this is why I was expecting Vedic in June and a re-release of icestorm (or advanced icestorm) with varuna vs Tunguska. Tunguska coming in June shattered that and put stop to the idea of an "advanced" starter with tunguska vs Vedic. all the hacking (and sectoral/link) rules
I had thought that the best setup for 2 player boxes, based on the notion that there would eventually be one for every faction(I can't remember exactly when but I remember Bostria saying CB wanted it that way at some point) would have been MRRF vs Shasvastii and Aleph sectorial 3 VS Tohaa because: They fit each other better as opponents. I thought TAK and Vedic would be here by now. A CA vs Tohaa box like we seem to be heading for is a very hard sell given they're the least played factions. If anything, given that the campaign will be set on friggin' Dawn,was originally supposed to be in full flow now,but pushed back to just after the june slot, I had expected TAK to be announced at adepticon and an Icestorm 2.0 that brought varuna and tunguska, with Vedic playing tail end Charlie in November... That was also sunk by Tunguska's appearance in June...
♫♫Heard it from a friend, who heard it from a friend who heard...♫♫ The Battle pack is is Ariadna (starter/Tartary) versus Druze Bayram. It has nothing to do with 'new' sectorials. Those are coming in the army boxes or just plain starter boxes. Or maybe, ♫♫Heard it through the grapevine...♫♫
Yeah, I know you're probably messing around, but... (sorry not sorry) Doesn't add up to me, NA2 mercs as a "starter" army seems unlikely. 300pt Army Pack, maybe, Starter Set, no.
clearly Terracotta army will come out, as its being split from yu jing as a Na2 army so doesnt count towards the 5
JSA is one of the N's Tunguska is the second N, so 3 more to go, Ikari, Star co and Druze do not count as N armies.
I think it's obvious the next two-player box would be Ariadna vs Combined Army. The only two of the six base-game factions to not have a two-player box. As for remaining sectorials this year, I think Vedic and Ramah. These two seem no-brainers, but I am stuck on the third. I would like to say Invincible Army, but I am sure I read somewhere they were not this year. Varuna seems a dark horse to me. Shasvastii are definitely out. Rhodina, maybe? Triumverate, just to make all the Tohaa players explode?
I hear that the Triumverate has a new unit that can one shot and entire army in the first turn. Also the Triumvirate starter will have a bonus pre-order Sakiel Box.
It's entirely feasible it could be Ariadna vs CA. The current CA starter just needs to have its label reprinted to say Onyx Contact Force starter and that frees up room with minimal effort. Chuck in a token morat (zerat or rasyat resculpt perhaps), chuck in a token shasvastii (maybe a new malignos?), a skiavoros maybe, put them up a bunch of kazaks including a vet kazak and a spetznaz, bing bang bong you've got a nice starter.
Only pre-order though, but very limited production and never to be made again. The moulds will be burned.
No, Ariadna vs CA doesn't work still. Theres 2 Ns on the timeline for 3 new sectorials, so 2 of them are coming together (Bostria's words). CA aren't getting their new sectorial this year so it doesn't fit.
It's also possible it's something we have no expectation of. We didn't see the JSA split coming up either. I wonder if it will be a two player box. Maybe it'll just be an Army Pack? That happened with USAriadna after all.
They need to release 2 of the sectorials at once for one of the Ns on the timeline to fit 3 more in. Bostria said in the CanCon vid to 'think like operation icestorm' or something along those lines.
They're the most likely, but I don't think they are the only ones possible. To my knowledge Bostria has always said specifically that they weren't working on Shasvastii (and the exrah) which leaves a lot of wiggle room for the other races of the CA, the Urkherit, the bioconstructs and the umbra are all designed as a base form, so it's possible (though maybe not likely) that the Ur sectorial lead by the EI's own aspects and avatar is going to come crashing into the human sphere. But if that's true then we'll probably see some indicators in the fluff dump for the BoW champaign...
A specifically construct heavy new CA sectorial almost makes sense. Would work well if it was a Vedic vs. CA box with ALEPH taking a much bigger role in fighting CA with these new and powerful incursions. As you said, I don't think its likely. Very cool and I would love to see that, but unlikely.