https://mayacast.com/2020/03/16/mayacast-episode-267-bos-knows/ Some big information was dropped in the podcast. Below were the main things for me. Code 1 and N4: Dodge works in the same active and reactive (with movement) Criticals win the FtF and cause an additional armor save (Details about how this interacts with special ammo is unclear) Armor rolls clarified to DAM - Armor = Target number. Wounded if you roll the target number or lower. Save if you roll over the Target Number. For Code 1 and MAYBE N4: Shotguns: DTW or +6 hit Thoughts? EDIT: Clarified the shotgun issue and added the new wording of the Armor Rolls. Also, the critical change is very interesting. Armor will be probably be more important, with AP making an impact. Tags in cover will be hard to crack.
The Dodge change is very, very much welcome. Criticals are interesting, I much prefer the interaction of 2x ARM / BTS test rather than the noninteractive "yer ded". The last one is unclear, that's about shotguns?
The Good: The good thing this does is to bring the ammo types a bit closer together in value, especially for CCWs who are much more likely to crit. An AP CCW Crit is going to be a very different threat than a DA crit. Flash Pulses are not going to be all that scary vs decent Cover and BTS6+. Instant oneshots like E/M or Mono Crits aren't an instant death sentence anymore (although Mono "DA" is 16% to live and tell the tale, not great odds). Needs a few things to go along with it. TAGs are going to be somewhat stupid resilient now, except when they won't because you just hose them down with a flanking Spitfire/BSG as usual. Being actually tanky vs random chip damage and being able to risk multiple AROs sure is nice. The Bad: Crits still win the FTF even if that damn BS10 Warbad using a Pistol rolls that 1 against your Intruder imposing a -9. I like that you're never guarnteed to kill something anymore with a Crit both for Active and ARO, but this part of Crits should just not exist. And the Ugly: An extra ARM roll for Crits and Crits keeping not just the autocancel but the autowin just paints the existing problems in a new colour. B5 is still king but you'll suddenly have to fear your 2W troops get oneshot by random Combi Rifle crits. Jotums are now pretty damn OP in their Active, being 100% immune to DAM13 almost immune to Flash Pulses and any usual weapon without AP/Breaker or some other means to circumvent saves. But that's just the extremes. The game gets a lot more deadly for light troops. A Crit isn't guaranteed to kill you, but you're also not guaranteed to stop at dropping you Unconscious where a Doc can pick you back up. High variance equals more room for RNG to fuck up your day and that's a bad thing. Crits are now somewhat compareable to extra B. A bit early to jump to conclusions, but this doesn't look good for most of the weak weapons unless HMGs get a nerf (honestly just up all HMG SWC costs).
Yes, but it makes it easier for new players to grasp due to the changed wording, since every other roll in Infinity requires you to get below a certain number.
Just making sure I understood. I've been explaining ARM/BTS saves to new players using this phrasing for years because it makes it more consistent with the rest of the die resolution in the game.
Unification of how stuff works in active and reactive is a good change, it's an obvious attempt to streamline things without getting rid of tactical complexity. I'm curious how it'll manifest in other places. Criticals change sound like pretty much everything I've hoped for. Autowin without autowound will make ARM more valuable, which in turn will make AP more valuable instead of being an afterthought. Additional die will keep crits dangerous, but at least it'll be an interactive danger. Let's keep in mind that we have only a piece of the puzzle, we don't know how exactly will it work for different ammo types, etc. We also don't know how the units' durability will change; it's very possible that we'll see changes in ARM/BTS and W/STR values. Shotguns... I have no opinion about that change. In the end we'll see how fun it'll be to play and get used to it regardless. But it might be a change for C1 only, to keep Impact Templates and all their complexity out of the simplified ruleset. I'm also very curious about the discussed possibilities of changes for Camo units. We've heard of standard Camo with Hidden Deployment, and we know that we'll probably see the reverse, Hidden units without Camo. I'm extremely interested in how this will affect Camo-heavy armies, like TAK or SEF. MA wasn't mentioned, but it's obviuous that we'll see some noisy CC units (knights would be my first guess, but again, we don't know all the puzzles; how will hacking work, if and how will the BTS change, how various hacking-vulnerable armies will deal with defending themselves, etc.
I really hope so. Being able to land templates from a distance is the biggest strength of active turn shotguns, whereas their high BS in close quarters was their defensive benefit. In a total vacuum, this change would make them a lot worse actively and better defensively, and I'm always worried by changes that push the game more towards defensive play.
my 2 cents as far as shotguns are concerned: I'm interested to see if a light shotgun will get both fire modes (as it only has 1 now). replacing them as a DTW gives them a nice difference to the combi rifle. compared before the two were almost identical in winning FtF within 8. giving weapons more niche roles is better for the game and making Combi+LSG worth something is neat.
I don't see why they would've made Varangians come with Chain Rifle and Light Shotgun, nor why Liberto would've had Light Shotgun and Chain-Colt. Ditto Monstertrucker and the complete nerfing of the O-12 Alpha
Change to crit is interesting, but I guess it devalues Close Combat skills a lot. Whereas up until now the autocrit was an effective tool against highly armored targets (especially tags) a CC specialist was a more or less relyable way to neutralize them if you could get close to them, now I am not so sure anymore. A ninja for example would deal damage on a crit with strength 12. Ok, could be modified by MA level, but is much more of a trde of than it used to be - provided the CC table stays the same. A crit with damage 12 against a tag with armor 8 would be two rolls on 5 and more to cause wounds... Well, I am not against the new mechanic, but I guess CC becomes less attractive and thus a point reduction for high CC attibutes and skills might be an answer.
Oh yeah, that's very true. That's a pretty huge nerf to Ninjas and the other weird (loyalist or dissident) Yu Jing melee units with low PH.
with this kind of changes, I hope they give more access to some kind of ammo to some factions or tone up/down the cost of some profiles. ARM will be a little more relevant, but for troopers with 1 wound and high cost, this change is really bad (poor intruder). For CC... that will highly deppend on the weapon the user has, more than before. The worst about it, is that the last time they decided to "fix" CC, they increased absurdingly the attribute for specialist, making it into looking for crit, so now it becomes weird the change for dodge will make that some units try to dodge instead of shot or smoke. Against some ARO that can be way better than before for some troopers, and still not an option for other.
I would be surprised if CC is not reworked in some way to support the crit change. Monofilament units are very sad now. Active Dodge movement is AWESOME because it makes kinematika on units more than an extremely niche skill. Say, Uberfallcommando as a team can move 6, one of the Pupniks tries to dodge a mine, while the others try to roll for essentially free 3 inches movement. Su Jian in mobility form with 8-2 and Kinematika 2 can do silly Dark Souls style rolls dodging every move to get additional 2 inches for the second half of the order. And now it is almost the same, with 5% for a chance to plink it with your Line Kazak or whatever so you should do the wise thing and just dodge hoping the big man drowns in chain rifles and mines and Engage rolls. It is a beautiful middle finger to Sheskiin at the same time, so I think the change is awesome and should be a big enough reason to field TAGs and high ARM pieces in N4.
TAGs problem were two: the order pool and the feeling that the arm was not useful. The order pool was only a problem for the expensive ones, wich at the same time, usually have or better skills, or better ARM, or both. But the feeling of the ARM was not useful will remain because when the single or the two pieces in the enemy army have the good moment and hit the TAG, they go out, otherwise, the enemy deppended on crits most of the time. Is a perception thing. People will remember that their TAG died after a this of Misile launcher a crit and a bad ARM roll, forgetting that it survived and killed the missile launcher, killed some other cheerleaders and after rampaging, it died because the over exposure. But on the process, it toned down most of the time the enemy reserve pool. Usually those loose because they focused on killing and had not enough remaining orders for missions. On the other hand, in killing missions, is a "coin toss" or a "rock-papel-scissors". With this changes, rock can survive paper, but scissors and paper need something to survive then
We don't know yet how the CC will change, but in vacuum the ninja in question would still neutralize TAG by tying it in CC; if you want to destroy it, get a CC specialist with AP CCW in there.
With that change I'm expecting/hoping martial arts will provide a boost to both B and Damage and probably cap out at 3.(though mostly expecting a burst bonus.)
