Post by oncomingstorm on Jun 23, 2017 23:22:14 GMT
It bugs me that a lot of character jacks/beasts aren't in various themes, despite their thematic appropriateness. Why isn't Megalith in Bones? or Discordia in Forges? Moros in Shadows? Kharybdis in Ghost Fleet? There's not a ton of rationale behind why certain characters are available in theme and others aren't.
And let's not forget that the original 4 warmachine factions get more access to their original 4 character jacks (Avatar, Thunderhead, Deathjack, and Behemoth) becaus they're not associated with a single caster and don't have any bond.
Yeah, imo I think that every theme should include 1 to 2 appropriate character jacks/beasts and sometimes some thematic mercs/minions.
If the game is to be thememachine (which h I have very few problems with) then let players take lesser used pieces and not lose out on options because of it.
Moving forward, I think we'll see a more balanced approach to this - hopefully the inclusion of Triumph in gravediggers signals more willingness to include characters in theme in the future. If not, I suspect PP might just see a drop-off in sales of new character jacks/beasts, as their usable list coverage drops precipitously. I'm already not picking up Hemera when she comes out, because she's just not worth it for the few times I play Issyria, and I can't see many people dropping money on Discordia in the future, given how little synergy it has with Rahn.
I DO have one further concern with theme lists being the way to play, though - I'm concerned we'll start seeing roughly equivalent options being released for each theme, only differentiated by the fact that they don't overlap by theme. Trencher Long Gunners and Mechanics seem like a symptom of this, and I'm very worried it'll end up becoming a trend. It would honestly be a deal breaker for me if one day I have to buy 'house vyre houseguard' or 'house shyeel riflemen' because the originals don't fit into a given theme.