Speedball needs changes and more options (giving a +1B panzerfaust for example, a baggage use, and change the Vita & STR heals to a medikit/gizmokit autohit in ZoC for example, so you don't touch it and carry it but it falls on your side). The auto reset kinda makes sense since the soft kill of Iso+IMM is the most effective defense against those heavy hitters, the problem here lays (I think) not in the speedball but in the defensive needs of Ariadna. Mine Launchers with cybermines for Ariadnan remotes (the existing ones) may be a solution (and in fact quite in line with the background needs of the faction, since it's a BTS weapon that stuns things like Antipodes, for example. Or rampaging dog warriors...). Sure, the Speedball will negate the mines... once. And it's not a nightmare of E/M onion layers. USArianda... has been left to rot in pure Tohaa year until it gets relaunched... The sense it makes is Smoke at PH16 + 4 (because it's a BS attack), which I'm not really happy to have noticed, since a bearpode dodging at 20 against anything but MSVs is quite distressing.
Also antipodes ... As the rules are written they make no sense at all. It's too easy to hide a trooper in the stairs of any building and you can't reach them. Their base is too big to fit and because ou need a full base contact very often you can't touch the target. Some fix might be to give they guard with a limited reach. Like 10 cm
It seems that with the N5 update CB has totally ignored Ariadna, except to nerf the Bears (making them totally unplayable), Unknown Ranger and other things that did not deserve to be nerfed. Furthermore, it bothers me even more to see the removal of some iconic characters from the main faction(first of all Pavel). All the players I met in the various tournaments who played this faction declared themselves disappointed (including me obviously), and most of them have moved to another faction or have stopped playing. Reading the various posts, I didn't understand if CB is planning an update to correct the monstrosity they committed on this faction. I hope it happens as soon as possible.
the only known plan is redo USAriadna, but when? TBA And frankly, that's not even close to the solution players want
I don't stop to read a lot of Ariadna players saying now that the bear is unplayable and I truly wonder why? My points: Bear now isn't so different as it was if we think people played both, so "no cover" was already there somehow. Both options are now regular, so this could be an improvement. Smoke was nerfed for all factions, but bearpode is still one of the most reliable source of smoke in Game. Flash pulse affects now the bear... and all other Immunity profiles... dodge with smoke or without on 16 isn't a bad face to face against pretty much anything. EM now affects the bear... Ok, this is a downgrade since it wasn't general and EM is now more visible in game. Still an isolated bear is dangerous since it has 2 orders and high chances to dodge to reach someone. Bioweapons are the same for the bear. Berserk is different, I wouldn't say worse. Yes, shotgun now haven't templates, worse since you can't play die die no matter what your rival did and pretty much no risk for the bear. Less Armour, yes, but more BTS, so breaker or bioweapons have less chances to make a wound. I mean, worse? Yes, indeed. Unplayable, no, I'm sure is not, unless playable means only be able to ignore any ARO until you reach your primary target, secondary target and third target, and maybe many... In that case, yes, bear is now unplayable. Problem is Bear was so OP that any downgrade will feel as a really huge one, even if is not. I[m not even talking because bear gave me too much issues, lucky me while playing Pano I didn't face it too much, but I faced it a lot while playing haqqislam, so having access to viral makes the bear less dangerous. The thing I watched a match between two ariadna players in a Satellite and saw how the first player and with the first bear managed to kill 8 troupes, Lt included, and the player even had orders to fulfil 2 classified targets and to place LeMuet in a tower (he doesn't know that the Lt was killed yet). The bear ended without wounds, and that was the only thing out of the statistic but in that case the only difference will be that the bar would be dead when the turn ended. Which would have made no difference at all. This is the real reason why now people sat the bear is not playable, since bear can't do this anymore. But this is not "not playable". However this don't deny that maybe Ariadna is struggling a little in N5. As a Merovingian (and Haqqislam) player didn't have never the feeling that the 15 troupes limit was the problem in N4, didn't think it is in N5. While I share the concerns about Ariadna struggling I saw several Ariadna players close to me which managed to have success while playing it, but they went for other stile, they now need to be more confident or to relay in others profiles. The MSV increment I don't think is real, I mean, it will depends a lot of our local meta, more MSV profiles now in N5... maybe a few, but nothing that means more presence now in N5 than in N4. We can't forget now MSV has more predators since albedo have more profiles and play the whole game. This translates that people try not to place more MSV. Playing with Kestrel for example didn't make it easy since a lot of profiles have MSV or Marksmanship... And yet, visors still need to do the discover roll, which is the power when half or more of your camos can be nothing. But... you have here a point, REMs with sensors are now back since some armies have tactical awareness with then, this is indeed an issue. Visors and Sensors I think are more an issue for armies/losts which play only a few camo, but if you do a camo spam, if the table isn't a desert, it will be hard even for a MSV3 to be efficient. And here I think is where the point is, to be effective with camo now, as a valid list creation and to go into a tournament with a list with a lot of camos, you need indeed a lot, which usually translate into 1 wound profiles and not so powerful weapons. My experience with an Assura, spitfire one, against camo marker spam in Ariadna wasn't as good as I have expected, since I need 3 orders to be able to place the assura with LoF, so I started to shoot... without discover that means I usually was shooting at 11s, since I should apply the -3 for Mime and -3 for covert. If I focus on one camo, usually I hit it and kill it if was a miniature, which usually wasn't, but splitting the burst usually failed for one camo. You can be bold and ignore the "first camos", but with an expensive model as all MVS3 are... Maybe not the best idea. My point here, 3 orders to reach + 3,4 orders shooting to "nothing" means you still have half of the pool wasted, lets say you keep pushing and managed to use 3 more orders by killing 2/3 models, then you have to go back and your turn ends there, maybe the secondary group was capable to push some button before that. Even MSVL3 being the "best tool" against camos is not enough if it has a camo spam in front of it. However, when enemy has only 3/4 camos, you will most likely only use only half of your pool and no more camos there. But all that said, I believe Ariadna could need some punch, not only to relay in full camo.
To all the nerfs you listed for the bears you also add cost increased; it makes no sense. As for the current situation of ariadna, I'll just say that in the last two local tournaments of 20 players each there were 0 ariadnas (sectoral included); a destroyed faction.
I'd say the shotgun profile is dead. Spending 40 points to rush across the board just to attack one profile at a time in close range is pointless. The Bear was overpowered, no doubt about it, but every change they made was a nerf plus points increase on top. For no apparent reason, both also gained the NO COVER rule despite being regular and not having an impetuous order. Kosmoflot, as a faction, got significantly worse in N5. Ariadna is in a sad state at the moment. It was the most diverse and interesting nation, but CB has made it the least interesting and weakest. The most thematic sectorials were removed, while the most boring and uninteresting sectorial (US Ariadna) was left alive. I don't have much hope for Ariadna—at least not in the near future.
New army update today. All factions got something new or slight adjusts to their troops. Ariadna got... Number 2 for Wallace.
@Koni Adding the lieutenant option to William Wallace (with inspiring leadership) even in vanilla Ariadna would be a quick change that would at least improve the current terrible situation of this faction. I honestly don't understand what the point was in leaving a useless profile like Wallace non-lieutenant, that I personally have never seen anyone play, and removing profiles like Pavel and others.
@Koni Wallace is not even linkable in vanilla, so he can't use it, just like he can't use his inspiring presence. Can we please start having some common sense adjustments to ariadna?
So just make it a kosmo only profile? They posted it up as an ariadna change, but it helps noone in vanilla
Wow. That change wasn't just nothing, it was also insulting. So glad I decided to shelve my Ariadna after the satellite.
But bears clearly suck! They can only throw smoke on 20s or their Trench Hammer on 20s too... Or you're stuck only throwing grenades on 16s, or spec firing on 10s... Utter trash, Bearly playable!
For their points, they're pretty mediocre now. They deserved some serious attention after their ridiculous run in N4, but the combination of mechanic changes in N5 and an overabundance of targeted nerfs on top of that push the needle too far in the other direction. Save your points and get a Dog Warrior instead. Same number of orders, half the slots used, more durable and mobile, 16 points less.
This sums up quite a lot of profiles in the game, and the trend after base rules changes, quite nicely.
My to cents to this topic, yesterday while recording for the new podcast program about factions numbers in the Southern Spanish Satellite, which will happen next 29th 30th this month. We noticed we got 3 ariadna players, no kosmo, but only one SSA when in N4 it was majority or the second one (fighting with CA) plus the total lack of Torchlight. I will try to talk with those players and see what they are playing. I noticed a pattern here, the absences or almost ... 3 factions with the 3 major profiles downgrades --> Bear, Eudoros and Prime... In N4 it was said for a lot of players if you didn't play those profiles you was playing wrong. Around me I noticed many players who were using (or abusing) day after day those profiles in N4 now don't play anymore Ariadna, Kosmo, SSA or Torchlight, but players who play those factions not being focused on those profiles now are happy and enjoying the game with that factions. I have the feeling that those profiles created a dependency for many players and of course, playing now the faction without that profiles or even with then, could feel less powerful, less optimized, yes, sure... but truly Ariadna or Kosmo was playable (not only playable but hard to beat) only for one profile? Really? Same for SSA or Torchlight... I'm sorry, but I don't think so... Could it be that Ariadna need something? Yes, could it be. I have sometimes the feeling it has, then I talk with some Ariadna players or some others that faced Ariadna, Kosmo, TAK... and then I thought maybe no. My point here is try to enjoy N5, try to enjoy Ariadna and forget about what the bear lost. You don't feel now is worthy, well don't play it anymore. Try to find a new style, maybe the style which was so "ariadna" and was missed during almost whole N4 because a profile so good you have to play it... Maybe we are so focused on what is wrong that we forget about what is ok or even more than ok. I played a few times Ariadna and Kosmo to understand better the faction back in N4. I will do the same now and I wil back.
I didn't actually use bears that much offensively in N4. They were my DZ guards and late game sweepers. I didn't use them in N5 because they got gutted. I didn't mind losing the bears, I wasn't attached to them all too much to begin with. Ariadna as a whole still sucking is the problem. The recent climbing and trench hammer changes do help a lot though, although I still think they need to either lose No Cover, or gain Impetuous. They'd be in an actually pretty solid spot then. It wouldn't fix Ariadna though. The problem is far bigger than bears. And now that I've shelved my Ariadna to play real factions, the gulf in power is immense.
ITC, 84 players tournament. Only 1 Ariadna, and is TAK, same amount of Tohaa The faction is beyond salvation, or too close
