Imagine the potential of using them on overextended TAGs and the face your opponent has when you do this trick on jotum or avatar. Priceless
I think people are really sleeping on the Blue Wolf. Yes, he's pricey, but a B5 DMG 15 AP gun is still going to do a lot of damage. More importantly, the guy can Duo with some really scary options here. Not only can he take a KHD, jammer, or sensor up the table with him, he doesn't mind getting close enough to leverage those tools either. And with S5, he's relatively easy to hide for his bulk.
People don't like the Blue Wolf? For real? Very synergistic close range kit of CC23, HFT, AP Spitfire all of it very useable on a TAG. Full Auto with an AP Spitfire basically a light HRMC. Hyperdynamics to have the same chance as a Jotum to dodge that stupid E/marat. Antimaterial in CC for missions. Not defenseless against pretty much all go to close range TAG counters. Multiterrain for the missions where you really want it and S5 so you can actually play it on a shitty table. On contrary to quite a few other Manned TAGs you even get Courage. Even without how nasty that can turn out in N4, that's still probably the best Manned TAG in the game (okay that doesn't mean much). Want to swap for the Boyg?
I think the main off-putting things about the Blue Wolf are these two: It costs more than the Guijia ( Granted, by just one point. ). It isn't cheap. And it's suffering in the sense that it shares a faction with the Hac Tao, Mowang, Su Jian, Yan Huo, Hsien ( BTW, is it just me, or do I never hear the Hsien get brought up nowadays? ) Daofei and, of course, the ever-present Su-Jian. So it has a lot of competitors wanting a piece of that juicy mass of points and SWC. That being said... I actually kinda like it myself. It's pretty straight forward and compact. And I like straight forward. ...would you call me a madman if I said I actually kinda like it and think it has a single actual, practical merit?
For the same price you can take 2x rui shi and a lu duan. He is surely good but from cost-efficiency point of view there are better options. Note that I'm kind of spam enthusiast in ISS so my experience can be biased
I don't think people are sleeping on it, there's just a lot to get excited about in White Banner and Guijia inertia is a bit hard to shake off. I'm a strong believer in the Blue Wolf because of the reasons you listed, but also by how much midfield support it gets in White Banner. Being able to duo with a Jammer, Tinbot, or a KHD is a huge benefit to its viability. Blue Wolf is exactly the kind of TAG I expect to see out of a faction with as much emphasis on HI as Yu Jing.
I think that nails it spot on: it actually feels like an HI that they made so big they ended up making it a TAG.
I think it's the weakest new addition simply because of the price, not because it's got a bad kit. Also, we already have a Böyg, and it's the Yan Huo which is slower, has a weaker pistol with lower burst, has much worse CC, struggles in terrain, dodges a lot worse, and is weaker to BTS attacks. But we save 3 points!
Hahah. Being a Jade Empire loving commander I love my war crimes. And hey in all seriousness it's only a war crime if you don't win the war. To be brutal here, war crimes are committed all the time. They are not something that the common population get's exposed too much. Not to mention the "friendly fire" that happens when soldiers don't like eachother or have personal grudges. All is fair in war. As the U.S. Army special forces say "If you are not cheating, you are not trying". This little war crime bot is awesome. I love the Guija and I love the Blue Wolf. This guys is amazing solo. Not to mention his wildcard link options. Holoprojected Jammer FTW.
Honestly, the HRMC is kind of sort of okay but the other three profiles are kind of under-engineered and over-priced. The Neurocinetics profile is quirky but eats your points so much that it nerfs your active game worse than Varuna without getting the reactive performance in return for it.
Guess we'll talk about how different the Blue Wolf is compared to a Hac Tao or Su Jian is after y'all had the pleasure to play against a Jotum refusing to roll less than a 6 on his ARM saves in N4 then. DAM15 AP B5 is a lot of hurt in Spitfire range. You're biased from how bad the Yan Huo is mate. :P KoJ singlehandedly makes the Boyg obsolete as an N3 option. Still curious how all the weird stuff in Sval and WB turns out in N4, so ain't even mad. Either way gonna play both Sectorials.
Fair enough. I generally play single group lists ( Easier for me that way, honestly. You'd think I was a Morat spy with how intricate and delicate my strategies tend to be. :T ), so the Neuro Yan Huos price doesn't cut as deep as it usually would. That being said, I'm not a big fan of that profile either, since it cuts into a slot that could be filled by an active turn powerhouse with a Suppressive Fire weapon. T: Fair point. But that's still just going up against one unit. In a game where the mentality still seems to be pretty far up the ''more orders, cheaper powerhouses'' and ''less big beefy dudes, fewer TAGs'' alleys among players. P.S.: That Su-Jian could be bringing a Heavy Shotgun, so I doubt a Jotum would like a wild robocat with an AP shooting shotgun up in it's 8" range. Especially one that can actually stand a decent chance of surviving an HFT. Unless shotguns get changed, but I'm not too up-to-date with what we know about the future except that sweet crit change. No, I'm biased in the sense that I really really REALLY like Heavy Infantry. Which includes both Boygs and Yan Huos. And the Boyg is by all definitions a brick unit, and I like the tactical sophistication of bringing a brick to a black ops raid. T:<
They're probably getting changed, but not in a way that would matter in this comparison since AP mode is always preferable against a Jotums, and that mode is staying from all evidence.
I know i'm not supposed to compare but..... WTF? 4 core and 3 haris teams, with almost the same flexibility. A whole core of Albedo!? Not much camo but MSV all over the place! Their cheap engineer is a wildcard. Their own Yan Huo but better. On and on. I'm so trying to be positive but man :(
Yeah, they have their strengths, but on the other hand; You can only use one Core and one Haris at a time and give them enough time and I'm sure we'll look at maybe two of each being "viable" while the rest are likely IA Shang-Ji quality. The sectorials and factions that a whole core of Albedo are going to be great against are mainly going to be O-12 and Pan-O factions - i.e. best suited for fighting revolutions inside the Hyperpower than enemies outside it. Camo all over the place but not much camo! The Mechanic Wildcard is a bit interesting and I am a tiny bit annoyed Gong-cheng and Yisheng aren't treated as proper Zhanshi for Fireteams, but it's actually not a big deal Yan Huo is a bad HI, but one of the profiles has a good gun that Timmy The Troll doesn't replicate. And so on.
Wait... Really? Am I the only one that sees PanO getting the short end of the stick here by a lot? That whole team of Albedo is slow and doesn't do much until they move up the table. Ask them to cross the minefield we just got, or to dodge one of our new HFTs. One of their new units is a Zhanshi. We got linkable-wildcard-Holo1-Jammers. White Banner looks sweet and diverse. Even better: it looks fun.
Ah, so some changes, but no change to the AP profile? Neat. TBH I like how both ends of the stick are looking so far. T:
