While I understand what you are saying, and I respect that view, unfortunately there are various reasons why a faction or a sectorial is left behind in the updates, Aleph has been slated for revamp later with the next book.
IF they come out. As has been established by CB themselves, they say one thing and do another. There's absolutely no guarantee that Aleph will get anything next year. I now take everything they say with a grain of salt. For all we know the book is about their destruction and Aleph is being discontinued like Spiral. We really just need to wait and see. Meanwhile work with what we have, not what we want. Believe me I understand the jealousy of when my favorite faction is overlooked for years. I finally started playing things other than Yu Jing that I liked and then finally IS got updated. Now probably several years again before they even look their way. And in the meantime, CA, PanO, and probably Nomads will get another sectoral .
What I’m most dissatisfied with in Aleph right now is how uninteresting the update content is. If we look at Haqqislam—another faction that actually receives new content—in N5 they got a lot of unique additions or meaningful upgrades. For example, the only Surprise Attack (-6) in the entire game, the rare Minelayer (2), Nahab jumping straight from having no Decoy to Decoy (2), Leila Sharif getting upgrades like Firewall, Carbonite, and Combat Instinct, the Khawarijs receiving all sorts of terrifying buffs, and not to mention the newest Saladin gaining Inspiring Leadership. Saying this doesn’t mean Haqqislam shouldn’t receive these upgrades (though, personally, I do think some of them are a bit excessive, but I’ll leave that aside). All of these examples prove one thing: “Even old models can become exciting through a good update.” But Aleph clearly didn’t feel this in N5. Instead, what it feels like is: “Hey~ CA just took away the S2 TAG I used to be proud of, and they get better gear, better skills—everything better.” PanO and YJ both get Pitchers, and they’re doing it better than me, etc. (I already explained this in detail in my first post, so I won’t repeat it here.) Of course, there’s always room for improvement. But if no one speaks up and everyone just pretends everything is fine, then nothing will ever get better. Ariadna only received the 5.2 changes because a group of loyal players kept complaining.
And could also be a slump in Ariadna sales. As much as I want to believe people play for the fun, cool minis, and story, a lot also play what's "good". It can be very disheartening to play a faction that just keeps getting it's ass kicked over and over again no matter how well you play. I don't think Aleph is that bad. Shasvastii, USARF, Ikari, and maybe Druze are near the bottom but Aleph is not that bad.
From your descriptions it seems like at least some people feel about Aleph similarly to how I felt a few years ago when I stopped playing PanO. Since then CB definitely got a lot of ideas what to do with them - and I'm not talking only about Kestrel (I'll leave aside the fact that the faction didn't need another sectorial) - which convinced me to pick PanO up again. Aleph will likely get the same treatment, and it never was as bland as PanO in the first place. But I get how looking at mostly other factions getting fun toys can be disheartening.
I usually play OSS, and while I agree that there is room for a faction overhaul, the last few years have seen a few changes that have, at least to me, kept the faction fresh. - Maximus TAG gives the option to play with a very resilient combat-oriented leader. - Garuda is now the "best flyer in the game", and allows OSS to play maneuver games in the enemy half of the table. - Yadu Discoballer gives a bit of visibility control, allowing OSS to play with that aspect of the game - Dawon gives an actual CC option. Not a great CC option, but enough to discourage random skirmisher mooks from just running into them. - Warhorse Yadu/Shakti Hacker and Immunity(Isolated) Deva makes the OSS Hackers feel a little more special.
I would like to thank Angus and Space Ranger that got the nail right on the head. Additionally the main problem is also in the background: The factions that literally are typical to Infinity are CA, Tohaa and Aleph for their peculiarity with regard to other games in comparison. Humans are humans for as much as you can dress them (Nomads also have noticeable peculiarities, but they are more isolated than the aforementioned). Also this is exactly my point. What happened to PanO initially discontinued sectorials indeed shine a grim light on the future of Aleph. Honestly I don't think I will like to play a game in which the creators follow ONLY the opinions of players. Politically speaking (and wrongly so, but that's a different topic) they speak of populism... that's not good policy. It brings only to monochromatic play style, boring game, not replayable. A famous hammer to go through 3 editions in a very short while because that was the only way they could get the players enthralled in continuing, hoping for the situation to change (was turned into the worst game available, now it's slowly coming back from the ashes to the point of... it saddens me to say... becoming more interesting than Infinity). The problem now is: how do we make sure Dedalus fall is not repeated?
Hey~ CB released the K2 Auxiliar, but the box has two models? Maybe they'll change the AVA—let's wait and see.
I expect the Army will be updated with AVA2 to the K2s in the Greek sectorial. It would be weird if they were AVA2 elsewhere, but CB has done weirder before anyways. As I mentioned in the quarterly thread, I don't dig the dissonance between the recycled poses, so aggressive, and the supposed frail beauty this automatons seem to project with those negative spaces, golden parts, flowing clothes, etc...
Disclaimer: salt ahead About time. A model that was not even advertised when it was added to Army. I still remember one of my friends made me notice them... Wonderful miniatures, nice aperitif, now on for the rest and there's a lot!
