Post by sgregorbmmd on Dec 6, 2018 19:57:07 GMT
I love this game and typically don’t criticize PP because they’ve made such a good product, but this CID is a microcosm of a lot of my frustrations with the faction over the past few years. TL/DR, I don’t think any real effort gets put into developing what should be one of the most dynamic and flavorful factions in the game. I’m going to bulletize my thoughts here as much for myself as anyone else.
-Hardly any of our stuff received meaningful changes during the edition change. 2 casters we’re reworked in ways that didn’t make them contenders and MacBains feat was randomized. The FA:C units that people actually took were toned down along with TAC and steelhead cav for some reason. Everything else pretty much just doubled in points. When they didn’t quite double, they became our new faction mainstays. When they did, they were packed up in boxes after a few unsuccessful games. To me, this belies a lack of effort.
-It was obvious that the developers did not want mercenary options to overshadow in-faction options as the Nyss and Boomhowlers sometimes did in MkII. To that end, they were very successful in making sure that mercenary units were some of the least powerful or cost efficient in the game and that our solos were redundant and slightly overcosted at best. Friendly faction only spells helped further this goal. With themes now the approved way to play, the assumptions underlying this design philosophy are no longer valid. And yet, here we are in December 2018 with a faction still hobbled by old design requirements. This would be fine if our casters had been redesigned to have particularly strong synergies with different troop types, but most don’t. Skorne, one of my other factions, got a full overhaul when it became apparent that they weren’t competitive, but because we had cheap drillers, gun bunnies, and nomads we were ‘fine.’
-The release schedule for the faction is glacial in MkIII. I’m not going to go into too much depth, but only Convergence lags behind Mercs in terms of new releases. There was no battle box caster at the start of the edition or army box. The only thing that separates Mercenaries from the other minor factions is our huge back catalog of models from MkI and II.
-When themes started dropping, both Talion and LR were restrictive, uninteresting disasters. It was obvious from the start that they had barely received any internal testing. We can take stuff from other factions in LR now, but it’ll be years, if ever, before any meaningful homegrown options finally flesh out the theme. Irregulars was a band-aid that helped make up for the Merc tax and shoehorned the most models into a theme with the least effort.
-After almost two years we finally get our first CID. The new models, though few in number, are very powerful and the theme bonuses are tailored almost exclusively to them. Unfortunately the handful of legacy models in the CID barely received any changes. Was dropping Rocinante by one point really the best anyone could come up with? There’s nothing new to test that we haven’t already been trying for years. Oh, It’s not a steelhead model? Got it. Thanks. When can we expect it to be addressed then if we only get one of these every ~18 months and pirates are next? Once again, very disappointing and needlessly flippant. I have my first CID game tonight, but a lot of this stuff couldn’t compete even before things like Primal Terrors, Bump on the Night, or Cryx themes in general, were prevalent. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised, but I doubt it.
-I play four factions and could branch into Cygnar fairly easily at this point if I wanted to and I can honestly say that I don’t feel anything approaching apathy in the way that any of the others are designed. More than half of my collection of models belongs to this faction, but I play them less and less. Each time I return, I find myself reaching for themes and lists that use out of faction options because my other stuff seems more compelling and better designed. It’s a shame, really. This faction has a long tail, huge back catalog, lots of ways to branch into other factions, and tons of flavor to draw new players into the game as it did for me almost 5 years ago. It’s a shame to see all of this potential wasted.
-Hardly any of our stuff received meaningful changes during the edition change. 2 casters we’re reworked in ways that didn’t make them contenders and MacBains feat was randomized. The FA:C units that people actually took were toned down along with TAC and steelhead cav for some reason. Everything else pretty much just doubled in points. When they didn’t quite double, they became our new faction mainstays. When they did, they were packed up in boxes after a few unsuccessful games. To me, this belies a lack of effort.
-It was obvious that the developers did not want mercenary options to overshadow in-faction options as the Nyss and Boomhowlers sometimes did in MkII. To that end, they were very successful in making sure that mercenary units were some of the least powerful or cost efficient in the game and that our solos were redundant and slightly overcosted at best. Friendly faction only spells helped further this goal. With themes now the approved way to play, the assumptions underlying this design philosophy are no longer valid. And yet, here we are in December 2018 with a faction still hobbled by old design requirements. This would be fine if our casters had been redesigned to have particularly strong synergies with different troop types, but most don’t. Skorne, one of my other factions, got a full overhaul when it became apparent that they weren’t competitive, but because we had cheap drillers, gun bunnies, and nomads we were ‘fine.’
-The release schedule for the faction is glacial in MkIII. I’m not going to go into too much depth, but only Convergence lags behind Mercs in terms of new releases. There was no battle box caster at the start of the edition or army box. The only thing that separates Mercenaries from the other minor factions is our huge back catalog of models from MkI and II.
-When themes started dropping, both Talion and LR were restrictive, uninteresting disasters. It was obvious from the start that they had barely received any internal testing. We can take stuff from other factions in LR now, but it’ll be years, if ever, before any meaningful homegrown options finally flesh out the theme. Irregulars was a band-aid that helped make up for the Merc tax and shoehorned the most models into a theme with the least effort.
-After almost two years we finally get our first CID. The new models, though few in number, are very powerful and the theme bonuses are tailored almost exclusively to them. Unfortunately the handful of legacy models in the CID barely received any changes. Was dropping Rocinante by one point really the best anyone could come up with? There’s nothing new to test that we haven’t already been trying for years. Oh, It’s not a steelhead model? Got it. Thanks. When can we expect it to be addressed then if we only get one of these every ~18 months and pirates are next? Once again, very disappointing and needlessly flippant. I have my first CID game tonight, but a lot of this stuff couldn’t compete even before things like Primal Terrors, Bump on the Night, or Cryx themes in general, were prevalent. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised, but I doubt it.
-I play four factions and could branch into Cygnar fairly easily at this point if I wanted to and I can honestly say that I don’t feel anything approaching apathy in the way that any of the others are designed. More than half of my collection of models belongs to this faction, but I play them less and less. Each time I return, I find myself reaching for themes and lists that use out of faction options because my other stuff seems more compelling and better designed. It’s a shame, really. This faction has a long tail, huge back catalog, lots of ways to branch into other factions, and tons of flavor to draw new players into the game as it did for me almost 5 years ago. It’s a shame to see all of this potential wasted.