Is this comand and control theme actually offcial? Sure we now have Lt + NCO with IA but that is only a small tactic. This only effects a few models. The whole faction will need to be slightly updated to reflect this play style.
Greater chance on failure he can at least start on the table somewhere useful. If you scatter off the table right now he has to deploy touching a table edge which greatly limits his options, whereas if you get to pick where he starts in your deployment zone you could put him on the 16" line ready to just move up the table instead. You'd still rather land on target but at least your 40pt investment doesn't feel like it's been pushed out of the game if it spuds the roll because at least say in Aquisition you could land him 8" away from the central console or an antenna ready to fight stuff there instead. Helps mitigate catastrophic failure and makes dropping with him less (although it still is) of a total gamble. With that said I don't disagree with you on Explosion LVLX being awful and needing a total overhaul, because it really does.
They're not because they're: Ridiculously cheap at 17pts. We pay 19pts to unlock remotes in comparison, if all you want is to unlock the support and flash pulse network remotes this is quite possibly the cheapest hacker short of a posthuman in the game to do it with. They are available in armies with wide and forward repeater nets such as DBS They core link which gives them sixth sense. This is particularly aggravating with Druze links because they link with a KHD in the same time and they do an extremely good job of bogging down HI links that are trying to move around and Stealth is absolutely useless against it. Having to constantly waste time resetting against a 17pt AHD because it's throwing Oblivion at you feels oppressive and awful. I have quite often seen both Devas in use for NCA, LT sensor plus the AHD. As @RobertShepherd has already pointed out there's a current relevant discussion around them. That is blatantly false. The mk2 MSR is a very good model but Aleph don't always need the extra ARO presence especially now with how good Dakinis are. On the other hand a dirt cheap, TO NWI specialist that Infiltrates with a Shotgun can be utterly game winning and can come out of nowhere to devastate links. The value between the two varies between missions, but only if you understand the concept of playing missions and not just trying to win by killing your opponent. I'm not disagreeing that the FO is taken more, it's a cheaper profile. But contrary to your claim that nobody uses AHDs people do take the AHD profile because sometimes you want the AHD for a list and it's a good profile to take an AHD on. She's a Forward Deploying specialist that can hide in unconventional locations, with Climbing+ access to a marker state that is immune to mines and can let bypass perimeter defense. Yes, she's definitely terrible if you're the sort of player that doesn't understand the concept of winning the game by doing objectives and you only understand how to win by killing your opponent. I mean she's clearly terrible so the guy who won Adepticon with Tunguska definitely wouldn't have taken her at all... Oh wait a minute...
I've got no idea why people think Mary's bad, she does basically everything Interventors can't for an insanely cheap price. My issue with the LX is that, in practice, mine always scatters. Even with Controlled Jump -- I always use Controlled Jump -- either I lose the HTA FtF or just roll over 15. I've just accepted that the extra point for Explode X is just a tax on a 2 wound troop with Airborne Infiltration. Of course, if the opportunity comes up I'm more than willing to throw away a 40 point investment to put a drop template on top of a linked Nexus Hacker.
Adepticon does not strike me as a serious tournament if such lists can win there Someone concerned with objectives would have taken a, you know, actual marker state TO hacker that is not afraid of going second. Must have missed the moment when Nagas were banned from use in OSS. Oh yeah Haidao and Santiago are trembling in fear of a WIP 12 AHD that paralyzes an HI fireteam, sure, sure. And again, being concerned about Druze? What the hell
Hahaha ha haha hahahaha Ha Ahahahahaha Sorry, sorry, let me compose myself. Ahahahahahaha Hahahaha Good troll, 10/10.
Guys, can't you just agree that you don't fear the same threats and move on pls? I don't care if Druze/Mary P/Kamau snipe/whatever is objectively frightening or not - just stop discussing obviously endless stuffs here pls. You disagree, fine. Each of you keep thinking the other one is wrong and continue its way.
Well there goes your odds on anybody taking your arguments seriously again. On the other hand those are some award winning mental gymnastics so you've got that going for you. That's fair I can accept that.
Apropos to the LX, anyone else seem weirded out that a lot of the new IA profiles just seems sorta... sparse? Zhencha have three, LX have four. In fact the only new model added in IA that isn't just the same profiles with Lt slapped to them are the Haidao at six, one of which you can't even take in vanilla. They stand in contrast to the older units with more variety.
LT L2 + NCO is also available in Vanilla and we have two variants of Sun Tse as well as access to Tactical Awareness on two units. Sure, it would be great to have this expanded (CoC on anything but the Pheasant or a better Pheasant, for example), but I think it would be fair to say that this is somewhat of a theme in Yu Jing.
Multi Rifle should be fine, too, and a nice incentive to field that gorgeous sculpt more. Imagine this: Imperial Service ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 CRANE IMPERIAL AGENT Lieutenant (X Visor) Spitfire, 2 Nanopulsers / Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 54) HSIEN MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser + 1 TinBot B (Deflector L2) / Pistol, AP CCW. (0.5 | 60) ZHÀNYING (Sensor) Breaker Combi Rifle, Nimbus Grenades, MadTraps / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 28) XI ZHUANG Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, MadTraps / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20) CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13) 3 SWC | 175 Points Open in Infinity Army
Varuna can field a Special Fireteam Core with up to 2 Orc Troops and up to 3 Fusiliers. Maybe something along those lines? A Hsien + some other Agent + CGs. How about a Hsien + Zhanying FTO and 3 CGs? You keep the flavor of the actual Haris (2 Zhanying + 1 Hsien).
Hsien is more comparable to the Aquila in NCA, which can only form Fireteams with the Multi-Rifle FTO.
I haven't played at Adepticon, and don't know the winner personally. But iirc, the specific ITS in question was 3 games, and not 5. Can anyone confirm? 3 games would mean higher chances of advantageous tables, skew lists, bypassing strong players, favorable matchups, etc. Just like with probability, the fewer occurrences, the greater the chance of something whacky happening. I don't mean it as a personal reflection on the guy who ran that TJC list, but I was also surprised when I saw the results.
Man, scattering everytime on a 75% roll is pretty unlucky. Like, unusually so. I've scattered about 2/9 drops. 4 of those passed drops either won the game or massively swung it into my favour. 3-4 other times I've walked him on. You're right on that it's a 1 pt skill you shouldn't always try and use. Re: command and control. I think yu Jing could keep leaning into that. We already lead the way in terms of 0 swc lt profiles on both plebs and beatsticks. It would be a unique flavor. I'd like more things like executive order (and the rule to be a bit now fleshed out) rather than chain of command. Chain of command is only interesting by virtue of being expensive on a rubbish model. If it becomes cheap on a decent model, it becomes an uninteresting rule.
Last time I tried to redeem Explode LX I failed 75% of my rolls versus a single Deva Hacker (who won one roll and critted another). It was during Firefight...
