#new box

It was my birthday last week and I still had my Essentials coupon so I decided to treat myself. Historically I have not been hot on many Davion mechs (with a few exceptions we'll get to later) but there's some pretty cool stuff in here. All of the models are straight out of the box with no mold lines removed so what you see is what you get

Starting off the pack we have our first Inner Sphere omnimech in plastic and a generally pretty OK fire mech- the Templar. 85 tons with maximum speed and armor for its weight, an XLFE and standard armor give it a truly comical 40 tons of pod space that the TLR1-O spends on being a really jumped up version of the Battlemaster with a Gauss rifle backed up by an Streak SRM-4 and a whole pile of close range lasers slaved to a targetting computer. It's a fine medium range brawler with a head chopper and accuracy. The sculpt does a good job or translating the old art and I love the cruciform shoulder plates

Next we have the Thanatos. A 75 ton heavy cavalry mech with 85kph top speed and 150 meter jump capacity that matches the Thor or Wolverine. This thing has one very specific job it wants to be doing, which is being the Slack Brawler in a C3 net. Most often C3 networks have fast, light scouting elements to go find 'good trouble' and provide direct fire targetting data to their friends in the network and slower fire support elements that hang back and make use of the shift in ranging brackets while staying out of the fight. The Thanatos acts in a similar role to the Kurita-produced Grasshoppers and straddles those two positions, trailing the scouts and engaging with medium-range guns before taking over as the front element of the network when the scputs are destroyed. To that end the Thanatos is pretty OK at its job, carrying a pile of ER lasers and an MRM-20 to start the beatdown early and a Guardian ECM system to counterjam enemy E-War units. I'm a big fan of the Clan-esque arms, hinting at its history as an early failed omni project, but the posing is a little static for a cav mech like this.

Next up we have a semi-longtime favorite of mine and certified weird-ass mech, the Falconer. This is what happens when the Steiner-Davion industrial complex is given the GDP of an entire planet and told to beat the Summoner at its own game. Another 5/8/5 75 tonner like the Thanatos, the Falconer forgoes armor for a truly pretty fearsome long range punch and goes all in on being a skirmisher. A gauss rifle and ERPPC that can and will be wherever you wish is real nasty and the one alternate config transitions into something arguably slightly spookier with an LBX-10 AC and heavy PPC for a cheaper BV, maintaining the head chopper but adding on the modality of the AC in trade. I love the way they modernized the old, awful design with the weird triple-jointed legs and the comically long body- it looks like someone tried to put a marauder together coming down off of a big psychedelic trip. Again, posing is too static for what this wants to do, which is backflips into the enemy's rear arc

Finally, some motion! The Thunderbolt 9NAIS is the only reprint mech in this set and has the decency of being pretty damn different from the two previous sculpts the mech recieved in both looks and capabilities. Yet another heavy with an 85kph top speed (albeit without jump jets, gee the fedsuns sure like their heavy cav), the 9NAIS is a well put together striker. The armor is lower than the succession wars variants and an XL fusion engine combined with a mammoth 4 ton ammo bay mean you really do not want to play this like a normal Thud, but it also caries 3 ER medium lasers and a RAC/5 slaved to a targetting computer, as well as a Streak SRM-6 got explointing the holes the rest of this crap punches in people. Combine with the guardian unit and you want to treat this as a mobile support unit, slinking around a bit back from the front to take potshots with its direct fire guns while screening out artemis/enemy C3. The sculpt is largely similar to the existing minis with the alters weapons and a new running pose. I actually really like the project phoenix canopy they included with this.