The marut has four arms sooo... a four armed S2 MI ? With the ability to change in S3 like a smaller su-jian ? It's S3 form could look like Andromeda pet tin-dog but with a gun on its back (and 6 legs) and it's S2 form could look like a mini-marut (2 arms with CC weapon, 2 with guns). It should have mechanical transmutation, forward deployment 2 and some defensive ability (holo 2, mimetism...). It's S3 form would have CC abilities while the S2 one would be more shooty. All of that with 1 STR and NWI or 2 STR
I'd bet on a HI robot with S5, probably with some linking options on the same vein the JSA one (a Duo, or a special Haris)... so Devas or even Asura (granted, with the Asura it would be too expensive). Depending on its cost, I also expect it to get smoke, since there is little reason for a sectorial with so many MSV2-3 visors and no smoke at all, if the faction has it (and for so cheap) on Vanilla. As for MI, the Devas fill the role of a very elite MI, starting with their cost (23 pts the cheapest) and their resilience, only since they have NWI and move 10-10 (or 4-4), they are like the "pro" version of Ariadna's HIs (Blackjack aside), their only lacking point being heavy weapons, of which we might see some new profiles only for Vedic... or linking with Posthumans (I doubt that would reach a 5 man link, but...). As for the S4 "new" remote you mention, those are 2nd generation remotes, of which I'm not sure we will see for all factions, but wouldn't surprise me if it were a S3 on, relatively basic, but in the end an improved Specialist Remote.
Not to put to fine a point on it, but that was almost two years ago, CB could have changed their mind. They do seem to do that occasionally. But you might be right, I did say it was a wild guess. Perhaps a little too influenced by wishlisting. All true. I just feel that currently the non-greek Aleph do not have a strong theme, I feel it is very likely they will get 2-3 profiles to flesh out their roster. MI was one area I saw a deficiency, and felt like maybe they will add there. It also looked like their profiles miss a heavy weapons platform, and maybe it would coincide with an MI. That would feel right, a slow MI profile, packing a long range heavy punch. I also considered the S4 drone might be packing the heavy weaponry, that I feel would fit with Vedic as well. I don't know, but I would love to see Vedic be the info-war sectorial. Hacker options in almost all profiles. Lots of sensor, minesweeper, forward observer options. Some visor options would be great to. Make it feel like you can't hide from Aleph's all seeing robot eyes. But we will have to wait and see what CB's vision is.
The Tactbot Addict returns... A Dakini AVA higher than 6 is all I want... I have over 20 of them after all..
Apparently not... On linkable Dakinis. Someone really wants a Unidron link (supposedly one of the main selling points of Onyx), but better.
To be fair, the whole "ALEPH is advanced rules" thing is mostly about Steel Phalanx. Nothing which has been proposed as Vedic units is any more complex than what already exists in other VS boxes. So I wouldn't assume that the idea of a Vedic vs Kazak box is DoA. To be fair, we know that Dakinis WILL be a Fireteam Core and that this is a major reason why they WON'T be getting any exciting new weapon options. The Fireteam will be good enough without them 'though, even if they are stuck with a Deva or Danavas to form around.
The argument for Aleph not being in a two player box wasn't due to advanced rules. it was simply them not existing in the main rulebook.
No, Vedic is "advanced" not only because is a whole Human Sphere faction (that is, "expansion faction"), but because of hacking. You need hackers to deploy remotes, and remotes are the basic infantry of Aleph (CA has access to Morat and Shasvastii basic infantry), and the Greek's basic infantry are the Myrmidons (the Thorakitai were chosen as base for the specops because it would be very broken a 24 pts ODD melee machine... you could make it "Eudoros light" with few points, plus linked engineer/medic, and Stealth hacker). Look at Scalation Leagues at the back of the ITS document, Aleph needs to take greek units or cannot play without house ruling that you don't need hackers to deploy remotes.
Hacking is advanced rules, not XXX hacker devices/hacker profiles. You can take hackers (and thus remotes) but you can't run any hacking programs. I'm an idiot, please ignore me :)
Hacking devices are part of the advanced rules, thus troops with those are out of the selection options: advanced gear => advanced troop.
How old is this book anyways ? and I started Infinity a year ago and haven't bought a single lore book. This reasoning could be true with Games workshop since you HAVE to buy the book to have rules and be able to play, thus have armies presented in the book. With Infinity you can download the rules in PDF (which I did) and then have a look at the various armies presented on the website, they are all there. No need for a book.
sorry, you're right. I thought the hacking devices were in the equipment chapter, not the hacking chapter. (probably an N2 memory XD )
The statement was made by the head of CB 18 months ago. The main rulebook is almost 4 years old now. The additional bit (that was said) is it's about someone walking in to a store and only needing to pick up the core book and a 2 player starter and be able to play. That can't happen with Aleph since they aren't in the book. You are right that everything is available online, but that's not the only way people come to the game - and that's where CB want to make it accessible. Personally, i'm really hoping that the statement still holds true. Because if it does, it significantly increases the odds of vedic being the May/June big N release.... I'm sure we'll find out more on saturday however :)
Frankly, one of the reasons I decided to get involved with Infinity is because digital distribution of rules and things like official army builder gave me an impression of a company that will not allow themselves to be held back by "but but invalidating our deadwood product!" reasons when faced with needs to make updates (and with extra benefit of being able to incorporate errata/FAQ into source material directly without forcing people to constantly reference to half dozen different documents for a single rule interpretation). In a good faith I wouldn't expect CB to turn down Aleph or some other faction (sigh) solely because it's in the extra book as opposed to core book. As if anyone reads those to get rules anymore.
Personally, I hope both books get slimmed down and compressed into 2: one for lore of both, the other for rules, leaving outside the unit profiles and sectorials/fireteams. Those data are on the web, get regular updates, and serve little purpose in the deadwood edition now that we have the Army for phone/tablet, laptop and web.
AMEN to that ! Although, I wonder if the previous books (current then) will still be relevant lore-wise once the new is/are out.
