Anyway the issue is moot now if the Caskudas are Unmanned Remotes, Manned TAG that just resemble Organic Chitin but are really "Weirdly Sculpted Metal Shells" OR as I was implying, like other Exrah Troopers just "Larval Ephemerah" nested into a Biomechanical Technorganic Frame grown for that exact purpose. . . Unless they are re-introduced in the Wargame as for now they exists ONLY as "Hypotheses" for any other Fanmade Stuff; exactly for this I opened this discussion thread there in the Fanfiction Section, rather than the Combined Army Wargame Thread. . . For the purposes of My game of RPG featuring Former EI Troopers "Gone Natives" on Svarhalheima, I'm basing on the ONLY RPG Trooper still extant. . . The "Commissariat Fourth Rank" is just a sort of Light Infantry with Skills and Talents good BARELY enough for a sort of "Sentinel Duty" or "Shipwide Patrols", with a Fanatical Attitude of "No Retreat" (reminiscent of Old Wargame Morats) and basic Equipement (Light Armour, Pistol, Knife, Combirifle). . . No mentions of special Exrah Rules somehow ported from Old Wargame Rules. . . But thanks anyway to anyone who is participating to this discussion thread; is "Thought Fodder" useful to reference-frame anything of the Exrah thst will help Me setting the tone of My Campaign of CA Based RPG. . . . .!!!
Some ideas I had for what each Exrah unit had on their profile. Filling them out is helping me to think of other Exrah units that would fit in a Spiral Corps like sectorial. With Human Mercs, Morat Krakots, Shasvastii Jayths & Tohaa outcasts. Right now I just thought of this stuff below. Need to add more units & finish up the Exrah units' weapons selection. Exrah Units: T.A.G.: Caskuda - AD: Combat Jump, Explode LX, Exrah Multi HMG+Flamethrower, Lt/Multi HMG+Flamethrower "Pilot" - G: Remote Presence, Specialist Operative, Remote Pilot, Flash Pulse, Skirmisher: Vector Operator - Camo, Biometric Visor V2, Multispectoral Visor V2, X visor, Martial Arts L2, Exrah Hacker/Combi Rifle, Killer Hacker/Combi Rifle, HMG, Warband: Morat Krakots - Heavy Infantry: Medium Infantry: Void Operator - Sixth Sense L1, 360* Visor, Zero-G, Kinematika L1, Martial Arts L1, Exrah HMG, Boarding Shotgun, Combi Rifle+Light Shotgun, FO/Combi Rifle+Light Shotgun, Spitfire, Lt/Combi Rifle+Light Shotgun Light Infantry: Iskaller "Jump Operators" - AD: Tactical Jump, Zero-G, Exrah Combi Rifle+Light Shotgun, Specialist Operative/Combi Rifle+Light Shotgun, Spitfire, Boarding Shotgun, Jayth Cutthroats - Brawlers - Cube Jager - Wardriver - Authorized Bounty Hunter -
The N2 rulebook army list entries showed "G:remote presence" in it's rules entry. Pretty much means no squishy was inside the thing. The squishy bits were elsewhere.
Very well. . . So "Official Kaskudas" were G-Remotes. . . But, for the purposes of MY Roleplaying Game I prefer to have a piloted one, so a Player Character could have the (rather disgusting) option of entering the Juicy-Jelly filled frame of a "Customize Bug-Mecha". . .
Goes to show that having previous editions of rulebooks can come in handy concerning lore questions. Nice job Chromedog.
Or have the remote controlled pilot be some sort of bug worm thing that the Exrah have influence over.
What can I say? I like books. I like to read. I have rulebooks for games I've never played, just because I liked the books. N2 was my entry into infinity. A lot of the art is the reason I got in. That and the models. I wanted a change from 40k's churn and burn modus, and it did the job. It's kept more because it's not worth much on the 2nd hand market (obsolete rules edition books are rarely worth the paper they are printed on) but sometimes, newer players want to see some of the old fluff to convince them to jump in. So if it gets others into the game, I'm fine with keeping them.
I'm the same when it comes to books. Love to read wether it is physical or text on a screen. I also have rulebooks/codexes for games/factions I'll never play. If I come across an RPG that I think I might be interested in I sometimes look into getting the books for the worldbuilding lore. As someone who likes to write or at least daydream stories in my spare time wargaming/rpg books can provide ideas for my fiction. Especially if I'm writing a story set in a certain universe I'd like to keep it believable/lore friendly for readers who know of that universe or play in it.
Had also the N2 Book (honestly I have ALSO the N1 Rulesets that were JUST downloadable and printable from the EARLIESt incarnation of Corvus Belli presence on the net) but totally ignored the fact that Kaskuda had "G: Presence Remote" clearly written on the Stats. . . Was probably "misguided" by Alejandrevsky and Yasbir cool and amusing satyrical vignettes that showed one of the Exrah TAG downed by laughing Ariadnan Tankhunters and another with one destroying the kitchen of a Kazak Stanitsa with a complex multi-vignette comical structure (CA Ship downed on Dawn - Irmandhinos Smugglers finding Alien Eggs on the wreckage - Irmandhinos selling Alien Egss to gullible Merovingian Cooks - Cooks preparing an Omelette-Tortilla to a Kazak Commander - Shavastii Assassin spawinf FROM THE TORTILLA - Angry Kazak Commander shooting the Shas and demanding explanations - Kitchen devastated by Kaskuda sold as "Frozen Giant Crab"). . . They went insofar to "Invent" an Exrah Phrase in Alient Tongue ("Uchiii Kuckiiii" = Destroy All Humans !!!) so I mistook the TAG as apiloted one (not that an Umnanned Remote TAG could not utter battlecries and vaunting phrases, by the Remote Pilot, by a Microphone). . . It is just that Infinity is for Me, FROM A LONG TIME, onlys considered as Roleplaying Material, so Unmanned TAGs on a Roleplaying Game Campaign as Player Stuff are TOTALLY out of the consideration; NEVER allowed Remote Pilots to play "Safely Behind Enemy Lines" in my previous Games, even Pan-Oceanian Pilots were offered the possibility of WEARING a souped up "Old Reptile" bedecked in Jotum Plating or NOT PLAYING A TAG AT ALL. . . Bad old memories with problems of Cyberpunk2020 Games with Netrunners far away from Team that did stupid stuff while Comrades were under fire of Corporate Security Goons or Drug-Crazed Gangers. . . So for Me the concept of a "Field Hacker fighting alongside a Fireteam" was refreshingly cool and accurate; at most a Infinity Hacker is on an elevated platoform or inside a reinforced building, and need to be guarded if in "Total Immersion" (as was showed when Uhau in "Outrage" Manga was ALMOST knifed to death by a Druze Scout, when Emily who was supposed safeguarding her, went on a Drone-Shooting Spree far away). . . Will address the issue better in RULE SET in the appropriate thread. . .
It's worth noting that were anyone to bring the Exrah back, fanmade or official, a rethink of how some units worked would probably be fine. G:Remote Presence or squishy Operator-Operator would come down to rules balance. Rules balance was -not- good on the original Exrah units... Combat Jump TAG with Explode and a flamethrower? Super-jumping MSV2 HMG with Mimetism? Gooooood game everyone. And the fluff/rules interaction is fluid, on both sides. Kriza Boracs and Azrai'il got bigger suits, Securitate lost their universal repeaters, most of the interesting corner-case gear disappeared from the game (RIP biolocators and Icebreaker program). So design away, in the way that works for your friendly-games or your headcanon.
Exrah were totally balanced by the downside of dying when killed though! [/sarcasm] I think there's a good argument to be made that the Caskuda wasn't actually a remotely piloted TAG like a Squalo, but that was the best option in the contemporary ruleset for a TAG that was a large organism without a separate pilot, without having to create a separate "Monster" or "Huge organism" skill. Likewise the Avatar actually hosts a node of the EI itself rather than having an off-site pilot, but G: RP was still the best way to represent this mechanically in the wargame.
Interesting point @colbrook . With the new, more atomic ruleset, maybe something more interesting is possible. Like... a TAG with a W characteristic? Or a TAG with STR but no Pilot -and- no G:Remote skill? I mean.... if it's organic, maybe even make it unhackable. Hell, just a giant Trooper with type MI, STR 3 and NWI, etc. You'd have to figure out some sort of downside for the thing being unhackable.
Also, tangentially, a player at my old FLGS had a scenario for a multiplayer bug hunt to capture a rogue Caskuda. I never did get to play it, but it's a cool concept.
Even if it's originally organic, or contains an organic brain, a creature the size of the Caskuda could be so full of cybernetic enhancements and grafts to make is strong and fast enough to be combat capable that it is still hackable or have STR. Kind of like the Tohaa Kaauri Sentinels, which are small organic creatures grafted to a synthetic body.
Yes, but not only them. . . Vectors= Super Jump / CH: Mimetism / Multiterrain / Multispectral Visor L2 (ARM: 3; Shock CCW; HMG / Multisniper Rifle / Combirifle + Light Shotgun) Iskallers= AD: Combat Jump / Super Jump / V: Courage (ARM: 3; Shock CCW; HMG / Multisniper Rifle / Combirifle + Light Shotgun) Void Operators= Super Jump / Zero-G / X-Visor / 360° Visor (ARM: 3; Shock CCW; HMG / Multisniper Rifle / Combirifle + Light Shotgun) Caskuda= G: Remote / ECM / A.D. Combat Jump + Explode [that was ONLY at deployement, by falling RIGHT on top of enemies heads] (ARM: 8; Multi HMG and Heavy Flamethrower)
And Mimetism, and the HMG when it was the best gun in the game by far, and you could claim cover while jumping, and shooting through smoke was a normal roll where your opponent only got an ARO if they survived. Regardless of opinions on the model and fluff, I do not miss playing against them!
This thread has included several reminders of how much better the game has gotten! Exrah were a cool idea though, and a non-cookiecutter-anthropomorphic race in the game would be interesting to have again. Something that has a squiddy/crustacean body, not a he-man or robot one. Here’s hoping they bring a few out as mercs, then watch the hype grow!
Uchiii Kuckiii sounds a lot like a baby (I will keep it polite, there are others too...) saying "oh, que cuqui" (oh, how cute). Coincidence?
So was not only a case of "Ugly Sculptural Minis A Pain To Mold". . .!! Was also a case of "Army So OP That Was Nerfed To Death". . . . .!!! Never played my Exrah-Heavy Army; just the time to buy and assemble 2 Iskallers, 1 Vector, 1 Void Operator, 1 Caskuda, 3 Drones "Vintage Squidmech" and 4 Gaki-Pretas (those last two slightly modded to resemble MORE insectile). . . And Exrah were slaughtered away from the game!!! At least they were NOT Painted, just primed. . . . . And then, Italian LGS stopped to care for Infinity in my zone, because the distributor of that period was subpar yo support and endorse CB Products. . . In fact, until the RPG appeared my interest for Infinity-Verse was seriously reduced. . . Now I hope for a new resurgence of interest in the Wargame and RPG; seems a NEW Italian Distributor of Minis APPEARS to be considering CB / CB-Related Stuff and an Italian Translation Firm SEEMS to consider to contact Modiphius to discuss acquiring Rights of Translation AT LEAST for the Basic Manual. . . Let's hope for the Best. . . . .!!!