I picked up DBS back when it was first NA2 sectoral and I wanted an excuse to get the Druze (I also play Haqq). But since then there have been a lot of new sectorals, which are better. I loved the idea of a having a remote in the main link along with Gromoz. But now days every sectoral has their flexible fireteam and remote in the links. The orginal draw of a remote friendly small sectoral was the main draw, but found it seriously lacking. Especially weak vs hacking lists. Since then I was have picked up ikari because I needed more that DBS could bring. Looking back I find I have no intention of going back to Druze. The main draws is Saito specialist, which is a much better improvement to the Ninja KHD just because some scenarios need anti-material CC. Am I alone in this feeling?
Druze looks fun from a fluff perspective and its limited repertoire of troops which presents an interesting challenge. Also the flexibility of link teams is really great which makes it easy to have 5 man link after several casulties! I am yet to play it...
I'm thinking Dashat is certainly going to be grabbing my attention for awhile. Linkable Rui Shi, Authorized Bounty Hunter wildcards, Valerya and Saito too... But Druze still have the coolest helmets in the human sphere. So they got that going for them :P edit: Oh and heavy infantry! How I've missed that...
I'm taking Druze to Rumble, but I specifically framed it as a "before I retire them" measure. Certainly I think there is little that Druze does mechanically that Ikari or - now - Dahshat doesn't do better, but that doesn't mean you can't scrape out wins with them.
I feel a major problem that Druze has is that it was released as a test for different mechanics that Corvus Belli had planned. At the time it was interesting enough, but they took what made Druze special (Ever-changing fireteams, Wildcard-like units and fireteam REM's) made them better, slapped it onto several sectorials and left DBS to its own devices with nothing to really compensate with. Obviously in Infinity the player determines the fight and not the army, but comparing something like DBS to Varuna or Dashyat and it's kind of obvious that really the only reason you're touching Druze is because you love the models and fluff. That said, I'm looking forward to my shipment of Druze finding their way into my house soon, and I can't wait for that Arslan sculpt.
DBS is fine, they play well and have one of the best overall troops synergies out of all the sectorials, a fantastic midfeild with an unrivaled repeater net and linked hackers of all flavors, efficiently churn new units into the fireteam to maintain bonuses, and have lot of interesting solutions to on board problems. The only reason I dont play them right now is because I tend to swap armies each season and DBS has just enough variety to keep your opponent's guessing, but not enough to keep each list interesting from event to event. @TwoDee I strongly disagree that Ikari or Dashat intrudes on DBS' design space. Ikari floods with light troops that march from the DZ or AD in. Dashat; even though they have many of the same units, will use them differently, and they look to be extremely vulnerable to hackers. Druze solve problems in non-traditional ways, Ikari and Dashat have all the subtlety of a truck going downhill. Edit: I'll just add that if DBS had one or two more units, it would really breath new life into the sectorial. Al Fasid and Krakot would be my choices, but it's a pipe dream. I think DBS is complete in CB's eyes.
I agree with @jfunkd - I don’t think Druze is straight up obsoleted by any of the other companies with overlapping troop choices, but I think a small number of carefully chosen troops could breathe a lot of new life into the list-building part of the game. Edit: I’ve been playing DBS, but I’m going to take a break to try SEF, because I’ve been waiting a long time for proper N3 rules for that army.
I was going to switch to Foreign Corporation or go Varuna for a more high tech feeling but was disappointed with their link options. I am probably going to ride S10 out with Druze only.
I played last season with DBS, last campaign with DBS, now it's Ramah time ;) About the army itself - it's a bit too small to be a main force for a player. And it was planned as this - as a second army for many people, needing to buy only few sets for Haqq/PanO players. Just like other mercenary sectorials. It's still a bit sad and/or irritating, that new armies like Dashat get cheap evil guys - Fishboys - while Druze would really need some expendable troops. With even better midfield. And we were supposed to be the bad guys... As @jfunkd said, give Druze some KRakots, IMHO also Libertos, and we'd be much better. PozdRawiam / Greetings
I still play them at competitive events, and still think they’re probably the best mercenary company (though I’ll need to give Dashat a whirl). They are a great mix of flexible lethal troops, food specialists, and strong midfield control.
I'm finding Druze aren't just the 'bad guy' faction - they're pretty elite, too. No need for libertos or krakot when you have hunzacut and bashi (who are much more specialised and adapted to their role)...
The Druze society and religion translated into a sci-fi setting is great, that's mainly what I'm here for; isolationist, Islamic, space mafiosi with a private army made of hardened veterans and mercenary specialists. Oh and I never thought they were the bad guys; they are the guys you pay to fight the bad guys when things are desperate or you just don't care what methods your mercenaries use. I mean just look up what is happening to the Druze people and what they are doing right now to get an idea of just how tough their society is. The only things on my wish list for them are: Libertos, and a better doctor option than the brawler. that's all I think they need to level things out. I'll never forget the look on my mate's face when my clipper fired a couple missiles in ARO and took out his avatar while it was shooting at a Hunzakut. Arslan is an underrated bad-ass that suffers from a bit of bloat but I've lost count of the number of camo troops my proxy has taken out with his light shotgun... oh and I'm pretty sure Joe and Valerya have a thing going on in my army the number of times she has saved his ass from hacking while he charges up field all guns blazing with his sister's nasmat tagging along, sure he still goes down... a lot, but what can you expect from a 57 point TAG?
I love my druze, the fluff, the style, the options. You play like a truly elite force, full of people ready to fill the blankets the enemy could cause to your links. Im playing them a lot this season, more LI lists than no LI (In fact my first no LI lists will be played this weekend :p) and im planning to take them to the Interplanetario (thats why im going to play no LI lists now xD) For now my LI lists were always a lot of Druze in different combinations plus Scarface and Cordelia, Arslan, Saito or Le Muet. Its really cool to have a Druze comando with Le Muet and Saito as team leaders, for example. I have a lot of Druze fun to have before me :p Probably next season i will play another thing, but thats also because i like to switch army from time to time as some have stated too. There is always room to keep taking them out for 1 tournament or league.
Yeah I also love the druze. The look, feel, and fluff of it all hits the right numbers for me. I think something to remember is that the druze themselves are a very small force. I mean the druze in infinity is mainly a criminal organization/mafia first more so than a full blown PMC like ikari or dahshat. It's just that the druze shock teams, who I believe were first created to protect druze criminal interests were so effective at their jobs that they were able to hire them out and found the particular venture profitable. So not all of the druze society is part of shock teams which is an elite force but to break it down even further we are playing as the shock teams who are part of the bayram caravansary led by Arslan after the blow they took with knauf and company. So really we are playing a small elite cell of a small elite force that is part of a small elite crime organization made up by members of this small religious society of people. Now granted the team under Arslans control is a group of hardened badasses who are so good at what they do they can afford to let themselves be hired out on the mercenary market and get things done. When you remember that really we arent playing as all of the druze society but rather just the team thats based out of the bayram caravansary then it helps keep things in perspective, at least for me. So in my head it makes sense why we don't have the # of units available that the big companies who have huge backers and resources have. All that being said give us the az'rail (too many al'faseeds out there) and let them link with our druze fire teams and I will be so happy!
Azrails are former janissaries, backwise they probably just shoot DBS go protect silk routes further :)
Since Dashat got McDoggo and the Hulang to assist Saito now, I feel one or two Kratoks for DBS would be a good addition. Kratoks and Druze probably get along quite well on a personal level.