Unfortunately Foxhole state's Mimetism overwrites Albedo as long as you are in that state. So I would disagree with you on that the Sapper profile is a good idea against MSV/MMS. If you could leave the state at the start of an ARO, than yes, but it's not possible.
Just think of them as an Albedo unit and CB give em the wrong fluff. I've already admitted I was wrong about Gudan. While it's stupid easy to know what they are under the camo, the cheap order makes them worth it. The Warhorse is still a bit not needed though. No one is going out their way to isolate them and if i'm in retreat something is going bad. They also don't have weapons to take advantage of getting around the BS Attack -3.[/QUOTE] They still provide order in LoL irc, they can clean e/m mines without dodge, the are not effected by EM ammo, so you can ignore E-mitters for example. All some corner cases but if you think about it, it may help here and there.
And foxhole sucks if you need to move. You will be unlikely to use an order to use it again. Pretty worthless I feel. The sniper can't be in a fireteam too. That sucks almost more. Both the Morat Vanguard and Hawkwood can be in a team. It's too bad they don't live up to their background. It's the background I really liked before they came out.
I would argue that broadly their background fits their troop profile and loadout as "silvery" is a apt description of the reflective nature of Albedo and all their weapons have an AP or EM nature while been mobile and not heavy as it would fit a long range patrol unit. That been said its a unit that feels more as a counter SWF (well in the background it is) than a generalist unit.
Caveat: I'm not saying its a good unit just for this. That being said: Foxhole state allows you to place the troop anywhere and still get the cover bonuses, so I place it in the same "box" as Eclipse Smoke, a box labelled "Ignore table setup". You can enter Foxhole state from total cover in a way that the new base size peeks outside the cover (this is purely a LoF change, since the cover would not stack with Foxhole cover), and since the transition still happens at the end of the turn, leaving no option for Enemy ARO, so you can safely transition from Albedo to Mimetism, while a backwards transition whould negate both Albedo and Mimetism. You can pick targets with this unit alone: MSV enemy units as S2 sniper, regular units in the foxhole. K1 sniper rifle means a stable threat against all enemies, so enemy highly armored targets will be hiding and avoiding that lane. On the other hand, cheap, visually-protected troops will be used against this profile. Lack of visual countermeasures may be a problem (MSV to use against enemy smoke, mimetism...). So yeah, it can be used. I would have asked for the troop to be inmunne to shock at least in this profile, however, since the 30pts cost makes it quite vulnerable to it, but it's otherwise as focused and barebones as it can be in that profile, I think. Again, I don't think it's a specially good unit, but I also don't see it as useless, frankly.
In my humble experience, foxhole is very situational, dependent on the table setup. I can remember 2 or 3 games, where my opponents used foxhole snipers on tables sparsely saturated with terrain pieces and it was a significant problem for me, as I did not have a proper tool to handle it in my army list. On the other hand, in dense tables, this skill will likely give slight, or no benefits at all. I`m not a huge fan of silver snakes myself, but I`m glad we now have that option - should we chose to use it :). I also like the use of foxhole from total cover idea Xagroth mentioned above.
They are supposed to be TAG killers. Specifically, the Jotum. But the ONLY weapon they have that’s any good against a Jotum, is the K1 Marksman and K1 Sniper. The E/M weapons are only ok. The Jotum has a BTS of 9 so they are still only needing 12’s to save on two d20. Not too bad but still a challenge. Against the BSG the Jotum is rolling 11s on each hit. Albedo does nothing against a Jotum. It will work against Nokken, Karhu, and Nisse. But they don’t have the tools to fight them like their own MSV. A Jotum has a Multi-HMG with a BS of 15! In a shootout with SS, the snake is going to be squashed. He then has a HFT for anyone trying to get inside the 0-8 range. Also, they don’t have skills commonly associated with troops from Huang Di, like Terrain (Total) Since they don’t have a good way to outshoot a Jotum, they need some way to get behind it. But they have neither infiltration or combat jump. This is what would make me happy. Change Albedo -6 to Mimetisim -6, or Holoprojector. Infiltration with Hidden Deployment, or Combat Jump Every trooper should have D-Charges. There should be a hacker with special Total Control or Oblivion. TC makes more sense because it’s only used on TAGs. I think should be Total Control (AP) because of that BTS9. Change E/M Carbines to E/Mitters or to E/Marats. Change BSG to Contenders. Preferably +1 B or AP. K1 can get through ARM but can't do wounds. I know some of the things I want would make them more expensive. But I’m fine with that as long as they can do their job.
First thought that comes to mind is why on earth would you like to have a holoprojector? I believe the unit fits the role well it has the capabilities to disable the strong elements of SWF and has a heavy anti HI/ TAG focus, while been a long range patrol unit and not an ambush or intervention unit.
I think they are fun. Also, it's better than the "do-nothing-against-TAGs-albedo". At least with Holos there's a chance a TAG will pick the wrong one to shoot. I guess we will just disagree. Proof is in the number of people that actually take them on a regular basis. Right now unfortunately in my area I'm one of two that play YJ and we are both doing IS at the moment. But I can still think of other things to take vs. TAGs that might come off better in a firefight.
That's how holoprojectors should work, but not how they work, the model just declares it will wait and then shoots the actual model.
Still better than Albedo against a TAG lol. You couldn't delay against a holo before. I think it sucks that you can now. But like camo, if they delay, you can move again.
They are *slowly* making Holoecho useful. It's already more useful than Decoy, but it's still iffy, but at least it provides Surprise Attack (typically) which isn't terrible in this edition. It's still far too much of a liability in the current state of things for the unit to be forward deploying, but that has a lot more to do with the state of Pitchers and Spotlight being what it is. That said, Yin-She has two major issues; since Albedo is extremely specialised at what it does, 1) Yin-She is far too expensive for its stats, and 2) Yin-She under-performs against the targets that Albedo provides an advantage against. All in all, the unit could be fine as designed, but you'd need to cut the costs significantly. It is designed to be a speed bump, not an actual gunner, so the price should reflect that. I don't mean a small reduction here, either, but in terms of performance and role these really should be noticably cheaper than e.g. Lobos or Bolts. And the FTO distinction is just silly. If it's actually meant to be hunting the likes of Atalanta, Bolts, or Black AIR, then Yin-She needs more advantages to push the mods - this means MOD negating abilities, burst increases / high burst guns, and/or become heavy or "medium+" infantry for ablative wounds. As they are, no one should take them. It's very rude to your opponent to signal how you think they need a handicap that strongly.
It like: Lets design a unit that will fight TAGs - especialy Jotums - with lots of AP/EM but not too strong weapons. Okay fine. We came up with this. Oh wait, we forgot an albedo unit ... nothing half, nothing whole. According to their fluff they need mime-6. Gives TAGs a disadvantage in FF let you hit with AP/K1/EM and hopfully brick or damag the TAG. BSG and K1 Sniper already have E/Mitter as a sidegun.
Yes feels like they felt WB had to have an Albedo troop and threw it onto them. Even if it makes not sense for fighting TAGs. Yes but the rest should also have the longer ranged E/Mitter I think.
The E-Mitter covers the long range, for the short ranges weapons. The E-Carabine the midrange for the longer ranged weapons, When you right HMG it´s better to be in their 0 and get yourself +3. Maybe but then the fluff is just wrong. They are discribed as didicated anti-TAG unit - especialy Jotum. TBH a Bluewolf can handle a Jotum pretty well, it just have to get in good range or better charge-range.
If they did, then they failed. If they were meant for going against Karhu or Nisse, they don't have what it takes. They might be -6 against their MSV but the Karhu and Nisse have mim -3 themselves. Longer range and more powerful guns. It's the SS that should have a feuerbach, or AP HMG, Missile Launcher, Multi-rifles or even Breaker Rifles. Then consider their fire team. Everyone else is more expensive them, doesn't count as them or they as them. They can duo or haris with themselves but it's fairly expensive and other thank against MSV troops, no vis mods. SWF has the btter TAG killers. Karhu can be with Fusliers. They can also be with Varg, who also have K1 and Albedo -6, But super jump so they can get to good spots and 2pts less. As mentioned Varg can be a team including Orc and Karhu. MSV, Mim -3 Karhu with Feuerbach +1 B takes down anything. then Varg K1 with super jump to get just about anywhere. KARHU Feuerbach(+1B), AP Mine / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 34) VARG (Minelayer) K1 Marksman Rifle, E/M Mine / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 27) VARG (Minelayer) K1 Marksman Rifle, E/M Mine / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 27) 1.5 SWC | 22 Points Open in Infinity Army For WB I go with this. YĚ MĀO Missile Launcher / Boarding Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 26) YĚ MĀO (Hacker, Hacking Device) MULTI Rifle ( ) / Boarding Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 27) LÉI GŌNG FTO AP Submachine Gun, E/Mitter, Zapper / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 29) 2 SWC | 82 Points Open in Infinity Army
I like gudan from new box. I don't like silver snakes. Indeed, it is that case, when lore in disharmony with profile. K1 is really good, but albedo could be optional. I like the idea with mimetism as it was mentioned before. For me Ye Mao with AP spitfire works more like tag killer. For now snakes are not in my list. I am thinking about the box, but mostly for gudan. By the way, could you tell me, are new units in scale of N5 or more like the previous one? Just interesting. There are not much photos of them.
Gudan seem pretty good. I haven't used them yet but I've seen them in a few videos. I don't like they have no mim so they are easy to tell what they are but still good for the prices.
