If it's just about the looks, you can proxy half your list with it. Knight Commander seems appropriate, it does have an authoritative air to it.
Here. My first thought was Warhammer. Then meh ;-) Why they have to do this Banner-thing. And yes it looks clumbsy. But overall I think the mini looks nice.
High elf spearman? Nay. I painted some of those last month and our girl here lacks the ridiculously big helmets they sported since forever. She does, however, give a Wharhammer/Cygnar vibe that sits nicely between generic fantasy and diesel-punk. Good on an individual level, but not the look you want sectorial-wide if you ask me. They made the effort of changing some helmet designs. The Santiago looks more like a greathelm... with the mandatory PanO antennae that I hope they abandon eventually. That romantic/archaic feel is what would set them apart from the other PanO HI without much need of tabards and other nonsense.
I declare PanO antennae and Aleph bunny ears abominations unto God in need of cleansing. Cry heresy if you want, I will die on this hill.
You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. Even if it is wrong. On a serious note, the bunny ears give PanO a nicely distinctive silhouette compared to other factors, and the parallels to Appleseed were a big draw for me when I started the game. There's certainly plenty of HI without them already in existence.
I liked the old aesthetic, where LI had no helmet, MI helmet with a single antenna (BM, Nisse) and HI had the two. Still kind of the same, but not like the olden days...
From the spoiled MO Machinist a while ago: View attachment 23572 OS and Crosiers appear to be different troops. The 3 guys in the new Box are Crosiers, 2 Combis and one MSV2+Spitfire inheriting the OS Profile. OS aren't discontinued either. Looks like we get an elite LI troop for MO that takes over what used to be Specialist Sergeants. And then Trinitarians which take over for TO Specialist Sergeants. The Crosier's Feature Skill seems to be Shock Immuity going by the MO Machinist. Which isn't terrible. Here's hoping OS get a bit cheaper to make the difference in between their role and whatever Crosiers are gonna cover more distinct.
I personally would be comfortable trading one croc for one trinitarian, as my biggest concern for vanilla is access to a variety solutions. That leads me well into my feelings on vanilla being the only place where a montessa paramedic doesn’t exist. The PanO design space is typically firepower dominance clearing the way for the specialists to move up and do their thing (either because everyone’s dead or because they’re keeping their heads down). As I’m sure most pano players can attest, the moment they lose usually comes from “it took too many orders to put that ARO down and now I cant reach the objective in time.” Crocs (or trinitarians) solve this by being protected by their camo and deployed near the objective. Its a great dynamic... except in scenarios with an exclusion zone where suddenly a 4-4 trooper has to walk all the way across the board on limited orders to then try and succeed on a wip 12 button push. This usually feels more like gambling than executing a deliberate plan. With that said, Vanilla PanO IS my faction of choice in N4 at the moment. Both Varuna and Sval did some great things to the faction. Because of that I’m also very excited to see how these (beautiful) new MO profiles impact vanilla... here’s to hoping.
So the crosiers are not renamed Sergeant Orders... I want to see what they do with the profile to not overlaping, but seeing that MSV2 Spitfire...
