Flashes of lasers, the impact of objects shot at super extreme velocities hitting the hull and you sit there drinking tea!
Sorry about that, seems I get on these trips of imagination. . . So we are on the PHR finally! This means we are halfway there. Cue the clapping!
Some joking aside, the PHR are the toughest of all the factions. Not only do they have more Hull than all the other factions per ship, all but a single ship has a 3+ armor save. Some ex-40k player que the blue berry joke. They are also the Broadside faction of the game and while I love them dearly and I love some of their ships, I will come out now and say that I feel that they are charged a HIGH toll for these "benefits".
Well lets get to it!
Frigates:
First off, let me apologize. The PHR were the first set of ships I got pictures for so the quality is not the best. However, I will go over everything that is relevant and even point out somethings of interest. I have to thank those who helped me out with pictures, they made me very happy!
Medea-class Strike Carrier:
The Medea is interesting. As we will see with the PHR and Shaltari, they seem to crack the mold that the Scourge and UCM followed. The Medea does not have antiship weapons other than its Close Action Weapon. We do see that the PHR have a Scan radius of 8" which means you can shoot at Scourge vessels at 16" normally which is nothing to sneeze at!
The Medea has a Bombardment gun and as I said with the Charybdis, the Medea is special in that it can stay in Atmosphere and hit clusters on its regular Lock Value!
Something fun, read the fluff on the Medea here and see if you can spot the teaser ^_~
Europa-class Frigate:
Every faction has a "Gun Frigate" and the PHR have what I consider one of the best ones in the game.
The Europa has Linked Broadsides. This means that if you fire one side you get the other side for free. You do not need to go Weapons Free to get the full effect of this frigate and that on its own makes it great. It is not that expensive either, at 40 points it is cheaper than a Scourge Harpy but has a higher Lock Value. for 80 points you will generally get 3 hits and 1 will average out to a crit.
Pandora-class Frigate:
Yes you can see that right. The smallest ship with a Burnthrough Laser in the game! The Pandora is the most expensive frigate so far and it has a Burnthrough Laser. It caps out at 3 damage and has a Lock of 3+ but only shoots a single die. Having done many test rolls on this ship, I HIGHLY recommend 3 of these if you will take them. Two can work and you may see them in groups of two often but I feel that 3-4 is the sweet spot for these Frigates.
They can be very swingy. Sometimes you might rolls the gift of the gods roll and start with 3 crits and end with 9 damage and sometimes the dice gods will glower on you and you will start with 3 misses.
If you want consistency out of your frigates go with the Europa, if you like a bit of gamble, you cant really go wrong with the Pandora.
Andromeda-class Escort Carrier:
The PHR enjoy the ability to tailor their lists to a fine point. Where as the UCM is very utilitarian in in use and can cover a wide range of jobs, the PHR can tailor their style of play to the types of ships they take more so than any other faction except the Shaltari.
The Andromeda is a great look at that because this is the smallest Carrier Ship in the game! At 42 points each, this ship has no offensive weapon but it's Close Action Weapon and A fighter/bomber.
While this may seem like a useless ship, the Andromeda is a surprise on its own. Being able to flank around the table in a small group and nip at opponents up to 24" away can really set anyone off on the wrong foot and turn the tide. It does help that PHR Bombers hit on a 2+ and are the only ones who do so. Each bomber gets 2 dice so you can really put the hurt even on frigates with just a small amount of them.
Calypso-class Frigate (The Vexer):
The Calypso is an interesting ship like all PHR frigates (hmmmmm someone fix my record spike. . .I think I am stuck on repeat :P ). The Calypso is a rare ship with no other weapon than its close Action weapon and an Advanced ECM Suite.
The trick is in that Advanced ECM Suite. Are your ships being attacked by a host of bombers? Well lets jam them and increase their Lock value by 1! Does not seem like much you say? Well lets look at the odds. Lets say you are getting attacked by a UCM Cobra Laser and he is going to roll 2 dice on a 3+, well if the Calypso is within 4" and on the same layer of the defending ship, that attack now needs a 4+ to hit and a 6 to crit! That is a big deal.
Now, I feel that the AES ability is strong it is not like the Jakarta or the Shaltari Opal. The limit to just a single weapon system is fine but not great when you get attacked by a group of New Cairo's. It also only works once a turn which is fine but I feel it should increase a Groups's weapon, so if you got attacked by 3 Strix, it would affect each of the Strix's weapon with the same name. That would be strong but not game breaking since it is just once a turn per Calypso. Either that or take away Rare. . .
Thoughts:
The PHR have some fantastic frigates that are well pointed for what you get even if they are not all as spectacular as some from other factions, they each bring their own twist to the game that can change how the game is played. This is just the start though. We shall see what the rest of the PHR has to bring to the table!
All images from the Dropfleet Core Rulebook are owned by Hawk Wargames (C) 2016
