Hey everyone, we’re back with another hobby highlight, this time we’re looking at the impressive collection by our very own Detinwolf. What drew me to his work was his exceptional clean parade ready paint jobs. Detinwolf seems to be gunning for studio painter at this point, and he might get my vote! Enjoy this look at a prolific hobbyer who won’t be happy until he has every heavy gear model painted (in parade colors no less)!

Hey everyone, the site migration is more or less finished and we’re alive and kicking again so it’s time to get back to our community hobby spotlights! This week in the Heavy Gear Hangar we’ll be spotlighting a lovely little force by Marley AKA dr.racoonphd aka MamelukStan on the discord. This wonderful Southern army has been lovingly collected and painted with an excellent camo pattern that matches the crafted table perfectly. I hope you all enjoy this spotlight as much as I have, as always, a big thank you to Marley for letting us highlight this force.

Maybe you saw the game at a convention, maybe you saw some miniatures painted on social media, maybe you wondered about that old video game you used to play when you were a kid, maybe you never left.  However you got here, it’s never too late to discover this hidden gem and to start playing heavy gear!  This article is aimed at people who are interested in starting this fascinating game but are unsure of where to begin. Life on Tera Nova: Mecha combat in the 62nd century, Understanding the Setting of Heavy Gear· Heavy Gear is set in the 62nd century and imagines a world where humanity has colonized a handful of planets to ease population and resource concerns.  However, this period of expansion has not gone without conflict.  The focus of our story is Terra Nova, an arid world rich in resources whose control is contested by its inhabitants as well as external forces.  It is the year TN1954, the planet is currently ablaze.  It has now been 4 cycles since the start of the 2nd invasion of Terra Nova by the Colonial Expeditionary Forces of Earth, aiming to reclaim their wayward colony.  The forces of Tera Nova were able to put aside their differences to fend off the first invasion, but will they be able to do so again before all is lost?  Or is it better to sell out, watch the world burn, and to be king of the cinders? · The setting of Heavy Gear is often described as a Tom Clancy novel with Mecha.  The background and stories cover the political machinations of the major players as they weave their way through a complex and interwoven tapestry of deception and mecha combat action.  The setting while being science fiction, aims to be grounded in a more gritty reality than most other mecha settings firmly planting it in the “Real Robot” genre.  The characters are not super human, wars are fought using combined arms tactics and attrition, supply chains are critical, cat and mouse games of electronic warfare playout across the battlefield, casualties just a misstep away.

Apologies for the delay everyone, this has taken longer to publish than I would have liked. Today we are putting out the updated MHT stats to reflect the new resculpt and artillery variants.

Vehicle Rarity

The world of Heavy Gear is full of various factions and powers but what can often be forgotten is that many of those are themselves coalitions of smaller entities. The “North” is a full confederation of 3 leagues of city states for example. Each of those leagues has their own military as well as the Northern Guard and smaller independent reserve or militia units. Within that web of members, different companies produce combat vehicles and sell to those members. However not all members have equal access to all vehicles produced by all companies. Each member would have an easier time buying from local companies for example. This disparity has not truly been modeled in either the RPG or Blitz previously until now.

HACS-01MG-N Night Hunter

The Hunter has probably the most variants available for a walker combat chassis. Its built-in simplicity make modifications easy, and limited production runs of extremely specialized vehicles are often made by Northco’s sub-contractors. The N-type Hunter, also called Night Hunter by field personnel, is one such specialized unit. It is a night fighting Gear designed by the Northern Guards’ technical arm to answer the field commanders’ requirements. Night fighting is different from daytime combat, not only because of the absence of light (easily remedied by low-light and IR optics) but because the silence and cooler temperatures make it easier to spot a moving vehicle. The Gear was produced in limited quantities in TN 1846 and TN 1897 by Northco at their Fieldstrome facilities near Valeria. The Fieldstrome Manufacturing Compound is not a full production chain; rather, it receives nearly-complete Hunters from the local Northco factory and installs the required specialized systems for whatever variant they happen to be building at the time.

The same Golem technology that Eden employs has long been used on Utopia, though the Utopians took the suits down a different technological development path. The Utopians called their technological adaptations APES (Augmented Personal Environmental Suits) and they were prominent in the Horseman Wars that ravaged Utopia after the nuclear apocalypse. The Utopian forces still utilize troupes APES on the front line alongside automaton formations. Fundamentally the Trooper and Support APES are the same core machines as an Edenite constable and man at arms golems. However, during the opening weeks of the War for Terra Nova, Utopian APES units are much more advanced than their Edenite counterparts. This is mostly due to the higher standards of maintenance and availability of parts and support personnel. Most APES feature some sort of wave dye technology in their suits and can change camouflage at will and baffle most typical sensors. Some units even have access to second generation wave dyes that generate a near invisibility by projecting the images around them rather than camouflage schemes. Troupes of such APES are commonly deployed via aerial insertion as raiders and paratroopers. Their primary role is to disrupt Terranovan defenders and deal with troublesome targets via pinpoint strikes. These units were very successful and the CEF requested that Utopia help bring some Edenite units up to the same standard of equipment. The Edenite version of these units is more of a raider and marauder.