all main pieces. All fractions got some units that a nearly auto include but at least these a fraction specific. For me it feels weird if the fraction gets less important and mercs gets more important
I guess we are furiously agreeing then. Though, that's a fair way from the where this thead started, and on top of that it seems kind of at least partially deliberate CB makes some troops close to auto picks. I'm not the biggest fan of it either, though it still works.
Entirely possible like I said I didn't read that full thread nor am I here to make a claim about your previous posts since I didn't read them. All I wanted to observe was today I thought Barakiel had valuable input to this thread that was in a pleasant tone for these forums :). That doesn't mean he wasn't a grumpy pants somewhere else by any means. Interesting question though, like most armies have some sort of standout unit. Mutts, Posthumans etc. Is there a specific issue with armies having standout units as being a part of balance? It can definitely feel like a slippery slope but I've never felt like I've had to take a unit. Do people feel that way? that they -have- to take something to compete?
I've been playing since the tail end of Wotan and most armies have had at least one or two since I started...
While I agree that the Libertos is a very competetive choice and very close to an autoinclude for almost every high end list concept - the Hac Tao/Intruder comparison is a bit far off the left field and hurts the point. Anyway bygones be bygones. The Libertos always appeared to be a flat out buff for several Vanilla armies and that was somewhat fine (although hamfisted). Dashat doubling down on AVA and making the basic Profile flat up better than more favourful is bad. Then again the whole concept of Dashat is a terrible choice from a gamebalance realted point of view. Imho CB should think long and hard about ceilings for each individual Faction and Sectorial for N4. Additions that go against previous Faction limitations used to happen in form of troops adding an option to their Sectorial and a tough sell in Vanilla. Locust, Black Friar and Blackjacks come to mind. When you dump a high performance piece like the Sukeul, Kriza Borac into the mix, things get messed up. Which is probably why Mercs have always been on the weird side. More of a flavourful addition with a one or two places where they provide options. Never ideal over a somewhat decent native choice but different at best. Monstrucker and Libertos break the norm and not in a good way. They're generic good troops without the pricey flavour that previously defined the generally available Mercs. When a Merc beats the default Engineer choices by a mile and outperforms the Zero Minelayer in terms of efficiency something went wrong.
So much this. And yet Krakots are getting to be a requirement again as a response to Jammers and EM, being one of the very few troops in a lot of factions with Veteran L1. As a rough guess, most of Haqq, just because they already have a lot of cheap/obnoxious models that can trade up. Starting with Mutts. HSN3, or thereabouts. It should NEVER be OK!
Player complains about Jammer. Same player complains that a great anti-Jammer merc is too useful, and should be more niche. Yeah, checks out.
I've never have been able to get a Liberto to act like Zewrath mentioned in the OP. I use it in just about every force. I loved it but it's no Rambo unit. Something people haven't mentioned too is that it's Frenzy. After the first wound it inflicts, not even kill, it looses cover from then on. Sure it's regular-impetuous but still.... I mainly just use him as a good speed bump. And he works well at it.
If it was in every sectorial, too, it'd be meaningful. As it stands it's only an incidental counter to Jammers, not a purposeful one. Jammers are still a problem.
The switch over to Impetuous doesn't take effect until the start of your next active turn. See relevant quote below: http://infinitythewiki.com/en/Fury
Yes I mis-wrote. I didn't mean immediately after the wound. But the next turn he's Impetuous. It was still something not brought up and it can be bad for the Liberto.
Player thinks Jammers are a problem and laments that one of the side effects is causing people to overvalue a non-thematic merc unit?
More like "Veteran L1, as the primary counter to EMspam and Jammers, needs to be more common than ONE :censored: MERC!" Exactly.
By that point it has probably killed what it needs to and is just going to be an annoyance to deal with. the lack of cover doesn't matter because it's delivered you really don't care if it lives or not. It'll take a handful of orders to deal with which is more useful than if it were to kill another model or too.
How is it a drawback for a suicide unit to get a free extra order if it is successful and a very heavy discount in cost? Would you rather it not have this "drawback" and cost some 15+ points?
I don't know, it may be a combination of several factors. I spent 1,5 years constantly spamming either the Bandit Boarding Shotgun or the Spektr Boarding Shotgun, as well as never leaving home without the Foxtrot Boarding Shotgun whenever I felt like playing USARF, so perhaps I just developed a keen sense regarding deployment of Camo Pieces. Furthermore, I urge people to try these types of attack pieces against the perceived top tier armies like OSS or Varuna, as the Dakini link of OSS and the static non-minelayer options of Varuna are just embarrassingly bad at covering themselves against these types of threaths. For some reason threads keep popping up about how to outshoot a Kamau link, which is just bizarre to me as there's a perfectly cheap and easy solution to that threath in almost all armies. I compared him to a Naga minelayer, which I think is a very good comparison. I'm just getting as much work done with him, as my other "traditional" attack pieces, which sticks out to me because he's barely more expensive than a flash pulse REM and he's overperforming by quite a large margin. Doesn't hurt my point, even if it comes off as hyperbole but then again this may just be a byproduct of Danish culture, where exaggeration is commonly used to highlight a point, almost on a pathelogical level. Yeah.. but you're literally a meme, who's getting upvoted by another forum meme user, so your refutation is invalid.
