Elephant in the room...

There's also their logo

 

It's annoying that MO's persistent popularity is keeping that old, ugly and completely unneeded starter in the stores.I wish they would just update it without shelving a whole sectorial, like they sometimes did.
Just replace the Teuton with a Father-Knight, sniper OS with Black Friar (or even keep Sniper OS and put Spitfire OS with one Combi OS in the pack), replace the Magister with a Crusader BSG, DONE. It's baffling that almost the entire line is updated, but the starter is kept old, like a shitty flipside of Caledonia.

That said the Swiss and Aquila in NCA starter are getting long in the tooth. Kinda weird to discontinue the main PanO sectorial though.


Also, obligatory:

THE PLANET BROKE BEFORE THE REGULARS DID

 

Where did you find this?

 

I'd like to know who just to see if this is real or not. I certainly hope it isn't. Where are the sculpts for Icestorm, Beyond Red Veil & Beyond Icestorm going to go? Uhlans and Tikis seem liek a waste including the Bolt box. Are Bao Troops now getting a resculpt because of this?

 

@MikeTheScrivener I hope that the Beyond boxes and Operation Icestorm models get a rebox because getting rid of them doesn't make sense. For example, why isn't Operation Red Veil in the list and just the Beyond additions? Seems weird if you ask me.

I other news, I should look into grabbing some Bolt and Fusilier models just in case.

 

I think it's a confirmation that certain key models (the Fusilier, for example) are also going to be present in the new box.

 

I thought they'd said on a podcast the old Operation boxes were going to be split into single faction starters?

 

Red Veil was discontinued last November, that's why it doesn't appear in that pic.

 

Yikes. Guess I should grab the Zuyong from that starter set if able. I didn't know, heard or realized that the box was gone. CB has to do something with those sculpts. Where are people going to get their Combi-Rifle Line-troops or certain loadouts of units if these models go kaput?

 

Agreed. I hope that it is as you say.

 

Give the Regulars mittens and Mountain Terrain, et voila: Svalarheima Regulars. Where do i send my invoice?

 

Not sleeves though, got to keep their rights to bare arms!

 

Now on to the important question

are mittens enough to qualify for +1 ARM

Do we want to pay 11 points for Sval Regulars like the White Banner plebs?

 

Depends on where you stick them.

 

So, maybe I’m being needlessly optimistic here, but I don’t think SAA will be entirely axed, same fo NCA. I just don’t see how the benefits CB. They can trim SKUs, without wholesale killing factions.
When Bostria said some units won’t make the transition the first thing that comes to mind is that he stated PanO won’t see a new support pack, because they are changing how support packs/units work. So to me that would mean most support units get rolled in with their parent units, so Fusilier with doctor/engineer skills. That cuts out at least 9 SKUs across factions. Maybe roll PanO’s the line troopers into one so you just have the support pack and the starter. Then take a more GW SM chapter approach where it is the same sculpt but here is the paint scheme to make it SAA or add some auxbots to become auxilia. Then like someone else said earlier roll some unique options for sectorials, like SAA’s sniper getting the sapper rule. None of that necessitates the sectorial just dying.

 

PanO could maybe lose the Trauma Doc and Machinist but both Haqq and YJ have relatively new versions and the Nomads version is particularly flavourful. So I don't think that's a one size fits all approach that works. I also don't see Servant bots going. So there would still be demand for SKU for them: sure, in PanO a Crabbot, Tech Bee, 2 x Palbots box would work but that's not much of an improvement. So realistically I don't see them going.

They're also a good fit for Code 1: they're a core part of buying into a faction, so you want them to be widely available in FLGS and to Code 1 players to make the on ramp to Infinity easier.

From a PanO POV Fusis, Orcs, Dronbots, Support Box are all perfect for Code 1 because they on ramp to multiple sectorials. Same with Ghulams and the Ghulam support box in Haqq. It's also why I'd expect to see regular Zanshi in WB: it makes the pathway from a Code 1 purchase to multiple YJ sectorials easier.

Code 1 also neatly solves a lot of the SKU problem: the problem has always been about FLGS shelf space not really the CB's production. It's why I don't think you'll see Pilots sold with their TAGs: from CB's POV they still need to manage 2 models and from a FLGS POV both are 'specialist' items they don't need to stock.