One of the toughtest units to deal with from reports and my own games with adn against the Resistance, are Freeriders. They are readily available on the amy list detachments, being able to be taken in three different types of battle groups. With that comes the fact they are seemingly unkillable on the tabletop, and can deal out tremendous amounts of damage to whatever they run into.
Lets look at the strengths of this unit, and how to deal with playing against them.
Freeriders.
These guys can be nuts. They come with dispersed formation, meaning that only one wound can be dealt to them per hit, but they also come with evasion +3. This means its really hard to hit them, most of the time needing 6's. Granted they only have three wounds for each base, but they can come in squads of 2-4.
Their movement is fast, being able to move at 16" with a MF of 12". This means that they can keep up with the Resistance Lifthawks carrying tanks or other cargo. My favorite so far, is to run Barrel Bombers alongside them directly spearheading into the enemy ranks.
The Freeriders attack is fast, with a MF of 12", and 3 CC attacks. These work like shooting but you must be in base to base contact. You get 3 E10 shots per base. Thats enough to take out tanks or virtually anything you send them into.
Now these bikes also get the subterranean rule, which means these guys can get into your back lines fast. If playing resistance, throw a unit into subterranean mode for deployment, and use these guys to take out commanders and whatever else is staying in the backfield.
So how do you deal with these guys, who are literally ripping apart most armies they face. When I fielded mine last, my opponent literally spent two rounds throwing everything he could get into line of sight at my freeriders. He finally killed them, but the cost was just about too much.
Freeriders are just so fast that they catch whatever they are chasing down. At 35pts they are a bargain, and even if they had only a single attack, they would be worth the 35pt cost. However, they have 3 making them great units for the Resistance, and able to deal tremendous amounts of woe to the enemy.
How to Deal With Freeriders
Machine Guns
Literally do not forget your machine guns. They can fire at different targets than your missile pods or other weaponry, and every machine gun from early rounds should be after them when they appear.
Machine guns are the most efficient way to dealing with freeriders.
Area effect weapons
If you have access to these, freeriders will go away very fast. After all each area effect weapon does 2d6 hits to each base. Scattering is not often very far in DzC, so this is probably the best way to deal with freeriders causing chaos in your battle lines.
Extra Guns
Anything not firing at other targets, like dropship gunnery, should be focused on hitting the freeriders.
Infantry Guns
Most infantry have guns to shoot with decent ranges to take on opposing infantry. Whether its from a building wall or however else you need to do it, infantry guns can quickly take their toll on freeriders
The primary thing to remember, is that freeriders have no countermeasures beyond the evasion +3. So fire every gun at them you can that does not have another target.
Are Freeriders over powered in the game? Its hard to say at this moment, as tactics alter to deal with them, but they are one of the closest units to do this that I have seen. I know my Scourge had a hell of a time dealing with them, but I also didnt have to during that game. So only time will tell if these guys end up being over the top, or if tactics just need to adjust to units like this. If they are over the top, you can bet Hawk Wargames will be on it.
