The Kodiak is awesome, I always thought RD should have been a replacement for the Highlanders paradigm wise.

(NOTE: This is not a personal attack on anyone or any faction. That is not my style and does not help to build a better community. Just what one hardcore player thinks about his faction, and yes I know that comes with blinders. I have been playing RD pure since it came out and am encouraged to continue my research into why people think the RD is uncompetitive and how to change that. I also understand that with such conversations certain armies and pieces are brought up to counter the other, but without the ability to play it out, there is not point in arguing about it.)

This is not a faction that you can just pick up and play. That is the problem most players have with them. No one is willing to spend the time to learn how the RD works. Instead they take them out a few times, lose more than they win, and move on to something else. Playing with something at prime does not require as much planning as trying to get something there. The RD however requires a little more thinking so that you are not pushed past prime, singled out, or ignored. RD players also have to focus more on a combined arm approach because of their dials(although I do not think so if it comes down to a one on one), and I think this is great because it allows the player to focus on the teamwork and family aspect of the bears. It is dangerous out there by yourself, so bring friends.

Uncompetive. Define competitive. To me competitive is something that I can use and win the game, able to go toe-to-toe with other popular tourney pieces seen in various armies, from the local venue to realms. All pieces and factions have a weakness. What I have seen a lot from here is that fire can be focused on one piece and be taken out. So that happens to any piece that you focus fire on. Take out their support. Ok, fine. But as you are focusing on my support, my mech is firing on you and my support (depending on weapon system) will get better. This can go on and on. Only a series of battles can decide this, so let us not start, this can beat that and counter back and forth. It is pointless. The point is that while focusing on one, this does not make the other piece unimportant enough to think it cannot do anything productive or ignore it.

What other problems are there with the RD. Low starting attack. This does not make them uncompetitive. Most units come with IT on them to help them attack early on. If we add a pilot the values can start with 9-11 IT or a 10-11 no IT (mechs of all classes generalized here), and ends with 11-13 attack. Vehicles and infantry solve this with the FP. Vehicles and the green CBA come with IT to help them out, and honestly the green CBA's are dnagerous with it especially if used for capturing.

Is defense something that makes them uncompetitive? Defense starts around 20 or so, usually with some kind of armor to help slow down the quick predicted death. This is seen from mechs to infantry. Most pilots will not add anything significant to defense (def Drogo as the exception), so that is usually a +1 to defense if anything. RD defense is one of the greatest things about them. Its stable. It may not be that 22-24, but after a few hits I know it will not have changed to much. That is a comfort knowing that after I hit them, their defense will begin to fall fast.

Not starting out with the longest range weapon first is another of the big problems people have with the RD. Why? Because you have to get dirty to be good. So I get close, get hit, pick up SE, and shot back. That's fine. With support I will not cry about taking a few hits. I know that after taking them I can then fall back and cover my other units, while you lose your long range weapon and have to play the get close game and risk the heat. This is why they have the lower ranged weapon first. So you have to run in and take damage to get to prime. If it is to big of a problem add the assault FP.

Stability. How can this be missed? This is one of the greatest things about the RD. Everything from defense to speed stays stable. Stormwind Battlemaster has that nice 6 speed across the dial. Is that not competitive knowing that my stats will stay relatively the same? And it is not just the mechs it goes to vehicles and infantry. Most of the RD vehicles keep a 20 defense until salvage. Infantry will end with an 8 attack, start with a 6, and usually keep the 7 attack throughout the game.

Picked up SE. Great, I will take that. Instead of worring that I might lose that nice gear that I have on the dial, I know that one hit will not ruin my chances of using it. Instead I know that taking the hit will probably allow me to use the SE.

Repair. RD mechs can be repaired from salavage to their best clicks pretty easily, not having to worry about hitting a high defense to repair.

Low damage. This is not so uncommon in other factions. Gear cards can help add damage and then there is the FP.

WK made the RD dial the way it is to change things up. If they wanted people to play them like the others, they would have made them that way. Instead, I believe they wanted to challenge players by making them think a little more. To take some time and understand how the faction works and not just throw pieces out there and smack each other around. They even give you a few ways to play them from SU gear to get to prime, charging/DFA, or making them last longer. WK cannot give the player everything. Some things the player has to do for themselves.

The RD's greatest weakness is not in the dial and paradigm. It is in the player not taking the time to understand the faction and sticking with it.

SEYLA! It is a faction that has to be learned,but as effective as any other.

Aff, Star Col. Aff. Is that not how we Bears are? Pounded into us from the early days of the sibko when learning our faction.

Drawing strength from each other, they survived;
Tseng and Jorgensson emerged from the snow,
And forged a Clan in the ghost bear's mold;
Unity of purpose and strength of spirit,
No task undertaken lightly or left half-done.
To these ideals we hold true until we all shall fall.

-The Rememberance (Clan Ghost Bear)
Passage 45, Verse 6, Lines 13-18

Well if you look at the armies from the top 8 at worlds there was only one RD unit in it. I would say thats pretty sad. I would say thats a lack on competitiveness. Faction wise I want to see every faction done well and have an equal chance to compete. I would also agree that it is a very hard faction to learn. When the bears came out, I tried everything I knew to be pure faction competitive but to no avail. But that aside, I think the primary foremost problem with the RD is the first strike. The game is so oriented towards the first strike, and when you set yourself up to nail something, and then continue to nail it out of existence. The Bears have a hard time first striking, and that deterrent is what I think does it. It would also be nice if damage was done at the same time like CBT but then again this is a different game.

I personally have never had problems with RD armies, the second I saw the RD FP I knew I was going to play them. I usually run infantry heavy armies.
Like this one:

Headhunter w/pilot

17 point CBA x10
18 point CBA x2
Sylph BA x1
Gnome BA x2
Kinnol MBT x1

RD FP
Total-600 points

Unlike most players I only play pure faction. That in it self is hard enough with all the "Cheese Armies" I have to play against. I consider "Cheese" as armies with three or more factions thrown together with the best units and take advantage of SA's or FP"S to the extreme. It wasn't till RD came out that could finally get some revenge. It was not too hard to go from SW to RD. One of my biggest problems with SW was that after it got hit past peak they were usually useless. Being an aggressive player I now have a faction that can deal with the turtle players and "Cheese" armies. The problem I see with people putting down RD is that they are too scared to get in a fight a mix it up. They are probably the players that sit 3" from their DZ in water with as much range as they can get. Now I enjoy the panic of these players when their wasting orders on a unit while the rest of my force rips them up, and the players the look like "deers caught in the head lights" when they don't want to fire to wake up the bears. I personally would like to see more pure armies. I've always said that WK should give some kind of bonus to players that play pure faction to help us deal with the players with no honer and just through together the best of the best to win. That's why you don't see any World Champions playing pure faction, they should have a different event for us pure players who put honor over glory on the battle field.

Another bonus to RD is that it is the only faction that I find is stronger when using only RD units. It is as the quote given by Black Watch said. RD units draw upon each other for strength better then any new Faction out now. Before RD I found JF had this benefit of joint force strikes. I'm hoping as I see more stats for CW that they too will be stronger the purer you play them.

So for all you players that run down RD in your ignorance, keep doing it. Give player's that sense of security when they see my pure RD armies coming. I just love how the smile drops off of their faces they wast their orders on combined attacks on a single unit or try to run for a better place to turtle.

With the return of Artillery and more units coming out of the RD Den's you campers, turtlers, and Cheese players are F@*ked. Now we might see a world champ play a pure army.

Nice, I bet you take a lot of people by surprise with that army. When I get some Wraith Battle Armor I want to play what I call an ant nest army. 600 or 750 point army made up of RD infantry. lets see how people deal with that:)

I would say most of us Realmers are faction purist, but we've called mixed armies Rainbow armies since Dark Age, however your still right in saying that they are almost all the time cheese.

Turtles armies hardly exist anymore with mechs now being able to assault the board. Maybe going to a 4x4 format might help. But then again, there lies another problem with the speed of alot of RD units. I would also say that you can be aggressive with any army. “Fortune favors the bold.”

I can give you a point there, because I’ve seen some real terror, if not shock and awe on some players facing when I play my SC/CNC or DF/HK infantry armies. However, with all the really good battle armor going around, I think most people are or plan to mix it up when in game, because capturing is one of the best ways to ensure a win. Also aren’t clan supposed to abhor melee combat?

Join the club, we have only been advocating this since Aug of 02, WK’s is starting to aid us in this endeavor by giving us Faction Pride cards.

They should be good considering they will prime quick and they will have the range to strike. Seeing that they have 16inch ballistics. On top of that throw in AP if needed and you have potentialy a very deadly faction.

Isn’t concentrating your fire on a unit the simplest and easiest way for you to achieve a “favorable outcome” <- See Cabal from C&C Tiberian Sun on that one. ;)

No Comment.


Not bad, focus' on what the Bears do best, infantry.

Alright, alright, alright, enough Ghost Bear talk. This entire page is off-topic. I apologize to the Dominion players out there if I seemed to be insulting your faction. it was all in play, and I know how powerful your machines can be. Besides, you get the permanent Assault Camouflage, for which I loathe you with every fiber of my being -_-

:p

Anyways. Back to the Sneak Preview discussion please?

.......(*whispering*) when do we get our RD elemntals?:laugh: .....

"Now for something completely differant!":p