I was trying not to contribute to the salt mines here, however I will say my take on the situation. I started early N3 - been a PanO player since the release of Operation Ice Storm. I knew back then that NCA and SAA were risky picks due to the age of their models and apparent lack of support especially by the end of edition. I bought into Varuna heavily back then and had many great games with both them and MO. I feel Corvus Belli communicated NCA/S.A.A. properly in the edition change and decided to pick up the Bagh Mari box at the end of N3 with the full knowledge they'll eventually go away since they were effectively OOP at that point. Just loved the models and figured I could proxy when they went the way of the dodo. Fast forward to now, I'm happy with the inclusion of the "staple" units of NCA making their way into vanilla, with the reinforcements box very heavily NCA themed. At least in my opinion, now would be the natural time to "legends" those older unsupported factions. Varuna, though? I was one of the unfortunate souls that purchased the Varuna starter a few weeks ago. After the announcement of the Zulu Cobra, Cutter, Croc Man into Vanilla I thought it was a safe pick to reinforce my PanOceania Varuna collection. Varuna should have been OOP long before this point or at the very least include anything in print (and not "last chance") in the release. Why sell a brand new box to someone only for 50% of it not to be included mainline in the new edition? I honestly think including a Kamau profile in Vanilla on launch would be the bare minimum. Sure, it may show up in a few months but seems like unnecessary conflict with the community where there should be a big hype train for N5.
It would be funny if they paywalled the rules and made it so you have to buy access to some sectorials like Varuna on the app xD
I guess I'm the lucky one. I lost one army. My NCA, which I've had since N2 (about 2010 or so, when I expanded my "vanilla" from N2 launch into the direction of NCA). Maybe 2 if you count nothing really new for my QK, but at least they are still there. I'll just have to go through the Kestrel stuff to see what can be ported across. I already have fusiliers with caps on (I did headswaps years ago) rather than berets. Bonus, one of my minor forces got bumped into a major faction update (JSA).
Now my n5 wish is that CB would be completely transparent on what their plans for the cut sectorials are. Playable as a n4 pdf? Oop but in army? Cut for foreseable future? I just want some clarity
They said the pdf they shown was “the sectorials in the army app at the moment of the release” So it’s really about: will they come back or not in a foreseeable future?
And yeah, I've lost 4 full painted and completed armies, so I will never buy anything from CB again. Only proxy since now.
One more comment — I don’t own any of the armies planned for cancelation (though I have like 7 with full miniature range bought and painted ). The problem is my friend (who originally got me into the game) does. He’s very pissed that huge part of his collection (pretty expensive btw) will become obsolete and considers leaving the game which is serious for me. And I know there are a lot of passionate Infinity players in similar situation out there. So I really hope CB will have an option to play with OOP armies and not just cancel them outright.
My friend is a somewhat WYSIWG obsessed, so I'm not really sure. But I believe even that would be better than nothing. I never thought I'd ever say that but at the moment the situation is such that even GW does a better job of handling discontinued armies than CB. Which is crazy.
Not for me atleast. As someone earlier described better then me: proxy should be an option not a must. Faction identity and my connection to my painted armies are too imortant for my enjoyment.
I think that the easiest solution would be to keep the legacy armies somehow available and playable through a toggle in the Army to either activate or deactivate N5. CB would just need to modify the Army app to add the toggle and to double the size of the database to have different tables fot either N4 or N5. Then, the players with non-supported armies could still play and build lists, but just not participate in N5 ITS tournaments. It would still suck, but not so much.
I have been playing Infinity for over 7 years. I have bought a lot of miniatures. But what is happening now is a disaster. 7 sectorials are leaving. France, Scotland, Neoterra, Acontecimento, Foreign Company, Starko. Vanilla Pano becomes unplayable without the new Kestrel set. I only have Nomads and vanilla Ariadna left. Most of the collection going to the trash. Does KB really think that I will pay a cent even once more? Can you imagine how much it costs to buy and paint 7 armies? When the new set was announced, I put money aside for a pre-order. To expand the Pano collection and finally start playing as Japan. I wanted to buy the full version, with Korsan, to give it to a friend who plays Haqqislam. This will not happen. You should not do such things to long-term loyal and paying customers.
That would help, but far better would be to at least leave things with their n4 profiles without edits, much like how they've treated OOP sectorials for n4. FRRM would be particularly simple as only two profiles aren't actually in n5, metros and zouaves. Could even just leave them with their current fireteams, or use the reinforcement ones.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, but what would official proxy chart even do? You can proxy already if you want to, makes no whatsoever differerence if there is an official chart or no.
Your situation is not as dire, take a moment to look again the charts and the situation. Generic armies are now in all regards a 'sectorial', since they have access to duos and haris now. And new fireteam rules locate all the power in the duo and haris. Not counting the generous proxy rules for Infinity, as there is none WYSISWYG in this game. This allow things like @burlesford wonderful o-12 Army using miniatures from all across the range, you have the following: MRRF exists in its full inside the Vanilla Ariadna chart. You're missing only metros and zuaves, and there are plenty of other profiles that absolutely can be fielded with a metro or zuave miniature that suits them rules wise. Neoterra exits in its full inside the Vanilla Panoceania chart. Key pieces you're 'missing' are the hexa, how is now splitted into blinks, fireflies and scarecrow. And auxilias have upgraded into Drummers. So if you field your auxilia as Drummers, and your Hexas as either Blinks, fireflies or scarecrows you're absolutely good to go. Varuna is in the same situation as Neoterra. Your Echo-bravo model is now a Banshee profile, wildparrot included. Depending of what Kamau profile you were inteding to use, and chances are it is the MSV2 profile, you have a Nisse or Black AIR profile that suits your model. Acontecimiento has been remade and reborn into Kestrel to be honest. Fennecs are Acon's Regulars, Bagh-Maris are Black AIRs, Akalis are Banshees, ORCs are now Griffins... and so on. Your montesa Knight that once started being foot-slogged and then upgraded into a motorbike in N4, is now riding a jetbike in the form of a RedEye. ForCO and StarCO has been told several times it is going to be integrated inside their natural sectorial, like StarCO inside corregidor? Vanilla Pano is absolutely possible to be played without touching a single profile of Kestrel. I have to admit I can not provide an easy answer to Caledonia. And I agree that it would be amazing that they can reach a situation akin to MRRF in which you can easily play a Caledonia army using just the Generic Ariadna chart.
I am very grateful to you for trying to console me. But I am ready to accept only the opinion on France. Pano requires too many proxies. If you need to replace so many miniatures, then you can basically switch to playing with wine corks.
Possibly, could make identifying bit easier under time limits at tournaments, although on the other you would thus be limiting proxying to said official proxies and I'm not so sure about that either. I do have some proxies myself such as guijia pilot as my warcor and morat tag pilots as my helots from times before they existed and would rather keep it that way, then again, not sure if helots are even in the game anymore.
