Not really. They are two separate things. The bike turns in to a robot and the rider then is on his own. Here the bike transforms around the rider. He possibly start as Size 4 and transform to 5.
That would definitely fit the Rule of Cool, without getting too far away from stuff they've already fit into the game pretty well. That or just have Su-Jians in White Banner. They would make pretty ideal mountain troops.
What about instead of focusing on new ways to make a Su-Jian (Fast form - Shooty form), what about a HI/MI/TAG that shifts between Stealth Form and Combat Form? Let's say it's a light TAG (ARM6, BTS6, STR3) the Stealth Form is S3 or S5 has Ambush Camouflage and Forward Deployment 2 at fairly mediocre BS of 12 while the Combat Form has S6, good BS of 14, Mimetism, Decoy, and exclusive access to a heavy gun. So, in order to deploy up field and camouflaged you need to use Stealth Form, but that one is crap at shooting and doesn't have anything for ARO more glorious than maybe an E/Mitter. But if you want to have a big gun deployment ARO piece, it's Combat Form and Decoy, but then you don't get to deploy up field and your silhouette gets fairly large. Basically, you get to switch between an Uhlan and a Tikbalang, kind of. The "Uhlan" gets to deploy forward but can't shoot very well at all while the "Tikbalang" can't climb around and forgot their mines. I'm thinking AP Spitfire + E/Mitter, Heavy Flamethrower and probably an additional Missile Launcher or a non-disposable Blitzen. Why so focused on E/M2 weapons? Because it's a Blue Wolf and that's how you punch up on a Jotums, you ambush them with OHD (On Hit Disable) weapons. Price should land at about 80-ish, mostly because FD2 ought to have a fairly high cost on a TAG, as it does on HI.
Can you Mechanically Transform while in a Marker state? It's only a I think so, so you'd probably have to limit that. Otherwise you can get Surprise shot. Something like 4-4 Move while in Stealth mode would also be reasonable. It means that you either need to TAG out and get mobility bonuses or use your marker state to sneak around. I'd probably go EMitter, HFT in Stealth mode. The DTW is major.
It depends on a period and region which they want to use as inspiration. It can be more Yuan dynasty and Genghis or more muslim Ilkhanate/Golden Horde
I think Surprise Shot is a valid tactic and valuable feature for such a TAG, but it is true that transmuting would have to be patched to break Marker state. DTW is major and I realize I suggested Ambush Camouflage, but in hind sight a better balance might be regular Camo on the stealth form and Holo2 on the combat form. Holo2 is significantly weaker than Camo IMO and on the factions only S6 it'll not be able to Holo1 anything useful unless there's significantly different profiles. Having a DTW while in Camo is significant, but being a suspicious Camo that can only be one thing does advertise this fact to an opponent so they shouldn't be too surprised by it.
I think Camo / Holo 2 is probably too much. Partly because "Holo 2 Light TAG" would be a cool concept on it's own. I actually really like Ambush Camo / Mimmetism. Good mix of survivability and punch. Ambush Camo with DTW and say Blitzen would be great. Then AP Spitfire; Zapper, EMarat or HFT; Blitzen on the combat form. EMitter or Zapper, Assault Pistol on the Pilot. You could also go CC21 MA1 and an EM2 CCW on both forms: Surprise Attack PH16+ EM2 CCW will make for a bad day for a Jotum. More fluffy than effective, but kinda fun.
It would be really different if it was a TAG with a Missile Launcher or 2. I don’t think there are any TAGs with that. One has Heavy Rocket. After all, they are fighting PanO most of the time. Maybe even a set of Blitzen and Panzerfaust. First you immobilize them with Blitzen then Panzer! Akrylate Kannon would be cool too. Also, having a holo 2 or camo of some form, even Limited, would be a big help with such a low burst weapon.
While I think disposable weapons have their place, I don't think that place is on a TAG. For one the burst of 1 makes it a perpetually crummy attack and for 2 a piece thats 25+% of your force is going to be using its guns a lot for both active and reactive. Going basically full E/M like @inane.imp suggests makes for a cruel sort of sense. Ambush and disable them and leave them to freeze to death if they escape as the E/M takes out the location and heating units. Combat form: E/M Heavy Rocket Launcher, AP Spitfire, E/Marat, E/M CCW Stealth form: E/Mitter, AP Spitfire, Zapper, E/M CCW? You know, depower the guns to achieve stealth.
I understood you ;) I think disposable direct fire weapons like that should be reserved for more disposable troops. I don't like it much on the Mowang, either, and while it might sound cool to have as an ambush weapon, it's still burst 1 versus burst 1 so you'd have to pick a fairly weak target to make it something other than a waste of time at which point... well... BS 14 versus BS 9 isn't great odds if both you and the Jotum are burst 1 (and that's assuming shifting into combat mode retains Surprise Attack potential in the same order, which it should) that's 31% versus 22% risk of wound. As in, I'd love to see Blitzen on Medium Infantry with a similar basic skill set to Daoying - BS 12, camo, medium infantry with decent ARM/BTS, no real deployment skills. Cheap (close to 20 points, depending on primary weapon) but potentially effective.
EM Feurbach would work better. EM HRL is a DAM15 EM template: that's just stupid scary for too much in the game, not just Jotums. But I'd point out that both Geckos and Gorgos have Disposable weapons for the range band we're discussing. Really you're wanting a 60pt TAG with 20pts of skills (Ambush Camo / FD). So it should compare with the Gorgos. Mechanical Transformation will reduce the cost somewhat: but ultimately an BS14 ARM6 AP Spitfire, EMarat, EM2 CCW, Mimmetism TAG sits around 60-70pts. You can easily add a Disposable weapon onto that, but an EM HRL will probably push the cost significantly higher. That being said, you are right that B1 Disposable weapons suck for what we're talking about: active turn non-coord anti-TAG use. How about 2 x Blitzen? I think Twin Blitzen it'd be cool because: It imposes an interesting constraint as it means you can either get 2 X B2 shots, or 4 x B1 shots. It doesn't need need a 'new' weapon. It would also enable Blitzen on the Camo form (with the AP Spitfire depowered). This would allow B2 Surprise Shot with Blitzen, then next order close and transform to finish it off with the Spitfire. That's a very characterful way to deal with Jotums.
I'm having a hard time accepting Gecko as a TAG ;) Gorgos is a valid point, though it is sort of the least used TAG in game. I don't quite agree with your computations on how much such a TAG ought to cost. Take Tikbalang as base, an E/M CCW easily equates to AP CCW, Decoy for AP Mines and Climb+, add in a disposable weapon and account for the mandatory CC stat burden and I think Tikbalang is a fairly accurate base once you factor in that BS15 is kind of expensive. As far as I can tell, profiles that shift between tend to cost about as much as the most expensive profile. I agree it doesn't need a new weapon, EM HRL would be shoehorned in for a theme. I honestly think going simply for fire is good enough or that an AP Spitfire + E/Mitter ought to be fairly decent, though... problem with E/Mitter is that it can't quite under-range an HMG and certainly not the DEP plus it suffers from the whole B1 issue as well. Honestly, just a solid skirmisher shifter could be good enough. AP Spitfire + Heavy Flamethrower. Or a huge Stealth-Jian if you like.
