Konstantinos with minelayer would be pretty good. I don’t think he’ll get a marker state without losing his MSV2 or he’d be an Intruder equivalent. Or maybe he could have a KHD? Fill a hole for MO and grant marker access that’s not quite as good as camo. Bipandra needs a pretty major re-work to see the table more. Go to ARM 1, lose the specialist operative, lose the BTS, lose the combi+lsg. Give her a Marksman rifle or SMG so she brings something unique to the Fusi link. Maybe a template weapon of some sort? Or fix her and Bolts at the same time by making her Haris with them (not gonna happen but it’s a wish).
Does anyone other than Nomads have an intruder equivalent? I know that PanO doesn’t have the smoke access that would make it as deadly as a Nomad intruder but still.
Give Bipandra an assault pistol and contender/blitzen, then let her link with Bolts as well(who get 2 points cheaper and a launcher for their Drop Bears).
I disagree. Per Human Sphere N3, pg42 (PDF): Specialist Operative: A Specialist Troop is considered a Specialist Troop. Thus, removing "Specalist Troop" from Bipadra removes her as specialist. Specialist Troop is a term used in the ITS documents, to pinpoint which kind of Specialists get bonus to their WP roll (medics & paramedics, engineers, hackers, CoC...). Also, the Wiki redirects from Specialist Troop to Specialist Operative, but is placed behind the PDF Rulebooks in terms of relevancy.
Specialist Operative was conceived for two reasons: first, being a medic did not use to make a troop able to attempt all objectives in an ITS scenario (now they get a +3WP, and I think I remember a time when you either need the precise specialist, and some others could attempt the roll at WP-3). Second, which is still valid, some troops are able to perform any primary objective on an ITS scenario, but don't have the precise training (there is a 1pt option for custom Specops... but the custom specops system uses the Paradiso Campaign system from N2, btw). For example, Saito Togame is, while working for the Druze Bayram, a Specialist Operative (and thus, able to capture consoles and the like, but at his base WP), but is not for the JSA or as Mercenary for anyone else (probably due to not being trusted). So Specialist Operatives are people with the basic know-how to perform some "pre-canned" actions to fulfill the objectives, but cannot improvise, nor have extensive familiarity with any system.
I think you're seriously underestimating our strenght in the midfield deployment. Knights of Montesa, Peacemakers, AVA Total TO Camo infiltrators in MO, Locusts and Croc Men in vanilla. SAA has no TO, but has Nagas to compensate.
In N2 there was a Special Skill called 'Specialist Troop'. It was added in Campaign: Paradiso, several years before the ITS had its own missions. The Paradiso missions added the idea of specific troopers being the only ones who could interact with objectives, and each mission required different types of specialist - usually Engineers and Hackers. The Specialist Troop Skill let a trooper interact with the objectives even if they weren't the right kind of troop. This meant that Bipandra could push buttons, even though she was 'just' a Doctor and would normally only count as a specialist in about a quarter of the missions. ITS then added missions, along with the Specialist Troop rule, Doctors only counted as specialists in 1-2 of the missions. Each season added Doctor as a Specialist Troop to more and more missions, until they're now specialists in all ITS missions. Then Human Sphere N3 came out and the Specialist Troop Skill was changed to Specialist Operative to reduce confusion with the rule of the same name. So Bipandra's Specialist Operative Skill is a holdover from older versions of the game, but would still apply if playing the N2 Paradiso missions.
I'm with @Narkano here. We have nice things. We just are supposed to be the ones that master the shooting part. I won't debate further here as it isn't the subject but I think you guys just look too much about how broken could PanO be if we had a PanO fashioned Chasseur rather than seeing that we already have all the tools we need and ITS scenarios that are fair for us. I agreed with you with the ITS season just before HSN3 where it was hard to win the specialists focused scenarios but now, we can do it and we can do it with good odds. To come back on the subject of the thread, I fail to see how to rework Konstantinos. He is good. The problem of the infiltration profile doesn't come from him but rather from the faction. Except by playing the full AVA of Montesa in MO for a list that already starts in the middle of the table, I find him difficult to keep safe. But, well, this depends of the table of course. With a table full of buildings, it will be easier for him to hide and then move. But for less vertical oriented tables, he can have problems. Maybe had the Minelayer skill for the infiltration part or Albedo. He doesn't need much things, just one more layer of toughness, I think.
Oh cool it might finally be happening. There were a lot of lenghty discussions about this in the old forum, so might as well just repeat the core problems. Both Bipandra and Konstantinos are exceedingly bloated with not very useful stats and overpriced secondary guns when combined with a Combi. Bipandra also has her SWC cost attached and Konstantinos really pays through the nose for extra CC equipment/stats he falls short of finding use for. The easy way out for Bipandra is the already meantioned Doctor Plus. But considering she is available to Vanilla, NCA, MO and very likely Varuna, this would make her either always plain better or a straight upgrade compared to the Trauma Doc. We players would love to rez HI on 15/16 for sure, but that would be another typical PanO bandaird. I think we can use a break from that after the last addition was another Mimetic troop with access to MSV. Not that it would be bad, but think about as another Techbee, a nice bandaid that doesn't really fix anything. Fortunately the model doesn't have a gun. Also PanO just got it's first SMG (Kamau aren't all bad), so why not just focus on making her an asset for Fusiliers while keeping her as a WIP 13 Doc. Things I'd find interesting for Bipandra: - SMG+secondary weapon (Nanopulser/Panzerfaust/Nimbus Grenade(Launcher?) - Number 2 - Free Agent A cheaper Bipandra who adds a Doc and something else to a Fusilier Fireteam would be plain but interesting. Other options would be to give her another Active Skill, like Sensor or Forward Observer, but that would simply make her 2 things combined instead of her own thing. Konstantinos as he is remains bad value for his points, especially for a Dire Foe Character who tend to be very close to perfectly optimized (+a one or two semi useful stats on top). The combi + Assault Pistol problem could be fixed very easily by simply bumping him up to a Marksmanrifle + Assault Pistol. Further, almost every Dire Foe there is gets a BS bump, some even by 2 points over their baseline troop. It never made any sense to me that out of all people both of the PanO Dire Foes were stuck at baseline BS values. a bump to BS13 would not break the game. Konstantinos also has the extra trait of having 2 Profiles and while him being an Infiltrator has it's merits, it has massive problems without a Marker State. Adding Camo or maybe even TO Camo to his Infiltrator Profile would open up the option of making him useful in CC. The Linkteam version could also utilize that so it is worth considering. His CC is almost at a point where it is usable, a bump to CC19-21 and MA1/2 would be a massive improvement. He certainly isn't an Uxia or Ninja in CC, but he'd have options that no other PanO Infiltrator can compare to. While adding Camo+CC would be a natural and easy solution an Infiltrating Marksmanrifle with BS13, MSV2 and Marker State not only goes a bit far but also starts getting very expensive. So the alternative would be to leave his CC as it is as bload, bump up his gunnery capabilities as mentioned and add a new Skill that lets him be a Camoless Infiltrator without being garbage. For that I propose the following: INFILTRATE LEVEL X. STALKER DEPLOYMENT SKILL Optional. REQUIREMENTS EFFECTS Level X of this Special Skill is identical to Level 1. A Model with Infiltrate Level X may be deployed as an additional Reserve model during the Deployment Phase. Imho a not gamebreaking, simple and elegant solution to the Infiltrator without Marker State problem. The final Konstantinos could look something like this Version 1 MOV 4-4 CC 16 BS 13 PH 11 WIP 13 ARM 1 BTS 0 W 1 S 2 AVA 1 PanOceania ────────────────────────────────────────────────── Equipment: Multispectral Visor L2 Special Skills: CH: Mimetism, Specialist Operative, Religious Troop BROTHER KONSTANTINOS Specialist (Infiltration Level X) Marksmanrifle, D-Charges / Assault Pistol, CCW. (0 | 36) BROTHER KONSTANTINOS Marksmanrifle, D-Charges / Assault Pistol, CCW. (0 | 33) Changes: BS13, PH -1, ARM -1, Combi->MMR, Infiltration LVLX (free Upgrade) note: Original Konstantinos was overpaying for Infiltration by 2 points (5->3) Version 2 MOV 4-4 CC 19 BS 13 PH 12 WIP 13 ARM 2 BTS 0 W 1 S 2 AVA 1 PanOceania ────────────────────────────────────────────────── Equipment: Multispectral Visor L2 Special Skills: CH: Mimetism, Martial Arts LVL1, Specialist Operative, Religious Troop BROTHER KONSTANTINOS Specialist (CH: Camouflage, Infiltration) Marksmanrifle, D-Charges / Assault Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 38) BROTHER KONSTANTINOS Marksmanrifle, D-Charges / Assault Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 32) Changes: BS13, CC+3, MA1, AP CW, Camouflage(Infiltration Version)
Even if is only a dream i'd like to pay 20pt 0swc for bipandra as akbar doctor And i'd like to pay 34pt for Koni with BSG/LSG+MR/SPF without d-charge
It's worth noting that Bipandra''s background lists her as an 'adequate doctor'. Her training has mostly been patching up Angus. What I'm getting at here is that advanced levels of the doctor skill seem unlikely.
So what you are saying is that since she has more experience than 3 akbar doctors combined she needs akbar doctor lvl 2 to account for all the times she has had to save Angus?
... why do you so want akbar doctor? She is PanOceanian! The best doctors of PanOceania are the Hospitallers and they only have WIP 13 and Doctor. Even a Sophotect doesn't have Doctor plus. And Avicenna has Doctor plus only. Akbar doctor is a rare skill even among Haqqislamites doctors! Why in the world would PanO get something so rare in its native faction? Number 2 or free agent seem way more accurate to me.
Given that Angus is the perennial PanO shit-magnet, he either has the "luck of the damned" or he's marked by the other one, like a certain brother cursed to walk eternal for being the kinslayer. Bipandra is just the Sleeve "she" wears when she wants to move amongst the riff-raff. There is no Bipandra but Bipandra, and she's pissed.
