Sorry if I spoiled anything for you wasn’t my intention. Thought most ppl had played single player and had a game with it or against it. Was rocket science so didn’t see it a problem to write it. Cannot say wether or not ppl I played that had Ivan played bad but he just haven’t wrecked any havoc against my toons yet. I want to try him myself at a point.
You are right that 300 HP gives an advantage and in smaller stages he can be cannon fodder for advance but I personally wouldn’t let him close and I can run and shoot and still cover more ground. He would have been more fun as melee class. ( beefy and powerful) if only he wasn’t so slow.
As to the cover it seems the type of cover has something to say since I had my Dave attacked by t slugga in two different games when he was in cover. One green and one red. Behind re it was reduced.
Some words on melee weapons
I think that may(?) exist for most knockback melee, not that it really matters with the sledgehammer. I remember some odd drops in damage back when I still used the slugga.
The new update made a few fixes.
e.g. knife now costs 3 energy instead of 2
Seville Slugger costs 4 instead of 2
Karma Katana costs 4 instead of 2
look for yourself
with friendly regards
me
The Expansions are perfect in my opinion. They are OPTIONAL give EXTRA content ( while you already have a lot) and are not too expensive.
The new characters are awesome. You made a good theme there (it’s a riot) [ I try to picture it in my head like "it’s a trap 
"] They fill the gap of missing heavy units ( the game had 2 before, now 4) they have a new variety of skills and an awesome design. but… I cannot see myself using the heavy Sniper-class with the melee weapon with which he comes 
The new shotgun is good ( and a special weapon for Megan McNick ) although i could not test it … the new melee weapon looks nice.
We will see where the increase of ernergy-cost for the melee-weapons will lead the game. It is a tough cut-down. Some weapons lost ~30% …like knirly knife (37dmg / 2energy = 18.5dmg per energy /// 37dmg / 3 energy = 12.3dmg per energy 18.5 - 12.3 = 6.2 18.5 /6.2 ~ 0.3) some weapons lost 50%.like seville slugger ( 50dmg / 2energy … 50dmg / 4energy … ) It will defenetly cut down the use of melee weapons but i yet can’t tell you how this will effect the gameplay.
overall it is an awesome update for my favourit game in the appstore.
just one thing to mention.
I fear that people who are new to the game will complain about the high cost of iAP and the allusion towards them.
But there are always haters
once more from my point of view : your ready for the worldwide release. I’m looking forward to see the game climbing the charts 
with friendly regards
tinker
I finished all new challenges and now playing “Bigger Ben” challenges with new units (Dee and Gus, I had some coins saved for Ivan). Here’s my current impressions.
The Expansion is a good way to expand the game. I really like the idea to provide new maps by IAP as new maps always change the game itself. Although I’m not sure how it works in online games (both players need to buy the map?). Additional challenges are enjoyable and gives new players some chance to learn the game and gain some coins which allow to buy a unit.
The new units are really fun to use. Dee’s shield is quite useful and flexible and Gus is a nice medic with some ranged attack ability. I haven’t got Juan yet, but as far as I see him in the challenges, he looks quite interesting. His Molotov cocktail seems to be a weaker version of Kate’s gas grenade, yet you cannot stop it by healing ability. I really like these new units.
For melee weapon, I’m feeling that they are too much weakened. Now, shotguns are far better close combat weapons. Pumpington SG will deal much more damage to the adjacent enemy than Sevilla Slugga, with same Squad point, with longer range. Even new Stumpington SG will deal same amount of damage with Sevilla Slugga, with only 3 energy cost. There are also some imbalance between melee weapons. Katana (one of my favorite weapons before update) is now just a larger knife. Its damage-per-energy-cost is almost same with Knarly Knife. I don’t think it worth 5 squad points.
These are my first impression. I will be back to online games once I finished Bigger Ben challenges and testing new units. Then my impression might be changed.
Anyway I’m enjoying the update. Great Job!
That’s what i feared
The cut down is too hard.
Yet i think that, if you cut it down - make 3 energy to all melees instead of 4 or even more.
I haven’t tested it too much yet but i think the dmg of the knirly knife is “ok”. it does more then other 4-squad-point-weapons but less than other ones.
But i’m not totally sure about it.
Just one thing. It might be that the riot shield has too much hp. maybe lessen it to 200?
a good setup of it might win you the game easily: you set it up with (dee?) and a cold audomatic, behind him a commander with hoo-hah ar and a sniper with otto semi-auto on small places with other obstacles (e.g. “Park” in one of the inner corners as i’ve seen it yesterday) the shield gets less damage because it got cover from the front. I could not really outwalk the enemy and attack from the side because he had firepower…
and he could cut down my hp from round to round. ( this is NO statement , just my impression from the first sight of it )
but to come back to the topic. I guess YOUR problem with the melee-weapons is now gone… we will see how the game will change now.
well. it is still an awesome update and awesome how you made it with the expansions, the melee-weapons / weapon damage overal will probably often be debated here.
with friendly regards
tinker
As my problem is “imbalance between weapons which kills strategic fertality”, not just a “overpowered melee weapons”, I’m afraid that my problem has not gone. Just let me point one simple thing. All of the current melee weapons are weaker than old knife in damage-per-energy-cost. The most expensive Salad Jammer has onky 18 DPEC (90/5), although previous version of Knarly Knife (the weakest melee weapon) has 18.5 DPEC (37/2). This will suggest how strong melee weapons were in the past, and how weak melee weapons are right now.
Now I’m back to online games so we will see how it changed.
Agree. Or even to 150 maybe. It seems that it’s pretty easy to keep out opponent from the central zone using Dee’s shield in some maps. His shield (250 Hp with recovery +50/turn) is hard to breakthrough in 5 turns, especially in 14 points match.
As topic starter it’s probably expected I weigh in on my thoughts, though I’ll deviate from melee weapons to talk about “general first impressions” too because holy wow new stuff.
I’m with everyone else here. EL-CO summed it up nicely, and in my personal opinion, 3AP should be the new norm. I appreciate the thought behind making the heavy hitters cost more than some of the lighter ones, but just as last time, the katana skirts the edge of acceptable for what should define melee weapons’ role and damage output in the game. I could have brought this up earlier perhaps [the store changes betrayed what was coming in the update - minus the expansion stuff of course], but didn’t think it right to.
I think the most exciting part of the update to me was seeing a Medic with an AR, but was a little let down that it was just for the artwork. That certainly isn’t to sell short the rest of the update though - I’m pretty excited to see what some of the new troops have on offer, though what’s been brought up about Dee has me dreading my first run in with him.
From what I’ve played, people who haven’t purchased the pack can’t have games they start be on those maps, but others that did can still have people that haven’t purchased the packs play on them - which is good.