Introducing Eschatonic Well and Warcaster: Remix!
Eschatonic Well is the unofficial companion app for Warcaster: Neo-Mechanika and is now available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store for download. Featuring a complete reference of model and cypher rules, a force builder, play mode, and much more. A big thank you to everyone who helped test the app and to Yord for his open source contributions.
Eschatonic Well is available for download on Android and iOS devices.
Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eschatonicwell.app
Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/il/app/eschatonic-well/id6760243247
Warcaster: Remix Unofficial errata
Warcaster: Remix is a community developed rebalance of Warcaster: Neo-Mechanika now releasing in open beta alongside Eschatonic Well. Eagle-eyed testers of Eschatonic Well have already noticed the “Remix” ruleset option available in the app, this means that the current Warcaster: Remix rules are already available right at your fingertips in Eschatonic Well.
For those of you who want a full changelist or do not have a mobile device the rules are also available here: Warcaster Remix Playtest Rules
Warcaster Remix FAQ
Q: What is Warcaster: Remix?
A: Warcaster: Remix is a community developed rebalance and refresh of the original Warcaster: Neo-Mechanika by Privateer Press to address balance issues, address rules ambiguity and improve list variety.
Q: Who is involved in the project?
A: Warcaster: Remix is being developed largely by competitive players in the Vancouver, BC Warcaster Community. We have collectively played nearly every model and cypher card over countless games, casual, league, and tournament, so we feel we have a good handle on which are overperforming and which are lagging behind.
Q: Why are you doing this?
A: Warcaster: Neo-Mechanika is a great game and for a first edition is remarkably well-balanced. However, though the external balance between factions is quite good, some factions have been lagging behind. In addition, some options, particularly some of the newer models, outperform other options. This leaves the variety of viable unit and cypher choices more limited than it should be.
Q: What’s the design philosophy behind the changes?
A: Our guiding star is to change as little as possible while opening up the viable options each faction can take and still do well with in a competitive setting. We only slightly changed the cypher rules and included errata, but otherwise left the core rules intact. Generally we have tried to take poor-performing options and address their flaws, we do occasionally reduce the power of overperforming options to prevent them from eclipsing other options. Although we are primarily focused on competitive balance, we also sought to improve the flavour of certain units that were somewhat stale.
Q: Why did you change the way cyphers work?
A: We were hesitant to change any core rules, as we feel the system largely works really well. That being said, one of the great strengths of Warcaster is how dynamic it is as a game, and we found that the existing cypher mechanics were at odds with this dynamism. Specifically, pulse round cyphers preventing players from using any same-coloured cyphers on that unit would frequently lock out options and trap players into bad positions, frequently new players. We also feel that this improves the balance of pulse round cyphers as pulse round cyphers needed to be very powerful to be worth taking, and this change makes more marginal cyphers viable.
Q: Why didn’t you remove Strength as a stat?
A: Although strength is largely only used for a handful of cypher cards, removing it would have caused a number of knock-on effects across the ruleset and would have required even more changes to properly remove. We decided it was better to leave Strength in place as is.
Q: Sprays are quite strong in Warcaster: Neo-Mechanika, why didn’t you change them?
A: We considered separating the ability to shoot through multiple targets from ignoring cover bonuses, but we felt that much like strength, changing sprays would involve too many variables to change cleanly and decided to leave them as-is.
Q: Stealth is a pretty weak rule, but you didn’t change it at all, why?
A: Although stealth is not very effective on skirmish-sized boards it still has an impact on the game. Buffing stealth would negatively impact the balance of primary scenarios where it has a more significant impact. Instead, we made stealth more meaningful by increasing the number of models that have base stealth instead of conditional stealth, such as mimetic cloak. In our testing we have found that this already does a lot to make stealth more impactful, and increases the value of anti-stealth options available.
Q: How does Remix interact with homebrew?
A: Because we tried not to change core rules, Remix should play nice with homebrew. All the changes we made were made with Skirmish and Primary scenarios in mind. We feel the balance is best with Primary scenarios, particularly those in Pendulum.
Q: How did you decide which factions got buffed and which got nerfed?
A: We meticulously reviewed every single model, weapon, cypher and cortex and assessed where they fit into the balance of the game, particularly in a post Kickstarter 3 environment. Generally we tried not to nerf things unless they were causing problems for either the external balance between factions or with list building. We noticed that Marcher Worlds were consistently falling behind, meanwhile the Iron Star Alliance was generally outperforming the other factions, and this is reflected in their winrates on Longshanks (see below). Although we don’t have a ton of data on Empyreans, we still noticed that their design was warping the meta in a way that made certain options less viable.
Q: Marchers are already strong, why did you buff them so much?
A: Although Marcher Worlds move very fast and hit very hard, their biggest weakness is that they play too “honest”, they particularly struggle in larger games where other factions can outmaneuver them. We didn’t want to kill that “honest” playstyle, but we did want to give them more tools to deal with the “underhanded” tactics of the other factions.
Q: Iron Star Alliance is so weak, why nerf all their good stuff?
A: ISA has the highest winrate on Longshanks and has consistently won tournament after tournament. Additionally, the Regulators Cadre, Aysa Drace and Eschatonic Well tended to overshadow the rest of the faction. We made a concerted effort to make other options more appealing while keeping their core strengths intact.
Q: Why did you do what you did with Aeternus Continuum?
A: Despite having a respectable 55% winrate, AC has some internal balance issues. Primarily we focused on the Kickstarter 1 units that we felt were lagging behind their newer options, such as the Terminus Cabal Cadre units. The Vassal units in particular, did not have a suite of abilities that complemented each other well, and we adjusted them to flow more naturally and to emphasize their strengths when compared to units like Talons.
Q: Why didn’t you nerf Empyreans all that much? Aren’t they busted?
A: The main issue we identified with Empyreans is that the Aeon cadre was shutting out huge chunks of the faction. Our primary focus was to open up options and to make the faction as a whole easier to fight against without having to take very specific tools. With the buffs we made to many other faction’s options from Kickstarter 1 and 2 we feel that Empyreans are in a good place.
Q: Is Warcaster: Remix finished? Are the changes set in stone?
A: Warcaster: Remix is being released in open beta. All the rules are subject to change and we are accepting feedback from the community at large.
Q: How can I provide feedback?
A: You can submit battle reports and other feedback to warcasterremixfeedback@gmail.com. When providing feedback please give some justification as to why you think a given model or cypher is overtuned/undertuned, preferably with a battle report. We can’t guarantee we’ll implement all suggestions, but we will make sure to read all feedback given.
