I think the profile is a bit too expensive for what you get right now. Due to the reduction in power from Impersonation, it's no longer the terror weapon it once was. I would prefer if it was 0.5 SWC instead of 1. If I pay 1 SWC for something I want it to be nearly as intimidating and potentially destructive as a weapon like an HMG or rocket/missile launcher. I no longer get that feeling, I feel that while good the Speculo is significantly worse than those options now.
I just think the model is too expensive now for what it can do, instead of, looking for alternatives. The 1 SWC was absolutely justified in N4 and it feels like a bit too much now for what you get now. There's a huge difference between -3 and -6 and in N4 Biometric Visor still had to Discover them twice, now only one. Even if some of the Skills were buffed I have trouble justifying the SWC cost. Just like the Ûberfall Commando was a bit too cheap in N4 the Speculo seems a bit too expensive in N5 even though nothing has changed about the profile that I can see.
Why even 0.5 SWC? Presumably because of the Monofilament CC weapon but still. You could make the argument that between it and the Fiday there was some level of competition between them. The Fiday was more economical but wasn't as effective against beefier targets. But now the Fiday with MA3 is so much better at making sure he can get the kill against mim based targets. Even keeping it at 1 or go to 0.5 SWC, I'm also of the opinion that it would need to see a points drop. MA lvl 3 is such a big breakpoint. I probably would be ok to still pay 0.5 or even 1 SWC and nearly 30pts if it was MA3. That +1SD atleast makes it far less likely you get a bad roll and lose your 30pt model to some CC15 trooper. My guess is the designers concern is having monofilament kill off TAGs with ease so the idea is to shoulder an element of risk. But that monofilament attack still fails 40% of the time. Where you see MA3 pay off big time in Shasvastii is with Caliban now. Caliban D-charges always felt risky even against basic troopers to feed Protheion wounds. But by getting the +1SD it makes slapping D-charges far nicer even with the -6. You'll still be hitting on 20s anyhow unless you face someone with MA. And because of that I find it even better now to have my Caliban blowing troops up into little giblets. And this would all still be true even without the Impersonation nerfs and bio visor buffs. Although to be fair the bio visor change I'm less miffed about since it never really felt like the kind of counter equipment to IMP that it's supposed to be.
SEF have had a weird N5. On the plus side, they got Dukash, and the insane new Noctifer spitfire (that x-visor is epic), and Jayth are no longer actively awful, and AP on Corax's spitfire, and the buff to nanoscreen, and Qdrones are now way better on balance due to the death of core teams. On the negative they lost Taighas as anything other than mineclearers. They are probably the worst warband in the game now, but SEF still have to take one or two because they have so many expensive flimsy 1-wound models, so lists demand chaff. They took 3 big nerfs to the chin: 1) loss of any ranged weapon, which is crazy 2) berserk is now f2f, and they're not actually good in CC, and 3) viral cc weapon now bounces off of structure, making them pillowfisted against 1/3 of units, even if they do get lucky. The experience of playing them is a weird one as they literally do very little now. Compare a 6pt Taigha to a morlock, monk, highlander, ghazi, yuan yuan or zellenkrieger and it's just pitiful. Calibans are no longer the terror they were, due to the -6 on dcharges in CC and I think that they a) got no point reduction for eg boarding shotgun nerf, which is weird, and b) are the only MA3 unit in the game without a CC weapon (no ap, da, em, etc.). Like Taigha's, Calibans in CC are now a bit of a crapshoot, where you're just hoping for dice to make your play work, and they bounce against tough targets instead of trading or feasting. Anyway, to the point of this post! :D ... Speculos have taken a nerf too, but I'm not sure how bad it is. The shift to -3 is fine imo, as it doesn't alter their basic ability, which is to be able to move 12"-20" unopposed and surprise attack cc a high priority target. They also suffer from the loss of templates, but then they'll be less impactful as the game shifts to a situation where haris is as large as teams get, generally. Finally, they benefit massively frmo the drop in the number of templates, so I think we'll have our Speculos survive their attack runs a lot more commonly. Overall SEF have changed so much, and the two units that I loved the most (Taighas and Calibans) have taken the biggest hits, with the Caliban remaining a good unit, just not the terror it once was. Speculos are still great, but that swc cost is a bit silly, I agree with you all. I can't say I'm a fan of SEF in the new edition, and if I had the chance to play N4 SEF instead I would every time. That isn' t ideal, as they were probably my fave army to play at the end of N4. I've asked @Koni if he'd consider making a separate Taigha profile for SEF, so they only receive the zerk & viral CC nerfs in their home sectorial, rather than losing any kind of ranged weapon too(!), but I doubt it'll stick. Taighas in CA were suboptimal by the end of N4 anyway, with top players leaning more towards gakis and pretas, so perversely CA won't be affected by their meganerf, while it leaves SEF in a much worse state. PS sorry for derailing from Speculos a bit :)
SEF, or any other Shasvastii units is another issue I see as separate from the Speculo Killer. They feel like glass cannons who left the cannon at home. The Speculo feels like a proper glass cannon, though I would like to see the increase from MA2 to 3 and a reduction in SWC at least. As for the Speculo, it's less that it has taken a hit and more that it feels overcosted for what it can do now. The combination of skills and gear it has was quite oppressive in N4 and much less so in N5 yet it still costs the same in points and SWC, that's my issue.
I think it was the combination of Skills and Equipment. Having both Impersonation and a Mono-filament meant that you could use it as a missile to hopefully take out an important target before it died, swapping, so to speak. Now it's just a relatively easy "Alarm, Alarm, Ein Fallista!" and then it's dead.
Impersonation is still undercosted and overpowered. Any actual mods imposed on the marker state are completely irrelevant in the face of getting two layers of it anyway, and biovisors are rare and still not an actual counter. You get to start directly outside the enemy DZ with no roll, are guaranteed a minimum of 12" of movement, up to 20" before you make your attack, and your targets are less likely to have templates to force a trade with in response. And you pay less than infiltration for it. If you can't make that work, that's on you.
it would depend a lot on which infiltrator are you thinking, some are cheaper than the speculo, others of course are more expensive... As a Hassasin player I can tell you impersonators had a huge nerf... and I think the speculo had worse. 1. It cost SWC because monofilament... Ok, I could understand that, but in N5, pretty much all HI and several TAGs are now cheaper, so the prize to kill a heavy and expensive unit from the enemy is lower... 2. Impersonators don't apply any kind of mimetism, so if they need to shoot, they will do worse than the average camouflage infiltrator. Relying only in surprise attack. This make less appealing to do BS attack with an impersonator. 3. Smoke (not only for impersonators) isn't so easy to place, so you need to be confident in impersonator state. 4. Having now a -3 instead of -6, means in active turn any guy who see the impersonator probably will have a 50% to remove it, that means most probable than in N4 to be in second impersonator state, which could be an extra order plus not a so optimal movement. But while in active turn you can handle the -3. It has not so much impact. But in reactive, now it means any profile will easily hunt you in his active turn, so the preasure a speculo does now in reactive turn is really really lower. 5. Not only they are more BiometricV. but N5 is quite easy to have a bunch of profiles with +3 to discover, which makes easy to catch impersonators. 6. Speculos only have 2 kind of profiles, so isn't too complicate to be prepare. 7. Shotguns are now less effective, this means the path for the speculo is easier to block, so isn't too complicated to force the impersonator's roll to catch high value targets. I could think in a couple of points more, but I think those above are enough. I think for many complains about profiles going down or being less useful in N5 are a matter to keep thinking on N4, or profiles which were too OP, so now, without no discounts or some adjustment, but for the speculo I don't think would be the same.
While it's correct that you pay less the context is that a lot of Infiltrators on the whole are cheaper. Just within the Vanilla CA the Shrouded and Malignos profiles are all cheaper than the Speculo or in the case of the Malignos costs the same. Within Haqqislam, the only other faction with Imp 1 Impersonation there are THREE units that all have Infiltration in their profile or can get it where all the profiles are cheaper than a Fiday, one that has more expensive profiles, and one profile one unit that costs more than the cheapest Fiday.
Speculos remain to be more impressive in potential than performance, I will agree that some form of tweaking is needed.
It's potentially more impressive and all that potential comes down to the mono-filament blade. The Fiday is on average more effective since the MA3 and the SD make it more likely that it wins in CC. If the Speculo had MA3 it would still be over-costed, though by less, since the models it can get a really good ROI on if you do a swap have on average become cheaper with some of them going down to its point cost or lower while having a lower SWC. It can kill a cheap Lt and a Fiday is a lot better at that due to the DA CC weapon and MA3. Even Al-Djabel, who's now insanely effective with MA4, is cheaper and he has a Viral CC weapon which makes him a lot more dependable against VITA targets than the Speculo which is rather hit-or-miss due to the one save-only possible unless you get a crit. The Regen of the Speculo is a lot less impressive than it sounds even though it has the potential to eat an Order with the sheer amount of Shock that goes around these days. Also, was the Speculo always priced at 31/28 in N5? I remember it as being 35 and 34. Anyway, it's still too expensive for what it does since it costs 1 SWC. That point cost would be a lot more acceptable if it went down to 0,5 SWC. The nearest comparison I can think of is the Umbra Samaritan Hacker at 42 points and 0,5 SWC. The stats and Skills make it an absolute beast in CC and it still has both a plasma carbine and a Vorpal CC weapon. There's no reason that the Speculo should be 1 SWC in N5.
The flip side is that shotguns are also less effective at defending against Speculos ("You'll kill my one guy, but I'll put one or two templates on you and stop you in your tracks")
Yeah, sure, I noticed I failed to make my point in this particular. I mean, n4, if you place a guy blocking the access to the roof, a nobody, then your VIP a few inches away, and prone, speculo still could go there reach CC with the nobody and do "shoot" placing the templates, this will end being most likely -6 to dodge for the VIP, so it wasn't so hard to put down a 1 wound model. Now, the nobody truly can "block the door". Speculo have to kill the nobody with all the consequences and extra orders. Plus now against shotguns enemies only need to do BS attack. N4 they were pretty much forced to dodge. This isn't only a thing for speculo or impersonators, but a lot of profiles, but still for how impersonators usually work back in N4, are some of those profiles that are noticing hard all the changes. However, still playable in my humble opinion all of them.
