I think the "soft stops" as represented by the increased availability of E/M weapons and decreased lethality of AROs is generally a good direction for the game; while your strike plan may have failed, you have the feeling that you can try again next round, if the bricked/glued/exhausted troopers survive the opponents turn.
That's ignoring that the N5 Duos lack 6th sense or any BS bonus, which were hugely important for defence in N4. Plus, the attacker can now be one of many Duos, meaning the opponent has more +1SD threat vectors, often using stronger units now. Still, I agree with you that it's good for competing in FtF. Where +1SD is noticeably worse though, especially combined with Speedball turn 1, is the impact of those successes against high value units. Beforehand I would be cautious exposing an HI or TAG do a decent ARO because there was always the possibility of taking 2+ hits, especially against EM. Now, I know it'll only ever be 1 hit, which I'll be able to tank, meaning I can play more aggressively. With Vitapack, that gives me another free pass. So +1 die is still a useful speed bump in FtF rolls, but it's a lot less powerful, reliable, and threatening compared to how it was in N4, making ARO less effective against strong units, especially in conjunction with other changes. Hence the OP's suggestion to remove one of those exacerbating elements (Speedball turn 1).
I think that everyone here knows that some/most/many/all Infinity players are very risk averse. If they can perfect their zero risk order efficient GML pitcher game or low risk bearpode attack run, they will do that. This lead to players using only the most risk free attack vectors in N4. The comp meta became stale. It really didn't make sense to make BS attack runs with HIs* because risk of catastrofic failure was too high compared to TAGs and total immunity units. A single HRL shot could mean GG. Speedball and +1SD on pure duo AROs means that a lot more units (instead of few units that are only available for certain factions) can be used to make attack runs with significantly lower catastrofic failure risk. Good work CB! * Okay, there were couple of HI's in N4 that could be used to make an low risk attack run like Prime and Hac Tao.
