Hello Everyone, In the 10 Order ISS Thread I saw several people claiming that the Pheasant CoC Option is such a good choice that they'd even include 1-2 in their lists..... This actually baffled me, as I often struggle to find a place for him/her in my lists, only ending up taking them because I really throw my Lieutenant into danger, and need the CoC sometimes....but even then, the Pheasant usually stays in my deployment zone kinda uselessly as my Lieutenant either hasn't died yet, which means I don't want to risk the squishy Pheasant too much, or because my Lieutenant has died, and now the squishy Pheasant has a target on his head, which means I won't rambo with him or dash for dangerous objectives either.... And for a stationary Lieutenant replacement which hardly ever actually does anything in my battles, he seems kinda expensive/underwhelming.... I mean to be honest, I don't end up losing my Lieutenant as often as I should, so maybe I'm biased by that, but to me it seems like the only partially viable options are the Boarding Shotgun one for "cheap" backup, or the Mad Trap one for Expensive Backup but at least with defensive capabilities.... So yeah....what do you guys think? Do you consider the Pheasant a good or even great choice in ISS or Vanilla? And if yes...what do you think makes him so good that I can't quite see besides replacing my Lieutenant...?
I've been struggling to find a place for them. They carry so much expensive luggage that it's hard to do. Had they not had as high CC and no CoC they would more regularly find a place in ISS to bolster Bao troops with Fireteams. As is I find them over-engineered (but without the survival that this usually entails, see: Myrmidon Officer)
Pheasant good choice? Hahahaha! NO. Jokes apart, i played it some times in vanilla to have back up but, always the cheap version. I tried very often to make worth the E-mitter version but at the end he always just feel weak for this cost. The Red Fury one, apart from the joke of being the only one that can haris with Bao troops, is the only one worth as an active model. But pheasnt with Red Furt still being a bit waek ( no mimetism, "low damage weapon", low ph) and i only pick it when i need more firepower and chain of command at the same time and i don't have enought points. The sniper rifle one, being the model i bought beacuse looks cool, is not worth at all having the option of Knauf or Lunah. If he gets a level 2 visor maybe he could do something different and be worth. Don't know but in my opinion the pheasnt just have some porfile issues. The low PH in a CC focused miniature, the light armour and high cost. I think it needs a revision ( having better stats or beacome cheaper).
Myrmidon Officer is so much better for the same price it's a joke. Higher CC, smoke grenades, higher PH, ODD, NWI. X-visor and Mad Trap doesn't compare to the latter two at all.
It's only worth it if you're playing an obvious/aggressive lieutenant who can't survive on his own, but vanilla doesn't have many of those who are worth taking. The Hsien is ARM4 and has MSV2, Sun Tze V1 has 2 wounds, NWI and total Immunity on ARM4 (and AROs in 17s/20s with his flash pulse at mid range), the Yan Huo is ARM5 and BS14... I just can't think of a Vanilla lieutenant who benefits from it. In JSA, we have a lot of glass cannon lieutentants (Shinobu, Oniwaban, Asuka Kisaragi) and CoC is cheaper, but I can't see the payoff as much in Vanilla and ISS...
I find Sun Tze1 is a huge pain in the ass to kill. Take him with Multi Rifle, shove him up the board in cover and put him in supression and leave him there. -9 on BS with Mimetism.
Too much useless gear that drive the costs up too much. E/Mitter is good. Mad traps... eh. With PH 10? Should have brough mines instead. X-Visor is almost irrelevant. If you want to bring CoC you need either a model that is cheap enough / contribute enough without the need to be put in harm's way (Kaeltar) or a unit that is a grea fighter on his own ( Unknown Ranger, Myrmidon Officer ). Anything else is kinda of a waste, and the Pheasant falls exactly on that last category. Too expensive to be kept on the sidelines, not good enough as a fighter.
Could you elaborate? PH is irrelevant for MadTraps (but the stun grenades is a different story, as it is for the DA CCW)
Doh! I read Mad Traps, my brain went to Drop Bears because I saw the Stun Grenades before and was thinking of throwing them...
Let's see... Cheapest is 29pts, 0 CAP with Boarding Shotgun and Stun grenades (where the PH 10 IS relevant). It also has Duo (which could be almost safely scrapped) and free agent (which is, like Marksmanship X, an extremely niche skill. I know, I've been playing Aleph for years and I never used it no matter where is Teucer... and I never ever saw any of them being used, but for the Feuerbach+saturation zone situation) CC "specialist": CC22, AM2, AD Weapon (Anti-Material!) but for the sniper The hacker, being precisely the one without chain of command... sucks. Kinematics with PH 10... sucks Visor X with a combi... sucks. With the E/mitter it's better, but I miss a Multi non-sniper rifle the more I look at this dude, the more I think that it sucks. Grab the 29pts CoC and kick the rest over... -.-U
It's the NWI I'd want most of all, mimetism is gravy and immunity to isolated makes sense in a cruel kind of way. Mostly, most factions are missing veterans. Proper veterans. It's a cool skill. In either case, they are already expensive enough that survival is the skills you want to overburden them with. That or work on the Free Agent concept: Roughly speaking, Zhanying but focused on leadership instead of Sixth Sense, biotech, sensor package. High 20s for the CoC profiles, some non-CoC at low 20s or high teens for order preservation shenanigans.
Well.....it seems that my initial thoughts on the Pheasant Agent are supported by everyone here *lol* Guess whoever made those comments was either joking, or didn't dare post here after all the "Pheasant sucks" comments :-P But damn...you guys make me want to bring Sun Tze more....though I'm a bit afraid cause he's obviously the lieutenant, and my enemies have been eyeing that EM Grenade Launcher lately, which could lead to a horrible horrible turn 1...unless Total Immunity saves one from EM weapons...gotta check that I think O.o
Don't get me wrong, the Pheasant is soooo much better than it used to be, and it does have its uses. It's just got above average Skornergy for the faction, and Yu Jing has quite a bit of Skornergy to begin with.
Both E/M and E/M2 ammo are Exotic, and do not explicitly say any immunity protects against it, so... No such luck. Just have an engineer close by.
Yeah, saw that too *sigh* oh well.. The Engineer won't help much though if he Isolated Sun Tze Turn 1 and I thus start my Turn 1 in LoL right?
No it won't, but you have already used Strategos and still have the 5th Command Token from Advanced Command... You will need a CoC miniature, and you won't get the Lt order as a regular one unless you go again into LoL and designate Sun Tze as Lt ^^U
Nope. E/M ammo is exotic Total Immunity doesn't work. The name is stupid, Total Immunity is more like partial immunity, it works against less than half of the available ammo types.
