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Author Topic: Which Race/Army do you like and why.  (Read 9916 times)

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Offline Dave Chase

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Which Race/Army do you like and why.
« on: February 08, 2011, 10:09:24 AM »
(Wish there was poll ability here.)

This is a hard one for me.

I like UNE of course, they are the Earth Dogs.
But I also like Infranites; wild, crazy, cool figures and neat weapons.

And last, I do like the Machines, the Legions. For an enemy, they are kind of cool, and in most scenarios, you keep getting more and more and more.  ;D

That is one of the reasons that I liked LOS, it was fun to play all sides of the war. It also allowed you to pick up new players because one of the army/races would appeal to them.

Dave Chase
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Offline Kindred

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Re: Which Race/Army do you like and why.
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2011, 07:04:41 PM »
Hmmm... you should be able to create a new poll post and even add polls to your posts....

Offline bobloblah

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Which Race/Army do you like and why - The Poll
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2011, 08:48:55 PM »
Let us know which race you prefer (to play, to paint, etc.) and why...

A custom race would be something other than the default game factions, such as something built with Tony Lin's point-value hack, or eye-balled from another game like 40k.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2011, 05:11:00 PM by bobloblah »
Best Regards,
Bobloblah

Offline bobloblah

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Re: Which Race/Army do you like and why.
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2011, 08:49:31 PM »
There's a poll set up now.
Best Regards,
Bobloblah

Offline smokingwreckage

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Re: Which Race/Army do you like and why.
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2011, 06:04:06 AM »
I pretty much like 'em all. If they were in print I'd collect a Black Empire and a Fantasian army; I already have UNE, Machines, and Infranites.

Offline Dave Chase

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Re: Who's number one?
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2011, 09:33:47 AM »
I can't vote. ;)

You don't have an all of the above button.

 ::)

Dave Chase
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Offline Dave Chase

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Re: Which Race/Army do you like and why.
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2011, 09:49:18 AM »
Wow, I guess I missed the New Poll button.  ::)

hehe

Dave Chase
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Offline Kindred

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Re: Who's number one?
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2011, 06:59:45 PM »
:P Added...    :o

Offline Clark

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Re: Which Race/Army do you like and why.
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2011, 05:32:37 AM »
While I did the basic write up for all 5 races, Dereck ran with Black Empire while the Infranites were always Marco's baby's .  Additionally, Dave MacKay  rather than Tom Frank was the lead artist who gave the look to the Infranites.  Tom also took on more writing duties for Planetstorm for the UNE background material, inter alia. Wes Johnson designed a number of figs that were light and fast.  If you have met the man (and Tom) this all makes sense.

The basic concepts of the races follow.  You tell me if that is how you read them, play them and such.

UNE: The forces of the free world. They are the sci-fi equivalents of North America, Western Europe, and the ANZACs.

Fantasians: Modelled after Soviet Era forces with facism added in.  While opinions vary, they are like lawful evil space-orks rather than the chaotic-stupid variety.  I wish I never mentioned "walrus" in their description. However we went against type with the idea of Privateers and Kezyrists.

Infranites: Our version of space-elves.  Earthy, high psyche factor, and arguably chaotic good.  Pound for pound probably the most deadly (and I had to keep correcting errors in the weapon stats that made them particularly so). The Oth, Paache and Krayl variations were Marco's ideas.

The Black Empire: What can I say? They have "empire" in their name.  Feudalistic, with  strange penchant for hand-to-hand combat, and with generally the biggest point disparity between their line and elite troops (an Angel Flight is HOW many points?) they have a more fantastic feel to them.

The Machines: Goofy-tech to the 11 (Nega-spheres, disruptor weapons, HTH, early EMP weapons and such).Hive mind combatants, reversed with the advent of Omega Fiends. The Overlord Classes found in Planetstorm were my doing to represent various manifestations of "the other".

The funny thing about art is that the audience doesn't necessarily buy into what the author was trying to do.  But that is my take on it, which is no more valid that those who actually buy, paint, and play the various races.

Offline Dave Chase

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Re: Which Race/Army do you like and why.
« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2011, 12:10:01 PM »
While I did the basic write up for all 5 races, Dereck ran with Black Empire while the Infranites were always Marco's baby's .  Additionally, Dave MacKay  rather than Tom Frank was the lead artist who gave the look to the Infranites.  Tom also took on more writing duties for Planetstorm for the UNE background material, inter alia. Wes Johnson designed a number of figs that were light and fast.  If you have met the man (and Tom) this all makes sense.
Thanks, I always like hearing some of the back history about how things came to be. To me it adds a bit of personality to a product that I already like.

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The basic concepts of the races follow.  You tell me if that is how you read them, play them and such.

UNE: The forces of the free world. They are the sci-fi equivalents of North America, Western Europe, and the ANZACs.
Add to the fact that in all the background fluff, you made them the underdogs, also appealed to me.

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Fantasians: Modelled after Soviet Era forces with facism added in.  While opinions vary, they are like lawful evil space-orks rather than the chaotic-stupid variety.  I wish I never mentioned "walrus" in their description. However we went against type with the idea of Privateers and Kezyrists.
I like the different contrast with Fantasian ruled space. Kind of a big family that would disagree and fight among themselves, until some outsider stepped in, then they would as one turn against that outsider.
Plus, I always felt that were would be some more surprises in the future from this race that we would not always expect.


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Infranites: Our version of space-elves.  Earthy, high psyche factor, and arguably chaotic good.  Pound for pound probably the most deadly (and I had to keep correcting errors in the weapon stats that made them particularly so). The Oth, Paache and Krayl variations were Marco's ideas.
Space Elves, oh. Well even knowing that, I still like them. I thought of them more as modern day Northern and Central American Indian tribes. With a bit more racial organization to them.

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The Black Empire: What can I say? They have "empire" in their name.  Feudalistic, with  strange penchant for hand-to-hand combat, and with generally the biggest point disparity between their line and elite troops (an Angel Flight is HOW many points?) they have a more fantastic feel to them.
Also a more eltist, regal, nobility feel to them. I liked how it gave you two completely different human groups to play in the game.
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The Machines: Goofy-tech to the 11 (Nega-spheres, disruptor weapons, HTH, early EMP weapons and such).Hive mind combatants, reversed with the advent of Omega Fiends. The Overlord Classes found in Planetstorm were my doing to represent various manifestations of "the other".
The race (?) that could become anything, yet never threw away anything. To me the LOS had the most potential to create anything or any type of figure. Who truly knows what is horror to the other alien races. And that the machines evolved(?) over time was fun too. You (designers) did not make it required that the machines evolved but you gave us reasons and stayed with in the realm of LOS believibility of why the LOS changed and grew.

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The funny thing about art is that the audience doesn't necessarily buy into what the author was trying to do.  But that is my take on it, which is no more valid that those who actually buy, paint, and play the various races.
Yes, but unlike some game companies that get bent out of shape over it, you rolled with it and worked with the fans. That is one of the reasons that you kept such a following over the years.

Dave Chase
Freedom is the right to speak your mind.

It is also the right to walk away from those you don't want to listen to.

Offline Clark

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Re: Which Race/Army do you like and why.
« Reply #10 on: February 13, 2011, 11:01:51 AM »
I only mention elves and orks to provide a contextual comparison to that "other game" that launched them into space.  The idea was that IF you liked space elves, you would like the Infranites.  Maybe I missed the mark on that. I love elves.  I played a pick up game of D&D recently and got my elf-on.  But space elves? After seeing Dave's and Marco's work I thought the Infranites were far more interesting.  But yes, there is obviously the Amerindian angle which sets them up in opposition to the rapacious, and probably none-too-environmentally friendly Fantasians.

The Machines "evolve" through the use of their Mind Vaults filled with captive sentients.  There could well be more Overlord varieties but I came up with some basics: Papa "straight" machines, Charlie military styles, Hattin Napoleonic, and the Blood Lord for undead and monsters.

It never made sense to me that Humans would be the masters of the galaxy, certainly not in the near term.  The game is completely non-representative of the universe that I created.  That is, Human vs Machine battles in Planetstorm are like comparing the invasion of Grenada to the entirety of WWII.  Without the Galactics policiing the situation, our little, blue planet would have been taken over by the Fantasians or Azaramians long ago.

Offline Kindred

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Re: Which Race/Army do you like and why.
« Reply #11 on: February 13, 2011, 03:02:55 PM »
Actually, I tend to play elves, space elves, etc... and I always thought that the Black Empire had a "corrupted Elvish" feel to it. BE has always been my favorite race (I love the ornateness of the models), second only to the USE/humans.

Offline SgtHulka

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Re: Which Race/Army do you like and why.
« Reply #12 on: February 14, 2011, 03:18:55 PM »
Fantasians were always my army of choice. They looked cool and were evil Stalinist commies, with their armor named after world war 2 tanks, what more could you ask for? Unfortunately, it ended up being a costly army because you needed tons of them for planetstorm.

My experience with planetstorm was that indirect fire ruled the battlefield, and so the Infranites were almost unbeatable with those BAPs. It's just as likely that the guy in our group who played Infranites was just a superior player. Because I always got my butt whipped, I've never liked Infranites. It's the one army I don't have any of.

I collected a ton of machines because you kind of had to. They were everyone's enemy. I liked the Charlie overlord, but I painted my machines in the Bloodlord overlord schemes.

I wasn't a huge fan of the UNE sculpts. But I collected and painted them, anyway. I loved the original LoS boxed set scenarios so I couldn't help but want to play a lot of UNE. RAM Lasers and shoulder-mounted TOWs made them somewhat Planetstorm competitive, but the calliope was a poor man's indirect fire weapon. The Katyusha and BAP batteries could really devestate them.

Black Empire was sort of my fourth, red-headed stepchild army. I never had enough to field a proper Planetstorm force, but I had enough to fight the underground scenarios. I found them to be a bit of a house of cards. They look powerful on paper but can go down fast. Also, I might be misremembering, but I don't think they had any inderect fire weapons at all. Maybe they had individual grenade launchers, but that's it.

Offline Kindred

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Re: Which Race/Army do you like and why.
« Reply #13 on: February 14, 2011, 06:17:05 PM »
but, the BE had the speed to make up for lacking indirect fire...

3 recce angels could get nearly anywhere on the board and could usually survive a few rounds of being shot at.
The Storm angels provided a nasty followup punch... and the foot soldiers just pulverized the enemy.
The main drawback was that the were so expensive, I rarely had as many models as anyone else, and so made up for it with hit and run tactics.


Offline Clark

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Re: Which Race/Army do you like and why.
« Reply #14 on: February 15, 2011, 12:53:18 PM »
The indirect fire rules and weapons will have to be looked at to either tone down some of them or else add some defensive ability, especially to the Fantasians and their basic "clay pigeon" stormtroopers.

As a general note, there was a pretty consistent pattern of sales of 3:2:1:1:1, that is for every three Machine and two UNE blisters we sold we also sold one of each of the aliens.  It makes sense if you think about it.  The only time that got disrupted was at GenCon '95 when we sold an inordinate number of Black Empire figs.  It turned out that my girlfriend at the time would show players all the races and then comment that the BE were her personal favourites.  If you saw my girlfriend and know what gamers are like, then you will understand what happened.