Yeah, the Shakshuka is pretty much a premium 3 wound HI in a price range Haqqislam doesn't have much options in. Tactical awareness is pretty nice as well to squeeze more orders out of your combat groups. There are plenty of reasons why you could field it instead of Maggie or any of the other troops in its price range and also plenty of reasons why you wouldn't deploy it instead of those troops. As for some rambly speculation on my part: HB: You don't have any sturdy solo pieces other than Asawiras. The HMG will make it easier to get out of your deployment zone and the HFT is a template weapon currently not available to the Hassassins, which makes it a nice solution against ODD/TO troops. With the trend of various units getting higher CC values, I can't shake the feeling the Asawira will be changed into more of a close combat unit with 6-2 movement. Hopefully they'll finally be able to live up to their fluff, especially the doc Asawira with a traiterous Nasmat in tow! RTF: This'll be the sectorial where it'll have the most internal competition with Tarik, Al Fasids and Maggie around. RTF pays more for their elite troops, so around 20 points spared on Maggie can be used on other troops. Compared to Al Fasids you lose out on having a toolbox or a ranged template option, but you get a more sturdy gunfighter. Likewise compared to Tarik you miss out on mobility and CC shenanigans, but you get to bring a HMG and a sturdier frame. Vanilla: You can go for a gimmicky double TAG list. Haqqislam has plenty of cheap troops for DZ defence and fueling those TAGs. Tactical awareness will get you two extra orders, which is even more valuable now with Tactical Window becoming the default. I think it's still too early to come to a conclusion how to use this new TAG without knowing N4's new rules and changes to the existing armies. That said, I can't wait to experiment with the Shakush, if only because it looks pretty damn cool.
I am not sure, what I am thinking now... Concept of hidden groups of hassassins is missing, because... Oh, come one! Hassassin’s TAG looks awesome! Now I want to play them ‘cause it. It reminds me zeon mecha from gundam series. One of my favorite, but in another colors. (Zaku-II, DOM, this two for example) I am in love. Aaaaaah (And sorry, but I had to do that... “Baby Shakush, tu-tudu-ruru, baby shakush tu-tudu-ruru”)
Apparently, unit's name is in Arabic (شاكوش) and means "hammer" (accordingly to Google because my other dictionary is confused by this word). Typically HB names are in Persian, for what it's worth. Which is not much, but hey. It could end up being in HB anyway. Why do we think it's in HB btw? Also, it does look cool. It's basically an even bigger Haqq big HI, which I personally like a lot visually. Let's hope it will come with a sensible pose, although as it was said already, this thing having AP CCW considerably reduces chances of that happening.
Thinking about the new tag and the information that's supposed to be a HB TAG why don't give him some of the stereotypes that define the sectorial or the army? Religious, a shotgun, a Panzerfaust or MSV1[emoji6]. Gesendet von meinem ASUS_I01WD mit Tapatalk
Giving him Jammers, Chainrifles and a movement reduction [emoji1787] Gesendet von meinem ASUS_I01WD mit Tapatalk
Something as the old N2 maggie had? When some troups could step up over the tag and go "mounted"? XD It will terrific, but I don't think we will see that rule again, soon at least.
I'm not sure it's an HB TAG per se. It's probably just Haqq's first modern, regular development TAG that is logistically feasible to deploy in more clandestine operations. Which is probably why it is available in HB. It's just as much an RTF TAG as it is an HB TAG though.
Well, it is 5 years after what we knew to be the state of affairs in 1/2/N3 edition. That's a lot. And that's, at the same moment, a pretty short time. We don't know whether Shukash was developed domestically (meaning that Haqqislam as a faction got the know-how and industrial capability to manufacture TAGs), or it is, for example, made by Artefaktech (a PanO comapny which, if memory serves me, Haqqislam has bought out along with the XCR-1 TAG, i.e. Maghariba Mk.1 "Bokbocegi"). Or perhaps, being a S6, manned, and, well, not very advanced TAG, it is some offshot of the Ramhorn line, bought on the open market and outfitted for the needs of the Sword of Allah...
I'm late to the party, but I'm into the idea of the Shakush, but it was executed in an extremely vanilla way. It looks like a surplus Nomad Gecko with Fasid-style armor but without the launcher-type weapon (@Errhile I don't think ramhorn line because it has a different silhouette). As others have said, I think a panzerfaust, flammenspeer, arkylat kannon, or even chest mines would have been nice on it. That having been said, I don't think I would want the cost as high as, say, the Blue Wolf that has a lot of those extras. As far as the Bahram, they said in the twitch stream that armor is going to be better than body count, and they specifically note the Asawira versus Ghazis. As we all know, Asawira and Ayyar are MI-level armor and I wouldn't bank on it on a good day. Given what we know now (which admittedly not as much as we hope), between this, MSV1's limited smoke utility, and shotguns as DTW, I could definitely see myself dropping Farzans, swapping from Muyib core and Asawira/Leila Haris to a duo of Shakush and wildcard character (Leila to scare hackers, Yasbir to jump on melee threats), with Core or Haris of Lasiqs or Muyibs and maybe a Govad sniper if I could afford it. It also depends a lot on Jammer changes, given they are rumored to be weakened and/or more costly. And this is without knowing Shujae or Yara Haddad. Now if only something could get me to put Ragiks in my list again. I don't see myself using it as much in RTF, but a lot will depend on how the Al Fasid changes, which is much more toolboxy than the Shakush.
@vorthain man, good to see you around again :) Naturally, being S6, the Shakush can't be a pure Ramhorn, but I meant an offshot of the line, just like Gecko was an offshot to the Reptile-class. Nb. the handles on Shakush's chest plate remind me of those on the Anaconda (though the rest of it doesn't resemble Anaconda at all), as does the HMG-or-Spitfire loadout. In fact, Shukash's statline looks like it could be a variant of the Anaconda (keep in mind that Anaconda's Escape System - which gave it its trademark W 2 - was added by the Nomad techs as a part of the old Reptile's retrofit, so if some Anacondas were rebuildt into Shukash standard, they could as well skip that mod and retain their original Structure), if we take into account differences between N3 and N4 (as well as different upgrade package used to create the Shukash. Yup, I know, N3 Anaconda has Silhouette value of 7, and Shukash just S6. But I own the model, and Anaconda is closer in size to a Gecko than to the Scarface... Anyway, that's just me mumbling wild and untamed theories! :)
I am planning on using the Anaconda as proxy for the Shukash. It having similar weapon profiles make it an easy decision.
Ive never mentioned it much on here, but ive always believed arm values needed to kinda go up by 1 across the board in a way. LI & SK 0-2, MI 3-4, HI 4-6, special HI can be 7 like achilles 2 or sogarat, tags 7-9. Keep avatar at 9, jotum at 10. Rems seem fine for now, as are most warbands.
I'm a little late to the party on this but this thing looks a bit like the bastard child of BT-7274 from Titanfall 2 and the colossus from anthem, which is awesome.
Late here also, But I think the exact quote was Haqq, HB & RTF, which make me wonder if QK will still exist. But QK already has access to 2 tags.
