N5 is out, army has been updated, and that hussy EI stole my damn boyfriend. I've been out of the game for a long while, but new friends and the new edition have brought me back. It's a somewhat tragic homecoming, with my sweet baby Achilles being stolen - then again, I always liked Hector better. We've got a new edition to play with, so post about all the things that are interesting you! Personally I'm feeling a drag towards OSS and away from my old SP army. I'm really liking the look of the Asura this edition, most especially because it seems to be the only unit in the entire game capable of hacking camo markers. The Garuda effectively turning into a parachuting motorbike (8-6 movement if you declare move -> super-jump) interests me a hell of a lot too. I've also noticed that John Hawkwood's combi rifle profile now has the ability to throw 6 dice at an opponent (3 burst, +1B on the gun, +1SD on his profile, +1SD from a fireteam).
Here's a post for indexing preliminary reaction articles and video, to the N5 version of the generalist and its sectorial armies, there's not much there, but it can still serve as a basis. - Infinity N5 All Factions Tier List - Deranged, Two Days Since Release, Hot Take Edition - Episode 132 - N5 Faction Tierlist
in my point of view, aleph vanilla lost so much. oss is strong and steel phalanx gained and lost but in good shape. SP gained some camo and reliable chance to defend himself in new camo game. it was needed. i like thasymedes have a decoy. it can be used more often for specialist games. i still think scycla must reflect its origin more. a solo option with chabrydis as forward deployment for instance will make scycla more reliable option in own deployment zone not only in links. OSS is strong as before. lost some firepower but ok. Aleph. what is this ? I cant use almost entire phalanx models which were crucial for aleph for many years. No ajax, no achiles, no machaon , no atalanta, no phoneix, no myrmidon officer, short in eclipse side. no asparas no rem driver. why ? aleph can use nice duo couples now. satrah duo and yadu duo is interesting indeed. but... apart from that aleph lost crucial many things without gaining any units at all. also cant understand why enen oss has andromeda (Greek) while vanilla aleph hasnt ? andromeda and maximus has no place in oss.
That depends, I'd say probably a little stronger. I managed to cram 15 orders and honest to god I never managed before with very similar list This is a shocker really. Especially when you think that Andromeda has no place in her own sectorial either. Dakini link in OSS seems very solid. Probot as the only source of repeater makes the infowar a bit weak on paper. Of the repeater choices in OSS however the Probot is probably the best: better survivability of a Lamed (8 vs. 7 pts) and has deactivator too. While I was making the list I also thought I could have made another quite different. The problem of choices is actually in ASS/SP. I see very little option. SP is badly in need of units and options. I am not that blessed in remembering point values, but I doubt the removal of eclipse grenades resulted in a visible point reduction..
Characters have seen cost reductions, but the removal of Eclipse has been "compensated" for the most part. The main problems for Greeks is the absolute loss of access to Sixth Sense and the change to smoke grenades (now losing the +3 within ZoC), the rest of the problems are somewhat minor. As for list variation, I foresee overabundance of Myrmidon Officers (sole source of Eclipse now), but I still don't see Alke in the table. Being able to link Dactyls with Myrmidons is a great addition. OSS has gained "smoke" in the shape of Disco Baller for the Yadu. I find Aleph is holding the Idiot Ball, however, since that's the only source of smoke in a sectorial filled with MSV options. For fireteams, the Core Options are slightly better now that we can make Deva fireteams (and you can still mix and match freely with Dakinis and it's "pure"), but the Apsaras has been in the dirt since N4, reduced to little more than a KHD, and the Danavas not counting as anything is another hit to hackability, specially if we compare it with Nomads. Reinforcements have been shoehorned as great secondary fireteams, but CB did the same to all Reinforcements box, it's quite clear they want a return in their investment and are not ashamed to invest extra effort while leaving most of the other stuff in the dirt. As for troops, the Asura spitfire is a trap (it needs to be AP or a plasma rifle at least, since those are now on sale for humans anyways), the Marut, as all units over 70 or so points need an Immunity to Monofilament, and a cheaper profile without Tac Aware (frankly, the Marut could use a Lt order +1 instead of TacAware in that profile, to promote the new Limited Insertion style), the Proxy Mk3 has been removed with no explanation, the garuda is great (again, the spitfire profile... meh), the Nagas need a Deployable Repeater option and the Sophotect should be able to go into fireteams (since Trisha and Parvati are wildcards anyways). The Apsara should count as a dakini for linkability, and grant all dakinis in the fireteam the Remdriver mods, it should be better than the puppetactica from Nomads, but since N4 it has been way worse.
Agreed - I'd also really like to see pure-linkable Danavas, as being able to give +1SD to a pitcher without sacrificing a full core or the spare slot on your one haris is big. I'm a *little* bitter that the Morats of all people have us beat on this, but there are tons of other factions that have access to this as well. (Torchlight, Shindenbutai, IA, all nomad sectorials, etc) I think a cool way to handle fireteams in OSS would be to have Dakini count as Apsaras, Devas, Danavas, etc, instead of those units counting as Dakini. It'd prevent pure linkability getting too powerful while still giving you a load of choices, and would represent Aleph's agents taking along Dakinis with them to handle shooting while they get the mission done. One thing I have noticed that's piqued my interest is the Samekh FTO retaining access to guided. All the other missile bot FTOs seem to lose this, and having +1SD on guided attacks is pretty sweet.
I only want to do a small contribution, since I raw a lot of comments in that way. I mean, about the lost of SS for SSA. The lost is not so huge, in fact, pretty much is one of those armies, Myrmidons speaking, where the impact is lower. Reasons why: Against smoke + mv2/3 the best choice for myrmidons (letting apart those they had eclipse) in n4 was to dodge. To perform dodge no -6 is applied, so, in n5 myrmidons do that better because 3 of them have +1 to PH. Direct templates was one of the worse enemies for myrmidons, since avoid mimetism and smoke don't work, now templates don't apply surprise attack (only f2f rolls) and again, you dodge better now. Yes, if someone shoot you by doing a face to face roll you will be worse, but most likely you still will have better roll value than the other, if no visor is implied, which brings me to my first point. Myrmidons now dodge better. I think this small change is not being noticed and it has impact while rolling the dice.
That's exactly why 6th sense for me is not a terrible issue (there is also placement to be considered... a 4-men team can cover 360deg quite easily). For me the lack of choice and the fact that you always end up picking the same units (see xagroth: over abundance of Myr. Officers at AVA 4) make ASS a very boring game, it becomes like a certain british game when not playing humans. I think VH could change the situation (I have some ideas model-wise) somewhat (prone offers no cover, buildings don't help anymore), but also a careful restructuring of ASS should be implemented. A bit more variability in the main troops (Myrmidons and Thorakiti)... a thorakiti with eclipse? imagine that... a Myrmidon with repeater? Or Makhe with repeater (all of a sudden one can think of fielding them LOL)
