Awesome! I braced myself for the nerf-hammer's impact but some of my favourite units even got buffed. But for what did 3 profiles get deployable repeaters? Are we hoping the enemy might trip over them or are we just randomly littering their planets out of spite now?
The changes certainly look interesting, though I don't understand why our Ectros didn't get a significant cost decrease as most HIs in the game did. To me, they still don't look too interesting as being hackable is a huge issue now. I am also not too stoked about the Gao-Rael cost increases. What I do like, however, is that they didn't nerf my beloved Makauls into oblivion. They're still going to be as obnoxious and ridiculous as ever! :) The most interesting change certainly is the Taqeuls, tho. The unit has always been an area control mashine and that did not change with the update. Reusable endgame and mirrorball is huge, and now he is a lot cheaper. I wouldn't be surprised if he was one if our best Lieutnants, now.
Most of them had something like a Nullifier that it replaced. This might actually be the use case for Zero Pain on the WHD? Zero Pain to impose a negative mod on the attacker, and then take advantage of the negative mod when declaring an ARO with your KHD?
Ectros were significantly undercosted in N3. Put an N3 Ectros against an N3 Mobile Brigada and look at the math there, Ectros were essentially getting their Inactive Symbiont Armor profile for free.
Dam 15 AP Spit / Flammenspeer on Gorgos, no fire bullshit, got huge point drops AND got a no-Chaksa profile which is at HI level costs (67) 67 for the non-Chaksa and 71/74 for the Chaksa variants, was 82/86 - and 0.5 SWC less, at 1.5 now
Wait a bit... Gorgos pilot does not loose her Tactical Awareness. That's beautiful! Wish I could land a hand on her in the past :(
One other cool note, the Kriigel + 2 Reex Triad is available to vanilla Tohaa now. I don't know how much mileage we'll get out of it because Makauls exist, but it's nice to have.
I cannot compare the N4 Tohaa profiles against the other armies because I haven't played a single N4 game yet. But, compared to our N3 profiles, the changes are mostly positive (I'll miss the Nullifiers, even more than the good old Swarm Grenades). Just one question, because I have yet to read carefully the rules... looks like the Kiuutan can reenter IMP-2 on its own now (expending one order). Am I right? "Troopers whose Unit Profile indicates that they have Impersonation (IMP-2) may only deploy and activate the Impersonation-2 (IMP-2) State". Does this mean that we can now legally employ the "Kiuutan+Symbiobomb+Symbiomate_in_your_face" trick (without Impersonation) and, after expending the mates, enter IMP2 and drive crazy our oponents?
Looks like Saks and Maks are still the reason to play. The Sakiel discount can help balance the price of Gao-rael's new fast shoes.
One last one before I need to be done, the Gorgos pilot got a BS buff (BS13) and now keeps the entire loadout of the Gorgos when Transmuting. (Previously you lost AP on the Spitfire and dropped the Pulzar to a Nanopulser.)
That might be a bug, though. Something else that may not be right, though I sure hope it is, is that Taqeuls do now have Fireteam:Triad. Gods, I am so hyped about this unit and the changes to it!
Just because I haven't seen anyone else mention it; the HFT Makaul now have Contenders. While a pretty neat ARO buff, I'm pretty sure the reason they got them was to avoid decreasing their price to 12 points haha.
First thoughts having played no N4 yet. The old Tohaa fortress play style of relying on our strong aro's and mates has been decreasing in viability for some time, the increased lethality of the game has meant people just gun straight through a couple of Gao Raels. Likewise the Sukeul isn't the S tier gunfighter it once was. I think this update largely puts the final nail in that coffin, i'm not too upset about that though as I think the buffs we have received give viability to more of the tricksy profiles that I always liked the look of but never really pulled their weight. A number of the global n4 changes mean that some profiles have got a bit stronger than just comparing old to new would suggest. The combat group cap means that I expect to face less 5 point expendable warbands, trading a Makaul for a monk never felt great and i'm expecting to have to do that slightly less often now. The cap also means there is more value in peripherals such as the chaska and symbiobeasts. Finally skills such as tactical awareness and the extra order lt skills are also mort worthwhile. It might even make me change my mind about the Rasail having a negative effect on listbuilding. The msv one change to see through smoke with a malus means I expect to see a lot more of it. Giving slightly greater value to our eclipse and mirrorball zones. This plays nicely with the Kauri's skillset. I'm not looking to go through all the profiles but a few bits i hadn't seen mentioned: The kerail went up a hefty 4 points but gained superjump which is a nice Qol change. The extra value of synchronised in N4 probably means I'm still taking two. The Gao tarsos finally swapped its hmg for a spitfire. The Chaksa auxilar gets a fairly random dmg buff to it's flamer and cc. The Delegate gets eraser, I've largely been ignoring spiral so hadn't seen this yet pretty nice buff and I think the increased likelihood you are taking a lt with extra command tokens makes here irregular status less of a downer. Amazingly Chaksa longarms are still valiantly competing for the status of worse unit in the game. I'm presuming the reason we don't get access to Oktavia is so we don't see the vertigo inducing gulf between her and the missile longarm. Overall I think we are still going to struggle in long range firefights, but i suspect the changes to combat groups mean we might start to see more midfield fights where our Triads
Super Jump as is brings nothing to the table. Unless falling gets FAQ'd back in for Super Jumpers, at least to first MOV value, Super Jump is a straight cost nerf.
WOW, didn't notice that! I was a little bit dissapointed because the Taqeul now regens at 10's, instead of 13's, but Fireteam:Triad is a nice tradeoff.
