Even better, why not give you a Su Jian? It's not like PanO is not both the TAG faction and the HI faction already.
It really isn't, MO is just puzzlingly popular. Normally PanO packs 2-3 Heavy Infantry options per Sectorial, one of which is basically always the unpopular ORC. Our solo gunfighter HI are usually pretty good though, an example of the older design philosophies of superior PanO firepower mixed in with enhanced equipment access punished by the Hackable trait. Yu Jing has better generalists and Specialists, Nomads has better links (for some reason) and both the AI factions have better apex units than PanO. Can't really contest you on the TAG thing though. They are pretty great.
17 HI entries in PanO. 19 in Yu Jing. YJ has like 110% the number of PanO HI. 5 TAG entries in PanO. 2 in Yu Jing. PanO has 250% the number of YJ TAGs. Out of the JY HI the only real defining HI than PanO can't get in a similar form are Dao Fei, Su Jian and Zencha. Meanwhile they get HD, Camo, C+ and Super Jumping TAGs, basically every flavour you could ever want. I really don't think PanO is broken nor even particularly strong, but the amount of HI they get for the supposed "TAG" faction as opposed to the "HI" faction is quite ridiculous. There is absolutely no need and no fluff explanation for them getting TWO S5 HI (and a Ninja and a Shaolin Monk, we don't want the pretty boys not getting everything every time)
1.) This is an MO thing. That bloaty Sectorial is the source of upwards of half of all PanO Heavy Infantry, and frankly quite a few of us would like to get some CC that works on Sundays in other Sectorials. When you consider that PanO has almost twice the Sectorial count of YJ it's frankly impressive YJ is still in front actually, even without the Knights. 2.) I completely agree with you about the Sepulchre shift and the Mercs. I don't want them either, the Mercs are YJ-flavoured to the core and there's no need for an established PanO order to pack on 500 kilos without jumping up to TAG levels of armour. But, that's just my opinion. Pretty much the only thing I know for sure about general community opinion is that we'd like a few less Mercs and Characters in every release cycle, and that Tactical Window is pretty good but not perfect. As for the "TAG" faction? We get good ones, for sure, but Infinity doesn't let you play them all the time. Slightly cheaper options are basically a necessity for keeping top-heavy PanO builds viable into low point games, or if you need any kind of support better than Fusiliers and a Hacker or two (such as half the button pushing missions in ITS). If we were at a flat disadvantage for not bringing a ~100pt armoured brick, there'd be about five PanO players because never having enough orders to win Rescue isn't fun. I do have hope for said armoured bricks in N4 though; losing 8-10 points and not having to worry so much about Warbands killing them for free with a whole Combat Group's supply of Smoke might finally make them more generally applicable. I know I'm going to be putting my Squalo through its paces at the end of September, and I'm looking forward to it, Schrodinger's Bolts be damned.
YJ whining about raw headcounts in a PanO forum isn't gonna fly mate. Go home, sober up find something you enjoy in life rather than being bitter about all the stuff you think you're missing out on. Or start playing PanO for fuck's sake, this isn't a we against them thing, you're allowed to root for everyone. Anyway... Was kinda banking on the Bolt CoC as a decent fix for the Lt situation in Vanilla. Guess that's going to be delayed or something till NCA hits.
OS, BF, Lazarus ? (Koni ?) Otherwise nothing is "cheap" in MO ;P (unless some mad lad puts CoC on Magister ML xD)
Regarding KotHS and S5. Does it mean that Tikbalang will be removed from MO and (maybe) KotHS taking his place ?
It's a possibility. But right now we can't say what any of this really means, we get some glimpses and that's too little to form an actual informed opinion. Three more weeks, maybe there will be some studio update with PanO focus.
Zuyong. Wu Ming. Liu Xing. Also, please look at the primary and secondary weapons list. YJ HI are more versatile, have more toys to fall back on, or are better optimized than their PanO counterparts. As they should be.
Chill, guys. We can argue about game design without throwing insults around. Some more points to consider: SHI aren't a benchmark of HI mastery. In fact a lot of PanO players complain that we're getting them, when PanO is able to cram this level of protection into S2 chassis. Personally, I disagree. And I see nothing wrong with the idea of getting a unit that might be a tad less optimal gameplay-wise - especially since tech base or not, HI mastery is not PanO thing - but is cool af when it comes to models. Aside from some isolated voices PanO players didn't complain that YJ got Blue Wolf, which is one hell of a light TAG. N4 changes will be a bigger leap for Guijia (which was often described as not bringing enough to the table to be considered taking over YJ HIs), than for PanO TAGs (which we fielded anyway). This means that YJ gameplay choices will see a bigger increase than ours.
Dunno, judging by YJ Vanilla being the best performing Sectorial or Faction for the last 2 ITS Seasons in the hands of someone who knows what he is doing - you might be better off enjoying YJ while it lasts before things change. I'd imagine Monks and Kuang Shi played a big part there and that's about to change. Since you don't seem to think the Faction with the highest ceiling in the game is any good, N4 might not be your cup of tea either. If we're going by fluff - Mass production of higher than average human tech is PanO's stick. That includes interchangability in parts or entire chassis, hence the similar looking PanO MI (Kamau, Baghs and Bolts), HI (Orcs, Aquila and Swiss), Knights (different base than Orcs - FK, Montesa and Hospitaler appear to share parts though), Light (Stingray Series) and Heavy TAGs (Squalo Series). A S5 HI requires it's own production line and can't partially reuse existing parts from similar chassis. Not only that but the one we got also doesn't do anything with the extra "space" that would require S5. Taking a look at YJ all their S5 HI aren't S5 for the heck of it or anywhere close to Low Tech, the Yan Huo carries TAG size weaponry and needs to fit bigger gyros, Sujian is more of a tiny TAG than an onversized HI and the Mowang at least has good defensive stats + NWI to somewhat give him a reason to exist. Kriza Boracs and Gamma are another example of S5 to support weaponry and/or defenses beyond S2 capability. Haqq S5, Ariadna S5 and maybe Taskmaster are the low tech bunch that does what can be done in S2 by others. To not make this another Boyg discussion, we still haven't seen the full N4 Profile with all potential rules included. But as that guy is now he's a bad Yan Huo in a Faction that would have no reason to create a new production line rather than just building a Stingray for it. For something that's supposed to be a prototype (suggesting high tech) the N3 iteration is questionable. Again, that might change with N4 - still would have preferred another Stingray. Has been a while since we saw a new PanO TAG, WB and HB just got one (which both definitely had room for), odd enough neither Varuna nor Sval did. Varuna got 2 TAGs (and a great new Squalo Profile) so no big deal, Sval is for some reason the only PanO Sectorial in existence without a second TAG choice (while even MO gained a second one). Getting the Boyg rather than a mountaineering Stingray with a shiny new N4 rule kit is more than a bit disappointing. But rather than a 3rd Stingray, S5 TAG or otherwise we're somehow getting S5 HIs that don't make much sense in universe or rule terms either. I'm not demanding a new TAG or say that S5 HI is impossible in PanO. However it stands that the Boyg is an odd duck and a S5 KothS is something no one asked for. Melee focused S5 HI has been a mixed bag, Ajax is certainly useful but extremely niche, the Kiel San and Daiyokai are prohibitively expensive for their performance. Hopefully N4 finds a way to address that without slapping Mimetism (-6) on the KothS.
One thing I wonder is; currently YJ is enjoying their white banner army i suppose, but I rarely read comments about SWF. Does that sectorial pleases PanO players, or is it in the opposite?
