Sounds like a good basis for the eventual (inevitable) Svalarheima Winter Force vs White Banner starter set.
Yes but in it Yu Jing pull a Red Dawn in PanO held Svala. Like in one of those shitty Cold War gone Hot novels.
So, at last i fear that we lose ISS because they freaking to incopetente and now this organization must be reformed or abolished. Agents system must be abolished because they to impulsive -__-
I don't consider Gutier as a fool who doesn't think in this kinds of questions. So all this grotesque view of Yujing should be intentional, ergo gutier has lost it's touch, has just gone to a bad writing phase or he thought thet the characteristics of this release demanded it. I really hope that last to be the case. In wich a relatively quick Yujing reply must be the best course of action. A smart businessman doesn't want to open a bleeding wound for too long. It affects the old clients, the not so sold clients, even the new clients, the distributors, the community... neglect a wound is not advisable it can became infected, it can exhaust the community, became a stone over their head... I don't know CB plans but I hope they play smart and don't let this bad press become written in stone. Kuge oustmarted The Yanjing (inteligence service) ISS (policial an counter insurgency agency) Suntze (best strategist of the sphere that doesn't know how to be listened by it's own men) The party (Political Influence.. who was the smart one that put the second-class citizen thing on top of the table?) The emperor (Head of the law and director of all the investigations and inquires done by ISS agents) Earth military & Gubernamental deployed YJ forces (Uprising in earth was a succes) Mars military & Gubernamental deployed YJ forces (Uprising in earth was a succes) ... The Japanese Citizens (now loyal serfs of the kuge emperor) The Yujingu civil structure (they buyed this conflict and done nothing to try to stop it) (and the list keeps going) So yeah it feels totally grotesque. Even untenable to maintain a healthy government being indebted to virtually every other (and bigger) nations (feudal system aside)
Did these Kuge guys even have much of fluff presence before uprising? I've read all the books but can't remember them coming up, no one mentioned them when the Kuge delegate got released, yet suddenly Kuge manipulation is able to handwave away all those structures you mentioned.
To clarify, it apparently has all the agency/power. Nobody roots for an underdog villain; why should people care about Yu Jing if they're helpless, incompetent, and morally bankrupt? O-12 can compromise the sovereignty of a nation with billions upon billions of people, why aren't they an option to play? Considering they can punk Yu Jing whenever they want to they seem like the more relevant faction.
Because, unlike everyone else, they aren't "morally grey". O-12 aren't supposed to be interesting and engaging because THEY are the real "good guy" faction in the game. And we are supposedly going to see them eventually, but I certainly understand why they weren't one of the early factions.
I think that there could definitely be a sinister take on O-12, and it'd be more interesting than benevolent. Keep StarCo as the one designated good-guy faction.
So wait... I thought the Ikari were portrayed as being 'against everybody'. Are you saying they typify JSA's officers' corruption? Because I thought the point was they 'saw through that bullshit' kinda thing? Or are you saying that in the Ikari fluff they're portrayed as 'more sane' because they went against the Kenpeitai/Kuge/aristocracy?
I don't like it, but if you go back to the old material about how Japan got incorporated into Yu Jing, it was elites cooperating with the Chinese to do so, against Japanese popular resistance. They kept their power, and added with the descriptions of Japanese society as very traditional and hierarchical it probably isn't so much that they were invented for Uprising, but that the descriptions we were given of Japan-in-YuJing were woefully incomplete. Of course, that fact doesn't do much to improve the silliness of them indoctrinating an entire ethnicity and organizing an insurrection beneath the gaze of the Imperial Service and Yanjing... But look on the bright side guys, there's always a silver lining. Next time someone pipes up that the StateEmpire is an oppressive totalitarian police state, we can all just blink once and then laugh.
There can be a sinister side to O-12 first of all they enforce their will to everybody and use their stranglehold to the circulars and the other factions to enforce it, StarCo is not the "good guys" they are designed to be the "good guys" by inception because the Mexican general has a clear vision for sustainability of income, really good background material about Nomads pragmatism there. No, I am saying Ikari exist because of Japanese officers corruption and meaningless sacrifice of Japanese soldiers life to look good on Yu Jing hi command.
Ultimately they outsmarted Yanjing and ISS all other part you write are sub parts of ISS really and it is not impossible to do given all the big Ninja clans were under their control, the plot makes reference to old background material that most of us gave little thought and elevates the gravity of these small fluff pieces a lot, I do not find it grotesque I find it elegant and written with respect to the background material. On the military engagements, I do not think they outsmarted the Yu Jing military, they exploited everything they could to keep themselves alive long enouph true, but Yu Jing are not mindless murderers and respected the rules of engagement on most cases, JSA just used areas they were not allowed to shoot as shield. I do not think the idea was to make Japan a healthy new state, far from it, their current state elevates how bad Kuge are and what they were willing to sacrifice from their country and their people to get their nobility back.
JSA used the civilians as essentially cover the civilian residences were the theatre of operation because JSA chose so, not because Yu Jing chose so, same way the Japanese navy used the orbitals as shielding, nowhere in the fluff during the engagement you read about civilians rounded up for execution, even after uprising Setang is quite timid, everything considered. yes, ISS is quite on top of everybody but can you really blame them?
I really liked the piece of fluff about one city on Mars surviving basically because they used a terraforming tower as "shield" because bombarding the tower would be considered a crime against humanity by O-12, thus keeping Yu Jing from properly attacking the city.
No, this doesn't make sense. USA learned in Vietnam what journalists without proper oversight can do and has since worked very hard to control information flow in theatres of operations. Soldiers are taught basic 101 about talking to journalists. This is something that's been done in almost every war organisation since (including terrorist organisations with aspirations over their means). It has even been weaponized by the US since, a reason why a lot of quasi-totalitarian states regularly beat up or lock up journalists if there ever needed to be a reason for those kinds of states. For Yu Jing to allow journalists free, unaccompanied access, unscrutinised reporting, in a war zone (let alone anywhere at all) would be for the entire nation to go out of character. It'd be like USA sending a carrier to a war zone without an escort fleet, or Assad to travel to Hague to argue his innocence before the the international courts. It just doesn't happen regardless of whether its possible to fail to learn from history - there's just a few things that are way too expensive to unlearn or in this case way too rooted in culture to suddenly stop doing. Should CB also have missed the chance to learn from Ukraine, I'd be very disappointed as a fan of this game, to not have Kuge, Haqq or Pan-O use floods of fake news, manufactured stories and spin-doctors to help spread counter-propaganda and subversive messages - instead of having the Yu Jing military or counter-subversion forces act like idiots. Have the civilians do what they do best in the run-up to a military conflict - have them act like the idiots and tools. The Infinity universe is not far enough along in the evolution for humans to have evolved resistance to misinformation campaigns. The first source of information on a topic should still be the strongest for the people of the Human Sphere.
