Hey Folks, we’re back with another product review. The Battletech Kickstarter rolls on and hopefully our packages arrive soon. However, today we’re reviewing the Second Star League Assault Lance. This is the second of four Star League related Force Packs, and features Pre-Painted mini. Let’s dive in and take a closer look at the Second Star League Assault Lance.
Contents
4 Plastic ‘Mechs! (Note, that like all of CGL’s boxed releases, these come fully assembled and ready to play right out of the box). In this box is a Dire Wolf (Prometheus), Helios, Argus, and an Emperor. The Prometheus is the Pre-painted Mini in this box (pictures below) and I would rate the quality as high.The blue is striking, i like the yellow pin striping and the checks. Overall, a dedicated hobbyist could do a very solid job with this mini, but right out of the box it works.
1 Plastic Vehicle! This is the first of the new plastic vehicles ive personally laid my hands on. It’s a coolant Truck. It’s also very reminiscent stylistically of the APC from Aliens. It’s a nice sculpt and it sits low to the ground compared to other vehicles i’ve seen.
The Emperor model in this box is a solidly built Assault machine. It’s a little shorter than an Atlas, but is approximately 20% wider. I love the sculpt and i have been a huge fan if the ‘mech since i saw it the first time. This one needs a little bit of cleanup for painting, but not a lot.
The two heavy ‘Mechs in the box are excellent sculpts. The Argus looks like it stepped right out of Mechwarrior 4, and the details are crisp. The Helios is probably the big winner of the Catalyst art updates. It’s a sleek piece of kit and has had a massive glow up. Everything has a little bit of flashing to take care, and you’ll need to do a little bit of cleaning up to get them ready for paint. .
4 Alpha Strike Cards (Dual sided) 3 of these feature dual sided cards for the Argus, the Helios and the Coolant Truck. The final dual sided Alpha Strike Card is a legendary card for Sun-Tzu Liao (Emperor) and Victor Steiner-Davion (Prometheus). This box could do a lot of good with generic cards for both the Dire Wolf and the Emperor
1 Battlefield Support Card (Dual Sided). The Coolant Truck has a BSP card to take advantage of it using those rules.
Breakdown:
The ‘Mechs in this box are a little weird. The Prometheus is very specific to a few factions (Fed Suns, Fed Com, Comstar, 2nd Star League, Republic of the Sphere), where the others are a little more accessible. That said, The sculpts are fantastic, and the investment in work to get them painted is small. I wouldn’t try to match the Prometheus paint scheme. These 4 ‘mechs do hit an Assault lance composition, but there’s an asterisk.
Eras for these ‘mechs get a little exotic. The Emperor has the longest service record, but it has a period between the 2nd Succession War and Clan Invasion where it’s Lostech. The Helios and Argus are both late clan invasion designs. They’re good for any point after that. The Dire Wolf (Promethus) is usable from the Early Clan Invasion on as it sits, but It’s accessibility as a generic Dire Wolf is a much broader field of time. To use the entire box as a Lance, you’d need to print a generic Emperor card, and play Late Clan Invasion or after.
AS Point Cost (in the box) This is a box i can’t really do this for because of the legendary mechwarrior pilots. While Sun-Tzu and Victor are contemporaries, there are very few recorded instances of them taking to the field on the same planet (let alone the same side. As a result, you can’t field this box together as it sits. You’d need a generic card for either the Dire Wolf, or the Emperor. You can grab those of the Master Unit List.
Battle Value isn’t calculated for these boxes, and i would suggest you use the Master Unit List to identify what the BV of your force (and specific variations) is.
Thoughts: I really want to like these Star League Boxes, but two in and i have wants out of them. These boxes need to have generic Alpha Strike cards for every ‘mech in the box for them to be played out of the box. The painting is good on the pre-painted ‘mech. The sculpts are good. They’ll need a little bit of work to paint, but a hobbyist who wants to paint has 4 fine canvases (and a Dire Wolf) to work with. I’m still not sold on the inclusion of the coolant truck, but i don’t hate that it exists.
Overall Rating:
4 stars.
This is supposed to be coming to the Catalyst Game Labs online store soon, and should hit local retailers by the end of the year. (I got mine thanks to a good friend picking up a copy at a convention), Buy local if you can, and support your local stores. We’re still pondering what to review for Next Week, but keep an eye on this space, and you’ll hopefully find something of interest.
No comments:
Post a Comment