Now that we've had a few days to ruminate and talk about the HB update, I gotta say: I really like it a lot. It feels like it retained HB's flavour while (a) making the sectorial more competitive, which it needed, and (b) making it work with 15 orders. The new fireteam options bring HB into the modern world. But they still feel like they fit the sectorial. This isn't a face-punching link. Sure, the Asawira is a strong gunfighter, but it's no Sheskin, Tariq, Bagh-Mari HMG, etc. Plus the other members of the team are too valuable to use hyper-offensively the way you would a Sheskin link. Instead, this feels like a great toolbox link - a better version of the Muyib link that was already characteristic of HB. For AROs, HB will still rely heavily on panzerfausts (and now their close cousin the flamenspeer). The Nahdir also feels very thematic from a fluff perspective - the targeted assassin sniper who only brought two rounds because that's all he needs to get the job done. He'll take out his target, and he doesn't care that he'll be gunned down in turn immediately afterwards (runs out of ammo and can't revert to a marker state). Sort of a long-range Fiday. The Barid always felt like a super strong, uniquely HB unit that I could never find a use for. Even though he's like the cheapest pitcher hacker in the game, it never seemed worth playing the infowar with HB. With the changes to hacking and the ability to put the Barid in an active link, I feel like it opens up a whole new aspect of HB that was always latent in the Barid. I switched to Vanilla a couple of years ago, but this update has me excited to try the Hassassins again.
Yes, I have myself thoughts not really far from yours. Without to know what all the rules in N4 could be, the view from Code One and the little advances look pretty positive. I believe the changes we are seeing in Hassasin it will some commun in N4, probably most of sectorials will have some alike, but still at first sight it looks really really well. We will have a lot of options in order to do our list and surprise our enemies. This is something hard to do with hassasin, most players know more or lest what to expect. Now... The classic core? Or some with more options? Maybe the cheapest core but with a TAG? A TAG with fiday? I think if this become the "new sectorial reality", with a little luck we will have lots of playstyles on the table. I really want to see the whole n4.
My biggest challenge from the new fireteams will be doing some slight model repaints so the new link I want to form looks visually coherent. First Bourak problems. Rules-wise, though, the utility is considerable. My initial list-building has taken me in a couple different directions but I think my favourite new piece is the Shujae with AP Rifle. It drops affordably into lists and plays real smooth. I'm looking forward to playing it in vanilla, too, where it gives some more light infantry gunfighting outside the Mukhtar (and in particular is differentiated from the Mukhtar by its ability to engage very hard targets).
