That video about gave me a headache. Super excited to see what O-12 brings. I'm not really looking to add another faction to my shelves, but I will be keeping my eye on this one. I am curious how they are going to make a well-funded faction that doesn't step on the toes (design wise) of other well-funded factions. Anyone have any wild speculations on what Niche O-12 design space could fill?
It's pretty wild, but maybe they have some way to play on their authority and prohibition to prevent certain materiel on the field.... And maybe dable into psychological warfare. Now that's a bit weird against the CA and Tohaa, but against other human factions, that would work well given the theme of O-12.
I don't want to hijack this thread but that's a bit an overstatement, at least according to infinity books (I have no idea what's in RPG sources). So what exactly O-12 is doing to ease ateks situation then?
Nothing as far as I remember. But ateks are also not in open revolt and so are still technically under PanO's jurisdiction. The JSA in contrast were actively separating and forming a new faction. But hey, I didn't say O-12 was perfect! They have some bad sides and do protect their own interests, they just aren't the horrible guys that see themselves as superior in every way compared to others and deny self-determination to others.
International peacekeeping organization "not dependent on the goodwill of its member nations" raises red flags for me. I think there's the potential for that. From what I understand the core of the O-12 citizenry was formed from the elite of the American and EU populace when the bottom of their economies dropped out, and they continue to recruit exceptional individuals into their nation, making them forswear previous allegiances. This seems kind of ripe for them having self-regard as superior examples of humanity to the lumpen among the rest of the factions in the Sphere. When I first read about O-12, I assumed they existed as a setting conceit to explain why the multi-way standoff between powers of vastly different power levels existed in the Infinity setting, kind of like how the Lady of Blades exists to explain why Sigil is the way it is in DnD's Planescape setting. Rather, it seems like they actually have an an active interest in changing things in the setting, and an author-granted moral license to do so. Sure, Yu Jing didn't treat the Japanese well. And PanO doesn't treat Ateks or Helots well. But Ateks and Helots weren't mutinying in the middle of the Paradiso warzone; O-12 made it clear that it thinks that compromising Yu Jing's sovereignty and supporting PanO was more important than the war effort against the Combined Army.
@Hecaton: heh, when approached like that O-12 sounds like efficient Solarian League (Honorverse series, for those into epic space operas).
I'm not too familiar with the Honorverse series, but the way O-12 seems to be set up with their vetoes is that Concilium can veto anything that it wants to, but other factions have to work at it.
TLDR: Solarian League is effectively a massively corrupt government that manufactures crises for companies that pay them to be solved, giving the companies what they want.
Corporations pay the Solarian League, League brings in the Office of Frontier Security(OFS)[a branch of the Solarian League] to 'mediate', inevitably finding in favor of the corporations. Flavor it with a bit of unnecessary arrogance and unwarranted pride on the part of the League's military and you get some ridiculousness.
Hmm, isn't the entire Steel Phalanx "officially" an O12 deployment sent to Paradiso to fight the combined army? It's illegal for the AI to (publicly) maintain a standing military force, but when O12 authorized it for the war on Paradiso, Aleph was happy to oblige. Note that the Steel Phalanx is an exceptionally public and standing military force, covered extensively in Human Sphere media, so for legal reasons it must be considered an O12 deployment, right? The common folk would panic if they knew Achilles took his orders from an AI and not an O12 officer. That was always my understanding, and is what the fluff seems to indicate. I'm a little confused by this direction to be honest. I wonder how it all fits together, and if we'll see several Phalanx units available in the new O12.
@Dimswitch I imagine if they expand it via sectorials, the Bureau Thoth Sectorial would be the one most likely to have a smattering of ALEPH units in it. I don't see many of them in Bureau Aegis.
ALEPH isn’t a secret nor are the Utgard Accords, and people everywhere know who the Phalanx take orders from. ALEPH is an O-12 officer, for all intents and purposes.
I suppose that was my understanding too, based on the O12 lore from the RPG - my confusion here is more because of the location of this conflict (Paradiso) being SP's playground, who are already technically an O12 force. Just seems a bit redundant and at odds with the fluff, I guess. I will admit there's probably some personal bias at play here, since I was selfishly hoping for a couple resculpts. Updated Thorakitai would be nice (to actually match the ones in the SWC pack), and I'm still hoping that Eudoros will be available to this O12 force so he can get a much-needed resculpt.
I mean, they could just resculpt the Steel Phalanx starter instead. Redo the Myrmidons and some of the characters, bam done.
There would be a difference, though, between the forces specifically authorized to fight the EI and the forces to maintain the peace within the Sphere.
Well the AEF is also technically an O12 deployment on Paradiso as well. It's also key to understand that planets are big and SP is more of a strike force than an actual standing army (compared to the likes of PanO, Yu Jing, and Haqq forces on Paradiso). The fight on Paradiso is a multi front war that the SP can't fight all by itself. So seeing O12 deploy more assets to Paradiso isn't a surprise as the 3rd offensive just happened and the situation on the planet is starting to get a little desperate for the human forces (lost more territory and the Tohaa wormhole was closed). Also, common folk are pretty trusting of Aleph. The only faction that outright distrusts Aleph is the Nomads. Haqq and Ariadna are skeptical. PanO is its BFF and in Yu Jing they are good partners. Most aren't going to bat an eye at Achilles taking orders from Aleph... which he already does.
Well that would be the dream, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon. They've been releasing new armies/units at breakneck pace and there's a ton of stuff that doesn't even have a model at all right now. Plus we now have an entirely new faction to deal with... Despite their age, I think the regular myrmidon sculpts have held up quite well. They're small and finicky to assemble with their tiny ball-in-socket joints, but their proportions and poses are good. The SP Starter, not so much. Those old Thorakitai clash horribly with the new ones, as does the ML Agema compared to the newer MSR. The Myrmidon hacker is OK, imo. I personally think Eudoros is the worst offender by far. That model is just awful compared to everything else in SP - ridiculous twig legs and bizarre proportions, cartoon character face and arms, boring, unnatural, and inanimate pose complete with nonsensical tactical rock... He's a useful unit with a great profile and backstory; he deserves much better. Anyway, I'm probably getting carried away - I don't mean to de-rail the thread. But that's exactly what we have here, isn't it? They're fighting the EI on Paradiso in this scenario, not policing the sphere.
If I'm remembering right, in the case of Operation Wildfire they're just keeping the peace in a government area on Paradiso, something they probably aren't willing to trust to greedy PanO, corrupt Yu Jing, crazy Nomads, weird Haqqis or incompetent Ariadnans. They might break something, after all. The fighting seems to be something the EI wants in this case, for the sake of intimidating the Sphere, as it says in one of those Facebook posts.
It's a flag, isn't it? There's one thing the EI has learned about humans... they think flags are very important.
