There's the possibility to assume the cuts will be mostly out of retired/removed Sectorials. So it's likely YJ will be fairly light on the cuts and the removed JSA troops already count for them. Bao needs a rework not a cut. Aside from them turning out not so well (with the main culprit being bad Fireteam options) they don't compete directly with other YJ troops in Vanilla or ISS. If I were to cut SKU's I'd remove quite a few of the Mercs cluttering Vanilla armies without much merit, Knauf could easily be axed and his model delegated to be used as ABH.
I don't see any Yu Jing units going anywhere. There's not really anything that's meant to do the same job as anything else, just a few units in need of a bit of a rework. Couls ise some merc removal though.
I don't think and units will go away I just think some profiles will. Like trimming Bolts from 500 profiles down to 5 or 6.
Yu Jing is supposed the HI faction due to an absence of TAGs. PanO is supposed to be the TAG faction due to an abundance of TAGs, not for the sake of lacking anything..
At least in regard to the comparison of of focus between HI and TAGs in Yu Jing and PanO. PanO has 15 full-bodied HI units to Yu Jing's 14 'true' HI and 4 'pseudo' HI. On the other side of the comparison, Yu Jing's singular Tag is outdone by PanO's 7. That common distinction between the two factions based on those factors is entirely a false one, at least these days. Pan O is just as much a leader in HI as it is TAGs, really. Yu Jing is the quirky, heavy-duty toolbox faction. You could make the argument that Yu Jing gets more mileage out of their HI because of novel combinations of functionalities between troopers in the faction, but that plays more towards the toolbox nature of the faction than the HI nature of it. Doubly so since there's not really much of a way to play towards the specific strengths of the HI designation, since the designation itself comes without any inherent functionality and instead is a liability anyway. But that's a multi-faceted issue.
If Yujing is the toolbox faction then there's our issue. I've yet to see a game that can make jacks of all trade worth it compared to min-maxed specialists.
I've seen plenty, but I also don't consider most Yu Jing to be jack of all trades or toolboxy. Yu Jing units does not in general tend to A. have a gun for all range bands. (Units with long range guns often have a decent side-arm for short range (except for our most premium troops) and/or a DTW, but if the main gun is short ranged that's not the case.) B. specialist profiles on big guns. C. Both of the above. Typically, I'd say that Yu Jing as a faction have units that that can be focused on a wide variety of things, but seldom at the same time. Haidao or Zhanying are our most toolboxy units, and that's mainly because they bring key alternate profiles to specific fireteams. Guilang is probably the only one I'd call toolboxy outside of Fireteams. -- I would love it if Yu Jing got changed to be the actual Jack of All Trades faction and have the Zuyong HMG also be a Paramedic and the Zuyong FO carry a Panzerfaust for long range etc
I'd say that pretending that all of our shooty units in a shooty game are "good" att CC by forcing them to pay for 3 extra points of CC and an AP CCW is evidence that they tried to go for well rounded but instead just gave them bloat.
Don't forget about Aleph as HI Faction. They have both the highest performance one with Achilles and the most cost efficient one in the HI Proxy. That's fairly low as choices go, but they're both excellent to a fault. Asura LT2 MSV3 isn't bad either, just lacks behind blondie and doesn't perform as well on the table as her fluff would suggest. If I want to play HI in Vanilla atm, I'd go Aleph. O-12 doesn't hit the ceiling but their HI are all very good value for their pricebrackets. I'd mostly consider YJ as combined arms. Not every Profile does everything but you'll have every troop type around (or at least available in terms of TAGs). Most Factions cut down or forfeit one troop type or the other and run light on another one. Skirmishers, Warbands, MI, HI... YJ usually runs a good mix of Infantry. Their only full blown restriction is TAGs and that is true for all Factions and Sectorials without access to REM:PRES ones. Currently expect White Banner to pack that spirit into a Sectorial. With Zanshi, Monks, Guilang, Dao Fei and theoretical Blue Wolf the lists are going to be pretty diverse across the troop types. They will kill some units (Bostria said so and it makes sense). It's not just a reduce SKU but also a not having to plan for a new SKU in the future thing. Metros or SAA Regulars don't really need to exist anymore, you can just reskin a similar Linetrooper and add the Special Profiles for a potential revamped Sectorial in the future. Might also be a good opportunity to remove some design mistakes instead of trying to fix everything, maybe strip a tool or two some of the Factions got too many (Locust for NCA, did NCA really need an Infiltrator?). Cut down on the Merc bloat some and reclassify the sculpts as ABHs. Knauf and Aida seem to be good candidates in my book.
I haven't taken a Bao or Pheasant in IS or Vanilla for years. Bao will probably go, I hope CG snipers pick up their visor as compensation.
