The style of this faction is magnificent. Within this faction there are truly interesting profiles for different playstyles; but unfortunately, after continuous attempts to make Next Wave lists in the last few days, I can confirm, as already stated by people more influential than me, that listing with this faction is truly frustrating. The profiles are truly very expensive. There are only three profiles under 10 pts, two of which are irregular (even the warcor costs one point more than the other factions). The Ikadrons's cost was increased, and the basic troops cost a minimum of 13 pts. I completely agree with everyone who commented on the release of this sector. It's a truly very interesting faction, but it really needs to have AVA 3 R-Drones or at least AVA 2 Imetrons. This simple update wouldn't make the faction unbalancedly overpowered, but would instead greatly improve the playability and list of this faction.
NW is a wierd beast for sure. It makes it eaier to make a non-elite faction than the other sectorials, which makes it weird it lacks Counterintelligence and also have limited Fire Team purity. Shasvasti has access to Counterintelligence. Morats have so much purity in their Fire Teams they're indifferent to it. Onyx have access to a lot of NCO. Technorganic is also an interesting new rule, NW has a lot of it, and only extremely limited access to Doctor/Paramedic, Engineer, and Gizmo-kit. NW seems unfocused.
There are a lot of very interesting things going on with NW for sure. And I can see that there are also some holes in the design area. I think it might’ve been a mistake to include Dr worm in the sectorial. I think a unique Dr profile that sits alongside the gearhead would’ve been more interesting in list building for the technorganic skill. Thinking for example about Aleph and Steel Phalanx. In generic Aleph and OSS you have the Sophotects which were kinda the Dr Worm of that faction. But in SP you had Dactyls and even a character engineer and Dr in Acmon and Machaon. All of Which had link options which built on the link synergy of SP. I’m not saying NW should exactly mirror SP. Just that it’s an example of something that could be done. I think having a 18-20 pt Dr that has some unique skills/loadouts like the Gearheads would’ve been interesting especially if the had flexibility with linking or using Cyberplugs in that same way. Also Imetrons would go a long way for sure.
I've been thinking. When you look over an army in Infinity, whether it's Vanilla or Sectorial, you can see what their army strength is. Less so with NW, as it feels all over the place. I think that what would give the faction an identity would be to go more aggressively into Cyberplug. Rewrite the rules and name for the Cyberplug to make it obvious that it's Ur-voodoo tech, else it's something Nomads will have in half a year. Have more Cyberplug profiles and models who can be cyberplug periphals. Make the later weaker, like, give their autonomous progiles weaker and cheaper. You pat a minimum of +13 points for each profile, most often +17 since having the specialist as an option would be a nice touch. When a model takes active control of a Cyberplug unit, the unit controlled gains the CC, BS, and Wip of the controlling model. If the controlling model is a specialist, the Cyberplugged unit becomes a Specialist Operative. It makes no sense that a conneted Ranter is WAY better at shooting a weapon than the Gearhead it's connected to. Connect it to an offensive unit, and the Ranter becomes an offensive model. Then the strength of NW would be versatility, which is the impression you get when reading the short background around it.
I doubt NW will see Imetrons or r-drone ava 3. What BlessedBe (one of the CB's tester) said, is that CB whats to have CA limited to 13-14 troopers max. So we really should adapt and build our list with less troopers. I can easily build NW list with 13-14 model and have everything I need to win.
Having that limit of 13-14 troopers max by having good troopers, is one thing. Having that limit of 13-14 troopers max by overcosting low-performing profile is another (not NW case, or at least not soon enough to say this for that sectorial)
Well, Blessed be also said that he thinks CA has tons of bad units, but reason for this is existence od our top units and availability of cheap units. He said that Umbras could be much better. Maybe we will see changes to bad units in the future. Imho buff of aspects and change to Legate and Nexus is good indication. Maybe CB will add new things to NW later, but I don't expect to see cheap orders.
How Onyx and SEF have survived so long without cheap orders? I mean, as a Onyx player I could take AVA 3 R-drones maybe even 4.
I was thinking that if you proxy all obviously looking CA figures like the Remotes, this could practically be a 3rd sectoral for Aleph. Yeah it would be your own head cannon but it can work. I think of my JSA as the one's that didn't dishonor themselves and stayed loyal to YJ. And Dashat as a Yu Jing Sectoral.
I have the whole SP lineup (pre-Blackwind, and then only the Blackwind box) and the whole CA (until the third sculpt of Morat, I don't dig the new oni looks), so I have contemplated this option already. This are my suggestions for SP-as-NW: Achilles: Use the pajama one, the old without the heavy armor. Achilles' friends: use them as is, but for Drakios and Pandora. Pandora: either the Blackwind one, or Alke (so the model touches a table at last...) or Thamyris Drakios: Use Ajax Harbingers: Thorakitai (SWC box, old sculpts without shields) Stingers: Makhe, or Agema Raindancers: Myrmidons... it's a shame because we may have 10+ models here, but... Cliffjumpers: Ekdromoi (with Diomedes if you have the strange need to get full AVA) Ironsides: Hoplite, Achilles (Hoplite Armor) and/or Hector Contrabandoleros: Blackwind's Thorakitai Gearhead: Dactyls Wraith-1: Chandra specops, Trasímedes, Atalanta Glyph Warcor: Warcor Ruby Monday: Scylla for example. The missing models would be the Unidrones, Ikadrones, Nexus, Bit&Kiss, Ko-Dali, DrWorm, Sartroids. Skyhound, and the common remotes for those that can be used outside this sectorial, and the dynosaurs and the TAG for those that cannot. Frankly I would use any TAG should you want to proxy the Jugs or the Skyhound, any leftover model with a 40mm base under them to pose as Tekdrakens and satroids (worry not, I bet we'll get boxes for those soon enough...) BTW my bets for the Tekkdraken and Sartroid boxes are as follow: 1 Steeljaw and 1 Blackheart (or kit to assemble either or 2 of one type) for 55-65€ 2 Blackheart, 1 steeljaw and 1 Drakios for (or 3 dinos + Drakios) 90-100€ 2 Ranters for 45€ and 2 Puzzlers for 40€ 2 Sartroids for 50€
I'm playing Steel Phalanx-esc (because I have the models) Next Wave in an escalation league locally. And I have to say the big takeaway I've gotten is that I don't want to play (and esp. collect) Next Wave. Playing NW the way I wanted (basically Team Achilles + support models) is truly a pain in the @$$ and leads to a great deal of frustration (at low points, you have too many eggs in one basket and at higher points you don't have enough eggs to fill your basket). To be fair, I have enough armies (that I need to finish) that I really don't want to collect a whole new one (if there was some cross-over with other CA armies, maybe), which is a big part of the waning interest. And I feel like while there's a lot of novelty to NW, it either wears off pretty quick, or will cost a lot of money to sustain.
I take a year or more to decide on getting any new thing now. Because I know I get FOMO or just like the look of shiny new stuff.
So my Achilles, Teucer, Pandora which I lost in SP can now form the core of an evil Aleph Proxy sectorial. Even my lost Proxy #3 could prox a Ranter. I have some more old proxys to prox and for example old SP chars that have new minis or new Acmon as gearhead (I like the old one more). I don't realy like to prox, but maybe I will try out a proxy NW for fun..
