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2021/02/15 19:15:06
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
Warrior IV, Pit Bull, Warrior
Warrior, Pit Bull, Warrior IV
Elans standing in for Bulldog police vehicles
Drones
Sniper Teams
SWOS Troopers (individually based for RPG purposes)
Thread in general, are there any easily accessible totally noob friendly primers for this? My nephew is a total mech head but it it is not a genre that I am at all familiar with so any rules and lore resource that is easy to source and free to access would be greatly appreciated.
I'd just be happy with Peace River is they actually had some Target Designators. Seriously, here's the list:
Skirmisher TAG (CMD variant) TD1
Dragonfly (hopper) TD1 (available to N/S)
Elan (jeep) TD0 (available to S)
Spotter Infantry TD1 (available to everybody)
Albertorius wrote: Have they taken them out of, like, all the recon Gears then?
Pretty much. The stock Skirmisher never had one. In Locked and Loaded if you had the option for Skirmishers in a squad you could usually add Target Designators to 2 of them. Now in the Living Rulebook it's just the Skirmisher TAG, gear-wise, and as a CMD model with ECCM and Satlink it probably has better things to do than TD stuff, and it can't even be added in a Support Unit.
Oh and I forgot to add the Recon Drone to the list of TD models for Peace River.
One important consideration, you may have a command model in a non commander job. So the TAG Skirmisher may be part of a support unit or simply another of the models in the combat group, the ECCM and SatUp makes it a solid forward observer as it is very hard to jam.
Sure, but commanders cost extra (aside from CGLs), on top of the TAG variant costing extra, and you CANNOT have a commander in a Support Unit. LRB pg58 A.2.0, 5G. SUs may not have commanders.
And if you want that TD in a FS unit, you have to take the Chieftain Variant (+1 point) on top of TAG (+1 point), and you might as well take 2 of these because one SatUp is less useful than 2 SatUps. And if you're using a SK or ST unit, forget about it. And the ST units are where most of the guided weapons live. Sure, there are non-gear options but they're usually pretty fragile (Drones/Elans), slow (Spotter Teams) or expensive (Dragonfly, which has its own Guided weapons to use). Of these choices, only Spotter Teams have the Comms:1 trait that removes the need for an EW roll, but I probably have to buy transports to get the Spotter Teams to where I would want them.
But if I want to field Anti-Tank Red Bulls or Cataphracts or Coyotes (and I do!), there's really no good options for TD unless I want to drop 36TV on a full RC unit with 2 Skirmisher TAGs (CGL and 2iC) and 2 vanilla Skirmishers. It's VERY GOOD, mind you, but most other armies can do the same in Support Units for 20TV, or get 4 TD carrying units for roughly that cost instead of 2.
Pointman wrote: @John Prins, you can't add commanders on SU, but the model is not a command model, it's just a model.
Commanders can use any model you want, some models are good for commanders because of the comms and stuff, but the TAG models are just models, not commanders.
So, you may add any model with a TAG (TD and extra sauce) to any unit.
My understanding is that this is true in the Beta Ruleset, but not the Living Rulebook. Looking at the preview PDF for the 3rd edition HGB on DP9's site, the TAG is just a normal upgrade but it's losing SatUp.
2021/04/26 21:18:01
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
Terra Novan medical ethics pretty much prohibits socket soldiers for gears. The CEF keeps FLAILs so secret they've got self destruct systems because they realize what a P.R. disaster they would be, even if they're using GRELs as the guinea pigs. Even their own troops don't know, aside from some of the technicians that maintain them.
And the best cybernetics Terra Nova has available basically add some FIT (fitness) and body armor to the character, making them harder to hurt but no faster, no super jumps, nothing like that. More of a side effect of having replacement limbs rather than actual augmentations (aside from the duraskin implants, which is Shadowrun style dermal sheath).
2022/02/17 16:03:30
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
JohnHwangDD wrote: Yeah, the original Tactical sculpts are the best. Southern Gears are the same way.
It's almost a crime to put the plastics in the same picture, they're so poorly-sculpted and proportioned by comparison.
I think the OG RAFM Gears look nice, too!
The RAFM gears were great. They only had 2 flaws; the rocket packs weren't great (having small holes rather than the current/superior 'nubs'), and the bases were generally too small for the scale (and solid lead pewter as well).
DP9 was so forward looking at the start with high production art/layouts, video game licenses, animated series. I feel like with the plastics they were looking backwards, as guys like Mason were already 3D printing ludicrously detailed gears years before the Kickstarter campaign for the plastics came out, and the plastic renders were 1990s level of detail (which turned out fine for Caprice/CEF but not for the gears).
2022/02/23 18:24:31
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
A lot of the early RAFM stuff was just fine, the first few years I never had a mispack, missing part or really bad cast (and even then, lead pewter was pretty easy to work with). Their quality control took a HUGE dive at some point though. Most of the 'leftovers' that pop up on eBay and such come from that era.
But I have a lot of happy memories of the RAFM range. I cut my teeth on conversions using plastic bits, airplane putty, milliput and finally kneadatite to make gears that weren't in the range yet.
That was also when Citadel had that awesome Rust Ink of theirs and I used a ton of that stuff on gears.
2022/04/18 20:58:49
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
Saw this video today and I wonder if Dream Pod 9 will consider going this route. Apparently Corvus Belli is starting to switch some stuff from metal to this Siocast stuff (soft plastic in rubber injection molds), and Reaper has already switched some of their stuff to it.
Seems like a happy middle ground; metal casting times and detail (less vents though, they use a vacuum pump before injection), plastic material costs. Nice to see casting technology get a new development.
Also seems fairly ideal for switching expensive Heavy Gear resin/metal models into plastic without resculpting them.
2022/04/18 22:35:46
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
I've had some siocast models on hand, and the detail is very good, up there with most metal casts I've seen and (the good) PVC minis from boardgames, slightly less crisp than the best resin casts like Artel's.
Poseability wise, it should allow anything that resins or metals currently allow, wo it will very much depend on the sculpt.
Glad to hear from someone with experience with siocast models. I'm tempted to order a Reaper model or three to see how they turn out.
I also wonder if the molds would last longer with Siocast, as hot plastic is probably a lot cooler than hot metal, though you do have the added stress of the vacuum phase of the injection process. Though the exact rubber composition probably isn't the same as with metal casting molds either.
And pretty out there prices for the physical copy, too (120$ CAD for a softcover, 140$ CAD for a hardcover, plus shipping, for a DrivethruRPG PoD book).
Finally got around to looking at this, and yeah, that's really rough. $30 CAD for the eBook alone doesn't seem too bad, but another +90 CAD for getting a softcover version (or +110 for hardcover). Going by the campaign, it's 480 pages full color, that's about twice as thick as 2nd edition, which was mostly black and white. With that size I think going hardcover for the extra $20 is probably the better idea, but $140 is pricey.
For reference, the Pathfinder 2e Core Rulebook hardcover is 640 pages full color and $105 CAD on Amazon, but they are getting some economies of scale given the popularity and traditional printing.
I do like that sample art though. Eldon Cowgur has done a decent job channeling Ghislain's original art.
warboss wrote: I didn't play 2nd edition. Did they split off the tactical wargame from the RPG in the core book or was that later?
IIRC, the Tactical box came out after 2nd edition, and really it just stripped the RPG elements out and focused on vehicular combat scale. Eventually this would become Heavy Gear Blitz!
Problem is... "bigger =/= better". Does it need 480 pages to create a game because it needs it, or because the writing is overly dense? What does doubling up in pagecount gives you in comparison with 2nd edition, taking into account that book gave you even tactical rules in a single package?
I definitely think we need more info on what the book contains. All we really know it it has integrated RPG/Blitz rules and vehicle customization. Hopefully it contains a lot of Life on Terra Nova material so that new people to the game don't have to buy older edition material to get enough info on the world. But I imagine a lot of that space could be vehicle stats.
Furthermore, to give a better comparison, the Worlds Without Number DrivethruRPG hardcover color print is 400 pages and CAD$ 80.21. At regular prices, not at KS reduced ones. So I'm pretty confident saying that their pricing is a "tad" out there.
Agreed, it's high. Based on that price a 480 page book (20% larger) would be 96CAD, and the hardcover is a 110CAD add on.
And with that, I just cancelled my pledge. No quickstart during the KS and those prices makes me have to wait and see.
Definitely pushing into 'artbook' prices rather than RPG book prices. I have to admit I'd buy this mainly for the new art, though at least 1 other person in my local gaming group is buying in already.
John Prins wrote: Agreed, it's high. Based on that price a 480 page book (20% larger) would be 96CAD, and the hardcover is a 110CAD add on.
I would not discount the pdf price from the price of the hardcover unless they are planning not to give it away with the physical version (which.... would not be a good look, IMHO, and also the WWN book also has a complimentary pdf, so it would be the same comparison either way). At this moment, the only price point we've seen of the books is CAD$120 for the softcover (with complimentary pdf) and CAD$140 for the hardcover (with complimentary pdf).
Or are you talking about something else? Because I haven't seen any add on on the campaign.
There's an add-on for just the physical book in the pledge manager, I guess so people can get extra copies. I dunno if you can just straight pledge 110 and select a book, though.
This blog entry has 2 different stat blocks for the Nash - one in HGB and one in the RPG, which seems to allow for customization. It's mostly the same but...
Well I guess they would need to list every vehicle in the RPG for customization purposes in the first place, so putting in stats is just efficient. Nobody wants to be told "for most gears, cross reference this other book and do this conversion" even if that book is free.
The conversion does seem relatively minor. Armor/Hull seems to have been replaced with a single stat (HI which I assume is Hull Integrity) and the success thresholds have changed (in a way I don't understand, GU and PI are 4+ in Blitz but +0 in the RPG format), but otherwise everything seems to be just a reformatting aside from the customization slot table.
2024/07/03 02:18:57
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
Been working on a small Northern force for Heavy Gear. Going with a pink granite scheme. Here's a WIP of some Antelopes (still need to add texture paint, varnish and decals).
2024/07/15 19:38:44
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
I initially planned to paint 4 of these, but the Blitz! 3.1 rules basically only allow 2 of each variant in a squad, so I'm probably going to swap the 2 I didn't paint over to snub cannon Razorbacks.
Also, a FDM building that I painted. I got a big pile of buildings off Etsy for pretty cheap, and they were advertised as 6-8mm scale, so I bought them for Battletech (and hopefully my Mercenaries pledge will ship soon). But look at that ladder, that's 15mm scale. But I need buildings for Heavy Gear too, so whatever.
2024/09/12 23:58:30
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
I decided to try mounting some PRDF Shinobi on 32mm rounds. This is half the squad. I had some unpainted Shinobi hanging about on 40mm and they really benefited from switch, even if I had to carve slots into the bases.
The Shinobi with the vibrorapier doesn't have a power sword effect, his sword is just painted green for camo purposes.
I'm still haven't chosen a texture paint for the bases. My old PRDF basing used a lot of painted sand and I've really come to hate painting sand, texture paint is IMHO very worth the money.
Once I finish the Shinobi I'll probably do some of the newer PRDF gears (Argos, Greyhound, Spartan) and I have a frankly unhealthy amount of striders in my 'to do' list.
2024/09/17 14:48:19
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
C'mon, DP9, I want to buy your digital stuff. Make an effort, please? Also, Gears! 28mm Gears, please!
28mm gears would be lovely for painting projects, especially if they were posable. I'd buy them pre-printed, given DP9 is already 3D printing some of their gears for sale.
2024/11/02 23:21:18
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
Nice work! I know I'm a bit late to the party but figured I'd chime in anyways. I'm always amazed when people can competently and consistently do the quartered rocket tips. At my current age and eyesight (as compared to when I started with HG back in 1994), I'm even amazed someone can simply see them clearly with the naked eye!
Dude I use a magnifying visor these days. And my rocket quartering is worse than 10 years ago.
2025/02/09 21:04:37
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
After 12 years, a new Mekong Dominion mini. This one's a Hooded Cobra. It's a variant on the King Cobra, but the original version of this gear had a different torso configuration, which matches the Python's torso. So I decided to make a conversion rather than just do a weapon swap on the King Cobra.
After 12 years I had to figure out which paints I used, because this was prior to me bluebooking my paint schemes.
2025/03/09 22:45:08
Subject: Re:[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread
