Second round of reviews

A new day has come, and today I'm going to be looking at Privateers first plastic jacks. Our three heavies. Again, thanks to Demeritus and Loveless from the PP boards for these spoilers.

The is something incredibly important that needs to be mentioned when we talk about any of our jacks, and it's their force field. Yes my friends, our jacks have a force field to help mitigate some of the damage that they are going to be taking from all the other jealous factions. The way that the force field works is that it is a separate damage grid that needs to be filled in before any damage can be applied to the actual jack's damage grid. Sounds a very interesting especially considering how our jacks are actually really squishy once you get past the field. Now the really nice thing about the force field is that it can be regenerated for a focus. As I don't have the NQ I don't know if it's either D3 or D6, but either way this greatly adds to the survivability of our jacks.

The Force Field is tied to their field generator systems (noted by a G on their damage grids). Once the generator system is down the field stops functioning. The field generator also gives our jacks access to some very unique abilities, the number one being a ranged attack.

Hydra

This jack is a Marshalls wet dream due to the fact that if this jack takes damage from ranged or melee attacks it gains a focus up to 3. From the wording it's enemy attacks so you cant pop it in the back to gain a quick 3 focus at the start of the game. The Hydra is also able to retain its focus from turn to turn, meaning that if you end a turn with 2 focus on him, he starts the next turn with 2 focus, and with the fact that he's gaining damage from attacks, you're looking at a jack that is always going to have 3 focus on him until the generator system is taken out.

For weapons it has 2 P+S 14 open fists giving it the full range of power attacks, and chain attack:smash and grab which means if the jack hits with both its initial attacks it can then perform; a throw, a double handed throw, a headbutt, a weapon lock or push. Giving this jack a lot of options when it comes to dealing with your enemy. The Hydra's ranged attack is tied to it's field generator (like all myrmidons), and is basically a ROF 1 handcannon. The nice thing is that it gains +1RNG/+1POW for each unspent focus on the jack. So with 3 focus its a really nice option. Oh, and the gun has wraith bane to take care of those annoying incorporeal running around everywhere.

The Hydra is a really nice versatile jack. While his range option isn't a powerful as some other jacks it's still a threat due to the fact that it has wraith bane on it. The biggest draw of me is that fact that you can over come a lot of the draw backs to jack marshalling due to the fact that it can generate its own focus. True your opponent can just not attack the Hydra, but then you have a P+S14 heavy running amok. Fun times for us indeed.

Manticore

I love this jack, well I love all our jacks, but where the Hydra is more of a rounded jack the Manticore is straight Beatface. He has 2 P+S 15 open fists with combo strike, so we can put out 1 P+S 20 hit, or we can burn a focus to gain +3 STR and have 2 P+S 18 open fists. Consider that most non-Khador jacks top out around 18/19 ARM, that's going to be a lot of hurt. A full focus Manticore can do 20 points on average rolls to an ARM 18 jack when boosting damage.

His ranged attack is a wraith bane ROF3 Handcannon that has a special action called covering fire that lets you place a 3" template anywhere within 12"ignoring intervening models. Anyone entering or ending their movement inside the template takes a POW 12 hit and the template lasts for a round or until the Manticore is destroyed.

I love the fact that the Manticore has a ranged attack for when you get hammered but the lock feats, such as Baldurs or Saeryns feat. It gives the jack a nice second option, but where this jack is really going to shine is going up against heavy ARM targets as it'll be able to put the hurt on pretty much anything it comes across.

Phoenix

Heavy arc node. Yes my friends, we have a heavy arc node. We have a heavy arc node that automatically replenishes D6 boxes to its force field in the maintenance phase. I'm going to say that we have one of the toughest arc nodes in the game now. The fact that it auto regens its field is amazing, and I'm assuming/hoping that we can burn a focus to pump the field back up to full.

The normal solution to an arc node is to engage it as it cant channel then, but the Phoenix gives us a solution to that problem. It can combust, yes my friends it stole the castigators move. The nice thing with it being on the Phoenix, aside from the fact that not a lot of infantry can survive a POW 12 hit, is that it'll help to clear out engaging models and free up the node.

It is also a heavy with a P+S17 reach, auto-fire, wraith baned sword and a P+S13 open fist with crit fire, so it is definitely no slob in melee and its ranged attack is just as nice. Its a RNG 10 POW 14 AOE 3 with crit fire.

This is definitely going to be my go to arc node. Yes the Phoenix is expensive points wise, but what you are going to be gaining for those points is awesome and it is hands down the best looking heavy that we have.