Well, the context is that Koni was responding to a panic post questioning if NCA's changes were coming in march. So in that light it seems safe to say we are getting some changes on march 27.
Hmm. 8 inches is the Zone of Death. Almost every model in the game has a +3 ARO at that range... Hacking, perimeter weapons, direct template weapons, jammer, bonuses to Discover, Change Facings, etc. all occur from 0-8. You start to get closer to other threats too, particularly close combat. The closer you get, the harder it is to maintain Total Cover, the further you get away from your Engineers and support troops, etc. I think it's one of the last places you actually want your TAG to be, and Burst 2 is still pretty unreliable no matter how high your BS goes, so I wouldn't worry too much about the balance issues there.
Plus MO Fireteams have been rocking around with BS 23 Shotguns for years and it's good, but hardly game breaking! . In other news, I wonder if NCA might get Hannibal or Valkyrie? But even allowing an ORC in the Fusiliers, recosting the Bolts and giving them a Haris would work wonders.
I would be okay with NCA getting a pass this book. I never expected PanO to get everything updated at once and I think it would be fair for others to get a pass before we got to be full 2.0. It could be that CB decided to focus on PanO though because of how many endemic problems there are with the old designs bleeding through the sectorials. MO's revamp basically changed over half of our HI. Acon wasnt really drastic in terms of units but the fireteam composition. Varuna added a lot to Vanilla that broke the mold. I dont know what they can do ancillary to NCA via FCo outside of some points touchups and fireteams. I dont know if it will break me from Varuna and Acon being my co #1 spot for PanO right now.
That's one of the main reasons I like the loadout. It's really high on the risk/reward scale, you are forced to get inside hacking/jammer/+3 area, while only packing B2 weapons, but hit *really* hard. The marker state may be the biggest no-no, enabling the first shot to always connect, usually with surprise MODs (Bs 21s vs AROs with a -6), but I just like the notion of a TAG that brutalises at <8". Maybe Limited Camo (so no stealth) and/or a pair of HFT would be better balanced.
I feel offended by this. What part of my post was was having a panic driven nervous breakdown? XD Only thing in concerned about is whether an NCA update guarantees a discontinuation or we'll be ok till the next pano sectorial release
Why not just assume at some point every sectorial will get rotated out? You're better off just accepting it and coming to terms with it. If you feel like there are some models you couldn't live without then go ahead and get em.
I do firmly believe that NCA will be the next PanO Sectorial rotated out. But I also don't expect Svalarheima for at least another year, possibly longer. I actually think that a Svalarheima vs White Banner box will be the launch starter for N4. And I don't expect N4 'till end 2020 at the earliest, more likely 2021. So I don't think they are going anywhere for a while. Still, it's clear that we are getting some updates, just probably nothing too much to write home about.
Bear in mind, that we'll probably see a few more books before N4. There will be a lot of opportunities to put the spotlight on NCA in some more meaningful way.
The thing is that NCA is currently good. It's just that the lists that are good maybe are not exactly what you'd expect with heavy infantry and elite troops. The good ones are more with 15+ orders with fusiliers link, fugazis, Auxilias and very efficient bulleteers... That could easily be 12 orders for ~150 points. Cheap troops that do a lot for their price, and then you can complete the list with 1 Swiss Guard and few more elite guys to get to 300. It would be very nice if we can see some changes that make Bolts core and Haris something to be considered, and orcs can be used to complement them. Also I think we could be getting some new character, just like MO got Dart (which is maybe the very best thing MO got).
Still, I was hoping for at least a small mention and maybe a teaser of what the changes will be. I can't imagine Corregidor will play a major role in the book. Regardless, maybe they're waiting for the reveal of foreign company as that's rumored to contain PanO units – just to cover everything at once.
I think it might be a similar case to Devas. They got some new options when OSS got released, and those options found their way into NCA as well. Same with CSU's Specialist loadouts. If FC will include Bolts, they'll probably get some new things - and NCA might as well, maybe some other stuff too. Now I'm patiently waiting for some merc company to hire Teutons, Aquila, and ASA characters :P
honestly if it is a type of "sleeper release" that's really really disappointing because that would mean we probably wouldn't get any new link options – which is about all we need
