Box Contents

• C-Naps Hero box
• 4 Warmongers
• 3 Sharpshooters
• 1 Prowler
• 1 Vandal

This comes out to exactly 2000 points when all models are used and puts together a decently competitive force. The C-Naps are a great choice for heroes as they are a combination of all of the other hero types. You get a medic, summoner and company commander, all of which are useful.

Warmongers and sharpshooters are the staple type 1 and 2 units of the Cogs so there are no surprises here. This lets you make a choice of which attachment box to get for both units later in order to round out a max size unit. A great choice if you ask me because new players won’t know what play style they prefer until they get a few games under their belt.

The Prowler is a great type 1 AFV and you will want to pick up another one of these guys if you plan on doing any summoning. They’re great and really start to shine when playing a T-Regulator force with deflector shields.

Finally we have the Vandal, the heavy hitting monster of the cogs. This type III AFV has the nastiest mortar in the game and its Quantum Cannon is deadly as well. I’m not totally crazy about using type III’s in a 2000 point game, but this is how all the army boxes are shaping up.

My general strategy when playing with the starter set exclusively is to add the G09 and G36 to the sharpshooters creating a long range heavy hitter while adding the G45 to the warmongers. This is because I wouldn’t want my company commander in a unit without a medic and I want them to be as far away from the action as possible to avoid taking early hits. All in all its a great starter package and provides multiple ways of branching out into different lists. The units I would get along side this box to round out a force would be.

• Warmonger jammer attachment
• Sharpshooter sniper attachment
• 1 Prowler
• T-Regulator Hero box

This gives a couple of list options without the Vandal at 2k points and gets you up to 3k points for some lists. I’m just getting my feet wet with cogs but there should be some army lists coming shortly.

The C-Naps come in the Cogs army box which is the most economical way of starting an AT-43 Cogs army. Every player will likely have this line of heroes and it is a great choice to put in the box as it gives you a taste of all 3 of the other hero lines.

C-Naps gives you a strong leader in the G09 form. This is your company commander and will give you 9 LP to assign your troops. Their armament is meager but this unit will spend most of its time hiding from view.

The next step down gives you the G36 from the A-Volution line, able to bring AFVs onto the battlefield at a cost of 4 LP. it also packs a rocket launcher and 2 quantum rifles for some extra kick.

Finally you have the G45 from the G-Nocrat line. With its medic ability you will be able to stay in the fight longer. It also packs a rocket launcher and 2 quantum blades for those close in encounters.

This line gives you well balanced hero options. combine the G45 and G36 in a unit to gain some great abilities and some long range rocket firepower.

Since all heroes get the medic ability their main difference comes in their weapons loadout. The G45 is the lowest ranking clone and comes equipped with a rocket launcher and two quantum blades. The launcher fires 3 shots with rerolls with 11 strength but only causes 1 damage. Since the weapon is so accurate you are likely to hit with all three shots. This puts it on par with the red blok weapons even though it causes less damage due to its accuracy.

The G27 trades one blade for a rifle. It also provides higher LP but it is not enough to use as your primary commander.

The G09 is the commander on the table. Providing 9 LP this guy will likely be in command of the company. This guy does not have a rocket launcher and he shouldn’t need it as he will spend most of the game hunkered down hiding from enemy snipers. Losing him means losing your LP pool, something that will cripple any Cogs army.

An interesting strategy is to combine all three of these models with a type 3 infantry unit such as the hunters. This gives you 3 hero medics making the unit extremely difficult to kill. An interesting side effect of having more heroes than regular troops is that your unit essentially becomes ungroundable as the non hero units soak up all of the impacts leaving the heroes un touched and standing.

Is this cheese? Well it is a bit beardy and you may have a few players throw a chair at you until they realize it can easily be defeated with snipers or a good old fashioned running over.

Starting with the G45 you get a missile launcher with homing missiles. These aren’t the same garden variety missile launchers of the UNA though. With 2 shots that hit on a 4+ you might think they are worse, but factor in the re roll and you are hitting 75% of the time. Each missile is strength 13 and causes 2 damage as well.

The G27 is a step up in terms of command and control giving 4 LP and packs a very useful piece of equipment called the deflector shield. This lets any shots that are fired at your afv be redirected to hit a different location chosen by you. This means you can maximize damage to all your AFVs making them able to sustain 100% more damage before being destroyed. The G27 weapons are simple quantum pistols as his ability is so powerful.

The G09 provides your army with the LP pool it desperately needs. it provides 9 LP and should be kept out of harms way for the duration of the battle. Losing your LP as cogs can mean losing the battle as you cannot activate your AFVs and your infantry become extremely vulnerable.

T-Regulators are great additions to a cogs army and provide all sorts of interesting tactical options. I would take the g27 in any AFV focused army as his ability is invaluable.

The AI-Beacon gives the A-Volution heroes the summoning ability. For 4 LP they can bring in a type I afv from any access zone owned or controlled by the player.

For weapons all of the A-Volution heroes pack rocket launchers in addition to the following: g18 2 quantum blades, g36 2 quantum rifles, g45 quantum mg.

The weapon loadouts follow the usual cogs standard of the better heroes stat wise having less useful weapons. This is a good thing since your g09 heroes are less likely to be visible to your opposing armies at all

As for all heroes watch out for snipers their sole job is to bag a nice juicy hero. You also need to be aware of LP draining as a cogs army may not have heroes with AFV units. Each of these units will cost LP to activate. The more summoned AFVs on the table the greater the LP cost to activate them all.

If you thought the cannon was scary you’re going to love the mortar. It gets 2 shots with a radius of 10 and comes with the amazing accuracy of 6. at range less than 4 you’re pretty much guaranteed double damage which hits at strength 6. This is the weapon you’ll want to use on swarm type troops. Sharpshooters need no longer worry about being rushed by a couple groups of max krasnye as one shot from this bad boy will vaporize them.

The vandal does have slightly lower armour at 16 and as such is more vulnerable to weapons like laser guns and at-gauss. This problem is easily mitigated though by having a T-regulator g27 on the board. This gives your AFVs the ability to use a deflector shield that lets you choose the damage location of every hit. This means that as long as the g27 is alive your vandal will take 16 damage to destroy entirely.

Did I mention this guy auto repairs and has a presence detector too? Well it does so you had better be pouring a ton of fire into it.

In order to stop this guy your first priority is taking out the g27 if it is on the board. The vandal can soak up damage like nobody’s business when that pesky hero is around. After that fire everything you’ve got with a strength 14 and above at it.

Like all Cogs infantry they can have up to 3 heroes added to their unit to increase its firepower and its survivability. This can turn a decent unit into a monster that could take many hits to take down.

Snipers and anti afv weapons work well against these guys as they can have 3 medic heroes added to their unit. Even then infantry will think long and hard before moving into their line of fire.

The hunter is equipped with a rocket launcher that has high accuracy. They come in units of 2 much like the karman type 3 infantry with one exception. Like all cogs units you are able to add heroes to any of your units. This means that your unit of 2 hunters could add an additional 3 heroes into the mix.

The nuances of heroes is covered in the Cogs Heroes article but suffice to say adding them to a type 3 unit packs some serious oomph.

Counter these guys with snipers if you can. They are also groundable but there are some strategies using 3 heroes with the medic ability in their unit that essentially makes them ungroundable and very difficult to kill. Running them over with an AFV is also a very viable tactic.

The Prowler is armed with a Light Quantum Cannon and a Light Quantum MG. The cannon packs some serious anti AFV punch  putting out 2  str 14 shots with an accuracy of 9. This weapon is pretty much guaranteed to hit as it has 2 re rolls so you’ll want to be sure you have some form of cover. Combine this with a very quick movement speed and you have a great tactical unit as it can get into an ideal firing position quickly.

The MG has 4 shots and is pretty much on par with other MGs in the game strength wise, but it does have an extra shot over most other factions and has great range at 6.

Lets not forget about the auto repair ability which gives them the ability to repair 1 damage a turn for free. Luckily these guys have only 2 frame points and are extremely easy to destroy. 2 damage weapons are the way to deal with the Cogs type 1’s so fire missiles and rockets their way.

Armed with 2 Quantum rifles that pump out 2 shots each with a re roll these guys are your long range anti infantry specialists. Accuracy 7 ensures they can get that first turn shot on any opponent that positions themselves poorly with little fear of retaliation.

They have a normal unit size of 3 which gives them 6 shots these guys in a minimum configuration are fully capable of harassing even type 3s. Their mobility lets them get into the perfect spot to get a shot and their guns can inflict wounds having a strength of 5.

When bumped up to their max size of 6, you get access to 2 special weapon bearers equipped with a sniper rifle of a quantum jammer. The sniper gives a lot of tactical options and pairs nicely with the long range of the other weapons. Send a unit of these after type 3 infantry or go officer hunting and you’ll more than make up for their point cost.  even some lightly armoured afv’s will be wary of the sniper shots.

The jammers give them an anti afv role, but you can grab more jammers in a full unit of warmongers so I find the sniper option to be a more versatile one.

The warmongers are vulnerable to rushing AFVs when they are not equipped with jammers so be wary of that. They are also vulnerable to swarming infantry as they do not have a huge rate of fire. Watch out for Star Troopers with MGs or Flamers that advance under cover.

Armed with Quantum pistols and blades the Warmongers standard troops operate best when close to the enemy. They still have a very high accuracy of 3 with a reroll giving them a decent effective range. The regular troopers in a unit have one purpose. Fight off any enemy melee / close range fighters like Krasnye keeping the all important special weapons bearers alive.

On the Special weapons side they can be armed with Quantum jammers that fire 2 re rolled shots with an insane accuracy of 6. This gives them the ability to reach out and destroy almost any AFV threat from significant range. Picking the right opportunity to reveal your troops is key with this unit as they are unlikely to survive the following barrage aimed in their direction after unleashing 6 jammer shots.

The Warmongers may also be equipped with Quantum MG’s in order to fill an anti infantry / point holding role. This give 4 shots each with accuracy 5 and a re roll. No enemy infantry would want to dare go near these guys as they can very quickly reduce a unit to nothing.

The counter to Warmongers is to simply hit them with indirect fire. You’ll need to see them first though as any smart player will keep them out of line of sight as long as possible. They live and die by for their special weapons.

The AT43 Cogs Prowler is looking to be an anti infantry AFV. Armed with a pistol and a minigun it will put out a large volume of fire in a short amount of time. The models look really good too. I can’t wait to see some specs on these guys as they will likely be summonable during battle.

The hunters are going to force commanders to be more wary with their type * AFVs. As with most battlesuits, the solution is snipers. A str 8 sniper rifle will kill these guys on a 5+, but I would also want to throw some AT fire their way. Heck why not nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Even their normal pistol weapons have great accuracy at 3 and with 3 shots they will be able to put a lot of firepower on target at range. I shudder to think what their long range units will be capable of.

Charge these guys towards the enemy, using their combat engineer to blow cover so they can move more quickly, firing at afv’s the whole way. Once in close watch out as their pistols and blades will make short work of infantry.

This is shaping up to be one hell of a unit. I can’t wait to get my hands on one. (I’ll put a picture up of them when I can get one I’m allowed to use)

• AFV */**/***
• AFV */**/***
• AFV * Infantry ***
• Infantry */**
• Infantry */**

This pattern will let the Cogs run 2 type *** AFVs in a platoon. We haven’t yet seen the point costs for these but I imagine that a list with 2 type *** would be quite devastating.

The next bit of info about this list is the Heroes it can use. Remember there are no officers for the Cogs, only heroes so if you want to avoid paying for activation, one of these guys is essential.

First up is the G45. This Hero packs a hefty punch with a Quantum MG and a rocket launcher. The Quantum MG is a standard 4/1 shot MG with strength 7. Every weapon for the Cogs gets a reroll so this is pretty standard faire.

The Rocket Launcher is common to all 3 hero types and has 3 shots of strength 11/2. The difference between this rocket launcher and say redblok’s is that this comes with an accuracy of 6. While the red blok is struggling to run across

the board to use theirs, the Cogs will be happily engaging targets across the board.

The G36 Hero forgoes the MG for twin Quantum rifles. With 2 shots each and a reroll they get the same number of shots as the MG but with a range of 8 and a strength of 5. This is an even greater long range fighter, though his weapons are not going to pose a threat to anything but infantry. The G36 also has the standard rocket Launcher discussed before.

Finally the G18. This guy is set up for Melee. In addition to the rocket Launcher, he is armed with 2 quantum blades for a much more up close and personal style. He gives a +3 unit number bonus and he’ll need it to get into melee range.

All of these heroes can detect stealth as they are equipped with Detection Systems. They also have the ability to Rocket Jump. Most interestingly is these Heroes’ ability to summon type * AFVs.  Thats right, the Cogs are getting afv summoning ability just like the dreadded Therians. This ability costs 4 LP and behaves in the same way as the Therian’s construction routeine.

So there you have it, A-Volution is an AFV heavy list, the Heroes come in 3 flavours melee, MG, and ultra long range and they can summon. Sounds like this will be a really  interesting army to play. I can’t wait.

These will be launched along side the new resin kit arm of rackham.

The release wave for cogs and Oni have been revealed as well. Cogs will start showing up in wave 11, while Oni begin to make their appearance in wave 15. I for one am very excited by this news.

• Infantry *
• infantry */**/***
• infantry */*** or  AFV *
• AFV *
• AFV */***

Interestingly the Cogs have no type ** striders at all.

The Cog standard units are equally effective in melee combat as they are at distance. A quantum pistol is worth, in terms of rate of fire, an MG of any other army. The quantum blades are among the best melee weapons in the entire galaxy.

Strong weapons, lots of shots, fearsome melee weapons. Sounds like they are shaping up to pack quite a punch. The Type ** and *** infantry are range specialists laying down heavy fire.

Interestingly there are no officers for the Cogs, only heroes. The heroes act as the officers for a unit and a unit my include as many officers as you want, so long as there are no two officers of the same type. At least this is how I interpret the text. This means that getting “officers” could be costly for the Cog forces.

After reading the forums a bit I came across some more info about how the cogs will play. The juiciest bit relates to how cover works for the cogs. Apparently cogs get no cover save from being around cover, but they may use the take cover drill anywhere they want and get a 3+ cover save. Sounds like enemy commanders might want to load up on flamers and indirect fire as these guys will be tough to shoot to death with direct fire weapons.

This army is shaping up to have a unique play style that sets it apart from the currently existing armies. Good on Rackham for keeping the new armies unique.

Next up are the Sharpshooters. They have dual rifles and look just as badass as their close range counterparts. This looks like the mid / long range infantry option for the Cogs.

The special weapon shown for both is below, some sort of laser weapon perhaps?

What we know about the Cogs so far is that they are heavily into genetic engineering, how this plays out remains to be seen. Its nice to see that they will have some melee capabilities as well. More info on the cogs as it becomes available.