Did anyone else's meta find Abyssinia very strong in the beta?

[Jinn]

Obviously a lot changed between the start of the beta and the end of the beta and then will have changed again by release, but my (tiny) local group who played a few games found the card draw of Abyssinia very potent. I'm not trying to start a balance discussion when obviously the game's final incarnation isn't even out yet, I'm just trying to find out if anyone else had a similar experience pertaining to the beta version of Abyssinia, or if this was just my group overreacting. We had 1 player of each faction except for Gibbering Hordes, so a rather small sample size.

My faction during the beta was Abyssinia, so my opinion on whether or not they were too strong may be a bit biased. 

[retnab]

I found their card draw was pretty solid but that they spent their cards far more than anyone else too, so it more or less evened out.

[Lucidicide]

In terms of testing we got in, I'd say that the biggest thing was whether or not people knew the best ways to counter high armor. Weight of Actions, cheating damage instead of attacks, etc.

[Merchant]

seeing as they have 4 cheap units, mauraders, railgunners, the light cavalry and crow runners at 6. I feel like they dont need the ability to destroy the activation game.

looking at the card draw mechanics, I agree they are more likely to use them but every unit having a 25% chance to draw a card seems a little too strong. especially when rail gunners draw a card for flipping a 4, adjuncts giving you a card when their host unit ends activation and you get a card when anything dies.

It all seems a bit much when these guys are also the elite faction.

[Lucidicide]

They're far from 25% chance at drawing a card. The  has to come up on their Action duel (not Penetration and not the enemy's Action) AND they have to be successful... meaning that most of the low  will not net you cards (particularly as the attacker has to cheat first, so the defender can see card draw coming a mile away). 

If you assume that, in general, you'll need a 6+ to both succeed and have the suit, there are 9 cards out of 54 that will draw you a card (17%). Let's assume that you do go through your whole deck in a turn, and somehow only 2 of them come up during the opponent's Actions or during your Penetration flips. That means you've managed to get 7 out of the 54, or 13%. But still, you've managed to draw about 7 cards in a turn. My guess is that about half of them are probably subpar cards that are used for passing.

All in all, I just haven't seen it play out nearly as strongly as it might seem from random draw.

As to the cards when something dies, you draw when a unit dies. That's not a model or even a Fireteam. That's the entire unit. An average 2 Commander game probably has 9 Activations, so you're getting 9 cards after being tabled completely. Again, not the end all be all.

Throw this up against something like the Cult giving Shaken Tokens and picking their battles while teleporting, and suddenly the -2 AV from Shaken makes even fewer Tomes successful enough to draw cards, and you might have to use cards when you don't want to.

I certainly don't know the game is perfectly balanced, but I don't think Abyssinian resource superiority is going to be what breaks it. I guess time will tell.

[Merchant]

From what you say it doesnt sound as bad. I was going off the cards that are on the main site.  With the addition of the test needing to be successful that does make it more balanced. I still see 1-2 rail guns used as card draw/ cycling engines similar to Malifaux's philip. needing 1 ap a draw a card, if tomes draw an extra card. (or if cheated 4-7 of tomes) cycle a card. 

I was thinking it was fireteam dying for drawing a card, unit does seem pretty fair.

as with Cult their ability to give shaken is fairly strong but how often are they being used to debuff opponents rather than to stack for glory? 

[rancor709]

i have played Abyssinia a long long long time along with gibbering hordes and cult. for a long time in the test. Abyssinia can be in capable hands a very strong faction. But so can all of the allegiances. Abyssinia has its advantages but it pays a hefty price for those advantages.  

[retnab]

14 minutes ago, Merchant said:

as with Cult their ability to give shaken is fairly strong but how often are they being used to debuff opponents rather than to stack for glory? 

You'd be surprised! In games where I've run all-out self mill lists I can go through my deck 2-3 times a turn, or 8-12 Shaken Tokens besides what I'm giving out through actions. A couple will get used to glory my Cult models, but after about turn 3 the majority of my free ST's are going on enemy models

[Merchant]

seeing as im the only person here in on TOS i cant play test :0

[Adran]

13 hours ago, Merchant said:

seeing as im the only person here in on TOS i cant play test :0

I've often played games against myself to sort out the rules in my head. 

[gribble]

2 hours ago, Adran said:

I've often played games against myself to sort out the rules in my head. 

Are the rules actually available somewhere? Or are you using PT versions or something you put together from the videos?