Ahh yes, I remember...there was a thread in the old forums about that HI biker that was shut down quickly. It seems someone had real information about it.
I mean, we have a bloody HI ninja. Might as well... Okay, not really same niche, but that's not my point anyway. Anytime, mate.
It had to be done. Anyways, like I said, I still hope this is just some promotional stuff to make JSA more interesting, completely removing them from Yu Jing would truly be sad for all of us who collected the models over the years, and it would require some serious rework of some of Vanilla and ISS. It'd also be a bit...lame? As the big "Omg what have you done CB!?" thing....hopefully this is just a setup and the real surprise is something much more awesome and "global".
An Airborne Deployment HI is just really cool, conceptually. Like, mechanically there's not a vast difference between Diomedes and a HI, but there are a number of small things that do separate them, and in terms of feel it's quite different. People want power armoured drop troops. Realistically, given YJ military doctrine and tech focus, they'd get there first, if anyone did. It feels more like an Invincible Army thing than JSA to me, but the IA does already have a very effective paratrooper unit, AD HI is still probably experimental tech (and therefore dangerous, and therefore YJ High Command's attitude is put a Japanese guy in there), and it suits the JSA feel of a technologically advanced Close Assault force with a high risk/high reward philosophy.
Alright, so looking at the new proverb pic (a proverb I'm pretty sure CB made up, by the way). The person on the left is rocking two sashimono (the flags on his/her back) and what looks like a japanese cavalry bow. I really can't see somone in a modern setting running around with two sashimono. However... riding a bike? You know, like cavalry? With your cavalry bow? Yeah... that could work. So my guess is CB went sneaky on us and switched the silhouettes. Left goes on the bike, right... dunno, a bit too generic looking to tell really.
No. I made this handy comparison to show that it doesn't really look like either a Tiger Soldier or a Zuyong:
All this talk about HI Drop troops made me think back of the Outrage book. Don't we see Yu-Jing TAGs & Various infantry dropping from a ship onto the battlefield ? Can't really remember.
The same way, Haqquislam has the Halqa troops, which are Ghulam with +3pts cost for Mechanical Deployment, but we don't see any Grasshopper transport vehicle ;) Several things that are possible in real life or the RPG are not contemplated with the Infinity table game ruleset. Like carrying a rope to get down from a sniping nest, instead of being forced to climb/jump down XD So yeah, in Outrage some YJ troops go down from a flying transport, the TAG just jumps down while the troops use rappel to leave the ship. However, that's not the same thing as what an AD troop does: Lv1 left a chopper and came walking beforehand so it wasn't detected, Lv 2 drop HAHO and walk a short distance (they fall into a zone where bullets are not going around, so they can enter without being shot at from a side... hopefully), while lv 3+ do a HALO drop to some coordinates, and get bonuses or maluses depending on their training and the pilot's skill (if the transport is badly placed, because the coordinates have been hacked, it's harder to land where they want), and they have a last ditch option of dropping near their Deployment Zone (if they disperse outside of the map), representing how they aim for a "backup beacon" when they can't find any other place. On the Outrage drawing, the troops do a Low Altitude drop (very low indeed), more akin to mechanized deployment, but the point is that they have several vehicles, providing cover fire for the troops to get down. It was checkmate before the YJ troops touched the ground, basically.
You're right. I should've googled the Japanese. Well, they certainly could have done better than going with a childish sounding "literal" translation (although, it's not even that). The suggestion in that very wikipedia article is a lot better: "Among blossoms the cherry blossom, among men, the warrior."
The armour design has more in common with wu ming, shares its legs (only wu ming have those vents so far) but torso up is different, chest doesnt really match any yu jing HI and shoulder pads seem somewhat unique helm has some similarity with hsien and zuyong with multiple plates but a complete orange face plate Im still holding to theory that this and the Tunguska one have new troops in the pic, that dude in far back on Tunguska still has different facial shapes to grenzer armour
I'm sorry, have you met Corvus Belli? "CB, I'd like you to meet Fire Broadside; Fire Broadside, this is CB." Tin-eared translations and awkward prose are their stock and trade.
It's uncomfortable because it might mean going from having 100% of the models you want/need in a single faction to having 60-90% of the models you need across two. Though I can see this being a real bummer if a player was heavily invested in a Yu Jing Vanilla army that made extensive use of JSA units. Hypothetically If Millitary Orders splits as well I would be happy with that, as it would give me an opportunity to play more diversified forces assuming they developed both halves independantly.
I agree with you 100% here. Unless you play JSA, this is not even close to an earth-shattering development.
