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Presumably the Shasvastii, even in their seed soldier outfits, hit the intersection of "Appealing enough to buy" on both looks and rules.

The story about the Caskuda that kept circulating is that the model was a production nightmare.

And as much as I compared the original Morat to Morat Mk 2 models as Star Trek TOS vs. Star Trek the movies as far as the difference in presentation goes, the Shasvastii analogy is the same sort of situation but with an art direction reboot thrown in.

I think that puts the idea of giving the Exrah the same sort of love/updates/digital treatment as... Well, it's like trying to ask DC to produce another Wonder Woman movie instead of another Grim Dark Superman. If they don't have a concept, it's not going to happen.

Yeah, I think that they could have done all that for the Exrah but chose not to do so.

And yes, they are obviously allowed to make that choice, and spend time, money and resources where they will.

But I also still think that a revamped Exrah would have sold quite well indeed!

I think the problem with a revamped Exrah is with the current Infinity design styles there wouldn't be much difference in look between them and the Shasvasti.

Scuttlebutt is that last year was supposed to be Shasvastii vs. somebody, but the Shasvastii redesign wasn't done/good enough in time.

The Exrah were problematic for three reasons:
1. They were ugly/weird/different
2. E/M vulnerability was a terrible idea on their troops
3. If you asked about them on-line, the biggest thing you would hear about them is how to exploit Super Jump.

That's "Asking for Squatting". Because it's the same sort of problem: If no one in the design team can figure out what to do with it, or how to do it justice, you have to admit it's dead. I sure as heck wasn't happy when it was announced, but I don't think CB was happy admitting conceptual defeat either.

They've left the door open to a possible eventually reboot of the Exrah coming back as something else. For all I know, Tohaa, Onyx and the other stuff were designs that came about while CB was brainstorming trying to figure out how to resign CA and fix the Exrah designs.

Exrah coming back now would be meh in a hand basket.

They'll look like the rest of CA, and will have the standard S5, infiltrating specialist, vanilla regular troops, drop hacker, mixed fireteam every other new sectorial has.

 .Mikes. wrote:
Exrah coming back now would be meh in a hand basket.

They'll look like the rest of CA, and will have the standard S5, infiltrating specialist, vanilla regular troops, drop hacker, mixed fireteam every other new sectorial has.

Exactly!

Except for the Caskuda...

They should totally bring that bad boy back!

O-12 profile video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRR8ktm-5VA

Army update August 1st

No fireteams. Sectorials will eventually happen.

I think exploring the Umbra and Smegma Tohaa in the CA would be a more worthwhile venture.

Plus, the Avatar needs a sectorial.

Something to consider about Exrah is that CB decided to let them go years before they officially discontinued the models and removed the profiles. Exrah had 4 different unit types (Void, Vector and Jump Operators and the Caskuda) in original Infinity. that may not sound like a lot, but its actually huge. Within CA Morats also only had 4 units (Vanguad, Daturazi, Suryats and the Raicho) and Shasvastii only had 3 (Malignos, Shrouded and the Speculo). The EI units were limited to the Charontid, Avatar, Obsidian Mechanoid and the drones. So the Exrah were a full 1/4 of the Combined Army, and an important part of it. They were CA only MI. Many other armies had thematic sections that only included 2 units (like what would be come Military Orders, for example). So Exrah were pretty fleshed out from the go in comparison to most of the game's subfacions pre- HS).

If you have a copy of the original (or 2nd edition) Infinity book you'll see the Exrah featured prominently in fiction, photos and art. However, new Exrah are completely absent from Human Sphere. While every army was expanded with several new units and characters he Exrah were left out.

HS was the point where CB decided that they didn't want to keep making Exrah (for whatever reason). All 5 Exrah miniatures had been released at that point. CB could have decided to give Exrah new units, profiles, characters or a sectorial army in HS, but they didn't. In fact, the Exrah were one of the few thematic groups to not get a sectorial, while other groups that had only ever had 2-3 models received full sectorials.

HS was where CB really expanded the game and decided what to do next. A very few thematic groups from the original book like Kaumu, Securiate didn't make it into a sectorial, but nearly everything else did (and CB even released a few new units, like Nisse, which didn't belong to an existing sectorial). At the time I know a lot of us assumed an Exrah sectorial would happen eventually, but in hindsight I think its clear that this was the point where CB decided that Exrah were done.

People often point out the Exrah's subjectively unappealing designs as one of the reasons they were discontinued, but original HS was well before any redesigns started and CA especially was in its formative phase.Everything in the army looked like weird plant lizard circus clowns. Most people don't remember this, but there was a LOOONG forum discussion about whether the Suryat HMG was actually an Exrah because it looked like an Exrak and not really like a Morat. That argument will make more sense if you find the original model and see its old school paint job.

TL,DR: We often think of Exrah's removal from the game as a decision that CB made as 3rd edition was being released, but it was very likely made 5+ years earlier at the dawn of 2nd edition leading up to original Human Sphere.

So 0-12 have a new rule special to them - Peacekeeper - which just measn they're allowed to use weapons otherwise banned by the concilium convention.

More unnecessary text bloat.

'Yay'.

Wait? Really, just a fluff text rule that has no actual impact on the game?

Hints of the future?

Either way, text bloat is better than rules bloat.

 Monkeysloth wrote:
Wait? Really, just a fluff text rule that has no actual impact on the game?

That's what I've been told.

Peacekeeper is fluffy, but sadly CB never did anything with the Concilium Convention, so it's utterly irrelevant.

The stats for O-12 so far seem like PanO+, good stats where it counts (WIP and BS), limited but solid choice of guns, and only the most useful skills available, with none of the horrendous skill tax some other factions pay.

Looks a little like Infinity Spess Marines in that regard.

 Monkeysloth wrote:
Wait? Really, just a fluff text rule that has no actual impact on the game?

Only affects campaign games from what Koni said.

The basic outline of it is that if you're playing a campaign/scenario where you aren't allowed to use lethal ammo types, O-12 units are always considered to be using nonlethal ammo types.

Cronch wrote:
The stats for O-12 so far seem like PanO+, good stats where it counts (WIP and BS), limited but solid choice of guns, and only the most useful skills available, with none of the horrendous skill tax some other factions pay.

Is anyone surprised by this?

Since the in-universe reason for the absence of the Exrah is that they were exterminated by the EI for trading with humanity (apparently; so I'm told by a friend with the RPG), I could see them returning in the future as an unaligned force. Something as part of the Defiance line rather than the main game, or one or two as mercenaries or something.

I doubt it'll happen, but I can dream.

Are there any scenarios which limit "banned" weaponry? I've toyed with the idea in the past - having NPC Warcors transmitting battlefield footage, using banned weaponry in LOF of their cameras results in a penalty, and allowing players to hack the camera feeds.

 jake wrote:
Something to consider about Exrah is that CB decided to let them go years before they officially discontinued the models and removed the profiles. Exrah had 4 different unit types (Void, Vector and Jump Operators and the Caskuda) in original Infinity. that may not sound like a lot, but its actually huge. Within CA Morats also only had 4 units (Vanguad, Daturazi, Suryats and the Raicho) and Shasvastii only had 3 (Malignos, Shrouded and the Speculo). The EI units were limited to the Charontid, Avatar, Obsidian Mechanoid and the drones. So the Exrah were a full 1/4 of the Combined Army, and an important part of it. They were CA only MI.

Not surprised if they decided to cut something, it was MI.

 LunarSol wrote:

 jake wrote:
Something to consider about Exrah is that CB decided to let them go years before they officially discontinued the models and removed the profiles. Exrah had 4 different unit types (Void, Vector and Jump Operators and the Caskuda) in original Infinity. that may not sound like a lot, but its actually huge. Within CA Morats also only had 4 units (Vanguad, Daturazi, Suryats and the Raicho) and Shasvastii only had 3 (Malignos, Shrouded and the Speculo). The EI units were limited to the Charontid, Avatar, Obsidian Mechanoid and the drones. So the Exrah were a full 1/4 of the Combined Army, and an important part of it. They were CA only MI.

Not surprised if they decided to cut something, it was MI.

MI in 1st edition was huge, really powerful models, Nomads were feared for their powerful MI units, Exrah had great rules powerful profiles (maybe too powerful in Kaskudas case) but they never worked, each model release was essentially a redesign the profiles were attractive, but the models were not, same with the CA drones until their redesign, "Starfish aliens" do not work...

Sad because I really liked some of the models.

@AndrewGPaul the in game explanation is the Exrah "company" that used to be in Paradiso was caught smuggling CA tech to human black markets and was wiped out by CA and replaced with another one, the replacement decided to be better safe and not commit greedy units close to humans, Exrah are still out there, just not on the battlefield at the moment.

...so you’re saying there’s a chance?!?

Woo-hoo!!!

It was the Concordat Exrah business group that got up to a little double dealing. The EI was most displeased, and wiped then out. Now the Commissariat Exrah are under contract and doing the transport and supply in place of the Concordat

I wonder if there has been any thought to having some Exrah as Mercs, like the Morat's Krakot Renegades.

Neat as that would be isn't capturing Exrah alive supposed to be near impossible. That was like step one of how Krakot came about right.

 HoverBoy wrote:
Neat as that would be isn't capturing Exrah alive supposed to be near impossible. That was like step one of how Krakot came about right.

Krakot Renegades are Morats that have been basically sentenced to death camps and end up working as mercenaries. Exrah are moreso bug-people.

Man, I seriously want a heavy armor from Yu-Jing,,,the Mowang


That power suit looks between the heavy weaponeers and the TAGs

 shasolenzabi wrote:
Man, I seriously want a heavy armor from Yu-Jing,,,the Mowang


That power suit looks between the heavy weaponeers and the TAGs

The Mowang is coming in September.

 Absolutionis wrote:

 HoverBoy wrote:
Neat as that would be isn't capturing Exrah alive supposed to be near impossible. That was like step one of how Krakot came about right.

Krakot Renegades are Morats that have been basically sentenced to death camps and end up working as mercenaries. Exrah are moreso bug-people.

I was more refering to the fact Exrah where basically unable to survive damage so live capture, and pressing them into service, would be harder.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:

Are there any scenarios which limit "banned" weaponry? I've toyed with the idea in the past - having NPC Warcors transmitting battlefield footage, using banned weaponry in LOF of their cameras results in a penalty, and allowing players to hack the camera feeds.

"Sir, we have word they used plasma weaponry in front of a warcor"

*Punches first into hand* "We have them!"

"Not quite sir. The.... well, the warcor was from PanO."

"...."

"...."

"... they couldn't connect the modem, could they?"


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 shasolenzabi wrote:
Man, I seriously want a heavy armor from Yu-Jing,,,the Mowang

Mo'wang, mo'problems.

I've got 99 problems, and Mo'wang ain't one...

 ImAGeek wrote:

 shasolenzabi wrote:
Man, I seriously want a heavy armor from Yu-Jing,,,the Mowang


That power suit looks between the heavy weaponeers and the TAGs

The Mowang is coming in September.

Excellent! I can't wait but will as that is not so far off and away from now.

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:
I've got 99 problems, and Mo'wang ain't one...

That's what she said.

Thoughs, folks, on these new bases with the LoF indications?


I would have preferred to have the markings recessed into the base, so that they are less obtrusive. Still, it's a neat idea.