Okay. I got mine and the first thing is that is my favorite paint job so far on the series. Looks cool and you can see that the Grasshopper has some serious detail on it in both the box art and the mini. The other three figs are a tall Atlas along with plastic newcomers, the Blackjack and the Victor.
On to the details. Clan Invasion Era only lance is 164 while the SW+Clan Invasion lance is 155 PV. In addition to the Assault rules/ads card there is the Iron Wind Minatures card for the Flashman who come is a 36pt 7k variant for SW+CI and a SL+SW+CI 8K version for 37pts. There's also a Jihad Grasshopper pilot "Gravedigger"/Aaron Pollea who clocks in at 49 points who also has the Jumping Jack PSA.
The faction card is House Davions with flip side bio for the Brigade of Guards.
Some notes:
The CI version of the Grasshopper is one point cheaper, but the older -- and more expensive one -- gives you one more point of damage in the M range along with a unimpressive IF0* special.
Excluding that Grasshopper, the other three mechs cards reach back to the Star League area.
The Atlas cost is identical PV, OV and damage (5/5/2) in both versions, so it will come down to how much you want risk that your opponent notices that you snuck in a 7-S into a Succession War game so you can enjoy it's better AD and REAR damage output.
The real head scratcher is the jumping SZ:2 Blackjack that's in the mix. It doesn't invalidate the lance composition rules, but it does seem like an odd choice from an army building (sans fluff) perspective. It seems that most of the new mechs come from the TRO 3039, maybe that's a side goal of CGLs as a thank you for the long time fans that remember these mechs?
I do remember hearing that a few of these mechs have been forgotten as better mech designs have popped up over the years and maybe this is CGL trying to give them new life. Who knows.
