OK I have been building possible armies and have about 10 of them sitting on my desk as we speak. I guess I have stopped over analyzing my build and looking at this from the perspective "Which of these armines would be the hardest to kill for me if my opponent was fielding it"! I really want to represent Liao but I don't think it will be Liao pure. Here is one of my possible and probably the army I will take Saturday.

Liao PDS 82
JF Sniper Team 20
X3 JF Trackbike 48
150pts

This army to me is the most mobile and most effective build I can come up with. The PDS lays down lots of smack and has the blue armor. The Trackbikes can move in formation with the Zibler FST from the starter so it is mobile and get the 3 AP vehicle in the battle. The sniper teams are great over all units . Also note the Trackbikes can do 3 points to my opponents Liao PDS as well as the Sniper Team. I plan on getting the Trackbikes to the enemy ASAP. I will be using Mangonel as my mech not sure if I will tak ethe AP equipment but Sabastian will be the pilot. Magonel will be my anti Sylph unit.

Part of me is playing with the idea of running a LI Spider + a Merc Cardinal. You will be able to transport some fast basers to negate Assault orders + arty, while giving yourself two assault orders, one effective against mechs, one against infantry. Hmmm.

Z

Well, looks like I wont be going to a pre-release. It's either a 3 hour drive to Maryland, or an hour and a half drive into Brooklyn. Neither are very appealing. So I'll just probably hit the local tournaments. And I was getting rather excited about going too. Oh well...

Enough personal sob stories, here's one that we can all share. As many of you have heard, there is a rumored list of all Firepower units circulating, and several people feel fairly confident in it. Now, having an early spoiler is nice, but the not so nice portion is that House Liao again is not in the set (if the spoiler is to be believed).

Now, I'm not sure if any other faction has ever faced being left out of two simultaneous sets. We'll still have probably the biggest pool of units to work from in restricted tournaments, but we will not have any House Specific customizable mechs, and thus most likely not House Pilots either. I think it's rather poor planning to have an entire faction not able to intrinsically use a new mechanic for multiple expansions. I'm hoping the list turns out to be bunk, and we get at least a token unit, but my hopes are not high.

For those of you who espouse the use of Gunslingers or Bannson's, that's what I will do, but still that's not the road I would like. I can take the pain from one set, but two...

@Muppetwarrior
Not sure if its the end of the world. i believe WK was going to smaller releases and with Kurita, Davion and Steiner now entering the mix its going to be hard to fit everything in. If we don't get something in Firepower I'm sure Liao will get some lovin' in the set after as the newer factions will have filled out and Liao will need some replacement units.
I'm really debating on attending the prerelease myself, I was laid off last week so not sure something like this is a luxury. However, I have a really good chance to win so a free factory set would really save me a lot of cash and keep me current with the game.

@nthcircle: I'm sorry to hear about your job. That sucks. Unless you are fairly sure of your odds, $30-$35 is a bit costly to spend on a game with not income. If you do go, I wish you all the luck.

And it's not that I disagree with factions getting left out of certain sets. I accepted and didn't complain (much) about Liao un AoD. But multiple sets in a row is a bit much. New factions can be introduced (and are). But the three 'new' factions are busy absorbing their wayward children. So you can have House Kurita, House Steiner and House Davian, and you can not have the DF, SSw or SH's. That's not the case from the spoiler.

I don't expect Liao (or any faction for that matter) to be in every set. And I'll gladly sit out when it's my turn. I know it's tough to figure out who to leave out, and who to include in an expansion. But like I said, two expansions in a row doesn't sit too well with me.

But again, this is all based on rumor, so I refuse to get too worked up over this until there is something definite to get worked up about. And even then I probably wont get too bad, because, after all, I am fairly laid back. Good for the blood pressure, you know. :)

thanks, it does suck but sometimes these things are for the best.
as far as my chances are concerned, i'm pretty confident that I've got a legitimate shot at it. I'm fine tuning what I want to take and ironically I now have the time available to test it to death.

I am a little irritated myself at Liao being left out of two sets in a row, (Should this rumor be true.) If you are going to leave a faction out of a set that is fine it will happen as factions get left out. But this means that for the majority of a year Liao players will have no reason to truely buy boosters. I am fine with the units that I have. I think it will get severly stale and I MAY use gunslingers in the future. But I will play with what I win. Not with what I buy. I have some things to trade and should I feel a desire to waste money on a booster I will. But I will not buy with bated breath hoping for a liao unit I don't have and want badly.

This is more of a dissappointment than anything else. And I don't think that I will be happy next year after all of our units are retired either.

I may be alone in these feelings though how is everyone else going to handle it?

@Looter: I'll probably buy the starter, and maybe a few boosters for trade stock, and possibly go to some sealed events. I'll give Bannson's a try, and I also dabble in Jade Falcons. But I have to admit that I really like the Liao design paradigm, and the others I've tried don't give me the enjoyment that playing Liao does. I will try to support the game with my money where I can so that I can get future sets with Liao in them, but I'm not going to break the bank on it.

Basically I'm a disappointed Mechwarrior player. I want 'new toys' for my faction every now and then, and when I don't get them, I wont buy as much.

Ok, to change the mood a bit, and get back to strategy, since I can't go to any pre-release (well, I don't want to spend as much time in a car getting there as actually playing), I'm going to hit a couple local tournies. Both are 450. I know one army I want to run is a Jung army since he is my favorite piece (any wonder why? :)). Here it is for those that are interested:

Jung Chae
Long Tom
TrackBike x5
Sniper Team

450 Total, Awe

Now, I ran a very similar army at one of the venues the last time I was there, but with a PDS instead of the Tom, and a Spec Forces instead of the Sniper. I usually don't like playing the same army twice at the same place (again, that personal preference that 'takes away from my enjoyment of the game :rolleyes:). So I was looking for suggestions for another force to run there. If possible, I'd like it to include either Vincent Altman, or Danai Liao Centrillo, as I have them, but am yet to use them. I've got pretty much all other units. I'm guessing it will be using the current DA rules (I have yet to play an AoD rules game...).

So, if anyone has any ideas for an army, let me know. Thanks in advance.

Can I say how much I miss the edit feature? Sigh...

This may not be the best time to bring this up, MuppetWarrior, but I can - it's a feature that is now included in donation.

Well, at least you know where the feature went... :ermm:

And if Liao is left out of Firepower, then I agree - that sucks major ding-dongs, especially as I loathe Bannsons Raiders units...

@White Knight: I thought that might be the case. Oh well...

So, got a Liao army for me? :)

Here's an army I put together using the SA card:
1x Liao Shockwave
3x Liao ATV's
2x Liao Sniper Teams
1x ROTS Clan BA
2x ROTS Gray Death Scout Armor
1x ROTS Kelswa Assault Tank

420 points + 30 points for SA

This will be a 3 pronged attack. The Shockwave will move up one side, screened by ATVs or hindering terrain. Up the other flank will be the Sniper Teams and CBA formation. Lastly up the middle will be the Tank and GDSA formation. The Shockwave and Kelswa both have 14" ranges and the Sniper Teams have a 12" range, so that side will be shortened a bit. The Kelswa and Shockwave will be the main 2 prongs of the attack, with the Sniper Team/CBA formation being secondary or act as a screen.
Thoughts, suggestions, comments?

Ixnaydude

King of "yikes, he can Pulse while still having bigger Ballistic,... "B" thingies than Declan Devalis"...

Cerberus Lance
Vincent Altman :^^^: Shen Yi 242 points
2 x :^^^: Long Tom Artillery Pieces 74/148 points
4 x :^^: Infiltrator MK1 BA 15/60 points
OR
5 x :^^: MGCs/ATVs 12/60 points
450 points

Ta da!

Having used it a couple of times now, I LOVE the CCAF LTA - 3 inch pogs are soooo much fun... and you don't feel as cheesy since they don't bust armour!

@ixnaydude: Well, in just looking at your force, the realization that SA cards actually allow formations as well as adding special abilities dawned on me. For some reason, up to now, I thought that all they did was provide the ability printed on the card. With that in mind, my objection to your army was nulled (that the infantry flank couldn't move in formation).

It's a long range force, for sure, and because of that, it should be able to use the 'spread out fire formation ability' pretty effectively. But, it is slow. The fastest unit is the Shockwave (ok, the ATV's are faster, but they aren't main combat units). It's not using its decoy to the fullest either, since the other big hitter has a higher defense, and none of the other units would do well to stick by it, with the possible exception of the Sniper/CBA group. The ATV's will have their hands busy making sure that enemy arty isn't ruining your day.

I'm still trying to figure out what type of Liao-Republic force I want to try out, but first I need to get some more Republic units (and the Card too...).

@White Knight: Nice, I like that one. Never ran multiple multi-pog arties before. Not sure how I'd feel about that, but it's something to try. :) Now if only my other Tom would show up in the mail...

So, with the supposed release of all the stats today, what are people looking forward to seeing? I want a better look at the gunslingers and their mechs, and I'm curious to see Bannson's stats, as well as CJF. I'd love to see Liao stats, but that's just not happening. Maybe there will be some cool specialty gear that we haven't seen, but I'm not sure what other gear there might be that's not just 'AP' or 'HA'.