Having been out of the loop for a while, a simplified version of the rules doesn't sound like a bad idea - although at its core the rules are intuitive I did struggle to get new players attached to the game. Getting totally smashed in tournaments is another issue, quite often due to knowledge of depth of hacking and special rules, rather than any tactical acumen.
And it does feel like simplified games, faster to play, are the way everything is going now.
I read Starmada as Stomata at first. Eh. This is the GenCon bundle that was to be. Will CB keep the planned schedule of teasers, preorder et cetera. Sometime in 2-3 weeks we star seeing those things?
Shona Carano. Because nothing works better in discreet black ops than a frickin' Zweihander. At least the Knights use mere longswords. Bah.
Vertrucio wrote: A new Ariadne sectorial might be a good way to keep the most popular MRRF miniature in a sectorial.
I'm hoping they make a sectorial of the Stavka's Intelligence Services. They are already noted as drawing from each of the four nation's armies. so it would be a reasonable place for the remaining in-print MRRF minis to find a home.
I've not been keeping up on anything and I don't fully understand the context of this latest news but... going on the name alone "Starmada" sounds like a "navel warfare" style game, along the lines of Star Wars Armada or Halo Fleet Battles.
Soul Samurai wrote: I've not been keeping up on anything and I don't fully understand the context of this latest news but... going on the name alone "Starmada" sounds like a "navel warfare" style game, along the lines of Star Wars Armada or Halo Fleet Battles.
Starmada is apparently an O12 sectorial. But yes, does sound exactly like that.
I imagine it will be the space faring peacekeepers of the O12, kinda like a more lawful QK or Nomad force.
Not exactly news news, but the guys at Mayacast over the weekend pointed out they'd only just realised Angel Giradlez and Studio AG hasn't been painting the Infinity minis for quite a few months now.
He was exclusively painting for the for a while, right? I remember him painting up some Heavy Gear models years ago and then they announced something with him and CB.
Vertrucio wrote: Turnovers happen, although he would have had a lot to paint with the schedule they have.
Oh yeah. Plus I could see him wanting to branch out, having done the same range for so long. Just as the two brands were almost synonymous for so long it's worth remaking upon.
Vertrucio wrote: Turnovers happen, although he would have had a lot to paint with the schedule they have.
Oh yeah. Plus I could see him wanting to branch out, having done the same range for so long. Just as the two brands were almost synonymous for so long it's worth remaking upon.
He's always been just a contractor even when he had a location at CB he was never an employee. Probably what happened is other people are willing to pay more for him/his studio the CB currently is.
It's weird that they chose to make the Totes Not Cap'n America on Bike for a whole new Sectorial(called STARMADA) rather than USARF(which they jammed bikes down left and right).
TLDR:
Bikes make sense when you're short on manpower and need to cover large areas rapidly. When you have effective superiority in a technological aspect and don't need to worry too much about manpower?
The sense makes less and less, and bikes become something you want to avoid using when possible because you're just sending one or two operatives into a potential nightmare scenario by themselves.
It's a gorgeous sculpt, but it's a big ol' "meh" because it is just another partner produced item. If it was a relaunch of Merovingia, it might be a different story.
Alpharius wrote: It is an AMAZING miniature/statue/display piece!
I love it, and will most likely not be able to justify purchasing it based on its price, but...wow!
Also, is that mini no longer a thing in Proper Infinity?!?
Nope. Merovingia's been dead for awhile now. They gave us a token release of the Chasseur when they did it, and there's a wishywashy bit about how it might come back that everyone screams is proof positive it will.
Very cool looking. With the design in all likelihood being 3d modelled, there is always a chance that they'll come out with a 30-35mm version (what is the actual scale of human infinity models?).
No thirst-posting. No one wants to hear about y'alls werewolf-kink.
A nice sculpt. Mirage-5 could use a resculpt when MRRF is re-released. Is this a harbinger that the MRRF will be back in production soon? or just CB jerking our leash?
The book may be nice, if it includes all new updated background and not just reprints of the material in N1/N2/N3. I'd like to see the LE mini that comes with. Apparently it is called Oktavia Grimsdottir, Icebreaker's Harpooner. Sounds like an Aristeia! N4 cross-over. We certainly need more of those.
Pre-order begins 10 August IIRC, and there is a video released on 14 August. A friendly reminder.
Yeah, I made no mention of 0-12 and Starmada space cops in spaaaace.
MRRF will likely stay dead, but you can bet they'll fold the better selling MRRF armies into another sectorial. This is assuming sectorials are as big as deal as they were before, because I suspect that having more divisions within a game with a lot of army divisions might be less beneficial for sales.
The book may be nice, if it includes all new updated background and not just reprints of the material in N1/N2/N3.
That'd be like expecting GW to release a codex for a new edition that had entirely new background material.
Because you can't tell a new player "You need to buy the previous edition of the rulebook to find out what happened before now" there's a lot of background material that's going to need to be repeated, and there's probably going to be a few pages summarizing what's happened since N3.
Cronch wrote: So from now on all starters are going to be the expensive~10 -12 model ones?
Makes sense. I've had sooooo much more luck getting people started with the game since those came out. The game just seems to click for people when they sit down with a full size list over the 6 man starters. There's enough orders to generate a meaningful turn and enough pieces to create useful ARO considerations. It's also easier to buy stuff to swap into an existing army than it is to figure out what you should buy to fill out a partial list.
Alpharius wrote: Shona's Tactical Alien is already cut in half - does she really need to be stabbing it in the mouth too?
That is what I keep saying!
I would love Grimsdottir to be a widely available merc but I fear that with her name she is going to be mainly for Pan-O.
She's an 0-12 mini, according to her packaging. So a Space Cop. Who uses an icebreaker harpoon, w/e that is. Sounds like a weapon that ought to violate the Concilium Convention for sure.
I suspect that she will also be available in the new White Company sectorial.
Depending upon the background content to the N4 books, I may get them, and Oktavia. I have no interested in Fraulein Zweihander -- It's a painter's mini, not a gamer's mini -- or Starmada, Cops in Spaaaace. Seriously, I hope the biker looks like Eric Estrada. One of the others ought to be a shout out to T.J. Hooker. Heck, the entire box ought to be references to bad 70's American Cop Shows.
CB's pre-order is live. Warsanel said they're would be up today. but I don't see any of the other stores with theirs up. Wonder if CB is only allowing select partners in at the start of the PO timeframe?
Starmada is a spaceship miniatures game that's been on the go for donkeys years, so unless the publisher never trademarked the word I'm surprised Corvus Belli called the O-12 space fleet that.
Red Harvest wrote: Heck, the entire box ought to be references to bad 70's American Cop Shows.
Why does it have to be bad ones?
Because the only good one from BITD was Columbo. I don't see that making for a good mini. Nonetheless, CB designers are a bit too much in love with the long coats these days, so Columbo's trench coat may attract them.
New Saladin is a nice mini, but sadly, it is locked into the box.
It's more likely that Starmada developers are so small they don't have the money to challenge them in court, let alone across borders, assuming they still exist as a company.
Starmada is a Trademark. The people that make the ship game would have to prove it's easy to confuse the two products to win a suite. Then they might have to prove it's not a generic term (if CB counters) as that's a line for a model car manufacturer's replicas ,videogames, and studio among other things from a quick google search.
A judge could easily rule there's nothing special about the name as well as all you're doing is combining star+armada.
Red Harvest wrote: Heck, the entire box ought to be references to bad 70's American Cop Shows.
Why does it have to be bad ones?
Because the only good one from BITD was Columbo. I don't see that making for a good mini. Nonetheless, CB designers are a bit too much in love with the long coats these days, so Columbo's trench coat may attract them.
New Saladin is a nice mini, but sadly, it is locked into the box.
Columbo mini sounds pretty cool to me... but it would have to be posed with him turning back, as if he had been about to walk out when out he just remembered something trivial and started to say "Oh, just one more thing..."
Soul Samurai wrote: Columbo mini sounds pretty cool to me... but it would have to be posed with him turning back, as if he had been about to walk out when out he just remembered something trivial and started to say "Oh, just one more thing..."
Gah, that would be a fun LOS to declare.
Looking forward to all these videos coming out this week.
Between this and the Bloodbowl kerfuffle, there is a lot of news to keep up to date for me.
Liking that bike profile more and more, or at least the model. Then again I think I have almost all the bikes in the games except the Russian ones. And that's only because our group wasn't playing around then and I just spent my gaming budget 8n other places.
Alpharius wrote:It could just be me and my Internet Skillz (or lack thereof) but, why can't I locate a USA based store that has all the N4 stuff up for pre-order?
Aren't we well into day 3 of the pre-order period already?
Is there something going on behind the scenes in regards to USA distribution or something?!?
I think there's two pre-order dates. One for CB and very select people (warsenal in the US) and one for everyone else some other time down the line.
Kanluwen wrote:What USA distribution?
Not sure if anyone has ever used them before, but Game Kastle has the preorders up.
I use them maybe once or twice a year. Not as cheap as they use to be back when their online store front was FRP Games.
But if Game Kastle has theirs up I can't see MM or Gamenerdz not having their listing up today I would expect. Be curious to see. Maybe CB is pulling a Privateer and clamping down on steep discounts with N4.
But ya, most of the distributors have close down are in limited run mode like a lot of the game stores and there talk Diamond might go under (was an issue pre-covid as well). CB might be only shipping things directly to some stores but that still wouldn't make sense for MM who I think has a distribution arm as they don't have it listed yet.
Kosmoflot has suspiciously few kosmo-units. 5 new units in total I think? And one of them is a lady sniper that looks like your usual cloak-wearing Ariadna sniper.
Almost feels more like Scot-French sectorial with a sprinkling of cossacks.
I spammed the laughy face because eFigures(the now defunct Warstore's distribution arm) was the distributor for Infinity and a great many European import games here in the US.
eFigures formally dissolved late 2019. Nobody's stepped into the gap as far as I've been able to find, in my quest to get the Bushido 'Open Rebellion' warband box from a local retailer.
Alpharius wrote:It could just be me and my Internet Skillz (or lack thereof) but, why can't I locate a USA based store that has all the N4 stuff up for pre-order?
Aren't we well into day 3 of the pre-order period already?
Is there something going on behind the scenes in regards to USA distribution or something?!?
I think there's two pre-order dates. One for CB and very select people (warsenal in the US) and one for everyone else some other time down the line.
It’s up on all the retailers I would use here in the UK.
Kanluwen wrote: I spammed the laughy face because eFigures(the now defunct Warstore's distribution arm) was the distributor for Infinity and a great many European import games here in the US.
eFigures formally dissolved late 2019. Nobody's stepped into the gap as far as I've been able to find, in my quest to get the Bushido 'Open Rebellion' warband box from a local retailer.
Fantization and Gamekastle both carry bushido. They both also directly order their minis from the manufacturer when they can too. But ya I forgot that Warstore had eFigures as well. Clearly infinity is getting some type of distribution as there wasn't a disruption for general releases over the past year.
Kanluwen wrote: I spammed the laughy face because eFigures(the now defunct Warstore's distribution arm) was the distributor for Infinity and a great many European import games here in the US.
eFigures formally dissolved late 2019. Nobody's stepped into the gap as far as I've been able to find, in my quest to get the Bushido 'Open Rebellion' warband box from a local retailer.
Fantization and Gamekastle both carry bushido. They both also directly order their minis from the manufacturer when they can too. But ya I forgot that Warstore had eFigures as well. Clearly infinity is getting some type of distribution as there wasn't a disruption for general releases over the past year.
There was a disruption in places that used eFigures rather than importing/ordering directly. My local shop does Infinity as special order rather than regular stock now because of it.
Kanluwen wrote: I spammed the laughy face because eFigures(the now defunct Warstore's distribution arm) was the distributor for Infinity and a great many European import games here in the US.
eFigures formally dissolved late 2019. Nobody's stepped into the gap as far as I've been able to find, in my quest to get the Bushido 'Open Rebellion' warband box from a local retailer.
Fantization and Gamekastle both carry bushido. They both also directly order their minis from the manufacturer when they can too. But ya I forgot that Warstore had eFigures as well. Clearly infinity is getting some type of distribution as there wasn't a disruption for general releases over the past year.
There was a disruption in places that used eFigures rather than importing/ordering directly. My local shop does Infinity as special order rather than regular stock now because of it.
You would have thought someone would have picked up infinity due to it's size but knowing all the issues with distributors that's coming to light and the pandemic I really see why some of the larger/no-GW game studio heads are saying that parts of the industry may not survive COVID as things weren't all that great in 2019.
Kanluwen wrote: I mean, that's assuming that its size is actually there.
Remember that a lot of these companies are private and don't have to post earnings, growth, etc like GW does.
That's very true. CB, at least a few years ago, gave out percentage growth but that's obviously hard to know how big a game is only how much it's grown.
It is easy, however, to see that it's pretty decent sized compared to all the non-GW systems just off of the traffic Infinity threads/groups here on facebook and their own forums are. It's clearly a game with a following and arguably in the top 5 non-GW game systems. Question is how big is that really?
You would have thought someone would have picked up infinity due to it's size but knowing all the issues with distributors that's coming to light and the pandemic I really see why some of the larger/no-GW game studio heads are saying that parts of the industry may not survive COVID as things weren't all that great in 2019.
The long and short is that distributors are happy to pick up new products, but unwilling to restock existing ones, which is really hard on the minis industry in particular.
You would have thought someone would have picked up infinity due to it's size but knowing all the issues with distributors that's coming to light and the pandemic I really see why some of the larger/no-GW game studio heads are saying that parts of the industry may not survive COVID as things weren't all that great in 2019.
The long and short is that distributors are happy to pick up new products, but unwilling to restock existing ones, which is really hard on the minis industry in particular.
It's more then that according to Privateer's Matt Wilson and Modiphius's Chris Burch. They won't really even stock new stuff unless it's really big, like Gloomhaven, and just order what they already have pre-orders of for new stuff plus maybe a few extra if they think it will be popular enough. There's too many games, too many companies and no warehouse can possibly stock it all without Amazon level money and technology. Even then how much will sit around for years--which is why they don't like old stock as you mentioned. So now manufacturers are expected to store stuff, which is expensive, and since they don't have room they do smaller runs which they can store or just fulfill what the distribution wants and that causes things that cannot be made in house to be backlogged for months if they missjudge how much to make (sounds like ASoIF). Which of course means stores can't get anything in to sell.
Add COVID to that and distribution and manufacturing being limited atm and that compounds things even more.
Vertrucio wrote: So, anyone else notice a decent amount of MRRF units ending up in Kosmoflot?
I figured they would do this to keep the better sculpts and units relevant, also explains the Mirage-5 statue sculpt.
I suspect Chasseurs, Briscards, and Loup-Garou might end up in a US teamup sectorial in the future.
Two Merovingian units ended up in Kosmoflot.
Para-Commandos and Mirage 5.
That's it.
The majority of stuff is of Russian origin, with Caledonia being second, generic(112, Dozer, Traktor Muls) in third, Merovingia and Mercenaries in fourth, and USARF last.
Alpharius wrote: It could just be me and my Internet Skillz (or lack thereof) but, why can't I locate a USA based store that has all the N4 stuff up for pre-order?
Barzam wrote: I can't watch those videos until I get on a wifi network. It sure would be nice if CB would release the profile art like they used to.
Also, did I miss a new version of the Jotun? Since when do they carry hammers?
Since that picture.
Bear in mind that the profile art would usually get released a week or so later via their FB. There's some folks who have posted it on the official forums, but I can't copy/paste it over here because the images would show as broken until you sign in to their forums.
Ooof, $55 for the rulebook even on Gamenerdz, not sure if it's worth even picking it up considering how I virtually never used the N3 rulebook, the free PDF and especially the wiki was always vastly more useful in N3 and I expect the same will be true for N4.
Starmada looks...OK. Kosmoflot and White Banner looks...OK. Nothing has me super excited about N4 yet. Well, not entirely true, I absolutely love the suppressive fire on turn 1 for a command token, that's actually something I've specifically wanted for a while now. Change to smoke and MSV1 is awesome (can see through it at negative modifier), makes smoke slightly less dominating. Want to see more of these little changes.
I'm pretty tempted as I enjoy reading the fluff parts and I really like the bundled mini. At the same time this will probably be discounted another $15-20 dollars in 3 months and there's a decent chance the mini will still be with it.
The Daedalus Falls book is on sale at Gamenerdz -- 84 in stock. Ouch-- and it includes the LE BRawler mini. https://www.gamenerdz.com/infinity-daedalus-fall-hardcover-w-brawlers-promo-figure Wait til Black Friday. I bet N4 goes on sale. The book isn't even released until the end of October anyways, so you're not going to wait much longer tobe getting it.
2:13- During deployment Yu Jing Player spends a Command Token for being able to place a Zhanshi already in the Suppressive Fire State.
2:48- In Active Turn, the Lawkeeper executes a successful Dodge and this allows him to displace himself three inches after the roll is solved.
3:10- Crusher executes a Combat Jump maneuver without placing any template.
3:30- Crusher uses his Boarding Shotgun as a Direct template.
8:38- Gùiláng survives a Critical hit succeeding at two Salvation Rolls.
11:20- Saladin is able to Coordinate his movement with a Hacker attack from his KAPPA when his Zone of control reaches an enemy Heavy infantry."
(1) the multi story pre painted cardboard building for all the intro videos are
(2) the cardboard air ships in the battle report are
Love them
(1)The buildings are apparently from MicroArts Studios.
(2) The dropships, called the UD-12 Chickenhawk, are papercraft designed by Topo Solitario. Here are some of the designs you can download, print and build yourself. There is no 0-12 version. http://www.toposolitario.com/workshop/chickenhawk.html These have been around since almost the beginning of the game.
So Bahram is getting some love. Interesting. Lots of very nice looking minis. Loks like CB artists, designers and sculptor have been spending their lock-down time productively. Credit where it is due. CB has done outstanding work on the minis. I'm very impressed.
Love the look of the Blue Wolf, and the new Haq TAG. The 16 order / unit limit guideline for tournements is ruffling some feathers, but it's not a hard rule, but then again hot tkaes and the internet.
Vertrucio wrote: Where was this 16 order limit? Also, does that mean command groups are going away?
No
The general idea is to discourage unit spam for the sake of time.
Personally, I don't think it's that restrictive. The most orders I've ever run was 16, and that's with spamming Irregular Haqq MuttGhazi and other Irregulars. Plus, this is only for N4 ITS as a "Tournament Standard". I rather like that this encourages higher point levels to field better *quality* units over *more* units. I've never seen it played, but MRRF Metro Spam was reportedly effective back in the day.
(1) the multi story pre painted cardboard building for all the intro videos are
(2) the cardboard air ships in the battle report are
Love them
There was also a resin version of the Chickenhawk made by Antenocitis and you can see it in the background of the O-12 group shot. Unfortunately their licence must have been limited to whatever KS they were doing at the time (Forward Base, I think) as you can't buy it or the STL from their site.
warboss wrote: Despite really liking the PanO asthetics overall, the Jotum design still remains my least favorite looking human TAG. :(
...I don't know if we can be friends anymore.
Jotum alt seems to be locked into an ITS pack though?
How easy - or hard - are those to get?
Fwiw, if I happen to ever come across one then you can have it. I like the smaller PanO tag they previewed at the end. I think I just prefer them to be much taller but only moderately bulkier versions of their heavy armor. I know this won't help but i still think the Jotum looks better than the Caskuda at least.
The Jotum, remember, is supposed to be the heaviest TAG in the Human Sphere. It's also Remote Presence, so being made to look like a 'person' isn't a huge deal.
Vertrucio wrote: Oh I agree with the limit.
However, I honestly had hoped they'd come up with a more fluid way of dealing with this than an arbitrary break.
They are not forcing it to make Group 1 with ten units and Group 2 with five units.
That image is just an example, you can assemble your combat groups in the way you want.
Group 1 with seven units and group 2 with eight units, whatever.
Still flexible.
warboss wrote: Despite really liking the PanO asthetics overall, the Jotum design still remains my least favorite looking human TAG. :(
...I don't know if we can be friends anymore.
Jotum alt seems to be locked into an ITS pack though?
How easy - or hard - are those to get?
Fwiw, if I happen to ever come across one then you can have it. I like the smaller PanO tag they previewed at the end. I think I just prefer them to be much taller but only moderately bulkier versions of their heavy armor.
Thanks! I appreciate that!
I'll try to get one directly once it is available.
warboss wrote: I know this won't help but i still think the Jotum looks better than the Caskuda at least.
Wha...?!?
Well, you're not wrong, but damn I still 'miss' the Caskuda too...
With every big announcement from CB, I hold on to hope that the Caskuda will return in some manner. Next Combined Army sectorial is supposedly the "EI" sectorial, so there's still hope for the Caskuda and the other space-buggers.
I think Exrah suffered from poorly planned models and molds, making them both difficult to manufacture and difficult to sell due to the infect motif.
As much as I hate to say it, a more humanoid insect like the newer Shasvasti along with less metal-heavy sculpts could bring them and the Caskuda back. Right now Exrah was one of the few things that really sold how alien EI was.
Also, is the bear some kind of generic experiment, or is there an antipode bear going around biting people on Ariadna?
(1) the multi story pre painted cardboard building for all the intro videos are
(2) the cardboard air ships in the battle report are
Love them
There was also a resin version of the Chickenhawk made by Antenocitis and you can see it in the background of the O-12 group shot. Unfortunately their licence must have been limited to whatever KS they were doing at the time (Forward Base, I think) as you can't buy it or the STL from their site.
(1) the multi story pre painted cardboard building for all the intro videos are
(2) the cardboard air ships in the battle report are
Love them
There was also a resin version of the Chickenhawk made by Antenocitis and you can see it in the background of the O-12 group shot. Unfortunately their licence must have been limited to whatever KS they were doing at the time (Forward Base, I think) as you can't buy it or the STL from their site.
Some designs Jed has licensed don't allow for STLs to be sold. I think the Superhawk is one of them. I don't think he's selling it currently as he's still focusing his resin manufacturing on delivering other KSers as he's really limited in his production atm.
Surprised no one is talking about the Blue Wolf Mongol Cavalry, which looks like a fun design to me, and is a bit different from their typical design aesthetic.
Vertrucio wrote: I think Exrah suffered from poorly planned models and molds, making them both difficult to manufacture and difficult to sell due to the infect motif.
As much as I hate to say it, a more humanoid insect like the newer Shasvasti along with less metal-heavy sculpts could bring them and the Caskuda back. Right now Exrah was one of the few things that really sold how alien EI was.
Also, is the bear some kind of generic experiment, or is there an antipode bear going around biting people on Ariadna?
The Bear is a bear (or Ariadnan bear equivalent) that is infected with the same virus Antipodes give to humans to make dogfaces. I think.
schoon wrote: Surprised no one is talking about the Blue Wolf Mongol Cavalry, which looks like a fun design to me, and is a bit different from their typical design aesthetic.
I had taken a break from Infinity and waiting for the dust to settle around N4, that does definitely make me want to get back involved again faster though !
Sadly, might be longer before the new Merovingian sculpts come out, but I do like the new style. I'm just sad that Moblots are unlikely to get a new sculpt since other units are filling in that HI role in these mixed sectorials.
That Blue Wolf is drop-dead gorgeous. CB showed some pretty insane designs last week. Can't wait for Corregidor redesign,
I'll be getting it for sure and yes Moran Maasai will be resculpted!
.Mikes. wrote: I was planning on using N4 as impetus to get my unpainted stuff finsihed rather than buy anything new, but I may have to get this.
You have till Nocember before the TAGs come out, so still time to get some unpainted models ready to cheer you on to when you paint the TAG.
Very true. Although with the lockdown in Australia my painting rate - already slow - has slowed even further. Hopefully I'll get some done. I'm trying to finish up the lat of my unpainted YJ right now in readiness.
The blue wolf is a cute baby Voltron, but looks a bit goofy with the skull-helmet thing. "So we're paying to make the sensor cluster look like...a wolf head why again, comrade?"
Cronch wrote: The blue wolf is a cute baby Voltron, but looks a bit goofy with the skull-helmet thing. "So we're paying to make the sensor cluster look like...a wolf head why again, comrade?"
That has two entirely realistic answers:
1. Senior appropriations official liked the idea.
2. Engineering said that cosmetics didn't change the final production cost.
Seriously, at that point automated milling (or whatever better version of that they have in the future) of the parts likely means that the head appearance doesn't make any difference in cost.
The Money Quote, N4 releases 25 September. Here are the 'tails.
Bahram, the minis concepts anyway, are looking very, very good. CB has been on a roll of late with the minis. I expect the Bahram minis to continue the trend of excellence
The discontinued minis:
Adios, desperadoes. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Steel Phalanx is one of my main armies, and I couldn't be happier. I already have everything I want, and this means they finally get an update and, sometime in the future, they resculpt it all. Some of those SP figs are YEARS old, good models but much MUCH smaller than current models. Will be interesting to see if it's worth rebuying and repainting it all
Glad they no longer straight up remove them from the game. Infinity would be dead to me if they pulled that again
Remember when some people tried to argue that people losing the ability to play with their models was a good thing? Glad they didn't listen to them in the end.
Just discontinue, have some simplistic and underpowered legacy statlines, and see what sticks around enough to resculpt and bring back.
Vertrucio wrote: Glad they no longer straight up remove them from the game. Infinity would be dead to me if they pulled that again
Remember when some people tried to argue that people losing the ability to play with their models was a good thing? Glad they didn't listen to them in the end.
Just discontinue, have some simplistic and underpowered legacy statlines, and see what sticks around enough to resculpt and bring back.
The Exrah made the ultimate sacrifice to make this possible.
Is the Steel phalanx stuff really that old? I kinda thought Ajax and co were fairly newish sculpts. I guess I'll pick up some of this about to be discontinued stuff for collection purposes. I'm kind of becoming a bit of a completionist when it comes to infinity. Plus the off chance that the new sculpts might not be as cool, like was the case for old avatar vs new avatar for me.
anab0lic wrote: Is the Steel phalanx stuff really that old? I kinda thought Ajax and co were fairly newish sculpts. I guess I'll pick up some of this about to be discontinued stuff for collection purposes. I'm kind of becoming a bit of a completionist when it comes to infinity. Plus the off chance that the new sculpts might not be as cool, like was the case for old avatar vs new avatar for me.
Chunks of it are.
Achilles(Spitfire, EXPCCW) Myrmidon Officer, Patroclus, Myrmidons(Spitfire), and the Dasyus(Multi Sniper) and Dasyus (Combi Rifle) are all from the same time period of Human Sphere from N2.
The Steel Phalanx starter, Ajax, Phoenix, Penthesilea, Diomedes, Ekdromoi, and Teucer all came from the timeframe of Campaign Paradiso. The rest is N3-ish.
Realistically, Steel Phalanx should be getting redone as part of the next battlebox for a Nomad(CJC) v ALEPH(SP) set and Kosmoflot should be a standalone Action Pack release. But instead they're just ditching Steel Phalanx.
Remember that out of all the 'retired' forces(Shasvastii, NCA, Shock Army, Merovingians, and I'm sure there are more)? We've only seen one return: Shasvastii. Merovingia got dumped for Tartary Army(yawn) and now CHA is getting dumped for Sphess Russians.
Vertrucio wrote: Glad they no longer straight up remove them from the game. Infinity would be dead to me if they pulled that again
Remember when some people tried to argue that people losing the ability to play with their models was a good thing? Glad they didn't listen to them in the end.
Just discontinue, have some simplistic and underpowered legacy statlines, and see what sticks around enough to resculpt and bring back.
The Exrah made the ultimate sacrifice to make this possible.
ubik2000 wrote: Wait, aren't the Magister Knights practically brand new re-sculpts?
Yep!
Shock Army was roughly a year old when they binned it rather than finishing the range revamp. We've seen zero indications that any of the shelved Sectorials are coming back.
anab0lic wrote: Is the Steel phalanx stuff really that old? I kinda thought Ajax and co were fairly newish sculpts. I guess I'll pick up some of this about to be discontinued stuff for collection purposes. I'm kind of becoming a bit of a completionist when it comes to infinity. Plus the off chance that the new sculpts might not be as cool, like was the case for old avatar vs new avatar for me.
Ajax is 7+ years old, but the mini has aged very well, IMHO.
I'm curious to see the storyline behind the end of the Steel Phalanx. What sort of blaze of glory send-off does CB have planned.
Part of me wonders if the 'return' of some of these sectorials will be a combination in order to keep the overall number of sectorials down. A merger of MRRF and the Caledonians for example. Ah well, we will see when ( or if) one of the 'on hiatus' sectorials actually returns to production.
Well, this is an interesting time for me since SP and CHA are two of my three armies. Guess I'll move forward with the idea of selling off non-character SP models and make sure I have all the CHA stuff... It was kilts in space that drew me to Infinity in the first place.
Ajax is 7+ years old, but the mini has aged very well, IMHO.
Part of me wonders if the 'return' of some of these sectorials will be a combination in order to keep the overall number of sectorials down. A merger of MRRF and the Caledonians for example. Ah well, we will see when ( or if) one of the 'on hiatus' sectorials actually returns to production.
Time does fly by since I wouldn't of thought Ajax was that old.
I would totally dig a merger of MRRF and Caledonians.
ubik2000 wrote: Wait, aren't the Magister Knights practically brand new re-sculpts?
Yep!
Shock Army was roughly a year old when they binned it rather than finishing the range revamp. We've seen zero indications that any of the shelved Sectorials are coming back.
they probably found sales of the revamped range were lower than those of an all new line (too many frugal gamers not being willing to replace their old stuff)
so now they know it's not financially sensible to redo things (sadly)
ubik2000 wrote: Wait, aren't the Magister Knights practically brand new re-sculpts?
Yep!
Shock Army was roughly a year old when they binned it rather than finishing the range revamp. We've seen zero indications that any of the shelved Sectorials are coming back.
they probably found sales of the revamped range were lower than those of an all new line (too many frugal gamers not being willing to replace their old stuff)
so now they know it's not financially sensible to redo things (sadly)
Can we really say that when they literally just revamped the entire Shasvastii line?
ubik2000 wrote: Wait, aren't the Magister Knights practically brand new re-sculpts?
Yep!
Shock Army was roughly a year old when they binned it rather than finishing the range revamp. We've seen zero indications that any of the shelved Sectorials are coming back.
they probably found sales of the revamped range were lower than those of an all new line (too many frugal gamers not being willing to replace their old stuff)
so now they know it's not financially sensible to redo things (sadly)
Alternatively, the range revamp was based around things that weren't actually good purchases for anyone wanting to start or play the faction. The SAA starter, for example, was a nonsensical mix of:
-Akali Sikh Hacker
-Regular Sniper-Sapper
-Regular Combi Rifle
-Regular Combi Rifle
-Knight of Montesa Spitfire
-Regular Spitfire
Then you had the Bagh-Mari(which was basically one of every profile except one left out as a blister and Rao), Tikbalang(locked with an Uhlan), and the aging Dragoes.
You mean the generic force? Not a lot of usable models in MO and SAA starters. SAA simply wasn't popular, I'm sad they've never released the hacker with LGL and panda. I'd be definitely happy to see GdA rework, but these days if they're only following the money I doubt that will happen.
Anyway, there's also a rumour that Knight of Holy Sepulchre is getting reworked into S5 HI, which is a bit odd, considering the archetype he currently plays.
anab0lic wrote: Is the Steel phalanx stuff really that old? I kinda thought Ajax and co were fairly newish sculpts. I guess I'll pick up some of this about to be discontinued stuff for collection purposes. I'm kind of becoming a bit of a completionist when it comes to infinity. Plus the off chance that the new sculpts might not be as cool, like was the case for old avatar vs new avatar for me.
Ajax is 7+ years old, but the mini has aged very well, IMHO.
I'm curious to see the storyline behind the end of the Steel Phalanx. What sort of blaze of glory send-off does CB have planned.
Part of me wonders if the 'return' of some of these sectorials will be a combination in order to keep the overall number of sectorials down. A merger of MRRF and the Caledonians for example. Ah well, we will see when ( or if) one of the 'on hiatus' sectorials actually returns to production.
I had to look him up as I wasn't familiar with the model. Is he one of the AI created pseudo-humans? I'm not sure that this neck and shoulder position/alignment is possible without a genetic collagen mutation.
He specifically states that the army will *not* be discontinued. The specific minis listed are explicitly stated as being sculpted by hand and that they are "dated". Bostria then states the intention is to update *all* miniatures and put them to an N4 standard in terms of 3D Sculpting and proportions. Daysus are then mentioned on how they're part of the non-discontinued OSS Sectorial and will get reculpted as well.
Bluntly, nobody but Corvus Belli knows what the plan is with these things. We've only seen one Sectorial return from retirement in the form of the Shasvastii.
The models are just being sidelined for the time being until they can get a resculpt.
For reasons of availability, it means the army is as good as squatted, with only people that already have the models being able to play it for...however many years it takes CB to return to ASS (assuming they don't lose interest and move on to KosmoAleph in the meantime)
Especially when it comes to metal miniatures, the argument of sidelining traditionally-sculpted miniatures actually makes sense. Surely they have some Master molds that everything is based on, but over time everything deteriorates. Forge World especially has witnessed this problem. Additionally, the digital sculpts are likely cut in an optimum manner as to make way for easy casting whereas the traditional sculpts may have a high failure rate or just be more difficult to work with. Nothing on that list is a model that has been digitally sculpted, so there is no reason to doubt Corvus Belli's word in this matter.
Some of the ASS sculpts such as Penthesilea are almost universally beloved and have won Corvus Belli a lot of recognition. They probably just want to 'modernize' and resculpt the line for newcomers, but don't want to turn people off with the oddly scaled models that exist from a long time ago. It'd also be unfeasible to reculpt the entire line all at once at the cost of the other factions.
The ASS, in the fluff, is specifically geared and exists to fight the frontlines against the Combined Army. With the storyline basically going into a Human Sphere vs Combined Army total war direction, it'd be weird to completely squat the sectorial that exists for this purpose.
Then again, I say this as a player and collector that has every Aleph model already.
It's also just their way to deal with SKU bloat. We know they're only supporting a certain number of armies at a time. Unless you're big enough to be your own distributor and be popular enough that game stores area willing to order direct from you due to the money they can make there's no real good way to deal with this. It's the biggest flaw of the hobby, once you've been around too long you have too many models and that brings a host of problems game play wise and SKU wise.
SKU bloat is and always has been their own fault though. They have long refused to release multiple options via their boxed sets. I've asked, repeatedly, for them to start adding alternate arm sets more within their blisters and boxed sets. They don't even need to make the poses different, just key the arms to the same pose and it's a win.
Kanluwen wrote: SKU bloat is and always has been their own fault though. They have long refused to release multiple options via their boxed sets. I've asked, repeatedly, for them to start adding alternate arm sets more within their blisters and boxed sets. They don't even need to make the poses different, just key the arms to the same pose and it's a win.
There's things they can do to reduce SKUs for sure and slow down the bloat but you can never truly escape it as they have to keep releasing new things to keep people buying and that just keeps adding up. Add that to the new reality of game stores and distributors not wanting to carry anything but the core and newest stuff and the number of SKUs that would count as "bloat" has gone down tremendously. You just can't get people to carry stuff that's 2-3 years old anymore unless your GW or it's a core box.
Bluntly, nobody but Corvus Belli knows what the plan is with these things.
If you have an issue with a company not revealing every aspect of this business plans, I have bad news about the rest of the hobby for you.
Cool, so where's the new NCA starter? How about SAA? FRRM?
The point, which should be obvious to you since you edited it out, is that they have been saying for some time that these armies "will not be discontinued". We have quite a few of them "retired" at this point and only Shasvastii have come back.
There's things they can do to reduce SKUs for sure and slow down the bloat but you can never truly escape it
Their only answer to SKU bloat has been to pack some random models into boxes instead of blisters and then make entire sectorials unavailable. Instead of you know, doing the sensible thing and releasing multiple weapon options with the same blister/box. There is zero reason why say, a Fusilier box can't have one of each SWC weapon and a set of rifle arms for each model in it.
Literally every distribution problem CB faces is self-inflicted it seems.
Absolutionis wrote: Especially when it comes to metal miniatures, the argument of sidelining traditionally-sculpted miniatures actually makes sense. Surely they have some Master molds that everything is based on, but over time everything deteriorates. Forge World especially has witnessed this problem. Additionally, the digital sculpts are likely cut in an optimum manner as to make way for easy casting whereas the traditional sculpts may have a high failure rate or just be more difficult to work with. Nothing on that list is a model that has been digitally sculpted, so there is no reason to doubt Corvus Belli's word in this matter.
Some of the ASS sculpts such as Penthesilea are almost universally beloved and have won Corvus Belli a lot of recognition. They probably just want to 'modernize' and resculpt the line for newcomers, but don't want to turn people off with the oddly scaled models that exist from a long time ago. It'd also be unfeasible to reculpt the entire line all at once at the cost of the other factions.
The ASS, in the fluff, is specifically geared and exists to fight the frontlines against the Combined Army. With the storyline basically going into a Human Sphere vs Combined Army total war direction, it'd be weird to completely squat the sectorial that exists for this purpose.
Then again, I say this as a player and collector that has every Aleph model already.
Maybe that sectorial is getting retired because of the acronym - it's got to be a pain in the ASS, surely...
Cool, so where's the new NCA starter? How about SAA? FRRM?
The point, which should be obvious to you since you edited it out, is that they have been saying for some time that these armies "will not be discontinued". We have quite a few of them "retired" at this point and only Shasvastii have come back.
I'm not sure why "retired" would mean "back in a couple years".
Truthfully, I think what's most likely is seeing more of the "remixed" style of return going forward. A lot of the original sectorals are pretty narrow and redundant in design. Freezing them and taking out some of the more popular elements to mix in with new stuff without committing to revamping everything from the original. I'm still a little surprised they're redoing Wildcats on that note. I totally expected Corregidor to get DC'd and replaced with a new Sectoral that was basically Corregidor 2.0.
Probably shouldn't take CB at their word on some of these sectorials just being sidelined temporarily. MRRF was "sidelined" initially, too. They were supposed to be revamping them with new rules to make them live up to their Rapid Response Force title. But nothing ever came of that. They didn't revamp the sculpts. Only a few profiles got updated sculpts and that was it. I think some units got rolled into other upcoming sectorials, but they definitely did not revamp MRRF like they said they would.
Really IMO one of the ugliest boxes CB ever released and Tunguska is my main sectorial..
The Nomads in general have had some of the most polarizing models in general. The Daktari was the posterchild of this.
Supposedly the flavor of the Cheerkillers is that they're spoiled juvenile delinquents going around doing what they want with mob-boss daddy's money. Remember that CB is rather proxy-friendly. Feel free to take other Nomads models like Nox Troopers and whatever other aliens you traitors enjoy.
I dislike the Harley Quinn Cheerkiller. At least that's what it reminds me of. I also dislike this profusion of capes on the minis. What's next, minis wearing speedos over tights?
That said, all of the minis are very well sculpted, if not to my taste. N4 promises to be a very pretty looking edition.
I can wait until late November to see the ASA and QK sectorials in N4. I won't be getting any games in any time soon. For the obvious reason.
Sounds like we all get to be beta testers for the fireteam rules.
Alpharius wrote: Any leaks of the N4 rules yet, hopefully showing that the rules/weapons/skills/etc. repetition and bloat has been trimmed down?
Between Code One, the troop profiles that have been previewed so far, and the eleven days until release, I'd be surprised if there were any leaks like that.
At the very least, stuff like "This is just an SMG with more shots" has been demonstrated that they're going with SMG(+1B) instead of making up a new weapon.
There's a lot of that happening like that. Modified profiles will be pretty common. At least it gives them the design space to mix things up without adding a lot of baggage.
You're forgetting that they're doing the whole, (+/- Modifiers) in parenthesis now. So honestly, now that they've opened up that design space for themselves, they can have as many variations on programs that they want.
Ah, I'm not worried. Variations on a template are much easier to memorize and handle than dozens of differently named programs that kind of do the same thing, just in very specific ways.
What's changed with the Asura? I haven't played ALEPH in a long while, and even then not enough to tell the differences.
That is quite a bump. Sadly I don't have my ALEPH army anymore, I gave them to a friend since they were focusing on the Greek sectorial at the time and I wasn't a fan.
But I should look into doing an elite O-12 + ALEPH army sometime now that there's a bunch of new sculpts.
You may be correct. I don't play computer games so I would be unfamiliar with characters from them. I see the bat and I think of what's floating around in pop culture these days that uses a bat.
So, if I've heard correctly, Friday, 6 pm CET -- 12 noon Eastern Standard-- is the release time for N4.
The good news for all is that the Bolts will be in N4, and at release too. They're in ForCo. We may rejoice.
Red Harvest wrote: I see the bat and I think of what's floating around in pop culture these days that uses a bat.
Probably the wrong way to go about that since really only 2 of their references(Reign of Fire McConnaghy and Captain America) have the weapons they're known for, and even then, it's one one version of Cap. With Corvus Belli, it's the face/hairstyle combos that tell you the reference(some of the Morlocks being an exception).
Senore Massacre AKA Deadpool is armed exactly like his pop culture reference, Achilles has has always been the sci-fi version of Brad Pitt in Troy, the Clint Eastwood Desperado has a giant revolver, etc. Some people hate the references, I've always kinda liked them
Looking forward to the full release on friday, the leaks don't mean a whole lot without seeing the rest of the faction to gauge them against. Loving the Domaru profiles, might have to go back to JSA for a while
"Armed exactly like Deadpool" doesn't mean much considering everything is a weapon to Deadpool because he has a nonsense, chaotic fighting style(he's the only person that Taskmaster admits he can't beat because Taskmaster can't copy his lack of style).
Yojimbo, a Toshira Mifune reference, is using the weapon the character is known for. I suppose if we scour the minis we can find more.
I dislike the comic book references, but I do like most of the others, movies and TV. Loved the shout out to lost with the original ASA regulars. Was bummed that we never got a Hurley.
Some folks have already received the books, but they still lack the pdf for fireteams.
Platuan4th wrote: "Armed exactly like Deadpool" doesn't mean much considering everything is a weapon to Deadpool because he has a nonsense, chaotic fighting style(he's the only person that Taskmaster admits he can't beat because Taskmaster can't copy his lack of style).
"Twin Katanas and whatever guns you can draw" has been the weaponry that Deadpool has had from his comic origins.
Along with Massacre being the Spanish name for Deadpool, makes a pretty compelling case of the obvious nod.
Spoiler:
I am still the biggest fan of the Scottish references in the Highlander box. Getting 4 awesome looking and recognizable people at 28mm scale.
The rest of the armies (currently discontinued ones).
Well, that is pretty much what was expected with the discontinued skus. But feth you anyway Corvus Belli. You want me to not play your game and work hard to convince my friends not to play it also. Great I can do that.
Scarface going up 2 points in armour, getting buffs in CC (and PH for Pilot Joe) and getting 3 different loadouts that seem useful, MK12+HRL, APHMG and AP Spitfire. Price goes up a little...but I consider it worth it, especially with the Crit changes.
Anaconda getting the speed modification to 6-2 which makes it far better than the old 4-2. A point of Armour and reduction in price.
Iguana stays the same, Operator gets +3 BTS...and goes down 10 points. Heck yeah.
A lot of TAG improvements in general. Excited to see if they finally got them right.
Overall really happy with how the skills are reorganized. There's a few things that feel kind of redundant (a lot of Shock Immunity) but its cleaner than having to remember what Shock works on I suppose.
Are the TAG improvements generally being done on an individual per TAG basis or is the entire category being improved? I've always been interested in all things robots (Robotech, Votoms, Heavy Gear, etc) but the general opinion I've seen online is that they're just not worth it compared with normal infantry. If I'm being honest, that was part of why I didn't get into N3.
Both. All TAGs look now have +1 damage and Tactical Awareness (+1 order) built-in as expected, and then they got further customized from there on an individual basis. Most just got a little cheaper, but some got pretty hefty reworks like the Geckos, which were exceedingly mediocre before. Added +1 armor for 6ARM, 6-2 MOV like heavy infantry, and they get +2 Damage on weapons instead of the standard +1. They also had their weapons loadouts upgraded, all while getting very slightly cheaper pointswise, but more SWC than they were before.
Chillreaper wrote: Guijia got Martial Arts 2, Superjump and that gizmo-thingy!
BOING! BOING! BOING!
I would expect nothing less from the Chun Li of TAGs.
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Kalamadea wrote: Both. All TAGs look now have +1 damage and Tactical Awareness (+1 order) built-in as expected, and then they got further customized from there on an individual basis. Most just got a little cheaper, but some got pretty hefty reworks like the Geckos, which were exceedingly mediocre before. Added +1 armor for 6ARM, 6-2 MOV like heavy infantry, and they get +2 Damage on weapons instead of the standard +1. They also had their weapons loadouts upgraded, all while getting very slightly cheaper pointswise, but more SWC than they were before.
Thanks. Are they just as vulnerable to hacking even when piloted? I don't play and that part just bothered me as an outsider looking in (for years at this point).
Thanks. Are they just as vulnerable to hacking even when piloted? I don't play and that part just bothered me as an outsider looking in (for years at this point).
Having a pilot does not help TAGs against hacking, but they cannot be forcibly ejected anymore. Also, if the pilot dismount, the TAG is safe from possession.
TAGs are still vulnerable to hacking, but I don't know how that will shake out in N4 yet. Hacking got greatly simplified and HI got all around much cheaper and generally increased to MOV 6-2, so I think you'll see a lot of hackers just to counter all the HI and TAGs, but that's how it should be. Nothing in Infinity is supposed to reign supreme, everything has some kind of readily exploitable weakness or counter, as it should be. There's also counter-countermeasures you can take, some are across the board buffs from EVO hackers making hacking more difficult, some are unit/army specific. For instance those Geckos TAGs I mentioned have a built-in Fireteam Duo so you can run 2 of them as a team, but in the same sectorial the Mobile Brigada have Wildcard to join ANY team, so you could Duo a Gecko and the Mobile Brigada with -6 hacking buff and that -6 buff applies to the entire team.
mrondeau wrote: Having a pilot does not help TAGs against hacking, but they cannot be forcibly ejected anymore. Also, if the pilot dismount, the TAG is safe from possession.
Thanks. Are those both new changes? I'd think that having the pilot mounted would make it safe from something called possession (local control hardwired to override remote) but admittedly I don't know what that actually does and am just going off of the general meaning of the word.
mrondeau wrote: Having a pilot does not help TAGs against hacking, but they cannot be forcibly ejected anymore. Also, if the pilot dismount, the TAG is safe from possession.
Thanks. Are those both new changes? I'd think that having the pilot mounted would make it safe from something called possession (local control hardwired to override remote) but admittedly I don't know what that actually does and am just going off of the general meaning of the word.
There was a program to forcibly eject the pilot of piloted TAGs, to great hilarity. Possession is what it says: it's my TAG now (they are way to get it back, of course); if the Pilot is not onboard, they presumably turned if off first (or that's to deal with the fact that TAG don't get to defend against hacking if the pilot dismounted, and Possession would be way to easy.)
In general, TAGs and Heavy Infantry don't want to get close to Hackers, since they will have a bad time.
Think of piloted TAGs (and Heavy Infantry) like Tony Stark controlling the Iron Man armor in the MCU movies. Some of the actions are purely physical input and it amplifies the movement, but he needs Jarvis to process many of his verbal commands and run targetting and intel and ECM etc. And when enemies hack through Jarvis' defenses it shuts down the Iron Man armor even though Tony is still inside, sometimes just glitching it and sometimes shutting Tony down completely. Sometimes Jarvis can reset on it's own, sometimes Tony needs to restart the armor, sometimes he's helpless inside until somebody else comes up and helps him out.
All Infinity models are interconnected by an encrypted data net to coordinate attacks and for communications, and at very short range Hackers in Infinity can break into those encrypted data nets and run pre-set programs to infect and interrupt the computers of Heavy Infantry and TAGs. Depending on the device and program used in-game that may just give the TAG a momentary pause to reset a glitch, sometimes it can fully lock them down until they do a full restart, and for some programs it can take temporary control of the TAG just like occasionally happens to Iron Man. And just like Iron Man, TAGs/HI/Remotes have ways to reset the armor back into full use, and other hackers or engineers can counter the effects of hacking.
mrondeau wrote: Having a pilot does not help TAGs against hacking, but they cannot be forcibly ejected anymore. Also, if the pilot dismount, the TAG is safe from possession.
Thanks. Are those both new changes? I'd think that having the pilot mounted would make it safe from something called possession (local control hardwired to override remote) but admittedly I don't know what that actually does and am just going off of the general meaning of the word.
There was a program to forcibly eject the pilot of piloted TAGs, to great hilarity. Possession is what it says: it's my TAG now (they are way to get it back, of course); if the Pilot is not onboard, they presumably turned if off first (or that's to deal with the fact that TAG don't get to defend against hacking if the pilot dismounted, and Possession would be way to easy.)
In general, TAGs and Heavy Infantry don't want to get close to Hackers, since they will have a bad time.
Yeah... I think that style of mechanic is just a bad idea. That mini that you're really proud of and spent time/money on? It's mine for now. I'm fully ok with piecemeal gimping though with hacking or even just not allowing it to be activated for a turn but not outright control especially when there is someone inside. You'd think they'd just be able to lose an activation/action to "reboot" or something.
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Kalamadea wrote: Think of piloted TAGs (and Heavy Infantry) like Tony Stark controlling the Iron Man armor in the MCU movies. Some of the actions are purely physical input and it amplifies the movement, but he needs Jarvis to process many of his verbal commands and run targetting and intel and ECM etc. And when enemies hack through Jarvis' defenses it shuts down the Iron Man armor even though Tony is still inside, sometimes just glitching it and sometimes shutting Tony down completely. Sometimes Jarvis can reset on it's own, sometimes Tony needs to restart the armor, sometimes he's helpless inside until somebody else comes up and helps him out.
All Infinity models are interconnected by an encrypted data net to coordinate attacks and for communications, and at very short range Hackers in Infinity can break into those encrypted data nets and run pre-set programs to infect and interrupt the computers of Heavy Infantry and TAGs. Depending on the device and program used in-game that may just give the TAG a momentary pause to reset a glitch, sometimes it can fully lock them down until they do a full restart, and for some programs it can take temporary control of the TAG just like occasionally happens to Iron Man. And just like Iron Man, TAGs/HI/Remotes have ways to reset the armor back into full use, and other hackers or engineers can counter the effects of hacking.
I didn't see your post until after I responded above but appreciate the explanation. I don't have a problem with the things you mentioned and even mentioned some of them myself but none of those sound outright like "possession" i.e. taking control of another player's unit.
warboss wrote: Yeah... I think that style of mechanic is just a bad idea. That mini that you're really proud of and spent time/money on? It's mine for now. I'm fully ok with piecemeal gimping though with hacking or even just not allowing it to be activated for a turn but not outright control especially when there is someone inside. You'd think they'd just be able to lose an activation/action to "reboot" or something.
They generally can, see my Iron Man description above. Most of the time a simple Reset action or reaction shrugs off the hacking program, I'm not sure about the new edition but in N3 it was difficult to Possess TAGs in the first place, and then they just auto-regained control at the start of their next turn
warboss wrote: Yeah... I think that style of mechanic is just a bad idea. That mini that you're really proud of and spent time/money on? It's mine for now. I'm fully ok with piecemeal gimping though with hacking or even just not allowing it to be activated for a turn but not outright control especially when there is someone inside. You'd think they'd just be able to lose an activation/action to "reboot" or something.
They generally can, see my Iron Man description above. Most of the time a simple Reset action or reaction shrugs off the hacking program, I'm not sure about the new edition but in N3 it was difficult to Possess TAGs in the first place, and then they just auto-regained control at the start of their next turn
It looks a bit easier than before, but you still have a Reset during the hack.
You can Hack back to get your TAG back (you do have Hackers, right ?), and you can use a CP to take it back automatically.
That's why you don't move your TAGs within 8" of a Hacker in the first place.
Plus, I have loss more TAGs to shooting than Hacking. And I have killed more TAG through stabbing them with Asura, or punching them to death with Achille.
Oh totally, I played quite a bit of N3 and only ever saw possession a handful of times. It was almost always better to try and shoot the TAG or immobilize it than to possess it, and usually if it WAS possessed on their turn then all they could afford to do was spend an order or two running it into a bad spot facing a bad direction.
Only had 2 games where it was a major thing, one where my opponent surprise revealed a TO hacker and ARO possessed my Guijia on the last order of my turn (so I couldn't reset out of it) and had it for all of his own turm. Killed a few of my own models with it, then walked it to where half his army could ARO it on my turn. It was a tournament game and we had a good laugh about it, I think I still ended up winning that one by playing the objectives. The other was when me and a friend were first learning N3 where I snagged his Iguana first order of turn 2 and flame broiled 6 of his own models, but that was mostly because we were very new, he didn't have any hackers of his own, and some REALLY bad dice rolls on his part.
TAG possession was hilarious in N2. I never saw it in N3. But I only played a tikbalang a few times, and that was against an Ariadna player.
No hot take on N4, since I don't do that sort of thing. Have that most adult of abilities, impulse control, I do. However, after a quick read through, I like what I see. N4 is an improvement of N3, in theory. Until I can get a few games, whenever that may well be, I can't be definitive.
I'm just a little worried that N4 swung too far in favor of HI and TAGs, with all the buffs and discounts, but I'll need to wait and see how it actually plays (which won't be a while, effing COVID). I'm not THAT concerned, since I mostly like to play HI and TAGs myself even when they were overcosted, but stil, there's a LOT of wildcards and cheap 6-2 HI out there all of a sudden
solkan wrote: I wonder how often GizmoKit on TAGs is going to end up being used.
Seems like it's at least an 'engineer of last resort', but could be situationally useful for TAGs running in duos.
In what is probably the most confusing rule of N4 I've found so far. Gizmokit(Value) is a SKILL that determines the target number used when another model uses Gizmokit the EQUIPMENT on the model that has the skill. Given how much better so many other rules are, this one completely blows my mind, but if you want to see the difference in Army just pick Gizmokit from the Skill and Equipment dropdowns separately and note the difference in what models you filter to.
Kalamadea wrote: I'm just a little worried that N4 swung too far in favor of HI and TAGs, with all the buffs and discounts, but I'll need to wait and see how it actually plays (which won't be a while, effing COVID). I'm not THAT concerned, since I mostly like to play HI and TAGs myself even when they were overcosted, but stil, there's a LOT of wildcards and cheap 6-2 HI out there all of a sudden
2 Maruts lists seem vaguely viable. 3 Asuras should be OK too. 4, not really. I tried. So, at least there's that. Plus, the limit to 15 models should helps 10 models lists quite a bit.
Uhlan isn't there, but Tikbalang is but Dragoes isnt? It'd make sense going sectorial by sectorial, but both tik and drago are literally the same sectorial planet.
I never got round to playing (or even painting and assembling) my Haqq stuff, but the HMG Azra'il was going to be cool.
If I ever get into them, do I proxy them as the other big HI they have? Maybe see if it will work as a proxy for the new mini-TAG? Or consign it to the Bye-Bye Box?
Chillreaper wrote: If I ever get into them, do I proxy them as the other big HI they have? Maybe see if it will work as a proxy for the new mini-TAG? Or consign it to the Bye-Bye Box?
The Azzy would make a decent Al Fasid
Spoiler:
The Al Fasid has been flipped horizontally to make the comparison more striking.
Cronch wrote: Uhlan isn't there, but Tikbalang is but Dragoes isnt? It'd make sense going sectorial by sectorial, but both tik and drago are literally the same sectorial planet.
The Tikbalang is also in Military Orders, which is why that’s still in.
Cronch wrote: Uhlan isn't there, but Tikbalang is but Dragoes isnt? It'd make sense going sectorial by sectorial, but both tik and drago are literally the same sectorial planet.
The Tikbalang is also in Military Orders, which is why that’s still in.
It also isn't on sale anymore, since it literally came as a burden to the Uhlan...but y'know, semantics.
Soul Samurai wrote: Yeah, I'd use mine as HMG Fasid (even though I already have one...). I just... kind of hate the name Al-Fasid.
I'm in exactly the same boat, do I really need two Al-Fasids? I think that I need to get my Azra'il built and compare it with the size of the Geckos that I've got; if they're close, it might get to be a Shakush.
Speaking of Geckos... I'm tempted to dig out my old Nomads. DAM 17 Mk.12? DAM 15, B4 MMR? Nice.
I'm looking at the N4 rulebook now, and it seems to be two books labelled "Core Book" and "Rulebook". What exactly does that mean? Does the N4 book include the rules for CodeOne, or do I need to buy the CodeOne book separately if I want a dead tree version of the rules?
Sorry if the answer is obvious but the book description on their webstore does not include these details.
You would need to buy a printed version of Code One separately. The Core Book contains fluff for the background, the factions and troop types. Rule Book contains the rules for the normal Infinity game.
Marvelous minis except the Zeta.
Blue Wolf is sublime, Cutter is not much behind, the Sphinx is nice although the design it's too similar to other Shasvastii.
IMO the Zeta is a complete miss, too much mass in the upper body, hexagon shoulders and hand HRMC is just strange and
not fitting.
I don't know. Saying that the Blue Wolf, with it's oversized novelty wolf head and mascot costume sized torso, looks okay but the Zeta's too bulky just seems weird.
But we've known that would be the case. Zeta looks like it's something concepted for Overwatch or a MOBA styled game, to be frank. It's not helped by the paint scheme one bit either--especially the toy-ish look of the blue on the 'minigun'.
The Blue Wolf might be a bit big but it's also piloted rather than Remote Presence like the other three.
Personal picks:
Cutter & Sphinx are the top two of the TAG bunch. Cutter ekes it out a bit over the Sphinx being a fairly nice redesign of the aging sculpt.
The blue yiff is too goofy to be taken seriously. The cutter and sphinx are fantastic.
Zeta skipped leg day something awful, almost looks Khadoran in proportions.
The combat fur-suit is a bit goofy but it comes together perfectly and works.
The Cutter is a practical but ultimately common humanoid robot.
The Sphinx isn’t any better than the Cutter for concept (giant shasvastii gwailos/heavy infantry) but the non-human start point makes it unique and interesting by comparison. That said I hope I can leave the back mounted... gun? Off.
The Zeta needed shoulders that actually fit with the rest of the design and either much shorter barrels, the gun replacing the hand, or a standard rifle grip for the gun. The greave mount it has just doesn’t buy it anything.
ChaoticMind wrote: The combat fur-suit is a bit goofy but it comes together perfectly and works.
The Cutter is a practical but ultimately common humanoid robot.
The Sphinx isn’t any better than the Cutter for concept (giant shasvastii gwailos/heavy infantry) but the non-human start point makes it unique and interesting by comparison. That said I hope I can leave the back mounted... gun? Off.
The Zeta needed shoulders that actually fit with the rest of the design and either much shorter barrels, the gun replacing the hand, or a standard rifle grip for the gun. The greave mount it has just doesn’t buy it anything.
The Blue Wolf works for me but it's a close line to being silly and I don't know if it's the paintjob that elevated it or if it the sculoptor and concept artist managed to actually pull it off. Probably a little of both.
The Zeta looked way better from behind. But I've really disliked the O12 designs so far.
The Blue Wolf works because the 'animal' parts aren't just jammed on there. The headplate looks like it could just be painted a matte color and no big issue is to be had--but the 'wolfhead' details are just paint. It's something that you can take or leave as you see fit.
The least effective part of the Blue Wolf is the triple 'lightning claw' going on.
Well... TheJotum is the hockey goalie TAG. To me, it's a nice tie-in to have the other TAG from Svalarheim have a few hockey goalie elements. The wolf head, especially the way it is shaped, reminds me of a goalie's mask, at least a certain style of one. And we all know goalies customize their masks with interesting paint schemes.
It will be. The top picture in bobba fett's post is the 28mm version that'll come out later, the painted one is the 75mm(?) one that already came out (?).
B0B MaRlEy wrote: It will be. The top picture in bobba fett's post is the 28mm version that'll come out later, the painted one is the 75mm(?) one that already came out (?).
Cool, thanks. I was hoping that would be the case when I saw some differences in the pose.
warboss wrote: I have to admit that, to a relative filthy casual like me, you guys sound like you're talking about obscure euro boy bands (Kosmoflot, Mirage 5).
precinctomega wrote: Chain Rifles on Duroc are still too large by a factor of two. Unless they turn out to be some sort of mega chain rifle.
They've started making Tag weaponry better overall, at least by weird buffs to the base profile in N3. In N4 they have new options they can add in parenthesis to change weapons on a case by case basis. Hopefully they'll do that.
It seems Duroc's chain rifles won't be "bigger" rules wise, another unit that's likely comparable in the new Kosmoflot sectorial has "bigger" chain rifles (represented by +1 damage) I think.
precinctomega wrote: Chain Rifles on Duroc are still too large by a factor of two. Unless they turn out to be some sort of mega chain rifle.
They've started making Tag weaponry better overall, at least by weird buffs to the base profile in N3. In N4 they have new options they can add in parenthesis to change weapons on a case by case basis. Hopefully they'll do that.
I confess I quickly checked the profile when I read the Mega Chainrifle comment, but it looked like he only got the (+1 Burst) but that is mainly due to have two of them.
Something about that PanO tag makes it look both meaner and that a bit more primitive than previous offerings. I actually like the look so it's not a complaint but merely an observation.
Kanluwen wrote: Zeta still looks trash. Cutter looks good...but would look better with all Varuna units.
The color combo for that faction really just doesn't click for me and the Zeta just looks like a forgettable mobile game mech model. It doesn't have the style and flair that I've come to expect from Infinity tags in the modern era (N3+). Obviously the opinion is highly personal and YMMV (@ the thread in general).
It's too overdesigned. It feels like there was a 90s or early 2000s checklist they had and they went for every box. The NMM gold hurts rather than helps as well with all O12 releases.
The Zeta's problems are twofold. One, its upper body looks much bulkier than its lower body, and that's throwing it off. Two, the colors. I'd wager than if you changed it to a green/tan Haqq scheme, it would look loads better.
I quite like the Zeta. It's got a really nice silhouette. The shoulders are a little silly but most pauldrons are. I'm not a huge fan of that color scheme but it fits the nature of the faction.
What else should he be doing with that hand? I think the Zeta's rage fist is pose appropriate. The Cutter of all of them is the strangest of the bunch. The answer we all know though is they do it because it casts better than fingers.
