But I thought I'd write a tournament report with a short write up of my games but with the goal of kind of explaining how Reinforcements feels at the current time.
My Lists:
So since Exrah had returned and I've been playing the faction as is, I went with Combined Army.
So the first list is clearly a vanity list with the Avatar with the intent of just playing it only for Mindwipe, matchup permitting. That said, I could also use this for supplies if I feel spicy about it.
The other list is built with Countermeasures in mind but it definitely can do Mindwipe and Supplies without any problems in list building for the most part.
I will kind of admit CA feels rough to build reinforcements for. This will go into detail on my overall thoughts but the fact you have to take a Nox Trooper, Morat Vanguard or Unidron feels hefty as a tax for what I usually like to take in a list. As well I didn't get as much practice with these lists so it might not be the best I could have done.
Game 1:
Bye sadly. That said I managed to watch a little bit of agame which was a Tohaa mirror match and how rough that can be for both players. Though I I would be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued since they were good players piloting them.
Game 2: vs. Tohaa (Countermeasures). Loss 2-6
This was a bit of a rough game. I didn't deploy as good as I could and I had Nourkias get-got on the first turn. I did manage to score one classified on the first turn, but Extreme prejudice eluded me because I outright killed his Greif Operator instead of just putting him unconscious. In return I didn't push with my Speculo when I should and tried to do as much damage as I could since he got Extreme prejudice off it because of Tohaa bullshit known as Endgame (lol). Certainly could've played it better but is what it is.
Game 3: vs. JSA (Supplies). Won 6-2.
This is not my proudest game (or moment) as I played my Avatar list against a new-ish player. That said, I kind of ran over my list and what he did, and for the most part he did the correct thing and ignored the Avatar and played towards objectives when he could.
My reinforcements never came in since it was only a two round game but his managed to get on and get one of the boxes away from me. I did make a comeback since I possessed his Anaconda and my Gaki managed to kill a CSU and Miranda to have him drop the box. He managed to get it back after saving against a Explosive shot from the Avatar.
Final thoughts:
So I had two games of reinforcements before this, and then three for the tournament so I figured five games would be good to explain my thoughts.
In concept, I think Reinforcements is a great addition to the game and a good way to have another format to play in. Especially since it is a format that feels like the Alpha Strike doesn't feel as strong. This said the execution is something that is...mixed at best for me, even though I enjoyed these games.
And it boils down to two things:
1) the Commlink is quite the tax in a game mode where you need to play it. So instead of having 250 pts and 5 SWC you're essentially down 18 to 24 pts and half an SWC in your list.
It does make list building quite awkward since the player has to take it.
2) The reinforcement section feels quite hard to list build for properly, as not everything alings at a perfect 100 points. And tied to that, you cannot go over either limit for either the main or reinforcement sectiom, so depending how it is built either the main list or the reinforcement section might be at an awkward shortage of points.
So it goes to the main question: Will I play it again?
I think so but I don't think I'd want to do it in a competitive setting, at least in its current iteration of Commlink and a few tweaks to the mission. I am assuming latter problem will have the newest ITS mission pack in mine for that. The former is a larger issue I take with that hampers my enjoyment of what is otherwise fun and unique game mode.
As for the specific faction I played?
As much as I enjoyed being able to field the bugs again, Combined Army felt really hampered by the Commlink tax just to take them. Granted I did kind of go full-on meme mode with the Avatar in reinforcements, but from the few games I played with it in reinforcements the Avatar more often feels like an hindrance more than a help to reinforcement lists.
As well the Reinforcements profiles CA gets are good but feel rather limited what you can do with them, as you don't have any doctors/paramedics nor durable pieces outside the Caskuda. Granted the former kind of feels thematic since the Exrah do kind of die easily.
But at least I'll admit some of my opinions of reinforcements is colored by the fact I played only CA, but I kind of stand by reinforcements as is feels in a beta stage still.
So for now any battle reports for Reinforcements might be limited, if non-existent.
