Part 2 of the Musashi poll meant to focus on his CC ability. I will add options as we go. I will add poll options if they are suggested by 3 different people and I'll leave the poll options open so people can change their answer later if they see something they like more.
Smoke grenades instantly push Mushashi into "very viable" territory. While Yojimbo's utility is unparalleled, Mushashi could throw smoke in a Tanko Haris (which can take MSV2 Kempei as one of the team members) and is way smaller than our favourite biker, which will make him an incredibly interesting choice. All of that, of course, on top of him being an incredibly fast melee 6-4 missile that can literally explode TAGs for 20 points. Honestly, smoke is so much of a commodity in JSA, he wouldn't ever need anything else after that buff.
Him and ninjas should have smoke and while we are at it give oniwanban eclipse. But that won't happen I guess.
Ever since he got Shock Immunity, I have a sneaking suspicion that it's not an issue with the gear of Mushashi that's the issue. May I propose two alternate ways of looking at it: Specialist Operative. Giving him smoke would make him better, but it would also significantly affect the potency of the sectorial. Increasing Mushashi's melee ability doesn't do anything to actual gameplay as the problem really isn't him killing stuff, but getting him a spot in a list or getting to the enemy. For me, at least, the big obstacle to putting him in a list has been that his Fireteam really doesn't do much other than lob missiles and that puts his 24 points in direct competition with a 21 point Domaru to unlock Tanko Haris and guess what - the frenzy unit will take that cake almost every time. Add to it that the FTO profile wouldn't be a bad addition to Karakuri or Keisotsu fireteams, maybe Wildcard isn't unreasonable. CB has long been saying that JSA won't be getting eclipse. (And if they did only get one profile with it, I'd challenge that Shikami is the most obvious spot) I've long been enamoured with the idea that Ninjas should be saboteurs rather than assassins and leave the real high octane stabbing to Oniwaban. Smoke, D-Charges, possibly Engineer, lower CC skills, probably other non-damaging grenades like EM, etc etc, as a consequence. As far as JSA is concerned, I think they've managed to make Oniwaban sufficiently good that they're the default assassins thanks to the SMG profile, but that mostly leaves several Ninja profiles without a job in JSA
Shikami getting Smoke Grenades would be nice. Shikami getting Eclipse Grenades would be way too good. Not only they have great PHY value, so they would miss very few grenade throws (and gain another great tool in FtF rolls against everything), but thanks to Super Jump and Climb Plus they could literally get anywhere on the table.
So... like a Chimera then. But much more expensive and without the puppies. Of course, this kind of stuff is only for the two player character factions, and certainly not one of the antagonist factions.
Two player character factions? You mean Steel Phalanx and Bakunin? As for smoke and what not, I suspect if JSA ever got eclipse, all other smoke throwers would cease to be fielded except Kitsune because shes already up the board and has climbing plus and as much as I appreciate Yojimbo, Eclipse would just allow a team of 3-5 Domaru to rush up the table and that is more threatening and more efficient than one biker samurai with koalas. I would like for JSA to continue to be unconventional in how it deals with the enemy. Nimbus was perfect as said many times. It would have been good on Musashi. Just anyway to either reduce the opponents ability to hit your men or negate a firefight.
Nomads and Ariadna in general. It's a bit ridiculous how blatant it is that CB sets them up to be the protagonist underdog. Not all factions who're not "protagonist" are antagonist, mind you, and before someone comes in with whataboutism; any longer running game setting will have players drafted from a variety of backgrounds, including the antagonist sides. I don't think I agree that other smoke will stop being used, in particular Yojimbo's smoke. My experience with the game in general is that Eclipse is clunky and difficult to use. While JSA is poised to take a lot more advantage of it than most factions, the fact that nothing can see through it means that it's going to remain only half as useful as regular smoke - the latter has great synergy with Kempeitai SMMR and Rui Shi, possibly even required synergy to make those units truly be worth while. Nimbus mostly suffered from a difficulty to use effectively. It was hard to justify the order expenditure in most situations, but it did provide a means to claw back active turn advantage from certain ARO pieces. In the current game mechanics, however, it would've been excellent and also benefited particularly Shikami greatly for the simple fact that Dodge no longer has an LOF requirement. I do agree that in general the game would benefit from having Nimbus return.
Ahh, I see where I misunderstood. I agree with you on all points. I wish CB had a poll service where they set the bar of minimum 150-300 participants in order to be considered valid, then the poll options would be for armies or individual units to be improved in some way so that players dont get turned off by some ugly change. But actually like and voted for a change. Cause I'd like to see Shikami drop contender and flash pulse and gain x-visor and a Shuriken PH based DA Silent weapon for AROs and special circumstances. I also think tactical bow damage should be 13 and not PH.
