In The Future

I've a feeling the 2023 Gen Con box will be the Warcrow starter, maybe with an Action Pack or book for Infinity at the same time.

 

Seems to be a bit early - assuming the KS for Warcow Crawler will start this autum and it usualy takes CB a year to roll it out. But it could be a possibility that two player boxes will take a break.

 

The timeline given at Adepticon was boardgame demo at Gen Con 2022, Kickstarter this fall (same time of year they did Defiance and TAG-Raid) and skirmish game at Gen Con 2023

 

I do like the approach of slowing down on new sectorials and taking the time to make another pass at the more aged children in the roster.

 

I'd add my personale wants&wish:
- Guilang hacker
- Blue Wolf Pilot
- Lei Gong (general release)

I wish for a ISS revamp, a treatment like Morat and MO. And new sculpts for Bao.

 

I would've preferred some more Guilang instead of this garbage but guess we'll have to keep waiting on that.

 

I would love an ISS box, but our sculpts are still quite modern, with a couple exceptions; I would also love a new Bao in a blister, and a new Multi Rifle Crane would be beautiful (I think the hacker is a sleeper pick in ISS, but please CB give them 6-2 MOV!!).

Mechanically, we're in a great spot after Raven Eye fireteam changes so I don't think we need a revamp -- a solid middle-high B tier faction with lots of list flexibility and great objectives potential that's just plain fun to play. Just one or two profiles could use a small bump to make them more attractive.

For sculpts wishlisting, aside from what I've mentioned above, I'd like some new Yaoxie remotes with better assembly, a re-release of the conspicuously absent HMG Hac Tao, and Guilang blister of any type.

We've been really lucky; we're almost faction complete for sculpts. All that's left is to wait for Gencon to see if CB wants to add anything else to the army.

 

I second that! I do not understand, why a HI from THE HI faction, that is capable and eager to use its DA CCWs (okay mostly to get in good firing position) has this low powered armor, that can only provide a 4" move in the first mov order. A Crane Rank should have state of the art Hi Tech servo armor, not some crap with old and rusty servos and low watt power supplys.
I can understand - that Wu Ming get only the old fashion armour but in game terms, I think all power armoured HIs - accept Ariadna maybe so you only have to remember the HI mov states of one faction - should have MOV 6-2 for the sake of equality.

In fluff-terms: Why have Zuyong 6-2 with his most generic armor suit and the Elite-Crane with armor that is most likely hand-fitted to the user has only 4-4 ?

 

Funny thing is that cranes are wearing Shang ji type armor which is the newest and best HI armor in yu jing if we believe the fluff. So they should totally be 6-2 move. A thing I sorely miss in imperial service is more sources of smoke and more mid field presence than thd one ninja and kanren. Or at least deployables and spec op on all kanren

 

Crane armour is absolutely capable of 6-2 Movement, however dashing frantically at such speed is far too undignified for someone of Crane Rank, they prefer to move with an authorative 4-4 stride.

 

Having played Frontline with White Banner yesterday, trying to get Adil's lethargic 4-4 pace with the Shang Ji's 7-2 was way more work than it had any right to be. Especially when Adil is supposed to be the close range combatant in the team.

 

I think I've been spoiled by all the free smoke from vanilla and White Banner. Actually knuckling down and spending the Regular order on smoke in ISS feels like a waste, but it's genuinely really really good smoke. Even if it's just in a CG haris, two on 11s is equivalent to a Shaolin throwing smoke at their feet, and the numbers get better as the link improves. We've also got so many ways to exploit that smoke coverage built into the army that I think attaching it to an incredibly cheap, linkable troop we're taking at least one of is good enough. Smoke launchers are good, honest! You just have to spend orders on them.

I'll agree on the Kanren though. I was hoping they'd get Minelayer/Madtraps standard across all their profiles, or possibly a Sensor to make up for the loss of Sniffers, but we got a 0swc shock minelayer instead. And like... I can't hate it, but I don't see myself using it either. I don't think that's the Kanren's fault though; I think there's enough competition for slots that if you want a midfield guy you might as well just take the Ninja. Even the standard Hacking Device measures up extremely favourably to TO hackers in other factions.

 

Minelayer isn't necessarily all about mind games. I think it's fair to judge a unit by the faction it is in, though.

 

Do remember, you don't have to use minelayer. I've had some occasions where I've withheld using that ability in order to fake out an opponent, only dropping the madtrap/mine once they've decided to treat it like another profile.

Niche functionality, but just about everything about the Kanren can be summed up as niche. I'd mostly written them off in the past, but in a few more recent experiments with them, I've had them perform reasonably well. The problem being that the list-building phase does not translate well over to their actual application, because everything they can do tends to be so specific. In both times where my Kanren did well, I didn't even know what purpose I really had in mind with it until it had actually deployed. That's a problem for holo echo troopers in general, but doubly so for troopers like the Kanren, who have no adequate troops to disguise as and lack potency on their own.

 

I play white banner heavily and really like to use the remotes, especially the lu duan. After all other models maybe a :attack: remote of S4. Would be nice to have more than rui shi and support unit yaopu so you could put more unknowns in your list. Or give lu duan another profile so the other side at least guesses witch profile did i choose.