Here’s the really challenging one to sort out.
I’ve increased many of the points costs, and shuffled around a few of the abilities. That makes the nasty combos much more expensive. However, that’s probably not enough.
To balance out the flexibility somewhat, the team is not allowed to purchase CD: they simply don’t work well as a team in that way.
Finally, the limitations of small workshops mean that they can’t focus exclusively on the specialists (which take lots more time to develop and finesse). The contracts with the DGB require them to field teams rather than single cool players, so, they must take at least as many Jacks as they have Guards and Strikers. That change should also help in league play.
I’ve not included a minimum number of players as a requirement as several people suggested because I think this is more properly a global rule if it’s needed at all.
Quirkworthy 
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I don’t think the rule about having a number of Jacks equal to the number of Strikers and Guards is a problem, nor do I think it will help that much with cutting down on the power-level of this team. At least on paper, the higher costs are more in-line with sanity, but losing the Coaching Die is excessive. With the Zees (the only other team who cannot have them), they have a mechanism for some of the time getting temporary bonuses, even though they are banned from the best upgrades in League play due to the dice restriction. The Mechanites, as a team, lose too much with the loss of the dice.
I don’t know if I’ll have time to take these for a test-drive before you need to hand in the final version, but I suspect the Jack limit won’t matter, and the CD will. It will be fun to make a team, at least.
Does the “no coaching dice rule” apply only at inception though? I understand the fluff, but as other have said, no access to CD at all is pretty harsh… while just not allowing them to buy any at the start is in line with other teams that don’t start with CD.
It’s permanent. Harsh, yes. But they must have some fairly dramatic restrictions to counter tight many benefits.
aren’t strikers a bit expensive? 13 points is the cheapest striker possible and that gets you
move 4, strength 5, speed 5, skill 4 with steady.
the annoying thing is that they purchase skill 4 on the body and then have to pay 4 points for 2 arms which also give skill 4.
the fact you have to buy 2 arms makes every possibility over priced.
i still don’t get why hand and claw have their own entries when there is no difference.
i think you need to write:
hand/claw no upgrade free
and then reduce all other arm options by 1 point.
* if you buy an upgrade that doesn’t actually improve your stat or give you an ability you didn’t already have you don’t pay for it… that is why there is redundancy in the arm category.
wait didn’t see the line about only paying for a prat if it improves the player my mistake, still i think you need to condense claw and hand if they don’t do anything different.
They’re listed separately simply because they are different models in the sprue. It’s only one line, and I think it’s clearer being separate.
How will rolling “keeper” for a guard upgrade work? Is there a way to create one from the beginning? I would imagine you could since Mechs are boiled down to code and parts.
I’m sure you will have plenty of parts to add Striker or Jack arms to a suitable Guard/Keeper Frame… just pick your bulkiest bitz but give them the Dreadball Glove… I may actually steal some Mechanite Arms and use them on my Plague to represent “Upgrades” and XP gain =p
Ok, I’ve thought long and hard before posting here, and played 6 games with a couple of builds.
My initial thoughts were that the changes were far too harsh, but looking deeper that doesn’t seem to be the case
Firstly, here are a few interesting player builds, stuff in brackets is to illustrate how pimped out you can make each role, I don’t really think it’s worth doing though:
Guard, Quad Legs, Body A, Tank, Air Cannon, Ram
11mc 4/4/5/5/4 Steady, Shove
Guard, Quad Legs, Body C, Cranehead, Grab, Wrecking Ball
17mc 4/3/5/5/4 Steady, Gotcha (Add 1 Move for 2mc, Pile-Driver for 3mc, CFaT for 4mc)
Jack, Quad Legs, Body C, Slim, Hand, Claw
7mc 4/5/5/4/4 Steady
Jack, Monowheel, Body B, Cranehead, Wrecking Ball, Claw, Tactics Upgrade, Situational Awareness
24mc 6/3/4/4/4 Gotcha, RI, Alert (Add Stretch for 2mc, Duck & Weave for 2mc)
Striker, Monowheel, Body C, Quadeye, Hand, Claw
13mc 6/5/4/4/5
Striker, Bird Legs, Body B, Radar, Hand, Claw, Motion Focus
20mc 6/5/4/3/5 Duck & Weave, Fragile, Stretch (Add ASPOH for 3mc)
These can combine to offer various powerful teams especially with a couple of cards. Note that you’re paying 13mc for a Striker with Judwan stats, that’s pretty good imho. The 7mc Jack is now balanced and very interesting as he may be required to enable specialists. The 24mc Jack proved a nightmare in our tests, Run Interference with Gotcha and Alert meant he just threw threat hexes everywhere and 3+ strength is always nice.
The 11mc Guard is lots of fun, that guy gets people out of the way very effectively.
The changes mean that good guards are now very expensive, which is as it should be when the team can have such effective strikers. Making Jacks necessary works really well. These are still pretty strong, but not imbalanced.
Quick recovery seems wildly overcosted though.
Thanks 4rmless, some good examples.
Quick recovery is not an ability I want to see often in this team, hence its expense. If it was only 1 or 2 points then you’d stick it on everything, and then it would quickly become an issue. Even if your opponent fluked getting one of the 20+mc monsters off, it could come straight back on, and that’s too good for cheap. I don’t think 4mc is excessive.