The next BoW campaign is the next event on the CB timeline, right? Not sure if we will be clumped together with the rest of NA2 but it would be nice to see The Free Company of the Star leave a good mark on the campaign map. How are my fellow StarCo allies feeling about participating this time around?
They better should distinguish between the several NAA Factions otherwise it's very likely that a bunch of NAA vs. NAA battles occur which would not count towards the overall score. If StarCo will be it's own faction I'll be in for some recreational games.
How dare you sir StarCo, the free company of the stars, is an independent mercenary company without any connection with the Nomads nation, our employers can be curtain we do not propagate any Nomads agenda. (please ignore who funded us, from were 99,9% of our military personnel is, the fact that we can terminate the mercenary contract of a formation at a moments notice and they revert to been a proper Nomads military formation that "happens" to be next to an important hotspot ectr ectr.) No connection with the Nomads nation whatsoever. (Now please keep funding our reserve army)
If you play mercs you should then choose another faction to indicate who's hiring your services for the duration of the campaign.
I don't think that CB will lump all NA2 forces into one faction. That would not make any sense. I can imagine two options: 1. JSA and Ikari are one faction, Druze may be treated as a sectorial of Yu Jing, StarCo as a sectorial of Nomads. 2. JSA is its own factions, while the mercenary companies may shift faction from one campaign phase to the next. Decided by players or by CB. lets see, this may be part of how the campaign system evolves.
JSA hired Ikari & StarCo during the Uprising. If they hired Druze as well, then the NA2 would be complete. The Teseum they have reportedly discovered at their base on Ariadna would give them more than enough money for Ikari & Druze. It's not like fluff alliances matter for campaigns anyway. We learned that during the last one.
Traditionally, when two mercenary forces have fought against each other, it is an elaborate show that accomplishes little. (See Italian history). I would be just fine with certain NA2 battles meaning nothing, while others could be extremely pivotal. I would love the ability to play Druze and count my W/L towards Haqqislam, but mostly because I want to play both factions for the campaign.
My personal opinion is that you'll be able to assign NA2 games to a faction. So you will be able to play a game as StarCo but the points go to the Nomads/YJ/PanO/CA faction depending on who's 'paying you'. But I'd expect a balancing factor to account for the fact that NA2 games are less likely to be 'meaningless'*: ie a NA2 victory is only where a % (say 80/90%) of a native faction victory. * By which I mean that they happen in locations that don't affect the outcome: you can also choose to be fighting in a sector where your game will matter.