You are feeling very confident. You think you are leading, but are you? For real? Do you have everything under control or is there something you are ignoring? It wouldntt be the first time that you loose everything at the very last moment… ”
Táowù to Rosencratz during the ADM final, Aristeia! Duel Masters, at the Tunguska Stadion. The moment of hesitation of the panoceanic Aristo allowed Táowù to score at the last minute and take the victory.
The Aristeia! skins product line was designed to provide alternative versions of the standard figures for this great board game. These versions differ from the plastic miniatures contained inside the Basic gamebox or the game expansions boxes. The skins are way to explore new possibilities of Aristeia!, a sport-show that keeps the audience hooked thanks to this kind of changes and game evolution. If the theme or style surprises the viewer and helps the sport-show becoming a trending topic, it is very wellcome to the game!
In general, the Aristos tend to look futuristic, following the aesthetic line of the modern and shiny technology of the Infinity Universe. That is why, when creating a new skin the A! Team (Jesús, Al and Marcos, developers of Aristeia!) embark on a research through different cultures and styles of a historical or fantastic nature that provide a different vision of each character. Designs are aimed to maintain the entertainment culture on top of the board game of Aristeia! and differentiating them from Infinity at the same time.
However, some characters were also playable with Infinity wargame for different reasons: either because of their background or just because their design in Aristeia! was already fantastic. Examples of these multi-game characters could be Major Lunah, Dart, or Valkyrie who had to change her image to a more tactical one to fit perfectly in both environments. This is the case of Táowù, the protagonist of the month coincides with Valkyrie. When the guys from A! Team told me that Táowù was going to wear a modern look, I agreed that it was the most logical choice inasmuch as its mephistophelic appearance in Aristeia! was fantastic. And at that moment I said that it could serve as HVT for Infinity. However, by the moment Al (the conceptual designer for A! Team) showed me the sketch of this skin, I had realized that it would be a mistake to limit it to a simple HVT. The team had endowed Táowù with the appearance of a mafia boss with a powerful presence and such narrative possibilities that It would be a shame for the Infinity universe to waste its potential.
However, the most important question remained to be done: Did Táowù fit into our favorite wargame? And if so, where? The first answer was obvious: He belonged to the Yu Jing faction and, even if it seemed confusing, he had to be on the Imperial Service. Knowing this, we needed to analyze the gaps of the Imperial Service as a Sectorial Army and see what kind of profiles were needed that he could cover, always having the game identity in the mind (we do not allow ourselves to cross the redlines of the differentiated gaming styles).
Táowù is presented in Aristeia! as a master manipulator and expert in delusion. These characteristics allowed us to move away from the aggressive type of profiles and bet on a profile with more strategy than tactics and rear rather than vanguard.
By being Yu Jing, and even more, having his role in the Imperial Service, we could dispense with the smoke that he had on Aristeia! because this element is already covered in both the generic and the Sectorial with the Kuang Shi. We also wanted Táowù out of the front line. Strategy, manipulation, and deception, were the main qualities of this mastermind. From the strategic point of view, we didn’t want to resort to Strategos, since it was something covered by Hannibal, another Aristo who came to Infinity. Thus, Counterintelligence was chosen, an ability that could be useful to the Imperial Service without making changes to the playing style of this Sectorial Army.
We provided Táowù with Counterintelligence with a specific goal: turning him into a counter, a troop that nullifies options for the adversary. As is a light-looking character we could give him a high CC Attribute, to help the fight against troops capable of reaching the enemy Deployment Zone, which usually has a high CC value, such as, for example, the Supplanters. So, to turn him into a counter, Warrior Nato seemed almost mandatory to include the Martial Arts on his Special Skills. The same happened with i-Kohl, a piece of equipment that imposes a negative Modifier on the adversary. As a final touch, the counter character of Táowù was equipped with a CC Monofilo Weapon, which turns any Armor value to 0 and doesn’t require having a high BS value.
But given his obvious light appearance, we couldn't give our master schemer a heavy ‘coverage’. On the other side, to increase his survival rate, we could work with the third and last aspect that we wanted to explore with him: manipulation. Manipulating and deceiving his adversaries, is something that we could reflect with Holoprojector N1, the piece of Equipment that alters the physical appearance of its user. In this way, Taowú could look as a not-so-threatening troop until the enemy had approached incautiously, time when Tàowú could finish him off in CC - after cancelling his Martial Arts and Armor, and reducing his CC. Another possibility could be attacking with the Nanopulser, a Direct template weapon that his opponent wouldn’t expect him to have, and even less with the increased Burst value that this evil character has.
Another unpleasant surprise is the Viral Pistol, a weapon whose ammunition seems to fit with the evil personality of this character and completes its panoply of short-range and CC weapons. Then, we must see what defense / attack armament for higher ranges would he have. Táowù does not resemble someone who is going to carry a long and powerful weapon, so he wasn’t a Direct Action character. In this case, a technical and subtle weapon such as the Flash Pulse, integrated into his body of Aristo, would allow him to be protected at long distances .
Of course, the profile of Táowù was already made taking N4 (our immediate future system) as base, but Jiminy Cricket climbed onto my shoulder and pointed out the date of departure of this skin: Taowu was launching before N4. That is why, like the troops of the Battle Pack Operation Kaldstrøm, its profile needed to be adapted to N3, losing some essence temporarily (which will recover with the launch of the new rules).
Once the profile was designed to fit both the Imperial Service and Yu Jing's generic service, we needed to justify it narratively with the story of the character and his personal background. This is a shady-looking character and his description at Aristeia! website gives you the creeps. This led me to explore deeper the psychology of this mastermind. Also, as I mentioned earlier, Al's design reminded me of a powerful boss out of an oriental gangster movie. In such a way that it was obvious to explore that subject with him, linking it to Submondo, the international criminal organization of the Infinity Universe, and that would be the connection with the Imperial Service, which is the law enforcement agency of Yu Jing. Of course, nothing is what it seems with this character special psychology, and the Imperial Service itself would be another toy for him to play with.
Having a fully defined profile and background, the next step was to search for another army, generic or Sectorial, in which this character could fit. O-12 would be an option, but this would have to repeat the same nuanced plot of the Imperial Service, in addition to the fact that the Mephistopheles aspect of Táowù looks good within the Yu Jing Sectorial, but not so much with the good boys of O-12. In the world of Mercenary Companies, he would have a possibility with the Dahshat Company or Bayram Security, but Shaykh Fahesh wouldn’t allow one of his rivals in Submondo to subvert his operations. In the case of Druze of Bayram, less involved in Submondo's internal power struggle, it wouldn't be an issue. For the reduced army list of this NA2 Mercenary Company, Táowù is an interesting strategic addition that stylistically fits in with these both amoral and criminal mercenaries. Finally, Táowù would also join WhiteCo's army list, the White Company, the new addition to NA2 that N4 brings us, where the character can access given its contacts with Yu Jing. Although the White Company is distinguished by its clean and well-groomed appearance, its leader, John Hawkwood, is not. He is known for taking advantage of irreconcilable elements and, if we assume the rumors spread by the Nomadic Black Propaganda, the leader has its own agenda and it matches with ALEPHs …
After all this process, Táowù became more than just an Aristeia skin! and more than an HVT for our favorite wargame. He is now a character who, manipulating from the shadows, can alter the landscape of the criminal underworld of the Human Sphere, and thereby affect the entire Infinity Universe!
