With the Rebel commandos and Scout troopers close (ish) behind here is my personal hope that the unrelieved sniper upgrades will be able to do for this game.

Something along the lines of "Designate X dice in this attack pool, if any of these dice roll an unmodified crit, you may choose which model in the defending unit must save against this wound."

Just something that will help keep things such as Z-6's and DLT's from being auto spammed as this game grows.

Cool idea.

27 minutes ago, Rustbucket3437 said:

With the Rebel commandos and Scout troopers close (ish) behind here is my personal hope that the unrelieved sniper upgrades will be able to do for this game.

Something along the lines of "Designate X dice in this attack pool, if any of these dice roll an unmodified crit, you may choose which model in the defending unit must save against this wound."

Just something that will help keep things such as Z-6's and DLT's from being auto spammed as this game grows.

An interesting idea, though I’d be surprised if they put that on a stock heavy weapon. At the (rumored) unlimited range that would be an auto take. Right now the only way to do this is force choke, which is extremely short range and a force upgrade.

I don’t think the fact that you never see naked (un- upgraded) trooper units is a huge issue. The heavy options are what defines and differentiates a unit from its peers.

I think the reason you see so much Z-6 and DLT is just because their exhaustible counterparts are in a bad spot right now.

There will be more diversity as the game matures.

Heavy weapon ubiquity is fine. Naked trooper squads are boring. It would be nice to see more variety in the special weapons, but the problem is that the exhaustable weapons just aren't worth it.

As far as what the sniper rifles do... It looks like they'll be infinite range with the new high velocity keyword.

I'm guessing ~34ish points, exhaust, 1-2 red dice, high velocity keyword, 4 and beyond.

21 minutes ago, WAC47 said:

I'm guessing ~34ish points, exhaust, 1-2 red dice, high velocity keyword, 4 and beyond.

I don't think it will be 4 and beyond. Perhaps minimum range 3(can't shoot at range 2 or less). At least can't shoot at range 1 if anything, unless this guy is quick-scoping dudes. 34 points seems high for 1-2 red dice when DLT throws 2 red at 4 already. But maybe the 34 is about right when I'm assuming the sniper will have pierce and sharpshooter.

Pierce at that range would be amazing.

If it gets a second keyword besides high velocity my money would be on suppressive.

Yeah I feel like an auto 1 wound would be about right for 34 pts plus the cost of the base unit.

I think a cost in the low-to-mid-30s seems right. We could break down various other elements to make a guess: base cost of Rebel Commandos is 15-16, stormtrooper's DLT is 13 points (after subtracting 11 points for the base cost of the mini). That puts it at 28-29 points. Toss in a few points for increased range (I'm guessing 3-infinity), High Velocity, and I would assume Pierce and that puts it into the 30s.

I think Pierce makes sense as the idea behind a sniper - to me - is low volume, high quality shots. But I could see a thematic argument for Suppressive. Really curious to see what they decided on. I don't think we'll see a keyword that hasn't been spoiled yet as I highly doubt we'll get another RRG iteration before Commandos are released.

19 hours ago, nashjaee said:

I think Pierce makes sense as the idea behind a sniper - to me - is low volume, high quality shots. But I could see a thematic argument for Suppressive.

Cumbersome would also be thematic - and a drawback that would help keep its cost down.