It strikes me as odd to see the likes of a Liberto or ABH or Krakot fighting alongside the elite, cold, calculating, machine army of the AI. Um...I mean...kind, caring, saviors of the AI. In any case, it doesn’t make sense to me to see a lot of those mercenaries in vanilla ALEPH. As such, I’ve found that Perseus and the twin pistol toting ABH make wonderful proxies for Krakots. The Gangbuster with his shotgun is a great stand in for a Liberto, especially knowing that it’s the profile for gangbusters that will never see the table otherwise. Do you not worry about it and just use the merc models? Do you employ proxies? Do you justify it in your mind somehow?
I think of them as either deniable assets, or that Aleph has designed infiltration Lhosts to look like other species, depending on how many of the AI laws I want to violate that day. We know from the OSS list that Aleph does keep authorized bounty hunters on retainer. This is probably as much about getting human intel as actual additional combat power, but if you're paying the ABH, might as well use an asset.
Combat grade Lhosts are expensive, why not get the renegades and mercenaries to do your dirty work cheaper?
Especially since they can gun down anyone, anywhere without it coming back on ALEPH. A combat Aspect would have to have a hell of an excuse to snipe someone in public, but it's almost expected behaviour from bounty hunters with a contract or (especially) unhinged Morat prisoners or the literal terrorists of the Libertos.
I like the mecenaries. I have a vague memory of the scene in Star Wars - Darth Vader orders the Bounty Hunters to work for him. I see Aleph doing the same. I also like the diversity they bring to the list.
It is weird. It's triumph of capitalist requirements (sell models) over game lore. Just ignore them and move, that's mostly what I do.
Yeah, but they're not hitting the field backed up by Dark Troopers or anything. They're free agents operating on their own.
For me this underscores what a mess vanilla factions are. One of the reasons I stick to sectorials. If I had to work with it, though... cheap, deniable cannon fodder.
But when Boba Fett located the Rebels heading towards Bespin, he did call in for Vader and storm trooper backup. That's the scene you're actually fighting on the table.
Well, considering I've ran the SoF Merc options because I have the models only half a dozen times in over two years playing weekly, and Sforza in OSS maybe that many times additionally. I'd say that you seem to be making some spectacular assumptions about my sex life when I was just trying to answer the original question.
I was using "you're" in a general sense of people excusing mercs, not specifically you (otherwise I would've quoted you). Also, your patch and name really works against your argument in this case. Maybe you just have a rare sex life?
Says the guy whom compulsively shits on pretty damn good profiles for fluff reasons. I don't see it going more fetichistic than that :P Oh and btw @yoink101 Don't worry, we encourage everyone to have and express its opinions ! -says the AI Aspect assigned to PR while creating 12000 controversial threads on whatever Twitter equivalent Mayanet has to flood real news-
I really feel this sentiment as well. When you have a faction with such a nicely defined and characterized theme, its a shame to tarnish it with a bunch of filthy and monstrous sellswords. Having said that, from a strategic standpoint, krakots and libertos are AUTO-INCLUDES in EVERY vanilla Aleph list I make. Always. I'd feel a bit better about the game if mercs were slightly less useful for the main vanilla factions and slightly more useful for NA2.
This is a great idea, and I had a couple thoughts on how it could be accomplished. It would make sense if the rules for this were flavored in a way that the mercenaries felt less controlled in the non-NA2 lists. I was thinking they might: Generate irregular orders instead of regular orders Troopers who are normally Impetuous become Extremely Impetuous Troopers who are normally Extremely Impetuous cannot receive orders from the order pool (A huge downside admittedly, but perhaps they gain tactical awareness?) Obviously these changes affect non-warband units the most, and I haven't thought through how to balance that. Causing warbands to not receive orders from the order pool feels a little strict... Since this is such a downside, perhaps at the start of the Order Count step of the Tactical phase you could spend a command token to negate each of these rules for your Mercenary units, and treat them as though they were operating normally in a NA2 list. This makes some logical sense, as commanding them directly exercises greater control over troops who aren't normally as committed to your command. Another thought to make Mercenary units in a Vanilla list less effective would be to force them to be in a separate combat group from the rest of your list, and place a restriction on that combat group that it can only contain mercenary units. Just brainstorming here...a fun thought regardless, though!
I think just making the soldiers of fortune 1swc thing standard for vanilla armies using mercenaries would do it. If it cost 2swc to bring a Liberto minelayer, it might not make it to the table every time.
Whilst I personally like mercs, I also hope Vanilla factions lose a lot of the ITS/Pre-order bonus mercs in the edition change.
I'd recommend you should start using the second person plural in that case, so everyone doesn't think it's a specific you instead of a y'all. As for the name, I chose it for a Warren Zevon reference, and I've been using it online for so long I forgot it's relevance to the topic. I do like the idea of the Mercs being irregular in vanilla armies, and with increased SWC cost. Though it might actually be better to make it an individual tax, so that ones that do kinda fit with a vanilla army can be taken easier. (I.e. Wild Bill in Ariadna, Yuan Yuans in Nomad)
