I just ran a point of Stormbirds in a game yesterday and I have to say how impressed I am with them.
The lack of jump was annoying, but the point took a direct hit from a HAG 40 with max damage on the cluster roll and didn't lose a single trooper. In retaliation, the heavy flamers and Advanced SRMs ended up detonating the Thor's HAG (the Thor had been hit by an Improved Heavy Large Laser and an LB 20-X slug round the previous turn) and basically destroying the entire left side of the mech, as well as tagging the cockpit with an SRM, functionally taking the mech out of the fight. The next round, they took a pair of AP Gauss hits from an Elemental III point (which had lost two troopers due to fire from one of my mechs) and succeeded in killing two more troopers in the Elemental point while again suffering no losses (though two troopers were down to no armor at all).
