Ginger wrote:
The issue is not how powerfull, or whether they activate or not. The issue is that they are a cheap activation, and currently the same as Scouts / Assaults! The question is whether they should be the equivalent cost or not.
Marines need to be able to time when they launch their attacks, and in Turn #1 this usually means using some cheaper activations, OW, CAP etc to time the activation of major formations etc. Now, if they were 200, the Marine player would be choosing between air-protection and Speeders / Bikes, and looking to Scouts / Assaults as an activation boost
Which in the end means they're using a 150 point formation (with a somewhat lesser impact on the game because it doesn't assault and it doesn't hold any ground like Scouts do) to do exactly the same thing. Why should a 2+ initiative unit doing it, be more expensive than a 1+ initiative unit doing it?
It seems the issue of "cheap activations" is more a problem of allowing more allies than marine formations, which to me seems to say a lower cap on Allies is more needed than a cost increase. Reduce the option for people to even take 3+ TBolt formations by limiting allies is better than hamstringing players who play "fairly" (and I use that term loosely) with the list. All that said, I'm not convinced that 3+ TBolt formations doesn't do more harm to the player using them as he's reducing his "effective" formation numbers on the ground. Sure it's a boost to activations but aircraft don't hold ground and that's a problem late game when your useful formations are broken or destroyed.
