It is true that starting with a Sectorial is easier. But that doesn't mean that it's not true that most new players begin with Vanilla. Some get good advice early and switch to focus on a Sectorial pretty quickly, but a LOT of new players start out in Vanilla. So my approach for Vanilla would certainly focus on that end, with some "high end" responses to the experienced players who have doubts about PanOceanian Vanilla as a competitive choice.
The forumites seem to have an aversion to playing vanilla PanO. In the previous iteration of the forums the tactica was never even updated from N2. Thus the best thing you have is sadly my tactica on 1d4chan, which is not that good of a source as I'm absolutely terrible at this game. https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Infinity/N3_Tactics/PanOceania It's more of a unit description than an actual primer on tactics. I can analyze stats well enough, but making the right decisions is something I struggle with and I tend to play gimmicks.
How is Aquilla stupidly cheap? Also I don’t think pano comes with any discount on MSVs because of no smoke.
While I don't think that comparing profiles across factions is particularly useful, consider this: The Black Friar MSR pays the same as the Agema for Nanopulser, minus V:1 and 1 WIP The Kamau MSR pays 4 more points than the Brawler for +1 BS and Mimetism. The Nisse MSR pays 4 more points than the Agema for +1 BS, +1 Arm and Mimetism, minus 1 WIP The Black Friar MSR pays 4 points less than the Yaogat for +1 BS, minus Morat skill and 1 WIP The Nisse MSR pays 1 more points than the Maakrep for +1 BS and Mimetism, minus Medikit and V:1 The Kamau MSR pays 3 more points than the Bao for +1 BS and Mimetism, minus V:1 and 1 WIP. The Nisse MSR pays 3/1 more points/swc than the Djanbazan for +1 BS, Multi and Mimetism, Minus Regeneration, 1 WIP The Nisse MSR pays 9 less points than the Intruder for minus Camo, 1 WIP and X Visor The Aquila HMG pays 1 more point than the Hsien for +1 BS, MSV3, minus nanopulser, 1 WIP I am pretty OK with every trade off on that list, meaning that Pan-O likely does have higher quality MSV options than the competition, depending on the precise scenario.
I don't feel a lack of choices. I'm mostly bitter that the Aquila HMG doesn't have an Lt option. We have Bolts... why not a sweet Lt rambo for high risk high reward lists.
I have written it so long ago that I forgot half the things in there. But IIRC I was comparing Aquilla to Hsien and Asura. 62 for his abilities feels more cost effective than those two, but they can use Smoke. I used the wiki format so that anyone can fix what I got wrong.
I think the Asura is the closest to the Aquilla guard, they have pretty similar stats and loadout. Multi rifle Asura is 68 pts while Multi rifle Aquilla is 58. They have pretty similar stats (+1BS -2WIP, -1ARM -3CC, while BS is always good, all other three are important for defending your HI), but Asura has a Nanopulser and No wound incapacitation. And no wound is I suppose a pretty expensive skill, and the rest sums up to a few points as well, so I don't think there's necessarily a discount here.
This is a pretty cool comparison, but I don't really see any obvious MSV discount for Pano. (sorry, forum didn't merge the two posts)
"Discount" may have been the wrong word, but what I meant is that MSV units in PanO are affordable and plentiful, at the cost of Smoke. PanO has MSV2 as cheap as 24pts and that's a really mediocre troop. While technically Yu Jing has even cheaper Spitfire MSV2, PanO's options are much more varied in that regard.
I think the fact that MSV2 options are so varied is a strength. YJ only has 3 units with MSV2 -- one is a cheap remote, one is a 25-30 point LI, and one is a super elite HI who costs 60 points. PanO has 5 different options between 25 and 40 points, as well as an elite MSV3. I think Aleph has a slightly better range of options for MSV, but PanO is a very close second.
Erm. Let's see Vanilla Pano. We have the Black Friar, Nisse, Kamau, Order sergeant w Spitfire, Konstantin. Let's ignore the OS , which comes with SWC cost of 2 for a Spitfire on an LI, which is clearly insane (usually 1 like on regular, Hexa comes for 1.5, likely because of the TO camo, REMs come for 1, MI usually 1.5, HI 2). Konstantinos is nice, really expensive, only has a combi rifle and an assault pistol, really fragile. But has infiltration and specialist operative. It's good if you can deploy it next to a TO camo marker, and start the game, then you can Discover + shoot it, and likely kill it in an order, otherwise you are really likely to loose those 34 points (the price of a Nisse MSR actually). Way too expensive and fragile in my opinion, but it would be good to have something similar for a decent point cost. The rest of the options are a bit reduntant, not much variation there. For MSR likely the Nisse is the best option here, ARM3, Mimetism, MSV2 and an MSR. Kamau comes with -2ARM for 2 less points, I'd gladly pay that, Friar comes without Mimetism and -1ARM for 4 less points and a Nanopulser. Mimetism is big for winning the shooting game, so I'd rather take the Nisse over the MSR Friar as well. So considering MSR, in my opinion Nisse beats both Kamau and the Friar. Kamau doesn't have any other MSV2 options (though I think the HMG one for 1SWC and with Mimetism is a really interesting one). That leaves us with the multi rifle Friar without the Mimetism, with Albedo, Biometric visor 1, Nanopulser, drop bears, -1ARM, 28 pts. Nice option, though MOV 4-2 of an MI doesn't combo well with the range of multi rifle. In NCA the MSV2 Spitfire Deva cost nearly as much a Nisse, without Mimetism (this is a big one), with Nanopulser and No wound (also a big one), -1 ARM, -1BS, for nearly the price of a HMG/MSR Nisse. In MO the MSV2 Spitfire sergeant is non linkable for some reason, and in my opinion that's just stupid. #Panocanthavenicethings The sad thing is, the most interesting tool we can get here is the mimetism. #hightechfaction #bestshooters #+1BSbeatseverything #hoponthewhinetrain For MSV3 we have the Aquilla guard, for 62 points you get the HMG one. Top HI as top HIs go, but unless the opponent has a lot of camo, or really powerful camo/ODD units, you just spent a lot of points on an MSV3. Also for camo hunting there's the Sensor + sniffer net option. Maybe I'd rather spend the extra 6 points for a Swiss guard, as TO camo is useful in a lot more situations than MSV3. So my point is, that in Vanilla Pano the MSV2 options are the Nisse (with whatever loadout you like), the MULTI-rifle Black friar, and that's it. The rest is either redundant or too expensive. I really don't see the variation here.
Aquilla is mainly good for bullying Ariadna. It is true that Nisse outshines pretty much every other MSV troop in PanO and they're one of the reasons I stay with vanilla. And probably will until Svalarheima Winter Force comes out. But the redundancy gives you options, even if it's just 2pts shaved off by taking a Kamau instead of Nisse. Black Friar IMO has a different role to Nisse, I use him to deter infiltrators from getting into my DZ and have something that can ARO through Smoke without the enemy MSV troop being able to target him. Even at bad ranges it's still a free Normal shot.
If only the damn BF Sniper had Albedo to make him compete with the Nisse, Konstantinos wasn't bloated to his neck with garbage or the damn Aquila had a secondary weapon/Skill to make him compete with the Swiss... ... but yeah
Which is amazing for all those non-PanO people asking why apparently noone is playing vanilla PanO ;P (or why it is considered bad/dull idea).
I only play vanilla pano. Actually just branching out to Tohaa because Tohaa >>> Nice things >>> <<<< Pano
