First Impressions (Hot Takes) on ITS 14

So figured I'd get out my opinions on ITS 14 since I have not yet managed to play it yet but read over the document. These opinions are bound to change, and not to be taken as law. With that out of the way, let's begin.

Main Takeaways:

Let me state that I still have a deep love for the game and get a good amount of enjoyment. Infinity is one of the most dynamic and for the most part well-balanced games on the market with a great amount of depth.

This said, I think the newest season kind of plays it a little too safe with a majority of the missions being action oriented than objective focused as it was back in N3. It also reuses some of the rules back in season 12 where I thought it would go into using Jungle terrain or so. As well, all the missions stayed with the inclusion of one more, whereas I would have liked to see a few of the missions to go away in favor of some new ones. This is particularly the case when some of the missions to be similar to some extent (example being Supremacy and Quadrant control).

This said, I will give Corvus Belli on a couple things they've done in season 14.

1) The creation of Direct Action Missions is a good way to introduce new players into ITS. Considering newer players may not have access to HVTs and a classified desk it is a good way to ease them in. While I'd would of like them to have different but easy to understand missions instead of the four of them being various of reskins of other missions, they work for what they are. 

2) The new mission Cryogenics on paper does seem like a good mix of both a combat mission but also trying to press the buttons in order to get the advantage over your opponent. From what I've read so far, it seems that the advantage of having second turn and scoring the lionshare of the points is somewhat diminished now that the first player could lock the second player out of two points if first player flips three of the four consoles. 

Now onto what I find to be...

The 'Free' Elephant in the Room

I thought I'd put the new Tachimoto rules and free units in this section because I found them to be the same thing for each season it does come into effect. 

What I mean by this is that these are concerted efforts for CB to test a specific set of rules on a unit or push people to buy some models to get the advantage of the full rules for this season. I don't find this to be too egregious for veteran plays but it could be a burden on new players trying to get into the game.

The Tachimoto rule is more to push Forward observer bots into play, or at least seems thay way with them gaining Marksmanship and a Tactical Awareness order. I find this a little surprising since those type of troops are a great toolbox but them getting a bonus might have me take them more often than I do in my list building at times (which is to say not that often but not rarely as well). 

For the free units you get this season in form of the Bashi Bazouks and CSU, I think these are better than the Motorized Bounty Hunters because with MBH I found anctedotially 9/10 times people had chosen the Red Fury profile because you were getting a burst four gun for free. 

Now with the Bashis and CSUs I think there are cases to which profile you want to take, being that the profiles for the both of them have a different toolkit that can play well into different match ups. Whether this plays out in the next few months in practice is to be determined. 

Concluding Thoughts

While I wish CB did more to go back to the more objective-focused nature of Infinity, I still think this season is alright on paper. Though it could be much better by taking a few more risks by cycling out missions that are similar for one or the other, but also having more Direct action missions down the line.

This said, I am going to give this season a go and then reflect on it with enough time. For now, hope to see you in the next batrep or post I write!