Well technically, to field remotes, you need a hacker, OR a TAG. Although I don't think TAG's are any more new player friendly than hackers are. So I revise my position, I don't think Aleph is going to be in the two player box.
Just an hopeful idea : Vedic in the 2 player box with a new Vedic light S6 TAG, with 4 arm. This way we will have our new robot and be able to field REM without hacker. A light TAG won't be much more resilient than an HI, so it's destroyable (even more if the second faction is Kazak) and without engineering or hacking it won't be too complicated to manage so playable for a newbie Bonus : the attraction factor of a TAG (waaaah giant robot) to attract new players
No, it's not true ! No really ! ... errr ... well ... * looking at his eldar knights * ... OK I admit it
Easier option: no starter box for 2 players, but an "expansion" box for veterans, devoted to hacking totally: x2 hacking decks, 2x hacking reference sheet, Tunguska Vs Vedic hacking-oriented "repack" (Interventor, danavas, some remotes, asura, kriza...), fluff book about all kind of Maya Vs Arachne, "ops lists" etc..., hacking "tutorial" scenarios, and a second book with strategies, how tos and explanations about hacking.
Just some ideas taken from the page about asuras on wikipedia for named asuras/devas: Agni: asura of fire: HFT/RL? Varuna: asura of water and physicians: doctor variant? Rudra/Shiva: god of transformation and destruction(of evil): named rakhsasa if they show up? Asura with holoprojector? Indra: king of devas, lord of thunder. Electric pulse on a higher automatic? Tasers? Some kind of "lightning warfare"? SMS? Also apparently this stuff is rather complicated and wether something is an asura,deva or danava changes per source and wether its a vedic or hindu source. There's tons of (demi)gods they can draw from, so plenty of unit options.
As far as I understood it, hindi mythology is fragmented to atomic levels, so getting a common ground... XD Forget the Varuna, there would be endless problems with the PanO sectorial. Indra: HMC Asura, fast as a Dakini with 2 Flash Pulse. SMG option instead of HMC, with H+ and Aerial Deployment... Agni: Heavy Flamethrower, 2 syncro devabots, Vulkan shotgun, Heavy rocket Launcher. ALL AT ONCE mwahahahahaha Rudra: S5 Su Jian expy, different loadout, with repeater Released as 2 boxes, one for the Rudra, the other for the Agni (with Devabots) and the Indra. Damn. With this I doubt we would get another TAG XD
I'm not sure that named characters would really fit into the OSS. Maybe a named posthuman, but that would just be weird and I'm not sure how you would play it.
Every sectorial tends to get at least one named leader dude. I dont expect as many named chars as SP, but I expect at least one and the other names might also be used for more ava units.
I am not a fan of this bunch of name characters Steelphalanx has (even if it fits for them because of fluff). I think in Vedic will not be that much. Because it will fit more into the background. Maybe one or two.
What do we think about the possibility of mercs? I'm torn, they could fit as a deniable resource for Aleph or not due to Aleph's need for control.
Vedic already has a named character, her name is Aleph . . . Seriously, I want Vedic to be entirely Aleph aspects, and not have any named characters. The only possible exception I could think of that would fit thematically would be some sort of Journalist aspect that needs to have a relatable persona. But even then I don't really think a journalist fits in Vedic. Steel Phalanx is the PR section. I want a sectorial of emotionless robots in human and not so human form.
I can see a Posthuman character simply having a pre-set (or limited choices) of "bodies" with a fixed cost. That could work well to put a "character" into what I agree should otherwise been "ALEPH - The Army".
DL data I have suggest a Posthuman character... at least, she has a concept. And in theory, all Posthumans are characters. As for my take on the "elemental" Asuras, it can be just a specific loadout of an Asura with AVA1, not real need for them to be characters (but damn, that Igni Asura is sooo fricking fun, FIRE EVERYWHERE!!!! XD)
No, only shown. Long, blonde hair, with heavy weapons, and the looks are not of an armored unit (so it's either Asura level of armor, or something that goes for camo options/ODD).
Kaaaa liiiii maaaaaah!!!! :p And I can claim to have only tasted a few GW games before finding the concept utterly boring and ridiculous :p
