Where did you see Aida in Spiral? I certainly can't find her. I was recently looking at Spiral Corps again and I do agree there are a few weird design choices. Tri-Core seems to be the most obvious example. Why on earth would someone like a Taagma be unable to implement his superior tactical skills with anyone of his own race, but suddenly have no problem with some random human Merc dudes? Tri-Core on the Tohaa triads would be a good start imo. I personally don't need Diggers back. But I agree they make a lot more sense in a sectorial like Spiral than in a lot of other armies they're currently in. I also don't understand a lot of the fireteam restrictions. Here are the most obvious fixes off the top of my head: Make all Kaauri linkable. Give Reex and Kriigel pure bonuses at least. They're literally described as being designed to work as a team together in the fluff. Let Kosuils link with Anacondas. Make humans linkable with more Tohaa troops, not just Taagma and Kiel-Saan. Basically, as everyone else already said: Make the in-game Spiral Corps match the Spiral Corps fluff more.
Well it's not like they know she's Shasvastii lol. To them she's just a human criminal they can work with.
Spiral sells itself as an anti Shasvastii mercenary company, so I think adding Gao-Real, (with perhaps a slightly tweaked profile), could be a nice addition. Especially if they cold Haris with Kaauri. I think one of the key problems I run into with Spiral v. Tohaa is that as a sectorial, one of the key things a sectorial brings, (fireteams), is diminished when I compare it to the fireteams Tohaa already has. To me the only real way to make Spriral more enticing would be to expand the effectiveness of those link teams (which the Tricore used to do, but doesn't do enough anymore), or give them more interesting options. The couple of unique fireteams Spiral does have are composed around rather expensive units, so rather than being an interesting option, they are more something you would have to plan the army around. The one thing it does bring is a Brawler core, which is not terrible, but it is also not not terribly exciting considering how expensive the base brawler is, and it is not very versatile if one wants to maintain the composition bonus.
Sorry, meant Tohaa not Spiral, was distracted while ranting :) She’s a Shas agent and Spiral, or Tohaa in general, are pretty good at rooting those out. She belongs in Tohaa less than Libertos would belong in Varuna. These are good solutions tuning up the already available unit pairings instead of wishlisting new units in. Kosuil/Anaconda would be a lot of fun.
Give alle tohaa troops (triad) as keyword for composition Bonusses und give the tricoreprofile AVA 2. So Spiral could field two, triads with Full core bonusses. That would at least be something special if and goe often one would fiel it is another question considering how SWC hungry Spiral tend to be. Disclaimer: might have another view on Spiral as I started infinity after the Fall of the daedalus gate so Spiral are the "only" viable Option for me as newer Player to Play tohaa as some pivotal troops for tohaa are gone and very Hard to find on the secondhand Market.
Going over the SC roster, I was struck by how they're the only NA2 merc sectorial that doesn't blend units from a couple of the big factions. Druze get their own Druze core units, then Pano and Haqq on top, with a sprinkle of JSA. Ikari get JSA with YJ, Haqq, Pano and a sprinkle of Ariadna Foreign Company get lots of Pano with Nomads and Haqq Star Co get lots of Nomads, Ariadna, Haqq Dahshat get lots of Haqq, YJ and a little JSA & Ariadna White Company get Pano with YJ, and a sprinkle of Aleph, Ariadna and Haqq. Whereas Spiral get... Helots. That's literally the only unit outside of generic mercs and (a vastly reduced list of) tohaa units that they get access to. So while I think fireteam compositions could be reworked to make them a little bit more interesting, I stand by the idea that the fundamental problem with them is that for an NA2 merc sectorial, they are completely under-served in terms of actual mercs and faction-flavoured units picked from outside NA2. Spiral were obviously conceived to follow the NA2 template, where you 1) take a bunch of units from one (or sometimes two) factions, and 2) pepper them with a few more from other factions and 3) lots of mercs. Unfortunately, CB just 1) took a bunch of units from Tohaa, and pretty much forgot about steps 2 and 3! They are alone in this, and it really feels that way when list building. Not to beat a dead horse, but that's why removing diggers from Spiral but not from any other NA2 secotirals felt so egregious. So to pick up from what someone was saying before, I think Spiral, to actually be Spiral should have access to some Varuna units like one or two from Echo Bravos, Crocmen or Zulu-Cobra, AVA1. Then maybe one 'sprinkle' unit from Ariadna, Haqq or Aleph. The obvious outlier in all this is JSA, and Spiral do share some similarity with them, in that they're NA2 and get their own army box. But while JSA have lots of unique units, ALL of Spirals are present in Tohaa, with the exception of one or two loadouts. So yeah, the other option for making Spiral unique is to pull Kiuutan, Jaan, Draal, Taagma and Kriigels from Tohaa. That would make sense, but annoy Tohaa players much as YJ players were aggrieved by JSA. Sorry for the essay, but I think this analysis is important in diagnosing why Spiral 'feels' so incomplete, despite their undeniable coolness. :)
Hey, just a heads up - CA Tohaa make great proxies. Maakrep and Fraacta (with wing removal!) gives you some really nice Sukeul and Taquel proxies. Your only real problem then is Makaul, which is tough because they're indispensable.
I do feel Spiral falls much more in the JSA category than in the NA2 category. But I agree, fluff wise it's a Merc Company, while JSA is the army of the (new) Japanese nation. Play wise it's not even that there are too few Mercs, but too little of everything: Tohaa — but not all units Triads – but gutted Tricore Mercs – but too few units Human-Tohaa mixed fireteams – but too restricted composition I guess it speaks for how cool Tohaa are that the sectorial is still pretty badass despite these shortcomings.
I used Maakrep as Gao Real. A couple of arm swaps and i have every loadout. Fraacta as Gao Tarsos, but as you said, i also used a wingless Fraacta with a green stuff cape and female head as a Taquel. For the Sukeul, i'm lucky enough to have the K1 rifle model. I used a Kriegal for the HMG profile. I converted an HMG, used a spare ammo belt from a chaksa and ammo hopper from a model kit. I even converted a K1 sniper rifle using a spec ops and spare sniper rifle from a Maakrep. And of course they both have green stuff face masks. The Makauls, i used spare chaksa. They already have flame throwers, so i gave them some close combat weapons. The Nikoul, i used a Taagma sniper, swapped the head with a Fraacta, and gave him a removable base and modeled some cover on the bigger base. There are definitely ways to proxy and covert the missing OOP Tohaa profiles and in my opinion, its more worthwhile to go through all that, than playing Spiral Corps.
Well they seem to have players lol. I only ever see discussions in SC and JSA. Play as well. I can't rememeber the last time I saw Ikari, FC, or StarCo. I did watch someone try out Dahshat the other day.
I think Spiral is intended to be to Tohaa as Ikari is to JSA. Something that remixes a selection of the original units with a few new mercenaries. Looking at Fireteam composition of the other NA2s, most still don't mix fireteams between their source armies (i.e Forco has a nomad Securitate/CSU team, a Kaplan team, and a Pano Orc/Bolt team. Ikari has two JSA teams and a WuMing team) but they usually have more wildcards than Spiral gets.
We have a very enthusiastic Dhashat player in our community, and I just played a 150pts game against Ikari last Friday. That same evening, our local Starco player tried Corregidor for a change. On the other hand, I haven't seen a single SC player in our meta yet.
I was thinking of doing Ikari or Dashat again. I haven't played them in years. Spiral Core has been one of those that I've wanted to play but haven't had the money to get many figures.
Just sold my ikari, sick of starting the game in loss of lieutenant lol. The new edition hasn't been very kind to them tbh
At least they gained a Lt. lol But yeah they are tough to play. Especially due to the lack of Lt. options.
Meh, playing shell games with crappy and limited Lt. choices is also a problem for Nomads. Never found it different when playing Ikari. Playing “Which of these 3 widely-distributed Keistosu/Brawlers do you want to waste orders on?” is not terribly fun on either side, true. But it’ll get you through, and the additional cost of fielding troops who could be Lt.s as your order farm instead of flashbots or whatever isn’t that high. It would be a lot more fun and less repetitive if there were other options though, true. And if that stupid rule about Lt. WIP being open info got changed. Really, if Hawkwood and Voronin are characters who see gameplay, it would be pretty damn cool to see Col. Ikari get a unit entry, even if a mini were unlikely.
Do you really believe CB would be able to restrain themselves from making a mini for a character once they've actualy made a profile...?
I certainly hope not! But a single mini, for one of the most despicable/interesting villains/antiheroes in Infinity seems like a great idea. It would also unlock a whole sectorial from lame to doable. Give him Veteran, make him a tough bastard with NBW and/or Total Immunity, you’ve got someone very difficult to alpha-strike even if he’s Obvious Lt. Numero Uno.
I can't really comment on that. I haven't seen the Ikari Company in a game, so I can't tell what their strengths and weaknesses are. Limited Lt. & Command opitons? True, that hurts - but as it was already noted, Nomads are in the exactly same point (playing Corregidor myself, I know the pain, too: 3 Lt. options, neither of them really stellar, and no CoC. Though, true, a better coverage of NCO. Bakunin seems to be better off there, and Tunguzka ain't bad either). Nobody calls any of the Nomad sectorials to be lame - in some cases, quite the opposite, given some of their recent acquisitions. Druze have the same problem as Ikari in this regard, except they trade the budget option of a Keisotsu Lt. for a way more expensive Druze Lt. No CoC, no NCO, not Tactical Awareness besides the TAGs. Yes, Druze have their problems, but in my eyes, the chief one of their problms is a lack of a proper Heavy Infantry capable of forming fireteam Pain Trains (I wouldn't call the Diggers a proper heavy infantry...). This makes building up a Druze list, especially in the more limiting formats (Limited Insertion) quite a problem. The Ikari Company seems to have that box ticked in a pretty solid way. Well, given we have a Japanese-themed Merc sectorial, I was thinking about a Heavy Infantry writeup from the step one. Build col. Ikari's armor on a Wu Ming or Dayokai chassis (Tanko somehow doesn't seem to fit the bill in my eyes). Or, for a really odd twist, make him use a heavily modified Al Fasid armor. But the more I look at the Dayiokai, the more it seems the right fit. Make a few tweaks to the skills to give him a different feel from a standard Dayiokai, and, well, Genzo is your uncle ;)
Yeah, they're just built around the old days where large amounts of cheap crap won games, but now we're limited to 15 orders and poor fireteam composition, ikari are creaking a bit in missions that require brute force. Tbh, all of na2 could do with a lick and a spit when it comes to force composition, fireteam and lt options for me. Think they only got a cursory update to n4 and a full balance pass would really help the game right now
