On the other hand, neither have they made a unit for:
1) Katana Tormark
2) Tara Campbell
3) Jacob Banson
4) Jasek Kelswa-Steiner
etc.

While there are lots of other characters from the books who appear as MW pieces, one must assumed that the various faction leaders are too powerful, or too important, or too something to appear as battlefield units. The only possible exception is Kal Raddick and he came to a nasty end in the fiction either right before or right after he was a marquee prize.

Geoff

I can see a few fluff-based reasons why the Wolves and the Raiders might not make it into Falcon's Prey.

1) The Falcons had to come from someplace, right? Maybe that someplace was straight through the Arc-Royal Defense Zone, and this where the majority of their forces still are, laying siege to important worlds located there, like Arc Royal, Hesperus II, etc. To help try and throw the Falcons back, Wolf-in-Exile has called upon it's wayward children, the Steel Wolves, and being a loyal defender of her parent clan and humiliated by the defeats at Northwind and Terra, Anastasia Kerensky has no choice but to accept the request in return for possible future aid in securing the Republic. Thus, the bulk of the SW troops, save for token garrison forces meant to hold the line against any stragglers/infiltrators from the Falcon forces (read: the units given to the Falcons in the next expansion), are actually battling on the front lines up in Steiner territory.

2) The twin defeats at Northwind and Terra have thrown the Steel Wolves into confusion, and all of their efforts right now are directed inward, rather than outward, as sibkin face each other in an effort to remove the corrupting and dangerous leadership of Anastasia Kerensky.

3) Maybe the Steel Wolves are going to take the brunt of the Falcon assault and are too busy getting their butts knocked around to do anything like train more warriors or secure more 'Mechs and vehicles? When you're up against the ropes, there's never enough time to gather reinforcements.

4) Bannson's marriage to one of Daoshen Liao's cousins/nieces/whatever has lead him to formally integrate his troops with the Liao regular forces. To further this, he has pulled back his forces for training and re-equipping, rather than seeking to expand his influence any further into the Republic.

5) The emergence of Clan Sea Fox as both a powerful arms dealer and now a military force has forced Jacob Bannson to reconsider both his military and economic positions. To this end, he has retreated with his advisors to an undisclosed location to plan a new strategy for control of the Republic and ordered his troops to simply maintain their current positions while new recruits and equipment are delivered.

6) The loss of Tybalt to the Spirit Cats has severely disillusioned old Jacob, and even the attentions of his new wife are not enough to take his mind off of his seeming failure. He has stopped paying his troops and as a result they are beginning to wreak havoc where they are stationed in true Bannson thuggery style. Eventually he will come to his sense and once again take up the path of the megalomaniacal despot we all know and love, but until then, the cash simply isn't flowing.

There, six fluff-logial reasons why we won't see Bannson or Steel Wolf troops in Falcon's Prey, but why we will see them in expansions after that.

Now, if only they'd hurry up with those Highlander LE Infantry and get the freakin' Hell's Horses in, I'd be a happier camper.

- GhostPony

haha, Very nice fluff.
-BA

That's true. The Wolves had done it before. During the FedCom Civil War, The Refusal War, etc.

Are those alternating clicks of 0 attack and damage and 1 defense I see? :P

Ok... so this is the spoiler thread. I hate to burst some bubbles, but according to this thread there will be 3 new faction abilities.

From the back of the box from the GRYFALCON
Falcon's Prey, the latest expansion for the Mechwarrior: Dark Age game, brings the ruthlessly pure clan Jade Falcon to the forefront of the conflict in the Inner Sphere. Highly specialized 'mechs, vehicles and VTOLS and TWO new faction abilities will change the battlefield forever. The struggle for supremacy needs you- if you are worthy.


According to the back of the box, there are only 2, countem 2 new faction abilities.

Makes me wonder if the faction abilities we are hearing about are bunk.

Well, that IS why they're listed as being rumors.
Besides, with 2 new factions...
(Jade Falcon & Sea Fox)
I wonder if that should've been faction abilites for 2 new faction's?

perhaps JF and SF each get one faction ability, and then you add Zellbriggen to all clan factions.

That entire paragraph only reffers to JF. SF may get diff ones

Also one of the JF Faction abilities may be so similar to one of Liao's Faction abilities that they do not count it as new.

It is very similar: Zellbrigen: If you attack an Elite unit, you have to keep attacking it till dead. It's Ruthless Liao FA, just vice versa.

You sound afraid....a Highlander? AFRAID?!?

Well, if you had just let us take Northwind off your hands.....:p

Oh well... if this comes true, I'm not at least surprised....

Like I foretold: we'll see a dramatic increase in reused sculpts.
As an example: 6 out of 7 non-uniques will be reused sculpts. Not to speak of the Gnomes and the Sniper Artillery.

Might the Sniper have a SS variant with IT, 8 attack, 2 pogs per 3 damage each armor piercing all through the dial and this all for 60 points?

An Elemental BA, and who does not get them? Spirit Cats and Wolves. Who does? ROTS and HL... right, we all know about the famous Inner Sphere iron womb breeding programme.

There will be a Thor... and who gets it? Of course Liao because Liao seems to get every mech. At the same time, CJF makes its appearance which uses tons of Thors, and they don't get one. Right.

The most traditional clan gets a faction ability favoring close combat? Yeah, alright. Go and play Solitaire, Wizkid$. :)

The Falcons coming into the IS to smash the Wolves, and the Wolves don't get any units. Right. Doesn't this remind me of CounterAssault, when Liao's assault into the ROTS was rewarded with not a single ROTS unit?

17 or 18 defense Mechs? Maximum 22 defense? Yaaahoo, here come the Dasher brothers and the Mjolnirs. Charging to oblivion!

They want to stop charging... so what to do? Right, we give the Falcons the UBER-DFA. No Falcon Mech will do anything other than performing DFA. Insane to hit bonus, almost no risk, high damage output.... yeah, at least they cut down charge so that no Falcon player will use it... why should he?

This would be just in one line with Wizkid$' stupid fluff like decissions, just as they did in the past.

If now the ROTS don't get a fast infiltrating baser, a Recovery Vehicle and a very good AA piece, and if the Cats don't get a cap 3 transport, rather do the SS get the number 4 and 5, I might think about if it is not time to stop giving Wizkid$ my money and rather invest more money into my girlfriend. :)

I'm just an inch away from it.

Err... adorabilly, do you think maybe when they say "Two faction abilities" they mean "faction abilities for two factions"?

Everything seems to point in the direction of Sea Fox getting abilities as well.

Now granted, I'd be MUCH happier if JF only got Zellbringen (or however it's spelled) and Enhanced Imaging, but I don't think that will be the case.

I'm not going to recommend you get out of mechwarrior, but investing more money into your girlfriend is never a bad Idea.