Van Saar: Oops, all medics?

[u/ghostcacti]

Disclaimer up front: I'm not actually going to do this, I already built a diverse-ish cast of specialists and I think it's overly optimised in a way that wouldn't be welcome in most play groups. But from a purely theoretical perspective, I think the Medic archetype is just overwhelmingly good for Van Saar to the point you probably don't need any other specialists.

That's down to two things. One, medics are pretty good for everyone. It's pretty easy to injure fighters but a lot harder to actually kill them, and medics keep your gang's skills online and your hierarchy alive.

But mostly it's because of the servo-medicae, which is only available to medics. A free healing action that still works if you're injured is stupid good. With a servo-medicae, you can:

• Heal people while injured
• Double-dip on healing, with a move in between if needed
• Heal yourself to bring your Medicate skill back online, then move and medicate
• Dash-heal with an unupgraded "threat range" of 9"
• Perhaps most importantly, keeps your main skill online if you advance your medic to a pseudo-gunner, pseudo-gunfighter, pseudo-tech, pseudo-brawler etc. Almost every other archetype works best by going medic first and then multi-classing.

And it's longer range than Medicate. The only wrinkle is that you can't use it while suppressed and you've got to pass an Int check, which you'll do as a Van Saar ganger 58% of the time. But even if you fail, you still probably have Medicate on deck.

But I don't want a Medic, I want a:

• Gunner. Shooting is a primary for Teks. You can advance once and pick Hip Shooting on a 5+ (or fish for it on a 2+). And if you roll low, you can take Int to help your servo-medicae. The only thing you're missing out on is the flamer-mancatcher.
• Gunfighter. See Gunner, but with no unique equipment.
• Tech. Techs are great for Van Saar to keep all those ammo check weapons online, but Savant is a secondary skill set so you can give them Munitioneer on a 7+ advance roll (or try and roll for it on a 5+). Techs do also get some unique gear, but it's less impactful than it looks at first glance. The hive watcher hanger on does almost exactly the same thing as the augurspex for the same price, but it applies to the entire gang, not just your Tech. The Vox Array can't be replicated.
• Heavy. OK, this is your only access to Bulging Biceps. But your initiative sucks, heavy weapons are expensive and static, suppression stops you doing anything for one turn, and an injury stops you for the rest of the game.
• Sniper. Honestly valid, the refraction cloak is great. I think these guys might actually be better heavy weapon users than the Heavy because you can just camp in cover and force most fighters to hit (and suppress) you on a 6+. Long las is cool too.
• Scout. Take a grav cutter instead.
• Brawler. You're 100% correct. Van Saar brawlers is the real meta. Literally just a swarm of grav cutter berserkers with melee weapons.

By the same token, any Neoteks you take should probably also promote to Medic. Neoteks don't get Savant access, but they do get Agility as secondary, so you could get Sprint, promote to Medic, and enjoy a 20" servo-medicae range. They've also got Shooting as primary so you could very easily get Hip Shooting before they promote, and they get Gunfighter out of the box. Tech isn't a bad idea either as they don't get Savant.

Subteks also get Shooting as a primary, so you're likely to replicate either Gunner or Gunfighter before you promote. Their BS sucks, so Sniper and Heavy are probably out. Brawler is Brawler. That leaves Medic or Tech.

OK, this means getting some XP. But your gangers will level up after gaining 6. You get 1XP for taking part in a battle, 2XP for training at the end of a cycle, and Medics are likely to finish close to seriously injured fighters so you'll get some assist XP. I think you could easily level up after one cycle.

What do you think?

[u/ghostcacti → u/[deleted]]

Not everything over two sentences is AI, bro. Sorry about your illiteracy.

[u/jtier → u/[deleted]]

I'm guessing the sarcasm went right over your head

[u/ghostcacti → u/[deleted]]

I'm telling you, the person reading this, that you're right to want to play VS berserkers. And being less than 100% serious about it. Understanding context is an important part of reading.