Cropped up in a chat with Elliot M having explicitly raised the IR point for the Aralez - some mounts used to give tc1, some vicious etc. It’s been acknowledged in the background chats that mounted characters (esp the combat ones) are way better than infantry versions, so this just levels things out a bit
Having had the list for a few days, some thoughts (please don’t take this as an attack on Halflings). I don’t expect that much of the list will change - it sounded pretty close to finalised from the last Direct Misfire pod.
Lack of ranged option on the Grenadiers & Aeronauts - cool units, great minis but they look like they should have some sort of missile attack (grenades?), It would be fun to have the option to add a ranged attack for extra points, nothing too powerful.
More differentiation on the melee cav - something to set the Wild Runners (melee) apart other than being cheaper for lower stats than Juggers.
Naming of units - Most have pretty straight forward, does what it says on the tin, names - Halfling Rifles, Forest Trolls etc. To me Spearspikes sounds like a Goblin/Ratkin unit, doesn’t quite fit with Braves & Stalwarts. While Wild Runners (bit in brackets) seems lacklustre. Not a big deal, as you can call them Halfling Spears etc, just seems out with the rest of the list.
Agree about some of the names, guess they are placeholder names till they finalise them.
As Juggers have Nimble it blurs the line between them and Wild Runners (melee) somewhat. Light melee cavalry usually have Nimble and the more heavily armed cavalry don’t. Here that is not the case.
What I like about the list so far is that it seems possible to build a few lists that lean into one aspect of the force. All Trolls, all Doggo cavalry, etc.
I wonder if they wanted to avoid making WR (melee) faster due to potential stacking with aura Wild Charge. Something to make them more nimble than Nimble would be good, Pathfinder or something.
Wild Runners - there is a decent amount in difference in the stats, but agreed that the lighter cav option could go m9, me4+ to give more distinction? Naming is possibly down to what the models are described as from a sales perspective?
One of the RC explicitly mentioned they didn’t want the flying units to have range attacks as there was enough shooting in the list. A [1] shooting upgrade wouldn’t break things IMO.
I can see that, there’s a fair bit of shooting. [1] or a one-shot attack could be an option. In appearance (to me) they look more ranged attack (dropping stuff) than melee. I know their melee abilities try and capture that with brutal & blast etc.
Maybe something that is ranged but doesn’t do damage, like disordered/negative modifiers - for smokebombs (used for crop dusting in more peaceful times?)
