ORBAT changes 9/28

[Quickdraw]

When looking at the new updates there seems to be quite a lot of changes happening. Most factions have seen increases in cost for many ships with only some minor changes to ship rules.
Many of the factions also gained many more Battle Group options which allow the addition of some specific TAC card.
Most striking is the additional lists of Specialist Groups. Allowing gunships with cruisers, frigates or corvettes with battleships, etc...
These additions could seriously change list building for the future.

[Ruckdog]

Sounds like there has been some interesting changes made! I'll have to dig into these new orbats and take a closer look.

[Quickdraw]

My two primary fleets from the major nations (Russian and French) were definitely given options for fleet building that could change the way I think about fleet design.
It's interesting that a lot of the special groups take the idea of "escort" models with a more deadly parent. This is something that I've been itching for in dystopian wars.
I haven't looked too closely at the other nations but I imagine some of them have had very similar updates.

[Ruckdog]

I haven't had a chance to do an in-depth comparison on the orbats to find all the small tweaks in points and stats, but looking at the new battle groups, I love the idea. It adds some nice elements of structure to list building. Actually, it strikes me as a similar approach to the Helixes used in Planetfall.

The only downside is that the main perk seems to be getting a free TAC card and not handing over victory points for using it...this assumes of course that TAC cards are being used. For those players that prefer to play without them, these groups don't have much draw to them.

[Quickdraw]

Agreed that the TAC card isn't necessarily a big draw.
The specialist groups don't provide the same TAC card addition, but those look even more compelling.

[captainrockman]

I was just looking at the old blog post on Spartan's site and they mentioned updates ORBATS for the allies and mercenaries. He said they would arrive a month later, which should be anytime now.

Does anyone have high hopes?

Personally, I hope the PLC get some buffs or even just some changes. At the moment there is only one major playstyle, so it would be nice to see some diversity.

[Quickdraw]

I think that's standard for most of the minor powers.
In my opinion the minor powers are perceived as too powerful and they'll see similar changes to bring them down to the major powers level.

[captainrockman]

I can definitely see the Australians or Danes as appearing OP. I don't see any major weaknesses in their fleets (from playing against them).

I assume that nerfing the major nations would compensate for any imbalance anyway.

With Christmas around the corner though, the time might be right for some new allied boxes coming out. I'm interested to see where they go with the Greeks, Egyptians, and Chileans. They all could have very iconic ship designs.