London Busses

Wait ages for some rules, then 6 come along at once.......just like London busses!

So we wait for what seemed like an eternity to finally get the rules for the Corrupter, Menchit A2 and Firebird, then low and behold, Hawk surprise us by getting the May release rules out on time. 
Has the hell frozen over, is the moon blue, have England won the World Cup? 

All the recent releases are here if you want to download the rules/buy the new stuff

If this is the new face of Hawk, colour me impressed. Long may it continue. 
That's enough of my ramblings, on to more of my ramblings! 

This months releases seem centered around artillery pieces. 
PHR Thor Bombard

Well looky here, PHR have some barrage. Not only do they have barrage, but it is some pretty tasty barrage too. E11 and barrage-2 per unit is very nice. 2 in a squad will be able to hit things with area blasts from a considerable distance away. Probably a little pricey at 80 for a minimum squad of 2 as that is still only 1 shot, but there is no need for a Neptune so actually quite a cheap offensive unit. 
The Thor does share a chassis with the much maligned Taranis, meaning A7 and 2 dp. Not too bad, but will fall down to pretty much all weaponry and some Ewok rock lobbers too - well, weaponry that can see it; as the Thor will only be seen by the PHR player using them. They will be nicely slotted behind a big-arsed building. Out of site, out of mind. I think we will see some of these in competitive play. They have a place as they are far reaching with high energy and have little repercussions. 

UCM Crossbow

I am very undecided on the Crossbow. Obviously is shares a chassis with the Longbow, which is excellent. The reason the Longbow works as a static piece is for 2 reasons; it remains hidden because the weapon profiles are IF and it is versatile. What it lacks in movement it makes up for in what it can do. 
The Crossbow lacks movement and lacks versatility. It is entirely focused on doing 1 job. Also it can't be hidden. It needs to be able to shoot, which means it can be shot back. 
It does have a saving grace however. It is only 20 points (35 including Raven with free missile upgrade). Squadrons of 1-4 is a nice touch too, but it is in a very crowded Support slot. This doesn't feel right to me, maybe it could have gone into the Heavy slot. When I'm designing a list for the UCM, there aren't many (if any) Support slots free. You will only get a max. of 6 in a 1500 point clash and invariably I will use them. There is so much competition for that slot. 
I would have like to see the Crossbow get wide coherencey too. I think at 3" apart they are prime targets for strafe weapons and can only really cover a small area. 
I will certainly try them out, and I like that they kept the marksman's touch, but I have a feeling that they may bit a touch fragile for what they are intended for.   

Resistance Mehmed Siege Tank

Well this isn't very subtle is it? 
Probably the most focused demolition unit out there. E11 and demo-4 make it the master of it's art against standard and hardened buildings. A minimum squad of 2 could remove a 20 dp medium building a turn. A lot of people will look to their short range and say that they won't be in range till turn 3 or 4 - I disagree. Stick them in a Lifthawk, drop turn 1 and on turn 2 you can be taking out the centre buildings. I actually really like them. They will take a bit of a beating too with A10 and 2dp. Points seem appropriate for the unit, if you want to play the demo game, Resistance are looking pretty sweet right now. Turn 1 long range demo is still a problem, but mid-game building annihilation is easy. 
A squad in lifthawk will set you back 145 points, for a comparison 2 Enyos are 130. 
Still, there is 1 problem. The D6 system means that 30% of the time you will be doing nothing with a Mehmed, on the flip side over 40% of the time you will do 8 damage points!! 8!!! and 70% of the time at least 4 damage. 
All in all a unit that is very efficient at it's job. It will pose a threat to units that come close, but more importantly will do urban renewal better than anyone else.    

So that's it for now. As a whole, I quite like them. They will see table time for sure. I will be getting myself some crossbows at the UK Games Expo this weekend. Oh, that reminds me, all of team OB are at the UK Games Expo this weekend. 3 of us are taking part in Summer Invasion and I will be dusting off the Scourge.
We are recording a pod too (hopefully) and we want some questions from you the lovely listener. They can be about anything, DzC related or not. The more random the better. 

If you are heading up/down/across to the Expo, come say hi

Laters daters