In my opinion the problem should be seen from another perspective. Number of troops it's not the problem. The Number of orders it's. For example If orders would be tied to points ( every 20 point you have in the field gives you 1 order) and not bodies you could have army with 20+ units be on par with 8/10 units army. Small number army would be more hard to kill, but every man down would be an hard loss while army with a lot of unit will have better field control and you have to lose more model before losing an order. All around I feel like what infinity doesn't have it's a system of penality/bonus on order count that makes both small army and big army viable.
I was thinking of a very similar concept last night. Warbands however are insanely powerful still for their points. The ARO restrictions would have to be changed to better protect more expensive troops. Instead of B1, I'd go burst -1 minimum of 1. Making it still seeming like a reaction but more expensive troops would get a fairer shake to defend their precious order pool tied to them. Like an 80 pt tag loosing 4 orders to being critted by morlocks.
Well if orders would be tied to points instead of model a bunch of change should be mandatory. Like changing some AVA, unit with irregular order will need to be changed ect. As I wrote in my post I think what the game really needs is a system of bonus/penality for how many units you put in your list rather than a cap on number of units.
Maybe the game should change more. Also maybe HMGs and the like shouldnt be as accurate as rifles. Maybe it should be 0 up to 16 and then start dropping off. Machine guns in real life generally dont have scopes.
One thing I will point out specifically to that change, Infinity's balance between the active turn and reactive turn is supposed to feel lopsided. We can disagree with how lopsided it should be, but the arms race created by alternating buffing active and reactive capabilities that characterized the latter half of N3 is something that I wish we had left behind in N3. Nerfing HMGs rangeband is also not the ideal solution, because then Snipers and Missiles have a much easier time dominating tables. One thing about game design is that it's really easy for players to identify when something doesn't feel right. The problem is that players are often very bad at considering the ripple effects of any proposed solutions.
In all fairness, it was a very spur of the moment suggestion not meant as a " we have to do this" but more a "let's start thinking outside the box".. I had actually started working on a real suggestion, fleshing it out fairly comprehensively earlier today and ended up saving it to my own ideas for a game. But look, infinity forums are incredibly clicky, everyone thinks their ideas are better than others and that's fine. We both know I'm not gaining anything by trying to convince anyone. I'm not getting paid, these suggestions arent gonna help me win more games and I dont care about that regardless and I really am totally happy not socializing with anyone about Infinity at all, I'm here for a personal reason that has jack to do with ego's or self esteem and once upon a time I really liked this game, I put in plenty of work including the hardcore math mailed to CB proving troops needed to be faster and tadaa, now they are. I just want the game to be better, that's it, and if things change well, we'll know it.
Personally I'd kick Flashbots, Baggage bots and AI Beacons out of the game completely. Ideally no Regular Orders under 10pts for anyone who isn't Ariadna. Taking ~50pts of cheap activations out of the game like that puts a fair bit more weight onto the decision to take elites like the Avatar and incentivises Irregulars a little more in such lists. Crap like the Alpha, Tensho and Daoying probably need to be nuked from orbit though, and this is from someone who adores the Daoying Hacker- they're just horrible for internal balance.
I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and say you know it would need to be more comprehensive than that, you have more ideas, and these are just highlights off the top of your head. And well, I kind of like baggage for resupplying depleted ammo but I will admit it fit more intonation big battle game more than a ta rival skirmish op. You just wouldnt have time to be handling out extra koalas and panzerfausts in a firefight this hot.
Just the opposite. Due to large range and the role of the weapon it's rare to see a modern individual infantryman's machinegun, especially a heavier 7.62mm one, without a scope, usually a 4x, as long as one is available / the weapon isn't of WW2 provenience (hence fewer on the RPKs and PKMs that can't mount rail systems like those above without modifications). Sure, your heavier machineguns often won't have scopes but that's because their role is not precision fire or a small beaten zone. And it's not like my "HMG" Vet Kazak is really lugging a .50 cal with him. M249 with US Marines, ACOG M249 with US Army, ELCAN M240B with US Army, ELCAN FN MAG, ELCAN
When I say Flashbots, I'm talking about 7-8pt guys such as the Fugazi. Baggage Bots is referring to the 8pt ones and Ikadrons- the slightly pricier ones are fine, like the EVO. AI Beacons is Netrods and Imetrons. The reason that their removal would be impactful is that it would force players looking for easy orders in order-skew lists (like the ones the OP is complaining about) to bring their less-efficient Line Troopers, reducing the impact and overall activation count of the list. The breakpoint for almost auto-include orders for most people seems to sit at around 10pts, maybe slightly more if there's really good synergy or value (for example Auxilia FOs in NCA). ALEPH and CA have it particularly good under the current system, having access to uncommon levels of order shenanigans in addition to discount Order sticks from before the current design paradigm. If this was a tangent I was interrupting in, though, I apologise. Just had a thought in relation to the topic.
The first two are the same machine gun... I said generally, and in reality scopes are generally sighted for the same distances regardless of the platform their placed on. But sure, I. The future all HMGs will probably have scopes but in the future I suspect rifles will basically be HMGs. But on a more important note, I'm pretty sure some told you never to address me again...
No, you're right. Let's take this into account. We now see TA or a second Lt order is worth 3-4 points and is attached to a body splits easier for a player to take put two orders attached to one body. On the other hand, maybe Ai beacons should pay just a tiny bit more for being a corporeal body that needs to be killed in order to get rid of that order it provides.
