FSA New Aerial Box

[Last Rites]

OK so not part of the 1.1 Aerial Support box, but still flying...that new FSA HVY Bomber looks amazing!



Here's a link if you haven' seen it. http://element270.wordpress.com/2014/08/14/federated-states-of-america-heavy-bomber/

From just the look of the model there will be rockets, and what appears to be a Kinetic gen in the tail section!! Cant see any other guns which is rather disappointing, bombs aside of course. Perhaps with the K Gen on the back, they are also fairly decent boarders...


My next question is ARE THOSE HEAT LANCES on the EotBS HVY Bomber??! 



Some links to the other Bombers:
EotBS http://element270.wordpress.com/2014/08/22/eotbs-heavy-bomber-revealed/
KoB http://element270.wordpress.com/2014/08/18/the-halifax-heavy-bomber-kob/
Prussian http://element270.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/heavy-bombers/

[Sanguinary Dan]

They are rocket pods.  We French have no intent on sharing the Heat Lance. 

[Landlubber]

Haaaaa!

Anyone heard anything about a release date for these models?

[Last Rites]

Not sure but would love to know, as well!

[CDR-G]

My guess is those are not rockets, but bombs, really big bombs. And not much else- little AA guns.
So probably two Bomb bays with 9 AD each, maybe more- otherwise, just use a a Valley.

[Landlubber]

I'm guessing these heavy bombers will likely run as a squadron of one?  Would be cool to see one lumbering along with a few Freedom robots flying as escorts!

[Ruckdog]

It's hard to say...but I'm thinking these will still end up being classified as Mediums, which means we will probably see a squadron size of 2 or 3. While these are big planes, they are still a lot smaller than the large air ships (based on the size of the cockpits and weapons on those renders).

[Landlubber]

 If that's the case, we're starting to get a lot of medium flyer choices. For the FSA, we already have the Lee, the A-17, the PYB-2, and the John Henry.  Not that I'm complaining, however!

[Ruckdog]

That's true, though I think the FSA is the only faction to have seen that many medium flyers (off the top of my head). My guess is that these will be the flying equivalent of the battlecruisers, in the way that the A-17 is the flying equivalent of a cruiser (in terms of rough points cost and effectiveness). So yeah, I'm going with Medium Capital Flying on these .

[Ruckdog]

Been a while since we've heard anything about these guys...looks like Spartan has been mostly focused on Planetfall the last couple of months! I'm hoping we see them before Christmas.

[Last Rites]

Well the stats are out or the next level of bombers, and there is another dent in my wallet (if only to paint them up). Looked at the stats earlier this morning so i could be off on this, but appears they are only squadron size (1). This would normally be a poor option when using rockets, but each model has two hefty batteries of them at 7/8/9 each. POW! That's pretty impressive! Also those rockets are considered Piercing, which can make them all the more fun. DR is a solid (6) with 6 HP as well for longevity. Moving at 10" this bomber should really be able to get on top and cause some serious damage. FSA air power got a wonderful boost in these models IMO! Oh and they are Spotter expert, which is a good synergy with the faction and the HVY Destroyers also in the box.

Another thing i noticed was that the carriers both got a little cheaper. Are cheap and plentiful carriers + air power going to be the FSA's stand out against other nations?

[Landlubber]

It's interesting. The B-72 seems to be a less expensive, stripped-down version of the Valley. A bit faster, true, but the rocket armament is the same. Bombs are stronger (nine for the bomber vs six for the airship); no broadsides for the bomber, of course. I'm a little disappointed that it's only a squadron of one. Being a heavy bomber, I was hoping for a squadron of two. Piercing munitions for the rockets will certainly help.

Spartan seems to be releasing models for the core seven nations to fill every possible play style. Lots of models filling in the "gaps" in armament and capabilities.

I like the stats on the heavy destroyer, and I think that's the first FSA model to get the "high angle" MAR.

Agreed on the aesthetic. I love the look of the Avion strike bombers, and the B-72 seems to be a much larger version of that.

I haven't taken the time to do a line-by-line comparison of the rest of the stats, but I guess I'll have to do that at some point. 

[Quickdraw]

All of the heavy bombers run in squadrons of 1 with SAW support. It's an interesting choice but honestly a pair of them would be seriously powerful.
You'll have to go through the stats with a fine tooth comb. The French and Russians both changed, nothing incredibly drastic but I missed some stuff on first perusal. Some of the changes were a bit odd though, I didn't have a copy of the FSA stats downloaded do I couldn't compare.

Also, I think the FSA gunships had high angle before this update.

[Landlubber]

Hmm, maybe they did...mine just never survived long enough to get close enough to any flyers to use it. 

[CDR-G]

Wow, I Love the FSA gunships! One of the best models out there, 3 were scary as hell., shields(2) or kinetic generator, rockets and IDF so back to 2/sq.
They are a target, but fast enough to hide and use IDF.