Thinking further...I love the Yan Huo, but it’s really in a rough spot in terms of competition for its points and trooper slot. I’d like to see them with some specific tweaks by profile, I think: MULTI HMG profiles: BS Attack (+1 DAM) to make their weapon equivalent to the Guijia’s main gun, which fits with the fluff and makes them a bit more attractive but not enough to supplant an actual Guijia. ML Neurocinetics: X-Visor, to make it a premier standoff ARO missile platform. ML FTO: 360° Visor; it’s situational but means the fireteam is harder to flank, and the Burst bonus from a Haris already makes this one B3 in active and B2 in ARO, so it needs less help if deployed in a fireteam as god intended. Also, the guns are on turrets and I can imagine it pointing one in either direction, so bonus points for that, but it might be excessive on the neuro profile. HRMC: NCO on both profiles, because honestly this one is sort of fun to take already, and fitting a HRMC onto a S5 platform is special enough armament that asking for more seems greedy. NCO is nice, but unlikely to totally displace the other NCO options, and AFAIK an NCO LT can spend the LT order as a Regular order and avoid giving away its LT status, which gives a good reason to take the HRMC LT profile instead of just putting a Guijia LT or Daoying + Krit or Hac Tao NCO in the list.
Personally I'm waiting on the Fireteam updates before really wishlisting solutions here. If one of those changes makes ARM a valid defense compared to MOD-stacking in a link, the extra AP firepower of the Yan Huo could become far more valuable- all the YH's competition save the much pricier Guijia and the do-anything Shang Ji APHMG will struggle with TAG-grade armour. Wish I could figure out how the hell that Shanger profile is only one point over a YH, though, seems like some numbers were missed there.
Keep in mind that the fishes have an SMG and that Neurocinetics is what keeps them somewhat in line. At their points cost and with Total Reaction, and their price is already a bit fishy, they'll be bananas unless Total Reaction represents a fairly hefty points hike. Multi HMG and HRMC are extremely costly compared to AP HMGs. While I suspect the ML profiles' cost has been doped a bit compared to other profiles with +1B, the high burst weapons are still 6 points more expensive, making them easily 4 or more points more expensive than an AP HMG.
I dunno... I feel the solution is a lot more simple than that. The ruleset is based on specific rules trump general rules, so all we need is a line in NC that says any burst bonuses after the skill are applied in ARO only, right? Would that not be enough?
Or even just a line that says to apply any/all relevant burst bonuses to reactive turn instead of active turn. If it had had that from the start, this never would have gone anywhere. Well, the part where it was a tinbot initially because of N3 carryover would have still been an issue since they changed how those work in fireteams. But aside from that.
Can I raise my hand as someone who likes the Neurocinetics skill and found it to be a cool thing as a beginner. (I don't use these units much now, but they made me feel more secure deploying when I started.)
