I Love the Sylphs, Most of the VTOLS, ETC, but they did some things wrong:

Wrong Number 1:

LI Paladin: 3 Pogs, 2 Dammage is just plain silly...TWO pogs, 2 Dammage was bad enough

ANY Mech: Pretty much all of the mechs have defences that are too low. Griffens should have ranged from 20-22, Shaddow Hawks shoulda been 21-20, ETC...NO mech should have a deffence lower than 16. Also, the range values are just plain silly 4"...2" My GOSH!!! I didn't complain when I saw the 4" range HL J37, but 4" or lower range on a mech is silly (unless it's flamers, grapple or Meele). Finally, the Spiders shoulda had JJ...Simple as that...

No LE Infantry: Least they coulda done is give CJF and HL's a set of infantry...I care less about the Vehicles...But the infantry...That's important to me...

Mid :)

finally we can do DFA attacks...
defence is too low...but heat dials are very very good (and vents: 4 ...)
byez

Sculpts = good
Stats for non-mechs = worrisome
Stats for mechs = disgusting

Well, I am not buying any FP boosters. Get the point?

As has been said above, there are concepts in the game that were expected to see improvement in this set, yet for the most part this is untrue.

We have infantry with huge stats, mechs with pitiful stats in comparison. CJF is only viable due to the FAs they get, mech-wise - I feel horrible even voicing that, since while the QA hasn't been stellar, the standard of sculpts - paint schemes, detail level, SCALE, and general cool look - has been a winner.

The signature unit of a game (in our case, mechs) should not be such a gamble as not to be viewed as competitively playable. That is just WRONG. :(

Love the double repair mechs for my Highlanders & ROTS, wish the syplhs came in my factions, like the sculpts of many of the pieces.

I'm not a fan of 4 vents, fire-til-they-shut-down-quickly-and-vent-back-to-start-up-the-next-turn mechs (geez, wonder which brand new faction he's talkin' about?) The extra die on DFA is an interesting twist, but I'm not a fan.

Indeed, the whole faction abilities thing is a little off base, IMO. The idea that a whole faction will personalize their mechs one way, compared to the individual pilot tuning it to her/his preferences, seems off kilter. Not only that, but the basic set's starting factions had their abilities tailored on their dials, not their stat sheets/FAQs.

And is one faction always gonna be left out of each new set? If I were a Bannson's Raiders guy, I'd be PO'd.

All in all, more negs than positives here...

Garc

I had really high hopes for this set and figured it would start turning things around for this game. This was, after all, the first set produced by Kelly and the new design staff.

First off I will say that the sculpts (mostly) rock. Awesome stuff.

And kudos for finally giving the Highlanders some nifty toys to play with ... lord knows they needed it. Kudos for the VTOL designs .... that is how they SHOULD have been from the get go (though I suspect some people will still think even those are a little too powerful).

But ... mechs with a 2" range??? Several mechs with a 16 defense. A majority of mechs with an 18 defense?? All while tanks are keeping their 14" range and we have vehicles with defense values of up to 24-25 (some of em without needing camo to do it)!!!

Unless WK has some major MAJOR changes coming down the pipe to put some power back in to mechs which work hand-in-hand with the designs from this set then this set was horrible. If they DO have changes to the rules that go along with this set then I would imagine they would have announced them already. I guess we will have to wait for the coming FAQ ... maybe it will be in there. I'll keep my fingers crossed but I'm not holding my breath.

Overall, somewhat below expectations.

Specific comments [positive]:
- Cool sculpts (I especially like the new fan VTOLs - very modern)
- Like that that none of the figures are wildly out of scale

Specific comments [neutral]:
- New SEs are intriging (but I'll need to see them in action more before I can say whether I like them or not)
- Interesting heat management paradigm for the JF 'mechs

Specific comments [negative]:
- Tissue-paper (low Def) 'mechs are just plain dumb
- 2" and 4" range weapons are silly
- too many powerful artillery units (mulit-pog w/AP)
- infantry stats trending upwards while 'mech stats are trending down: I thought the game was supposed to be MECHwarrior, not BattleArmorWarrior

My suspicion is that the FP mech paradigm ( I live that word) will not be effective until after retirement begins. One member here has speculated that move and shoot is coming. If that's true, and if the CA and FP mechs were designed to take advantage of that, then making the change before set retirement would be counter-productive. There would still be mechs running around with defenses far too high to be balanced under the new rules. So WK is forced to 1) enact set retirement, causing a fire-storm of protest and 2) lower the defenses on mechs before they are able to effectively take advantage of those lower defenses, causing another fire-storm of protest.

In the end, I predict that Kelly is going to turn out to merit the praise most people heaped on her, and many people will still feel like the game has gone to poo. That's the way people are. Give some people a million dollars and a pile of poo, and their only question will be, "Why'd I get a pile of poo?"

First off, the Falcon mechs which are supposed to be the focus of this set are really cool looking. No problem there. Most of the vehicles are also awesome sculpts.

I could comment more on the uniques if I had more of them - I've had a series of "bad pulls" lately from the boosters (but that's just luck of the draw and not WK's fault I guess - though I was hoping with the inclusion of LE's in the boosters there would be a higher chance of drawing a cool mech instead of endless spiders and koshis). Anyway, the thing that has bothered me the most in this new set is the HORRIBLE quality control compared to the other expansions, which have mostly been excellent. Almost every unit I've pulled has had a missing part (cockpit, booster rocket on the mechs, machine guns on the tanks) or a locked joint (I thought WK had gotten over the problem of "squishy" breakable limbs and torsos since FFE - apparently not). I'm glad WK still has its great figure replacement policy (if they discontinue this to save a few bucks it will kill the game in my eyes), otherwise I'd be hesitant to buy any more boosters where the mechs are sight unseen.

I enjoy Falcon's Prey. I like what the designers are doing in introducing new unit types to the pool. What I don't like is players who can't take pieces in the context of the game.

When WK introduces 'Mechs with low attacks and high defenses (DFA, LI, et al), players complain.

When WK introduces 'Mechs with high attacks and low defenses (CA, FP), players complain.

People, WizKids can't continue to crank out the same thing as they did in DA and FFE. You have to mix it up some, get some different unit types out there. If they kept making 'Mechs with 8 speed, 10 attack, and 20 defense, the game would get... wait for it... BORING.

I hear a lot of complaining about set retirement, but check this out:

ALL OUR FIGURES ARE STILL USABLE.

Rather than looking at the units in FP for what they CANNOT do, why don't you look at them for what they CAN do? Often, the 'Mechs with low defenses and low ranges are meant to serve in a more melee-oriented role. Maybe you could look at figures from previous expansions and find an army type that you'd never thought of in which a 'Mech like that might fit? Or maybe if you don't LIKE the low defenses, you could take your 'Mech and run it with some Point Defense. Hey, look! WK threw in two FANTASTIC PD pieces right into THIS VERY SET! Good lord, it's almost like they planned it that way!

I'm not saying the occasional lemon doesn't slip through (Rob Hoge?), but generally, WK is giving us 'Mechs at all ends of the scale and with all different kinds of uses. We should be trying to find new and different ways to employ 'Mechs. New and different strategies in which to use our pieces, not just decrying them for not fitting into the current tried-and-true strategies.

Not that it solves anything, but has anyone noticed that the units that shoot furthest and move fastest are the ones dominating the field? Of course, what artillery is doing in a skirmish as anything other than firesupport is beyond me.... But I digress.

The 'Mechs, by themselves, are fairly good. In fact, I think that a lot of the 'Mechs (at least those that I pulled) are some of the most powerful 'Mechs to date. That does not mean that they are better for their pointcost. IMO, they are significantly less powerful, per point, than any of the previous 'Mechs. Excepting, perhaps, a whacked Tiburon and the Shrikes. That they die a lot more gracefully than previous 'Mechs could be the reason.

The infantry and the tanks are just nasty. Especially the Jade Falcon Sylphs and the Jade Falcon Hasek Mechanized Combat Vehicle. Again, more expensive in power per point (PPP or Triple-P or 3P) than the previous units, but also more graceful. Their PPP, unfortunately, still keeps the BattleMech and IndustrialMech religated to second-line positions across the Republic.

I think it speaks volumes for the low quality of Falcon's Prey that we now have multiple threads cenetered around speculations around rules changes that are ABSOUTELY NECESSARY to make the current 'mechs seem playable. Not to make them good, mind you (since in most cases, the speculated rules changes still leave FP 'mechs sadly outclassed by their older cousins) but simply playable.

As someone had pointed out in another thread, we now have the SSw Koshi, which is virtually identical in stats to a Highlander Gnome Battle armor (Koshi has ONE extra life click and is slightly faster, the Gnome has better range and defense!!! The Koshii is 117 points, the Gnome is 18!!). Many WK loyalists/apologist try desperately to put a spin on this set, often through what they believe will be sweeping rules changes despite having no evidence to back it up, but Falcon's Prey is a really bad joke... at our expense.

With all due respect, many pieces in this set will not see play until after set retirement.

There are more versatile units available that can do the same job for an equal or lower points cost.

I can accept that the 'Mechs here have specific roles (close combat, whatever) but they are roles that they are not very good at! Most of the 'Mechs have to expose themselves to at least one attack to do their job (unless you are playing a total moron) and even infantry can hit an 18 defense. Many infantry in this set will do that better than 50% of the time.

The crux of the matter is that this set introduces 'Mechs specialised to do the roles already done better by infantry and vehicles and fails to give the tools for them to do the job well.

There's a lot of inspiration in FP, and largely I like the work, as I already said.

To me though, the glaring problem nobody I've seen talking about isn't as much the low defense mechs. No, even worse, is the gun emplacements.

To give them a zero transport capacity to not allow them to be (ab)used as a drop is not clever. It's ridiculous. That the designer has to resort to that kind of rule manipulation is a clear sign of the problems with the ruleset.

I think a better way would have been to give the emplacements no speed mode (leave it blank) and rewrite the transport rules so that units with speed mode VTOl and units with no speed mode at all can't be transported.

The way it's been done, and the most recent arty change involving newly made up gimmicky glossary terms, are just proof we need a new ruleset.