No it wasn't, these forums are from late November 2017 and Outrage PDF was released with an incomplete Druze sectorial around August 2017. Additionally, considering the surprisingly low number of likes (3) Koni got for posting the release announcement mid December 2017, I am confident that the beans had already been spilled prior to that in the dregs of a BoW video by Bostria or something similar
Aha. You are talking about the Outrage release. I wasn't even thinking about that. I hadn't considered that as the release of Druze since it wasn't in Army or playable in ITS in any way. That would explain the disconnect. There was a BoW video for the official release of Druze, but it was just a teaser video and I couldn't find anything else. It is possible that they just put together a quick video of existing footage to highlight it at the time on their own. As far as I can tell, looking back and from my memory, it was a surprise update to Army with a Blog post about the Druze at the same time to highlight it. The low likes for Koni's post is probably more related to the slow early adoption of this forum over the old one as it wasn't even a month old at that point. I was been trying to figure out where you got the idea that it would be built up on as it seemed to be the reasoning behind your dissatisfaction with mercs in general. I recall the surprise release of Druze as an official army as coming from out of the blue to the majority of people at the time and was assuming your comments about Druze getting expanded was coming from that time. I personally do not recall any teases about them expanding the Druze from the Outrage missions as I didn't pay too much attention to those missions myself.
Nah, I'm not dissatisfied with Druze. They are on point. I am of the opinion that Druze kind of deserve a few more units and thereby more build options, though.
Glad to hear it. I was talking about mercs in general though as you seem really disappointed that they are done the way they are.
I can understand the sentiment, there's a definite cognitive disconnect when I look at stuff like foreign, like how are these disparate bunch of former enemies all put together, armed, equipped and funded? Are they on loan from their regiments? Former soldiers using the exact same stuff as their previous careers etc? They're fun and all though a bit limited. Ikari sucks if your opponent like LT hunting for example and druze tend to be a mono-build. I find them a bit hard to get excited about when I'm not seeing a faction, I'm seeing a mashup of other factions. It'd be lovely if they got more depth and seemed more like a company than a pick n mix
Well going off of StarcCo (unofficial Nomad force that hires out a few things, so "on loan"), Druze (filled gaps in force by hiring from Bourak after Outrage) and Ikari (former army members continuing what they did and finding others of similar mindset) we should get that explaining fluff in the next book.
Dahshat list Seems pretty fun! 4 4 GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18) LIBERTO Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 8) LIBERTO Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 8) NAJJARUN Engineer Rifle + Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17) KAMEEL (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3) 0 SWC | 100 Points 3 ZÚYŎNG (Fireteam: Haris, Tactical Awareness) Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot B (Deflector L2) / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0.5 | 34) ZÚYǑNG Lieutenant Combi Rifle / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0 | 27) ZÚYǑNG HMG / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (1.5 | 35) 2 SWC | 96 Points 5 BRAWLER Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) BRAWLER Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) BRAWLER Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 18) BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28) BRAWLER Engineer Rifle + Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20) 3 SWC | 98 Points
And that’s the same reason I was including Spiral in my count for this year. Lots of new units, lots of new sculpts, part of the main storyline for that book, clearly a major release. Very different than the minor merc companies that are almost entirely composed of existing units that are already in other armies. And before anyone says it, Spiral Company/Tohaa is definitely a different situation than JSA/Yu Jing. But it’s close enough for differentiating major/minor army releases.
Since Dashat, FC can be seen as minor NA2(lack of originality and filling it with mixtures), we could expect more. IMO JSA, Druze, Spirals are 'Major' NA2 with lots of original profiles and unit, so they are so far proper NA2 in my point of view. Rest of them are at the level of fan-service and some glued merchandise. Still we won't get hurt by surprise White Banner, eh?
To an extent, yes. Though, I ask, gun to your head: "If the choice is between no NA2 armies or some crumby ones that are just hybrid-factions, which do you take?" Or, to rephrase the question: "Do you want nothing or something?
Last Dashat Force-Org chart I saw definitely has AVA 2 Kameels (and AVA 2 Traktor Muls, which I thought was cute), unless you've got something tastier than what has already been leaked?
I would like nothing, please. That was the general consensus of the YJ forums during Uprising, at least. My point there was that NA2 feels half-done, with a stolen core and only a quick polish to the Fireteams and maybe a Forward Observer here or there. If they produced less NA2 Sectorials but put the few extra weeks they would gain into really workshopping them to ensure a new, enjoyable experience, it would probably be a bit better overall. Say what you like about JSA, and to a lesser extent Druze, they are very distinct, as much so as most Vanilla factions are from each other. StarCo, Ikari and most of the DF entries simply aren't, though Spiral Corps looks very promising indeed thanks to its Tohaa-Human hybrid rules.
In terms of the 5 new armies this year, I'm currently thinking that the NA2 ones do count this year, mainly because I don't know what else it could be. Things like White Banner, Svalarheima etc I don't see coming so soon after the other new sectorials for their factions, and we had quite a bit of build up for things like Varuna, IA, Tunguska etc. So it would probably be more NA2 stuff anyway, which means NA2 stuff is gonna count as new armies this year somewhere.
Ehhh, not really. The consensus was "I would like NO CHANGE as opposed to you DELETING A THIRD OF MY ARMY." It's a very different scenario. I wouldn't have opposed JSA's new NA2 version becoming a thing if I was left with my old profile JSA access in Vanilla YJ. I would've welcomed that move.
Ya that was a bit crap lol! trying to pull from three different places wasn't fun. As far as I can see, up to 2 Kameel are allowed. I guess you can pretend there's a 5th wildcard? The list shows as regular core. Not special. 4 BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28) BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17) BRAWLER Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) BRAWLER Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16) 2 SWC | 77 Points
*cries in Guilang* Let's pretend Sforza is confirmed as a (Regular)Wildcard for a sec. Would you put him in a Zuyong Core? Would you link him at all? Another topic: McMurder + Saito (hopefully Specialist Operative?) + buffed Rui Shi is going to be a thing, right? Assuming that, what's your preffered Core for that list? Do you go heavy, mixed or light? Offensive or defensive? Could you do both?
