More or less what I expected... very aggressive unit. Supportware could be very interesting over Drumbots. We'll have to see if it's worth spending so many points on glass cannons.
I was not expecting the bots to have BS 13 and Minimism -3. And I am really surprised they don't have Remote Presence for fixing them. With the exception of HRMC, the cheap SWC costs are amazing.
With Puppetbots having BS 12... certainly I was waiting BS13 for Drumbots. Mimetism is a slight surprise... and certainly Remote Presence would have helped them.
While you would never do it, I like that you can drop 8 shots BS 13 on a single target with the drummer: HRMC (5) Marksman Rifle (3) Rarely worth the risk, but that is ridiculous. The Drummer is playing like a Jazz Player at that point.
Love the drummers. Pano true power. The mix between Auxilia and Guardia. Very very fragile units but with a lot of firepower. For sure, it will be a good active profile, but something the enemy can deal with in the Active turn by hunting down the controller. What makes me sad is the low PHIS makes gizmo pretty much unusable. In N4 I think pretty much all periferical of that kind didn´t have anymore remote presence already.
...Was a Haris of ORCs without dragging along the bloody Character too much to ask? Fusiliers, (Total), Fennecs (5) and Bolts (3) are the only things with AVA above 2 in the whole of Vanilla! Edit; Aquila Guards are now very big news again, though... MSV3 can shoot Camo Markers again! You have to actually apply the Mimetism, but no Discover necessary!
Same. There are some singular places I'd like to see bigger changes, but it's insignificant compared to what got upgraded. Had no time to properly go through all the rules yet, though
V PanO has a serious mid field now. Zulu-Cobras, Crocmen, Scarecrows, and Locust (now with limited camo) are AVA 2 each. Plus you can have a FD8 hidden Father-Knight. And you still have peacemakers. It's crazy. EDIT: AVA 2 Helots!!! You can also make a pure Haris with Patsy and make the orders regular. Jeez, Pano is going to be super oppressive. Good.
I gotta agree with most of the above, I'm surprised with PanO Vanilla, I thought that for sure Zulu-Cobra and many other camo/mimetism Infiltration/FD fellas were going to be AVA 1, instead they got 2. I'm seeing options here that are pretty cool. Also it seems Patsy got Warhorse, PH 14 'nades, E/mitter, FO and NCO she has lots of stuff going on with somewhat decent price. Also Fennecs are AVA5, I can put a lot of minelayer to lists which is great. This is better than I expected, I'm not even thinking about fireteams, but maxing midfield and minelayer, with Jean2/Tik+CoC. Would like bit more MSV2 selection but you can't have everything I guess, and there is quite a bit of MSV1 and also Aquila so... Kestrel seems quite strong, not sure if I'll play them personally as I'd have to proxy quite a bit. PanO seems to be in surpisingly good place, N5 Vanilla makes up for a lot of things that were lost. Dart and Nagas are what I'm missing most, well, Dart is still in Sectorials though.
I'm just a little bit sad about poor ORC. All of their contemporary colleagues got fancy new things on every profile: Janissary [BS(-3) Pulsar], Brigada [360visor +1B Breacherpistol], Shang-Ji [tac awerness and breacher pistol] and poor dudes / dudettes stayed the same (and they aren't even cheap compared to the previously listed HIs).
Most of all, PanO is interesting now. They have cool stuff and options. There are weaker spots, like the ORCs, but eh, still playable.
I am even excited about fielding Orders, Hidden Deployment Father-Knight with his AP SMG and all other bells and whistles is just cool and slots in some of my lists no problem. Hospitallers lost ~14 points from core link, which is enough to bring one more trooper easily. Holy Sepulcher is still a beast with his AP HMG. Montesa (both) is virtually the same. I see no reason or little reason to take dismounted one, but FD (+8") can be used effectively as a mid-field button masher and speed bump. His Mim (-3) effectively breaks him even with limited cover. Tikbalang of Montesa was reigned in and thank God for that. It is still good but not the "top three tags of edition" good. Seraph with his changes and changes to Tikbalang is a contender now and may be taken in lists. I am looking forward to it. Tech-Bee is a regular and TagCom to boot, picked up an Adhesive Launcher Rifle in addition to her Flash Pulse and now can stop the DZ run all by herself. She was good, now she is great. TRbot with a Thunderbolt is a budget TRbot for those who wants to TRbot but lacks SWC. Nice addition. Curator picked up some turrets and deployables. I like it even more now, especially with TRbot. Teutons got cheaper. Sure they got worse, but they were extremely good. Konstantinos has a place now. Especially with his Discoballer. With new rules to rearming, Baggage mulebots are worth considering for rearming disposables. Dart and Trinitarians are either the same or differences are so minute I do not see them. Mendoza is a beast of a man for his cost. Still great. De Fersen is still the great hacker he is, if a bit pricey. Black Friars are a little bit worse and a little bit cheaper. Still good. Infirmarers got cheaper and can be considered now. Order Sergeants are still the same which is a little sad. Wanted for them to pick more options, but we have better Curators and cheaper Infirmarers to pick up the slack. Knight Commander is the same and cheaper. Keep playing the "Guess the Crosier" minigame. Crosiers are the same. Still decent backbone troops. Edit: spelling.
Good Question... I have the feeling Pano isn't anymore the TAG faction it was in the past. Too many spread between sectorial. I think it would be a matter to pick the tag, pick then the army where it is... I think Black Friars are better now in fact.
