What makes a MI Medium?

Back then: Sniper Sun and Tigers. Both ARM 2.

Right now I'd argue that Zanying and Pheasants should be medium infantry as well. MAdil is wearing something a lot like Zhanying armour isn't he?

There's some scaling. It's weird, though. Certain abilities are cheaper on certain troop types. Snipers are cheaper on non-Asian skirmishers and forward deployment is more expensive on heavy infantry. Everything but the gun is more expensive on TAGs.
Hence why an Epsilon and a Kamau sniper are basically the same price and stats - neither LI nor MI have a special price on any of their gear. Could be neat if MI had noticeably cheaper MSV similar to how snipers are cheaper on f.ex. Crocmen.

 

Similar but not the same, although given he's based in Huang Di it could be argued it's winterised Zhanying kit.

 

As PS wrote and as some of the vets will be able to tell you, it's more that the devs asked people to not be dicks to them on their own forums.

(Of course, do keep in mind that this is their IP we're talking about here, so if you do it too well and too loudly elsewhere they may well decide they feel the need to ask people in suits argue to people in wigs that you owe them money)

Now, let's leave this topic and go back to arguing over whether people who think MI should have Bravery back are remembering ITS balance through rose tinted goggles or if they just forgot that there's a bunch of MI that's actually kind of good as they are?

 

To be honest I am quite interested in your ideas of what a MI identity should be.

 

Wikipedia seems to be saying there's no such thing as Medium Infantry:

"In the Western world..., infantry are categorised as either heavy infantry or light infantry. Heavy infantry... specialised in dense, solid formations driving into the main enemy lines, using weight of numbers to achieve a decisive victory, and were usually equipped with heavier weapons and armour to fit their role. Light infantry..., using open formations and greater manoeuvrability, took on most other combat roles: scouting, screening the army on the march, skirmishing to delay, disrupt, or weaken the enemy to prepare for the main forces' battlefield attack, protecting them from flanking manoeuvers, and then afterwards either pursuing the fleeing enemy or covering their army's retreat."

So maybe we should just have 4-4 HI, and 6-2 LI, and no MI.

...actually I kind of like that idea.

 

Again I would state that the LI, MI, HI categories are useless. They don't grant or remove any stats or traits. Remove them and let the profiles speak for themselves.

 

WB and SK too, maybe in N5 they'll finally bin them in favour of Power Armour, TAG, and REM skills.

 

Out of interest; why would a unit that doesn't have the drawback of being hackable and doesn't have the benefit of servo-assisted movement enhancers have the quicker and more preferable MOV distribution?

 

I would totally second the Power Armour, TAG and REM version. Would be much easier to remember and play with.

Oh, and since we are speaking of traits which make little sense, also "Character" as one voice of the model "Classification" is really weird. I know most of you long time players are maybe used to it, but it really does not add up so well.
It would work both thematically and rulewise better if Character would just be a non-esclusive characteristic, like irregular, cube and the like.
- "Dude, what fighting unit are you in?"
- "Oh, I'm a character" :-\

 

Points would have to be adjusted accordingly. Broadly, the idea would be that HI are slow, tough, hackable units, and LI are fast, fragile, non-hackable units.

Narrative-wise, it would mean adopting the bulky interpretation of power armour where servo-assistance is what lets you carry that much weight in the first place, as opposed to the ultralight interpretation where servo-assistance gives you super-speed. Admittedly, it wouldn't really work for sculpts like the Orc for example. But CB isn't going to do it anyway, so it doesn't matter whether it would work with existing sculpts :-)

 

Always remember that Zuyong and Custodiers have the same amount of armour amount.
You'd have to actually make the bulk count for something in that case. I don't think we're in a place where heavy infantry are good enough that the game is dominated by them, I still think the game is primarily about light infantry, skirmishers and warbands - so we're talking about a bit more than having the privilege to pay for ARM 3+.

Fairly attractive idea, to be honest. Would also grant an opportunity to drastically cut the cost on hacking devices even further as the primary reason those devices' points costs are that they're a drawback to hackable units being hackable.
There's nothing wrong with putting the cost on the attacker, but when you don't know if you will even have an opportunity to get the benefit out of your investment it puts that balance method out of whack.

 

True, in 1st ed, Difficult Terrain was half-MOV only to MI/HI/TAG/REM/Motorcycle.
Very Difficult Terrain, was impossible to TAG/REM/motorcycle and half-MOV to everything else except SK.
As for Impassable Terrain, it was impossible to MI/HI/TAG/REM/Motorcycle and half-MOV to everything else including SK.
The only thing missing is a difference between LI and WB.
And then having multiterrain or Terrain() on MI made sense as it lowered their penalty.

edit: i didn't play N1, but I remember having the same in N2.

 

Those rules were in N2 as well but went away in N3.

 

The tags only make sense when the tags are targeted, IMO. Personally, I'd eliminate targeting based on the tags specifically with hacking. Instead of targeting "REM", target "Remote Presence." This would really change the game for RP TAGs and HI, and I think that'd be a good thing.

 

Personally, for me the USAriadna Grunt is a perfect example of what MI should be; high armor, slow movement.

I've always seen the LI/MI/HI split, conceptually, as "Soldier," "Soldier with heavy armor," and "Soldier with Powered Armor"

Therefore MI have higher ARM than LI, but don't have Power armor to help them along, so should be slower/have less Terrain skills, while HI can, depending on quality, be even faster than LI while having even heavier armor, but at the price of being hackable/vulnerable to E/M ammo and generally more expensive.

In this model Ariadnan "HI" would become MI, but with 4-4 move instead. There's no fluff reason why a Vet Kazak or Mormaer would have their armor lock up from E/M ammo, so they shouldn't be vulnerable to it. It also gets rid of the weird "unhackable" trait.