More evidence that the drop troop is a new design and the artist was following a dossier, it has Wu Ming thighs. CB like to reuse layers. So let's say this is in fact a Liu Xing, what can we infer about it? The checkered texture shoulders and collar are interesting, but the idea of it being mimetic or god forbid, ODD would be a bit much for Tiger Soldiers to swallow. Albedo on the other hand, is so thematic for a drop troop named meteor that it hurts.
Well a drop HI with ODD should cost more or less lika a Hac Tao, or a bit less if his stats are daofei/shang ji level. But i doubt it was cheaper than 60 points evan without heavy weapons. Tiger soldier is a very strong unit but far cheap than this ( and i really want a haris option for multiterrain tiger soldier). What i mean, i doubt tiger soldier and a ODD DA HI (xD) compite too much beacuse for point cost
Well, it's carrying a Spitfire for one. I'm not sure Albedo is part of the Yu Jing reportoire. It would be interesting, for sure, particularly since it's not a State so MSV soldiers can't delay against them. There's too much interesting areas hidden in the picture (hips) to say anything about dual pistols or exotic pistols. Mimetism would work, sure it'd be an expensive and durable Tiger, but that would be much like how the Zuyong is a Zhanshi in power armour, only problem with that analogy is, of course, that Tigers are very competent to begin with. It could be Holoprojector 2, but it's impossible to say without seeing the arms (unlike Haqq, Yu Jing has fairly flat projection panels on the sides of the upper arms) Wu Ming thighs is interesting, that implies the old, expensive, Armour of 4 and BTS of 3. ODD on a Wu Ming grade soldier would be, frankly, brutal and stupidly powerful. That piece would single-handedly be able to take out an entire back section of support troops if the enemy leaves less than 3 total burst pointing at any section of table edge or relatively open area close to their DZ. I'd also like to draw attention to the soldier at the far back, in the shadows. A large spicy boy holding a gun two-handed under their arm and looks like the left hand's grip is on top of the gun. I'm not sure what this one is or what gun it is, but it doesn't have the Yan Huo or Zuyong armour design with a... turtle-neck (?) going around the helmet area - looks like a Wu Ming or Hac Tao style armour (i.e. the fluff-wise expensive armours) with the two bars going vertically from the shoulders.
ODD is a downgraded version of TO and in YJ only Shikami's have it. Can't give all the cool toys to the oppressed.
Count me excited for Invincible Army again. I mean I never really wasn't excited, but you've rekindled it. Also fully expecting to get nothing this cool or exciting.
Albedo's a good idea. Kind of unique and gives it a niche in taking out MSV troops. I think giving an AD troop like this ODD would hike the price up too much, with a likely armor 4 it and combat jump could be bordering on 60 points which is a hefty investment. I was under the impression that ODD was more of a disruption than a type of camouflage, like I imagined it that it generates an image of static that looks like a big messy blur to the viewer and was hard to pinpoint where your enemy was under that. I had a distinct memory of an official looking image of a Bulleteer armbot under a static visual effect. But then I reread the tiny fluff blurb and there's that bit about the lawsuit because it was similar to TO camo so now I don't know. Was that just some sort of Mandela effect?
Why do all the factions have to look so cool? I'm tempted to start the Tunguska or Varuna sectorials for my 2nd force but I like the look of Yu Jing as well.
Full Auto L2 would be fantastic on these. They're already an AD trooper with 4--4 MOV and a second wound, so doubling down on them as a full-on assault piece would be my ideal. This goes doubly if the Daofei isn't going to be in the Invincible Army list as we previously learned. This leaves a slot for a mid-50's to low-60's assault HI piece in the list and this would be the perfect place for such a unit. Basically, so long as this thing comes with a direct firefight force-multiplier (Mimetism, Full Auto, ODD, etc.) then it will easily attain the must-have status of the Tiger Soldier. Alternatively, give it Veteran L2 and simply turn it in to a pure assault-by-attrition piece. That said, even a mostly naked AD HI with decent stats will see a lot of use (especially since it likely wont go far north of 40 points for the package). Either way, I'm just glad we're finally getting an AD HI after all these years. Though sadly it looks like Zhanshi are probably in as well, here's hoping they finally fix them for the sectorial if that's the case.
There's little particularly wrong with the Zhanshi, besides the daft extra point they pay for the +1CC value over Alguaciles, their biggest problem is being squeezed between Celestial Guards and Keisotsu which they won't be in IA or WB. But it is sad that they seem to be the backbone of IA.
Hold on a minute, do you refer to the image in OP as evidence that Zhanshi will be the backbone of IA, or something else? Do we have a single fact to indicate that this image relates to IA in any meaningful way?
That's the topic of this thread, you know, that the image is reasonably certain to be for an official release or announcement regarding IA.
Again, what has been said to tie it to IA? There is not a a troop that we know even has Invincible in it's name in the picture. Hell, Zhanshi's Guijia and Hac Tao have at various points all been stated by official sources to be in white banner. I am genuinely curious on what basis is anyone concluding it is related to IA and not something else?
I have never seen anyone claim official sources have confirmed Guijia or Hac Tao for WB that can not be traced back to what's essentially whisper games - most often Bostria talking about old design ideas they once had. Considered for WB, sure, but WB should still be at an early design stage so I'd not really expect more than Guilang and Zhanshi to be very certain there. What suggests that this is in fact leaked official IA artwork is a bunch of indications which when put together corroborates that we'll see something fairly soon regarding IA, not least that these leaks and rumours so far have a surprisingly high truth rate so far (almost like CB likes making these "mistakes" to get people talking). So, if you want to be sceptical, that's fine, just keep in mind we'll not see anything actually set in stone before they get Beasts of War to do their usual reveal interviews. As far as I'm aware I think we've got a big Infinity release announcement coming up soon, so we'll know more soon enough and I honestly think IA is going to be the first of this year's 5 sectorial releases, for better or worse.
12:17. Now as a counter point to this, is there any evidence anywhere that Guijia or Hac Tao have been considered for Invincible Army at all? (EDIT: There is in the RPG) . You would think if this was a commissioned artwork to represent IA in the way that the sister artwork represents Tunguska, there would be a prominent Zuyong or Yanhuo somewhere. We can be fairly certain something is coming for Yu Jing, we have heard that IA is nearly finished, but I just don't believe this artwork was commissioned to represent IA. Maybe we are getting some kind of Rammah Taskforce, perhaps given the other teasers, the reverse Nanjing anti-uprising sectorial army.
But but.. the Gac Tao is the king of Yu Jing IP.... The elite comando, mr Norris. When more i think more i belive IA and WB should have Hac Tao. And reagarding to lore zhansi should be only on WB ore with a low AVA on IA. But thst deppend of how they maked new rules to make a possible full ip list viable in term of ordres. Anyways i want to be able to use the heavy waepons zhansis models inside a link team.
To be precise, it's a "sidestep" on TO... If we go to the wiki, Mimetism upgrades to Camo, which upgrades to TO directly, while ODD is there as an aside. Not only are the three considered levels of Camo, if you apply Burned or Fury to either camo or TO camo they downgrade to Mimetism, while ODD ignores Fury and gets totally eliminated by being Burned... So I'd be careful grouping all four, some people might have trouble down on the road (I know for personal experience... not that my Myrmidons used to survive Fire ARM rolls anyway XD).
If there indeed is an IA sectorial coming, it's entirely possible there might be some minor adjustments to the Zhanshi profile.
Hmm, you are possibly right here, I may be jumping to conclusions since mounting evidence is that IA will be the next sectorial showing up and this new piece of art is, well, new. In truth, outside of the as-of-yet unnamed drop trooper (which I assume is going to be in the IA, possibly in error, though I think the chance is strong) there is nothing in that picture that has been confirmed for the IA (even though Guija and Hac Tao make a lot of sense being modern, high-tech units that exemplify the modernization of Yu Jing forces). Initially I had thought the other drop trooper in the background was itself a Tiger (an IA unit) but it seems to be another one of the AD HI that is shown in the foreground. So yeah, I'll be willing to wait on this and hope that Zhanshi don't show up in the IA (because for many reasons I've stated before, they shouldn't even be in there as an AVA2-4 throwaway option unless CB are retconning a bunch of established background... which they may be). But this may just be unrelated art, possibly a chapter splash page for the Yu Jing section of the next book instead of art relating in any way to the IA itself. I'm probably just jumping to conclusions since I'm still a little bitter that the Daofei probably wont be coming to the IA and thus am sort of just expecting the worst (especially as HI-heavy sectorials just don't fair well in the current environment). I should probably be checking my baggage and keeping an open mind until the reveal (and then complain, as is the right of all Yu Jing citizens!).