Always looked to me that sectorials are a regular army from an specific area: when you field an SAA army, you bring a selection of troops among a specific area from Paradiso (also it explains of the shortcommings of that specific sectorials). To me, a vanilla army is a group of hand picked individuals whose only task is carring a covert up operation and they are the best of the crop. But yeah, some clarification wont hurt.
That's basically it. Druze have PanO remotes for a reason; they're stated to be the pipe hitters of choice for a few PanO corps.
I feel that NCA would be fine with having Total AVA Fusiliers. What damage is it realistically going to do? NCA have always been the most PanO'y sectorial to me, with Varuna pulling in a close second. ASA and MO don't get Fusi's anymore, so why not go ham on the sectorials that do? Is there a fluff reasoning that I don't understand? I get that NCA used to hinge more around Auxilias, but since their co-ordinated order rules change people don't play more than 2 usually. Which feels kind of weird as a sectorial defining unit. Like, ISS get to have Kuang Shi be the defining unit of their Penal Army theme, and you always see a lot of them when you play ISS.
Fusiliers are originally belonging to Varuna. TBH, I don't think AVA 5 Fusiliers in NCA would change my lists all that much, they're never really the focal point anyway, they usually just play a support role to something like a Swiss. Besides, if you really want a 6th member, you can always take Bipandra.
If Bolts paid the updated cost for Drop Bears and the Combi+LSg, and you could link Devas and Blackfriars into a Bolt team or Bolts into Fusiliers, that'd make NCA feel very much rejuvenated.
The problem with Auxilia as the core unit for NCA is that they don't have the profiles for it. I would rather see more AuxBot options and different weapon and equipment loadouts added to the Auxilia, rather than doubling down on Fusiliers as the one LI to rule them all.
Yeah, Auxilia are showing their age. Once upon a time, Auxbots could be part of coordinated Orders, were the most reliable Specialist in the game (both the handler and bot had the FO rule, meaning they could both attempt to sync a console with the same Order) and templates were -6 to Dodge. I'm not saying those things were necessarily great for the game, but Auxilia definitely lost major perks, and nothing came in to fill the gap. That isn't the end of the world, but naturally I'm no longer fielding the 4 Auxilia FOs that I used to field back in N2.
I never played during this magical time but I can see why they changed it. Still, the poster child light infantry for the sectorial isn't sufficiently whelming anyone right now.
I mean, Auxilia are SUCH a good opportunity to show off the "tech first" approach to PanOceania. First, give them access to the Light Shotgun + Eclipse LGL Auxbot. Then add a Spitfire and Multi-Sniper. They suck too much at BS 11 for anyone to take? OK. Drop the AuxBot and give them SpotBots instead. Hell, you could give an option for the Spitfire with the SpotBot and one with the AuxBot (for flavour and variety). Throw in a Hacker profile and you're done. You'd end up with: AUXILIA Lieutenant Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 14) AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) AUXILIA Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) AUXILIA Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_2 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) AUXBOT_2 Light Shotgun + Eclipse Light Grenade Launcher / Electric Pulse. (- | 6) AUXILIA MULTI Sniper Rifle + TinBot E (Spotter) / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 25) AUXILIA Spitfire + TinBot E (Spotter) / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 23) AUXILIA Spitfire + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 20) AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) AUXILIA Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22) AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
For the record I would be more than happy to field such a beauty (FO + flamerbot for 15 points) in vanilla Ariadna or literally any sectorials I play. Cheers! PS Every NCA list I make start with taking two Auxilia FO. I never play more than two of them because I only own two of them goldies.
Every one of my NCA lists starts the same way. It feels you get a drop off in effectiveness once you start to take more because you can only active turn rambo one at a time anyway, and it gets much harder to find places for them all very quickly with the body count rising so quickly.
The original art we had did point them out as Varuna Fusiliers, but even then they were still kinda heralded as "the core troops of PanO" rather than any one Sectorial. Truthfully, Fusiliers are weird. They're supposed to be everywhere but they're also supposed to be mainline troops rather than held back for other duties. With the Regulars and Auxilia, we had the first real sign of the "local variations" that got hinted at. One of the things that I've continually mentioned with regards to Auxilia is that they're a unit that could use a redesign. The Order Sergeants do a better job representing the Auxilia description than the Auxilia do now.
While it's true Regulars are a variant of Fusiliers, Auxilia are not. Actually liked how every PanO Sectorial had "the same" linetroops hanging around, simply because it makes sense in a professional army to have shared layouts for the bottom level. For example Moderators, Alguaciles and Securitate are all distinct troops and often militia/paramilitary/security personell instead of professional soldiers. In PanO the Fusilier Regiments have their hands in everything, which means high command and the actual military are always present to a certain degree. Even NCA and MO had the ever present versatile guys that report to high command and can take charge if necessary. 10 points 0 SWC Lt was one of the few real PanO things (and everyone knew that, which makes it as much a boon than a weakness), I don't really give a shit about the fluffbunnies who don't want Fusiliers with their Knights, I certainly was glad to have them.
Auxilia aren't out and out stated to be "variants of Fusiliers" but the intention should be clear to anyone with a pulse.
Other than their name, their inability to link, Fusiliers existing next to them and their fluff saying they aren't. Oh and of course the mysterious BS11 case, that might be supposed to indicate they're just Neoterran garrison troops/riot police and not actual military.
Except Auxilia are described explicitly described as as different kind of force, more police/paramilitary.
I'd like it if NCA and Varuna both have Fusiliers as their basic line trooper at Total AVA. They are both established urban bases that makes sense for dudes in light armour with berets to defend. ASA gets a pass because they are an isolated jungle planet. I would imagine that Sval will get something other than fusiliers due to the extreme cold, but I wouldn't be upset if they don't. Fusiliers with Cloaks of some kind, like the Nisse. I hope so anyway, that would be awesome. Knights don't need standard pano support in the same way, it makes them feel more autonomous to not have Fusi support, I get an inquisitorial crusader feel if they are just knights and sergeants, roaming around purging xenos and heretics, and doing the neovaticans will.
The inability to link was because of Auxbots. That was a design choice. And let's be clear here: If Fusiliers didn't get shoehorned into NCA, there would have been ZERO link teams until Orcs got added into the Sectorial. This is how the unit was introduced. I don't have HSN3's lore book handy at the moment to read you the lore since they made two different books, but as far as I recall it didn't change. So try again. They absolutely are a military unit. It absolutely should be clear to anyone with a pulse that yes, they are intended to fill a similar role to that of Fusiliers.
