Simple. It was not WKthe 8D model Rifleman was designed by Randall Bills Team at Fanpro. And while they did include three rifleman varients, it has been common in the technical readouts that the design shown on the page is the most common.
The Marik Lt Gauss machine and the Fed Com cluster gun machine do exist, and they do stay true to the original AA role. They just do not exist in the quanities that the RAC Model does.
So to answer your question the AA paradigm has not been "Fluffed" away, it has just been shifted away to another primary focus. AA rifleman still exist.
I never liked the Rifleman for AA anyway. a triage of original Partisans always did the job better for me.

Getting back onto topic:

You have to go to the WizKids site and use the 360 degree view. This VTOL is awsome!

I wonder haw they are going to fit this in the booster box?

yea when the hell will liao get an attack copter?! We've only pillaged half the republic!

The Following factions need a good attack VTOL

Liao
BR
SH
SW


They all lack Decent attack vtol's.

but failed in doing so... :p

Man i swear most of the people on these boards complain just for the sake of complaining. Has anyone actually TRIED to think of ways to beat these pieces, cause I've taken on just about every cheeseball army I can think of and beaten them repeatedly.

Anyway, TSEMP will not be as much of an issue on VTOLs since you cant use it on a move and shoot. The DF version should not have more then a 17 def and probably doesnt have evade. It will also probably have a very short dial, so all you need is one hit to give it problems.

At Origins, I spied the DF Skadi's starting stats to be the following:
8 Attack
20" Movement
3 Damage Ballistic, Full-time AnP
18 Defense
10" Attack Range, 1 target

Of course, my memory might be a little rusty...but the full-time AnP, 3 Damage Ballistic, 8 Attack, and 10" Range are things I am certain of.

So it is basically a Republic Balac only it has 1 less attack and defense in exchange for AnP that isn't SU. Also faster by 3 movement too.

I wish the Republic had gotten one of these.

Hmmm...

pretty! ^_^

It says the DF one has a 10 attack...Assuming it has Evade (or a 20 Deffence) It'll be like a better ROTS Balac, Too bad...

SC one makes a nice little Mid-Range-Gap-Filler between the Crow and Donnar (which I like)

The Two CJF ones should be fun...The :^: being the more usefull IMHO...Well, assuming you can use Narc (Homing Becon) with Move-N-Shoot. TSMP will likely be best against Tank-Drop ::Shrug::

mid :)

What?!? ... no Evade? Jeez, this thing is hardly worth using! ;)

I can't wait to get my hands on two or three of these babies; and seeing as how it's a Veteran unit that shouldn't be hard to do! :grin:



Wolverine

well like everyone said before why give it to DF and
SC? they already got great attack choppers. spread the wealth for god's sake its not like they're the only faction around... :ermm:

Wow, someone must really hate infantry formations...because, y'know, infantry formations are so powerful
nowadays...

swoop upon your victims, my ghostly goldfish of doom!

You know, the reason why df and sc get these guys just might be because wizkids wants that to be one of the strong points of those factions.

if all the JF units look this good.....


im going to be very skint soon.

"ghostly goldfish of doom" indeed.