Hey All,

We at our venue are going to be trying out a new "house rule" and I wanted to share it with all of you so that you could either share your comments or try it for yourselves. We play with a few "house rules" that we all really enjoy (piloting of pre-AoD 'mechs etc...) and for the most part we are fairly faction pure players with none of us fielding the uber-cheese best-of-the-best rainbow armies that we have all read about. That said, we are going to start playing with no-cost Faction Prides for completely faction pure armies.

Of course this raises a few issues first and foremost being the definition of "Faction Pure". In order to qualify for the free FP your force cannot have any Mercs of any kind and no Gunslinger pilots (that's the kicker). Your pilots can only be faction specific Legendary pilots (i.e. Katana Tormark), faction specific generic pilots (i.e. CNC Star Captain) or non faction specific generic pilots (i.e. Frihet Grad).

True Grit still costs and functions the same as does Merc Pride (which would have been ridiculous if made free to Mercs). SAs are also untouched. Being the only Merc player in our group, I did raise the 'fairness' issue for when I played Merc pure (i.e. Gamma Regiment only), but then figured that not having to pay any recruit costs for my Gunslingers is a pretty good deal.

Our main reason for going this route was to reward those who play faction pure and make some use of the pilots who don't see as much play. We also thought it didn't make sense to penalize someone who is playing faction pure when in reality it would be very likely for a fighting force that trains regularly together to develop specialized strategies and tactics.

On a related note, there was a thread not too long ago where someone (or a few someones) had posted a list of homegrown FPs. I had a look through the forums, but couldn't find it. Anyone know where it went?

Once we give our free FPs a try, we'll let everyone know how it goes.

Cheers,:)

Goreb

If all faction prides were created equally, then I would say maybe provided a faction pure force could sub in true grit and the all merc force could select the option for Merc Faction pride.

But let's face it, the bannson player is making out like a bandit although they use the ability to use One Eyed Jack and Hammerfall.

As a liao player, I would feel cheated. Our prides are not worth running even if they were free.

Clan Wolf currently doesn't have access to any faction prides. House Steiner currently has access to 3 (+1 if you include stormhammers.)

It might be more interesting if you gave the free faction pride but made a random selection of which one.

The bulk of the players that I have seen who play with mixed factioned forces are doing it out of need to field a force rather than picking the best piece from different factions. Maybe it's just harking back to having a lot of younger players that aren't collecting a faction yet since they only have a handful of boosters.

We figured that True Grit, while nice for 'levelling' the playing field, fell outside of what we were wanting to try out and given that a Merc force does not have to pay recruit costs for Gunslingers we figured that they were okay without a free FP (especially one as powerful as Merc FP). We toyed with the idea of coming up with a couple of generic ones for Mercs and then say that they could only use non-Gunslinger, but we decided to keep things simple until we see how it plays out.

Except that "Hammerfall" and OEJ are technically Gunslingers and would therefore void the "free" FP clause.

The modified "Ruthlessness" FP can be devastating.

We play full faction absorption so CW would have access to SW FPs and given the lessened amount of priming necessary for the CW units that ends up working very well for the Wolf player as priming ones units is always of paramount concern.

There is no doubt that certain factions benefit more than others which is why I also asked for assistance looking for that thread containing the fan-made FPs which could be help us even things out.

Cheers,:)

Goreb

My venue uses a similar "one free faction pride or SA card" rule sometimes. Most of the players seem to like it. It allows people to use some of the expensive but only moderately useful SA's without feeling cheated.

Some of the SAs are very powerful (even more than some of the FPs). Perhaps after we try out the free FPs we could look into reducing the cost of SAs (or even making them free). Very interesting idea.

Cheers,:)

Goreb

I have done Free Faction Prides (and limited free Situational Alliances) for many years to encourage people to use them. It has usually worked well, although I also limit the use of Merc and True Grit. Yes, some seem to be "unfair" while others seem underpowered, but in the end, it usually all works out. sometimes if I offer a FP or SA "free", I will restrict it to one use per turn, regardless of game point cost as a way to keep it in check.

You mentioned that the WS One-Eyed Jack is technically a gunslinger, and while that is true, he also recruits for free to BR, thereby conceptually gaining the BR logo. A case could be made that it should be allowable to use these free recruitable pilots and mech combos since they are inteded to be used with that faction, although also open, for a cost, to other factions.

Chris

I wouldn't play my custom "Bushido" HK FP for free, nor would I let anyone use it for free either.

FPs without rarity or usage (SH/HS +1 to all heat rolls) would benifit like mad. Any FP that allows every unit to take advantage of something, without you pay for the cost of the card, should be excluded from the list. As would any home-brewed FPs.

LordNth, were you the one who posted all those custom FPs a while back? If so, do you happen to know where I might find them. I've searched the forum several times, but have not turned up anything. Thanks.

Cheers,:)

Goreb

http://www.mwrealms.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=761
In the Creative Corner you find all sorts of goodies.

They were made by PariahJaide (yes I designed that one). I posted the one he made for me. But to find the ones he made for others
http://www.mwrealms.com/forum/search.php?searchid=1357
Just do a member search to find all the threads he started.

Any thing else? Just ask I like pulling down info to share. And if it gets more poeple to look at the Creative Corner then I like it :)

Thanks for the info LordNth. I really like the custom FP template cards. However, there was another post by someone who had done up a bunch of custom FPs for virtually all the factions. I'll scan the forums some more to see if I can find it.

Cheers,:)

Goreb