That is all nice and well but hits its head in the harsh reality of production and logistics I am afraid. Alternative arms and weapon sprues are not practical and have been discussed a lot of times, they try to shove in alternative arms if possible, but it is not something easy.
I was not intending to be negative about such a sculpt. More that it read like you were discounting the multi rifle sculpt when asking for more combi (and hmg) sculpts over a bsg and missile, and being happy with a universal proxy even, seemed a bit disengenious. My main gripe was there appeared to be a cry for more of the "better profiles" in lieu of weapons we currently have zero sculpts for. Which in some cases make sense, but the zuyong missile and bsg are pretty staple types of weapons.
If you're making something like the Hac Tao hacker, and need to make the weapon separate anyway, it's not much additional work to add more than one weapon to the set. I mean, all the weapons are already sculpted, so it should just be a matter of adding a tab to each weapon and putting 3-4 onto a sprue. About as much work as it was to make the weapons sprues for the SpecOps. [ edit ] slightly more work, technically, since the SpecOps sprues were from the days when all Infinity weapons were cast and shipped to the sculptors. But still, not particularly much more work than making a single weapon that you'd need to slot into place.
I'm not going to hide that I'd rather have sculpts that cater to the type of lists I can see myself playing rather than more or less forcing me to buy sculpts that I don't see me fielding, and should the Zuyong Missile Launcher have had TacAware that would've been a difficult choice to make, but as it stands the HMG will make it into lists in multiples nearly every single time for the same reasons as people play 4x Kuang Shi in nearly all their lists. However, we must also realize that we're discussing a release that is likely set in a highly expensive 3D-printed master (which is the level of certainty higher than being set in stone), so we're deep in coulda-shoulda-woulda territory and I really don't understand why tensions need to run so high.
I'd love it if one of the Zuyong are dual wielding thier breaker pistols just for aesthetic reasons, regardless of with profile it is. I also want the Liu Xing in the superhero landing pose, but if it isn't, I have plenty of tigers to proxy with.
IA low-key has some of the best defensive hacking support in the game. Take a couple Haidao KHDs with a Tinbot B, an EVO bot with Kaleidoscope (or regular HD for Fairy Dust on your HIs), and suddenly you're putting a -9 on opposing hackers before they even get to choose their programs. Haidao are cheap, flexible, immune to Shock, shrug off Maestro, and SSL2 lets you plug revealed camo hackers the second they get into range. You wouldn't think an army with a WIP 13 KHD would be so dangerous at the hacking game, but with the right support, Haidao end up being the best hackers in the game.
It probably went a bit far into debate for debates sake. I apologise for my part in that! We all want what we want.
You have also spent all your points doing that if you are doing a Zuyong core and Shang Haris to get those tinbots
Yesterday, i felt in love with the Hulang combi+lft, mission was power pack. First, he blocked Al-Djabel with the xenotech agains a wall, so he had to move in cc with the Hulang but would also eat an additional ARO from a Haris:Zuyong Combi. I expected him to die but he won the cc Roll agains him (15 MA3 agains 14 and 4 MA4) after his glorious win, he hunted down a Ghulam Linkteam, delivered the xenotech, pushed some buttons and blocked the enemy advance in supression. In the last enemy turn, he burned his last hope for points with his lft. After the Game, my opponend hated the xenotech rule and needet some time to cool down (and i only used him to block Al-Djabel, not the ghulam lsg and other things because i didn't want to upset him even more).
I wouldn't bother with the Shang Ji, except to get the HRL. But two Haidao KHDs, running a core and a haris does eat all your points, can't even stick a Shang Ji in the list at all! Invincible Army ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 9 DĀOYĪNG Lieutenant L2 Hacker (Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29) PANGGULING Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25) TAI SHENG (Chain of Command) Mk12, Chain-colt, Stun Grenades / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 49) ZÚYŎNG (Fireteam: Duo, Tactical Awareness) HMG / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (1.5 | 38) ZÚYŎNG (Fireteam: Haris, Tactical Awareness) Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot B (Deflector L2) / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0.5 | 34) HǍIDÀO Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 26) ZÚYŎNG (Fireteam: Haris, Tactical Awareness) Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot B (Deflector L2) / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0.5 | 34) HǍIDÀO Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 26) ZÚYŎNG (Fireteam: Duo, Tactical Awareness) HMG / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (1.5 | 38) 5 SWC | 299 Points Open in Infinity Army It'd be interesting to run this, but I'm not sure I like Core+Haris, since it takes you down to 2 'things' moving. They can do a lot, what with 16 orders in that list, but you can still really only be in two places at once.
I'm not sure this is the right topic, but having read through the 3. Offensive I must say I consider the IA (and YJ in general) to be adequately presented in the fluff. Which used to be somewhat problematic in the past (well, YJ is difficult to present as "the good guys" to your average Westerner... not impossible, but requiring some effort). Contrary to the IS, which I considered to be presented very poorly in the Uprising. Seems somebody in the CB is learning... :)
Re: the background: I know it’s not an official source / canon, but that last short story on the podcast White Noise gave me the chills.
Been reading through 3rd Offensive myself and I agree, they even make a point of distancing the IA from the ISS. It's unfortunate there was such a gap between this and Uprising, because it really does feel like they represent two very different sides of YJ. I rather like the IA fluff!
I also am very pleased to say that the playstyle of the IA is a nice transition from the fluff. They described them as the backbone(elite) army of the whole YJ empire and they feel like this, especially compared to the ISS. They have zero shenenigans apart from the remotes. So no dirty smoke trick, no nimbus grenades to distract the enemy, only little access to template weapons and only small templates. No Holoecho or Decoy. All they have is powerarmor and the order(s) of the military training.
Thank you for the review! So, not necessarily a straight up 'Good Guy', but competent and not being a bunch of war criminals? Thank you for the review, too!
After spending some week to play IA, double sniffer FP bots are truly a jewel. Still, IA falls into 'slow' dillemma - links are freaking good, but we better add one Zhanshi LGL or so to dig out Camos (K I felt it after playing against Ariadna, I actually ran into dead end after sensoring their midlines.). Zhenchas are starting to feel necessary for me. We need Mobile Camo hunter, wouldn't mind a Daofei or Suji, but in IA.. welp.
If you use Sat-Lock, you can use a Smart Missile Launcher to hit even harder with better odds, while having a linkable and powerful ARO piece. Zhencha do feel very useful to me, but I've been using them as killers since the local tables have catwalks. Climbing Plus turned out to be fantastic for closing to point-blank range. I've also seen that the Liu Xing has acquired a reputation for annhilating back/midlines amongst people who have used it or played against it, might come in handy for crushing the squishy core of Ariadnan lists.
While I agree with this wholeheartedly. I find that my Shang Ji Haris has done better jobs sweeping midfield Ariadna Camo then my Zencha. Not to say they aren't useful. Just that Shangers seem to have the resilience to get stuck up close and personal. And have the LFT to attack markers. But watch as I get shot down just cause they're "not worth the points."
