We should start updating this post instead of clogging up the faction board with more threads. To start, it seems to me the design of the game now is the cheapo options are discouraged from spamming due to order limits. IE being cheap and single purpose is now a bit of a penalty. Irregular is also somewhat frowned upon. Looking at the lists I am building, the way the faction is allocated, you are only supposed to take 1 or 3 irregulars max. Meanwhile, impetuous is a straight improvements. It can now function more as a free burst of speed order so no more unnecessary killing out our guys. So the Devil Dog and Desperado get a pass on the logic. The faction weakness is clearly order slots and no strong synergistic options. We still will rely on links and characters to survive. Our main strength is we dont care about points or SWC. My initial reaction to the changes: Winners: UKR - This guy is literally amazing now Rosie - With 4-4 speed she can no go anywhere with little downsides. Basically an upgraded no SWC Marauder Marauders - Their options got a little better and their speed increased, what is not to love about these guys. Will be the corner stone of the faction. Devil Dogs - Their price reduction was just enough to make them competitive with the other dogs while retaining all their uniqueness. The change to Impetuous also benefits them greatly as it is easier to use their sensor. These are great options now. Desperados - The 2 AP pistol version which was one of the strongest attack pieces in the faction is now 6 points. This is OP as hell. Infiltrating Grunts - If this is accurate its is pretty bonkers. If you go first, it is possible to set up a really strong defensive wall and do all your button pushing before your opponent can react. You are 1 order away from being what you were before and can now link. Runners Up: Grunts - Grunts used to a faction gem that was a corner stone of the army. Now the problem is they are just to cheap to get us over our point hurdle. I would expect to bring 5-6 tops for a link and that is it. Wild Bill - Wild Bill got hurt a little bit by the grunt link but slightly weaker, but he is still a power house. Due to his speed, a wacky combo would be to bring 3 Infiltrating grunts and Rosie in the middle to get link coherency with WB. He can quickly catch up and and start going to town. Van Zant - Van Zant got NCO and is a little cheaper, but his ability is no longer exclusive. The reduce orders makes it harder to hide him. Still a great option, but probably will no longer has the fear he once did. Middle of the Pack: War Divers - These guys are cheaper, but the worry is that all the HI and TAGs getting cheaper means he will be a mando choice and their really isn't anything special about him. Taking a mandatory model would be annoying. Mavericks - Mavericks gain a little bit on some of their options and the bonus to MSV, however Desperados are so cheap now and they do a lot of what these guys do sot he jury is out. Foxtrots - These guys are still required to push our buttons. Still no minelayer is annoying. The sniper got cheaper, but really just not to hot with that unlinkable BS11. Airborne - The got 1 point cheaper and parachuist is better. However, it is still hard to hide these guys like you could before. Still a good option. Losers: Minutemen - Everyone already knows it. Hardcases - The best soft ARO we have, but Irregular orders are just not as good any more. Also if the grunt remains infiltrating he is now a competing ARO piece. Still a good order but no longer a max AVA every time. Blackjacks - The nerf is really unwarranted. Wardivers are cheaper which is nice to protect them better, but the BJ still isn't the powerhouse the faction needs it to be. It is still better to simply take a link. Traktors - Competes with Minutemen for bottom of the barrel spot. Dozers - Gizmotkit is meh. No real reason to take him any more due to Traktors getting dunked on.
I think your points on the winners are pretty accurate, though I already thought the shotgun devil dog was the best dog in the game, haha. Desperados might actually suffer from being so cheap, but at the very least they're fantastic at filling gaps. The AP Sniper Grunt is pretty hot, regardless of the other profiles. I foresee many/most of my future lists having 3 grunt infiltrators. If I go first, then I deploy them wherever I want, if I'm going second, I deploy them in coherency to get B2 heavy flamethrowers or shotguns in the midfield as a speed bump, maybe with Rosie. I think Mavericks are amazing now, can shoot through smoke and provide their own smoke. I don't think comparing them to Desperados is accurate, they perform very different tasks. Airborne Rangers got buffed massively thanks to the change to Parachutist, now they can come on whichever side you want when you deploy them, also the best profile (Rifle and Assault Pistol) got 2 points cheaper, while the Molotok got upgraded to an AP Spitfire and came down a point. They also benefit from an extra point of CC, and Martial Arts L2 is buffed. I'm very excited for Airborne Rangers. Obviously I agree about Minutemen, let's keep telling CB we want them all to have x-visors, regeneration, and 6-2 movement. That would go a long way to make them a VERY different unit, and be true to their model and fluff, and let them charge more points to make a proper elite unit.
@TheDiceAbide With regards the Airborne Rangers, though the profile does not appear to be up yet for USARF specifically, do you think it might now be worth picking up the second (molotok in my case) Ranger to put two in lists?
They're in the Ariadna army, just missing from the USARF list, so you can at least get an idea of what they do. I would get the Molotok, but I'm a completionist, haha. I've played N3 with max Airborne Rangers and Van Zant, it was pretty damn fun, and now it's actually a lot better. If I were to run two, one would almost certainly be a Molotok.
You are probably right on the Maverick, but there is still a minus -6 to shoot. I feel like there is a lot more models that has MSV2 and up that got a lot cheaper as well. I am not sure how it will play out. I think the ranger is great, but the molotok model is kind of expensive when you could just take Van Zant and you can't fit a lot of these in now. I think the SMG FO is best. Having a button pusher being able to reach your opponents board side is always useful. I am good with visors and regen, but not so much on 6-2 move. They still just standard humans not augmented.They probably should get an arm buff as well.
Fully agree with your mov comment, just doesn’t fit right. X-visor and regen would be fantastic though and fit great with the model detail. Maybe an extra point of armor. I’d love to see the blackjack get either fatality or +1 burst. Overall, I think USARF came out of this in pretty good shape.
The -6 to shoot is big, but it's something you can manage, because you pick when you're going to shoot, it lets you shoot when it's advantageous to, it's something you're going to do every order. The fluff for Ohio was that they're wearing servo assisted exoskeletons under their fatigues, which manage the weight of their equipment and let them move more quickly, which is why they had MOV 4-4 and Kinematika, while the rest of the USARF troops were stuck at 4-2, that's why I think 6-2 would be appropriate.
I am all about the fluff to rule stuff. Though they do have multiterrain so that kind of already counts for it. I like regen because they all have the little IFAK. Its them giving themselves self-aid.
Don't forget that the Maverick BSG now shots direct templates, provided you can get him into a good position that can be pretty nasty... and they can Doge now! Motorcycles don't provide a negativ PH for doging anymore. Other than that: My Airborne Rangers will definitly see action. The new parachutist rules will help me, as tactic noob, to use them in game.
Agree - the Desperados being 6 points almost felt like a typo. The idea of inflitrating grunts forming up with Wild Bill for a relatively throwaway core link is very interesting.
The "1 point buys a HRL and MSV" profile for Marauders feels more like a typo to me. Rocket Marauder was already a strong Rambo last edition, and now that MSV is just that much better, and he's 4-4, AND cheaper?
There is missing Note in army, the Infiltration profiles for Line Infantries (Grunts,Rokots) will not be able to form Links.
Yea I pointed that out in a nother thread. The HRL was mathematically the best option except in the molotoks ideal range band and even then it was only a few percent improvement with the molotok. Now it is significantly better so much so it has to be a bug.
If both profiles had the MSV, I'd probably have favored the Molotok, but with only the HRL having the visor, I took that every time last edition, and the sniper only got better, so he goes in the fireteam as well. I cannot overstate how much value I have gotten from that heavy rocket launcher Marauder. He's killed more things than my Van Zant has. I think my Blackjacks have killed more, but I attribute that to usually having 2 of them, sometimes 3. I only ever need the one HRL Marauder.
CB should have delayed the release to fix all these bugs. They are really everywhere. Heck at least they could have said, really just "bros covid slowed things down its gonna take a while to get army to where it needs to be and I would have been fine with it.
I mean... you already know that things were disrupted by Covid. And the initial release was going to be buggy. That's sort of what happens with new releases of games.
Has anyone had the opportunity to put USARF on the table with the N4 rules? Would be great to hear your experiences!
I played against my buddies Combined last week. A few things that stand out to me, A Harris team with a Maurader Sniper rifle MSV1 UR and Rosie felt really good for some ARO action. I took 6 grunts and a Minuteman AP HMG NCO the idea was to turn him into a decent Rambo while the reforged grunt link had the AP Sniper profile for some decent AROs on the other side of the map. I think I was too aggressive with the Maverick and DD team will be trying at least one of them out again next week. The MM easily made up his points when I broke him off from the link.
