Imagine a mercenary-specific HI in Infinity. What would you like this unit to be? What skills, equipment, stats, and fluff do you have in mind? I'm thinking someone with 2 wounds, 3 ARM, and 3 BTS, maybe with a focus on explosives, like a heavier version of Muyibs: DEPs, Panzerfausts, Flammenspeers, etc. At least that's a heavy infantry niche I don't really see covered in any other army.
I don't think a generic NA2 HI is needed, the whole point of NA2s is that they're separate individual factions, an exception to the usual Vanilla>Sectorial relationship. Druze could do with an HI, because I'm a sucker for powered armour of any form, but the other NA2s already have two to five HI choices at least.
Yes, I meant an HI for NA2 factions that don't have heavy infantry units of their own. And that would also be available with Soldiers of Fortune. I don't think this theoretical HI needs to be in Ikari, Dahshat, or anywhere other than the Druze for that matter. I am just thinking about it outside of the context of NA2 sectorials.
Maybe something more like an Ariadna HI; 1 wound and maybe a second "wound" via NWI or whatever. Armor 3-ish, but maintaining the 4-4 movement.
Nah, it should be some sort of oversized bloke :D Make it S5 with 2 wounds and ARM5/BTS3, maybe make it Lo-tech so after the first wound it drops to Arm4. Should be a heavy support/mobile artillery piece with dual panzerfausts, dual missile launchers, dual rocket launchers... Oh, wait, we have that already, it's called the Ratnik :D No joke here, I actually dig this idea, but honestly, it would be hard to design a Merc HI that isn't just an HI from another faction with the serial numbers filled off.
Well this is kinda already filled by other HI infantry units that do mercenary work (Al Fasid and Mobile Brigada) alongside those that are inferred to just be using the armor (Zuyong). If it's going to be even a soldier of fortune option is needs a home force its coming from (soldiers of fortune options don't exist in a vacuum).
A low-tech powersuit actually sounds like the kind of thing your average merc can afford. Regarding the design difficulties: yeah, it would be kinda hard to make it look different from a blackjack or a ratnik. What kind of equipment would make such a unit type unique and distinctive? Here's a dumb cheesy idea: make those s5 boars be the AD troops that may or may not have Explode LX. So make it that in lore these powersuits have jump jets, which in addition to AD Combat Jump also gives them Super Jump. Give them twin boarding shotguns and maybe a D.E.P.
Honestly I'd go in the other direction from cheap power-suit; an elite HI with all the bells and whistles, plus the versatility of loadouts possessed by the Druze Shock Teams. No TO or FA2 or anything extreme, but such a broad base of cheapish mid-range gear that it covers against most weaker units- like a HI Anaconda, but not as outright bad. Use it to represent a veteran bounty hunter or merc who's actually pulled off the suicide mission or brought in a crook known across the Sphere, and has the money to afford what even the military can't issue as standard.
Oh, I'm getting some Mandalorian Supercommando vibes! Your suggestion would also solve the issue of "where that HI originates from": just make it native to Druze Bayram.
I always like an opportunity for something new! I'd like an HI equivalent to like Brawlers. Or Druze HI!
This is the Way. The Mandalorian just started showing in Europe Disney+, right? What's the normal sculpture turn around time from conception (aka either now or the last episode in a couple months) to release?
Both Ikari and Dashat use WM and ZY in place of "insert generic HI armour here". Honestly, a 'generic HI with it's serial numbers filed off + 1 cool thing added' would be ideal as a replacement for both those troops. But that kinda gets away from the central design intent of Merc Armies: they're a new way to use existing models and to encourage players to make out-of-faction purchases. They add new factions without adding (many) new models. Honestly, I'm surprised that CB released Brawlers: there's a lot of very good proxies that would have filled that space without adding another SKU. So, if this happens what I'd like to see is Profiles released but not models. Leaving aside that I don't think there is a business case: 4-2 Move CC15 BS13 PH13 WIP12 ARM 3 BTS 3 S2 HI with Multi-terrain and say SSL1 would work well with HMG, HRL, BSG Specialist (Paramedic or FO?, IDK) and SMG, Panzerfaust (Haris) profiles. You'd get a price point a little cheaper than ZYs, with absolutely no frills; while also pretty much replicating what you can do with WM in Ikari. Would represent a significant nerf to Dashat's ZY options losing Tinbot and Tac Aware. But it'd probably fit the feel better with 'older less well maintained armour'. If you wanted to make them stronger, you could easily slap a Nano-pulsar on all profiles: tech-wise, these are widely available but highly illegal and putting them on old-school armour to keep it competitive is fluffy. It also pairs extremely well with SSL1 to give them a cool reason to be taken.
I kinda think what you're actually looking for would be a single Merc hero HI. I think that'd be fine. That way you're not trying to replace the WM and ZY, and can make him a bit splashy with making a new bunch of mooks like other mooks.
John Hawkwood kinda already does that. Admittedly he's not a HI... but, 4-4 Move ARM3 BTS6 Bio Immune NWI Mulitpistol, Nanopulsar and Mono CCW. Honestly if he was actually HI and just 2W he'd make a lot more sense.
I don't mind the zuyong/wuming replacement HI either. However, if we're going that route, I would personally exchange multiterrain and/or ssl1 for MetaChemistry L2. The idea behind it is to have those heavy infantry units be merc cyborgs so that their various augmentations are reflected in MCL2. Have them be thematic brothers to the Booty L2 bounty hunters. It would also occasionally allow you to mitigate their 4-2 speed if we're taking the profile suggested by @inane.imp
The problem with Metachemistry is that it's a very spikey skill. That's OK on a 1W Warband. But when your opponent's BS13 2W HMG suddenly gets TI and Dogged, you're having a bad day. Metachemistry Level 1 is probably as far as you'd want to go. The likelihood of any of the really great options is significantly reduced over 2. There's still some great rolls in there though.
All good points on using existing stuff. I probably wouldn't be doing some if I didn't already have figs. I started Ikari with my Wu Ming and that allowed me to branch into QK and Druze.
