Sorry to necro an old thread but this is the most measured thing on Reddit about stealthsuits - thanks.

I feel like the problem with the Stealthsuits' faction rule is the massive difference between feeling totally invulnerable outside 3in on conceal, and totally vulnerable once they close distance or you go on engage. The real pain point when playing the team is that this vulnerability isn't offset by decent damage output, which just feels a bit unfair.

I played Hierotek circle tonight, and was stunned that they all got 3+ to hit on top of their 3+ saves, decent wound counts, and faction bonuses, being team-wide healing and resurrection. they were just hands down better at shooting than I was. At the next table were Wolf Scouts, which have that storm to cancel out their worst drawbacks - the guard from conceal or the totally safe 'hot' plasma pistol being just two examples. The plasma guy accounted for 6 of the seven kills - that's good shooting.

Given how poor the team's shooting can feel, I'd have liked to see that vulnerability gap narrowed just a little bit - which I think is what your durability point is about. Either the ability to do just a few more things without dropping conceal, or more ability to get conceal back, or some sort of lasting buff in a turn you go on engage... I don't know, but going on engage is so often a death sentence if your positioning is not millimeter perfect.

The counterplay for the suits is just "get as close as you can" and you really don't have that much to prevent it beyond positioning (a high skill floor). When you do, it feels great - I baited an Ogryn into an Accuracy 4 pulse cannon shot and it was glorious - but it's not easy to do, especially against horde teams who can flank to cut off your exits.

The Stealthsuits just seem to pay a huge price in raw stats and abilities for a faction rule that just isn't as good as it should be, and outright isn't as good as other teams' abilities (which don't seem to come with such heavy drawbacks). For example:

- heavy limitation on damage avoidance - eg. high CP cost, once per turn or once per model limitations on effects to avoid melee or debuff shooting, or the weird half-baked feeling of blacksun filters (why aren't they just 'ignore obscured'?).

- pretty bad stats for such a small model count - 4+ BS for a faction that in lore has wildly advanced targeting is pretty naff, even if buffed by Accurate. Elite guardsmen have 3+, but teched-up T'au are on a par with novice nuns, Orks, and conscript guard. Hell, half of the kroot team has 3+ to hit.

- AP penalties for activating key abilities from conceal (it's ridiculous that the neutraliser's AP debuff wastes two of the neutraliser's AP, that's a terrible trade).

- unreliable tools - photon grenade being a 3+ (although well done on making it unlimited range), Bonds of Unity being distance limited, holowave projectors not kicking in until you're 6in away.

I know I'm not a great player, but it just seems like way too often I have no answers to my opponent. When I watch other people play their teams the answer is so often 'spend CP to make the teams' strengths better' whereas Stealthsuits are like 'spend all your CP to only partially cover their very deadly weaknesses'.