I'm having a hard time figuring out if Shikami got buffed or nerfed in N4. On the one hand, their movement was increased to 6-2 (standard HI changes) and they gained Forward Deployment. One the other hand, they lost the Nimbus profile (gaining Flash Pulse, but genuinely don't know if this is a positive or negative trade) and the real kicker... NO STEALTH. I mean that has to be an oversight, right? Because nearly EVERY other HI in JSA has stealth. Domaru, Tanko, Neko, even O-Yoroi have stealth. How on earth is this 'super ninja' going to accomplish anything when he's getting ARO hacked into oblivion? What is the viable game plan without nimbus and stealth?
IMO, Shikami got buffed, but not as much as any other Heavy Infantry and absolutely not as much as other Heavy Infantry in the same price range. (Yes, I'm assuming Stealth is just on a vacation that'll only last until the local authorities realises it and deports it back to where it belongs)
Agreed, I think the lack of Stealth makes it more obvious that Shikami are not finished. So perhaps the reason why Nimbus isn't on them right now is Tohaa are still being worked on.
Shikami now got Dodge +2 inches and with changes to Dodge this mean a declatation of Move + dodge = 10 inch movment - so ye a definite Nerf ;) i do not know if he is missing stealth or it is just redundant with 6-2 + super jump and ye No Nimbus as there is no nimbus atm in N4 and maybe it will not return to clutter rules with random stuff
First off, I love this loudest clankiest Ninja hahaha Secondly, yes CB got Lazy when they gave the Shikami Flash Pulse. Maybe +1 B would have been acceptable. Smoke would have been appropriate, Eclipse more so. Maybe HyperDynamics. Flash Pulse is useful, no doubt but it's just so lusterless and non deadly. Hell even YoJimbo got B2 Contender so maybe B2 FP would really have been the right answer. Idk, Reducing BS and B was a buff to the whole army. I'm gonna go play around with Dice Calculator, mim -6 hopefully give FP good odds on at least 50% of targets. Being able to effect visors was important for JSA. Because so many of their troops rely on mim and marker state.
Flash Pulse is more about its defensive value than its offensive value. It gives the Shikami a tool for distance engagements that poses an actual threat. Flash Pulse got a huge buff relative to IMM-A/B in N4 in that you can't reset out of the Stunned State.
Am I reading this right.... does the Assault Pistol get its full B in CC mode, or is that an error in the app?
I really hope the lack of Stealth is an oversight and they just forgot that it has been seperated from Martial Arts on this particular profile. It simply doesn't make sense to me that the impetuous Tanko have Stealth but the HI Ninja don't. Hopefully we will get a clarification soon.
Shikami is probably the most disappointing profile of all infinity. one of the most interesting troop concepts in the game with one of the shortest profiles. He is vulnerable to hacking (which will increase in the meta game), his shooting capacity is quite poor, his combat capacity os not spectacular to belong to the sectorial it belongs to. If I want a specialist with mobility I have for many points less a ninja that deploys where I want, a kuroshi that DOES have smoke, an aragoto that is much cheaper or the new ryuken that deploys better. I had high hopes for n4 for our friend shikami but to my surprise, practically nothing has changed (assuming that not having stealth is a mistake)
Actually, quite a lot has changed: 6-2 MOV, FD 4" and Flash Pulse instead of Nimbus Grenades. Dodging has huge implications in N4 and Shikami dodges rather well. This means a good chance of moving 10" per order, 4" of which will not provoke AROs and can be used to engage into silhouette contact with enemies. His shooting is not bad either, it just requires you to get close to your target. Mimetism -6, Assault Pistol and unorthodox attack vectors will comfortably win a lot of FTF rolls. Still, I agree that there are some clear weaknesses, the biggest of which appears to be the lack of stealth, exacerbating his weakness to hacking. I'm hoping this will be addressed eventually.
The thing is that there are a lot of juicy things to do with those 48 points much more interesting/optimal than our friend.
I mean, at this point it isn't even a question of whether or not the Shikami is good. Without stealth I'm not sure he's even fieldable, especially not at the price point where he's competing with Daiyokai and Shinobu. Unlike in N3, JSA has plenty of button pushers now, so unless I'm missing something Shikami really needs to be able pull his weight a bit more. It would be awesome if somebody at CB could just let us know if this is an intentional change or not.
Yeah I'm kind of in limbo about them because we haven't heard anything about whether them losing Stealth is intentional or not. Not much else to do but wait until CB clean things up, I guess. I will say that I did not expect in any way that they'd lose both Stealth and nimbus in N4. They were hugely maligned and only situationally usable at best in N3, after all. Huge pity too, since their sculpts are so nice.
Exactly that! Shikami is a walking statement. He says: my balls are huge, made of steel, and they will easily crush yours. It's psycholoogical weapon, because if any JSA player is crazy enough to field Shikami, then you have no idea what else that player is going to do. On a more serious note though: I would think Shikami is really fine if only he had Stealth. 4" Dodge is great, because it lets you engage enemy models with no ARO provided you have with no LoF to enemies during your Move part of an order without. Imagine a situation that a model is hiding behind a 4" wall feeling pretty safe. You can jump onto the wall from your side with Shikami from 5" away, end your Move on the higher part of the wall and then Dodge. If successful you just use your Climbing Plus to enter Engaged state by making contact with the top of the enemy Silhouette. Even simpler example would be building/piece of terrain corners. Now every model that is within 3" of a corner of the building is in danger zone and can be assaulted with no ARO to the enemy. First MOV value of 6" is also a big change in my book, as it allows you to cross firing lanes with Cautious Movement more easily. Having MOV 6-2 means that not only means you can cover wider firing lanes, but also you lose only 2" by doing so instead of 4" in case of MOV 4-4.
