Yea. Unfortunately I don't see a lot of reason to use the Shikami even with the changes. It's in a weird price that just makes it uncomfortable and less appealing than other button pressers, and it's not a good enough offensive unit to be more than a button presser.
How did the rest of the list perform? That's always the interesting question. Profiles that are cost-ineffective aren't ever bad, they just make the rest of the list worse.
It performed pretty well. It lost, but it performed well. Domaru LT +1 Order with Daiyokai NCO is good, and tough. The Ryuken KHD is pretty sick too. I thought that the Shikami was my opponent's best dude though, tbh. It managed to grab two supply boxes, kill my Farzan ML, a Daylami and I think a Nadhir (IIRC) before it died. Having Forward Deployment, MOV 6-2 and Super jump means that it's fast, deadly, great at grabbing objectives, very good at killing shit in CC and obviously with Mimetism -6 if you don't have MSV you will struggle to defeat it in a firefight. A 4" dodge is also extremely good.
Like I know that on this forum we love to slag things off before we try em and who am I to get in the way of that But personally, I respect the Shikami. If I see it across the board, I am going to be thinking "gotta deal with that" because in a lot of missions it will just be a total headache.
It's already been confirmed it's meant to work like that, but we'll have to wait for the first errata for it to change in print. Just play it like it should be for now.
as an update - I won my game of supplies. The shikami grabbed a box, climbed on top of a building and sat prone at the beginning of turn 2 and didn't activate again for the rest of the game.
I have many problems with Shikami... I love the mini but I have a lot of problems with having them justified in my lists. In N3 IMO theirs biggest problem was that they were starting in your DZ and have quite "slow" movement. Sure, they ware nice objective grabbers, but they were also very expensive. After changes in N4 they fix some of their problems, they are much more "faster" and also got Forward Deployment (+4") which is nice and helps, but on the other hand, in my opinion they still lack something to justify their cost. I mean 45/48 points for a guy that run forward, grab objective and does nothing more is a bit painful (2 Ninjas with KHD are just 10 points more that one Shikami with Combi). Personally, I wish they got also heavier weapon (Spitfire, Mk12 or something or maybe a "glue") so they could take some real gunfight. edit: fixing typos
Spend a 1/6 of a list for a specialist vulnerable to hackers with a simple combi isnt worth anytime. I think they made it a little bit better with the hulang. This crazy koala minealyer profile is really interesting. But, I still waiting for the red Fury Shikami!
I never bother with the combo shikami, I grab the assault pistol profile every time. Aside from going into suppressive fire with the combi, I feel the assault pistols perform better almost every time. In tables with dense terrain and decent rooftops shikami will perform very well, specially now that mere elevation grants cover. A shikami red fury would be pretty interesting that's for sure, but then it would basically function as the premier gunboat for JSA which is not the design they want for it.
Red Fury would be cool (perhaps as a more expensive named unit?), but as some have said it would probably change the function of the unit too much. I'm personally pushing for a shotgun profile to take the place of combi. BSG would compliment this current incarnation so well - and double down on what he's supposed to be good at while retaining his weaknesses - it's almost ridiculous that he doesn't have it. Would be the same cost too, considering the changes in N4!
IMHO shikami is a finesse piece - his role varies from mission to mission. he has alot of abilities and skills and weapons, assuming you're paying to use them all in a single game is a trap. His role is to be the near ultimate flex piece. For what it's worth i value that pretty highly. I think FD1 helps a bit and I'm very excited he got it. They're never going to slap a red fury on him - that's like the antithesis of his design. lol.
