They could also take the long game approach and take a look at why some stuff is good and why some stuff is bad. Maybe some abilities need to go up in cost, some down, and some combos need specific increased costs. Maybe one or two needs to be sent back to the drawing board.
Oh yeah that too. How the hell mimetism is still just one point (most egregiously showcased on Q-drone) after 4 editions is beyond me.
Bagh-Mari are a good example. Are you taking a team of five of them? If so, why? Wouldn't you save a lot of points by downgrading 3-4 of them into Regulars? You're allowed up to 2 Baghs in a Regulars fireteam, which should be plenty to get you that varied toolkit - a sniper and/or hmg with mimetism, a shotgun, msv, number 2. Once you've got what you need in the team, paying an extra 35 or so points for another three Baghs with the same tools is an enormous premium, especially when the Regulars come with a different set of tools that would also be valuable in your fireteam, like sensor, fastpanda, deployable repeater, grenade launcher, etc.
Rodoks are an interesting example, because they were always considered a very good addition to MAF roster. Or at least I haven't seen many voices to the contrary. Now, with 4-4 MOV, they're even better. Karhu are LI, but elite LI are in the same basket as MI. Given the flexibility of Regular fireteam - like the option of adding an ORC to the mix - B-M Core has a tough competition, but I see uses for, say, a team like this: ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 BAGH-MARI Heavy Machine Gun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 28) BAGH-MARI (Paramedic) Combi Rifle, Light Shotgun ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 24) BAGH-MARI (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 21) MACHINIST SAA (Mimetism [-3], Terrain [Total]) Combi Rifle, D-Charges ( | GizmoKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 18) AGNES Submachine Gun, Nanopulser / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 14) 1.5 SWC | 105 Points Open in Infinity Army That Regular - and other LI teams - flexibility is one of the factors that makes MI look less favorable to people. If CB decides to really overhaul the fireteam rules they'd do well to limit the options of LI - especially more basic LI - links, while allowing MI more flexibility in this regard.
I think we're narrowing in on agreement here. A lot of MI were designed to go in fireteams - but they were designed at a time when fireteams were five of the same unit. If I had to choose between 5 Regulars, 5 Baghs, or 5 Orcs, I'd probably choose the Baghs. But with modern fireteam flexibility, there are way better options than that.
Yeah like others have said, I don't really know what is MI anymore. They are better with the 4-4 move now! However by making them better, they made the same. There's some LI with the same ARM and some HI too. I don't think the argument of more skills applies. Look at the guys below. The Sombra is a MI but has just as many skills and has better BTS. The cost is almost the same as well. He is also not hackable. SOMBRA (Specialist Operative) Breaker Combi Rifle, Light Shotgun, AP Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 39) 0 SWC | 39 Points ZHĒNCHÁ (Forward Observer) Submachine Gun, Panzerfaust, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 35) 0 SWC | 35 Points I think Armor should be treated a bit like Equipment, Like everyone start with ARM 0 on the stat line but then you have Equipment Armor (+2) One note: I think CB uses AVA to mitigate some things too. Sure, you might have something pretty powerful for a cheap price but it's sometimes AVA1. For example only Shasvastii have AVA2 on Q-Drones, the rest 1. But that's also because Shasvastii doesn't have that many hard hitting guns. The only other HMG is AVA1 Gwailo and Nox troops.
You get to have your cake and eat it too in most modern sectorials. I don't think this is really a problem with the design of MI and the same theory broadly applies to HI in most cases. You take the abilities you want from the specfic units, which atleast in shock army is more interesting than being a order monkey for the regulars. But there is the exception of doubling down on bringing a pile of wounds that HI have which is usefull in some scenerios.
To me MI should generally get Shock Immunity by default, plus ARM 2-3 - and survivability skills like dogged, NWI, Mimetism should be fairly common on them (and rarer on LI, except in special cases at least in combination with shock immunity). That would make them much more like a true step between LI and HI and have a defined set of characteristics that define them intuitively as a class again. Right now they seem mainly good when a specific profile is designed into a specific and valuable niche (Grenzer & Bolt Sniper, Intruder) or there's not much that distinguish them from LI except the classification itself (eg Post Human mk5). So the best way to use them is to just use the niche hyper optimised ones. The more traditional MI that feature a bunch of skills and equipment that drive up the cost, but lack commensurate survivability are best chosen carefully and sparingly in competitive games, IMHO.
I'd really like to see CB taking an actual real stab at deciding what to do with HI being SI1WNWI (shock immune one wound no wound incapacitation) and others being SI1WNWI - these two different types of SI1WNWI should not have anywhere near the same price considering that one is extra vulnerable to E/M and hacking. Otherwise, yeah. Consistently Shock Immune is a good first stage. Upgrade the LI that have Shock Immune and should have it to MI. Downgrade the LI where it's more important to stay LI to lose Shock Immunity. Downgrade the MI where Shock Immunity is not appropriate to LI. Upgrade the MI where Shock Immunity is appropriate to have it. Take some give some - but don't do a half-arsed job. Don't just apply this to a class of units without full consideration! Bravery was a terrible implementation where the bad MI stayed bad and the good MI suddenly got great.
