By John Bishop

Hello all. I am just another player with an opinion. So, take everything I say with a grain of salt.

I’ve decided to take a stab at model reviews. I remember reading the Duck Brother’s model reviews many years ago now. I found them helpful for wrapping my head around where those models could fit into my own force. And not all the information is subjective. Those reviews were very robust. I got a lot from them.

Vehicle Rarity

The world of Heavy Gear is full of various factions and powers but what can often be forgotten is that many of those are themselves coalitions of smaller entities. The “North” is a full confederation of 3 leagues of city states for example. Each of those leagues has their own military as well as the Northern Guard and smaller independent reserve or militia units. Within that web of members, different companies produce combat vehicles and sell to those members. However not all members have equal access to all vehicles produced by all companies. Each member would have an easier time buying from local companies for example. This disparity has not truly been modeled in either the RPG or Blitz previously until now.

Rockets rained down out of the night sky.

Smoky contrails ending in staccato impacts sent shrapnel and debris flying. Men were knocked off their feet. Secondary explosions filled the firebase with orange light from fires.

Already the base alarm was sounding.

Outgoing counterbattery could be heard as the base responded to this new and sudden threat. Mortars thumped in the night from inside the firebase.

HACS-01MG-N Night Hunter

The Hunter has probably the most variants available for a walker combat chassis. Its built-in simplicity make modifications easy, and limited production runs of extremely specialized vehicles are often made by Northco’s sub-contractors. The N-type Hunter, also called Night Hunter by field personnel, is one such specialized unit. It is a night fighting Gear designed by the Northern Guards’ technical arm to answer the field commanders’ requirements. Night fighting is different from daytime combat, not only because of the absence of light (easily remedied by low-light and IR optics) but because the silence and cooler temperatures make it easier to spot a moving vehicle. The Gear was produced in limited quantities in TN 1846 and TN 1897 by Northco at their Fieldstrome facilities near Valeria. The Fieldstrome Manufacturing Compound is not a full production chain; rather, it receives nearly-complete Hunters from the local Northco factory and installs the required specialized systems for whatever variant they happen to be building at the time.

The same Golem technology that Eden employs has long been used on Utopia, though the Utopians took the suits down a different technological development path. The Utopians called their technological adaptations APES (Augmented Personal Environmental Suits) and they were prominent in the Horseman Wars that ravaged Utopia after the nuclear apocalypse. The Utopian forces still utilize troupes APES on the front line alongside automaton formations. Fundamentally the Trooper and Support APES are the same core machines as an Edenite constable and man at arms golems. However, during the opening weeks of the War for Terra Nova, Utopian APES units are much more advanced than their Edenite counterparts. This is mostly due to the higher standards of maintenance and availability of parts and support personnel. Most APES feature some sort of wave dye technology in their suits and can change camouflage at will and baffle most typical sensors. Some units even have access to second generation wave dyes that generate a near invisibility by projecting the images around them rather than camouflage schemes. Troupes of such APES are commonly deployed via aerial insertion as raiders and paratroopers. Their primary role is to disrupt Terranovan defenders and deal with troublesome targets via pinpoint strikes. These units were very successful and the CEF requested that Utopia help bring some Edenite units up to the same standard of equipment. The Edenite version of these units is more of a raider and marauder.

OWCS-01AQ Sea Naga

The Sea Naga is a low-production, very specialized aquatic variant of the standard Naga chassis designed to operate in wetland and swamp terrains. To this end, the vehicle receives extensive modifications to its hull and motive systems, and though it is still readily recognizable as a Naga strider, none would mistake its unusual capabilities. The two most obvious differences are the replacement of the ground movement system with caterpillar underwater drive units and the streamlining of the shoulder-mounted missile pods. The former modification, coupled with the installation of hidden ballasts within the hull, allows the vehicle limited under water mobility. The latter gives the Sea Naga two shoulder-mounted vertical launch bins for subroc guided missiles. For maximum impact during ambushes, a pressured-air system launch the heavy missiles to the surface where their normal jets take over, allowing the Sea Naga to fire without leaving its watery hiding place. Another, more subtle modification is the replacement of the forward autocannon by a Grendel-XVI microtorpedeo launcher, whose warheads are quite capable of cracking any civilian grade hulls. Although the Grendel is mounted on the Naga autocannon hardpoint, the length of its main tube and feed cables hobbles its rotation and restricts its arc of fire to a safe 20° cone in front of the vehicle.

HACS-04HG-HC Iron Tusk Razorback

While the Peacemaker Razorback variant was designed to make up for the weaknesses of the standard Razorback design, the Iron Tusk Razorback was built upon its established strengths. The Iron Tusk was designed to remain a frightening heavy assault vehicle, but its targets of choice changed from heavy armor to massed medium armor and infantry. The Paxton snub cannon, a devastating short-range and direct-fire weapon perfect for leveling tanks, was replaced by a two-handed Riley RG-624 grenade rifle for taking medium and heavy Gears apart. The indirect-fire and automatic fire capabilities of the RG-624 made it a devastating weapon against Gear formations. The standard Forge 71mm rocket pod was replaced by twin Forge 55mm pods which, although featuring lighter warheads, featured a greater rate of fire and ammunition loads permitting the Iron Tusk to deal torrential showers of light rockets to smaller opponents. The anti-personnel capabilities of the standard Razorback, already considered excellent, were further improved by the addition of a 50mm Northco Weapons MR-3 anti-infantry mortar unit. All told, the Iron Tusk was well suited for smashing apart the rapid-deployment enemy formations that threatened the border regions of the North in the TN 1800s.