Weapon Ranges
First things first, there's a new weapons chart, which I'm sure we've all been waiting for. Ever since Weapon Range Chart 1 was released to the public there has been a storm of discussion about how the new ranges will affect the meta. The biggest shake ups have been with Sniper Rifles, HMGs and Combi Rifles, so far. Weapon Range Chart 2 goes far beyond this.
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| Breaker Pistol, ADHL, Autocannon, MULTI Rifle, HMC, Ojotnik, Missile Launcher and Forward Observer |
Breaker Pistols have Viral ammunition and are not limited to traditionally Viral factions (Haqq, Tohaa) as they are available to the PanO and Nomad Icestorm forces. If these become a common weapon then they will completely shake up missions like Lifeblood and they will also allow models carrying them to do very effective close range AROs
The changes to Adhesive Launchers are a bit of a wash. Their +3 range has shrunk but so has their -6 range. Overall, camo ADHL units will have to be a lot more careful about what range they open fire from.
Autocannons get the 'heavy weapon' treatment and now have the -3 and +0 brackets at the start of their profiles. Don't be fooled by the lack of a -6 bracket though as that only ever existed past 48" anyway! No word about damage types for this weapon.
Multi Rifles can be summed up as follows:
Question: "Will MULTI rifles still be overcosted in 3rd edition."
Answer: "No."
The HMC has received a slight nerf. It is not a 'heavy weapon' so has close range penalties and it's +3 range has been shortened slightly to keep in line with the new 8" range increment system. Overall it's still a brutal weapon with Burst 5 and will still be packing AP ammo.
The Ojotnik is moving from being a sub-par Rifle to being a decent Sniper Rifle variant. Whilst it doesn't have the range of it's bigger brother, it sill has a decent good range bracket with a solid Damage value and AP ammo. It's a complete redesign of the weapon and one that I think most Ariadna players will be happy with.
The Missile Launcher I think this is the most unexpected change of all. It has gone from a precision weapon to something that seems wildly inaccurate. It looks like it will lose a lot of it's threat as an ARO weapon outside of a Fireteam. Points costs for all Missile Launcher profiles will be reworked. Again, no word on ammo types.
EDIT: According this BOLS article, the Missile Launcher good range should be in the 32-40" bracket, not the 24-32" bracket. Curiouser and curiouser. I guess it's designed to allow link teams to fire from one DZ to another?
Lastly, we have the Forward Observer (and Flash Pulse) skill. This no longer uses the Discover range profile, so it looks very different indeed. As before, it uses WIP to hit, but it now has Burst 2! A successful Forward Observer roll will cause the target to enter the 'Targeted; state. A 'Targeted' mode may be shot at by Guided weaponry, and all other troops firing a it will receive a bonus +3 to hit, although this modifier does not stack with itself. It's just a function of shooting at a 'Targeted' model. It's good to see some extra functionality added to Forward Observers.
Close Combat
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| Part of the new Close Combat chart - gaze in wonder! |
What's going on here then?
All Close Combat abilities are now going to be on a single chart and only those with a '*' will have extra written out rules. Close Combat abilities can affect your Modified CC skill, your opponents Modified CC skill, the Damage of your weapon and also your Burst value.
As with everything in Infinity if you have, say Martial Arts 4, then you also have all of the skills of a lower level too (MA1, 2 and 3). However these modifiers do NOT stack. When declaring your attack (or your ARO), you must decide which of these abilities you'd like to use. This means that normally the Reactive player would choose first. Also, the Enemy MOD column only applies against CC rolls, so shooting when charging in, or being charged, is unaffected.
Another thing that you may have noticed is that the Father Knight in the new Icestorm box has CC 23. It has been confirmed that all CC values are being overhauled and that CC specialists will see their values raised to new heights!
The way that Critical Hits work with a skill of over 20 has changed too. Taking the Father Knight (CC 23) as our example, he now rolls a D20 as normal but adds his value greater than 20 (+3) to the result for a range of 4 to 23. Any roll of 20 or more is a Critical Hit. As you can see, a model with Berserk should be able to obtain Critical Hits fairly easily. This rule also applies to shooting attacks.
This leads to the next big change which is that Critical Hits cancel each other out. There is now no such thing as a 'better' or 'worse' critical. Every model that can roll a dice has got a chance of surviving now in all circumstances.
I know lots of people have been keen on getting extra Burst on their CC attacks. Judging by the video there will be two ways to do this. Firstly via MA4 and secondly via having extra models in Close Combat with a single opponent. If you have three models in Close Combat, Pupniks for instance, with a single enemy then when rolling to attack with one of them you may roll three attack dice. One per model in combat. This makes ganging up on a single model overwhelmingly effective.
Other Changes
The Assault Skill: If a model has LOS at beginning of their order, they can double move and make a CC attack, but with a -3 attack mod.
Natural Born Warrior: Nullifies all other Close Combat attacks
i-Kohl: Looks to be staying at -3, -6 and -9 Enemy MOD. Fits nicely on the chart,
Template Weapons: Models hit by a template weapon from out of LoS may react with ARO Dodge. This is a sizeable nerf to GML strategies and I wonder if they will get something to compensate. Getting shot in the back is still bad for your health however.
Hacking Rules: No concrete info yet, but they should become chart based just like CC.
A word on the new N3 Mindset: Because a huge improvement in Corvus Belli, in Infinity 3rd edition, is with the way we explain the rules, more solid, not, not going to have to, you know, go through the book, from this section to this other section and realising that that rule works like that or like that. Everything will be more understandable, more solid, more friendly to read to find. You will have to go less to the book to find something. It will be easier to have rapid references charts with everything.
Further Reading
New Combined Army Starter Set on Data Sphere
Data Sphere seminar discussion including Kotail and Zuyong stats
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