Review: Heavy Gear Blitz Peace River Defense Force plastic starter army.

 Alright, thought I'd dive into these guys as I got them a couple of weeks ago and have been meaning to do this since they arrived. So let's dive in with some info.

This is the new plastic starter army for the Peace River faction of Heavy Gear Blitz. This is the stuff that was funded via Kickstarter a couple years back, and I managed to get my hands on a set as PRDF is my primary faction of choice in Heavy Gear. In fact, two of their units, the Crusader IV and Red Bull Mk.2, are what really got me into Heavy Gear as a world and tabletop game.

I'm going to be making a lot of comparisons to the plastic Southern army that came out about five years back, since they are much easier direct comparisons than going against my Caprice army. For those of you who maybe have the plastic Northern models, the same basic comparisons will suffice.

Stacks and stacks of plastic!

So in this set you get 18 models: six Warriors, six Warrior IVs, three Skirmishers and three Crusaders (you can build them as either the IV or the V variant). This is a pretty hefty number of units, and gets you well more than enough to get to a standard 150 point game. Compared to the Southern box you get five more Gears (the South box comes with three drones as well, but those are hardly comparable to a full on Gear).

So really you get quite a bit of stuff, and each sprue comes with plenty of weapon options (although not all of them as you'll see) which makes this a very flexible set for, what I assume will be, $60 USD.

Let's get into the individual models, shall we?

Starting off we'll go with the Warrior. This is the standard workhorse Gear of Peace River, being fairly similar to the Northern Hunter or Southern Jager. Nothing super fancy, but Peace River does tend to have better Electronic Warfare stats than the polar armies which sets them apart gameplay wise. The Warrior isn't great at EW stuff, but can pull its weight with a slightly better EW score than its polar competition. Let's take a look at the sprue, then.

So first thing you might notice is that there are quite a few parts on this sprue. It's pretty tightly packed with bits and bobs. Three different legs, two sets of arms, two heads (one for the Chieftain command model) various weapons and so forth. You get the parts to build the aforementioned command unit, as well as weapons to build the Vanguard, Scourge and Sweeper variants (medium autocannon, light bazooka and light frag cannon, respectively). The one thing missing, in my opinion, is the option to build a Pilum variant with the light anti-tank missile. You only get the light rocket pack as far as missiles go in this. Bit of a shame, but if you have the plastic models from the North or South you should have  a few laying around to build one if you wish (which is what I'll be doing).

Now there are a ton of little parts around the edges of the sprue there, and most of those are the skirt armor that attaches to the legs along with some extra bits like extra ammo magazines and such. And this is where things get a little bonkers with these guys, the parts count per model is insane.

Pictured: insanity.

That's a single Gear. That's 20 damn parts if you put the vibro-blade on the model. The skirt armor being separate bits, the antennae on the head being separate and the new arm assembly means there is a ton of stuff to clean. I timed myself doing just prep (not assembly) of the Warrior IV I built for this and it took 11 god damn minutes. Just clipping and filing. Cleaning the skirt armor, especially, was a huge pain in the ass because they're so freaking small. I get the idea behind it, and it does lead to lots of posing options over the plastic Jager, but I'm not entirely sure that it was worth it. The Jager is ten parts in comparison. I'm not super slow when it comes to prep, but that's still daunting when I need to build more of these things.

Once built, however, the model looks quite good. The detail is real nice and sharp, and the new posing options are pretty nice. I dig the new arm assembly allowing for the swivel opens up a lot, although the ball jointing the legs didn't seem to do as much as I would have expected.

Full disclosure: I glued the butt plate on upside down, I should have checked the pictures first. The plastic assembly guide hasn't been updated yet, so I was mostly winging it.

Always double check before gluing on butt plates.

Side by side with an enemy Jager.

Moving on to the Warrior IV, this is an upgraded version of the Warrior. Same base chassis, better armor and EW equipment. The miniatures can look fairly similar, obviously, but there are some differences. The shoulder armor is different, the body is slightly different and the rocket pack is at a jaunty angle on the Warrior IV as you'll see.

The Warrior IV sprue comes with the same weapons as the Warrior, allowing you to build the same types of variants. Again, it lacks the ATM to make a Pilum variant. More crucially, though, I feel like I would have gladly sacrificed the frag cannon to get the rotary laser to make the Fusillade variant. I just think it's an overall better weapon, and it would have made this sprue feel a little more distinct from the standard Warrior. If you have the plastic kits for the South you'll have access to some as the Black Mamba sprue has one, so at least I can still build one. Still, I think that would have been a nice option to come on the sprue to start with (granted I think the Fusillade got added back into the game after these kits were already planned out, so I'm not too annoyed by it).

I will say, with the new ball joint attachment for the legs it makes trying to do a standing pose much trickier because now you have to line up more stuff. On the Southern models the legs just plugged into pre-shaped slots so it worked a little easier. I didn't intend for this guy to be walking, and he's actually not making much contact with the base. The pose looks nice and menacing, but it was a total accident.

I also think these guys may end up a little shorter than the Black Mamba, but I won't know for sure until I can get one built in a similar pose. 

On to the recon Gear of the set, the Skirmisher. These guys are small, fast, can pack a decent punch and carry all the EW equipment. Not to mention having better sensors with longer range, being able to deploy via airdrop and having the Agile trait so they're harder to hit. These guys are able to get across the battlefield quickly, paint some targets for bigger guns and dodge enemy fire all at the same time while being able to throw out some impressive firepower for a Gear their size.

The Skirmisher sprue actually gives you quite a few options as far as weapons. You can build a stock model (light rifle), the Vanguard variant (light autocannon), Sweeper (light frag cannon), Scourge (light bazooka) or the Assassin (medium rifle). You can also build it as the TAG version of all these with the included Satellite Uplink. So this is actually a pretty versatile little sprue, all things considered.

There is something to note, however. The two arms bent at a 90 degree angle are both left arms. There was some sort of screw up when the sprue was being made and instead of a left and a right we got two of the same. So that sucks a bit, but it's not the end of the world.

 First thing to note here: this thing is way more posable than it's Southern counterpart the Iguana. The Iguana is a sort of static model (at least the plastic ones), but the Skirmisher is able to bust a move like there's no tomorrow. The other thing to note is that because of the smaller size of the Gear itself, the parts are a bit smaller. What does this mean? It means those skirt plates are an even bigger pain to clean properly. If you've got something to clamp them down with that's advised. I will admit to a fair bit of swearing trying to clean parts on this guy. Also some of the connection points on the Sat Uplink are weird and were a bit tricky to get at with my files. It looks great once built, but it took more effort than I was thrilled with.

Lastly we come to the Crusader. As I mentioned, this is one of the models that got me into Heavy Gear in the first place. Something about how no frills, utilitarian and bad-ass it looks just drew me in. This is Peace River's primary fire support gear, comparable to the Southern Spitting Cobra. While it lacks some of the versatility of the Spitting Cobra (no field guns, sadly) it still packs a hell of a punch and is a beast on the battlefield. While the Crusader IV is susceptible to particle accelerators and haywire effects, the Crusader V has accounted for this weakness at the expense of a single rocket pack.

The first thing to note on the Crusader is that everything is so chunky, which was great. The size of the parts made prep way smoother, even if there are still a ton of parts. Weapon wise the Crusader doesn't come with a ton of options, but it does come with all the options it needs. You have the standard (heavy autocannon), Scourge (medium bazooka) and Demolisher (medium snub-cannon). The only visual difference between the IV and the V is that the V will only have one rocket pack while the IV has the dual set-up. The Crusader is a simple beast compared to the Spitting Cobra, but it does come with a huge screw you axe.

The arm assembly on this guy is also pretty interesting. On the Spitting Cobra the arm is two parts: the upper arm and shoulder are one piece and the lower arm and hands are another that connect at the elbow with a hinge joint there for posing. The Crusader has a three part arm assembly (four if you count the extra armor on the shoulder section) with the shoulder part, some of the upper arm and then the rest from the bicep down. This gives the arm an outward swing, plus the bicep swivel and the ball-joint connection at the shoulder proper. 

This means that without even doing any cutting or anything you get tons of posing potential out of the arms on this guy. While I did like the elbow joint on the Spitting Cobra, this does seem a better deal and opens up way more doors. Considering that I'm planning to build one of my Crusaders as a duelist this makes me real thrilled with getting it into a cool pose. Considering the Crusader doesn't come with much in the way of leg posing this is still a nice way to mix things up.

Welcome to the Big Boys Club.

As you can see, this boy is thicc. Fairly bulky compared to the Spitting Cobra. I love the way he looks when all built, even when put into a fairly static pose like I went with here the Crusader looks mean. Assembly is, obviously, the easiest on this guy due to the chunkitude of all the parts involved, and I feel like it was pretty quick going together as well. I will say, since the legs can't do much in terms of posing I sort of wish they had stuck with the old peg and slot system. Getting him to stand up properly and not be all wonky was a bit more hassle than I'd have liked. I get why these guys don't come with a running leg, but having extra options would have been nice.

The obligatory group shot.

I want to give a few assembly tips on these guys (if you want a more in depth guide let me know and I'll see what I can do).

1) Glue the butt plate on before gluing on the legs so you and ensure that everything fits together.

2) Glue the rocket packs on before gluing on the arms.

3) On the Skirmisher, if you're going to build the TAG variant make sure you glue in the head before putting on the rocket pack and Sat Uplink. It gets real crowded real fast there.

4) I suggest gluing the legs on and then the skirt armor to try and cover gaps as best you can. It may not always work, but if you do the skirt armor before gluing on the legs it can make posing a bit trickier.

So what are my overall opinions on this set? I dig them, but I'm also annoyed with them. The detail is wonderful (which was a complaint on the original plastics), the new arm system allows lots of poses and character and once built these guys look amazing. But, there are some pretty major gripes here. The ball jointed hips don't feel like they add enough in terms of posing to be worth it, the separate skirt pieces adds to the parts count and are a real bitch to clean, the Warrior and Warrior IV sprues are a bit too similar and lacking some options I'd have liked to see and the prep and assembly time per model is a bit obscene compared to how quickly my Southern stuff went together. While I'm stoked to have gotten my hands on these, and stoked that there's now a cheaper option to get started with my favorite army in the game, the frustrations do add up. I'm happy to have these, but I will say I'm dreading building the rest of the models and I certainly don't see myself opting to buy a second starter in the future.

Hope you all have enjoyed, stay safe and stay sexy.

Marvel Crisis Protocol Battle report: Ultron ultimate encounter!

Alright, so in keeping with my catching up to several weeks ago thing, I present you the second game me and Jeremy played.

This time we threw down in some Marvel Crisis Protocol, but in a twist we opted to try out one of the ultimate encounters the game does. For those unaware, these ultimate encounters are designed to be played either co-op with two players vs. an AI controlled baddie, or as three player games with one person playing the baddie. Since we just had the two of us, we teamed up to take on Ultron is his ultimate encounter.

So full disclosure before I get into this: we cocked up. We're two college educated adults with some two plus decades of gaming experience between us, and we can't read at a third grade level it would seem. See, the encounter is supposed to work like so: we activate three characters, Ultron goes, we do another three characters, Ultron goes and then we do another three and Ultron takes his last activation of the turn. For the first half of the game, at least, us two dumbasses played it as we activate a character, and then Ultron goes until we've activated three characters and end of turn. So we probably made the first half of the game way harder than it needed to be. So yeah: we cocked up.

Anywho, our teams! We ran 17 points, I brought Hawkeye, Hela, Black Panther and Vision. Jeremy ran Star Lord, Gamora, Nebula, Rocket Racoon and Ronan.

Jeremy's Crisis Team

My hodgepodge of "I like that character"

So we deployed on one side of the table, near two of the doomsday devices that Ultron was trying to activate and spreading out to cover as much ground as we could. Ultron deployed on the other side, as one might guess, and the stage was set.

Crisis Teams deployed and ready for action

We started moving up, trying to find the terrified civilians to keep Ultron from ganking them and scoring early victory points. Sadly, due to our ineptitude in the world of reading basic English, Ultron started moving up too, and quickly activated two of the doomsday devices. So now he was rolling a healthy number of dice each round to determine what he was going to do, and it ended up being bad for us. 

Gamora and Hawkeye were both able to find civilians pretty early on, and Gamora was able to rush up to the center and get hers to safety. Hawkeye wasn't quite so fortunate.

Hawkeye has a civilian, and a heap of trouble

Ultron quickly moved up the board, more or less ignoring the rest of the heroes to bum-rush Hawkeye and try to take out the civilian he was escorting. Due to how we played early we didn't move enough heroes up to screen for Hawkeye and so he earned Ultron's ire pretty quickly. Sadly this ended up resulting in Hawkeye taking a lot of damage pretty early on.

Insert witty quip about fighting robots with a bow here

So with Hawkeye getting pummeled without mercy, the rest of the team needed to move up and try and draw Ultron's attention. Hawkeye was able to get away, eventually, but lost his civilian in the process. Hela moved up and grabbed a civilian (because that's not terrifying or anything), but was quickly lost it to Ultron's devious plans. So we decided that the heroes on Jeremy's side of the table would start grabbing civilians if they could (when Ultron wasn't blowing up all the terrain they were hiding in) and everyone else would go on the offensive.

Hela moves in to lay some hurt on Ultron and draw his attention.

This actually worked fairly well for a bit, and we were able to put an impressive amount of damage on Ultron and stun him a couple of times fairly quickly. But he was still rolling tons of dice because of those doomsday devices. Hakweye, now having excused himself from the festivities, was sitting on a stockpile of power tokens and was able to use his hook arrow to move about quickly and turn off both doomsday devices. Gamora and Star Lord continued searching for civilians, Vision moved to engage Ultron as did Black Panther and Ronan. Nebula took a lot of damage from Ultron's rolls and was in bad shape. Rocket, on the other hand, basically hadn't moved yet.

Hawkeye pulling his weight in the backfield

With Ultron's devices all off, we went on a total offensive. Nebula moved up and began the attack, dealing some damage to the raging robot. Black Panther was able to use his speed to quickly get into the fray and start tossing dice, but Ultron was getting some good defense rolls and was really putting up a fight.

The King moves in to lay down the pain

After a slew of attacks (and us finally realizing how the damn rules worked) Ultron was on the ropes. He was still hanging on, though, and we couldn't have that. Nebula was taken out of action, followed soon by Gamora. Ronan, as it turns out, would avenge them in spades as he moved up and used his Kree Justice power to bring the pain in a serious way. Through a stunning failure of his defense rolls, and Jeremy rolling better than I've ever seen him do before, Ronan managed to score eight hits on Ultron! He was practically dead, only needing to be stunned one more time for us to win the game.

There's no justice like Kree Justice

We continued on the attack, Ronan hitting again with Vision coming in to assist and take Ultron down a few pegs. Finding himself surrounded Ultron had all the squishy fools he could ever want (and one robot) to beat on. He thrashed out and did some damage, but not enough to pose a real threat in the moment. Then Hela, the bad-ass she is, moved in for the kill. Using the obscene amount of power tokens she had accumulated (for real, she had like 17 or something) and her three lost souls tokens she was able to unleash a devastating attack that, despite his best efforts, Ultron could not stop. And so the machine fell, and the heroes won the day.

Hela stands triumphant!

All in all, despite our best efforts to fail at reading, the game was damn fun. We figured it'd probably be better with a third person controlling Ultron, since we were able to, eventually, just sort of pen him in and manipulate the AI into not chasing down the heroes rescuing the civilians. It was still a good time, and we're anxious to try the Thanos encounter at some point down the road. This is a really cool feature that Atomic Mass have put into the game, and allows for a fun alternative to just constantly fighting each other.

I hope you've enjoyed this, and I apologize for not covering every move as I'm running on two week old memory at this point. I look forward to playing some more in the future, and bringing it to you guys.