New downloads available on Spartan's website for Fleet Battles. New generic commanders, errata/FAQ, and most importantly new stats for both the UNSC and the Covenant.
The biggest changes appear to be with the UNSC, especially with the Marathon and Valiant--which I think is a good thing. The Marathon got hit a couple times with the nerf bat, which I think is OK, because at BR2 and 95 points (unsupported) it's easy to fit a lot of them into your fleet list. The Marathon is now a little weaker, and the Valiant is now a little stronger, which again is good since one is a heavy cruiser and the other is a super-heavy cruiser. The Valiant becomes a real beast when paired up with Halberd destroyers. I gotta say, I wasn't sure about getting either model, but now I think I'll have to!
There were a couple changes in the errata that I'm not crazy about, but they aren't game-breakers (to me). MAC value 6 is no longer an automatic Vulnerable token; you have to roll a Halo die and get anything but a failure (skull). Vulnerable tokens no longer effect the element's damage track, but they still have the same effect on defensive rolls (point defense, titanium armor, defense arrays). I always had a hard time tracking the damage track effect, but I kinda still wish that was the rule. Also, Spartan clarified that specialist elements (elements with the yellow/gold damage track on their overlay) can ONLY be used in specialist battlegroups. Someone over on the Spartan forums noted this means you can't field the Combat Orion anymore, as it is a specialist element and there are no specialist battlegroups (right now) that contain the Combat Orion.
Anyway...I think this is a good step forward for the game as a whole, and I'm really glad they addressed the whole Marathon/Valiant issue.
