White Banner, Hopes & Dreams

Well, the Hac Tao has a white faceplate, and CB said that's why the Daofei was in White Banner and not IA in spite of always being in the IA in the fluff, so I'm expecting him to pop up there now too. Come on CB, I'm expecting you to stick to your bullshit.

Zhencha will also probably pop up in WB. Haidao's fluff suggests them to be a pretty perfect fit for WB (and any other sectorial YJ ever gets that's not ISS, really). Since the Hulang isn't the HI Shaolin equivalent that some rumours pointed towards, I wouldn't mind seeing something along those lines.

Maybe the Guijia will get its much needed rework for WB. I thought the Blue Wolves were just a group that piloted Guijias, but getting a light TAG for them would be cool. Either way, I want the Guijia to be given a reason to exist before we get any more TAGs.

I do wonder what kind of fireteam options WB will get though. Most of the units it has so far aren't particularly conducive to building fireteams. It'd be cool to see Tigers get the ability to make fireteams, or maybe a character that makes it possible. Bring them onto the table, and then spend a command token to link them all up. Would be pretty unique, to say the least. But then again, the Liu Xing doesn't need yet another reason to curse its own existence.

 

Buff

The

God

Damn

Guijia

 

It was a bit of a troll response. Let's not retread that and stick with White Banner before this thread gets derailed though =P

I like the idea of buffing the Guijia, though at the same time, flavourwise it sorta makes sense that it's the most vanilla MBT - YJ has a huge army, which means lots of Guijia, which means individually it would be difficult/expensive to field a lot of high-cost TAGs. I think it's the same flavour explanation for our HI-lite? And because we're not the TAG faction or super-advanced aliens, we get stuck with the most baseline of TAGs. A pilot buff (engineer!) or adding martial arts would be neat, but I'd still love some sort of smoke or grenade launcher on it.

The idea of the Blue Wolf is exciting! I hope it's not just a Guijia squadron name. I saw someone mention Holoprojector a while back and that sounded really cool. I think we're actually one of the main Holoprojector factions (only Haqq has more lvl 2 then we do) and it would fit with the "wolf pack" theme really well! Fielding two Holo lvl2 TAGs would be pretty hilarious (albeit impossible to fit in the DZ).

Zhencha would be cool to complement the Guilang and Daofei in the midfield.

Is there any precedent for a WB fireteam? A monk fireteam sounds kinda neat.

 

Yes, one of @Bostria's ill advised stupid comments made in the face of bait and switch complaints about IA's roster.

 

If they don't buff or significantly rework the Guijia, then they should just take it out of the game, move the model to the Bootleg line, and let it be just the fluff reference to an outdated model that it is. Its profile serves no purpose other than to give us a reason not to field a beautiful model. After the Raicho rework, YJ players have every reason to be pissed about the Guijia's complete lack of attention

 

I don't think that needs to happen with the monks, they serve an important purpose in their current role, and changing them in that fashion would leave some serious gaps in vanilla. The impetuous comes from them not really having proper combat training, and instead being hyper-focused close combatants. In any situation where they'd require reservation, they probably wouldn't be on the table in the first place. Deployment is when they've already decided they need to flip out.

 

Or if we just look at what the monks are they are YJs cheap irregular warband that fits the mold of other cheap WBs across the game (Galwegians and Morlocks). No the fluff doesn't really match but it's doubtful it's going to change or the unit is going to be rebranded in anyway.

 

Hac Tao are seen operating on Svalarheima in OUTRAGE, alongside Tiger Soldiers and Guijia. It would be an OUTRAGE if they were not included, but then again it was an OUTRAGE not to include Daofei in Invincible Army.

Interestingly the Guijia deploy from low flying aircraft alongside the tiger soldiers. They could give White Banner Guijia a profile with a deployment skill but it would probably still not be worth taking. Maybe a duo with Weibing, but that is only useful up until the end of your first turn when you put it in suppression. 3 SWC on the LT option needs to go die in a fire. It's not worth 1 SWC for an extra order now that Tactical Awareness, NCO and LT2 are running around in the new Sectorials.

One issue with buffing the guijia is that it is already expensive. Still, I'd like to see +DA added to its CCW so it is not chipping things at one wound/STR per order, which is fucking hopeless by the standard of CC units. I'd also like to see it get Natural Born Warrior. It would protect it from CC deletion and represents the Hook Sword well. Both NCO and TA would help, but that helps anything.

Anyway.

AVA Total Zhanshis that link,
AVA 4 Guilang, drop SWC on LT profile
AVA 2 Daofei
Tigers that can link and join Zhanshi links.
Hac Tao
Guijia
Shaolin
All the remotes with some creative linking.
Maybe haidao for post 3O tier min-maxing.

Liberal NCO and Tactical awareness. Boom. Sectorial done. Post it already.

 

On the one hand, while an E/Marat Shaolin variant would be pretty cool, I think it would be a bit too much. On the other hand, CB seems to think it's alright that abominations like Ghazi are allowed to continue to exist... so screw caution.

A rugged, cold weather operation and support S5 HI would be pretty cool. Grenade launchers, sappers, and specialist stuff. We don't need heavy weapon frontliners, but something to support the strong forward operators that WB would naturally incline itself towards.

 

My bet is on Zuyong-Zhanshi Mixed team.

Simply put, I assumed IA could do the same thing - they brought better. Whole bunch of flavoured HIs or Zhanshi fodder link.

Since WB needs to distinct themselves from IA or IS, The pizza link seems legit.

Oh and we can assume Shang Ji can jump into links again because Shang Ji.

Skirmishers, thats where we all expect the goodies will come, Increased AVA of Guilang and access to Zhencha will make WB something very intriguing. Not to mention big Dao.

TAGs.. after giving a beer to Guijia, lores say there are light battle TAG called Blue Wolf. WB could bring us a freakin new TAG!

 

Pretty sure that was me originally, and 'to look like a pack' was the entire point. I was thinking a TAG about like an Uhlan, but with spitfire and holo2 instead of HMG and camo.

 

Personally, I'm not expecting too much crossover of units between White Banner and our existing sectorials. IA got a metric ton of new HI because that's what IA's about: big, beefy beasts stomping around. WB is a mountainous and winter themed force, so I'm expecting much more guerilla warfare and trick-laden units.

Things I'm Expecting From Our Existing Troops:

• Guilang to be AVA4+
• AVA4+ shaolin or AVA total with a regular fireteam core option like the morats with daturazi
• AVA2-3 Daofei
• AVA total zhanshi with a fireteam core or AVA4 like we do with IA and some wildcard options
• Tigers... maybe if only because they're not in IA and I'm not sure where else they would be. Maybe a fireteam core because you can forego AD for multiterrain 'cause of the / in their skills
• The remotes we all know and love. Maybe some custom profiles like how IA got the FTO panggguling and whatnot
• Zuyongs maybe with a Huang Di profile set same way how Orcs are

Things I'm Hoping For:

• Some guerilla sniper unit. Probably with forward deployment and/or sapper. Maybe TO 'cause we always need more TO camo (only have Hac Tao and ninjas so far)
  
  Yeah, something like this. YJ already has units designed to specifically counter other units i.e. the rui shi vs. the bulleteer. I'd think albedo and MSV1 to really mess with enemy visor units, even if they have camo.
• Another unit somewhat similar to the briscards MRRF have. Mainly mountain terrain and marksman rifles. Maybe shock or AP versions to emphasize the higher tech. Maybe even fireteam core or haris.
• Tons wildcard and fun links
• Tons of camo, ODD, snipers, and other skirmishing tactics
  
• Blue Wolf light TAG or Huang Di version of guijia TAG
  
• More mines, madtraps, camo, and other shenanigans. I wanna play with toys like decoy, wildparrots, adhesive, jammers, etc.

Things I'm On the Fence About

• Hac Tao, Hulang, and Zhencha. They fit the operational profile of White Banner, but not holding my breath given how CB is willing to just change things on the fly. Not gonna try reading into the face mask color, unit logo color, etc.
• Mine dispenser description mentioned Thai mafia drivers on Shen Tang with mine dispensers. I just want bikers again D':

 

Myrmidons

 

Also Daturazi in Morats, Wulvers in Caledonia, Corregidor Jaguars + Senor Massacre who's another WB, and Tohaa Makauls. It's not super common, but it's definitely around.

 

Monk Fireteam would require them to become regular (irregular orders in Fireteams and all that)

Not that I'd say no to 7 point regular extreme impetuous orders, but the other monk profiles would need to have a serious optimization work over 'cause no way in hell is a Monk with Combi worth having when it costs the same as a Celestial Guard, even if Fireteam removes Impetuous.