So, in the Q&A after the GenCon Seminar Bostria was asked if we can expect more unit updates for older profiles similar to what happened to the Raicho. His answer was, yes, and he particularly said that the update of Army for Vauna in November is going to be a time when there will be updates done. He specifically called out PanOceania for getting updates which will be interesting and "unusual" for veteran players. So... WILD SPECULATION! What do YOU think will be updated? And how?
Well everyone who is optimistic and full of hopes should be reminded how Dire Foes reworked ended up for Bipandra and Konstantinos ^^
Bipandra isn't perfect but was certainly moved in a good direction. Konstantinos is pretty ok in my book. As for my hopes and speculations: - Few link teams (Bolts, ORCs, Santiagos?) being able to include select Remotes. - Bolts tweaked; maybe not remade completely, but given a bit different mix of skills, things like overpriced Drop Bears fixed. - NCA Devas getting updated in line with any changes they'll see in OSS. - Auxilia getting access to GdA's Auxbot. - Aquila getting HMG Lt. option. - Teutons being remade into proper HI warband. Impetous, Eclipse Grenades, DTWs, SMGs, shotguns. - Seraph's Auxbot getting Super Jump. - F-K's and KotHS tweaked in some way. - Crusaders and Akalis made more different. - Singh's CoC moved to Rao, maybe some additional tweaks to both.
While I'd like to see @Stiopa's suggestions become reality I expect we'll get an order Sargent Harris, combi/multi option for Gabriel and a tuetonic duo, followed by exasperation that people complain that's not enough...
Well, it would be hard to move Bipandra in any other direction than the good one ;P Konstantinos overpays heavily for his Combi+Assault pistol. Why not MMR rifle instead of combi ? (even if it means only giving it to the infiltration version)
Well Gabe's problem is not his weapon (which is really solid, Spitfire is good for him, and he can use it to win F2F and enter B2B if the target shoots better than him) but the popularity (and cheap cost) of KHD SK units which can easily (and for a 3rd of the price) fry his brain.
Going with the infamous Zero hacker: assuming De Fersen is in a link (as he should be, if going into midfield) the best Zero can do is getting 50% chance of wounding De Fersen, with 30% chance of getting a wound in return. It's not bad, but hardly "easily frying his brain". In De Fersen's turn he has 62% chance to Immobilize Zero, with 20% chance of getting a wound instead. As with all things in war it boils down to knowing your army, our enemy's army, and the battlefield. If you know opponent might have a KHD hidden somewhere you don't charge your hacker in, but work to limit his capabilities and response options. Destroy Repeaters with your own infiltrators, Discover his Camo with Pathfinder, then move in and kill the SoaB.
Even if we accept that the problem is that there are too many KHDs(I don't) there's no change(to him...) short of taking away his own hacking that will fix that, maybe up his BTS to 9 or give him some kind of anti hacking tool, sort of like an eclipse grenade but it blocks all hacking, but in general I think at least part of the problem is that people expect everything to be optimised nowadays when PanOceania in general is built as a jack of all trades with redundancies added on...
I want to use Gabriel in Vanilla, because "everything is 14" with a Spitfire and W2 is a nice specialist. Apart from giving SSL2, how does being in a fireteam affect hacking?
What? We are looking at two different Pano. Pano is jack of a single trade with the occasional useless bloat.
SSL2 is exactly waht I'm talking about, negating Surprise modifiers. In vanilla we need to be extra careful with him, but having Stealth helps, as well as having more tools at our disposal than in MO. Including KHD's of our own. It's actually the opposite; our units are optimized for their purpose (sadly, it's mostly shooting), with few toolboxes or Jacks-of-all-trades thrown in. De Fersen is one of those.
What you refer to as bloat I'm (admittedly charitably ) calling redundancy... As a faction rather than on an individual unit basis. Every other faction has a 'hat', something it's better at, Pano has 'shooting' which is something that everybody can do, mostly to within 5% of PanO for equivalent units. PanO's optimization is per unit, but there isn't really a direction to that optimization imo.
NO! NO! We're not doing this guys, absolutely not, not again, we're not getting excited for all the shiney half truths and promises, we're not going to bainstorm great ideas that will show up later in other factions and we are not defending our disenchantment and the difference between flavour and power again. Im out, i'll believe changes when I see them, not until then
Well but the cheapest way to have it is to pay 66 pts over the cost of Gabe (so around 120pts). It's mostly a problem of "solo Gabe" that enemy KHD SK can fry him easily ;/
You don't want to sit here, prophecing incoming doom just for this sweet moment of "I told you so!" when changes hits the fan ?:)
Wild speculation, you say.. well: We are getting nothing of use:) i wanna believe in changes, but unable to. At least until whole Varuna.
19 points KHDs with Maestro are another thing. 17 points over a Hospitaler HMG is a tough asking price for MA3, downgrade to a Spitfire and an AHD with Trinity. Half the time your opponent will not have Hackable stuff, the other half has KHDs that are a serious problem. Against an opponent worth his salt DeFe is a gamble. Especially if your Sectorial is starved for Orders. The only thing I find him useful for is Highly Classified. For the lack of competition he finds a spot in list 2. His redeeming factor is being somewhat SWC efficient and his qualities as a solo piece so the lack of Frenzy actually does something. Then again you'd only want that in Vanilla where you can have a Swiss for 10 extra points. Bipandra's Nanopulser is a bad joke, for the laughable price reduction it came along with I'd take the LSG+Specialist Operative for the old price back to not run. Konstantinos' problem has never been his kit but the pricetag that comes along with it. A switch to Marksmanrifle, a drop in price alongside a Profile reduction or repricing of the AssPistol+Combi would help fix that. It still doesn't make any sense that he is regular Camo instead of TO.
*collects goats for mass sacrifice Sigh, how many goats do I need to sacrifice to the gaming gods for Bolts to gain a Haris, for MO to gain a KHD, and for De Fersen to replace Trinity with Redrum?