Skyshield Landing Pad Review

Posted by Ranillon on 15. July 2009 21:09

After having other box sets from Planetstrike impress me I decided to pick up the Skyshield box.  That was probably an uncommon choice as I've noticed that if there is any one of the new models that isn't selling it's the Skyshield.  A shop may be repeatedly out of Bastions or Aegis Defense lines while nevertheless having a lonely pile of landing pads collecting dust.  Is that because it's just the most expensive of the models or just because it's not that interesting?

The box itself is the same size as the bastion and contains about as much plastic.  The pad comes in four basic sections, each having one forth of the pad itself and one of the supporting pillars.  The individual parts are for the most part nicely molded and missing any large amounts of flash.  You will have to smooth down the edges were they once attached to the sprue, but beyond that there isn't too much work required to clean the model.

The Skyshield goes together pretty well wtih each part fitting together without too much trouble.  The one exception are the shields themselves that lie on the sides.  They moved up and down to show if the pad's force shield is activated or not.  The joints have a tendency to catch against the pad foundation.  If you aren't careful flexing them before the glue has a chance to set that may pop the joint right out.  Of course, you have to test the joints to make sure they move correctly when putting the thing together.  So, I suggest doing so carefully and once you are sure everything is okay leave the shields in the up position to dry. 

The shield is about a foot and a half across, thus giving it enough space to hold a valklyrie or most any other landing craft you may ever want to use.  Likewise, the detail on the model is quite good, if somewhat repetitive.  I haven't yet painted mine, but the process should be straightforward.  The details will drybrush up well while the application of washes in the cracks should allow the seperate designs to "pop" out and be easy to see.  All-in-all it should paint up without undue effort and make for a nice piece of terrain.

Yet, is it a worthwhile piece?  In the Planetstrike rules the Skyshield is a landing pad the defender can use to bring in reinforcements.  It has an armor of 13 and only cares about hits that destroy it outright.  If the shields are up those on the pad receive a 4+ invulnerable save while if they are down disembarking models can make a full move no matter how far their transport traveled that turn. 

Those rules aren't too bad, but here is one that I don't like -- when climbing off the pad a unit must make a difficult terrain test.  That means that even if the unit appears on the first turn it will in practice take at least four turns to get anywhere important.  That seems rather long to me.  Then there is the question of why you would bother with the pad at all.  Why not just drop your troops directly where they are needed rather than make them go through the local airport?

I suspect that the Skyshield will often be used in ways its designers perhaps did not originally intend.  For instance, imagine a Imperial Guard heavy weapon team perched on the pad using its invulnerable save to protect themselves from fire.  In fact, there is no listed limit for the amount of units that can be on the pad at the same time.  Accordingly, a player could stick a bunch of units on the shield.  There is no way to dump a vehicle on it, but any infantry squad works.

Overall, the rules for the Skyshield seem pretty meager and provide -- regardless of the worth of the model itself -- a disincentive to purchase the box set.  That's too bad since the model is pretty nice in my opinion.  I'd like to see more extensive rules for the shield to make it more useful.  First off, take away the terrain test for climbing off.  Then bestow bonuses for reserves using the pad to encourage its use.  For example, the owner can name one unit to come in automatically from reserves as long as it lands on the shield.  You could extend this to vehicles (it's assumed it came in on some appropriately sized transport that came and went so quickly no one really "saw" it) to further reward players who use the pad.

It the model worth it?  I think so even if used merely as a piece of terrain -- let's face it, a landing pad is a cool addition to any gaming table.  As far as Planetstrike goes its usefulness is more suspect.  You can take one since it's free, but don't expect a lot of transports to actual use it.  Instead, think of the shield as a building that comes with a bonus force field to help protect the infantry in it.