Kriegschatten said:

I found the models to be horrendous. Especially at the end when rackham stopped the better paint jobs.

The type 3 infantry for the Cogs look really good and rules wise the only change that is needed is to remove a single re-roll from all the Cogs weapons and the army works fine (if you have AT-43 armies, just try it and you will see).

Jayjazz99 said:

The comic books and the core sets explain the history of the factions. Japan is a sub-faction of the Axis just like the british and french are inside the allied faction.

The Axix began to ship walkers to japan secretly early in the war. You dont even need to have the games to know the history because the pdf's are here in this same site.

Also they seem to be the ones responsible for making better armored modifications for the walkers like Wotan.

Okay, so I admit that my theory on why the Japanese would become a faction is stupid because they already have access to laser technology. The reason behind it is that every faction have their own Vk technology ( Axis=laser, Allies=Phaser, Ssu= Tesla) and I thought that Japanese would make a improve version of laser technology. I do not believe the Japanese will remain with the Germans for long. 

How about this story ? Japanese have secretly created an organization on a remote island. This group plans to take control of the Axis command. Axis learns the treachery and war follows. Am I really the only one who prefer a story like this for Japan instead of 'here's a subgroup of the axis'.

Jayjazz99 said:

first.

The Axis powers (German: Achsenmächte, Italian: Potenze dell'Asse, Japanese: ??? Sujikukoku), also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was the alignment of nations that fought in the Second World War against the Allied forces. The Axis grew out of the Anti-Comintern Pact, an anti-communist treaty signed by Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan in 1936. The Kingdom of Italy joined in 1937. The "Rome–Berlin Axis" became a military alliance in 1939 under the Pact of Steel, with the Tripartite Pact of 1940 leading to the integration of the military aims of Germany and its two treaty-bound allies. At their zenith duringWorld War II, the Axis powers presided over empires that occupied large parts of Europe, Africa, East and Southeast Asia, and islands of the Pacific Ocean. The war ended in 1945 with the defeat of the Axis powers and the dissolution of the alliance. Like the Allies, membership of the Axis was fluid, with nations fighting and not fighting over the course of the war.

so blutkreuze and germans are already subfaction. 

its still alt history game.Organised around themes of WW2 so we have Stalingrad&Ardenes {Urban and winter + Winter and trenches} with zombie and lasers. In future i expect Pacific with marines japanese zombies etc and Africa with weird italians Zombie Rommel and Afganistan based ReDs

second 

i play scenarios with pure blutkreuz as faction usualy vs pure Himler Old Guard {zombie ,apes, lasers  vs "regular" units like battle grenadiers}

third 

in artbook Japan has distinctive mecha , upgraded infantry and ninjas

cheers

I believe the game designer has put in quite an effort in marketing Dust in Japan. It is natural that Japanese should come first.

wildger said:

The world of Dust and everything that makes it awesome is based on VK technology.  It is natural that the Vrill should be next.

Well while the SSU has been released we've seen British and French hitting the trenches. So one can guess we'll get to see Japanese in coming times as Allied marines are being released right now. But as a complete faction, the only ones who have not appeared are Vril.

A scout/expeditionary force, kind of an invasion spearhead at most, would be great for background. Exploring for resources, recovering artifacts and information, all the while fighting the natives. A great start for a future side development bringing human factions to space as mercenaries or so…

Hopefully if they release the Japanese units for the axis they give them lasers or an ability like amphipious or walkers that give them a unique feel.

Would love to see Aussie troops for the allies. Arm them with phasers and give them jump so they can be a highly mobile death dealing team.

Do you think the will ever release rocket troops for the axis like the ones on dust models?

Vril I won't buy . If they are going to look like grey aliens are they going to be tall or short type of greys? Big eye, big headed midgets won't be very threatening.

I think I remember for an illustration that Vril were tall, at least as humans. IIRC it was some kind of container with the Vril individual inside. I don't recall if it was Mannfred or Sigrid staring at it from the outside…

wildger said:

Sure but iam quite confident that selling ww2 japan stuff in japan is very tricky/its sensitive subject…..

There are almost non ww2 military japan/imperial army pop culture products/toys made in Japan….  

But DUST is NOT ww2 but weird wolrd war. While AFAIK Parente has not tackled holocaust, it seems that it has been eliminated from Axis Germany in the DUST storyline, at most by '43 when Hitler and his lackeys were cornered by Blutkreuz/Heer faction. It is perfectly plausible that Japanese in DUST are not committing war crimes in any way which may be worst than Allied or SSU are doing. Apart from the serum and some forays in animal handling, of course 

And after all ww2 derivatives or themed things are not that unlikely. Yamato was used to name a space battleship, for example. Kobayashi's works on ww2 are great. While sensibility towards Japanese actions in ww2 may be logical, DUST is a science fiction what if.

Poyet said:

I'm not sure they'd really care that much, while there is little in the way of that stuff made in Japan, they popular culture does not really frown on it (it's more of a legal thing, like the fact that Swastickas are illegal in Germany).

But in the end this is the same culture that finds this (http://kotaku.com/5965074/hitler-in-a-mini+skirt-and-stalin-in-hot-pants-infamous-dictators-as-anime-ladies/gallery/1) approiate. Note some may consider that link NSFW, and the links in the article certainly are,

So you never know.

But I'll still say that from what Paolo has said we can expect the Vrill as the fourth faction, and Japan to be a sub-faction of the Axis, like China in the SSU, and Britian and France in the Allies.