I finally ran the Montesa Knight last night in looting and sabotage. I brought the multi rifle because it seemed like a good idea to be able to have the burst and range to attack and clear the way for himself, also, I had 5 points leftover. As it turns out, he’s pretty good. BS13 on a bike covered by PanO bs to make a hole is solid. The 8 inch initial move is great for catching guys out of cover. He’s more expensive than I’d like, but the second wound is nice to have and it was refreshing to have a unit that could semi reliably do damage to the AC2. Overall, I give the Montesa a thumbs up. PS, I was playing Varuna, although I’ve got a couple of ideas for Acon lists featuring the Montesa as well. Also, I’m excited to see what the model will be like.
Ive run it in ASA once or twice, but it usually gets alpha'd which just ruins it for me, takes half a pool to die normally but still dies before I can use it in active
I only got back to my Acon recently, and fielded him a few days ago... but my opponent got demoralized before he could actually reach him. The game ended before my first turn. But he certainly was a prime target.
I absolutely love the Boarding Shotgun Paramedic. It's the fastest specialist we have, and its speed really helps close the gap for that +6. He's the perfect piece for punishing Alpha strikes that have lost steam near your deployment zone. I find that I reserve him for turn 2 after my Kamau Sniper and other pieces have removed any major ARO threats. Love this guy. I actually have to force myself to stop taking him so I can try out some other options.
I just cant help but wish he had a spitfire option.... :( Id absolutely adore it to be bs14 like all our knights as well. I've been looking to try him in a list that absolutely dominates range more than my asa lists typically do however so i feel if people are keeping their heads down he may get more mileage The other thing ive often found is ive been pummeling the opponent regardless of the montessa and as such he feels superflous
Definitely. It's a real shame that the gorgeous new spitfire model is no longer usable. If there was a spitfire option, I don't think I could resist taking him in most of my lists.
As an aside, the shiny new Spitfire Montessa makes a great base for a good Guarda de Assaulto conversion. But, yeah, they look solid and I'm looking forward to trying my own converted version on the table.
I'm ok with the BS tradeoff, at least it opens up some new paths for PanO instead of the old "high BS is good enough for you" model. Hell, I'd like Teutons to go the same route. Loss of Spitfire is indeed a shame, I have no idea what they were thinking invalidating the starter that way. Especially since we actually need two, if we want to field any sensible set of Regulars. This sounds like a good plan. I haven't run TAG in a while, might use Dragao or Tik to draw attention, Montesa to take advantage of any openings this might create.
How would you feel if the Montessa leaned more towards the Crusader Bretheren, so heavily armoured MI with only the single wound, then had access to heavier weaponry?
So a fast specialist who is very vulnurable to a midfield even popular AP mines ? (though unhackable might be enough...)
While I feel this might fit Varuna's theme of a hard-hitting, single wound army, I do think the 2 wounds go a long way. For a mission like Looting and Sabotaging, you really need that extra wound as insurance that you can get the job done.
id then be thinking "why does it exist at all?" I dont mind the premium for the ARM BS and W, the HI biker is an awesome concept. I just would really like 2 things, 1) an ability to get up table on its own gas, Spitfire would solve that the way it does for other non smoke bikers. 2) higher AVA at least in say MO. honestly its the kind of tool id invest in 2 of, because while one might die cheaply im pretty sure the other would almost always hit home, and hit hard. Id like other things, but can live without em. Ill continue to give him a go and find a way to make him work, I might try him in some MO builds rocking the FK ML and see how that goes.
It is worth doing so! Had one in a LI-list with Seraph HMG + FK ML/Santiago Spitfire Core and enough points to fit in a Sierra. Mission was Looting and Sabotaging. Montessa should make it in the first run, demolished a core-link but died unfortunatly. But he opened up the path for the Seraph, which won the game. So the Montessa is quita dangerous and draws attention off the Seraph.
I mean it as in, we're never going to see a SWC weapon on the Montessa because in PanO, fast, durable, hard-hitting gunfighters are TAGs (or Joan). So for a spitfire/LRL/HMG he'd likely have to trade durability.
I'm pretty sure most of our HIs fall into this category. Spitfire (or RF) Montesa would be rad, since it'd give some use to existing Montesa on foot without the need to convert it, but even without it MRifle should work good enough.
That's pretty much evident from the troop profiles available across PanO and its sectorials. I don't classify 4-4 MOV as fast, that's standard at best. 4-2 would be slow, taking 8 orders to cross an entire table and 4 to go from one DZ to the opposite one, the 6" double move bubble is limiting (typically MI). 4-4 lets a unit move up to 8" in a single order, so better, taking 6 orders to cross a table and 3 to go DZ to DZ, but nowhere near what other units are capable of moving (typically LI and most HI). For something to be "fast" it has to have a minimum of 6 first MOV, and preferably be a 6-4 so it can reach 10" or more, cross a table in 5 orders (or fewer) and go DZ to DZ in 2.5 (Motorcycles, REMs, TAGs, superhuman Lhosts, alien uber-death machines).
If so, then there's precious few units that could reach those standards, regardless of faction. Su Jian, Tarik, maybe werewolves, Umbras to some extent, Kotail, some Aleph troopers. PanO certainly isn't worse off in this regard.
It's not a case of being worse off, just that every nominally "fast" unit that packs a big gun is fragile (motorcycles, combat REMs), unless it's a TAGs or one of a few other, faction-flavoured, exceptions. So PanO just packs more TAGs, CA have the aforementioned alien uber-death-machines, Aleph has "The Package" Achilles, Yu Jing has the Su Jian. PanO getting a non-TAG, fast, durable, heavy weapon platform just doesn't seem likely at this point; so the Montessa being re-worked into a heavy weapons platform would probably only be possible by reducing its durability (through loss of ARM and a W, making them mounted Crusader Bretheren-equivalents).