Very late input here, and apologies if this has been discussed before, but I'd like to see a bit more utility for the LT order. I kind of miss being able to use it to reform a link team from N2 days. Even having that be a benefit of "advanced command" or something would be neat.
Dunno if this has been mentioned but I simply don't see the Red Fury survive to next edition without any tweaks. That weapon is grotesquely undercosted in both points and SWC. It performs better than a Spitfire, have better rangebands than a Spitfire and costs less than a Spitfire. The Red Fury, as it stands now, is the SMG equivalent in terms of being too good and wildly undercosted, when compared to Spitfire/Molotok/Mk12.
A few small further reflections from me, having played a bit more: Scavenger is a fun skill and not a complicated one (it's Coup de Grace, but you also steal and weapon or piece of equipment). However, being a whole order makes it very inefficient, especially when the troops that possess it are unlikely to get great value out of even very high value items they can loot with it (and against some armies it's rarely going to be useful because there's a lot of V:Dogged or NWI). So I would like to see it be made a short skill. But this got me thinking: Scavenger is also a skill that causes a lot of text bloat because it necessitates tagging items with "non lootable". As only 5 units in the game currently have it I can see a perfectly reasonable argument for just deleting it completely. However, I would like to argue against that. One of the best things about Infinity is that it is a fundamentally cinematic game. The rules have gotten overcomplicated and overlapping for sure BUT rare, quirky skills like Scavenger, Ghost jumper, AI Motorcycle, Morphoscan, Holoprojector and Ejection System are what give units their identity and character, which really appeals to me as someone who is mainly a role-play person. Coming back to infinity, units like Zondnauts, Puppetica and Bandits (who I never used much before) have been a lot of fun to play with because of their uniqueness. For sure, balancing around fluff or the feel of units is inherently a bad idea but, I would argue, so is disregarding the character of units. That's why my heart sinks a bit when I see people say we should do away with Ejection System, even though I can understand why. For sure, simplify Ejection system, roll it and Escape System into one (e.g. if you have the system the pilot automatically bails out at no orders - not a huge advantage but they can keep fighting straight away if they drop in the opponents active turn), but to get rid of it completely and would turn the Iguana into just another TAG, even if the pilot has an HMG and ARM3. But finally, coming back to Scavenger, in addition to the above, I would add that, because it's a simple skill you are rarely going to use, there's little harm in adding it to a few more units to make it less rare. Indeed, I'm surprised a couple of units don't have it, specifically: Yuan Yuan and Bashi Bazouks who are career criminals and thieves anyway. but it could also be fun for other units like Wu Ming, Locusts, Igao or even Cube Jagers.
I agree with a lot of what you say. I think Zondnaughts are actually a really good example of this done right: It's unique but simple. If you know how Aragato work and you know how Auxilla work all you need to know is that by declaring Move as the first short skill the Zondnautica can transform into a Zondmate + Zondnaught in B2B with each other (or vice versa). Done. The problem is actually with TAGs and Motorcycles. If they worked the same way as Zondnautica (ie. Pilot / Rider generates the order and dismounting leaves a figure on the table that can be attacked) you'd clean up the rules a lot. This is what I think people actually want: don't eliminate distinct options that have a important benefit, do synchronise rules that are similar where the differences are unimportant. So Zondnautica: what makes them unique is that their bike becomes G Sync once the Dismount. The rules around how they Dismount should be exactly the same as everything else that can Mount/Dismount. I'd do the same with Scavenger and Coup De Grace. Scavenger would work better as a Coup De Grace that does something extra. Mimmetism and ODD is another example that we've got hints on how they will do it: Mimmetism -3 and Mimmetism - 6. This eliminates the difference that ODD is Fire Sensitive but Mimmetism is not: a difference which, while meaningful, is not core to their game play.
That's a good point, but still a mental burden to recall. Personally I don't think retaining Fire Sensitive for ODD is worth it. But it's a good example of a way to do it for something CB does consider worthwhile (see Total Immunity and Vulnerabilities, which takes this approach). Which gets to a crucial point: the determination of whether a certain complexities are necessary or not is largely subjective. Good rules design can, however, make preserving complexity less burdensome.
This sort of stuff is why I'm pretty confident that the small rules updates and such in the last 3 books were intended as tests of some new ways of working stuff to see how it actually played. Combined with all the mixed fireteam play and NA2 creativity it really makes sense to me.
It's not that much better. Red Fury is only grotesquely good compared to a Spitfire on units that have both profiles, or on profiles where it's overtly obvious it's being used to cheat the system (but hey, let's not take that from JSA, okay). Pheasant Red Fury is still extremely dubious and the Rafiq Red Fury might be skimping it compared to a Spitfire of the same unit, but that same unit with Spitfire doesn't exist and it's far from an auto-pick choice over a good ol' Rifle+Shoutgun. Molotok is basically established to be ever so slightly too expensive and the MK12's main advantage is that it costs 0 SWC, which is actually kind of important.
A very important thing is also the fact that the Red Fury only ever seems to cost 1 SWC, regardless of the platform, which is a stark contrast to the Spitfire and Molotok. This is quite a deal because you suddenly invest a lot less in your rambo piece, while still outperforming the Spitfire/Molotok.
Not 100% true. Sheskiin pays 2 SWC for a red fury in her HI version. However, there's a big point here about the SWC cost. Tariq pays 2,5 SWC for his spitfire, and Kusanagi pays a whooping 3 SWC for hers! (both of them give SWC bonuses if they don't get a heavy weapon, so the math works out like that). Just imagine if these two were paying 1 or 0 SWC for their heavy weapons now and what kind of impact that would have on their respective sectorials. The Red Fury having no escalating cost (at least no visible one) is very odd. It should have escalating SWC cost like any other heavy weapon.
Look, it's a 2 point difference and up to a 1 SWC difference for what is ostensibly a strict side-grade. Everything I wrote in defence of the Red Fury Mowang compared Spitfire Mowang in the Yu Jing forums applies in reverse as well; +1 DAM is straight up better on most targets in the game (anything with STR, Shock/Bio immunity, 2+ wounds, or that you don't want dead for mission reasons) The fact that it's only 2 points and sometimes 1 SWC difference in most cases makes this mostly only an issue on profiles that have both. Kind of like how Feuerbach haven't broken the game because it's cheaper or more expensive than Portable AC (I don't actually care enough to check which is more expensive). If I named Liu Xing as being a prime candidate for benefiting from having their Spitfire re-graded to a Red Fury (as they kind of need any point they can get and exist in a very SWC hungry sectorial), I'd also have to name the Tigers as being a prime candidate for someone who wouldn't (as their Red Fury would've probably been priced at 1,5 SWC as well) or Lu Duan, which'd get to be priced at the same points and SWC as the Rui Shi, which isn't great for it. Pretty far cry from the 6 points compared to a combi on units where you typically don't want a long-range gun anyway that an SMG has going for it. As far as I'm concerned, the Red Fury is a perfect example of a gun that exists to fine tune a profile rather than utterly cheat it. Except on the Daiyokai in conjunction with FAT1, that's pretty blatant cheating the SWC system, but don't take that away from JSA, okay?
Fix Devil Dogs, they have no place in vanilla Ariadna and are questionable in Usarf The Unknown ranger also needs to have a more specific role in order to justify its place in the sectorials At least Minutemen were prtially fixed with the special fireteam rule
What. Why would a profile be absent from vanilla and why exactly is a USMC themed Doge not fit for USARF? :|
Maybe stick this one in the Ariadna N4 forums? It's a Cameronian with a 7 point pupper and that pupper can be difficult to get good benefits out of is my guess. They don't have MSV2 to abuse the smoke after all ;) And also ever since McMurrough's change demonstrated that the big weredoggies should probably be Impetuous rather than Extreme Impetuous at no points change, I can imagine the other weredoggies being a bit of a hard pill to swallow.
Cool Idea in a vacuum, but the second you do the same to all the other skills and equipment in the game profiles start to get some horrific text bloat, to the point of an army list being an impenetrable wall of text, ditching keywords is a really dumb idea. I've been meaning to make a similar point for a while, is the differentiation between good and bad complexity. While campaigning for a reduction in over game complexity is a good things, blindly gutting any mechanic or preventing the addition of a mechanic due to it increasing complexity or retaining it will do more harm overall. Good complexity is when it helps solve a problem or allows for deeper strategic and tactical decision making and play (For example; fire sensitivity, Scavenger, the delay mechanic), versus bad complexity which just over complicates things for little to no payoff or to solve niche issues but has negative knock on effects every where else (For example, sixth sense when ever it needs to interact with other rules, that two of the 4 CC tables are unnecessary, etc.). Same thing goes for nested skills. On a different note or two; Most of the platforms where the red fury exists are for the most part fine there are just a few outliers who have it but probably shouldn't, and the weapon itself should be on the rare side of things instead of being issued to every other model in the game. Also can change face just be removed in favour of just being able to dodge instead? being able to dodge away from some some instances of ARO baiting would make thing much better instead of standing there like a moron looking around.
