Scream For Me Baby!

Charlie Brown and Snoopy

Over the summer a new unit was spawned from one of Hawk's low hanging fleshy sacks, causing all sorts of controversy and mayhem. On seeing this gooey, amorphous state crawl onto the scene some shouted "overpowered!", and others "the winner of the summer releases". Of course, I'm talking about the Raider and Screamer.

Having taken the pair to Invasion and applied them in an active, competitive environment, I feel I am in a good place to write a critique on the most feared tag team in the Dropzone universe. To sum up this article quickly; they're not broken or overpowered. As to why not, you'll have to read on...

My journey begins a mere two weeks before Invasion, and I was in a right old pickle. The Medusa had been released close to this time, and given the popularity of the PHR on a global scale I knew I would likely play the army, and that I needed a counter to the copper haired fiend. You see, a 'standard' Scourge list is not equipped to deal with units like the Medusa or Freeriders. Our shots are powerful but few, and our template unit unwieldy to use. This turned my attention to the Raider. Being a flame unit it answered my call, and as a bonus also came with the Screamer who seemed useful in every mission on paper. The decision was finally made, and my two squads of four Prowlers were removed to make way for the pair.

Invasion turned out to be a great success for me, finishing second (and the highest ever Scourge placing) and winning the team award with Mike and Joe. This success was in no small part due to the dynamic duo, but also in no large part either. 

You see, for all intensive purposes the Raider didn't really do anything, and the Screamer did even less. Most of my games involved the Raider either loitering behind large buildings looking menacing, or chasing various units around the board like a Benny Hill sketch. It wasn't like the missions didn't lend themselves to flame either; we played both Targets of Opportunity and Military Complex, but even in these missions my Raider only got to unleash its acidic broth once (and dismally failed I would add, stupid dice). Flame is also ideal for Bunker Assault, but due to trying to take out two Medusa's (and failing again, although this time due to two stupid Triton X[tremes]) I lost the dropship before I got a chance to use it against the bunkers fleshy inhabitants. The only time in the whole tournament it actually destroyed a squad was when I jumped on some Freeriders and melted them to their infernal scooters. So no, the unit isn't overpowered, it is at the end of the day just a flame unit.

If we stay very still, they won't see us...

But, butbutbut, but- what it truly is, and is probably how it should be used, is a superb denial unit. mindgames?! That's just plain awesome!
Who wants to jump a unit of Valkyries in a building next to a Raider? The dumb and reckless, that's who, and that type of gamer doesn't tend to last that long in our hobby. By positioning the Raider in awkward and intelligent areas you will cause your opponent to make mistakes and misplace their infantry, which as we all know will win you games in DzC. Although I didn't really use that unit all that much, it reinforces my belief in dropzone being the best wargame on the market by a distance. The fact that I potentially won some battles through mind games?! That's just awesome!

The Screamer on the other hand didn't really have a great tournament. I used it's abilities once, maybe twice? I believe this was in part due to my mis-positioning of the singing alien in some games, and also because of events which had transpired in others (i.e. in Ground Control it didn't get a chance to deny infantry extra points, as all the enemy infantry were dead...). For 40 points though I'm hardly concerned about it not getting used.

All in all I brought the Raider and Screamer as a way of combating dangerous infantry, and even though they didn't get to do this aggressively the very threat of the Raider worked in a different fashion. Are they overpowered? Absolutely not, but they can be very useful. Interestingly, I'm not sure if I would take one if it didn't come with the other.

Ultimately they did their job, which is all I can ask for.

Well, actually, that's not true. I could ask for fun, which sadly these guys didn't bring. Threat is all well and good, but waiting and waiting and waiting can be frustrating when all you want to do is run in front of the bad guys (in the alternative perspective, we're all bad guys to someone) and purify them in the bathing waters of acidic jelly. I found them to be boring, and ultimately ended up wishing that I had brought the eight Prowlers instead. But hey, maybe its just me. I am Cautious Cates after all.