Oh no, the sexy new JSA Models are definitely for me :-P as I am writing this I am in the process of rebasing all my JSA models to be more compatible with the table I have created over the last 2 years (started with JSA as my first army in edition 1 of Infinty), so I definitely plan to use them :-P Also my wife wouldn't step away from her Caledonians I think, too much Sean Connery and men with sexy legs in that army for her to move on :-P On a more fun note.....I noticed something when I set this image as my wallpaper (obviously the full sized one...not only the chest...).... What is going on with her chest? Is she a android? Is it chest armour? Why are there metal pieces stuck in her chest, and her chest seems to be OVER her neck armour?
I believe she is human. That is just a chest plate of armor. Those bolts are not that deep so her skin should be fine.
So I'm late to the party as usual. Whats does NA2 mean? (oh question answered in article, nevermind) I still wonder what the 2 in NA2 stands for, anyone know? Does this mean the Japanese are in full rebellion against Yu Jing? *read article Oh thats exactly what it means. Well, I can collect JSA now without being upset I'm playing Yu JIng. (dirty commies :P) Man, Yu Jing players must be pissed to lose so many units. Though I'm not sure how synergistic JSA was with the rest of Yu JIng. I wonder if this means the JSA will get more unit variety since they are technically not a sectorial anymore? Though I guess like the Druze, they will still function like a sectorial.
Non-Aligned Armies EDIT: It's common shorthand. Ann Arbor, Michigan is frequently referred to as "A2", for example.
I am not happy to see the JSA split from Yu Jing because of the probable changes it's going to force upon my vanilla lists. I frequently used tokusetsu, aragoto, keisotsu, raiden, karakuri and various ninja in my vanilla lists and play both sectorial lists as well. This isn't going to stop my playing the models because I can just write new lists but it's an imposition that rankles because it's forcing me to change. However, taking a step back and thinking about things I can accept these changes and will just keep on playing, because I love this game and I find it highly unlikely that I won't be able to use my models somehow. One notable feature that seems easily over-looked is that the new JSA are part of the NA2, non-aligned armies, implying that there will be more than one sectorial in the new book alongside all the new profiles and background. I'll reserve judgement on the background for when I actually get around to reading it properly. I've a few thoughts towards the questions "why Yu Jing?" for this latest upheaval in the fluff. Firstly is that the dissatisfaction Japan had with the state empire has been part of the background for a long time and is amongst the more prominent fluff material out there. Whilst there are other factions with similarly disgruntled groups within them the JSA are probably the most well known. Next there is the strength of character the sectorial possesses, many (myself included) like the models and sectorial for it's overall aesthetic more than the rules and tabletop performance. JSA are a cool army to run with glaring weaknesses. Which brings us to potentially another reason for the split, that of redundancy... To me Yu Jing suffer from redundancy more than other factions anyway. That is to say, there are some profiles where there is no reason to take them because something else is better, or better value. Notable case in point are the Tokusetsu and the keisotsu. In vanilla I take these guys pretty much every time over the zanshi, yisheng or mech-eng. It's not an easily avoidable problem when you have sectoral lists with no common line troopers and many, many specialists who have to fill particular roles to make the force function. These core units to the sectoral lists feed back into the main faction creating redundant profiles. It's notably obvious with the line troops but debatably more impactful with more specialist models. Yu Jing as a faction is somewhat known for it's heavy infantry, JSA in particular were one place where you could see nearly a whole force of HI, multi-wound models. However ISS can also do heavy infantry quite well and with the Invincible army on the horizon there will be even more heavy infantry options coming to Yu Jing. That's a lot of models being valued by comparing them against each other within vanilla Yu Jing, which will lead to premature decisions over value and effectiveness based on the profiles on paper.
Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe it stands for second-class nations or powers that are not as strong/on the scene compared to the big 4 and Arianda. Plus it seems that it is a term for nations that are not part of the O-12 but are huge/big enough players in the Human Sphere. Ah I see. That does make sense. I don't see why not. It opens the door for them to be different from Yu Jing now.
Another big question is how will remotes be handled. JSA only MSV 2 is a Yu JIng remote. Will they keep it or lose access to it?
Actually, Pano just out colonized Yu JIng. They didn't just declare they were on top, they earned it through sheer domination of the human sphere. I don't think losing the JSA will effect Yu JIng that much. Most likely Yu Jing let the JSA go for the same reason the british let America go. It wasn't worth the cost when they are already preoccupied with an upcoming war. British vs French. Human Sphere vs Combined Army.
You must not know of Game Workshop, a company that stands in testament to the fact that yes you can get away with aggravating your player base perceptually.
Oh and I'll second that its quite likely this is just Japan on earth breaking away. (hence why is a minor power) I could see Pano and O-12 stepping in and preventing Yu Jing from sending a huge battlefleet to retake Japan. And if Yu Jing is keeping the rest of its territory, including those with citizens of Japanese decent, then I can totally see the Yu Jing Party saying to hell with it. Let japan break away if it wants, we have bigger fish to fry. Quite literally since the war with the combine army is likely to only grow more intense.
Because it's so unsubtle as to make almost no sense. And crude. The constant 'HER NAME IS ROSIE AND SHE'S A RIVETER GUYS SHE'S A RIVETER HER NAME IS ROSIE THE RIVETER' goes beyond a fun nod nd just becomes tiring and awkward. And it doesn't have the saving grace of being a recreation and thus making sense in-universe.
I think its really cool from a story perspective. I play Vanilla and this got me really excited to play JSA which I had zero interest in before.