It keeps happening. I open up Infinity Army Mobile, or Infinity Army on my desktop browser. I start putting together a list for S.S.S. And then I put in Post-Humans. I tell myself I want to maybe try proxy-ing some of the more interesting fireteams, or new toys.... and then I put in the Post-Humans and away goes at least 40 - 50ish points and .5 - 3 swc. Is it wrong of me to feel that perhaps Post-Humans would have been better left as Vanilla only? They just seem like such an auto-include that playing without them feels like I'm handi-capping myself. Playing without them feels like playing WITH Bolts. Sure, I can do it, but I'm making a conscious choice to handicap myself. What do you guys think? Do you find that you're always including Post-Humans? If not, why not?
Why is them being in a Sectorial with limited options a worse thing than in a Vanilla faction with virtually unlimited options? I don't think they're any less of a "must take" option in Vanilla.
The issue with Posthumans is that they're too good, especially given their price. Mk.1, 2 and 5 are the crowd's darlings, and for good reason. G:jumper L1 really should get a few points more expensive, like 5 on each Proxy.
I would argue that they overshadow other options in sectorial, and act as a massive force multiplier. The dakini link is tremendously strong, especially backed up by the Post Human trio. In Vanilla, it's the strongest profiles usually survive. I play Pan O for instance. In vanilla, 9/10 times I'm taking Joan, because she's the best option for an LT. I feel like your limited choices in a sectorial should be more fun/interesting/different than playing Vanilla.
First of all, stop thinking about Posthumans as a single trooper. These are 4 different troopers (yeah, I don't count MkIII). Second, How many Acontecimento lists do you make with Nagas? NCA list with Fusiliers? Corregidor lists with Intruders and Bandits? ASS lists with Myrmidons? Third, there is a reason why playing without them feels like playing with Bolts. Because it is. Try making lists without Posthumans. You won't use any unit you wouldn't use with them, in fact, you'll use less units because guess what, that Engineer costs a ton and do does Hacker and oh look, I guess 1 infiltrator is all I can afford. Posthumans are basically necessary for Aleph to be even remotely competitive faction. Infinity is built around cheap Orders and AROs. Aleph cannot compete in that, because everything is expensive. Even with Netrods we have one of the smallest Order pools. Even our basic line trooper, excellent that Dakinis are at moving and shooting, come with 2 major (hacking, templates) and 2 minor (cannot go prone, mission restrictions on REMs) disadvantages. So no, Posthumans are perfectly fine, and in fact necessary for the faction. All you'll achieve by increasing their price is ensure Aleph becomes less competitive, especially with the pricy models.
And Proxies are excellent backup for a Marut - which is excellent when paired with Smoke - which is only available in Vanilla.
My last game of annihilation, I had 15 regular orders and 2 lt orders and 0 proxies. I felt like they didn't add to my list. I ended up winning the game handedly. With my dakini link getting 10 orders and my asura hacker getting 7. I went second and he only killed one thing. I knocked him down to 4 orders for his second turn. For his last turn he has 2 orders due to hidden deployment and lol. I didn't feel like I missed anything or that I was "playing with bolts".
Post humans are pretty auto includish to me. They are extremely powerful for the mk 1(eng)/2(sniper imho)/5. But at their cheap point cost, I don't feel that they take away from the fun tricks that oss can do. That said a non steel vanilla and oss are very similar imho, with just a few critical changes that only oss has. Such as shukra LT, and asura LT2. And maybe our dakini core. But those are all surprisingly cheap so spending 44 points and 1.5 swc is acceptable for such beasts.
Posthumans aren't needed in an ALEPH list for it to be really playable and competitive but they're so good that not taking them feels like a self-inflicted handicap more than anything. Although, bizarrely, I don't personally play against them and feel any bother at all. Like if my opponent takes Posthumans I'm like "oh yeah cool, fine." Probably because they don't really do anything that egariously terrifying.
Just to be picky, if you're asking about PostHumans in the newly release sectorial, that's the O.S.S., the triple S, S.S.S is basically vanilla Aleph.
I'm happy for post humans to get a 5 point bump per post human... I'd also like to get a 2pt discount for all NWI/dogged troops and a 2-5 point discount for all visored troops. Which, to be honest, probably makes no net difference in army building
mk1 = cheap engineer, hacker & medic. mk5 = no new coments about that... pick FO. mk2 = very cheap TO? assault hacker on the last turn when your enemy see when you win the game pushing the last button, appears near the objective... also a nice TO sniper with natural BS13. mk4 = solid active HI, very cheap on points... or pick the HRL as a "ARO piece". Vanilla and SSO are my autoinclude profiles every list.
I have a high opinion about Mk.2 sniper and Mk.3 as well, but I think I'm a minority there. Mk.5 Mk12 needs something, right now it's overshadowed by the FO.
I think Mk.II Sniper is highly appreciated? In any case, I appreciate it a lot. It's the only TO Camo Infiltrating Sniper I'd ever take. :)
I've always had the impression that people go for the hacker most of the time. Combination of Infiltration, TO, Specialist and shotgun is just so good.
There might be some preference, but I think people do think Sniper is good. Personally, I'm about 50-50, depends on what I'm missing in my list. Much like the choice for rest of Posthumans. This is in comparison to Mk.III and Mk.V-12 where I think it's not competition that edges them out, but they're considered (by me at least) flat out bad. Even cheap as they are.
I feel the same. Everytime i try to take the mk12 i reconsider it. The wip 15 is wasted on a non specialist, the fo has 2 smgs, quick, durable, good aro (supressive fire, flashpulse), additional untility (em grenades)... its just like his stats matches the FO profile better. If the MK 12 had something like camo, special operative, msv 2 i would give him a shot more often but at the moment, the mk12 is only good at shooting something which i dont need because aleph has way better options to win firefights.
They're not bad, just overshadowed by competition. Especially Mk.3 is fine. Mk.5 does need a rework (or maybe just Marksmanship LX needs a change).
I was thinking about that as well, though I'd like poorly working skills remade anyway. Other options include giving him a specialist status of some kind, a visor, hell, Smoke (or, more likely, Eclipse) Grenades would be awesome.
