September>December 2023 - Winter is coming with some reinforcements

I was hoping they were going to do a new edition with siocast figures. Some don't like it but it's better than what they had.

 

A big thing for Aristeia! was that the minis need to be pre-assembled so it could be sold in the "Boardgame" category rather than "Miniatures Game", which pretty much means PVC.

I think I saw Siocast teasing done form of preassembly machine system, but 1) I don't know how ready it is, and 2) don't know if it's worth the effort/investment for CB.

 

It looks like the Reinforcements Pack Beta are repacks of two characters + unit. I am guessing the Haqqislam Reinforcement Pack Beta will have the following:

• Lelia Sharif
• Rahman Rouhani
• Odalisque Spitfire

 

My disappointment will know no bounds.

 

An Odalisque or a Djanbazan, but otherwise I'm sure you've hit the jackpot.

 

Odalisque with spitfire would be the lowest effort option.

 

The Reinforcement Beta packs are all repacks aimed at players collecting a Reinforcement force, rather than people that already have that faction.

Like the Neoterra one is Shona, Dicky Quinn, and an ORC HMG, no use to me as someone with a near-complete PanO collection, but to someone that only played Military Orders it's quite a nice box to build a Reinforcement group around.

 

Oh I understand. I'm just bitterly commenting on the last year.

 

While I appreciate the nod to Douglas Adams with that new Dire Foes civilian, I can't help but think of this:

 

To finish out the year, Nomads the big winners for new figures as we knew. CA second with much less but still more than double the next largest PanO. O12 with the least but pretty good needed troops at least.

2023 Figure Release up to December.
Nomads: 12 Releases, 43 figures (2 Wildcat, 1 Evader, 2 Tomcats, 3 Beta Pack, 9 Bakunin, 1 Dire Foes, 4 Coregidor FT Pack, Meteor Zond, Stigmata, 3 Expansion Alpha, Illuminatrix, 4 Uberfallkommando, 5 Aftermath pack, 6 Reinforcement pack)
Combined Army: 7 Releases, 26 Figures (4 Hungries, 4 Daturazi, 3 Rodoks, 4 Expansion Beta, Caskuda, 4 CA Support Pack Alpha, 6 Reinforcement pack)
PanO: 4 Releases, 11 Figure (1 Dire Foes, 3 Armbots, , 6 Reinforcement pack Capital Force, 1 Squallo Mk2)
Yu Jing: 5 Releases, 10 Figures (Lei Gong, Hulang, Bixie General Release, 6 Daebak force, 1 Haetae)
Aleph: 6 Release, 10 Figures (Agamemnon, Booster Beta, Phoenix, Maximus, 3 Expansion Pack Alpha, 1 Dire Foes 13)
NA2: 6 Release, 10 Figures (Wardriver, Yuan Yuan, O-Yoroi, Sforza, 5 Aftermath pack, Fiddler)
Ariadna: 4 Releases, 9 Figures (Wardriver, Pack Alpha, Patchers, Kosmo Support pack)
Haqqislam: 4 Releases, 7 Figures (Shakush, Yara Hadod, 4 Pack Alpha, 1 Dire Foes 13)
O-12: 2 Releases, 3 Figures (Roadbots, Secudroid, Sarko)

2020 103 figures
2021 112 figures
2022 91 figures
2023 129 figures

Some thoughts on the year.
This year is actually a record for number of new releases, 129. That's really cool and I hope they can keep it up next year. My fear is that again it will be mostly one faction again instead of spread out.
I realize that Nomads got a re-do with Bakunin but I'm disappointed they took up the bulk of the year. They got way more than Morats before them and MO before them. They could have received about half as much and still been at the top.
The factions I think that should have received more is Aleph and Haqqislam.
I'm honestly surprised Yu Jing got as much as they did. Unfortunately the only one I was truly excited for was Bixie.

Hopes for 2024
Since I'm now working on O12 and Steel Phalanx, I hope for more of them! lol. I'm always hoping for Yu Jing to get some love as well.
We of course know that Reinforcement packs are coming out still for O12, Haqq, Ariadna, and Aleph. If they keep doing 2 a month, they will all be out by February. Unfortunately the new ITS season will be almost half over by then.

Edit: Again, since I’m playing some O12 now, I’d like a general release Raveneye and HMG Epsilon.

Adding this for the upcoming year. It's nice to see some Myrmidons finally! I guess Druze can count towards Haqqislam as well as NA2?

 

Who wants to speculate on whether the Myrmidon box has an Achilles in it and the Druze box an Arslan? Just extrapolating from the recent trend to have mixed boxes with heros in them.

It's actually two factions every two months. With Nomads/CA taking the January slot, that means Aleph/O12 won't start til February, and with the big Adepticon release in April, Haqq/Ariadna are actually looking at May/June.

 

I hope not on the character but I wouldn't feel bad about it. Especially with the Myrmidons. I really only want chain rifle Myrms but we know they are gong to get, probably; the hacker, combi, and BSG.

So even worse. The last faction will have all of 3 months to play the figures as actual reinforcements.

 

I'm mostly expecting the Myrmidon box to be 2 Myrms and 2 Thorakitai like the Hassasin Fireteam box.

Reinforcements is a permanent part of the game with no time limit.

 

I think the time period for this figure release assessment is off. What I think is it should begin with Operations box releases to consider production cycles and seasons, so maybe 2022 August to 2023 August. Just adding up the releases throughout a year ignoring their context feels over-interpretation for me.

 

My guess is that the myrmidon box will have at least one myrmidon officer in it,

 

I have no idea what would even go in a new Druze box. The current one is great.

 

At a guess it'll be at least Arslan, as he's been OOP for a while.

The current box isn't going OOP according to CB's store, which means it's either all new sculpts, or a repackaging of Dire Foes Arslan with some other blisters, beats me what though.