They can be overpowered, and the Avatar can still be overpowered, and Imetrons can still be overpowered...so they could just nerf all of it and it would be fine.
CB just need to nerf wouds and armour again, just like it was in N3. Perhaps the return of automatically failed Saving throw when crits happen and couple of good fatality2 profiles for every faction? Avatar will be put down by basic rifles and Anathematic will be burned by multiple trinity attempts during reactive turn.
That's possible, but by my assessment, just nerfing the Avatar is the wrong thing to do. Depends on what the actual relative power level of CA is compared to other factions.
This isn’t complicated. Infinity players want to make the game as non-interactive as possible in every edition. In N3, fishing for crits and smoke tricks were commonplace because it offered little counterplay. In N4, high ARM multiwound TAGs and pitcher assisted infowar dominate because it offers little counterplay. Very few people played TAGs in N3 and everyone maxed out on orders, because armour couldn’t be trusted and throwing dice at problems until they died was very effective. Making crits more effective against high ARM and wound troopers makes active turn more prone to failure, which opens up possibilities for counterplay. Alternatively every trooper could be given a single shot panzerfaust and every hacker a single shot panzerfaust-hacking program to make AROs more dangerous for the attacker.
Wouldn't repeater assisted infowar be the counter to high ARM TAGs? Obviously shooting them with a combi rifle is not it, nor should it be the solution. Which TAGs are you seeing on your local tables and tournaments a lot? They just don't seem to be a meta choice for my locality.
First time I see someone bringing up TAGs in general as an issue, tbh. Most TAGs still feel a bit expensive for what they do for me.
I feel this is the first time TAG felt as powerful as they should be. They feel like they are in a good place.
This and null deployment in general is pretty good defence against any HMG Rambo piece. Unfortunately CA also has Bit&Kiss which are very good at sniping out single wound enemy hackers thanks to burst3 pitcher and BTS6+firewall. You notice that this pair can be found from every competitive CA list. I’m little bit surprised that CB haven’t nerfed them by removing pitcher from Kiss. Normal hackers can’t even kill Bit because they lack trinity and in a worst case isolation crit, there is probably an engineer nearby to remove isolation. You also have to take into account that map might have some sweet vaulting spot for a TAG to get a LoF to your dudes without provoking a hacking attack. Your opponent has all the time in the world to find that spot and is probably very good at that since he is using big silhouette TAGs and covid practice. Also notice that no-one is complaining about single wound mimetism-6 rambos with HMGs. While these troopers are very good at winning f2f rolls, an unlucky roll or a corner guard with chain colt can end their attack run, which doesn’t happen to TAGs if you know what you are doing. Null deployment, extensive flashbot repeater network to cover entry points, camo-hackers (or multiwound hackers with -6 tinbot), hidden deployment rocket dude and HVT bodyblocking a crucial lane is a good way to block alpha strike. Not all factions have access to these tools.
I'm very curious about the way TAGs are used in your meta along with the table setup. It's just not something I see. Are you talking about TAGs in general, or are you talking about the Avatar specifically since the example you used includes CA hacking? Yes, CA has some over optimized profiles but that's a CA issue, not a TAG issue.
My meta uses economy TAGs (my personal favorite is Xeodron haris with an engineer), but the effect is the same. I use the tactics above for great effect. I also play TAK which doesn’t have TAGs and the faction is very vulnerable to single bad roll ruining everything. If CA lost pitchers then it would have much harder time attacking safely against null deployment. So the real power behind CA is Bit&Kiss with their easily reloadable combined burst3 pitcher.
