Post weekend update and Planetfall 2.0 thoughts

Well it was a fun weekend. My son and I got a chance to try out a game of planetfall using the new 2.0 rules. He proxied a Works Raptor core helix and scout helix while I ran a Sorylian command helix with allied Terquai scout helix.

This is fairly early in the first turn. I had moved the command barge up to put some hurt on my son's medium tanks. This proved to be a mistake unfortunately as his heavy and medium tanks were able to bring down the barge early in turn two.

This was toward the end of our game. I must say that the Ja'Gor recon walkers performed extremely well and were probably my MVP in the game.

Thoughts:

• The Terquai gunship has quite a bit tougher than it used to be. with 6 shields and flying it was quite a best in this game before it was brought down by the Works raptor AA tanks and interceptors.
• The command barge was not as tough under sustained fire as I thought it would be. This worked against me early in our game. 
• My heavy infantry, (Sorylian and Terquai), were very hard for my sons tanks to dislodge from the objectives. This gave me the game in the end as he could not remove them in time so I won by objective even though he really had decimated the majority of my forces.
• The orbital support markers were not as difficult to dial in as I expected them to be.
• Odd I know, but the game still felt like planetfall even with the additional range bands and revisions and it was still a lot of fun!

Planetfall New Alliance Helicies -The Other Three

I gave a brief preview and overview of three of the new alliance core helices that have been released via their beta statistics. I figured that wasn't entirely fair if I didn't give a similar preview and overview of the other three alliance core helices.

Here is a link to the new unit statistics I am looking over and a brief rules change narrative.
http://community.spartangames.co.uk/index.php?/topic/20878-firestorm-planetfall-designer-feedback-thread/

Rense System Navy Core Helix
Lemures heavy tank appears to be fielded in squads of 1 or 2. This vehicle is a monster! It has cloaking, fanatical, drone nexus 12", hover vehicle as well as being a transport for the heavy infantry cadre. On paper this vehicle seems like it might need to be toned down a little. It has two 32" range blasters with Anti-personnel and corrosive. They are also equipped with solid armor values. On top of this the Lemures give all Dindrenzi and RSN units fearless if they are fighting Terran or Hawker forces.

Cherubim medium battle robots will be fielded in squadrons of 2 similar to the Relthoza. 1 or 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. These guys have a blaster weapon with an optimum firepower range of 12" though they can hit out to 16". These guys also have asset drop(1), cloaking, fanatics, hard target -1, sky drop, thunderous charge and a melee weapon. They also are very well armored due to the small squad size.

Scutum light tanks appear to fielded in squads of 3. 1 or 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. These guys appear to be a super hover scout squad. They come equipped with cloak, fanatics, hard target(-1), recon, sky drop as well as take & hold. These guys also have a special rule called powered descent jets which allows them to move over all intervening terrain when moving flat out. Compared to the other recon vehicle squads currently available these guys have a solid weapon with a comparatively long range of 16".

Asbolus Commandos - From the description and lore these guys seem really mean. They are fielded in squads of 4 bases. They come equipped with drone, fanatics, hard target(-1), hit and run as well as take and hold. Similar to the scout tanks these guys have good armor and comparatively longer range than their peers at 15"

Veydreth Tribes Core Helix
Jor-Mek heavy tank appears to be fielded in squads of 1 or 2. This vehicle is equipped with a number of special features including: advanced targeting array, hover, orbital support(1), take and hold as well as hit and run. Fairly mobile with an 8" move it also has very solid armor for a heavy tank. Its weapons consist of a heavy beam lance with an option fire range of 5"-20. There is also a secondary cannon with a range of 10". This creates a sweet spot between 5"-10" where this vehicle throws 28 dice! Very much looking forward to seeing this model once it is rendered.

Vol-Tal medium tanks will be fielded in squadrons of 3. 1 or 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. The Vol-Tal has a solid beam lance weapon with an optimum fire range of 5"-20" similar to the Jor-Mek. They are equipped with hover, hit and run as well as take and hold. Average armor and speed lead them to appear to be a solid medium choice.

Ul-Kar-Nor medium tanks will be fielded in squadrons of 3. Up to 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. This squad is really interesting in that it is equipped with a bombard cannon and its statistics indicate it can move or fire. The lore also indicates that this unit will be quadrapedal which will be awesome to see! They have decent armor for a medium but no shields or other special rules to keep them safe. They have the special rule indirect fire which allows them to shot at something without having line of sight. The Ul-Kar-Nor have a solid firing range of 6"-24" with 9 dice each.

Hal-Su light tanks appear to fielded in squads of 4. 1 or 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. The Hal-Su are equipped with hard target(-1), hover, recon, hit and run as well as take and hold. They are extremely tough with a DR of 7 and fairly standard light cannons. From the lore these also sound like they will be quadrapedal which will be awesome. I personally like the walkers and if these are inspired by the Sorylian walkers they will be excellent!

Works Raptor Core Helix
UXB-187 'Agares' super heavy tank appears to be fielded in squads of 1 or 2. It is listed as a super heavy tank which its weapon certainly lives up to. The takeover battle lance can throw 16 dice at up to 36". Its armor appears on par with other heavy tanks though it also adds cloak which makes it tougher than its peers. It is also a hover vehicle with sectored armor, orbital support(3) and drone nexus(12"). The Agares also has two nexus designators to dial in their orbital support. IT appears to be very scary vehicle which will be hard to take down. Looking forward to playing against this guy and seeing what it looks like!

DAS-74 'Byleth' medium tanks will be fielded in squadrons of 3. 1 or 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. The Byleth is equipped with cloak, hover vehicle, sectored armor as well as take and hold. Their lore lists them as an anti-air vehicle and their weaponry supports this. They have a solid missile battery which excels in the 10"-15" range but can hit enemy units up 25" away.

UIV-3 'Forneus' light tanks appear to fielded in squads of 4. 1 or 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. These appear to be high speed infiltration vehicle. The have a great movement speed with a short range flamethrower attack. They are equipped with cloak, hover vehicle, recon specialist as well as take and hold. I like the sound of these and I think my son will get some excellent use out of them once they are released.

DTP-4 Hellion Drone flyers - The drones are available in squads of 4 and up to 2 of these squads can be fielded in a core helix. The come equipped with cloaked, drone, fearless and sectored armor. They move quickly and have a powerful CQB attack. They appear to be primarily used for harassment and infantry slaying. 

All of these helices look and sound exciting to me. I am particularly intrigued by the Veydreth helix though it does not dethrone the Terquai and Ba'Kash which will definitely be my top two picks of the new helices. I am very much hoping that they will not be the last helices released. I'm close to finishing the Kingdom of Denmark surface assault fleet and looking forward to a break from painting Dystopian Wars. I'm just not sure if Planetfall or Warmachine will be calling me more strongly to paint next! 

Planetfall Alliance Helices Update and statistics review

Over the past couple of weeks there has been a flurry of updates for the impending Planetfall 2.0 ruleset release coming up this August. Also, as of today Beta/In-progress stats for the alliance factions and the big 6 have been released giving the community a glimpse into what is coming for the game.

As part of these updates Spartan Derek has been announced as being the lead designer for Planetfall and Armada in the Firestorm Universe. This is a move that I am most excited about. For one it looks to help remove the bottleneck that existed in the past at Spartan. Hopefully this means that we will have a more stable release table for the games and better communication as everything won't be going through just one person.

Here is a link to the blog post Spartan made regarding their plans for the Firestorm Universe throughout 2017.
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/the-2017-firestorm-galaxy

Here is a link to the new unit statistics and a brief rules change narrative.
http://community.spartangames.co.uk/index.php?/topic/20878-firestorm-planetfall-designer-feedback-thread/

There has also been a Beta/In-progress render of the new Hawker Core Helix shared.

Hawker Core Helix Units - Senechal Heavy Tank, Squire Medium Tank, Halberd Light Tank and Crossbow Gun Emplacement. The APC has been scrapped it sounds like.

From looking at the Beta Unit Stats the Hawker Core helix will breakdown into:
Senechal heavy tanks which will be fielded in squads of 1-2. It appears that it will have take & hold which could be pretty awesome.

Squire medium tanks which will be fielded in squads of 3. 1 or 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. These also appear to have take & hold which makes the new helix very good at acquiring objectives. In comparison to the Terran Heimdals the Squire has longer range thoough not as powerful at point blank.

Halberd light tank which will be field in squads of 4. 1 or 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. In comaprison to the Terran Valkyrie these appear to be tougher but lack shields they do hit quite a bit harder per vehicle though they are limited to 4 in a squad versus 5.

I have also looked over the Veydreth, Ba'Kash and Terquai new Helices and I have to say I am extremely excited for these! There are no renders as of yet but from the statistics they all sound very fun!

Terquai Empire Core Helix
Ashilla heavy tank appears to be fielded in squads of 1 or 2. This vehicle has a built-in temporal portal to deploy the Nabis drones. Similar to the gunship this vehicle doesn't have the best armor but it makes up for it with its massive quantity of shields. Looking at its weapons it appears to have 360 degree threat radius with optimum weapon values between 12" and 20". Though it has beam weapons that can hit all the way out to 30". Rounding this guy out is drone nexus(18") to ensure the Nabis drones are operating at maximum efficiency.

Lamellia medium tanks will be fielded in squadrons of 2 similar to the Relthoza. 1 or 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. These guys have two beam weapons each with an optimum firepower range of 12" to 24" though again they can hit out to 30". These guys also have drone nexus(12") to help with the Nabis drones.

Asarra light tanks appear to fielded in squads of 4. 1 or 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. These are fairly different compared to other recon units. For one it sounds like it will be quadrapedal with lots of armor and a powerful gun on each. The do not appear to be very fast to counter balance their weapons and armor.

Nabis drones update - These guys which were awesome before can now be field in one of two variants. The assault Nabis is what was present in Planetfall already. The new Firepower Nabis swap out their CQB weapon for shoulder mounted Nuravi missiles which is awesome! I can't wait to acquire some of these!

Ba'Kash Clans Core Helix
Nubaro massive tank is maybe squads of 1. Perhaps squads of 1 or 2. In the current statistics these appear to have decent armor, no shields and hard target(-1) which gives them decent survivability. These guys act as a transport for their light tanks and can even replace a destroyed Hulash during a game once.

Marku medium tanks appears to be fielded in squads of 2. 1 or 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. These guys come with hard target, hit and run and fearless. Good armor supports what appears to be a short range brawler type medium unit.

Hulash light tanks appear to be fielded in squads of 5. 1 or 2 squadrons can be utilized in a core helix. They are fearless with hard target(-2) in addition to the standard light tank MARs.

Karal Infantry Pack appear to be fielded in cadres of 4 bases. The look to be fearless with Killteam(1) and jet packs which allow them to run and still fire their missile launchers. These guys sounds awesome and honestly I am excited to get an idea of what the Ba'Kash look like.

Thats all I have for today. I am excited to play around with these new unit statistics! Now I just need to get my brother-in-law over for game to try these out. I can imagine he will be excited for the Hawker and RSN releases. Thanks for reading!

Sorylian Collective Core Helix - Unboxing

I finally gave in and picked up this helix. I have been eyeing these guys since last summer. They also pair with my wife's Veydreth Clans. With the recent announcement from Spartan that the 2.0 rules will be released in August I am really excited to see the new rules and how they pair up. I doubt they will dethrone my Relthoza but I am looking forward to playing a few games with them against my son and brother-in-law.

Without further ado:

The back of the box with the list of contents and inspirational picture of the helix painted.

Huk'Ka - Love all of the details present on this model. Really like how alien it looks. There was really no flashing to clean on this model.

Huk'Ka main cannon. Cool little gun. I'm excited to paint this up!

Bor'Ka trio of walkers. Lots of little pieces for this guys. Again I really like all of the details that Spartan crammed onto these models. Surprisingly little flashing again on these models.

Closer picture of the Bor'Ka torso and legs.

Second close up of the Bor'Ka. This one is showing off the legs more than the torso.

Bol'Vak Transport Skiff - I honestly love this model and the soldiers strapped to the side. There was some flashing at the pour point at the back but it was easily removed.

Second picture of the Bol'Vak showing the underside.

A picture of all of the Sorylian Infantry Squads - A Kul'Vok Heavy Infantry Cadre and a Mul'Kat infantry cadre. 

A closer picture of the Bul'Vok Heavy infatry - These guys look great! I really like their poses. Its also awesome to get to see the appearance of some of the Sorylian collective races.

A second close up of the Bul'Vok Heavy infantry. Standard amounts of flashing to be removed. 

A closer picture of some of the Mul'Kat infantry bases. I like the different types of barricades that they have to hide behind compared to the "standard barricades" some of the other races have to hide behind.

Ka'Kun Light Recon Skiffs - I personally really like these. Its pretty cool to think of these flying up to an objective and jumping off to occupy. Again little to no flashing to clean off and lots of excellent details crammed onto the models.

I hope you enjoy looking over this unboxing. I am looking forward to painting these sometime soon. I am currently still finishing up painting up a Kingdom of Denmark Assault fleet to sell for Dystopian Wars. Once that little project is done I should be free to paint this or some of my Warmachine units I have picked up recently. Thanks for reading!