For those who were saying that with luck the mul profiles where wrong: confirmed that they are correct. You can keep them in the bag and riot. Laika Dog-Girl Now!
The Pavel profile is what I wish the Unknown Ranger profile had been. A much tougher CC-orientated skirmisher that can hide his presence amongst the regular troops through a marker state (like how the old White Dwarf wouldn't start on the table but would instead be 'disguised' as a normal model) that at a dire moment, can reveal himself to lead the troops to a glorious victory.
They're boring as hell? I don't mean that they're bad, quite the opposite. But they're simply Muls with +1BS, ECM and Minelayer. Imagine taking Ikadrons, giving them +1 WIP and Minelayer, and calling them a new unit. Kuryers could've been smaller drones with some frontline support weapon options. S3, ARM 1, G:Sync with Dozers, loadouts with either Automatic Grenade Launcher, Autocannon or Total Reaction with Rifle+Panzerfaust. It'd bring something unique, and wouldn't make armed MULs useless.
Ikadrons with Minelayer, that aren't pulling from the same AVA? Hells yes. I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding of unit design going on here. Kuryers aren't there to be some brand new unit or role, they're there to give TAK a higher-tech flavour than the other Sectorials, at the same time as solving AVA problems regarding 4x5pt Minesweeper Muls.
I know that's the intention and I mostly agree with it, I just don't like leaving them with the same weapons very much ;)
Again, they're there to solve AVA problems, they were never going to get new weapon options for that, if just because it would mean two separate Traktor Mul box sets, one of which is Sectorial-specific.
Whats appeal of them? Not too keen to pay more than 20pts for 8 to 16 weapon plus engineer on top of that. I dont really see people rather taking combi rifle total reaction as something superiror to hmg total reaction bot. I frankly dont really see why would I ever take them compared to all other great stuff in vanilla and tak? Do I maybe want someone to defend? Well 16 pts ap/shock strelog smg will do the trick but it's far more survivable for example and already in better position.
Well, it's not something I'm going to bitch about. Just a minor design decision I don't like. Won't make me dislike the sectorial.
Not every unit is going to suit every player's play style, so it might be that there isn't any appeal for you. For me, the strengths of the Traktor Mul (specifically the Total Reaction Uragan) are: Baggage for area control missions, preventing Retreat, reloading and for giving you a 20pt swing in kill/keep alive missions (Baggage as Automatic Equipment doesn't count when the trooper is dead), It's in a faction with the widest access to Forward Observers in the game, and plentiful Orders to spend on Guided shots. If there are enemy Hackers and you're within 16" (so much of the mid-field), you can use Speculative Fire on the same BS and not be affected by U-Turn. It also lets you place the template off-centre. In-faction it's an effective Deployment Zone defender against Airborne Deployment troops or fast troops that have managed to flank your midzone defenders. Total Reaction also means that it works when going second, before you've had a chance to spend Orders on Suppressive Fire. AP+Shock templates reinforce this, by denying the ARM bonus for cover and by outright killing troopers that are depending on Dogged (for example Hassassin Ragiks) or NWI to keep their Attack going. Never underestimate the havoc that B3 Impact Templates can cause in reaction, especially against an opposing force that is depending on massed Impetuous Warbands. :-) The Engineer isn't really relevant in cost, they pay their own way already for Classifieds etc. Although ARM2, two levels of Unconscious and Command Token re-rolls makes it surprisingly hard to actually take out a Traktor Mul permanently. The Traktor Mul Kuryer, for a 3pt increase, gets better at all the shooting roles, while adding Minelayer to get even better at DZ defence - without costing any additional SWC. Streloks are fantastic, but you're not typically going to keep them back as DZ defence as you need them up-field, and unless you go first and get them in Suppressive Fire they're going to have much reduced defensive ability. Also, if you want a Strelok Minelayer it costs the same 21pt as the Kuryer Urugan and can't go into Suppressive Fire with it's Shotgun. Also, we have a local Ariadna player who uses the Uragan extremely aggressively - the looks on his opponents' faces in the games where it's rampaged through the enemy DZ with its templates are hilarious. :-)
...I'm imagining it in-universe, with the anime aesthetics the art has, this goddamn low-tech Mule rampaging in a Hyperpower or CA's backfield, and music playing and enemy troopers panicking in the best anime ways as the explosions WON'T STOP, and I can't stop laughing! (Probably the Dozer can't either, as they sit in a corner somewhere and remote-control the thing)
The best/worst bit was when it critted an Intruder Lieutenant. It's not something I'd ever recommend as a standard tactic, but it demonstrates how surprisingly adaptable the Muls can be on the battlefield. I think the first time it happened was Quadrant Control, and he'd pushed it forwards into one of the far quadrants, and then spotted some juicy targets so just carried on...
Pavel conspiracy theory: Not sure if anyone brought this up, but a buddy of mine last night suggested Pavel is inspired by the Winter Soldier, a Russkie counterpart to the Unknown Ranger = Captain America.
Pavel was one of the original RPG characters, so he's unlikely to be based on the film version of the Winter Soldier.
Winter Soldier is an expert brawler (22 cc, nbw) who also has used marskman rifle (ojotnik has scope as well). There might be a graint of truth in that. Axe doesn't fit at all tho.
Unfortunately it just seems to be a RPG character. I pushed awhile back for an actual 'Bucky' styled character to go along with Unknown Ranger(Grunt with a Marksman Rifle, D-Charges and a few other gubbins) but we got Rosie instead. :-s
General advice for the book keeping: Cut little sheets of the sticky parts of post-it notes and put them underneath the bases. That way you can easily track what’s underneath a camo token. You can switch them around if you face the same oppnent too many times, but they hold well enough that I never had to redo one within the last year.
