You think I was undercosting it? You're probably right. What I'm suggesting is that what you want is a TAG that comes out to Tik costs once you add Ambush Camo / FD. This means that it'll underform a Tik in raw combat potential. BS14 EM Feurbach, AP Spitfire with a Camo state would sit closer to an Uhlan on cost. The reason Gorgos arent favoured doesn't really have anything to do with the TAG profile. Really what you're after is an ARM 6 / BTS 6 version of that profile, but swapping Flammespeers for Blitzen, and gets Mimmetism. So yeah, that's at least an ~80pts profile right there. The Ambush Camo / FD1 profile you probably need to lose ~20pts fit within that points cost. So roughly an ARM6 Gecko profile with no AP Spitfire would work well (mostly that drops CC, PHS and BS, exactly the stats that you can afford to drop on a Camo profile AND exactly the stats you'd expect to see lowered in a 'low power / low heat' mode). Whereas adding a proper EM weapon would push it towards 90pts. Which I think is probably too expensive for a YJ light TAG.
White Banner is cool when it looks like the Yu Jing force that attacks the main characters in Outrage. Classic Yu Jing units. The last thing we need is 50 new abominable snowman profiles with rushed designs and rules that fit the operational profiles of existing troopers. The house needs to be cleaned before it is extended. Catch up on models for Guilang and Daofei should be the first priority. Nothing else is as important. Regrettably with the rumor of a PanO vs Yu Jing box coming it pretty much guarantees a new line infantry.
My problem with that is that Guilang are Zhanshis who have done 8 months of survival training. There is no YETI troopers or abominable snowmen troopers in between. I hope what we get are called Guilangs, and they downgrade their camo to mimetism, and shelve infiltration to become a linkable troop. I guess they could put Shaolin in as the most common trooper...
Honestly, that seems cool. AVA5 Guilangs with non-linkable Camo Infiltration profiles and linkable Mimmetism profiles. Shift the Lt onto the not-Camo profile.
More likely we'll see a new LI/MI representing the veteran Svalarheiman regiments, kind of like the Frontoviks, Bolts, Bagh-maris, Wildcats, Kamau, etc. They could even be a candidate for the Operation: Ballfreeze contents with similar new PanO troopers on the other side.
Probably. But you don't really need to do that for White Banner: you already have the veteran regiment in Guilang. OTOH you could easily do 'Guilang Regulars' and 'Guilang Skirmishers' as LI and SK options to keep the AVA separate. At CC14 BS11 PH11 WIP14 ARM1 BTS0 that's a ~ 20pt Combi Rifle profile, so right in the ballpark of a great 'elite' core. Combi Lt 20 Combi 20 HMG 26/1SWC MSR 26/1.5SWC FO, Dep Rep 22 FO, Dep Rep 22 That's 136pts/2.5SWC for 6 orders, solid ARO presence, good late game specialists and a secondary attack option. Coupled with at least AVA2 Chaiyi and you can aim for 13-15 order lists relatively easily. Allow Zansh Cores for the chaff who haven't completed their survival training and you have 2 usable cores. Just don't allow them to mix otherwise you'll lose their uniqueness (see Baghs / Regulars which went from 2 unique options to 1 mixy blob). The issue major issue with this would be HI cores. Perhaps Shang Ji cores (with an option of mixing with Guilang Regulars) could work. Because YJ doesnt really need another linkable-HI.
Then just make the Guijia count as a Guilang regular for link purposes and we might finally see the big girl on the table.
Yes, which is why I'm suggesting Camo and FD2 on the profile that doesn't get the costly heavy gun and has lower BS. Looking at the Uhlan it doesn't seem like Camo is drastically more costly than on a HI. This TAG would shift between a Gecko armed as a Seraph with FD2 and camo to and from an Iguana. Or, if you like, a very large Daofei and a slightly nerfed Tikbalang. Remember that the conceit of transmutation is that you don't pay for both profiles, you pay for (presumably) the costliest. If you stick an AP Spitfire on a Gecko you increase the price by about 4 points over the MK12, Ambush Camo seems to be more or less the same cost as Camo and for a HI and TAG FD2 and Camo seems like they'd cost about 15 points. So the Stealth form would end roughly at about Tikbalang to Guijia. Meanwhile dropping all that's special about a Tik, equating HMG and AP Spitfire, remembering the lower Spitfire, the combat profile should have room for an additional heavy weapon without going above a Guijia in cost. A Feuerbach is probably too much, which is why I suggested HRL (or a subtype thereof). Equally a LRL would probably do a similar job for the profile if you FD it but I'd be more excited if the unit had a long range weapon to make deploying i DZ a valid tactic. That said, maybe two different loadouts, one catering to FD one catering to DZ. P.s. FD1 will probably make the unit into a S7 Krit. It's obscenely costly on a TAG and marginally useful.
I highly doubt they would make different Guilangs when it's easier to make a whole new troops that does that with a new name. It also makes it easier to understand what troop is what on the table. Also, it also sounds like a linkable Tiger Soldier we have talked about for years. Again, unlikely to happen when they can make a new troop that does the same thing.
Considering that we haven't had any word on Shaolin resculpt, it actually makes a painful amount of sense to put them in as the basic troops. If they rework Shaolin to be Core-able troops, I'd be fine with that, even if they altered Impetuous to also affect Fireteams. If they reworked Shaolin to be Core-able troops as part of a bigger scheme of reducing the amount of pure throw-away troops, that'd be better. Still, Zhanshi are fine as basic troops, even if you pay about 5 points more for what you get in any other given faction for a full core in the same category. A Zhanshi with +1 WIP, +1 PH and Mimetism is about 14 points. If you want to go up to 20 points and have what you describe, then that's more in the ballpark of a Kaplan Tactical Services in terms of statline (so a further +1 BS, +1 ARM and at least +3 BTS) or, closer to your stats, Greif Operator (i.e. ad MSV1 and something cheap like FD2 or Courage) Per'snally I'm hoping for the likes of; Medium Infantry, Non-Impetuous, Regular, Cube. MOV 4-2, CC 14, BS 12, PH 11, WIP 13, ARM 3, BTS 3, S2, AVA 1 (4) Camouflage. Combi (21) / Multi-Sniper (29/1,5) / Heavy Rocket Launcher + Light Shotgun (24/1,5) / Red Fury (27/1) / Combi LT (21 - WB only) / Combi, AP Minelayer (22/0 or 22/0,5 - WB only) Yes, that's the return of the Raiden. Why do you ask? The Multi-Sniper probably needs something to sweeten the deal or we'll end up seeing only the HRL... again... Maybe that's a good spot for MSV2 in this sectorial? That'd guarantee that we don't get Yet-Another-Kamau-Sniper.
For Shaolin, even as they are, they could do 1 or 2 if the rest of the box are expensive troops. But knowing CB they might put in one of the never used profiles. Like Combi-Rifle Shaolin.
So we know from the latest ORA Critical podcast that Code1 and the PanO/YJ Battlepack are out at Adepticon, late March (so probably in our hands by end of April) No official confirmation that it'll be White Banner (or whatever the eventual name will be) and even if it is, no confirmation that it'll be a full Sectorial release or if that's waiting until Gen Con for the N4 release. Oh yeah, N4 at Gen Con in August!
It's likely to at least be a basis for a future Sectorial. Seems a bit mad not to kill two birds with one stone...
Not unprecedented either as all the Haqq units in Red Veil were in RTF and then Cold Front with both the Kazaks and OSS.
It's not impossible to get one troop that's in multiple sectorals too. I actually think this is the reason we haven't seen Shang Ji. They might be in WB as well as IA. if they are the only Heavy in the sectoral, people will take them.
Speaking of Red Veil, that starter is a vanilla starter and the two-player boxes have so far been two starters, it would be most weird if Yu Jing had two vanilla starters. Not to mention that not having then be starters would make SKU bloat happen because the contents would be released separately. Not to be too facetious, but people also take Combi Shaolin. That said, Shang-Ji are probably the most likely to be in more than one sectorial together with Hac Tao, I agree on that point. (Hac Tao has too many released models to be likely, IMO, but if he does get in there expect a BSG or ML)
The starters being sectorials made sense in N3, but since they're gonna be Code One with N4 compatibility, well, who knows right now. Hopefully it'll avoid the GW style business model of 40,000 different starters containing a few different minis. Could be Coldfront was a bit of an outlier, since Aleph had only one other sectorial to add meaning the basic starter became an OSS starter - they technically have no vanilla starter at all. Ditto Ariadna. Code One starters being sectorial leaning in, a game without sectorials might get weird down the road. Still, here's hoping for shang ji... I did convert a Spitfire one...
I'm not really sure shang-jìs stand a better chance to be relevant in WB considering they're up against the daofei. It would be kinda like ORCs in neoterra. As for the box, I lowkey expect 3 guilang as starter troops, considering a boarding shotgun, combi and hacker guilang would complete all their profiles.
