Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Steamroller 2018 CID - Week One

The first iteration of the newest Steamroller 2018 scenarios were released on Monday, and by now, even those not on the CID forums have likely gotten a look at what's coming. Overall, it's far less drastic of a change than we saw moving from SR2016 to SR2017. Champions will require specific themes rather than only casters, the Divide & Conquer rule is gone, and three of the six steamroller scenarios have changed.







The Pit II (championship belt), Standoff (two circles, two rectangles, two objectives), and Spread the Net (you know the one) remain the same.

Breakdown (barbell) changes to "Invasion", and sees the rectangular zone in the center rotated vertically, allowing for that zone to be more easily reached. Also, objectives have been added. This allows for an extra point swing on one round, plus allows pathfinder to get through that central forest.

Outlast (boobs and flags) changes to "Mirage", which is by far the most interesting new scenario. The two circle zones become offset, and the two flags become three, positioned diagonally. Solos are incredibly valuable on this one, and it's possible to score quite a lot of points at once if you get the right positioning. We'll see how well this one survives CID.

Lastly, Recon II (two vertical rectangles) stays Recon II. The only change is that the two flags move to the inside corners of the rectangular zones.

These new scenarios aren't a huge change, but I'm fine with that. What I'm interested in is why there are no new objectives? Is it that they're not releasing them until week two? Or is it a done deal that they're not changing? We used to have six options, each with one ability, and now there are only three, each with one. While thankfully the three that we presently have are all useful, (pathfinder, magic weapons, healing) I'm wishing there were one with impervious flesh, or one that created smoke clouds.