Now that it's been out a bit and players have had a chance to familiarize themselves with the set, what do you think of the set?

im still puzzleded by low defenses of mechs.

A lot better than expected, tough the mechs pretty much all ... have issues. :)

I'm puzzled by the 'mech defenses too, but that's it - puzzled. I'm not pissed or judging the designers as idiots. I'm convinced something is coming that is intended to make 'mechs a bigger part of the game and that the low defenses are related to that. Move and shoot seems like a pretty obvious guess. What other mechanic or change they have in mind I can't speculate. I would love to hear other ideas that people think might have led to the low defense paradigm.

I can't think of anything to write here that isn't angry or inflammatory. In FP, the tanks are STILL better. The VTOL's are STILL better. The Artillery is STILL better. The mechs, pfffft. And Infantry defense values on Mechs confuses me.

That isn't fair Stahlie, Gnomes have better defense than most of the mechs. To say that Mechs have infantry defenses would be better than what we have now.

I agree with ncluff, low mech defenses is puzzling. BUT, we play more with vehicle and infantry armies anyway so it doesn't matter much.(We also play more for fun anyway)
We love FP because the new assortment of infantry.

This expansion was so horrible,
it convinced me to start playing Star Wars Mini's instead.
And what a blast SWM is!

Well the big time issues with the Mechs defenses...just cannot fathom it. I have the say the sculpts are better, but then again the quality has gone down with many broken or missing pieces or wrong stats or dials. Yes the infantry pieces are great but then again this is mechwarrior not tank warrior or infantry warrior.

Yeah can we get separate ratings for mechs vs. other things? The mechs are darn-near useless, everything else is pretty ok. The sculpts look great, overall, it's just...man, what were the designers thinking with 16 defense, 17 defense mechs?

FP has some great infantry and vehicles, but the mechs, sheesh....Totally kills any care I have for this set.

They suck, they suck hard. Kelly and the new design team was supposed to be the 'resurrection of the mech' and what not.

Sheesh, CounterAssault (the old team) had vastly supperior mechs, plus great infantry, good vehicles, and all the rest.

Mechs with ranges that short, and with defenses that low are unacceptable.

The point is as an expansion this sucks.

It adds some more useful infantry (note we already have lots) to factions that did actually need them (thing is this whole game is loaded against Faction Purity so who cares? Just use infantry from another faction - that is what you are supposed to do, right?).

It adds some good tanks. Something else we are not short on.

Counterassault looked like it was starting to turn a corner. This about turns, slams on the brakes and skids off the road.

high damage GOOD
high attack GOOD
low defecen WHAT! FIRST STIRK ARMY RULE ON THOSE MECHS.
paint ect. cool!

Yep, this set was below my expectations.
By now, the designers must have had an idea what the average player wants from a game like Mechwarrior, and this set definately is not it.
I think they've done a superb job with the designing of the new Special Equipments. They give a good use of tactical design, and they introduce an entire new perspective to the game. And luckily, they've decided not overdo it, so they can fix it if something goes wrong.

As for the overall the set is quite alright, but it still lacks that which mechwarrior really needed most: Good mechs.
Even if they had included kick-### mechs for low points, it still wouldn't matter much, since they'd have to make them ridiculous to have them ever been used in a serieus tournament game.

In short: The set has great sculpting, great equipment ideas (which should have been better tested) good new concepts, like Sylph battle armors. But what the game really needs is a change in rules that allow mechs to actually make a difference in a serious game.
Supposedly they are still able to make a new ruleschange this september that could save mechs from being useless, but unless that happens I doubt most of the mechs in this set will ever see the light of day. I mean, c'mon, at least give 'm defense 20 for christ sake.

I thought the sculpts and paint looked good. At least on par with the better stuff from previous sets.

From vehicles and infantry, there was plenty of new and fun designs. Good stats, and I thought their point values were fair.

The non-mechs, eh, not so inspiring.

The uniques seem good to me, though I haven't sat and studied each one. I really like the Tundra Wolf's, especially the merc. Reminds me of Janella.