White Banner so far...

Motorized infantry leave their vehicles to fight

 

And so would anyone trying to actually fight from a motorcycle eventually either because of blood loss or getting fed up with how awkward it is, but that's realism and not over the top anime.

Incidentally, there is a Dragoon in game (i.e. horse-borne infantry)... and that is a TAG without even Ejection Device.

 

Indeed, all the PanO TAGs use cavalry terms, the Tikbalang and Cutter are Chasseurs, the Jotum is a Cuirassier, the Squalo and Uhlan are described as Armoured Cavalry, and the Seraph is just called "Seraph Cavalry".

Much like in modern militaries, cavalry almost exclusively refers to tanks, though modern soldiers don't have Appleseed style gyro-stabilised bikes to fight from.

I'm pretty sure they class the Motorised Knights of Montesa as Motorised infantry though.

 

Well, the Dragão gets it's name from the combination of the evolution of the Dragoon role, and the fact that Dragão is the Portuguese word for both Dragon and Dragoon, as well as the most prestigious cavalry regiment in the Brazilian Army.

 

Bikes are awesome go-getters. An 8-4 MOV specialist that can tank a decent hit would be well worth 40 points, even with an opportunity cost vs other specialized HI. In a scenario with exclusion zones and lots of order-heavy objective-grabbing I would -definitely- use that bike HI.

The price of terrible taste is boredom.

 

PanO before Varuna was the worst, worse even than Uprising

 

But the thing is we can do it on the side without investing specifically into it:

Yu Jing
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

5
DĀOYĪNG Lieutenant L2 Hacker (Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)
GŬILÁNG (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20)
NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

1.5 SWC | 113 Points

Open in Infinity Army


This is as standard a YJ list core as it gets (feel free to swap the Ninja for a Kanren <3) and none of these units are primarily chosen for their hacking capabilities, yet they already bring a solid hacking game. YJ doesn't excel at hacking, just like we don't excel at most things, we just do it on the side and not half bad at that, even with WIP 14 in many cases.

Can PanO claim the same?

 

FYI, the Montesa knight only has a specialist option in MO and shock army. In vanilla Pano its just an attack piece. As a pure attack piece the Su Jian is far better and nearly as fast.

 

Oh yeah, Pan-O really can claim the same and around here the norm is two Chaiyi equivalents, a hacker, a killer hacker, and an assault hacker in marker state (preferably TO). Don't know if they do build similar as standard and I doubt you'd get a Hexa Hacker just to emulate a Daoying, but you can. Pan-O also can't really claim to do better, they're basically on the same level as Yu Jing thanks to Regulars with FastPanda being overpriced IMO. The other hacking endowed faction does it better, though.

If you want to go good hacking and not just minimalistic toolkit like above, you need those Pitchers and/or FastPandas. Is getting to good level hacking worth it, though? Errr... probably not worth the orders unless you're playing IA or someone who loves having their hackables go on an adventure. A minimalist toolkit with a Pitcher is probably enough to properly hamper a TAG or a non-KHD HI out for a stroll.

As a foot note, I very very rarely see or hear about people using Deployable Repeaters. FastPandas and Pitchers all the time, but not Deployable Repeaters as it's very hard to get them in a good position and maintain order economy.

 

You can emulate it with a Hexa, but it is significantly worse in comparison. They are 1 WIP down and don't bring the order efficiency a Daoying does (for fewer points). Same goes for the Croc Men vs Guilang. They are only WIP 13 and 5 points more expensive. It doesn't come as natural for PanO as it does for YJ, and if you are relying on it anyway, you will have worse hacking value point for point.

As for other more hacking-proficient factions: No argument there, we don't compare to pitchers/hackers in fireteams or Nomad shenanigans in general. Heckler Jammer with FD 1 and Fast Panda is a pain. But pitchers in Vanilla/outside fireteams?

That 8-16" range is fairly restrictive and hitting a B1 pitcher beyond that on 8's/5's with your Cyberghost/Danavas or 9's/6's with your Barid doesn't sound more efficient than just moving and dropping a repeater with a decently placed Guilang using an order you saved through your Daoying LT.

The issue remains essentially the same: You need to first walk that pitcher out of your DZ and into position to not suffer terrible range mods and then manage to hit on what is usually an average/subpar BS. The deployable repeater out of marker state is at least guaranteed to succeed and a good bit safer to pull off. I'd probably rely on Hunzakuts with deployable repeaters rather than exposing my Barid to fire off an unreliable pitcher and provoke AROs in the process.

If you are saying our sectorials can't compete with other sectorials due to lack of pitchers in fireteams, I would agree. Then again, IA and WB at least have some nice combos with KHDs + Tinbots, so that's something. I guess it remains to be seen what changes will await YJ in N4, but I do feel people are painting a darker picture than is warranted.

 

The big difference is Pan-O get access to mechanised deployment repeaters, allows them to start the game with their repeater network going upfield without the need for orders and even if they're going second. The Peacemaker is what really enables the Druze hacking game. Pan-O also still has the only hacker that brings his own tinbot in the game.

Yu Jing has better hackers but Pan-O has better hacking support, which in my books places them roughly equivalent on the hacking game curve (note: they're both garbage tier on that power curve). When people try to explain how good Yu Jing hacking is it's hard to give them any credit when you're behind Haqq, Aleph, CA, Nomads, Druze, StarCo, and O-12. Having good hackers =/= being a faction good at hacking.

 

No.

I'm saying Yu Jing isn't "great" at hacking. Yu Jing CAN compete.


Also keep in mind that the Daoying is your LT so while it has one WIP up on a typical PanO/YJ hacker, it is also a lot more risky to expose it.
My secondary message with hacking is also that two WIP 14 hackers is worse than two WIP 12 hackers and a well placed Repeater.
Also, for most missions you don't need to venture out of your zone to place Pitchers well. It should go without saying that you don't use hacking to deal with HMGs in your opponent's DZ. Stick 'em down where your opponent wants to flip switches with their Ninja KHD or where they want to move their Rui Shi on your flank. Then hit them with 3 or 4 AROs that will each as good as permanently disable the target.

 

There's definitely pros and cons to the YJ hacking game. I'd argue their defensive and support options are actually rather good, with the Daoying being the single safest supportware caster in the game and wide access to KHDs, often at a boosted WIP value. All sectorials also have the option to create Fireteams with a Hacker and Tinbot, and one of the few N3-era upsides of everything being HI is easy BTS for defense. Without Upgrade programs, Pitchers or other forward Repeaters and combined with the YJ CC tax and extra cost for versatility its offensive choices are kinda pants, however, only really beating PanO Vanilla, MO and SWF.

 

I'd like to hear how You use them, as I struggle to get any decent results with my Kanren. Perhaps I'm having problems with deployment and proper use od holoecho - as they seem to die too easy. I've been mostly using them as a speedbump with madtraps, or the FO variant for button pushing.

To be precise nowadays armored cavalry is more mechanized infantry with some armor support, rather than just tanks, but that is just a side note ;). No doubt that in Infinity cavalry means TAGs :)

 

So I've not actually tried the MadTrap variant, although I've looked over the profile longingly.

The KHD is a forward deployed, disguised hacker that can clear minefields. Equally, you don't have to always deploy using the Holo echoes. Having it appear as an isolated juicy hackable target can really draw enemy HD+/AHDs.

Recently against Shas I started the sniffer minelayer on a rooftop. He ran safely along the roof throwing sniffers left, right, and Charlie, then remained a nuisance.

The FO is a lovely package as well, bringing you a specialist who also provides the mid range FtF that the other loadouts lack.

The Holoechoes (so long as you avoid templates and multiple AROs) add the resilience as the opponent either has to split burst, gamble on who to target, or delay (giving you a free move).

Important info to remember is the free regeneration of the holoechoes at the beginning of your opponents turn (if out of LoF) and the fact that coherency of the holoechoes is measured from any of them so you could have your real Kanren up to 16" away from a Holoecho!

At the end of the day they're not beat stick killers (although they can be lethal if an opportunity presents). Instead they present very efficient button pushers and objective scorers that bring a toolkit and can circumvent most midfield speed bumps.

 

I'd argue supportware bitch work at the back of the table is about as functionally a part of the "hacking game" as an Apsara is, as in, it's not at all.

 

Worst thing about this faction is the forum. Everything else is pretty nice.

 

Monofilament Ammunition doesn’t exist any more, see the Monofilament CCW in CodeOne. It’s just a CCW with Damage 12 instead of Damage PH (so no, no bonus from Martial Arts), and the ARM=0 and State: Dead Traits.