Here is a list of skills that, according to my experience, do not get to be used a lot. Please add to the list and/or contradict me. Also, do you think people know about the details of those skills? 1) CasEvac - I have never seen anyone do this on a friendly trooper. 2) Cancel the unloaded status with the baggage skill. I get the feeling people use baggage bots for their other uses or simply in to get cheap orders. 3) Scavenger. This looks like a pretty powerful skill, but i have never used it and have never seen anyone use it. It would cost orders to do so and thus may seem uneccessary. The problem with such skills is that you just forget that a trooper has them in a situation where it would make sense to use it. 4) Use the bloody Minesweeper or Deactivator! The range does not seem to be favourable, but I have the feeling that people just forget about those circumstantial pieces of equipment. Instead, they just shoot at mines. Thats what i come up with right now. There may be more, I may be wrong on those.
The only time I ever used CasEvac was once to carry an unfortunate unconscious alguacile LT to the cover behind which the docs Zondbot was behind I really did not want the LoL and the carrier was a TAG so I could afford the damage, entirely situational and I really do not know how I remembered it. Cancel unloaded status on the other hand I used it a lot in MOs with magister/ hospitaler link, those panzerfausts can get dry quite fast. I see really frequent use of scavenger but it probably is the frequency of unknown ranger in my local meta than anything else. I do not think I have ever seen a minesweeper in action except in an attempt to steal enemies AI beacons.
As of Human Sphere N3, in my experience: Lesser Used: Bioimmunity, Airborne Deployment, Free Agent Rarely Used Tier: Terrains, Regeneration, Automedikit, EVO, Symbiobomb Never Used Tier: Guard, Casevac, Minesweeper, Journalist I use Baggage to un-Unloaded regularly. I have heard of, but not seen, the Biolocator being regularly used by the two ISS players I know to set up Kuang Shi + Shotgun Su-Jian hits.
Terrain skills, but we rarely play using terrain rules. The table I'm working on might change that a bit. ECM, which might be because we rarely see guided missiles in play, too. Baggage and Minesweeper - varies, but it comes into play occasionally. Combat Jump is indeed rarely used, I think I'm the only player here willing to risk it more often. Lower AD levels are used all the time.
I used Casevac once with an Ikadron but I have no idea why I did so at the end of the game. We've been using ECM more here as we've had a spike in Guided Munitions. Bioimmunity comes up a lot here with the plethora of shock ammunition we see and other bio weapons. I'm a big proponent of Xeodrons though and my buddy loves his Bolts. Regeneration I sometimes bait myself into using. Though I use Taquels a lot so I gun for this skill. Automedikit is the same for baiting with my Shasvastii mandudes. Free Agent I don't actually get though, it's niche as shit.
I've only seen CaseVac used when playing Paradiso to get the Spec-Op/Characters out of danger so they can survive for future games.
I use scavenger decently often. I use AD more often than most but even I usually use level 2. It gets used out of desperation and it's great to have a mediocre chance when you would usually have none but I think they could stand to improve it. Might be hard until an edition chance. Free agent gets used very often here by everyone with access. Pheasant CoC and Taskmaster Lt. don't want to activate in the beginning so they're put on group 2 to generate an order, then later switch to group 1 to consolidate orders or use the movepool themselves. But if CB wanted it used more they could give it to Hellcats :kissingheart:
We often set up our tables specifically so that terrain skills (typically jungle...) will get to play a part. I do a lot of airdropping too, i'ts won me whole games with assault hackers vs TAGs... Free agent, I use a lot too - I always place the Ayyar in my secondary combat group. There are some skills I have never ever seen used, however: Deactivator, Minesweeper, Casevac, Scavenger, Baggage, ECM And some I've only ever seen used once: Sat-Lock, Sensor, Triangulated Fire.
I've only seen scavenger used once, but it was a Bandit looting an ODD from one of my Bulleteers. *Stares weakly into the middle distance* I've got a couple of lists I'm taking to the casual event at a convention this coming weekend that I'm seriously hoping to make use of the baggage skill in. They're not... great lists. But I'm hoping!
Oh, also I use sensor constantly. But we have strong Ariadnan and JSA players in my local area. When a JSA player makes two infiltration rolls during deployment, coordinated orders to drop sniffers and conduct a sensor sweep saves games.
Sensor seems to be very common, as it is incredibly useful. Triangulated fire, guided missiles targeting and speculative fire are seen by many as too order-intensive. They have been for me, but with most of the infinite possibilities in this game, it is a gamble. I don't see Combat Jumps as much as I used too. When I use Hellcats I often let them jump in, because they have superior jump. I think I failed this roll once even though I had a seemingly uneccessary EVO on top. Another time I played on a 3x3 table and my Hellcat misjumped. That led to to suggest to the person who made up Recon that the dispersion range should be reduced in that format.
1. We tend to kill things so its not like it could be used much 2. This one comes up a lot. JSA with their koalas, MO with knights and Morats with Yaogats mostly. 3. Things are usually dead, so... and very few people play Nomads, and noone plays the Unown Ringer 4. That only comes up when an AI bacon disperses into range of a Minesweeper
1. I've seen it several times, but that's only because we were playing D20 system and a mission ask to do it. 2. Often too many orders needed for it (going to the baggage, using the skill, coming back in position ...). But i like the baggage skill just for the sweet +20 pts in quadrant control. 3. Never saw it 4. Range and orders needed, you often need your not so fast but very big and unarmed baggage to go in lof, then succeed - if no ARO prevent it. Easier to just do discover+shoot and kill the mine. As for the other skills, i'm a big fan of EVO, and i like AD4 (even if i mostly use AD2, i won't hesitate to combat jump if i need it). I've seen once a kuang shi using biolocator to act as a repeater close to a TR bot, allowing his player to IMM it. I don't really remember the game (i was playing another game at the same time), so i'm not sure about what happened before and after that, just that when we heard the "kuang shi is now a repeater", my opponent and I both paused our game to see what was happening :) I also experimented with sat-lock + guided missile, but ultimately found it to be an order sink (and point sink). Need an EVO + satlock drone + (optionnal but very handy) snifer + guided missile drone. That's many points + 2SWC for something that will cost several orders to do something, that is, if that WIP13 vs Reset roll doesn't fail ... Appart from the guided drone, the others are not bad by themselves, but still, i wouldn't count on it in a game.
I often play ISS or ISS elements, so I use Sensor and Triangulated Fire quite often. Triangulated Fire is more useful for Vanilla YJ than it is for ISS (fireteam bonuses are often better than the flat B3, BS10 that a Crane would have using the skill). I'll add one to the list unless it's already in here: Guided ammo. From Ariadna. (Rest in peace, Rui Shi and Husong, rest in peace )
I have never seen: Antipode, AutoMediKit, Bioimmunity (seen fielded, but never used), Biometric Visor (fielded, but never used), Booty, Casevac, Deflector (seen TinBots, but never used), ECM, Evacuation Device, Executive Order, Fatality, FastPanda, Free Agent, Full Auto, G:Jumper, Guard, Impersonation, Journalist (fielided, but never used), Mechanised Deployment, Nullifier, Poison, Protheion, Scavenger, SymbioBomb/Pheroware Tactics, Synchronise Civilian, Terrain (fielded, never used), [Mechanical] Transmutation. I have rarely seen: Alert, Assault, Baggage (fielded, but rarely used), Cautious Movement, Climb (outside Climbing Plus), Coup de Grace, Explode, Jump (outside Super Jump), Minesweeper/Deactivator, Regeneration, Sat-lock (only myself), Sensor (only myself), Sniffer (only myself), Spotter, Strategos. In addition, while I use AD all the time, I very rarely face it. I mostly use L2, but sometimes L5. That list was a lot longer than I expected! Just to clarify some of these, there are no local Haqqislam players, while the local ALEPH and Ariadna players are all sectorial. It is a low-hacking meta too (Ariadna/Tohaa heavy).
If you stick with the 20x20 system, the next version will have even more CasEvac and CivEvac in it. I seem to be obsessed with bringing in those skills. The baggage bots will also get something to do. Yes, the 20 pt can be quite sweet. I think they are the main use for baggage bots apart from being cheerleaders.
