Generally, the update is good. Addresses the comlink cost, addresses the physical cost of the boxes, which were seeing very little play pre-update. What remains to be refined is the actual rules of the reinforcements, for which I expect them to need more feedback, testing and suggestions. Hopefully, after adepticon, we can get that improved too. As for the profile updates and the availability.... I'll claim that all factions get something interesting @Space Ranger claims that PanO gets only mediocre troops, but the Blade Ops engineer offers important positioning opportunities with the deployment buffs and its free order. Ariadnan factions get sneaky buffs to MRRF and the French definitely need them. Also, loups garou are scarier, which they should be. Finally, being a Nomad, I definitely need to point out something. CB, I'm living in constant existential dread of the next close combat unit that will find its way on Bakunin. After marspiders, zellenkriegers, plus-sized zellenkriegers, cenobites, morlocks, uberfallkommandos and four different martial artist characters I simply cannot exclude the possibility that one day I'll open the army builder and learn how someone built a taigha kennel on the mothership, or that a particularly adventurous wulver stag party decided to visit. Corregidor would have definitely provided Spiderman and Co. a friendlier neighbourhood. Vanilla also did not need the CoC profile. Lieutenant issues were a defining Nomad weakness and watering down faction identity is not really a good thing. And it is not like Nomads need a buff in power at the moment.
This is an army update, moving on. PanO got great units and fireteam additions, for PanO, as far as CoC and Nomads, the only sectorial that really has an issue with Lieutenants, Corregidor, did not get them so I do not see a big issue with it and they are appropriately expensive and awkward to have around.
The first thing I noticed was the tac aware linkable engineer for Vanilla Pano and NCA. It pairs so well with Squalo (Mk 1 or 2 in both NCA and Vanilla) and a Bulleteer in Vanilla. While the Blade does not have Camo, NCA will love having a forward deploying non hackable specialist that meshes well with Pathfinders. Not a bad haul for PanO. I like that they are getting more engineers with different capabilities. It works with how reliant they are on their technology.
Is this actually true? Everyone needs to pay the points and tax, and the game mode is an extra 50 and 1 SWC, which more than covers the cost. It seems odd that you wouldn't try it before, but you would if you and your opponent got 7 more points and 0.5 SWC? I just have a hard time believing people stopped playing a game mode because of 7 points and 0.5 SWC. IMHO this change is insubstantial for the game mode, and I don't think this will make the game mode more attractive vs the normal game. I would love for you guys to try it again, though, and see if the change significantly improves your experience, or if there are other things you would suggest.
I'm very happy with the update (though my wallet is probably going to hate that I no longer have an excuse to not buy the sleek new kung fu bots). Not sure if it is enough to tempt me to try reinf games. I have limited time for games, so I'd like the games I do play are with rules I like. I'll hold off and wait for new reviews of reinf with the new updates come in. I'm really pleased with the annotations on the update announcements. It is very nice to hear the reasoning behind rules and the changes to the rules - even if you may not agree with the choices made, it does make you feel that you are part of a (sometimes heated) discussion, rather than just accepting the word from on high.
THIS! I'm lukewarm on the actual update, but it's way better to have explanations and thoughts behind the changes than to puzzle over them.
I applaud the addition of Reinforcement profiles into the regular game. But let me share my own experience with this annoucement so you can have a glimpse of what this actually means for a random given player, purchase-wise. I play and collect anything 0-12, have a wide collection of old and new JSA, I collect the 'new asthetics' Morat line, including the TAG RAID morats, and have started collecting SWF as well. My wife play collects and play exclusively HB. So you could say that our given 'home' is quite involved and invested with Infinity. Previous to the update, and after having tried the Reinforcement mode both in non-competitive and competitive enviroments, we have zero interest in purchasing any Reinforcement box. After to the update, it has now picked my interest to obtain the o12 reinforcement box, since all those included can be used in Starmada. But I still have no interest in obtaining the Exrah reinforcement box as they can not be used at all for Morats. Neither the Pano reinforcement box as I can only use 2 profiles of that box for SWF, agnes and the blade ops, and they lack the 'Winter-y look' I want for SWF. Maybe proxy time? JSA related, in the case that there is a NCA merc reinforcement box, no one of them can be used in JSA. So obviously there is no interest either on it. My wife is not interested in the Haquislam Reinforcement box as she plays exclusively HB, and nothing there can be used for her. So as you can see this update, although welcomed, it just mean that from at least 5 possible reinforcement boxes that could be purchased, we are going to end purchasing solely one. Instead if Reinforcement mode was enticing and exciting, we would have ended purchasing 5 boxes at least. And comm-link cost and SWC reduction is nice and welcomed, but doesn't make the mode enticing and exciting for us. Further rules update in the Reinforcement mode itself would be needed for it. TLDR: Army update sparks a little bit of interest in purchasing reinforcement boxes, but little. Instead a revision of the actual game mode itself would have sparked a huge interest in purchasing reinforcement boxes.
Agreed - especialy in the bold part its not about that CJC needs something urgently but the Marsspiders are so much Corregidor that even their fluff feels wrong. And that is the problem. The community wanted the RF units in normal play and now they got it. I looks like they were a little bit in a haste. Putting everything in vanilla was probably not even necessary (yeah someone will complain, I know). I have the feeling, that the units could be spread a little bit more over the sectorials. The YJ RF box is basically a WB update box. I will not complain about that, because it is of good use for me. But I would like to see some units in IA or ISS also. Same goes for the other factions. And it would not be bad, if some of the RF units for normal play would be left out of vanilla. The orginal RF problem was only be worked on with the removing of the swc and (most of the) price tax for the commlink. Thats good, yes. But that was it. All other problems were ignored. No words or change to the timing of the RF or the trigger point (still cheatable) wording. Comlink skill only available on line troopers - which make it a tax in itself for certain list builds. More variations like the already suggested EVO. I am still convinced that RF is nice mod that would be good playable from time to time or even in a online campaign if it has good ruleset. I will test it again, now that the officialy tax is removed. I think with the troops now in N4 normal play - which is bloat, but wanted because when the players see good units, they want to play it and then bloat gets only a side effect (a miniatur relased with sectorial only rules is not the same like a miniatur that is only playable in one (1) game mod) - the RF mod will not necessary get more popular. But we will see...
The fact we have reinforcement units in the sectorials and generic lists unlocks an interesting dynamic in reinforcements, and I can say I only could experience that with NCA personally, having the same units on the ground and coming up as reinforcements.
Hej everyone, more than 6 month after this intense feedback and discussions - is there any additions / news regarding reinforcements? Just a couple of weeks the „dice gods wargaming“ released a video about „how to fix reinforcements“ - i find a lot of common points and good ideas (similar to what we discussed here)… I love seeing cb (&influcampers) are pushing infinity more the last weeks… @psychoticstorm
No. All we got was reducement of the Commlink Tax (which is good), the additon of the RF troops in on or the other sectorial (and too much in vanilla) and that was it. Since then I got no RF game mainly because my group still don´t like it. I like to try it again. But I think CB was too busy thinking about how to make Silverstarprimeon the top of the cheese instead of finetune RF rules.
Plus N5 on october of this year, so they may have decided to either integrate Reinforcements as core rules, or rebuild from the ground up entirely
Ok, cool - and is there any validated or official info about reinforcements and rule changes in this context?
From what I gather from online discussions, I have not seen the Q&A myself, any link I have seen shows a removed video, people say the plan is to have it integrated on the core game mechanism, I cannot personally comment on that.
Correct, I managed to watch the full Q&A and it was confirmed that N5 will see reinforcements more integrated into the competitive scene. My hope is that means better balance for hybrid battles between non-reinforcement and reinforcement lists.
