Bruh my Sophotect has a dedicated shrine for ISS to worship. She's like a living saint to my army, she's that good! Won me more games than I can count so I don't want to hear about "used to be"!! xD Jannisary akbar doctor is 41 points. For literally the same price you can get 3x V:NWI WIP15 BS13 specialists who are either Doctor/Engineer, FO and an infiltrating TO hacker. A Clockmaker is a WIP15 BS11 non Valor engineer for 18 points. 2 points more will give you same engineer WIP15, BS13, V:NWI, twice the armour and improved PH IN ADDITION to an extra FO Foward Deployed MI that doesn't actually suffer the movement penalty of being MI, with all the same gravy stats. So yes, they are severely undercosted for what they bring.
Arguments here just keep being repeated over and over. One last time from me: external balance : I don't see a problem here at all. Aleph is not particularly strong, nor is it creating problems. Posthumans are something that looks super-cheap from outside, but also, they do not really overpower much individually. internal balance : this one is trickier. However, I still don't think there's a big problem. Here is my reasoning: first of all, Posthuman units are often complained about as a single unit. Except that's not really the case. They take one slot and provide one Order, but they are really multiple different units when considered for internal balance this means it is somewhat akin to complaining "links are autoinclude in Toha". Yes, so? It is a benefit of the Tohaa. Benefit of Aleph is Posthuman units, which share combat group slot, but provide a single Order and cost less individually. Posthuman consists out of wildly different units, and you can only take some of them (each once), you are not taking any* of them ALWAYS, hence, any of the units competing for the same "slot" will be used regularly when you decide not to use the specific Posthuman; not to mention all the times you decide to double-up on some "slot" yes, Mk.II is almost an autoinclude, but it itself is a special case of wildly different profiles: TO Infiltrating specialist profile : you will often want to double up on these, meaning you will still take Dasyus and/or Nagas furthermore, it competes itself with TO Sniper due to AVA so you will not always take the Hacker and thus will need to take Dasyus and/or Nagas AHD is most definitively not competing with anyone since AHD is far too expensive on every other profile in the game AHD gives it vulnerability to hacking (KHDs), so I will often choose to take a Dasyu or Naga FO not to have this vulnerability TO Sniper : Dasyu Sniper is priced out of usability; I've tried it several times and I'm not paying again ever for it that much Without Posthuman at reasonable price, I will not ever have a TO Sniper in Aleph yes, Mk.V is also almost an autoinclude, but it falls into the category of "often doubling up", plus, it provides a capability without real internal competitors anyway: we are sadly lacking in FOs, with Dasyu/Naga being quite different that they do not compete with Mk.V and Pathfinder bot is nice but also comes with majorly different abilities so as not to be a real comparsion midfield specialist competition with Andromeda : I don't see a reason to ever take Andromeda, Mk.V or no Mk.V, so I don't really see her as competition even if we compare to Steel Phalanx midfield specialist competition with Thrasymedes : he's the closest to competition I see; however, he provides significant advantages on its own (ODD, full Infiltration, 360 visor) that he could be something taken. Therefore, I do not see any need for significant cost increases or changes to Posthuman functioning. In fact, cost would need to be significantly increased to seriously start dropping the units compared to internal competition, which would merely drop Aleph fun-factor as you would be much more constrained in list-building and that is all. On the other hand, making every unit take its own Combat Group slot would mean that we would not see Posthuman in Limited Insertion lists at all. Furthermore, Aleph often fields 10 order lists in general and this means more constraints in list-building and overall drop in powerlevel without improving internal competition since then you'd still want to take Posthuman to cover your specialist bases. Just means more cheap stuff to get you back up to reasonable Order count. Here is a simple test you can do: try building lists without using any of the Posthuman units, or pretending they take Combat Group Slots. See if you end up taking more of the units they are in competition with. Re. Posthumans somehow competing with Asura : please, what the ... There is no Posthuman competition with Asura. Making Asura cheaper while Posthuman more expensive will help absolutely nothing.
So if Post-Humans are to be rebalanced because "they are auto-include" and kill list variety, then we should also talk about the Myrmidon in Vanilla. I mean, 16points ODD with smoke is as close to an auto-include as it gets. what the about the Danavas or the nagas ? The way I see it, the Post-humans fill out roles just like these units do. I am going to make a very bold comparison here but humor me : The Hac-Tao wich serves multiple (a fuckton) purposes as well as having many options. I see the post-humans as the same fancy toolbox the Hac-Tao is, while having the added perk of having multiple tools on the table at the same time. EDIT : Nemo no name made all valid points, and pretty much summed up my opinion on the subject.
On a somewhat unrelated topic, I'm wondering if @kinginyellow would be willing to do a tutorial on how to use the Danavas well? My buddy was your first opponent at the Rumble and he said you took him apart with her (and Achilles of course). He said you used some interesting tricks with the Danavas. As someone who generally hasn't leaned much on hacking, I was wondering if you could walk me/us through some strategy/tactics related to her?
Sure, I'm totally enamoured with her so i could write something up. Will take me a bit due to in a phone user but ill give it a shot.
Yes, I think that's absolutely a valuable exercise, and it's the sort of mindset I try to have when I approach balance discussions. (Whether Infinity or any other game)
Bra! Your sophotec is still amazing in an army, that overflows with cheap orders, so you actually have the surplus of orders to heal your MVPs. In Aleph most models are a swiss army knife, so healing is quite often a ‘waste’ of orders. Although I must say, that the sophotec has yet to disappoint me, when actually on the table :)
Short list of heads-up (not limited to, not explained, but a good idea of her uses): Step 1: dominate the deployment of the pitchers. Step 2: have the supporting units to exploit as much as possible her capabilities (40pts and 2 SWC for a Dakini Sniper and a Bounty Hunter sniper, for example) Step 3: Cybermask, white noise and Supportware: when to use each. Step 4: have supporting hackers to avoid being nuked from your own setup pitchers! XD
I like running Achilles and Patroclus, and cheap access to White Noise has really changed my game, as facing off against MSV2 is just so much easier. Plonk down the template walk within spitfire range, and just blast away. The combination of ODD and White Noise ensures, that you can reliably win any firefight – bar unfortunate crits of course.
I'm guessing the fact it's 19 points/0.5 SWC for a sniper with half decent BS, probably the cheapest trooper to take advantage of white noise.
Precisely, it can't use Supportware but is a nice support for the Dakini if needed, and you can make wonders with a Coordinated Order (dakini DA+shock B1 shot, BH shock B1 shot, possibly mk4 HRL 1 shot and a forward Naga or Dakini 2 shots with combi as that would be the point). And if you lose the Dakini, you still have a shooter that can provide overwatch. Nice, sacrificial troop that can roll an ODD or whatever (as long as it won't be a bike XD)
