Played a very nail-biting game yesterday. Kestrel vs ISS rematch, 200 points Uplink Centre! ISS went first and dropped Jinyao behind Griffin duo. Next order deployed a repeater for the Zhanying Hacker to oblivion Griffin Feuerbach. Kestrel's turn 1 Banshee parachuted in behind Jinyao and shot up the repeater. Jinyao was out to lunch and missed 2 dodge AROs but somehow managed to tank some SMG rounds. Next exchange Jinyao went down to full SMG burst while Banshee avoided getting stuck by riotstopper. Banshee then got shot out of the sky while superjumping by Wu Ming HRL. The dreaded RedEye activated and tried to unsuccessfully spec fire grenades into the Zhanying-Bao MSR duo, only to get Flashpulsed by Sacha. Jackal panzerfausts deleted the Bao MSR and put Wu Ming HRL unconscious. Turn 2 highlights- Imperial Vanguard and Koga ninja came out of hidden deployment to get to the communication antennas. Vanguard got put unconscious by aro fires while ninja stayed safe in camo state. Speedball vitapacks came down (lucky roll for the second speedball) and got picked up by the celestial guards duo. One of the celestial guard managed to dodge her way up to the unconscious vanguard. RedEye dodged its way towards the centre objective and got oblivioned by the Zhanying hacker through a repeater. Griffin fuerebach reset out of isolation on a Crit roll of 3! Sacha unleashed her looted HMG into the Griffin with 4 successes but was denied by Griffin's Crit ARO! RedEye Crit reset out of isolation and tried to grab the central objective, but went down to E/M and other ARO fire. Turn 3 the celestial guard Lt heroically revived Wu Ming HRL with the vitapack and died from ARO fire. Wu Mings then reformed the duo and finally put down the Griffin fuerebach for good. Vanguard and ninja turned on their respective antennas and it was 6-1 victory to the State Empire! I took the Wu Ming Ap SMG and the HRL for the duo fireteam. They're so sturdy and tanked so many small arms fire. Bao MSR duo with Zhanying hacker has been my ARO piece and rarely survives turn 1, so I guess that's effective because my opponents have been prioritising removing him. Does Zhanying also get +1SD while hacking? RedEye is so over-tuned I think it deserves a nerf. Only reason it went down was because my opponent was fairly new at the game and made some sub-optimal moves and caused it to be ARO'd by multiple sources of e/m ammo and a lucky shot from the ap SMG. How do I post lists while using the forum and Army app on my phone?
So far in ISS, the troops that show up the most are: Always take Shenji A troop that can do almost everything. Veteran, Medium, Engineer with good guns and equipment. Able to be in any fireteam and can add to the team in many ways with deployable cover or turret. I tend to like the Dep Cover with AP Thunderbolt and Light Shotgun. Take most of the time Vanguard (Infiltration) Again an Elite, MI, Specialist. With infiltration and hidden deployment he's is always good. I can have him virtually anywhere I need him and safe until I do. The only time I don't take them are when there's a big Exclusion Zone. Sadly I don't like the figure and use a proxy. Deva Hacker and Dakini Sniper I almost always duo of these. Either regular HD or KHD. The Deva is just too good a hacker for ISS. Sometimes haris but not often.
For me the always take are the Koga ninja, vanguard infiltration, and Zhanying. Wu Ming HRL has been an often take as an ARO piece. I'd like to try the deva hacker with Dakini (sniper or HMG, which do you like?). Deva hacker could be really good with Jinyao deployable repeater.
At least starting in February 2026. Post: https://www.facebook.com/groups/152...832235503126271/?comment_id=24832278249788663 - So, in principle, the Bao Troop will be reskins. Perhaps we can expect a reboot of the profiles if there hasn't been one already, or at least some minor updates. - We should also expect changes to spec ops and spec ops characters, as in 2026 we are expecting a rewrite of the spec ops rules and more narrative-based campaign rules.
I don't trust anything Bostria says. Or at least with a grain of salt. I think CB, yet again, made a mistake by showing Xi and saying it was a spec op rather than Xi. Then people took it out of proportion and they never had any intention of re-doing spec op rules. They could be doing it, but I'm now more of a "believe it when I see it" person. I will not be getting the new figure. 1 I already have the old, 2 the sculpt is boring and not good enough for me to want to replace the old, 3 I never take him because his rules are totally meh. He doesn't do anything out of the ordinary, only counts as CSU or Celestial. The Discoball is a downgrade to me. He gained that but lost the combi and LFT. SMG are shit now even with +1B. Bao already got a update with n5. Albedo, more weapon profiles. Also cheaper. Sadly no specialist. Unfortunately the SMG and LSG versions feel like they are there to only give a bonus to the sniper or filler for others. Maybe a visor for the single secret objective. TBH I haven't used the +1B Thunderbolt yet. I wish they would bring back their Contenders.
It depends on the mission for me, I like the sniper because it can be pretty far back and many weapons will be at big negatives to hit with range, cover, and Mim-3. The Deva can watch the back as well as hack through repeaters. But for missions they need to be moving I prefer the HMG. The Spitfire Deva is good to. With WIP15 his chances at discover are good and they can take a hit. Only 1 SWC is nice too.
I’ll add that when I do the spitfire Deva, I usually make it a haris with a medic Dakini. Which also gives the Deva +3 to discover.
Yeah, the Dakini HMG, Dakini paramedic, and Deva any profile is a Haris I'd like to try for button pressing missions.
Imperial Service 2025 So new Imperial Service figures came out this year with revised rules and new troops. I played them regularly this year since it came out. The best I can I can say about them is that they are just okay. The new figures. Well... I did it. I bought new ISS starter. It was on sale 50% off at a local store so it was now worth it to me, even though I think I’ll only use 3 figures from it. The Koga, Jinyao, and Bayara. I might replace my old CG with the new ones. But I’m not sure it matters since I only tend to take the hacker, SGL, and sometimes Lt. I guess it's worth it at 50%. Otherwise, I'd probably not get it. For new players this is a good set though. The only one I think that’s worthless for a new player is the Red Fury Pheasant. This is not a troop anyone should be taking. Tac Aware is nice but it’s not worth it. The Jinyao was a bit horrible to put together and most of the troops that had two hands holding guns the wrists didn't mean the hand. I contemplated leaving the wings off the Jinyao but then thought it looked too goofy without. So far, I have not bought the Alpha, Beta, or Gamma. In fact, I might tell new players to NOT get the Beta (Shenji). It’s a total waste of money. The Alpha are great looking but I have old figures. The Gamma is ok. I almost never take the Jinwei now and the figure for the Vanguard is too boring. I’m sad about that because it’s a troop I take in almost every game. Both are still good for completely new players of IS. The Feiquan looks cool but I’m not getting it. Edit: I forgot about Xi because well it's pretty forgettable. The figure is meh and his rules are meh. Another one I'm not buying. Rules While I’m happy they made them more on theme with the Riotstoppers, I wish there was a rule that troops that are immobilized or Isolated at the end of the game count as dead. It can really suck going up against Morats with lots of E/M weapons. The new Vanguard are awesome and take at least one every game. However I'm increasingly irritated by the SMG. Even with +1 Burst it still sucks that I'm almost always in 0 or -3 range. Even if I do it something with it, it's not effective. Jinewei are ok. I took them earlier but as I said before the non-lethal hurts them in most missions. The Jinyao is ok. It’s nice to have but not spectacular. I was taking Bao but they kept getting replaced by other troops. Like I would use Major Lunah instead of the sniper. She’s just much better for the points. She’s not in a team but she’s still better. The Albedo has not helped them much at all. What I haven’t tried yet is the Thunderbolt profile. Bayara is one of the coolest looking figures but it’s a very situational troop for me. I’m honestly going to be using it more often as a MBH than as what it is. The Koga, again a cool figure, are only ok to me. They are expensive and don’t get much done for me. If they we Infiltration insed of FD +8” they would be better. The Shenji is a troop I always take. It’s not only a good engineer but a pretty good troops for anything else. I tend to take the AP Thunderbolt with Deployable Cover. I take the Deployable Shenji for the Long Wang. The LW has been really good for me. He’s only ok on his own, but with a Shenji he’s awesome. Most already know my feelings on the Feiquan. It sucks. Let’s move on. Su Jian with HSG and Thunderbolt however kicks ass. I haven’t used Sun Tze because I’ve been taking a Long Wang. He’s just too damn expensive for what little he does. Finally, most already know I think the Kanren are another disappointment. I have rarely taken them. Only once when I put one into suppressive fire on an objective worked well. If they all had madtraps I might be more likely to take them. But sadly, the madtrap one is not a specialist and can’t do anything meaningful after they are gone. What did they think a guy with just an SMG and Boarding Pistol is going to do? The Future It's hard to say with CB but I feel like we won't be seeing much more ISS figures. I know they have said things like new Bao, but I just don't trust them anymore with things like that. I'll believe it when I see it. just look at how little the JSA has gotten since it first came out. It got one of each new troop and haven't seen much since. When was the last time you saw something for Torchlight?
Oooh, ISS starter set at half price is indeed an excellent deal. I'd jump on that too. I have yet to try Jinwei and Kanren so can't comment on those. I've been using Shenji with Hsien to get the +1SD and often couldn't find points in my list for a Jinwei. I've been consistently taking the Vanguard or the Koga Ninja, sometimes both and often I'd also take a Ninja KHD. They have been great for button pushing and ambushing. The hidden deploy Vanguard profiles are worth the points as I find the parachutists' effectiveness relies on board set up. Jinyao I've been using as a counter to sniper or hard to crack heavies with long range weapons. Dropping down a repeater out of LoF has worked great for me. I want to try the Red fury profile to do back lines LI hunting. Wu Ming HRL I always take in a duo or Haris as resilient ARO. Bao sniper showed up in my list a lot, sometimes with Lunah. Although usually it's either or. The Bao sniper is a bit expensive but it's also something the opponent can't ignore. I usually use Lunch as an active piece and set the Bao as ARO. I want to try Bao thunderbolt with Pheasant for that extra deployment range. I want to try out Sun Tze, specifically the +1 Lt order profile. He can move himself for free between combat groups, along with his strategos L2 Lt orders. That's something! Su Jian I am still learning to use properly. I've been playing the spitfire profile but found the range band tricky with his speed. I've taken Adil three times so far, but haven't made full use of his abilities. Will need to play with him more.
I am just about to see how some of the new units work. I played two games with ISS, a win in B-Pong and a Draw (mostly because we played only two turns) in Crossing Lines. I did not use the TAG and the Jumper so far and the Dragon Lord. Finaly I managed to paint the new stuff from the big box and Jingwei, Qiangfeng and the Flyer are next on the painting table. So far I like the Hsien with one Jingwei and Shenji - L3 - put down a turret, shoot something with Hsien and later put the Jingwei on watch. I also like the Koga Ninja - bricked a Iggy for me and then finished it up in CC. The other game it just appear to put its points in a zone. I like that he has a lot of EM and the option for AD and FD. Next time I try it with FD and camo decoy. Jingwei are very good filler troops; their non leathal weaponary may not kill but normaly stop a attackrun if they hit home. Shenji is more of an expensive engineer. I miss the Sopho. Now the support in eng and doc are more bad and more expensive then before. Bayara - I tried it out in Crossing Lines and yes - there it shines. Still a situational unit. For fireteams I also like Wu Ming HRL and Zhanying Hacker - very nice duo. Wu Ming themself have good loadouts and firepower. Kuangs got nerved. Still an order battery but, not annoying enough anymore. Baos - I hope we see the resculpts soon - lost all their orginal loadouts except the sniper and yes for active work Lunah is much better. For ARO Baos are squishy. But any cheaper profile is a good duo partner for the Pheasant rank - mostly in missions with a lot of classifieds. I did not have the chance to test Kanren. In theory they are okay. Most of the time I find something other for their job. All in all I have the feeling, that ISS N5 is in a good shape. Not super hyped but good.
