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Glad to see another person checking out MERCS. It's a pretty slick little game with a very low buy in, especially if you already own some 28mm minis. Don't get me wrong, a lot of the MERCS figs are great but with a crappy economy it's tough to get new folks to plunk down $100+ dollars on a new game. A rulebook and two packs of faction decks (purchased for under $50 total) is how I started. Now I have half the factions!
One of the things about MERCS is you aren't going to see huge differences between the factions stats. Equipment is pretty standard for a faction. Assault rifles, sniper rifles, pistols, and heavy weapons are pretty similar in stats. It's faction synergy and tactics where you'll really start to notice a difference. So here's my assessment of each faction. I'm sure someone with more games under their belt than me can correct anything they feel is not right.
CCC - Central and East Coast U.S.. They have the hardest armor in the game to destroy (destroying someone's armor is a HUGE deal.) So hard, that even if you do wreck it it actually repairs itself if given enough time! They are also the only faction that can effectively field 2 heavy weapons - machine gun and a heavy flamer. A good, forgiving starter faction with quite a bit of staying power.
KemVar - South American ninjas. They all have a built in stealth function for their armor which means as long as the armor works they're in cover! This makes them extremely hard to sit and plink away at from long range. The cool tech comes at a price - the armor, once hit, is easily wrecked and hard to repair, KemVar really relies on maneuver to get in for short ranged and melee attacks. Wrecked armor means they're usually not moving anywhere and they're no longer automatically in cover. Folks think this is one of the overpowered factions. While they are tough, they're easy to kill once you do get a hit in.
USCR - like every game that features Soviets these guys are brutal. They have the highest armor levels in the game and are immune to small arms fire. They have a lot of kit that goes towards hampering their opponents movement and their heavy is the only one in the game that does not need a turn to set up his weapon before firing. Heavy armor means slower MERCS and working together is a huge part of their strategy since none of the USCR can both move and fire in the same turn. If you can isolate single USCR units, they usually fall pretty quick.
FCC - no, not the Federal Communications Commission (though that's what I always think of). This Middle East, anti-corporate team can be one of the harder factions to play. They have access to any mini in the game from any faction, Make a bad choice for your play style though and it gets tough for you. Those "guest" figures are not as good as their corporate counterparts so they lose their personal abilities as well as their corporate abilities unless you also field a Liason in your force. For example, the mighty USCR Behemoth taken on an FCC team loses the one power that allows him to move at all! The plus side to these guests is that you do get their special grenades for your Boomer (your heavy carries a grenade launcher) if the team has one (most factions do.) The rest of the faction if you play pure FCC is pretty average in armor and movement but can be a solid choice.
Sefadu - Africa provides us with a fast assault based force. Low (or sometimes no) armor values mean your troops are fast but easily wounded if hit. They excel at melee/short range like KemVar and have some nasty bonuses that start to stack once their leader starts hitting people. The double barrel shotgun is also quite a niffty little surprise. Their biggest asset is that they may always act, even if they fail a supression check (though at a penalty) and their fire numbers for moving and shooting are lower than everyone elses meaning there's no reason not to move, move move.
Keizai Waza - Japan brings us nuclear powered armor and, yes, a nuke. Possibly the most devastating weapon in the game, the Waza nuke is something to fear. Fortunately they only get one and it takes 3 team members to fire it. Kill one member and the nuke is useless. This means you almost always know the composition of a Waza team. The Waza get better as they get hurt (it'san honor thing I guess) and their super nuclear powered armor means they take less of a movement penalty when the armor does break (though it is really hard to repair once wrecked.)
ISS - there's not a lot of fluff that I've seen on these guys. What I can tell you is that they are made for mid to short range combat and then keeping you there.. They get an extra move at the start of the game after deployment and they have a nice automated turret they can set on overwatch during the couse of the game. The lightning gun is a cool piece of tech and when combined with the trident from the Calypso you can make some crazy shots as the heavy targets the thrown trident and the lightning arcs around corners to the next closest model (yes, this means your own guys too so be careful!)
Texico - Texas and Mexico give us your typical gun fighting, duster wearing, attack dog having hombres. Team tactics and stacking attacks is the theme of the day for these guys. They also booby trap everything so teams that rely on bounding to get across the table quick must check for traps when doing so. This can get messy quick for opponents. Their biggest weakness seems to be their lackluster armor values, with a lot of their MERCS being able to be hurt by pistols (the weakest weaopns in the game.)
Sorry for the long post. Hopefully I broke it up enough for it to be readable.
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