This is maybe an odd thing to say, but I think in terms of stats and points Ariadna is ok, those seem to make sense in my head. But everything just feels like it needs one more piece of Equipment or another Skill to make them worth those points. In N3 a Loup-Garou was an excellent no frills LI gunfighter, now it looks dated, not bad on the whole but neglected, and with just a little more omph to the profile they'd have a solid niche to fill.
I think thats because of the player, not the faction, Mr Former Interplanetario Champion. PS: The vanilla Ariadna list is illegal
They do actually listen to players, and have some sense of how things are going in tourneys etc. which they attend. People at Satellites definitely tell them their opinions of where things are, and they do listen. The current low state of Ariadna points to fertile ground for some reboots in the near future, I think. The USARF update/reboot that we know is definitely coming up will probably be good in N5, and have a unique playstyle. MRRF seems like the most likely next thing to update after that, unless they add an all-new faction. The Reinforcements models showed a lot of promise, and we know they've been working on new stuff for MRRF then put it on hold at least twice. Guessing that they probably had a lot of development already done when they paused the project those times. As a product manager, low-hanging fruit is always tempting when you're looking for efficient releases. Sadly since TAK is still semi-functional, we are unlikely to see much change there. Who knows though, the Army balance passes/tweaks happening when they release other stuff might add something. Kosmoflot, meh. Kind of a fake cobbled-together army anyways. But they're in the Shenju narrative, so who knows.
This is only one idea, but I think more T2 would be good for them. It's all ways been their thing. I can see them escalating the production to more regular troops rather than elites and special troops. Give it to basic troops like Grunts, Scots Guard, Line Kazaks.
T2 HMG, costs 2.5 SWC feared by God himself. A T2 rifle option on the Scots Guard makes sense, but putting it on Grunts or Line Kazaks and I think you'd need to start charging .5 SWC.
Upping T2 presence on more Ariadna elites is a good idea @Space Ranger . Agreed with @saint though that Line Kazaks and Grunts are a bridge too far, would come with SWC or points cost increases. Units with +1 SD inherent bonus for BS attacks would make sense for elite shooters in TAK, like Vasili Plushenko. A lot more Warhorse would also make sense, thematically and for play options. Would liberate good Lt.s to be used more actively. Line Kazaks seem like a good candidate for Warhorse.
More Warhorse makes perfect sense. Troops that fought each other, the local tribes I can't remember name of, and everyone else. They really need some more MSV too. They can put out the camo but can't do much against it.
I'm not such a good player (especially compared to my local area players) anymore and that's not really an argument. And my bad for the list. Should replace one uxia with an sas or a dog warrior.
Literally already said this and was told it was dumb... It's a good idea for literally any faction that is meant to have "hordes", but specifically Ariadna. It has nothing to do with TAK.
Again: They're terrible at game development. For as much grief as people give about the GW devs, it's endemic across miniature games. The bigger the game, the less likely the designers are to actually be playing the game in the kinds of settings that people claim to want things balanced around.
