It’s good to be the King!

By Mack Martin

Salutations, Chooms!

We wanna try something new. Since AdeptiCon, our design team has been discussing ways to adjust the metagame in small nudges. It’s easy to make big swings, typically require for knocking a powerful character back down into a more reasonable place (I’m looking at you Cyber-Enhanced Security), but it can be much more difficult to raise a character, or dare I say it a whole faction, in power level.

In theory, the critical tuning knob would be the EB cost, right? After all, if a model is too weak for its points… just lower the points! It’s the whole point of having points in the first place. For the most part, that’s exactly the right way to handle an under-tuned model. But ours is a game of synergy and [RE]action, so there are some models that just isn’t the right tool for.

One of those types are Leader models. Since every team has to have a Leader, the model type tends to set the tone for the entire team. It also has the privilege of being an efficient model, typically one of the strongest one team fields. This makes simply lowering their cost less useful, as there’s the added opportunity cost of choosing a different, more powerful/synergistic, Leader. That’s where our new Iconic Gear pack comes into play!

This pack of 14 cards (coming to the webstore Friday July 26th) adds the Iconic keyword to gear. Simply put, the Iconic keyword will list a character (such as Iconic: Maximum Mike). This means ONLY that model can equip the gear. Simple ‘nuf, neh? And in the interest of fairness… every current Leader gets one! In general, these cards are on the lower SC side (usually between 0-3), and they aren’t very expensive either (so they won’t break your EB budget). This lets them function as another “level up” point for your team, as your Leader gets a new toy as a reward for guiding their team to glory.

How about I tease them all for you right now?

Fixer Hookups: The first and only non-Iconic card in the pack. It allows a character to bring a piece of gear from another faction. We’re hoping to open up new combos and team builds going forward, and this card is one step towards that vision. It’s like Butter Bards in that regard. It’s not game shaking, but it does give every team some new tricks.

Adaptive Digital Agent (Agent In Charge): This lets the Agent In Charge handle Combat Netrunning and it helps protect the Agent from hacked tokens. It gets exhausted fairly easily, so your rival can shut it down, but it’s nice to have that extra layer of net defense.

Assertive Badge (Maximum Mike): This frees up Mike’s ability to function not only on models of another faction, but also at Long Range! It's a significant boost to the Lawmen’s board control, allowing them to spread out a little more than they can now. This is especially useful in big games with bigger battlespaces.

Night Market Surplus (Fixer Arms Dealer): Not every loot card is useful at any given moment, so this ability lets FAD here discard unwanted loot cards to give nearby friendly models a +1 to a Ranged attack for each card discarded. It won’t be used all the time… but I think we can all imagine a situation where discarding a trio of loot cards is worth a +3 to a critical attack.

Sheisty of the Faceless (Street King): Already a potent commander, the Street King’s gear keeps him in action between games by reducing his Major Injury rolls to one RED if he’s taken out (instead of two). As an added bonus, it gives his visible team Defense: Influence +2, making them harder to sway when rivals are looking to disrupt the gonk advance.

Rapideploy Sheath (Team Lead): This item grants a simple melee attack, but when used as a [RE]action, the gear can be exhausted to refresh the spent token. This can effectively gives the Arasaka’s Team Lead an extra melee [RE]action each Inspire round!

Sledgehammer Reverse-Cybergrip (Hammerlord): Another special melee attack, this let’s the Hammerlord come around with a second (less powerful) hammer attack (it’s got Deadly Crits and Stun 1 Crits). If you’re looking to knock some heads, this won’t hurt! Eagle-eyed Maelstrom players might note that this is a Hammerlord gear, not a Warlord gear. The Warlord doesn’t have an Iconic gear card in this pack… but don’t worry, he’s not forgotten!

Scratch-Built Custom Face-Welder (Industrial Tech Supervisor): An uncomplicated Deadly Crits attack with the ITS’s big welder, the attack becomes Deadly against Cyber-characters. If you’ve got a cyber’d up monster across the table, the ITS just got a lot better at disassembling it.

Designed-To-Intimidate Handcannon (Hard-Boiled Detective): One of my favorite RPG weapons is the “Very Heavy” pistol… and the weapon in HBD’s icy grip certainly qualifies! It’s a Deadly and Difficult yellow range attack helping him put down a charging cyber-psycho.

Glove Overcharger (Apex): Our little urchin is all growed up (sniff). While his Powerglove is good for controlling rivals, this upgrade also lets it make a Deadly Crits melee attack. In addition, when this crits, it throws a Vulnerable token on the target. Good for targeting lynch pins in your rival’s strategy!

Modular Cyberhand (Iconoclast Rockerboy): First, it gives him a +1 Melee, which I’ve yet to hear complaints about. In addition, the gear can be exhausted for a non-Attack reroll. Sure, you’ll lose the extra Melee skill while it’s turned off, but you’ll learn when to make that trade.

Mad Hat (Big Top): One of the catalysts for the whole concept of Iconic gear, Big Top just got a whole lot more uh… top heavy? First, this gear is a 2 armor item, which helps keep Big Top alive and trickin’. Even better, he can choose to suffer a wound when the armor fails, making it stick around. And finally… the Bit Top let’s him target Red-Lined models with his Giggle Juicer as if they were gonks. So spray away!

Lucky Skidrow Trench (Pyscho Hunter): No stranger to the shadows, this armor item also lets him use his Hardboiled luck tokens to reroll his own rolls, giving the ability a bit more flexibility. After all, you gotta find creative solutions when you’re hunting the monsters this man stalks.

Mimic Kimono (Oyabun): This armor 2 kimono can be exhausted to treat your Fumbles as Crits when rolling against the obstacle die. This makes the Oyabun a lot more reliable when charging to the fray through scenery.

Whew… ok that’s all. Time for me to go nuke-a-ritto.