Am I missing something? I thought this was pretty much a sure thing, but it looks like we were wrong? While I love Tarik, Saladin is my favorite Haqq Lieutenant, and this is rather disappointing.
Well, leaving the Gabqar Khanate as the only place where Saladin could possibly be... sounds like Divan al Jund decided no one save for Saladin himself would be capable of keeping those damn Kum in check!
Disappointing indeed. I also thought he was a lock. There is another thought that he could be appear in some forthcoming O-12 army.
I agree that it's sad, but ultimately fair. If Haqqislam doesn't really trust Saladin, why give him access to our most elite soldiers? Mechanically, he might be a bit strong with the LI lists RTF seems to favor. Honestly, I think he makes the most sense in HB. For fluff, the Fiday is a a check on him. For mechanics, his orders can fuel the Fiday.
Well, I don't see him in Khanate. Probably will remain in vanilla, kinda like aspects in CA. Although lines are blurred these days.
My wishlist was Saladin and his Fiday bodyguard as a AVA1 Fiday in RTF. I wasnt expecting the Fiday but I was lamost dead sure on Saladin, I was sad it didnt happen, but understand the fluff reasons both for and against.
Yeah, this would've been awesome, however unlikely. I guess I do sort of understand him being vanilla only, sort of works mechanically and fluff wise. I do really like playing vanilla, and Strategos is such a good ability and fits really well in Vanilla anyway.
Fair enough, but Saladin *does* have access to our elite soldiers by virtue of being in generic Haqqislam - his Strategos just doesn't extend to having two to five of them working well together. Sun Tze being a member of the Chinese secret police seems about as weird. The greatest strategist of Yu Jing, and lhost to boot, who "proved his worth during the NeoColonial Wars and the Ariadnan Commercial Conflicts. He was responsible for the Lièqŭ Action and the successful Dàjiě Operation that halted and trapped the vanguard of the PanOceanian forces on Paradiso. These military operations served to cement his prestige within the StateEmpire Army," is in charge of ...glorified police actions? Oh well.
He's an O-12 Liason Officer, so he isn't even a proper Haqq person. Actually, he isn't even a person, he's a toaster, but still.
Perhaps he is a toaster, but I'd like to point out that even if so, he's a Haqq toaster. :P Now, o shayks, I believe we should let it be. That's how the things are. Salah ad-Din isn't in Ramah, and while we deeply regret the fact, our regret isn't going to change a thing. As I mentioned before, perhaps he was assigned to whipping the Kum into some shape... and we'll see him in Gabqar Khanate sectorial one day. Or elsewhere. As for now, we have a brand new sectorial out there, and numerous wonders of it to discover!
I agree, and being a Liaison, and not even really a human, means he isn't really Haqq officially at all. I guess it makes sense thematically that he is Vanilla only. I guess it was just wishful/hopeful thinking on on all of our parts that he would be Ramah. I'm exceedingly happy with how Ramah turned out, and have been waiting for so long!
To be honest a lot of Ramah is just good in Vanilla. Khawarij dont NEED a haris, neither do Muhktars. Nahab and Namurr are always on their own anyways....Ramah is basically, "Heres the expensive stuff....eh and some link teams. Have more fun!"
About a year ago I expressed some concerns about weak points of Ramah. Some of them were suggested simply because there was nothing that we knew for sure about new units, others are still here by design (like compromises RTF has to make in order to get some long-ranged firepower). One of the thing that was noticed is that RTF had very little to protect Saladin Lt. should we wish to bring him along. Frankly, not much has changed in regard to defensive capabilities, so if Saladin was still around, I'm not sure we would be willing to take him very often because of that.
If only the Maghariba still had the rule where it could carry around infantry. Saladin riding the scorpionbot would truly strike fear into the enemies of Haqqislam!
