Yeah, at first look I also thought it is this logo, but there is bike on the picture and also Diggers from TAGraid have skull logo.
Nice catch, yes, it could be a dismounted Motorised Bounty Hunter. Perhaps Morats will get a new biker profile that can double as a proxy.
The MBH Logo skull has a gear around 3/4 of it, this seems to be just a skull within a border, so it's something new.
Aside from the obvious sleeveless morat, I see a lot of divergence from Morat design art wise. It concerns me, seems like too far a step away from the original Morat look, I think fluff for Morats might have been rewritten to suit a playstyle and aesthetic change. Have to wait and see. I will say I love the Oni look of the Vangaurd, hope the rest look more like him than the rest on the box art. The big guy in the back looks to have automated shoulder canons, maybe not the Sogarat. Only recognizable logo is Vanguard, looks like everything else is all new units, maybe even not all Morat. Hoses going into the helmet...
Full announcement here, looks like preorder (and presumably the week of videos) starts on the 21st https://mailchi.mp/corvusbelli/january-releases-13768243?e=6ba24ff704 Buying the MAFAP and Dire Foes together gets you a free event exclusive Tyrok.
Liking that art so far. Still think the Morat models were already damn excellent but i'm looking forward to seeing the new design too.
The Raveneye Officer is the exclusive mini with the book, and not part of the bundle deal, so possibly a merc or neutral unit available to multiple factions. Previous book exclusive options have been: GoGo Marlene Miranda Ashcroft Armoured Bounty Hunter Druze with fancy jacket and shades Brawler Rifle+LSG Libertos SMG Brawler hacker Oktavia Grimsdottir
It's interesting seeing the changes in Morat design. The big one is the face. The horns have been replaced with pointy orc ears, a new set of smaller horns added to their forehead like traditional demon/oni. The Vanguard on the Raveneye book has a cleft palate like a Speculo, but the one on the action pack box doesn't. Their lips are still shaped like teeth, but they now have real teeth under it. Color scheme changes again. I thought Kendrat/Krakot/TAG Raid company were black/yellow because they represented a specific mercenary or demolition company, but it seems like that's just the new standard color scheme. I like it more, since having red as a primary color bothered me since their skin was a similar shade of red. The Vanguard lost his sleeves and I like that. They always seemed too heavily armored for ARM1. Yaogats had basically the same armor and a helmet and were ARM3. Gives a progression from no armor Dat, low armor Vanguard, higher armor medium infantry like Rodoks/Yaogats. It's hard to draw comparisons to old units, so maybe some of these are fancy new ones. There's obviously a Vanguard and Zerat, the big one might be a Sogarat or something new. Long coat guy with pipes coming out of his helmet makes me think Kurgat with Mk12, but might also be a redesigned Raktorak with Red Fury? Skull face is completely new.
I'm getting human merc vibes from HI(?) on the right though Taryot is a good enough guess. Is there a precedent for including merc or "addons" on the front cover of other Action Packs? It looks a bit like a Varuna Orc, which is unfortunate. Agree on Vanguard and Zerat. Middle dude almost looks like some sort of Ur unit. A bit like the Nexus or something though that doesn't make sense. Tag-dude looks way to human except for the red and the helmet (and big gun). Hopefully a new Tag rather than a redesign. If anything MAF needs re-worked profiles and added units. Most of the old sculpts still hold up.
But that's not the zerat symbol. I suspect shes a descendant unit like tanko to haramaki or ryuken to raiden. Likewise the bigpne could be a similar but different replacement for Sogarats. Not sure how I feel about human mercs or UR units in MAF, I notice the melee weapon is different. I actually them being middle of the road for most and not a must have. Sculpts will settle it.
The big lad looks like a Vurgok kitted for combat. Quite like the look of what's presumably a vanguard in the centre in junglised uniform like the zhanshi and fusiliers were winterised for kaldstrom. would also assume the femrat is a zerat (the resculpt at last). I'd thought the resculpts might make Morats a bit more lithe and ape-like (like mandrills) front heavy etc, but i'm pretty happy if they're just a different theatre uniform with more alien heads.
I'm thinking Skullface might be the Taryot. Yes the emblem is different, but so are some of the rest. Anyway, it kind of looks like a Morat-sized helmet, morat torso, then skinny robot arms and those head tentacle wires that other Combined Army humanoid robots have, like the Batroids. They are crippled Morats rigged up to a drone, maybe it's a quadruple amputee sitting in a Batroid.
There is no Morat in the Taryot. Taryots are piloted remotely. Also Skullface unit really doesn't look like unit with Combat Jump to me.
I mean, without the need to protect a meat-sack and Combat Jump (Explosive) it makes sense that they're just dropped from high altitude....
I thought the Taryot was a remote with a crippled Morat strapped to it, sent to go die in battle. At least that's what I kept hearing from the forum and from people at the store. But if it is just a remote, then I still think skullface, because Batroid tentacles. He explodes because you drop him from low orbit without a parachute