I agree - Nomads are getting some nice TAGs in addition to what they already have (They started with 3 I guess). The Gator is a great all around good TAG and the Stigma a new niche hacking one. For a faction like Nomads thats a lot of TAG stuff: 6 and therefore # 2 in TAGs. While YJ as the so called second hyper power (YJ#1!) looks at two and one of them was added not so long ago, while the main TAG needs ages to be as good as it is now (and still a bit pricy). It is about time for a third one ...
I hope all of those optimised profiles will be balanced by the "Bakunin only" thing. What is the weakness of such a faction ? Smoke tricks, hacking, HI and TAGs, mimetism, camo markers... I don't see any obvious flaws such as "no smokes"/"few specialists"/"bad lieutenants"/"bad CC"/"no TAGs"..etc It looks like power creep. But the minis and designs are gorgeous !
Bakunin, on the whole, lacks long range firepower. They have a very limited selection of 24" - 48" band firepower to project in the active turn. If you want a quick and dirty comparison for the Nuns with Guns to a thematic contemporary in MO, look for an apex shooter that shreds shit like a Tikbalang at 32".
Like most Nomads their Lieutenant choices are mediocre at best, and they have no LOL mitigation like CoC or veteran. There's no Strategos or Lt +1 Order, and IIRC NCO is currently limited to Moiras who are fairly fragile for Fireteam pointwoman. TA is restricted to just the TAGs.
I have to disagree with you there. RG Missile launcher has killed many of my guys. As well as Taskmaster HMG, and as expensive as she is the Moria HMG or sniper is a pretty good shot. They have just about everything to complete a mission. HI, Elites, Vets, Hackers, FO, MSV, Camo, now even parachutist. Previously it was only the Meteor Zond. More D-charges, more Engineers, etc. They also have more Lt. than some others. Sure not much NCO or Lt. +1 but that has not held them back before and it certainly wont now.
I see an another interesting pattern, though. CB is handing out TAGs recently. so that basically anyone and their grandma get access to an S7 MBT and S6 "light" TAG. Bakunin is getting S6 Stigmata in addition to S7 Lizard. Corregidor got S7 Gator in addition to S6 Gecko (their 3rd TAG, Iguana, was always an oddball...) ...I wonder how is Tunguzka's baby TAG -in addition to Szalamandra - going to look like. Ramah got Shakush in addition to Maghariba. Morats got the abomination of Bultrak in addition to S7 Raicho. ...and so on. Please note - I see it as an emerging pattern. Not as all the factions have it covered already (both on the Sectorial, and Vanilla levels), and I'm not sure that it will be covered at some point.
Even if they didn't have dirt cheap linked HRLs and MLS, they still would have White Noise, Eclipse and Impetuous smoke (wow, such a huge problem having Impetuous) so I don't think long range engagements are something they worry about. And not having NCO or Lt+1 when half your units have random price cuts so you can fit everything you need and still get your 15 Orders is pretty irrelevant
Bad command structure is not about lack of NCO and Lt +1. It's about no COC and obvious and weak lieutenants, meaning you can assassinate them easily and put them into lol.
I agree that those are flaws, but not as decisive as: - TAK having no hack, no TAG - Starmada having no camo markers - Any PanO having no smokes - Ikari struggling with irregular orders and specialists - ..etc Poor Lt, single wound NCO and no CoC do not balance access to every gameplay mechanic with potent profiles. In their defence, I could say that they lack the sweet peripheral bodies to ARO with (Uberfallkommando do not have templates) In the end, I might be wrong and still have to test: "Bakunin only" may have unpredicted consequences. And if the power creeping looks real, it's still not that decisive, just a bit boring. Where are the days where a single skill or equipment could define a unit ?
Same here. Every release/revamp to a faction of main always leaves me with this "i hope its not just insanly good in terms of gameplay". I like "underpowered" but great looking modells so much more than this units that becomes auto-includes. Especially in terms of variety of lists to play with and against. I think they vanished in the sheer mass of new units. High BS Hidden depl. HI Mime -6 is not as unique anymore, so are msv1 + mimetism and core link sniper with MSV and so on. Also with the unnesting of rules some unique skills just got deleted for the sake of streamlining, such as Full Auto and Fatality and so on
I miss the days where 2 wounds mim -6 HI where 40-60 points and only available to high-tech or gimmick factions... ^^'
I have seen this circle so many times with each new faction release, in a month time people (some the same) will complain how bad the same units and fireteam combos are and how they need to be fixed or they will never be played.
Spoiler: Nostalgia I also totally miss the time back in N2 when my HMG intruder shot someone out of camo and just in case he survived he was allowed to shoot back. Or back in N3, with the hour ong discussions if my imaginary cylinder shapped unit is one third behind cover or not. Or in N2, as the real modell shape was the thing i see on the table, long before siluettes (miss you, MK12 wulver). Or as playing 40 Camo markers were a valid tactic. Or as everyone in a linkteam has to wear the same t-shirt. Or ODD-Fields on units just existed. Or hacking as a speciall rule written in a wall of text, with stupid special rules on certain hacking units. Or Exrah. Tame changes, so does the game. Overall to the better, i think. to be fair, neither White noise nor eclipse are already confirmed to be a part of bakunin. (as in the other threat the people don´t get tired to point out) But, don´t let them fool you, it will come =) because nomads But isn´t it fun to ride the roller coaster over and over and over again :-D
Like you say, with list capped yo 15 miniaturas, list hace to be reworked: - Some sectorials gain new tag, Shakush for Hassa or the new Ariadna one. - More HI for sectorial. I only play haqqs one, do I use them for examples. Hassa got 4HI (asawira, bokthar, sunduqbut and ayyar) and Ramah got 4 too (al fased, sunduqbut and the 2 types of jannis). Haqq is supposend to have los tech, and now we hace lot of HI. The reasson I suppose we need expensive troops to make 15 minis list, and this can cause Some erase of flavour. Cheers.
I guess it is among the roots of the prob... I mean, the change. Back when I was starting with Infinity (N2, post-HS, pre-C:P), a "horde" list was a viable way of playing. For some factions, the only way to play: in some Ariadna sectorials one wasn't able to fill the list with models that made a single-Group list at 300pts. We were taking ti to the extreme, fielding 2, sometimes 3 full combat groups. I had lists designed (though I don't recall whether I used them actually) that went even further with my QK and, IIRC, Corregidor. Swarming elite lists who had to struggle uphill really bad. Then, the game evolved. Limited Insertion and Tactical Window formats became a thing. In a way, it was solving the old problem of lists so big there wasn't enough terrain on a table to deploy them sensibly. On the other, horde lsits weren't any longer viable. Many cheap warbands couldn't be mass-fielded, because you still had to field some bread-and-butter troops and fit required specialists into the available slots in your list. It also forced CB to provide more expensive units to armies that used to rely on a mass of cheap ones before. Because, as I said, the mass was no longer an option. We are still seeing that approach unfold. Giving armeis more high-cost units - therefore allowing fro more and more varied list builds within exisitng limitations of Tactical Window. We've seen the TAG Raid ITS season with missions that gave VP for doing some objective with a TAG - yet there were armies that had no TAG access (HB at that time, for example). I've seen some community making a houserule that every army had to field a TAG - making some sectorials illegal to play in their club. Is the current iteration of Infinity perfect? No, IMO it isn't. Is it better in its approach than N2 or N3? Yes, IMO, it is. Do I like change? The heck I don't. I don't take changes well as such. Then again, as they say, the only thing constant in life is change. And if I wanted to play a game that has no change to its rules, well, I guess, I'd better stick to chess. Rules there haven't changed for several years... ;)
This TAG looks amazing. Hands down. The long arms, the claws, the lack of a humanoid head, the halo (which is most likely some hacking sheenanigans stuff) ..... yes, this one will defenetly a place in my collection.
