A Dropzone Thread

[Auxryn]

I'm looking forward to seeing the space game. Also the experimental rules for the new units.

[job]

I love the models for the Scourge.

[The Other Dave]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpaD5gKK_GA

And a very short combat teaser for the space game, pretty basic stuff. What looks most interesting to me is how range is determined - looks like each ship has a Scout value and a Signature value, and you add the firing ship's Scout and the target ship's Signature to determine range. (The example in the video is a ship with Scout 6 firing at a ship with Signature 6 for a 12" range.) I'd heard before that what actions you take will affect your Signature rating too.

[The Other Dave]

Experimental rules for the new releases are up as well. Some neat stuff! The new infantry are looking pretty cool!

For the PHR, I think the Valkyries are going to be my choice for a scout unit moving forward - fast-moving (9") infantry that can move into, out of, and over buildings with no penalty, with evasion and a modest dodge, a fair CQB and lots and lots of SMG shots. (Most importantly, compared to other scouts, they aren't either butt-ugly as in the case of the Janus or require fiddly magnetizing as with the Mercury.) Along with the sniper squads it kind of feels like the PHR is spoiled for interesting infantry choices. The Medusa nanomachine surfer is just silly, though, in lots of different ways.

The UCM power armor looks interesting - armor 4, energy 7 railguns, but a terrible CQB value. Plus flak and mortar teams, which are fairly self-explanatory I guess. I guess they're keeping with the "the strength of the UCM is not so much in its infantry" theme they have going.

The Shaltari get a cheap-but-terrible infantry unit to support the Braves (Armor 1? CQB 0.5?) that gets plenty of ignore cover shots but seems to exist pretty much to be cannon fodder. They also get some big battlesuits / small walkers that could be interesting - some even have flame weapons, which is always nice. I dunno, the battlesuits seem kind of neither-here-nor-there hybridy to me, but you never know.

The new Scourge heavy infantry are extremely scary. 50 points a base for armor 4, CQB 6 (!), passive CM, and energy 8 CC weapons for whaling on any tanks that get close enough. They also get an interesting walker tank thing that has big nasty claws but mostly causes enemy infantry within 6" to suffer penalties to basically everything - shooting accuracy, CQB, ability to search, ability to hold objectives. The heavy infantry are a bit pricier than I'm generally really comfortable with (although i guess they're the same price as PHR Sirens), and the walker thing might be a bit gimmicky. Both units are certainly a bit less attractive to me than the PHR stuff.

[Auxryn]

The scourge screamer also comes with a really scary dropship armed with flame weapons.

I'm actually really disappointed by the new Shaltari auxiliaries. They cost a couple points more than the standard choice, throw fewer dice in CQB, die to fewer dice in CQB, die to fewer falling masonry hits, identical anti-air small arms capability, and have no anti-tank weaponry. Their only advantage is that they have about 25% more anti-infantry fire because again they don't bring any anti-tank weapons.

The only place where they shine is surviving incoming high-strength fire, particularly sniper shots, while firing wildly back out of windows. It's a pretty specific corner case. On the other hand with all those cool new PHR units running about perhaps the streets will be flooded with walking infantry to shoot and be shot at by. Of course, against E+1 targets the basic Braves still seal more damage with their disc launchers. It seems unfortunate.

[AndrewGPaul]

The auxiliaries look good for taking out those UCM flak squads that will otherwise wreck all my vehicles.

All these new infantry units looks like engaging in CQB isn't their purpose.

[The Other Dave]

All these new infantry units looks like engaging in CQB isn't their purpose.

Absolutely. I think it'll potentially add a whole new tactical wrinkle to the game, as you'll have to protect them, to some degree or another, from CQB-capable units coming in and wrecking their day (and that wrinkle is probably where the Screamer comes in as well).

[AndrewGPaul]

I'm also looking to add more "soft" terrain - woods, hedgerows, etc - for infantry to play in, as well as putting more barricades and obstacles in the streets to impede vehicles.

[The Other Dave]

By the by, what's the "Rare" rule exactly? I haven't picked up Reconquest yet, and it seems that's where it's printed.

[AndrewGPaul]

You're only allowed 1/2/3 of each Rare unit in a Skirmish/Clash/Battle-sized game.