What is this new thing?

The UCM Osprey is the 2021 show exclusive, celebrating 10 years of Dropzone Commander (or at least 10 years since Dave first thought of it!).

We’re putting these new exclusives up on pre-order this week because everyone needs a bit of a pick-me-up at the moment, and to celebrate the imminent opening of our first retail store in Bromley.

But what is the Osprey? I’ll hand it over to David Lewis for a little backstory.

Way back in the mists of time (Jan 1st, 2010), I sketched a design for the UCM’s standard gunship. I’d intended it to be a totally different sculpt to the Raven, but later realised it would be more efficient and ‘UCM’ to use a modular design with a shared airframe, so the sketch was shelved.

To coincide with the 10 year anniversary of me burying my nose in the sketchbook that would become Dropzone’s opening range, we decided to create a special piece – I dusted off the old tome, smiling, often. I’d always liked that sketch, and though the UCM’s styling evolved, it was still recognisably colonial. 10 years after putting ink to paper, I’ve recreated and re-imagined the gunship in detailed 3D to send it to tabletops at last.

Though a decade late to the party, the sculpt represents a real and potent asset to the UCM: larger, older and more powerful than the common Falcon, ready to pour righteous fire from on high.

Thanks Dave! All those pictures you’ve carved into the walls of your c̶e̶l̶l̶ room are finally paying off!

The Rules

But what does it do? Well we’ll tell you a little bit today. You know how we do 😉

The Osprey is a Support choice (a gunship that’s a Support choice? Colour me shocked), and is basically a heavy Falcon or light Eagle – your choice! It features some classic Earth design elements, forgoing the utilitarianism of modern UCM designs for something heavier and more heavily armed than its cousins.

With 2 Damage Points and Resilient, this is one gunship that’s not going down in a hurry. Your opponents will have to pour some seriously concentrated fire into the Osprey to down it.

It’s armed with a few things, but today we’re just talking about the Twin Light Railguns. A much shorter range than their larger counter-parts, and slightly lower Energy, it cements the Osprey as an excellent light vehicle hunter, even though it has to get quite close to do so.

So who’s excited to add a new ship to their army? It’s classic meets modern, it fills a gap in the UCM army list, and frankly it’s a great looking way to celebrate Dropzone’s history.

The Osprey will be available to pre-order this Friday on the TTCombat webstore, along with all the usual Dropzone (and other) exclusives, including one of the last chances to pick up last year’s Columbus Battle Walker (in case you really like retro designs).