v.92 Rules Update Change Notes

Happy Holidays, Breachstormers! We hope that you're having a great holiday season, and want to brighten it with what we're sure is one of you're favorite gifts... Breachstorm balance changes!

We've gone through a comprehensive review of all our cards in what we expect to be one of the final updates to the game's beta version, and incorporated feedback from many community members over the last few weeks. With this update one focus we had was simplifying the rules and making them more transparent for new and incoming players. This includes removal or streamlining of some of the game's more opaque mechanics, and the introduction of new reminder text on many of the profile and upgrade cards, explaining the game's mechanics and how certain interactions should be played.

All these rules updates are now available for download on the Rules page.

Core Rules Updates

• Suppression mechanic rework - Units may now only be assigned one Suppression token at a time. The effect of Suppression tokens has changed to reduce the distance travelled by Moves by -2". One thing we weren't happy about was how differently Suppression worked to other debuff tokens, and while the effect was very evocative it ended up being parasitic to future designs. This new effect is easier to remember, remains in-line with other token effects, and in practice has a similar impact to the original mechanic.

• Breaching update - To add impact to Breaching mechanics, the effect of Breached obstructing terrain features now lasts for the remainder of the game. We hope to have more Breaching effects available to all armies in future releases.

• Brace defense removed - This defense has been replaced by Resist in all instances, and units that had it have received a commensurate hike in damage points. Since the v.80 update changed the game's damage values, we found that the mathematical distinction between Brace and Resist wasn't great enough to warrant maintaining the two, and more often than not just created confusion.

• Armor Piercing update - Armor Piercing now prevents all Armor defenses from being used, not simply the highest value.

Objective Card Updates

• Data Sabotage - Electronic Warfare now assigns one Suppression token to each enemy within 6" of a hacked terminal.

• Data Security - Mission parameters have been reworked to mirror those of Data Sabotage; terminals will be 'secured' by interacting and can be 'unsecured' by enemy interactions. Defender will score points based on the number of secured terminals as well as their proximity to those terminals. Data Security was previously very easy to deny scoring on, and we wanted to marry the 'hacking' mechanics of both it and Data Sabotage, so this was an easy fix.

• Evacuate Facility - The mechanics and mission parameters of this objective have been entirely redesigned to prioritize keeping Noncombatantss alive and near the extraction zone at the end of each round. Noncoms will respawn immediately when destroyed or evacuated, but are replaced by the attacker (at an Obstruction chosen by the defender), but all scoring occurs at the end of the round.

• Hold Position - Mission Parameters were rebalanced to score more heavily for having friendly troopers in the Holdout Zone, and alleviating the requirement of having units outside your Deployment Zone. While the objective is still contestable, it is much easier to score a baseline number of 3 VP each round.

• Scorched Earth - Demolishing obstructions are considered Breached for both players for the remainder of the game.

Profile Statcard Updates

Contractor Units

• Qairus, Synod Agent - PKP reduced to 3 (from 4).

Homeworld Confederacy Units

• M-TAC Breacher - Rapid Fire removed from G8 Combat Shotgun. Autonomous Breaching has been condensed into a single action, that can create, move, and/or detonate an ABM marker with a single action.

Volucrid Host Units

• Epulex Larvae has been renamed to Epulex Grub to better fit into the established lore for the Volucrid Host faction.

• Epulex Grub - Bite can now allow multiple Fury tokens to be gained over the course of the game.

• Epulex Incubator - Fresh Meat renamed to Repurposed Biomass. Infest tokens are now gained any time a unit within Rad is incapacitated, including any time enemies incapacitate each other, and even occasionally when friendlies do so.

• Volgox Firefly - The damage of all hit levels of Depositor Pulvillus increased by 1. Latch now places the Firefly in base contact with the target at the end of the attack, not during it.

Zhren'thrar Prides Units

• Khariphesh Dreamspeaker - Direct Rage reworked to only replace Fury tokens that are currently assigned to a unit when it is destroyed, instead of units when they are placed. This still allows a Zhren'thrar team to mitigate Fury loss when it loses units, but reduces the amount of snowballing and complicated combos available to the faction.

• Khash'Parah, Blade of Paqhat - Relic Sundering Spear Precise attack modifiers replaced with Armor Piercing. We found Khash'Parah slightly too efficient at removing enemy Field Officers once charged with Fury; this change will retain his ability to eliminate most Infantry, while taking 1-2 additional attacks to assassinate most officers.