Into The Dropzone

THE AT-77 LIFTHAWK HITS THE TABLE FOR DROPZONE COMMANDER

Over the past week my painting progress has not been great, but I did manage to finish my first AT-77 Lifthawk for Dropzone Commander. The Lifthawk is one of the workhorses of the Resistance army, carrying their heavy equipment into the field and also packing some serious firepower, and most Resistance forces will feature at least three of them. It is a large and incredibly detailed model, and one of the reasons I collected the Resistance in the first place.

The AT-77 Lifthawk was the most ubiquitous aerial transport vehicle of the pre-war years and many are still flying with Resistance forces today. Its muscular and robust VTOL design has made it possible to operate this workhorse from almost any secluded outpost. It is exceptionally well made, features many redundant systems and had a production cost that would be inexcusable to present day UCM military planners. By today’s standards, the Lifthawk is an enormous, bloated dinosaur. Despite being able to carry the same number of vehicles as the UCM Condor, it is over twice the weight empty. It is a gas-guzzler of legendary proportions and has a very short range compared to all its modern contemporaries. The AT-77’s service ceiling is also only a third of the Condor’s, making it useless for high atmo drops. However, it was never designed for such operations, but has a higher lifting capacity and can be run on poorer quality fuels.

- Hawk Wargames

At this point, I have only played two games with the Resistance, but in both I found the AT-77 Lifthawk to be a great transport and gun platform. The armour and combination of powerful weaponry made them contribute something to the list rather than just be a annoying compulsory choice, but they were not so indispensable I couldn't run them past the AA platforms to lure them into shooting, before rolling out the AH-16 Cyclones.

The excellent blog Orbital Bombardment has some educated words on the Lifthawk, thoughts I agree with and quote here;

"It's a mean mother. A6 and 4 dp is tough to crack. It's not cheap though, but it is a versatile dropship. Not many can claim to be that. For an extra 15 points it can have an AA canon too. That means an E8 missile, E5 chain guns and AA capability. Some people call dropships a tax, with a lift hawk I find that it's essential as it can soak a lot of firepower and can't be ignored."

This model took a lot of effort to paint, but since so much of that time was spent discovering new details to pick out and deciding on colours, the next four should be a lot easier! I will attempt some form of squad marking with the remaining Lifthawks as a way of telling them apart. 

Thanks for reading, 

George