September>December 2024: Nuclear winter has struck, leaving room for the N5

Realistically It's probably to give MA1 and MA2 something different stats-wise. Could also be future-proofing in case they bring back a rule that gets rid of it again.

 

Indeed. It also removes that weird feel that there were in the end only 3 levels of MA, because 2/3/4 were almost identical. It will be easier to "rank" CC specialists.

Flavour!
It feels also different and more satisfactory (to me at least, but I guess to others as well) to say that my CC specialist has an MA bonus rather than just a higher stat, even if it's the same in the end. Flavour again, I guess.

 

I hope it is futureproofing.

Otherwise, that seems like a wasted opportunity for an Occam's Razor.

 

Good game! It felt like the new Saving Rolls made things run faster.

I like how WIP rolls for objectives are always a players greatest enemy!

 

Several observations.

1. Command token stripping 2 orders even from single group armies is still a thing.
2. Distance is measured before the declaration of burst values. But declaration of weapon is made before distance measurement. This may be just an oversight, however, due to the nature of the game. Or maybe there is some shuffle in the resolution mechanics. I vote on oversight.
3. O-12's Prestige has no equivalent in N5, because lt order and token for team reforming were used instead.
4. Command token reroll for button pushing is available.

 

Don't jump too far ahead, as they said, they were playing essentially a hybrid between N4 and N5 rules, the rules themselves "still being wiritten as they played".

Also, Bostria had, historically, been known to forget some rules while filming those demos. Was it in Op: Icestorm when he used Shock Ammo on a HI, because it was wounded once already..?

 

Yes Carlos didn't have access to the full rules for this game and so we were bound to get some things wrong.

Also the main objective for these games is to show a fun gameplay experience, the game should have ended when Carlos lost his last unit but we played on to see if I could get my Griffin to the cental building.

 

with barely a month to the release, how good is that the rules are still in writing phase?

 

It's fantastic because it means they still have time to fix any issues that crop up during playtesting.

 

Also please try not conflate N5 with ITS.

 

My first observation on the Battle Report was that they forgot the mime-3 on the Imperial Guard in the first shotout

This would be nice if it stays. In one of my latetest games a Tiger failed his WIP -3 for a CO about 10 times? But defend himself vs a Bolt in ARO :-)

 

Yes, I'd be glad to see command token reroll for button pushing in the final version. Even if our superior Nomad willpower doesn't need it.

Last minute testing and changes creep me out in principle, but with the rules being online and new versions and errata being an option literally at any moment, this is not a big problem. As long as the core is sound (and we know it will be fairly close to N4, so it most probably will be), the rest is fixable, when needed.

 

The demo game was helpful. I hope that it remains that when you split burst, you declare where the extra fireteam die goes. That makes it easier to understand which dice pool you can drop a die.

 

I really fail to see the issue from multiple perspectives.

Even if N5 was rushed. And that’s a big if. Is it THAT important?

Where to we draw the line between rushed and not rushed?

Glaring issues, like Camo repeater? Patched in a few weeks. So not THAT life changing.

What are the expectations then? That the ruleset doesn’t change until N6 after a couple of weeks?

N4 was amended several times. There were changes years after the book was published. For example the Motorbike rule change was a major change. And I’d say, a very good one.

Rules change and evolve to make the game more enjoyable, and I prefer an environment whereby core design elements are reviewed rather than remaining stuck in a scenario where units are barely playable.

 

1- N5 is an N4 V2, it doesn't require years of playtest as it is basically the same game. The core is fine and it already works super well.
2- The fact they are still refining the rules is a good thing, rather than having already something carved in stone, no matter what
3- The players HAVE to test the game, is there something more obvious than that? What do you think is more efficient at finding mistakes, loopholes and improve the game? A handful of people at CB playing limited amount games, or thousands of players from all around the world, playing the game in every possible fashion, with every possible matchup, table layout, scenarios, etc...?

But hey, guess who found a new excuse to whine for no reason? The usual suspects...

 

Not necessarily. They could have a finished product they'd be happy to release and are now testing all the alternative ideas they spitballed that were hard to implement or might have far-reaching consequences, for all we know. That could include rules and profiles.

Since they don't have a physical rulebook, there's no reason not to continue writing right up to release.

 

Don’t make sense. This is the Interwebz. We don’t do that here.