The thing is....and it's a big flaw with the system right from the get go, what do the factions even have to "pay for" other factions services? I mean the whole Nomad Nation could be bought with enough payment, but nobody knows if their "payment" will actually be real, as CB didn't really care about player created fluff until now.....maybe this will change now, who knows. I really hope JSA will get their own goals, putting us in one pot with the mercenaries doesn't really make sense to me. That being said, JSA's goal is alread 100% clear right from the get go....we will have to defend Kurage Station no matter the cost, it's our only way of obtaining Tesseum and so on to build up our much needed navy. We must not lose Kurage no matter what, so we will be playing a very defensive game all throughout the campaign I reckon, let's just hope our numbers or allies will be big enough to allow for a defense, otherwise it'll be a annoying campaign for us.
The background in the new book says that the 3 mercenary groups were all part of JSA's uprising in different theatres, paid by the Kuge. So they will probably be on JSA's side in the campaign.
By "payment", I meant something like XP boosts for the mercs based on the bigger faction setting a bounty. And JSA probably wouldn't be covered as Mercs in that case. But if NA2 all lumps together, then that does raise some questions regarding the factions that some of them are aligned with. Ikari is JSA-fuelled, and StarCo is Nomad, with Druze having some connections to Haqq. Could be an "underdog" alliance being steered towards there - trouble is, playerbase alliances don't really sync up with fluff alliances, do they?
I think having the NA2 ally with JSA is a bit odd...sure they helped during the uprising, but if they are helping now, it would make them so open to treachery due to "Oh wait, Yu Jing paid them more this time", that it'd make them 100% untrustworthy allies, and more of a drawback than a real ally in my eyes....I mean you guys know CB...they'd totally pull some bull like that out of their hats in the last round of the campaign or something along those lines, just to mess everyone up and force them into their pre designed end outcome anyways.... (sorry...the bitter YJ commander came trough for a second :-P)
They might be untrustworthy allies, but StarCo never breaks a contract and Ikari HATES Yu Jing so wouldn't betray JSA to them.
From what others have written, Ikari was screwed over by JSA commanders while in Yu Jing and not Yu Jing commanders, so should they find out it was the Kuge screwing them over that'd be grounds for splitting that alliance, twisting the hate the other way. In fact, not having them be the dissenting JSA is a bit of an oversight, the game really don't need two JSA. Then, of course, there's the problem where JSA will probably be one of the most played factions, by player numbers. P.s. and isn't StarCo and Druze basically mortal enemies, or have I missed something by not reading Outrage?
I would consider that pooling together the NA2 factions represents more a "there are more troops of each one doing stuff" than "they are allied", because the other option is to split them into individual groups that either latch themselves to other factions, or lack objectives altogether... Also, consider that only the JSA really wants to "own" places, the mercenary groups prefer locations that won't get them into disputes with even Ariadna...
You're missing a lot by not reading Outrage, borrow a copy from a friend at the very least (personally, it's in my "books to keep forever" pile, alongside all the Shirow stuff and Old City Blues). That could really go either way. I mean, yeah, Arslan's group basically got smashed by StarCo, but Arslan was able to get to his current position because of that.
Mangas is not my thing and I haven't had enjoyment from a comic book in a good long while. As for games fluff I find I'm often not interested in the stories, but in the broad strokes they paint. Kind of weird that I tend to enjoy them better when filtered through other people's experiences, or when expressed through shorter blurbs than coherent narratives :/ Might be typical quality of writing that comes from games, however it often feels like when game fluff is put into a coherent narrative it tends to ruin itself by filling in the blanks far too much. Those narrative blanks tend to ease suspense of disbelief a lot. And I mean a lot.
Hmmm...are you talking "of the NA2 factions" (in which case I'd agree), or of all the factions out there? Cause I frankly highly doubt that JSA will have a very high number of players in this campaign, I think we'll be at about Aleph's level of playerbase, if we are lucky that is, if not we'll be even weaker in player numbers. If this forum is something to go with, our numbers and activity are rather low, especially for a new faction.
I'm talking about in general. Depending on when the campaign is, precisely (I am blissfully unaware at this point). You're probably looking at a staple of close to Aleph (i.e. last or second to last among non-merc factions), but right now it's the new kids on the block. I'd give it to about June before people go back to their comfortable "main" factions. I know that our Stockholm tournament early May will likely have a metric shittonne of JSA (uncertain exact numbers, but up to half of contestants), unless deliveries get delayed enough for people not to have time to paint them.
If I remember correctly the campaign was slated to take place between may and june. Interesting though, in my area not much seems to have changed, the JSA player still plays JSA, the ISS player will continue to play ISS, and I (who played them all) will be playing JSA next campaign...but I don't know of anyone who used to play a different faction that now switched to JSA. And based on the activity here and in the JSA facebook group, I don't think we'll be anything higher than Aleph, maybe even less.
A bit of thread necromancy or is it lhosting? So as JSA is my only faction I'll be playing it in the upcoming campaign. As this is my first 1 I have a few questions. How do we plan things? (My local warcor is 1 of the Ariadna's generals) Why would we fight the outage missions? They can only attack it if we want to defend. At least that is my understanding. What kind of things can I expect?
I'll try to answer these questions as good as possible without knowing this years exact setup: How do we plan things? There will be a very fancy campaign website where people create their accounts for their faction. There are also Faction Forums which only members of the faction can see, which is where people coordinate, exchange tactics, stories and whatnot. But since these Forums are easily spied upon by others, usually a small group of very dedicated players forms which joins either a Messaging group here on this Forum, or on Facebook, or wherever, and which discusses more "secret" tactics like alliances with other factions, potential attack focuses, and whatever else might be needed, and then sets these plans into motion either on their own or by informing the other players on the Faction Forum when the time is right. Usually these groups can be joined if one is interested and active, so don't worry about them being some "random elitist snobs" or whatnot, it's just that some people like to get more involved into these campaigns than others, so not everyone cares for this stuff. This worked quite well until now and most factions do it that way, if not all of them. There will also usually be a "spokesperson" for each faction voted soon after the campaign started, who will be in contact with BoW and Corvus Belli for things like secret missions, story development and whatnot, and his word is usually the deciding factor if there needs to be one, though that wasn't really necessary until now, at least not in Yu Jing back in the last 2 campaigns. Why would we fight the outage missions? They can only attack it if we want to defend. At least that is my understanding. For fun really. If everybody thought like that, nobody would be fighting in any important areas and this campaign would be boring as hell. Keep in mind....this is just a little fun campaign for everyone to enjoy themselves and play with a nice narrative surrounding. If you lose your battles and our enemies win, it's alright, as long as everyone had fun,there is no real "gain" from winning these campaigns, it's all about the fun and excitement of a global campaign. There are however some strategies involved usually, so it is a wise decision to at least somewhat coordinate your battles with your factions overall plan, if it is agreed upon that "Area X is our goal for Phase 1" it'd be nice if you at least tried to get a game or two in there in time to support your factions goals. Don't hesitate to post loses either by the way, we know that some factions in the last campaigns have tried to avoid posting loses, but let's be honest, a loss can be a valuable lesson, and if you made the effort to play a battle for your faction, took nice pictures and whatnot, you might as well post it and get some credit for it, even if you lost. Nobody will hold a grudge against you for losing. What kind of things can I expect? A crapton of Infinity Battle Reports to read! This Campaign is played by fighting battles and then writing battle reports for them (see my other thread for some of the minimum requirements on these). You will find tons and tons of very awesome battle reports, and these will influence which areas on the map will be held by which faction and to some degrees the outcome of the overall campaign. Don't expect too much in terms of influencing the infinity universe, it's still a numbers game so some factions have advantages over others, and a good chunk of the story of the campaign is pre determined, but that shouldn't deter you from having fun. It is also a time of a LOT of online community activity, these forums here will be full with Propaganda posts, funny little videos or pictures, discussions, fluff messages and whatnot. Same goes for Facebook groups really. You will also get to learn a lot about strategies and whatnot ,y reading other people's battles and the faction forums, I know I did. However, all of what I just mentioned depends on how much you yourself interact with the event, if you don't care about the faction subforum, don't care about this forum or facebook groups, don't read other people's battle reports, don't write your own battle reports and so on, it can be as boring as "Just another set of random missions to play"....however you'd be doing yourself a huge disservice by doing so, these campaigns are a highlight of my Infinity year :-) Hope that helps. There are also "Achievements" and "Ranks" to get during the Event, which has no real meaning of course, but it's always fun if you can call yourself a "Lieutenant of the Japanese Secessionist Army" to others during the campaign or afterwards, and if you get involved in the campaign a little and achieve a higher rank, people will actually "know" you a bit from reading your reports, your interactions in the forum, and whatnot, and you might get to know some awesome people from the Infinity Community that way :-)
