+1BLI is not such a big of a deal. You're overestimating the diference between BLI7 and BLI8 in a world full of AP weapons I think 2 BTS impacts are better than 1ARM and the posibility of more of them after a failed one Direct template weapons on a TAG are a defensive/disuasive weapon or an anti-fireteam Close range weapon. In other cases I prioritize making oposed tests so I don't rely over ARM or enemy dodges. I can count with the fingers of one hand the amount of times I've used a flamethrower with a tag in the 8+ years since they don't apply a -6 to dodge (N2) The Loss of Multi is the biggest issue in the seraph compared to guijia... but I probably don't value it so much. Courage costs 1 point, and religious is not of such importance in a tag. Most of the times a tag can't improve it's cover due to its silhouette size. Current super jump it's not what it was. Just 95mm of height on a first skill jump because you need to take out the 55mm of the base. and you can free climb elements <67mm. So it only helps you by arround an inch of height Don't missunderstand me. Guijia is not unplayable. It never was. It's just far behind remote presence tags in terms of durability. Durability is the main point of a TAG seconded only by aim and cost. If it shoots AP, Shock, EXP or just plain normal ammo is just a secondary feaure. A bonuss. What you want is to win opposed tests and pass armor rolls. so the TAG keeps over the battlefield and the enmy wastes orders against him or circling arround it. If that's not the point, just pick any other troop Yeah, +1 burst to spitfire AP, like scarface load gamma. Bonus burst in panzerfaust just serves to unload it quickly on active. The flamethrower is a good thing, but I've already explained you why I don't use them so much. and even less on a berserk tag Close defence can be done perfectly by Spitfire's +0 range and melee And terrain total is not so big of a deal, You're not going to get that extra inch on a common basis Of course the BW It's playable! but is rather expensive for what it provides... it lacks reactive. Is a coward TAG with less mobility than a sujian due to silhouette and movement atributes. Lesser cauitious movements, unable to drop prone, lesser dodge and dodge distance, and has a weak reactive for a TAG out of supressive fire. It's easy for the enemy to take it out by easily reachable means. In my opinion It doesn't worth 70ish points. but it's better than having nothing a like If your able to land hits, Damage 16 is all you need 80% of the time, and the rest can be dealt with extra orders and better positioning. Last time I've used a Blue wolf It was dealt with with a spitfire in turn 1
Anecdotal but i used one in my first N4 game and was pleaseantly surprised, Used IA Guijia/Kokram duo and had a great game. The lower general points allowed me to make a sturdier list than i would have in N3. The increased CC was pivotal in taking out a mimetism -6 (missing the old terminology) skirmisher. I admit i didnt have an oportunity to use superjump but its a great tool to cross terrain dense boards increasing its utility. I personally think the guijia is much better off now rising to the top half of the better Tags in the game. I expect to see it used more extensively tjan just missions that favor tags.
While I agree that the Blue Wolf isn't so hot as the other TAGs in their 70's (which would immediately be remedied by Stealth, tbh), I do think most of the differences to other TAGs looks like a comparison based on ease-of-use rather than how good they are when used properly and to their full effect. Not every TAG can be the Raicho -.-;; (Yes, I think the Raicho is the defacto best TAG, I love it and I'll hear none of it from anyone about any other TAG - I don't even play Morat!) My play experience so far is that TAGs will all be good and dictate metas more towards hacking
Modern link teams are way stronger than they used to be because they're super flexible and generally cheaper. Before to get a core linked ORC you needed to bring 4 more super costly ORC buddies, now you can give him 40pts of Fusiliers to make him shoot better than the TAG. AROs got stronger too with some very obnoxious defensive links making their appearances.
I think you guys are making the usual mistake of considering things in a vaccum. For pano remember that their engineers are WIP12 and if using gizmo kits they dont get the reroll. They also dont have deployment (Forward deployment, parachutist or being able to link with the tags) options to keep them closer to advancing tags, which implies a larger order expenditure to keep it well supported. While speaking of link options i believe our wildcards offer a lot more support for our tags than Panos. Also our arguably better midfield presence and objective hacking superiority make it easier to extract the full potential of our tags. The japanese are closer in the tag support department but i still consider Yu jing to have the cuantronic superiority. The ones i believe that could definetly make leaps and bounds better tag lists if they set their minds to it are the nomads, lets just hope they never notice.
PanO still have that stripper profile (I forget the name) and the Remote Presence means they kind of can make one "re-roll" on the Gizmo at range for the cost of an order token (or irregular order in case of the bikini chainmail unit). Their ability tto repair is in fact distinctly ahead of Yu Jing, it is compared to O-12, Combine and Aleph - or when comparing repairs of REM/HI - they struggle somewhat by comparison. The point on wildcards is spot on, though.
"It's actually a skinsuit that ensures superior mobility in the field. The fact that it happens to have skin colour was an unfortunate manufactoring error."
Back on topic I think probably one of the most relevant support pieces for a TAG, particularly if you can't link it with a Tinbot, is getting a Monk entourage with it. Grounding them in B2B with the monks keeps them very safe from getting hit by total control, to the point where it's a waste of orders to go after them with it. The possessed statline drops to CC13, the Monks can fight them with their pistols very safely keeping them on CC10 and being very unlikely to cause major damage with damage 11 vs ARM8.
Guija should still have ma2 even possessed so it's 23vs13 and if guija somehow wins monk has no real chance of surviving 2 (3 if won with crit) dam 17s.
"Automatic Skills are those that can be employed without expending an Order or ARO. Consequently, these Skills do not require a Roll." Can't employ Martial Arts without expending and Order or ARO, so I don't think it qualifies as an automatic skill. Doesn't have that nested shit in it like courage anymore. But yeah if you get crit you get crit, sure. EDIT: Actually I stand corrected, despite it not fitting the automatic skill description in the slightest it's listed as an Automatic Skill. Spanglished. Still under 12% for the Guijia to win though, so still recommended to ground it with the Monks.
-3 to hacking against it too. It's pretty well rounded as a stand alone TAG. I actually much prefer the mine dispenser profile to the NCO profile though. Mine dispensers are fucking amazing in N4. They fire at B2 as they picked up the doubleshot trait. The Raicho can turn the table into a literal minefield very very quickly.
My play experience is that all TAGs die very very quickly now so it's good they're cheaper. The Guija's best feature is the CC Upgrade honesty. S7+3" Jump at least gets you LOF ony rooftops though, can be handy. I'd take a price reduction over N4 Superjump overall most of the time though.
Should also mention the O-Yoroi is inferior in CC compared to the Guijia who has +1 CC and MA2 instead of 1.
WIP 12 +reroll avaliable is far better than WIP 13-14 Gizmo on 13s is better than gizmo on 11s Double unconscious has better chances of holding down until the engineer has the chance of do his part An engineer with FD is an expensive Specialist that is more reachable by the enemy We also lack parachutist engineers. we're not nomads An engineer linked with a TAG is interesting, but if it's a HI and It's hackable/vulnerable to EM is also a weakspot. Same things that can deal with the TAG van deal with the engineer they can even be taken down in the same move. I don't think yujing has hacking superiority over pano. Our only advantage are the Tinbot -6 (just defenisve on vanilla HI) and some deployable repeaters. they have a Tinbot directly built on a killer hacker, Better ECM, Hacking upgrades like defersen's trinity, and kind of the same acces to deployable repeaters. I think we're even on that front. EC is the one that has the advantage while making TAG lists. They have dreadful tags, Docworm is crazy good, they have access to pitchers, They have ikadrons, they have pretty good killer hackers... We're just Average, Ariadna and Tohaa have the shortest straw