In a non-ITS setting, there's no reason he can't continue to field those models because there's nothing stopping him from playing legacy YJ. In an ITS setting, he shouldn't be fielding those models anyway because he should be playing to win, anything else is a discourtesy to his opponent. As for your other point, I stick by my interpretation of what OP said based on the clarification he offered. Outside of a couple of minis, a set or subset of minis has never been entirely removed from the game, though they have been reorganized. I am sticking to this interpretation of OP's comment unless they decide to provide further clarification.
That involves rooting around in old army list PDFs which are not readily available. I am seriously hoping your aren't implying those JSA units weren't viable in Vanilla. Because I sure as heck miss having 3 times the current amount of mine laying minelayers, Engineers/doctors who weren't arbitrarily more expensive than anyone else's, and mono filament assassin's to keep opponents from overextending. @ OP Ariadna has internal tension about everyone answering to the Kazaks, but they seem to have it handled. Morats would break the Combine chain if given a feasible chance, but that is unlikely unless the Combine force gets stranded. So no real internal seeds short of drastic changes such as a planet or Mothership blowing up or other crazy unforseen event.
Judging by what we are being told (a similar event like the JSA Uprising in 2019) I am definitely in agreement with those of us saying that an another split is incoming.
While that is true from an external rules-bloat perspective, it's hard to argue that there's anything in the setting to support it. As has been pointed out, the JSA were always on the verge of something in the background material, and the same could be said of Ariadna (who have the same number of sectorials, and the same number OOP as PanOceania). I'd argue that IF such a split is coming (and I'm not sure it'd be much of a shock for it to happen again) then Ariadna is the likely focus. But I'd further argue that it'll be something completely different, and something involving Aliens (as next year is "the year of the Alien" for whatever that's worth) for our big "surprise".
However, the decisiveness the Kazaks showed in winning the Seperatist War, coupled with both the forced and later organic strengthening of the ties between the states on Dawn make that kind of split small. As you said, something involving one of the alien races is (while still quite unlikely) is the most possible.
This is Bostria we're talking about. It doesn't have to be a sectorial being offed/split, nor even something that'll necessarily be perceived as negative.
Isn't there? The Combined Army can sepsitor anybody they like. Instant split between PanO sectorials, as the capital city is taken over and all those forces are assemilated into the Evolved Intelligence. But since they're not like the other alien races that have been part of CA for a long time, they're their own faction. Boom NCA is it's own faction, potentially taking with it Military orders. Or maybe MO split off because of an internal disagreement on how to react to the 3rd offensive. No offense, but in game involving magical space hackers, evil AI, and other bizarre entities finding a fluff reason isn't difficult, IMHO. I like this idea. Maybe a completely new faction? Been a while since the last faction was released, wonder what their sthick might be? Hacking devices that can kill people who aren't hackers?
If this had been even vaguely how the JSA split had gone down then I might agree with you. But it was not. You could write the JSA split in basically any time period involving any imperial power and any subjugated people and the whole thing works just as well (for a given definition of "well" let's not turn this into another argument about the quality of the background writing for Uprising). My point is, there was a LOT of groundwork done setting up the JSA split over years of setting material. There's literally nothing similar anywhere in any of the PanOceanian material, unless you count the Helot uprising and even losing Varuna as a planet wouldn't be the same impact on PanOceania as a faction (and would delete a Sectorial, not shift it). Now, I agree that the setup in Ariadna isn't exactly the same, but the RPG material is pretty explicit that only the arrival of the PanOceanian scout in the system and re-contact with "the galactics" stopped another war between the factions on Ariadna. So there's potential there for another "uprising" situation. I wouldn't call it likely, or even inevitable (as I would always have said of the JSA split, and did even before Uprising), but it is far more foreshadowing than PanO has for a similar split. Yeah, I think this is MUCH more likely. But I wouldn't speculate too much, there's just too much blue sky which it could go into.
No, I'm implying that playing a list of your favorite units regardless of their competitiveness in an ITS setting is a discourtesy to your opponent. Regarding the point you're making though, the only major losses were the ones you hit on -- the doctor/engineer and the Oniwaban. Everything else was not competitive in vanilla, which to me is an excellent sign a rework was necessary.
Hardly. Morat society saves itself from self-destruction by channelling it's warlike tendencies outward - the EI allow them to do so in relatively unfettered fashion, and their constant push into new systems means an endless number of new fronts to fight on. There's basically no reason for them to ever consider rebelling, unless they go back and retcon fluff or considerably change the circumstances back on Morat.
Morat fluff talks about constantly being on the lookout for weakness in the EI, since it’s not enough for the EI to overawe them with strength once, it has to be able to keep doing so.
Agreed that the Uprising was going to happen, and had been long foreshadowed. (I'm going to agree to not turn this into a rant about quality of the writing for the Uprising) About the only PanO split I could see is Military Orders going on a Crusade as a response to 3rd Offensive. But that would be even more destructive to PanO than the loss of JSA was to YJ. The NeoVatican is the primary authority for Resurrections in PanO, so the Church leaving PanO would do ugly things socially. Haqq doesn't have any established fluff towards a split, and the Nomads are only strong because they are a united front. As mentioned, Ariadna does have some simmering issues between the nations/sectorials. There isn't any logical way for Steel Phalanx to split from Aleph, or Aleph from the Human Sphere. One possibility for a new alien race would be Tohaa Triumvirate (or whatever the proper name is for their Illuminati), probably as an NA2 faction. It would also almost certainly detonate the Human-Tohaa alliance. I could see a Shas group potentially allying with Humans, it's explicit that there is a Shas faction not happy with being part of the Combined Army. One idea I had for an alien sectorial was an antipode tribe.
Unlikely now, that's for sure. Was totally possible before that oops. Might be salvageable if we executed the people who approved the strike. I'm reasonably confident that Humanity would not have hit that facility if we knew it was non-combatants, it was certainly written up as a horrible mistake in Campaign:Paradiso.
That is not the Humanity I know. Non combatants are acceptable targets for the one I know. The news will say one thing, the internal reports another, and the real reason could be a third (or same than second, some feel above everything... just fire some midlevel pawns if needed).
I doubt it. Shasvasti are supposed to be insane, hyper-paranoid xenophobes who do anything to increase their chances of survival. They'd take one look at all the Infinity black ops operations during peacetime and burn every Sphere world to the mantle before risking even the smallest trade agreement.
Actually, I can see Shas clandestinely talking with humans, even after the kindergarten issue. Their primary motive, primary drive, is survival. It's mutually exclusive with maintaining a long-term hatred. For a crazy survivalist pragmatism is the only policy. If they'd come to a conclusion that siding with Humanity would offer a better chance for their race they'd do it in a heartbeat. I'm pretty sure there are many reasons for them to harbor a grudge against EI, too - which doesn't stop them from working for it, because that's their best course of action at the moment. Main plausible explanation that comes to mind, is that Shas might grow concerns about literally keeping all their eggs in one basket. They might reason, that it's possible for EI realm to be destroyed, or at least fractured one day. War with HS, war with Tohaa, possible Morat rebellion, possibility of encountering other powerful civilization that might not take too kindly to EI conquests, maybe some additional factors we aren't aware of yet - all of this might lead to stagnation (which in turn might make EI more desperate to regain momentum, increasing the burdens placed on subordinate races, which would increase the tensions more), even decline. No empire is too big to fall. And in this case any infighting - combined with external invasion of races pissed at EI and their CA tools - might pose a mortal danger to Shasvastii. So they might want to spread, ensuring that at least part of them would survive. (Also, enviromental change is a good evolutionary factor.) Of course, openly sending parts of their population to side with their master's enemies would bring about swift purge of the population remaining behind, so if I were Shas, I'd start creating artificial factions arguing for defection - which Shas majority would of course oppose in the strongest terms. This might led to infighting, even EI intervention aimed to eradicate the splinter faction pretty much like what happened to the Exrah Concordat. And such intervention would provide plausible reason for surviving "traitors" to defect to HS, Tohaa, and wherever else they might've want to spread. And while they'd obviously be met with distrust, nobody would discard the possibility of gaining new allies and the knowledge about EI civilization, strategies, and - especially - tech. And that's how we might end up with NA2 Shasvastii sectorial.
