I'm curious what everyone see as general Meta changes in N4. So far I've only had about 6 games of N4 (TTS), but see the following. Fewer LI Sniper Aro Pieces More HI ARO pieces More balanced battle groups (7-8 vs 10-x) More Tags, but I think that is just people experimenting. Fewer KHD Maxed chearleader bots Fewer AD troops More ARM in general.
I would also add that I am seeing more HI than N3, mainly due to reduced point costs and the changes to the Crit Rule making ARM more valuable. Also there are a lot more instances of Guided Missile Launchers around due to Spotlight Changes.
I've seen a large shift to REM heavy lists including the return of the TR bot Sensor bots have gone extinct Fair bit of list stagnation as optimised choices are locked down Larger implementation of recursion pieces (Doctor and primarily the engi) Decrease in burst is king mentality, along with a shift away from weapons like standard HMGs, red furies, and standard spitfires in favour of lower burst higher damage weapons. Increased reliance on Multi-rifles Fewer hackers, where there used to be 4-5 there is now one, a backup and/or an EVO. Increase in FO's using the FO skill to circumvent hacking defences (primarily tinbots) to enable missile play Large increase in TAG play in the early N4 (first month or so) but recently have gone extinct with the exception of the usual suspects Increase in Hyper-aggressive play, very much a go first or die, though this may be more due to all missions being annihilation with a few extra steps
More HI and multiwound units obviously smaller amount of classic warbands Paramedics replacing every FO in generic fireteams (and less Doctors in general unless it is something exceptionally good like linkable Daktari in Corregidor or Haqq doctors) Way less single wound drop troopers used because of shotgun change More linkable MSV aro critical mass of alpha strike tactics bc of Andromeda and Mirage-5 factionwise: Almost no OSS at all after being extremely popular and poweful, that army was murdered (good riddance imo) O12 is a "want to sell" favorite People love Morats now D: discontinued armies see almost no play unsurprisingly
More of: * Single HI with SWC weapon in a Core * "Assault" Hackers * Shasvasti * Fireteams with 3 to 4 wildcards Less of: * Warbands * Killer Hackers Also, lists for different factions are getting more similar as the more wide-sweeping distinctive faction traits are being proliferated.
missile launcher links have replaced snipers way more hackers and repeater networks tags more common encountered
This is the biggest gripe for me. Nomads got the "we're the best at hacking thing" to keep, at least, since ALEPH and especially CA got demoted. But most factions seem pretty samey - plug the good wildcards into fireteams, take some infiltrators, go.
More HI on the field, for both active and ARO duty More hackers, and generally a more common and thoughtful use of repeaters a More aggressive use of infiltrators, thanks to the new shotgun rules A general increase of "anti-tank" weaponry (AP/EM) in all the lists I found that the game became more "list-rewarding" than in the past, as now you need to consider how to approach heavy armored enemies, and cannot dismiss them with a simple "well, a crit will happen" I believe it's part of the mental adjustment caused by the new edition. N4 is still quite unexplored and several rules and interations are different since the previous edition, so the players are still adjusting their mindset, going for the safest bet in their list building. I think in few months we will start to see experimental lists that leverage the strength of the different factions, until new approaches will be discovered.
This is interesting to me, do you believe faction specific min maxed lists will be seen more often and even to the extreme, like a JSA all ninja list because of the new ARO rulings, or an all Hacker Nomad list because of pitchers and hacking is universally applicable now. Could we see a tiny ultra heavy Combined Army force thanks to NCO, Tactical Awareness and LT +1 ?
I don't think we will see these extremes, as they don't fit well on ITS mechanics. However my belief is that we're currently in an assessment phase, where the list are built leveraging the new N4 mechanics. So the themes are quite common: a burst on HI usage, countered by hackers/repeater network, etc... As soon as the new mechanics are mastered, I bet we will see a bit more variance in the meta, leveraging again strength and weaknesses of the various factions. Maybe not a mono-ninja JSA army, but surely something more oriented toward them, for example. Obviously this is a huge IMHO. I'm trying to do a prediction based on what I saw until now, but this is far from being an expert analysis on the matter.
Mass ninja has always been, is and will be a meme. Nice challenge to wreck unsuspecting people yes, but... 20 pt true HIs kinda build the list automatically, just like other super-optimal choices
This. I think we are in the "Red Deck Wins" phase, which is exacerbated by the longer spin up time due to global conditions. Once we get more local game nights going, we will see a proliferation of flavors - a lot is unexplored at this point.
I'm not saying I'm seeing more of the same as in previous editions, I'm saying that "everyone" is playing N3 Varuna. Instead of warbands we have cheap-ish camouflage pieces that aren't terribly competent but will waste a bunch of orders, instead of themed fireteams we have the designated power-house of the faction together with a bunch of mooks, a paramedic and maybe The Backup, there's a few token skirmishers out on the field to flip switches, and there's a separate power-house that is the only truly unique piece (it can be a TAG, it can be a SHI, Sheeskin, etc). The specific units are different but the way the lists play are mostly the same. My meta still hasn't got a high amount of hacking. Yet. But I think that's the direction the factions that can evolve to will evolve to.
