You don't need warbands for this. What IA needs to stay on topic and be able to handle this problem is prolific Perimeter and minelayer profiles.
Faction Specific: I have a few ideas but mostly they can be resumed in 2: We are no longer the cc faction since the japanese split, so refocus all that design direction into the "command and control/advanced leadership" one that opened with the release of Third Offensive. Concrete Examples. Remove Kinematica from most HI profiles (excluding Crane agent and Hulang) and either replace it with Hyperdinamics, point discounts or more tacaware profiles. Pheasant, Lower his cc capabilities for a point discount and /or add NCO. Another option is to give them TO and add Executive order as its an underused skill in the game and could fit them well thematically. (Starting out of the picture giving advise, later becoming present and taking command when things go awry) Remove the cc tax on units that will, in all likelihood, never make use of the stat Give the faction´s heavy infantry (or at least "cutting edge" HI) a defining characteristic to set them apart from the other factions. Examples. Enhanded Mobility (6-2 or even just 5-3, fluff wise it could even be mimetism) Reactive plating (Tohaa-like 1 use countermeasures) Emp shielding (Any emp2 hit gets downgraded to emp) Gamewise: Rework CC and hacking. They are fun mechanics but they can be completly ignored in most games, acting more as a liability for those that bring them to the table than for those who chose to eschew them. Update sectorials link possibilities. There are still sectorials that havent been updated with wildcards and the new fireteam design philosophy (Looking at you ISS). Obligatory formula point adjustement petition.
CC tax is not real Kuang Shi tax is, though as in it is expected that you take a full KS package in every list so you can bring a respectable number of orders to support your sliiiiightly more expensive units
I disagree with your statement, you can make decent 10 to 14 orders lists in both vanilla and Iss without kuangshi so you are not forced to take them. They also bring in usefulness of their own as rearguards, hacking área expanders and disposable camo hunters. Meanwhile the cc in units such as the Zanshi bring up the Price of the unit and give no added utility. In short kuang shi are a tool you might or might not use but every unit in the faction is charged for a bump in cc ability that in some cases will never come into play.
Meh. ISS might work without kuang-shis, but the sectorial is built around the idea that you'll have a metric ton of orders at your disposal to use on tools like sensors/smoke, and that's supposed to be the trade-off for the lack of camo and infiltrating stuff.
General This is a bit more General but I think there should be different cost for troops in sectorals. Mainly those that have Impetuous, Frenzy or Irregular, but when in a fire team ignore all of that. Make them pay for being able to do that. Yes that would include us lol. Yu Jing As mentioned a thousand times, please make some positive changes to Boa, Shang Ji, Guijia, Hulang, and Pheasant. I’m not going to go into detail about what. I just know it’s needed. I want back the CC faction! It’s one of the reasons I got into Yu Jing in the first place. It continuously irks me that PanO has more HI with Martial Arts than Yu Jing does. I been teaching Tai Chi Chuan for over 20 years and know other martial arts. So I want it! There’s less and less people doing Karate in Japan just like Gung Fu in China. So don’t say it’s because they have less emphasis on it. China wins out by sheer numbers (even though Tai Chi has been watered down to an exercise in China). This the faction with Shaolin Monks in space! Edit: Oh make bigger AVA than 1 on new profiles in Vanilla!
Where is that dead horse gif at? hahaha. Please keep Kuang Shi the same. ISS is what got me into this game and I love the lore and theme. I think the sectorial is fulfilling that roll as is. For those of you who think its a crutch just don't use them. Problem solved. It's really hard to know how N4 is going to change the game. The biggest question in my mind is what will the state of CC be? If it's going to be more impactful and meaningful in the game. Then maybe it's best that we have a CC faction. White Banner + vanilla? If not then we need to adjust accordingly.
Sun Tse needs a look at as well. I know the new Total immunity buff did wonders for him but he's still not really competitive.
Sun Tze should also be available in IA, would fit better than being in IS. More non-lethal weapons in IS (Madtraps, maybe Adhesive or Akrylat and I want Adhesive grenades and/or Mines). Something special for the Guijia, it has a lovely model, but is to expensive to take most of the time. A look at Bao and Phesant. At least Ava 1 Ninja in IA would be nice. White Banner, I love DaoFei and Guilang and want to see the rest of this sectorial. Real HI in IA and give Zencha at least Schock immune or a second wound, also some BTS for Haidao.
You say that like it would be a bad thing... For clarification for myself: I had always read it as you could only ever have one Haidao allowed to link up at a time across your entire army. Am I wrong in that regard? Does it instead mean that you can have, for example, three different fireteams with a single Haidao in each? Because that would definitely make IA a lot more appealing to me. Still in need of significant adjustment, but an excuse to get two of those lovely naval gems in an army is a start for me.
I don't have the Third Offensive book. Can you please give me some details on the lore and mechanics of the Command and Control/advanced Leadership?
Based all the feeback to improve Yu Ching I have seen in the past year I would think this thread would be blowing up by now. Is everyone tired of repeating themselves?
Well, I have this big ass pile of salt sitting in my backyard and now I'm trying to make something constructive out of it. This kind of thing takes time you know! Joke aside, I don't have much expectation for N4: ISS is fine, there's just 3 black sheeps who could use a rework (bao, zhanying, pheasant). IA needs more than that, but it's brand new so any change is unlikely to happen, and the way the sectorial has been designed (IE: your only defensive tools are armor and wounds) is just another proof that CB doesn't see the game the way we do, at least looking at what people say on this forum. I do have a wishlist, like nerf the isolated state, let lieutenant use their orders in fireteams, rework the price formula and give our HIs 2 proper wounds and so on, but I'm getting a bit old to believe in Santa. I think I'll just focus on getting better at the game, try to make IA work, and wait & see.
There is no need for feedback yet. There are countless threads on how to improve the problematic units. When we got a new and unexpected profile, it was intentionally garbage. I have high hopes for N4 in general, but as we know nothing yet on what might change I feel its too early to put in energy in writing useful feedback. I also wrote my general expectation in one of the other threads. If the core mechanic of how to calculate points costs changes in a useful way, that might be enough for YJ.
If, and that's a big if, but if N4 both comparatively lowers Hackable units' costs and properly addresses the "better than average, but still not good" levels of CC, I think there is high hopes for IA to turn competitive. However, it is important to stress that this requires HI and TAGs to drop in price more than other units gain from N4, particularly the NWI+Immune units that are not HI - and it also requires AHDs to not get too great a buff (they need it, but if they become too common as a result it's back to square 1 (which is the square prior to KHDs))
I quite like the Command and Control for faction identity. Could manifest in more access to advanced command and CoC, lt2, strategos etc with sunny boy being at the top of the pile. Things like no swc cost on an Lt that doesn't have an swc weapon, when the party says this shitter zhanshi or whatever is in charge you listen. More +1 swc LTS etc. And hopefully make it a more meaningful choice than just lmao which daoying today. Maybe a zhangying Lt with madtraps. Yu jing has the best lore justification for this outside of aleph in the facts its le bad authoritarian state.
