Removing burnt state created an issue that CB is trying to compensate with the new rock, paper, scissors approach to visual mods in the game. But why burnt state should return then? Well, because several great reasons: When people examine a new profile to determine its value on the board, usually the first thing they search for are mods, mimetism, visors etc and then look at the rest of the package. There are many profiles that people don't use because they are just not good enough to shoot things without entering the mod game. Burnt state changes that dynamic and makes those "second tier" troops way more viable. Burnt state generates quality gameplay. Most of the time when using this rule you are combining your troops in interesting ways. One troop burns the mim -6 then the other shoots with a stronger gun. It feels better than just move and shoot with my visor/mim hmg. It's a way to not give more visors to low tech factions and regain faction asimmetry. It's not a particularly complex rule. Troops impacted by this ammunition can't use camouflage and mimetism -3/-6. And a token just like para or out of ammunition to keep track of it.
It is, in fact, an extra set of state markers for the game that used to apply to ODD and TO, which nowadays don't exist. ODD was changed to Mimetism-6, and was a pain to remember that mimetism -3 was not burnable but ODD was, and TO has been split, or "decombined", into mimetism-6, hidden deployment, camouflage and surprise attack-3. So the easiest way to add burn state would be to add a "burnable" qualifier kinda like Religious troop, but for all visual modifier markers, meaning another thing to track and place a marker for. And that is if said troop were to survive the fire impact (regardless of said impact causing any wounds at all). On the other hand, you can Spotlight in ARO, and that counters a -3, and you can get a +1 rolled (but not kept) dice with a pure duo, so...
No worries make it work against mimetism too if for some reason its too complex to track (it wasn't back then, two burnt targets at most per game on average) Spotlight is not something ariadna should relay on. Also it had to be repaired which gave more relevance to engineers.
You could have new Burnt state give Limited Cover rule to the affected model, reasoning being the model cannot focus on taking cover while it is on fire. It would be a very simple solution to implement. But it wouldn't do anything on models like Hippolyta and similar.
At best, I would accept the model being forced to go Prone, since it's the first training people get when getting on fire is an issue (sans being in a building on fire by firefighters, but I digress). You already have the Guts roll for this, however. Says you, I used to run greeks in N3 on a double Myrmidon team, so... XD 12 FO profiles in vanilla, 5 or 6 in each sectorial... I don't know why not? Also Ariadna has access to MSV1 now, and direct templates that don't even roll to hit. MORE? I mean, have you looked at the rulebook and the engineers kit lately? Deactivator has gained a lot of usability, hacking means most HI and TAGs depend on an engineer to remove states since Inmovilized imposes a whooping -9 to reset (so an EM "wound" means a -12 to reset for a brick, good luck unless you are WIP 16+...), and now they can deploy cover and turrets... Not to mention the TR bots are more interesting than ever because so few units have more than B1 in reactive and many have received Inmunity ARM (so not even ML can bring them down in a single ARO). I mean I already always had an engineer in N4 lists unless nothing was hackable in the whole list, but now? Even more!.
It mitigates the quintessential msv dependency in this game. Everything being set around the msv with hundreds of profiles in the game is a receipt for a design failure with a terrible game as outcome. FO is a face to face roll against visual mods that can be reset and FOs are not prescindible since we are stuck in the 15 model cap and everyone can reach that model count. Regular direct templates are not ideal tools to deal with an avatar, sphinx or cutter. Ariadna always had access to some msv but not for their big guns and that is good, it's asimetrical and a reason to play with them instead of any other army. I'm not asking for bufs I'm reflecting on a rule that in my opinion created good asymmetri and quality gameplay.
I could go either way on this issue. Ariadna could have its synergy restored with fast, hard-hitting melee troops working alongside forward Smoke deployers... or we could just make Burned a status that prevents a model from applying any negatives except Cover to another model's rolls. If the fricking Shasvastii rule is worth keeping in the game, actually bringing in some of the soft-control complexity of older editions and even Aristeia should be more than fine.
This dependency comes from mimetism -3 being cheaper than +3 to BS, frankly. Nevertheless, I would ask for a "marker grenade" (which can do speculative fire and apply marked state in an area) to be implemented before asking for adding extra rules to the game. There are enough building blocks already, it's just a matter of reorienting our sight. This might open an entirely new can of worms. Anyways, I think Ariadna is in a problematic spot now, similar to that of Tohaa in the past, but it keeps selling, so it's hard to implement a "low tech, low population" faction in a believable fashion (since their hat was "droves of chaff" which runs counter to their lower population to the other factions...)
I always justified this discrepancy with the Stavka/state authority just investing more in particular operations than the Sphere's powers; a Veteran Kazak is probably as valuable to Ariadna as a Swiss Guard is to PanO, but that Guard can respawn when killed. The people of Dawn make up for it by picking fewer fights, so they can bring more to the fights that matter. Don't forget that Ariadnan elites also usually had rare, really good skills to go with the low tech. The excessive power creep ruined that one, but there was a time that the Spetznaz was genuinely one of the best shooters in the game and Dog Warriors were a practically unique capability with their Total Immunity, high Wound count and crazy CC skills letting them rush through thin defensive lines. That one's probably not getting fixed until the whole of the writing staff get replaced though; they seem genuinely incapable of adding something without leaking it to Nomads and CA, then the rest of the game to make playing against the latter fair.
Lore and balance are two very different things. This is not just for ariadna, it's an interesting rule for the game overall.
That is what make the Ariadna faction such a problem, they can't be eternally the low-tech boonies cousins when everybody keeps advancing and measures get taken so Ariadna can't have all the tools it was designed to work with. And changing the tools means, well, stuff like Kosmoflot (not that there aren't other ways to do it, just that CB won't). I agree completely, but they have to be related, and Ariadna lore is tied to the faction's "hat". Change it too much and you will have a green PanO. I took for granted the rule was for all flamethrowers and some troops like Mendoza. However, not all interesting rules need to be added to the game, specially to one as heavily loaded with skills, gear, and properties for those as Infinity, specially because they are so liberally mixed everywhere. You can add all the rules you want, but at the end, people want a game that can be played, not a second layer that can be summed up as a court's hearing, that things (and too high price for entry products) block new players to get into the game (sure, 2nd hand markets, but you are usually changing a veteran player for a new one, not increasing the player's pool)
To be frank I am glad burned state got removed, added unnecessary complexity to impact only the high tech factions that relied on said technology. Ariadna can already throw plenty of wolf's and bears at their problems without needing to revert back to getting the old sacrificial cheap flamers disabling visual mods for everybody high tech.
Bunt State was, IMO, unnecessary book keeping that slowed down the game as there was one more token you had to remember. Also, some armies could disproportionately benefit from it. I like that Ariadna now has more MSV and significantly fewer flamers.
And here is its biggest issue it was only an anti ODD/ TO measure it did not affect camouflage or mimetism making it only a penalty for the high tech factions that paid quite for having those skills.
Reducing all levels of the CH tree and thus preventing the us of the camouflaged state at all is IMO the opposite from "did not affect camouflage". Yes, "Mimetism (-3)" stayed but usually the CH troopers not affected by the burnt state were unconcious or dead afterwards anyways. I believe this State could be easily re-introduced as a one sentence rule and it would be a more enriching game experience than the flying speedball turds we got instead. CB could even easily use ITS 17 (or maybe even ITS 16-v2.2) as a testbed for this.
Considering the cost of a LFT or a HFT and their potential lethality, it's only good for the game that they lost this perk.
A camouflage model been affected replaced its -3 with -3 a TO replaced its -6 to -3, a drastic reduction that made low tech factions practically immune, then you have ODD that replaced tis -6 to 0...
Burnt was usually worth building a plan around when aiming for HI or TAGs with ODD or TO Camo. If it was lighter than that, the flamethrower could be counted on to, you know, kill it. And most of those low-tech factions didn't really have HI or TAGs with Mimetism. Hell, I think the Daofei and the Uhlan were the only things in the class with CH: Camoflage, and the Tik and Veteran Kazak were it for CH: Mimetism. Nearly all the heavy threats with visual modifiers used the ones that could be Burnt by armies that lacked good MSV/melee anti-armour units. Damn, I miss the times when Infinity's faction design was cohesive.
I think Burnt had a bigger impact on the game because in earlier editions there seemed to be more units returning to camo marker that there is in the current game which Burnt prevented.
