Give me a second. Bipandra's unique Skills and equipment as well as desireable stats over her Linetrooper: Courage, Doctor, Nanopulser, +1WIP Some other examples for Dire Foes Xi Zhuang: Shock Immunity, Number 2, Forward Observer, Madtraps, LFT, +1BS Leila Sharif: KHD, Shock MMR, D-Charges, Breaker Pistol, +1BS Lupe Balboa: Mimetism, Specialist Operative, Dogged, Nanopulser, Panzerfaust, Smoke Grenades, +1BS, (CCW) Thrasymedes: ODD, Specialist Oberative, Flash Grenades, Shock CCW, LRL/Infiltration (+loads of cheap Stats thanks to Frenzy) The list goes on. Since there are next to no limits on what a Dire Foe Character can have access to I'd say anything goes. Free Agent, Number two, Minelayer, Mimetism, Sensor, Linkability with Orcs/OS/Knights or simply the straightforward Doctor Plus. CB managed to make every single other Dire Foe outside PanO a toolbox. Somehow they didn't get the Memo for PanO.
Let's see Bipandra, Combat Medic CC 13 | BS 12 | PH 11 | WIP 13 | ARM 2 | BTS 3 | W 1 Doctor, ODD, Forward Deployment L1, Hyperdynamics L1 Boarding Shotgun, ADHL, Flash Pulse, Breaker Pistol Now she can go into the midfield and patch people up, while being a decent threat to even powerful units; unable to set up SF, though.
Guys Bipandras "main concept" is not how you use her on the battlefield, beyond been a homage to the combat examples of the rulebook, she is just a regular fusilier that has the extreme misfortune of been fate linked with the most unlucky (and incompetent) person in the human sphere. She has not trained to be a doctor, she learned it on the battlefield patching Angus and herself, she has suffered greatly by been close to him, but somehow managed to survive, she is not the first choice Hexagon had for an agent, but since she is close to the Angus disaster they trained her so they have an agent of field ready at any time the disaster starts. Try to work with her background in mind, her profile as is fills a role in PanO and reflects her background an ordinary fusilier with extraordinary skills and survivability (for a fusilier)
Can we stop freaking justifying some game-play with a fluff whenever it is advantages for your stand point ? Either take a fluff as a whole one or don't bother at all. Well, apparently there's no point in discussion. I'm out. Go play with your "Combi Rifle creme de la creme"
Fluff IS the base of everything, don't like it demand the fluff to change, you cannot give units whatever you want and ignore the fluff, this is bipandras fluff work with it. You do not want a more interesting Bipandra, you want a unit to fulfil the battlefield roles you feel need a model to do them.
That is overkill and too much wishful thinking. You've added 8 distinct Upgrades/Changes from a normal Fusilier on top of keeping her stats. That's just way too many, not to mention that Profile is close to 40 points. We do. It's simply that every other Dire Foe also started small and somehow learned how to be an Engineer or Hacker on top of learning other Skills, honing their Marksmanship and picking up exciting gear. So "hey your Indigo Spec Op learned how to be a Doc and has really good morale, oh and since you didn't like the LSG we've removed that and gave her the next best bland replacement that comes to mind" is not quite enough. Especially when they screw up correcting her pricing to reflect the changed equipment.
This whole thread is whishful thinking. We've had a lot of viable and balanced ideas over the years, and we sure as hell know we won't be getting anything more interesting than what we have now. And most DFs get about 7-8 various upgrades here and there, not counting weapons. What's is overkill in my idea is the synergy between various pieces.
Not to mention that the actual fluff was said to be changed for Dire Foes in Uprising book to adjust for whatever is going on narrative. It's so fun to see missed opportunities and then people claiming "window is closed, you wait now" or "I have no idea what to do with this" xD
Eh, it's best to simply switch to other factions/sectorials for now and wait. No point in being negative all the time ;)
Thats why Im waiting for Varuna (although Im extremaly sceptic about anything PanO) or Vedic, and painting other minis.
Nah man, keep the criticism going. Just take a good look at what is going on for YJ and take it as an example what not to do. Keep it real and constructive guys. No more yelling for Smoke, no buffs for the Faction. Increasing diversity and bringing long dead Troops and Profiles back from the outer rim of obscurity. That's what we really want.
What I mean is they are sold with two extra models you aren't going to use, most likely. Splitting is a hassle.
So in short, Bipandra really is designed to suck for fluff reasons. Well, that sucks for all Pano players since we miss out on the more powergamey Dire Foe options other factions get.
