The Desperados are also a discontinued SKU now, so perhaps we'll get better models in the future. Heck, I think the are the first USAriadna SKU to be axed (other than the no longer in-game Panzerfaust Minuteman), so that bodes we'll for them being removed for a good reason. EDIT: Welp, I was wrong. Turns out a good bit was discontinued when I wasn't looking. You're not wrong but I still kind of want to yell "You take that back!"
Well, it depends on what part of the US you're looking to evoke as background for USARF. Do Hardcases and Desperadoes, plus, I'd put it, Mavericks and the sandiness fit in New England or the Pacific Northwest? No, not particularly. However, do they fit more in the areas that more closely map to USAriadna in appearance and climate, i.e. the Intermountain West and Great Plains? Yes, very much so. Any one of those troops look like they'd fit in walking the aisles of Cabela's or Bass Pro Shops or Scheer's, etc.
Regardless, it really doesn't mesh well with other USAr units. But 1) it's my personal opinion, and 2) I don't play USAr, so I don't care much :P
There were the traditional sculpted Foxtrot LGL and sniper, and the 6-model USARF starter and Shotgun Devil Dog box got discontinued as well.
It is, but the Beyond part is not, which I suppose makes the upcoming Haqqtion Pack a Vanilla box. I guess the O-12 Action Pack is also a Vanilla starter.
Ah, I see - Tarik is, but the Fiday and Ragik aren't. I was going to say that you would still want that for the Tarik figure as a Ramah player, but I see that there's also a standalone version. How they bundle things up sometimes really confuses me.
*Waves from years of living all over the USA* Is anyone really surprised that a (Spanish) game company is drawing from (predominantly Anglo and Japanese export culture) pop-culture tropes and engaging in creative, aesthetic misuse of (sometimes) cursory world knowledge? The whole theme is highly anachronistic, it lifts from various world cultures in ways that are often kinda sketchy, and Spain is up there with England, France, and the US in terms of imperialism, appropriation, and disruption of other cultures historically. There’s definitely space for critique, there’s a nonzero amount of cultural appropriation and misrepresentation cropping up, and don’t get me started on the weird positioning of Uyghurs in Yu Jing, much less Kuang Shi as a playable troop type. I mean, conscripted murder/suicide bombers you can execute to kill people with? Seriously? All that being said, it’s not an educational product, it’s a very niche sci-fi/space fantasy game about space murder teams, cybernetic ninjas, and hacker assassins. The entire premise and the genres of entertainment it belongs to (violent fiction, dystopia, simulation of violence) are inherently problematic and the fact that we enjoy them in the first place is a self-own in terms of cultural analysis. But we do enjoy them, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. And we’re a small community, so even if CB were somehow subtly promoting the values of the American far right/libertarian survivalist fringe by including them in the portrayal of future space Americans, the cultural impact is miniscule compared to a single news story on FOX or OANN. I have absolutely gotten into knock-down drag-outs IRL and on Faceborked about how shitty American right-wingers are as people and as an identity largely based on hating strawmen brown people and The Gummint. I can’t be bothered to get worked up about it here, where the impact is so limited, and where we’re already accepting a certain degree of being OK playing at violence in the first place. IRL I’m bracing for what it might look like if my country’s government implodes in the next four to six months. I’m a parent and a public health communications worker in the country with the worst handling of COVID-19 barring maybe Brazil, and with a dwindling safety net for families in the midst of catastrophic economic freefall. And Greenland is melting faster than all but the very worst IPCC projections. I deal with the IRL fallout of *all* that stuff for work, and take it seriously. Can we please accept that some of this game is problematic AF escapism and not devolve into Pointless Internet Fights over tiny metal redneck biker toys? I need my escapism where there’s a future for humanity at all while I work my way through Kendi’s How To Be An Antiracist and monitor national disease fatality rates for a preventable pandemic during a work from home endurance test. PLEASE. Thanks.
I was mentally inserting the semi/tractor/trailer style trucking vs the more box truck type thing which is everywhere. I'd love to have a truck like some of the images on Search in game, but find this amusing on so many levels. Ah well, I'd assumed it was the sniper roost/ objective room pack, but you're right. It's just the Kaldstrom pack straight from the box. Oh well. The main thing driven home in the RPG is that as humanity spread out and settled into various planets with a lot less of a problem with resources, they started looking back into the past for cultural inspiration and using such concepts for flavor. It's used to justify CB pulling all sorts of random things for their games, some of which are niche concepts now, let alone 170ish years from now. Just as Cowboys are more of an "idea" or "style" than an actual template for what someone actually is, such things as Desperados and all that are just meme's carried into the future (and the game) and are not reflective of a specific cultural promotion. A reference to Route 66 is as much a meme now as it is to the monstrucker, basically is the idea. The same stuff is all throughout the game and is built into the setting pretty deeply. Might as well rename the Nomad ships and cut out most of the units in the game and just label them "light infantry 1, light infantry 2" and so on.
Just two points I'd like to make: I don't know, am I weird that I'm not that bothered by Kuang Shi? Yes, they are a scary concept, but they fit the theme of YJ being oppressive. And they are far from the most WTF troops in wargaming. I mean, the whole WH40K could be summed with "Seriously?" :) Especially some of the factions there - aside from the Imperium, you have the freaking Drukhari, who are a whole faction of sadomasochists and slavers... I... don't see anything problematic with this kind of fiction, nor the idea of simulating military combat as a game... Huh. But that's definitely something to be debated in another topic - this is the topic about new releases, right? Overall, I agree with @wes-o-matic that the amount of political tension related to the game here in the forums is really suprising to me. In the end, it's... just a game.
“I enjoy stories about violence and murder, and play games about war” is a statement about one’s culture and basic assumptions about the world, but it’s not a universal human constant, or some objective statement of reality. That’s all. It’s like how once you notice how much American English slang/metaphor is inherently violent or militaristic language (“you’re killing/crushing it,” “ammunition for debate,” etc.) you start to see that there’s a subtly normalized paramilitary mindset in the language. It’s not good or bad on its own, but it’s interesting and maps somewhat to the level of routine violence accepted as normal by American society. (Can’t speak for other countries.) If you compare how, say, GI Joe handles violence vs. how it appears in Avatar: The Last Airbender, there’s a difference in attitude about it. As a parent of a seven-year-old, I end up thinking a lot about the media he watches and what mindsets they encourage, and it makes me more self-aware of the mindset underpinning my own interests. It doesn’t mean the sky is falling, it’s just one of those things I prefer people to be able to think critically about, instead of taking for granted. *shrug*
That's obvious, but the thing is that it can be executed either poorly or well. From my perspective such references work best when they're subtle. The more blatant they are, the more you risk oversaturating the theme you were aiming for, and that's what happens with CB from time to time.
Enjoying stories about violence is about as cross-cultural as it gets. That’s something we can all unite around.
That’s itself a statement from your culture, about what your culture thinks is universal for people. I personally know people for whom that’s not true. But if by “we” you mean everyone who plays this game or games like it, yeah, you’re right by definition. :)
No, I mean cultures. Violent myths and games are prominent And enjoyed almost universally across cultures and times. Not every individual likes them, but just about every culture does.
The problem there is that subtle to one is blatant to another or totally unnoticed by a third. A lot of this is just subjective and it's also easy to see that some people see some things as offensive that others do not. So as with a lot of things nowadays, assuming that one persons view is absolute is generally just going to lead to that person being offended repeatedly. Also at some point of complaint, it just seems silly for people to still patronize the game, really. I'm probably going to give WH40k a go at some point, but there's plenty of factions I just find distasteful and won't use. Granted, Necrons being kill bots that are intent on wiping out fleshbags is a faction I like, so I'm certainly not judging the factions in others eyes. Sure, Necrons aren't as pure and noble as ALEPH is, despite Nomad Propaganda, but they do have their appeal. :)
Yeah, exactly, which is why I'm talking about my perspective here, not about some kind of objective truth here ;) And, as I've said before, USAr isn't one of my armies, so I don't have a stake in this particular discussion.
