Wizkids will not let us down in CounterAssualt, they WILL balance the game, and I have full faith in them. Hears why:

When Dark Age came out, Infantry had a quite powerful advantage over 'Mechs (numbers, capturing, and basing). They saw this and consequentily banned capturing with Hoverbikes.

Infantry still had great power by the release of FFE so they devised artillery to defeat infantry swarms, and to keep 'Mechs from being overpowered they allowed us to stack pogs.

Also in DA-FFE, they noticed that large tanks were becoming unusable due to basing and holding, so they come out with towing, which bring large tanks back into the fold.

So in DFA, when they realized that Artillery and tank drops were becoming far too powerful, Wizkids then comes out with VTOLs, limiting Arty power by having great speed to reach and base the arty with a low cost unit.

They understand the imbalances, if there are any, and they will not ignore us, they haven't up to this date. And they won't start now.

I will cease the rule change posts, and I hope otheres will as well. Wizkids will not let us down.

W00t, someone opened their eyes and realised that WK DOES listen, and they are trying to fix it. Just not the way they should be.

Wow. An optimist. That generally lasts about as long as armor made out of butter when it gets hit by a PPC.

I was just sitting there thinking of what new rule could fix the current game when it hit me. Everytime a problem has existed WizKids has in some way fixed it, maybe not the most popular way but they have ALWAYS fixed it. They took a little longer on this issue but, as I hope, it was to come out with a more balanced fix and units for CounterAssualt.

Most people realized as soon as FFE units made the splash that mechs were toast. Just could not compete tankdrop. Now the dreaded drop is the least of their worries.

WK has never aknowledged or addressed imbalances. The same old imbalances still exist they are just covered with more layers of cheese.

Yes, there way of fixing a problem is to create another to counter the first. But all this does is create an ever-changing game atmosphere, so I see it as positive, not negative way to solve issues. It also makes you want to go out and buy the new units, not use the same ol' stuff for the rest of the game.

You know, I'd hate to see a OEJ still winning 300 pt. games, that's why they do this.

There are several incorrect comments here that I'd like to respond to. The primary response being that Counterassault, due to the long lead time for a set, may not adress any problems at all.. or if it does, only the things that were problems about the time FFE came out. Maybe it'll fix things.. maybe it wont. Frankly, I think they need to address some inherant problems with the game rather than try to patch things up with new units. Patchjobs just dont work.

Except they introduced tankdrop at the same time, making about 85-90% of mechs worthless. And mechs were not really overpowered, even before artillery.

Only the 3"+ minimum range tanks were utterly useless. The 2" minimum tanks could be escorted with an infantry on each side to screen them from basing inside their minimums. This is as it should be. Unfortunately, tankdrop entered the situation and made ALL tanks (except the DF Schmitt) and most mechs utterly worthless. Not a big improvement (or in fact an improvement at all), is it?

I havent seen a good player that let his artillery be open to basing since uh... artillery was introduced. A minor investment in peasants will ensure that no VTOL (or infiltrator or anything) can ever base their artillery. Sure, you can move your VTOL over into the area to shoot normally.. but putting a fragile unit within striking range of HIS army before you can get a shot off results in dead VTOLs and fully effective artillery.


Anyway, not trying to jump on your case... just saw too many incorrect statements to let slide.

As long as *some people* stop complaining about WK and its *screwing-up*,then you can see the proper side of the balancing up instead of fumbling on the subject of *so many rules* and *lousy units* and not to forget *"why does BR have only 1 elite mech?"

Look man, I'm just saying that WizKids at least TRIES. And at seeing so many failures and so much time till the release of CA I think they have all the issues worked out.

"There is only one thing that can defeat me: the dice"

Arrogance must be bliss too...

I'm going to agree with mlotoole0, Kai, and stump. Just because.

OOOH, I'm a greed with ^-^ *feels special*

BlackFusion, you are making the assumption that WizKids "devised" artillery and VTOL's to counter problems. This is not the case.

Artillery and VTOL's were most likely already planned before Dark Age even came out. Expansion sets have a rather long planning time, more than the few months they would have had if those units were the "reaction" to imbalances in the previous set.

But yes, WizKids addresses problems. However they simply take too long to do so.
Hoverbikes captures were changed after players had complained about them for months.
When the DFA rules were published on the net players and BM's alike screamed that the rules were broken. WizKids told that they just wanted to wait for the release of the set for the corrections to happen. And what did happen? At the current time there are still several VTOL issues unresolved and most VTOL issues that were resolved got so in an utterly stupid way. A simple unit misprint was fixed how many months after the set was released?

What WizKids needs to do is the following:

1. Admit that they made mistakes.
The current VTOL rulings are so screwed up that it isn't funny anymore. The order vs. attack problem can bring down the whole rules unless WizKids admits that the two words were often used interchangeable in the RoW and SEC.
No-one would be mad at them if they would admit their mistakes. Instead they insist that everything they did was correct which makes things go from bad to worse.

2. Communicate more with the players.
Most of us really, really like this game. If given the chance we will tell them what is wrong and what we want. But they need to tell us what options there are and they need to listen to our response.

3. Apply rule changes carefully and step by step.
WizKids has a tendency to "over-correct" things. A good example of this is their reaction the the "first strike" problem. Either the first turn immunity or the halving of the infiltration distance would have been enough to deal with the problem. Both together just overdo it.
The best approach would have been to ask the players: "We have the following two ways to deal with the first strike. Which one do you prefer or should we apply both together?" (note that this comes back to point 2).

4. Be a bit quicker with the response.
It takes now and forever to even get simple things cleared up and included in the FAQ. The "multitargeting and shutdown" issue took over four months for example. Of course that might require them to apply point 1 from time to time, but no-one would mind.

But back to Counterassault balancing the game.
I doubt it. WizKids is aware that there are problems, severe problems. They will be trying to fix them, but it don't think they are quick enough to make it for the release of Counterassault.
Given their previous reaction times I think it is much more realistic to expect changes no less then four months, more likely 6 or even more months in the future.
I will be pleasantly surprised if they manage it faster and in a sensible way, but by expecting the worst I will not be disappointed if they don't manage it.

Given the comments we've seen so far about "lots of new melee mechs", it's starting to seem more like we're just going to get a whole wave of Arnis clones.

Just frelling great. More bumperbots. Just what I always wanted.

WK, dudes, if I wanted to play with stuff that just runs into each other all day and that's how they fight, I'd go play Beyblade. I want to play MECHWarrior, not snergling bumperbots.

If there was hit-and-run,underground shell-travelling or satellite aiming,things would be better...

People have to realize that the lead for these expansions is about a YEAR. To suggest that they were consciously "fixing" problems with expansions released within a few months of each other is not correct. The expansions need to slow down and be playtested a lot more.