Well, my 8pt Libertos(SMG + DEP) has takes more dangerous targets in his active and reactive turn...just saying...
If Boyg is so good, why do we not see Yan Huo that often ? Not in a way you can get many people on that 24" range ^^ As far as I can see it's perimeter defense with all kinds of nasty templates, jammers, hacking, madtraps etc. You know we are not O12 so we actually have to have useless stuff just to inflate point cost ;P
What Sval has over Vanilla other than Links? Erm. Links? They're really fucking impressive. Hands down amazeballs with the stuff you can enable with 40 points of Fusiliers. In addition Sval has about the most worthwhile combinations for Duo/Haris the game has to offer. KoJ+Karhu is a ton of utility. Nisse HMG+Machinist+Wildcard is pretty nice and so is a Hospitaler Haris to get a mobile B5 gun + Specialist + BSG online. You'll usually have access to almost all of the following with just 2 or 3 guys in the same Link: Mobility Skill, DTW, CC Capable 2W HI, High B weapon, close range weapon, Specialist and utility Equipment/Skill (Mines, Sensor, Albedo, Wildparrot etc). You might be missing one feature but you'll always have a laundry list of options to pick from. Sval is definitely better than Vanilla at fighting close and personal in the usual urban terrain layout. With CC troops and their supporting cast able to clear rooftop Hackers/Jammers in the same Link, they have the answer to Smoke and more important Eclipse Smoke PanO in general has a serious problem with. Close range doorkicking is Sval's forte and feels right at home in 16".
Svalarheima does appear to be the first PanOceanian sectorial where it might actually be tempting to run a Core, Haris and Duo all at once. Those do make for hilarious (if seldom actually good) 10-order lists.
In between Fusilier Core, the usual Warcor and AVA3 Fugazi, running 10 Order lists seems questionable in Sval. Two of the reasons it's basically MO in better is the ability to save 3-5 points in comparison on Order monkeys and the usual Fusilier Lt shellgame being available. Roughly lets you spend 50 points more compared to the same Order count in MO.
In Vanilla doesn't link with a specialist, slower, large SWC investment, lacks a close range backup option. In IA it has shitty link options. It's not overly bad, BS14 and burst 5 is difficult to be truly bad, but it's less flexible and harder to fit into lists compared to a Boyg.
I don't see how the Boyg is supposed to be easy to fit into any list. If you include him you either can't hit 14-15 orders (because he fills no role well enough, you still need a heavy hitter and a good ARO) or don't spend all of your SWC, while taking a unit you really don't want to spend orders on anyway because the SWC you saved are spent on actually useful units, like KoJ. In Infinity very few units are completely unusable, but there's also units that give no incentive to field. And the Boyg is one of those dead profiles.
I kinda (often... ish) use the Yan Huo Neurocinetics profile. I think he's a good ARO option for IA, where good ARO pieces are hard to come by and while he doesn't actually win that many FTF-rolls, he's quite often hillariously good at wasting people's time. My only gripe with him is the fact that he doesn't have courage, so sometimes he wil go prone like a pussy after a shitty non-threatening combi rifle, which he tanked like a boss but failed his guts, which sometimes makes me want to eat my own beard in anger.
To quote a buddy of mine who was at one point in the top 10 in the US just after N3 dropped and only played yu jing, the yan hou is good against bad players and bad against good players. Its a punishing unit that is effective at force application, and great for making short work of newer or lower skill level players, or even higher skill level players with specific army comp. But most of the time when someone finally learns how to deal with it, it instantly loses its luster. At least thats how he saw it.
I totally agree with JCJF on the point of ridiculous lists. While maybe not the best ITS option, I definitely see myself making fun HI lists with him. On a completely unrelated topic - I just looked at the render again and... How does a person fit into a suit like that? Or a Kriza Borac even?
Hey! I'm not too big and just for once I can see myself being the little supersoldier inside one of those tiny HI suits, instead of the typical NavySEALesque guys that cover most of LI/MI profiles. So... shhhhh
The wearer's feet are around mid-calf, and their hands are about halfway down the forearms. See this translucent render of the Azra'il, one of the first human S5 infantry:
I see now, thanks for the explanation! The Boyg's shoulders seemed a bit too wide to me to accomodate 'average' human shoulders, but that could as well just be due to artistic liberty of the author.
My fix for the Boyg without including the typical just add a mimetism mod could be a couple of options: 1. NCO - just flat makes the model 'cheaper' but is similarly uninspired. 2. More interesting is increase its PH. Ties into its hyper-dynamics, but also makes the Karhu Paramedic wildcard work even better with him, making it a really interesting little duo - which it is already, but makes it even more 'attractive'. Not sure about AD or giving it some form of hidden deployment, though a heavily armored S5 jumping from the sky or hiding in the bushes is pretty funny.
Hmm, maybe we'll see something like AD:LX in N4, basically Combat Jump without the option to downgrade to lower level. I'd like to see this in the game.
