So OCF, or the Onyx Contact Force, was described as; Well... Paradiso has been won in N4. We're years into the Human/Combined conflict... Do we really need a force that is "establishing beachheads" or information gathering (which Shas would probably be doing anyway...)? I expect the time progression will see a bunch of changes elsewhere - like all the Teutons should be dead by now, the Invincibles will have taken a mauling on the front lines, and I would assume Steel Phalanx is also gonna have a bit of a soul search for it's purpose... So what will the Onyx rebrand as?
Even with Paradiso taken, there's the rest of the Human Sphere out there, I'd imagine Onyx is still the tip of the sprear when it comes to invading Concilium and the other planets.
What would you like to see changed in Onyx? I've been dabbling with the sectorial recently and find myself missing some nasty units from Shasvastii, mostly the Caliban CoC, to go gung ho with a Samaritan /Legates LT. Maybe reduce available loadouts to just CoC and Engineer, so the main advantage remains with SEF, similar to what they did with Minelayer Speculo.
Rasyats should have been in there from the beginning. With Eclipse being even more important in N4, that could make a pretty big difference. Eclipse smoke plus Shasvastii units... nasty.
Agreed. As for "rebranding" of OCF, if it's really needed, I would go for a strong Parachutist-game sectorial. If my notes are correct, back in the day, the devs gave us pointers about the strong points of factions on a 10-scale, like this: CA 10 - Parachutist, MI 8 - REM 6- Special, SK 5 - Camouflaged, WB, LI 4 - TAG 3 - HI 1 - Infiltrators Interestingly enough, after Vanilla CA, OCF had the second most parachutist troops compared to the total number of troops in their roster, and then came Nomads second (9 points for Parachutist) and Aleph third (8 points for Parachutist). Since then, things changed a bit, but OCF became even more prominent in this type of warfare with the addition of Ko Dali. I think an AVA 1 or 2 Rasyat would be no-brainer, especially as there was such a product description as well, such as this: Who would be better at “annexation-or-death diplomatic actions" than the Rasyat Diplomatic Division?
Functionally I don’t think AD Eclipse would be too powerful, either. It’s not like visual mods are their core game advantage. They can already throw White Noise.
OCF always struck me as the first wave ahead of the main force, assessing threats. Well, we're years into the war and Humanity has been assessed. I think there should be an aspect in the force, representing the EI itself taking a more direct hand in things. I'd also like to see either; removal of Sygmaa units or an expansion of them. They feel like a relic of an abandoned plot CB were going to follow... and they haven't really done much to make them interesting. Fraacta is "I'm evil Tohaa so my symbioarmour works backwards" and the Maakrep is just a filler profile because using Yaogats in the sectorial might have leaned it too Morat-y. Into the future, if we stick with the motley crew of assorted species, I'd also be interested to see more of whatever the Nexus are, species wise, and maybe some Jayth? Maybe throw in an Exrah merc?
You raise an interesting point on the Sygmaa. I'd gladly trade Fractaa for Rasyats, and with Ko Dali providing MSV2 coverage think that Calibans would be a good trade for Maakreps. Basically swapping trackers for advance terror assets. Calibans would also bring CoC to the "hey guys there's my Lt.!" faction.
I like the "reverse symbio armor" ability, it's a slightly humorous inversion. By the way, Nexus are drawn from a species called "Urkherit" who are actually non-uploaded Ur who the EI keeps around in case it turns out that merging with it was the wrong move. It would be very thematic to give Nexus agents CoC, IMO (potentially only in OCF), just so you could have the Umbra Lt without worrying about LoL from 1 shock round.
There is a plot in Betrayal that see a OCF contingent sent to resolve a little internal (to CA) rebellion. The annexed races are not sepsitorized. Rebellions could rise anywhere. OCF could even be the answer to this. Internal multicultural kickassing enforcers.
It would be great if that Betrayal plotline resulted in force-org changes for OCF. Were there any troops in the comic that aren't in the normal Armybuilder lineup?
Hmmm. That seems like an appropriate fit and fix for OCF. Maybe just allow a sectorial-exclusive Chain of Command version, no Lt version. It would get Counterintelligence in there too.
Since N4 is also bringing in more space/zero-G stuff, opportunity for OCF to get some access to this as well. If any of the CA sectorials was well positioned to access zero-g combat theaters, it's OCF.
Yes please, with cherries on top! That would help Umbras SOOOOOOO MUCH! I would love to have more excuses to use them on my lists!
I have a sneaking feeling that OCF is going to be left behind in N4, hopefully I'm wrong. I certainly don't think they will give us any different units for sure, and gaining smoke?! No way. I guess I'm being a pessimist, but when the whole wave of new wild card units came out we got bugger all.
