With the drop of CodeOne rules, and otherwise bored with isolation, I decided to look at the tea leaves to figure out what we might have in CodeOne when Aleph gets added. I think there's now an extremely strong possibility that we'll get added via Coldfront being moved to an ActionPack the same way Wildfire was of O-12. 1) It has the basic troopers in dakini to make it easy to learn. Neither Myrmadons nor Thorakites have good basic trooper profiles available, while the dakini are fully sculpted between Coldfront and the SWC box. 2) It lets them keep using the molds, and coldfront would have had the least time to amortize, so it makes sense to keep producing these instead of resculpting a new starter. 3) There is a RemDriver skill in the CodeOne rules that no unit from the 4 armies currently has, but reads as reworked Jumper Level Z, which the Apsara in Beyond Coldfront has. I think it's been included inorder to use that kit in the action pack next year. We'll likely have Hippolyta available, and I wouldn't be surprised to see some greek units appear as the Heros for CodeOne, in the same way that CA got Ko Dali and the Umbra Nourkias. Right now they'd only have Shaki and maybe Dart from the OSS lists. Looking further, the CodeOne TAG release would be a good place to release a Marut resculpt, while a Dire Foes could give us a Deva character.
Coldfront is an interesting case, since it's the only old Operation on CB's store now. Red Veil and Ice Storm are both done and gone. But then, Red Veil and Ice Storm also had their Operation (not beyond) mini's split up into Army packs. They even sold out of Cold Front around end of the year and restocked it. The thing with Action Packs is that they plan to use them as additions to Code One, structured over the years. So next year will add a new Operation and two armies to Code One, but also shift Pano/Yu Jing Kaldstrom to Action Packs. So where does that leave Coldfront? It's also unclear how often or which rules they might add to CodeOne, which affects the remaining armies a bit more than the current ones (Ariadna low-tech stuff, Nomad hackers, et cetera). Either way, seems it'll be a year at least before ALEPH is official in Code1.
We know that Wildfire/Boyond Wildfire will be repackaged into action packs, but we don't have the same info about Coldfront. I think it's actually more probable to see a refreshed Phalanx being the focus of C1's Aleph.
Another thing to consider with Coldfront is that Icestorm and Red Veil have just had half their contents replaced by newer starters (with some of their contents appearing in Booster packs down the line). If Code One is popular on the retailer side of things I can also see them doing 4 factions again for the second year, with two new starters in a battle box and two action packs made up of the Coldfront/Icestorm/Red Veil and beyond contents. For example, Operation: Silk Road with CJC /Nomads vs Ramah/Haqq, then Coldfront split into Action Packs. They can even keep the same release schedule graphic with different colours!
I guess they could do a Phalanx Operation, but once Coldfront dies, there is no core/ OSS starter at all. Ariadna might lack the TAK starter, but has other generic starters at least. I guess Phalanx just feels too "different" for me, vs most of the sectorials. I think they're specifically trying to keep from sending too much out to the retailers, or they run into the problems they have now of "too much stuff to keep track of" for the dabblers. Hell, what they SHOULD add to their plan is a Complete PanO (or whoever) pack that consolidates all the CodeOne stuff into one giant box for a slight discount. Action Pack+Remotes+ Support + Hero + both Boosters. Leave out the Dire Foes, not sure on the TAG... Either way, I think the flipside is that they need to have Code One units that can maintain their feel while losing a bunch of skills that make them unique. They also should probably have a good Core feel that can encapsulate the sectorials, which is harder with ALEPH (greek warriors vs robot army) and Nomads (Bakunin vs Corregidor vs Tunguska) then soldiers of Ariadna or Haqqislam's more integrated units.
