Infinity isn't like say 40k, where some armies are just strongly disadvataged vs others. Any faction in Infinity can beat any other. A tier list for Infinity has more do with flexibility. That said, I would say yes for generic Pano. Pano, and any sectorial that lacks smoke is going to be a lot more rigid in how it can win missions. For comparison, the combine army is higher tech than Pano while having a lot more flexibility with access to smoke, elite melee specialists, warbands, etc. All of which Pano lacks. I'd definitely rate CA higher tier than Pano.
Yeah, flexibility is the keyword here. PanO is simply pushed a bit too far into one corner of the gameplay space. Mind, that any proposed solutions and giving us more flexibility would mean we'd have to lose some of the edge we have in shooting. Either by reducing BS on some of our units (I'd say most TAGs should go first), or by introducing more capable gunfighters in other factions.
So what are the narrow remaining options for vanilla Pano, that still work, and not way too hard to pull off consistently?
Because ? I want to underline a fact that a lot of factions even if they have nominally "worse" BS skill, still get around it either by stacking mods (hello TAK), superior guns (CA and plasma all around), or additional skills (Fatality / Full Auto), go around mathematical odds (Tohha with their superior resistance or SymbioMates), but they do not seem to suffer much of limitations in their "core" competences.
Oh, you think Zero AHD is more painful than the Riot Grrl FT? I know answers in MO against Zeros. I know any against the Grrls except throwing a Hospitaller HMG/Montesa Spitfire in their heads and pray (that's maybe the point about playing MO: praying when your BS isn't superior enough...).
Funny how Stempler Zond FTO managed to get a Super jump, just so you can link them with super jumping Hollow men, while Seraph's auxbot still can't get off the ground.
At least you cannot say that CB and testers are not learning from their mistakes. Not to mention 2 pages of rules just to get auxbot into bike.
But we have certain flexibility with eclipse-smoke in the Assault Guard's Auxbot... The problem here is that the Panoplayers prefers usually put on the table a BS 15 with HMG before smoke with BS10. If they are none watching so it is easy push the button without smoke.
Sources for eclipse smoke: Makaul, 13pts, PH13 Bunch of Myrmidon officers, 35, 38, 40 pts, PH 13 Chimera, 23 pts, PH 13 Senor Massacre, 26/29 pts, PH13 Rasyat ~30pts, PH13 Derp, the auxbot 6pts, BS10, stabbed itself in the eye with the LGL, doesn't even have an eye, still no smoke on the table after 5 orders.
(I laughed a lot with your description of the auxbot shooting ) Yeah, I know about others profile with eclipse... like too the myrmidons characters of official myrmidon.. :/. That is what I was saying. The Panoplayers choose shoot 4 burst agains a target with BS15 before launch smoke with a innaccurate remote. You have the option, but it is less effective than others, so nobody want to use it, or not the mayority of panoplayers. It is neccesary to fix it? I don't know. If all the factions have the same toys, so what would be the motivation to play one or other faction?? Only the lore?? What a boring game become Infinity, don't you think?
That's not even a fair comparison. Because you can't just buy that AuxBot, you have to pay a minimum of 49pts for a Guarda de Assaulto in order to get the least effective smoke deploying option in the entire game.
It all depends on the execution. Should we get Smoke Grenades on a new, Irregular, 5-10 pts warband - yeah, it'd be giving same tools to every faction. Should we get Eclipse Grenades on, say, a 34+ pts HI it'd give us a different tool. Similar, but not the same capability, different cost and application. Look at it this way; just because Nomads got an awesome shooter in the form of Kriza Boracs doesn't make them play like PanO, does it? The issue is exactly that we have very few options that can compete with BS 15 HMG. And Move+Shoot gets boring at some point.
I thought it would be a bit unfair to write 50pts there, because Guarda is a nice BS15 Spitfire/Multi rifle + HFT piece. Imo LGL should go on the Guarda, the HFT on the auxbot and call it a day. (And maybe the Guarda could also get a HFT) It's the most expensive smoke platform, and wouldn't even have the highest chance to throw it. Makaul throw with B2 (that's like 96% chance of success), Ariadna has smoke grenades on furries with PH16.
Don't, I managed to have the Auxbot miss with his LSG, in good range, across three orders, against an unconscious trooper! (6 dice, 16's, zero hits...) I just gave up after that as the Guarda had moved round the building killing other stuff in the mean time and just caught the corpse with his HFT. Gimme my TAG with Eclipse LGL /wishlist.
