All Quiet on the Martian Front: MK IV Monitor Steam Tank Review
This time we are taking a look at the US MK IV Monitor Steamer Tank.
Outside of the mighty Land Ironclad the MK IV Steamer is the largest US Tank in the game. It is festooned with guns and dwarfs the smaller US Land Steamers. This model was on of the big draws for me in deciding to jump onboard AQotMF. It's imposing, steam punk, WW1 design looked fantastic.
The Model
The Mk IV comes as a several pieces. A large chunk of Resin makes up the hull. the large round turret and two side sponsons are also resin. The gun barrels, smaller turrets, crew and other doo-dads are all metal.
Resin from Alien Dungeon has been hit or miss for me. I had to get a replacement Slaver Tripos head because of casting issues (which was handled well by the nice folks at Alien Dungeon)
The cast for the Mk IV was rough in a few places, there were quite a few bubbles to file and even after I painted the tank I realized that I missed a fair share of them. There were also some casting defects on the turret sides, mold slippage or something else, I can't tell. However it's not too bad and once painted it just makes the tank look a little more battlework and less pristine. While Alien Dungeon is no where close to the quality of, say Spartan Games or my personal favorite Hawk Wargames risin it does paint up nice and have a good feel to it.
Assembly
Assembly is pretty straight forward, the only parts that gave me any issues were the extending doodads from the lead wheels, (The train looking bar) I did not glue this to the tank until painting was done.
I did magnetize my Turret as the giant tank gun barrel is a big, heavy chunk of metal and without the magnets it was just a little too lose for my taste.
Painting
I painted the MK IV using the same method as my previous MK II and III tanks. Black Primer, Army Painter Army Green spray paint. Vallejo German Grey for the Tracks. I did some basic highlighting on the Armor panels and rivets before applying some left over Flames of War decals.
Weathering was done with Watered down GW Brown paints and the newer GW technical paints for the rust and corrosion effects.
The Stats
Stats are a little confusing as they are slightly different depending on which part of the AQotMF rulebook you are reading.
MK IV Monitor 190 points
Movement: 4"
Defense: 4
Armor 9 or 10
Weapons
1 x 7" gun +4 Power (Move or Shoot)
6 x 4" guns +2 Power
1 x MG +1 power
In Game
The MK IV is slow at only 4" so you won't be exploiting any breakthrough with it. It's slow speed coupled with the Move or Fire nature of the main gun means that your Monitor is best used as a static firing position.
The big downside of this tank is that it currently can only take one hit. And with an Armor of 9 (or 10) it won't last long against those Martian +4 heat rays.
The plus side is that since it is only 1 unit and it costs less than 200 it is only 1 command token to recycle using the US Industrial Might special rule. So if you are lucky you can get your tank on via reserves once it has been destroyed.
The Mk IV Monitor is not hurting for weapons, the 7" Naval gun is a Tripod killer and in conjunction with the 4" guns it can unload a fearsome amount of firepower.
As is the MK IV seems a little underpowered regards to Armor and perhaps adding an additional hit point to the tank would help it out.
 |
| Size compared with smaller US Steam Tanks |
Conclusions:
the MK IV Monitor tank is a boss looking model. It is a great showpiece for the AQotMF range and players who are not familiar with the game are immediately interested in it. the model is good, if expensive and did have some minor but not deal breaking molding issues.
It paints up into a great model that any US General would love to have in his army.
In game the MK IV seems a little more problematic. The Stats are confusing, (armor 9 or 10 guys?) and it seems a little weak on the defense for it's cost. Still, even with these downsides the fearsome 7" gun puts fear in a martians players single beady red eye.
No comments:
Post a Comment