All Spiral corps units are inside Tohaa army except mercenaries. So normally it has to be Tohaa sectorial. But some how it is not. Why?
*shrug* It's basically a Tohaa sectorial, but I guess technically the lore is that the Spiral Corps is a merc unit that the Triumvirate runs in order to give its operations an air of legitimacy while they hatch their evil(?) plans for the Human Sphere. So they're TECH-NI-CAL-LY a mercenary outfit, not part of Tohaa proper. Kinda like how StarCo is in NA2 despite being the deniable operations unit for Nomads.
Exactly, they are a Tohaa Sectorial, with their CEO/Commander in Chief being a rising figure within the Triumvirate, but disguised as a Mercenary group to provide a deniable cover. This allows them to operate in areas that would be closed off from the regular Tohaa military and access to the Human Sphere's underworld and Submondo factions.
Mechanically there is no reason that Spiral should not be a Tohaa Sectorial, it is purely for background reasons. The Triumvirate is not a recognized faction within Tohaa society. They more are like a secretive organization that many Tohaa do not know exists or believes is an overblown rumor. They are concerned only with preserving the Tohaa race, even if doing so requires them to go against the core principals that the Tohaa espouse. The top members of the Tohaa Trident seem to know of their existence and do not trust them in the slightest because they often work against the goals established by the Trinomial and the Trident.
The game categorizes "false flag" forces as what they're flagging as. StarCo basically is an extension of the Nomad intelligence service, but it's considered an NA2 in the game.
I think is in NA2 because CB wanted to get ride of the faction tohaa but leave a remanent of tohaa units in the Game. When n4 was announced the out of Production sectorial/factions were not going to be updated for n4, but after everyone complaint the change their mind.
Nomad has already 3 sectorials and starco idea is understandable. However i dont like the 'false flag' idea if even 012 gains a sectorial but tohaa. Also.. No body would complain if spiral corps were included in tohaa and would not consider about tohaa conspirasies anymore.
What would be the difference that you would like to see by Sprial being a sectorial of Tohaa and not a Mercenary faction? Mechanically it would be no different except in reporting for Global Campaigns, (which is the only reason I would like Spiral to be counted as Tohaa, but I also think many of the the NA2 factions, especially JSA, should have separate goals rather than just being lumped together).
Personally, I'd like to see a Sygmaa Sectorial, incorporating elements of both Tohaa and CA to represent the Tohaa forces fighting for the EI. Not sure if it'd fit better as a Tohaa or CA Sectorial though, and CA already have Onyx, so not sure how likely it'd be to ever materialize. But it'd be cool to have Maakreps in Triads with Symbiomates and such.
FWIW they wanted to allow NA2 players to choose another faction to support, and even change sides part way through the campaign, but the OnTableTop platform couldn't support such things. It does make sense that Spiral isn't always in lockstep with Tohaa though, due to their Shadowy Agendas. So I don't like the idea of Spiral players being forced to work with Tohaa during a game.
Well it was definitely a matter of "when." I've heard from multiple WarCors that they did not expect people to care as much as they did and pushed up the timetable on that.
With the reduction in Tohaa participation in the war, it would make more sense to me to make Tohaa a NA2 sectorial alongside Spiral, rather than Spiral under Tohaa. Spiral doesn't answer to Trinomial, so no reason to organize them that way.
I had heard about the limitations with the OTT platform which are unfortunate. Background wise, I know why they are separated and have not problem that they are. Mechanically, for the purposes of the campaigns it is a different matter. Spiral were released as an army box, and generally these are a good way to introduce new players to a faction, but then they also discontinued the rest of Tohaa, so the new player pipeline was pretty quickly shut down as they began to struggle to source minis. Then when the global campaign came around anyone playing Spiral was just lumped into NA2 which seemed to have goals based more on Ikari and JSA than anything to do with Spiral. If they had been a Tohaa Sectorial then any new Spiral player would be helping to boost Tohaa numbers.
I'd like them moved over to Tohaa, although it would upset the balance of well-designed and thematically distinct NA2 sectorials to the a la carte wishlist NA2 sectorials.
Agreed from a player perspective- from a lore perspective, though, I think the triumvirate working potentially at odds to the faction strikes me as consistent.