The first thing that strikes you about Counterparts is that it’s so heavy. It feels like the heaviest album since 2112 and, like Roll the Bones before it there are some amazing tracks on here. In fact, this album is pretty consistently good across the board. It has a very different feel about it than anything that came before. This was also the last album I bought for a while. I was a student living away from home and didn’t have a lot of money. It would be a long time before I bought music again, and I didn’t buy a new Rush album until not long before their final one was released. Remember, this was still before the days of mp3. Even though I’d recently seen them live on the Roll The Bones tour seeing them live again now was out of the question. And it wouldn’t be long until I had other, far more important things on my mind.

Animate
Stick It Out
Cut To The Chase
Nobody’s Hero
Between Sun And Moon
Alien Shore
The Speed Of Love
Double Agent
Leave That Thing Alone
Cold Fire
Everyday Glory

Federal Assault Ship

You’d be forgiven for thinking that I’d already done this ship last album, but she is different. The Federal Assault ship. A bit more manoeuvrable, maybe not quite as tough. For another change, and because I haven’t used them before I decided to go with all plasma accelerators! Hence the name “Cold Fire“

Like the Dropship, she’s not much of a looker, but I managed to fly her around quite well. I decided to try conflict zones for the first time too, partly because I’d never done them before either but mostly because I wanted to unlock The Sarge and to unlock that engineer you first have to unlock Juri Ishmaak.

If you have multiple plasmas, they have to be engineered for efficient rather than overcharged or the heat output will cook your ship. Using four at once (two medium and two large in this case) probably isn’t a good idea. They also have to be fixed and my aiming skills are terrible. I still managed some successes but nowhere near enough to be able to complete a conflict zone. While the ship survived quite well after taking one hell of a beating I only managed to destroy two vessels in about half an hour. Yes! I’m that bad!

It was really frustrating. I’d usually only miss by a hair’s breadth but I would still mostly miss. Once a volley does hit home, however, it would do a tremendous amount of damage. The gaps between hits though almost, but not quite, completely failed to satisfy my blood lust.

Federal Gunship

Just when you thought the Federal series of ships couldn’t get any uglier along comes the Federal Gunship. More like a seventies idea of a futuristic iron. Like her sisters she’s pretty tough and she even sports a fighter hanger! She also has seven, yes, seven hardpoints. Now, just like The Pilot suggested, I’m going to go with all multicannons.

She turned out to be a seriously fun ship! Although not particularly manoeuvrable her shields were easily enough to last the entire battle. And those guns take down enemies so nicely. Performing well above how I expected, and due to the fact she’s a grossly overlooked ship I decided to name her “Nobody’s Hero“

Now, with gimballed multicannons I can pick enemy ships off with ease. All multis are engineered overcharged with two having the incendiary experimental, one with corrosive and the rest with oversized. I didn’t find ammunition too limiting either being able to complete two low intensity conflict zones before needing to rearm.

I mean, I cannot emphasis enough how much fun taking a Federal Gunship to a conflict zone with all multicannons is. If you’ve never tried it before, you should really consider giving it a go! I managed to get the invite from Juri really quickly.