The general perception of a "good table" is usually pretty favourable to Hackers, judging by my local boards and pictures I've seen from Interplanetario, WiseKensei's website and a few from players on the forum. There's very few buildings or terrain pieces bigger than an Objective Room to prevent a risk-free Comms Attack against someone hiding behind it. I think I might set up my home board tomorrow with a whole heap of HUGE terrain pieces and play a game or two against myself, see how it goes, but people are usually extremely unhappy about specifically organising boards to favour/prevent particular tactics or strategies judging by the last time I brought this up.
Just another sidenote of Bipandra: She is 22 pts WIP 13 doc with a combi rifle and a nanopulser that is linkable with Fusiliers (Fusilier) in Varuna (I did not look at NCA). I just had Rahman from a newer DF pack, he is from Defiance and I took his presence in QK for comparions (and yes, sometime a cross sectorial comparsion is enlighting) he is 21 pts for Doc + 3 on WIP 15 while CC and BS are a bit lower, he got 1 pts less ARM but 3 pts more BTS). He is armed with a SMG and a Flashpulse and his special is NWI. While QK has no lack of good doctors, Pan O could definity use a doc in the range around 20 pts. Even Rahman is all but an autoinclude his whole package is definitly more bang for the buck. Bipandra is more a traditon for an overpriced character that has a nice miniature but never - since relaese manged to be a good toolkit like other DFs like Leila, Xi or Yuriko. She even got SWC taxed in her first years on the shelfs for beeing a WIP 13 doc. I think mime-3 (yes boring, but helpful anyway) could help and medikit B+1 could help even more while down to 20 pts and arm 1
Medkit B+1 would be a nice add, really good for picking up HI and making it an interesting option vs doctoring.
For been a second doctor for PanO, or third if one accepted Hospitaler doctors existed outside of the meme I had popularized, and a light shotgun to a fusilier link, when she lost the SWC tax she also lost her light shotgun and got the nanopulser,the usual dire foe she is compared with though is Lupe Balboa, the main issue is and I see it in a lot of comparisons, is what people think it matters for point cost and what is not, Lupe was a better gun platform at the same cost, Bipandra was a more survivable traumatoc with the same WIP hospitalers had, was the SWC tax reasonable? probably not, but it is not of the present. Yes, it would.
Who is comparing Bipandra to Lupe on a regular basis? And who is saying Bipandra is more survivable than Lupe?
More specifically, they think a good table is one in which zero-risk noninteractive gameplay is enabled by the table.
Lupe has a reason to exist in a fireteam, she's wildcard smoke which is extremely relevant when you can slot her in with Wildcat hackers who are one of IIRC 3 fire teamable hackers in the entire game who can force unopposed hacking rolls when given smoke grenades to work with. Meanwhile Bipandra is generally replaced by a dirt cheap Fusi Paramedic.
That was the regular trend, they costed the same and people compared them because they costed the same, I never said Bipandra was more survivable than Lupe I said she is was a more survivable Traumadoc that means she is more survivable than a Traumadoc, not Lupe. In general people ignore or dismiss many stats and equipment that do not confront a specific pattern (a reason why most specops look the same more or less), therefore any unit having other stats and equipment is considered bloated and suboptimal, this is the way forward to make everything the same more or less.
Where the only difference among armies is the look of the minis. It ofttimes just comes back to learning the specific set of tools available to your army, making them your own inside and out, rather than looking at other armies covetously and complaining that yours isn’t the same.
Infinity uses a very "swingy" probability curve with its d20s and is lethal enough that a run of bad luck often can't be stabilised over the course of a game, minor bonuses are not particularly useful unless stacked together to create a toolkit that can reliably perform a task on relatively cold dice. They can be situationally fun, but suboptimal profiles will be left unused in games that people play to win if significantly more efficient options are available- I quite liked it when everything had a touch of bloat to it, it meant that fun, flavourful but situational tools like the Akal's E/M CCW didn't drag down the list.
Ah, I misread what you were saying there. People say certain combinations of skills,, stats and equipment are bloated or sub optimal because of a number of different evaluations. Cost, efficacy and role are key points. Its not a matter of pattern seeking, but of role fulfillment. Take the infirmer: cc20 and BS 13 on a 1 wound doctor. So cc20 is a bit middling for a CC stat, just starting to get into good ranges but CC tends to be skill and gear dependant to make work. Bs13 is a reasonable shot. So far a doc with combat stats, a bit fragile but not unsalvageable so far. Then for CC we cap off with monofilament ccw, no cc skills and no ability to close. So hes paying to be mediocre at CC. His shooting rounds off with a combi or a boarding shotgun. A combi is nothing special and a shotgun wants tradability or durability to be aggressive which he has neither. His doctoring ability extends to wip 13. Alright, so we have a doctor who has paid to be middling at a lot of different roles. This forces these combat aspects to be defensive in nature to try and deter attackers. Given their active nature vs a passive nature like NBW or mimetism, they're far more luck dependent. Logically, this results in these being far less valuable than if they were being combined with other skills, stats and equipment so you would expect to pay less as they are less useful. But you don't. This puts the infermer into position where despite being a linkable doctor, it has to contend with all sorts of paramedics and doctors in faction. For example, the karhu which is 3 points more but has a far better package for gunfights and extreme mobility and is a wildcard. This isn't a matter of a cognitive bias towards pattern recognition. Devs aren't perfect. Every single wargame has some sort of issues. They make mistakes. The problem is having the tools to fix the issues, refusing to acknowledge that there are any issues and fixing non-issues. I am going to put this to you as I've been playing defense for my ideas for some time. What issues do you believe exist within Infinity's game system? Balance, mechanics or otherwise.
That is the best option in this thread, hands-down. Characterful, funny, and fluff-justified. CB if you're reading, there's your fix.
I think you did a really good explanation. Infirmier is a pretty good example of a profile with a cool miniature but hard to justify on table. Going to winter, maybe the "linkability" could be a thing, but he is competing with hospitallier doctor, not so far in point range. This is another reason.Same if we forget about fireteams, Trauma doc with palbots will do the same and will be harder to kill. Even, for a point of view of things you can do on table, the classic trauma doc with palbots will do more work, not only to heal our troups.
More survivability. You mean one point of ARM and BTS 3? Or better dodge with one point of PH more? She has no mods to win a FtF better than a Trauma. She is 8 Pts more than a Trauma. Together with WIP 13 she is indeed better suited for the job, but far away from beeing a toolbox char like the other DF. In sectorials there is her linkablity. But I would rather buy a Flashpulse-REM and a paramedic. Quinn is a good example how to get more surviveability. His visor and his better shooting capabilitys makes it more likely for him to win FtF rolls. He also has one step more ARM/BTS. He is one point over Bipandra but brings a better package to the table. There is one doc more in Pan O - the infamous Infirmarer (he was already coverd in this thread). A parade example of how to make a profile just unattractive. Basicaly a Bipandra with a mono ccw. No one needs that. But they are not in competition which each other - only in vanilla. My conclusion is: The middle class doctors in Pan O are dead profiles. Underlined by the fact that a paramedic in a fireteam has a better chance to heal a trooper in 8". They are only valid in some rare cases when you want a doc in a fireteam and you have no room for a paramedic.
It is irrelevant because we discuss a Bipandra from previous editions, Quinn for example didn't exist back then, neither was Infirmarer. It has nothing to do with this edition Bipandra who nobody defends, not even me, but when I said that I was quoted for me defending her in 2018. I understand it is pointless and unintuitive to have a discussion for a trooper profile in a previous edition of the game in a discussion for the current state of the game, but it is what it is. Bipandra needs an update, B2 medikit, doctor (rerol), Doctor +3 (maybe with WIP 12), dogged are suggestions I have seen or made myself and undoubtfully there will be many more out there to change her to be more in line with other dire foes but without changing her identity.
And new miniature. One of shasvastii heroes got new incarnation in one of latest Sets (with morat lady) But we see, that some factions are not a point of interest for CB now.
Woot. Hopefully they’ll turn up soon. New minis are always welcome. Besides which I’d love to see an updated bipandra. Still prefer the older Konstantinos though but I think it’s just the pose I like. The newer one is very nice and will be welcomed in time. Does this mean a potential update of the rules for these dire foes as well @psychoticstorm? I’d love bipandra to get some of the rules mentioned above.
