They could've and should've added it to Vanilla and left the FO Ninja out of ISS, nobody has ever argued ISS needed anything. Except maybe making the CSUs and Bounty Hunters actually able to form duo teams because having Duos on their profiles and not being allowed to team up is just idiotic. CB fucked up, they have pretty much done mostly nothing but fuck up all year.
It's not even that, just a list of things CB mismanaged, and which people got riled up over. I don't have any particular grudges with them, Worst case I might disagree with some game design/storytelling/communication policy decisions ;) Some people always see a glass half-full. Some - always half-empty one. I prefer taking it and checking if the contents are tasty. Much more fun that way.
New sniper shot inbound. It looks alot like the previewed Line Kazak Paramedic's med bag. Which is kinda odd to preview that cause we have already seen the whole model. So I'm gonna be hopeful and say it's a new 112 or Kazak Doctor That shadow on the top really makes me worry since the LKP has his forearm on the bag just above where the cut off the pic.
Nah, they do sniper shots of renders we’ve already seen all the time. Pretty sure the last one was the Zulu cobra jammer and we’ve seen that render awhile ago. Definitely the line Kazak.
Yeah, there were two Helot snipershots as well, if I remember correctly. More like a list of examples to answer a quoted question ;)
Well, Original Joan1 dated to 2006 or early 07. Original Joan2 to ~2009 (Human Sphere N2). Those were old models and not very attractive faces compared to CB's current standard. Also, the models weren't CAD sculpted. Joan/Saber was the LE mini for Angel's Masterclass vol2, and could be either profile, though might be considered a bit 'static' for a Mobility Armor version. So there had to be a general-release Joan anyway, but we got slapped with the Joan with Tactical Molester Umbra. (No, I don't like the model. Whatever gave you that idea?!? ) And if there is going to be a specific mini for Joan2, well, that explains the most recent one. If I didn't have Joan/Saber already (I pre-ordered both of Angel's books), I'd probably be looking at converting this newest Joan model to only be wielding a blade, just to let it stand in for either Joan1 or Joan2. As for Musashi, well, the original model also dates to 2006 or 07, and therefore is not a CAD sculpt. (First CAD sculpts were in ~2011, with IIRC the O-Yoroi). So at some point in time he was also going to get resculpted, regardless. Apparently, CB heard a lot of people talking about how the Aristeia! Musashi was awesome and they wanted to use that model in Infinity instead of the old one. The two different models are a head and arm swap. I bought them to use as Shikami for a while, because I really like my original's paintjob. dingdingding! We have a winnah! Sometimes they are. Like Fatality L1 on TAGs. Kinda surprised that the MI having Forward Deployment L1 (or L2 if they already had L1) isn't on there... Also, if you're not playing ITS scenarios, what missions are you playing, straight kill-em-all? That's the single most boring way to play Infinity! Dunno yet, but probably. I'm expecting it to have the Tunguska, TAK, OSS, and Invincible Army sectorials in it. Beyond that, I hope it has revised Paradiso missions (and mission fluff), the Infinity Campaign System, and the SpecOps rules. The fluff for Uprising is poor (to say the least). All the various nations are acting oddly, in ways that do not support each nation always acting in it's own best interests (yes, that's Machiavelli. It's also an observation on 400+ years of international relations since the Peace of Westphalia). PanO is acting as if the loss of the Japanese is a massive loss to Yu Jing, even openly conducting combat ops over YJ sovereign territory without O12 approval. That's like Russia conducting combat ops over the US (or vice versa) during a rebellion. That way leads to nuclear war, or it would if someone wasn't crippled in their ability to fight back. Nomads and Haqq are acting like the loss of the Japanese is nothing to Yu Jing. Nomads, Haqq and Ariadna usually ally with Yu Jing to keep PanO in check at the O12, and yet are allying against YJ in the Uprising. If losing Japan was so crippling that YJ can't fight back against PanO, Nomads and Haqq should be allying with YJ to keep PanO from getting even stronger. The Japanese are apparently all brainwashed into throwing their lives away for the Emperor, except for those minor ninja clans that stayed loyal to YJ just to screw over the major ninja clans. The only people benefiting from the Uprising are the kuge, the modern nobility of Japan (heads of major corporations, etc). Also, apparently the Tatenokai and Kempeitai terrorist groups were not just funded by, but created by the kuge to cause hate&discontent between Yu Jing and the Japanese people. All because when Yu Jing bought out Japan's debt 3 generations ago, YJ refused to allow the kuge to keep their noble titles. The JSA went from being YJ's Suicide Squad to PanO's Suicide Squad (look at all the new JSA models, they are using PanO heavy weapons). The Yanjing, YJ's intelligence service that is so terrifyingly competent that it forced PanO to break down their old intelligence agencies and create the Hexahedron, somehow missed ONE PERSON doing all the negotiations for international support of the Uprising. The Imperial Service, which includes the Kanren Counterinsurgency Group, does everything the exact opposite of the best way to handle an insurgency. Also, the Party is the literal author of how to win an insurgency (it's in Mao's Little Red Book, ch5, IIRC), so this is doubly bizarre. Worse, it turned the Imperial Service into the Imperial SS, genocide of the Japanese civilians for the lulz. And broadcast this. Giving ammo to the insurgents in the international media. (Don't believe me? Go download the Yuandun CBLs, and read that fluff. The Yuandun CBLs came out *after* the forums blew the fuck up over a quote CB posted, from some Crane telling a WarCor to broadcast the mass graves. Said PsychoCrane is the Commanding Officer of the Yuandun Division.) Please make no mistake, I think that the Uprising was going to happen, and was generally a good thing. But the fluff is shit. The way CB handled their customer relations and expectations during that time is worse. CB openly laughed at YJ fans, and even said that 'this is going to be a rough year to play Yu Jing. Play something else instead." They did not even mention that the Invincible Army (the most highly anticipated sectorial) was going to be released in 9 months, which would have gone a long way to softening the blow for pure-YJ players. There were 3 pretty unique capabilities that JSA models brought to Vanilla: Shinobu and Oniwabans were a grave threat to TAGs and expensive HI. People used to have to deploy their TAG assuming a YJ player had a superninja with a MonoCCW to murderate TAGs or HI. The Aragoto bikers were Regular-Impetuous, but most importantly, they were a Spitfire and a hacker on a Motorcycle! In your base, killing your dudes on Turn 1. The Raiden HRL was a pretty scary surprise. You didn't expect it to survive after it's Surprise Shot, so it was a pleasant surprise when it did, but it was only 19 points for 2 camo markers! All those are gone, and there's nothing to make up for it. Not even a new YJ ninja profile with an EM CCW to kinda fill in for the Oniwaban. Then we get to delivery of pre-ordered items. Most people who had pre-ordered the Uprising book and JSA Army Pack received their pre-order on or after the time that the book and army pack were available in stores.
I mean, most of those fluff things are debatable and can be argued. For instance, Nomads usually support Yu Jing, but are dedicated in part to revolution and an independent spirit, so when there is a REVOLUTION of an oppressed peoples... Also, yeah, they went to being Pan-O's suicide squad, they are being manipulated by Pan-O who knows they can weaken Yu Jing this way. The Japanese don't really have a choice as they need Pan-O's support, so they take the weapons and swallow the fact that they are inadvertently doing the hyper power's bidding. Finally, while the genocide was admittedly cringy, excessively violent responses to civil unrest and resistance is a very common reaction from authoritarian governments, and can be used as a way to scare others into compliance, that isn't unheard of at all. Also, CB won't announce a date for something 9 months out, and if they had just said, "But don't worry, IA is coming out Soon(TM)", then people would be complaining, "BUT WHY DID THEY TELL US THIS WITH OUT TELLING US A DATE, THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TOLD US AT ALL". Yu Jing players knew IA was on the Horizon, and would have been frustrated if they had this confirmed again, only to see 4 other Sectorials come out before it. Their shipping does seem to have some issues, Ill grant you that one. Also, what did you want them to tell Yu Jing players? Did you want him to sit down gravely, look teary eyed into the camera and beg the forgiveness of the Yu Jing players? It WAS going to be a rough year, if anything I think that was handled perfectly, giving a heads up that there will be a slight disruption to your faction in your HOBBY. Its not like they are cutting your arm off, it is a hobby. From where I am sitting, the level of gravitas he gave to that comment was on point and entirely appropriate. There are definitely things they could do better, but the quantity of negativity seems down right excessive to be honest.
All it would have taken for me to not be mad about their 'This is going to be a rough year for Yu Jing.' comment would have been for them to say 'but the Invincible Army is coming.' Maybe with some renders or a dossier we hadn't seen before. Actually, renders would have been great (assuming that they existed), since renders show something close to production. Dossiers would be a second choice, as something that is only a dossier is farther from production. Mao himself noted that an excessively violent response almost always has the opposite effect. Again, the Party in charge of Yu Jing literally wrote the book on how to win an insurgency (here's a link to a pdf). The Judiciary are doing exactly the same crap that the Japanese did in the 1930s. Not to mention that the insurgents can use the violent response to pull people who might have been on the sidelines in: "They're killing everyone, just because they're Japanese! It doesn't matter if they had anything to do with an attack or not! If you want to have any chance of surviving this, any chance at all, you need to start fighting with us." Worse, letting the international media get ahold of the fact that you are using a massive response puts everyone else on the side of the insurgents.
Only the dark side deals in absoluts. Nobody was asking Bostria to beg. Most of the time I support CB but their press relations is siriously lacking. Joking about drinking YJ tears on BoW week sure isn't the best marketing strategy. IMO the Uprising was handled poorly. YJ was striped by a sectorial and then it looked like CB joined a submarine crew, total silence. There were a number of ways to deal things better. Even though I'm not a YJ player I feel their discontent. If they told me that Tunguska was going rogue and joined another faction I would be pissed as well. Also the almighty argument that most of the profiles weren't used in ITS, but what about other people who used all kind of wacky lists...yeah those players existed, back then when there were more options. When there are paying customers it's not just a hobby.
Bit of a backstep, but Septembers releases all seem to have had utterly fucking awful assembly, molds and issues. Has anyone else had this? but quite a few of my friends and locals have complained about the Infinity September releases.
I cannot speak for the person your responded to, but I have almost always played 20x20. That was what people played in the group I met up with. It may or may not be any good in a tournament setting (I've never played at a tournament), but in a small, organised group I find it more interesting than ITS. YMMV, as always.
I've played some 20x20, really enjoyed it. I've been following the TACOs thread with interest too. ITS isn't the alpha and omega of mission systems, especially if you have no interest in playing in tournaments.
Not trying to get into the rest of it, but considering that the Party in Yu Jing is descended from the Party in charge of modern-day China, who are currently arresting marxists and unionists, which Mao was also in favour of, and within barely more than a decade of Mao's death were committing massacres on protesters that the entire world heard about... perhaps an argument could be made that modern China has largely forgotten Mao's lessons from when he was a revolutionary (ignoring any criticism of Mao's handling of China later in his career), and Yu Jing's Party may be more closely descended from modern China's Party than Mao's Party, especially considering the capitalism that is the base of Yu Jing's economy and the partial free market economy that modern China practices, both despite Mao's political convictions After all, lessons of the past being forgotten, distorted, or ignored in ways that bite current rulers/society in the arse is not a new pattern in human history. We're doing it right now with public health on a vast scale with the criminally irresponsible anti-vaxxer movement, to name but one topic modern society should know better in.
Need to check this weekend, I have the whole Aleph's side from Coldfront, the new rebots box (will be mounted on 55mm to work as Rudras) and the Hollow Men box (very likely to pull double duty as Dakinis, since the SWC box of dakinis does not call to me at all).
It's especially for the Hollows mate. I built mine yesterday and they needed all sorts of bending into place to fit and gap filling.
I didn't need to fill any gaps but man am I glad I was not the only one who needed to bend things. Whoever okayed that build setup is truly history's greatest monster.
I've only got the Aleph Coldfront stuff, as well as the Hacker Asura, but most of them went well together - not too many mold lines, a bit of gap filling on the new Naga sniper though (had to bend her sniper rifle back into shape as well, but that's fairly standard for something with such a long barrel) - but the one that got me was the new Dakinis. They're worlds better than the old Dakinis, don't get me wrong, but those feet are not friendly. The ankle can go together in a million different positions, since it's the same feet and lower leg for all the Dakinis no matter how they're posed, you want the feet flat on the ground when it's done, and they're what support the model so you're going to have to drill your bases in the correct places, assuming you're not clipping off the pegs. The only way I managed to be reasonably confident in how they were going to look once glued was by jamming some Blu-tak in the sockets on the feet and not-quite-dry-fitting them, and I still haven't glued them, choosing instead to assemble the rest of the Dakini then leave them while I tackle some of my backlog (I made more progress on my Steel Phalanx models in the last week than I have in months).
Yeah I bent mine, still have to gap fill. Checking the studio ones by Angel, he's/they've also gap filled those ones too, at least it's not just us. Haha.
