I notice that Haqqislam continues to slowly weed out lieutenant options for us. Govad lost their lieutenant option, as well as the basic rifle+shotgun trooper. Muyib lost a couple of d-charges along with a basic rifle+shotgun+panzerfaust. What else have I missed?
LT Muyib Rifleman is gone too. This was a option I used some of the time and could even use the shell game if I doubled up on them. This was a loss for me as I utilized this option some times. The problem is that we can only take 4 Ghulams and they typically make a good LT choice, but if I had other ideas for them I have to think twice or grab a Farzan CoC.
It’s an N4 change so not new, but I very much miss the Ghulam HMG, and to a lesser extent Ghulam ML, as Lieutenant choices.
Yes. That was from the beginning. Now two more trimmed. Perhaps I am just jaded, but I'm used to a plethora of lieutenant options being characteristic. #sadface
What can I say, that's an interesting twist on what started as a "hey, I haven't followed Infinity for years, but apparently there's a recent army update" story :D
It seems to be a wider trend. Apart from Haqq, I play Corregidor - they got trimmed down to Alguacil, Mobile Brigada (two loadouts) and Wildcat Lts. If memory serves me, back in N3 they had also Intruder and Hellcat Lt options (true, I haven't ever heard of a Hellcat lt. being used, but that's another story). True, the Nomads always had the drawback of having relatively weak command & control. I can't comment on my two Mercenary Companies (StarCo & Druze), as I dobn't recall how did they look before. But they aren't looking good at his moment, with 3 choices each (if you cound in a character Lt, Arslan, in Druze). But still, it seems to be a trend.
With N4 we got Yara in HB as a formidable Lieutenant. And as long as weare to keep Saladin and Barids as Lieutenants in Vanilla I am good.
I'm guess I'm just at a loss as to why options are being removed, that don't even require a special model. In fact, in theory there should be a model to use as a lieutenant as well as the respective forward observer and engineer for Muyib and Govad. Unless of course, those models will never be produced in which case why not ditch them as well? Did the Bokhtar really need 2 lieutenant options to sell it to us? Firmly getting a hero-hammer vibe by using powerful pieces as leaders? Coupled with the more formal attention and rotation on sectorials this just feels like some odd sort of bummer for me.
I don't know. I am happy to get more specialist or combat Lt options for Haqqislam. It rounds us out more. Besides, we still have some the best cheap Lts in the game with Ghulams (basic or +1 Command Token), Naffatuns, and Hafza. Those are still the ones I reach for more often than not.
Sure. I'll not that the hafza and naffatun are not generally available and just last week "we" were selling the ghulam down the river for daylami for the Hassassin. At any rate it just feels like some sort of noose is tightening for no reason.
I'd be pretty surprised to see the Hafza Lt go. It's one of the few distinctive features left to QK. I know CB is neglecting QK, but even so, proactively removing one of its main mechanics for no reason seems unlikely. But I agree the removal of Govad and Muyib Lts is unfortunate. It seems contrary to the new emphasis on coherent fireteams - it would actually make sense now to take a Govad Lt if you were making a Govad ARO fireteam, for example.
To clarify, I do not think the Hafza Lt is going away, but the CHEAP Hafza will be disappearing as the fluff points to them as distinguished officers. I expect them to get serious leadership or command abilities when QK updates. CB is definitely pruning lesser used profiles. I had to redo my standard Haqqislam lists as we lost the 25 point Lasiq with MSR. Sure, the VMR is a better active turn piece, but I liked her as a decent ARO threat.
Do you count losing the discount Tarik Mansuri profiles? I never used them because I figured if I was spending all those points, I might as well go for 2 LT orders, but they were removed last update. One was replaced with TacAware Tarik. Also the cheap Khawarij LT got replaced by a Khawarij Forward Observer LT, but that's kinda a sidegrade. I guess if you for some reason bring a standard Khawarij the opponent no longer needs to consider, "Is that a basic one, the lieutenant, or Chain of Command?"
Like you, I saw little reason for regular lieutenant when lieutenant+1 was available, and the profile was effectively replaced with a functional alternative. I have to say that I didn't pay that much attention to the khawarij, as while the "baseline" trooper was removed along with the corresponding lieutenant it was replaced with the specialist one so an equivalent number remained. In neither case was it outright removed. Especially since the weapon loadout itself still remains so it's not a production streamline casualty. Ah well, it appears to be butthurt on my end.
