After many months, WMTG and I have finished our initial playtest for the Ugnix and Res'ai factions. For more information on Nebula, go to:
Here are my thoughts on the bugs.
Nebula is a great wargame that only lacks some polish to achieve true greatness; so I'm going to focus my comments on Res'ai as a faction and not as much on the game rules which I'll address in a future post.
Res'ai are the clasic "horde" faction relying on numbers and a few key unit synergies to win. Their design elements and themes are:
- Easy to hit (low defense)
- Excellent regeneration (resilience.)
- Thematic focus on poison and biological mutation
- Very few ranged elements
- Highest movement values in the game
- Close combat focus
- Low initiative values (go first in combat)
- Low points costs
The design challenge with this kind of faction is balancing the need for lower cost/greater model count, the need for even the cheapest models to be individually relevant, and the very real threat that the faction becomes unstoppable in common play. This is hard to manage in skirmish games--especially scenario-based games with unit scoring since larger forces have an advantage in attrition. This means that horde factions tend to have higher win ratio-floors and lower maximum potential; So Res'ai do not have "bad" lists but as other faction players get more experience, the bugs do not scale up as well. I'm going to list all the units and their current points/descriptions followed by my suggested changes.
Res’Ailing
8 Points
25mm base
Initiative 1
Defense 2
Resilience 4
Hit Points 1
Passive Ability
Flyer - This unit ignores terrain height when moving
Action Tokens:
Move - Move this unit in a Range up to 10”
Attacks:
Bite
Range 1”
Hit Dice 3
These guys are fine after the most recent points adjustment. They die to a stiff breeze but are cheap, fast, and can go anywhere you need. A hive nightmare's aura makes them a tad more survivable but not by much. In our games they held objectives reasonably well but excelled in forcing me to pick them off as guaranteed kills due to their single HP. This left more capable models alive longer since removing scoring models is just as important as removing high-threat pieces. We can argue over whether they are worth their 8 points or not but I think 8 points is the sweet spot for this model--cheap enough to spam but expensive enough that with a nightmare a 100pt force maxes out at 9 of the little guys. I could also see them going up to 9 points and adding the poison claw upgrade from the alpha...but that might be a little too good.
Res’Aigon
14 Points
35mm base
Initiative 2
Defense 3
Resilience 5
Hit Points 3
Action Tokens:
Move - Move this unit in a Range up to 8”
Heal Wounds - Remove 1 Damage counter from this unit
Attacks:
Crunch
Range 1”
Hit Dice 4
Based on their profile, these guys should make up the bulk of the Res'Ai front line. In practice they do not get used as often since their melee output is strictly worse than the alpha. I suggest keeping the current profile but cutting them down to 13pts. With this change you can have 6 and a nightmare which traids bodies and melee output for duribility and staying power over the res'ailings. At their current cost they were just a tad too expensive relative to other models' ability to score and delete opposing units.
Res’Ai Corrupter
10 Points
35mm base
Initiative 2
Defense 2
Resilience 4
Hit Points 2
Action Tokens:
Move - Move this unit in a Range up to 8”
Death Rush - This unit moves up to 12” and explodes, dealing 2 Damage to all units in a 1” radius. This unit dies
Attacks:
Bite
Range 1”
Hit Dice 3
This model is the intermediate evolutionary step between the res'ailing and the res'aigon. You can set up some interesting moves with its death rush and a nightmare's special move but in practice it was more effective forcing me to focus it down to avoid the blast rather than a strategy in-and-of-itself. I want it to be more of a strategic resource...it just doesn't do much now short of spamming them. I'd suggest increasing the explosion range to two inches, making it deal 1 dammage but only to enemy models. The base profile is fine, it's just making that explosion mean enough to be a problem without 10 of them winning the game by default. An alternative would be having the death rush move happen in the action phase but the explosion go off at the beginning of the combat phase. If you have them deal 1 dammage to every model within 2 inches then placement is critical so overlapping AOEs do not remove your own models before they can go off.
Res’Aigon Alpha
22 Points
50mm base
Initiative 2
Defense 3
Resilience 5
Hit Points 4
Passive Ability
Double Hit - this unit can perform two melee attacks each turn.
Action Tokens:
Move - Move this unit in a Range up to 9”
Attacks:
Poisonous Claw
Range 1”
Hit Dice 5
Every time this attack deals Damage to another unit, roll a d6. On a 5+ result deal 1 extra damage.
I hate this model. It is either too good for its points dishing out more damage dice in a turn than my Ugnix titan including the poison claw or it gets taken out too soon and doesn't earn its points back. It is very hard to balance this kind of model in such a way that it provides real value but doesn't get substituted for an equivalent value of cheaper choices. I would prefer it going up to 24pts. I'd prefer seeing the damage per claw go down to 4 dice instead of 5--the double strike and poison claw means they'll still do more dammage than 2 res'aigons. Their move should go back down to 8 inches so the res'ailing and corruptor are faster skirmishers. Finally, they need something other than move in the token phase such as a leadership move to reduce friendly initiatives by 1 (minimum 1.) This way the "alpha" leads the pack rather than acting as a bigger better version of other models. If this option is chosen I'd suggest going with a 6-inch aura so as to make the nightmare slightly better at buffing.
I cannot stress this enough, this model is the source of most of the bad-play experiences in our games for me as the opposing player. It is not a question of liking or disliking the model, it just has too much potential to run the table--and if it doesn't perform above expectation, the owning player feels cheated.
Hive Nightmare
28 Points
50mm base
Initiative 3
Defense 4
Resilience 5
Hit Points 5
Passive Ability
Swarm - All other Res’Ai units at 7” from this unit get -1 Resiliance.
Action Tokens:
Move - Move this unit in a Range up to 10”
Telepathic Shock - Deal 1 Damage to a unit up to 13”. Then move that unit in a Range up to 3” in any direction
Attacks:
Tentacles
Range 3”
Hit Dice 4.
Hooo-Boy, nightmare is right. this is Res'Ai's defining faction model. It's tuff, sets up turns with movement and damage shinanigans, and it makes all its friends within 7 inches tuffer too. There are a couple small tweaks I'd make mostly for theme but also to direct its usage. First, cut the movement back to 8 inches. A 10-inch move rating on a model that has a 13-inch attack and a 7 inch aura in a game that starts with a 25x25 board is excessive. It also detracts from the potential for model placement strategy if it can just move to wherever it needs to be. Really I'd like to see it go down to 6 or 7 inches but just dropping it to 8 lets it keep pace with all its front line pieces.
Second, telepathic strike needs a little bit of a limit. I'd like to see it work on models with 35mm or smaller bases and see it renamed to psychic strike. That's the rule for the Ugnix cavalry mount and it works very well by limiting it's ability to push bigger models around while giving it an important roll. This would also give the crawler a job when dealing with anti-armor. As for the name, why is telepathy dealing damage to a tank and moving it 3 inches? "Psychic" is nice and generic.
The rule could use some clarification as to whether this ability requires line of sight.
Crawler
24 points
35mm base
Initiative 2
Defense 4
Resilience 6
Hit Points 5
Passive Ability
Acidic Death - When this unit dies, it deals 2 Damage to all enemy units in a 3” radius
Action Tokens:
Move - Move this unit in a Range up to 8”
Titan Burrowing - At the beginning of the combat phase, if this unit is 1” or closer to an enemy unit with 10 or more Hit Points, deal 1 Damage total
Attacks:
Steel Claws
Range 4”
Hit Dice 3
The attacked unit gets -1 Resiliance for this attack only
Strong Jaws
Range 1”
Hit Dice 3
When attacking a unit with 10 or more remaining Hit Points, add +3 Hit Dice
This model is strange. Its profile is closer to the nightmare than a res'aigon. It has a ton of strange limitations that are presumably designed to make it better at dealing with titans. In practice it has a hard time getting to use its signature abilities because not all titans have 10 or more hit points and even if they start that way, most won't stay at max for more than a turn. Other than the death explosion, the alpha does everything the crawler does with less rules and more mechanical efficiency. I'm going to suggest a modified profile:
"Crawler
22 points
35mm base
Initiative 2
Defense 3
Resilience 5
Hit Points 4
Passive Ability
Acidic Death - When this unit dies, it deals 2 Damage to all enemy units in a 3” radius
Action Tokens:
Move - Move this unit in a Range up to 8”
Titan Burrowing - At the beginning of the combat phase, if this unit is 1” or closer to an enemy unit with 8 or more Hit Points, deal that model 1 Damage before attacks are made.
Attacks:
Steel Claws
Range 4”
Hit Dice 4
When attacking a unit with 8 or more maximum Hit Points, add +3 Hit Dice."
That profile gets you a big armor killer with some utility but not something that will take the place of a nightmare or alpha. It incorporates elements of other models like the corruptor while keeping its own unique flavor.
Hive Gehenna
65 points
Titan
Initiative 7
Defense 4
Resilience 5
Hit Points 8
Passive Abilities
Titanic Size - This unit can’t benefit from cover. This unit ignores terrain while moving. All other units get +2” move
Defensive Appendages - Enemy units in base to base contact with this unit have their Move distance reduced by half (rounding down)
Action Tokens:
Move - Move this unit in a Range up to 8”
Poison Cloud - Deal 1 Damage to all enemy units within a 6” radius
Attacks:
Tentacles
Range 1”
Hit Dice 3
This unit can attack 3 times as long as it attacks a different unit each time.
I love the physical model. In practice, this was the worst titan we encountered, never doing anything or surviving long enough to justify its points. It was a giant target that looked like it was suppose to lock down the scoring zone on paper but just died quickly in-play.
It feels like this model needed to decide what it was supposed to do. It's a giant brain but it spews...poison? I would have thought it would buff its troops but nope...it's just a bad melee fighter with good movement speeds. Here is an alternative profile:
"Hive Gehenna
62 points
Titan
Initiative 4
Defense 3
Resilience 4
Hit Points 8
Passive Abilities
Psychic Titan- This unit can’t benefit from cover. All friendly units including this unit ignore terrain while moving.
Defensive Appendages - Enemy units within 6 inches of this unit have their Move distance reduced by half (rounding down)
Psychic Shield - Deal 1 Damage to all enemy units the first time they come within 8 of this model.
Move - Move this unit in a Range up to 8”
Regeneration - This model heals 2 damage
Attacks:
Tentacles
Range 6"
Hit Dice 4
This model attacks every enemy unit within 6 inches once for 4 hit die"
I really wanted that model to work. Unfortunately, it needs a complete over hall.
Thoughts on Res'Ai as a faction:
Nebula's skirmish-level scope makes Res'Ai very attractive to people like me who don't want to manage 100-strong armies in larger games but like the feel of outnumbering our opponents. When everyone is a new player, especially for those who have not played wargames before, Resai seem invincible. The models are fun to use and are built strongly enough that you don't have the fragility the archetype tends to encourage.
Their challenge is that once games and boards grow a bit, once the other players get to know their faction range better, Resai do not have the strategic options and flexibility required to swiss-army knife scenario's. They have to charge the objective and overrun opponents. This can make larger conflicts feel one-dimensional. This is particularly true if you are facing a faction with good ranged elements where it's difficult to engage key pieces and play the objective game at the same time. Res'Ai are very good but would benefit from a little more choice in their potential strategy besides relying on the nightmare to handle things at long range. This leaves them overly dependent on the nightmare and alpha which does not feel good as the player or opponent.
I would really enjoy more choices in the action token phase for leadership models like the alpha, nightmare, and titan. Passive affects are nice but do not force the Res'Ai player to consider each choice in critical fassion.
Finally, Res'Ai are the only faction that do not have their model costs set in multiples of '5' (the Ugnix death hornet being the one exception.) If this was an intentional choice, it definitely sets them apart when building lists. There is some chance of bad feelings though as even though the bugs have relatively low average model costs, the player feels cheated if their opponent gets to spend all of their 100pts and the Res'Ai leave a couple points unspent. The most recent points adjustments brought the faction into balance but I worry that the designers are not always thinking about how cutting the cost of "x" model will affect this dynamic. For example, corrupters are 10pts. They are the only model in the faction with a cost of a multiple of '5' other than the titan. These types of design choices drive players to build lists in certain directions--I just hope the designers are taking this into consideration.
**Next on the list, a run down on my beloved Ugnix***
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