With the willingness of CB to nerf (and hopefully buff) units present, I'm looking forward to possible future unit changes that could un-shelve some beautiful, but sadly not-so-good models. I first wanna say that I, as a CA player, wholeheartedly agree with the Avatar nerf. It needed to be done and was done well (Onyx was hurt in the process, but that is a discussion for another time). Moving on to the main part tho - some CA units need to be buffed, but it needs to be done in a smart way. I'll leave out Onyx for now, as they require a complete rework Morat-style imo and we're going to wait for that a while. With the release of Morats, the place of Sogarats has remained unchanged, some would even say that they got even worse in comparison - they still pack a serious punch, but are completely overshadowed by pure-linked Kaitok or Suryats. Their current models are one of my most favorite models of all time and I'm super hyped to see their resculpts, especially after seeing the viking Suryats revealed today. But, with their current rules, Sogarats will never see the table - sadly. They need some changes and maybe a Morat-exclusive profile. An idea I had was to let them join some form of a haris team (either by letting them join the general Morat fireteams as non-pureable units or have individual haris teams), in addition to a Morat-exclusive, medium-to-short ranged profiles. Morats atm have a very small choice of 8-24" guns and a mid-ranged Sogarat profile could definitely help with that. What I had in mind is this: Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower; BS Attack (AP) This gives Sogarats a real place - they would be expensive, hovering around 55-60 points, but would threaten nearly anything in the game. Furthermore, I'd love to see them gain BS Attack (-3), as in N3 - this, I think, would make them legit competitors with the Morat links. Imo they are close to being good, but need a tiny bit more push to compete with the core-linked violence What other profiles would you like to see adjusted in CA?
All CA KHDs should have Trinity (AP). Overdron and Xeodron should have their type changed to REM without any change in stats. As long as we're wishing... On a serious note they should change "Specialist Operative Ko Dali"'s name if they don't wanna give her Specialist Operative.
In all honesty, faction-wide hacking device changes would get a big thumbs up from me. It's a way to provide added but different utility, with less necessity to remember what each specific device is getting if they all get X.
As much as I like MAF update. I think there are some things that could be fone better. I agree that Soggy has big competition in MAF and it would be hard to add him in the list. Another unit we won't probably see very often are Rodoks. Competition in MAF is too big for them. I think CB should give mines back to specialist loudouts, because with their AVA and options it wouldn't create any problems. Also I think CB should consider to give them AP spitfite to give them a little punch ( I know it would make them more similar to Ye Mao, but who cares). Another thing is Skurgot Jawbrutes. IMHO we need more than one loadout with this beast. Why to create new beast when you use it only for 1 loadout of 1 unit. Jayth Cutthroats - they have also big competition in SEF and they are probably too expensive. They should be either impetuous or frenzy to make their prize reasonable. Maybe change thwir MOV to 6-2? Sheskiin HI version imho she needs to be more different than LI version to see her on the table. Onyx - recent fireteam change imho helped, but it is still not enought. Also change to imetrons cost hurt, but I think there are other more important problems. IMHO Onyx needs cheap (between 20-30) skirmisher with mines and minelayer option to help our other midfield units. Also another fireteam core with composition bonuses (be it new unit or added tag to existing units in Onyx fireteam table). They aldo lack disposable unit similar to warband (one solution is synchronised unit like auxilia or so). Onyx can be easily helped with addition of the new units.
@Melkhior i was thinkng a warband for OCF, Sygmaa, with Pulzar, regular impetuous, mirrorball, and repeater. Not particularly good in CC. Might be interesting.
Oh yeah, forgot about the kings of bad rules - the Jayths. They need a serious overhaul of what they are supposed to do, cause atm they're a disjointed mess. Re:Rodoks - minelayer profile would be neat and would at least offer an interesting option to consider in specific missions + it'd combo well with the strategic deployment profile. Heavy Sheskiin is also in a weird spot - if she had stealth then she'd maybe be better, or some form of immunities against hacking (immunity isolated maybe?) And onyx is, well, onyx - needs a few new units to be up to date with what's running around the tables I genuinely hope that folks at CB will take action and maybe release a balance update twice a year or so. Having good rules does help in selling the models after all lol
With Combined Army being the most popular ITS faction and its Vanilla, Shas, and Morat forces in the top 10 efficient Armies (Basically meaning they get a good amount of wins versus how many users), I do not see CB giving any buffs to Combined Army units any time soon.
I'm conflicted about Sogarats, on one hand I'm a fan of their current models and weapon choices, on the other I'd like to see them pushed more into CQB role, where they'd have greater chance of using the CC stuff they're already paying for. Other approach would be to build upon their durability and make them into even more of an anvil unit. This could be achieved simply by getting Immunity (AP) Suryats already have. Jayths could use changes, I agree, though I really like them anyway.
The easiest way to make sogarats more interesting is giving them berserk. High armor and a proper ccw would alow them to attack a lot of stuff with that berserk blow and would make them harder to approach. Or just give them total immunity and make them the best roadblock in the game
I would give them back the old full auto rules in the form of BS Attack (-3), giving them an interesting modifier that can't be avoided if they shoot back, making their resilience even higher (I also think the Kriza Borak should lose mimetism and gain this)
To throw my tuppence in, I take Soggys quite frequently I see them as TAGs with a greater capability of handling CQB, I can't say I'd be adverse to them gaining berserk however, not for the assault ability but more to just be able to make a choice to kill a tarpit warband and absorb its hit in return which seems a very sogaratty thing to do.
I'm very much against berserk in the current form of the profile - Sogarat does not gain anything from getting close and personal because his weapons force him to stay beyond 16" away from the enemy. Giving him berserk would just add another skill that does not combo well with the profile. I think the general idea behind the Sogarat was to have a heavy-armored assault piece that's good both at range and in close quarters - however, having weapons like the HMG and Feuerbach results in him being weak in the "assault" range band (8"-24") and ends up producing a contradictory profile. For the whole unit to feel useful, it needs a midrange gun to glue his abilities together. An FTO, MAF-only profile would easily fix it and give us a reason to play this awesome mini (back in 2019 when I first encountered Infinity Sogarats were one of the things that drew me to CA and I'd love to field them without feeling bad about it lol)
Or just give him his regeneration back. I don't like the idea of an "assault" profile because then he'd compete with the kaitok even more. For me the sogarat needs to be a roadblock. Anything that makes him hardier is good. Paradoxically, berserk helps him because it allows him to punk warbands more easily, thus removing one category of models from stuff that could threaten him
Jayth need big help. 6-2 and lower cost would go a long way. A purpose would be nice too, considering they compete directly with Calibans.
THIS is a very controversial opinion, but bear with me! Get rid of ALL Vanilla armies for ITS tournaments. (Keep them in narrative campaigns) With so many profiles, it has got to the point that it is impossible for CB to balance everything out so that all factions are fair. The more options there are in Vanilla, the easy it is for a competitor to come up with some combo that is above the curve and far too powerful. Focus on Sectorials and change the AVA of certain miniatures and vary their weapon options. Make players think hard about what they want to bring. This will help get rid of auto-includes. For example, AVATAR too powerful. You could adjust the points value again, but if it was in an exclusive sectorial, CB could limit the AVA of imetrons or ikadrons. Or you could remove the option of taking both an Avatar and a Speculo killer or Libertos. Interested to see people's point of view.
I think Vainilla are great. Local gameplay suffers more from sectorial armies. Here, tournament players are about 85-90% playing sectorial armies where only vainillas who share tournament play are Aleph, CA, Nomads and Haqqislam. I think theres no actually any problem with Avatar, but there are a lot of problems in the sceno construction around the world. Here we play about 1-3 long range weapons at most, that means that coulpe of gaming tables are widely open. TAGs suffer at close distances, and that means that you actually can't domine the game with miniatures as Avatar when they're not able to see all models in just 3 or 4 movements. Avatar (and many other tags) are countereable by Hackers, CC especialist who carry some way of advance deployment, Bears and Dogs, and SmokeCombo (or white noise). My own list, always carry a weapon to deal with the most "dangerous" threats, such as TAGs (hackers, CC specialist, EM...), ARO powerful pieces (Smoke, White Noise, infiltrators)... I think there are most powerful threats than Avatar, such as Aquiles (who I think is a lot less fair than the Avatar, due great CC, survival, and BS at greater distances), or the Bearpode (23 pts for a Regular non impetuous ARM 5 2W+ Dogged Total Immunity double Chain Dmg14 template, smoke at 19s and Berserk with CC24 and a DA weap or AP? Perhaps his only counter being plasma and viral.. yap) 7X and 2X pts major threats being a real problem when the martyr is a TAG who's not able to defend himself from CC (okay Sepsitor to deal with many models who're immune to that) that costs 120+ points (more than 1/3 of the total price of the list). The real solution against Auto-Includes is to upgrade the senseless options. Who's gonna play a Maakrep, Skiavoros, Jayth or Sargosh in Vainilla CA for example? Upgrade them and perhaps we start to see more Skiavoros centered lists with a tactical aspect and a proper toolbox who acts more like a scapel than a hammer.
Take away Protheion from Caliban, take away MSV-1 from Jayth and then give Jayth Protheion and 6-2 Move and now we're talking.
This is a really bad idea, Vanilla factions serve a really important role just to bring in new players prior to them committing to a sectorial. Having a hyper-competitive format is secondary to having a thriving gaming ecosystem where people can enjoy that format and where the playerbase can grow. Should we strive for both? Absolutely! But removing options, especially significant ones, is almost never the right call.
