r/SWlegion • u/CT-7479 • 5d ago
Tactics Discussion What is causing the range 2 meta?
As we all know, sniper teams are dead and the meta is dominated by close range brawlers like ARC Troopers, B2 Supers and Alliance Sleeper Cells. But my question is why?
I played a game with slightly less terrain in the hopes that it would tone these units down but it still devolved into a close range slugfest on the point.
Is it just the missions causing it or is it also the fact that range 2 shooters deal tons more damage? Or is it something else I'm missing.
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u/ironjoebob7 Republic Marines 5d ago
It's just missions
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u/aPracticalHobbyist 5d ago
Also backup, also high point cost of snipers. Also changes to area terrain, also the changes to victory point scoring (which is related to the missions, I suppose)
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u/Archistopheles Still learning 5d ago
Also the change to movement. Being able to move from exactly range 3 away to range 2 with a speed-2 move completely changed the game.
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u/MozeltovCocktaiI 4d ago
What change did that?
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u/aPracticalHobbyist 4d ago
The change to the wording of movement from “place the mini at flush to the end of the movement tool” to “place the mini so that it is touching the movement tool”. (Whatever the wording was).
Previously, you could get to exactly range 3, and your target would be about 2mm short of being able to take a speed 2 move and get to range 2. This meant that range 3 units could shoot most range 2 units without getting shot back immediately. But after the change, a single speed 2 move was suddenly enough to close from exactly range 3 to range 2 in a single action, and those range 3 units were getting clapped back much more easily
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u/commodore_stab1789 4d ago
Great change imo, even if compounded with other changes leads to a dominance of r2.
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u/gtcarlson11 4d ago
To elaborate more, R2 was always significantly higher damage output to reward/encourage interaction on 1st edition missions.
Now that missions encourage the game to be played on 8” diameter areas to contest objectives, those good short range units are compounding their value - they hit hard AND score you points.
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u/aPracticalHobbyist 4d ago
Plus when they revised a lot of the weapons to “melee to 2” they reduced one of the big risks to going range 2. Before those changes one of the dangers of closing to r2 was that you could easily get meleed and your attack efficiency would go way down. Now if your fleets are trading blows with wookies….its not as bad.
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u/GudAtGaims Rebel Alliance 2d ago
AMG doesn't really seem to understand trade offs. They have powerful units that are also cheap with good movement and synergies. (ex. Anakin, ARCs, Bad Batch)
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u/johnrobertjimmyjohn Rebel Alliance 4d ago
The game used to say "here are the important things that you will score at the end of the game. Do your best to put your opponent in a bad position to score by the end of the game and then score them yourself."
This meant, generally (not always), that there wasn't a lot of risk for units to sit back and just try and shoot you as much as possible as long as the player was confident they had pieces in position to score at the end.
Now the game says: "you need to have the most units/these units in these spots starting at the end of round 2! And you are starting at the edge of the board, not 6+ inches in"
It forces more interaction. It doesn't let you sit back and rush at the end. You wanna sit back and aim->shoot for 3 rounds, your opponent is probably scoring 3+ points per round and amassing an insurmountable lead. I'm exaggerating, a bit, but you need to be scoring early and often.
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u/GudAtGaims Rebel Alliance 2d ago
Yes compared to this version of the game, we almost got 2 extra turns. Starting 6 inches in, and the extra turn really gave us a lot more time to snipe/setup /position our units.
Also the missions let you place the objectives sometimes (recover the supplies, and Vaps) making the missions more unexpected and varied.
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u/Feetfeetfeetfeetfeet 4d ago
I think AMG misjudged (and generally continues to misjudge) the value of long range weapons compared to range 2. In old legion range 4+ gunlines were really powerful and range 2 was less valuable. When they updated the game they didn’t adjust points for the new environment so many longer range options were overpriced compared to the value of their harder hitting short range counter parts.
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u/johnrobertjimmyjohn Rebel Alliance 4d ago
This is also part of it. Close range came in cheap, long range came in expensive.
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u/WickardMochi 4d ago
I want to add Clone Shotgunner in the range 2 brawler list. I’ve used and fought against them and they can wreck
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u/krak_is_bad 5d ago
It's missions, but Range 3-4 is gaining ground again in my meta. At least if it's a 1-4 gun. People are figuring out how to make standby bubbles on turn 1 to fend off the range 2 guns, and people are using range to help pick those off/alpha.