Model Spotlight: Daedalus-Beta Large Flyer

So, up until now, if you were a Covenant player and wanted some form of large air support, you had one choice, and only one choice: the Epicurus-class Sky Fortress. 150 points of unkillable, drone launching, monstrous beat-stick. Anyone who has played against or met me will be aware of the reputation of my Commodore's personal Epicurus, the CAS Andraste, which features in (almost) every list I've ever built.

You might ask "So what does this have to do with the new flyer?". Well, technically there was another choice: the Daedalus-class large flyer. At 125 points, she wasn't much cheaper than the Epicurus. She wasn't much faster (+1" move). She wasn't tougher. She didn't have as many guns. But she did have mines. And exactly no-one cared. Due to this unimpressive comparative stat line, the old Daedalus has often been described as "Good, but not the Epicurus"- always overshadowed, never seeing much reason to be used when the other option was just so much better. Until now.

As part of the new upgrade boxes, each nation is receiving a "Mark II" of one of the more problematic units in their line-up- The Kingdom of Britannia sees a new Vanguard submarine, the Prussian Empire is getting its mitts on a variant of the Metzger robot, and so on. I'll drop a list and a link to the stats at the end of this post. Back to our favourite frosty friends- the Covenant Mark II is the Daedalus-Beta. Rewritten to be a very different beast, the Beta has a good chance of showing up in a few lists. With a 5 point drop in price, the Beta loses some AA, gets a little CC, and a purpose. If you're looking for a long ranged gunboat, the Beta includes battleship level broadsides, battleship turrets with a RB4 bump, and the option of 6AD Energy Turrets for +10 points. With the new Energy Turret rules, this is a pretty good option, and will probably see some use in my fleets eliminating small and medium targets. Scarily, the Beta comes with an Amplified Shield Generator, and Inventive Scientists. That's 3d6 shields, with a re-roll. More interestingly, the Beta has Skilled Minelayers (but loses Magnetic Mines), an extra inch of movement, and the option to take a Mine Controller Generator (12") for 20 points. On its own, this is fairly interesting, but with the Alea-class escort flyers on the way (More on those later, but the relevant details here are: 12" move, Hit and Run, mines), the Beta suddenly has a new purpose as a pretty scary area denial system, using the Alea escorts to drop mines, then using the generator to optimise their locations (not that much optimisation will be needed when the Alea has 360 degree movement).

It's good to see one of the Covenant's most pretty models have a purpose at last, and might actually see the tabletop. As one of the models that made me choose the Covenant, it makes me very happy to see.

Mark II Units
(With links to national upgrade box pdfs)
Covenant of Antarctica- Daedalus-Beta
Empire of the Blazing Sun- Hachiman 'Otsu-Gata'
Federated States of America- Freedom ACA2
Kingdom of Britannia- Mk. II Vanguard
Prussian Empire- Metzger Ausf-B
Republique of France- Toulon Mk. II
Russian Coalition- Myshkin Mk. II