In that case, which armies fit in the starter? Vedic/Kazak fits with all the info we have. Nothing else really does.
All the starters are around 175 points including the 7th model. So something like Spoiler ALEPH ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 DAKINI Tacbot Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 13) DAKINI Tacbot Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 13) DAKINI Tacbot Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 13) NAGA (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27) DEVA (Multispectral Visor L2) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 33) 1.5 SWC | 99 Points Open in Infinity Army with a new ~25 point LT option (e.g. whatever unit the vedic spec ops will be from or second deva) and a 50 point heavy infantry (say a STR 2 remote or a reworked Asura) vs Spoiler Ariadna ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 6 LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9) LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9) LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9) TANKHUNTER Portable Autocannon, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 34) VETERAN KAZAK Lieutenant AP Rifle, Light Flamethrower / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 37) SCOUT (Forward Observer) Ojotnik, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30) 1.5 SWC | 128 Points Open in Infinity Army With another 45 point trooper (perhaps with a visor on)
So much this. That's exactly what I'd love to see in a kazak starter. Then perhaps some new feature unit to cover the rest of the points gap. One of my biggest hopes is that the new Line Kazaks get a really nice new look.
I`ve been constructive enough between 60 and 120 pages of April topic, but demands are going higher and higher. And of course I`m humble and not superior in any way to these glorious financial specialists and customer rights layers here. Apparently no one else played Fantasy battles, FFG DUST, old Malifaux except me. And no one remembers Rackham and Spartan games and their management. JSA split outrage I see here is a bit higher than I saw on Fantasy battle close. Entire wargame close, not moving some units from one faction to another. Oh, dear Lord, don`t let CB down because of these tantrums.
Those are very reasonable guesses at starters, that is exactly what I suspect would be in the Ariadna one. Its worth remembering that the Aleph box needs a hacker to take the Dakinis though, or the Naga needs to be one. That 7th ~45 point slot for Ariadna is the mystery; nothing currently exists to take it, and adding a visor troop steps on the existing Briscards toes. Unless we throw away the "Ariadna has few visors" tradition and just give them plenty of them, I guess this has started already with the Marauder profiles with MSV1. They wouldn't be bad boxes, the Aleph one just doesn't feel like Aleph to me. Effectively its a generic set of shooting guys in robotic "skins", nothing about how it will play gives the feeling that they are a technologically advanced faction of specialists.
That famous low-tech russian TAG? Yeah, they could finally design it as a S5 Low-Tech HI like the Blackjack, but a bit more powerful.
Or they could just give a dog-warrior ARM 5 and a HMG! Leave the BS at 11, just give them full auto L2. :D
@tdc: That's similar to some lists I proposed for such a starter a while back. The neat thing about it is that if you included a Deva hacker instead of MSV2, you could effectively introduce beginner hacking-- supportware only, for instance. I'd keep the visors out. Just allow the visual mods to exist all around. But either way... Yeah, totally doable, especially assuming CB's got some new units up their sleeve.
I think we already shared on this subject on the ALEPH subforum. As a player who started with ALEPH I don't see them as advanced. Au contraire, the abundance of NW:I makes mistakes forgivable to some extent. I have no preference for vedic being in a 2p box or simply a new starter as long as they come. This being said I see Vedic vs Kazak as having some challenges to overcome, namely Dakinis having Mimetism and Kazak not having (at the moment) MSVs. As for a "hacking themed" box, well sure ALEPH can hack ... but what would they hack in Kazak (or ariadna for that matter) and how would Kazak field interesting enough hackers to be relevant to the theme ? aside from a Camo KHD I don't see Kazak being a hack-heavy faction. If we are going for the "hacking theme" Tunguska vs Vedic is obvious.
Well if you insist on the RM100 being a arm10 bts6 unhackable, STR3 with an extra lotec state and twin autocannons for 120 points I'll accept it...
I'm an Aleph/Ariadna player, so a Vedic/Kazak starter would be perfect for me. This being said, I agree with the objection above (problem of mimetism of daikini and lack of MSV kazak), so, what about Varuna vs Kazak ? Varuna would have better BS and weapons against Kazak camo/mimetism so no side should have a huge avantage.
Pan-o is in icestorm, the vanilla aleph box is due for renewal, and Varuna is almost certainly November at this rate...
Vet K has mimitism, and TH and Scout have camo. Just don't give Vedic an MSV2 unit in the box and you're good. (Or just introduce an MSV1 profile for the Kazakhs, that'd work too)
There is always space for more PanO releases! Icestorm has to rotate out eventually, after all. Its not just a problem for the Aleph troops- The Ariadnans would be only hitting the Daikinis in cover on 8's or 9's, in their favourable range band. Which is only 8-16" for most of them, with rifles...
I'm sure Icestorm will rotate out eventually, but not just a year after Beyond Icestorm was released.
