Am I missing something here? From super-jump: This Special Skill alters the user's Jump Skill from an Entire Order Skill to a Short Movement Skill. How does this prevent auxbot from moving in the same order?
Wait, so the limitation is not the "Short movement skill", but literally "jump"? Thats surely a mistake and should be FAQed. I will ask this for the FAQ.
No, limitation is that if Seraph declares "short skill Jump" then auxbot cannot declare same skill (for him it is still long skill), thus must perform idle. This is ridiculus as you cannot jump with Seraph to shoot someone, and at the same time move auxbot (for example around corner) and flame same/different target. Good luck on FAQ, I don't have too much faith in CB actually caring/fixing it. And this is not something which you can "just FAQ' (as far as I understand the rules), the auxbot would have to get "some skill" to actually be allowed to move within current rules framework (again note that I'm not inherently advocating here for Auxbot to have access to superjump (although seeing how much fun stuff other factions have I wouldn't mind having it too) but to at least be allowed to move when Seraph actually uses the skill he pays for)).
I'd be curious to hear speculation about Echo Bravos. We know very little. Time for some red-hot deduction! We can deduce that they'll likely be Medium Infantry, since we already have "line trooper" LI in Fusiliers, an "elite" LI in Kamau, and we'll have ORCs and Core linkable Heavy Infantry. They probably won't have Mimetism... But then again, maybe they will, since that seems an easy fix for making a unit work in PanO. They could be Jump Infantry, but rumors indicate another Airborne Deployment unit (which we also know virtually nothing about.) Medium Infantry are kind of a brutal design niche. They're slow, they're expensive, they're vulnerable. The game's most popular Medium Infantry tend to be fire-superiority pieces; they tend to have visors, or visual modifiers, or both. These include Intruders, Djanbazan, Rodoks, Nisse, Bagh Mari. After this, the most popular Medium Infantry tend to be AD. After that are the Core/Haris Medium Infantry links with no visibility mods (Wildcats, Gwailo, Scots Guard.) I know some people put these to good use, but they tend to be less popular because they die about as easily as light infantry, while being slower and with higher cost. So if Echo Bravos don't have Mimetism... And aren't AD... And since Kamau do fill the obligatory "give them a visor" role with the MSV2 Sniper... I'm thinking Echo Bravos may end up in the last category of linkable Medium Infantry. Since Fusiliers and Kamau specialize in long-range weaponry (HMGs, MULTI Snipers, Missile/HRL) this might mean that Echo Bravos are close-range oriented, just to fulfill a different tactical role. What do PanO close-range links end up with? Combi/light shotgun. Name another PanO unit with no visual modifiers, Core linkability, and a focus on close-range combat? Bolts. Oh nooooooooo. But perhaps we spin this speculation in a more positive light. One possibility is the Door Kicker. We expected Kamau to be a true door-kicking force that mirrored modern day police/military counterterror groups. This speculation extended to giving them submachine guns, boarding shotguns, d-charges for breaching (not really reflected in the game rules, but still thematic) as well as flash/stun weaponry, E/M, adhesive weaponry, and other non-lethal options. Kamau ended up not matching this profile. They received more traditional PanO weaponry, and have no particular focus on non-lethal or close-range combat (not complaining, I love the current Kamau.) But perhaps Echo Bravos will replace Kamau in that short range focus. If they are Core linkability, 4-2 MOV, no visual modifiers, what will they need for you to field them above other Varuna choices? If you think they won't fit that mold of Core linkability, 4-2, etc., how do you think they'll be different, and why? I'd love to hear community thoughts.
I'm still holding to the pipe dream of Echo Bravo being the callsign of Engineer Battalion. I could see Varuna getting them as a Payday 2 "bulldozer" type unit, 4-2, ARM4, Engineer plus maybe Hacker and/or Total Immunity. That would be neat, without doing yet another BS mod unit. Or keep it simple BS13 ARM2 BTS3 thing. But I expect Engineer nonetheless. Given the recent BoW video, that PanO is supporting the Japanese secession, it may be credible to expect a JSA unit to make an appearance. Japan certainly fits the Pacific time. A nice Ryuken 9, Karakuri or Ninja would fit in nicely.
And here you make an error of assumption. To be exact "false assumption" (one which will turn out to be false) ;P So we are sure that ORCs won't have harris which could be excellent in this role ? ("assuming" xD ORCs get some kind of love as current harris+AHD+HMG is not that great to say the least). So we are talking about ~120 pts (5 man link) investment which does additionally need someone to "clear a way" for them, to a addition of 4-2 MOV which tries to deliver CQQ weaponary into mid-field ? To give you perspective: there are people who say Shikami is not that great as it requires to many orders to move into mid-field. Regarding whole speculation: I don't have anything actually crossing my mind, I've just checked that MO has 10 different Spitfire profiles so I don't have any positive expectations regarding Varuna, seems noone has any enjoyment/idea/cool factor. I really hope Varuna turns of to be interesting and cool sectorial but Kamau "redesign" do not gave me high hopes for that (again those are Kamaus "in vacuum" but so far only an "smg" is something which PanO didn't have already).
Until yeasterday i was really hyped for Varuna, now im not so sure how much hope and hype i can invest on it. There are still 4 spots for sectorials in the next book and this is all the rumors: -Varuna -Kazak -Tunguska -Vedic -Invincible army -Rama Task-force So at least 2 of this are not coming out I´m mostly sure about Tunguska and Vedic because of new releases, Invincible army will come out so YuJing dont go down to only one sectorial.... So how sure are we that Varuna is on the next book?
Hm.. considering recent events I also things we might see more "cross faction" appearence of different units. Hard to say if Varuna will get the JSA. I doubt that we will see the Ninjas specifically as Varuna already has Crocmen in SK TO department.
Well, ok let's go. If Echo Bravo would be linkable MI: MOV 4-2 CC 15 BS 13 PH 12 VOL 13 ARM 2 BTS 3 W1 S2 AVA 5 Equipement: Albedo Special Skills: Multiterrain, V: Courage, Fireteam: Core Echo Bravo Combi Rifle+Light shotgun Knife, 2 Breaker Pistols 22 points Echo Bravo (Sensor) Combi Rifle+Light shotgun Knife, 2 Breaker Pistols 23 points Echo Bravo (Marksmanship L1) Marksman Rifle Knife, 2 Breaker Pistols 27 points Echo Bravo Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle+E/Mitter, Stun Grenades Knife, 2 Breaker Pistols 29 points 0.5 SWC Echo Bravo Paramedic (Medikit) Combi Rifle+Light shotgun Knife, 2 Breaker Pistols 24 points Echo Bravo Boarding shotgun, D-Charges, Grenades Knife, 2 Breaker Pistols 18 points Echo Bravo (Mimetism) MULTI Sniper rifle Knife, Assault Pistol 30 points 1.5 SWC Echo Bravo Lieutenant Combi Rifle+Light shotgun Knife, 2 Breaker Pistols 22 points
Varuna will be in the next book. But that doesn't mean it will come out this year. You are quite right that Varuna might NOT be one of the "Big N" moments this year.
EBs will be an embarrassing mix, Bagh-Maris with the Bolt load outs plus one with MSV2 and a Marksman rifle cause that's the thing to do now.
I don't know about that. Ninjas are a comparatively common cross-pollinator, and Corvus Belli hasn't been the shy about redundancy in the past. AVA4 Crocs and AVA1 Ninja wouldn't be unwelcome, either, since Ninja can do CC and Killer Hacking that the Croc can't. Alright here's a full wild guess for Echo Bravo: "Echo Bravo", Varuna Engineer Battalion MI, Regular, Not Impetuous MOV4-2 CC14 BS12 PH11 WIP12 ARM4 BTS0 W1 S2 AVA3 Equipment: - Special Skills: Engineer • Fireteam: Duo • Aquatic Terrain ECHO BRAVO Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 21) ECHO BRAVO Marksman Rifle + Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) ECHO BRAVO (Sensor) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22) ECHO BRAVO Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun, Pitcher, D-Charges, +Tinbot B (Deflector L2) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 23) ECHO BRAVO (Sensor, Fireteam: Haris) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 23) ECHO BRAVO (Mechanized Deployment) Light Shotgun, Light Rocket Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 23) ECHO BRAVO (Mechanized Deployment) Marksman Rifle + Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29) ECHO BRAVO (Mechanized Deployment) Boarding Shotgun, Drop Bears, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 26) *Special Fireteam: Up to 1 ORC Trooper may join a Duo or Haris of Echo Bravos *Echo Bravos with Mechanized Deployment may not join a Fireteam: Haris of Echo Bravos. That looks sufficiently mixed, messy, and edgy enough for an N4 PanO profile. Edit: Limited Camo was probably too much to ask for PanO...
They may have Haris, definitely. I'm still hoping for an SMG/Nanopulser profile, but that's an expectation that has no basis in reality. But if Varuna gets no Killer Hacker, I don't want to rely on ORCs as my midfield fighters when they have low BTS and no Stealth. Medium Infantry are terrible at midfield combat, for the reasons I mentioned in my last post. I wouldn't want to see this happen. If CB did want to go this route though, my hope is that Echo Bravos would get Mechanized Deployment or Forward Deployment to help them. With Croc Minelayer and Peacemakers in the Sectorial to help defend them, this could be an interesting option that would play like Marauders.
In fact, I think it will be a more toolboxy and elite MI. Maybe with BS 14 in the same kind that Kamau are elite LI with BS 13.
You want to pay for BS14 on 1W trooper ? Margot is not that cheap and she has a big boon of Murdon on her side...
I dont want to speculate on Varuna, I think after everything (including the initial Tech Bee profile) that it will only break my heart. Also I just worked out that fitting a Kamau 2MSR core + Cutter is going to be really really hard so :(
