September>December 2023 - Winter is coming with some reinforcements

I think you are misunderstanding. I'm saying you can't play with the new troops unless you are playing Reinforcements. Some, like me, don't want to play it. So, I can't play any of the new troops in my games. The new troops are only available under the Reinforcements rules in Army. Except of course the few that got them like Maximus, Samsa, etc. This is not very good marketing for CB. It's a block to buying new figures. Hell, if I have someone new, I'm actively going to discourage them from getting them for a while. if the figures were available to vanilla without being Reinforcements, then I would buy them and recommend them. Because some are great troops outside of Reinforcements.

Yes by playing "tournaments style" I mean playing games as if it's meant for a tournament outside of that. Which is how my groups tends to play.

And now it's not. It's one the many features I bring up to new players. That they have a FREE army builder. But now I need to tell them to ignore this one part unless you plan on playing tournaments soon. Oh and those figures you like are only for those tournaments.

 

"And now it's not. It's one the many features I bring up to new players. That they have a FREE army builder. But now I need to tell them to ignore this one part unless you plan on playing tournaments soon. Oh and those figures you like are only for those tournaments."

If it's enforcing ITS composition rules then it's still a validation tool. It's never stopped validating ITS lists. It certainly creates a courtesy list which is required by ITS 15. It does a reasonable, but not exceptional, job at this.

I'm sorry it's not more flexible.

 

Indeed I see RF more in causal games. We will see if some tournaments will set up with that mod.

But the main problem with RF troops is, that you can only play them with this mod. I understand @Space Ranger that this not a good selling point. Paying 70,- € (Yu Jing RF Box) for 6 minsi, that a exclusive for this playing mod is not spend lighthearted. I think I will buy the YJ box because its well designed its my main fraction, but I will skip Pan O for example, even if this one contians some troops that I can also play regulary. That in itself is another - not so well thought fact (or is it?) mixing the stuff gives you a bad feeling. So you have to buy a box with stuff you don´t want to play (often) to get the Bolts for example.

Also the promotion of RF seems not very well thought. Its not as exciting as they said in the BoW videos.
Its more or less a nice to have, nice to try out. And as we find out in another thread, listbuilding with RF is more or less a pita due to the comlink tax.

But ITS in genral is used to play casual games as well - at least in my metas. We use this all the time in our gaming group. Even as a basic for some campaigns.

 

The factions that have the most problem are YJ, Aleph, Nomads, O-12, CA. Haqq and PanO RF use some existing troops, Of course NA2 is not effected. So at least a plus for them.

 

I play ITS missions in casual games and most people I know also do. I understand that reinforcement-only profiles are troublesome. However, I cannot understand this new player and tournament-style stuff. ITS missions are for tournaments, but I and many people I know play ITS missions in casual plays. If a new player wants to play reinforcement profiles in 300pt game without reinforcement, just play with them in that way. Or, they play 250+100 reinforcement and you play 300pt without reinforcement. In casual games, just agreement between players restricts how you play.

I do know there are people who don't want to play with reinforcement. However, if your opponent wants to play reinforcement but played normal games with you, I think you should give them a game with reinforcement as well. No matter how bad reinforcement is now, Infinity is to have great time "together".

 

I'll eventually buy the Daebak. But not until it's available without reinforcements. I'm not going to buy figures that I'm not going to play. They are cool but not "so cool I just want to paint them cool." If they were already available to vanilla I would pre-order them.

 

The Zellenkrieger's stats have been shown by CB in the Freak Wars event this weekend. In short, Morlock v2.0, keeping Metachemistry, all NBW, changing chains for Pulzars, but most important, all four have a profile (AVA 2 zellenkrieger with 3 options, Ava 1 Extreme Zellenkrieger with 2 options -the "kaiju/Diablo" and the Ava 1 character, the only one that is Regular and also has Martial Artis with the NBW), all with smoke, 8 points per Zellenkrieger, 9 per Extreme and 12 for the character.
All have STR instead of wounds, so Shock Inmunne, and besides all the previous, they get Berserker...

All available in Tunguska, Bakunin, Druze, Dashat, StarCo, and Connolly also in Ariadna, Kosmoflot & Caledonia.

Also, for some reason CB came to the event loaded with some goodies for sale: the Mary Problems miniature (previous years they would sell nothing directly and we had to go to Goblintrader's stand, for example), Operation Blackwind boxes, some Action packs, a bunch of the old comics... and the new comic with the preorder model (kinda WTF dudes, most of us would have buy it there if we knew it was going to be sold instead of reserving it for the end of the month). Some scenery and movement templates too.
Remracers demos, Warcrow demos and Infinity demos too.

Ramper did some Acheron demos and presented a drawing for the Shasvastii ship (I think it was that one) and came with really lovely Infinity command boxes (white and gold, with their own tokens as an aside), just too tall for me (taller than a Feldherr 16 models foam tray), some Stalker (Defiance's ship) and lots of Takkure.

 

The profiles (bad photo, but...):

 

yay.... more NBW spam...

 

Getting all that for 2 points over old Morlocks... Power creep getting to really stupid levels.

 

They're Nomads, OFC They were gonna get power creep'd out ^^'

 

Personally I am quite happy Tunguska getting these, might work out something with Cheerkillers finally.

Same goes for Druze, expanding them is always a plus for me.

 

At this point Achilles gets slaps from everyone, I really feel sorry for him.


However, I, crazy, always continue to think that Tohaa can get something of new too. Obviously a vain hope.

 

Zellenkiergers look strong for sure, but from what I understand TJC really needs something cheap in that vein. BJC is less deserving of new stuff, but I doubt they will do too much for them - Morlocks and the UFK are pretty stiff competition.

I'm glad CB is continuing their trend of having more sectorial specific stuff. It's also nice to see some NA2s getting access to these guys.

 

Phew... as a Bakunin player I find those Profiles really boring and unimaginative.
Just yet another run off the mill CC beast in three miniscule different flavours.

Nevertheless they seem to be quite interesting for Tunguska

 

Also, remember that the character counts as Veteran Troop for this ITS, so he may be able to score points XD

Tunguska has Perseo and the transformer bike for smoke, so I don't understand what you are trying to say here, specially since the Cheerkillers already pack a BTS template (nanopulser) in all profiles but the cheapest one that carries another pulzar (I assume we are talking about the FTO option of the zellenkrieger, unless you are implying that Tunguska needs under-10pts warbands to work? If so, I may say the same thing regarding OSS...)

Tunguska needs something to lower some prices, because most of its stuff is like premium... compared to the other two Nomad sectorials. The problem with the Zellenkriegers is that they are essentially buffed Morlocks... packing A LOT of things for just +2pts or +3.
And most importantly, instead of the Chain Rifle, they carry a Pulzar (same weapon, but attacks BTS instead of ARM).



Ye olde Morlocke loses 1BS and 2 WIP, but the Zellenkrieger get a rerroll on their metachemistry, +3BTS, berserker, CC attack -3 (which is Martial Arts Lv1 without +1PH to damage, but Heavy Pistol and AD meleeweapon...) and NBW instead of MA2 (+3 attack, -3 opponent, +1dmg-PH)... And of course, the Pulzar instead of Chain Rifle, giving the Zellenkriegers more options (berserker for melee attack with normal damage, or template for BTS damage...).
I think we'll see one zellenkrieger at least in all lists, even Bakunin ones, aside from specific ones unable to scrape two points to upgrade a Morlock. I mean, just the reroll for Metachemistry is a great buff...

 

It's rare that it matters a ton, but the Chain Rifle is often better than the Pulzar, unless you are fighting Arianda. Besides, the standard Morlock can achieve the same thing of having ARM and BTS targeting weapons anyway, but with a meaningful difference in the E/M CCW profile.

Like 100% these guys are pushed but... I just don't really think they are worth the whole song and dance of 'Nomads protag faction op op gutier personally spat on my tohaa minis'. They are fundamentally just another smoke throwing CC warband. A good one for sure, but they are being given to a faction that needs the help.

And yeah OSS would love something in this regard as well. My general understanding is that OSS and TJC are both factions with neat ideas and tools that lack good cheap chaff to support it.

 

Just because TJC needs something like them, doesn’t mean they should get them. There are many other factions that need X but don’t get that. Are they not on the run from TJC? It kind of hurts the "identity" of the faction. Sure, I know, Nomads identity is Nomads get everything

Yeah, we need NBW like a hole the head. Another troop that makes Shaolin look like a joke. I mean (mostly) story wise. Yet again untrained (or little trained) mooks that totally negate some of the top fighters in the human sphere’s marital arts. Not only do they have NBW but then CC -3 on top of that. So even against other NBW they have the advantage. Then a Re-roll on Meta Chem! Pretty much everything on there is good or great. Oh and just happen to have +1 B on their Heavy Pistols.
Well, it looks like these are going to be my Monks in Dashat!

 

A bit boring. Another warband (erm support troop) that is cheap, gets NBW (how many we have, since Senor? maybe - just maybe CB will use one of the rules suggestions for NBW lower its effectivness) and smoke on top (even if not on every profile) - hurray this is what we waiting for years

Okay on the good side: They are realy good. Tunguska surley can make good use of them. Bakunin not realy need them, Morlocks will get envy. Best use is for a second Überfall, but the big guy prevnets this - he is too big for a chimära.

Durze and the other NA2 surley will not say no. Druze looks like a circus now.

 

I'll like them in Dashat even though they have competition with Kum and other irregular troops. But one or two of these with McMurder are going to be kick ass!

Edit: BTW I just noticed they are Structure and not Wounds? Mistake yet again in their previews?


Edit:
Now that I think about it, the Zellenkrieger is perfect for my Taoist Monks that I’ve always wanted. FYI Taoist Monks are like Buddhist Monks. Buddhists follow the teaching of the Buddha and Taosts follow the Tao. Both are trying to achieve enlightenment but in different ways. The Buddhists have the shaolin monks, Taoists have the monks of Wu Tang (Dang) Mountain. Like Buddhist monks, Taoist monks also believe in developing the body and enhancing chi. However, Taoists can also believe in going beyond conventional means. Metachemistry is perfect for this. Metachemistry becomes “Iron Skin”, “Dragon Feet”, or whatever Wuxia cliched name it could be.