How about an AHD with a decent enough Upgrade it can actually go face-to-face with a KHD? Needing to worry about the Firewall would make the carrier need to use caution around enemy repeaters, but I feel it would be a more fun and useful option then the Specialist Operative with an Internet gun.
Devas don't get Deflector 2 If Zuyong gets a Hacking Device (preferably normal, but it doesn't matter for this comparison if it's an AHD), then that's enough to give paus to active turn Hackers having better chance of punishing an Apsaras KHD than a Ninja KHD does. A Shang-Ji is a sizeable investment but together with Deflector 2 they already have much greater chance than a Ninja KHD and slotted into a Zuyong Fireteam for a slightly cheaper Sixth Sense, the only Hacker that would want to get close to that Shang-Ji is one that is attacking through a friendly Repeater, and preferably has Deflector of their own. Shang-Ji hacked by an active turn Apsaras KHD has roughly 25% risk of taking a wound and 21% chance of shutting the Apsaras KHD off. While I think a HI KHD on a platform linkable with Zuyong or Shang-Ji are on par with some of the curveball stuff that CB has designed for the game lately, keep in mind that Hacking is not really meant to be Yu Jing's forte, so KHD on those platforms are probably completely out of the question on the simply basis that it'd completely shut down the hacking game. Daoying is more likely and I'd love it if the Daoying Sniper had a KHD just for the sheer weirdness of the combination. Edit: For comparison, a Zuyong KHD in a Fireteam with a Zuyong Tinbot B and 3 other miscellaneous Zuyong has 36% chance of wounding a WIP 14 BTS 3 KHD and only 27% risk of taking a wound. This is, again, when it's the Apsaras/Barid/etc having B2 and the Zuyong having only B1 and there's no way I can think of to make those odds better thanks to KHD ignoring Firewalls and 5-man link providing Sixth Sense.
Yeah, I dont think IA has the place for a linked KHD because that would really screw up any hacking attempt - their HI links already look like they have deflectors. But a KHD somewhere, preferably infiltrated? Yeah, that would be a boon.
Would make sense considering their name, however, Haidao are implicitly linkable with Zuyong which would give them access to Deflector 2 (see my example above what they do to a good enemy KHD when the enemy KHD has active turn). As a result, combining Haidao in Fireteam with one or two Lu Duan you can theoretically murder any hacker on the board with near impunity (Lu Duan has marker state and can thus Move-Move to avoid having their Repeater fried by a Blackout ARO, unless we get actual Deployable Repeaters and/or Pitchers as well)
And bro, this is what I usually set-up when I see some nasty hacker. Good you mentioned it! Besides, can I get the info about Haidaos linking with Zuyong? Or CB would take KHD out from linkable option, like Scots 2nd Battalion.
On the sectorial army chart, all they have is Special Fireteam and their dossier has a weapon loadout that's extremely reminiscent of what Doctors and Engineers typically have. Bostria has also in the Spanish forums applauded that naval insignia tend to indicate sapper regiments (or combat engineers), so I'd deem the likelihood of their Special Fireteam being more or less the same as Tai Sheng's - meaning I expect Shang-Ji and Zuyong for them.
Pan-O are getting linkable KHDs in their MO Knight links, and the KHD brings his own deflector bot so I'd say you're off the mark there CB doesn't seem to have an issue with it conceptually.
Fair Enough! Will look forward to them, still I think, applying to your point, the Engineers could link up; while KHDs.. yeah, I doubt it.
So PanO can have a Santiago with KHD and deflector A in any of their knights fireteams, where almost all knights enjoy Stealth and we have people saying a linkable KHD in a link with deflector B would be too OP? IA links don't have stealth, besides almost anything in IA is hackable and extremely vulnerable to E/M with exception of Zanshis… That means enemy hackers will have more chances to be useful. Therefore I see no balance problem making hacking difficult for them. Keep in mind against Knights enemy hackers will have less hacking chances because of Stealth. Personally I'm expecting KHD on a HaiDao profile or ShangJi. Failing to that I would expect it at least on Hulang or a not yet revealed Zencha profile.
I wasn't actually aware of that change for Santiago. Sounds... weird... to put that in MO and not Nomads/CA
I'm quite surprised to hear objections to KHDs appearing inside links. Doing so carries it's own limitations. Not least because if the hacker isn't the only one within the hacking area the opponent can just accept the likely death of their hacker and choose to hack another member of the fire-team. (Not much better odds I'll grant you but it's not a face to face roll any more.) The Combined have a number of hackers with the Exile upgrade program which is especially annoying against links. (So that Tinbot is going to be essential in my opinion.) KHDs are amongst the most limited tools in the game, the only program that isn't exclusively for use against enemy hackers is cybermask. It's going to be a very hard counter to enemy hackers if we can put one inside a link team with a deflector L2 but that's it. If the enemy just try to gun our guys down (because they're Ariadna for example and don't bother with hacking) then the potency of this option doesn't have any impact. Is it bad to have a hard counter option to something that's only ever an optional way of playing? On the one hand I've seen people post asking how IA will deal with the threat of enemy hacking. On the other we now have fears about the combo of KHD with deflector, which would be an effective counter. The base concept doesn't appear to be unacceptable to CB so why would this be so problematic?
For hacking, we should have fastpandas! It drives me mad that the Chinese sectorial doesn't get the anime robot pandas! WTF??
They're wildcard too, and they bring their own tinbot to the link. It's pretty nuts any link can phone in a KHD+Tinbot on an HI model. With that said the traditional hacking factions still maintain superiority over it with better hacking devices with better programs.
Hmm, thinking on it, besides Tohaa Pan-O is probably the last faction I'd expect to get this interaction, so if it's in MO then I throw out all my arguments and leave it unspoken whether IA gets a similar thing through Shang-Ji or Haidao. (No, I didn't forget Ariadna exists, they're sufficiently Mary Sue that getting it through a Merc or a self-taught genious is entirely likely)
Nah, Ariadna won't get a KHD. They'll get an HD+ with UPGRADE: All KHD programs. And it'll be on a Dog Soldier to boot. Because Ariadna.
Armored vehicles get smoke dispensers quite regularly. It's not a dirty trick to use it to protect your fellows or set up your opponent to be punched in the face. Isn't one of the guiding principles of Invincibles to avoid treating troops as disposable? Blocking accurate fire seems a pragmatic way to do it. Pan O is the most economically powerful faction in the Human Sphere (Excepting ALEPH), they have the tech and resources. They have the infrastructure to remote control their TAGs in such a way they outperform the top of the line TAGs of their rivals. It's just their troops aren't as battle hardened in ways that don't involve shooting.
...and Yu Jing is mobilised to a much higher degree than Pan-O are with cutting edge technology research (and theft*) so shouldn't have a problem, either, but in game terms having clever and potent hacking combinations have been actively avoided for both Pan-O and Yu Jing to the point where I'd rank them absolute bottom of the factions that actually have hacking. Sticking KHD on Haidao and/or Shang-Ji would likely turn that around on its head if there were also a Pitcher or DepRep to be found outside of Guilang. However, if the Sectorial Preview is correct in that Shang-Ji has lost their Duo, then that's sad for Vanilla since that could've formed one of few Duos in Vanilla really worth going for (Shang-Ji KHD+TinbotB) * You know, like how Pan-O stole the tech to make Swiss Guard armour.
