State of Blues 01 - After the Stormwall...

...comes the Hurricane?

Like Marth, I was kinda underwhelmed by the revelation (ba-dum-dish) of the second wave of colossals hitting us before the next Prime. Sure, the first wave had already subsided and left a sour taste in some faction's mouth's, but there should have been at least another year before bringing them up.



I'll assume all of you have watched the keynote by now, so I'll do as Marth did and go through the statements one at a time.

"It's intended to emphazise more storm technology, the generation of wind, of voltaic energy and projecting it onto the battlefield rather than simply serving as a weapons platform for a variety of big guns." - Douglas Seacat

Alright, am I having the wrong card? My Stormwall only has one set of identical "Big Guns" and is not a "weapons platform"... okay, I am being cynical here, we all know what he meant. But emphasizing more stormtech? That worked pretty well so far, for whenever I am at a tournament, I see Stormnouns, Stormsmiths, Stormtowers, Stormstriders, Fireflies in every Cygnar list... and that was me being sarcastic, but I have to say that most of our stormtech powered options tend to gather dust next to the obligatory trencher unit every Cygnar player has. "The generation of wind" - at least that is something new, but I'll talk about it a little later. "of voltaic energy" I guess my "stormtech rant" covered this somehow...

"The Lightning Pod launcher and the storage bays for the Lightning Pods have been replaced with a new Arc Node as well as a Turbulence Generator. The primary weapon of this new cygnaran colossal is the Storm Emitter. It has one Storm Emitter in each arc and the weapons have very high POW, but they although have the potential to push back opposing targets and hold them at a distance while the rest of the army is brought to bear." - David "DC" Carl

WARNING! The following response is saturated with sarcasm, read at your own risk!

So the pod launcher has been under that bulkhead thingy on top all along and these oversized wristguards were the storage bays, now that is absolutely making sense.

Back on topic.

 - 'new Arcnode': probaly just a plain old Arcnode, that is not put out of order by being engaged... even if it can be jammed, we now have an Arcnode on top of a colossal. Even Cryx will not get that before the third generation of colossals is revealed.

- 'Turbulence Generator': This is getting my interest. I think the openings that have replaced the Stormwalls Metal Storm Cannons are exhaust openings for the TG. We can only hope that it is not another set of guns, that simply pushes models around. Most likely the TG is the Hurricanes new Superstructure and I wish it works like the Angelius' animus, or generates a mini-Stormwall... the SPELL of course.

- 'high POW': It is POW 16, it is shown in the video, give us a hint on the range dammit... I am guessing 14"

- 'the potential to push back opposing targets': I see two possible option for this.

a) Beat Back: Pretty useless on a model that cannot move after it advanced. Still possible.

b) Critical Thunderbolt: 'Potential' sounds like a crit-effect to me and every word in the Thunderbolt description fits like a glove. Even Critical Knockdown is covered more or less 'hold them at a distance'.

Not said but shown:

As mentioned before the Metal Storm Cannons had been exchanged for exhausts or reeeeeeeeeeally stubby cannons. I already gave you my opinion on those, but looking at the artwork again they do look more like cannons there, then in the concept sketch. But I guess we can expect new rules for the melee weapons. Usually voltaic coils on fist mean Critical: Disruption or Electroleap. Stormwall had Electroleap and this one has different fists. And in a colossal vs. colossal situation Critical disruption is pretty useless. Lightning Generator... ... ... I'd say that would be obnoxiously good. Or something completely unexpected. 

'Wanna come along?' - Casterchoices

I guess all Warcasters who had fun with the Stormwall will have fun with the Hurricane, too, but here are some who fancy him over the Stormwall:

- the Nemo's: First they got Dynamo tailored for them and now they get a freaking Arc Node on a colossal? Suddenly all their spells have their ranges boosted by at least 18" (14" control area + Hurricane base). And I'm not talking about pNemo or N3mo here with their inflatable control area and not including a Squire.

- eStryker: I need Positive Charge on that colossal and I'm pinned down in melee? No problem it is an Arc Node!

- Darius: JAAAAAAAAAACKHAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEER! ;)

I'd like a buck for every prediction being right, but I guess that would be wishful thinking.

Until the swans will get new toys.
Arides

[No, we're not going to do that Scorpions reference, not now. We'll do that when the rules are spoiled. - Marth]

[02/08/15] One late addition I just checked: The Hurricane can be included in Capt. Darius alternate Tier List.Of course it will not count against the "one or more Stormwall warjack" requirement, but just thinking 50pts double colossal gives me goosebumps...