Spinning out of news and rumors...
LunarSol wrote:I have to admit, I find what units work in which sectorial very confusing when it comes to PanO.
Putting it bluntly, that's because they did a rather poor job from the outset.
When we got the original Human Sphere book and the introduction of Sectorials? We didn't have a lot of options in there.
Shock Army:
Bagh-Mari(Medium Infantry with some nice kits)
Regulars(Linkable--
replaced Fusiliers)
Nagas(ALEPH loaner Skirmisher)
Sikh Commandos(Aerial Deployment)
Guarda
de Assalto(Heavy Infantry with an Auxbot)
Montesa Knights (Fluff reasons; they also trained alongside the
ASA and fought with them in Paradiso)
Tikbalangs(Light
TAG)
Dragoes(Heavy
TAG)
Kirpal Singh(
AD character...was a
huge deal for them at the time)
Neoterra:
Auxilia(Non-linkable Light Infantry with an Auxbot synched to them)
Aquila Guard(Expensive
HI that was amazing at camo hunting thanks to Multi-Spectral Visor Level Awesome)
Swiss Guard(Expensive
TO Camo
HI)
Hexas(Expensive
TO Camo
LI with okay loadouts)
Deva Functionaries(ALEPH loaner
LI. Allowed for a relatively cheap but survivable Lt option)
Uhlans(Camo
TAG that had an okay loadout for hunting other TAGs. Best part was that it could hide)
Squalo(Lt.
TAG option)
Fusiliers(Linkable Light Infantry capped at AVA5 with no character support at time of launch)
Garuda(ALEPH Loaner
AD Remote. Was basically the only non-walking deployment that NCA had at the launch)
Military Orders:
Fusiliers(Cheap 3
LI that didn't form a Link Team but generated Orders)
Order Sergeants(Basically
AVA Total Fusiliers with specialized options and the ability to Link aside from the Specialist Sergeants)
Gabriele
de Fersen(A nasty
HI Hacker)
Knights Hospitaler, Montesa, etc(
HI that were nice but limited. Generally benefited from a lower price per model since they had Frenzy and/or Impetuous)
Seraph(
TAG with an Auxbot)
Magister-Knights(Your guntoting
HI Knights that had a fairly high
AVA and could have their Extreme Impetuous countered)
Joan of Arc(multiple variants; she could Link with Knights and allowed for removal of some downsides)
With the introduction of Campaign: Paradiso?
Military Orders then had the Crusader Brethren added(
AD Knight-lite)
Stephen Rao was added for Bagh-Mari and could Link with them. BM at the time were AVA4 so that was a Big Deal.
Indigo SpecOps were added. Fusiliers, Regulars, and Order Sergeants could be used as the 'basis' for them since it was
only taking the Linkable
LI options of a faction.
Shock Army had a few Steel Phalanx characters added to their roster.
And now with
N3 we've just seen them trying to gap-fill more. Human Sphere
N3 actually added some fresh life to NCA but it still doesn't make for an interesting or unique Sectorial sadly.
Riquende wrote:I have to admit, I find what units work in which sectorial very confusing when it comes to PanO.
The concept is simple enough. Each planet has its own defence force, and any planet that hosts the
HQ of a Knightly Order can bring in some of those as well. Some planets host ALEPH units for training or liaison purposes too.
NCA houses the Neovatican(the organization which rouses the Knightly Orders to war and is the whole reason Order Sergeants exist) but didn't have any Knights in it until the Blackfriar was added last year. They can and have left Knights out when they saw fit.
I'm sort of okay now with the idea of Fusiliers and ORCs being the standard line trooper of the PanO military complex and available to all the sectorials as their filler units (not that I use ORCs). Sure it's not all that exciting but they exist as no-frills no-skill units with a bevy of very standardised weaponry which sort of seems like a PanO thing that would be used to supplement local specialised forces.
The issue is that Fusiliers
aren't available to all the Sectorials as their "filler units". NCA is the only one, currently, which had its unique unit(Auxilia) sidelined in favor of the 'vanilla' Fusilier.
Hell, you can't even have an Auxilia as your SpecOps basis with that being sidelined in favor of the Fusilier!
ORCs are still,
IMO, too new to the ranks of the NCA and
ASA to make a judgement call about them. I think they should be higher
AVA in NCA or should be able to join a Haris with an Aquila Guard or be able to do
something interesting given that it's supposed to be one of the highest tech Sectorials and the place is home to some of the best command schools in PanOceania.
And that's not even touching on Bolts.
For myself? I think the biggest issue is that we have two Sectorials where what should be a low
AVA unit(Fusiliers) isn't.
It would be one thing if, like the Merovingian Sectorial had, the Fusiliers were AVA1 and brought something unique and special to the table.
But they don't. In Military Orders, they're AVA3 so can't really do too much...but in NCA? They're AVA5.
It's led to a Sectorial where what
should be the signature units(Bolts and Auxilia) are sidelined in favor of the alternatives that bring the same kits or skillsets for cheaper.