Info Up For the Rest of the New Operation Icarus Units!!

By Kriegschatten, in Dust Tactics

Wow, looks like there was a big update at Paolo's site today! And we now have stats for the rest of units announced in Operation Icarus!

As expected, the Allied planes cost a bit more than the Axis ones and are a bit better armed. Still, they will have to get pretty lucky to take out a Horten or an SSU helicopter in a single attack, which means that the SSU Striker is still the king of dog fighting (which seems kind of ironic…).

Since both planes have VERY limited ammo, it seems like you're really going to want to have a unit of corps officers in your Allied army so you can reload. Which could make for a bit of a dilemma if you're also fond of fielding a Steel Rain.

I have to say, though, I'm not really seeing a reason to take the Diving Dotty over the Bellowing Bertie. In many situations, the Bertie is going to do as much or more damage than the Dotty, and having the extra range that the Bertie's rockets give would seem to be hard to pass up.

The other allied units which had stats revealed today were the three new heavy walkers. Frankly, these guys will probably never see any playtime on my table. The main problem is that they take up four squares, making them impossible to use in most published scenarios and (perhaps worse) in tournaments. Combine their difficult-to-hide bulk with (relatively) weak armor, low health, and fairly high AP cost, and you can pretty much expect them to be a pile of scrap at the end of turn two.

The biggest "WTF?" moment, though, comes when you realize that the crappily armed Mobile HQ has the Air Alert skill but the Skysweeper (you know, the DEDICATED ANTI-AIR UNIT?) does not.

On the SSU side, things don't seem much better. Let's start with our first Armor 2 vehicles…which cost more than Armor 3 vehicles?! Sure, the Red Fury and Red Rain have some pretty good weaponry, and they would have seemed pretty awesome back in 2011, but this is 2013 and we've got aircraft prowling the skies now. A Fledermaus III will just shred either of these units in a single round. And you really don't want to think about what would happen should a unit of Heavy Flak Grenadiers get the drop on them…

If you were hoping that the new multiple-comrades-on-a-base type 2 infantry would be better than the Armor 2 vehicles…well, you're probably going to be disappointed. The Hailstorm mortar team isn't terrible, but it's hard not to look at the Allied Leathernecks and wonder why you have to pay 6 more points for the SSU team. (Okay, you're paying 6 more points because the SSU team is armor 2 instead of armor 1, but do you really care how well your indirect fire team is armored? Let's face it, they're going to be sitting behind a rock somewhere for the whole game.)

The Red Lightning might be a little better. The range 6 tesla gun they carry could be devastating if you can catch multiple enemy units in its path. With only armor 2 and three health, this is a pretty fragile unit, though.

Other than the new Allied aircraft, I can't say I'm too impressed with the new units.

But maybe that's not such a bad thing. When I saw the stats of the Allied planes, I was beginning to get worried that all of new units were going to be so good as to make various older units obsolete. It's nice to see that was more the exception than the rule.

I have to agree on the Allied "Heavy" Walker, there is nothing heavy about it except its size. Armor 5 with six health??? I think having 4 leatherneck can do more damage than one artillery walker.

Was thinking about getting the command vehicle version of the Allied heavy, but it costs too much and offers not enough - at least, comparing it to the Axis counterpart.

Will do without.

Also, colour me unimpressed with the whole aircraft side of the game SSU, Axis or Allies. The Fledermaus looks good, and that's it.

golem101 said:

Also, colour me unimpressed with the whole aircraft side of the game SSU, Axis or Allies. The Fledermaus looks good, and that's it.

What don't you like about the Allied planes? Is it because they take up 2 squares?

I agree that's a little annoying, but I don't think it will hurt their usefulness that much…

Kriegschatten said:

What don't you like about the Allied planes? Is it because they take up 2 squares?

I agree that's a little annoying, but I don't think it will hurt their usefulness that much…

I don't really like the whole rules section for aircraft; too much suspension of disbelief gone to the wind (pun not intended) when it comes to shooting at/shooting from aircraft*, once again units becoming obsolete when comparing stat lines (same reason behind my refusal to field Heavy Laser Grenadiers and that 3 men squad),

I play for fun and giggles, not with a competitive mindset (even if aiming for victory), so an unoptimized army list doesn't really bother me - heck, I play with an Axis force that includes an Hans and a Loth!

Finally, the Allies airplanes suffer from the same Fisher-Price syndrome of the SSU helis: looks too much like a child's toy rather than a military vehicle. Yes, I know about those weird '50s prototypes.

So, while I can't really say much about the "stat numbers" of the unit, I won't use it even if it performs well enough: I simply don't like it, gut feelings onward.

* the 6 squares ruling is the main culprit, but not the only one.