PanOceannia in N3 update - changes and thoughts.

[Stiopa]

Gentlemen, the update to all of our forces was finally released. We've been going over the changes for hours now, looking for a new ways to expand PanOceanian influence through the precisely applied firepower. Time to form a joint command, combine our efforts and findings, and enter this new era confident in the quality of our forces and their tactics.

My first thoughts:

Military Order branch seems to gain most from the changes. All of their heavy troops are easier to field now, and creating a heavy infantry fireteam leaves enough room to include fire and utility support.

Knights of Santiago are now one of the best units in game for securing a flank from infiltrators and airborne troops. Their 360v add to their cost, but extend their Suppression Fire arc into full circle, for a perfect area denial tool. Only the heaviest troops can engage them in relative safety, and those are vulnerable to the second of Santiagos trademarks - E/M Grenades. Light assault troops are affected by those too - any unit relying on steady supply of orders to complete it flanking maneuver and attack run are stopped dead in their tracks when getting Isolated. It might be preferable to shooting in certain conditions and against troops likely to withstand one hit.

Magister Knights are substantially cheaper to form a link team now. As all of them got issued a light shotgun running out of Panzerfaust ammo will be much less of a problem. There's more incentive now to get into 8" range from the enemy. Alternatively they can hang back and replenish their ammo from a baggage bot. Due to being X-Impetous they will be easy to target by enemy troops, but their enhanced dodge works as good as always. Use that to hide, then close in using more concealed route. From up close they should be very effective. They are also one of the few units that kept their EXP CCWs.

Neoterran garrison gained much from improvements to army's Heavy Infantry, but lost a bit of their utility from unification of Auxilia Auxbots. None of them can be a Forward Observer now, which can make completing missions much harder. Swiss Guard hacker is now much more affordable, but it's a differend kind of specialist.

Shock Army of Acontecimento now faces the same problem as before, even more pronounced by changes to template weapons and Monofilament dissolving - how to counter enemy armored units properly? Best option is to use a Dragao, which does its job very well, but won't fit into every army composition. Second solution is spreading the hacking net - quite a few of their units can use an Assault HD, and we can still field a few forward deployment repeaters. This should fit more flexibly into most army lists. And third option is to rely on our Aleph allies and their infiltrators equipped with Monomines. Be careful, though, it's now option B instead of primary solution.

And finally, our Remote units got quite a big discount, while getting a bit more swift. Bulleteer is now even cheaper fast attack units, and keep in mind that shotgun model got much more deadly at close range. Peacemaker benefits from increased hackers value - Repeater deployed halfway up the field can really mess up enemy offensive.

What's your first thoughts about our new model army, gentlemen?

[Lampyridae]

I agree with all of these points... although Military Orders I feel now has the Knights actually being a valuable part of the army instead of the Order hogs who inevitably die and leave a mess for the Order Sergeants to fix. 4-2 MOV in HI actually encourages direct charges towards the enemy instead of tactical positioning. Acconticimento and Neoterra I've no experience with but I can't see how much has changed their situation beyond what you bring up here.

[sqir666]

Also, Military Orders used to be defined by the Order Sergeants now with the current profiles you can actually feel like you're taking a Knightly Order. Which is bloody brilliant and I am loving the new changes and AVA of some of the knights.


Plus, I love that remotes have a place in my lists from now on. Before I always left them out because of the costs of them versus the knights, now I no longer have to leave remotes in the case when I play Military Orders.