October 2021 ORBAT Updates

[Ruckdog]

Major updates have been made to the ORBATs:

https://www.dystopianwars.com/factions

From a member of the FB group, here is a quick (and I suspect, incomplete) summary:

Hello fellow dystopians!
All ORBATs been updated! Head to the faction section of the website to download yours:
https://www.dystopianwars.com/factions

Brief summary of the changes:

-almost all ships got an armor boost by 1 (though ships got a bit slower, you wouldn't notice)
-taking a generator now makes a ship cheaper by 10 pts,
-a generator can be on only one ship in a unit, doesn't have to be on all or you can mix.

Generators were changed a bit too:
-Atomic - no bonus to Citadel (well, ok?),
-Fury - only +1 to Speed (not +2 anymore)
-Repulsion - additional +2 SDV defense (not much you say? Have you ever faced the British fleet then?),
-Magnetic - can distribute disorder tokens to Areal units (which doesnt sound like a big thing now, but we will see more flying units soon),
-Shroud - model carrying it doesn't have to be Initial target (this one is vague to me - can you just ignore it for LOS purposes?)

There are certain faction specific changes:
-Imperium just got their own better Hypatia (what?!)
-Ice Maiden is now Iron Maiden - Armor boost in line with others is coupled with Hull increase - now you need not 128 hits to sink it, but rather 215!

[Covertwalrus]

 Reading from reports on the Sturginium Lounge page on Facebook, Chinese Empire players are not impressed.

"I mostly play Empire. And, to be honest, it is not easy. Most of our special rules are situational or require setup or tradeoff. Don't take me wrong- I see it as a good game design, but compared to other factions it often seems lackluster.
So. Some salty thoughts.
Mark of yama- requires cooperation between an least two different groups. With additional cards like "remove an effect from any ship anytime yolo", it is almost pointless. You struggle to make a setup with no return... All the while rails will tear you to shreads at 40' range. From experience- not fun. Also, to even use it, you need to bump price of your units- Jian jumps from 88 to 94, while superior Blucher sits tight on 86.
Shadow hunter was yeeted from Chinese ships in the previous update- shame, since good placing gave us a fighting chance.
Backpaddle is great if you need to change your facing in a tight spot. But using it makes our ships slow to the point of stationary. Jian insted of making 7+2" would make 5" (7-2). (And to compare, union would move 8+2. Imperium would make 8+2. Everyone would make 8+2).
Our "bonus" flamer attack was setup intensive and is useless now- everything amd their mom has armour 6 right now compared to 6 dice on the attack and no support. The only way to have any mileage from them is in concert with 2/3 other flamers or hoping our targets had a disorder before (alchemical rule)... Why. Would. We. Even. Care?
-1 movement. We were the slowest before. Now we are The Stationary. Makes flamers less that obsolete.
Max cruiser squadron is 4 ships- may be good for squadron survivability, shitty for manouvering- even with backpaddle.
Our cruisers cost as much as Imperium ones with: more difficult fire arcs, less mvm, inconsequential rules. Save for backpaddle, that helps to mitigate problems with arcs. In exchange for disorder. Which the Imperium ignores.
Three previous points make taking full named fleet less than appealing prospect. And i really like Ning Jing battlefleet. Plaese don't punish me for that.
Our generator is useless against meta builds.
Additional mobility will be less consequential now, and Piercing and Arc are restricted to 3 factions. And they have overabundance of them."

Stuart just said " Read the new Orbats. You'll be happy"
 But that is his stock answer to most critiques.

[Ruckdog]

Got a video up on YT now to discuss the major changes I found:

http://www.manbattlestations.com/blog/2021/10/10/mbs-youtube-dw-3-0-orbat-updates-october-2021/

 Reading from reports on the Sturginium Lounge page on Facebook, Chinese Empire players are not impressed.

"I mostly play Empire. And, to be honest, it is not easy. Most of our special rules are situational or require setup or tradeoff. Don't take me wrong- I see it as a good game design, but compared to other factions it often seems lackluster.
So. Some salty thoughts.
Mark of yama- requires cooperation between an least two different groups. With additional cards like "remove an effect from any ship anytime yolo", it is almost pointless. You struggle to make a setup with no return... All the while rails will tear you to shreads at 40' range. From experience- not fun. Also, to even use it, you need to bump price of your units- Jian jumps from 88 to 94, while superior Blucher sits tight on 86.
Shadow hunter was yeeted from Chinese ships in the previous update- shame, since good placing gave us a fighting chance.
Backpaddle is great if you need to change your facing in a tight spot. But using it makes our ships slow to the point of stationary. Jian insted of making 7+2" would make 5" (7-2). (And to compare, union would move 8+2. Imperium would make 8+2. Everyone would make 8+2).
Our "bonus" flamer attack was setup intensive and is useless now- everything amd their mom has armour 6 right now compared to 6 dice on the attack and no support. The only way to have any mileage from them is in concert with 2/3 other flamers or hoping our targets had a disorder before (alchemical rule)... Why. Would. We. Even. Care?
-1 movement. We were the slowest before. Now we are The Stationary. Makes flamers less that obsolete.
Max cruiser squadron is 4 ships- may be good for squadron survivability, shitty for manouvering- even with backpaddle.
Our cruisers cost as much as Imperium ones with: more difficult fire arcs, less mvm, inconsequential rules. Save for backpaddle, that helps to mitigate problems with arcs. In exchange for disorder. Which the Imperium ignores.
Three previous points make taking full named fleet less than appealing prospect. And i really like Ning Jing battlefleet. Plaese don't punish me for that.
Our generator is useless against meta builds.
Additional mobility will be less consequential now, and Piercing and Arc are restricted to 3 factions. And they have overabundance of them."

Stuart just said " Read the new Orbats. You'll be happy"
 But that is his stock answer to most critiques.

Looking at the Empire ORBAT (Version 1.03b), at least a couple of the points being made above are factually incorrect; the points for the Jian, for example, are different than what's listed here. Beyond that, i can't really say, as I haven't played any games with these rules. From the discussion, it sounds like the OP is having a hard time with Imperium specifically. That could be due to power balance problems, or it could be indications of those two factions being a bad matchup.

EDIT: Just checked the FB thread, and it looks like there were not one, but two minor edits to the orbat since the OP put their thread up. Sounds like at least a few of their points were addressed by those changes.