I picked up Varuna as my first non TAK sectorial, and...something seems not right. Unplayable starter, weird SWC costs, etc. An I missing something? Did my water world obsession lead me down a dark path? Or do I just need to look at it from a different perspective? Guide me PanO forumites!
Ariadna gets a lot of stuff very cheaply, and PanO by it's nature is much more constrained SWC wise. I run Caledonia quite a bit, and never payed any attention to SWC cost. About half my lists come up with 3-4 SWC. In PanO it's always a struggle to get everything I need, because of SWC. That having been said, the unplayable starter is a bit odd, though you can cheat by running the Croc man as something other than a hacker. OTOH, not sure how odd it is, considering a lot of the other starters are a bit odd. I haven't played any games with Varuna yet, but they look very interesting, and playable. I'd point out that a lot of their models haven't been released yet, so there's that as well.
If your first purchase was the starter pack and you tried to play with all the miniatures in it I can see how you felt it wasn't working. Tell us what you tried to play and we can understand your situation more. Haven't played Varuna yet, but I'm guessing you're missing fusiliers. Always consider them as the basic troop for your fireteam, and then add 2 orcs or kamaus as needed. Have you considered helots? They are cheap and can solve all your ARO needs on their own. If your fireteam core is going to be defensive, thing about an aggressive Haris maybe. Pattsy is pretty good specialist with Haris skill and NCO, so just add your preferred attack troop. Kamau HMG is a great option for that. All that is cheap enough that you can still fit a couple of Zulu cobras as specialists, or ARO with jammer... Etc. Crocman specialist is pretty good too. If you want to try some high speed solo attack pieces you have the Montesa and the echo bravo, although I guess you need some luck with those two.
The VIRD box is full of good stuff, but Fusiliers and Drons are going to be the building blocks of any list. The VIRD box is what you add to your building blocks to get a list that kills. Buy the Vanilla PanO starter for it's Fusiliers and some generic proxies, look at REM boxes if you want them, then buy/steal another Combi Fusilier or two and some Libertos to use as Helots. Those are minis you will probably use in every list. The variation in a Snake Eater list is mostly going to be among units in the 21-37 point range. Those are the units that give your list its role and capability in most missions and matchups. That's what the VIRD box helps provide.
Ah. Yeah. I was just list building since i got the VIRD box as my one and only christmas present this year (CB Still has not rendered unto me WarCor status...three years and counting while waiting!) Fusi SWC box and the starter box are definitely on my list as well as the Jammer Zulu and a Cutter. Oh man..the cutter is going to be Fun. Right? Its fun?
I was just list building and the SWC insanity kind of boggled my mind. Haha. But thanks for the advice, I'll definitely have to try it out.
I think the starter pack by itself is 7 SWC... So yeah. It's more like a SWC box that will allow you to transform your vanilla PanO into Varuna.
The Cutter can be outright evil. I did unspeakable things to a Nomad army with one in N2. Nearly tabled the man, actually, at the end of the turn he had his Szallie and IIRC an engineer left. Bad deployment on his part, he didn't have anyone watching his flanks or rear, so once I got behind his line he was suffering normal rolls from me. It was pretty heinous. I agree with @barakiel , you should definitely buy the PanO Starter to get the basic Fusiliers. I'd actually buy the PanO starter before the Fusilier SWC box, you're going to want a couple plain fusiliers, not all their SWC guns. The VIRD starter gives you all the guns you need.
Thats the plan when I get paid, i'm going to get the basic starter, the old hacker kamau, beyond ice storm....and maybe the SWC box or a cutter. I'm sorry, but the femme fusilier with the HMG is kinda cute. Haha.
Don't disregard SWC Fusiliers that easily, with 1 SWC and 18pts per piece you can easily fit HMG or two into the Fusi link, add HRL Kamau for some templates/short range shenanigans and go to town with "basic" infantry. Fusiliers are legit good combatants, even if most people resign them to "defensive link" duty.
As others said before, the Varuna Starter is really expensive in SWC, but that the meaning of Pano, the true meaning XD. Still, fusiliers or kamau are the "core" of Varuna with the fancy mixed fireteams. The Cutter, in vainilla is really expensive, both sides "cost" and "swc", but in Varuna you can put the Cutter and still you have "power" to make competitive list. The combination Kamu MVL2+fireteam (5)+snipper multi plus cutter is really powerfull.
The Cutter model is one of my Favorites in Infinity, and the Cutter is super fun to play too!!! :) It's really fun/interesting that you can take AVA - 2 Cutters in Varuna too!
