You left out the Swast Taskmasters, Kriza Borac, DaiYokai, and the Gamma. None of which seem particularly low tech. The Gamma in particular seems pretty high tech, with it's high rate of fire, powerful armor and effective 3 wounds. I also think the Blackjack should probably be classed up to a S6 manned TAG. The thing towers over the S5 silhouette and I dont know how it or the Ratnik could "operate" prone.
Again, it's a common misconception. Of all the SHI in the game only Azra'ils are outdated, and Ariadna ones are low tech. The rest is often cutting edge technology. There are multiple fluff reasons for S5, "old tech" is only one of them. edit: and even if all SHI were indeed outdated I don't care, the models are cool. PanO S5 HI Now!
Unless they wrote it in Hanja or Chinese, in which case it's possible the smudges actually writes Vermillion Peafowl
The Daiyokai is low tech, because the new separatist goverment didn't have the resources nor the time to complete the original project. That's why they ended with a bulky S5 armor with a BTS of 3.
And here's from the Department For Overthinking Things: So... Seems like Yu Jing side isn't going to get any LT2 in this box, or at least not in CodeOne. Also, that's 3 camo and 3 mines, so unless CodeOne alters things grossly we're looking at three mimetic/odd camo units, and one mine(layer) troop (which ought to be the Guilang). Between the Guilang, Hundun, and Daofei, that leaves basically no room for camo on the Pan-O side, but the question is whether the set is short on tokens if you get prolific with the Guilang and the Nökken is actually a camo trooper, or if the Nökken is merely mimetic/odd. Liang Kai also has their own order. There's 20 orders, so it's not unlikely that Liang Kai's order is not Irregular, but that he has Tactical Awareness or something to that effect.
From my own overthinking department - I'm assuming both C1 and N4 will see new token graphics? I see some subtle changes, like Imm-1/2 becoming Imm-A/B. I like the small reminders, like Prone when Unconscious or -3 on Mines (I wonder if it shows that mines are harder to dodge, or that they're harder to hit. Mines with visual mods? That would be nice. Especially if we could see some hi tech Mines with -6 modifier...
I give you that Gamma is high-tech, but the nomad HI's are worse than a swiss of father knight. So of all the S5 HI's only 3 are really high-tech (charontid, su-jian, Gamma). I'm not convinced that S5 HI is a good thing when our normal S2 HI tech is better than the vast majority of S5 HIs ;) .
Again, there are multiple reasons for building HI on a bigger frame. Even with PanO tech edge we might not be able to put everything we want into S2 size armor, and remember that HIs aren't our real specialty. PanO SHI might have more ARM, some specialized skills or equipment, etc. S5 is also useful on an ARO unit (and high ARM HI with a Missile Launcher can be very good at it), as you can see over higher terrain pieces while still remaining in cover. And when advancing you can vault over same terrain without slowing down.
S5 gives more mobility but also makes partial cover more difficult to get. It has its ups and downs, but from aesthetically I don't like them / find them fitting in PanO with their sleek and minimised designs (although CB seems to abandon this idea with the Magister resculpts :( ). Apart from the fluff banter the whole point is immaterial as CB already did the model according to the box cover. Although I still hope it is a mini-TAG and not a giant suit ^_^ .
Why do we think it is S5? It looks bigger. Compare it to the images of Tags, it looks close to standard size.
IMO, Mowang is better than all three of those (even if a Kiel-Saan with Pokemon attached is better, but Symbiont Armour cheat the points and pokemon l cranks that up to 11) - especially when it comes to communicate technological mastery through game mechanics - and Kriza is simply just flat better than a Mowang both in game and communicates technological advancement better. Yeah... it's probably just perspective and a normal S2 HI.
