Good point. I'm probably not a good judge since I don't play them myself. I can only go with what I've seen from others.
After playing O12 and Starmada for the last 6 months, probably safe to say most of the issues with their popularity comes from model access. As unless you bought defiance you will only be able to get a third of the models in the army leading to HEAVY proxying, this is compounded by the fact that the army is 3 to 3.5 years old and has been barely touched.
I think next year the big three, like Aleph, CA, Haqq, were this year, will be Yu Jing, O-12, Nomads.
What do you mean by a third of the models? O12 by now literally is one of the few factions that has at least one model for literally every unit (except TAG Raid stuff and Agnes). Or do you mean loadouts? Because then O12 sits squarely with the rest of the factions. I'm not sure there isn't a faction that misses models for two thirds of its loadouts.
On a purely personal note: I started O-12 without Defiance this year and I had not the impression that I were overly limited because of miniatures. Not more so than my RTF, where I also have to proxy. I got the Defiance later, but I do not have the feeling I needed Defiance for O-12 to be complete.
Defiance is plain unnecessary now for O-12: retail Cho exists, and you don't need additionnal Gamma, Deltas, Lynxs or Saladin in most of your lists. It's probably one of the most complete factions, if not the one, out of all. The only problem lies in the fact that key units are still having only one sculpt, or even missing key loadouts (until recently, but yet still a problem), which increased the need to go for proxies, and also half of the army/releases are not useful, which leads to the scope of usable releases within the faction very minimal.
They did a year ago but so far this year only one release. Also Nomads sell. I highly doubt they would come out with something for NA2. Though I'd like them to do that. They could do Spiral and sort of add to Tohaa that way. It could even be Durgama again. Tohaa/Spiral vs. O-12, 2022 New figure Releases AS OF August. Combined Army, 6 Releases, 18 Figures Aleph, 4 Releases, 14 Figure Haqqislam, 4 Releases, 12 Figure PanO, 4 Releases, 10 figures O-12, 4 Releases, 9 Figures NA2, 4 Releases, 4 figures Yu Jing, 3 Releases, 4 figures Ariadna, 2 Releases, 2 Figures Nomads, 1 Releases, 1 Figure 2021 New figure Releases Nomads 7 Releases, 23 figures PanO 7 Releases, 21 figures Ariadna 6 Releases, 15 figures O-12 7 Releases, 14 Figures NA2 9 Releases, 13 Figures Combined Army 5 Releases, 12 Figures Yu Jing 4 Releases, 10 figures Haqqislam 2 Releases, 2 figures Aleph 2 Releases, 2 Figures
Nomads are probably getting something, at least a blister, since we saw new Moran art, as well as Lobos and Diablos.
True. We have had new TAGs be teased, revealed, shown renders, shown painted models, and released all before Shakush got anything beyond concept art. Still no render, they keep showing the same concept art from years ago.
According to this, it should be no surprise that O-12 has a lot of players, since they had a lot of releases the last years. But I doubt that this would be a major factor. I think that releases mainly play a part for popularity in two cases: Starter packs and OOP. Old factions that are OOP have problems to gain as much players as factions that are easily purchasable. And starter packs will weight faction popularity for new players. But other than that, I would say that theme, rules, miniature-design and actual/perceived performance weights much more than the number of releases. Yes, all of this is influenced by new releases, but not necessarily by the number of releases.
o-12 doesnt have interesting profiles at all which are special for 12. like dog warrior in Ariadna, piwell-moran in Nomads, Fiday in Bahram etc. I find them playable but there is nothing makes me excited in the army. Furthermore , minis are yes nice but doesnt look unique at all. o12 needs profiles and rules to make us say wow. Gangbusters are closest thing to consider for me this way. but not enough. maybe a hacker like unit to create a firewall area "something unique and different."
Can you elaborate on this? Riotstoppers are unique to O-12. Profiles like Team Sirius are quiet interesting. You can not argue about taste, so I will not try to convince you. But I can not let this stand undisputed ;) Visually, I think O-12 has some beautiful models with unique looks, like Siriusbot, Bluecoats, Raveneye Officer, Gangbuster, Gamma, Lawkeeper, Bronze ... I like that quiet some troops can have a sidebot. That is not unique to O-12, but still an option that is nice to have. Bluecoats are my favorite units - I like how the rules match the background. Bluecoat are cops that say "stop right here!" I am all for more options to play with. *thumbs up*
Many of O12's best profiles are loans - varangian, hector, andromeda, parvati. I think I agree that they don't have a 'wow' unit. I think the raptor comes closest... however they do have excellent utility pieces and optimised profiles. I really rate their drop troops too, one of the best factions in the game in that department.