Hmm, I wonder... The current Hassassin Bahram Starter box (N3 Sectorial, mind you) has 3x Daylami, Muyib LGL, Farzan FO, Ayyar MSR. Now, Daylami are a terrible choice for a Code 1 box set, being Irregular. However, the Muyib and Govad box sets contain 1 basic Rifle model each (and due to their point cost, these units make poor choice for C1 basic "order monkeys", there isn't much one could prune out of their profile to lower the cost...). Looks like there's no real alternative for the Ghulam as "3x basic infantry in the starter box". Which makes me sad. Unless, of course, CB pulls something that is outside of the box: regular Daylami, a new troop, not-3-basic-infantry (i.e. have 3 Order Monkeys, but of more than 1 unit), using more expensive units after all... not really something I'd expect, but on the other hand - this is the nature of thinking out of the box, right? Pull something folks do not expect you to do...
That's why I was thinking maybe 2 Ghulams and a Barid for the cheaper troops that would be linkable outside Code One. Or maybe Daylamis will count as Regular in Code One? I can't see a new troop being introduced with 3 units already without miniatures. @QueensGambit True, I forgot about Ragiks and Kums not having BTS. Seems like Ragiks should. The real mystery to me is the Muyib pants. No one else in the sectorial seems having pants in that style. @sololobo QK get annexed to NA2? Why? Would Haqqislam still have access to awesome troops like Bashi Bazouks, Odalisques, Djanbazans, and Azrai'ils? Surely the Sultanate and trading ships and infrastructure are still invaluable to Haqqislam? I feel like people who want to mix it up with Haqq in NA2 already have Dashat.
I believe that Haqqislam is the only Faction that does not have different Line Troops for each sectorial. Which ties into ghulams are the largest force in the Haqqislam military. It is kinda nice that having a uniform Line Troop allows you for switch between sectorials easily. A new Barid would be nice, but I am not sure that an operations box has had a HD before. Maybe the beyond box. My dream beyond box would have a Shujae, a Barid, and and new Siocast Azra'il AP HMG.
Could be Barid FO. I would want Azra'il feuerbach personally since the Fasid HMG can pass as the Azrai'il HMG, but we'll see. The Beyond boxes seem tied to the sectorials they're associated with (e.g., Crimson Stone, Coldfront), so I don't know about Azra'il there, but the boosters (like in this month's releases) seem to be all repacks so we'll see.
I just wanna remind people that armour doesn't mean jack shit when determining BTS. BTS BIG FAT ZERO YEEAAAAAHHHH!
Pan-O shares Fusiliers for NCA, Varuna, and WinterFo. Yu Jing shares Zhanshi for White Banner and Invincibles (this remains a mystery as to why).
Here's my guess, based on past experience with CBs two player boxes and the HB stuff that needs to be updated/released: Operation Black Wind: 3 Ghulam (rifle) Barid (hacker) Shujae (SMG) Nadhir (AP Marksman) Yara Haddad Dire Foes: Husam Yasbir resculpt Beyond Black Wind Lasiq sniper Al Djabel Farzan BSG TAG: Shakush (obviously) Booster Pack Alpha: Asawira (repack) Fiday (repack from Haqqislam AP) Govad HMG (repack) Booster Pack Beta: Ragik (repack from Haqqislam AP) Tarik Mansuri (repack from Haqqislam AP) Zhayedan (repack from Haqqislam AP)
While I like the old Asawira sculpts better for the posing despite being smaller, missing a chance for an updated Asawira seems like a missed opportunity given AP rifle and boarding shotgun minis still need to be represented. I would say the operation packs always have an HI but the CJC one in Crimson Stone disproves that, at a minimum.
I just hope they scale the (potential) new Asawira sculpt by about 0.8 so it fits on the base and the handgun doesn't look so cartoonishly proportioned anymore. The current sculpt is really hard to take seriously.
I agree with @burlesford 's guess, except for a few minor changes. Swap Yara in the initial box for an Asawira BSG or Rifle. Instead she (or Yasbir) will be the limited edition model for pre-ordering the box, like Wolfgang Amadeus Wolff. The other will be the Dire Foe. Looking at the last few starter sets (Crimson Stone, Kaldstrom, Wildfire), named characters are only included as preorder bonuses. Usually at least the Alpha or Beta booster will have a hacker or doctor. My guess would be Mukhtar hacker in one of them, maybe replacing the Asawira since my guess is an Asawira in the main box.
The preorder exclusive mini is a big question mark for me, the other two Code One battle packs have had a Mercenary usable by either side (Kunai for Kaldstrøm, Wolfgang for Crimson Stone) however the Hassassins and Steel Phallus don't share any mercs outside the Warcor, who is Irregular and therefore not really a C1 unit.
Yeah, neither sectorial really does Mercs. They could do Fiddler again and give her to Steel Phalanx, which seems more likely than a Warcor or giving Yara to both sides. Or it could be some completely new named merc like Wolfgang Wolff was. Or an HVT.
I'd suspect a new character/unit created to be used by both factions. Both Wolfgang and the Kunai were new releases with their respective action packs. Urist, I could see a character on both sides in the Beyond Black Wind box, with Yara being the Haqq character. Every beyond box so far has included at least one named character.
While Wolfgang's mini was new his profile had existed for a year before being in the box. Spot on with the characters in Beyond boxes though, I think the last one without a character was Icestorm!
Red Veil had a non-character Yuan Yuan. Icestorm had a non-character CSU. Though, true, both of these predate Cod One, if memory serves me. We could, therefore, assume the shift to a named character being the new approach CB took. But it is not, in my eyes, set in stone. Going out-of-the-box, I see one character (pre-existing in the game) that has Aleph background, but is considered to be Haqq-aligned, and yet not represented in Code One yet (as opposed to Saladin): Avicenna. Of course, having Avicenna to actually work for Aleph would require quite a plot twist, so please consider this idea nothing more thna just a wildest of guesses. Now, we're discussing the "Hassassin Bahram Haqq Starter", but remeber - it will be the Code One's Haqq starter. Apart form it, we have some other slots to fill: Booster Pack Alpha (3 models, it is not without precedence to have characters in it) Booster Pack Beta (as above) Dire Foes pack (1 Haqq character, 1 Aleph character and 1 civvie). Hero blister. also, for defintiely non-hero packs: REM pack (likely "mini-Maggie" Haqq REMs, re-released as C1 box. Though I wonder if CB decides to cast them in siocast of one variety or another). TAG pack (my money is on Shakush, Maghariba is too distinct and, I feel, too big for C1). Support pack (Doc, Engineer and 2 REMs. Could be a re-release of the current Haqq support pack, or a resculpt). Now, we have a number of vanilla Haqq characters who can fill these: Yara Haddad. She has no model at all (as the only one on this list), and is available to all the existing Haqq sectorials. My guess is Hero blister. She's not present in QK. Rahman Rouhani. Has a limited release, Defiance-only model. Given the precedent of Jazz & Billie, I'd expect to see him in the Dire Foes box. He's not present in HB. Leila Sharif. Has a model in the N3-era Dire Foes 6: Defiant Truth box. She's also a character that is present in all 3 of the existing Haqq sectorials. Yasbir. Has a rather old (N2) model in the Dire Foes 4: Flee or Die box. He's not present in QK nor RTF. Hussein al-Djabel. Has a (very good, but ultimately quite old) blister model. Do we have Impersonation rules in Code 1? I think not, and I doubt CB would be introducing them. Not to mention Fidays are quite deadly, and I'd be hesitant to introduced them into C1 play: they may ruin the experience for beginner players. Nazarova Twins. They have their own, 2-model-box, which is late N2 / early N3. I don't think it is going anywhere, and I don't expect to see bikes in C1. Tarik Mansuri. Has a model in the Haqq Action Pack, and an alternate loadout as a solo blister. I think he isn't going anywhere anytime soon. That, in my eyes, leaves us with 4 characters that could make their way into C1 Haqq: Yara, Rahman, Yasbir and Leila. Avicenna is a Hassassin-only option. With the always present chance of someone new showing up.
Very good point about the Character models. I think there is a chance that the Pre-order model could be Fiddler. She would be an interesting add for Steel Phalanx.
I can't make a pretense of knowing CB's mind. However, I find Fiddler to be a highly unlikely proposal: she has already been a limited edition model since the release of ITS 13 season pack. I'd rather expect a general release Fiddler this fall, once the ITS 14 season pack (with a new model) gets released. I mean, there is no precedent for a model to be continously kept as limited release.
Fiddler also clashes with Drakios and Scylla to a degree. It occurs to me that the Steel Phallus is likely to go through an overhaul with the Battle Box, like MO and MAF did with their updated boxes, and Bostria hinted as such, so we could see a completely new merc or character available to both.
