Yan Huo, Shang Ji, Tiger Soldiers, linkable Zuyong, possibly the Guijia, maybe Hac Tao, and Zhanshi will probably be the line troops (but some here disagree). Additionally 5 more troops will be in the army, and we know one is called Shooting Star in Chinese .
For sure, 100% confirmed are Zuyong, Yan Huo and Shang Ji. Probably confirmed are Zanshi and Hac Tao The rest I'm not trusting more than Mayacast on rules questions.
I'm not saying it is, but I'm not betting a single monopoly coin on it either. I like to play sure things, and the only ones are the guys with Invinicible on their names.
All I'm saying is that the tiger is at least as confirmed (and probably more so) than zhanshi and the hac Tao.
Pretty sure cb has either explicitly stated or implied that there will never be a weapon that gets to burst 6 so it would have to be the multi hmg profile that gets linked.
That's what Zuyongs were meant to be, and still can be if they get filler profiles with chronically under costed weapons like SMGs.
I won't be holding my breath. As they stand Zuyong are about cheap enough to field a full combat group list of HI and remotes. There's not a lot of leeway but it's doable now so I don't see IA getting many alternate cheap profiles. (Happy to be wrong though.) I do agree that some weapons are chronically under-costed.
Considering how much Yu Jing players are looking forward to this sectorial army, it will be disappointing if the only list requires 4 8-point cheerleader remotes with no guns just to prop up a heavy infantry link that would be inferior to a Riot Grrrl link in every measure.
Can I just say how cool a burst 4 breaker pistol is at telling people to keep back on a linked Zuyong
There is some gap between not getting dirt cheap profiles and needing 4 8-point cheerleaders. Here's something you can field currently, it's not quite a full combat group but Sun Tze somewhat mitigates only having 9 models. The only cheer leaders are the specialists. Yu Jing ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 9 ZÚYǑNG Combi Rifle / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0 | 27) ZÚYǑNG (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0 | 28) ZÚYǑNG Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (2 | 36) ZÚYǑNG Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot B (Deflector L2) / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0.5 | 30) ZÚYǑNG HMG / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (1.5 | 35) Zhanshi YĪSHĒNG Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) MECH-ENGINEER Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) SUN TZE Lieutenant (Advanced Command) Boarding Shotgun, 2 Nanopulsers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 60) YĀN HUǑ Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 54) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army If we can field that in IA I will be reasonably happy. Hopefully though we have even better options.
Frenzy discount is part of why Riot Grills are cheapers, but the Zuyong link would be better within 8 inches in a lot of situations (2 Breaker Pistols on everyone) and also is more flexible for specialists (FO + Paramedic vs. Riot Grrls specialist operative.) And a full Zuyong link would probably be about 150 points, so it's not much different than playing the Wu Ming link in ISS. Are we expecting Sun Tze in IA?
Kind of. That's from an old Bostria statement and while I don't doubt it was 100% true at the time, I'm less certain whether AD heavy infantry were considered at the time. The problem with Tigers is that they have very good BS and Mimetism, making a role-conflict with a potential AD HI - and as such pushing the AD HI up significantly in points in order to be different, creating (for lack of in-verse term) Skronegy. Let's assume Shooting Star is AD HI, then I'd say Shooting Star could be the evolution of Tigers - making Tigers be "included" still. Hell, if the Shooting Star is a Zuyong with Mimetism and AD4, that's going to be marginally more expensive than Tigers and fully replace Tigers. That said, I hope that Shooting Star ends up roughly similar in points to a Hac Tao or Daofei and that Hac Tao and Daofei is available in Sectorial. What's missing? Is it a Hac Tao or will a murder machine drop on your left flank? Who can tell? Of course, with Daofei it would require a bit of AVA into Guilang-like units as well. They are not cheap enough. The whole point of a sectorial is increased specific AVA, and while this doesn't necessarily mean a 300 list can handle the most expensive increases, a sectorial should at least be able to field a few Shang-Ji and other iconic troops of the sectorial - having a sectorial that's going to be 6 Zuyong + 2 8 point REMS + 1 or 2 elite HI is going to be... idiotic design. Truly idiotic design. Can't even smear GW with that stuff ('cause they'd just make Socialist Marines be inexplicably cheaper and the Communist Spreader (unique to Yu Jing) be an updraded version of the smart missile launcher, but carried on a 20/2 point HI linkable with Socioeconomic Plan Economy Revolutionist Guard (blessed by the Emperor Mark Stal Inleni himself)... sorry, got carried away, I'm not bitter) That's what we in the business of armchair generaling call "skew list" and is not a good foundation for a varied and competitive sectorial. I do hope that the sectorial will be able to cater both to this and to a more varied list. Zuyong have a bit more ranged arsenal than the similarly priced Wu Ming link, for the same points they are less defensible but able to defend themselves well outside 8". Sun Tze v1, I am hoping. ISS might need to brace for impact, it would make sense if v1 got removed from ISS and v2 stayed in ISS, but they would need to do something about v2. It's so close to being good, so close (I think Advanced Command might be overpriced, he's missing a defensive skill for such an expensive model and he needs a level 2 of either MSV or MMS - the double-1 doesn't really help).
In the realm of armchair generals I have to concur that it is a skew list and was the moment I decided to write a list consisting primarily of heavy infantry. As far as balance goes, IA will always be a skew because as far as I know all HI are hackable and making a list of all hackable models is definitely a skew. Ramming in a bunch of dirt cheap models potentially messes up existing models place in the faction for vanilla. I do not think Zuyong are particularly over-priced but I do believe riot grrls (and pretty much all linkable frenzy/impetuous troops) to be undercosted but that is to do with the interaction of the fire-team rules and impetuous. Going back to my list offering, I can readjust it to include a haris worth of Shang ji and a couple of remotes instead to go with the zuyong core. My point with the suggestion was to show that it's possible to write a functional (not necessarily good, just functional) list with just what's currently available in the main faction. So long as the rumour of 5 new units is true then we are certain to be given more options for list design and that will hopefully open up the sectorial to be strong yet balanced. I do hope we get Sun Tze, V1 at least, in IA, (I admit my inclusion of him was something of an assumption, I can't remember if he's been confirmed to be in or not.) However it wouldn't be the end of the world if he's not but we got some other solid new Lt option. We won't know until CB squeals and tells us though.
Well, incidentally, JSA leaving just opened up a spot in the low cost segment for a cheerleader as well as a spot in the really stupidly high cost segment for an assassin. We also have openings for Warband HI (let me see those monks in heavy armour!) and ambush/area denial units (I'm thinking something of a Raiden-Zuyong hybrid). I do disagree that Domaru or Haramaki are overpriced, but that's mostly on a basis that I think that their close combat price is too high, so while I'd say the discount on Fury should go down, I'd also say that the price for CC should similarly decrease, resulting in mostly unchanged price on Domaru, Haramaki, Shaolin and Myrmidons.
The place where Haramaki feel undepriced is the missile launcher loadout -- almost no other 30+ point HI get then for 1.5 SWC instead of 2. I'm really hoping that doesn't change.
