I've recently had several games with the Resistance, and this coming weekend I will even be playing against them for the first time. It was time to talk about the new faction to help anyone that is considering playing them get a handle on this new faction that plays very different than any of the other factions.
Dropzone Commander
Lets jump into a couple of my immediate favorites.
The J19 Hellhog
This is one of my favorite models for the Resistance. Its twin engines actually rotate from fast mover mode to hover mode on the model. While it comes in at an expensive 140pts, it has 3 damage points and an impressive aircraft armor of 6. So its quite durable, but this guy will be a primary target when he reaches the tabletop. This is important to realize when playing with the unit, and is perhaps its biggest downfall.
As to its guns, which come limited-2, they are quite nice, simply because they can really unload a large payload of shots when they come on the board. Being L-2 though means only two rounds of shooting for both weapons, and you have the option to keep the original layout with missiles and Chaingun, or get rid of the missiles and upgrade to unlimited ammo for the chaingun. The missiles are AA with an accuracy of 3+ (not bad), but are E8, which is quite amazing if you run with this option.
Upgrading to unlimited ammo is free, and my personal choice for the Hellhog. Its chaingun has 8 shots with an accuracy of 3+ (note that all its guns change to Accuracy 2+ in hover mode), is E6 with Focus-2 and Strafe. This easily means splitting up your shots through a squad of models, and a couple hits can make that chain gun rip into the hardest of targets.
The primary difference is that the J19 Hellhog becomes a dedicated ground pounding gunship with the upgraded chainguns, and has more flexibility with the missiles, just not as much ammo.
One of the biggest advantages to the Hellhog is the ability to come into the game as a fast mover, transition on the board into hover mode and unload its guns on its target. This does a couple things.... The first being that you dont have to worry about any AA guns reaction firing past the target point. All the guns get a 2+ accuracy at this point, which really makes the upgraded Chainguns sing beautifully at this point. After transitioning to hover mode (and its fun to just adjust the engines easily in game), you become a relatively slow moving gunship but with a decent 12" range vs counter measures. If indeed all the enemy get the hell out of dodge (which has happened a couple times to me now) you may transition back to fast mover mode and fly off the table. You can do this after moving and shooting! This gives you the advantage of now coming in to an opponents backfield or anywhere on the table to cause as much havoc as possible the following round.
This is an impressive model and unit on the table. It has some serious advantages, and an opponent can often fall into a false sense of security if not paying attention to a hellhog that is hover mode only to see it transition as the last activated battle group in the round and fly off the table leaving them exposed to a first round Fast Mover Strike.
The Hellhog will alter how your opponent plays the game. While expensive in game points, they are well worth the trouble it will cause the enemies of the Resistance.
