NCE Weak NCE skills

[Ben_S]

I think one of the best way to make these skill trees would be that they have 2 good skills, 2 mediocre and 2 "weaks, gimmickly, situational skills".

Why not six skills of roughly equal usefulness?

 

[Loriel]

Because of random factor.

 

[SirFrog]

I don't understand how having a dud skill result makes the levelling up process more fun. The fun from getting just the right skill from a table doesn't outweigh the disappointment of getting the dud skills from that same table in my opinion.
Even more so when the "swingy" tables, with many duds and some tops, typically have more duds than wins.

I'd rather gamble on what useful skill I get than if I get anything useful at all.

 

[Sakara]

Hey,

Does anyone think some of the revised NCE skills (particularly agility) are sorta crappy?

Agility -

Quick witted - sorta like a far inferior version of infiltration most of the time. Going on overwatch is unlikely to help since you usually start out of range; particularly useless if you get the first turn.

Catfall - OK, this was always a crappy skill, but combined with the other weak skills in the agility tree, it means that the only real draws there are sprint and leap.

Leap - got nerfed so it can only be used when running, not moving.

Given that rolling in agility is essential for most cc gangs, and that 4/6 results are fairly sucky, this seems like a harsh disadvantage for many cc oriented gangs.

Stealth -

Main issue here is Ambush - what is the point in this skill? In order to use overwatch, you must remove yourself from hiding (in the opponent's movement phase) which then leaves you in exactly the same situation as if you didn't have the skill. There's a marginal usefulness in that you get to choose whether to stay hidden or use overwatch a bit later, but that seems too minor to be worth a skill pick.

Quickwitted is NOT a inferior Infiltration. What can you do with infiltrate? You pop up in the end of your movment. Tadaa. Quickwitted in combination with lead, sprint, bionic leg, long legs and you have a decent chanse of place your mini where you want or even charge an enemy depending on scenario.

Leap was "nerfed" becouse it was op. You could "run" and shoot with no negative impact. Also leap makes you jump gaps better.

Catfall: You can charge downwards thats further then 3". Yes its suicide if you have low I but its an option.

Ambush: You cant be cuntersniped? also if you have autoguns or huntingrifles with silencers its gold.

 

[SirFrog]

Specifically Ambush plus Fast Shot lets you cautiously advance, always be a fleeting target but still keep up an uninterrupted killzone.

Each is essentially a round saved for a model that benefits from moving and going into overwatch,

 

[Commissariat]

Something to keep in mind is an aim for the NCE is to try and retain as much of the official rules as possible. I don't mind the idea of giving Dodge back it's HtH save, more so because that's what the official rule was and I'm thinking there wasn't enough justification to removing it. Reverting Crack Shot too might be useful since it's giving Shooting a dud roll.

Also I think I may be the only person who likes Catfall...

I like Crackshot. I use High Impact weapons. My group in general finds it to be useful otherwise, because they started using high impact weapons.

I think Agility is a strong table, due to Sprint/Leap/Catfall. The combination of either of the former with Catfall is ludicrous in a map with elevation. I use it as an amazing objective hopping tool. Either you drop on the objective faster than others, or you grab and leap off the building. Either way it is fast.

Ambush is good, because mobility and action-economy are two essential factors to being a powerful gang. (Kind of like X-Wing: Miniatures?). I wouldn't be opposed to bringing Dodge back to where it was before.

 

[Azzabat]

I think all the skills are useful, you just need to know how to use them best.

 

[ntw3001]

For me the rules should support idea of fun and gimmick stuff.

I think it's good for the game to have nich abilities, but players need to be able to use them by choice. A gimmick that is bad even in most of the situations where it's used (because it depends on other advances the fighter may or may not have, or extremely niche situations) isn't really supported IMO. It's just there, and the advance system really puts it in the way.

What I did for my house rules was to rewrite the skills and equipment so there was some player choice to go with the randomness. If you roll up a defensive combat skill, maybe you take some of the defensive gear that's available and use that ganger to shield someone more fragile. If you get a medic, maybe you give them a lighter gun and try to find a medkit. Or maybe you get a Goliath with a selection of muscle skills that let him barge in, grab someone from a group and drag them away like an alligator, which probably doesn't need any specific gear but it's neat. There are niche roles but they're under the player's control to use. If you get the opportunity to make a gimmicky fighter you can actually do it rather than just hope they develop into something that can use, say, Catfall effectively.