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Earlier this year some teaser partial and silhouette images were posted of things to come in '22. We've seen a number of these appear already, like a new unit for the Karists (the Kaddar Alessi Novitiate which I purchased and is quite nice, love the baby Angel sidekick,) but the debut of a brand new faction was also mentioned, and hasn't yet appeared.

I hope that such a debut is still in the cards for '22 (there are many months left to go.) And personally, I'm hoping for it to be the Kaigus Pact. For those who are a bit rusty, the Maelstrom's Edge rulebook concludes its section on the Kaigus Pact by summing them up thusly:

"Today the Kaigus Pact is less of a single entity and more a constantly evolving flow of ships and creatures amongst the stars, ever-diverging from the humans from whom they originated. Their numbers are rarely concentrated in large amounts, and the Kaigus prefer not to associate with other cultures, hiding in the deep of space like plankton in the ocean. For the most part, individual ships or small fleets keep apart from each other to avoid conflict over resources, but when threatened or in a system with resources too great to ignore, spontaneous new Pacts develop to preserve the existence of both the stellar-humans and their symbiote creations."

Very curious to see what this post-human, biological symbiote-enhanced faction ends up looking like, whenever it appears. I'm also curious about the design process, since organic bio-tech in sci-fi is still principally indebted to Giger's Alien designs, often by way of GW's Tyranids. With that legacy, how does one debut a new bio-organic tech race and give it its own identity? Gates of Antares took a stab at it with their Isorians, but to my taste, didn't quite nail it. Must be an interesting design question to wrangle with.

Everything is still running a little behind this year, and our current focus is on getting the V2 rulebook finished and in people's hands.

The Kaigus Pact are indeed on the way, though - at this stage we're looking at a September release with three plastic kits (two of which build multiple units), and more units to follow later.

They're very different to our existing factions, both in appearance and gameplay, so we're all really looking forward to getting out there!

 insaniak wrote:
The Kaigus Pact are indeed on the way, though - at this stage we're looking at a September release with three plastic kits (two of which build multiple units), and more units to follow later.

They're very different to our existing factions, both in appearance and gameplay, so we're all really looking forward to getting out there!

Great news; me and my wallet can definitely wait until September.

Since I've correctly guessed that the Kaigus Pact are coming, does this qualify me for a Maelstrom's Edge "no-prize?" I never got one back when they were fixtures of Marvel comics editorial responses on their letters pages.

I'm painting all-plastic Kaigus Pact models right now! I hope it is not treading on toes to say that part of the design decisions were based around what we see on Earth... Kaigus Pact individuals would be heading in to a denser atmosphere than their ships would have when they go planetside, just as aquatic creatures have to adapt to the depths here, so carapace, coral, and similar biologically engineered shapes played a big part in the design process.

 Vermonter wrote:

Since I've correctly guessed that the Kaigus Pact are coming, does this qualify me for a Maelstrom's Edge "no-prize?" I never got one back when they were fixtures of Marvel comics editorial responses on their letters pages.

Congratulations, you win a sneak peek!

Alright! I like what I’m seeing here! Looks like the Kaigus guys are about to give their Karist friend a great big group hug.

No toes stepped on, design-wise. If those aren’t rank and file troops but special units, make sure the grunts look just as cool.