This is not a critique of what CB releases for O-12...in fact, there is not enough information one way or the other outside a bit of fluff and one very low res image to give us an idea of what CB plans for O-12. I am sure that no matter what CB does some will be very happy and some will be very disappointed. With that said, I have eagerly awaited O-12 for some time (like many others). During this wait, I have thought about ways to differentiate O-12 from every other faction. Aleph, PanO and Yu Jing are 3 very high tech factions and presumably O-12 will be as well. In my mind, we need high tech, but avoid looking and feeling like what we already have. Here is what I would do. First, I would make sure that O-12 is a single group army (ideal for limited insertion). To do this and to make the army unique, we would have to take several innovative steps: 1) No generic troops (cheerleader, order-generating cores). No Dakini tacbots, no fusiliers, no Zhanshi or even zuyong cores for O-12...they are too special and too specialized for that (at least for the team we see in Infnity). There simply are no 10-18 point troopers here. 2) Every unit is personalized and is "named." In my O-12, every miniature is a character (closer to what Defiance seems to deliver). Some characters are true heroes carrying high point numbers in the realm of (or beyond) named characters from other factions, but many are second line O-12 characters if you will. The overall point is no generic minis at all...NONE. You can still have different groupings/backgrounds from the fluff...for example Simon Draxx, special operative from Delta, Livea Smythe from Kappa Division if you want but no generic 3 Kappa Division troopers. This uniqueness would also flow into sculpting, there should still be some commonality of theme within divisions, but much more unique look and personality to each unit which should be doable since the overall model count will be lower than every other faction. 3) Extensive use of wildcards perhaps at a "division" level. For my O-12, I propose no homogeneous fireteam cores or Harris cores and I even recommend foregoing a single wildcard. Since every unit is unique if you will, I suggest they combo in unique ways...this could be done as almost an across the board wildcard for all units or wildcarding at the "division" level. Kappa and Echo Division units can all wildcard to form a Harris or Core, etc. I could get more specific if I knew CB's plans for # of minis from each sub-grouping. I hope that these steps, along with some new unique abilities, would give the O-12 faction a feeling of uniqueness; keep the tech and individuality high and the numbers low and in my opinion make the faction unique. Does anyone else have innovative ideas for the faction?
Several people have proposed the basic troopers be carrying multirifles. One evil, evil thought I had after seeing Krit Kokram's profile was a multirifle with E/Mitter. AP, Shock, DA, Stun, and EM ammo.
I've also heard multi-pistols being bandied about which would be very cool, similar to how Druze all have Viral pistols, it gives a nice deadly close range ARO and a surprisingly beefy close range option for HMG/Sniper carriers. Some 0-12 careers in the RPG also give DA pistols as starting equipment. I think it's clear that Kappas will be the line infantry/link filler. I'm expecting them to be closer to Securitate/Celestial Guard/Brawlers in the 13-16 point bracket. I'm mostly interested to see what the Gangbuster does, as that model is looking awesome.
I think that your idea isn't very compatible with classical list building and the way CB delivers miniatures. Let's assume that they release 25 miniatures for this new faction with a reasonable blend of heavy weapons, support characters etc. Mathematically, picking 10 out of 25 gives you an incredible number of combinations for list building, but factoring in points cost, some profiles being considered better (more min/maxed) than others, players would probably gravitate to a very slim selection of list builds. Not to mention that picking from a rooster of AVA 1 models is probably very confusing for beginners. Here is how I would deliver your approach: make a bunch of CBLs. Then an army box could contain the miniatures required for 1 CBL, 2-4 other boxes unlock the miniatures for the remaining CBLs. Then, the mixed link idea can be used so that most CBLs include several ways of forming a core link, which gives them some tactical flexibility. I think this would be interesting as it is the chance for the first set of really competitive CBLs. ----- Outside of this, a very general statement: If I had to choose between O12 feeling like a PanO meets Aleph sectorial or a lot of new rules being introduced to the game, I'd probably go with as little new rules as possible even if it makes the faction feel a bit derivative. In fact, I was hoping we wouldn't see new factions until N4 where the rules bloat is hopefully reduced.
If multi pistols means they get Stun ammo in addition to their usual options, I'm game for Multi Pistols. If not, I'd like the "Police of the Human Sphere" to have Stun pistols and similar. ADHLs/AKs, what-have-you.
Judging from the box, al of their weapons seem to be pretty low burst – BSG, MSR, Feuerbach. and of course the combi.
Reminds me of the Section 9 list I tried to build with Aleph profiles. An interesting thing I came up with was the idea that they all can Duo with REMs. If you make TeamPro a skill for those REMs it can even work in a vanilla faction. (Well, and the Zondnautica could have been some sweet Tachikomas as well.) Enabling O-12 to form Fireteam Duos on the fly (like for free with every activation) might make for some interesting tactics/meta. Whether this is too strong for a vanilla faction or too weak for a sectorial (that lacks other fireteam options) depends on the actual units. We don't even know yet what O-12 might be faction wise. And with TriCore CB showed that there are ways to buff smaller fireteams if necessary.
Keep in mind that Tricore internally came with some very severe restrictions -- such as no HMGs that can triad, only 1 B4 weapon that can triad in the whole army, and only 8 units that have the Triad skill at all.
It's a really interesting idea, especially that in the 'Advance Pack - Convention Exclusive Pre-release' set we see that TEAM SIRIUS is going to be a K-9 team with a synchronized robotic dogo. If they go further with this 'high-tech futuristic police' theme, I can see room for cool character detectives + robo companions.
Maybe due to being hi-tech or fighting against it, they might have high BTS instead of ARM. I'm thinking that because of the new box set, which will have Nox. Who all have Zappers. Which are fantastic BTW! And the Shrouded looks like a Hacker.
That would be an interesting thing for a police-type unit. Though honestly, with "everyone" having Cubes, you can shoot to kill the sleeve and question the Cube later. Ooooh, had not thought about that!!!
Not if they're Ariadnan, poor, Haqq military or just really unlucky. And given O-12 is perhaps the only faction that would actually bother taking war crimes to court, that mentality could cause a lot of diplomatic problems and/or lawsuits. One weapon I could see being widely used in O-12 is the Adhesive Launcher for that exact reason.
Oooh, note that this thread is now in the O12 subforum! Hrm, I'd forgotten that much of Haqq didn't have Cubes. But that could be the policing model practiced in PanO, YJ, and Nomads, where "everyone" does have a Cube. I think even Ateks have Cubes!
Not having a cube is what makes them Ateks. They have no access to almost any government or corporate services in PanO. (Who for their part, do their absolute best to deny their existence to anyone who asks)
It would be interesting if O-12 had some “volunteer” troops that didn’t have Cubes so that wouldn’t be compromised by Combined Sepsitor. I’m thinking the infiltration type troops. They might even do “backups” before each mission incase of death.