Idea how to change crits and mates

I always felt crits are a bit "unjust" in the mood of the game. It doesn't matter how well (or bad) you can play and manouver, a right crit at the right time risks to blow over everything. And I never felt it right, in a game where there are so few models and so few hit points.

I thought in the past of a more fun/more balanced/ more just rule (call it how you want) and I think it can be solved in a quite easy way: just cut the rule in two.

A crit could grant an automatic hit OR an automatic wound to the target, chosen by the player after the roll. If the roll is not enough to grant an hit to the enemy obviously the player will choose the first one, if the f2f roll is already won the latter is an option more viable. (similar to deep-green-x idea, but I will leave the critical result in the f2f roll )

I think it could rebalance the feeling about criticals: it could give a chance to low value roll to grant an hit and win the resolution, while in the hands of units with high rolls could give a fast way to damage high armored enemies.

 

We know that Symbiont Armour is extremely cheap, but that's partially because ARM and BTS values are not cheap; the Ectros has ARM/BTS 3/6 with Symbiont Armour, and 0/0 without it, while the Shang-Ji has 4/6 and the Zhanying 2/3.

The other reason why Symbiont Armour is cheap is to compensate that Tohaa are meant to be a ver resilent army, that looses face to face rolls and still keep fighting. We don't have extremely good shooters (we recently received a Mimetic CD13 trooper, and we Tohaa players thought it was a mistake and the stats were wrong XDDD ), for example, or hight ARM troopers, nor are we good when it comes to stacking modifiers.

 

I didn't mean that Tohaa units are vulnerable, please forgive my wording if you got that notion. What I meant is that we're kind of tough, kind of capable to hold the ground for some time and kind of have every base covered, but we do not excel anywhere, and thus we have to rely on using Triads and assigning Mates to compete with other factions in certain areas. Which kind of makes us stronger, but at the same time vulnerable, because it's really easy to break a Triad. And once you've reduced a Triad to a duo, Tohaa are suddenly not that capable.

And please, let's not start another "let's compare Tohaa profiles to everyone else's" discussion, it's really painful..

 

The only thing that makes Tohaa and Aleph/Steel Phalanx strong at the moment is they forgive mistakes more than other factions because of their tools. At the German championship the winner of the tournament said, he played Tohaa because he knew he was likely to win with them with a higher probability than with other factions. He did the same thing on other tournaments before.

To me it would be easy to balance Symbiomates and I wouldn't remove them: Allow only to negate hits from one source and not all during an order. At the moment a Triad can rush to your deployment zone and go rampage and survive even multiple AROs during one order without getting harmed.

 

Few models and few hit points... such a thing happened to me at Monday. Played a limited insertion list with a Szalamandra and "lost" the game in the last (my active) turn to an E/Mitter Crit against my Szally. This is what I thought first. But thinking about the game a day after I realized I just made bad decisions. I could have easily won the game (in the first or second turn) and avoided such on the edge situations.

So I truly believe, with a good game plan Crits won't matter in most cases.

 

This is very unrealistic. I mean, how would you be able to choose which shots hit your armour plates and which hit you directly in real life?

 

It is just an idea and this is a just sci-fi game. :) And talking about realism: How can a small puppet absorb all hits from all directions in just a few seconds? Pokemon powers? ;)

 

Well, maybe unrealistic isn't the best word, but I think you got what I meant ;) Every 'realistic' action in any fantasy universe should be a product of the rules that establish the given fantasy universe. An ability to ignore hits from a sniper rifle when you get shot with a sniper rifle, an HMG and a flamethrower sounds like magic to me, and we don't have magic in Infinity :)

Regarding Pokémon powers: I've always imagined that our Symbiont friends are capable of automatically projecting an almost impervious force field an instant before we get hit, and the energy amount required to do that is so big that it consumes the Mate. After all, they are just constructs manipulated by our Corahtar specialists.

 

The same way you and up to 8 of your pals can choose to freeze in time and space to allow the last guy to live 10 small lives in a short period of what would be called "time" for everyone else, and for him to invite anyone who sees him into the same bubble of space-time-mumbo-jumbo.

Infinity is as abstract as wargames get, come on.

If you really want something more relatable for that mechanic's fluff, consider it as if it was mate's decision on which threat's general direction it should screen.

 

What are you talking about?

That's chess, not Infinity :P

 

Order system and its shareable activations, duh.

 

As someone who doesn't mind crits the way they are, I don't find this argument particularly compelling. Risk mitigation is absolutely (and should remain) a part of this game, IMO. If your plan (including any backup plans) can be destroyed by a "right crit at the right time", then your plan was already precarious. If that happens in the first turn, then your plan was foolish. I could see that happening later on in the game, where your options for avenues of success are more limited, but that's the nature of the game.

If you are completely outplaying your opponent, then you will be able to recover from that "right crit at the right time". That said, streaks happen (rarely... check your confirmation bias at the door, please), and can be devastating. But they are also just as (un)likely on your side.

 

For that you need 3 Symbiomates, and that's two Kaeltar.
Two Kaeltar mean at least 42 points and 1 CAP for that once-in-a-game trick.

Also, you have to plan it on advance, because you have to assign those mates during deployment.

 

Oh for sure. When i said removed from the game i mean as the rules currently are. As an assognable buff of some sort they should obviously stay

 

I don't think crits should change. They are what they are, and I can't see any changes keeping the function.

That said, I think crits should be treated like what they are right now. Abnormalities. Highly unusual events. Crits represent a huge range of the possible miniscule outcomes from an action.

Hence, special rules or skills should not interact with crits. Fat2 I'm looking at you. Nothing should increase or decrease the chance of a crit (in shooting).

Mates' interaction with crits is as it should be. In terms of the mates' other function, it sure is annoying and very strong. And I think it just needs to be costed accordingly, right now they're very cheap so there is very little opportunity cost to the tohaa player. A point or particularly a SWC bump to the symbiomates would make them less of an autopick, while also making bombs slightly more desirable (as a cheaper SWC option).
This would tie into the infinity opportunity cost design, where a tohaa player could choose to spend SWC on mates, to make their fewer SWC options more resilient, almost like how SWC for HI costs more than LI for weapons in other factions.

 

Fatality just adds one more side, so instead of 5% per roll it's 10%. Still not a high chance.

I think the point @Alphz is making is just that crits happening when you need them isn't something you can count on. They don't need major re-working. My opinions on Fatality are still undecided, personally.

 

I must say, I've often wondered if instead of their current function it might not be better if Mates instead cancelled the effect of a Crit and allowed you to roll a save vs something which would otherwise have been an automatic wound.

It'd be the opposite of their effect now, but would better reflect their actual points cost and be FAR less frustrating as a mechanic in the game.

 

One of the main frustrations about the Kaeltar is that the same loadout has both Symbiomates and Chain of Command. It’s the ultimate safety net unit, at a shockingly low points cost.