With the changes now public, what are our new strategies? Bravery adds some interesting options to our MI. Do we position the Sekban HRL for better AROs? Put the Djanbazan HMG closer for offensive purposes? The change to AD doesn't seem to do much for us, but the new classifieds are interesting. Fiday seem even stronger with Predator. Sekban, as elite troops, also get a boost as do Khawarij and the already strong Ayyar. The shift away from specialists hurts us a bit as our high WIP gives us incredible specialists, but we still have plenty of strong tools remaining. So what are the best plans for ITS 10? How should we ensure that Bourak remains strong?
If you play QK, it's not as useful if you're running the Djanbazan link with Hafzas, because the Hafzas can't FD1 with their real squadmates. Anything behind the deployment line might be a Hafza or a Djanbazan, but anything beyond it is 100% a Djanbazan. I can definitely see some useful pieces for Vanilla, but the sectorials don't benefit much from the MI/AD changes.
Lasiqs get a big benefit in HB though, especially rifle Lasiqs. Four inches closer to just get popped into suppression.
That would be their only claim for glory... and they're still the only Bahram troop to benefit from this rule (I mean, we do have another MI, but is this bonus going to be any good to Ragiks?). Now QK, with their Djanbazan, Sekban and Druze Core / Haris / Duo teams are another thing, at least if you keep them true (i.e. without Hafzas mixed in). But QK is still underhanded in the Characters section. Leila is formally classidieed as Line Troop, and Scarface & Cordelia as Mercenary Troop - neither of them is a Character (compare to Hassassin Bahram: Yasbir and Hussein al-Djabel are labelled Characters, while Leila Sharif is still Line Troop...).
Seeing as how I play Bahram and never use the Lasiq - MI bonus is wasted. I did decide to take a Ragik Hacker for objective heavy missions, though, because of the Landing area bonus, now I need to test how he behaves.
Characters are affected by that bonus in very uneven way, especially Dire Foes and Mercs. They really should get standarized as Character troop type. Lasiqs are, as usual, in need of something to have any raison d'etre.
To toss whatever handful of cents I have into this discussion... I'd say the new changes really do a good deal of nice stuff for Vanilla Haqq. From Djans and Druzes being able to deploy in potentially more favorable starting locations, to Sekbans being able to get into position easier and do work as genuinely annoying 360 Visor obstacles. Lasiqs benefit too, IMO, since the sniper will be able to obtain potentially better sniper nests and the Rifle one will be able to either start further up the board for easier active rifling or be in a better position to assume a position to suppress. For Saladin... maybe there's a really tall tower with an inaccessible roof just outside your DZ to plop him on for him to be safe and sound? Ragiks being, IMO, pretty good AD: Combat Jump troops will see perhaps better opportunities to perhaps go for a gamble and decide to drop into a favorable position over safely walking into a less favorable one. Still have yet to memorize the classifieds perfectly, but... I'd say the fact you can now use your high WIP on non-specialists to accomplish certain classifieds is neat. For the sectorials though... for Bahram, same words said to Lasiqs and Ragiks stand. For Qapu though... well, Yuan Yuan can now drop onto more favorable drop sites too, I suppose, and your three MI links can kinda benefit ( The issue of having your ''Guess the Hafzas'' ''advantage'' become less effective due to, well, Hafzas not being MI so not being quite as good at pretending. ) from this too, I suppose. Solo MI pieces are still just as happy as in vanilla, I'd say. I'd say Haqq is pretty decently off with the new rules.
This came up over in the YJ forums, and I'll say the same thing here I said there: I wonder if that’s an error. She has the “this unit is a character” note on her profile in army despite being classified as an LI. All the dire foes prior to her box seem to be characters. All the dire foes since her box (Xi, Leila, Rosie, Ker Nau, and Yuriko [who changed when her faction shifted]) don’t come up as characters. But that means that factions like Haq, Ariadna, and CA have some dire foes who are characters and some who aren’t (Yasbir, Isobel, Treitak, and Corax all come up as characters).
Playing QK I firmly believe these changes are clearly advantageous. A fairly wide range (Johhny Bazaar, Sekban, Druze) of troopers are MI and can use the additional room to deploy pretty well. See that excellent snipers nest only a couple of inches away from the DZ? There goes Johhny Bazaar. Or HRL Sekban. A lot of units that see a lot of use (KTS, Druze, Janissaries, Johhny and Sekban) are Veteran or Elite. With a wide range of (pretty darn) useful specialis array those calssifieds will pose no problem at all. Yuan Yuans are even better than they used to be. And they were reason number one no sane TO was willing to use Soldiers of Fortune extra...
Lasiqs are the first thing that come to mind, but I'm not going to go out of my way to play them for this. But I may be tempted to upgrade any list with a Ragik to a Ragik Spitfire. I rarely play the spitfire due to the SWC cost, but being able to deploy a spitfire in prime range of a deployment zone has its potential.
QK have a lot of veteran choices so I don't think them being without characters is going to hurt; KTS, Druze, Janissaries, Mobile Brigada and Azrail are more than up to the job of kidnapping a HVT. a big Druze core link is looking very attractive and juan juans are always fun and being able to land them in midfield alleyways out of ARO now is definitely going to ruin someone's day
