On the other hand, the cutter is not exactly your average rambo piece. It is far more difficult to stop or simply slow it. The combination of good MOV, CH:TO (not only the -6, but also stealth, you can bypass some repeaters for example), B4 weapon dealing shock damage ... of course you pay for it and if you end your turn with your cutter in a bad position you may have just lost the game.
That's the thing, I think that the game pushed too hard one way and swung back too far the other -- on one hand we got Achilles + Shukra nonsense, and then we came back with Kamau MSV2 nonsense. The thing is swings that push the game in the direction of reactive turn being strong have a much bigger impact on the flow of the game and are much more noticeable than active pieces being too strong. I will say that altogether, the post-Druze sectorials all have significantly stronger reactive turns than much of what existed in the game then. We have Dakini links, Kamau snipers, the bullshit of Spiral Corps, and the super bullshit of Shasvastii now.
Reactive/aro tools seem to bend more the game? I disagree, it only is done by one that combines too much things. On the other side, we are "used to" the broken active pieces, so they are seen as having less impact, but they bend the game more. But I think we can ignore them: CB is not gonna change something that have not only not nerfed, but in some cases even they buffed a bit over this years. Active powerful pieces will remain as is, or even more powerful in n4, maybe they think that with some extra powerful aro they can fix this mess
I don't know if it's been mentioned yet. But I want rules to support flying drones. Drones have become integral to our very lives IRL and we employ flying drones all the time.
Shasvasti always had a very good reactive turn, possibly they got better due to Sheskiin allowing more SWC to be spent on defence, but it's roughly the same units pulling the weight still.
Dazer Minelayer. That alone makes Shasvastii incredibly good at slowing down advances through areas it needs to hold onto. That and the pile of camo markers, which is now even more annoying to deal with because of cheap ambush camo. And noctifers will never be bad reactively. Spiral Corps has the advantage of pretty much everything in the army having an ARO option. Holo1 means anything could pop out with an MSV2 sniper, triads of Heavy Flamethrowers, Helots, Impersonators with EMaulers that can get Symbiobombs, Dazer or Minelayer on its main workhorse unit, Kauuri to make Impersonators lives hard. It's not necessarily that Spiral has a great reactive game when the game starts, but it becomes more and more oppressive as the game goes on. It's funny because that's the opposite of Spirals active turn power due to Stratuscloud conditions and Symbiont Armor being the way it is.
Another little QOL one: I'd kinda like the placement restriction difference between laying a mine with minelayer and laying a mine normally around camo markers removed. Don't particular mind which direction it gets resolved in, but that's another one that new players never get right their first time, which is a sign it needs a look at.
I think in general, you should be able to place mines (Including Drop Bears and using Mine Dispensers) around camo markers without needing to use intuitive attack; it would provide more counterplay to one of the game's most powerful abilities. Unfortunately I have no idea how CB is collecting input for N4, and am worried it's not gonna be dialed in to what the community needs.
This was way back in N1 or early N2, so a lot of the now-usual TAG defenses weren't a thing yet. We both agreed that the biggest issue was his deployment.
Well i only know N3 so i can't tell. Beside i don't face a cutter that often so i don't have much experience with it, but my impression when seeing at play was that the usual ways of stopping a rambo don't work that well versus a cutter. The most troublesome for me are stealth that can bypass some ARO and shock since i usually have many dogged / NWI.
cutters are one of those beasts that bend a game (like any other trooper as expensive as it). They need special lists for themselves, and also the enemy needs special tools to deffend from it. It has been like that for it since its release, and still now the anti-TAG defenses against itremain almost the same (they changed HD to AHD, but they didn't work well against it then, and don't work well against it now)
Having spare bodies for it to chew through isn't special either. It's just that it's not something literal 100% of armies can do, however. But those who can, can do that pretty much against anything.
yes, but not all lists have flamethrowers (and some sectorials have a little of limitationsin that regard, so you need special lists for that), and you don't know where it is untill it breacks havoc. The same could be said about grenades or stealth against jammers
Flamethrowers are much more readily available than grenades, and much more useful on the table. Stealth is very limited and doesn't do much against Jammers.
That deppends on the faction. There are who have almost no fire (or do you mean direct templates?). And stealth don't do much? make them to happily ignore jammers and move safely is a good way to position to shot them or do mission. But this is futile. What we have seen in the table doesn't match. I see how people get away from hecklers and kill them, shot them with grenades, or just send his krakot, or how when a cutter appear causes havoc unless you got a lucky DA/EXP shot. Different experiences, different opinions
@Armihaul stealth doesn't do much because as soon as you interact with an objective or another trooper you get jammed anyway.
In your reactive, keep your head down, pretty good chance you won't be able to take it in a F2F firefight. In your active, get some hacking coverage around with repeaters or midfield hackers that are out of LOF so that when it does something that disengages stealth you can brick/steal/silence it, or force them to spend orders on another model to clear all of that stuff out before they can use it. Crazy Koalas/ E/Maulers if you access to them, they will put a dent in a cutter fairly easily. Sensor and/or intuitive flamethrowers to pop it out of marker state and mitigate it's vis mods.
