Bought outright from the manufacturer, military surplus, battlefield salvage, some scratch-built suit of comparable capabilities, take your pick. I mean, it's not like a Zuyong suit is objectively even as good as a Wu Ming suit in terms of protection, and the YJ government is retiring all the old 'bird's-beak' suits (Wu Ming and what N1/N2 called Invincible Armor). And quite frankly you can buy the same or better armor than the US military is using on the battlefield as a civilian. It's about like how it's not all that hard to buy even a tank or a combat helicopter if you know the right people. Arming the thing would only be expensive, not impossible. There are entire trade shows where you can go to meet these people, too. Especially for what are small arms and personal armor. Very much agree with this, I'd like fewer Blackwaters and more Israels (or even South Africas).
I know the thing behind is Mercs is to get people to try other forces, but this is something that's asked for since 1st edition. Back then you could take any troop from any faction up to half the AVA. It was great! I'm looking forward to trying this out. I'll have doctors that can keep my troops alive for once. I agree with @Section9 , the Zuyong shouldn't have the Tac Awareness. They might even be more cut down that that! Right now i'm thinking i'll always have a staple of Ghulam or Brawler Core team, and Zuyong Haris. Possibly always 2+ Ghulam Doctors.
I dunno, NA2 feels kind of like legitimized joint operations coordinated by a third party, namely the merc company. Rememeber, the original merc rules were pick two factions and halve the AVA + true mercs.
While some of these NA2 mercy factions might feel like greatest hits collaboration albums, I really only mind when they out faction the faction they’re borrowing troops from. I think StarCo is the greatest offender of this so far, as to me they really feel like they Corregidor better than the actual sectorial does.
Exactly. I was thinking of starting StarCo, and then came to that same realization. I kind of want to start Corregidor now and have Nomads as my third faction (after CA and Ariadna), just to play against type. At least Intruders are the shit.
I dont think it's really that hard to understand the mercenaries and equipment they use. Imo the easiest explanation is that they're using profiles they think would justify what they want that troop to do. So instead of creating a new model and troop they just use the zuyongs stats. If that's not your cup of tea then you just say that they're buying all of the tech. Weapons, armor, tech, and gear are all made by companies who like money and are willing to give those products for money.
Zuyong armour suits are premium ones? No, really? :D I also see that some of you guys hope that Zuyongs will not keep their feature TA but strangely the same time think that Ghulams will keep theirs: doc+ But CB can easily allow the only doc option: 112 with his favorite surgical instrument :-P
Nah, the Maghriba is the premium stuff :p That said, Zuyong armour ARE important Yu Jing tech that they don't really want reverse-engineered, even if it's the production process that's most important. After all, it enables Yu Jing to equip entire armies with power armour, where other empires have to make do with much smaller military structures.
Or maybe Zuyong armor has become the AK-47 of the Infinity world. It has become the most produced armour in the world and Yu Jing is selling them off to all sorts of shady groups as long as those groups don't pose a threat to their own operations.
Not that it really matters. It's the premium stuff that do and the fact that apparently Dahshat likes to equip some of their forces with cased ammo Rifles and other parts of their forces with caseless select-propellant combis for a great bunch of logistical fun and also train their troops to the exact same specifications as Yu Jing or Haqq depending on troop. Wonder how they kept the troops separate so as not to influence each other...
It's entirely possible that the Hulang are actually Shaolin-in-armor, so may be either detached from the Temple or on explicit loan from YJ. Pick THREE factions, actually! I kinda miss those rules. That's quite true. Though part of the reason for the ubiquity of the AK is that you can make one from a shovel if you have to. There are 10yo kids in the Khyber Pass making AKs. There's also a factory in the US making AKs with milled aluminum receivers, not that it makes them very light. But I could totally see YJ selling Zuyong armor to anyone with cash, much like T55s and T72s today. If the Haqq and YJ troops can get into fireteams with each other, I'm going to argue about the 'exact same training' point. But I don't think we know that, yet.
Bostria did point out that the Yu Jing troopers are Uighur Muslims, seems like a good way to perform joint black operations and build covert ties by lending them to a "neutral" mercenary company rather than Haqqislam directly. Kind of like how Russian "mercenaries" were helping the Crimean separatists before annexation.
Are we sure Dahshat are actually training all their troops instead of hiring some of the more foreign parts of their troops? The way I see it they are based on Bourak so they are probably training the Haqq side themselves. Also because their philosophy don't go with the Haqq philosophy making it difficult to recruit Haqq army or mercs from other sources. But is there any reasons not to make contracts with mercs from outside, say based on Yu Jing to work for a common goal? As for keeping troops separate from influencing each other, that may not be very hard on Bourak or something like that happening for the first time. Qapu Khalki can hire both Druze AND KTS and somehow make them work together, KTS or Nomad mercs etc use their combis alongside Ghulams or genetically altered Djanns or Odas just fine. Mercs probably have a deeper history with the planet than any other big ones.
It doesn't make much more sense, no. Uighur are supposed to be the only (or at least the most) heavily discriminated population in Yu Jing. The only way I can make it work is if Yu Jing military command is actually actively sending loyalist troops to Dahshat as a source of plausible deniability, but that'd still leave rather huge questions about the Haqq side - or more precisely if those, too, are loyalists but Haqq, what are the gains for Haqq here? But that doesn't make it a mercenary company per se. Actually, the most logical setup I can find for Dahshat is if this is a specific military command on Paradiso under joint Yu Jing/Haqq leadership, which would also explain the Ariadna presence. This would have to completely discard this weird and disappointing approach to "mercenaries" that CB is doing. You must have a very different idea of what training means in game terms. For me it's the stats and skills (and to a lesser degree equipment and SWC cost). Why would a mercenary trained Zuyong have the exact same statline as a Yu Jing trained Zuyong? Wouldn't a mercenary company have at least slightly different demands compared to a nation's elite army? I mean, if ever so slightly different training resulted in a difference of 1 BS and 1 WIP between a Keisotsu and a Zhanshi, that's the least I could expect from these Uigongs. In either case, we're running circular with the arguments where each explanation only opens new questions and now we've returned to the original one.
I know it doesn’t explain Zuyong or Hulang but the Uighur could have gone with Haqq when it was first created. Many of faith from different cultures became a part of Haqqislam. For me, I don’t see them as actual Zuyong or Hulang. They are the Dahshat equivalent to those units. I feel the same way with Wu Ming and Ikari.
I dunno. Ikari Wu Ming are fairly well explained. They're literal Wu Ming that's managed to escape and have their explosive collar safely disabled. I can buy that. Particularly considering what the Wu Ming are supposed to have done, makes them fit in nicely with a mercenary company. Still puts the Wu Ming programme in doubt, but let's call that a story loose end waiting to be picked up more than a logical one.
True...but I feel that is a little too hand wave-y. My head cannon is more in line @Space Ranger, makes more sense for the majority of them to be equivalents
Well, maybe some of the Uighur have gone to Haqq. However, the Uighurs do have a whole province (Dailing) on Shentang. For the most part it's ex-military members who make up a PMC/Mercenary company. So maybe a small contingent of discharged Zuyong and Hulang members made their way to Dehshat. With some help from the company they got their old equipment or at least something similar.
It's about sheer numbers too. While i'm sure there's some Wu Ming that have "escaped". There could never be enough to make up the numbers. Ikari Wu Ming, maybe 1 in 10 is an actual "escapee".
