If my memory serves me, the fluff was that the Exrah soldiers we saw were the short-lived “ephemeral” form of the species; they were going to die in a short period of time anyway, so it was no great loss if they were killed in battle.
My experience of concept artists and sculptors indicates that this is solved by standing near them saying things like “I understand it’s too hard to do, don’t worry about it.” Eventually one will get obsessed with solving it and come up with some absolute genius to prove you wrong. ;-)
Yeah, that later model with his helmet under arm is actually pretty great. It captured the feel of military elitism that ahs always been pat of Morats.
Eh, I think the lack of a coherent design among them is the problem. The Caskuda is still a good model. There's plenty of other games where non-human factions are popular. They just need a good design. And Infinity could use more of those things than more Eurocatholic crusader goons. To be frank, the Caskuda wouldn't be that bad in the current edition, as people would know how to defend against it and HMG range bands aren't as all-encompassing.
The EM vulnerability was due to radiation weakness iirc. Something about male exrah not having sufficiently thick exoskeletons. Would not like vector to return, it just feels a little overoptimized and outclasses the other gun platforms. Maybe if it lost mimetism.
There is already a precedent for CA units to serve as mercenaries, so adding an updated Vector Operator to some NA2 forces (those few which survived the CA's annihilation of the Concordat... or somesuch) would be interesting. A discussion of the unit should at least include the unit profile. Here it is in all its N2 glory. And the EXRAH rules from N2: 12. Exrah: Concordat Exrah Operators are the ephemeral branch of the Exrah race. Their keratinous epidermis is softer, which allows them more mobility and personal speed, but makes them vulnerable to radiation, so their life expectancy is very short. Physical damage suffered by the “Ephemeral” is impossible to cure, as his internal organs, affected by the ambient radiation of their planet and cosmic rays received in their trips, have a very short endurance. Because of this, when an Exrah receives a hit that pierces his ARM, his state directly moves to Dead: he does not suffer the Unconscious state and is automatically removed from the battlefield. Furthermore, the organism of the Exrah is very sensitive to powerful E/M transmitters, which causes them severe internal damage. If an Exrah receives an E/M impact and fails his BTS Roll, he will pass directly to the Dead state and is removed from the game table. “Ephemeral” Exrah have a superior capacity of movement than would be assumed given their massive aspect: they move better than any other Medium Infantry. They also have short wings, which is powered by their combat keratin and allows them to move in great leaps, conferring the Super Jump Special Skill.
Yeah they're gonna have to retcon this. The lore here is really like how do these things survive at all. And that weakness to EM is like Tohaa burning or Viral hitting Dog Warriors, at least all the Dogs have 2 wounds.
I'd love for what's left of the Exrah that survived the EI purge in the human sphere, to become Mercs working for humans and Tohaa. Even just AVA 1 of one of them would be cool.
They could make Exrah Commissariat sectorial for CA, and then make an NA2 that's Concordat remnants + space pirates like Yuan Yuans.
I unfortunately don't see them going right for a sectoral but they could see how players would react to a few mercenaries at first. There could even be some that work for CA. Sort of like the Druze, Kaplans, Brawlers, etc. Then have different AVA depending on who they are working for. Like high for CA and low for Tohaa and some humans.
If they did a merc unit I think the AVA would be like the below. CA: 3 Onyx: 2 All General Human factions: 1 Tunguska: 1 Tohaa: 1 Spiral: 2 Ikari: 1 Druze: 1 Dashat: 1
