Kind of agree, kind of don't. If I were to use him I'd set him up to guard a much narrower area and for the list to use the order and CT provided. He's an active sniper, not an ARO sniper, given that you really don't want to lose him and that Total Immunity tends to cap the amount of hits you'll take during active turn. He's dreadfully missing Mimetism for his gear, of course, but the primary purpose is still to concentrate orders on specific units, not to shoot with. Edit: Still, the primary use of high levels of Strategos for me has always been denying opponent the ability to keep miniatures back which heavily reduces assassination risks, and that has been removed, so I'd rather get the Hsien MMMR LT2 and a Pheasant than Sun Tze as it offers better overall value and protection.
My problem with that is he's such a high value target that I would expect my opponent to come to his area just to murder him. I look at him like a Daoying sniper in the active turn, you snipe something then immediately hide again, except he costs so damn much. I think it's even harder to justify him now the Daoying got cheaper SWC wise.
Not really. Total Immunity got split into two parts, the armour swapping bit which is what made him really tough before is now in Bioimmunity, so he's easier to kill now. Strategos got nerfed, you can't prevent the opponent from holding back models anymore, and as HI he's super vulnerable to getting smacked by Oblivion which got buffed and is now very common.
They really do spoil Nomads. How is it that their mainstream HI is in the same technological league as Swiss Guard and Hac Tao at S2, 6-2 and ARM 5.
That is an asinine comparison, last I checked it wasn't BS15 with a -6 mod, hidden deployment, stealth and a marker state, the Brigada is nowhere near their level. Brigada are side graded Shang ji at best that trade in extra dodge speed and shock on range attacks in favour of bolting on a few extra armour plates.
Lots of small changes, but its enough to make list writing really hard for me. In a world with TAGs, heavy armour and hacking vanilla Yu Jing now really has to play its cards right and I'm not landing on combos that bring me joy. Crane are so close to being really good to me, the 4-4 just baffles me to no end. Of all the Yu Jing HI to miss out on 6-2, cranes seem like bizarre candidates. Struggling on a good sweeper. Both Yan Huo and AP HMG shangJi just seem a little too expensive to not be putting any mods out. While NCO Hac Tao is rad, basic HMGs have lost some shine. Overall, I think we're doing alright, but its a reasonable shift at least for my playstile (tarpit) and it'll take some time to figure out what works.
Their link buddies are all 4-4. They make the most sense to not get it as they're the least likely to want it.
I guess I was looking at it from a vanilla perspective. I think I'd still prefer 6-2 over 4-4 even in a link with 4-4 goons.
I gave the point of reference for comparison, the technology. Find me other S2, ARM 5, MOV 6-2 Troopers. This combination only occurred on rare and high tech troopers, not the bargain basement HI of the MI faction.
Cranes have always struggled to be relevant in Vanilla, but given they're extremely good in ISS I'm ok with giving it a pass there. If you want an AP unit we did just get a B3 Heavy Shotgun profile on the Su Jian.
I'm generally thinking on how to deal with TAGs or high ARM pieces that start chilling on a roof in overwatch. Suzy BSG has a long way to go to apply B3 shotgun.
If your argument is that other people are doing HI better than the HI then there are far more egregious examples than the Brigada in Nomads, and from pretty much every other faction at this point, seriously look at the Haq HI now, or the JSA, hell PanO and O12 do HI better YJ. Improved improved material science from the faction that has a ship who has god knows how many mad scientists on it for minimal gain or additional tech in the suit when directly compared to their direct counterparts (Shang ji, Orcs, Janassaries). But if you want to play the why does the Non *insert unit type here* faction have better versions than the *insert unit type here* faction sure, why is it that you have the better wildcats in ye mao, or mine laying repeaters on a camo skirmisher, why is your AD MI better, or why do you have a MI camo LT and the MI faction doesn't, and thats just the YJ unit examples. Other people can play the salt bullshit game too.
Realistically nothing really covers ground better than a Su Jian though. Such a lovely cautious move too.
The Marut is definitely a unique one in this case. If he's sitting back though I'd probably just do my best to ignore and kill everything else. If it gets too close lock it up in close combat.
N4 Hacking tends to be useful if you can get a Repeater in range. Oblivion hits for DAM16 against halved BTS, and inflicts a whopping -9 to Reset for followup Hacks like Spotlight or Carbonite, though the latter isn't great against BTS9. It gives that Daoying something to do as well! Guilang Minelayers are good at spreading Hacking Area these days, or you could sneak an actual Hacker up close. If you can get a real CC specialist up close that TAG won't be moving again. Zhencha can engage fairly safely under their marker to buy time, or just shoot it in the back. As a last-ditch effort, you could try actually using Forward Observer. BS Attack(Guided) gives your weapon a template even if it usually doesn't have one, meaning the Son-Bae is dropping AP+EXP DAM14 templates on 12s against most TAGs. I've started auto-including these artillery bots into Hacking lists for good reason; if an enemy trooper ends their turn Targetted they will die, and active-turn Spotlight isn't bad either.
