First off, bravo on the fishy puns! I've not had chance to Trawl lists but I wonder if it's just the Minelayer profile that causes opponents to Flounder in the midfield? If we stripped the mines would that still give them a Plaice as a cheap disposable aggressive trooper but less of a no-brainer? Maybe bump the base SWC cost to 0.5 as well so there's more opportunity cost than just Combat Grouper slot?
I think the SMG profile already serves as a way of "cheap disposable aggressive trooper", but I hardly ever see that on the table as it lost the DEP. 10 points, 0 SWC, and a Panzerfaust might be just the thing to make that a reasonable profile. And drop the Chain-Colt - we really don't need absolutely everything having a DTW. For the minelayer, simply the opportunity cost due to Tactical Window being standard has balanced it IMO.
Yup at 1SWC it can be an absolute pain for fit in. Particularly now that it doesn't really help as much in a Camo shell game. - Chain Col + Panzerfaust gives most Vanillas an AVA1 Daylami. Possibly worth putting a 0.5 SWC tax on it. It's useful but not really OTT. Which is pretty much ideal for ITS Mercs.
Sliiightly costlier, FD+8" instead of FD+12" (ish), more annoying to deal with due to Dodge+6 but also if it puts a dent into something it loses cover. I think it's largely fine without a tax to separate it from Daylami and I would expect Haqq players to prefer the Daylami
Would a - Colt + Panzerfaust increase its cost to 10? I'd have expected - ~1pt + ~1pt. But yeah, even at 8pts it's not crazy.
Typically I prefer my Mercs to fill more unusual roles and enable a faction to act outside its usual competencies. The Liberto is so generally useful I haven't heard of anyone making a really competitive list not taking it if they have room (to the point that I have seen more than one person claim it's sometimes more useful in an Avatar list than the Avatar itself), since it offers Warband level trade potential on a Skirmisher level defensive platform with a price that matches some Morlocks. Frankly I think it should lose the Camo. It has zero issues trading up against anything short of a Chain Rifle Warband if they pass within 8 during reactive turn, it has Dogged for active rampages, it does not need to counter marker states by forcing a reveal to fight it or be able to run right past hard ARO as well.
I would say, give this TAG an AP Spitfire and a neat(MULTI or AP heavy) pistol so that it could leverage the nice dosage of Repeater.
It really depends. Quite often I can't fit them into Nomads. With 2 x Morans, 2 x Morlocks and a Chimera, 1SWC and another Irregular is hard to justify. Haqq you're paying 1SWC for Minelayer instead of taking a Daylami. In Ariadna it's a better Hardcase that costs SWC and is worse at the Camo shell games. YJ - honestly, I'm probably using that space for Kuang Shi or Shaolin if I want something cheap, and Guilang / Long Ya if I want a Minelayer: both bring me capabilities that Libertos lack in a 15 order count list. So it's very good, but it's not nearly as bad as late N3 - where it was a no-brainer option.
I'm in the nerf camp for this bad boy. Forward deploy, limited camo, template, dogged, big dodge, mine, cheap. Has the same problem as the muttawiah did - a few too many capabilities on one cheap profile. That doesn't even consider their basic BS attack options - I would field these as-is but downgraded to pistols for the same price. For me its entirely the minelayer profile thats an issue. A cheap, shit attack piece isn't broken any more with 15 orders. A cheap midfield delay piece is ubiquitous in my CA and Tohaa lists and I see them often in most factions that can take them. I'd argue that overall this profile has gotten better with the order cap rather than worse, with the high cost of removal being more of a factor than the single irregular in group two. As a rule of thumb, I see dodge+X as a points formula workaround to create undercosted units. Pretty much everything that has it should not have it, and instead PH should become cheaper (to somewhere between current cost and "hyperdynamics" price) and increase. So I see that +6 as a source of issues - he's getting a TON of annoyance ability for a minmax'd cost courtesy of an underpriced dodge stat. Another really good solution would be to simply remove the LSG. Going from a midfield minelayer with dodge and general annoyance, to that with either a scary +6 or an autohit, thats pushing the value up quite a lot. I think I'd prefer the LSG option, given that dodge is more interesting to use on the table. But either would put a dent in his current high value.
And what about that hilariously overpowered Dashat-exclusive profile? Dashat was such a fucking pushed sectorial I swear.
Step 1: Phase them out of most Vanilla lists. It's ridiculous they are the most prolific military force in the human sphere, with at least one on nearly every table. They're the freaking fish MPLA.
I don't mind the ITS Mercs overall. I just think that they could do with some clearing out to their forever home in certain sectorials after a period of time. Say their ITS year + 2-3yrs.
That or some sort of global shared AVA of one or two; that way people don't lose access to their favorite profile, but it keeps mercs (and merc characters) from dominating list composition.
I believe it's called "Soldiers of Fortune". The unpopularity of that extra may be either a symptom or cause of the insane Merc bloat over the last few years.
Nah the unpopularity of that extra is because some Mercs are absurd, particularly in homes they were not designed for. *cough McMurder* I think a good option would be to curate SoF so they it doesn't contain every Merc but ONLY contains "generally accessible" Mercs. Which is probably, every non-Character Merc. IE. SoF: Any faction/sectorial is allowed up to 75pts from a faction specific list of Mercs* for a cost of 1SWC. During their ITS year ITS Mercs are generally available, afterwards they are only permitted as part of the 75pts or in their "home" sectorial. * Mostly excluding Merc Characters but also other minor additional limitations: IE no YYs for YJ or Libertos for PanO.
Is that really a problem? Most general merc profiles are flavorful but not really playable due to better options in vanillas. The only truly popular ones are Krakot and Libertos because they are cheap direct tempate delivery systems with upside. Knauf got really good for Ariadna in N4 but thats about it. I think Libertos should not be playable for Aleph and O12 for flavor reasons - and it would hit his ubiquity. Gameplay wise I think taking away DEP and mimetism from his camo state were decent nerfs and it is not as horrifying as it was in N3. Dashat versions are still stupid, yes.
I don't think people have quite realised how good Knauf is yet. It's a bit off topic, but are there any long range units in factions he's in that are more cost effective?
