Hawk Wargames Newsletter – Previews Round-Up

I'd like to take the opportunity here to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year from the Hawk Wargames team. It's been a fantastic and jam packed year here for us at HQ and we have many more exciting things to come in 2014! We'd also like to say a big thank you to all those who have supported us and to all those who have helped us to continue to grow the Dropzone Commander community!

We hope you all enjoyed our previews advent calendar! We've been reading all your comments and have decided it would be best to answer many of them in a summary newsletter, detailing more information on all these exiting releases for Q1 of the new year! As usual, shots of the real miniatures, along with full background, information and rules will be available to download as the models become available to pre-order.

The Katana is built upon a lighter, nimbler version of the more common Sabre-type chassis. In a further effort to save weight, UCM military engineers have also adopted a less power-hungry weapon system; a twin high-velocity cannon. This armament has a superior rate of fire to the more common railgun, although it does not have quite the same punch or range.

The Fireblade is based on the same chassis as the Katana and features the same increased speed as its sister. Unlike the Katata, the Fireblade has a very specific battlefield role; to expunge enemy infantry from structures with its formidable flamethrower!

The Eagle is essentially a weaponised variant of the condor which sacrifices its transport capacity in favour of devastating firepower. The Eagle packs a pair of heavy railguns as well as two independently targeting multi-rocket pods. This allows the Eagle to lay waste to virtually anything on the ground!

The Tarantula is a smaller, more agile version of the towering Warstriders. Battle Striders feature anti-grav assistors and clamps on their legs and feet, allowing them to climb sheer surfaces to attack from above!

The Tarantula's primary armament is the highly advanced Gravatic Magnifier, a weapon which delivers crushing fore to anything with mass. The larger and heavier the target, the more devastating this weapon becomes! By its very nature, it is also effective against skimmers.

It is also armed with a nose mounted micro-laser, a small but deadly accurate weapon well suited to destroying lightly armoured targets from great distances.

The Birdeater is an anti-air variant of the Tarantula, armed with the familiar and lethal twin ion-cannon. It often employs its climbing abilities to gain a commanding view of the battlefield - a highly useful ability for an anti-air unit! Since it is less agile than the Kukri, it is better suited to more static defensive roles, where its superior survivability makes it a favourite of the Shaltari Warchiefs who favour heavier units.

The Caiman is truly formidable battlefield predator whose agility belies its massive size. Its primary armament is the Gauss Triad, a weapon designed to reliably cut through heavy armour at long range. It is also armed with a pair of micro-lasers on traversable turrets. Although less well armoured than Warstriders of equivalent size, the Caiman's agility can be used to deadly effect by the more subtle of Shaltari Warchiefs.

The Stalker is a highly aggressive frontline tank hunter unit, designed to deliver crippling damage to the heaviest armoured units at close range using its frighteningly powerful eletro-web caster. It fulfils a role similar to the smaller Prowler, although the Stalker is more suited to direct, frontline assaults where its much heavier armour lends it greater survivability.

The Ravager is a flexible anti-air unit, usually employed by the Scourge when long term air defence is needed. As a walker, it has much lower power consumption than the more aggressive Reaper skimmer and is often employed by Scourge occupation garrisons on conquered worlds. Coupled with greater survivability and independently targeting weapons, this makes the Ravager an excellent choice for vanguard defence.

The Harbinger is a large dropship which features heavier armour than the more common Marauder type and is designed primarily for frontal assaults. The Harbinger is often equipped with plasma bombs - devastating freefall weapons which can be deployed from its tail proboscis. It can also be upgraded to carry a small arc caster, allowing it to assist in the decimation of enemy fliers around the Dropzone. The Harbinger is employed primarily to deploy Stalker and Ravager walkers, although it has been seen delivering other horrors direct to the thickest of the fighting...

The Helios is a high speed attack unit, designed primarily to hunt down enemy aircraft. While somewhat less manoeuvrable than the true skimmers employed by the Shaltari and the Scourge, it can still use its speed to great effect in battle. It is armed only with the RXs-5 'Galaxy' multi-rocket launcher. For what this weapon lacks in power, it more than makes up for in terrific rate of fire, where the sheer quantity of shape charge munitions can even pose a threat to enemy armour.

The Angelos is a multi-role fast strike vehicle. It is armed with a single RXs-120 smoothbore heavy cannon (the same weapon employed by the Enyo). Coupled with the Angelos' speed and advanced targeting systems, this can be used in both the anti-structure and anti-armour roles. The Angelos also features a limited transport capacity, allowing it to drop small strike teams of infantry if required.

The Mercury is an unusual battlefield unit, in that it is totally unarmed. Instead, it carries a highly advanced full spectrum sensor package. This is sufficiently advanced to scan structures to assist ground troops in objective and intel searches as well as normal scout functions. The Mercury is normally carried into battle by the Triton Strike Dropship, which can also be armed with a pair of heavy anti-armour missiles designed to work in tandem with the Mercury's sensor package. This transforms the Triton into a capable anti-armour gunship once it has delivered its pair of Drones to the frontline.

This is the largest miniature that we have developed so far (by quite a large margin!) It is a massive directed energy weapon normally employed to engage enemy spacecraft and dropship armadas from very long range. It is unwieldy as a tactical, battlefield weapon due to its slow speed of traverse and constrained mount. It is an almost ancient design by UCM standards, and has been in service since before the Scourge invasion. As such, it is a common sight on both Cradle World and UCM military instillations.

This will be the centrepiece of our upcoming line of Scenario Packs!

Here is a general summary for the expected release dates for all these new and exciting releases (precise dates to follow in the new year):

January:
1) UCM Katana Light Tank
2) Shaltari Tarantula Battle Strider
3) PHR Angelos Jetskimmer

February:
1) UCM Eagle Heavy Gunship
2) Shaltari Caiman Heavy Grav-Tank
3) Scourge Stalker
4) Scourge Harbinger Assault Dropship
5) PHR Mercury Scout Drone
6) Monorail Scenario Pack

March:
1) UCM Fireblade Light Tank
2) Shaltari Birdeater Battle Strider
3) Scourge Ravager
4) PHR Helios Jetskimmer
5) Orbital Defence Laser Scenario Pack

Tickets are selling fast for our upcoming official 2 day Dropzone Commander tournament - there's still space at the venue to expand, but be sure to grab your ticket in time! The Hawk Wargames Open Day is also attached to the tournament and is free to attend. There you will be able to view all of these new models, meet the team and grab anything you need to expand your collection.

If you're interested in attending, more information is available here