GenCon Dust Warfare News!

So Gencon is behind us and as always it brought with it all kinds of awesome news. This is me posting about the stuff I found exciting of course, so it's by no means a summary of all the stuff at the con. In fact I haven't followed Gencon as closely as I would have wanted so this is mostly about new stuff for games I already like. Hehe!

So, lets start with Dust Warfare (or Tactics for those of that persuasion). FFG showed a bunch of new stuff coming for the SSU and the Axis. There were also a one new unit for the Allies as well, so I can understand people playing the allies felt a bit dissapointed. By now most of this stuff has been announced on the FFG homepage, but I'll have a look at it anyway.

First off we have two new tanks for the SSU and they are big and juicy! The SSU is the least advanced faction technologically so they are the only ones that still use tanks. While I would love to see some big stompy Soviet walker akin to the Dotch Yaga of AT-43 tanks are pretty cool to. I especially like the visual impact of having a tank as it ties the game further into WWII roots. The tanks look kind of like a mix between the the venerable T-34 and its later cousin the T-55.

The Lavrentiy Beria seems to be pretty traditional tank with a regular huge old gun! 

I'm guessing it'll be similar to the Königsluther in performance.

The Karl Marx features a Tesla cannon which is something only the SSU have. No idea about how it will perform but according to the FFG blurb it'll kill infantry and armoured vehicles equally well. Woo!

Then we have the first heavy walkers for the SSU. Now, as I mentioned the SSU are lagging behind when it comes to technology (focusing on creating super-humans instead) so these heavy walkers are retro-fitted and/or retro-engineered German walkers. The first one, Babushka, has two gatling guns and two machine guns and I'm guessing it'll mowe through infantry and perhaps aircraft as well. It does bother me a bit that they call it Babusha... that's Koshka's walker! 

Then we have the Matrioshka which basically seems like a production line variant of the Fury of Ivan that we've seen at Dust Models. Both of these are great looking models, but I can't help be a little dissapointed to just see mods of the Axis walker. Oh well...  I'll get some for sure.

Then we have the Axis models!

Now, these are interesting! I've been wondering if we would see some kind of infantry heavy weapons for Dust and here they are: the PaK 7.5 cm! These are three man units but since they are all on the same race with three hit-points there is no degradation of the unit's attack value as it gets damaged. Good stuff. 

 Here's the laser-grenadier version which seem to be carrying a heavy laser cannon of some kind. Looking forward to seeing SSU and allied version of these guys. Wouldn't mind some more traditional looking field cannons.

Then we have the two Axis heavy (super-heavy?) transport walkers. I really like these guys! Again, they pull more of the real WWII technology into the Dust universe. Both seem to be open to the back so I wonder if there will be rules for the passengers firing out of the vehicle. This one looks the lighter armed version with a small caliber cannon or something similar. 

This version has some heavier armament but still nothing too impressive. 

Something to decimate infantry and perhaps aircraft I guess. 

 Here we have this prototype for the first Axis jetfighter. It's a neat looking model but not what I had expected. I thought we would see something like the Messerschmitt ME 262, but then again it's similar to the  E 555 series that never got built.

However, what it really reminded me of was the Hummel from Maschinen Krieger line of models. Similar in overall shape and both have rocket nozzles underneath as well as landing skids instead of wheels (optional on the Hummel). Have a look:

It's obvious that Maschinen Krieger has been an inspiration for Paolo Parente and there's nothing wrong with it. Sometimes I'm just surprised at how very similar they are. Just take a look at the Ma.K Gans walker and you can see how similar it is to the medium Allied walker, the legs/feet are practically identical. Oh well, as long as we get more cool looking mechs!

Finally we get a little bit of news for the Allies! It's a squad of Armor 3 soldiers that can be built either as French Foreign Legion or British Commandos. They look pretty cool with their little phaser submachine guns and bare arms. Definitely some Gears of War COGs going on here. Hehe!

I was actually going to put all the neat stuff I saw at Gencon in this post but it's starting to get long so I'll simply let it be about Dust Warfare. The next part will likely be more space themed...