Literally the only reason the Dire Foes exist is to be awesome and unique profiles that bring something engaging and interesting into their forces. And that's what EVERY OTHER ONE DOES. This is NOT a whine about faction balance, it's a comment on what SHOULD be an interesting and engaging profile which stands out as unique being as mild as milkwater. Your comments on this are only demonstrating how out of touch you are and what a skewed perspective you have on PanOceania.
Wow chill a bit mate. He's just more beer and pretzel oriented than we are. But have you seen his PanO collection? Rough guess of what I saw on his desk in the hobby section is double of your and my collection combined - only PanO models, most of them recent ones. He should be fairly invested in the Faction. I'd just assume he genuinely isn't concerned about things being competetive.
I do not think miniature collection is what matters, in any case, if you think Bipandra should be different engaging ectr, make your suggestions but make them respecting her fluff. What I said is clear and should not be misinterpreted, the suggestions I saw are not this is how Bipandra would be cooler, it is this is what I miss/ would like to have in my army call it Bipandra, if you want to change a character first understand what the character is, what it represents in the army in general and then make suggestions. And no the fluff of dire foes has not changed their missions and stats (not for all of them) have, you will enjoy all of them in the new book.
There have been heaps of suggestions. For me it's pretty simple, I'd like things which actually reflect her and also make her as unique and cool as the other Dire Foes. Just keeping the Light Shotgun instead of the Combi would have been a good start (one minor weapon change easily justifiable by her needing to go light in order to keep up with the stupidity of Angus). But, you know what one item would make her instantly as good as the other Dire Foes without costing a whole heap (hell it costs less than the difference between the Light Shotgun and the Combi and I STILL bet cash money it'd be totally fine for every PanO player). Eclipse Smoke. THERE is an item which would make her as unique and good as the other Dire Foes while still properly reflecting her background (because what better item to keep getting to and healing Angus than Eclipse?). It'd even make her +1 PH better than pointless bloat (because she now has something that uses it). But quite apart from that there have been a LOT of good suggestions in this thread alone. This isn't hard. And the fact that it isn't happening, and ONLY isn't happening for PanOceania says a lot about the attention our design gets.
I'd love for Bipandra to gain eclipse smoke. Keep her updated cost the same, so lower her stats to fit in the eclipse smoke. This way, Bipandra is still not anywhere near an effective combat unit and she'd still be expensive for what she does. But it would give Pano their second unit with eclipse smoke and would make her worth using. She still wouldn't be an auto-include because paying 23 points just to throw an eclipse grenade a short distance is questionable but it would make her a lot more viable than just being a wip 13 doctor which is SO not worth her points especially when command token rerolls make the trama-doc dependable.
I'd do exactly what I said, by preference. Drop the Combi for a Light Shotgun and pick up Eclipse Smoke Grenades, leaving her cost at 23pts. Then she is bringing a couple of cool unique things into the Fireteam (shotgun and DTW) AND bringing an awesome faction shaping choice as well. But the whole package perfectly fits with the setting and background info we have on her.
So, you say fluff is everything? Where is my Lt. Seraph profile? Where is ANY rule\stat indicating Aquillas are great in tactics? Where is my etc etc etc? eciu was right: either every unit should be logical fluff-wise, or don't bother.
Well, since we're wishlisting, i'd say give Bipanda an lgl with eclipse and e\m 'nades to make her interesting and usefull. Eclipse is nice solution fluff- and ruleswise while lgl was removed from long ago, why don't return it already :)?
why do we need to lost the combi? Its not like its even remotely a Dire-foe grade weapon for anyone but Konstantinos. That also does beg the question why CB thinks every PanO profile having a combi or SWC GTFO is awesome sauce.
Or Sepulchures, I agree, but creating more units that do not fit the fluff is not an excuse or solution.
Well, you can always advance said fluff, especially if it's just once character. Those tend to develop with time in fiction, after all. Using fluff advancement for something that isn't an excuse to screw a part of playerbase would be an okay antithesis to recent events.
Fluff is an invalid excuse, as it is too large a field for speculations. Almost any of the existing units can be accused of not being fluffy enough. Say... Knights of Santiago - dedicated boarding action assault troopers. Where are their hackers? D-charges? Don't tell me you won't need these to assault an enemy spaceship. The "let's don't contradict fluff" thing does not lead anywhere, fluff's already violated/not yet implemented for too many profiles. So much this!
Santiago Knights lacking the basic tools of shipboard combat is one of my biggest ongoing frustrations.
Hey the fluff says that they are just boarding parties, fleet-based order and.... ... oh wait.. Ad rem: Well tbh Santiagos need a single piece of equipment to distinguish themselves more from Hospitallers, after-mentioned sensor would be quite cool (and cheap) addition (for example on after-mentioned SMG profile).
Well, they got a sword to cut through the hull... (and in the fluff they use it to smash ship exteriors)
Like a Boarding Shotgun + D-Charges profile? Or a Combi Rifle + Assault Hacking Device profile? You aren't going to get far with a starship hull if all you're using is a sword. Even if it IS a Double-Action sword.