Tuesday, September 22, 2009

MkII Feedback, Cygnar

Just a few initial impressions:

Both Nemos got a 1 point strength boost, making them POW 12 in melee. Appreciated. eNemo is sicker than ever. His feat, in the FT cards, used to say warjacks cannot exceed its focus allocation limit (3) as a result of the feat. It no longer says that, which means that I will have 2 jacks with 6 focus and 1 with 4 focus on my feat turn, assuming I allocate all 7 focus. That is disgusting. I'm sure it was an error on PP's part or else eNemo is now our beat stick Jack caster. Yes please.

Darius, my newest caster purchase, gained Repair *action. Makes sense. It is also nice to see that Tremor didn't lose it's single attack roll. Simplicity. Full Throttle lost the 2" of extra movement, but gained boosted attack rolls. I'll take that almost anyday! He lost Jumpstart (the turn and look spell), which merely means I'll be casting Jack Hammer whenever I have a focus left over. No more deliberation.

Seige gained a 4" AOE on his Ground Pounder. Glad to see it. In exchange though, it looks like I have to make a separate roll against each model. 4" is still a small AOE under the formation rules (which I haven't confirmed yet), but hopefully I can catch a Vassal or choirboy hanging too close to a jack. Shockwave became Force Hammer, which means it doesn't push whatever it comes into contact with, but does do POW 12 damage. That will be a great way to hit whatever is hiding behind jacks. It did get 1 FOC more expensive though, but its range increased 2".

The Charger didn't change. The Hunter gained Parry. I'm sure that will come in handy a lot. If I get charged, but not wrecked, I just drop back and AP the jack in the face. Good call, PP. Nothing different for the Lancer, except a wording clarification. Thorn's reaction drive got limited to 3". Probably a good call... My lights stayed at about the same.

Centurion and Defender didn't change. Ol' Rowdy has Aggressive; he can now run or charge without spending focus. His affinity with Stryker wasn't included on the cards. Looks like a typo. Ironclad simply got cleared up a little. For the THead, the Energy Pulse is now an auto-hitting *attack against everything within 6". He also gained sustained attack on his fists. I wonder if the first fist that hits get sustained (and the 2nd initial attack is auto-hit) or if it is only the second hit that is sustained... Either way, THead is gonna be playing a lot more. My Heavies just got a lot better.

GMCA is 2PC, less one ARM and 2" range on his pistols. He ignores only Stealth, and only if he doesn't move. Also, his Phantom Seeker doesn't say it ignores clouds or intervening models, but it does say it ignored LOS. I wonder if that was simple reduplication, because the GMCA was a auto-include against the High Reclaimer. Doesn't look like the Jr or Stormsmiths changed. Squire got a STR and MAT boost. Why? I have no clue. A huge blow to Arlan... He is no longer immune to electricity. Bummer. So much for the Arlan-THead duo.

Sword Knights got the boost I was looking for. They trades Precision Strike (pick the column) for Penetrating Strike, now doing an auto-point of damage against Jacks and Beasts if I so choose. Unfortunately, it is before the damage roll. They a bit more viable now. What good was picking the column if you couldn't exceed the damage? And with the UA, they get Precision Strike back (Tactics). The big question: Did Rangers get any better? Unfortunately, they really didn't. The only change I can see is that they are 1 PC cheaper (5). Still not enough difference to make them worth it. If I'm missing something on them, I'd love to know what, because I really like them and wish I could take them. Stormblades are now ONLY a min unit of 6. Guess that solves the problem of Stormblade blisters. A max unit of Stormguard are 9 PC instead of 10. They now have gunfighter, without any ranged weapon listed. Why? I guess it is for the officer's Electric Discharge. Odd. The Mechanics are 1PC more expensive for both Min and Max units. The Gobbers also lost Bodge and gained Repair[6]. The benefit is that they can now assist each other, though it came at the price of the auto-point of damage removal. The Mechanic has a weird ability that says he now cannot be knocked down and is +2 DEF and ARM when in B2B with a jack. May come in handy, though now that they're 2PC for a Min, I won't likely be taking more than one unit. PK Knights now have Spell Ward, which means they cannot even be targeted by Friendly spells (Arcane Shield). Kneel and Ranked Attack have now blended. I like the new one. Black 13th are cheaper and Ryan lost her Chain Attack for a *Attack. Better off. Like the GMCA, they also lost 2" of range and 1 ARM.

In summary, my MkII jacks are even better than the field test. My Casters are about equal. My solos probably equal out too, with some getting better, one getting a lot worse (Arlan :( ) and some staying equal. Interestingly, my four melee units look to be back where they were in MkI, which I'm happy about. The Stormguard and Sword Knights got better, the Stormblades and PK Knights a little worse. I prefer the SG and SK anyways, so I'm glad I can get them now. The Mechanics, which I was really excited about in the FT, are so-so and the Rangers still look cooler than they can perform. Black 13th was improved. Overall, I'm very happy. I haven't had a chance to read the rules yet, but I like the final versions of my models. The error on Ol' Rowdy's affinity has me wondering if any other typos will be identified. I'm sure they will, which might be the reason they release these before the official cards.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

A couple things you missed...

Stormsmiths now require LOS.

B13 - Lynch gained True Sight, making his special shot very useful.

Min unit of Mechaniks now has three gobbers.

Barrett said...

Wow. That's a huge change... I knew I must have missed something. The way the Stormsmiths are worded now seems more confusing than before. One thing I just saw that changed in their favor is that something can be targeted one time PER stormsmith. So a triangulation can now attack the same three models, three times.

I like Lynch's change. And the gobber change makes sense. Buy a blister, get a Min unit.

Barrett said...

Update: Arlan still has his immunity. Just confirmed. He's still one of the best solos and makes the THead a 13 pt jack.