Jihad Turning Points Atreus – Review
Finally the Jihad Turning Points series visits Atreus, heart of the Free Worlds League and the forsaken incubation chamber for the bastard Word of Blake.
As an unapologetic fan of the Free Worlds League, I’ve been waiting long enough for a better look at the happenings on Atreus. With new writer Jim Rapkins at the helm, will JTP: Atreus uplift or disappoint?
Opening Fiction
While confusing, the opening fiction is aptly named. Divided Loyalties features a little subtle action combined with a jumble of unit names and numbers shaken generously with Word of Blake atrocities. The Word is winning no friends among its supposed allies. With the Knights of the Inner Sphere still in play, the Blakists will find it harder and harder to segment and abuse the armies of the Free Worlds League.
We continue to see the cracks in the facade as the Jihad continues. Just when will the Inner Sphere realize that the emperor has no clothes?
Atreus
The Atreus section gives much more current events than the brief history lesson and general description we have come to expect from prior Turning Points. A welcome change considering the significant amount of upheaval the planet suffers under Word of Blake control.
Combatants
In typical Marik fashion, the combatants section is brother against brother and a blurred perception of friend and foe. A sad fate for the mighty Free Worlds League.
Each unit’s notes include careful bits of information that help the reader piece together the bigger story of the battles in and around Atreus including significant yet still mysterious events surrounding the moon of Wendigo.
The Tracks
Atreus gives us seven tracks to play, a new record for the Turning Points series. The Track costs run the gamut from 400 points to 1,000 points.
I felt that the creativity for the Atreus tracks was subpar for the series. The track objectives without exception were pedestrian and accompanied by uninspired optional bonuses. Giving goofy names to the same objective does not make a Track interesting. 11 out of 14 objectives involved some form of destroying enemy units. The rest were not much better and involved simply exiting units off a particular map edge.
Overall, I felt disappointed with the Atreus Tracks. Not only in the Track construction but also the story that they helped to tell. It boggles my mind that the military units of the Free Worlds league could be so fractured. It’s frustrating to read the words sometimes, but it is a reality that every Marik fan has to deal with. Each in their own way, no less.
Record Sheets
For a change, Atreus provides no Warship record sheets. Instead, we receive three ‘Mechs and one combat vehicle. Lets take a look.
Albatross Dantalion is a TSM capable variant with a prototypical Blakist energy heavy weapons loadout. Large VSPs and Capacitor backed PPCs will have your opponents rushing for Reflective Armor. Speaking of armor, this Albatross has apparently shed it’s glass jaw for a proper amount of Assault ‘Mech worthy armor.
The Mercury Elite Emperor is a simpler refit which shuffles around the weapons for something different and refreshing. A pair of Silver Bullet Gauss are backed up by dual Snub Nose PPCs. All of which can be fired without fear of overheating. A pair of medium pulse rounds out the package for short range situations where heat is a non-issue.
The Peacemaker is a curious light ‘Mech used by the Atreus Police forces. It has one heat sink. You read that right, one single solitary heat sink. It can’t run and not build up heat! A machine gun, ‘Mech taser and SRM2 provide offense to augment the amazing heat dissipating power the chassis provides.
Rounding out the record sheet section is a Tokugawa heavy tank variant used by the Legionnaires. It features a single UAC10 backed by dual Streak SRM4 racks with a flamer and AMS for good measure.
The Final Word
While Atreus is a must for Marik fans such as myself, the substandard Tracks and the lack of Warship record sheets may make this a skippable product for others. Taken as a whole the JTP series is well worth the price of admission but be warned that Atreus is not the best of the breed.
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For those who are BC members, there’s also an exclusive WarShip scenario with different record sheets. Why they chose to do that, I don’t know?
I just confirmed this, great catch Dan!
The exclusive add-on has a single track dealing with the 3068 coup and has 9 warship record sheets.
Another reason being a BattleCorps member pays off for the die hard enthusiast.
You might want to hold offo n the review of the Peacemaker, since it’s an industrial mech and after trying to put the mech into SSW, I find that the number of heat sinks is wrong (it has a fusion engine which gives 10 heat sinks) and it’s 1 ton underweight.
Interesting find Wantec. I assumed because it was experimental the 1 heat sink was not a mistake.
If it is a mix up then I hope they update the PDF quickly. Kind of an obvious mistake to let past the proof team.
Brian
Well when you’ve gone through as many Record Sheets as I have you find there’s lots of little errors and mistakes that pop up. Especially more lately as some (if not all) of these record sheets must be made by hand in Adobe or some other program.