Actually I'd be pretty happy with Akalis BS, we didn't have one since the old ASA starter. The only Akal they could retire is the Spitfire, because hacker is discontinued with the ASA starter and Combi is part of vanilla one. Or against it. Hard to believe.
That's about what they did with Hellcats (Hacker/shottie, spitfire is in Beyond) and Tigers (Spitfire/shottie, hacker is in the starter box).
Hacker+Shotgun for the Hellcats was a downgrade too. Hacker used to come with the HMG Hellcat and the Shotgun was its own blister with the Spitfire profile not existing before N3. They rejigged the HMG profile to now have an E/Mauler but removed the model from sale. It's made me think they have a new CJC box in the pipeline. Something in the vein of this would be a good revamp, let them bring in a profile they've discontinued(the Hellcat HMG), redo a popular pick(the "basic" Intruder) and redo the basic Wildcats before releasing a boxed set of the SWC stuff for them. Spoiler Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 / 1 HELLCAT HMG, E/Mauler / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 31) INTRUDER Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 35) WILDCAT Engineer Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23) WILDCAT Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19) BANDIT (Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 28) WILDCAT Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19) 1.5 SWC | 155 Points Open in Infinity Army
Would be good, the Wildcats are from the era of 'True 28mm sculpting' and are tiny compared to everything before or after then.
from my understanding , not too good. but that they pigeonholed themselves into a design space with the +1 bs
They were tiny even then. They're the Mantic Elves of CB's catalogue, supposedly armored individuals who are somehow the mass/size of the armor with nobody in it. Yuuuuuuuuuup...who ever could have predicted that one single stat(that has had its value degraded over the years) would be pigeonholing for design! :P
If the want really to reduce the amount of references, probably the don't do any Akalis repack. With the one in the Pano Starter could be enough, because you only need it for vainilla and the "combi" can be a good proxy of otherss akalis profiles. But we will see what come...
You're aware that there are 3 Akalis models right now, with 2 in boxed sets and one in a blister right? And that one of those(Akalis Hacker) will be vanishing because of this change while there will still be 2 available(PanO starter and Spitfire)? A blister release of an Akalis Hacker sculpt packed with the Spitfire keeps things low.
Higher BS used to be a bigger deal, because in the case of tied dice values (both players roll face-to-face, and they both roll a "9" for example) the higher stat was used to break the tie, unlike now where both results just get cancelled. PanO, of course, was very good at breaking ties, or prevented themselves from getting "overruled" since it was rare for opponents to have a higher BS stat. Even a modest Fusilier could stalemate against all the BS12 opponents out there, and beat all the BS11 models it faced. A Swiss, Aquila, Guarda or elite PanO TAG basically broke all ties in the game, except against Achilles. Considering I frequently have at least 2-3 tied F2F rolls in a game, it's easy to remember how powerful this rule was for PanO. Turning those deadlocks into wins would be decisive. It would also be powerful against opponents with mediocre ballistic skill but high Burst, like Tohaa Triads, Kriza Borac, etc. Of course, that rule is now ancient history. Based on the forecast for Varuna though, I think we're finally starting to break away from its legacy.
High BS ? Why then TAK has nice and cosy BS13 on all their nice attack pieces combined with visual mods like mimetism and Camo ? BS15 is overpriced as soon as everyone else can have BS13 with camo and better gun.
They actually always had that. I remember using it because I used it against a TR bot in one of my first games back when N3 dropped and I was so green that I thought it was a good idea to drop a Hellcat HMG within 8 inches of a TR bot.
I’m actually more butthurt over the Spetznats HMG. He “cheats” himself to having BS 15 and essentially is an extremely cost efficient budget Swiss Guard for half the price. I still regard him as one of the most broken profiles in the game and is the sole reason I hate Ariadna so much.
By "rejigged" I'm referring to from N2->N3. Most AD stuff seemed to lose HMG options...Hellcats just got an E/Mauler. :P
Yeah AD HMG is pretty rare. Off the top of my head, Hellcat, Gao Tarsos and Garuda were among the few to keep it from N2 -> N3. Pretty interesting notion. I think the big advantage of it is that you can risk a drop, and if you fail the roll, the model is still capable of participating and pulling weight even when it's out of position. Hellcat's great for that since it can be placed very freely even with a failed Drop roll. Am kind of hoping the Echo Bravo emulates a similar design, since it will have LRL or Red Fury.
the MRRF Para-Commando gets to keep his HMG. hell, they even let that guy keep a sniper rifle for some reason. I fully expect the Echo Bravo to have some type of visual mod and BS 12, so as not to step on the Tiger soldier's toes. I've always been excited by LRL, so the fact that they're tossing them around for Varuna is really cool. A budget template with a decent range band! it feels very min-maxed imo.
Yeah it's a really interesting concept. I see most AD troopers end up as kind of an afterthought, or perhaps an opportunistic perk; buy a boarding shotgun for modest cost in the low-20s, use him to wreck a backline if a window opens. Fine and dandy. Spitfires or HMGs are good, but they're so costly in SWC, I have a hard time investing in them. I would totally use multiple Para Commandos since their profile is exceptional and they're very cheap... Except Parachutist means it's hard to use multiple because of their predictable entry point. Challenging. I'm really hoping Echo Bravos end up as the happy medium. LRL and Red Fury are very inexpensive SWC weapons, which means you could buy 2 EBs with lethal SWC weapons without heavily affecting the rest of your list. If they have Mimetism too, that would be exceptional. It could really let multiple EBs become a mainstay of a list, instead of being a weird skew list or an inefficient "gotcha" design.
I know the feeling. The only AD I'll consistently bring is a Garuda. I used to hate the things but I've really warmed up to them in NCA. especially comboed with a Peacemaker repeater coverage for marksmanship. seriously, BS15 shock spitfire on a 6-4 mimetism REM is nasty. PanO AD has never excited me. the Akal and Crusader are both very boring. they're clunky and slow, low physical, and very very vulnerable to crits. in addition to being too expensive. I hope the Echo Bravo is Light Infantry, although judging by the dossier he looks pretty armored up. I hope they allow him to break away form the norm profiles of "combi - BSG - Assault Hacker - Spitfire". Red fury and LRL are a step in the right direction, the tough part is being overshadowed by better, cheaper infiltrators.
Yeah I like the Garuda + Peacemaker a lot in NCA. You play opponents enough and they think "okay, I just need to hide from the Swiss Guard, and all NCA units will have to spend half their order pool just walking to my side of the table to engage." So you keep the Peacemaker as your reserve drop, with the AD off the table. Peacemaker goes down, and then the Peacemaker and Garuda rush in tandem. That's absolutely lethal. Definitely the best Turn 1 aggression move that NCA has. The 6-4 MOV and Mimetism on the Garuda are so perfectly optimized for an AD unit walking onto the table. 4-4 on the Echo Bravo would definitely be a big deal. It's actually a model where I wouldn't mind Combi + LSG on the same profile. AD can really take advantage of having both on the same profile... Get those back-shots or cross table flanking shots with the Combi, storm backlines with the LSG, then end Suppressing with the Combi again. That's an amazing array of choices... Much better on a dynamic aggressive trooper than it is on a slow Medium Infantry whose job is to just feed link bonuses to a heavy weapon.
Funny enough the uninteresting crusader is one of the ones that kept hmg. I'd love for crusader to actually reform into cc ad like the rasyat, hell smoke nades on it for such an unexpected angle would make me consistently take the beautiful model
