Any particular thoughts or wishes? As for my own personal wish list: - Maggie needs something. Either a cheaper price, or some kind of more substantial gimmick to justify her cost and mechanical issues with her size. I think I'd prefer the later - there's some really interesting stuff which I think you could do, from 4 STR and gizmokit [reroll] to sell a durability theme, to maybe some spicy weapons like a +B PAC, to maybe even something really spicy like total reaction. But the option which has the fewest question marks while still being effective would be just to bring her down in price. My ballpark would be the low 70s. - Khawarij and Tarik need some love. Awesome minis, cool (if tainted by one particular element which will go undiscussed) lore, but disappointing rules. Tarik I think just needs to be cheaper - at around 40 points, he'd be a compelling sidegrade to the Asawira. I think some better weapons might also help, especially if you wanna keep him more expensive. Khawarij themselves... are just a bit unfocused. Not especially standout in any role. - I think Haqq could stand to have some more interesting Lt and C&C options in general - outside of Saladin, I think it's a tad under-explored. Not necessarily more powerful options, but I think units like the Hafza and Sekban could potentially explore this area more. What about say, a Hafza LT that has counterintel? Or a Sekban LT with some kind of rule that gives a buff to the unit using the LT order for the duration of the order? I also think giving Haqq the ability to have a more robust order pool would open up interesting options with more irreg heavy builds with stuff like Daylami, but that's dangerous territory and would need to be carefully tuned. - Love for Ramah. I think HB and QK are both in decent enough spots as of right now - and while especially the later could use some optimization of it's profiles, I think Ramah by comparison right now is both weaker, and less interesting to build. Stuff like the Al-Fasid, (Hortlak) Jannisary, and aforementioned Khawarij all have substantial limitations that really limit their usefulness and value. Also the super-soldier theme is very cool and pretty unique - I'd love to see it get expanded on. - More long range shooting options. I understand this is very much a weakness of the faction, and I don't think we should necessarily get stronger long range shooting options, but I do wish we had a bit more diversity in choice. Right now in Vanilla Haqqislam, for example, I think the only three long range gunfighters I've utilized and consider to be viable are the Azra'il, Knauf and Shakush (and I'm very much falling out of love for the later). Units like the Lasiq, Djanbazan, Jannisary, Hortlak, Al-Fasid... they are all close to being there, they just need one or two adjustments to make them compelling options. - This one is probably the most vague and tenuous, but I'd like to explore 'high end' Haqq. I get we are the cheap faction, but I still think it'd be cool to have units that represent the very best and most powerful of what the faction can represent - stuff that's 50-60+ points and is very capable, but requires us to sacrifice a significant amount of our threat saturation to run. I think it'd open up some really cool list building archetypes, and could have some fun flavor if used in concert with stuff like Ramah's super-soldier theme and QK's omega rich silk tycoon theme. I think it's even been explored already in HB to an extent with the Bokhtar, who is for my money one of the more interesting units released in the last few years. I could go on and on, but these are probably the most prominent things I'd love to see for Haqq in N5. Curious to see what you guys think/want.
I would like Naffatuns to become more distinctive. I hope that CB leans into the new bulky models by making them MI with more armor, d-charges, and grenades (Continuous). Khawarijs just need NWI like all the other Super Soldiers. I would also like Farzan's to get some new profiles like the Al'hawwa did. Just to show how they could have different histories or experiences. Like a profile with CC skills or one with an AP Marksman Rifle. Hazfa need some leadership skill profiles. +LT orders, Strategos, counterintelligence, etc.
There was mention of a new Vehicles category. I could totally see maggie becoming a vehicle. If she stays as-is but can safely carry a core fireteam to the middle of the table, that could be fun
I hope for hafza more habilities about leadership, for fluff reassons. I agree with some options for naffatun except thry become MI. Instead they can give them some rolle related with sapper/combat enggineer (blowing up things). Cheers
I hope, that Ramah would not disappear. One of the armies I really like. But it would be fair to let QK get back) I really hope to see them. They are nice.
I hope haqq maintains his 3 sectorials. I rather sacrife the khanate if we have to maintain only 3. Cheers
I have no hopes, I dream no dreams. I put up my cup and expect to be poured my one draught of coffee. And then next one, and next. As long as there is coffee in the pot to be shared among my brothers. Not be poured an entire cup, as if I were to be told "you got what is due to you, take it and walk away".* * a reference to Hansen Thorkild's "Arabia Felix: The Danish Expedition of 1761-1767"
I am a Hassassin player, used to play up until N3 and only came back with the blackwind box so my opinion of the game is limited, but personally I would like some changes to certain profiles: -Hassassin Ayyar definitely needs a tuning, perhaps lose holomask and keep only holoecho to cheapen him, he has a lot of things but its difficult to get him to do things, tac aware or NCO would be amazing. -Muyibs and Govads, I think most MIs in the game need something to help them out to better defend their use against LIs and cheap costs, I would really like to see hassassin pure links with muyibs and govads be something worth the points. -Lasiqs in the Bahram pure link, unsure why they cant be a pure link as they bring some nice tools and would give their forward observer or marksman viral rifle profiles a really nice boost, heck even a limit 1 barid hacker in the Bahram pure link would be nice, unsure why this sectorial has such difficulty making a 5 man pure link, Barids in a link makes ghulams very valuable and I personally like ghulams but feel hassassin should for lore reasons work without them when possible. All in all things to make the hassassin list more about hassassin tropps and less about asawira + ghulam fireteams with a fiday.
Basically "ARM 3 BTS 3 basic guy with rifle and flamethrower" MI? That could be interesting - and indeed differentiate them from your basic humble Ghulam enough to make them a separate thing. But IMO they'd have to stay pretty basic (so, a notch above USAriadna Grunts), to keep the cost low.
I think (and hope) that a lot of MI will get cheaper across the board in N5. Going into N4, CB realized that HI and TAGs needed to become cheaper to justify their opportunity costs and hackability. That was a great and very necessary change. Over the course of N4, it then became apparent that MI was facing the same problem: their opportunity cost was (in most cases) too high to justify their lack of durability. MI units were only taken if they offered premium gunfighting abilities (Bolts, Zhayedan, Atalanta, Grenzer snipers) or an outstanding toolkit (Custodiers, Zondnautica, Scylla, Kornak). Everything else was mostly left at home. So I hope CB addresses that.
As a dedicated QK player I was happy to see some of the new profiles with Reinforcements. So, I'm hoping for some more love for them in the future.
You nailed it. Maggie needs to be way cheaper. I thought S8 got a points discount, but she cant compete with any of the competitive tags out there. Drop 360 visor too. The points bloat is just too much to make competitive lists with her. And I would love a better/cheaper Tarik. I've run that profile a bunch and its fun, but just too expensive for what you get. LT profiles too! I am pretty much only running Saladin or an Asawira. I would love other competitive options.
I hope for more Fireteam options for the Korsan. Being only able to put him in a Kaplan/WildBill Core seems very odd lore wise. Plus some Leadership skills for Hafza Lieutenants (Counterintelligence, CoC profile - something like that). And an Odalisque CC Profile with (perhaps) Martial Arts lvl 1 or 2, Para CCW +1B, Nanopulser, Multipistol
QK refresh please, give me my CQC Azra'ils with spitfire and shotgun options! Fix my over priced medium infantry! I'll be happy if we exist on launch tbh.
Korsans also just need an another design pass. I do not feel that they currently serve a function in QK.
Korsans are the only real CC profiles in QK right now. To put them in Kaplan Fireteams, who should never see CC, seems wierd. Perhaps exchange NBW for MA L2, up AVA to 3 and let them do Duo/Haris with WildBill (not pure ofc) - so QK gets a real Corsair style Scimitar wielding Boarding party. And then QK should lose the "OOP but playable" label...
I would like Hassassins to get some options to make their army look larger than what's actually on the table for the purpose of disguising intentions to Combat jump or reveal HD. If there's something tha would keep HB somewhat unique, maybe it's that. For that I wish we had more powerful Holo rules - perhaps Holo-2 that could allow you to look like a larger unit or as a set of several different models rather than 3 of the same unit that look obviously fake if you try to show a higher cost. Having someone with decoys would also be great. On the topic of Maggie, perhaps doing something like streamlining Sapper rule to make it compatible with any unit and making it adequate for modern environment would do something for its roadblock niche that doesn't currently happen a lot. But indeed, at this point CB could decide to do something very different with the base game making specific suggestions (as opposed to general concepts) we could come up with rather pointless.
Empty decoys would be fun. Something like an AVA 3 S2 "holomine" that does not generate any orders and only consist of one holoecho. It could be priced at 2-3 points and not count against model count limits, or it could be equipment on another trooper that does not need to be deployed in ZoC.
Or give decoy option to other troops like sunduqbut, for example to ayyar. Or use It to diferrenciate similar troops, like shujae and Nadhir. At this time HB only has daylami and sunduqbut (and its decoy) as cammo marker. Other options has cammo -3. Cheers
My only hope and dream is to keep my Namurr, Nahab and Mukhtars just as they are. If anything, I'd accept an AP Spitfire instead of the Red Fury on the Mukhtar MSV2, but that's just a fever dream.
