WE001 Himlof Drone Swarm

Wodef Enclave

Scale: Fleet (very nominally 1:1500th (strictly 1:750th after smallcraft sliding scale adjustement))

Four swarms of 36 drones supplied.

Size (Bounding Box, Sprue/Base): 21.5mm x 28.1mm x 7.6mm (3.1mm x 2.4mm x 1.2mm individually)

Note: These 36 drones are intended to represent the equivalent of a single squadron of 12 regular fighters and thus are very small; due to their size, they are pre-placeon stands, as trying to do by hand would be impractical.

The Himlof Drone is a light-weight combat drone, deployed in larger numbers and considered disposable. Perhaps contrary to what one might expect, the Enclave spent considerable time and effort on the design, down to the last rivet and seal, to minimise the cost to performance ratio.

This is evident even in the Himlof’s primary weapons, a quartet of basic light laser cannons. Using traditional lasers and not the more advanced lazer (i.e. Laser Amplified with Zircronion-Emitter aRray) technology reduced the power-output by 20%, but weight and cost were dramatically lower, as the power-core could be downgraded from a military drone core to use the Modou 914 core. The reliable Modou core was commonly available on the civilian market for larger ground vehicles.

The Himlof is small, perhaps only a third the size of a typical fighter, with average manoeuvrability. It has no shields or armour, relying instead on sheer weight of numbers to overwhelm a foe. However, this lack of protection makes them very vulnerable to even glancing hits. While the cost-saving certainly were effective, there is some debate as to whether in the long-run, they impede the drone’s functionality.

Himlof drones are frequently used to screen capital ships, however, where their shortcomings have much lesser relevance, especially against missiles.