I like variety and I for one welcome more profiles and really want a defiance NA2 army. Different strokes for different folks.
Hard to believe they are bored of Infinity the Game that much. Defiance was a pretty good opportunity to milk for campaign expansions for a few years. They could even release cardboard only version for boardgame players (since it already comes with tokens for units) + "made to order"-ish miniature packs. Instead they have 0 interest in supporting it further and can't even spare some people to work on rules.
I won't be digging for quotes and point fingers mate, but some employees stated openly they play A! exclusively because it's fast and exciting. Was around A! release time and later. I wander how many CB employees play Infinity for fun these days - like sit down, grab a beer and play a game with a bud, feeling excited afterwards. It's just an observation, not critique of CB or their staff. We're all getting old and tired at some point imho. Defiance was a Kickstarter test for CB, they went pretty safe with metal miniatures and catered to Infinity fans. They delivered and now's time for the next step - which you are just witnessing, being Tag Raid.
I think the explanation is much simpler: TAG Raid is a way for CB to test their capacity of their new plastic models, which they were forced to reveal their plans about a bit earlier than they anticipated, due to the price increase with metal.
Of all CB product I think Aristeia! it's the one with the better rules. You may not like the model, but A! it's a great game both for fun and competitive settings.
Except Tag Raid was in the works before Sciocast got tested (According to Sciocast reveal video it was being tested for about half a year, whereas Tag Raid was known to appear since 2021 release calendar reveal). That, plus Tag Raid is going to be Chinese board game plastic. I agree completely. What A! lacks imho is a solid visual presence and advertisement. Some components look awful. This of course is very subjective - To me the final product looks like a mix of three different games with different art styles and color themes. I get autism just by looking at it set up on the board.
the way i see it, i prefer them spending resources on making these one off experimental games to try out new things ( Spoiler: minor TAG DM rant warning though not thrilled about a mech battle game about mining TAGs fighting each other and a worm when they haven't showcased the sheer terror of military TAGS formations [and what their faction design features bring to the fight such as panOs liquid armor and remote preseance or ariadna's obsolete tech being compensated with their abuse of large tessium stockpiles in armor and ammo] outside of lore ) rather than testing it in N4 or "shutters" make another kosmoflot when other sectorials in the faction need desperate overhauls *cough* frrm/ usa *cough*
Things that don't cause autism: (1) Vaccines (2) Board Games Source: Science --------------------------------------------- I do dislike the inclusion of the board game units & characters in the game. I can use Rouhani as just a Ghulam or as a Hakim. It doesn't need a special profile.
Especially, if you get deeper into it and use AGL rules that balance some things. It lacks advertisement for sure. I like to compare it to Super Fantasy Brawl that boardgamers know. But they most often don't know about Aristeia!. The mix in styles (not talking about quality) is intentional though imo. Aristos are superstars that express their egos by different looks or just satisfy their fans with some cosplaying. I created even more proxies for the game to have more 'skins'.
Man, I was thinking exactly of SFB when I wrote this! Was actually thinking of different art style for characters, the board and any peripherals. These three just doesn't click into place together as a whole. Also cover is a huge misfire imo. An exciting game about arena combat set in the future - bunch of characters standing at ease, white background. Speaking from experience, this has a low chance of catching attention (and excitement) of a browsing customer in a brick & mortar store. It is overall sad, cause Aristeia! has some seriously stellar mechanics, very exciting gameplay and the miniatures design is very nice.
Ah, you mean the mix... now I get it. 3D terrain adds a lot to the game. I suggest using some clear acrylics stuff or the MAS terrain from your Polish manufacturer. The Aristeia! artworks on that terrain make it fit very well. Additionally, I added hex bases in red and black to my miniatures as well as acrylic scoring zones and it fits even more now. Or you can combine the Deep Cut mats with Customeeple terrain. Green mat with fluogreen acrylics. Looks awesome! The art of the characters is the same imo. Just the Sterling Forge and TCOMM cards have a way different style.
Hey, have you guys ever worked for a decade on a single product? Maaaaaybe they are actually enjoying creating new games, and selling them to people who generally liked their other ideas so far? Maybe not everything has to be an ad-infinitum product line? Fortunately people who run game companies tend to balance sales numbers and their own desires when they make decisions. Purely sales-driven game publishing ends up reductive and way less interesting (RIP GW's many secondary games, even including WH Fantasy). CB's doing fine, our beloved Infinity will not suffer if some teams take a few interesting detours.
Yes. @Savnock And even Infinity will end one day and maybe a "new edition" (WHF > AoS) will take its place or a whole new game. But until then we have much more to explore... so we need more books, comics and campaigns. :D
Huh. I always saw Aristeia as great execution of an absolutely shitty idea that had no business being as good as it is. Seeing how GB imploded and was practically removed from the fabric of reality, that kinda sounds like citing Game of Thrones as a successful TV series. Anyone knows what exactly happened to GB, anyway?
Yes. No exaggeration here. SFG got sick of dealing with the Guildball fanbase and just decided to stop. They felt like they couldn't have fun with the game design anymore because everyone would complain if things weren't completely optimized. Probably not a fair characterization of the fans...it was probably just a few people who were very vocal, and SFG just focused more on the negative comments than the positive ones.
That plus huge issues with miniatures quality after moving from metal to new material. They made a good choice to go two ways, catering to the needs of both more gaming oriented fans and more hobby oriented fans. Board game plastic products were cheap and overall nice for what they were. Resin in the other hand was at first simply disastrous. I'm talking this level of bad: And this was marketed as high end "Legacy Collection" quality product. It was another pinch of salt smeared into the GB wounds.
Yeah, being first did Morticians no favors. But those problems were largely worked out by the time they gave up. My resin Masons are top-tier, and the few Resin characters I bought were also very good. I should clarify. Maybe what I said wasn't true. But it was the reason provided by SFG themselves.
