Monday, April 26, 2010

Batteries Not Included

Adding Gun Drones to my XV8 squads has now pretty much become standard. 5 points cheaper than a Shield Drone and with an actual gun (hence the name) I now choose them over shields for my XV8 Crisis Suits. While Shield Drones are still the only choice for my Broadsides (who can turn down a 15 point, T4 2+/4+ wound?), Shield Drones don't seem worth it for my XV8s. Don't get me wrong, I love Shield Drones and I'm not saying they suck, it's just that I prefer to pump out two more shots than spend extra points on Shields.

Those pictured above were inspired by some of Shas'El Taels work and the film Batteries Not Included which I loved as a kid. That reminds me, I think it's time for me to make a Crisis Suit based on Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. Haha!

Honestly though, I am really happy with the way that Crisis Suit turned out. His pose conveys a stoic mechanical power, the likes of which you'd see in the Battlesuit from District 9. The hands are from a Space Wolf Powerfist if you are wondering. Other bits are pretty obvious I would say...if you can't guess, just ask.

Hopefully I will have these up before Battle for Blobs Park. 

8 comments:

Microgod said...

That pose of the suit it nice. It's difficult to get dynamic poses with the restrictions in the suits. The modified Drones are also a cool addition. Might use them as inspiration for my next wave of drones. any chance of letting us know what bitz you have used :)

Martin said...

Cool.
I've been using a unit of 6-8 Gun drones basically as filler depending on how many points are left over, but it definitely makes sense to attach some of them to suits that are going to DS into close quarters anyway.
If I took out that squad completely it'd also reduce the killpoint footprint.

Kyohei said...

Great work!

I also run my suits with gun drones instead of shield drones. The extra shooting has helped me out more than once.

What are the bits used on either side of the head? I cant recognize them.

Tim said...

The bits underneath are from a Crisis Suit Head and Chaos Vehicle Smoke Launchers.

Dhinanta Aloke said...

You know, the first thing I thought of when I saw the Thunderfire Cannon was Johnny 5. Well, the Thunderfire Cannon with the Crisis Suit head. Something about the face made me think about it.

DO EEET!

I agree whole heatedly with the Gun Drones on XV8s. They tend to perform very similarly to the shield drones for much less the cost.

I love you XV8 poses by the way. They're always juuusst right.

Sholto said...

I usually play with Shield Drones in preference to the other options, but you make some good points. I'll give them a try with Crisis Suits.

I like the conversions.

(PS. you need to markerspam the comment above this one)

suneokun said...

I never use shield drones (except on Broadsides)... the simple fact is that majority toughness and majority saving throw trumps 4++ invulnerable everytime.

There simply aren't enough AP3 ignore cover weapons out there. The banewolf, the BloodAngels Predator Flamer and the Landraider with Flamers are pretty much it. Most of these are template weapons.

The guard have got a couple of dirty ones... but few that kill 3+ AND ignore cover AND have range...

Therefore gundrones rule. Shield and gundrones mock lascannon shots and 'bulk up' relatively brittle squads (like Stealth teams) with a viable model.

Unlike Shield drones ... they actually do something! And unlike vehicle base drones ... they don't give away killpoints!

I always like to bring 5-10 drones in a 1500pt army. As wargear they are hard to beat.

MFerek said...

@suneokun
I thought that with the current wound allocation, you don't just take the majority saving throw and apply it to everyone. You take the majority toughness for calculating the wounds roll, but once you allocate the wounds to the squad, the gun drones have to stick with their 4+ save rather than taking the suits' 3+ save.