Yeah it feels like recently everyone gets some of those :) At least more than half new PanO profiles. A short list of examples: Zulu Cobra - camo, 50 shades of Kamau - mimetism, Patsy - SMG Helot - limited camo, decoy, SMG Montesa Biker - mimetism Montesa Tiklabang - mimetism Dart - camo ASA/VIRD Machinist - mimetism And I only track PanO changes, I'm pretty sure there is far more
I believe his point was fairly well explained in that the combination of any/all of those is restricted or combined with less optimal upgrades to fill out the points. With that in mind, Albedo is ~1 point, so MMR, Albedo and Mountain terrain on a +3 BTS fusilier for ~13 points. Make them effective at grabbing ground vs. White Banner's skirmishers (guilang) and REMs (Yaoxie), and most of the lone snipers in the game.
Hmm? By more than half, you're recapping a bunch of units that have existed for a while (Kamau, Tikbalang, Dart) and ignoring an entire Sectorial of new stuff (Military Orders...?) Mimetism's an easy rule for letting PanO be dominant in a gunfight. Better for us to get Mimetism than to pay inflated costs for higher BS. Zulu Cobras are PanO's first Camo unit, so I'd call that pretty scarce. Helots have limited Camo, similarly unique for the faction. I noticed MO didn't get much in the way of Camo, Mimetism, SMGs...
Six of those are related to quite new VIRD. Three of those entries are part of new MO (which was pretty much old stuff reorganized in the terms of actual profiles, only Santiagos and Sepulcher changing drastically compared to what they were before, other changes are purely about linkability). New Tik and Montesa biker are actually new profiles, as well as Dart (the only thing to decide is how new is something to be considered new, for me those are still quite new). About camo I can agree - this is fresh in PanO. But mimetism feels like one of more common rules in the game - it seems it can be attached to pretty much everything from jungle fighters to knight on bikes and combat mechs alike.
Mimetism is one of the easiest ways for CB to get PanO some gunfighting dominance without making us overpay for BS. This was a good conversation that happened back when the Kamau was redesigned, losing its x-visor + light grenade launcher but gaining Mimetism. From a player standpoint, I'm pretty okay with it... As a rule it boosts visor troops (good,) can be easily countered by situational short-range combat like CC and templates (good,) and also has associations with stealthy Special forces feel (very good for the theme of Varuna.) Is there a problem with it? Or are we debating my comment that CB balances some of these cheaper rules by being careful who receives them? Because I'm perfectly okay with PanO receiving them...
I was refering to the great amount of SMGs, mimetism etc. in all other factions (given to everyone and their mothers). MO could live without them, had they been given other tools (again I'm all against faction homogenzation). Atm. I'm not even sure I want CB to touch MO in fear of them breaking them even more ;/
Only about 'restricting' access to those rules, as it seem there were no brakes for them in PanO recently :P About rest of your points - I completely agree.
Well.... technically.... there is the Uhlan, we tend to forget about him despite him being the pioneer on both Feuerbach and Camo in PanO. Everyone else seems to get upgraded Profiles with SWC guns that shoot a little better than their buddies since a while back. Druze got a Mimetic MSR and then there are various MSV2 upgrades for i.e Brawler, Kamau, Kempetai and Haidao. It's a bit weird that you can stack all these things with Fireteams on top as shooting has become more deadly on average. We used to see weird stuff like the Pheasant X-Visor Sniper instead, who rather than useful were more of a headscratcher. Varuna probably turned out as remarkably well as it is because they get to keep BS13 on top of fancy MODs for the real PanO feeling. MO is.... dunno exists for fluff reasons or something. Not sure why a little love for some troops wasn't an option for them. Linkable MSV2 Spitfire Spec Sergeants, a Visor for the FK Spitfire or Mimetism for the Teutonic one wasn't really too much to ask for. The Orc Feuerbach not having any gear is another stab at the usual.... PanO really has enough wasted designspace for chunks of stats with guns. Oddly enough Mimetism/Camo has scaling cost so while PanO usually gets more out of it we are also paying way more than a BS11 Chasseur for the privilege. Not sure how I feel about the game getting more deadly with every release. Raw defensive stats like ARM seem more and more unattractive to pay for when not bundled together with a force multiplier that provides additional effective survivability through MODs/Marker State. In some cases those buffs were quite necessary, maybe didn't even go far enough in case of Druze. Still they sometimes go too far. As someone who loves Varuna to bits Kamau Snipers really shouldn't be a thing for AVA Total Fusilier Links, way too deadly for the pricetag. Then again, they might just be Varuna's Mutts or something like that, they are rather squishy after all.
Atalanta is already in the game. Well, I wasn't suggesting Mimetism on the Sval Regulars. That'd probably be a step too far. I was thinking the other way, MSV1 and MMR.
Well i like th Uhlan but it is too expensive and you have the Swiss Guard wich outshines the Uhlan. Lets see what the NCA update brings to us..... salt.... gold...... salty gold?.... goldy salt????? We will see