Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

ShumaGorath wrote:

warboss wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:Oh sure, you can handwavium the entire thing. It breaks suspension of disbelief in me a bit though when you take a pre existing tank design, take out the track bits, staple two mailboxes on each side and then call it a "hover tank". DP9 certainly is in a crowded field for designs that make no sense or are lazy and GW has more than it's fair share. This ones just kinda on the nose in my opinion. The larger hovertank design in one of the other pictures actually appears to be a vehicle concepted with flight in mind, this just looks like the modeler/artist got lazy.

What pre-existing tank design did they take and just slap on that stuff?

Real ones.
+

On the other hand:

The Heavy Gear hovertank Warboss linked to, above, is the Hetaroi. It actually shares some canon design elements with the Fusilier, in fact. The Hetaroi is an evolution of the CEF HT-68:



All three have some similar design elements because they are in many ways three 'generations' of a design, albeit with some 'interesting' in-game history. (The CEF invaded with the HT-68. Captured HT-68s were studied to develop the Hetaroi. The Hetaroi's tech team contributed to the Fusilier.) I'm not the designer of any of these, but the basic theme is kind of that the side pieces have a lot of the complex engineering for hover fans and such so the main hull doesn't need as many holes and other vulnerabilities.

There's several pretty small ATM launchers in the game, though. One of the first ones I can think of is the Klemm light tank, which has pods of three on each side:

Those are still too large to fit in the location in question, but it's forgivable. Vehicles having over/undersized weapons or nonsensical interiors in wargames is something that happens much more often than not.

All three have some similar design elements because they are in many ways three 'generations' of a design, albeit with some 'interesting' in-game history. (The CEF invaded with the HT-68. Captured HT-68s were studied to develop the Hetaroi. The Hetaroi's tech team contributed to the Fusilier.) I'm not the designer of any of these, but the basic theme is kind of that the side pieces have a lot of the complex engineering for hover fans and such so the main hull doesn't need as many holes and other vulnerabilities.

I understand that it's justifiable via fluff, but visually it is an exact representation of what a normal ground tank is (in the modern day) minus the actual tracks themselves and with little hover pods glued to the side. In a sci fi setting the aliens all look humanoid because of the needed emphatic connection with the viewer and due to budget, in a sci fi setting vehicles do not have that same limitation and when they're just an existent design with "attachments" it becomes kind of "cheap" looking.

The HT68 you picture looks great because it uses a lot of large and small details to visually separate it from the type of modern ground vehicle it's clearly based on. It's got gestalt where the other doesn't.

Vaktathi wrote:They can be either Anti-Gear or airburst missiles which are blast effect weapons effective against infantry and at inflicting stun effects against opponents, but not tremendously powerful weapons (AT missiles are DMG25, AB Missiles are DMG10). Neither weapon need be particularly large.

I thoguht they were ATMs, too. My fault for writing without my copy of the book at hand. I see AGMs on the Voltigeur datacards (Free download from DP9.com)... AGMs can be pretty tiny in-canon, the Kodiak launches them from a pretty tiny back-mounted launcher that holds at least 9*!



A few other units use this same piece, and AGMs are available in as small as a shorter-range infantry--portable version.

* 8 is the cut-off from older material to make a weapon 'limited ammo' in Heavy Gear blitz (which actually means that weapons with more than 8 shots go "out of Ammo' on certain bad die rolls).


Automatically Appended Next Post:

warboss wrote:Alph, I'd also add in the tidbit that the armies mentioned in Balance's post (North, South, Peace River) are rumored to be getting new army rules soon which will make the Locked and Loaded book completely outdated (the Field Manual has the revised game rules already). The army boxes are decent deals so you won't go wrong with those (they include a L&L minibook) but I wouldn't go out an buy a separate full size Locked and Loaded book as its likely to only be good for 3-6 months.

The Field Guides have been announced. L&L is still a good way to get an 'overview' of the setting, though. Including several army lists is a bonus.

Balance wrote:
The Field Guides have been announced. L&L is still a good way to get an 'overview' of the setting, though. Including several army lists is a bonus.

For those who do not know, L&L used to be the only book that was needed. Several expansion books were released to cover new armies such as Caprice. The Field Guide was released to fix some balance issues. It is fairly substantial reworking of the rules, which may be likened to a change in edition.

I was aware that new books were in the works, but do not know which ones will be needed.

I like the hovertanks in HG. The Fusilier is tempting me to start NuCoal.

You know, I guess I could've started a new thread as it's June. Ah well. I may have some other announcements before month's end. I really need to get a calendar at some point...

The announcement for the upcoming Field Guides is in GU5 which also contains a massive Field Test article of TV tweaks. A lot of lists lose 10-20 TV/squad with this, which brings things in line with the way the NuCoal lsits were put together for Perfect Storm.

The announced Field Guides are South, North, PRDF, CEF, and Black Talon. I don't know much more beyond that, to be honest. The guys are trying hard to avoid invalidating any units, but some list modification will be required (as it pretty much always is with any game updating army lists). I think with the Field Test beta values I've got forces that got cheaper as well as at least one list that got more expensive (My Black Talons).

You could just change the title to June in the first post and update it with June's items.

That would actually be preferable.

There should be a "DP9 News, Rumors and Previews" thread - why not make this "The One"?

I thought the decision was one/month?

I ask because no one wants to read a 20-30 page thread...

I'll update if I hear some more news.

No one has to read a 20 - 30 page thread, because when you update the title, you also note what page the new stuff is on!

And.. honestly.. we're only on page two. I like the game but even I think it'll be a very, very long while before we'd hit 20-30 pages.

Wait, new army books? Darn it! I just spent twenty bucks on their pdf downloads for the old NuCoal one.

Any idea if there's any support for Duelist rules or the Leagueless in this new line? I'm really trying to get into this game, but the way the rules are spread out and the books are shifting keeps throwing me off.

Fix wrote:Wait, new army books? Darn it! I just spent twenty bucks on their pdf downloads for the old NuCoal one.

It is my understanding that the NuCoal book won't change for several years. Any minor changes would be made in GearUp emag which is free.

What old NuCoal one? Check the publication date on it. If its the one released earlier this year or late last year, you're fine.

Fix wrote:Wait, new army books? Darn it! I just spent twenty bucks on their pdf downloads for the old NuCoal one.

Any idea if there's any support for Duelist rules or the Leagueless in this new line? I'm really trying to get into this game, but the way the rules are spread out and the books are shifting keeps throwing me off.

The NuCoal book is the newest book in the game line, so you're good for quite a while, I'd think. It also covers Leagueless (As KADA or COunty Militia) with a free PDF to remove dependency on Locked & Loaded, . Also covered is Duelists in forces, albeit as an optional rule.

I'm trying to get a new website up that'll be oriented with a page for each faction with an explicit "Here is/are the book/books for this faction" to make things easier. (Most should be no more than 2, and that includes the main rules.)

warboss wrote:What old NuCoal one? Check the publication date on it. If its the one released earlier this year or late last year, you're fine.

Ah, ok. I've got it now. I'm tracking.